The dinner with Adam’s parents was less of a dinner but more of a buffet. I don’t know how they did it, but they made mountains of food in a flash. And it was good too, really good. I envy Adam despite getting to eat in the castle’s dining halls everyday. The castle’s food lacks that home cooked taste that Adam’s parents’ food had. The socializing aspect also wasn’t that bad. Jack told us tales of his adventures and the man has done everything. He’s fought dragons, trolls, werewolves, evil fairies, and malevolent spirits. Jack’s been an adventurer since the age of 16 having lied about his age so he could sign up sooner. He met Armstrong early on and they had a friendly rivalry spanning decades. Turns out Armstrong and Jack were both considered to become the guild leader of Dragon’s Descent and Armstrong was chosen because he won a coin flip.

The more Jack told us of his feats, the more Adam became uncomfortable. The more impressive the achievement, the more Adam squirmed in his seat. Nerva didn’t seem to notice, instead taking in everything Jack said with alacrity. The only thing Jack didn’t tell us about was his most recent adventure, saying that it’s top-secret, having been sent on it by Armstrong himself. Whatever it was, it must've been really important because it took Jack five months to complete it. After the dinner I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed back to the castle, noticing that it’s night time. I was at Adam's place all day, which is something I never ever thought would happen. Guess his parents are that good at being hosts. Ignoring the ominous looking blood moon, I made it back to my room.

I sit in my chair, opening up a book. I’m not tired so I may as well read for a few hours. While reading I heard a weird slimy gooey sound. I look to my right, seeing a weird blue blob on my bed. It has two little white dots facing me like it’s looking at me.

“The hell are you?” I question aloud.

I close my book, get up, and approach the thing. I poke it; nothing happens.

“Ugh ok.”

I look around, not really sure what to do with this thing. I poke it again. And again. And again. I don’t know what this thing is but it’s fun to touch.

“Bob there you are!” I hear a voice exclaim from my doorway.

It’s Nazuko, who rushes into my room and picks up the blob.

“I told you not to run off!” she scolds.

“Nazuko? The heck is that and why’s it ruining my reading time?”

“This is Bob. Will came back with it a few minutes ago. He went on some night training with Vasavir earlier tonight. If only he brought me along, maybe I could’ve gotten my own pet slime.”

Will appears in the doorway, walking inside.

“Nazuko, I'm not naming the slime Bob.” he tells her, taking it from her hands.

“Hey Will. Mind telling me why you have that thing now?” I question.

“Like Nazuko said, I did some training with Vasavir which involved the church, fighting, and getting a slime.”

“The church?”

“Long story but the clergy in this world is strong. Like really strong.”

“Stronger than the Catholic church?”

“I’ve never seen the pope exorcise a demon so I’m going with yes.”

“Maybe he can. You never know.”

“Fair point.”

“So what are you naming the slime?”

“Anything but Bob. Maybe it’ll come to me as I sleep. See you Quincy, sorry to bother you.”

“See ya Will”

Will and Nazuko exit, the latter asking if Bob would sleep in their bed. I think Will said yes, to protect him from Nazuko. I get back to reading for the next two hours and hit the hay. I lay on my bed, thinking about what training Jack has in store for tomorrow. I don’t know what it’ll entail but it’s gotta be better than Armstrong making me workout for hours. Anything is better than that right? Why do I feel like I jinxed myself?

“Second hero!” I hear not from my door, but from my window.

I sit up, seeing that Jack is sitting in my room’s window sill. Note to self: lock your windows.

“Oh you gotta be kidding me” I grumble.

“I heard Armstrong gets you at 5:00am. I have to prove I’m better than him so I’m getting you at 2:00am! Isn’t that great?!” he says excitedly.

“No.”

“Ah don’t be like that. You’re going to have a fun time. Getting stronger with your friends and all. Armstrong tells me he usually breaks your door when he gets you. I haven't, so aren’t I already better?”

“That’s true.”

He motions for me to approach. I do so, very very slowly as my eyelids want to shut.

“Ok second hero, training’s started. Don’t break your legs.”

“What are you-”

He grabs my shirt, pulling me through the window.

“Ahhhhhh!” I scream, falling through the air as the ground comes closer and closer.

I reorient myself, summoning aura into my legs. I land, my legs bending so much I fall onto my backside.

Jack lands gracefully nexts to me.

“Not bad.” he compliments.

I get up, and yell “What was that!?”

“I wanted to test something. You passed.”

“Quincy are you ok?” I hear Adam ask.

I look ahead, seeing Adam run up to us.

“Don’t worry son, he's fine” Jack assures. “He did much better than you.”

“You threw Adam out a window too?” I ask.

“No, he had a different test. Go ahead and tell him Adam as we head to Dragon’s Descent.”

Jack walks off as we follow. That blood moon is still out as it illuminates the barren streets. However things look a bit different, as there is more commotion. There are more people roaming about, like packs of people heading to late night taverns and restaurants. As eerie as the blood moon is, it’s not curbing people’s enthusiasm for the tournament. People are wanting to party even before the thing starts.

“So what happened to you Adam?” I inquire.

“Dad punched me out the front of our house.” he reveals.

“Jesus. You good?”

“No.”

Adam holds onto his stomach.

“It hurts even after healing it. Dad’s always like this; going overboard.”

“I take it this isn’t your first time training with him?”

“No, dad’s been trying to train me since I was a kid. It never ends well.”

“What should I expect then?”

“Pain.”

We arrived at Dragon’s Descent, where I expected the usual scene. I was going to see drunks, smell blood, etc but instead of that, I got something far worse. The place looked like it became a dump. There was trash all over the floor, weird muck on the ceiling, and the smell was truly rancid. It was as if someone transferred everything from the local dump into the guild via a portal or something.

“Oh god what happened here?” I ask.

I look at Adam and his face is unphased, like he knows exactly where this is going.

“It appears some dastardly villain came here and dumped piles upon piles of filth into the guild.” Jack says with a devilish grin.

“Ok so you did this but why?”

“It’s part of your training. Isn’t it great?”

“No.”

“Exactly! This looks absolutely heinous. That’s why you’re going to clean all this up.”

“Why?! How does this train us!?” I exclaim, really upset by the idea of cleaning up the entire guild at like 3 in the morning.

Jack walks to the guild’s bar with a smile on his face. Once he’s there, he reaches underneath the counter.

“What’s something that most people don’t have?” he inquires.

“Aura?” I guess.

“Nope. It’s atten-”

“Attention to detail” Adam finishes, sounding dead inside.

“Exactly! I’m so proud of you son. It’s attention to detail. Most people let things slip beneath the cracks. When people are busy, they forget about the minor details that, if ignored, can ruin whatever it is they’re doing. This can be from as minor as forgetting one’s house keys to forgetting to add an ingredient to a potion. Attention to detail matters, especially in say, a fight. When you’re fighting, you don’t think straight. Adrenaline is pumping, you’re mostly moving based on reflexes. I swear, you can end most fights within the first ten seconds if you pay attention to detail. If you notice something your opponent doesn’t and take advantage of it; fight’s over.” Jack explains while taking a drink of what appears to be orange juice.

Wait, this is like actual advice. If Armstrong were teaching us this lesson, he’d keep saying ‘pay attention to detail’ while punching me. I still don’t see where this is going though.

“Ok but how does that relate to cleaning trash?” I inquire.

“Just because I tell you to pay attention to detail in fights, doesn’t mean it’ll automatically happen. You’d try but your adrenaline and reflexes would take over every time. That’s why you gotta build up to it. If you can’t pay attention to detail while cleaning, how will you pay attention to detail in a much more stressful environment?”

I slowly nod my head, seeing where this is going. As much as cleaning sucks, this will be the least painful training I’ve ever done.

“So we just clean?”

“Yep. Just with a few conditions.”

Adam scans the room, then makes a face like he knows something is missing.

“W-where’s Nerva?” he asks.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!?” we hear an all too familiar voice curse.

From around the corner Nerva appears, wearing some weird black vest that has dozens of pouches filled with what looks to be small sand bags. She’s panting heavily and looks like she’s about to collapse.

“You gotta clean with a 80 pound weight vest on” Jack reveals.

Nerva falls over onto her back.

“FUCK! I can’t move!” she complains, looking like a turtle that’s stuck on its back and is trying futilely to get up.

Adam and I help her get up while Jack shows that two more vests were located underneath the bar's counter. After making sure Nerva could at least stand by herself, Adam and I grab our respective vests. This sounds awful but it shouldn’t be too bad for me, I can use aura. I put it on and yeah it’s heavy as hell. I attempt to summon my aura but it doesn’t come out. A shocked expression overcomes my face which Jack notices. He smirks and says “You know what I like about these vests? They’re enchanted so you can’t use aura or magic.”

“Fuck” Nerva and I curse.

Meanwhile Adam is trying to clean but the vest is clearly weighing him down. He’s already sweating profusely and can’t stop wobbling.

“And there’s a few more conditions.” Jack adds. “1: You only have 2 hours to clean this place. 2: You can’t remove the vests or ask for outside help. 3: If I find a single hair, you fail and will have to go to the pit.”

“What’s the pit?” I question.

“The sandpit” Adam dejectedly answers having fallen flat on his back.

“It’s not a fun place so just pass the first time.” Jack declares, exiting the guild, leaving the three of us alone.

“Let’s get this over with. The sooner we finish this the sooner we can go back to sleep.” I announce in an attempt to rile Nerva and Adam up.

I turn to them only to see that they’re both on their backs, flailing like fish on land in an attempt to get up.

“Fuck! This blows!” Nerva exclaims to the ceiling.

“I told you guys it’d suck” Adam comments, looking like he’s given up.

“Hence why we need to end this as soon as possible” I remark.

Very slowly I make my way across the room, hoping to find some cleaning supplies. I see Willow at her desk and, with an extremely deadpan expression, throws cleaning supplies my way.

“Please work fast. I don’t want dirt everywhere by the time we open.” she states.

“Thanks Willow. This isn’t the first time Adam’s dad has done this huh?”

“Of course not.”

“So you’ve seen people go through this before?”

“Mmm hm.”

“Got any advice? That has to be some trick to clean so quickly.”

“Yeah. Don’t do what she’s doing”

Willow points to where I came from. I whirl around to see Nerva has gotten up and is carrying some trash to a nearby window.

“I’m a fucking genius! 68000 IQ! We take the trash, and throw it out the window!” she exclaims.

“Nerva don’t!” Adam begs but can’t do anything to stop her since he’s still lying on the ground.

Nerva opens the window and is met with a foot to the face. The blow sends her flying across the room. Jack lands where Nerva just was.

“Nuh uh you can’t do that, that’s cheating. You gotta clean the old fashioned way.” he admonishes.

“Fuck!” Nerva curses, fixing her broken nose by snapping it back into place.

“You got 1 hour, 55 minutes left. Also go son woo! I’ll be cheering for you!” Jack yells, pulling out a small flag that says ‘go Adam’ in blue print.

He heads through the window and looks back inside the building like a spectator at a sporting event.

“Woo go Adam woo!” he cheers.

“D-dad please go away” Adam whimpers

“Ok, cheating won’t work. Got any other advice Willow?” I ask.

“Lint roll.”

“Lint roll?”

“Lint roll.”

I gather Adam and Nerva up so that we’re all together, albeit all struggling to stay upright. My back is killing me. I haven’t walked around without aura in such a long time and worst of all, my vision is getting blurry. I’ve been using aura on my eyes to see ever since my glasses broke and now my aura’s been deactivated. Very slowly, we start to clean up the place with Nerva cussing to herself constantly and Adam just looking dejected. This would’ve been awful to do even without the weight vest but now it’s ten times more tedious and difficult with it. Somehow we get the place cleaned up and by the end we’re all completely exhausted. All three of us are lying flat on our backs, looking like we’re about to pass on to the after life.

“Oh hey you guys finished. Good job.” we hear Jack congratulate.

The sound of his footsteps percolate through the room as he goes from one side to the other.

“Hmmm” I hear him say to himself.

Suddenly he flips a table over so that he can inspect its underside.

“Here we go.”

He traipses over to us and puts his hand above our heads so we can all see.

“What’s this?” he inquires.

I squint my eyes so I can make out what he’s holding. It’s a string of red hair. Must be Nerva’s.

“Hair.” I answer.

“Yep, it's hair. That means you didn’t pay attention to detail hence you failed. Time for the pit.”

“Oh no, here we go” Adam utters.

Jack claps his hands and the next thing I knew, we were outside of Adam’s house. I get up and realize we’re in his backyard as we’re surrounded by freshly cut grass that’s eventually cut off by a wooden fence. To my right is a pit of sand, to my left are Nerva and Adam. I feel a touch on my back. I look back to see Jack.

“Welcome to my backyard. That right there is the pit.” he comments with the point of a finger.

“I know where this is going” I reply.

“Yep! Get in the pit”

“Fuck it! I ain’t scared of sand” Nerva yells, stepping into the pit.

Adam and I join her, our muscles still all sore from cleaning with these vests on.

“Ok now what?” I ask.

“Push ups.” he orders.

“Excuse me?”

Jack performs a sweeping kick which knocks the three of us down into the sand.

“Push ups!” he orders again.

The three of us begin doing push ups as fast as we can, our bodies crushing into the sand every time we bend our arms due to the extra weight.

“See, aren't I better than Armstrong?”

None of us reply, well technically Nerva does but she’s just cursing.

“How many are we doing?” I ask in between giant gasps so I could breathe.

“All of them”

I swear we do push ups for like 3 minutes at max speed which makes your arms feel like they want to explode.

“Ok let’s switch it up; leg lifts!”

We switch to the next exercise and there’s sand freaking everywhere. I feel it all over my body, especially in my hair. We keep switching exercises for what feels like an eternity until he tells us to stop. We crawl out of the pit even more exhausted than before.

“Wasn’t that fun?” he inquires.

We don’t say anything. We’re too tired to, even Nerva doesn’t have the energy to curse.

“Wow you guys look so defeated.” Jack comments. “Ok let’s try this again.”

He claps and we’re back in Dragon’s Descent. Looking at my surroundings I see that all the filth we removed had miraculously returned.

“Once again, you have two more hours. Good luck! Have fun son!” we hear Jack call from outside the building.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” Nerva hollers, banging her arms against the floor in frustration.

“This that bullshit. This definitely that bullshit.” I add.

“Welcome to training with my dad.” Adam tells us.

I slowly get back up, ignoring the pain that’s surging through my body.

“Let’s try this again. Adam, there has to be some trick. You’ve clearly done this before” I tell him as I help him up.

“Yeah, this is the first part of his training regimen.”

“Well what the fuck are we supposed to do?” Nerva interrogates, having gotten up herself through sheer anger and tenacity.

I swear that vest is more than half her body weight, I’m surprised she can move as much as she can.

“Well it’s like my dad said, attention to detail. But to be honest, I’ve never passed this training. When I was a kid it was just me cleaning up my room and I failed every time. I don’t know how we’re supposed to make the whole guild spotless.” Adam enunciates.

I start to brush the sand off my body, only to realize that I’m adding more to clean up. I sigh.

“Ok time to clean. Harder.” I state.

“Clean harder?”

“Clean harder. And don’t get sand everywhere.”

“But didn’t you just-”

“Shut up! Everyone clean!”

We split up and, once again, cleaned the place up. This time I go slower, to make sure I pay attention to detail. I cannot go to the sandpit again, it was too painful. Another two hours go by and we have the place cleaned up, again. As before, we’re all exhausted on the floor. Adam’s dad enters the room. Without saying a word he inspected the place again, flipping tables and looking into every crevice to make sure we got the place spotless.

“I-I think we did it” Adam concludes given that his dad hasn’t said anything yet.

He heads to the corner of the guild we haven’t paid much attention to because it looked relatively clean. Oh god.

“Oh here we go! There’s dirt over here. Back to the pit!” Jack hollers.

“No!” I scream.

We’re back at the pit and all the pain we’ve been through repeats itself. I’ve never been to hell but this has to be what happens there. The constant exercises with no breaks is akin to torture.

“I’M GETTING TIRED OF THIS BULLSHIT!” Nerva curses.

“I think I died.” Adam whimpers.

“Ok again!” I command, fed up with this as well.

We do it again, and fail. We try again, and fail. We become Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill. Hours pass, sunlight pierces through the windows. We’re all sitting with our backs to the wall side by side, having cleaned up the guild for what felt like the hundredth time. The worst part was definitely getting all the sand off. It included a lot of lint rolling and rushing. But by the time we finished, the place was truly spotless. We pretty much developed a system for cleaning the place after having done it so many times. I swept and mopped, Adam dusted, and Nerva lint rolled. Since she was small she was able to get to every corner neither Adam or I could reach. We became freaking robots by the time we were done, automated machines that immediately went to work after visiting the sand pit.

“Did we get everything? Nerva?” I question.

“Yeah yeah I got every fucking nook and cranny. I lint rolled everything, even Willow.”

“H-how?” Adam inquires.

“I used my secret technique.”

“I...don’t want to know what that is.”

“Good.”

Jack enters the guild again, with a grin on his face as he sees us. He inspects in a slow gait. He makes it to the other side of the room and smirks.

“Heh. Floor so clean you could eat off it.” he notes.

We look at him with bated breath. Please, I do not want to clean anymore. The layout of this place has been seared into my memory. I know this dumb bar inside and out. I could fight here with my eyes closed if I had to.

“I can’t find anything. Good job everyone, you passed.” he congratulates.

No one celebrates. We’re all too tired.

“We done?” I ask.

“Yeah I think we're done for today. We can do more training later. Good job Adam, I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks dad” Adam replies, falling over to his side in exhaustion.

“Ooh and just when this place is about to open. Guess it’s time to go see Armstrong. You can all take the vests off, have a nice day everyone.”

Jack walks past us to go speak with Willow, then heads around the corner.

“It’s finally over. I couldn’t handle any more trips to the sandpit” I say in a sigh of relief.

I take the weighted vest off and my body feels as light as a feather. Nerva tears her off, looking pissed.

“I didn’t learn shit!” she yells. “All we fucking did was work out and clean! I can do that on my own, not that I ever would want to! I wanna kick giant ass holes! I wanna be a badass!”

“M-my dad works in weird ways.” Adam admits.

“Guys, we're obviously stronger now. We learned ‘attention to detail’” I sarcastically state with air quotes.

I sit back down, too tired to leave the guild. Nerva joins, looking like a ball of anger. Adam’s between us, too tired to take off his vest.

“Well done. I’m glad your bonds have grown” a deadpan voice expresses.

We all look to our right to see Akane sitting with us.

“What the hell!?” I exclaim. “Akane?!”

“Hello.”

“Akane!” Nerva yells in excitement, jumping up.

“It is me. I have returned.”

“Oh h-hi Akane. Sorry I’m too tired to get up. We’ve been up all morning.” Adam explains, looking like a talking corpse.

“I saw. Your cleaning skills are now on par with a very experienced maid.”

“Good for us?” I guess.

“Very. Maids are very powerful in comics. That’s the reason why female characters dress up in maid outfits in so many of them.”

“I don’t think that’s why but alright.”

“Akane! Where have you been!? You missed me doing so much cool stuff! I have to tell you all about it. First Nazuko and I went to-”

“Later.” Akane cuts off by putting her hand over Nerva’s mouth. “Something of grave importance has come up. I need help.”

“Help with what?” I inquire.

“I need help with the child.”

Nerva, Adam, and I give each other confused glances. What the hell has Akane gotten herself into?