We shuffled into a room made of stone, with the crests of the academy and Westerland hanging around the walls. It's a lot stuffier than the wooden walls of home.

'My name is Gwyn. You'll get to know the other instructors over time, but I will not be learning your names yet.

I'll let you in on a little secret. Not all of you will survive the tenth day.

Now, now, you're not going to die or anything. But the truth is that adventuring is a profession that chooses you, and those not suited for it will die a horrible death long before you get to do anything useful. While we assess you for your abilities, we will also be weeding out those who won't survive, and they will be given basic combat training before returning to their homes. I will learn your names in time, should you proceed past the introductory phase to this academy. So take these classes seriously.

Now, can anyone tell me what is the most important attribute for an adventurer?'

A smug-looking tall blond in a well-tailored tabard raises his hand. Gwyn nods.

'It depends on our Path, sir. For frontline defenders, vitality. For strikers, precision. For bruisers, strength. For casters, intellect.'

'I see someone has given you information ahead of time.'

And as the boy was about to smirk -

'But that is incorrect. Would anyone else like to try?'

A brunette wearing leather shakily raises hers. Gwyn nods.

'Erm, observing the surroundings?'

'This is indeed important. More so than what the gentleman earlier mentioned. After all, keeping an eye out for ambushes, hazards and an escape path can save your lives. But it is still not correct.'

A redhead, this time. Are we doing a hair colour diversity exercise here? Speaking of which, why is his hair blowing in the wind when there wasn't even any wind just now? Is he a shampoo salesman?

'Getting enough sleep the night before so we don't collapse in the middle of battle?'

While the sound of laughter starts, he cuts it off with a hand before it has any real chance of gaining traction.

'Proper rest is paramount regardless of what Path you follow. And those who tire more easily are less likely to sleep for the rest of eternity. But no, there is something more important. The most important thing for an adventurer is to know when to run away. You will face encounters that are impossible for you to win. This world is not a fair one which pits only challenges appropriate for your ability against you.

Sometimes, there is nothing to be gained from fighting. Bringing the information you have back to the nearest guildhouse will not only preserve your lives, but will also turn the tides against your opponents when your comrades fight by your side.

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Sometimes, you may be called upon to delay a superior force while the civilians behind you evacuate. In that situation, you will not be able to run until the evacuation is complete, or everyone you protect will certainly die. If need be, you will give your life so that they may live.

Every action you take has consequences. Your life has value, but so does the lives of those you protect. Not all lives are equal, either. The lives of children are worth much more than the lives of parents, for they have a longer road ahead of them. The lives of women are worth much more than the lives of men, for the number of children that will be born into Westerland is determined by the number of women of childbearing age, not the number of men in the country.

Before anything else, remember the value of life, and make the judgment call that preserves the most value.'

'Hold up there. Then what are all these girls doing in school? Shouldn't they just go home and make kids already?' Seems like the troublemakers have showed up.

'We used to hold that mindset, until the village of Birkenwald was wiped off the map ten years ago.'

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The tragedy of Birkenwald is a cautionary tale famous among adventurers and those who want to be like them.

Ten years ago, a dragon was spotted near the frontier village of Birkenwald, and due to the lack of qualified parties in the vicinity, its adventurer guild sent the near entirety of its forces to subjugate it, leaving only a token force of scouts to watch over the village itself.

At the time, Westerland had the policy of only letting men become adventurers as a policy of preserving national strength, as losing men to monsters had a much smaller impact on the population than losing childbearing women, so this was all of the forces they could muster.

It turned out that a tribe of goblins was aware of the dragon and were hiding in the eponymous forest, and timed a full attack on the village at the same time they heard the dragon roar.

As a result, the few scouts left behind were killed before they could signal the main force, the only other men left in the village were those incapable of fighting to begin with, and the heavily decimated remnants of the dragon subjugation force returned victorious to find the village in flames, every man left behind slaughtered, and the entirety of the female population gone.

Half of the injured people did not survive the night when retreating back to the capital due to exposure to the elements, and Birkenwald became off-limits due to an explosion in the goblin population by the time reinforcements returned that was deemed too dangerous to clear out.

Goblins naturally breed slowly and are normally easier to deal with, but are capable of explosive growth when using other humanoids as breeders, and losing an entire village of women turned that region into a stronghold of sorts - not a force impossible to defeat, but one that the country judged to be not worth the sacrifices required to do so.

The problem was that spare steel weapons were available in the Birkenwald guild branch, but because women were not trained to use them properly, they were unable to defend themselves and the weapons ended up in the hands of the goblins, making the Birkenwald goblins significantly more dangerous than the average goblin armed with stone weaponry.

There were a large number of lessons people extracted from the tragedy, between the need to train people of both sexes to defend themselves, the realization that demihumans were capable of using tactics on this scale and the importance of always leaving enough people to defend a town even when responding to threats. With the benefit of hindsight, people criticized the guild master for not evacuating the town instead and waiting for specialized dragon-hunting teams to arrive, though it's not like he could take any further responsibility for the choice when he perished in the fight against the dragon.

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'Now, while I would like to brief you on the Paths and the attributes that make specific people suited to them; it'll be easier to understand discussions on magic after you first understand what magic is.'