Later that evening Leroy found himself back into his hotel room on his bed. getting up he had a bit of a hard time from all the bruises he seemed to have suffered from the Spar.
'One second, that's all it took someone with mana to completely obliterate me in a battle' Leroy thought as he furrowed his brows a bit his lip in frustration.
' I need to get stronger if I want to survive, no matter what '
Getting up from his bed, Leroy noticed a small letter next to him.
On the letter was written that Leroy should join them at the Singing Iron Inn tomorrow at five am in the morning, ready to start the mission.
'So it was true after all, it was just a test to see how far iv come rather than beat Gorkuis, not as I could from seeing what he did at the last second' Leroy thought as he remembered the last few moments of the battle.
He had his hand on his sword swinging and the sword blade had almost reached its target, he might have won if Gorkuis was a civilian but then he saw the air around Gorkuis light up in blue and he couldn't even see what happened next from the speed at which it happened.
'Considering that I don't have my abdomen armor on then I guess it was completely broken in the last clash.' Leroy thought as he lifted his shirt up and looked at the huge fist-sized bruise on his stomach.
'Just how do I get mana, if you don't have it then it looks like you have no chance against someone that does' Leroy thought and looked at the small clock on the wall.
It was four am in the morning.
About an hour left before he had to meet the Jackals at the Singing Iron Inn for the mission.
Going around his room Leroy, started packing some basic supplies as water and some dried meat he had bought during the week.
'I'll be getting all my food taken care of by the group but it's always good to have some water and food prepared on a mission this long'
The time it would take for the mercenary group to escort the Baron heir to the border city could be months depending on the weather and if the road had collapsed anywhere.
At best they would be arriving in three weeks to their destination and at worst then two or three months.
Finally ready, Leroy started heading outside, Whitney wasn't at the reception, probably asleep at a time like this so Leroy just left, he had taken everything he had in his backpack and hadn't left anything behind.
He would be going for a while and didn't have the money to reserve his room for that long and even if he did he didn't trust Whitney to not go inside and steal something while he was gone.
Walking down the streets, Leroy thought back to his past life in the Slums.
It was something he had been doing a lot since coming to SteelBurn.
It had all just been erased so quickly that he was left wondering if he was still dreaming by the next day, everything had happened so suddenly, the puppets, the ritual, and then the interrogation and him coming to another city.
And now not even two weeks after he was going into a possibly month-long mission as a mercenary and honestly to Leroy, it didn't feel real.
He felt like the dream would end any moment now and he would be back with his family in the slums, going around and stealing from people.
But, that notion was starting to fade with each day as he woke up in this world again and again, his family dead and no one around that he could trust.
Finally, after a while of walking Leroy arrived at the Singing Iron Inn.
Outside he saw Harry, he seemed to be smoking a cigarette as he waited for the others to get down.
"Good morning Captain," Leroy said as he waved at Harry, who looked up and then gave a wave in return.
"Good morning, Leroy. Glad that you were able to make it" Harry said as he continued to puff smoke into the air as the sun finally started showing its first rays of light for the day.
"The others are still getting ready, most of them are hungover from the drinks last night so it will take a while. Why don't u come and sit here with me while we wait" Harry said as he patted the other side of the chair next to him.
Deciding that he had no reason to refuse and nothing else to do, Leroy went ahead and sat next to Harry.
"Last night's Spar was amazing, you have truly amazed me during the week and it all combined together into one big surprise kiddo," Harry said with a grin while turning his head to look at Leroy who was now seated on his left side.
"It's all thanks to you captain," Leroy said while keeping his emotionless face as usual.
Harry stopped for a moment and then started laughing until the smoke went into his nose and the coughing started.
Finally calming down after a while Harry looked at Leroy in the eyes and said
"I'm sorry for springing up the Spar like that without even talking to you yesterday, I just saw it as the best way that you could improve your relationship with the other members." Harry looked at Leroy as he made an apologetic expression.
"It's all right, you're the captain and we follow your orders, I agree that it would help me get a better reputation in the group as well and it was a good training exercise," Leroy said as he put his elbows on his knees and clenched his fists while looking down at the dirt road underneath his feet.
"I discovered that I'm not even close to where I want to be, if I don't get stronger then I could die in less than a second from what I saw Gorkuis do, so I'll have to try even harder," Leroy said out loud, his voice as serious as could be.
"Well then I have some good news for you," Harry said with a light tone in his voice while grinning from ear to ear.
"Good news?" Leroy asked.
"From today onwards, for two weeks Gorkuis will be your personal trainer and you can ask him anything be it for sword training or mana development," Harry said his grin impossibly wide.