Explanation

Charlie looked at the afternoon sun that was still in the air and laughed

"Okay it's getting late, ill explain things while we walk back."

The two walked back to the barracks, this time in the warm, red sunlight. Charlie finally started to open his mouth

"So the entire intelligence trial is in that tower, what you just experienced was an illusion"

"The entire thing?"

"yeah, the moment the white light engulfed you at the entrance you were in."

Jason asked in a confused manner since it felt almost too real

"And your sure its an illusion?"

Charlie answered

"Okay we are not totally sure, but we're pretty sure its something like that."

Huh, so everything from the library to the dark fake first tower floor was all an illusion. Wait then how did he get access to the library and the "fake" trial actually gave him intelligence points. and parts of the trial seemed too real like the wolves. Hmm, that seemed like it needed some investigation later.

"Charlie, what is the real intelligence trial then?"

Charlie laughed again

"the real trial is to survive and escape from a pack of starving monsters that are stronger and faster than you and reach the barracks. In order to survive, you are forced to use your brain to create strategies and plans."

"Ahhh that explains allot"

"really it does? well, I am a bit curious, unlike the agility course we can't see your movements in the tower."

"So you want me to tell you what I did?"

Charlie looked at Jason with an interesting look in his eye

"Yes, do tell"

Jason looked at Charlie dead in the eye and grinned

"you said that the monsters were starving right?"

"hmm? yes, I did say that so how... ahh I see, that was an excellent strategy I would have never thought of that."

Now it was Jason's turn to laugh

"yeah, it was a spur of the moment type of thing."

"you must have gotten a group of monsters that weren't completely hostile to humans then, right?"

"yup a pack of wolves"

"your lucky, I had a horde of undead when I did mine"

"pfft, how did you manage to survive that?"

Charlie grinned at Jason

"I happen to know a bit of holy magic"

"you lucky bastard"

"ha, you have no grounds to say that Jason"

Before Jason knew it he was involved with a pleasant conversation with Charlie, both of them were laughing, and both of them continued down the road to the barracks that they were now both very familiar with.

Jason thought of something

"Hey Charlie"

"yeah I'm listening"

"were you giving me hints on the way to the tower?"

Charlie passed thinking a bit about his actions

"yes I did, usually the trainees who do this trial are very familiar with the terrain here so I saw it was right to give you some hints"

"thank you for that"

"haha no problem Jason, besides we need to work together like this for the final one"

Jason stopped suddenly and stared at Charlie. Charlie stopped wondering what Jason was doing. He watched Jason's expression and then it hit him

"nobody's told you about the final trial huh"

Jason said in a pissed voice

"goddammit Lyle, why you got to play me like this"

Charlie facepalmed and muttered

"Lyle I swear you're going to get murdered when I get back"

Charlie looked at Jason again sighed and then looked back

"Okay I can explain but I'm not completely sure about the information's accuracy."

Jason said in a monotone voice

"yeah at this point I'm grateful for any type of information"

"Okay the final trial is a platoon wide trial"

"all of the barracks?"

Charlie nodded in confirmation

"yeah all of us, we need to work together in different circumstances and hardships"

"do you know what they are?"

Charlie laughed

"the trials themselves? they are always different the last, one had us taking over an A-ranked adventures mission, we failed that one which is why we are still trainees"

Jason had so many more questions but they had already reached the barracks, it was ironic during the trial he wanted to get here as fast as he could but now he just wanted the barracks to be teleported to the next hill over yonder. Charlie gave Jason a goodbye and left cracking his knuckles.

He turned to Jason one more time and shouted

"you're free to train on your own, the rest of the instructors left on an errand, so feel free to do any of the courses on your own again. You just can't leave the training camp without permission."

Jason watched Charlie walking back to the barracks and Boops summarized Jason's thoughts in a sentence

'you've got to be kidding me, that was exactly like the end of a tutorial'

Jason thought angrily

"Frick, I thought I was going to be trained the entire time"

Boops tried to be positive

'On the plus side, you can use the equipment whenever you want'

"Yeah with a giant impending deadline called the "final trial""

'ah, that's right... try not to get too stressed'

"Boops your like the person who says "oof" in a conversation, you're not helping"

'ack that one actually hurt'

They both chuckled at the end of their little play and Jason went off the strength training area. Colby and Mark were training against each other there. They were sparing using wooden swords and continuously clashing against each other. Jason didn't want to bother then and walked past them. The two were focusing on beating each other to the ground and didn't notice Jason walking past.

Another person did notice him and walked to him. Jason turned around to see a slim black-haired man behind him. The man had a green bandana tied around his arm. He motioned to one of the arenas and said one word

"follow"

Jason followed, usually, he would be worried if a person called him up to an arena most likely challenging him, but if an NPC initiated anything to Jason Boop's gaming senses it smelled like something good was going to happen.

Jason and the man walked to the arena the man threw a wooden training sword to him, grabbed another sword and said his second word

"fight"

Jason raised his sword, positioned himself in front of the man, and charged.