“Black Lake Mercenary Group…sounds kinda generic to me.” I criticized the name while standing in the bitter morning breeze outside the Mercenary Group building.

Their base appeared quite  welcoming for a supposed HQ of a mercenary group but nonetheless served its purpose well when it came to size and structure.

“Well, that hag did say that these guys were looking for new recruits and something about not having to worry about payment since the Mercenary Guild was sponsoring them.” I sighed.

It took me two hours to walk all the way over here, so there was no way in hell I was going to accept a rejection. With that in mind, my hand moved on its own, knocking on the wooden door three times before stopping. 

Silenced followed the three knocks till the sound of a handle unlocking and the door creaking open answered it.

“What do you want?” a brawny with an eye patch covering his right eye frowned.

“I heard you’re recruiting.” 

He examined me from head to toe and then beckoned, “Come in.” 

The interior of the building evoked a feeling of coziness from the moment we entered. As he led me down the corridor, the floorboards beneath me creaked with each step and the magic-powered lights flickered every so often. 

This place is a dump, that old hag told me to come here on purpose didn’t she? I bit my lip.

We reached the living room and sat down on two leather couches separated by a wooden coffee table in the middle. The couch absorbed the large muscles of the man while I barely made a dent in it. 

“Why do you want to join us?” he narrowed his remaining eye. 

I leaned forward and answered, “I want to learn how to be a mercenary.”

“Why do you want to be a mercenary when your clothes tell me you haven’t worked a day in your life and won't need to.” he said roughly.

“I found these in a dumpster and washed them.” 

“Your hands tell a different tale.”

“I had a sheltered upbringing.” I smiled. 

“Class?”

“Level one mage.”

The man rose to his feet, “Basic training at noon, if you waste my time I’m going to kick your ass.” and trudged out the door.

The tension in my shoulders loosened, Not even going to ask me for my name? 

 

◊  ◊  ◊

 

Noon arrived sooner than I expected thanks to my carelessness allowing me to doze off.

“Shit shit shit!” I dashed outside and into a large yard behind the building where the eye-patched man accompanied by two others were waiting.

“One minute later and Arlan would have kicked your ass,” said one of the boys attending the training. 

The second one smugly smirked, “So you’re the newbie?” 

“Shut up Orthal, you’re just as much of a newbie as he is, and I never told you to speak Tiber!” Arlan crossed his arms, clearly displeased with my late arrival. 

Orthal’s face reddened with embarrassment for just a moment before retreating backwards. 

“Okay now listen up shitheads, this our new recruit…”

“Lucas.” I gave my actual name.

“Yes...Lucas and he will be joining our trainings from now on. You two can show him how things function around here after training is over. For now, just start sprinting laps until you collapse and I mean actually sprinting, not just shitty jogging.” 

The two of them cursed under their breath, “Fuck, not again.” while I silently accepted that this would be my life for the next few weeks.

We breezed through the first three or so laps and quickly reached the seventh. However, this pace didn’t last long and we significantly slowed down after the ninth. 

I glanced to the left and saw Orthal glaring at me, his expression was practically saying, I’m not going to ever lose to a noob.

We soldiered on. For every lap after the eleventh the gaze of the sun to hardened and the dryness in our throats to further dried. Even after going for daily runs back on Earth I was about to collapse.  

“Keep running you shits! Do you think monsters are going to care about how much energy you have when they are hunting you down?” Arlan yelled and started throwing random objects.

“He always does this bullshit!” Tiber dodged an incoming rock. 

Our pace hastened driven by the fear of getting hit by a random bit of debris. Thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth my quadriceps and calves were burning and cramping with each stride. Orthal and Tiber had already collapsed at the seventeenth lap leaving only me.

“Just...one...more!” I wheezed. 

Thud! I tripped over a small pebble hidden in the grass and face planted into the ground before I could finish the nineteenth lap.

“Not bad for your first try, these two clowns only got fifteen on their first.” he kneeled, “Take ten minutes to rest before we move onto the actual training.” 

My eyes widened in horror at his words as I coughed and gasped for air. 

 

◊  ◊  ◊

 

“Hahaha, Arlan the Eye-patch must have put you through his spartan training.” a woman in her late twenties named Frederika cackled.

She was roaring with laughter at our expense while the three of us stared with sour expressions. The training we experienced was a realm beyond spartan, even Leonidas would quake in fear if he did the shit we did.

Arlan furrowed his brows and slammed the dinner table, “You know I hate that name.” 

“Whatever you say boss.” she teased.

As the two of them bantered, my body was suffering from total agony. Each individual muscle ached to the point that it became difficult to even safely lift a spoon without my arms cramping.

“By the way, where is everyone else? Are they already doing a job or something?” I inquired.

“Yeah they got sent on a Feihmen subjugation mission at some village.” said Arlan, “Luckily I didn’t have to go, those creatures give me the creeps with their six insect legs and cockroach vitality.”

“I heard those things don’t die even if you rip their hearts out and dismember them.” I recalled the contents of a monster information book from the palace library.

Frederika interjected, making a slicing motion with her hand, “Yeah, those freaky bastards only die when you slice their spine in half.” 

I changed the topic, “I assume they will be back in a week or two.” 

“According to a status report they sent yesterday, things don’t seem to be going as planned. I may have to go join them.” Frederika leaned back in her chair, “But if they succeed they’ll return in just a week.” 

“I see... “ 

We called it a day at the end of the conversation. Other than Frederika and Arlan, none of us were in the mood for any more pointless chatter and preferred to rest and recuperate for tomorrow's hellish training.

The three of us helped one and other up the staircase, almost tumbling several times. Once we reached the landing, Tiber guided me to the room I would be using while I trained here. Immediately after I entered, a desperate sense of longing for the luxurious room in the palace emerged inside of me. 

“Wow it’s not filled with the straw…” I poked the bed and then fell onto it. 

The sensation of squishiness alongside the texture of fleecy cloth pressed against my body and allowed me to melt into the bed without issue. Although, the disparity between the palace bed and this was equivalent to heaven and earth, I was fine with it as long as it wasn’t straw.

The training took so much out of me I didn’t even get a chance to practice magic. I suddenly remembered.

Left with the choice of sleeping or practicing magic, I chose the latter. I used my pocket-dimension storage device to retrieve some magic books I ‘liberated’ from the royal library and immediately immersed myself in magical studies.

I wasn’t sure how many hours passed of me learning and casting spells that dwindled my tiny mana reserve to a measly single point but it definitely was more than two.

My hand flipped yet another page and discovered something quite interesting. ‘Nutritional Restoration’ a spell used to convert mana into nutrients required by the human body allowing faster natural healing and more efficient bodily functions. 

I deviously smirked, If I master this I may be able to cheat through the rest of the training and achieve better results!

With the thought of being able to reduce the pain from the training, my mind washed away all it’s fatigue and engrossed itself in analyzing the spell-structure.