The first three days of training were... unexpected. It consisted of the queen making fun of me, while I sit around in a dark room. The only thing she told me was not to have fear.

It stepped up pretty fast, from three days doing nothing - The queen suddenly starts adding creatures. Every time I succeed, there will be more dangerous animals. That sadistic, royal bitch!

At day four, it was goblins. I wasn't allowed to kill them. Neither dodge, or even flinch. Obviously, failing it was inevitable. Fifth day was enlightening.

The goblins attacked me from all sides, as I dodge. I'm not getting stabbed by a goblin, hell no! One of the goblins does scrape me, at least it should've. As it was flying through the air before me, it was easy to notice. It passed through me.

I understood now, the creatures were only illusions and the fear unreasonable. Is this the first lection? To evaluate threats right? To stay calm and analyse?

Q:" I think you understood. Now it's only practicing. Try again!"

She extends the room downwards. It is now more cave than room, actually. No lights at all. This time I concentrate on the goblins steps and close my eyes. If they scare me I will flinch, no doubt. Easily avoided by just knowing where they are, though.

The goblins attacked at once again, but I just stared into their eyes and countered three attacks at the same time. Three? The one behind me got hit by the knife I deflected from the one before. The one before got hit by my punch, the other one at my side was hit by my elbow as I turned around to throw the knife.

Wait. I hit them? Weren't they illusions?

C:" Aren't those real ones?"

Q:" Yes of course! We are training your instinct after all! You felt the difference between the four fakes and the three real ones didn't you?"

C:" But how..."

Q:" Instinct - used calmly. If done right, it gives you quite some advantage. Hurry! Futher practice awaits!"

C:" Where do you even get those from?"

Q:" Where I get all my supplies, magic store!"

C:" ... Really?"

Q:" No, you moron! I go and catch them in dungeons!"

Let me add something to my list. Sarcastic, sadistic, royal bitch!

C:" What is up next?"

Q:" Feel it yourself!"

Oh god, what is this going to be. I enter the cave again, calm and focussed. I cannot afford to let my concentration slip. A sudden sound of rustling behind me. I turn around to look at it, as I get hit on the back of my head.

The next day I wake up to ice water. The queen waked me.

Q:" Sharpen your instincts. Sounds aren't something to look at, they are something to notice and keep track of. Do not think of one sound more important because of its volume, keep all of them in mind"

Easily said, if you are just standing there!

Apparently I said that out loud, because the queen answers.

Q:" I keep track of this whole kingdom, a few beasts are not a problem at all! Now back to work!"

This is not a surprise, she knew all of our names before we even entered her room. She even knew them without being inside this kingdom at all. All of that with instinct was unbelievable. There had to be somehing else in the background.

I'll just try to follow her teachings, if I can even keep up...

The next days I got confronted with wolves, cyclops and then minotaurs. Cyclops and minotaurs were very easy to grasp. Having your instincts being awakened by the feeling of possible death is pretty useful. If you stay calm, while having that feeling.

Around the time I defeated minotaurs easily, my mind was able to sense people outside my room. Sleeping gets hard, if everyone passing wakes you up. Also, the queen got more and more comfortable with me around. I still didn't receive her name, but it doesn't bother me.

Up next was mixing the monsters. Locating focus on more than one place was hard, but to additonally keep track on what is occupying that place was basically impossible.

Was what I thought at start, but I didn't have to listen to the sounds anymore. I just knew where those monsters were, so I could focus on determine their species.

The first round was consisting of cyclops, woves and goblins. The toddling of the goblins, the silent breathing of the wolves, such as the loud steps of the cyclops gave more information than I needed. Wolves were attacking first. Three illusion, four real ones, the real ones being distributed on my front and back.

I pick up a wolf from front, spin around and hit the other three. They howl, while I beat them with the dead body of their friend. Traitor!

Goblins and cyclops added their forces, so the cyclops threw the goblins. Nice strategy, if your opponent has problems with locating. I throw the crushed wolf corpse towards the place the goblins will land, hear them screaming and rush towards the cyclops.

I dodge their punches, use one of their arms to climb up and ram my arm into their eyes. Five cyclops, such as five clean hits. The splashing sounds of their eyeballs were disgusting, but I had no weapon to kill them with, no other option for me.

Apparently one goblin survived, as it tries to hide under a wolfs corpse. I jump and kick into the wolf, the goblin pants, but as my foot hit his throat there isn't much to breathe in for him, except his own blood. I stay like that for a few more seconds for it to suffocate.

As I finished the queen calls me up, for my last lection.