In an empty room with rotting wood floors, peeling paint, and a flickering candle, a young auburn headed boy was seated with his back against a wall, his head buried in his knees, eyes red, swollen and unfocused. On his right hand lay a small section of an old newspaper.
Plastered was an image of the back of a man taken from a high vantage. His built arms were at his waist, revealing large back muscles and broad shoulders that showed through his skintight suit, his chestnut brown hair fluttering in the wind. In front of him was a massive crowd holding signs, cheering, and celebrating their saviour.
The caption atop the image read:
"TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR OWN FUTURE."
'UNYIELDING FIST' ALARIC SAVES ALMER CITY FROM TERRORIST ATTACKS!
15,000 DEAD AND COUNTING.
Suddenly a loud banging was heard through the door.
BANG BANG BANG!
The force of the knocks killed the small flicker of candlelight, the boy left in pitch darkness.
He clenched tightly onto the newspaper and buried his head deeper into his knees.
Silence.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
BANG!
Suddenly the door flew open and a bright light entered the room blinding the little boy.
"Wake up Mr. Magician!"
Evel's eyes shot open, his heart beating out of his chest.
He took a moment to recollect himself and observed his surroundings.
Right.
He was no longer in the city of Yosten.
He took a few seconds to realign himself with his new reality, then jumped to his feet. The sun was now right above the horizon and cast a soft orange hue onto the sky. The gorgeous sight somewhat revitalized him. Although he was physically still deeply exhausted, the headache that was tearing into his skull had dissipated, thus the nap was successful.
"Thank you Leo," he said as he dusted off his pants, "And you can call me Evel."
Leo looked at Evel apologetically.
"No problem Mr. Magic.. err Evel, but I lost count at around the 5th minute so I might be off by a few minutes."
Evel turned to Leo in surprise, "You counted every second?"
Leo looked away embarrassed.
"I don't have a clock so…"
Evel didn't really know how to reply so he just patted Leo on the back and made his way to an edge with the least people. He took a seat cross legged, closed his eyes and finally got the chance to consider all the information he had..
He was currently in the Squalling Desert, headed towards a training camp, a journey which was likely a test. There was likely another test to come too and to survive that, he knew he had three things to do.
Get stronger physically and with a weapon.
Familiarize himself with his ability.
And finally, the one Arlo seemed to emphasize, was to make strong friends.
The first two were pretty obvious, but Arlo had specified that he had to do as much as he could in a week. He wasn't quite sure if the week started the day of the message or once they arrived at the camp but nonetheless, time was short.
'I'll assume the week starts now.'
As for the third piece of advice…
He glanced over at his current colleagues.
A large part of a person's strength came from their affinity and core ability. They hadn't even yet gotten tested for their affinity, and people's core ability wasn't something people told just anyone.
How the hell was he supposed to know who was strong?
The only two things he could judge was their physique and mental fortitude during the waves.
I fared well in these waves, but I know if I had to fight these recruits I'd lose to most of them, so that can't be worth much…
I'll just make friends based on their vibes I guess, but first I should train my ability.
Evel closed his eyes and activated his ability.
Noticing the minute shift in the air, Arlo looked at Evel. He was now giving off the aura of using his core. Having been kept in the dark, Arlo was naturally curious at what ability Evel may be hiding from him so he observed him from a distance looking to discern what the ability may be.
He waited…
And waited…
Then finally he watched as the aura slowly faded from Evel. Evel then got up, stretched his arms and walked over to a nearby group of people to join in on their conversation. His ability seemingly did nothing.
Huh, so he got one of the weirder ones.
Arlo subconsciously tried to connect it to other abilities he had seen in the past.
Evel, oblivious to the attention he was receiving, walked over to the closest group that looked friendly. It was a group of four sitting on the ground. A confident red-headed young woman with one arm wrapped around an embarrassed black-haired man's shoulders was in the midst of telling a story to two other girls who were joyfully giggling.
"And then he had the absolute gall to actually go to Father and let him know he was gonna mary me! After everything I had told him! The one time he had the courage to do anything!"Noticing Evel approaching, the woman smiled politely at him and signaled at an empty spot on the disk. Evel complied and sat in to hear the end of the story.
"So naturally, Father hired an assassin to take out Brenton here, so we were forced to be on the run."
"Although this dumbass did something moronic, hiring an assassin was way too far, even for Father, so we ran away and lived out in the boonies."
"Now THAT really pissed Father off so he kept searching and a year later, he found us."
"Thankfully a friend of ours found out before they could come and snatch up this idiot, so we had time to ambush the bastard assassin and make our escape, and lucky for us, the army was recruiting anybody who was at least Core stage! Not to mention the promise to take us out of the city!""Whatever we face will be easier than negotiating with Father."
The girl looked at Brenton and sneered playfully.
"The only way we can get his approval is if Brenton is able to become rich or powerful, and he's got no talent for making money, so this seemed like the best way."
Brenton, not enjoying the slander, quietly protested.
"But Elena, we couldn't have hidden away forever…"
"I could have convinced my father eventually!" Elena snapped back.
"Yea right, your dad's crazy!"
"WHAT!!"
"HE SENT A HIT OUT ON ME!"
Like this, the two went back and forward for a while.
Eventually one of the girls seated beside Evel started up a conversation, and he told them about life as a magician and showed them a few tricks. He learned the short girl with long green hair to be Fern and the awkward brown haired girl to be Juniper. Like this, the remaining time flew by.
Soon, the sun set and its light was replaced by that of torches. The dark expanse spread out far in every direction, out of reach of the artificial light. It would have been a terrifying sight had they not been accompanied by the moon and the stars.
The small cohort were interrupted by a transmission from Arlo, warning of the impending wave, so they all hastily put their helmets on in preparation.
The disk slowed to a halt, the ground rumbled, and the screams returned.
"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
…
The noises subsided and Evel took off his helmet and looked around for Leo.
His eyes quickly laid on the boy laying motionless on the ground. Evel's heart tightened.
Then, he noticed Arlo standing above Leo in the midst of creating a healing construct.
A huge sense of relief washed over Evel.
Unsure, he pondered why he cared so much more for Leo than his previous colleagues who hadn't survived the trip. The only difference was a small gesture he had made earlier.
A few small interactions make me care so much more…
These thoughts were interrupted from Arlo's voice directly into his mind.
[Good work! You are all now one step away from being soldiers. The rest of the trip won't nearly be as dangerous once we leave this Danger Zone and after that it's just trees till we get to the camp. You all can take a nice well deserved rest. If you're struggling to fall asleep there's some Z-pills in the bag by my feet. Leave the rest of the journey to me.]
Soft cheers erupted from the group, nobody having the energy for a proper celebration.
After a bit of chatter, each person, one by one, got as comfortable as they could and let the sweet embrace of sleep wash over them.
Evel alone remained seated in a lotus position with the aura of having his ability active. He remained like this for a few minutes before he too dozed off.
Watching the dark horizon, Arlo sensed the aura vanish and dispelled all the flames without looking back, leaving him alone with the night sky.
Like this, the group exited the Wailing Desert, traveled through some forest, and eventually arrived at Orsus Camp.