The Last Warlock

Half an hour later, Mack reached the beach and saw the same type of transportation vehicle that had brought him to the beach at the beginning of the trial.

In front of it, waiting for him, stood a small group of people, one of them was the overseer that Mack already knew.

Mack approached the group of people and before he could even say anything, he saw a girl among the group fainting on the spot. Her face hitting the hard rocks on the beach and blood leaving the wound recently formed by the fall.

Mack stopped on his track without knowing what to do. 'Did she faint because of me?', then he remembered, 'Right, I tried to kill her not even an hour ago!'. But what no one knew was that Mack already had forgotten the matter.

He didn't even recognize the girl. If was not for the missing limb and tattered clothes, Mack would have thought that she was someone from the vehicle crew.

Realizing the awkward atmosphere that the scene caused, Mack gave a small cough, and said, "I think it's better if she rests a bit more. No?"

As if understanding the subtle meaning of Mack, a man from the side came to pick the girl, but before she could awake from the motion, the man injected a needle into her right arm, and the struggle on the girl's face disappeared.

"I applied a narcotic, she will sleep for a few more hours." said the man, picking the girl in his arms and carrying her to inside the vehicle.

What passed in the girl's head to make her faint, no one would ever know, but everyone in the vehicle crew could guess, seeing that only two passed the trial, and more important than that, was the time it took for the trial to end, barely one hour.

With the absence of the girl, the atmosphere loosened, and the crew went to do their chores to depart.

Mack took a few steps and started boarding the vehicle too, and seeing that, the overseer took the opportunity to come to Mack and explain a few things while they walked, "Congratulations again, one of my duties is to prepare the ones passing the trial for what's comes next, normally is a speech, but since only you passed, cough, I mean, only two of you passed, I will explain it over a cup of coffee, shall we?"

Hearing that Mack almost froze in the spot, but then he remembered the translator in his ears, he was so used to it, that he almost forgot that the device would translate common words, including things like coffee or sugar or milk, for a moment the familiarity of the word, a word from his planet made him freeze in the spot, because since he left Earth, this was the first time he heard the name of a thing from Earth, all things he ate until know had weird aliens names.

Seeing Mack froze on stop for a brief moment, the overseer asked, "What? You don't like coffee? We have other kinds of beverage too."

Mack shook his head and with a smile said, "No, coffee is fine, it's that, has been a long time since a drank a cup of coffee... I would really appreciate, thank you." 

Seeing the smile and the reaction of Mack the overseer could not avoid saying what was on his mind, "You know, giving what you did, I thought you would be some arrogant brat, or some narcissistic man, but none of the former would ever say a 'Thanks' because of a cup of coffee, I like you, kid."

With that said, they reached a big room inside the vehicle that had walls on both sides. The furniture was a bit better than the vehicle that Mack used before and a few tables took place over just a bunch of seats.

"Come! lets seat here." said the overseer, pointing to a table, and already prompting Mack to sit on one of the chairs.

Mack put his swords by the side and not even a minute later came a someone from the crew bring two finely engraved cups and a few small snacks and placed on the table.

Mack saw the man removing the lid of his own cup and taking a sip, and he imitated the same action. The familiar bitter taste of coffee mixed with the sweet of sugar came to his mouth at the same time the smell of coffee assaulted his nose.

Mack felt at home for a brief second as warm memories came to the back of his mind.

The warmth of the coffee seemed to remove some of his mental fatigue, and Mack finally could relax from the pent-up tension that accumulated because of the last battle.

The overseer put his cup down and said, "Now that you passed the trial, there are a few things you must decide, and the most important is, the division you will join, normally it's decided for you, unless your performance is remarkably well, what is exactly your case."

'So, here comes, exactly as the old man said,' Thought Mack, putting his cup down and hearing the overseer's explanation.

"The second thing is your reward. You can choose to receive it in essence crystals, or items, or leave it as Contribution Points to exchange for what you need later. We will not transfer any money to a bank account of yours. That kind of thing leave trails, and as you must already know, secrecy is our maxim."

"I see. I will think about the prize later... What are the Divisions that are available for me to choose?" Asked Mack.

Although he and the old man had already decided long ago about the prize and the division he would join, he still had to play along. It was a crucial part of the plan that could easily backfire later if they revealed their intentions too soon or too openly. In a organization like this, every new member was bound to be strictly monitored, even one that was already known to the war council or initiated by an influential member as the old man. 

In the old man plan, even the most minute mistake could jeopardize everything, and Mack knew that better than everyone, because it was his neck that was the betting chip.

Hearing the question, the overseer said, "The divisions available to you are..." he took a device from his pocket and pressed a few times as if finding the information, once he read what was on the device his expression grew serious as his eyes subtly grew in surprise and he said, "As expected after this performance...."