Soul of the Warrior

Chapter 179: Mercenary Formation

Reivyn walked along the outskirts of the training men, watching all three groups work. His final month was to inspect the instruction of the officers and senior sergeants he had trained the previous month, but they only made up one group of his evaluation. The second obvious group being evaluated was the soldier of the company that was training to fight against people.

The third and final group was Reivyn's personal soldiers. He had gotten permission from Garet to allow the Adventurers that were going to make up the backbone of his leadership structure the opportunity to observe the training. They had spent the past several weeks learning from the instructors. They weren't learning how to fight against other people, though. They were learning how to instruct.

Reivyn wouldn't be able to train all of the recruits and trainees he would receive who were interested in joining his mercenary company once it was advertised. He already had a core group of individuals he could trust and who knew the subject matter, so why not have them learn how to teach it themselves?

Not all of them were cut out for it, obviously. Several of the Adventurers gained the Teaching Skill right away, proving their talent in the field. The majority had barely unlocked the Skill, but there were still others that didn't unlock it at all. Reivyn wasn't disappointed with those Adventurers, even if they were disappointed in themselves, because they would still be able to have a role to play in training the mercenary soldiers.

There had to be people to give demonstrations of what was being taught, and there had to be opponents for the drills when the time came. They would make excellent tutors, even without the Skill, with their combat ability and tactics learned from the expedition in Drallo.

Reivyn glanced over at Jekle, who was intent on watching all of the Adventurers under his charge. It had been decided that Refix would be the Vice-Captain, but Jekle would be the First Platoon Leader. He wouldn't get a commission from the Imperial Army, but he would still be afforded the respect an officer deserved while on official duty with the mercenary company. Those that would employ Reivyn and his group wouldn't know the difference, anyway, what with the writ they would hold from the Imperial Family and being under the banner of Princess Kefira.

Jekle was one of the individuals who had unlocked the Teaching Skill around the midpoint. It didn't matter to Reivyn whether the man had the Skill or not, but it could lend some credibility in certain situations in the early days of recruiting and training the mercenary force. Jekle's role would be to oversee the entire thing when Reivyn wasn't around, and he knew the man's natural leadership abilities were a good fit for the task. Having the Skill was just icing on the cake.

The others that joined Jekle on the trip to Wispan would take up the same roles they had before, but there was room for advancement as long as the mercenary company was successful and could recruit more people to its ranks. Reivyn didn't know how popular the idea would be at first, as most people were still under the impression that there existed the army to ward off monster hordes and Adventurers to delve into Dungeons and retrieve scarce resources. The third style of combat would be something new to most people, though it wasn't hard to understand.

Working as a soldier purely for money and not for reputation, honor, or to uphold an agreement was something that people weren't used to. The monetary compensation was the first thing that Reivyn had hashed out with Jekle and Garet in their first official meeting, and he wanted it to be the main issue going forward. It might seem strange to someone who knew Reivyn, but he was looking at it as the mercenary companies being resources bought and paid for, and he wanted it to be perfectly clear upfront.

The main source of income for the Adventurers that chose to become mercenaries wasn't going to be supplied by Wispan. Garet had agreed to compensate them through access and assets. They would be free to use the training facilities for a certain amount of time each month, and they would have the option to have priority to purchase additional time. They would also supply the first batch of gear to the mercenaries. That included the new recruits who passed the training.

The final piece of compensation that was the real deal maker for Jekle and the other Adventurers was priority quotas to the Tier 4 Dungeons protected by the imperial army. There was one just outside of the city, up the mountain where the base of the training camps was situated on. That particular Dungeon was technically open to the public, but there were long wait lines and reservation requirements. There were just too many people wanting to access it to allow it to be a free-for-all. The imperial army had wisely set it up so that there were always some additional slots available every week so that they could dole out such favors as they arose.

This was perfectly fine with Reivyn. It would allow his mercenaries to transition more smoothly into a different lifestyle. They would be able to hold onto their old ways of delving into Dungeons in Parties before they fully integrated as professional soldiers, and then they would get the opportunity to practice their teamwork together as soldiers in the Dungeons after they had acclimated.

It was a subtle influence on their frame of mind. They would get to act as Adventurers to deal with the stress of a different lifestyle, but even that very act would slowly transition into further training them as soldiers. The key would be to set the Parties up appropriately, and the best way to do that would be to make sure the squads of the platoons were set up properly.

The cap on how many people could be at a Party and still receive Experience played a part, too. Not every restriction was wholly negative. Some Adventurers might look at that cap and hold it against a tough Dungeon or quest they could complete if they could just add one or two more people, but that same restriction would force them to grow to overcome the challenge. Reivyn planned to force that growth towards military-Esque teamwork and tactics.

"Do you think you and your men have a handle on the training regimen?" Reivyn asked Jekle.

Jekle continued to watch the soldiers and Adventurers for a moment longer as he gathered his thoughts.

"I think... we should requisition a couple of instructors for the very newest imperial soldiers," Jekle finally admitted, turning to face Reivyn. "We have what it takes, the experience and Skill, to teach this," he gestured at the training going on in the distance, "but we don't quite have the necessary know-how to turn Adventurers into soldiers."

"Hmm, that's a good point," Reivyn said, contemplating the revelation. "I had been too caught up in changing how the soldiers looked at how to fight, now that the enemy wouldn't be monsters, that I had forgotten to take into account that you all had only been soldiers for a short time. None of you have the training of how to train soldiers.

"I'm sure you'll be able to pick it up quickly, especially those few that gained the Teaching Skill right away. You all know how to be soldiers. You just need to be able to teach that to others."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we could figure out how to get them to dress into ranks properly, how to form a shield-wall and maneuver with their spears as a unit, but there are all kinds of little minutiae that I'm afraid we'll overlook. That might come back to bite us one day, and none of us want a sore backside."

"Truer words have never been spoken," Refix replied, barking a laugh.

"Dad, you're not helping," Reivyn said, rolling his eyes.

"Sure I am!" Refix clapped his son on the shoulder. "Even soldiers need a sense of humor. Especially soldiers."

Reivyn just stared at his smirking father, unable to contradict him. The man's got a point, Reivyn conceded.

"Alright, fair, but we're trying to have a serious discussion about the future of our mercenary company here. It's not the right time," Reivyn argued.

"It's the perfect time! It's just the three of us. If we never let ourselves go for fear of losing the respect of our subordinates, then we'd go crazy. We can't vent to them, so we have to vent to each other."

Reivyn sighed in his heart. Not because his father was a lost cause but because he knew he spoke the truth. His own experiences and the Dreams of the Past let him know it was the truth. He had been too caught up in his own sense of righteousness.

"Thanks," Reivyn said with a smile. "I needed that reminder. That being said, I'll leave the humor up to you right now. I have important things to discuss."

"As it should be," Refix nodded his head.

Jekle just watched the interplay from the side. He could see where Reivyn got his natural charm from. He had only known Refix for a couple of weeks, but the man had a way with people that just drew them to him. If Reivyn wasn't around, Jekle could see himself easily following his father off on some sort of other shenanigans, and he did not doubt that that would be exactly what it was. Shenanigans.

"Anyway, I think we'll only need the help for the first month," Jekle continued. "We can pick it up on the job, and once we have all the little details ironed out, we should be able to become fully self-sufficient on the training front.

"How long are we planning on training the recruits until we deem them ready to go, do you think?"

"My natural instinct is to say three months, but I don't think it will be that long," Reivyn replied. "We don't have to condition the recruits, so we can throw that entire aspect of the training out. Oh, we'll still push them mentally and physically, but we won't have to set aside time specifically for physical fitness. That will cut down on a third of what I have going on up in my head, so we'll say two months."

"Two months," Jekle repeated. He stopped to think about it for a moment. "That's still twice as long as the training we received in Drallo."

Reivyn gave him a considering look for a moment.

"Aside from our platoon and Jek's, were the others truly ready?" Reivyn queried. "We did a lot more additional training with tactics than the others did, and we still suffered in the beginning. The rest of the battalion was completely unprepared.

"The way I'm looking at it, we'll spend two weeks to turn them into soldiers, or, at least, get them into the mindset. We'll spend two weeks turning them into a unit. We'll spend two weeks turning them into a fighting unit, and finally, we'll spend two weeks practicing tactics. Just like these imperial soldiers, we'll spend the full last week in the field without any breaks.

"We have the experience of the imperial soldiers to help us in the first month, and we have the experience of true warfare and this training camp for the second month. We might not be able to produce the premier fighting force in the world in that amount of time, but we'll have the seeds of one."

"Very good," Jekle said, nodding his head. "I'll let the others know your intentions, and we'll craft our plan with that in mind."

"You don't have to reinvent the wheel," Reivyn said, clapping Jekle on the shoulder. "I'll get that requisition for assistance with the military instructors to Garet, and I'll have them convene with you guys ahead of time to work everything out. I'll also always be around to assist, but as the nominal 'head honcho,' it wouldn't be appropriate for me to directly lead the training.

"In the future, if we have to recruit more people, I won't be able to, anyway. Might as well set the precedent now. I trust you guys."

"You won't be disappointed."

The rest of the training and evaluation for the third company was completed without a hitch, and after another week off that Reivyn spent with his family and Kefira, it was time to get down to business with the new recruits.

They hadn't just been sitting and waiting for the training to end. Reivyn had already put out feelers and spread the word about the mercenary company. Reivyn had expected it to take weeks to fill the quota he was looking for to outfit an entire company of three platoons, but he had been surprised.

Word had spread in certain circles about the invasions taking place in other empires. It wasn't common knowledge to the general populace, still, but it wasn't particularly hidden, either. Word had spread in the Adventurer circles. They were, at the end of the day, people who made their living through combat, so it made sense that they would seek out other avenues of advancing for the future.

Those that had learned the news the earliest were those that had the means, and they also used that means to learn about the expedition that had happened in Drallo. Two and two were put together, and after hearing testimonials about the Experience gains possible in warfare, some of the Adventurers had grown intrigued.

All of this culminated in a fairly decently Leveled amalgamation of Adventurers ready to try this new "mercenary company" out when it opened its doors.

Reivyn had thought he would need to temper the training they would receive so as not to run too many people off and not have enough to fill out the numbers. He was met with the opposite problem, though. They would need to intensify the training to weed out the chaff, or they would have too many people. Reivyn wasn't ready, nor was the infrastructure in place, to command a mercenary battalion.

Officer training was one thing. There were always considerably fewer candidates than recruits for enlistment. There just weren't enough prisoner bands available to use the same trick of limiting Stats that Reivyn had gone through in Drallo. That left the old-fashioned method of exercising until the recruits were exhausted before any training could begin.

Refix's eyes lit up like he had received a shiny new toy when Reivyn revealed his intentions, and the training began.

Refix took particular glee in coming up with new and interesting ways to ensure everyone was always tired, and Reivyn let him run with a free hand. He had great synergy acting with the imperial instructors and the Drallo veterans. They worked the Adventurers until they were dripping with sweat, and then they instilled discipline in them.

Nobody was allowed to bend over with their hands on their knees to catch their breath. Nobody was allowed to throw their heads back and groan. If anyone broke the rules, they would be subjected to more physical training under the direct supervision of Refix. After the first dozen recruits were sent for his personal tutelage, nobody wanted to experience that again.

The number of recruits dropped precipitously after the first week. No contract held them in place for the first month, and if the Adventurers, who were used to a carefree lifestyle, found that the new way of doing things didn't mesh with them, Reivyn was happy to send them on their way. It was better for their personnel to be made up of those that were there voluntarily and found they enjoyed the lifestyle rather than of those who felt like they were obligated to put up with it.

Some of the latter still stuck it out, but they had their own personal reasons for doing so. Reivyn didn't have the time or need to investigate each one in detail, so he just let the numbers adjust naturally.

The first two weeks consisted of personal discipline. The recruits were constantly tired and hungry, and they were forced to always maintain perfect military bearing. Any infraction at any time for any reason was swiftly punished. Even in the middle of the night, when a recruit needed to relieve themselves, they had to maintain proper bearing under the scrutiny of the watching instructors.

After the first two weeks, the focus switched from one of personal discipline to one of group discipline. No longer were individuals punished for infractions. They were punished as a group, sometimes as the entire recruit training unit all together. The first week had some heated moments where tempers flared, and resentment flourished, but that only led to harsher disciplinary measures.

At the end of the first month, those that stuck it out were acting like proper military soldiers. They would never need to learn all the pomp and circumstance associated with the official imperial army, but they would need to speak the same language. Reivyn was incredibly pleased with the outcome.

Reivyn kept to the outskirts for the most part, but he wasn't completely absent from the training. The recruits knew who he was, and he made sure that they knew that he was around and watching. Kefira made several appearances, as well, and it was quickly made known that they would be the personal mercenary soldiers of one of the imperial princesses. This knowledge itself, after the transformation into a disciplined unit by the end of the first month, lent a certain amount of pride to those that stuck around.

Individual combat prowess wasn't nearly as important as being a cohesive fighting unit was, and Reivyn used the veterans to demonstrate this at the beginning of the second month. The base Level of the volunteers found in Willowan was considerably higher than those found in Oreck, but after a short "spar" between the recruit platoons and the veterans forming up platoons, they learned the truth of the matter.

There were fewer veterans than one entire platoon of recruits, and there were three platoons of recruits. Reivyn made his first official appearance leading the veterans to basically toy with the recruits. He didn't hold back, and he maneuvered the veterans around and tore into the recruits with their precision. He didn't leave the recruits completely defenseless, either. Jekle and Paul were giving directions to the platoons squaring off against the veterans.

The difference wasn't that Reivyn was so much better than Jekle and Paul at leading a platoon. He was, but that wasn't the point. The main point was that despite recently becoming a cohesive unit, the recruits couldn't fully translate that into combat power. They lacked the ability to follow the directions of Jekle and Paul promptly in the same way that the imperial army platoons had first struggled with Reivyn's commands all those weeks ago when he first started.

Learning of the synergy a unit could achieve with proper instructions, the proper ability to actually follow those instructions, and the ability to fight perfectly as a unit only further fueled the recruits' desire to learn. The first two weeks of the second month were spent on drill, drill, drill.

By the time the first two weeks of the second month were over, each of the recruit platoons was just as capable of fighting as a unit as the veterans of Drallo. Higher Levels and Stats weren't all just for show. It was only when they didn't know what they were doing that they couldn't keep up. They still didn't have the steel in their spine, and the flames in their eyes that the veterans had, but Reivyn was happy with the progress.

The last two weeks of the second month were spent mostly in the field. The three platoons took turns facing off against each other in multiple scenarios, culminating in the week-long exercise that had become a staple of Reivyn's training style.

Reivyn didn't spend the entire week with the recruits in the field, that's what he had subordinates for, but he did spend the majority with them. Reivyn had had a couple of occasions to display his combat prowess to the recruits, and his willingness to suffer the same extremes that they did out in the field endeared him to them. He had their respect more than just his title and position would dictate, and none of the veterans were surprised.

By the end of the two months of training, Reivyn still had a slight dilemma. There were too many recruits that completed the training. The last several days of the training hadn't been spent in luxury, though. He had been coordinating with Kefira and some of her friends from the Academy.

Reivyn hadn't forgotten that he was going to have a Mage Corps associated with his mercenary company. Kefira had been in charge of that aspect of the training for the second month. The Mages had accompanied everyone else during the first month of discipline training, but they had gone off on their own for their combat training.

Reivyn also didn't forget about the importance of proper combined arms, either. He would just practice that with the company after everything was finalized.

Reivyn and Kefira had spent the last several days brainstorming what to do with the additional recruits, and they had come up with a partial solution: Mage Guards. Instead of having the Mage Corps completely separate from the melee unit, they would assign some of them to act as protectors at all times. If something went wrong and people got separated like had happened in Drallo, the Mages would always have at least some melee fighters to be with them at all times.

"That just leaves us with trying to place about fifty recruits," Reivyn said with a sigh. "I have an idea, but I don't know how feasible it is."

He gave Kefira a look with a raised eyebrow.

"Let's hear it," Kefira prompted.

"First, a question," Reivyn replied. "What sort of opportunities do the less fortunate, those not able to make it into the Academies at a young age and have no set family training, have?"

"You mean like orphans?" Kefira asked back.

"Exactly like that, but not necessarily. And I'm talking about nine-year-olds. Those close to getting their first Class but not quite there yet."

"For the most part, they're left to their own devices. They generally give up on getting a combat Class, or they strike a deal with some Adventurers for training." Kefira shrugged. "It's worked out for society overall, for the most part."

"Well, what if we gave them a more structured opportunity?" Reivyn asked.

"I think I see where you're going with this, but give me the details."

"Instead of setting up a school or Knight Academy, what if we had a place where they could go to get the necessary Skills to help those looking to gain a combat Class? We wouldn't teach any theory, and there would be no intricate contribution points or graduation system. It would be a place purely where the unclassed could go to work on their Skills under the supervision of 'experts.'"

"That would greatly reduce the cost," Kefira mused, "but there would still be a cost. Since the main monetary compensation for the mercenaries is going to be through the commission of the target client, how would you pay them? I'm assuming you're going to put some of the extras into this training school to drain the numbers."

"That was exactly my intention, and I was thinking that Bellefrent could help us on that front," Reivyn said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"I'm not sure how keen the noble council will be to fund such a project, even if we get Bellefrent on board."

"That's the beauty of my idea," Reivyn said. "I don't want him to propose it directly to the council. I want to use his connections to get donations. Maybe the way we could get the council involved is by proposing tax breaks for those that donate. We would fund the enterprise through charity, at least at first. In the future, those that used our service could be among the donators."

"That... could work," Kefira said.

"And then we would have just a few additional recruits left over. I'm sure we could find some sort of administrative job we could have them rotate through."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's make it happen."