I didn’t know if I was dreaming or seeing a vision. It felt like I was flying above the sky, and looking down upon the events happening below me. It felt surreal, like watching a movie from the outside that I was starring in.

There was no indication of where I was. A city lay below me, and people bustled to and fro just like any other city. Their language was a bit odd, maybe a bit old fashioned. The higher I flew and the more I looked… the more I realized it was familiar.

This entire city was known to me. My mind raced as I tried to find the appropriate memory until it eventually hit me. The Hidden Jungle: I was looking down on the ruin in the Hidden Jungle. Now though, instead of monsters, the city was bustling with human inhabitants.

The roads were clean and the shops were open. There was no sign of the insane overgrowth of today. The hieroglyphs weren’t around, but there was a picture: a picture of the king. I recognized his face—one of the few that hadn’t been frogified.

I was hundreds of years in the past. There was no way of knowing how far back in the past this vision was, but there was no doubting this was case. The researcher wasn’t lying when he claimed to have seen visions of past history. I focused harder.

Why was I being shown this? Was this something the mysterious sphere recorded? Was there a purpose? I continued to watch for what felt like dozens of minutes.There had to be a reason for me seeing this.

The reason appeared out of thin air. In fact, people began to appear out of thin air. From below, in the bustling crowds it would be nearly impossible to tell, but from above… I could see them popping into existence.

This continued for at least five minutes and at least fifty people came from who-knew-where had appeared on the city streets. Was this magic? I couldn’t be sure if that was what I was being shown. Instantaneous transmission?

I started to compare this timeline to Andino’s. Magic should be very rudimentary at this point, so I ruled it out. That’s when it hit me: my arrival on Eastrath… was not the first time humans had come from Earth to Yetera.

The moment that thought entered my head the vision stopped. It was almost as if the sphere was trying to tell me something, that it had accomplished and thus I could finally wake up. It was a scary thought and I suddenly worried about how long I’d been asleep.

My eyes opened and I quickly put away the sphere. The fact that my MP hadn’t fully restored meant I could not have been out all that long. I sighed in relief. Judging by the position of the sun though, I’d had more than eight hours of sleep. I must have been out for nearly thirteen hours as it was already midday.

People came from Earth hundreds of years ago as well in my day? That was an interesting thought that produced more questions than answers. At least there was an explanation for that restaurant in Arturii now. The question was why?

My head pounded just a bit behind my eyes. Going to 0 MP definitely had a bit of backlash. It was a feeling I didn’t want to get used to at all.

There was suddenly a knock on the door, “Joseph?” It was Bryan

I moved to the door with my sleeping wear and no doubt a sick case of bedhead. I opened the door a foot, “What’s up?”

“Plans have changed, a meeting has been called in the lobby.” Bryan could read the look on my face, “I don’t know either. Hopefully nothing serious.” He shrugged, “Starts in fifteen minutes.”

“Got it, thanks,” I said. My first reaction was something bad had happened. That feeling actually slowly morphed into an odd excitement. At least I wouldn’t be bored…

I spent ten minutes washing up and then quickly dressed. The lobby was packed when I got there. Others came after me and only when fifteen minutes had passed did Rhea begin to speak to everyone in the hall.

“Many of you here have absolutely zero experience of large scale battles. We will be working closely with at least a dozen other guilds. This is incredibly short notice, but a little bit of training is better than none.

“Until the day of departure the guilds will be holding group exercises that all of you are expected to attend. There are no exceptions, even for the leadership. We will be closely monitoring you all.

“You are expected to take this co-operation between guilds seriously. Right now, they might seem like strangers—but they may end up being your closest allies on the battlefield when your life is hanging by a thread.

“Regardless of the training scenarios, you are not to use lethal force. These are simply exercises, and if any of you have past grievances, they should be shelved for the greater good.

“We leave in ten minutes! Dismissed!”

I had snaked my way through the throng, until I was right next to Cid and Luther, “Group exercises? Lethal force?” I asked the two of them.

“It sounds like we’ll be having mock battles?” Luther asked.

“We’ll definitely be having battles… be careful.” Cid, who was usually quiet, looked at me and gave that piece of advice.

“We should be in a group together, no?”

Bryan was walking over just as I spoke, Briele directly behind him. “There’s no guarantee we will be grouped together. They want to prepare us for the unexpected, it’s much more likely we will be separated.”

“Right…” I nodded before looking at everyone, “No hard feelings if we kick each other’s asses?” I asked playfully.

“No hard feelings!” Bryan laughed along and even Cid had a grin on his face. Briele seemed neutral and Luther scratched his head awkwardly. I started to ponder how I could use non-lethal force. My way of fighting wasn’t exactly orthodox.

I didn’t leave the lobby and decided to wait here for the ten minutes. There was nothing for me to prepare. People began pouring back in around eight or nine minutes. Rhea appeared a bit after ten minutes, fully expecting everyone to be ready.

“Let’s go!” she said. Everyone started to follow the officers out the lobby door as she watched from the back. “Joseph, over here,” she called out to me. I had been waiting off to the side and watching.

“Yes?”

“You won’t be able to complete your exercises without this.” She handed me the Mana Pulsing Rod in a single piece. It had been repaired. I grasped it with both hands and took a look.

Mana Pulsing Rod**: INT +9, VIT +2, DEX +4

An ordinary looking rod filled with an extraordinary amount of Mana. You can feel it pulsing in your hand.

“Huh?”

“What’s with that face?” Rhea asked. She sounded like a mother lecturing her child, “You snapped it clean in half you know? You’re lucky it was even salvageable.”

I felt guilty hearing her words. She was completely right. Looking at the weapon closely it had lost one of each stat point and downgraded to two stars. Thinking on the fact that I would have no weapon without it… the minus one stats amounted to very little.

“Thank you,” I said from the bottom of my heart.

“Get moving,” she replied with a stern voice.

Once on the streets we started moving westward towards the previously battered Arturii wall. By now I could see it had been repaired completely. The job wasn’t without flaws though, as I could still see the places where it was previously cracked and broken.

As we continued to move in that direction we encountered other guilds exiting as well. Some had already left the city and more were piling in behind us. It took around fifteen minutes before we passed the checkpoint.

I got a better look at the aftermath of the siege a year ago. The area outside the wall looked as if a storm had come through. It was a side-effect of the wave of monsters charging the wall.

The trees that were previously here were mostly uprooted in that mayhem. Those that weren’t were merely stumps a few feet high. Apparently, this wasn’t our final destination as we continued on further.

It was a short walk, but eventually we ended up in an open area with forest on all sides. Many guilds had already arrived and were clumped in their own little sections. I followed the Valkyrie leaders to our area where we waited patiently.

After ten minutes of constant arrivals, things came to a standstill and Bryan’s intuition was proven right. The guilds were scrambled and the forces split in half. Somehow or another, by sheer luck or possibly by design, Bryan, Briele, Cid and Luther were on the opposite team to me.

“The teams will be shuffled each day so this isn’t permanent.” A voice resounded around the glade, overcoming the uproar. It was the Adventurer’s Guild Master. Many people weren’t happy with the arrangements, but hearing that explanation, no one could complain.

Only after the Adventurers had calmed down did he speak again. “As you can see there are now two teams. It’s quite simple how this is going to work. Each team has a base and inside that base will be an object you want to protect. The enemy team will want to steal that object.”

His explanation immediately made me think of capture the flag. I wondered how this would help us, but as I thought of the seed being the flag… then I realized that maybe the exercise could have some merit.

“The team that manages to steal the enemy object and return to its own base will win. Killing is prohibited. Cheating is prohibited. Each and every one of you will have a mark.” The Adventurer’s Guild Master pointed at my group and then cast a spell of some kind. “This will be red team!” Suddenly the hundreds of us were now sporting a red circle around our arm. It was clearly visible and even covering it with clothing didn’t hide its visibility.

“And this is the blue team.” The same result happened to the other side. “Do not tamper with my magic and change your color.” I could understand the temptation of doing so—being able to change this color to that of the other side was a skill in and of itself. The issue was that unless you could turn into a monster, it probably wouldn’t be useful in the upcoming battle.

“You are not to use lethal force against your opponents. If your opponent surrenders then your fighting stops. Knocking your opponent unconscious is allowed, but hopefully it doesn’t come to that. If you forfeit or are eliminated you will be removed from the playing field for an hour.

“Take your starting positions, familiarize yourself with the layout. We will notify you in one hour that you can begin. Do not cross this boundary until then, else I will know and you will be punished. Any questions?”

“What if no one manages to capture the other team’s item?” someone shouted

“Well… you keep going until you do,” the Adventurer’s Guild Master replied.

The mood grew a shade darker on his words and I realized that this may be a bit crazier than just a simple exercise. It was possible this could go on for more than just a few hours—the potential for several days of practice warfare was a real possibility.

Fatigue would grow; hunger would grow. No one was prepared for this as the guild leaders’ plan had not been shared with anyone. This was going to test our decision-making abilities and perseverance. That thought made me excited.

I wanted to know how I stood up to everyone else here? Level 51 on paper, but how strong was I really? It wasn’t possible to go all out, but I could still use my abilities, just not with the intent to kill. No one here should be that fragile.

“No more questions then? Get going!”

At his word the two masses turned around and headed into their respective forest. I couldn’t help but look back as those high levels dictating the entire exercise leaped up into the trees or stayed in the glade to converse amongst each other. It was obvious they would be the referees of this event.