After their long meeting, Osric and the others agreed that he would rest for a week while the other continued what they were doing.
Paul would spend time with his wife and study monster theory.
William would go on missions with Richard and get closer to him.
Jayson would continue training with Franklin as well as take on his first mission.
Meanwhile, Osric would spend his days just resting and reading books about monsters, war strategy, politics and business.
Garrick on the other hand had nothing to do. He wanted to just hang around Osric the whole time, but Osric got annoyed and couldn't focus on his reading, so he kicked him out and ordered him to train.
—
The first day after their meeting—
Garrick walked to the guild's training ground before noon.
'How annoying. To be told to train at my age by someone barely over twenty.'
'It's demeaning. He has a point though. I haven't really been trained the last few years. I just relied on my experience and real fighting practice like some solo mercenary missions and arena fights.'
Garrick sighed as he arrived in the yard.
"Whoosh."
"Clack!"
"Pow!"
"Faster!"
"No! You're still way too open here."
"Yes sir!"
Jayson was being trained by Franklin right now. He was struggling a lot, despite Franklin barely moving during their spar.
'Hm. The kid's improved. Looks like he has talent besides just having a mana seed. Not bad.'
"Whoosh!"
"Huff."
Garrick glanced to the other end of the yard. There was a boy the same age as Jayson, swinging his wooden sword against nothing but wind.
'Who's that?'
'He clearly has no talent at all. They look the same age, but are worlds apart.'
'I kind of feel bad, but it's commendable that he's here training by himself. I've never seen anyone train here except Franklin and Osric's party.'
Garrick was curious, so he approached the 18 year old average looking kid. His body didn't look trained or physically gifted like Jayson's. He also looked very shy compared to the fierce Jayson.
He stopped right next to his face, but the kid didn't notice him at all.
'He looks exhausted, but to have such focus is impressive.'
He kept swinging his sword straight down and kept repeating the motion.
"Hey kid."
Suddenly a large shadow appeared in his peripheral vision and it startled him.
"Argh!" He shouted and fell on his ass.
His sweaty face tilted upwards and looked at the muscular and scary looking Garrick.
"Wh-who are you?"
Garrick chuckled.
"I'm Garrick. You need to work on your awareness kid. Getting scared so easily is dangerous in this lifestyle you chose."
"What's your name?"
"Ah. I'm Dustin. Can I help you with something, sir?"
"Hah. No need to call me sir. I'm just some old mercenary and a new adventurer, I guess? I was curious about why you're training here by yourself."
"Oh, okay. I'm training to improve my strength and skills. I've only taken a few F-Rank monster missions but barely managed to succeed. I always freeze up and almost die, so I thought improving myself might help."
'What a pitiful kid.'
"That won't help. Improving your strength and skills might help you gain confidence and overcome your fear, but that will only work on weaklings. The moment you're faced with something stronger again, your fear will kill you."
"And even if that was enough, your way of training isn't doing anything for your growth. You clearly have no talent, but you try to copy the techniques that Franklin is teaching Jayson over there." Garrick said while pointing behind him.
Dustin looked at the ground in defeat. He knew that he was talentless and a coward, but he still believed he could overcome those things with hard work. But that belief was breaking down over time.
"You're right. Maybe I should give up on becoming an adventurer. But I don't know what else to do. It's been my dream all my life. My father was an adventurer and died on a mission. I wanted to follow his footsteps and prove to my mother that I can be different—
But just like with everything else, I have no talent in this either."
Garrick felt slightly bad for him.
"Yes well, you're definitely talentless in combat. But with the right training, enough experience and hard work, you can at least become a decent adventurer. Plus, from what I've seen, you have immense focus and a decent brain on you."
Dustin looked up with hope and excitement.
"Really?!"
"But how would you know I'm smart when you just met me?"
"Because by watching you perform the simple downward strike, I noticed that you quickly understood the motions of the posture and sword movements that you saw from Jayson."
"Wow really?"
"Yeah. But you suck at executing them. Your body has terrible balance and natural ability. It's like your brain and body don't speak the same language."
Dustin's excitement faded almost immediately. His shoulders drooped in disappointment.
"I see. Thanks for telling me."
"What should I do then?"
"Haha. That's easy. You need some real tough experiences!"
Dustin didn't have a good feeling about this.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I haven't been on any adventurer missions yet and I have nothing to do for a week anyway. How about we take on some missions together for training purposes?"
"Are you sure? You look very strong. I don't think I can handle the same monsters as you."
"Don't worry. We won't take too difficult missions. Although I've faced many monsters before, that was long ago. And I specialize in fighting humans. This is a good warm up for me before starting party activities."
"Oh! You must be the one that joined Osric's party recently. That's really cool."
Garrick looked surprised.
"Oh? Osric's reputation is better than I thought."
Dustin looked like an excited child. "Of course! He's the up and coming star of the guild. Osric is strong and smart. He's the coolest leader around!"
"Pfft. Hahahaha! You're funny kid. Are you his fan or something?"
Dustin looked embarrassed.
"He actually talked to me once just like you when I was training alone. He was so nice and cool unlike everyone else around me who treats me like I'm nothing. He motivated me to try harder. No one has grown as quickly as him around here."
"Is that so? Sounds cool indeed."
'Interesting. Osric being nice for no reason? I haven't known him that long, but I feel like this doesn't suit him at all.' Garrick thought.
'Maybe he saw something in this kid?'
"Alright then. It's decided. Follow me."
"Wh-what? Where to?"
"To take a mission of course!"
"Ahh. Okay."
"Wait for me!" He shouted while struggling to follow Garrick.