"You know, the beds here are kinda nice," I heard one of the other trainees say.

After sleeping on the ground outside for a few weeks I must say, they actually are.

I would call this place a training camp, for the lack of a better word, and it's not really that big.

There's about enough space to house fifty trainees at a time and at the moment there are only about twenty here right now, I included.

I didn't even have to go to another city. I guess in every city the guild has a presence at there also is a training camp.

But I'm not here to complain.

I get a roof over my head, a place to sleep, and food, all for free.

I just have to train every single day and get schooled about monsters for... for how long was it again?

...

I forgot.

A year? Or two?

Didn't the scarred instructor say something along the lines of twenty months?

I do know that I thought that it was longer than I had imagined.

I remember when one of my uncles came back from the military and he was in training for a few months but he signed up of his own free will so maybe it was longer than if you were conscripted?

When I arrived here, it was already dark and I just laid down to the place I was assigned at and slept through the rest of the night.

I hadn't talked to any of the other trainees yet, so now that it was morning and breakfast was served I grabbed a bowl of stew and sat down by a table where others were already sitting.

I slurped down a spoonful and asked the others around me, "so, did you guys have to do a test too to be here?"

A stocky bearded fellow slurped even louder and answered, "aye and I almost lost me life. Had to fight stone bats, horrid creatures. If it weren't for Tio here, I'd be dead," he grabbed and shook the shoulder of a rather lanky young man, letting him spill some stew from his spoon.

"Were there only two of you?" I asked, "there were four of us in my team."

"Nay, we were just three men. Gebbo, the third of our crew, quit. Guess it was too hard on him."

"Something similar happened to one of mine, Lope. You see," I leaned forward, "we were four when it began and during the test two of my friends died. When we arrived back here a day later, he quit. I can understand how he feels."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Did you... you know, see it happening?"

"No, one died of bad luck, buried in rubble and we found the other near a tree."

Another person began to talk, "something like that only happens to a few and your one teammate was one of them."

It was a rugged-looking light-haired woman, "in my test I had to kill an insect infestation. I don't remember how but the guy who had the problem with them contained them in his basement. It was made out of stone, and he told me there wasn't anything valuable in there, so I just chucked in a potion and burned the little critters."

"And what about your teammates?" I asked.

"Bah, I hated those amateurs. And they're sitting right there!"