Walking to one of the garrison training grounds, a black cloaked man, dragged along a scythe attached to his rucksack. It lightly scraped across the paved ground making an odd scratching sound. His rucksack various tools hanging from it, with a machete strapped around his left shin.
He looked like he was about to commit a heist, with all the random equipment on him as well as his suspicious garbs.
It had been a day since Jeffrey arrived at the fortress city. Karl and the other scout had gone somewhere to report to and had given Jeffrey an accommodation at an inn nearby the southern garrison training grounds. He had previously been told directions and that he was supposed to go there and take instructions from a guard named Wills. Jeffrey didn't know much about the city and had already rejected that other guy's request to take Jeffrey around the city. Jeffrey couldn't really remember his name.
Anyhow, he was supposed to take a test here, which if he passed, allowed him to become a city guard. That sounded like a good thing.
Walking up to the garrison training grounds, he was suddenly called.
"StOP right thERe criMInaL scUm!" a young boy around fifteen or sixteen stepped in front of Jeffrey. His voice cracked multiple times in that statement.
…
Today was the day of the city guard recruitment test. Young Wilfley was recommended by his uncle to join the city guards. Not everyone off the streets could become a city guard, they needed some credibility first and second, they needed to be fit. There was no point in having a highly credible person who couldn't even lift a sword be a guard after all.
Wilfley's uncle was the one hosting the examinations in this training area. Whilst making his way there, he spotted a suspicious looking character walking down the street. His conspicuousness was off the charts, especially with the scythe he was dragging across the ground. Wilfley did not think too much of it, he was probably a labourer or something.
However, that mindset immediately changed as he saw that the location this man was heading was… to the garrison training grounds!
He is definitely no labourer if he's going to the training area. He must be a dangerous terrorist, a criminal! As a future hero of justice, Wilfley dashed in front of the man, hand on the handle of his blade, ready to draw it at any time. He shouted his uncle's catchphrase, in an attempt to sound cool.
"Stop right there criminal scum!" it didn't quite sound like he wanted it to, but it was alright, seeing the man stop, it must've worked. He was scared, dead in his tracks!
…
Who was this kid?
"Are you alright?"
Jeffrey was concerned about this kid's mental health. To go about at random people and call them criminal scum, he must have hit his head when he was younger.
"Uhmm, yes?" hearing the kid's unsure reply, this solidified the fact that this kid definitely hit his head at a younger age. Poor child.
Walking past the child, Jeffrey was about to enter only for the young boy to rush in front of Jeffrey again, however with his sword drawn this time. It seemed to be a standard cast iron sword, not made for long battles. About two and a half feet long, a bit heavy for the boy, making his stance a bit lopsided.
"No ONe breAKs tHe LAw unDEr my wAtch!" the boy was clearly delusional, it would be best that Jeffrey ignored him.
Sidestepping the boy, Jeffrey advanced to the stands of the training grounds. There a guard was waiting.
"Hmm, who are-" before the guard could even finish questioning Jeffrey's identity.
"StOP riGHt thERe!" the boy broke out of his previous reverie and charged at Jeffrey with his sword drawn.
"Oi! What in the sacred stars are you doing?!" the guard was surprised at the boy's appearance.
"Oh, ah, u-uncle, I-" the boy stopped in his tracks and started to stutter out an explanation.
"Sigh, just stand there, and sheath your star smitten sword as well."
Apparently, this guard seemed to have some relation to the delusional boy. As the words were spoken, the boy lowered his head and sheathed his sword, and stood there… sadly.
"Alright, sorry about the kid, anyway, may I ask why you're here?"
"..." Jeffrey was unsure what to say, but then he remembered what happened on the previous day.
"Ok, buddy, tomorrow, go to the southern garrison training area. I already told you the directions, but if you get lost, just ask someone. You should probably take off that outfit- no, alright. Just do whatever.
"Take this token, it's for the test alright, and I already notified Wills.
"You wanna ask why you're being recruited?
"Well, the reason for that is that I noticed you have some pretty good combat skills, so yeah."
Reaching into a couple of his pockets, he eventually found the bronze token Karl gave him. The token was circular with around two little stars engraved onto it, as well as the letters that spelt 'REC'.
The REC stood for recommended and could be reused for a variety of different things, however in this scenario it was for the Tanz City guard examination.
Showing it, the guard raised his brows.
"You're here for the test?"
"I guess so," Jeffrey wasn't too sure what the whole charade was about, but still, being a guard sounded nice.
Squinting his eyes, the guard looked at Jeffrey, and his face lit up,
"Ah, I get it, you're that Jeff guy, Karl was talkin' about,
"Alright, so just go into the field and wait 'till the test starts, I'll talk with my nephew in the meantime."
…
Walking into the training field, he could see that there were a couple of young adults standing around waiting. There were around thirty people already here, with the majority being male.
Jeffrey stuck out like a black sheep. Everyone avoided him. Until...
"Tch, who do you think you are?" a young man in his early twenties approached Jeffrey. His contempt for Jeffrey was unrestrained.
Looking at him, the young man had red hair and stood at Jeffrey's eye level. He also had a couple of other men surrounding him. It seemed to be his friends or something. As Jeffrey stood contemplating,
"Tch, not gonna answer? Get him," he turned his head to the side as he ordered the men to restrain Jeffrey.
There were three of them and as they moved to surround Jeffrey, he did a sweeping kick, knocking two of them over. Well to everyone else it looked like a sweeping kick, but Jeffrey was trying to do a waist level roundhouse kick. He was unused to fighting against other people, in fact, this could be said to be his first fight against another human. His muscle memory made Jeffrey aim lower than anticipated, due to his long years of fighting against forest critters and weird midgets.
"You dare!" the red haired man unsheathed his sword with a clunky sound, he was clearly inexperienced at using swords.
However before anything could get too out of hand, a guard stepped in.
"All of you! Cease your fighting and tell me what you clowns are doing!"