It's the next day.

After discussions with my assistant and the instructors the previous day, I have devised a system that I believe will work well. As leadership training, I will lead a team into a fracture. My team, the one I neglect.

My assistant wants to use my experience inside to craft a narrative or compelling story about my "journey" through the fracture and the "accomplishments" I achieve. Also, I'll need Rob or someone to take pictures or something while inside for social media.

Depending on the infrastructure of the fracture, you can even livestream in one. The only caveat is that the fracture needs to have a permanently open exit and some prior setting up.

I was supposed to meet my team in a few minutes, but I got impatient and decided to find them first.

Since we are the best*, we have a classroom just for us, with specialized instructors. We are allowed and encouraged to mingle with the other students of the Auroran Institute, but I haven't.

"...and that's how to tell if a venomous creature is additionally poisonous. Don't eat spoiled meat."

A female instructor uses a baton to point at various diagram parts inside. I can weirdly recognize the creature as a [Blue-Tailed Tri-fanged Sperpent].

Now that I think about it, it isn't weird that I could recognize it with a name like that.

Inside the room, I can spot my sister Val, Jerry with his beasts, Anabel, Rai, and the other captain John with his H-harem. The rest of his team are women with names starting with H.

Arlug is here as well.

They all seemed pimped out with new gear and surpassed me in levels. John is the highest, hovering around level 150, and the rest range from 30 to 20 levels lower.

"Mr. Vincere. Nice of you to come by. Since I have you here, can you tell me the main way to tell if a venomous beast is additionally poisonous?"

The instructor was the first to notice my presence. The rest were too busy being nose deep in their notebooks.

"I eat glass and voluntarily drink poisons. I don't think a [Blue-Tailed Tri-fanged Sperpent] would be any problem to my digestive system."

She blinks, then palms her face. "Can you humor me, Ellis? You don't need to take these classes because your masters claim that learning under them would cover all these basics."

They haven't taught me that. Good thing I can cheat. I skim some answers from my [Lexicon].

"Knowing about the beast beforehand would cut all need for testing or noticing key details, but assuming that I didn't know the beast nor could stomach its poison, I wouldn't eat it if the mana was toxic."

"Good. Good. Some beasts have anatomy that delivers poison, like the tri-fangs of this specific serpent, and some use mana abilities to inflict toxins, like the blue tail of the aforementioned serpent.

It's better to be safe than sorry. So if a beast uses mana for poison, the mana will contaminate the meat after death."

I wait out the rest of the class and meet up with my teammates in the hallway. John and his harem have their own thing going on.

Everyone has better weapons, enchanted armor, and accessories to boot. They gave our resident necromancer glasses and a gun. A massive handgun that looked like it would snap her wrists if she fired once.

"Wow, Ellis! You got buff! You look smaller in your pictures." exclaims Anabel.

"Thanks, I guess. What's with the gun."

"Oh, the instructors advised that I learned some self-defense beyond magic."

"Cool."

"Enough about that, Ellis. What the fuck, dude? Why didn't you call or anything? You sued a major family?" Val cuts into the conversation.

She looks angry. I wonder why.

"It just happened."

"And every time I see your tamed beasts, they get weirder and weirder. Maybe except the snake bird thing, since it looks like it got cute again."

I look down at Duchess, draped on my shoulders.

[No comment.]

Val even tries to pet Duchess with a finger, but Duchess casually moves away without leaving her perch.

"Let's catch up somewhere else. I'll buy a meal for you guys since we're heading into a fracture soon. Even Arlug."

"Why did you single me out? Fuck, man. I haven't said anything!"

~~~

My teammates have been doing well without my presence. They are probably used to it at this point. But I see an issue as we are all crowded around a table with a grill embedded inside.

We got too many damn people!

Six people wouldn't be too bad, but since we have two tamers with a combined total of beasts of eight, there is some crowding.

Jerry has a new tamed beast he picked up in a fracture during his training. It's a dragonfly-looking creature that almost ate his face off during their first encounter. Jerry was fine since the beast was hovering around level five.

We aren't a party but a whole damn platoon! To be fair, Khan is padding the numbers, but regardless!

Good practice, I rationalized. I'll be able to level my [Leader] skill quickly.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"Nope."

I'm using my hands to cook meat. Unless I'm in direct fire, the heat doesn't even tickle. The only issue would be hygiene, but I'm clean, I swear. I bought out the restaurant for a few hours and a few "cows" to go along with it.

Dead cows that have been prepared and butchered. Dead cows with blue flesh.

Even though I paid, the owners still don't look happy. Maybe it has to do with manners or the hundred sharks loitering inside. Val uses arrows as utensils while Anabel makes the meat cook itself. Jerry's lizard "Liz" has their own cow, which has been turned to charcoal before being slowly consumed by the fire-breathing Liz.

Khan already ate, and it was gruesome. Right now, I'm just cooking for Duchess since my other beasts don't need to eat or don't eat meat.

"So, the institute reached out to the FIB and reserved us a fracture. Apparently, the institute's fracture, at least the ones that can handle prolonged "visitation," are full."

"So we aren't going into a school-vetted fracture?" responds Val.

"Unless they are profoundly stupid, they shouldn't be sending us somewhere where death is inevitable. The institute should've checked it out at least once."

Rai doesn't talk and seems more anti-social than I am, but he speaks for the first time since I saw him today. "How long are we staying inside a fracture?"

"No idea. My assistant hasn't said anything."

"You have an assistant?" asked Val.

"Yup."

~~~

After eating and grabbing a few things, my team is ready to head inside whatever fracture the school will throw us in.

The scene outside the visible crack-in reality is chaotic and tense. A group of people dressed in suits, sitting at various computers and technological equipment, are frantically setting up their equipment along the road. The area has been cordoned off, and several enforcers patrol the perimeter.

It looks like the fracture is relatively new. Like really new. I doubled check the address I was given... I confirm that we are in the correct location.

Someone in a FIB suit and a hard hat barks orders into a walky-talky. He turns away from his handheld device to address two individuals, the dean of Auroran Institute and one of our instructors. Not the female one, the other one I fought all that time ago.

I twist the [Ring of Luck] Duchess stole from the institute's vault under my orders and hide it away as we approach the dean. He sees us and calls us over.

He seems to be in a good mood. I don't know why but I don't like that.

"Ah, it's been a while, Ellis. This here is Michael. He works for the FIB and is letting your students train inside."

"Why?"

My blunt question causes the dean to falter for a second, and Michael takes over for him.

"Kid, you worked for the FIB in your hometown, right? Hazard branch of all things."

"Yup."

"Alright, then think of it like this. You are going into this fracture like it's your job, except you aren't getting paid. Think of it as volunteer work for the betterment of your country. Protecting the country's safety. Yada, yada, yada."

"That seems like a bum deal."

"Yup. But you're entering a fracture for free, Kid. One that hasn't been spoiled too much. We have a team inside confirming the fracture's environment and setting up a home base around the entry point."

"Is this a hazard fracture?"

"Nah. But it's annoying."

"You never gave a reason."

The dean says, "The people of the FIB have generously donated this fracture for the future of the human race. Generosity doesn't need to be questioned."

Bull. That's how lobbying gets out of hand.

"Think of it as a tax write-off, kid." Says, Michael. "And don't be so untrusting. Why wouldn't the FIB throw a bone to the future reps of humanity, especially when one of the leaders is technically a FIB employee."

Technically I'm not, but I won't refute that fact. I don't work for the government but with a government agency... that one time. Then I went on leave to "recuperate."

I'm still a captain, though.

"Ehem. Ellis. As a leader, you must ensure the safety of your team. Now, this is a training exercise, but the dangers are real. No instructor is coming with you, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be logging your activities."

I glance at Rob with the new camera I bought him. He gives me a thumbs up.

"Sure. When can we enter?"

"As soon as the team comes back. Homebase is for future teams, not for you guys. Also, this shouldn't have to be said but don't destroy or destabilize the environment more than necessary. Not only is that a waste of resources, but if the fracture collapses, you'll all die."

"Thanks for the tip, Michael."

~~~

My feet crunch the dirt as I touch ground in the fracture. The smells of vegetation and the humidity immediately assault me. The rest of my team stifles gags as their body recovers from the sudden transportation.

Arlug vomits the meat I bought him. Ungrateful. Rai is relatively fine.

"How many fractures have you been in so far?"

"Man-made ones feel smoother. We aren't freaks like you."

"Thanks, Val."

"You are welcome, bastard."

I look around at the "home base" created here. It's a cleared section of the jungle we found ourselves in. A barbed fence surrounds a few buildings that look like bunkers more than anything else.

I turn around, and the entrance behind us is still stable.

"So we have three tasks, and we can leave after completing one. Survive for ten days, explore ten square miles, or use teamwork to defeat ten monsters that would be impossible alone. We were all there when the dean gave us these options, so we will vote for which one to tackle. We don't need to leave after completing one. We "fail" if we ignore our tasks, however."

Val and Rai opt for exploring since they are both agile. Jerry and Anabel voted for the teamwork option, while Arlug was on his lonesome with the other option.

"Cool. Since this isn't a democracy, I vote for all three and then some."

"Why hold the vote in the first place?!" Exclaimed Arlug.

"Because I want to know where you guys stand regardless of my decisions. Not that your inputs would change much. This isn't a school assignment but a chance to improve ourselves. I'm milking the FIB's "generosity" for all it's worth."

I'm grinning while my teammates are groaning. I'm not happy because I'm in a fracture, but because this fracture isn't a desert.