Leah took Raph back to Captain Fitzgerald and then she left him for other business. Fitzgerald was still waiting for him at the training area.

“Ah, finally. Thought I was going to be waiting all day.” Fitzgerald said impatiently.

“Sorry about that, sir.” Raph said.

“Don’t worry kid, and it's Fitz not sir.” Fitz said as he led him out of the camp.

“Uh, Fitz. Where are we going?” Raph asked, confused.

“Well kid, 20 squad is a little special. We’re not stationed in the main camp, we always stay out in the woods. It keeps us on our toes.” He explained.

‘Interesting, so these guys are either the best or the rejects.’ Raph thought as he followed Fitz into the woods. It took them around thirty minutes to get to the camp, which was just three guys sat around a fire. As Fitz and Raph approached, the smallest of the three turned as he noticed them.

“Boss is back.” He said to the others. The three of them got up to meet the newcomer.

“This is Raph,” Fitz said as he pushed Raph forward towards the three men.

Raph stumbled, “Uh, Hi?”

“He doesn’t look all that great.” The taller slim guy said.

“Give over Cook, he’s what we get.” Fitz said. “Raph this is Cook our main frontline damage.”

Cook came forward and shook Raph’s hand, upon feeling his strength he whistled. “Okkk, maybe he does have something going for him. Hey, Saxon. He might even give you a run for your money.” Cook said jokingly as he looked over his shoulder to the huge man.

“Hmmm.” The bear-man grunted and he pushed Cook out of the way and grabbed Raph’s hand, seemingly intent on crushing it. Raph gripped back as hard as he could, their strength was close, but Saxon edged out on top. “It’s nice to have you with us.” He said, strength respecting strength.

“Likewise.” Raph said as he shook his hand, trying to get some blood back in it.

The last, smaller man came forward. “McNamara, but everyone just calls me Mac.” Mac said. Raph shook his hand as well.

“Alright.” Fitz said as he clapped his hands. “Now that’s out of the way, Mac, could you get him his things?” Mac nodded and walked over to a rucksack that was resting against a tree.

“Here.” He said as he handed it to Raph.

Raph accepted the bag and looked questioningly at Fitz.

“Inside you will find; two sets of standard issue Shepherd gear, one camo cloak like you saw the guard wearing at the base, a canteen, a decent knife, and some rations in case we fail to teach you.” Fitz explained. “Now get changed and then we can begin.”

Raph did as instructed, he dressed in his new combat gear including a pair of leather boots that fit really well. It reminded him of a famous film franchise from Earth where they used swords of light and controlled things with their mind. The uniform was in earthy green tones and the camo cloak as Fitz put it had fake grass and foliage on the exterior. After he changed he put the bag he had brought with him in his ring for safekeeping. Then Raph walked back over to the squad.

“Looks good.” Fitz said as he came back. “Right kid, our missions have been suspended for the next few weeks because we have to get you into reasonable fighting shape. This means the next two weeks aren’t going to be particularly pleasant for you. Starting tomorrow you get up at dawn for endurance training with Saxon, then onto hunting with Mac. You’ll be doing extensive combat training with Cook in the afternoon, then the night shift with me to learn about battle strategy and warcraft. Rinse and repeat for two weeks. For now I want to chat about what you can do, so we know what we’ve got to work with.”

Raph and the rest of squad 20 spent the night talking about skills and discussing what he wanted to achieve. He wanted to be a more effective fighter as he never formally learned, up to this point he was brute forcing his way through fights. It took the squad a few hours before the details were cemented in.

The next morning Raph was woken up by Fitz dumping cold water on his head.

“Welcome to hell. Now get up and ready, you have one minute.” Fitz shouted. “UP, UP, UP”

Raph sprang to his feet and got the rest of his clothes on, in just shy of a minute he was standing in front of Fitz.

“Not bad, could be better.” As Fitz said this Saxon came over with a large back on his back and an even larger one in his hand. Saxon handed the other bag to Raph.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Taking the bag from Saxon, Raph was shocked by the weight. It was probably double that which Leah had given him on the last day up to the camp. Reluctantly Raph lifted the bag on and Saxon began to run. They began to do laps around the forest, Saxon moving with surprising grace for someone of his size. He was floating round the forest not saying a word, which made it much more of a mental challenge to Raph. The run lasted for a few hours until Saxon led them back to the camp and nodded to Raph while taking the large rucksack back.

Next came hunting with Mac, he first got Raph to get his camo cloak on and grab the knife. He met up with Mac when he had his gear, Mac explained to Raph that they were going to hunt a monster. The idea behind this exercise was that Raph couldn’t use his hammers for now and could only use the knife, which was a blow to Raph’s confidence. Mac said the first monster they were hunting was called a cockatrice, which was something like a chicken-dragon. Mac explained to Raph where to aim for on monsters to do more damage; hearts, brains, eyes, main arteries etc.

They came across a pack of direwolves which were all around level 100, the same as Mac. He moved through them like a phantom, effortlessly reaping lives like harvesting wheat. While he was slaughtering the wolves Mac was explaining to Raph his process, which wolves he picked first, how he chose them, and how he planned to kill them. Mac’s main class was an archer archetype, he was using his second class to deal out this carnage. Raph was actually learning a lot from Mac up to now, he was being genuinely helpful explaining the process.

Finally they got to the last part of Mac’s assigned task, to oversee Raph’s hunt of a creature. Again the target was a cockatrice. The chicken-headed wyvern creature stood around the same height as Raph and it was maybe twice as long. It looked as one would imagine a chicken-headed wyvern creature would look like. The only unforeseen aspect of the creature was the corrosive bile the thing had a love for spitting on anything that moved. Raph’s attempt at taking down the creature was not up to Mac’s standard, involving way too much stabbing and damaging of the creature's hide. This was bad form in Mac’s book, he wanted the kills to be clean and fast. After Raph’s poor display Mac berated him briefly, then going on to explain how he would have done it. Even though the cockatrice was tens of levels higher than Raph he didn’t have much trouble taking it down, it was more of a case of skill that did not satisfy Mac.

After his poor display of hunting came arguably the hardest part of the day, combat training with Cook. He was a frontline damage dealer who used magic to empower himself in battle, adding elements to his sword strikes. They began with a spar, Cook said this was to judge Raph’s combat abilities. What it actually was, was a complete domination. Cook was faster, more skilled, and in absolute control the whole time. Yes Raph might have been physically stronger, but that didn’t count for shit when can’t hit your opponent. These spars went on for a few more bouts until Raph couldn’t fight anymore, then Cook finally began to teach. Cook was teaching Raph everything from positioning and stances to tactics and even taunting. These lessons went on all the way until sundown, by this time Raph was battered and bruised.

After the combat practice the squad ate an evening meal which consisted of something that Mac had found in the forest. Some sort of meat and vegetables accompanied by bread, it was simple yet filling. The last part of the day was unknown to Raph, he really wasn’t sure what Fitz would be doing with him.

It turned out Fitz had decided to teach Raph every underhanded tactic he had ever used or could think of, rules of engagement be damned. He started off with basic things, squad tactics, battalion tactics, and standard strategy. To more abstract ideas like cutting of food supplies and trade routes. To truly bizarre and stupid ideas he’d tried in the past like wooden animals and poisoning water supplies with laxatives. As well as tactics, Fitz taught Raph about army structure and history.

“You see kid, those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Fitz said vehemently.

These lessons went on for a little over two weeks, varying every day but sticking to the same general area. Raph learned many things from squad 20 including some useful general skills. He also gained a level in his main class and two in his secondary from hunting the creatures with Mac. Raph checked the new skills.

Hunter’s Perception: You are a skilled predator, you have been trained to find weaknesses. +5% to stats when fighting monsters.

State of the Destroyer: Focus on combat, all else is irrelevant. Remove distractions from your perception and become one with destruction.

They gave him a big combat boost both against people and monsters, hunter’s perception was like it stated; used against monsters and would make him stronger. State of the Destroyer was more abstract; it let Raph enter a peculiar state of mind while fighting, he used it once against Cook and began to feel like everything around him was being destroyed.

The two-ish weeks to Raph, felt like an age. Everyday exhausted Raph to the core. But when he was done, the improvement was immense. The training squad 20 had given him was invaluable, but now the time for such was over. Squad 20 was called over to the base, they had been assigned a mission. Walking into the main building with the squad, Raph saw Leah sat behind a desk looking confused at some documents.

“Good morning Leah.” Raph said as they entered the room. To which the rest of squad 20 looked shocked.

“Good morning Major Raycraft.” The rest of the squad said with a salute.

Leah pulled her eyes away from the documents and seemingly ignored Raph’s greeting. “Good morning gentlemen.” she said formally. “Let’s get straight to it shall we? Is he ready?”

‘I’m right here.’ Raph thought as Leah talked to Fitz.

“He is adequately prepared.” Fitz confirmed.

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence, boss.’ Raph sneered in his mind.

“That will have to do I suppose, I need your squad operational again asap. We’ve had news of increased activity from Breawen north east.” Leah said seriously as she passed Fitz a report on the details.

“I want you to take your team and find out what Breawen are doing, then we can assess and allocate resources.” Leah spoke again.

“Yes ma’am.” Fitz said as the group proceeded to take leave.

“Raph, one moment. Continue, Captain.” Leah indicated Raph to stay and the team to leave.

“First off, when we are in the presence of other officers it’s Major, or Major Raycraft.” Leah began.

“Sorry Leah.” Raph said apologetically. “Uh, Major.”

Leah smiled at the remark. “Second, I know you can handle yourself but be careful.”

Raph was touched. “Yes, Major. I will,” he said with a smile.

“Alright, now get out.” Leah said as she tried to hide a smile.