Wearing a frown, he looked at the floor of the tower that apparently led to the library, where the succubus dust was thrown at him and his group. It was now fully cleaned, and yet he could almost still see the wretched scene that presented before him, the idea of the scene... Maybe he wasn’t into men; it wasn’t particurly a scenario he wanted to relive… What would Cory look-

  He shook his head, drowning the thought.

  “Take control, you can do it, you are not a goser… or whatever she said.” He whispered to himself before spping both his cheeks with his hands, as if to wake up. He focused and continued walking towards the training hall, doctor’s papers in hand.

  Going through the hallway he never got to tour, he tried to focus on his surroundings, but them being so simir to all the other hallways meant that he couldn’t distract himself from the one and only truth; his stomach was rumbling, and his hunger was too much to handle. He felt like his stomach was eating itself, and groans escaped his mouth, revealing his suffering to the world.

  Finally he arrived at a set of two big wooden words, which looked rustic; they must’ve been the doors to the training grounds; there was no other option. There were a couple of fancy benches to the sides of the doors, so he sat on one of them and leaned back, his human need for food putting a strain on him. How was he supposed to train? If only knew he’d feel this way after accepting the doctor’s proposition... he would’ve still done it, why lie.

  Sighing and looking around, no one else was in the hallway, still a weird sight to behold. Luca gnced around at the walls, the potted pnts and various furniture not much grabbing his attention, until he focused on a painting on the wall in front of the bench he wasn’t sitting on. Approaching it, it stood out from the rest of the paintings, while others were depictions of greatness fit for the city’s status and beautiful masterpieces who belonged in that fortress like they belonged in any museum, this one was small, like 15 inches by 15 inches or... 40 centimeters, that’s right. Was everyone in Zenith able to do that conversion as easily as Doctor Ezza? Mad.

  Luca inspected the painting; it depicted a small camp with a couple tents of brownish white and weak wooden structures, standing small before a rge mountain, which took most of the space of the painting, including the middle. The mountain was a deep gray, with blue skies above and around and green grass under it; the camp seemed minuscule in comparison. Something about it really enraptured Luca, who tilted his head contempting the picture, as if to find a secret meaning behind it, but there didn’t seem to be; it was just... simple, and something about that simplicity in the depiction of what was clearly Zenith in its beginnings made Luca smile.

  “Fascinating, isn’t it?” A rough voice spoke from behind him, that of a woman. “Most don’t believe it used to just be a normal mountain, albeit a huge one.”

  “Huh? Oh, yeah… i-it is weird…” Somehow the woman’s presence was secondary to him, right next to his hunger. In this moment, Luca felt like he had never felt towards this painting; it raised something in him, something he didn’t know he had. “I-I wasn’t looking at the mountain though.”

  “Oh?” She stepped to stand next to him; he was taller than her by only a couple inches. “You were focusing on the town then?”

  “The camp, yeah…” The detail in the painting was clearly focused on the mountain, but the camp wasn’t cking in complexity; small figures that looked like tiny people roamed it, and Luca noticed something particur about them as he leaned forward to focus better. “Are they smiling?” The woman chuckled as he tried to discern their impossible tiny faces.

  “Two toads look at a ke, but only to one does it reflect a prince.” Her words brought Luca back from his trance; he turned his head to look at her, a confused look on his face. “It’s a saying!”

  “Oh, r-right.”

  Beside him stood an older woman, a bck-skinned human around her mid-forties, with bck curly hair and a rough face, which was contrasted by her deep blue eyes; a couple of scars covered her chin, cheeks, and forehead. She was wearing armor, except for the helmet of course; it was like the one Zenith’s guards wore, however, hers was of a darker metal, and the parts not covered by armor but by leather and cloth were of a dark blue instead of the bck that he had seen all guards wearing.

  “It refers to when two people see something; one might see themselves represented in some way, gaining more meaning from whatever they are looking at, while the other does not.” He looked to the ceiling, thinking he had heard a lot of sayings in his life, but had he heard this one? Seemed like an aunt’s saying to him.

  “Huh, that’s a new one…” He redirected his eyes back to the painting. “So, you are saying that I see them smiling and happy ‘cause... I’m happy?”

  “Maybe, but I referred to you focusing on the town more than the mountain.” He heard her armor shift as she turned and walked towards the doors, still talking as he turned to face her. “When a guild member comes to Zenith, they either see the dungeon’s mountain as a terrifying concept, something exaggerated, only existing in nightmares and tales, brought to the world.” She took out a key from a small bag attached to her waist and inserted it in the keyhole of the huge doors, leaving Luca surprised. “Or they see their own future greatness reflected on it, a monument to their conquest of the impossible.” She then put both hands on the doors and pushed them with all her strength; the doors flew open despite being three times her size, and Luca’s eyes widened as he reeled back from the shock. She put her hands on her hips and turned to face him, smiling as she looked at his face. “Few focus on the camp, but if I had to have expected one person to do it, it would’ve been you, Luca.” She then turned again and walked into the bright space beyond the doors. Did she say his name?

  “W-Wait!” He followed her as she traversed through the doors, walking outside, Luca put his hand above his face to cover from the sunlight. After a few seconds, he started being able to see again. Why was there sunlight? If this pce was at the center of the fortress, then the main tower should’ve been above it, he knew because he remembered yesterday, following the professor; although he didn’t remember much before getting with her to the stairs, he was preoccupied at the time.

  As his vision adjusted, he took in his surroundings; a rge stone-brick ptform stood before him, a foot or two off the ground. Around it was a small path of wood, and around that grass—not just decoration grass, real grass with real soil underneath. He never thought about it, but the fortress was on ground, just, the ground was lifted up. His eyesight getting better, he gnced around; the marble walls around the space didn’t help with the sunlight; he still couldn’t look up without getting blinded. Against the walls were many stands, all filled with multiple weapons of many types: spears, swords long and short, axes, and many others he didn’t care to dwell on. On the other walls were also types of armor, shields, and other various items. Finally he looked up, revealing that the tower was indeed above them, but to the sides were slits that opened and led to the outside, letting direct sunlight in and air.

  “Guess you had it pending, huh?” Her voice brought him back; she was walking towards him and stopped just on the edge of the ptform. “This is the arena, where you’ll train and prepare your body for perfect guild performance. Do you think a country boy like you can take it?” She had a smug and pyful face, weird for someone he had just met.

  “R-Right…” He looked at the space around him, from one side of the arena to the other in the very square space; it must’ve been around a hundred feet from side to side, lot’s of space to train, surrounding it; the remaining space was around 50 feet of grass, wood, and sunlight. “I-I’m sorry, miss, but… s-should I recognize you? I’m afraid I don’t.” He confessed; she opened her eyes wide, then chuckled.

  “Hang on here, one second.” She looked behind her and trotted to the stand with the armor; there, she picked a guard helmet and trotted back. “Does this refresh your memory?” She put on the helmet, with a design of one of those bucket helmets with a t-shaped opening that shows the wearer's eyes and face, but with another metal pque underneath that covers the wearer’s face, from the nose bridge to the chin, letting only the eyes be seen. On top of the helmet presented a small spike; he had seen one spike with the guards at the gates of Zenith and a spike divided in two on some of the guards that were sent to deal with the succubus dust pranksters; however, the one she had on her had a small trident on top of her head. The sight of her brought a familiar sight, specifically, the sight of an armored guard with deep blue eyes staring at him.

  “OH!” She chuckled as he recognized her. “Y-You were with the dir- ex-director right? W-With the carriage!” She regained her composure and nodded slowly.

  “Correct, I accompanied the previous director, Anami Kreaspell, on his...” He could only see her eyes but he could somehow tell her face twitched. “... st expedition to... the south.” She seemed to care about him, at least more than the current director.

  “I-I uh… sorry for your loss, ma’am.” He hadn’t known the man, he only had one conversation with him, but he was in front of someone who cared for him, so he had to say something nice. “H-He seemed like... he seemed like a kind man.” She took off her helmet and rubbed her eyes for a second, then smiled at Luca, he got the feeling he said the right thing.

  “That he was. A kind and wise man.” She hopped off the arena, looking up at him and walking around him. “And in his wisdom he saw in you something, potential for... something.” She stopped beside him, looking at his hand. “What do you have there?”

  “Hm? Doctor papers, in case I got here te, to justify it... Luca gnced at the papers and then saw her hand was extended, so he handed it to her. “I uh, I assume you are the trainer?” She opened the training grounds after all.

  “You’d be correct.” She said as she read through the papers, reading intently through them, however, she didn’t eborate, instead spending a good minute reading through the papers. In this moment of silence, Luca contempted how no one got to the training grounds yet; did no one get there early? “Hmm.”

  “W-What?”

  “Nothing just... not bad results."

  "... Thank you?"

  "Here.” She handed the papers back, which he took confused, then she took his other hand and shook it. Without him being able to react in time, she then put her first hand on his and looked deep in his eyes. “My name is Florence Fontenot, captain of the army of Zenith, and I have high expectations for you, Luca.” She talked with a lot of intensity in her voice, and her hand encased his perfectly. Her body was covered by armor, but her hands were ragged and scarred like her face, clearly tired after a life of fighting and training, and yet, in the tenderness in which she took his in them, Luca suddenly felt a shiver go down his spine.

  “I-I uh…” He swallowed hard, he was in control, it was his own body, he wasn’t a soser. “I’ll try my best to not disappoint you, ma’am.”

  “I know you’ll succeed.” She sounded genuine; after a second longer than expected, she released his hands, then cleared her throat. “Anyway, I should tell you the truth about your situation, Luca, before you find out on your own.”

  “What do you mean, Ms. Fontenot?” Long name, sounded western.

  “In short? You are screwed.” Luca blinked twice at her incredibly surprising revetion.

  “Go on.” He said after a couple seconds of silence, checking if she was seriously contempting him not having realized that.

  “Well, most of the new members of the guild already have a sort of training specialized for it." She once again started walking while talking, this time towards the doors, and this time Luca followed beside her. “Combat training, studies of the dungeon or of adventuring, and I don’t mean just people from the university; those who are admitted entrance usually already have had private tutors to teach them all that is needed to know. You however,” They reached the doors, and she turned to face him. “Have very little on your side.”

  “...” He stayed quiet, looking at the ground, then he faced the hallway again and focused his sight on the painting once more. The camp could barely be seen from a distance, but there it was. “So you are saying... I have something then?” When he looked at her face, she was smiling wide.

  “You’ll always have something…” She shook her head and cleared her throat again. “I mean, yes, you do have something, and it’s a life of hard work.” She reached forward and grabbed his arm, her hand wrapping around it as much as its size allowed her to. “Maybe you haven't been trained in combat; you ck strategy, form, and such, but your body has been toned perfectly for it.” She put her other hand on his arm and started pressing on different muscles; this was starting to seem familiar. “By lifting, moving, carrying, pushing, pulling and so much more, your body has been manufactured into a resistant, strong, and fast weapon; now all that it needs is for you to learn how to use it.” He had heard compliments about his muscles all his life; they were either from people who genuinely meant it or outsiders commenting on his alleged ck of education, this time, however, it seemed to be of the former, but in a way he hadn't heard before.

  “T-Thank you miss, I-I trust the physical training will help me ach-”

  “Oh no, you aren’t doing the physical training.”

  “E-Excuse me?” She chuckled at his confusion, which only amplified it.

  “You see Luca, physical training and combat training are two different things; one helps develop a fighting style and improve it, the other helps well.” She motions to his body. “Get that.” He looked down at his body, peeking into the inside of his t-shirt through the colr, then he looked back at her.

  “Are you sure? I-Is this a test?”

  “No test Luca, in fact, another novice member proposed this to me before, and now she is responsible for her own fitness and can use this time as free time.” Luca wondered if this was a common thing; it didn’t seem to be.

  “So… what do I do now?”

  “Whatever you need to. Groceries, rexing, training by yourself, free time is for you.”

  “Hm.” He looked at the ground; he didn’t usually have time for himself, when he did, he preferred to seek something to do to help someone, when he didn’t it felt like he was being irresponsible, but in truth, he did have a couple things to do, like getting letters to write home, which reminded him. “I’m supposed to get a badge of some kind, I’m told.”

  “Oh! I completely forgot, yes, yes you are.” She walked over to a small bag that stood behind one of the open doors leaned against the wall and dug into it. After a few seconds, she took out a badge.

  The badge's design wasn’t too complicated: a hexagon with an indent, almost like a heart shape with edges, four small yellow lines on top cwing from the back of the badge to the front, it had a blue outline and a white inside, and in the middle, once again, Luca saw the Zenith Z that ended with an arrow; they really liked to stamp that thing everywhere.

  “Great, so I just show this to the people at the mail, and they give me paper to write letters, right?”

  "Oh, and so much more—food and drink discounts, stays in hotels and inns—almost every service will provide a guild member with some sort of aid. It’s the city’s way of thanking you for the honorable service that you’ll serve, be that adventurer, delver, mapper, etcetera.” Luca smiled and pced the badge in one of the lower pockets of his pants, then closed said pocket up. “You said mail; you wanna write home, I assume?”

  “Yes ma’am, that’s the pn.”

  “Whenever you can then, mention to them that I’m sorry, in pce of my m- ex-director Kreaspell, for stealing you away.” Luca opened his eyes wide; he didn’t expect anyone from the very Zenith to actually understand the situation.

  “Uh, y-yeah! Of course, ma’am.” He nodded, and she responded, he didn’t expect Kreaspell to actually care about him changing homes so fast; he seemed to not like Cuartel very much, referring to it as just a field. These words were probably only hers, maybe trying to make the memory of his previous boss better. “I-I’ll um, I’ll mention you and Director Kreaspells thoughts on the matter; I’m sure they’ll appreciate it.” Lana probably wouldn't, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.

  “Wonderful, then, enjoy your breakfast, Luca, and remember,” She put her hand on his arm once more. “I am here for any help you may need.” She looked at his face, a caring demeanor clear in her eyes, then nodded and walked back to the arena. He saw her leave and thought how Kreaspell was a person like any other, before Luca thought that he had royally fucked him over, but at the end of the day, he also gave Luca an opportunity for a different life, a better life, for him and his peers, and apparently, the old director did something in the simir vein for her as well.

  “Actually, there is one more thing.” She turned her head to face him. “Could you please point me to the city’s cemetery?”

  Time: 7:35