I opened the door to Grav's workshop. He was inside, going from wall to wall, grabbing various tools.

"Hey Grav, I guess you've already heard?" I say to him.

"Yeah, can you believe this?! All's quiet, then, out of the blue, they want me to rip up my shop and take it to the middle of the forest! These guards have no respect for us everyday workers!" He begins to angerly rant at me.

"I mean, you're helping the next generation of guards... There's got to be some sort of 'craftsman's pride' to it, yeah?" I ask him. He stops what he's doing and turns back to me.

"I- *sigh* Kid, of course I'm honored they chose me to come, and of course I'm proud of the city I live in. But, that doesn't mean I can't have a problem with the systems they use. But, I was just mindlessly rambling, don't take it to heart Kid." He reassured me, before going back to packing his things.

"I get what you mean... Say, do you think I'll be able to practice my forging skills while we're there?" I ask, wondering about how I'd split my time.

"Wow, you seem to be taking this job seriously. But, don't ya worry about it while we're there, just focus on learning from the captain." He tells me.

Despite his callous way of speaking, Grav actually seems to be pretty caring of others.

"If you say so, in that case I don't really need to pack anything." I tell him.

"Ok, well I'm just gonna finish up here, if you don't got anything to do, can you run down to the lumbermill and get me some handles for my hammers? I don't want to be out of luck if one breaks out there." He said to me, giving me an order on a piece of paper for the handles.

"Oh, sure thing, I can head over there now... Uh, where is it though?" I ask Grav.

He tells me which turns to take and how long it should take to get there, afterwards I head out and start to make my way to the lumbermill.

It's just outside the city walls, but there's a decently popular path leading to it, so it wasn't hard to find.

When I got there, there was a guard posted outside, I nodded as I went past him and walked inside.

It was loud, and there was a strong smell of lumber, but that was to be expected. I walk up to someone near the entrance.

"Excuse me? I have an order from Grav, who do I give it to?" I had speak up louder than normal to be heard.

"Huh? Oh! Yeah I know Grav, lemme take a look at this... Yeah this seems easy enough, I'll have it done in a couple of minutes. You can wait outside if you want." He said to me, taking the order and giving it a look over.

I gave him a thumbs up and went back outside.

I liked the city, but sometimes being out in the open was nice too... But, there were some strange aspects to it...

The guard kept sneaking glances at me. Eventually I had enough of it and asked if there was a problem.

"Hey, everything alright over there?" I ask, slightly aggitated.

"Um... No sir, sorry. I just thought you seemed familiar is all." He said.

"What do you mean 'familiar'?" I asked him.

"Well, you're the man who was fighting against the captain yesterday and today, right?" He asked, taking another look back at me.

"Oh, yeah that was me. What about it?" I confirmed his suspicions. This was what he wanted to hear apparently, as he then ran over and got strangely excited.

"Wow! I had a feeling that was you! You must be pretty good to be able to fight against the captain for so long!" He told me, this guy seemed to be a pretty big fan...

"Um... I wouldn't say that exactly, but, who are you anyways?" I say to him. I wasn't anything more than a moving punching bag for her...

"My apologies sir. The name's Casimir, I'm a guard trainee!" He told me, taking off his helmet and outstretching his hand.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Gen." I reply, shaking his hand. He was a young looking demon, probably eighteen or nineteen, with slicked back silver hair.

I hadn't noticed it before, but he was pretty tall for a demon, just slightly shorter than me.

"Oh, if you're a trainee, are you also going on the training trip?" I asked Casimir, who was still tightly gripping my hand.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Yep! I assume that means you're going?" He asked me.

"Yeah, not much of my own free will though." I say to him. He flashes a somewhat confused look at me.

"Hey! Your order's done! Come pick it up!" The worker from the lumbermill yelled out at me.

"Alright I have to get going, See you around Casimir." I tell him before walking back. He gave me a small wave goodbye as I walked into the lumbermill.

"Here you go, and don't worry about payment. I've known Grav for a while now, this isn't anything for me." The worker tells me.

"Oh wow, thanks! I'll be sure to let him know." I graciously accept the handles as he tells me this.

I begin my way back to Grav, holding the wooden handles underneath my arm. I could already see some guards by the gate getting ready for the departure tomorrow.

When I open the door to go inside the workshop, I get startled by the bag Grav had packed, It was almost the same size as him.

"Hey, Grav... I got those handles you asked for. What... What is all this?" I ask him.

"Good to see ya back Kid, say, give me a hand with this will ya?" He asks me, trying to push something into the already overstuffed bag.

After a good bit of work, we somehow manage to close the bag with everything inside. In all my time here, that might've been the most magical feat I've seen so far.

"Thanks Kid, that's about all I need for the trip. So now I can relax 'til we leave." He said to me. I just nodded in agreement, it was already almost night, so we had about twelve hours before leaving.

"Would it be fine if I practice in here tonight?" I ask him. showing him the paper full of techniques the captain had given me.

"Sure thing Kid, just be careful not to break anything, alright?" He told me, afterwards he went home and I began to look at which attacks I hadn't used yet.

There were a few more advanced attacks I was a bit scared to tackle. But given I was about to be training with other people who were serious about this, I should give them a try.

I began practicing the complex moves, stumbling a few times. But overall, I was learning, and my body was getting used to the movements. I tried imagining scenarios of which moves would be good for countering others, and took notes on it.

I got really into it. Too into it... I tried a spinning roundhouse kick, but I extended too far and hit the wall.

I quickly stopped and went to check where I had hit. There was a gouge in the stone, close to where I had hit it.

That... couldn't have been from me... It must've already been there.

But either way, I should stop for now. I didn't want to burn myself out before I even started.

After a long wait, the sun began to rise and Grav had returned to the workshop.

"Alright Kid, they're starting to get ready to go. Help me move this bag to the carts." Grav asked me for help.

"Sure thing." I tell him, and we began to slowly drag the bag to the carts being loaded up by the gates.

I'm glad other people were there, because it took about five of us to lift the bag into a cart.

Speaking of other people, there looked to be about fifty guard trainees that were coming along. I guess this is a pretty big event.

Among the crowd I noticed a few of them. First was the captain, who was ordering people to do tasks before setting off and was checking some list.

There was also Casimir, the trainee I met yesterday. He seemed to still be in good spirits. Lastly, there was...

"Octavia?" I ask the person in front of me.

"Hmm? Oh, Gen! I had heard you were coming along. It's good to see you!" She exclaims.

"Likewise, but uh, you're not a trainee right? What are you doing here?" I ask her.

"Oh no, I'm not, but the captain requested me for to be a medic for the trip." She explains. Huh, I don't know if it's just a coincidence, but the captain seems to be bringing people I'm familiar with along on the trip.

"Well, I'm glad you're coming, I guess I'll be in your care." I tell her, jokingly bowing my head slightly.

"I'll definitely be doing my best out there!" She proudly said. After this, the captain spoke up.

"Alright everyone! We're going to be leaving shortly, make sure you have everything you need. We will not stop the caravan for one person, so if you stop somewhere and get separated, it's on you to find your way to the training grounds!" The captain loudly spoke to all of us.

"Yes captain!" The majority of trainees all said synchronously.

After this short warning speech, we began the journey into the forest, towards the training grounds.

I asked around for how far it was, but was met with mixed messages, the only common response I got was "Far."

Grav, Octavia, and the captain rode in the carts, but for the rest of us, we had to walk the entire way.

I could tell the trainees were struggling to keep walking after a while. I wasn't having too much trouble, mostly because of my mana metabolism.

But surprisingly, Casimir was also seemingly fine, even after hours of walking.

As the sun's light began to fade into an orange glow over the horizon, I was able to make out a figure in the distance.

When we closed in to our destination, I could see it was a building, a log cabin to be specific.

Finally we reached the end of our long journey. I looked around the grounds we were staying, It was a large open area, with a number of buildings sprinkled around.

I noticed some flat open pads that looked to be for fighting. I also noticed something about the cabin when I got up close. It was huge.

The giant building was two full stories tall, with a third, smaller story in the middle of the foundation. The building was about 300 feet wide.

"Alright listen up!" The captain's voice rang out. I and all the other trainees gathered around to hear what she was saying.

"It's been a long day, and I'm sure you're all tired from walking! So, I'll quickly explain what our itinerary for this trip is!" She continued to talk.

"First things first! We will be staying here for exactly one week, starting tomorrow!"

"The first two days will be group training sessions! This is to beat the basics into all of you! Even if you think you understand them, THINK AGAIN!" She said loudly.

"After that, the next two days will be free training! You can train however you'd like, with whomever you'd like! This means any mistakes you make are on you!"

"Lastly, we will hold a tournament for the next two days, I will go more into depth when that time arrives! The seventh day is reserved for packing up, so don't make any plans!"

"I can assure you, even the most fragile of you will be turned into combat-ready guards, ready to defend Esoterion from whatever threats may come!"

"Inside the cabin on the second floor are the barracks, separated by gender! Male on the left side, Female on the right! Rest up! This'll be the longest week of your lives!" With that, She finishes her speech. The crowd begins to cheer and clap. I understand why, it has me pumped up for what's to come.

But for now, we're dismissed to our barrack rooms. So I'll have to wait before anything else.