Tales of the Trio: Unbroken

Chapter Four

A month has passed since they arrived at the Kingdom. Within this time Lela had saved up quite a lot of money, she bought a book that looked nice and was priced rather high, turns out it was a book Dominic hasn't read yet, which was very fortunate for her since she was just guessing. She also surprised Maximus with enough money to afford training sessions with Idradale's army without actually joining it, which is rather pricey, he was happy about this since he had talked and thought about it often. During the last few weeks our young adventurers were still to busy to actually talk to one another properly, just few times between sleeping, meals, work, but all of them really needed to sit down and talk about very important news that they had all came across. The trio are sitting around their table with soups sitting in front of them, none of them really touching it, Maximus decides to go first and tell his story. So let's turn back the clocks and go through Maximus's life while he tells the others what he found out. Ever since Lela bought him training sessions he spent all his time working and training. He'd carry merchant crates or work on fields, he'd also help shop merchants open and close by bringing their stuff out to the stall or back inside. He also did a variety of other jobs, almost all of them being hard work that required a few other strong people. As for the training sessions, they mostly consisted of semi advanced weapon training, so there were always archers, spears, people using swords and shields, dual wielding, and a few more weapons were all practicing. The first few sessions that he attended, he would switch between different weapons trying to figure out what best suited him. The captain of the guard had been keeping an eye on him ever since Maximus started attending especially since it wasn't common for people to pay for training rather than just join. He noticed him switching weapons every session and that Maximus showed raw natural talent in the ways of combat, the captain suggested that Maximus should use a sword and shield especially since his size and strength made it so he could use the shield as a weapon when needed. Ever since Maximus used the sword and shield and practiced hard to improve his skill, he made a lot of mistake as expected but he was quickly getting better and learned from each mistakes. One of the few interactions with Lela, he asked her to sneak in and "borrow" a wooden shield and sword so he could practice outside of training which eventually he had her return them when he was able to afford his own sword and shield, nothing fancy but the sword was sharp and the shield seemed sturdy. Other training sessions he was able to attend but were not limited to were wrestling when disarmed, endurance, climbing, archery for when camping and in need of hunting, footwork to use or avoid in certain terrain, and more.

Over time he began to have short conversations with the captain of the guard, and one day he was invited to join the captain and his friends for a meal after a training session. Turns out the captain's friends are just other higher ranked soldiers, and they liked Maximus so him attending the meals after training became a regular thing unless there was no training that day. Maximus learned that the Captains name is Wesley. At one of the meals the captain said to Maximus "Hey Max, keep this to yourself, very few know about this, so you know first hand about the growing orc problem. A closed meeting with the king and the people close to him, mainly those that are important to this kingdom and it's territory, ordered some of the guard to take a unit of soldiers from the army as well as the more promising recruits to go on a patrol, kind of like a orc hunt though more so to cut their numbers since they're starting to be a big problem to us and other kingdoms. They want us to take the recruits to see how they react in a fight rather than just practice, as well as get some actual experience. We know you're not a recruit in the army but you are by far better, with enough time I can see you giving me a run for my money." His second in command cut in "Haha he has a big ego but he is one of the best in the land, so take that as a compliment, but between us I can take him" the other soldiers started laughing at the second and the captain began again "that being said, wanna join us on the patrol?" Maximus agreed to going with them, the captain told him not to worry about armor as that'll be provided.