Astrid left the temple of deception as soon as she finished her breakfast. She didn’t want to spend a second longer with Gorm than she had to.

As if a switch had been flicked, the weather had changed overnight from warm and sunny to windy and rainy. She was glad her cloak kept her warm and dry, but she would still have to get some winter clothes soon to keep up with her double life. She didn’t want to wear the cloak to school.

It was still early, so she wandered the streets aimlessly. People around her were still cleaning up after both the attack and the harvest festival, which officially ended today. Tomorrow everyone would go back to their normal work, and since Astrid hadn’t heard anything else, she assumed she would go back to school as well.

She went to the job hall as soon as it opened, hoping it would have some new quests for her to take. She had barely made it in through the door when Walter approached her.

“Astrid,” Walter said. “I hoped I would find you here.”

“Is there a problem?” Why was Walter looking for her? Had he decided to look into Gorm's claims about her? Had he found something? Was she going to get arrested?

“It’s nothing new, but as we talked about the other day, I am putting a team together that can deal with the monster attacks, and I want you to join.”

Astrid sighed in relief. This was not as bad as she had feared. She had already turned this offer down multiple times before and she could do so again.

“No thanks. I work best alone.” She could only imagine how hard it would be to keep up her double life if both her identities had commitments to other people. She couldn’t quit school without it being noticed. It would be seen as weird to drop out, especially since she was doing quite well.

“I’m afraid I’m not asking. This is a formal draft.” He held out an envelope stamped with a wax seal, and Astrid's relief was immediately replaced with dread. Astrid stared at the envelope like it had personally offended her before reluctantly taking it. She opened it and pulled out a piece of paper. As soon as she began reading, a quest appeared.

New quest from the Mayor of Largon

The situation in Largon is dire, and your help is required

Objective: schedule time for training sessions, meetings, and missions with your new teammates

Reward: 10 small coppers

“Fine,” Astrid reluctantly agreed, knowing she didn’t have a choice in the matter. She would just have to find a way to make it work. “But I can’t meet earlier than three in the afternoon.”

“I’m sure we can work with that. Are you available now? I’m holding an introductory meeting with the other team members in an hour, and I want you to be there too.”

"I guess I can meet in an hour.”

“Great. I have a few more errands to run before then, but we’ll meet at our headquarters.

“I’ll be there.”

“See you soon then,” Walter said, leaving the job hall.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Quest complete

Astrid knew what it was going to say, so she ignored it. Her mind was a whirlwind of panicked thoughts about everything that could possibly go wrong. How had she gotten involved in all this?

*

Fifty minutes later, Astrid sat down in the same chair she had occupied a few days ago. She had managed to suppress her panic just enough to focus. Ina and Jerrik were already in the room, along with another guy Astrid hadn’t met before. He had blond hair that reached down to his shoulders, and his clothes were amongst the finest Astrid had ever seen. He looked about as happy to be here as Astrid felt, so she assumed he was forced into this. Maybe he had been drafted too.

Ten minutes later, Walter and Kelan entered the room and found their seats.

“Good to see that you are all here,” Walter said. “You have been personally selected to join this team by the mayor and me. From now on, we will be responsible for the safety of the city until the threat of monsters has been eliminated. We’ll train together every day to improve our monster-slaying skills, and if there is another monster breach, we’ll be responsible for dealing with it. But before we get started on all that, I think some proper introductions will be in order. I’ll start. I’m Walter, and I will be leading this team. I trained as a combat magician and am currently at level three in both defensive and offensive magic. I began training as a monster slayer a few months ago when it became clear that the city needed people with that skill.”

Walter finished his speech and gestured for Kelan beside him to continue.

“I’m Kelan. I’m a level five healer and a priest for the god of medicine. I won’t be fighting monsters directly, but I’ll offer medical assistance when necessary.

Kelan looked no older than the other team members, so he would have had the same amount of time to develop his skills. However, as a priest, he likely had access to books that would boost his skill progression significantly, allowing him to level up much quicker than people who didn’t follow any of the gods. Astrid had similar boosts to the skills she had unlocked from reading Shams book. However, as she didn’t want to use those skills, it didn't do her any good.

“I’m Einar,” the new guy mumbled. "And I don’t get why I have to be here.”

“We have talked about this,” Walter said. “The city needs everyone who is qualified to step up.”

“I studied combat magic to be a duelist for my family. And I already have my secondary profession since I help run the business. I don’t want to corrupt my skillset fighting monsters.”

“You’re a level three combat magician,” Walter said. “That means you have a duty toward the city and its inhabitants, so you just have to deal with it.”

No one had a response to that. Astrid still didn’t get why these people were obsessed with avoiding unlocking skills not relevant to their profession. It worried her slightly that his unwillingness to be part of the team could make him a liability. If he wasn’t willing to do his part in a fight, others might pay the price. Then again, she wasn’t here of her own free will either. Wouldn’t that make her a liability as well? No, regardless of her feelings about being a part of this team, she would not let the others down.

“My name is Ina. I’m a swordfighter at level three. I also recently got into monster slaying due to the current situation.”

“And my name is Jerrik. I trained sword fighting with Ina, and I am also at level three.

Astrid felt better compared to the others. She had known they were stronger than her for a while, as they were all adults who had trained for years but hearing them put a number to their level made it so much more real that she was going to be the weakest link on the team.

“I’m Astrid, and I just started combat magician training, so I’m still at level one. I also train knife fighting, and that skill is in level one as well.”

“If you can put this newbie on the team, it shouldn’t be that hard to replace me,” Einar said.

“She’s not a newbie. Her monster-slaying skill is as good as any of ours, and that's what counts here,” Walter said. “After some training, her weapon skills will improve. Now that the introductions are over, we can get to the point.”

The meeting lasted for several more hours. Astrid mostly listened to the others talk. They planned how to train and eventually settled on alternating between three different activities.

First, there was a day of training, which would start as soon as the meeting ended. There they would focus on incorporating Astrid and Einar into the team as well as practicing their fighting skills.

Secondly, they would spend a day evaluating the training and come up with new fighting strategies.

The third activity was monster slaying. They would venture into the forest to test if the things they learned during practice also worked in the real world. This would hopefully also lower the number of monsters in the forest, reducing the chances of another monster breach.

Finally, the meeting ended, and the team headed out to the training ground at the academy for their practice session.