As promised, Ronav called a meeting the next morning to explain everything. Soral had a difficult time keeping everything a secret, and an even harder time not tanking the mood of the celebrations. Luckily, everyone still had the sense to go to bed at a decent hour so there were no morning zombies in the assembly.

Ronav looked at everyone gathered. “Congratulations, you passed,” he told them, “The remaining days of this week will be spent the basic skills everyone needs as a mercenary.”

“Excuse me,” someone spoke up, “What do you mean we passed?” Soral recognized him as one of Ruben’s team but couldn’t recall if he had ever learned his name.

“It is time to come clean,” Ronav replied, “Last night and everything leading up to it was all part of the test. The enemies you subdued are all members of my mercenaries. Mack never betrayed us either.”

There was an immediate ruckus full of sounds of disbelief, anger, and shock. One voice broke through it all with its sheer authority.

“What were the requirements to pass?” Ruben demanded.

“First, you had to remain here despite believing your life was in mortal danger,” Ronav explained, “Second, you had to help me succeed at subduing whoever played the role of enemies.”

Ruben deflated as he heard those words. “Sir, I don’t believe I deserve to pass.”

“Explain,” Ronav prompted.

“During the battle I hid away. I did not contribute to the victory. I would not have even stayed if it wasn’t for the strength of my fellow testees,” Ronav explained.

Ronav let out a loud snort. “Is that all?” he asked, “You did your duty as a target and stayed safe. Your read of the situation at hand was accurate and you did not hesitate to act on it. There is no shame in having faith in stronger allies. It means you have acknowledged your own limitations.”

“So we passed,” Ruena broke in, “What do you mean by training?”

Ronav smiled a rather wicked smile, “I am so glad you asked,” he began, and took out a stack of papers, “I have here your schedules for the rest of your stay here. We have been watching and have tailored the training to your individual talents. Come collect yours when I call your name.”

As he called out names, the crowd began to thin rather quickly as each individual ran off to begin their first schedule. The farther a person’s name was down Ronav’s list, the more schedules they had jammed together. As people began to notice this, they started to get nervous. Soral was especially nervous since no one from their team had been called at all. Ronav’s papers slowly began to dwindle before he called out the first name from their team.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“Jazz!”

Jazz was a little surprised he got a schedule, but seemed pleased once he received it and pranced off. It was a relief there were a few other people remaining besides their team. Not for long, though. Finally Ruena’s name was called, leaving Soral as the very last. He looked at the fistful of papers still in Ronav’s hand with a sinking feeling. That looked like a lot.

And it was. Soral barely had a moment to rest. Ronav even seemed to have noticed his bad sleeping habits and booked his nights as well. Most of his schedule involved mastery subtelty in magic. He would also be trained in magic to enhance his physical skills, as well as the basics of magicless self defense. Soral noticed ‘Secret Weapon Maintenance’ tucked in there a couple times as well. What kind of schedule even was this?

He went back to the top and realized why the others had run off so quickly. He was already late to his first training! His first training he was supposed to locate Mack, and get through his shield unnoticed. Nothing like the flashy punch from earlier. He needed to be sneaky and tag him with a sticker attached to the document.

The tasks and trainings continued in that fashion and the two days were over in a flash. Luckily, because of Storm’s training none of them were that worn out from it. The other teams, however, seemed half dead. They were all escorted outside the testing grounds on the eighth morning, and all of their things were returned.

“You can return home if you would like to,” Ronav told them, “However, you will need to come back within two weeks to collect your processed permits. Most permits take anywhere from a few days to a week to process, and it will be on the longer side with all of you getting them at once.”

“What do you want to do?” Ruena asked the others.

Everyone looked at Soral. With his portals they could return in an instant whenever they wanted. “I’m exhausted,” Liza spoke up, “Can we go home?”

“I wanted to look around a bit before we left too,” Dillon complained. He had more energy than his sister, but he was still a bit tired.

“Hold on,” Ember broke in, “Will Storm still be there?”

That made everyone’s opinions do a full three sixty. “Let’s relax at an inn!”

“I am sure there is a cozy place to relax somewhere here in town.”

Soral laughed at their reactions, but he wasn’t ready to face Storm either. Physically he was doing great, but he was still mentally drained from everything that had happened. Both Mack and Ronav were annoyingly perceptive, and that speedy guy with the mustache was pesty in other ways. Soral later learned he was their scout and his name was Mostacci. An oddly fitting name, even though he was supposed to be named after some kind of pasta. Farfalle’s pasta obsession was a bit odd.

Finding an inn was fairly easy. A lot of people had left since the festival had ended, and the greater portion of the testees had left early as well. They were able to retrieve everything they had stored for the test as well. It had only been one week but it felt like so much more. At the same time it felt oddly… anticlimactic.

“We did it,” Ruena said, letting out a breath she seemed to have been holding in for a long time.

“We did,” Soral agreed.

“This has been my goal for so long, I’m not sure what to do next,” she admitted, “I don’t know how to turn this into the Alodan Warrior’s my father had, but I do have his mercenary journals to guide me.”

Mercenary journals? Was that a separate set of journals for adventures or something? It was probably best not to comment on it. He could just think of it as a nice starting point for them to work from.

“That is a good start,” Soral told her, “We could probably ask Ronav for advice when we pick up our permits.”

“I did get some tips, and a guidebook as our leader,” Ruena said, “It just doesn’t feel real yet.”

“I guess it won’t until our first mission,” Soral agreed, “Whatever it is, I am sure we will crush it.”

Ruena sighed. “I was advised to start small so it will likely be very underwhelming,” she admitted, “I have to agree. Once we go out there as the Alodan Warriors, we will be on our own. There will be no one to help us.”

“But we will have each other,” Soral reminded, “Don’t you trust the team we assembled?”

“I do,” Ruena said with a smile, “and I trust you as well.”