I went to the Adventurers Guild for my weekly training session with Gorver. I will say that I don’t exactly look forward to it, but I do learn a lot, which is why I find myself at the front door of the Guild Hall.

  When I entered, I noticed right away the Guild Hall was very full and very busy. I had never seen so many adventurers before. I didn’t know half of them. It looked like all of them were busy. They were checking their equipment, polishing sword, checking straps on their armor, and helping each other out. Everybody was getting ready for a fight and everyone put off a grim vibe. Apparently, the Guild was going to war. What the hell happened, and why the hell didn’t anyone tell me?

  I made my way to the receptionist, Miss Grisel, hoping she would be able to tell me. “Miss Grisel is Gorver available for our training session?”

  “Young Master Trevor, Gorver would like to see you in his office. Please make your way there.” She said, but instead of her normally chipper attitude, she sounded somewhere between sad and depressed.

  Now, I know something is up. The Guild may have just been preparing for a RAID, or something similar, but for Miss Grisel to be this upset. That had to be something catastrophic. Before I turned away, I said to her “Everything will be okay,” giving her what assurances I could. I headed off to Gorver’s office.

  The door was open when I got there, so I knocked and went in. Gorver was polishing a sword. It was a beautiful sword with intricate designs on the 5-foot blade, a four-pronged guard, a two-handed leather grip, finished off with a huge Safire gem. The sword was over 6 feet long. He turned my way as I came in.

  “Trevor, good to see you. I am glad you are here.” Gorver motioned me to sit. I sat opposite him. “I know that you are new to this world, so what do you know about monster waves?”

  “No practical experience, but I know they occur every so often, yearly I believe. The last one was responsible for almost killing Earl Donnert. Not much more than that” I said.

  “Yes, they normally on a somewhat yearly basis, give or take a month. We should still have 8 months or so. However, we don’t. If fact, there is a wave that will start this week. The Earl’s advanced scouts have seen the forerunners of the waves. Monsters that don’t normally occur in this area have been confirmed. This is the first sign. The second was monsters that don’t normally group together doing so, and the groups are getting larger and larger. Soon, they will start advancing on Forest Glen. This is what Forest Glen was built for. We stop them here, because if we don’t, the monsters will rampage throughout the county. The Earl runs his domain from Forest Glen exactly for this reason.

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  “Luckily, it is still early in the process and we have a few days to get prepared. As member of the Guild, you will be expected to help with the first two waves. The first two waves are usually weaker monster, level 5 and 10 respectively. I have been training you and know you are more than capable of handling level 10 monsters. The last three waves each increase by 10 levels, so 20, 30 and 40. The number of monsters is drastically reduced. The first wave is about 100 or so monsters, while the second is in the 70 – 80 range. Last time, the third wave was only 30 monsters, while the fourth was 15. The last wave was 5, one boss and 4 lieutenants. The boss was level 40, while the lieutenants ranged from 35 to 38. It was the toughest wave we had ever faced.” Gorver paused, letting me get my thoughts together.

  After a moment, I spoke “I will do my duty. I do not shirk my responsibilities. However, I do have to see to my staff and their safety first. Do we know what types of monsters we will engage? What are their capabilities? The more information I have, the better I will feel about fighting, and the better I will perform. In my old life, leadership would provide briefings about our opponents, their capabilities, and what we could expect. Do you plan on having anything like that?”

  “Normally, our adventurers are experienced enough to not need a briefing on monsters, but I can see where it would still be a good idea. I will try to coordinate with the Earl’s forces. They are normally too busy to speak with us, but I will try.” Gorver said but didn’t seem to be hopeful.

  “I will send a note to Ruberm to see if he can get us the information about the monster wave.“ I jotted down a reminder in my notebook. “How much notice will I receive before I have to fight the monsters?”

  “The current estimate is the first wave to hit in 4 days. I will provide updates here at the guild every day in the midafternoon. You or your people should attend then. I will also hand out any more information I receive then.” He paused, then started again. “I have a bad feeling about this wave. Its timing is unnatural. The signs that scouts have reported indicate a powerful wave. Aldra and Fralley are going to be setting up a healing spot for Guild members. Since they both know minor healing thanks to you. They volunteered.”

  “If you have other volunteers, I can probably teach more mages. Let me know how many more want to learn. I think 10 will be the limit between now and the wave. This way, you can set up multiple healing stations and help out the other defenders. What do you think?”

  “That would be amazing. I will send a list of names to you this afternoon.”

  “Okay, just send them to Covern House early tomorrow morning. It may take them a while and best to plan for the worst case. I will see you then.”

  Gorver shook my hand and said “Be ready. It may take a week; it may kick off at any time. Be prepared and be safe.”

  I gathered my guards and left the Guild.