Walking around the city with my strangely upbeat guide, whose name I found out was Garth and he was from Kest. It seemed like he REALLY enjoyed talking, and that serious atmosphere of the caravan cramped his style just a bit. So while we were heading to get my registration done, all he did was basically chew my ear off. Another thing I noticed was all the weird looks I kept getting from passerby. I didn't think anything was wrong until I realized that everyone was dressed practically the same, in a medieval European style... except for me. I chose to ignore the strange glances in my direction my just focusing on where I was going, or where Garth was going. Too long of a time later I finally got to the, as Garth put it, The Gathering Hall. It was literally just a big building with a long counter at the northern end, a huge billboard on the western end, and a small staircase toward the northeastern end, while the rest was just tables and chairs, as well as a bar.

As I stand observing the happenings inside the building, Garth heads over to one of the many beautiful receptionists within the hall. I walk over after him and quickly have my dreams shattered as the woman I expected to see, was actually just a pretty man. At a distance one couldn't tell the difference and seeing this, I realized that if I were to have romantic relations at some point, I would really need to be careful. After sizing me up, the receptionist pointed me towards a double door near the eastern part of the building while looking towards Garth.

"Sir Rorik shall be his examiner, he's at the far end of the courtyard."

Garth, with his ever grinning face now going wider, moved towards where he pointed, with me quickly following behind. I noted that I felt many gazes land on my back while I walked away, I don't know how I knew, but many of them didn't feel friendly.

Entering through the double doors, I exited the building into what looked like a large dirt courtyard of about 100 meters in length and width. Throughout the yard were many, what looked like mercenaries or those in training, practicing with others, either by sparring or training individual skills. I noticed that Garth walked towards a hulking man training someone at one end of the field. Again, quickly following him, I strolled through the field while watching people practice with their weapons. I noticed that many of their styles were... a bit different from my own. Shaking it off as something unnecessary, I kept following Garth until we reached the rather intimidating guy and he started talking as if they were old friends.

"Rorik my friend! Its great to see you!" The large tanned man, presumably named Rorik looked over, but when he saw Garth standing there his look turned into one of both fury and disbelief. Without even an exchange of words, Rorik dashed towards Garth and threw a barrage of punches and kicks, seemingly with intent to kill. Garth's smile disappeared for the first time since we entered the city as he parried blow after blow while they rained down upon him. Finally Garth spotted an opening and landed a quick strike to the abdomen, shoving Rorik back several steps.

They stared each other down for a moment until Garth cracked another smile and said

"Now now, I was told to find you so you could test a potential recruit to my company."

It was then that Rorik finally noticed me, dressed in a strange garb, just a few meters from him. He looked towards me with the eyes of a predator finding his prey. My body went rigid as I looked at the man and I instinctively knew that if we fought... well it wouldn't be a fight so much as a death sentence.

"Alright then, let's get this over with." He faces me and makes a look of intense concentration. It was then that I felt a horrible pressure fall onto my shoulders, as if I was being stared at by some kind of monster, something not human. Though the pressure was intense, I could still handle it. It was then that I noticed that the man named Rorik disappeared. My surrounding changed as I entered a battlefield, awash with the blood of friend and foe alike. I was staring down some kind of monstrous being, feasting on the corpses of the fallen. Fear washed over me as I felt my instincts scream at me to move, to get away from where I was. I hardly moved an inch before a hand was lain on my shoulder, ending the whole process. I was still in the yard, I was still facing Rorik, the monster nowhere to be seen.

I turned behind me to see a still smiling Garth, a sense of both pride and astonishment gleaming in his eyes.

"You pass, with flying colors actually." Rorik broke the silence by announcing something unexpected. I hadn't even realized I'd taken a test.

"What just happened, where did I go before?" Garth happily answered my question

"Nowhere kiddo, its just that Rorik has been in quite a few battles so, his killing intent when focused on someone inexperienced can make them go a bit loony." I gape at the thought, someone in this world could almost kill me by just focusing a little bit. That was a bit too much for me at the moment as I let out a sigh of both relief and great stress.

"To be honest I was pretty surprised you could move, Rorik may not look it, but he's an A rank mercenary, which is really strong."

"What do you mean not LOOK IT!" Rorik pounced on a laughing Garth as the enchanged blows a few more times, ending in practically a draw.

Rorik, now slightly winded, looked towards me,

"Now that you passed the first test, time for the second one. It just so happens that this trainee here also passed the test. Now I need to see if you have the guts to really be one of us. You see for the second test, you need to kill someone."

I pause and look towards the youth who was practicing with Rorik a moment ago, there was a sharp glint in his eye that showed his intent to battle. Slightly fearful this came so soon, yet resolved to survive in this world, I just nodded to Rorik, showing my consent.

"Alright then. First lesson, in the real world, there is no countdown." I was confused as to why he said that, until I saw the boy from before almost upon me, sword drawn.

"Shit"