Glade momentarily closed his notifications and sighed as he placed the last beetle steak onto the pile of cooked meat. He had a choice to make. However, the practical side of his brain still doubted their current situation was real. Of course, the dysfunctional part of his brain pointed out that his practical side had gone insane after seeing the Magma Beetles eat his night vision goggles. Add to the fact that Kedryn was using magical fire to cook their food wasn’t helping.

  Standing up, Glade stretched the muscles in his back. Not that it was really that sore. Whatever the adjudicators had done to him made his aches and pains simply go away.

  After a couple of minutes of internal debate, he chose to push his decision till later. Afterall, nothing said he choose now.

  “Your turn to do the dishes Kid,” Glade said, sitting back down.

  “My turn?” Kedryn asked with a raised brow.

  “Yup. Standard rules. The new guy is always placed at the top of the chores list, and that includes washing that makeshift pan. If you doubt me, you can always ask Mother when we see him next.”

  “Uh huh. Is this one of those hazing things you guys do to the lowest ranked person?” Kedryn asked skeptically.

  “Nope,” Glade responded with a smile. “Well, get to it. The creepy metal carapace isn’t going to wash itself.”

  Kedryn stared at him until Glade arched a brow. That was all it took for the young Corporal to walk to the water’s edge and begin scrubbing out the ‘pan’ with loose gravel.

  Movement from the corner of the room made Glade turn his head. Riya was upright and fully awake, her eyes darting between him and Kedryn. There was a brief look of confusion before her eyes fell on the pile of freshly cooked food.

  Without a word, Glade speared a piece with his knife and handed it to her. It took some coaxing, but after a few awkward moments of miming that it was ok for her to eat, Riya warily took the offered meal and quickly retreated to her corner of the room.

  Judging by the look on her face, Glade surmised the food was terrible. Nothing new as far as he was concerned. Cooking had never been his strong suit. Still, food was food, and they were in no position to be picky.

  After waiting for Kedryn to return, Glade handed him a piece of meat and then grabbed one for himself.

  Both took a large bite.

  “Once you get past the gag reflex, it's not that bad,” Glade said, forcing himself to swallow what tasted like a mouth full of rubber soaked in dish water.

  Kedryn set his back on the pile after one bite, his face turning a unique shade of green.

  Chuckling, Glade grabbed another piece and resumed going through his notifications. He lliked the idea of waiting to choose a spell. Better to get a full grasp of the lunacy he found himself in before confronting the fact he was now some sort of magician. The aura sense was also something he would ask Kedryn about.

  Once he worked up the patience to engage him again, that is.

  That raised Glade’s eyebrows. He vividly remembered the moment his mind had connected to Kedryn’s while suspended amongst the clouds. It had been a long shot to say the least, but he had only tried it because of his earlier experience with the fragments in his mindscape.

  It also looked like he was getting underneath the adjudicator's skins. Good.

  Either way, using the skill could wait until later. After all, he had used it before.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  Glade’s race had changed? He didn’t know the difference between evolved and enlightened Human’s, but it had to be important if the adjudicators made a point of notifying him.

  Not knowing what else to do, he continued reading the remaining notifications. There were only a couple prompts left for his time in the Eights domain.

  Glade stopped chewing, the awful taste of his food all but forgotten. No other message he read previously screamed to take the information seriously like this one did. Willpower was not a new concept. He didn’t know of any special ability he had back on earth, but if he was reading this right, the adjudicators had somehow quantified and magicked the attribute. Shape realities? Fight angels or demons? He wasn’t sure what to make of it but could now understand why Kedryn had been curious about the additional attribute.

  Out of curiosity, he pulled up his willpower menu and imagined creating a portal that would take him and his team home.

  Glade snorted at the response. He had approached the willpower attribute like making a wish, which appeared to be the wrong manner in how to use it. Of course, that would have been too easy. But the result from his brief experiment at least made sense. Having the knowledge was key. The question was, how much information did he need to make this work in his favor?

  He cast a furtive glance toward Kedryn, who was engaging Riya in conversation again. He cringed to think about the future conversation he was going to have with the overeager Corporal.

  Not knowing what else to do, Glade moved on.

  That must have been when old fluff ball speared him in the head. Glade winced at the memory. That had been… unpleasant.

  Congratulations! You have chosen to use your moderate boon to place yourself, and those you deem under your protection, in a place that will provide the best opportunity to advance.

  Letting out an explosive breath, Glade leaned back against the wall, his mind reeling. That was the last of his notifications from his time with the adjudicators. To say it had been a long day was an understatement. In the last few hours, he had faced godlike cotton balls, monsters that could melt metal, and he could apparently cast magic, talk with his mind, and could focus his willpower to do… something. And this was only the beginning.

  He quickly reviewed the last notification about Riya a second time. The statement ‘all that it entails’ didn’t instill him with the greatest of feelings.

  No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than a prompt forced its way into his vision.