Fundy matches Tubbo's nervous laugh with one of his own. "Yeah, yeah, I'd definitely say so. I'm, um, I'm doing alright."

"Good, that's good. Big Q?"

Quackity sighs and runs a hand down over his face. "I'm gonna go talk to Sapnap and George. See if they're interested in helping us at all."

"Great! Great, yeah, that's--that's awesome. Good luck, Big Q." He waves; Quackity waves back before leaving.

It's not a good idea to, when people are at the frantic "we lived! Somehow!" laughter stage, point out that things did get dark, that someone has been exiled. "We can probably afford to take a day off preparing."

"Yeah. Yeah. Fuck, man. Fuck. ...I, uh, it probably counts as preparing to make the training arena? Oh, I know, we should fight--fair fight, all iron, no enchantments--I want to see how good you are at it. Ranboo, you too. All we need for that is some iron and a bed."

"Oh. Oh, um, okay."

"If you're willing, Ranboo."

"Yeah! Yeah, sure." He puts down a crafting table and starts making two sets of iron armor, swords, and axes.

Tubbo drops Ranboo a bow. "Jingyan, you prefer bow or crossbow?"

"I have not used a crossbow before, so I will start with a bow."

"Cool. --I don't actually have another spare bow, does anyone have string--"

"I've got it." Tubbo, Jingyan, have full iron armor and swords. Jingyan gets a bow in addition to that. "Where do we want to fight?"

"Fundy's got a thing set up for duels, right? So we can go there." He starts walking; he waits to put on armor until after he leaves L'Manberg's borders. "Which of you wants to fight me first?"

"Um. I don't really care."

"I am happy to go first."

"Cool." When they get to the arena, Tubbo and Ranboo empty their inventories into nearby chests. (Other than the iron, they also agree to keep half-stacks of bread for food; Ranboo keeps a bow and Tubbo keeps a crossbow.) Assuming Jingyan does the same, Tubbo's ready to fight. "Best two out of three?"

Jingyan does do the same! "That is fine by me."

Tubbo fights like a soldier; he's not at Dream's level but he can hold his own against Jingyan. He's probably a bit worse in terms of skill, and even in practice, but he's more familiar with how the world works here; he knows how long to wait between hits of the axe, when to jump to do more damage, when to eat food, like it's instinct. The fight's fairly evenly matched.

Tubbo wins the first two fights, but Jingyan wins the last one. They're all close. "Good fight," Tubbo says, when it's over, and does the salute-thing that Tommy had done earlier. "Want to be Secretary of Defense? Since you're, like, the one who wanted to make an arena and train people and all that."

It's good to get a chance to spar. Both to get a measure of Tubbo, and to get practice. It's strange being somewhere where food can heal wounds-- but he's going to get better at judging when to reach. What the rhythm of different weapons are. All it will take is practice.

...He has been here a few days and has somehow been offered a cabinet position. The weirdest thing is that he isn't as surprised as he should be. "I would be honoured to."

"We're honored to have you! Now, Ranboo, you're up."

Ranboo is visibly not a soldier; he's not bad at fighting but it's clear he's used to fighting zombies and skeletons more than other people. Tubbo wins two fights easily; one Ranboo wins, but it's close.

"Good fight," Tubbo says all the same, helping Ranboo up from the bed. "Okay. Jingyan, I can go over who all's on the server and how good they are if you want, now that you've got a baseline to compare?"

"It would be useful for strategizing."

"Right. Fundy and Tommy are--about on my level, maybe a bit better than me, although you wouldn't know it if you only saw Tommy sparring, he's bad at focusing when it's not real. Sapnap's better than that; he's one of Dream's best friends, but he's also Quackity's fiancé, so, his alliances are a bit up in the air right now. Last war he fought on Dream's side. Punz and Purpled are at about Sapnap's level, too, and they're both mercenaries, they fight for whoever pays them more. Dream has more resources than us right now; I don't think we can change that, but if we can, that'd be great. The badlands are... Sam, BadBoyHalo, Skeppy, and Antfrost I think? Sam, Bad, and Skeppy are--I haven't seen them fight much but probably close to my level, maybe a bit worse? Antfrost would be closer to Ranboo's level. Sam's got loads of resources, though, so that'll be useful if we can get him to ally with us. George was on Dream's side before, uh, yesterday, and he can be good if he's trying but he doesn't have much gear and he's not going to try if he doesn't know he can win. So far he's slept through most of the major events, if that gives you an idea of his general avoidance levels. Ponk isn't allied with anyone, I don't think? They're about as good as Ranboo, same goes for Eret. Jack Manifold is--you know, I'm not actually sure if he's a citizen or not, but he's fought with us in the past so I'd count him as an ally if nothing else, he's probably a bit worse than Ranboo and more importantly he definitely has worse gear. Karl could go either way but he's pretty weak. I haven't seen Captain Puffy fight so I don't have a great read on her but she doesn't have a reputation one way or the other so, probably somewhere in the average range. Best fighters are Dream and Technoblade, no question. Tommy told me once that Technoblade can take on twenty people at once and I gotta say, man, I absolutely believe it. Same with Dream. There's just--it's just no contest. They've got the best gear, too, by a lot. Worst fighters are Nihachu and Quackity and--I guess Wilbur isn't really in the picture anymore, but Ghostbur's not exactly an upgrade. I mean, at least Wilbur was halfway decent with a bow when he practiced. They're all worse than Ranboo, and have... Basically nothing, in terms of gear." The nervous laugh: it's back! "Oh, and Philza! Philza's--probably even with me as well, honestly. Maybe a bit better? Definitely better at defending, not sure which of us is better at attacking. And he's friends with Technoblade."

One has to work with the army they have, and not the one they want. Pining for a better quality of men does not help you improve them.

But the two most powerful fighters being very much not their allies, and having the resources to get some of the best mercenaries-- it does make one wish for Dream to get hit by lightning, and while one is being wishful, for Ghostbur or someone to get hit with a bolt of competence.

"It will be hard work, but I believe we can close the gap enough."

"Great." Sigh. "I wish you had arrived earlier. But then I guess I'd be saying the same thing--what happened, happened. We just have to move forward." He starts heading back towards L'Manberg; Ranboo follows. The sun's going down--not sunset quite yet, but definitely evening. "Right. This has been--a day. I'm gonna take a stress reliever, d'you want one?" (The offer's directed at both Jingyan and Ranboo.)