I wake up hours later on the floor of the tavern. It's still pretty early in the morning. Looks like the sun is still rising. I go outside to splash some water on my face from a well right next to the tavern. As I walk outside I see Amanda walking from the well with a bucket of water.
"Good morning Master Aleister" she says in a very polite manner. "What's with all this master crap?" I ask her. "You're training us today right? So where I come from we call those who teach us masters" she says.
"All righty then. Hey, quick question, can I use some of that water to wake me up?"
"Sure thing Master Aleister."
"Thank you. Also don't call me Master. It makes me feel like an old man" I tell her. I then splash some water from the bucket onto my face. I thank her and invite her to sit down for some breakfast. We sit down together and order some food. I order a steak, I love some meat in the morning, or in the afternoon, actually I just love meat anytime. She orders herself a large plate of scrambled eggs.
As we sit and eat I try to get to know Amanda a little bit better. I asked her about her why she became a mercenary. Amanda said that she decided to become a mercenary because the job can offer a lot of money when you move up the ranks and that her brother whom she idolized was a mercenary as well. She had also sadly mentioned that he was killed on the job. I told her how I was sorry for her loss and decided not to dive deeper into it because it was clearly a sensitive matter with her, just as my past is a sensitive matter to me. To lighten the mood after that I tell her some stories of my many crusades as a mercenary. I tell Amanda stories of the time I fought off 10 Dire Wolves in the Arcellic Mountains and of how I went face to face with a Basilisk, which is a very large snake over 50 feet in height and is one of the toughest monsters to kill.
She asked me if I had fought any Demons before, with a very serious look on her face. I had only fought a Demon one time in my mercenary career and I didn't win, I merely escaped. In our World there are Monsters and Demons. Monsters are strong creatures that no normal person could take out that come in many varieties between Goblins, Orcs, Ogres, Dire Wolf's, Warlocks, and more. But Demons are another thing all together. They are for more dangerous than any mere Monster, the only Monster I could see going toe to toe with a Demon and still live is maybe a Warlock or one of the legendary Monsters that few have seen like the mighty Hydra. Demons are a very destructive race, just one of them could easily destroy an army of a ten thousand normal men.
"I did fight a Demon before, but that is a story for another time. We have finished our meal and the sun is up. Go upstairs and tell the other Crimson Slayers to meet me by the well outside in ten minutes. Training day will begin then" I explain to her. She does as I ask but also says that she wants to hear the story. I agree to tell her in time.
I go by the well and wait for the Crimson Slayers to arrive. As I wait I sit on the ground, close my eyes, and begin to meditate. Ten minutes go by and the Crimson Slayers all arrive at the same time. I open my eyes and greet them.
"Good morning Slayers. Before we begin training I need to know one thing about each of you, what sort of skills or magic do you have in your arsenals?" I say to them. I point to each of them one at a time and they list off their skills and powers.
Amanda says she is skilled with a sword. She also uses enhancement magic, but only knows the basics so it only gives her a little boost in strength.
Morgan fights with his large axe. He also uses lightning elemental magic. He's also very physically fit which makes him both faster and stronger than the average person.
Chase uses a bow and arrow in battle. He uses a special type of enhancement called item enhancement. With item enhancement you can surround an object with magic energy and make it stronger. He can use them on his arrows and make them as strong as cannonballs.
Lexi uses magical knives. These knives are laced with poison.These knives have different types of poison that can be used with different levels of lethality. She is also a very agile fighter and is very proficient in taking advantage her surroundings in a fight.
And finally the Albrook twins both fight with hand to hand combat. Tonga uses enhancement magic to increase his strength and Tangu uses enhancement to increase his speed.
Now that I know what I have to work with it's time to begin their training.
"All right time to start your training. First step is for all of you to run ten miles northwest, you should then reach a small hill. You will meet me on top of that hill. Do you all understand?"
They all nod and begin their run. I stay sitting on the ground as they run off. Morgan shouts to me asking why I'm not running and I reply back that it won't take me as long. The group keeps running until I can't see them anymore. I wait one whole hour and then decide to finally head towards the mountain. I waited so long because I planned on using my superior enhancement magic to make me faster, a lot faster. I channel my magical energy through my legs and bolt towards the direction of the hill. I run for ten minutes and finally catch up to the Slayers at mile seven. As I glide right pass them I shout to them "Meet you all on the hill". I make it to the hill about five minutes after that and then have to wait another twenty minutes before the Crimson Slayers arrive. They all stop to catch their breaths when they each reach me.
"Now it is time for lesson two" I say. "Can you give us a minute to take a break first?" Chase asks in a very exhausted voice. "NO!! I told you the training would be brutal and intense, this isn't even the hard part yet. We're just getting started."
They each let out a massive sigh. I then instruct them to all sit in the same crisscrossed position I am in.
"All right now this is the brutal part of your training, magic meditation."
Both Chase and the Albrook twins scoff when I say this. "Oh you think this will be easy. Well guess again, this is one of the most painful ways of training and you will soon realize why. Now, all of you have a basic understanding of how to use magic power and summon it. So while you sit here you will completely surround your body with magic energy. You shall keep your body surrounded by this energy until I either say time is up or you pass out." They all give worried glances to each other.
"Now begin" I say to them.
Fourty minutes goes by and we get our first victim, Chase who completely fell on his back out of exhaustion. I tell the others to stay focused on the task while I walk over to Chase. While he's on the ground breathing heavily I laugh at him saying "For a guy who scoffed at the exercise you sure gave up on it quickly. You disappoint me kid. Head back to the tavern you're done training for today" he gives me a sad look and walks off towards the tavern. I sit back down and start meditating again. Lexi who is sitting right next to me says I was to harsh on Chase.
"No I wasn't, I've seen this kid, he doesn't take anything seriously and out of everyone gives the least amount of effort in the group. He's the weak link of the group. I've known people like him before and if he has the same attitude towards both training and life in general as he does, he's going to die. People like him don't last long in the mercenary business. So either my words will motivate him to do better or discourage him and have him leave this line of work. Either way it will give him a better chance at surviving" I explain to Lexi and the rest of the Slayers.
We continue meditating for another two hours. I finally say that the training is over and they all fall to their backs. Sweat is drizzled all over their faces, they're breathing heavily, and barely have enough energy to stand. I tell them that we will repeat this training every day until I feel they're ready to move onto new training. Morgan asks why that is and I say back that the whole point of this exercise is to increase the amount of magical energy they can produce and to help them develop more control over that magic energy.
"When you can do this training without breaking a sweat, then is when we can move on to bigger and better things" I say to all of them. We all head back to the tavern to get some rest. Training has on just begun.