Tom was the first to arrive back with his team to the guild building. They rested while they waited for the others to return. Kiera was second about an hour after Tom returned. She looked out of breath and frustrated from the Journey.

"Everything go alright?" Tom asked after moving over to get a status update from her.

"No, it did not go alright! We managed to help Jay out but then kept running into fucking monsters when we tried to get back to help your team. By the time we made it, you were done and moving back to base." Kiera explained with an angry tone that spoke of the hardships she and her team went through.

"Well, I'm glad to see you all came back mostly okay," Tom said looking over at Tina's arm.

"We found a new monster. Pseudo-Morphs. Look like slimes from old video games and they burn when you touch them. Have to destroy the cores to kill them. Nasty fuckers." Kiera said, seeing where Tom was looking and explaining what happened.

"Shit, at least they have a weakness. Do you think you were seen?" Tom asked.

"No way. We were too far out. Unless they had a telescope and even then we had good cover." Kiera replied.

"That's good news. This seems to be going well so far. We won't know for sure though, until Jay gets back." Tom said turning to look at the gate for any sign he was coming back.

"That asshole had better come back," Kiera said following Tom's gaze and trying to sound tough.

"I'm sure he hopes you are okay as well," Tom smiled at her attempt to hide her caring side.

"I mean, he is the best spy we have, we need to keep him around," Kiera tried to cover her sentiments.

"There's no reason to hide your feelings. He's our friend and that means we worry. But he's got this." Tom tried to comfort her while also trying to alleviate his own worries.

"If he doesn't come back, I'll find his body, drag it to The Master, force him to bring him back, and kill him myself," Kiera said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Tom just laughed. There was no talking to her about this, so he just let her express her feelings in the way she felt comfortable.

It was another two hours before Jay arrived back at the guild gate. Tom rushed over to see how he was doing and the first thing he noticed was they were down a man. Several others had minor injuries but seemed whole for the most part.

"What the hell happened? You should have been back hours ago!" Tom inquired quickly, a little bit more aggressively than he meant to because of his worry.

"We were about to get the hell outta Dodge but realized we wouldn't know if Shandra took the bait. So part way back, we stopped to watch from a building that could see The Master's base to see if they went after The Master." Jay explained quickly. "There were a shit ton of dead goblins there though. Was that your doing Kiera?"

"It was. Fuckers tried to mess up Plan Mexican Standoff." Kiera answered curtly.

"Well, it was a great spot. They definitely took the bait. They didn't make a full assault, but Shandra is pissed!" Jay said smiling wide at the situation. "She ran over there and started yelling at The Master who just sat on top of his walls."

"Could you make out what they were saying?" Tom asked, desperate to see what would happen next.

"No, we were too far away. I can't believe you made shots from that building. It was so fucking far!" Jay complimented Kiera and she beamed with pride. "But Shandra kept getting more and more angry while that asshat seemed to be enjoying her frustration. I think she's a little worried about what he can do."

"That doesn't sound like Shandra. Why would she be concerned?" Tom pondered this new piece of information.

"Probably because he has some ability to meld his zombies together to make super zombies," Jay replied, knowing the question was and wasn't directed at him.

"He can what?!" Tom suddenly questioned, immediately interested again in what Jay had to say.

"When we were running from the zombies, they stopped and let out some wail and then began to meld into each other and became some kind of giant zombie abomination. Thing was wicked looking and even killed a couple of Shandra's men before we ran off." Jay explained, remembering the beast's large claws that did so much damage.

"That's not good. I figured he had some tricks up his sleeve still, but that's a big one. I hope they didn't talk things out and realize our plan." Tom said as a feeling of unease came over him.

"When have you ever known Shandra to talk things out? She's probably over there calling him every name in the book and threatening to wipe him off the map." Jay said with disgust.

"I hope so. That's what we were counting on." Tom replied, still thinking about the implications. "We have as many people as possible on watch, so we will know for sure. We should post some people on spy duty near both of the other bases. Jay, can you have some people do that?"

"I can. Though I do need a replacement for Steve." Jay said solemnly, looking extremely sad at the memory of the man they lost.

"I noticed you were down a member. What happened?" Tom asked.

"He got surrounded and overrun inside The Master's base. There wasn't anything we could do." Jay looked even sadder at this revelation.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"We saw it too. We tried to keep the zombies off of him, but there were so many, and we could only fire so many shots at a time from that distance and still hit our targets." Kiera piped in, also seeming down at the loss.

Everyone around was silent for a moment as they took in the situation. This was dangerous and they all knew the risks, but it didn't make it any easier to handle when they lost someone.

"Go take who you need and get them up to speed," Tom finally said. "We need those spies to keep us up to date on what's happening out there. We can't just sit here and hope they destroy each other. We still have people to help."

"Right," Jay said and ran off before his sorrow dragged him down any further.

"Everyone else, I want you training every moment you get. This war is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. If you need resources, come to us and ask. We will get you anything we can to make sure you get stronger." Tom announced to everyone assembled.

Tom could see the look in people's eyes as their resolve hardened to become better. They all looked inspired to do something right away and many began to move immediately. Summoning Bron again, Tom looked the huge Mastadonian in the eyes.

"I think it's time we start training my body as well as my weapons skills. I need to get stronger." Tom said to him.

Bron nodded and motioned for him to follow him. To Tom's surprise, several others from his team came as well, including Michael, the new guy.

"You all don't have to come with me," Tom said to them. "This training will be grueling work."

"We've seen you training with the big guy and we want in," Michael said. "You aren't the only one looking to get stronger."

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you," Tom replied with a smile at their willingness.

"The first step in training your body is to make it as hard as possible and raise your muscular endurance. I will need a few things in order to begin your training." Bron began with a smile that showed he was about to torment them.

About an hour later, Tom resummoned Bron as the time had elapsed on his skill, and presented him with all the items he had asked for.

"Some of these make me think you intend to harm us," Tom said concerned at a few of the tools Bron had requested.

"Technically, it's not torture. But it will... incentivize you not to slack in the training." Bron said, pausing for longer than Tom was comfortable at the word incentivize.

A few minutes later, Tom found himself squatting over a board with a spike pointed straight up at his asshole and bands with small punch daggers attached to them around his biceps. He was holding a large stone in each hand out to either side of his body and immediately regretting his decision to let Bron train his body.

"How long do I have to hold this position?" Tom grunted at Bron who was fanning a flame underneath a makeshift pullup bar where Michael was hanging from his knees and swinging his body back and forth to strengthen his core muscles while also trying to move quickly enough between swings to not burn his back or stomach.

"Until you can't. I will know when you can't by your shouts of pain, don't worry." Bron said without looking up from fanning the flames.

"I know you said this isn't torture, but it really feels like torture," Tom spat as his arms lowered ever so slightly.

"The body's natural responses are limited when you aren't in a life or death situation. So to train your body for the things you will encounter in a battle, you must put yourself in those situations in as controlled an environment as possible. Would you rather find beasts that can test your mettle and hope someone is there to help you when you get hurt? Or would you rather train in a place where healers are standing by and nothing is actively trying to kill you?" Bron asked, clearly having heard these excuses before.

Just then, Tom's arms lowered even further and the point of the blade poked into the side of his chest. The pain caused a reaction that made him immediately lift his arms higher in response, even though he felt like they were about to fall off at the shoulders.

"OW!" He screamed at the pain.

"Come on you weakling! I expected more from you!" Bron yelled at him.

"HEY, SHUT UP, THIS SUCKS AND IS WAY HARDER THAN IT LOOKS!!!" Tom shouted at Bron.

"THIS IS THE KIND OF TRAINING WE PUT CHILDREN THROUGH IN MASTADONIAN SOCIETY!!! ARE YOU SAYING YOU ARE WEAKER THAN CHILDREN?!!!" Bron yelled back.

"ARE YOU CALLING ME A CHILD?!!!!" Tom yelled again in frustration as well as anger at being compared to a child.

"IF YOU CAN'T COMPLETE THE SIMPLEST OF TASKS, THEN YES I AM CALLING YOU A CHILD!!!" Bron shouted back at him and pulled out a whip to crack across Tom's back.

It didn't have anything on the tips that could harm him much, but the leather strips on the end still stung against Tom's bare back as Bron had insisted that he do this exercise shirtless to be sure there was no armor to protect him.

Michael's eyes grew wider as Bron had begun fanning the flames with much greater speed during the yelling match and it was starting to get big enough to singe his skin.

"CAN YOU WATCH THE FLAMES? THOSE ARE GETTING TOO BIG!!!" Michael also began yelling.

"HEY, WHO IS THE ONE WHO HAS DONE THIS BEFORE?!!! GO FASTER AND YOU WON'T GET HURT!!!" Bron yelled back at him.

"Why am I just punching a post?" Kedron asked. "This doesn't feel like it's doing anything."

Bron stopped fanning the flames, much to Michael's relief, as even the pause to whip Tom hadn't given him much reprieve, and moved over to Kedron. He looked down at the man and then at the pole. Kedron stopped punching the rope-wrapped wooden fence post Bron had driven into the ground and looked up at him.

"This will strengthen your fists by putting callouses on them as well as train you in hitting an opponent with a high defensive ability. Eventually, you will be able to do this." Bron said, after which he swiftly punched the post so hard that the top half of the post broke off.

Kedron's eyes went wide with wonder.

"Now, get another post and continue your training!" Bron ordered with authority in his voice.

Bron had several other contraptions rigged up with others training on them including a set of poles driven into the ground where someone would place their ankles while another helped push them forward into doing the splits. Bron had said this was flexibility training as one needed to be flexible to continue to move fluidly in fights. Not a single person training could say they didn't regret their decision, but not a single person would give up either. They all were determined to get stronger.

Just when Tom was about to give up and drop the stones so he didn't impale his sides, he got a notification that popped up in his view.

Congratulations - Stat Boost

Through the struggle of pushing your body past its limit in order to become better, you have raised your Strength by 1 point.

Tom stared in wonder at the window. He had no idea that doing actual training could raise his attributes. In all this time he had never had a stat boost from pushing himself. A fire lit inside him to do more and he focused on holding the stones as steady as possible.

"I see you found a secret the System doesn't advertise," Bron said with a glint in his eye as he watched Tom.

"You could have told us that it would do this," Tom said looking over at him angrily.

"But that would have ruined the achievement and taken away the moment of realization that would make you work even harder," Bron replied simply and went back to fanning the flame under Michael much to his horror.