Upon arriving in the capital, the caravan divided the see, to my surprise, in addition to Hilda, Ingrede and I, two young men who seem to have been summoned, Gabriela and Ana were leading our group to the barracks where we must give our names. There are still a few days left for the summons date, but as we are already here, we can register our arrival in the city, doing so we can be on the first summons call.
The registration protocol is a bag so much paperwork just to register our arrival, I didn't expect that in this life. Bureaucracy can exist everywhere, but I didn't expect to have to fill out so many forms to register with the kingdom's army and elite units. We were not the only ones among young people, Gabriela and Ana also had to face a good number of forms.
I was taken aback by Gabriela being summoned now, she or no one mentioned it. She shouldn't be put in the same kind of group as the rest of us, a warrior of her level shouldn't start acting at this stage of the war.
After this epic challenge ended, we all left the barracks and Hilda pulled me to explore the capital, I felt a death glare behind me and I didn't even have to turn around to know who was looking at me like that and what was the message she was giving me. Do something wrong and you're dead.
A very clear message, the next few days were very peaceful and fun apart from the fact that Hilda was completely hidden from my sight at night, and I felt watched until the moment I entered my room every day. I feel like some people are meddling too much in other people's love lives, I feel really uncomfortable about it.
Even if I'm not desperate, it's still extremely inconvenient and somewhat humiliating to be the target of such a ridiculous scheme. Those two ladies must find something better to spend their free time.
After I'm completely dressed, I feel like I'm ready, but at the same time I feel like I'm not ready for the shit I'm going to have to face.
I went to the location alone as we were all ordered to go to different locations when I checked the address I had been given before I found myself in front of a restaurant. Now I'm confused, is this some kind of secret vase? Or the soldiers of the kingdom are holding meetings and recruiting in restaurants now.
Upon entering the restaurant, I received an intense look from the waiter who has a gold chain and two very expensive rings on his left hand, this is getting weird. I don't see anyone else in the restaurant and I feel nervous when the waiter who shouldn't be a waiter approaches me.
"May I know your name, sir?"
"My name is Ulric."
"I see, the others are on the second floor in room four. It is on the right side of the hall; I hope you have a good stay."
"OK."
This is strange, but this waiter's core is gray in color so it would be difficult for him to be the guard of a hidden base, but considering that their rings are magic tools he should be in charge of sounding the alarm if something suspicious happens. Two alarms, one for suspect and the second must be for leaking what's gone wrong here, a creative system.
I checked the room and before opening it I took a good look at what's inside, I saw six cores of different colors and stages. Two green and four gray cores, the green ones have one in the late stage and the other in the early stage.
The four grays are in the final stage, I think I'm the one with the lowest level in this group. I think that's a good thing, but what doesn't surprise me is that all six of them have the wind element at their core, it feels like I'm on a team that has a similar formation to the deadly challenge team.
I shouldn't be surprised by this, but I thought my team would be more heterogeneous about the elements plus all six have more than one element which shows that they are all really elites. But I still don't get it because I seem to be the last to arrive, I'm not late at all, I must be about five minutes early.
I walk the last meter calmly to the door as I study the rest of the building which has various runic arrangements. But I'm not completely overwhelmed by the fact that it's just our team here.
Upon entering the room, I come across something I didn't expect, the green core warrior in the final stage is Ana. Will she be my leader now? What a small world.
"It took too long! The rest of your little friends have been waiting for you for a long time, Ulric. How are you going to reward them now?"
"I'm five minutes early, I don't know why you're all standing here."
"Is that your excuse? Is it someone else's fault and not mine?
"Of course not! The mistake and the staff at the barracks, someone must have wrong time on my form."
I'm shot by a dozen intense stares, and when I look at them, I don't even recognize them. I guess I can feel lucky to meet someone here, but considering that this person is Ana I might not be so lucky, she is strong but her personality makes me think I'm not going to have an easy time here.
But it might be good training for when I join Captain Raven's team, if her invitation still stands.
"Sit down soon, we don't have so much time to waste."
Sitting in the only vacant spot in the room, I moved out of sight of my new colleagues.
Now up close I can see that I am in a very complex team to deal with, the tension between the team members is strangely high. Do some of them know each other?
The two mages on the team, the blonde-haired mage tied up in a bun and blue eyes has the fire element in addition to her wind element and from the armor she is wearing she must be a close combat mage, she even has a dagger in her I feel. The second mage with short red hair and green eyes has the earth element in addition to the wind element, it's the second time this elemental combination is old, is it more common than I expected?
The rest of the gray cores are warriors of different styles, by the visible weapons we have here a spearman with long black hair and tied up his eyes are black but his skin is pale like a corpse he has an elemental seed with the elements fire and lightning, your core looks a lot like mine, but your elemental seed isn't evolving. It seems that he must devote himself to another path.
We have two heavy warriors and when I say heavy, I mean they are big and they wear thick leather armor, don't mention them here wearing metal plate armor, barely a few metal blades over some leather armor here, one of them with one claymore and the other with a war hammer.
The swordsman has short blonde hair and black eyes has the fire element in addition to wind and the warrior who carries the war hammer with short black hair and green eyes has the light element which is very rare, usually this type of element and only accompanied by composite or single elements, I'm not really excited to have someone with that element on the team because generally light element attacks are pretty flashy.
He is good against certain types of enemies; I still prefer having companions with the shadow element than light. The last gray core warriors have brown hair and eyes the same color, his choice of weapons is a sword and shield like the leader Ana, but their shape is pretty common, the element he has besides wind and the fire element, this team seems well oriented towards destructive power most of the team's defense will depend on the leader Ana who is a defensive wall.
The green core warrior in the initial stage has the wind and water element, as she carries two thin sabers of hers show that she is a duelist, I can't even see a feature of her because she's the only one with her hood covering her face. I don't understand because she's trying to be mysterious, we're going to be together for a long period of time in various kinds of situations, does she really think she can hide her appearance forever?
"I don't know if some of you have met before, but if there's a problem between you, I don't give a damn. Any fight between team members will be considered a serious violation and if it happens on the battlefield, I will not hesitate to kill even one of you."
"Pay attention, I'm only going to explain the rule once, anyone who doesn't understand them could end up dead or imprisoned for the rest of the war for violating them. The excuse I didn't know about this rule won't stick."
"Let's start."