“No way…” Sireal drawled as he arrived at the estate of the house Dayarunar, fingers clutching the metal bars of the massive gate as he struggled to get his ragged breathing under control.

  Massive didn’t even begin to properly describe the size of the property. The path leading in from the front gate where he was standing continued in and then swung around and disappeared behind a huge copse of trees that looked more like an entire forest than anything else.

  That same path then became visible again much further in and to the left. The edge of a massive, castle-like building could just barely be seen in the distance.

  And yet…

  Sireal looked around at all of the other hopeful warriors. Why the hell did the line that ended all the way up there start all the way down here? Shoulders drooping heavily, Sireal felt hope swiftly and suddenly departing his body.

  “You here to try out for Eik’s Great Group of Guys?” one of the gate guards asked tiredly. His day guarding the gate to the Dayarunar estate was probably usually rather uneventful, so given the constant stream of people to keep an eye on, he looked just about ready to take his lunch break.

  “Oh, I, uuh…” Sireal mumbled with hesitation, glancing over his shoulder to make sure that the guy was actually talking to him. He bit his lip as the guard shifted on his feet impatiently, his armor rattling noisily. Why was he suddenly getting light-headed? Eyebrows raised in puzzlement, the guard watched him support himself on the bars of the front gate.

  “Are you good there, buddy?”

  “I— Yes, I think I’m just fine. I was just…” Was this too much for him after all? Images of his cozy, safe office flashed through his mind, contrasting starkly with the view of the long, winding path to the estate, men and women magnitudes more powerful than him queueing all the way there. But so what? If he went home tonight having run away from yet another confrontation, would he be able to look at his own reflection in the mirror again? Could he truly live with that?

  “Just what?” the guard asked.

  Sireal met his eyes firmly for the first time since he had arrived. “I’ve come to try out for Eik Magnasen’s team.”

  Cracking a smile, the guard adjusted his helmet and threw a thumb over his shoulder. “Good on ya. Well, get in there then already. You’ve got a long wait ahead of you.”

  “Thank you very much,” Sireal said with a nod and stepped across the threshold that would mark the new man he would become.

  ***

  “Hey, remind me, did I have lunch today?” Eik asked as he leaned back in his chair with a deep sigh. “How many hours past lunch time are we at this point?

  Heath shrugged, finding it difficult to locate the part of himself that was supposed to give a crap about Eik’s meal schedule. “Like eight or something along those lines? Didn’t you have those two donuts a few hours ago.”

  Eik gave him a look. “Bro, donuts aren’t real food.”

  “Mate, I think you’re mistaking me for someone who cares.”

  “Man, what’s with you? You’re so prickly!”

  “We’ve been here for like thirteen hours and I don’t have a role to play because I’m weaker than everybody who’s here to try out! I’m bored out of my mind! This isn't even the first day!”

  Eik nodded tiredly. “Yeah, I’m beginning to regret this whole poster shtick as well. It feels like it’ll never end.”

  “Why am I here anyway?” Heath asked.

  “Because you’re one of the founding members of Eik’s Great Group of Guys?. Why else?”

  “And I ask again, why am I, a guy who is realistically never going to contribute to the operations of… Eik’s Great Group of Guys, a founding member of Eik’s Great Group of Guys?”

  “Successful heroing takes more than big muscles and big magic.”

  “Oh yeah?” Heath drawled. “Like what?”

  “Like big swords.”

  The apprentice sat up properly in his chair, a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. “You mean…?”

  “Damn straight, I do,” Eik said and clapped his friend on the shoulder. “You’re our resident smith. Or should I say the master smith of EGG(G)?”

  “Dude…” the smith said, his grin hijacking his entire face.

  “Sweet?”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Sweet doesn’t even begin to do it justice! Wait… Do I get a plaque?”

  “Well, do you want a plaque?”

  “’Do I want a plaque?’ Of course, I freakin’ do!”

  “Then you get a plaque!”

  Heath couldn’t contain his excitement and flew out of his chair to hop in place like a little horse finally running through the meadows after a long winter. Easily affected, Eik couldn’t help but do the same and hopped in place as well. They giggled like school girls at the concert of a Korean boy band.

  Someone cleared their throat by the door and Eik and Heath froze where they stood. A very confused woman—one of the workers in Andihar’s employ—was staring at them. She looked entirely uncertain about how to handle the situation she had stumbled into. “The, uuh… The next person is ready if you…” she mumbled as the two men slowly took their seats again, looking everywhere but at her. “you know, if you have time…”

  “Uh huh, yep, send them in,” Eik told her, leaning back in his chair nonchalantly. He glanced at Heath. “I seriously hope that this one is a good one. It’s been a while now, hasn’t it?”

  “Yeah, no kidding.”

  Stumbling through the door and nearly tripping on the threshold, the newest hopeful elicited a tired sigh from Eik before he had even had a chance to introduce himself.

  “Welcome,” Eik said, putting on a smile nonetheless. If the guy had come all the way here to try his luck, the least they could do was give him the courtesy of pretending to give him a chance. “What’s your name?”

  “Oh, m-my name?” stuttered the man. He wasn’t exactly on the tall side, and the gaunt outline of his jaw spoke to a possible lack of muscle as well. This wasn’t boding well for him. “R-Right, my name. Well, my name is… uuh, Sireal, sir. Sireal hir Mirkawak.”

  “Nice to meet you, Sireal. This is Heath Wilson, the resident smith of Eik’s Great Group of Guys, and my name is Eik Magnasen, the… Eik of Eik’s Great Group of Guys.”

  Sireal seemed to have lost the ability to form words as his jaw practically fell off its hinges and nearly scraped the floor, his widening eyes glued to Eik’s face. “Y-You’re… You’re Eik Magnasen? I-I— But how?”

  Eik arched a brow. “It is my group, you know?”

  “Ah, right… of course. Silly me,” he laughed nervously.

  “So, tell me a little bit about yourself. I like to know what kind of person I am inviting into the circle.”

  “Well, as I said, my name is Sireal. I grew up in this city and apprenticed as a cartographer around the time I Awoke. I’ve been working in the business for a long time now and I don’t think it would be a boast to say that I’m one of the most skilled and most respected experts in all of Gimleh,” Sireal said mechanically, wringing his hands as he stood there.

  “A cartographer, huh?” Eik said with raised eyebrows, exchanging looks with Heath. “We don’t have a cartographer, do we?”

  “No, I believe we do not. Could be pretty useful considering our plans.”

  “Ah, no, excuse me, gentlemen,” Sireal piped up, raising a finger. “I’m actually hoping to join you as a warrior. I-I wish to fight with you! On the front lines!”

  Both Heath and Eik looked at him with surprise. “Really? Well, I suppose we can let you test. I will say, though, we have kind of high standards.”

  “I know, but I…” Sireal said with hesitation, his eyes firmly on Eik. Something hardened in his eyes. “I have to give it a try.”

  Eik smiled knowingly. “Good man. Follow me,” Eik said and got up to go to the adjacent room where a large, blue chunk of crystal stood up against the wall, taking up nearly half of the space in the rather large room.

  “The famed toxin,” Sireal muttered under his breath as he slowly approached, having to actively keep his hands off the substance that could literally kill him so quickly that he wouldn’t even be able to feel it before it finished the job. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Uuh, thanks?” Eik said with a glance at Heath who also didn’t seem to know how to respond. “Anyway, all you really have to do for this part is hit this thing in whatever way you’d like. Magic, weapons, fists, anything is fine. I call it the Gauntlet of the Great Group of Guys.”

  “So it’s like the Crucible up in Headquarters then?” Sireal asked.

  Heath nodded. “Ye—”

  “No! It’s totally different,” Eik insisted.

  “It’s really not,” Heath said. “Go ahead and start.”

  “R-Right,” Sireal said and drew a blade he had purchased for this exact moment. The sheath was beautifully decorated.

  “Cool sword,” Heath remarked.

  “Cartography is a profitable profession. Do I just…?” he asked, gesturing to the blue chunk.

  Heath stepped back with a nod. “Yeah, go nuts, man.”

  Taking a couple of seconds to ready himself, Sireal clenched his teeth and lunged. “Hiyaah!” The blade met the chunk with a decently well-executed slash but when it simply tinked off the surface like a glass straw striking a bar of reinforced steel, he switched to a thrust.

  “Eargh!” Somehow the strike seemed to do even less and upon contact, his grip failed and his wrist twisted painfully as the tip of the blade skidded with a screech.

  Ignoring the pain in his wrist, he continued the barrage with a series of over twenty strikes before Eik called for a stop.

  “All right, that’s enough of that. Thank you, Sireal. I can tell you went all out,” Eik said respectfully and cracked his knuckles. “But let’s move on to the second part of the Gauntlet, which also happens to be my favorite. Let’s see how long you can endure me going at you!”

  Sireal blanched and swallowed hard as the Eik Magnasen approached menacingly. It seemed pretty obvious that crying wouldn’t give quite the stoic and heroic impression he wished to give them but he just wasn’t sure he could stop himself.

  “Eik.” A man stood in the door. He looked urgent.

  “What’s up?” Eik asked and leaned in. “That’s Robert. He’s the head secretary of EGG(G).”

  “I’m very much not,” the man disagreed, speaking directly to Sireal. “In fact, I told him that if he asked me again, I would take all of the vacation days I’ve saved up starting right now.”

  “Sorry,” Eik hurried to say sheepishly. “Anything happen, Bobby?”

  Robert nodded tensely. “We just got word from Mn’Toakh. They’ve located three sites whose Ak’ki signatures indicate an extreme monster spawn rate. She’s asked EGG(G) to handle one of them.”

  “Tell her we’ll do it!” Eik said, all signs of the silly man evaporated. “What about the Lord of the Moon?”

  “It’s impossible to tell but don’t get your hopes up, is what she said when I asked.”

  “Hah!” Eik snorted. “This is why I pay you.”

  “That, and because I run your life.”

  “… Yeah.”

  Sireal had been watching the exchange as the cold sweat broke out on his back. The Lord of the Moon? The Worldbreaker? Who in their right mind would be hunting a Worldbreaker? They’re were legendary beasts against which none would stand a chance.

  And how in the world was this Robert person speaking so rudely to one of the most powerful Awakened in the Alliance? Was he not afraid of Eik Magnasen’s retaliation?

  It was only when Eik snapped his fingers that Sireal noticed he had been watching him.

  “You said you were a cartographer? And a damn good one at that, right?”

  “I— Yes, but I was hoping to join as a w—”

  “Tell Robert here whatever you need to make maps in the field and follow me,” Eik said and marched for the door. “Welcome aboard, Great Guy!”

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