Galier was now in day three of his training. How to hide, how to utilise the communication stones, how to map terrain and chart the territory.

There were a number of gasps from the crowd when he first walked up to Seer Dorian who took stock of Galier’s powers, noting them down in the Journal of Soldiers. Galier was from a famous family, everyone in his bloodline had walked the path of the Warrior, the path of the Tank or the path of the Barbarian. They were a front-line family for centuries, his father, brothers and sisters had fought alongside and under Braxton’s command in their Great War.

Many people in his community had wondered why Galier, who didn’t have the muscular build of his family, hadn’t immediately indoctrinated himself to the Warriors Guild. Galier did not enjoy violence, hated bloodshed and was significantly more curious about the world around him than his family who all took pride in their service to the House of Eternal Sun.

It wasn’t that Galier did not want to make his family proud, or that he did not feel loyal to his House; he just wanted to contribute in a different way. Elves, or anyone for that matter never actually got to choose their initial class, that only came through specialisms that presented themselves at various points in someone’s life. Galier was the first in his bloodline to be gifted with the essence of the Hunter. He could still hear the gasps in the hall of spies when Seer Dorian carried out his reading.

Galier had placed his hands in Dorian’s palms, a warmth passed over his body and a purple glow passed between himself and the Seer.

“Ahhhh. Galier Thenix. A privilege to know your position” Seer Dorian started with, going on to read out the abilities and proficiencies that had presented themselves to Galier so far.

— Galier Thenix —

— Role: Hunter, Level 12 —

— Specialism: none. —

— Weapons: Throwing knives, Daggers, Bow & Arrow. —

— Abilities: 6 —

— Proficiencies: 5 —

Ability 1: Camouflage. Blend into your surroundings effortlessly, you will be invisible to all. Zero cost to your mana store but can only be active when stationary or walking. Cast time: 10 seconds, cooldown: 60 seconds. Mana Cost: Zero

Ability 2: Animal bond. Entwine your soul with another to create a kindred spirit. Must be done with only one animal. Bond breaks with death, or at the will of the caster. Cast time: 20 seconds, cooldown: 3 hours. Mana Cost: Extremely High.

Ability 3: Spirit sense. See, hear and feel through the perspective of your spirit bond. Cannot move whilst this connection is active. Cast time: 2 minutes, cooldown: 20 minutes. Mana cost: High.

Ability 4: Rapid movement. Double your sprint speed and maneauvaribility for a short period of time. Cast time: Instant, cooldown: 10 minutes. Stamina cost: High.

Ability 5: True shot. Aim and senses maximise with your Bow & Arrow, take one shot with the prowess of a being two times higher than your current power level. Cast time: 15 seconds, cooldown: 12 hours. Mana cost: High.

Ability 6: Sedate. Enchant your arrows with sedation poison to slow or stop your enemies. Can be cast on three arrows at a time. Cast time: 2 minutes, cooldown: 6 hours. Mana cost: Moderate.

Proficiency 1: Keeping pace. Your natural baseline stamina always operates one level higher than your current level.

Proficiency 2: Forager. Understand the nature around you, what is edible and safe, what is not and gain an intuition into how to utilise the plants and wildlife around you.

Proficiency 3: Animalistic nature. Wildlife around you that is below your current power level will treat you with respect, unless commanded not to do so.

Proficiency 4: Small Sharp object handling

Proficiency 5: One with nature. Your abilities gain a marginal power boost when used in woodland areas.

Base Level Abilities:

- Health: 300

- Mana: 300

- Stamina: 500

- Strength: 3

- Agility: 9

- Intelligence: 9

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- Wisdom: 9

- Charisma: 7

“Quite the skillset you have, Galier. Unusual for a hunter, or anyone for that matter, to have three base level stats at the upper limits for their power level. I think we may see interesting things from you, young man. Not to mention, True Shot and Animal Bond; both rare and coveted abilities to show themselves to a young Hunter so soon into their journey”

Base level abilities presented themselves to anyone that reached level ten. From this point onwards in anyone’s career, each level jump would bring with it a new ability or proficiency, an enhancement to a pre-existing skill or gains to the Base Level stats they had. Slow gradual gains could also be made through training, without the need to jump up a level; but it was a significant time soak.

At level ten, the Base Level stats normally ranged from between one to ten; on average there would be thirty points distributed across the five areas of: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. Galier was gifted with 37, a significantly high baseline; although it was a strange mix for a Hunter class. Also, for an Elf of his family lineage, his Strength and Health was on the low side.

***

Day four came too quickly. It was time for them to learn the plan, who would go where and with whom. Who would get the powerful artefacts being crafted by their townsfolk, who would be assigned with the most valiant of tasks and who would get left behind.

All of the new recruits once again found themselves in the Great Hall. Prince Aleyth making a surprise appearance alongside his Spymaster, Hito. The hall was buzzing with murmurs, which abruptly subsided as Aleyth stood tall and raised his arms.

A calmness radiated from him, a trick and skill he had picked up as leader and second in command at the House of the Eternal Sun. “My friends. Thank you for heeding our call. Thank you for volunteering to be the brave new recruits to this, association.”

“I commend all of you. For some of you, this is a path that you have dreamed of. For others, it is your duty. And, finally”, he paused and looked briefly at Galier before continuing “it may very well be your destiny.”

Galier and his compatriots got shivers, goosebumps tickled their skin. “We will be splitting you up based on your skill-sets, abilities and levels. Hito, please share your plans. The rest of you, settle in. Hito has quite the monologue prepared” Aleyth smiled, helping to ease the tension that was starting to build.

“Very well, my Lord. The plan is relatively simple. Each of you has an assignment, some of you will eventually find yourself in pairs, some will be operating as part of larger groups with an experienced commander from my, sorry… our association and some of you will be entrusted to go it alone.”

“Our mages and sorceresses have been writing an extremely complex ritual over the last three days which will portal each of us to a targeted destination. Many of you will be alone, watching, listening and relaying back information. It will be difficult, times will get tough, but you must persevere.”

“When you feel you can no longer continue, you may leave your post and return home if possible. We are creating a highly mobile rescue team that should be operational over quite large distances for those that cannot make it back, safely, themselves.”

“The transportation ritual will complete tomorrow at the rise of their sun. We will fuel this with much of our power and cast you to your destinations. The approach is high risk and our city defenses will be temporarily weakened to enable this to happen, but it is a risk we must take.”

“Finally. Your assignments have been determined by myself and Prince Aleyth. They will be distributed to you all shortly. At a high level, we will be splitting into thirty individual scouts, and five teams of seven and one larger team of fifteen.”

“Those of you in teams will report into one of our ten spies. You will take your orders directly from them and will be dropped into key, strategic locations. The key is for you to have adaptability on the ground. You will notice four of my ten left a number of days ago, they have their orders and are already in the field collecting information. Much of which we will act upon tomorrow”.

“Key locations for the five teams of seven. You will all be pointed towards locations known in this world as Wales, Cornwall, the city we find ourselves bound within - London and finally two teams across Scotland. Reasons why will be included within your assignment notes.”

“The larger team of fifteen will be transported to another kingdom, known here as Ireland. Our understanding is that this land has been untouched by the transformations, we would like to find out why if possible. The secondary assumption is that it could become a key base of operations for those that may act against us.”

“Those of you that will be moving alone. You will be sent to areas of lesser immediate threat, there are a number of areas that have transformed across this land; from areas of our great forest through to mountainous landscapes. You will be sent to these locations based on your skills and abilities. Those of you moving alone will be gifted with a communication stone that will enable you to convene with our mages here. They will only work at set times; specific instructions and everything you need will be provided to you during the final briefing tomorrow morning.”

“Now. For all of you, please form an orderly queue at the exit and collect your assignments individually. Best of luck to you all. We will reconvene for the final briefing one hour before sunrise tomorrow. Spend this evening with your families and friends. Goodbye.”

The eighty new recruits stood, gobsmacked. This all finally felt real and the weight of their assignments was starting to fall on them. Five individuals did not make it through the training, a couple falling short during the mental assessments with the remaining three not having the necessary combination of abilities to take part in the missions that were being planned by Aleyth and Hito.