'Adventurers operate in four man groups. Some call these cells, some call these parties, but it's the same thing in general.

When you graduate and go out on subjugation requests, each of you will always undertake missions in groups of four.

When you move, one will watch the front, one will watch your left, one will watch your right, and one will watch your back. You must have visibility on your surroundings at all times when moving for when you move, you create sound, and when you create sound, things know you're coming. Even wild animals know to attack you from your blind spot, and if you present no blind spot, there are pointless fights you can avoid completely, and others you won't get surprised with.

When you sleep, each of you will take turns guarding. Everyone needs at least nine hours of sleep to perform well, so the basics are nine hours of sleep and three hours of watch. You pitch your tents at sunset and move out at sunrise. If you sleep any longer than that you lose time and the people you defend may lose their lives. If you sleep any less than that you'll get exhausted over time, collapse mid combat and die. As everyone has different levels of stamina, those among you with less of it will either take the first or last watch to have nine hours of uninterrupted sleep. Those among you with more of it will sleep for two phases of three and six hours each.

In the event that someone dies after you achieve your mission, remove their nametags to return to their families, split the remaining time accordingly for your return journey, and watch three thirds instead. Your survivability will go down, but you will do your best to reach home alive. Leave the bodies for the wild to reclaim. If you do something as stupidly sentimental as bringing a corpse with you, none of you will return home alive.

We will be doing camp training after this. Each of you will be issued a backpack containing a personal tent, one day of rations, a container, a bar of soap, rope, and a small knife. You will be responsible for going into the nearby forest to gather branches and bushes to use as firewood to cook your rations with, as well as to gather clean water for cooking and drinking. After your meal, you will go to the water source you found to take a bath. Hygiene is very important as predators can track you by scent, and if you ignore cleanup, it'll be easier for them to kill you in your sleep. I will show you how to pitch your own tents, where to pitch tents, and how to start a fire, and then the rest is up to you to learn. Your groups will be assigned at random. Finally, when gathering wood, bathing, shitting, or doing anything else that leaves you otherwise vulnerable, you will always move in groups of at least two to watch each others' backs, preferably as a whole group. Yes?'

A girl had her hand up. 'If the groups are assigned at random, wouldn't there be a chance that the only way to form a pair is with a man, if there are three men and one woman in a group?'

'This is correct, and you won't always have the luxury of choice when forming parties after graduation either.'

'But if we bathe and the people watching us are men, aren't they getting a strip show for free?'

'You will be entrusting your lives to each other. If nobody watches you when you're defenseless because you have some kind of complex about your body, the next thing they see will be your corpse. Get over it. This goes for you men as well, if you're too busy ogling your comrades' bodies to keep watch properly, you will either see them dead, or they will see you dead in short order, so keep your heads if you want to keep your heads. This should also go without saying, but all manner of sexual activity is banned during missions, and all parties involved will lose your nametags permanently if caught. We've seen enough conjoined corpses in the field to let this stupidity continue. Any other questions?'

'What if we can't get along with the people we're assigned with?'

'Nobody's asking you to form lifelong friendships with everyone. But you work with others or you die. Focus on your common goal and ignore your differences for a while. You'll feel stupid about your disagreements when someone you don't like dies. In this line of work, everyone sees it happen sooner or later.'

'Are we sleeping in those tents tonight?'

'Good question, and the answer is that you will be sleeping in tents, gathering firewood and cooking your own meals for the rest of the training period here. Think of it as training for the real thing. The instructors will also be sneaking up on you, and if we touch you without being spotted, the one on watch is permanently disqualified from adventuring, though he or she may still serve in the army if capable for it. In a real situation, that would have meant all of you are dead, so be grateful.'

... this is way more austere than expected.

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'You may have heard earlier, but my name is Joshua. Pleasure to meet you.' Yeah, we remember, shampoo salesman.

'Rachel,' I venture.

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

'Dennis. Let's get along,' went a diminutive redhead with short hair.

'Michael. I feel kind of out of place in a party of redheads, but I guess you'll be having it rougher than me,' shrugged a muscular guy with blond hair.

Yeah. I ended up in a party of three men, so it's not a question of whether I get exposed before marriage, but to how many. Hurrah.

'We probably have three hours of daylight left. I get the feeling the instructors think they're being generous with us on the first day, but to think there's so many nice buildings over there and we have to feed mosquitoes instead.' (Dennis)

'Does anyone have experience with the outdoors?' (Joshua)

'My family are hunters, so I've had some level of experience, though not as much as the instructors. Wish they would give us more advice.' (Michael)

'Then you take charge, and we'll follow your lead. Any objections from anyone?' (Joshua)

An awkward silence ensues.

'Okay. In that case we should probably secure our water source first. If we go further upstream earlier, we should have an advantage over the others.' (Michael)

We start hiking.

'Not that I'm objecting, but what does going upstream have to do with anything? Wouldn't that mean more effort climbing up and down every day?' (Dennis)

'It does. But think of what happens if we clean stuff or bathe.' (Michael)

'Eh...?' (Dennis)

'Shit flows downstream. And if we already pick our spot, it'll be too late for the others to object after they notice.' (Michael)

'Ah.' (Dennis)

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'Remember to hammer in the pegs at an angle of two to one,' echoed the memory of Gwyn's voice.

Nobody mentioned how hard it is to do said hammering!

'You might want to hold the peg with your foot instead and use both arms to swing.' (Michael)

'What, you're done already?'

'Like I said earlier, I've done this before. My brothers also had trouble with using just one arm, so we came up with this method to cheat.' (Michael)

Wham.

'Stop locking your elbows.' (Michael)

'Sorry?'

'You're making your lower arms do all the work like this. If you keep your elbows flexible, you can swing with the muscles in both your upper and lower arms.' (Michael)

Wham. Hey?

'Okay, I gotta look at the others. Holler if you need anything.' (Michael)

'Thanks.'

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'Hold up, I wanna try something.' (Dennis)

'Okay...' (Michael)

Smoke rises from the sticks.

'Hey, is that -' (Joshua)

Fwoosh.

'...'

'...'

'...'

'I guess it worked.' (Dennis)

'Holy crap man, you actually did it!' went Michael, slapping him.. painfully-looking, on the back.

'I thought the basic magic lesson was supposed to be two days from now? Where'd you learn that?' (Me)

'I have no idea. After that stunt he pulled with the wind I somehow had an idea that visualising the result really, really hard might work. Though it's a lot more tiring than I thought.' (Dennis)

'Sure that's not just because he slapped the hell out of you?' (Joshua)

'Oh... sorry.' (Michael)

'Frankly, I have no idea.' (Dennis)

The party ended up in tears after a minute of laughter.

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'Okay, the meal's settled and now comes the hard part.' (Joshua)

'Eh?' (Michael)

'See these three sticks? I've marked one of them with chalk. I propose letting Rachel shuffle the sticks, and then each of us will pick one.' (Joshua)

'Ah.' (Dennis)

'I don't get it.' (Michael)

'Remember what Gwyn mentioned before we split up into groups? Someone will have to keep watch over Rachel, so I think we should limit it to one of us for the entire period that we work together.' (Joshua)

'I still don't get it. Isn't she going to end up being seen anyway? What's the difference?' (Michael)

'I'm not really a woman, but I think the number of people who see you naked matters to one.' (Joshua)

...you really should have been a salesman rather than an Adventurer, Joshua.

'Can't we just all give her a bit of privacy for a few minutes then?' (Dennis)

'Gwyn never said that the instructors would only sneak up on students when we sleep. If one of them is nearby and touches her when she's bathing, at least one, if not all of us are out, and I'm not going to fail this test.' (Joshua)

'In that case, shouldn't she just choose who she prefers to be the one who watches her?' (Michael)

'There's less hurt feelings involved if the one who chooses is luck, and Joshua knows this.'

'Okay, if that's what the lady wants.' (Michael)

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'Why are you here, Joshua?'

'I mean, I have to keep watch and -'

'No, I mean, why did you even want to become an Adventurer? You seem to know how people think pretty well, you could have been quite successful as a merchant, you know?'

'...'

'Sorry, did you say something?'

'Shouldn't you just bathe faster instead of chatting? Prolonging it makes it harder for me, you know.'

Be still, my heart.

'Sorry, it's embarrassing for me if you just stare at my ass in silence. I'm trying to distract myself from the fact that you've seen more of me than any man ever has.'

'Sorry.'

'So, what is it?'

'Revenge.'

'For?'

'...My family was at Birkenwald for business. And instead of going back to save them, this country left them to suffer a fate worse than death. I figured that if I became an Adventurer, I would one day be able to join the group that slaughters those bastards.'

Oh shit, I should not have. I really should not have.

'You know what it's like when your family leaves you behind with your uncle because you're too young to help out with the family business, they don't come back when they're supposed to, and then the next day you find out that your dad is probably dead, your mother and sisters are going to be raped until they die, and you're not even allowed to try to save them or die in the attempt?'

'... I'm sorry. I don't.'

'Thank you for your honesty. Too many people aren't decent enough to admit that.'

A minute passes without anything except the sound of flowing water.

'I'm not a woman, so I'm not sure if this makes us even. But now you've also seen a part of me I would rather nobody else here gets to see, in a manner of speaking. And hell, if you weren't literally bare before me, I wouldn't bare myself like this, either.'

'...I'll keep your secret.'

'Thanks.'

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And so ended the first day at the Adventurers' Academy.