The P.O.O officers!

'Why is THAT a performance?!' I thought to myself, sitting myself down in the courtyard and waiting for the others to finish their battles. While I waited, I glanced through the system skill shop.

~The Fool's System skill shop~

Points available: 4

(More skills will be available to purchase as milestones are completed)

~He's behind you! (2 skill points)

-Using your abilities as the Fool and your overflowing charisma, you can attempt to get the audience involved in your act and put on a marvellous performance!

(This skill will have a higher chance of success if your charisma or skill level is increased)

~What were my lines? (2 skill points)

-Using your abilities as the Fool you have an increased capacity for learning and memory, so you never forget your lines and can put on a marvellous performance!

~ Can't catch me! (4 skill points)

- Using your abilities as the Fool, you have enhanced perception, allowing you to see and dodge attacks easier and put on a marvellous performance!

'Well... These skills are certainly unique.' Looking over the options I had, I eventually decided to purchase ~What were my lines?~ as it would be incredibly useful in the monster classes and training, and then ~He's behind you!~ because I could still afford it. Following that I distributed the 10 attribute points I received as such:

•Strength:7 => 10

•Dexterity:15 => 20

•Vitality: 9

•Charisma: 20 => 22

•Intelligence:8

The difference from before wasn't too drastic, but the increase in strength and dexterity could certainly be felt, and my memory was much clearer than before!

'I swear to god, if the next milestone is to join a circus I will cry.' I said inwardly, controlling my facial expression to hide my smirk.

Eventually, everyone had finished their battles with varying degrees of success. Sergeant Dean sat everyone down and stood before us, glaring at us for a few seconds before beginning his talk.

"Alright you monkey hugging baboon maggots! Some of you did pretty well! Others not so much! So well done to those who did it! But don't you DARE get cocky! If you do I'll kill you quicker than any monster could! Do you understand?!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good. Now get out of here go have a break! Normal training will be resumed at eleven! If you are late, the only things that will be on break are your legs! Dismissed!" Sergeant Dean yelled before walking off the courtyard swiftly. After the other trainees began filtering out of the courtyard, Jeremy walked over and struck up conversation

"You did, uh, better than I thought you would. Not that I didn't have confidence in you I just..." He said, his voice gradually weakening as usual.

"No, it's fine. I did better than I thought I would too. I survived, and I think that is my greatest achievement." I said jokingly, garnering a smirk and a chuckle from Jeremy.

Ding!

~Milestone progress increased!~

- Make others laugh (2/5)

'Are you kidding me?! Why is this even here if it's so easy! Well, it's better than killing someone from laughter, I guess.' I lampooned, walking into the cafeteria with Jeremy.

The food in the military training camps wasn't bad, contrary to my thoughts pre-training. It mostly consisted on various monster meats and even monster plants! I didn't even know they existed, but as it turns out they are a real threat! Well, some of them. Most just have some basic level of sentience and will just whip people with vines. Soon, I would even be having lessons on how to deal with them!

After getting something to eat (stone cow burger) and sitting down, Jeremy and I were approached by another assassin trainee, Gabriel. He was also followed by his lackeys that tail him constantly and egg him on, but they were weaselly little buggers who always backed down when people got too angry with them. They weren't that bad in lessons, but when you compare them to everyone else, even I seem like a master of bladed weapons.

Gabriel was wearing the traditional trainee uniform, of a camo t-shirt, trousers and boots. He was tall and muscular, with lick back hair and a pronounced jaw and Roman nose. He definitely didn't seem fitted for the rogue system, as he was built like a barbarian, just without the chest hair. His dagger skills and footwork were remarkable, however, and he was second only to Jeremy.

"So, Henry was it? I hear you got yourself a unique class?" He said, sitting in the stool next to me.

"Uh, I guess you could call it that." I replied hastily.

Gabriel let out a smirk, "Yeah? Well how's about you and I have a little... Spar, shall we say? I wanna test how great your system really is."

"Y-yeah! Gabriel will kick your A-ass!" One of the two goons behind him yelled, but was silenced by a glare from Gabriel.

"Really? My system isn't all that special. We'd be better off having a dance off." I replied with a small self-deprecating laugh.

Gabriel chuckled a bit at that and said, "Heh, you're not so bad. But fight me. I wanna see how much of an advantage a unique system has."

Ding!

~Milestone progress increased!~

- Make others laugh (3/5)

'Did he seriously find THAT funny?! God, if all milestones were as easy as letting loose half-baked jokes I'll be the strongest in no time. God, I really don't want to battle this bloody greaser. Anyone with that sense of humour is a bad egg through and through.' I lampooned inwardly, before consenting you his request.

"Great! Let's do it two days from now, with training daggers of course. Wouldn't want to kill you too quickly." He said with a self confident grin, before returning to his group.

"Goddamn it. Just when I thought I could breeze through the rest of training..." I thought aloud as I glanced at Jeremy, before smiling in resignation.

"I, uh, don't meant to be negative or anything but... I don't think you will last very long against Gabriel. Not that I don't believe in you but it just..." Jeremy said, before his voice trailed into nothing.

"Jeremy, when Gabriel kills me, I need you to go to my house, and erase my browsing history, alright? It is my final wish." I said, controlling my facial expression and body language to appear saddened.

Jeremy laughed in response, but his expression quickly turned awkward as he thought over what I had just asked of him.

Ding!

~Milestone progress increased!~

- Make others laugh (4/5)

'Man, this really is just too easy! I hope all of my milestones are like this...' I said inwardly with a laugh, before reading the rest of the message

(Note: the Fool should always know how to entertain everyone! As such, Jeremy Wight will no longer provide progress to this milestone.)

'... Crap.'

December 3rd, 12 days in training. It was the day when I was destined to spar against Gabriel, and thankfully it was on this day that someone finally chuckled at one of my jokes.

Ding!

~Milestone complete!~

- Make others laugh

Rewards:

-Skill points: 2

-Attribute points 5

~All milestones Complete!~

Bonus rewards:

-Skill points: 2

- Attribute points: 5

~Where did it go? (I)

~According to the Fool's System, new milestones and purchase-able skills are available! ~

'Wow... now THAT is what I like to see!'

Wasting no time at all, I distributed my attributes as such:

Dexterity: 20 => 25

Charisma: 22 => 25

Intelligence: 8 => 10

Although intelligence wouldn't help me in my fight, it brought me great shame knowing I was dumber than the average person (without the increases brought about by the systems) so I also increased that with the leftover points. I then purchased the skill ~Can't catch me!~ and looked at the description for ~Where did it go?~

~Where did it go? (I)

-Using your abilities as the Fool, you have great control over peoples attention, and can use that to take things right out of people's hands and put on a marvellous performance!

'Hmm, it is quite similar to a rogues pickpocket skill, but it only works when people see me? How on Earth is that meant to work!? God, why can't I just teleport, or go invisible!?' I lampooned, before looking over the new milestones.

~Milestones~

- deceive your opponent (0/1)

- Join a circus (0/1)

- put on some performances (0/5)

'Are. You. KIDDING ME?! A circus!? Jesus Christ, how am I meant to join a circus in the military?! Ok, this system is seriously broken. I wonder what the return policy is.' I lampooned out of rage. I decided that I should focus on beating Gabriel rather than trying to deceive him, as I was not confident in my abilities in the first place.

When the time came, I walked over into one of the training areas, and saw Gabriel stood in the wide matted area holding two wooden training daggers, with around four or five spectators, including Jeremy. As I entered, he tossed one over before giving some brief rules.

"Let's do it like this. We've got five minutes, if you get hit with the bladed edge of the dagger in your torso, neck or head, you're out. Seem fair?"

"Yep. Just try not to break too many of my bones when you hit me." I retorted, readying myself mentally.

A spectator blew a whistle to begin the spar, and Gabriel swiftly dashed towards me. He struck out with the dagger that seemed to blur and contort, making it hard to predict it's trajectory.

System skills!

My mind whirred into action as I dodged to the left according to ~Can't catch me!~, evading the blow by the width of a hair. I caught my balance quickly and threw out my left hand to deflect the second slash, when his arm changed trajectory just a moment before! It sliced through the air and rocketed towards my neck! I quickly ducked down as the dagger combed through my hair and used the opportunity to attempt to sweep his legs. Gabriel jumped backwards, avoiding my leg as I stood back up and assumed a parrying stance. He sized up my stance, looking for holes before lunging forward with impeccable grace, striking at an awkward angle to reach a point on my side I couldn't defend! I attempted to deflect the blow but I had reacted too slowly. Pain rocketed through my side as I collapsed, writhing in pain before eventually lying on the floor, catching my breath.

"You did good, man! Really had me sweatin' there." He said with a smile, helping me up to my feet.

"Y-yeah. I hope none of my ribs are broken..." I said with a pitiful smile before walking over to Jeremy.

"You, uh, didn't do too bad, I guess. You did better than I, uh, anticipated. Not that I thought you were gonna do badly, but I just sort of...." Jeremy said, before returning to that same, unsure mumble.

And as such, my three months of training whizzed by without me realising. I was challenged a few times by Gabriel, all of which I lost, but it was quite fun and we became good friends. It also improved my dagger skills, at the cost of many, many bruises and shattered egos. Before long, we were given official monster leather armour to wear, official mana steel daggers (with sheathes) and were rounded up by Sergeant Dean and were given our final speech.

"Alright! You have finally finished your training, and are ready to take your first step into joining the ranks of the Protection from Otherworldy Organisms officers! You should feel proud that you weren't killed on the way! I will admit that I came close to killing some of you myself. Now what you have left to do is create a hunting party. Each one will reside in one of the Protection from Otherwordly Organisms branches and be assigned missions to hunt various monsters to protect the common folk. In a large hall not far from here many other trainees from the various courses will gather to create parties. You WILL need one. So don't idle! Follow me to the bus, and we will leave posthaste!" Sergeant Dean yelled, before quickly turning and walking away.

'Oh. My. God. He didn't call us maggots!? Now this is a true character arc. I think I'm going to cry. This is beautiful.' I jested inwardly, hiding my smirk.

'But, wait a minute. Is the organisation I'll be working for called P.O.O? Isn't that a little... vulgar?' This time, it took every ounce of willpower I had to not burst out laughing at P.O.O.

It took around 15 minutes to arrive at the hall, which was jam packed with many, many people searching for a hunting party. The way they were created was that each party had a captain ,who had already completed his mandatory service, who was in charge of recruiting into his party. Each party had to have a minimum of three, and a maximum of six. The captains had some knowledge of most of the new trainees, so they know who they want to pick. If you aren't 'sniped', as they call it, you have to go and apply to a team.

Although my skills were just skirting the average with the help of a fellow student, surely everyone will be after the one with a unique system, right?

As expected, Gabriel and Jeremy were immediately picked off, and I waited for a while to receive an offer into a party.

And so I waited.

And I waited.

Ok, maybe I wasn't as popular as I thought I was. Looking around, I realised that the crowd was down to a fraction of what it was before, and the number of recruiting parties was dropping fast! Cursing my ego, I began searching for a party that was looking for a roguish system.

Jumping from rejection to rejection, I eventually found a four person party that seemed to still be recruiting.

"Hey! Are you still recruiting!" I called out dashing over to them.

The captain, wearing plate mail with the helmet taken off, looked over with a surprised expression. "Are you a rogue? What's your name?"

"Well... I'm not a rogue per say, but something close. Henry Brown."

"Oh, it's you. Err, I suppose you'll do. Welcome to the team! Let's get out of here before we introduce ourselves!" He said, rushing out of the hall. The others and I followed suit, and as I exited I saw Jeremy before me.

"Hey, uh, Henry. I don't know where you are going to go, but, uh, in case we aren't near, this is goodbye. Not that I don't think we'll never meet but I just...." he said, before looking down awkwardly.

"No, I understand what you mean. Goodbye Jeremy. I'll see you at some point." We shook hands, before we parted ways. I couldn't help but feel some sadness over this, as the man had stuck with me for three months, which was no easy feat. I have been described as unbearable in the past.

I caught up to my party, and we began to introduce ourselves and our systems, as we would be stuck together for three years. Unless we die, of course.

The captain was a tall and burly man, around six feet tall, with dark, shirt ginger hair and bright green eyes. "I'll start with myself. I'm Mark! My system is just the standard Heavy weapons warrior, but I'm better with a great hammer than anyone else! Well, most people." Mark said with exuberant pride. "I'll be in charge of keeping you alive!"

The second person to introduce themselves was a small woman, probably just short of 5 feet tall. She had shoulder length dark hair and was wearing a priests robe and holding a large staff almost as tall she was.

"H-hello, I'm priest and I have a Sharron system... Oh that's the other way around...."

The group broke out in giggles at Sharon's blunder, before the third person introduced themselves. It was a man of around my height (5 feet 9-10 inches) with dark blonde hair, large blue eyes and a longbow and quiver on his back.

"Hi! I'm Christopher, but you can just call me Chris. I'm an archer! Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty good one at that!" He said with excitement and enthusiasm.

After that came the final introduction before myself. He wore loose leather armour and was just a little shorter than Mark. He was bald, with bags under his eyes and wore a deep frown. He had very dark brown eyes. "I suppose I'll introduce myself... I'm Lewis, I'm a sorcerer... a lightning sorcerer exactly..." he muttered as if he was desperately trying not to sleep.

And then, they turned to me.

"I'm Henry. I'm not exactly a rogue, but something somewhat similar. My system is the Fool's system. Nice to, uh, meet you I guess."

Instantly, Chris' eyes lit up before exclaiming, "Whoa! Unique system! That's incredible!"

'This man's energy is way too much. I think someone needs to lay off the sweets for a while.' I lampooned before smiling back at him.

"Well, we will get to know each other better as time goes on, so let's head to the bus and go to our branch! We will be in one just south of Chelmsford, around Billericay. I'm sure this is going to be a great three years, team!"

And as such, my three years of service truly began, and by the looks of it, I don't think I'm going to make it.