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Chapter 1: No Second Chances Today was the day of the tenth annual elite recruitment drive, and every graduating student at Lithium Mine Middle School was gathered in the gymnasium, waiting for the elites to arrive with the medicine that would decide their fate. The elites were the idols of the Golden Dragon nation, super humans with magical abilities that were born from the Divine Injection that the students were going to receive today. None of the children of the miners had ever seen one before, unless you counted the Mayor, who gave speeches a few times a year, and the excitement of having them right here in their school had been all that the students could talk about for months. So, one could imagine the disappointment they felt when it was not some famous idol, but a group of elites from the military that showed up to perform the injections. But although these weren’t the singers or movie stars that they all knew, it was no secret that these military elites were saviours that protected their nation against hostile armies and the ever present threat of magical beasts. The television in the café and the teachers at the school both told them so. While they had never seen an elite in person, they had seen magical beasts, and quite often. There were earth mice hiding all over the mining town, and the farmers nearby had been raising monstrous boars for generations. But until very recently, it was only the power of technology and the holy magic of the church’s High Priests and Priestesses that could keep the wild beasts at bay. However, when the more powerful monsters came, you hid, or you died. That was the way of life for the humans of the Golden Dragon nation, and indeed, most of the humans of the world. Karl fidgeted in his seat as he waited for the nurse to come and administer the serum shot. Today was the biggest day of a young student’s life, the day that they would be administered the Mana Awakening Serum, better known as the Divine Serum, and find out if they would gain the sort of abilities that could change their lives, or if they would be stuck as common workers in a lithium mining town for the rest of their lives. This was also Karl’s last day at the government run school before he either started working full-time, or with any luck, left this decrepit mining town. If he was compatible with the Serum, he would be off to the Golden Divine Academy tonight, and ready to train his new skills as a defender of the Golden Dragon Nation. They had already sat through an hour of speeches by the Principal, reminding them of their duty to the nation, the glory of the Elites, and the importance of this chance that they were given. After all, they were just the children of common mine workers, dirt floor poor and unlikely to ever be anything else. Karl closed his eyes as the nurse rolled the cart with an open briefcase on it next to him, and then a violent pain shot up his arm and the world briefly went blank. Agony spread to every cell in his body, like he was being torn apart from the inside, and blood clogged his lungs, leaving him drowning while sitting in the metal folding chair of his school’s auditorium. This was wrong, the shot was only supposed to hurt as the needle poked you, not like this. As his consciousness faded, Karl realized that he was likely to be the one in a hundred, the rare fatal reaction to the shot which sorted out the defenders of the nation from the common people. But after a few seconds, his breathing cleared, the pain began to fade and his eyes fluttered open. A few seconds after that, Karl regained consciousness, with pain still coursing through every cell of his body. The nurse’s deep crimson eyes, a side effect of her own Serum injection, were staring directly back at him, and a slight smile was on her face. “There you are. I thought that we lost you there for a minute. It’s a good sign, zero casualties at this stop always means there is a powerful one in the bunch.” The woman moved back, and Karl took in the smartly pressed green military uniform, pencil skirt and heels. It was all familiar, but all wrong. Did he lose some of his memories after the injection? Or was there something wrong with his eyes? On second thought, there was definitely something wrong with his eyes, the world was still a little blurry when he didn’t have someone to focus on. He flinched as his head began to pound again and a new wave of pain wracked his body, but the military woman with the strange red eyes seemed unconcerned as she stepped to a chubby young girl near him and took a large needle full of a glowing golden liquid out of the briefcase on her cart. Without a word of warning, she jabbed it into the girl’s arm, and the young girl directly fainted, then slowly recovered her composure. A quick glance down at his hands showed Karl a familiar bronze tan, but the scars and peeling skin from a childhood spent working in the mines after class were mostly gone, replaced with a deep red mark that looked like three long claw marks running the length of his forearm. As he silently stared at the marks on his arm, they became more pronounced, and more realistic, as if the flesh had just been torn open, but the skin was smooth and undamaged under his fingers. After a few minutes, the sound of frightened children fell silent, and Karl looked up at the front of the room, where an officer in the formal military uniform was standing behind a podium, waiting patiently for the process to end. The red-eyed woman joined him, along with the six men in doctor’s coats, before he began to speak. “Thank you all for your cooperation. This year’s choosing trial has completed, and those of you without the mark may return to your classes as usual. But for the rest of you, congratulations. You have been chosen as the prodigies of the Golden Dragon Nation’s new generation. The Blessed ones who will lead us to victory over our enemies, with the benefit of supernatural powers bestowed by the Divine Serum.” Soldiers poured into the room, twice as many as there were children, and Karl began to panic. His mind still hadn’t quite grasped the fact that he was one of the fortunate ones yet, the children who were compatible with the artificially induced superpowers, the ones who would become mages, mighty warriors who could split a mountain apart, or even legendary healers that could even raise the dead. At first, the children resisted the idea that they would be grabbed and taken away by soldiers, especially the ones that had failed the choosing. The problem was that they actually needed the help to walk after the injections. The situation was only making Karl more confused, but he didn’t dare ask what was going on with his body, in case they determined that something had gone wrong with whatever the Serum did to the newly awakened elites and disposed of him. Or worse, sent him back to work in the mines. According to the lessons that they had been taught in class, he should be a mighty hero by now, not a below average sized teen boy wracked with pain and so weak that he couldn’t get out of his chair. “You look a little disoriented, kid. Just let us carry you, and you’ll be right as rain after a few days sleep. Just don’t forget to do the homework before we arrive.” One of the soldiers who stepped up beside Karl instructed. That was how he found himself carried into a luxurious train car and placed in a private room complete with its own desk and a call button on the wall that was marked with “Room Service”. Unfortunately for his plan to understand why this process was so painful, the moment that his head hit the pillow, Karl was asleep. How long he was out, he had no idea, but when he finally awoke, there was a stack of papers on the desk, along with a small textbook waiting for him to read it. [So, you’ve awakened your powers] was the title of the book, and the cartoonish cover made it clear that it was aimed at children. Not that he was old, he would only be fourteen this year, but being the last in his class to hit puberty, his body was much younger looking than average. All he had going for him was a handsome face, and even that had gotten him beaten up a time or two. But now that he had the Divine Serum on his side, everything would change. Slowly, he opened the textbook to see what was inside. [So, you’ve awakened your powers. Congratulations, and welcome to the upper echelon of society, the elite five percent that have been found compatible with the awakening serum that will soon activate the latent magical powers in your bloodline, passed down from the time of our Nation’s founding by the Immortal Golden Dragon itself. Though you have all learned about it in class, there are a few things that you don’t yet know. First, your powers won’t fully awaken until you use the first skill related to your specialty. Just follow the guidelines in this text, and you will discover the primary awakening method for your abilities. Once you have finished that most basic task, you can begin the homework assignment.] Karl read the first page three times before he flipped the page. Next up was a listing of different marks that the awakened classes should have, and most of them seemed self- explanatory. Ice shards, fire, blades, shields, paws, bows, and even an ornate fan were all detailed with page numbers that would lead the students to their awakening methods. But there was nothing that resembled claw marks. So, instead he turned to the homework assignment, hoping for answers. But that was even more useless, it was all about the student’s abilities. How strong they were, the description, activation times, speed, energy usage, side effects. In short, he couldn’t fill it in at all. All the marks seemed so obvious as to what sort of abilities they represented. Even the red aura around a pair of axes was clearly a berserker in Karl’s mind, but the claw marks didn’t make much sense. There was a similar one with an animal paw that was some sort of druid shaman, but nothing that was as simple, but confusing as his. Was he supposed to be a punching bag for monsters? That didn’t sound right at all, the book said that these marks represented superpowers. But after a few hours, there still wasn’t any clear answer as to what he was supposed to do. It was time to call for one of the soldiers and get some answers before the train reached its destination. Chapter 2: Into The Unknown While Karl was trying to find a way to awaken his powers, the guards were making the rounds, checking which new students were already awake. Those with the most powerful bodies always woke up first, but it had only been half a day of travel, and they weren’t expecting anything yet. “Sir, there is one active room already. Room 12a, a boy named Karl, no family name recorded.” The patrol guard reported back to his commander in the front of the train. “What is his class? Have we seen him activate any skills yet?” The General asked. “Nothing yet. He appears to have a nonstandard Class marking, three claw marks.” The guard replied. The General gestured for his assistants to go look for the details on this class, but even after a few minutes had passed, there was still no news. Other markings in their records were close, but nothing exactly like that one was found. “Well, then he will have to awaken on his own. I hope that the boy has good luck or thick skin, he’s going to need it if he turns in a blank sheet for his assignment when he gets to the Academy.” It wasn’t unheard of for a student to get the mark but fail to awaken their powers immediately, even if they followed the instructions. Some would have gotten a nonstandard starting skill, and some were just worthless at using the power that had been given to them. The General even recalled a case where a child had awakened the Mage class, but didn’t have enough mana to cast any spells until nearly the end of the first semester. In the end, that student had proven to be a dismal failure, and had run away during a school outing to live the life of a commoner without ever getting past the beginning of the first level of his training. That was the fate of many of the students who never learned to awaken their skills. Either because they were completely unsuited to the abilities that they had received, or because they had a marking that no guidance could be issued for, like the three claw marks boy in room 12a. The Divine Serum was a modern invention, created after extensive research of an astonishing archaeological find at a holy site under an ancient World Dragon Cathedral had detailed the inner workings of an ancient Divine Device known as the System Stones. The device itself was broken, but an initially unidentifiable power within it remained. Using the stones as a guide, and after decades of study, the Serum had been created to attune humans to that power and give the Golden Dragon Nation a chance to overtake the military might of their neighbours and change the fate of their citizens. What did it matter if the Ocean People had water Magic to guard their ships against the rockets and guns of the Golden Dragon fleet? Now, they had mages of their own. Even if the untamed monsters of the Beast Lands attacked, they had warriors and guardians with powerful skills that could cut down the most ferocious magical creatures with ease. That was the strategic value of the Divine Serum, and the reason that every student who was found to be compatible was taken in by the military and intensively trained in the duties and responsibilities that came with being a protector of the nation. Life wasn’t all military training and duty, though. If it were, there was an absolute certainty that the serum compatible and freshly empowered future guardians of the nation would rebel against authority and either turn traitor or stage a coup. So, they were treated as the legendary resources that they were, able to live in luxury all their lives on the condition that their power was enough to justify their salary. Once they could pass all the tests that the Golden Divine Academy placed before them, they would even receive official titles from the church, and a collection of legal and social benefits to match. Society had always belonged to the rich and powerful, but now the phrase had taken on an entirely different meaning. Karl was blissfully unaware of the topic of the observers’ conversations, and while they were discussing the likelihood that he might not be able to awaken his powers in time to keep up with his classmates, Karl was preparing to ask the passing guards for advice. “Sir? Pardon me, but my skill marking doesn’t seem to be in the book. Could I be missing a page?” He asked as the uniformed guard passed by again. “Not in the book, eh? Tough luck there, son. The book only covers the common markings, the ones that ninety percent of the new students get, but there are others possible. The injections are a mysterious divine force, and sometimes they give out results that nobody understands. The best I can tell you is to try everything, and whatever feels right probably is. If you’re lucky, you’ll awaken some powers before your classes start. Between me and you, you want to awaken those powers before you get to the Academy, the elite students are particular about the power rankings, and if you don’t, you’ll be starting school from the very bottom.” “Thanks. But have you ever seen a marking like this?” Karl asked curiously. The Guard rolled up his sleeve and showed off the picture of a bear paw, the mark of a Druid, and according to the guide, a nature magic user with an affinity for animals. “Since it’s a little like mine, and seems to involve animals, perhaps try things related to either animals, or unarmed combat. There isn’t much you can do to attune with nature on a busy train, but the windows open a little if you need some fresh air. That’s what I had to do, I couldn’t awaken my powers without some attachment to nature. In fact, I didn’t awaken them on the train at all, they woke up as soon as I touched the trees on the way to the Academy Gates.” The guard explained. “Thanks for the help.” Karl called as the guard walked away. He didn’t seem to be big on talking, or perhaps he just didn’t want to get Karl’s hopes up. But the advice gave him something to go on. Chapter 3: The Early Bird Karl flopped on his bed and looked out the window, to see if there was any sort of hint as to what his powers were supposed to be. The guard had a point, and the claw marks definitely had to refer to some sort of animal. Humans didn’t leave marks like that. So, the first thing that he tried was focusing on adding claws to his hands. “Claw!” “Nope, yelling out skill names isn’t going to do it. How do the other classes activate their skills?” Karl complained, unaware that the bored supervisors in the main car were watching through hidden cameras and laughing at his antics. [Page 2, Magic Classes Open the box of casting assistants under your bed using the thumb of your left hand, and extract the appropriate casting medium to begin attempting to activate your first spell.] “This doesn’t look like the sort of marking that a spell caster should have, next page.” [Page 3, Combat classes Open the box of practice weapons under your bed with the index finger of your right hand and choose the most appropriate weapon for your desired skills.] That sounded more likely, so Karl knelt on the ground in front of the bed and unlocked the upper drawer, where he found a collection of simple weapons, and even some more obscure ones, like throwing knives, single-handed crossbows, and some sort of axe on a chain that looked like it would be more dangerous to the user than anyone else. He was, unfortunately, not yet among the physically gifted, so Karl picked a short sword from among the weapons while he cursed being the last in his class to enjoy the full benefits of puberty. He had never actually held a sword before, but this one felt right, and Karl gave it a few tentative swings before trying for a more meaningful strike toward the door. [Pet Skills Not Available. You must record a pet.] Karl blinked slowly as he worked to process the idea that had come to him as if implanted in his mind. It was a message directly into his thoughts, obviously from the effects of the marking, and now he somewhat knew what he needed to do. But how did he record a pet? It couldn’t be as simple as just writing it down, could it? Or maybe he needed to do something to memorize it? But first he would have to find some sort of animal. This was a shiny new military train, not the company houses at the mines, there weren’t going to be any mice. If he had to touch the animal for the skill to activate, this could be much more difficult than he had been expecting. The obvious choice would be to try writing something down, and to see if that worked. Maybe there would be a book in the spell casting equipment. The drawer of tools slid open, and Karl stared in amusement at the wide variety of strange items held inside. He had absolutely zero clue about how these were supposed to be used. Some of them didn’t even look like they were anything special, like this silly snow globe with no base. What were they going to do with that? Sit and ponder their Orb? Karl picked the surprisingly heavy glass ball up in his hand, and suddenly, it lit up with a bright white light. [Taming Space viewing is not available. Please Record A Pet.] At first, the message that appeared in his thoughts made no sense, but after a few seconds of focus, Karl could feel the change. In his mind, a vast emptiness was forming, giving him a sense of eternal power beyond anything he had ever imagined. “What about a Dragon? Can I have a Dragon?” Karl thought, trying to will one into existence in the taming space. Nothing. Of course, it wasn’t going to be that easy. Karl was deep in thought when someone touching his arm brought his attention back to the present. “Did you have any luck?” The patrolling guard asked, looking at the two open drawers, and the sword on the mattress. “Yes and no. I get the feeling that the blade is the right choice, but I’m lacking something to activate the skill. None of the other weapons I looked at are really appealing, though.” Karl sighed. “Well, keep at it, you’ll find something that works for you soon. If you’ve already got an idea, you’re ahead of the others. Most of them are still asleep.” “That’s something, at least. Maybe I can figure this out before we get to the Academy after all. I don’t suppose there is a kitchen here? I always think better on a full stomach.” Karl asked hopefully. The guard smiled and gestured down the hall. “You woke up before the main kitchen for students was ready, but they won’t complain if I lead you out of the room for a little something. You’ll learn soon that the food at the Golden Divine Academy is somewhat special, compared to what you are used to. The magical abilities that the elites use put a huge strain on the bodies of their users, and they need the energy of magical plants and beasts to recover quickly. Trust me, you’re in for a treat this time.” They walked down the hall to another train car, past a half dozen rooms identical to the one Karl was in where other students from his class were sleeping soundly, and into an empty dining room, past which a kitchen could be seen. “Just grab what you want and set it by the grill, I’ll get to you in a minute.” The cook called from the freezer, not realizing that there was someone other than staff in the room. Karl didn’t mind though, it wasn’t like this was some fancy restaurant, it was more of a common area for the staff to serve themselves, with an actual cook on duty so that those who shouldn’t be allowed in a kitchen didn’t starve. Karl collected a pair of small steaks, a bowl of rice, a collection of assorted vegetables, anything that looked and smelled good. Then he noticed a small pile of oversized white eggs, and grabbed one to add it to the plate. [Suitable Pet Target Found: hatching] The egg directly vanished from his hand, leaving Karl staring at the food in confusion and wondering just how long it would take for a monster egg to hatch in a magical void in his mind. Would it even hatch? The thoughts said so, but they weren’t giving him many details. A small straw nest slowly appeared in his mind, with a single large white egg inside. Over the course of the next few seconds, the Egg trembled, and then cracked open, shocking Karl into taking a step backward, though the sight was in his mind. He bumped into the guard, who thought he might be faint from hunger, and stabilized himself. “Sorry about that.” Karl mumbled, while the guard gestured to the cook and led Karl to a table. “Don’t worry about it. Everyone is a bit off for the first few days after they wake up. Especially some of the magic classes, the power can really scramble their brains. Just focus on solving those strange markings of yours, and you’ll be fine in no time.” The cook looked their way from behind his grill. “Having a hard time with a nonstandard marking? That’s a rough one. What does it look like?” “Three claw marks on the right forearm. Big ones as well, not one of those wimpy little marks like the nerd classes get.” The guard laughed. The cook smiled and turned his hand toward Karl, who didn’t understand what they meant. They should be talking about a class marking, but with the dozens of visible tattoos, Karl had no idea which one might be the one they were referring to. The cook tapped a small stick tattoo, and Karl realized that it was a mage type Class marking, a wand with sparkles at the end. It was on the top of his hand, and only a few centimetres long. If he hadn’t seen it in the book, he would have never noticed it at all. “There is a theory that the size of the tattoo has some relationship to the talent of the recipient, but I don’t believe that’s right at all. Unless it’s not related to the mental compatibility, but just the ability itself. Have you got any clues about yours?” The line cook asked. “I felt right with a short sword in my hand, and the marking seems to have something to do with animals, so perhaps I’m a hunter of some sort, or a park ranger with bad luck.” Karl joked. “Well, you’ll find out once you get your first class skill to work. After that, you can just think the word [Status] and get an impression of how your magical abilities are growing. At least, that’s how it is for Mages.” The cook informed him. Chapter 4: Windspeed Hawk While the cook got his meal ready, Karl closed his eyes and focused on what was happening in the strange spot in his mind. The result wasn’t words, but a somewhat detailed impression of the status of the bird. He had to translate it himself, but the actual information was pretty basic. [Beast Space Activated] 1 occupant [Pet Number 1] [Name] Windspeed Hawk [Rank] Common [Connection] Low [Skills] [Claw] [Rend] [Super Vision] Karl felt an indescribable power flow into his body as the status was completed, and a second round of physical impressions came to him. [Beast Master] Karl [Rank] Common [Bloodline] Human [Skills] [Beast Skill] Super Vision [Beast Attack Skill] Rend That didn’t quite mesh with the knowledge that he had from the booklet. Wasn’t he supposed to get some sort of instinctive guideline on how to progress? Maybe a little something about how he was doing in his training of the skills? “How does the power rating of the system work? Is there some sort of level, or grade, or something? How can we tell who has real power and who is like me, a newbie waiting on his skills?” He asked the two older men. Older being a relative term, as they likely weren’t much more than twenty themselves, but older than him and finished their time at the Academy. “That’s the fun part. You don’t. Unless they directly tell you, or you have some special skill to sense energy fluctuations like some of the mages, you just have to go with your gut instinct or the public rankings. The problem with the Rankings is that they’re all subjective. You see, I’m a Wand Class Mage. I can use the Fire Element. If I was an Orb Class Mage, I could use two Elements at once, but that still doesn’t tell you anything about my power. The important part is that I never made it past level one in my spell book, I just don’t have the talent for it. But the Druid here, he describes his powers entirely differently.” The guard nodded. “I’m a level six mortal grade Druid. My grade has never changed, but I can use much more powerful nature magic than when I was starting school, and I can even transform into a bear. Because everyone’s internal measurements are so wildly different, we judge everyone on the same scale as magical beasts. From Common to Mythical in Rank based on what they can defeat in battle, or how effective their healing and support skills are compared to beasts at the same level. So, while the cook is still considered to be in the Common Grade, I have made it one rank up to the Awakened Grade, and I can fight awakened Magical Beasts on my own. At least in limited numbers I can. But I was near the bottom of my class, all the way through. My skills are varied, I can heal, fight, transform into a bear, even help plants grow, but I can’t do any of them worth a damn, so I’m stuck at the Awakened Grade.” Karl nodded, understanding the concept if not the actual power level. Sometimes focusing on too many things would lead to you never getting good at anything. There was a guy like that in his neighbourhood, a jack of all trades. He could fix your car, your sink or your fridge, but only the common issues. If it were really broken, he would refer you to someone else. “I think that I follow the idea. How powerful were the top students of your class?” He asked. “Have you heard of the Archmage Mia, that new idol spell caster? She was in our class, and she reached the Awakened Rank in the first year, by the end of the second, she could defeat Ascended beasts with ease, and by the time we graduated, she was already a Commander Grade Mage. Then only a few years after that, she got some super secret resource from a mission, and it pushed her to the Royal Rank. That’s when everyone started calling her the Arch Mage, and the fame started to get to her head. She doesn’t answer our messages anymore, but we can still proudly say we went to school with someone super famous.” Royal Grade monsters were a terrifying thought to Karl. Even one of them could level the mining town he grew up in without breaking a sweat. The strongest fighting force in town was likely the Mayor, a Commander Grade Warrior, and in Karl’s opinion, he was getting too old to be picking fights with monsters. Plus, the town didn’t have any sort of armed guard, other than the handful of police. If it came to a fight, the old Mayor would definitely not have a good time proving he still deserved his rank. Karl sat in silence for a moment as he ate, then smiled at the two senior graduates in front of him. “I suppose that I should get back to my room and see what I can do about awakening some sort of skill, then. If not, we will all be shut out of the class idol’s phone list in the future.” The cook laughed. “I like the way you think, a bit of motivation goes a long way when you’re trying to find a reason to get through the most gruelling parts of your training.” Karl thought a lot about that as he walked back to his room. The hardest part of any task was seeing it through to the end. It was easy at the start when you were motivated, but somewhere in the middle it became a dreadfully dull grind, with no reward in sight and very little progress to be made. That was when you would lose sight of the goal and start to slack. If you were lucky, you recovered from it, but if not, you would end up in trouble and behind schedule. Even the Mine Foreman had said the same thing to the students when he came to talk to them on career day. Not that anyone truly listened to him, with the prospect of the divine injection coming up only days later. But the others, the ones who returned to class afterwards, would be thinking more about it every day. Once the door to the room closed behind him, Karl stared out the window and tried a skill for himself. [Super Vision] grants the Beast Tamer the sight of the contracted Windspeed Hawk. The forests in the distance were suddenly crystal clear in his eyes, and everything in his peripheral vision became just as clear as what was right in front of him. A bit of movement caught his eye, and Karl noticed a Quill beast moving through the grassland over a kilometre away. It was incredible, and the world was so much more vivid, with colours that he didn’t even have names for. As he recalled, not only could the Windspeed Hawk see into the Ultraviolet and Infrared spectrums, but they were also accomplished nocturnal hunters, with excellent night vision as well. While [Rend] was the much cooler combat skill, [Super Vision] was incredibly overpowered in Karl’s estimation. Just being able to see where you were going at night would give him a great advantage over other students in the practical tests. Maybe the written tests as well. He could easily read other papers from across the room without moving his head or looking straight at them. Cheating on a written exam would be simple, if he weren’t already certain that none of the other students from the Mines were smart enough to cheat off. Chapter 5: Rend Chapter 5: Rend With the issue of activating his very first powers settled, Karl could finally rest easy for a few seconds. That was all it took for him to see the homework assignment on the table and realize that there was still a lot for him to do before they reached the Academy. ‘Alright, let’s get this done in advance, and then I can relax.’ His silent motivational speech had very little effect, but Karl sat down with a pen and the homework assignment in front of him. Name, Karl. Age, Fourteen. Skill Name: It only had one spot for a skill name, and that made him assume that it was normal for a newly awakened student to only have one skill. But which should he put in there? Beast Taming, Super Vision or Rend? This homework would be posted for the class, he was certain, so he didn’t want to give away the extent of his abilities to the other students and become the target of other students’ envy before he could defend himself. Plus, the contracted pet might be a magical beast, the Windspeed Hawk, but it was still a gosling, and wouldn’t grow into its full power for months or even years. Wouldn’t he just become a new target of bullying if he showed everyone a baby bird as his power? Super Vision seemed like it was much cooler and more useful, but it wasn’t a combat skill, and for the elite, combat strength was King. So, he went back to the bed and picked up the short sword again, determined to make [Rend] work. Activating the skill was incredibly easy, a single thought lit up the blade with a dull red light, and when he swung it toward the portion of the wall that was marked [Testing Area], a crescent arc of destructive power was thrown out and absorbed by the high-tech alloy. Drawing the blade through the air when using Rend was like mixing thick dough, he could barely move his arm, and the blade speed was slow, but the skill formed as the blade moved, so with a bit more training, it should be faster to activate. Rend would definitely make him friends in class. With a bit more effort, it could slice a wide swathe through enemies, and allow him to target an entire group. Karl hurried back over to the sheet and filled out the questions about his skill, including the restriction on movement speed when using the attack, which limited how fast it could be activated. If he thought about it, there might be a way around that if he was already moving when he activated the skill. Wasn’t that how Hawks hunted? They didn’t rely on strength, they came in at high speed and took out their prey in a single strike. If he could determine how that skill was supposed to be used, his combat power would increase drastically. But other than the skill, the questionnaire also asked about the user. Any headaches, feelings that you had forgotten something important, physical increases or decreases? Karl tested himself, and other than the Super Vision, he had definitely also become a bit more flexible. Not by a lot, but it was clearly noticeable. In the end, he decided to leave that portion of the questionnaire marked with ‘none’. If the agility increase improved in the future, he could blame it on something else from his training. After all, some of the elite were said to be true superhuman monsters, and some were just as frail and human as always, but with mind-boggling supernatural powers. One of the idols had even sprained an ankle after stumbling to go on stage for a meet and greet event. That seemed like pretty conclusive proof that the injection’s skill distribution system did not distribute physical enhancements in a fair and equal manner. Once he was satisfied that the answers would be enough for the Academy to rate him fairly highly among his classmates, Karl carefully slid the paper into the envelope provided and placed it in the tray by the door. That was everything that he was expected to do until they arrived at the Academy, but he couldn’t help wanting to try out more and better ways to use the [Rend] skill. What if he tried to be more like the Hawk? There should have been a clawed gauntlet among the equipment there, as well as a trident. Both would replicate the three claws of the mark on his arm, but the trident was a stabbing weapon, which didn’t seem well suited to how the skill worked. He opened the drawer again and put back the sword before taking out a pair of gauntlets with clawed tips on the fingers. As a weapon, they weren’t too impressive, but they looked like they would work with the skill that he had. They were a bit big on his hand, as Karl was slightly smaller than average, but after a few buckle adjustments, they fit well enough, and he tried the skill again. With his hand extended out in front of him, the way a Hawk would when swooping down on prey, he flexed his fingers, and four small streaks of red light tore through the air in front of him to hit the wall. Each of them was much less impressive than the one created by the sword, but the speed was incredibly fast, and they would hit multiple areas on the target. Against lightly armoured targets, that seemed like the better path. The more attack blades they had to dodge or block, the better. Each time he used the skill, it seemed to drain some of his energy, and after only a few more swings, Karl could feel his arms getting weaker, and he had to sit down and catch his breath. This was going to become an issue very quickly while doing combat training. He had spent plenty of time in the gym, but he was trying to improve his physique, not build his stamina and endurance. But that was what the school was for, all he had to do was focus on his training, and it would definitely work out in the end. As Karl massaged his sore arms, the first of the other students were only just beginning to wake up and begin reading the guidebook. It wasn’t much of a head start, but the first awakened elite of the batch was already determined. Chapter 6: Dropoff Site Chapter 6: Dropoff Site “All new students, gather your preferred weapons, your school uniforms and wait for the notification to disembark. We are now five minutes from the Golden Divine Academy.” The train’s announcement declared just after breakfast on the morning of the second day after Karl woke up. He packed the snacks he had obtained in advance from the train’s kitchen into the provided backpack along with the spare uniforms and shoes, then put on the black metal clawed gauntlets and hung the short sword from a scabbard at his hip. There was no rule saying you couldn’t prefer more than one weapon, and the guards hadn’t mentioned it when they saw him practising in the room that way, so it should be alright. The cook and the guard had both mentioned the walk into the Academy on the first day after he woke up, so the train wouldn’t be stopping at the gates. This was probably some sort of test, either to see how the students would solve a problem or get along or some nonsense, Karl decided, but whatever the reason, he was packing a lunch. As expected, the train came to a stop about a kilometre from the Academy, at the far end of a grassy field with a few well-maintained hedgerows along the way. “This is your stop. The last bit is up to you. I will see you all in the Academy tomorrow after the train is cleaned and repaired.” A slender man in a guard uniform announced. The students mostly stood by their open doors with looks of confusion, but Karl walked out into the hallway and stepped down from the train to take his first breath of the clean country air. Without all the dust from the mines, it smelled strangely like trees and flowers here, and he could feel the power of the Academy in the distance, like a tingle in his bones, warning him that it was something abnormal, something magical. The first student out was like a beacon to the others, and slowly the new students started to leave the train, mostly still exhausted from practising their new skills and a lack of sleep, but the sun was directly overhead in the sky, and sleeping under the scorching morning sun wasn’t going to be easy. The slender man in the guard uniform stepped in front of them again once everyone was off the train, and raised his voice to address the crowd. “Welcome, everyone, to Golden Divine Academy. As a special welcoming gift to all of our new students, we have prepared the traditional walk across the grounds to the front gates for you. Every year, the new arrivals make this trip, entering the gates as Awakened elites to begin their new lives. Now it is your turn. But be warned, the grasslands look empty, but that isn’t always the truth.” He wasn’t lying. Karl could see that the train tracks circled the Academy at a distance of roughly a kilometre, passing through these grasslands, a large portion of forest, and even through a swampy bog around a river. They must drop every group off at a different point, so they could watch them come into the academy. It seemed like a strange tradition, but when he looked out over the field using [Super Vision] he could tell that there was a huge population of Earth Rats, a Common Grade magical beast with incredible digging skills, and the ability to throw small stones using magic. They were mostly harmless, and Karl had dealt with them using a slingshot as a kid, but in large numbers, they could be a real menace. In this case, it was likely to be a nuisance, just an ‘amusing’ prank by the seniors to watch the new kids get pelted with rocks as they ran to school. [Mice, hungry.] A voice sounded in Karl’s mind, coming from the space where his Windspeed Hawk was kept. It was incredibly insistent, and eager to taste the mice, so Karl stepped forward into the field to see what they would do to the students who tried to pass. He might have hunted them before, but that was with a slingshot and in the house where they couldn’t use the earth to escape. Getting a clean kill shot here would be much more trouble, but he was fairly certain that he could do it with the speed of the [Rend] attacks. He just had to time them right. Karl stepped forward into the grassland battlefield, against an unknown number of the weakest magical creatures, armed with a single untested combat skill and a baby bird as a pet. Not exactly the most glorious of first battles as an elite, but it would have to do. The response to his invasion of their territory was immediate, and the ten centimetre long earth mice began to hurl small rocks at Karl, highlighting their position, and making the starving Hawk in his Beast Taming Space go insane with desire. A flick of his fingers, and four sharp red energy arcs flew out into the battlefield, taking out one of the mice before it even knew there was a danger, and then the other hand took a second. Super vision really was a remarkable skill for both eyesight and hand - eye coordination. His second attack hit a mouse as it was attempting to go underground to evade, and then his third reached its target as it tried to run. Karl jogged forward and picked up the bodies, then moved them into the taming space for the Hawk to eat before continuing on toward the Academy under greatly reduced levels of attack from the earth mice, who had sensed the presence of a predator in their midst and began to target the other students. Only a few brave ones would still throw rocks at Karl from a distance, all of which were easily swatted away with the armoured glove. “That glove is such a cheat code here in the open field.” A dark-haired girl with a wand in her hand complained from directly behind his back. “You’re a mage, a real magic user. Just blast them if they throw rocks at you.” Karl reminded her after seeing the magical casting device. “And pass out again in the middle of a field? I’m not sure if you’re aware, but magic is hard. I can only cast like two or maybe three spells before I collapse from exhaustion.” The girl complained. That was what had happened to Karl the first day as well. But once he got a bit more used to it, the consumption seemed not to be as bad. “Just stay behind me then, and undo your coat so you can hide your head. Earth Mice aren’t smart, and they won’t target your face if they can’t see it.” Chapter 7: The Fields Chapter 7: The Fields The other students quickly saw the tactic that Karl and the mage had come up with and began forming groups. From what Karl could tell, almost all of the newly empowered students were some sort of magical warrior class, and carrying various melee weapons. Not many of them had chosen shields, but those who did have shields took the lead in a group to push forward, while the ones with ranged skills fell in behind, encircling the mages and others who got no physical attribute enhancement. Two more classmates fell in behind the mage, following the example of hiding their faces, though they didn’t know why they were doing it. The sight frightened the weak-minded Earth Mice. One scary guy with claws leading three headless humanoid monsters was terrifying to the small creatures, and they began to flee instead of attacking Karl on his way forward. That let him set a brisk pace through the field, and put the field full of mice behind him right until they made it to the first hedgerow, where they took a short breather for everyone to recover some stamina. “Magic uses far too much energy. How long does it take you guys to recover after using your skills?” One of the boys in the back row, a warrior class with a large axe, asked. “I can use mine three or four times, as long as I don’t go all out. But then I’m tired, and I need to eat or rest. I haven’t tried to time it yet.” Karl replied. The mage nodded her head. “I’m the same. Two spells, and I’m at my limit and I need a breather. But if I sit down for fifteen minutes or so, I can cast another. I saved my magic this time, so I can at least use one and keep going, or I can cast both in an emergency, but then I’ll slow the team down.” The boy with an axe frowned. “I can only use mine once, and then I’m done. But I’m a woodcutter’s son, and I can swing the axe for hours if I don’t use the skill.” “That’s good enough. So far, it’s just been Earth Mice, and only an idiot would chase them with an axe. But if there is something bigger and slower up ahead, you can go ahead and fight it without using that skill. Did the injection make you stronger? It was one of the questions on the homework, so it must be a thing.” Karl suggested. “Yeah, a lot stronger.” He agreed. The other warrior smiled. “I’m not so strong, but I was alright to start with. Unfortunately, my first skill is defensive, see the shield in my marking? The silly thing is, I have no aptitude with a shield. I tried everything with the one in the storage box, but nothing worked. However, if I use a two-handed sword, I can activate the skill no problem, and keep it active all the time. The only problem is that I can’t swing the sword fast enough to block those rocks the way that you do with your gloves.” Karl nodded. “So, we’ve got a super strength axe man, a durable swordsman, a mage and me with my claws. That’s not bad, and it looks like the teachers wanted us to group up to fight our way through to the gates. Not that it’s been a tough fight so far, more of a practical joke by the seniors, but be prepared for something like Water Moles or Quill Beasts in the next field.” After a short breather, they moved forward in the same formation, but without the coats pulled up over their heads. If there was something more dangerous than Earth Mice in this field, they wanted to see it coming, and not find out when it reached them. Karl’s [Super Vision] scanned the field, but currently it appeared to be empty and easy to pass. Likely, whatever lived here was just sleeping or going about its daily business, unaware that something was about to invade its home turf. “Do you think that we should move through the trees? That would bring us to the academy without crossing the field, we just need to go to the side a little.” The mage suggested. Karl scanned the treeline and shook his head. “There are at least two iron tusk boars in those trees. I can see the torn tree bark at different heights. It might be a different species, but those marks are pretty distinctive.” He quietly informed the others. They were a long way from home, so it might be an entirely different species of boar, but if the tusk markings were similar on the trees to the ones he knew from home, then the animal likely was as well. “Then onward, valiant scapegoats of the freshman class. Let’s amuse our seniors and get ourselves inside that gate before it gets dark.” The woodcutter’s son laughed. They moved forward at a fast walk, not wanting to make too much noise or vibration underground that might disturb the beasts living there, but not wanting to waste time and let the others behind them catch up either. None of the other groups had entered this field yet. Most were resting, some were still struggling with either a lack of courage or the mice, and some had decided to go the long way around, under the assumption that the direct route was a trap. That group probably wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t mean that the other routes were any better. They were halfway across the field when the next group moved forward, jogging to catch up to the leaders, and the field erupted with activity. Vines sprung up out of the ground around the feet of the new group, trapping their ankles and pulling them down onto the soft dirt, while loose vines whipped at their faces. It was some sort of plant monster, what sort, Karl had no idea, but the loud footsteps had awoken it. “Keep moving gently, it hasn’t attacked us yet, it’s just active in our area. Keep moving and we will get out without much trouble. Don’t attack unless you’re actually trapped, and don’t step on the vines.” Karl instructed. “You’re the boss. But if we end up stuck in the middle of the field, I’m totally blaming you.” The Mage whispered with a rueful smirk on her face, fully expecting the worst. Chapter 8: Walk Softly Chapter 8: Walk Softly Soft steps got them almost to the end of the field before a sudden twitch of a vine put it right under their sword fighter’s foot, and not only did he stomp on the vine, he tripped, and his blade sliced a dozen of them clean in half. “Get him up and let’s run. The vine monster will not be happy about that.” Karl shouted, before beginning to dash toward the relative safety of the hedgerow. The woodcutter hauled the other boy to his feet, and the four of them took off running, hoping to make it to the edge of the field. Entangling vines grabbed at Karl’s legs, but fast steps kept them from finding a good hold, and he was nearly out of the vines’ range before he was pulled to a stop. Coming up from behind him, the young mage used Karl’s immobile figure as a springboard, running across his back as Karl was getting up and leaping toward safety, only to be caught in midair and dragged flat to the ground with a puff of dirt and a pained groan. “Good plan, poor execution.” The swordsman laughed from behind them as he hacked his way through the vines. Karl sliced himself free with [Rend] and then did the same for the mage, who frantically scrambled for safety in the trees. The last to reach safety was the woodcutter, but he was also the most lucky, as he had experience with entangling vines in the woods, and knew how to smack them with the back of his axe to keep them from grabbing his ankles. “Sorry, it takes too long to explain the trick, or I would have told you all.” He mumbled as he reached the trees a few seconds behind the others. “It’s all good. We each have our own knowledge base to work on, and there was no time for some long lecture in the middle of the field.” Karl agreed. The Mage seemed like she was about to say something, but then reconsidered. There were only a few seconds between the stumble and the escape, there really was no time to explain. All that was left now was a section of freshly mowed grass, with a single cobblestone path that led to the gates. If they could make it through that, they were safe. Well, relatively safe. From what they knew of the elites, the culture favoured the strong, and they were not yet the strong. But they were all well suited to their class, and in time they might be. “Stay off the grass. I learned that from my mum’s workplace. Fancy people hate when you walk on their grass.” The mage mumbled as they got ready to move. “Good point. I was looking forward to soft grass under my feet after growing up in the mines, but using the path just seems right.” Karl agreed. These other three hadn’t gotten on at his stop, but they should at least understand the concept of the mines. There were ten other middle schools in the nearby towns, so even if, like Karl, they had never travelled, they had at least seen the mountains over the mines in the distance. Triumphantly, they walked down the path, with the swordsman doing his best to hide a slight limp and the mage brushing the dirt off the front of her uniform to look a little less like she had been rolling in the field for fun. They reached the gate, where a pair of teachers were waiting to greet them with a large bag full of textbooks and a table full of drinks. “Welcome to the Golden Divine Academy, students Karl, Dana, James and Kruger. You are the first to make it to the gate today, and therefore the first to get to pick your rooms in the dormitory. The map is on the table, and you may pick any room on the second floor that is not currently marked as occupied.” They rushed over to collect a drink, and then gathered around the map. “This layout makes no sense.” Kruger, the axe wielder, mumbled. “All the rooms are random. Look at this one, it’s tiny, but with a huge empty balcony, who would pick that?” Dana, the dark-haired mage, agreed. But a long, narrow room caught her eye. There was supposed to be a training target at the end which she could fire spells at from a distance, which would be great for practice. “I want the balcony room.” Karl shrugged, then picked up a token from the table and placed it on the map. “Right, you have a wide area attack skill. If you want to practice, you need more space. I’ll take the training room here, with the Murphy bed that folds against the wall.” Dana explained, picking her space. The other two went for the largest pair of dorms, with a training dummy in the main room and a separate bedroom. Each of the rooms was a bit special in its own way, but Karl noticed that there was one selectable option that seemed quite inferior. Someone could actually pick the supply closet as their dorm, it was marked as an option, and might be left to the last person to complete the trials. The Windspeed Hawk in Karl’s taming space looked out through his eyes and squawked in appreciation of the choice. The big balcony was one of the few rooms that had proper outdoor access. In fact, it blocked a half dozen other rooms’ access to the outside, unless they had a window that opened onto the balcony. It was perfect for the bird, and once it digested these delicious Earth Mice, the tiny monster was convinced that it would have the energy to grow enough that it could fly around outside. Baby monsters didn’t stay helpless for long, even in this situation, where it was being nourished by a human beast tamer and not its mother. [Are there more mice?] It asked hopefully. It was strange to hear the bird’s thoughts as words in his head, but unfortunately, Karl didn’t have anything else for the beast right now. [Just wait until dinner and I will get you as much meat as you can eat.] [I hope they serve mice.] Chapter 9: Room Choice Chapter 9: Room Choice “Interesting choices. I can see the others, but why did you pick the balcony? The room itself is barely a bedroom.” The teacher in charge of reception asked Karl. “I can always set something up on the balcony, but mostly it’s for training. I have an area attack skill that I can’t train indoors easily. But the room is fine, it’s bigger than mine at home, and it’s got both a bed and a desk, with its own shower and water closet.” The others quickly double-checked to make sure they had picked rooms with their own facilities and sighed in relief. Not only did the rooms they picked have a full bath, they also had a small kitchenette with a fridge and hot plate for cooking in the room while they were studying. “In that case, I will give you all your keys, and wish you well in your studies.” The teacher’s smile told them all that they had probably screwed up somehow, but they had no idea what they should have done differently in that situation. Unless the juice was poisoned, they had just picked the rooms that seemed the most appropriate for their class. Or the biggest ones, in the estimation of James and Kruger. They took a few steps, and students from the senior classes, wearing badges with White, Black and Bronze symbols on them, fell in beside the group. White for Common Grade, Black for Awakened, and Bronze for Ascended, according to the text on the badges. The badges on the new students’ uniforms were all white, so Karl hadn’t noticed until now that they represented anything but the Academy. “Welcome to the Academy. We will show you to your rooms. It’s always fun to see the newbies’ first experience of the dorms, you see. It’s a completely magical building, so whatever you were expecting, just put that out of your mind right now.” The student with the bronze badge, the strongest of the three, explained. They didn’t say much more until they got to the main doors of the dorm. “On the right is the cafeteria, open from four in the morning until midnight. On the left are the laundry facilities, they’re a drop-off service, just give them the basket, and they’ll launder it and bring it back to your room. This isn’t a hotel, there are no maids, but the cleaning supplies are right here. Don’t forget to keep your room clean, everyone gets punished if too many students fail the dorm inspections. That way is the supply room, you can go visit him later, when you have academy credits, to get essential supplies and things you want for your room or your studies. Now, there is no elevator, but there are three staircases. The main ones are the best, as they’re five metres wide, and you don’t get jammed up with cross traffic. Your year is lucky, you got rooms on the second floor, mine is up on the fourth floor, and these two are on the fifth floor. It’s a long walk down to get to class, but I heard that the rooms are nicer at the top than they are on the lower floors.” The boy’s smirk told Karl that he was definitely pranking them. Either there was an elevator, or the rooms were all strange, no matter where you went. The three older students put their hands on the shoulders of the newbies and led them up to the second floor with a smile. “You two are right here, since you picked the square internal rooms.” The leader of the senior students informed them, gesturing to the doors on either side of the stairs. That was a factor that they might have forgotten to consider. Being right next to the stairs could be loud. But the hallways were decorated with thick red carpets, hanging tapestries on the walls, and plenty of decorations that should prevent echoes. The two warriors opened their doors, and looked at the bare rooms. Stone walls with multiple scorch marks, cut marks and absolutely zero furniture in the main room greeted them. They stepped inside in shock, and found that the bedroom had a simple single bed in it, unmade, but with quality linens and a comforter emblazoned with the school’s crest folded at the foot. The main room had a stone golem standing in the middle, the training dummy that the diagram had informed them the room included, and the older students whistled in appreciation. “Now that’s a nice bonus. They left you the training dummies from the last senior class. Those are Commander Class, you’ll never break them in the first two years, maybe not at all. I think it’s a good tradeoff for the initial cleaning you’ll have to do.” The student with the black badge laughed. Karl gave them a suspicious look. “Are these just as the students left them, or is there some system to it?” The others just smirked and shrugged. “Why don’t we let the others get settled in and see where you and the mage are staying?” Dana sighed and gestured down the hallway. “If I remember the map right, I’m that way. Room 17, the long training one.” The student with the bronze badge nodded in appreciation. “I’m also a mage, so I picked the same room on my floor. Let’s see what you got.” They opened the door and looked at an incredibly long hallway. Far longer than the actual dimensions of the building should allow. But at the entrance was a small bedroom, restroom and a kitchenette along the wall, followed by the vast stone expanse of the training hallway. It was spotlessly clean, and there was a single potion sitting on the table with a welcome note from the last occupant. “Congratulations, you got a decent senior. Check out your welcoming gift, we will get Karl here settled into his room.” The balcony room was just around the corner, and at first, Karl almost missed it. The supply closet room was right next to his, so the doors were narrow and very close together, but the older students knew which one it was. “Right here. Let’s see what it’s like. The balcony on our floor is empty, we didn’t have as many students as you guys do, so some of them aren’t in use.” The door swung open to show a very plain room past a short hallway with a bathroom on the left. The main room was just a metal desk and a large bed, trimmed in black leather, with drawers underneath. The walls were painted dark grey, giving the room a very odd feeling, but the curtains were the academy logo gold ones that presumably came with the room. “Well, this must have been the kitchen witch’s room. Creepy goth girl. You can repaint once you get some credits to buy the supplies. Good luck with that.” The Gold badged student sighed, obviously disappointed that there wasn’t anything special about the place. But they had forgotten the most important part. Once they left and the door closed behind them, Karl opened the curtains to the balcony and stepped outside, only to find himself in the middle of a greenhouse. There were plants everywhere, blocking his view, and Karl smiled. He had never had plants in the house before, his parents couldn’t even keep flowers alive. But the Windspeed Hawk was overjoyed at the potted trees, flowers, and vines that were scattered all over the balcony. Karl didn’t recall seeing this from the entryway, and he should have, as they passed right under it on their way in. However, the more he walked, the more Karl realized that the balcony was not normal. It was at least three times the size that it should be, and nearly filled with plants, until he got to the far end and found a gazebo with a hammock, a curved bench, and a small table that contained a well-worn notebook. [Care and keeping of the balcony. Abridged version.] Karl smiled at the title and flipped the notebook open. [While I don’t know if you will appreciate the legacy of the greenhouse, you will find that it is effortless to care for, and every plant here has a purpose. You see, they are all edible. Most of them are for humans, to help your growth, but I have personally added a few important ones of my own. This is the catnip plant, the feline type magical beasts love it, and you can use it to keep them from reporting you when you sneak out at night. This one is the Honey Berry, which is popular with bear type monsters. If you smear the pulp of this plant on the shoes of other students, it will attract the giant grizzlies to them in the woods. Be sure to wash your hands before following. The final one is only edible in a limited quantity, the clear mind fruit. Use it before the major exams to help you focus. But keep in mind that it only works a few times, so use it sparingly.] The rest of the book was just a watering schedule for the plants, and a note that the magic of the balcony would take care of the rest. ‘So, the last resident planted a fruit to help her cheat on exams, one to sabotage other students in the woods, and catnip to bribe the security so she could sneak out at night. This senior was definitely an interesting person.’ Karl decided. Chapter 10: No Mice Chapter 10: No Mice [There are still no mice.] The baby Windspeed Hawk complained. He was right, even with super vision, which could see into the infrared spectrum and would pick out urine trails of rodents, there was no sign of mice. That should probably have been expected of a magical dorm, but it was a great tragedy in the mind of the bird. [Alright, buddy, we will go to the cafeteria and find some meat.] Karl headed for the main floor again, and made his way to the buffet of the Cafeteria. “New student? I don’t know you.” The old woman behind the counter asked. “Yes, ma’am. My name is Karl.” “Polite, that’s not bad. Alright, grab what you like, but only the white plates are allowed to be taken back to the rooms, and must be returned during your next meal. Eat all you like, magic affects all you kids differently, no need to be shy about your appetite.” [MEAT!] The Hawk shouted happily in his mind, drawing his attention to a pile of raw fish set along one side of the long counter. It looked like a grocery section, where you could pick out your own ingredients to take to your room, while the first half of the counter was prepared dishes. “Then, pardon my hunger.” Karl replied, and took a pair of white plates to fill for their dinner. Pasta and meatballs with cream sauce, roasted pork, some sort of vegetable that gave off an incredible feeling of energy, and then an entire plate of raw meat for the Hawk. “Well, that’s one of the more interesting plates, for sure. But if you’re in a room with a kitchen, you can cook it as you like. In the future, you can just ask the cook to prepare it if there’s a special way you like your food.” She explained. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” Karl retreated to his room while the Hawk pleaded pitifully to be fed. If this was how adorably needy all baby birds were, no wonder their mothers would go to the extremes of even chewing food for them. Fortunately, the Windspeed Hawk had an extremely sharp metallic beak and could bite through bone with ease, even as a newborn. The meat chunks were all boneless, which the bird found disappointingly lacking in crunch, but the meat was all monster meat, high in nutrients and energy, and its body was growing at a visible rate under the pile of nourishment. It somehow managed to chew through five times its body weight in ten minutes, and it was still pleading for the meatballs on Karl’s plate as he finished his meal. [Fine, one meatball. But after that, you need to wait for dinner.] [When is that? I’m starving.] The bird complained, then burped loudly and fell asleep. That certainly didn’t seem like starvation to Karl. By the time that it woke up, the Windspeed Hawk had grown to the size of a sparrow, and was happily flying around Karl’s mental space, an exuberant distraction as he cleaned the balcony of leaves, which were set aside to be sorted for drying, and then watered the plants. Everything here should be a magical resource of the most basic level, so even the leaves would likely be worth something if they were properly dried and preserved. The problem was that he wasn’t sure if this garden was sanctioned by the school, or if they would view all the resources here as looted school property. [Is it dinner yet? We should get crunchy food this time.] Hawk suggested. [Sure, let’s go down and see how everyone else is doing after I finish writing a letter.] The bird was confused by the concept of a letter, but Karl wanted to write home to his parents to let them know that he was alright and settling in well at the Academy. The students wouldn’t be home until the end of the school year, but he didn’t recall any rule saying that they couldn’t send a letter or a text message. Not that either Karl or his parents could afford a cell phone, but that wasn’t the point. Maybe he would get them one once he was finished training and started to get the elite stipend. If it was enough, he could probably even move them out of the mines and let them retire. It only took a few minutes to finish the letter home, and Karl put it in the box by his door, which could be accessed from either the inside or the outside. That was where he had received and left the paperwork on the train, and it was where letters were picked up if you had to send them at home, so it should be the same here, Karl assumed. The dining hall was packed with new students, mostly in rather rough shape, with torn clothes, covered in mud and grass stains, and a few sporting visible injuries. Karl joined the line to grab dinner, then took a second plate, scooped an entire roast chicken on it, and transferred it to the beast taming space while nobody was watching him. Then he took another, added a collection of cheeses and snacks to it, and brought it to an empty table. “You were the gauntlet guy from the first group, aren’t you? I didn’t get a good look at your face earlier.” A girl with blonde hair and a heavily bruised face asked as he sat at the table next to hers. “Yeah, might I ask, what happened? Everyone looks like they were beaten half to death.” Karl asked. “We were. I went with a group that understood going together for safety against the Earth Mice, and our lead warrior chased them off with a skill, but when we got to the second field, the plant monster was already going insane. So, we thought it would be safer to go around, and we decided to try the treeline to the right.” She paused and gently touched her face, then flinched. “The one with the monstrous boars?” Karl asked. “Oh, you already know?” Karl nodded. “That’s why we went through the field. I saw the marks of the boars on the trees, and recognized them from outside the mining town where I grew up.” The girl laughed. “It’s me, Jasmine. I guess you really didn’t recognize me with my face like this.” That explained why she didn’t introduce herself when she started speaking, he should have already known her. Karl looked her over again. He was absolutely certain that when they left, the Jasmine that he knew had not been a blonde, and that she had been at least twenty kilos heavier than she was now. “You look different. It must be the hair.” Karl mumbled, not wanting to insult his classmate by mentioning what she used to look like. Maybe it was puberty, but he should have noticed a change like that, he was sure of it. There were a few other familiar, but also not familiar, faces in the crowd. It was like everyone was a bit different than he remembered, and most of them had improved in the best of ways. Come to think of it, he didn’t remember sitting quite so tall at the table, and his uniform pants didn’t quite reach his shoes anymore. That wasn’t right, they definitely did this morning when he got off the train. Maybe his Academy experience wasn’t going to be a bad one after all. A little more height and he would catch up to his classmates. Chapter 11: First Classes Chapter 11: First Classes The next morning was the official start of their training, but there were no scheduled classes. Instead, everyone woke up to announcements that they should wait in their rooms for the teacher in charge of their group to come inform them of their new routine. That sounded like a much more relaxed class atmosphere than any school he had heard of before, and Karl became a little more jealous of the elite lifestyle. Perhaps he would even get lucky and have a kind and gentle teacher who didn’t shout at students for wrong answers, or believe that laps around the school were the cure for inattention. At breakfast, he gathered another roasted chicken for Hawk, along with a collection of raw meat, but the beast’s consumption had temporarily slowed as the bird had grown overnight. They weren’t a large predator by the standards of monstrous beasts, just a deadly one due to their eyesight and attack power. As they grew to maturity, most of them would perfect the knowledge of the [Rend] skill, allowing them to take down much larger prey with a single strike. That might not sound too impressive, given that the full-grown bird only weighed a few kilograms, but when the proficiency reached a high enough level, a monster could actually ambush and kill monsters a Rank above its own, using the power of the mastered skill. It wasn’t a feat that many beasts could accomplish, and it was entirely a result of the Windspeed Hawk’s incredible rate of skill growth. It was well after noon before the teacher showed up to talk to him, and Karl was getting bored with just standing around in the garden and waiting. He had practised his [Rend] skill until he wore himself out, trying to improve his accuracy and activation speed, and then had a short nap, but he wasn’t really sure where to go from here, and none of the information in the bag of textbooks he had received told him anything on that topic. The sharp knock at the door woke him up, and Karl rushed over to open the door for the sharp - featured female soldier that was waiting outside. “Good afternoon, Karl. I am your combat skills Professor, you may call me Sergeant Rita. In addition to teaching you martial arts and essential skills for the elites, I will be your personal guidance professor. The Academy has determined that your class is too different from other warriors for the standard class schedule to be useful outside the daily battle training courses, so we will be working together for the time being. Did you have the space here to take lessons, or would you like to move to a classroom?” He had almost gotten his wish. Rita certainly wasn’t ugly, but her nature was about as far from kind and gentle as was possible, and laps around the academy didn’t seem like they would be outside her list of preferred teaching methods. “There is a spot on the patio that should be suitable. Please come in, Sergeant.” The gazebo seemed like the best learning space, and with the weirdness of magical training golems, staircases that only went to your floor and everything else in this dormitory, Karl couldn’t see how the plants left to him by the senior would be an issue. Sergeant Rita followed him into the unit, then onto the balcony with an intrigued look. But it was not the number of plants that shocked her. “Are these all freshly watered?” She asked. “There was a watering guide included with the room. Most only need it once a week, and I didn’t know when they were watered last, so I did it the day that I moved in. They seemed fairly dry, but everything is still in good condition.” Karl replied with a shrug as he walked to the Gazebo. “This is a nice unit, very outdoorsy. I’m not sure if it will rain on the patio, with the magic that’s in effect, but other than that, you lucked out. Now, I need to know everything that you know about your powers so that we can start a proper training plan. How are the physical improvements, how has the power of your skill adjusted with a single day’s practice, and are there any other hints as to what you can do with it? I won’t lie to you, the classes that can send a golem or magical construct into battle for them are in much higher demand than any of the others except the mages who can use unique spells. But with a ranged attack from the start, you’re not in a terrible spot.” The Sergeant informed him very sincerely. Her honesty startled Karl, and it felt like she genuinely had his best interests in mind as a guidance counselor. Hiding too many things from her wouldn’t do him any good, so Karl decided that it would be best to just put everything out in the open for her to understand. Maybe she would know how to help him and Hawk grow. Karl focused and brought out Hawk from his Beast Taming space. “We should start from here. This is Hawk, and my skill awakened him from an egg in the kitchen. It allows him to live somewhat comfortably in a space inside my mind, and our thoughts are linked. Once I contracted with him, I gained the ability to use [Rend], the same attack skill that all Windspeed Hawks have, and my senses gained an incredible improvement.” Sergeant Rita stared at the tiny bird for a few seconds, trying to process the information that she had received. “So, your ability lets you contract with monsters and what? Use their abilities? While that sounds pretty cool, it’s still a high-risk path to fight against other monsters.” She asked. “Well, I guess that’s true, but we both know what the other is thinking, so with a bit of training I shouldn’t have to fight alone. I’ll have Hawk with me.” Karl offered. Sergeant Rita smiled. “How about we see if we can’t find you another Beast Cub? If you can get something that’s a better fighter than the Windspeed Hawk, you might have a real chance to become one of the more powerful elites.” Hawk squawked in indignation at the suggestion that he would be replaced right after being born. [Does this woman have no shame? Looking down on the Windspeed Hawk. Fully grown, I am sure that I can make it to the Commander Rank, and she’s just an Ascendant warrior. Give it a month, and I’ll bet I could beat her up.] Hawk’s mental communication was accompanied by audible screeching when he was outside like this, and the Sergeant smirked at the irate fledgling. “What is he saying?” She asked. “He says that when he grows up he will be a Commander, and you’ll still be Ascendant.” Karl gave her the abridged version. The Sergeant glared at Karl, who raised his hands in defeat. “You asked, and he said it, I’m just the translator here.” “So, it really is intelligent enough for coherent thought at that stage. Interesting. I know it’s the first day, but we should go to the training grounds to see what you two can do when working together.” Chapter 12: Sparring With Rita Chapter 12: Sparring With Rita Sergeant Rita led Karl down to the main floor and out across the grounds to a large open coliseum. “This will be our venue for the day. You’ll love it, at least when it’s empty. With nobody here, you can send your Hawk as far out as you want, and we can spar with the training gear. Don’t worry too much, it’s capable of withstanding the attacks of Commander Rank magical beasts, we won’t be in any danger from the practice.” She explained. The coliseum was actually a football stadium that was converted to an arena when the facility was repurposed as the Divine Golden Academy a decade ago after the injections were developed. It was huge and open, with more than enough room to fight, and plated with a powerful magical barrier and armoured plating to keep the battles from affecting the crowd. “Call out your bird, you two can make the first move.” Sergeant Rita suggested as they walked to the middle of the battlefield. [Hawk, fly up high, and attack from the side, she will be expecting you to go behind her.] Karl instructed as he checked his gauntlets and drew his sword. As soon as he released it from the mental space, the Hawk flew up fifty metres in the air and began to circle, waiting for its master to be ready. [Go.] Karl instructed as he slashed forward with the blade, activating [Rend] halfway through to create a small arc of power that Rita blocked with ease using one of the two daggers that had appeared in her hands. Then she dodged to the side as the attack from Hawk streaked towards her, and parried again as a flick of Karl’s fingers sent more rending energy her way. Then she counterattacked, surging with energy and rushing toward Karl. He had no actual combat experience, but a sword was bigger than a dagger, so he sidestepped and swung his blade, which she easily parried, but while she was distracted, Hawk’s next attack hit her in the back of the neck, leaving a bright red welt. [What do we do? Her neck doesn’t break when I attack it?] Hawk asked in a panic. [Just keep attacking. She’s stronger than us, but she is going to teach us how to fight.] Karl frantically blocked the daggers with his gauntlet, but he could see that she was holding back, pushing him to see his physical limits. “That bird’s accuracy is deadly, I can see how you would have confidence against a Common Grade monster with a companion like that. If I were one of your classmates, I would likely be in the infirmary right now after that strike to the neck.” The Sergeant congratulated them. She had underestimated how fast that bird was, and hadn’t realized that it had time to come in for another dive-bombing run so soon. Rita turned to keep them both in her line of sight as the bird continued to circle overhead, then launched a flurry of attacks that knocked Karl to the ground just in time for her to block Hawk’s attacks. “Alright, I know where your weaknesses are now. The first thing that we need to train is your fighting skills. While the bird is equivalent to a repeated sneak attack, low output but incredibly difficult to dodge, you will have to face the wrath of your enemies until you can find a second pet or a group mate to take their attention.” That made a lot of sense. In a way, he was still a warrior class, just a pet warrior, who could fight alongside a magical beast. Learning an entire combat system wasn’t going to be easy, but at this point, his life literally depended on it after graduation, unless he gave up on the dreams of becoming famous and powerful in exchange for doing some cushy job for the ultra-wealthy and somehow never get the reserve force call to battle. But if he did that, he wouldn’t be much different than where he had started, he’d just be at the bottom of a much fancier pile. Even most of the music and television idols among the elite were known to go and fight to improve their strength or deal with attacks. They just did it with assistants and cameras following, so the world would know how awesome they were, not like some bureaucrat or lawyer who got sent to an attack that didn’t even make the news to fight alone against a rampaging monster. “Alright, what do we start with? Sword fighting? Martial arts? Some sort of secret magical body training art?” He asked. Sergeant Rita laughed. “First, we start with basic physical conditioning. Your body is adjusting quickly to the mana injection, and it triggers an awakening in place of your natural growth. That’s why we give the shots at the end of middle school, so that all the recipients are still in the rapid growth phase and can adapt more easily to the changes. As your body adjusts, you should be able to move from a Common Physique to an Awakened Physique fairly quickly, and then you will be able to actually fight at an acceptable pace, closer in speed to the movements of your Hawk.” Karl sighed. He knew it, there were definitely going to be laps around the academy. “Follow me to the gym. There will be a bunch of agility type fighters there now, so your standards should be suitable for the equipment that is out. I will lead you through a basic routine today, and then we will set your baseline for improvement. Within the next month, I expect that you will be able to make the minimum Awakened Standard, but you have until the end of the semester before the official tests are done.” “So, most students take that long to make it to awakened?” Karl asked. That didn’t sound so bad. “No, many of them will make the minimum standard within the next few weeks. The true Geniuses will be getting close to Ascended by the end of the first Semester, and make it there either late in the year or at the beginning of the second year.” Just like that, Karl’s dreams of easy days as an elite were crushed. Chapter 13: Agility Training Chapter 13: Agility Training When they got to the gym, the attendant issued Karl a workout uniform consisting of sneakers, shorts and a shirt in the Academy’s white and gold colour scheme, and sent him to the locker rooms to shower and change. That was their policy, shower before and after using the equipment. Apparently, new students didn’t wash enough on their own, and they needed to shower when they arrived. Or perhaps, like he was that day, they were expected to be sweaty already. It didn’t take long to get ready, but Sergeant Rita was already there, changed into a black tank top and a different pair of green cargo pants with clean boots. Did they think that she might be mistaken as a student if she didn’t wear green? Or perhaps it was a military rule. Karl had heard that the elite soldiers weren’t officially military, but their own branch of the government. However, they didn’t come to the mines, there was no reason for them to be there, so he had never actually seen one before the injection day. The agility type warriors, as Sergeant Rita called this class, turned out to be almost entirely female. That made Karl wonder deeply about what sort of bias the mana injection had for the skills that it awakened in people, or what that said about his current physique. He might not be the most macho man ever, but being subtly told that you currently have the physique of a fourteen-year-old girl was hard on the ego. Then he looked through the glass wall and saw the strength type warriors from the senior classes training, and the class was full of musclebound meatheads with arms the size of his torso. Maybe he was in the right place. “Alright, first up, upper body strength. That skill of yours puts a lot of resistance on your body, and you need to be able to power through it, but without building up so much bulk that you can’t evade anymore.” Rita began. What followed was two hours in hell. By the time that Karl limped back to the showers, he was sweaty, exhausted and ready to fall asleep right where he was. He was about to collapse when Hawk pushed a piece of cold roast chicken out of the space for him to eat as a form of emergency energy, or a survival ration, Windspeed Hawk style. A very deeply missed survival ration, even though the bird still had a quarter of a roast chicken and plenty of raw meat left. Once he was changed, Karl made his way back to the dorms for the afternoon, and straight to the cafeteria for some much-needed sugar and caffeine. If this was going to be the daily routine, he was going to have to start eating much heavier meals than usual. Somehow, despite feeling like death, he still managed to look like he was in better shape than the next few groups to arrive. They were holding each other upright, and mostly bruised, cut, scorched or dripping with some sort of mystery liquid. “What happened to you?” Karl asked the mage sitting at the next table, startling him so much he almost fell out of his chair. “Skills training. All day long, the magic classes undergo skills and theory training. I have one spell, Lightning Bolt, and they had me drink supplements over and over to cast it thirty times today until it stopped hitting me and everyone around me.” He complained, clearly in agony, and so tired he was about to pass out. “What about you?” The other mage at the table, a girl with charred sections on her uniform, asked. “I had a combat class with the instructor, then two hours of fitness routine with the agility type fighters. I think my legs have started to turn into pudding already.” Karl sighed. “Two-hour fitness routine? What did you do to the instructor to deserve that? Even the newbie warriors only get a thirty-minute intensive weight training session and a thirty- minute cardio session along with their weapons training.” The girl asked. “No idea. I think that she’s got high hopes for me, though, because she’s already talking about forging me into an Awakened body this month.” The mages winced. “We need to get our mana levels up to awakened levels before the end of semester exams, but that’s way harder than it sounds, and we need to meditate whenever we’re off, but you can’t do it when you can’t focus, and we’re all too sore today.” “Well, almost all of us. I think that she might be fine, that woman is a demon.” The boy Karl had spoken to first complained, gesturing toward a woman covered in slime at the next table. “Slime girl?” Karl asked. “Don’t let it fool you, she’s a water mage, and her first spell is [Refreshing Water Slime]. It helps her recover stamina and mana, so she’s been wearing it like that all day.” That was almost a cheat ability. From what these two said, the mages trained their aptitude by maintaining and controlling their spells, and hers refreshed her stamina and magic while she wore it, so she could do it all the time without getting exhausted. She would almost certainly grow quickly. That was the sort of luck that a true protagonist should have, Karl decided. [Slimes suck, you can’t even eat them, they just squish.] Hawk had a point, not only was he an excellent combat assistant, he was also edible. The students slowly made their way to their rooms, and Karl let Hawk sleep off his overindulgence while he lay in bed, too tired to sleep, but too sore to do anything else. He wasn’t sure when that changed to blissful slumber, but he was very aware of his alarm going off the next morning, alerting him that he had fifteen minutes before Sergeant Rita arrived. Karl took a quick shower and changed into his uniform before the Sergeant was at his door, impatiently knocking and holding a breakfast try in her other hand. “You’re running late, so I brought food. Let’s go to the gazebo so you can eat while you study.” She instructed. Once they sat down, Sergeant Rita took out a small stone, and set it on the table. “What do you think of this?” She asked. Karl looked it over. It wasn’t an egg, it was just a rock of some sort. He even poked it, first with the handle of his spoon, and then with his finger. No response. “It’s definitely a rock.” He replied. “Interesting. So the psychic stone has no response to you, but you can communicate with your bird.” Rita noted. “Now, try this one.” Again, Karl put his hand on the stone, tried to make it do something, but it was just a rock. Then another, and another. But when she put a small golden coin on the table, an ancient monetary instrument from the Golden Dragon Nation they lived in, Karl immediately felt an affinity for the object, and when he touched the dragon on the coin, a sense of power filled him. “So, that’s the answer. That coin was blessed at the Dragon God Shrine during the last Dragon Festival. It appears that your powers resonate with the dragon energy. Since that’s the case, I want to try something else.” Rita took out a small vial filled with shimmering red liquid. [Oh, I want it. Ask the evil lady to give me that.] Hawk demanded. [You should be glad that she can’t hear you.] Chapter 14: Updated Mission Statement Chapter 14: Updated Mission Statement “Hawk thinks that will be useful to him if he can have it. What is it?” Karl asked. “It’s mana infused monster blood. It’s the most basic of Common Grade resources for physical cultivation type elites. Drinking mana infused monster blood strengthens the body and can induce mutations. Without a proper method to handle and guide the process, it is often fatal, but for a monster or magical beast, it should be perfectly fine.” She explained, with amusement sparkling in her eyes. For a moment there, she almost seemed like a happy young woman, but then her serious face was back as she gestured toward the table. “Call him out so that I can see the process. If it works, the Academy will get you more resources for the bird until it can grow into a proper combat unit. According to this morning’s briefing, leadership feels that trying to turn you into a frontline fighter with just one Rending attack is pointless, and the senior professors think that we might have more luck training the Hawk, with you as its backup and leader in a support or scouting role.” She explained. Karl sighed. “Day two and I’ve already been sidelined?” Rita gave an honest laugh at his disappointment. “All the mages are being cultivated in this direction as well. It is a measure to reduce casualties. The more people that we can have fighting behind golems, summons, barriers, and in your case, monsters, the better we can resist the Magical Beasts, and the more success we will have against the armies of the other nations. They know that we have the advantage, and this relative peace won’t last for much longer. If you don’t want to be cannon fodder, you need to act quickly to gain strength. So, strengthen the bird, and when you feel that you are strong enough to take on another pet, let me know and the Academy will find something suitable for you.” That was a sharp change from yesterday’s regimen of focusing on building his physical strength as fast as possible, but if they didn’t know any more about his powers than he did, there wasn’t actually much they could teach him, other than methods that had worked for others with different powers. But Hawk was already out on the table, and happily lapping up the mana infused monster blood while radiating an amount of power that was far beyond what anyone would expect of a Common Grade beast. After a few seconds, the effect seemed to fade, but the former swallow - sized hawk was now much larger, and while it was still a Common Grade monster, it was getting much closer to fully grown and awakened level power. Then, something truly strange happened. Karl felt energy flowing from Hawk to him, clearing his mind, sharpening his eyesight, and leaving his muscles feeling fresh and strong. He had no way of subtly testing it, but Karl was almost completely certain that his physical strength had suddenly increased as Hawk grew. Most of the people he had seen these last few days were changing rapidly after the mana injection, so it might just be that, but the fact that it happened so suddenly after Hawk was given the monster blood seemed incredibly suspicious. Karl cleared his throat and looked at the empty vial on the table. “So, I resonate with Dragon energy, and Hawk likes monster blood. That second part isn’t exactly a surprise for a Hawk, but do you think that there is a known technique that will let us grow stronger more quickly?” “Well, we are limited in Dragon type energy, there just isn’t a lot of it floating around, but there might be another way. Carnivorous magical beasts grow stronger by killing and eating, absorbing the life force of other beasts. I think that moving the two of you to the practical courses as soon as you can finish basic skills and survival lessons would be for the best. We can’t just send you out of the Academy without getting you trained enough to defend yourself, the public would riot if they found out that one of the elite had died during training. The mana injections are great for us, we get the superpowers of all sorts, but to the average people, they are the promise of a safer future, without the nightmares of impending monster invasions or being left helpless during a war.” Karl rolled his eyes as she got into the official propaganda. While she wasn’t exactly wrong, most of the students here would never fight in any war. Heck, half of them would never develop a skill that was actually useful during a war. No matter how cool a sword skill was, artillery still existed. Unless your sword could deal with an air strike, it was not suitable for use during a real war. But some of them really could deal with artillery using sword techniques. The Mages were a different story. But also, if his beast got powerful enough, or he managed to bond with a particularly powerful monster, he could also become a deadly fighting force. The hide of a powerful magical beast could stop bullets, and many types of beasts could breathe fire, call down lightning, or even slice apart armoured vehicles with their claws. He was already headed down that last road, with [Rend], and if he could get it past the Awakened level of the power scale and into the Ascended levels, there was no reason that he couldn’t tear through an armoured vehicle on his own. “But for now, that’s mostly hypothetical. We’re not at war with anyone, and the magical beasts are being held at bay throughout the Golden Dragon Nation.” Karl replied. “For now. Just trust me, Karl, you want to get in as much combat training as you can, and I will apply for improved resources for Hawk. I know that birds are usually fine with whatever sort of meat you feed them, but if we want to force it to grow faster, it will take a detailed plan.” Rita informed him. Karl thought about that. A Windspeed Hawk was full-grown at four months old. But at that point, they were only low Awakened Level beasts with a Common Grade physique. It would take time and hunting stronger beasts if they wanted to grow past that strength level. Without some sort of reference or plan, he could be stuck at a very low level in his second year. Chapter 15: Resources Chapter 15: Resources Rita started to take textbooks out of her bag, but a very different set of books than Karl had been issued his first day here. These were all about magical beasts, their diets, traits, abilities, and other factors that might be relevant to Hawk. “I will leave these for you, and come back tomorrow morning. What I want you to do today is come up with a care and feeding guide for the bird, and justify it with the information from the books. If it’s good, and it follows the information that we have in a logical way, I think that I can get you some more resources. At the very least, I can get some more of the mana infused monster blood. We stock quite a bit of that for the warriors and other classes who need an instant physical power boost.” She informed Karl with a smile. Rita left Karl alone with the stack of books on monster data, which were all written from the perspective of a Hunter. At best, they noted what the beast’s usual diet was and where it could be found, but that was much different than a guide to help him properly raise them, much less one to raise them faster than usual to compete against wild beasts and magic users. Fortunately, he only needed a care and feeding guide for Hawk to complete the homework, which was a perfectly reasonable level of workload for the day. Plus, he had a cheat. “Hey Hawk, what sort of things do you think would make you stronger? Something that you could eat, or keep near you to grow extra fast.” Karl asked the happy bird, who had settled down in the space inside his mind to rest. [I like meat. And the red juice from the evil lady, and those blue fruits over there. Can I eat those?] “Give me a second while I see what they are and what they’re for.” Karl replied, before opening up the notebook for the balcony greenhouse. [{Mountain Gooseberries} Tasty treats for both humans and animals. Used to make monster bait. No nutritional value that I know of, but the smell will attract all sorts of monsters. This berry contains a high mana content, suitable for creating mana potions of the weakest variety. Even in concentrated form, it is not as strong as a normal mana recovery potion.] Karl read the description twice and then went to pick three of the berries. “You can have this many, one time a day. If you eat too many, you will get sick.” He warned Hawk. Really, he just didn’t want the Hawk pigging out on junk food when he had a whole pile of meat in the taming space. The Hawk took the berries, looked at them with longing, then spread them all over the raw meat and began to tear it apart with renewed vigor. Karl added a note to the papers for his homework. [Windspeed Hawks will use the Mountain Gooseberry as seasoning on their preferred raw meat diet.] Once the Hawk had finished eating for a moment and lay down to let the influx of mana and nutrients settle into its body, Karl started with the questions. “Why do you call Sergeant Rita the evil woman?” He asked. [Every time I see her, she wants me to work, but there is never food. What else could she be except evil?] That made a lot of sense. The baby Hawk was still a magical beast, and his stomach was a primary driving force for his behaviour. Whatever bond they had forged made Hawk friendly to Karl, but that consideration didn’t extend to anyone else around him. “Alright then, where is the most comfortable spot to rest?” Karl asked. [Right here, maybe the branches of that tea tree. Those ones smell good, and they hide your scent from prey. Tea trees are good trees.] All afternoon, Karl quizzed the bird and wrote out a report with the answers. Then he started to go through the textbooks, looking for supplements that might help monsters, or even elites with [Rend] type skills. The first group didn’t have much research on it, but the second one was pretty common. All sorts of warrior classes had a rending attack after a bit of training, and it was among the skill techniques that the Golden Divine Academy taught its warriors. Naturally, they had supplements that were designed to increase the ability of the warriors to explode with inner power. The question was if they would be effective on Hawk. Neither of them could tell from looking at the description, so Karl began to flip through the standard textbooks until he found the alchemy text. That one was more productive. Once they had the list of potential potions and treatments, Karl just had to check the ingredients and see if it was something that Hawk might like. Most of them were all herbal based, but once he got to the Strength Potion, he found something promising. It was made from monster blood, infused with the dust of a gemstone that gave off strong magical energy. The two together gave the human imbiber a long duration burst of energy. That stone was the promising part. He didn’t really need something that would give Hawk a burst of strength, it was a bird, not a gorilla, but the stone that it was made of radiated power that might help him grow more quickly. After that, Karl kept searching, but only found one other resource, a Wind Magic stone of the same sort. That one wasn’t a natural resource, it was created by Mages as a mana storage device. Hawk loved to absorb mana, and since it was air magic, Karl had some hopes that it would be able to work with that stone to improve its own abilities. That was four potential resources. High-energy monster meat with berries for seasoning, the infused blood, the strength stone and the wind stones. If he could get all four of them, he might even be able to get Hawk through to Awakened strength in the next few weeks. Chapter 16: Growing Fast Chapter 16: Growing Fast The next morning, Rita returned to collect Karl’s homework before breakfast, and then came back with a small bag for their class work. “Alright, I got you what I could to see if the resources actually help a pet beast grow faster than the average. This isn’t going to be a short process, the Windspeed Hawk is going to need the whole semester to make it to Awakened naturally, so if you can do better than that, you should get good marks on your training. We will still work on your martial arts skills, though. If you get targeted by the opponents in a mock battle, you need to be able to defend yourself, and you do have at least one attack method of a magical variety.” She informed Karl with a smile. “Well, at least I’m not expected to run and hide while someone beats up Hawk. What did you manage to find us?” Rita dumped the contents of the bag on the table, and Hawk went crazy in Karl’s mind. There were two strengthening stones, an entire litre of infused monster blood, and six blue wind stones that were giving off an incredible aura of power. “The Wind Stones were made by the headmaster personally. He was part of the first batch of successfully injected elites, and he is now an Overlord Grade Mage. He says that if the Wind Stones really can be a cultivation resource for the Windspeed Hawk, he will gladly make you more, and look into ways to awaken more elites in the same direction.” Rita explained. [I take it back, evil lady is actually nice lady.] Hawk screeched as it stared at the buffet in front of it. Karl ignored the bird’s antics in his mind, and placed one of the strength stones in a small dish full of monster blood. The energy seemed to seep from the stone to the ‘soup’, but Karl wasn’t sure what to do with the wind stones. “You can’t crush the wind stones, it will break the spell. But if he just sleeps beside them, or wears one as a pendant, the mana should help. Assuming he can use it, anyhow. That’s how the new air magic users do it.” Karl called Hawk out, and the bird immediately went to the soup, and licked the entire bowl clean before turning its head to the Wind Stones. Each was no bigger than the diamond on a wedding ring, but the energy contained inside was immense. Sleeping next to them shouldn’t be a problem, and Karl could even make a little pouch to carry them around Hawk’s neck. But the bird immediately ate one, and swirling winds began to build around the balcony, tearing leaves from trees and nearly knocking over planters for the smaller varieties, before Karl pulled Hawk into his mental space. [What are you doing?] He demanded of the tiny bird that was now radiating magical power. [It’s food. Amazing powerful food. What else would I do with it if not eat it?] Inside the space, winds whipped, and power flowed constantly from Hawk to Karl, strengthening his body as if he were the magical beast. But from the outside, from Rita’s perspective, everything was calm, and Karl was meditating or distracted by his thoughts, with no sign of external stimulus. All she could do was patiently wait until an hour later, when Karl finally opened his eyes and gave an exhausted sigh. “The Wind Stones are indeed an excellent resource for Hawk. Come on out and let her see you, my friend.” The Windspeed Hawk appeared on the table, looking exactly as it always did, with cream feathers covered in mottled brown patterns that matched the common trees of the forest. But now it was much larger, as long as Karl’s forearm, as a nearly full-grown Windspeed Hawk should be. It was also giving off the aura of an Awakened Grade monster. “Well, we can say for certain that feeding a Wind Stone to a Windspeed Hawk will cause an immediate growth breakthrough, and it will progress from fledgling to a young adult state within a few hours. He’s also starving again, and he has eaten everything I stored, so I’ll pour him some more blood into the dish.” Karl offered as an explanation. “It really worked. There actually is a way to cultivate tamed monsters. How do you feel? Is it a strain on your body? Did you gain anything from the process, perhaps more mana, or a new power?” Rita asked, ready to take notes for the Academy. “I feel stronger, but I don’t know how to check my mana levels. Is there a device for that?” Karl asked. “No, the mages know instinctively, but I’m not a mage. We can bring you to one later, and they can give us a reading for the records. But meanwhile, you can try to use your abilities and see how long it takes for you to get tired.” Karl ran off to the closet in his small room to get the gauntlets, and came back out. A quick flex of his arms gave him a sense of great power, and once he got to the railing, he found that the resistance of the [Rend] spell on his actions was negligible. He had more than enough strength to move his arm normally, and the four thick arcs streaked through the air and out over the Academy courtyard. “Impressive. That is definitely at the Awakened Rank in power, but how many times can you do it? If there is no stamina, the Academy will classify it as a Common Class burst ability on your part, where it is an Awakened Ability for the Hawk.” Rita explained. Three more at full power was enough to leave Karl panting, but he had an idea. “Give me a few minutes to recover, and I think that I can do better.” A short break, and a bit more to eat, had Karl back up to full strength, while Rita quietly made notes about his recovery speed. Karl tried again at half strength, and the drain on his energy was negligible. The feedback from Hawk was enough that Karl felt he could do this for hours, but instead he did it a dozen more times, alternating hands and directions of the cuts, as if he was shadow-boxing with [Rend] as the strikes. “Fifteen minutes at half output. That’s still Common Grade strength, but on the strong side of it, and it looks like you are improving as the Hawk improves. Once he is stronger, you should really become an Awakened Level fighter, or rather Beast Tamer, with the advantage of an Awakened Level beast to help you.” “Not bad for the first week, right? If you leave those resources here, I think that we can do better by the end of the month. We might even have enough strength to fight with some of the second year students by the time the exams come around.” Rita laughed at Karl’s enthusiasm. “You had better make time in your day for combat training then, or even with Hawk, you’ll get beaten to a pulp.” She had a point. This whole Beast Taming thing would be a lot easier if he had a giant rhino or something scary in front of him. Chapter 17: Proper Training Regimen Chapter 17: Proper Training Regimen Hawk went straight for the Wind Stones again, once nobody was paying attention, and grabbed another. But this time, it didn’t integrate into his body in the same sudden rush. Instead, there was a steady flow of Wind Magic from the stone to the bird, and its body seemed to be adapting to the excess energy at a much slower rate. “Does it only work that well once? That was a pretty high-level resource, compared to Hawk, so perhaps it damages the body when it is used in such an abrupt manner.” Rita suggested, while flipping her short black hair out of her eyes. “That’s possible, I can’t really tell and Hawk doesn’t understand either, he just wants the stones. I will ration them out for him, so he gets a new one when the old one is absorbed.” Karl agreed. That would be a while, as after he ate the second stone, Hawk was begging to be let back into the mental space to sleep off its overindulgence. “Food Coma.” Karl explained, when Rita gave the disappearing bird a confused look. She sighed and shook her head. “That’s not part of a proper training regimen. But today, we can forgive it, since he had such a large breakthrough. I approve of your diet plan, and the infused blood will be brought to you regularly, along with a new strength stone, in a few weeks. Hopefully, this one lasts because that’s as fast as we can get another. It looks like your abilities are very fast-growing, but equally resource intensive. Perhaps if you grew naturally at the rate of the contracted beast, you could do it with only food resources, but from what we know of the wild magical beasts, they also need to eat some rare objects, or absorb strange energies to reach the higher ranks naturally.” What Karl really needed was a way to improve the Hawk so it could beat other monsters at its level, and not just keep growing. They were likely to have to face beast packs and invasions in the future, and one monster on their side against ten on the other would mean very little to their chances of winning. Being able to work together was a nice start, but not enough to be considered a truly powerful sort of existence on his own. Hawk snorted in amusement in his mind. [What other Hawk of my level is so good with its magic or so majestic in flight?] [I know you’re the best, but I’m trying to think of ways to make us even better.] Karl countered. Hawk went quiet as he thought about it. Hawks only needed one skill, the ability to kill their prey, but he supposed that more ways to kill his food wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe if he watched other birds do it, he could find ways to do it better? The Windspeed Hawk wasn’t sure that was even possible, but it wanted to make Karl happy, so it was willing to try to use [Rend] in new ways. “Can we go down to the training areas? I think that the more we see actual combat while we’re training, the easier it will be to come up with ways to make ourselves better.” Karl suggested. Hawk wasn’t going to be coming out for a while, so he might as well train himself while he had the chance. Rita led him out of the dorms and out into the field on the opposite side from his balcony. There was a large training area there, with stone squares in the open field, and a large group of students were training unarmed combat techniques there. They were all second year students, and very good at what they were doing, but just watching them gave Karl ideas on how he and Hawk could work together to overcome them. “We’re going to try something different today. Since you have a ranged skill of sorts, I want to start you on defensive basics. If you’re fighting from a distance without magical armour skills like the mages learn, then you need to have a way to block. Today, we will practice blocking incoming attacks with your claws. The more you practice, the better you will get. Think of it like learning to play catch. Just hit the incoming attack with your own.” Somehow, that friendly description sounded extremely sinister to Karl, especially when she led him away from the unarmed combat field and toward a huge bunker. “There are mages at your level training here, stronger Common Class students that are close to breaking through to Awakened. They might have a bit more stamina than you do, since they’ve been practising longer, but it takes less to deflect the attacks than to form them. Now, at first, they will be firing down the training hall above your head. Don’t worry, they shouldn’t miss the target entirely at their level. Just do your best to deflect them off target.” The mages nearby glared at Sergeant Rita as she said those words. Who was she to come in here and interfere with their training? They were already at the bottom of their class, but now she was bringing in some newbie hotshot just to mess with them? “Alright. Seniors, I apologize for the inconvenience.” Karl apologized as he felt the glares directed his way. “It is training for the mages as well. It’s one thing to just hit a target, but in the real world, targets will defend themselves. Being able to work around the defence to land a solid hit is also a necessary skill.” Rita added. In the end, she was a teacher, and they didn’t have any say about her intentions for their training, but the thought that this was a real-world exercise, while they had been mostly abandoned to their own devices as the weakest of the elites, was somewhat reassuring. Rita led Karl to the other end of the training grounds, where a dozen targets were lined up. “Alright everyone, here is the goal. You just need to land hits on the targets, the same as always, but this time, Karl here will be doing his best to deflect those shots and keep them from landing. With a dozen of you and one of him, it shouldn’t be hard, but he needs the stamina training to help stabilize his foundation. Have fun, and don’t be afraid to push yourselves to find new ways to get to the target.” They started casting as soon as she finished speaking, and Karl frantically began to cast rending blades at low output, letting them crash into the various spells. Some were deflected, some were only slowed, and some pushed through on their own with only a slight loss of power. It all depended on the element and the power of the spell as to what happened. Fire and water were the hardest to deflect, they just passed over with a loss of power, where ice, earth and other solid objects could be easily knocked off course. The next time, he only used one rending claw per attack to save mana, but increased the power of each as he swatted aside and nullified the attacks. Karl panted with exertion and sighed. That was a mistake, the power needed was an exponential increase compared to the increased output. It was better to hit a target with multiple small attacks than one big attack. The Mages were actually beginning to enjoy themselves, as they realized that he wasn’t some wonder genius sent here to humiliate him, and that he was a newbie working on his mana control, just like they had been all last year. Chapter 18: Playing The Game Chapter 18: Playing The Game With everyone limited in stamina and magical power, there were constant breaks, which also became part of the game that was played between Karl and the mages. He would sit down to recover, but still swat at attacks if someone got lazy and an attack was particularly weak or slow moving. In the eyes of the supervisor, the lone teacher assigned to watch over the dozen mages in this class, it was the best motivation that they had seen in months. None of these students were good at self motivating, and their abilities weren’t strong enough to get them a personal instructor, even one at the low level that Sergeant Rita had reached. To his trained gaze, the warrior with the Rending Claws was likely to overtake her in power by the end of his first semester, while she had taken three years to make it to the middle of Ascended Rank combat power. Sergeant Rita was no genius when she had to learn magical powers, but she was a great martial artist, and from what he could see, a superb teacher. Not only had she motivated her own student, it was motivating his as well. Karl and the others trained together until lunch, after which the mages would be moving to theoretical training to help them learn new spells, and Karl would be moving on to either close combat training or theory classes on how to care for a magical beast and research assignments on the chances of increasing its power more than its species would normally allow. “Come with us for lunch. It looks like you awakened a pretty cool combat ability right from the start with the ranged claw attacks. Most warriors are boring until they’re at least reaching the end of the Awakened Rank, and they can start to hit targets more than two metres away from them.” One of the mages informed Karl. She was a tall and buxom blonde, but with the growth spurt that he had undergone the last few days, she was only a little taller than he was now, and Karl had hopes that he would reach an acceptable height before he had enough classes with others that his reputation as a shorty would precede him. At the very least, everyone seemed to respect his abilities. None of them seemed to notice that Karl covered an entire plate of raw meat in a drizzle of mana infused monster blood, or that it simply vanished into thin air, they were all more eager to discuss the ways that they had thought of to use their spells to get around his defences. “I think that if we increase the speed and fire them as double balls instead of a single, we can get at least one through to the target.” One of the mages was suggesting. “Better if you send them a few metres apart, so that the other claws don’t hit. Or better, at slightly different speeds, that will make it harder to guess when they will arrive.” Another mage sighed. His specialty was ice, and he had a terrible time getting the ice shards to hit the target when they were so easily knocked off course. “This is a different cafeteria than I’m used to, where are we?” Karl asked. “Oh, this is the cafeteria in the mage district. There is another in the warrior training area as well, for students who were a long way from the dorm cafeteria at lunch. The foods at each are totally different because they are specialized for the different groups. The warrior one has more nutrition-based options, designed to build muscle, while ours is more mana rich. The one at the dorm is a mix of everything, but mostly it’s used by the students who study in their dorms all morning, the noncombat elites.” The tall blonde explained. “That’s good to know. I have to train everything, but today, I definitely need the extra mana. I’m Karl, by the way.” “Molly.” The blonde replied. “Formerly known as Gertrude Dingwall.” One of the boys teased. “But now I’m Molly. It’s on my ID card.” The blonde replied in an annoyed tone. “You don’t have to put your real name on the sheet, you see. She asked if she could change it when she was on the train, and the guard said they’d call her anything she wrote there. Legend has it that some prankster a few years ago was known as Tater Salad for an entire year before he could get his card changed.” One of the other mages informed Karl with a giggle. Hawk sighed in contentment as he feasted on the upgraded lunch package, courtesy of the red sauce that the not so evil lady had left for him, and Karl sat and joked with the mages for an hour before Sergeant Rita came to inform him of his next training task. “We will see you all tomorrow morning, but for the afternoon Karl has actual combat training to do. He might have a ranged attack magic, but the Academy has determined that he is still a warrior class.” The mages made praying motions, wishing Karl the best of luck on surviving warrior training as well as ranged casting practice in a single day, then slowly made their way to theory classes with a renewed motivation to learn new spells that would get past his defence. Karl had been getting better all morning, but they all had thoughts on how to evade his defensive abilities. As they walked out across the grounds, Rita smiled at Karl’s concerned look. “Relax, it won’t be so bad. We’re going to the first year unarmed combat classes. It’s just basic martial arts, and most of them have very little skill. Your physique is miles beyond most of the other newbies, so you shouldn’t have too many problems adapting. Plus, I brought you one more resource that I scooped from the Mage Class instructor. It’s a memory drop, a condensed focusing spell that makes it easier to memorize things. It’s not powerful magic, but it’s incredible for studying. The Mages get them as a reward when they do well on tests.” Chapter 19: Unarmed Combat Training Chapter 19: Unarmed Combat Training “Ah, Rita, welcome. It’s good to see you back here as a teacher instead of a student. Who is this that you’ve brought with you?” The instructor, a small but muscular man in his late forties, asked. Chances are he wasn’t part of the elite, he was too old to have been chosen even a decade ago, but if he was a martial arts expert, he would be the perfect person to be training new recruits. They wouldn’t be stronger than he was, and they knew basically nothing, unless they happened to have some special training at home, with the hope that they would be in the lucky five percent that managed to gain an affinity to mana from the injection. That was a fairly big risk to take, but some would surely have done it, just in case. “This is Karl, he’s an agility type warrior with a ranged magical attack that utilizes the claws on the gauntlets. It has proven quite versatile, and since it’s a gauntlet type weapon, he should fit in fairly well in your unarmed combat classes as well.” Rita explained. “Well, that sounds like it’s a properly versatile skill set. Alright, let’s see what you can already do, and what you still need to learn.” The instructor agreed. Karl laughed and Rita smirked. They both knew that he knew nothing, but with the enhancement that he had been getting from Hawk, at least he might not embarrass himself. The instructor noticed his uneasy look and smiled. “Don’t worry too much, it’s unarmed combat. Just leave your gauntlets over there, and we can spar a little. If you’re a complete newbie, just do what feels right, and that will tell me what way is best to help you develop.” [Yeah, swoop down from above and break his neck.] Hawk added. [Not helpful, I can’t fly.] [Then jump or something. I don’t know.] Hawk pouted. Karl set his gauntlets off to the side and took a combat stance that he had learned from Rita on the first day. At least he now knew how to throw a punch without hurting himself, but they would have to see how the actual match went. The instructor threw a sudden punch, and Karl swatted it aside as Rita had told him, then counterattacked with a punch of his own, which the instructor simply sidestepped to evade. For a man who couldn’t be an elite, he was insanely agile, and Karl’s follow-up punch also missed, making him think that Rita had been taking it even easier on him than he had first suspected. The instructor’s knee caught Karl in the midsection, forcing him back, but he swung his leg out in a sweep, trying to knock the instructor over. He misjudged the range, but being down low let him block the next knee, and tackle the instructor, who was only a little taller than Karl was. That turned out to be the wrong move, as the man caught him, and then suddenly Karl was spinning through the air to land on his back. Dust puffed up around him as the wind left his lungs and Karl gasped, but rolled to his feet. “Not bad, kid. I’ve got a good idea of how you like to fight now, so we will put you with the mixed martial arts group. Those stand up fighters do well against soldiers, but it looks like you will be better in bar brawls and nastier fights against monsters. It might seem counterintuitive, but with your speed and power, a punch to the head will stun many Common monsters, and grappling skills can be adapted to keep their claws away from you. It’s not an offensive art, you have your ranged attacks for that, but if they get past that, I think we can teach you to defend yourself.” Somehow, punching a magical beast in the face seemed like an awful idea, but if the option came down to that or being bitten, he supposed it wasn’t all that bad. “Rita, come over here and give us a hand. Your student needs to learn the basics of the style, and we’ve already got an even number of students.” Sergeant Rita looked like she had been prepared to sit this class out, but when she was called, she didn’t resist. Not many of these new students would be Karl’s match anyhow, and it would just be bullying for him to spar with the ones who didn’t receive a large initial physical boost. Once again, Karl found himself headed back to the cafeteria for dinner, totally exhausted, sore in every muscle and barely able to walk. But the memory water was working, and he could recall each of the fifty techniques that he had been shown that day with perfect clarity, along with the proper way to use them. After a few more weeks of training, so his body remembered it as well, he might even be able to consider himself a trained amateur fighter. Karl sat down alone at a table, but he was soon joined by other members of the unarmed combat class. “Man, you won the lottery with that awakening, didn’t you? It’s the first week, but you’re already so fast, and you even got a personal trainer.” One of the boys from the mixed martial arts group greeted him. Karl laughed. “I got a personal trainer because my marking is different from any of the others, and they had no idea what sort of skill I was going to get. So, I was tossed a personal trainer, and we’re just guessing our way through it. Most of you guys should have gotten the grappler or monk marks, right? The open hand or the staff over the fist?” The small group at the table nodded. “Yeah, the initial skills are crap, but at least it was easy to awaken. All you need to do is punch something, and I managed that before I even got out of bed. I gave a fist pump in joy and hit the shelf, and that was enough to awaken my mark.” “Plus, we get a load of extra stamina. Even if we can’t get to the most powerful ranks, we can at least grow up to be popular with the ladies.” One of the other boys laughed. “It’s better than nothing. But sitting around all day talking about magic symbols like the mages sounds like much more fun than working my butt off learning martial arts and body strengthening skills.” One of the other students laughed. “Your head hurts trying to do basic math, you’d never survive as a mage.” “It has to be easier than getting beat up every day. I’m a lover, not a fighter.” The boy complained. “We all know you’ve never done that either, so you might as well learn to fight.” Chapter 20: Wind Stone Chapter 20: Wind Stone While Karl lay in bed, wondering how he was going to deal with the mage class in the morning, Hawk was busily finishing absorbing the wind gem that he had been given. With the level difference between the Hawk and the stone, it should be giving him all sorts of benefits, but after the first stone, which brought him to the Awakened Level, there wasn’t much change. His mana levels were steadily growing, which was pulling Karl up with him, but nothing as shocking as the first stone. It was with great regret that the generous offer of resources was wasted that Karl fell asleep, only to be awakened before dawn as a surge of magic flowed through his body. [Skill Gained: Wind Shield] The absorption of the stone had granted Hawk a new skill, though the new spell was unavailable to Karl, at least for now. “Now that’s more like it. Another spell for you, and that is one that a normal Windspeed Hawk wouldn’t manage to learn. Congratulations.” Karl cheered for the bird, who was already settling back down to sleep. It had managed to comprehend better magic with the help of the stone, and now it had no intention of being awake while it wasn’t hungry. Unfortunately for Karl, he wasn’t so lucky, and the excitement kept him awake for hours, letting him get back to sleep just before the alarm went off to get ready for breakfast. “You’re looking chipper this morning. Aren’t you sore?” One of the boys from the combat training class asked. “I recover pretty quickly. It’s all just a matter of eating enough to keep up with your needs.” Karl laughed as he pointed to the plate in front of him. After the breakthrough yesterday, his appetite had grown much larger, and again this morning, his clothes were a size too small. Before he went for training, he was going to have to go to the supply room and get new uniforms that actually fit. Karl made his way to the laundry room, where the sign said they could apply for new uniforms, and was greeted by a very large woman in a raincoat. “What do you need then? A bit early in the day for laundry, it won’t be ready until later, and I’ll put it in your room.” She announced. “Actually, I need uniforms that fit. I’ve been growing like crazy since I arrived, and neither of the ones I was given fits anymore, I can’t even do up my shoes, I’m standing on the heel.” Karl replied. “Ah, right then. I’ll get you sorted out. Just bring the others down to me later.” The laundry woman came back a few seconds later with two uniforms in fresh plastic bags and a pair of boots, plus a pair of shoes and sandals. “If you turn out to be one of those giants, then you might need the sandals later. Just try to keep things in good condition, so I can issue them to the other students once they’re all washed. Once you’re settled through the growth phase, you should be fine.” Karl returned to his room to change, and then went down to meet Rita for their morning visit with the mages. [Hey Hawk, which one do you think is more mana efficient, Rend, or Wind Shield?] He asked. [Rend, of course. But Wind Shield can block big things, and water balls. Stupid water balls.] Hawk replied. Karl wasn’t sure what the water had done to him, the bird had been sleeping most of the morning yesterday, but there was a chance that the young bird was just moody and needed more attention. “Why don’t you come out and sit on my shoulder for the morning? We can block water balls together.” Karl suggested, and Hawk was instantly out, sitting on the shoulder of his coat while impatiently rocking, waiting for them to get to work. “I take it Hawk is going to join us for the day?” Rita asked. “He was feeling a bit caged in, waiting to be able to do something other than sleep and wait. I think it will be good training for him as well, and there are plenty of spells for him to block. Don’t worry, he knows to block the spells, not to attack the casters.” Rita laughed as she led them to the training grounds, where the mages were already assembled and waiting. “You have a pet bird? That is just awesome. Will he be watching? That’s a male Windspeed Hawk, right?” One of the girls from the mage class asked. “He is. His name is Hawk, and he will be helping me out today with the blocking duties.” Karl agreed. The mages looked extra excited. They were wondering what a magical beast would do to block their attacks, but they didn’t want to go find a wild one to find out firsthand. This was much safer, and they would be able to learn if the Hawk’s logic on what should be blocked was different from what a human’s would be. The barrage began again, but with faster attacks, variable speed attacks, and multiple castings to try to get around Karl’s defences. As soon as the fight started, Hawk leapt up into the air and circled behind the targets so that he could attack downward, the way that he was used to, and began targeting the water balls. Nobody else noticed at first, as there were only a couple of water mages, but they were quite certain that the bird had something against them. “Hey, did that Hawk just cast a Wind Shield? I swear that it used a barrier spell when my water balls split to go around the rending blades.” The water mage complained. “It’s a Windspeed Hawk. Since when do they have a barrier ability?” One of the other mages laughed, and then saw his fireball simply dissipate against an invisible shield. “Dammit, they do have a Wind Shield. Alright, I’ve got a counter for that.” The Fire Mage raged, while the other mages laughed and the Hawk screeched happily. His next attack was three fireballs, split in speed so they wouldn’t be easily blocked. Hawk spread his toes and swung his foot, sending a trio of rending blades out to intercept. They hit all three fireballs at once, and the other mages cheered. “Man, he’s good. No wonder people tell horror stories about trying to get away from bird type monsters.” Chapter 21: Outside? No, Keep Working Chapter 21: Outside? No, Keep Working After the skills training with the mages finished, and they had all managed to drag themselves to lunch, exhausted but satisfied with their progression, Karl began to mentally prepare himself for the afternoon skills training. Hawk was happily resting on the table with a chunk of roasted meat, but Karl could tell that the bird’s mind had already wandered to the monster blood treated delicacies that had been stored in the taming space for him to snack on all afternoon while his leader learned how to fight. “Do you think that they will let you go out with the newbie training patrols? I know that you’re training alone, and on a different learning program than everyone else in the first year class, but we also heard the teacher talking today about how they might black badge you soon, and then you’ll be able to lead a group into the woods. The actual classes always have wilderness assignments, but they can’t go without an awakened or stronger team leader, so most of the first years have to beg for favours from the upperclassmen, or wait until the teachers organize an outing.” One of the girls asked. She was also a black badged awakened mage, but looked older than many others in the misfit mages class, so she might be in her third year, not her second. “I will have to ask Sergeant Rita about it. I didn’t know that the others had to leave the academy grounds to do things in their first year, so it’s all news to me. Other than the combat training class, where I don’t actually spar with many of the other students because I’m physically strong and untrained, you guys are the only student interaction that I have.” Karl explained. “Oh, that makes sense. This early in the year, you wouldn’t be doing much of anything but learning the basics. It’s mostly the alchemists, druids, garden witches and such that have to go outside into nature to train. Their skill set requires it.” The mage agreed. “Yeah, and the more esoteric mages often don’t leave the library for more than an hour or two a day for their entire time at the academy. They just learn as much as they can about spells, and then never actually use them for anything. I should have worked harder to be one of them, it would be less exhausting.” One of the boys added. “If you can, you definitely want to go outside, though. There are all sorts of good things out there, especially for a meat lover like Hawk, and you’ll get extra credit for leading the group, which you can spend at the supply room.” Sergeant Rita’s voice came from behind Karl. “Are you lot trying to steal away my student? He’s got a long way to go before he’s ready to go out into the wilderness unaccompanied.” The Mages laughed and everyone pointed at the bird on the table. “Did you know that the Windspeed Hawk can use [Wind Barrier]? With that and Rend, it’s already tougher than most of us. Plus, it’s a magical beast, and there’s still a whole Karl to go with it.” One of the mages explained. Rita gave the mages a stern look that said she wasn’t going to be changing her mind on Karl going on wilderness outings, no matter whether he got the black badge or not. “Your plates are empty, and Hawk has finished basking in the attention, so pack him away and get to the training class. We will be testing your memory today.” Rita ordered, then left Karl to clean up and follow behind her. “Looks like the mention of going outside got her upset. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Karl laughed as he transferred Hawk back into the Taming Space. He could do that from a distance, but he wasn’t sure just how far it worked from, as he hadn’t tried it from more than across the room. That was another skill that he would have to practice with Hawk eventually, once their bond and bodies were strong enough that they could operate individually and didn’t have to rely on each other for everything. Well, maybe they wouldn’t wait on the bodies to get stronger, Windspeed Hawks were better known for their skills than their durability, but the sentiment was the same. Karl jogged down to the training area, where Sergeant Rita was waiting for him with a few older students, and the regular class was just beginning to assemble in the locker room to get changed. “Give me two minutes and I will be back out.” He called as he saw the Sergeant already changed and waiting. “Bare feet and shorts, shirt optional.” One of the older students called back. That was the normal sort of training outfit for the mixed martial arts class, so Karl didn’t think much of it as he got ready and came back out. “Not bad, still young but a good bit of muscle mass, lean and solid.” One of the older students noted when Karl returned without a shirt. It would just get in the way while sparring, so he was carrying it with his towel and water bottle, both sourced from the shelves in the changing room along with the training outfit. Rita looked over Karl and the training group. “Alright, first we will start with a quick sparring session to see how much of your training you actually managed to remember. I remember giving you some resources that will help you retain knowledge, so I have high expectations.” Karl couldn’t tell how strong these students were supposed to be when everyone was in training outfits, but the boy he was paired up with was only a little larger than he was, and slightly more heavily muscled. None of the students in this training class were pure bodybuilder physiques, it would interfere with their flexibility. That didn’t mean much when there were supernatural abilities involved. Many of the Warrior Classes got strong physical enhancements as they practised, as good or better than the feedback that Karl got from Hawk. “This will be a three-minute round. Now, start.” Rita announced. His opponent darted out a jab to test Karl’s reaction speed, which he blocked while moving forward for a knee strike. Being smaller, it was to his advantage to get as close as he could, where the other boy’s reach advantage didn’t mean anything. He had learned that yesterday while getting beaten up by Rita. He only knew a few strikes, punches, knees and elbows, along with a few blocks, but hopefully, it would be enough to get him through the next three minutes. The older boy aimed a strike at Karl’s head, which he ducked under and punched toward the stomach. This opponent was fast, nearly as fast as Rita, and he danced out of the way instead of blocking, which allowed him to move out of Karl’s punching range. It put Karl on the defensive as the boy counterattacked, but either he was weaker than Rita or he was holding back, and he didn’t manage to land a solid hit for the next minute as Karl threw a few kicks and tried to get back in close again. It wasn’t working, the boy had figured out the trick to keeping Karl away with knee strikes, and the two were at an impasse when the round ended. “Not bad. But neither of you could land a hit to save your lives.” Rita admonished them. “He’s short, and stupidly fast. If you want someone who can beat him up in a sparring match, ask the Monk Classes, not me.” The boy complained. Chapter 22: Situational Awareness Chapter 22: Situational Awareness After two hours and a dozen opponents, Rita finally stopped calling more people to the ring. “Alright, I have the combat data that I need. It looks like Karl here has a pretty good memory and instinct for someone who has clearly never won a fight before in his life. That’s good enough for us to get started on the next round of instruction.” She announced. “The next round? What exactly are we going to have to do next? I’m already struggling to win a fight here unarmed, I’m not sure that throwing more knowledge at me is going to help.” Karl asked. Rita laughed at Karl’s concern. “No, we’re not going to force you to learn even more in the next few days. Instead, what we will be doing is tying everything that you have learned into one practical lesson and then grinding it into your brain until it is impossible for you to forget it. You need to be able to block attacks while fighting, and work with Hawk at the same time. Like a Mage that has been tasked with both offence and defence, you’ll be working overtime, and you need to build your situational awareness.” Karl nodded like he understood, but Rita saw right through his subterfuge. “What I mean is that you must be aware of where all threats are at all times, or either you or Hawk could get yourselves into a lot of trouble. You’re not indestructible, and enemies will try to lay traps for you. That means you can’t let the Hawk act freely on instinct, they will know what to expect from that. You have to guide him while also protecting yourself and maintaining a solid offence so that you can fight your way out of trouble if it finds you.” Rita explained. “Well, that sounds like a lot of work, so it must be important. How am I going to do that?” Karl asked. “Practical skills training class. You will have accuracy and speed training with the mages in the morning, martial arts training in the afternoon, and then an entire day of practical skills training every week. Now, tomorrow is normally the odd day for most students, where they take their elective subjects instead of their core training. For you, that means practical skills. Then the day after is an off day, so catch up on rest and healing, and you’ll be back with the mages on Monday morning.” At least there was still an off day. “Now, you can call it an early day and go get something to eat. Tomorrow will be a long one, and the first time is always the hardest. But trust me, this class will be important for you, especially if you start collecting more Monsters on your side.” Rita added, then walked away. Karl wanted to argue that he could do perfectly well like the mages that he worked with, just doing theory for half the day and practical skills for the other half, but that didn’t seem to be an option now that he had been singled out as having a unique skill. The fact that he was currently one of the strongest freshmen briefly entered his mind, but as Karl hadn’t actually interacted much with the other new students, his skills could only be compared to the second year students, where even the misfits of the class could probably take him in a fight. It didn’t feel all that impressive as a title. When he showered, changed and finally got back to the student cafeteria for an early meal, there were a lot more students than usual hanging around, chatting and laughing. These were the other freshmen that Karl didn’t usually see, who were still undergoing mostly theoretical training for the noncombat skills that they had awakened. Unlike the scorched, frozen and bruised freshmen who would show up later, these looked surprisingly cheerful, though Karl could see that whatever they were doing was wearing them out, and they were mentally exhausted. “Oh, it’s the first through the field. Why don’t you come and join us?” One of the girls asked as Karl stepped into line behind her. “It looks like I already have a reputation.” Karl laughed as more people turned to look at him. A boy a few places in front of him nodded. “They use your group as the example of what sort of courage and caution we are supposed to have. You all managed to make it all the way without any issues, other than the ones caused by other groups that weren’t as good. The teachers want to make sure that we all know it too, and the others from your group, Dana, James, and Kruger are already living the celebrity life in class. Well, mostly James and Kruger, since Dana disappeared into the Library to do her mage training on the first day and doesn’t really come out much.” The girl who had greeted Karl laughed. “That’s because she wants to find a way to reduce the casting cost of her magic until she can use it for a whole fight. I told her that it’s not realistic, mages are burst damage sorts, blast it hard and hope it dies, but she’s bent on being able to fight for longer without switching to area effects, which don’t work well in a group.” Karl shrugged. “We’ve all got our own style, I guess. But being able to work in a group is important as well. I heard that later in the year everyone gets a chance to go out on missions for extra credit, and that is normally done in a larger group with one of the seniors.” The students in line all nodded eagerly as the girl replied. “We’re looking forward to it. The extra credit isn’t about marks in class, it can get you all sorts of special privileges. Well, it can get us all sorts, but I heard that you already have an assigned tutor and customized classes, so you don’t need to worry about the two biggest ones that everyone wants.” “It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. A full-time tutor means full-time customized classes on their schedule, not yours. I would love to be able to slack off.” Karl laughed. The students around him snorted in amusement. “Even without them, the teachers are right on top of anyone who tries to slack. It’s like they know the instant that you’re not working as hard as you could be, and they’re trained to jump on you and make you catch up. The pure amount of homework that we all got the first few days because we treated class like school was insane.” Chapter 23: Practically Trained In A Swamp Chapter 23: Practically Trained In A Swamp The next morning Karl was waiting at the training grounds just as Sergeant Rita had instructed, when a large group of first year students arrived together, and a handful of senior students with black badges came walking in with casual smiles on their faces. “Looks like we’ve got a new addition. Which group are you here to join?” One of the black badged students asked. “No idea. Sergeant Rita just ordered me to be here.” Karl replied with a shrug. The students all gave him an assessing look, trying to guess what his skill and power level was at, but even with his recent growth spurt, he just looked like a handsome teen boy, not yet old enough to be called a young man. Then the teachers arrived, two mages and Sergeant Rita, who had a bundle in her arms as she walked over to Karl. “Flip your coat inside out. You will be the flag carrier for team five. Here is your actual flag for the mission, wear it as a cape, and I wish you luck. As I said, the first day is always the hardest.” She informed him with a smile. “OH? We get a rookie for today’s training?” One of the senior students asked. The larger of the two mages, an old man who must have been a natural mage and not one of the injected elites, cleared his throat and everyone fell silent. “Most of you know the rules. Odd numbered teams are on defence, protect your flags as well as you can. The flag carriers are your team leaders. Even numbered teams are on offence, your senior will lead the team. This is a group training exercise, as you alone won’t be able to face down every threat that comes your way during training. Sergeant Rita will hand out the tokens at random, while the seniors know their numbers already. Senior Geoffrey is out on a mission, so Karl will be taking his place for the next few weeks.” Rita walked through the groups of first year students and passed out tokens, which everyone pulled from a bag, then the students grouped up based on the token they drew. The fact that it was completely random, and that they wouldn’t have any guarantees of a decent grouping, was already giving Karl a headache, but it looked like the others were well aware of the situation, and they were already making plans for how they would work with what they had. That was the point of the lesson. When there was an emergency call, whoever was close to the emergency answered. You didn’t get to pick and choose a front guard, healer and mages, you just fought with what you had, and there was no extra time to figure it out. Karl’s group was Dana, the mage girl who was behind him on the first day, along with seven large boys that all had shields and hammers or spears. “Oh, come on.” One of the other students groaned as they saw the group forming. “How did group five end up with every defender in the entire class?” One of the mages agreed. His group was five mages and three boys with short swords and daggers. If they were attacking, it wouldn’t be too terrible, but they were group three, and they would have to defend a flag without anyone who could take an attack head on. The flag carrier for group four laughed and pointed at his group. Eight first year mage girls, which left a grand total of two girls not on his team. Dana, and a warrior in group two. But, they had picked the numbers out of a bag, so if there was any trickery going on, it was not easy to detect. “It looks like today’s game will be an interesting one. Sometimes the luck of the draw means that you have to improvise. While group five has the shields, they don’t have a lot of mobility, and they only have one spell caster. It’s not impossible to overtake them and capture the flag, you just have to get creative.” Karl draped the black flag with the golden Academy logo on it over his shoulders as a cape and tied it off, then joined his group to see what they could do. “You will have two minutes to prepare, then we will move everyone to their starting positions.” The older mage announced, while the other mage started to lay out a mat on the ground that had all sorts of fancy symbols drawn on it. “Alright, what can everyone use for skills? With so many mages it will be difficult to just turtle, they will target me pretty quickly.” Karl asked. “The joys of being the new guy. They’ll all be gunning for you because you’re the only leader who doesn’t know what he’s doing. I’m assuming that you’ve been training for this since we got here, but the other leaders are all in the second and third year. As far as skills go, I can create fog, or magic missiles.” Dana explained, then swept her dark curls back from her face to tie them in a ponytail. “We’re all common warriors, and we’ve all got the same two skills. [Slash] and [Guard]. It’s a thing that apparently happens every year because Guard is the most common skill, and slash is easy to teach.” One of the warriors explained. “Alright, what does [Guard] do exactly? At your level, that is. I’m not worried about how the Dragon Bulwark uses his in the movies.” Karl replied. The students laughed at the thought that they might eventually manage to use the Guard skill at the Overlord level to create a barrier that could extend a whole city block. “It covers an octagon about three metres across. It will take a couple of spells for the others to knock down, but if the attacking team leaders target one of us, we’re pretty much screwed.” The boy explained. Karl nodded. “I expected as much. Does everyone remember the gladiator movies? The triple line formation and the turtle shell? When we’re attacked, form up to create an overlapping wall with your shields, and only when we’re in trouble, use Guard to block them out. Staying close together will make us harder to find, as long as we’re not in an open field, while Dana and I will have to be the offence unless they charge us.” Dana sighed. “You know, magic missile uses a lot of mana, I can’t do it much. The fog is easier though, I’m pretty good at the fog.” “Is there natural fog where we’re going?” Karl asked. The others all shook their heads. “Then save it until we’re under attack. I don’t want them to find us because of the fog itself. How fast does it cast?” Dana frowned. “About ten metres radius per minute, slowing as it expands. If we want to use it effectively, it will take time.” [Time is up. Everyone, prepare to transport.] The mage shouted. Chapter 24: Swamp Chapter 24: Swamp Suddenly, they were standing knee-deep in swamp water, with a slight mist on the surface, and thick trees all around them. “Dana, begin the fog spell. Everyone else, crouch down in the water near that stand of trees.” Karl whispered. Nobody was happy about being neck deep in swamp water. It smelled of rot and something even more foul, but they obeyed Karl’s order and hid in a circular formation, with Karl and Dana in the middle. Karl released Hawk and let the bird stand on his shoulder for a moment. “Hawk, go scout the area for attackers, they’re the groups with nobody wearing a black cloak like mine. Don’t let them see you, and come back within five minutes.” He whispered, speaking out loud so that the others could understand what his plan was. “You have a pet bird?” Dana asked. “I do. It’s part of my class skills. But it’s also a real bird, so I don’t want him hurt.” Karl explained. “The bird scouts the area, to let us know when someone is likely to find us so that we’re not ambushed. The fog hides our exact location, even if they can figure out right away that it is unnatural. Being in the water makes us difficult to target, and gives us the chance to launch the first strike.” One of the warriors deduced. “Exactly. Dana, don’t make the fog as thick at the edges, make it get thicker as you approach the trees behind us. If they are targeting by the centre of the fog, I want them to miss us by at least a few metres. If we’re lucky, they’ll find each other first, and we can face weakened groups.” Karl added. Dana softly chuckled as she worked. “This is such a dick move. What’s next? Tearing vines from the trees to hide under?” Karl didn’t even have to say anything, the warriors immediately got to work pulling some vines free. Not tearing them from the island, but pulling them up so that they could sit a blanket of vines over the group and pretend they were part of the island. The fog cloud was growing quickly, but the groups were spread out over a square kilometre of swamp, and they weren’t alone. There were Common Grade monsters here as well, bullfrogs and beetles, who made a lot of noise and distracted the groups that were trying to search for the defenders. A few minutes in, Hawk swooped down from the sky, landing on the vines that had been pulled over Karl’s head, and then disappeared into his Taming Space. [I’m full. I’m going to nap now.] He announced. [Did you eat bullfrogs instead of working?] Karl asked. [I worked. Nobody is coming this way. Two of the other coat people are close together, and the others are all going that way.] The bird replied as it settled into the nest. “Hawk says that the other two defender groups started close together, and everyone else is headed that way. So, it’s three on two on the other side of the area. They likely won’t come looking for us until that fight is over. Is there anything that we can do to help Dana keep up her energy and expand that fog?” Karl whispered. “Nothing. It’s not too draining though, I just need to keep focusing on it. By the time that they come looking for us, it will be big, but if they don’t lose people, they will be able to just walk in a line and find us.” The warriors shrugged. That was actually fine by them. The ranged attackers wouldn’t be able to see the fight from more than a few metres away, and they were close combat fighters anyhow. Being found at the last moment was just what they wanted. [Hawk, go rest up in the trees. Keep an eye out for the other groups while you rest, since you can’t keep your appetite under control between meals.] Karl instructed. [Fine, I will go watch.] The bird was going to need some sort of discipline training soon, Karl decided, but he had no idea how to train an intelligent monster, or what would even work to keep the food motivated creature working hard and not gorging itself at the first opportunity. The fact that it had managed to hunt a Common Grade creature without any issues and return unharmed was a good sign that the Windspeed Hawk’s power was growing quickly, though. Much faster than was normal for the species, and Karl was quite certain that it had to do with their bond. There was far too much that he didn’t know about this power, but as Hawk settled into the tree and began diligently watching the ongoing battles with his keen vision and relaying the play by play back to Karl, he began to understand a little more. Hawk did what he wanted and whined constantly for more food, as was the way of all baby birds, but when Karl actually gave him an order, the bird obeyed. It was just that Karl didn’t give enough orders, or enough details, so Hawk could take full advantage to twist them in the way that he wanted. Like the first mission, to scout and return. He did exactly that, and probably didn’t miss much during the seconds that it took to ambush the bullfrog. Then he promptly tried to take a nap because it wasn’t forbidden, and that was what a hawk naturally wanted to do after eating. When they were training with the mages, Hawk never acted up, but Karl was giving him instructions every few seconds to keep him in place to block the sections that he couldn’t cover himself. Without the open-ended orders, the problem didn’t exist. [The fight on the other side is almost over. The old one has taken away most of the people, but there are four young people headed south now. They’re not coming this way yet, but they’re looking for something.] Hawk informed him. “Hawk says that the others are headed south after their battle. Only four are left, and they’re following the edge of the designated area.” Karl whispered to the others. “Only four?” One of the warriors behind Karl asked. “Yeah, I’m not sure which four yet. I will try to get details, but for now, I have an idea.” Karl added. The rest of the group eagerly waited for anything that didn’t involve crouching in a fetid swamp to become the new plan. “We will keep up the fog expansion from the same point, but we are moving. They know where the extent of the combat zone is, so we are going to hide and wait for them to search the fog, then return and let the time elapse. Defending the flag doesn’t have to mean fighting at all, we can frustrate them to death.” Chapter 25: Found Chapter 25: Found From a comfortable chair in a small hut on the edge of the Academy Grounds, the old mage watched the scene in the training grounds in a crystal ball. “That new leader is sneaky. I like the way that he thinks, but he might be too afraid of combat.” He noted. Sergeant Rita snorted and shook her head. “No, he’s just avoiding any extra work. See the Hawk he’s got up in the trees? The two of them can communicate. He’s playing cat and mouse with the other team because he knows there is a timer, and they won’t double back on an area they’ve just searched. If they don’t catch the trick, the time is going to run out with his people just sitting in the swamp.” She explained. The younger mage nodded. “His task was to protect the flag for the duration of the match, not eliminate the attackers. It is a valid strategy. It reminds me of when we collected that Grimoire from the Thalian Temple, and then just sat on the beach for a week drinking margaritas until the search teams moved on.” The older mage laughed softly at the memory. Their world had a rich history of magic to go along with the dangers of the magical beasts that lived in it, but as cultures shifted, the magically adept had gathered into their own enclaves, and left large parts of the world to rely on developing technology to survive. When they did survive, that was. Many of the magical societies in the ancient past had believed that the human population shouldn’t exceed a few million for the entire planet, in order to keep the game preserves and rare species that they used as hunting grounds and reagents for their spells intact. So, when those left behind with no magic and insufficient weapons were eliminated, they didn’t take any action to prevent the disasters. That bit got glossed over in the history books, described as a failure of allied nations, rather than magic users banding together to the exclusion of everyone else, but that was mostly because the few powerful magic users who stayed in places like the Golden Dragon Nation were instrumental to helping the civilization survive while they developed enough technology to stand on their own. Karl led his team south through the swamp, hiding behind trees as the attackers moved through the fog, and then waited as Hawk relayed their efforts to double-check the area, as the foggy area in the swamp was not only suspicious, it was the perfect hiding place for a group of warriors who didn’t want to engage in ranged combat. Among the four attackers, there were two group leaders, who were both warriors with ranged attacks, and two first year mages. It was a well-balanced group of survivors, but they were outnumbered by the defenders and couldn’t afford to be caught from behind if they missed someone. “They’ve moved. I don’t sense any life here larger than a bird.” One of the leaders whispered. “If your skill says so, then we can keep going. But I think that they will return once they believe that we are gone, so let’s circle back.” The other agreed. The mages weren’t particularly happy about wading through swamp water all morning, but they got extra credit for just being part of the special training program, a reward for top- performing students, so they weren’t going to complain and risk getting switched out. The attacking group headed north to check for the hiding spot of the last defenders, and Karl prepared to give the order to move again. “There are only fifteen minutes left.” One of the warriors whispered. “In that case, we wait right here. Hawk says they’re going north, so they’re not likely to find us at all.” The group silently waited as the attackers moved north, then with ten minutes left in the match, they turned back south, moving more quickly and searching for the last defenders. “They’re coming back. Hawk says they’re almost to the fog now.” Karl relayed as their scout explained the change. They were deep in the fog when one of the two leaders noticed the disturbed roots and groaned in frustration. “They hid here at the start, but they must have heard us coming and moved. They’re not north or east, this is almost at the western edge, so they have to be south.” He whispered to his team. “So, we search for them in the fog again?” One of the Mages asked. “No, they should be outside of it, the fog hasn’t spread that far. Just don’t let them ambush us because they might have split up to set a trap instead of being in a tight formation.” The attack group moved cautiously, but they were moving directly toward the spot where Karl had hidden the defenders. Unlike the first spot in the swamp, they were not in the water here, they were lying among the thick foliage on relatively dry ground, counting on Hawk’s warning to prevent them from being caught in a disadvantageous position. [Hawk, once the fight begins, you attack with Rend from above, but keep your distance. They can attack back, and I don’t want you getting hit.] Then Karl whispered to his team. “Once we spot them, everyone to their feet, turtle formation. Dana, prepare your attack spell, and I will as well. Go for the leaders first, they’re the real threat. We will leave the mages to Hawk, since they likely can’t take a hit.” The warriors smirked. They hadn’t seen Karl in action yet, but he had to have something going for him if he had been picked as a substitute team leader for the day. The attackers came into sight, and the defence group rose to their feet, forming up and lifting their shields. “They’re in a full circle formation. It looks like they’re on to your tricks.” One of the warriors quietly joked. The other had managed to master a movement technique that would allow him to move with incredible speed for a few seconds, so he could attack from unexpected angles. Karl, of course, had no idea. He had set the turtle shell in case the mages had tricks up their sleeves so that the team could create a full dome of protection with [Guard]. Chapter 26: A Bird In The Bush Chapter 26: A Bird In The Bush “Now.” Both team leaders ordered at the same time, and [Guard] barriers went up at the same time that two blinding sword lights tore across the intervening gap, and six red streaks came down from the sky toward the mages’ backs. Karl slashed an uppercut toward the attackers, sending his own [Rend] attack into the incoming sword light. The collision dissipated the claws, but dimmed the light of the sword attacks, before the second [Rend] stopped them entirely. The warriors on Karl’s team smiled in victory as Hawk’s attacks took down both of the mages, activating the defensive charm on their uniforms and sending them out of the battle. “Sonofabitch, what just happened?” One of the attackers shouted, unaware that they had been ambushed. They looked around frantically, unsure of where the next attack would come from. Hawk was still in the trees behind them, unwilling to fly out and make himself a target if he didn’t have to. It distracted them for just long enough that Karl could launch two more attacks of his own, forcing them to defend, while Dana prepared her Magic Missiles. She took longer than most to cast them, but when she did, her strength was much better than average. The attacking team leaders couldn’t do anything about the magical projectiles, as their blades were already out of position from trying to parry Karl’s [Rend]. They took the hits, absorbing them with their enhanced physiques, then jumped sideways to dodge the next attack by Hawk. “That’s just low. How did you trick the monsters into being on your side.” The boys complained, while Karl’s team laughed. “Didn’t they warn you? Karl has a pet Hawk, it’s the talk of the first year dorms.” Dana joked. Their banter was interrupted as they were all surrounded by glowing magic, and moved to the staging area where they had started the battle. “The match is over. I let you chat for a moment, but the victory goes to defence team five.” The older mage announced. “How did we lose?” The attackers demanded. “You might not have noticed, but there were more than two sets of Rending Claws in the air when you evaded. You jumped right into the second set, and my defensive magic absorbed it for you, so it didn’t flay your backs open. You, Karl, was it? How long will it take for your Hawk to get back here?” The mage added. Karl focused on his taming space, and Hawk appeared, disgruntled about having been left behind. The training area was part of the circle around the academy though, so he had only been a kilometre away, and could have been back in a matter of minutes. “If I didn’t call him, only a few minutes. We were only transported a kilometre or so. That is an incredible spell, by the way.” Karl replied. The younger mage smiled at Karl’s enthusiasm. “It is a magical item that came from an ancient ruins. The ability to transport more than one student at a time allows for a much more immersive experience, but the protective magic is entirely the providence of the Senior Professor.” “Well, we should get you all washed off. It’s not often that a team decides to actually hide in the swamp, normally they choose a more stand-up fight on the dry land. But I must say, that ambush was masterful. They didn’t even realize that they were under attack until the mages were already eliminated.” Sergeant Rita added. “Yes, while the laundry team might not appreciate your ingenuity, the execution was flawless. I think that the young Sergeant has made a wise recommendation, adding a scouting and ambush specialist to the team leaders. Simply having warriors and mages who knew each other’s style was a bit dull.” The old mage agreed. Sergeant Rita nodded. “Alright, everyone, get cleaned up. The bonus will be added to your student cards before you’re back to your rooms. Good work everyone, it’s been a long time since we had so many winners and such a challenging fight.” Karl’s team walked a little more proudly as they returned to the base. The extra credits could get them some cool stuff for their rooms, little luxuries, or even more special treatment in the Academy. This group didn’t really need that, they were already recognized as worthy of the extra training, but they were quite intrigued as to how the Academy had known that Karl was going to be so outstanding right from the start. It had to be that Rending Claw skill. That was deadly, and he could block the attacks of two Awakened Rank team leaders at once, without exhausting himself. The fact that there was also Hawk, who could do the same, was just an unfair advantage in the minds of the other students. What sort of class gave you a combo set right from the start? But if they got to be on his team again, there was a good chance that they would get the extra bonus at least once more this semester. So far, all of their battles had ended in a phyrric victory, with the attackers only having a few remaining students when the fight was over. The bonus wasn’t cumulative, each winning student got the same, unless the teachers decided that they didn’t do well enough to deserve it. So having all nine of them get the bonus was a huge victory for their pockets. “How about we meet at the study hall after we shower? There are some good places to relax and study for the afternoon, if you’d like to join us.” One of the warriors asked. Dana smiled at Karl. “What theory classes do you have? I haven’t seen you in any of the magic ones, so it must be a physical attack skill that you use.” Karl tried putting on his best innocent face, but the others caught it immediately. “You don’t have any theory classes handing out homework, do you? Are you in all practical classes?” Dana demanded, with jealousy showing on her face. “I have skill interception training in the morning, martial arts in the afternoon, and then Sergeant Rita assigns me lessons as she sees fit. It’s not really a class, just a bit of study on things I should know, like monster anatomy.” Karl explained. One of the boys laughed. “Well, you’ve got it better than Dana. She’s got theoretical magic and practical skills in the morning across from our classroom, then she’s in modern dance and cosmetology all afternoon.” Dana blushed, while Karl gave the cute mage an assessing look. She wasn’t the sort of stunning beauty that would grow into a supermodel, but even covered in mud, he couldn’t deny that she was the sort of adorable that you just wanted to hug on sight. How he had missed it the first day, he had no idea. Perhaps it was one of the side effects of the Divine Injection, like his extra height. There was only one reason that she would have to take dance and cosmetology so early in her first year. They wanted to train her to be an Idol, whether she had previously wanted to or not. “Just be glad it’s not you. Those teachers have a lifetime of shattered dreams that they want to live through the students, it’s hell.” Dana muttered. “I’m not sure that I’d look good in eyeshadow and lipstick. But I will join you in the search for a good study spot. I’ve got a bunch of books waiting for me to read them.” Karl agreed. Chapter 27: Best Study Spot Chapter 27: Best Study Spot Once he was finally freshly showered, and the filthy uniform was sent to the laundry room, Karl headed down to the designated meeting spot, where he found only Dana waiting. “It looks like the other two cancelled on us. Their combat teacher met them on the way down, and he took them for some additional training after he heard that they were getting so good with [Guard] skills.” She explained. “Well, then there will be more room for us to study. What do you have to work on today?” Karl asked. “Mana theory. It’s one of the big ones for the mage type classes, both to grow our own mana pool and to reduce the casting cost of the spells that we know. At first, we’re really inefficient, but it gets better all the time. The idea is that as we get better, most mages will get some insight into new spells or skills, it’s just part of the mage class. Then we can use that to expand our spell book without having to learn the spells in class, which is way faster, and the ones you get from insight tend to grow faster and more powerful, which will help rank up.” She explained. “That actually sounds like a lot of work. Mostly, I just need to practice my fighting skills and my physical abilities so that I can keep up with my growth. At least, that is it for now. They don’t know anything about the class marking that I got, so unless I get an insight like the mages do, I will only have the one skill, but it grows more powerful as Hawk does. My body does as well. The stronger he grows, the stronger I grow.” Karl replied with a smile. “Well, that’s both a tough break and a huge win. You get stronger just by existing and training your pet. No intense study needed. But only having one skill would be a bit limiting eventually.” They walked in silence for a few seconds, then Dana pointed to a pathway that led into a garden. “That’s where we’re going. There are a bunch of gazebos with tables there, and we can do our study. Once I get a few more credits, I am totally getting one of the Academy laptops, or a tablet. It will be so much easier than handwriting these notes all the time. I don’t think that I’ve used a pen that much since I was in elementary school, but the mages on the teaching staff are all ancient, and they think that Tomes are the way to go. Just book after book of handwritten knowledge.” Karl laughed. The majority of electronic devices had only come about in the last twenty or thirty years, so anyone who was over sixty tended to favour pen and paper, and some of the mages from the old tradition, before the Divine Injection, were hundreds of years old. They were not going to change their ways any time soon, even if printing pages made for much more legible tomes, and diagrams that everyone could clearly read. Part of the mystery was trying to sort out the bad handwriting, secret codes and shorthand of the author, it kept magic inaccessible through the ages so it wouldn’t be misused. Now that there was such a huge influx of elites, with a dozen or more new mages every year, that mystery was being lost, but the old mages were in their golden age, teaching spells and skills they thought might never be passed down to people who would be viewed as heroes, not potential traitors to the magical nations, or wealth hoarders. Like anyone else with power that the nation needed, many mages had only ever been loyal to themselves, demanding exorbitant fees and living in luxury. They weren’t viewed horribly, but more like the oligarchs of the tech revolution, as detached by their wealth and power, and not entirely trustworthy if you weren’t on their social level. “Actually, having a laptop sounds wonderful, but I don’t know how to type. I came from the mines, and my family couldn’t afford a computer, so I never used one before. I know most of the kids from the city use them all the time, but not us.” Dana smiled and nodded. “I forgot that you grew up there. My family ran a clothing shop in the city, so we needed computers for everything. Taking orders, tracking inventory.” That was just one of the many downsides to living in a rural mining town. Infrastructure spending didn’t make it to them, except for the railroad improvements that got the coal and metals to town. The twin mines were a core asset of the nation. One was a massive coal seam that ran the power plants, the other extended the other direction across a fault line, and held a load of precious metals. It was everything that a growing nation could need, but it belonged to the government, and none of that wealth made it back to the people actually doing the mining. Dana led them to a small gazebo tucked into an alcove in the hedge maze, and when they sat down, the enchanted bushes grew around the small building, blocking them from passing students and giving them privacy to study. “This is wonderful, and it smells so good.” Karl sighed, thinking of both the coal dust at home and the filth of the swamp. “Yeah, lilacs are my favourite to begin with, so it’s difficult to beat this place.” Dana agreed with a smile as she set out her textbooks across from him. Karl set out his current study guide on common monsters around the Academy. This was the book that all the student groups who got to go out on expeditions were required to memorize, and Sergeant Rita had demanded that Karl learn it as well, even though she had no intention of letting him leave the Academy grounds so soon. What she wanted him to learn was all the abilities of the monsters so that he could formulate a plan for his own growth. Once he had that, Karl assumed she would make good on her promise to find him another monster cub to try to add to his collection, one more durable than Hawk. Chapter 28: The Maze Chapter 28: The Maze Studying monsters was fun, but between the smell of lilacs and whatever shampoo Dana had used, Karl was finding it difficult to focus. Hawk didn’t care at all, as he found his nest more comfortable than the lilac bushes were likely to be, but Dana smelled wonderful, and her presence in this private gazebo had Karl more flustered than he would care to admit. But, he did his best not to be a creep and work on his studies, carefully making notes about each of the monsters in the area that might be somewhat worthwhile, while memorizing the others, in case he ran into them in the future. The more that he knew, the more likely that the Sergeant was to relent on her stance of keeping him here for training instead of letting him go outside. Not that the Academy wasn’t beautiful or well-equipped, but Karl had rarely been outside the mining town while he was growing up, and he had seen many kilometres of wilderness on their way here. Just getting to see it with a group would be an adventure, like the camping trip that his father promised on that mythical ‘day off’ that he never got. The two studied silently for hours, until the sky started to change colours as sunset approached. “Well, that’s our cue to go back inside. If we don’t get going soon, it will be dark before we get to dinner, and they don’t light any of the academy grounds except the paths between buildings.” Dana sighed, annoyed to have to stop her work. “You seemed really into your studies.” Karl noted. “Yeah, the other two are good combat partners, but lousy study partners. They don’t take anything seriously, and they never stop talking. Just being able to sit and study is a pleasant change.” She agreed. As soon as they packed their things and stood, the bush around the gazebo opened again, allowing them access to the maze, but the moment that they stepped out, the world got incredibly dark, as if the sun had already set an hour ago, and the gazebo had been providing its own light. “Crap, I can’t see anything.” Dana muttered. “I think it’s just because we’re behind the bushes and in a cloud’s shadow, once we’re back outside it should be better. But I can see just fine, so if you take my hand, we should be able to make it out.” Karl suggested. Dana’s hand bumped his arm, then slid down to clutch at his fingers, and Karl realized just how dark it probably was to anyone else. None of the colours that he could see were ones he had names for, but the light was coming from the grass under their feet. It must be a form of bioluminescence that was outside the normal human range of sight, which meant that the darkness here was likely unnatural. They hadn’t mistaken the time, someone had cast a darkness spell on the maze. Dana’s hand was surprisingly soft and warm in his as Karl led the way back down the path, and her breathing was becoming more frantic as she nearly stumbled in the grass. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you. Just relax and follow my steps.” Karl whispered. Dana moved to his side, so Karl wrapped his arm around her shoulders, not letting go of her hand as they made the last few corners to exit the maze. Their spot hadn’t been far in, with little chance of getting lost in the maze itself, but the walk had still been quite the pleasant memory. Dana sighed with relief when they made it back into the fading evening light, but she didn’t move to step away from Karl until they heard someone softly laughing nearby, behind one of the trees. “Congratulations, you are the first ones out of the Maze of Romance. And such a cute young couple as well.” The person behind the tree laughed. “Maze of Romance?” Dana asked softly. “Didn’t you know? This is the Academy’s most famous make out spot, thanks to the hidden bushes. We cast a darkness spell over them whenever we get bored to see who comes out as a couple, who leaves their partner behind, and who thinks that darkness blocks sounds and takes things one step further.” The senior classmate explained. Dana blushed, but Karl had a brilliant idea. He leaned over to whisper in her ear. “If everyone believes that we’re coming here to make out, nobody will bother our studies. We can be here all night and nobody will try to stop us.” For a second, she actually fell for the trick, then she looked up at Karl and her cheeks blushed a little darker as she realized what he was actually suggesting. The two of them, alone in the Academy’s top spot for couples. It would be a scandal among the mage class students, and the boys of the warrior classes next to them would certainly whine about her and Karl being together, meaning that the other boys didn’t have a chance. But she didn’t want any of them, and Karl seemed content to let her actually study, at least most of the night. Dana pushed the thoughts of what they might do during the times they weren’t studying and nodded her agreement with his plan. “Tomorrow is an off day, we can come after breakfast to study.” She whispered back. “In that case, I will pack a lunch.” The two of them turned to leave, just as the sound of two people arguing came from near the exit of the maze. Whatever couple was coming out next was not happy with each other, but neither Karl nor Dana was interested in other students’ drama tonight. They didn’t even notice that they were still holding hands until Dana turned toward her unit in the dormitory, and was briefly pulled back by her grip. “Sorry, I forgot. I will see you in the morning.” She stammered, then ran down the hall to her room. Chapter 29: Sleepless Nights Chapter 29: Sleepless Nights Karl was nearly too excited to sleep that night, and he was at breakfast first thing in the morning, just after the sun came up, and he decided that it must be somewhat acceptable to leave his room. But he wasn’t the only one that was excited about their first day off since arriving at the Academy, and the common areas were already packed with students planning what they were going to do for the day. The consensus was that they should explore every bit of the grounds today so that they could find all the best spots for the next time that they had a bit of time off, but that would put a serious damper on his plans for a calm day of studying with Dana. She joined him while he was eating, looking just as tired as he felt after a sleepless night. “Good morning. It looks like we misjudged the best spot to study today.” Dana greeted him as she sat down with a bowl of oatmeal and a beverage that was so incredibly bright green that Karl was certain it must be toxic. She softly giggled at the concerned look on his face, then sipped the drink. “It’s an energy drink, they keep them in the fridge over there for students who spend too much time awake studying. It’s not as bad as it looks.” She explained. Karl nodded reluctantly. They had them at the corner store at home, but he’d never seen one that colour before. The miners liked the ones that were mixed with coffee or juice, depending which side of their shift they were on. Karl tapped his mug. “I will stick with coffee, thanks. But if it’s going to be far too loud to study in the garden, why don’t we go to the patio in my room? It’s plenty large enough, and there is a spell that isolates it from the rest of the campus. It’s perfectly silent, and there is a good table out there.” “That actually sounds really pleasant. My room is incredibly loud, you can hear the explosions from the students on three sides practising, and I swear if it was any worse you could hear them breathing.” Neither of them noticed the many envious glances they were getting as they left the cafeteria, or the flurry of conversation surrounding whether they had known each other before they arrived at the Academy, or if they had met for the first time on the way in. With all the studying that they needed to do during the first few weeks here, gossip was all that they had time for to distract themselves. The students were taken straight from school to the Academy, so they had none of their old belongings with them except what they had at class. Some of the students from the larger towns had brought packed school backpacks full of memories, and they had to cram it all into the Academy issued backpack when they left the train, but Karl hadn’t actually owned anything worth keeping. The only real restriction that the elites advised in advance was not to bring clothing, as the chosen students would be required to be in uniform at the Academy, and outfits would be provided for special events. There was a single picture up on the wall, and the upgraded furniture in the room when Karl moved in, so at least his room wasn’t as bare as some of them were, but it was the patio greenhouse that he was hoping would impress Dana the most. She stopped off quickly to get her books from her room, and followed Karl into his suite, staring in surprise at the dark colours and padded leather bed frame. “Well, this is, uhm, unique. I take it that there is room to study on the patio?” She asked. “Plenty. After you.” Karl replied with a smile, and pulled the curtains open. Dana’s eyes lit up as she saw the plants outside, and she rushed out onto the balcony to take a look. “Hey, this is a moon berry tree, and one of the fruits is ripe.” She gasped as she stopped under a tree with small fruits that were slowly turning from green to white. “Oh yeah, I meant to look that up and pick it when it was ready. Do you know that fruit?” Karl asked. “Moon berries are supposed to be super healthy and good for the brain. I saw them one time being brought to a fancy restaurant downtown.” She replied. “Then go ahead and pick it, we can split it as a snack.” Karl agreed. She reverently pulled the fruit down, and followed Karl down the path through the trees and bushes to the gazebo with the table. “These gazebos are really popular here, aren’t they? It’s the same style as the maze.” She noted. “The chairs are comfortable, though, so I can see why they picked it. The greenhouse, as they call the garden out here, has been passed down between residents of the balcony suites. I didn’t bring any of this, I just water it and pick up the leaves for drying, since most of the magical plant leaves are good for something.” Dana looked out over the school grounds and smiled. “It really is absolutely silent here. I can see the students walking under us, but I don’t hear a thing. This is a fantastic study spot.” Karl smiled and opened his tactics textbook, the next in the stack of lessons that Sergeant Rita had left for him to do in his out of class time. This one would have been useful to have read before yesterday, which made him wonder if he was actually slacking too much on his studies. She hadn’t set any sort of due date for anything, and she wasn’t giving him tests, so he hadn’t thought about it. But perhaps she was, and the training lessons were the tests. Karl felt like a bit of an idiot for not having at least read the titles of all the books he was given. If he had known what they were, he could have read the ones that seemed most likely to be needed for the next day in advance. Chapter 30: Snacks Chapter 30: Snacks Dana cut the Moon Berry fruit into pieces, and they snacked as they studied the morning away, feeling instantly refreshed every time they ate another piece. The tree only had a dozen or so fruits, so it wouldn’t be possible to eat them every day, but one every off day to wipe away the stress and fatigue of the week didn’t sound bad at all. The tactical manual was incredibly boring to read, and Karl was a quick study with the help of a refreshed mind and Hawk’s input on the best ways to hunt prey, so his mind began to wander. There were so many different plants here, and while he had looked through the journal, he didn’t memorize the use of all of them, especially the ones that didn’t have any fruit on them at the moment. So, he switched books, reading through the details of the journal on the greenhouse instead, and discovering that there were a lot more fruits like the Moon Berry, but most importantly, there were a variety of teas, tonics and potions that could be made with the various plants, though some required a particular magical affinity. The previous resident had been what the seniors called a witch, and she had been quite adept at brewing potions, but Karl had very little experience with that. His kitchen at home wasn’t big enough for more than one person to work in at a time, so he hadn’t ever tried to usurp his mother’s position making breakfast, and two of his meals a day were provided by the school and the mine, respectively. Precooked and ready to eat. That was one of the advantages of working a short shift in the mine yard after school, you got a guaranteed hot meal, and it would be portioned for a hardworking adult. As he searched through the textbook, he noticed that Dana was getting increasingly excited, and beginning to glow slightly with some sort of magical effect. She had already learned one spell other than her initial magic since she arrived at the Academy, and it looked like she was about to grasp another. He didn’t actually know how fast spells were usually learned, but from the chatter in the common areas and cafeteria, it sounded like most of the students were still working on their initial spell, trying to master it before moving on. But according to the cook and the guard on the train, everyone had different capabilities, so maybe Dana was one of the fastest learners? The cook made it sound like he had never managed to get through even the basics of the spells he could have learned, due to a lack of aptitude, but she seemed to be the opposite. The easiest way would be to just ask. “You’re really moving through the spells, onto a third one already.” Karl remarked. Dana looked up and smiled. “I’ve got an excellent memory, and while my power isn’t as strong as some of the others, I am excellent at new magic. I had my first spell under control before we even left the train, but casting it twice was all I could do. Now, I can get a third casting in, or I can channel the fog slowly, but Gil, the strongest in our class, can cast five magic arrows at a time, and do it repeatedly. His power is insane, but he’s still having trouble controlling the direction and stability of the arrows.” “So, the early advancement is more about what you’re talented in? I can see how having lots of power but no control would become a problem rather quickly in class. But having too little power, like the cook on the train, means that anything else doesn’t really matter. They must have high hopes for you if they’re setting you up to be a public figure, though.” Karl suggested. Dana rolled her eyes. “The dance instructor said that it’s because I’m a fast learner. You don’t need to be really powerful to be famous, you need to be versatile. As long as I can make it to the upper end of Awakened before I graduate it should be fine, but Ascended would be best, according to the choreography teacher.” Karl chuckled and Dana raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you think that they’re training you for? Not many get a dedicated tutor, and you’ve got a whole dedicated class schedule. They’re obviously grooming you for something special.” He shrugged. “The first thing that they told me on the train was that it would be better to have a golem to fight for me, and that’s how they want to guide the combat mages who can learn it. So, they’re probably hoping that I will join the military or the government to do monster control. I don’t really have a skill set that is good for much except combat or scouting, so that’s most likely the only thing that they could think to do with me, and it’s a unique class, so I don’t even fit into the regular courses.” Dana thought about it for a while. “Hawk learned another skill after you got him, right? I heard from the second year mages that he can use Wind Barrier. Maybe you can teach him to use more skills, or you can learn to use more monster skills. That might make you more versatile. If you could do something like using the ability of the Ascended version of that cooling aloe plant, you could heal wounds. That would make you into a top medic all on its own.” Karl looked at the plant. “That thing can heal wounds?” Dana shook her head. “No, that one can treat rashes, sunburn and numb pain a little. It’s really useful, but it’s a common grade magical resource. They sell it at the drugstore, and in the supply room downstairs. There is a higher quality version of it, which can reach the Ascended Grade, and that one can actually cure all sorts of wounds, but not illnesses or disease. I saw it in a nature drama.” Karl’s family didn’t own a television, so he only ever watched what was on in public, and that was rarely a nature documentary. He had taken a few classes on magical botany, but they were pretty basic, and didn’t really cover much on medicinal plants, they were more concerned with the ones that might kill you if you happened across them in the wilderness. “Well, I don’t know much about raising them, but maybe it’s worth looking into how to improve the aloe plant up another Rank so that it can treat more wounds. There are plenty of special plants here, but the guide that came with the greenhouse said that they’re almost all edible ones, snacks for the residents.” Karl explained. Snacks that might help their abilities grow, but still snacks. Chapter 31: Stress Induced Learning Chapter 31: Stress Induced Learning They managed to study smoothly until mid-afternoon, when they were both too hungry for more research, and they headed down for an early dinner. “I should practice my stamina training and then meditate for the evening to improve my mana, but can I come visit again?” Dana asked with a gentle smile. “I would love to have you over anytime.” Karl agreed. Studying was much more pleasant with her around, and she knew the strangest things. It was good to have a friend here at the Academy, and the more that he learned about the way that Mages advanced, the more ideas Karl got about how he could expand his own skills. Meditation sounded like it might be worth something as a technique. The crystal ball in the train car said that it could look into his beast space, so there should be some connection between that and the method to improve it. If everything was driven by the monster inside, it would be totally contrary to the other elites, whose whole goal was self strengthening in some way. [What do you think, Hawk? Is meditation the way to improve the space you’re in?] Karl asked. [Dunno. But if it can be bigger, with trees, and mice, that would be good. Don’t forget the mice.] Karl was not about to put mice in the space alive, as he was worried it would bond them to him, and he would end up with a tortured Earth Mouse as a companion, right until Hawk killed it. That would be unfortunate, to say the least. So, when he returned to the garden after lunch, he lay down in the hammock in the shade of the pair of coconut trees, and closed his eyes to focus on the beast space. At first, nothing seemed to happen as he tried to envision a pine tree for Hawk to rest in. The space was just there and empty, but Karl could feel that it had the potential to be more, he just didn’t know how. The next thing he tried was focusing energy into the space, like when he wanted to use [Rend]. Adding energy while meditating might improve the space somehow, the energy had to go somewhere. Or so he assumed. It felt like that was doing something, but even after an hour, the changes weren’t visible. [It feels better in here. Keep doing that.] Hawk encouraged. That led to Karl channelling energy and meditating on the image of the tree that he wanted to create for Hawk to live in. During hour two, there was a sprig of a tree growing from the ground near the nest, a single pine branch in the darkness. It really was working, just not instantly as he had hoped. At the end of the night, the tree was almost as tall as he was, but Karl was feeling refreshed and empowered, as if the improvement had granted him some extra energy. That would be easy enough to test, today was a class day again, and his first lesson was in skill control with the mages. The weekend seemed to have done them all a world of good, and they were all looking much more fresh and ready to practice today than they had been the last time he saw them on Friday. “Welcome back everyone. We have an extra defender with us today. Along with Karl and Hawk, we will have Tori from the graduating class here to help motivate you all.” The teacher announced with a smirk. Tori was a tall blonde girl around eighteen years old, the graduation age for the Academy, Ascended Rank, according to her bronze badge, so she would be stronger than any of the students in this class individually, and wore her hair in fancy ringlets, along with the short pleated uniform skirt that was somewhat rare among the students, as almost everyone preferred the pants. She looked like the sort of girl that should be extremely popular in school, but from the looks on the faces of the students here, either she was one of the “Mean Girls” or she was hated for some other reason. Of course, it could be because they struggled in their classes that made them resentful. But she was graduating as an Ascended Mage, so she wasn’t some super prodigy that made everyone feel inferior about their skills. “Now, are we all ready? Excellent. Begin when you are ready.” Karl called Hawk, who flew up into the air, while Tori began to form small blue spheres, one after another, which floated around her in a circle. It was fascinating to watch, she just formed them in her hand, then let go, and they hovered around her, slowly orbiting. Then the attacks began, and Karl realized why everyone in this class disliked her. The orbs released small bolts of magic that intercepted the spells and knocked them off course, or in the case of the weaker mages, nullified them entirely. But the orbs didn’t dissipate, they kept slowly sending out more attacks, and the number of them increased as she worked to form more spheres. Karl quickly noticed that they did very little to the fire and water mage attacks, but the solid attacks and the magic missiles had a terrible time trying to stay on course after she intercepted them. The water attacks were fine, Hawk had a personal vendetta against them for flowing around his [Rend] and that left Karl to deal with the Fire mages. After a dozen spheres, Tori stopped making more, and had to focus on just maintaining the spell. It would only be a matter of time before she was exhausted, or the spells needed to be refreshed, but currently, a solid three quarters of the attacks made by the class were being intercepted. Karl was working on pacing himself as well. He didn’t need to overpower the spells to block them, [Rend] tended to split apart attacks and destabilize them even at lower power outputs. That allowed him to use far less than full power and still accomplish the blocks. With Super vision and a bit of practice, he was getting very good at defending against attacks, but Hawk was improving even more quickly. The small bird was making a mockery of the water mages’ attempts to land a hit, and they were starting to get creative in how they used their magic. Finally, one of the Mages managed to turn his water bullet into a collection of small raindrops, which hit the target like a shotgun after the [Rend] attack only took out a third of them. The mage had mastered a new spell entirely on his own out of pure frustration. Chapter 32: Efficient Nutrition Chapter 32: Efficient Nutrition After lunch was combat training, the physically taxing counterpart to the mental workout that the morning’s skill training was. Karl was certain that if they kept this up for much longer, he would be completely exhausted and just operating on autopilot within a few weeks, but Sergeant Rita didn’t seem too concerned. “Isn’t it a bit much to have high intensity classes all day long? It’s only four in the afternoon, and I’m so sore that I can barely move.” He complained once the training was done for the day. “Fortunately, you have the garden on your balcony to help refresh you until your body adapts. Give it a few weeks and this will be completely natural to you.” Rita insisted. “Is that even how it works?” The Sergeant sighed at his whining and helped Karl to his feet. “That is precisely how it works, and the harder that you push yourself during the first few weeks, the faster you will adapt to the training schedule. Short-term suffering for long-term gains.” Karl sighed. He couldn’t actually prove her wrong, but he had a sneaking suspicion that as he got stronger the training would get harder, so he would never actually get to adapt to the training level. “Alright, I’ll go meditate and get some dinner then. It seems to help with the mental space where Hawk stays.” Karl reluctantly agreed. The Sergeant didn’t argue with him any further, she just took out her notepad to write down her observations about his practice, and the remark about meditation helping. Karl knew that it would likely make it into his routine now that she knew, but it was for the best, as he was going to need it to keep the Windspeed Hawk happy in his living space. Compared to that, the extra effects of growth were just a bonus, as the Hawk was very vocal in his mind when it needed or wanted something, so letting it get bored would be a disaster for his mental health. The cafeteria food seemed to be a bit different today. He had ordered the pasta special with a side salad, but the meal tasted a bit different than he remembered, and the energy content was definitely higher. Only a few bites in, Karl was feeling like someone had electrocuted him and energy was pouring into his body. He finished the meal, and was going to go for a jog to burn off some energy, but it seemed like it would be more worthwhile to meditate and try to integrate some of this energy into the taming space. Hawk was the main source of his power and advancement, so the more that he could do to help the beast grow, the better off he would be by the time that he graduated. But Karl was beginning to understand why some classes never managed to advance or even unlock their skills. If he hadn’t picked up that egg and found compatibility, would he have ever guessed that petting monsters was the answer? Probably not. You would have to be an idiot to try, and the Academy certainly wouldn’t have given him the opportunity to touch a living monster, just on the off chance that it worked, and he didn’t get killed. Once he settled down in the hammock, his preferred meditation spot, and began to focus the extra energy in his body toward the upgrades for Hawk, he found that the excess was transferred very quickly, and in only an hour he found himself hungry again. He could meditate as usual, but the tree was growing quickly in that mental space, and there were some blades of grass around it now. If he just kept loading up on energy, he could probably do much better now than he had before. What had changed wasn’t clear, but he could ask the kitchen staff if the menu changed. It might just be meat from a different monster that was more compatible with him. If that was all that it took, he could request it all the time. The kitchen worker looked at him a bit strangely when he returned so soon after a heavy meal, and Karl gave her an apologetic shrug. “It seems that with the breakthrough in my abilities over the weekend, I’ve got some catching up to do. Even an hour of practice leaves me starving, so I hope you don’t mind if I stock up on food to go.” Karl explained as he began to load plates. “Just tell me what you need, and I will bring it up in the service elevator.” The older woman informed him with a smile. “Did you change the recipe of the pasta special? It seemed different than I remember.” He replied. “Nope, same ingredient batch as last week, we didn’t get anything in for that dish. Did you want to try a selection and see what works for you? I know that some of the classes get a taste for new things as they train. The Berserkers in particular like extra spicy foods, and the more powerful they get, the spicier they want it.” “That sounds like a great idea. If you can give me a bit of each of the specials to start, I will pick the ones that seem best.” Karl agreed. She began to load a plate with a little bit of everything, and Karl took it back to an empty table, where he began to work through them one at a time. The effect was the same as the pasta, his body was just absorbing much more energy from the food than it had been before, and the excess was building up for him to channel into Hawk’s surroundings. Karl smiled at the cafeteria lady as he returned his empty plate. “I think that the pasta and the meatloaf are the two best specials of the day, but whatever changed in my body, they’re all better for my training efficiency.” “How much do you need for the evening?” She asked, lining up plates on her counter. “Two each should be enough for the night. I’ll come early in the morning so that I can have a heavy breakfast as well.” Chapter 33: Heavy Eating Chapter 33: Heavy Eating The food arrived outside the room at the same time that Karl did, on a small cart pushed by one of the staff members. They had covered the loaded plates with foil to keep the heat in, but Karl could smell it following him down the hall, and Hawk was getting increasingly excited about the idea of both more food and an improvement in his living conditions. “Thank you for that. I will return everything in the morning.” Karl informed the kitchen staff worker. “Just set the cart in the hall with your dishes, and we will come pick it up when we clean the halls.” The worker explained. Then she walked back to the elevator, and Karl took everything inside so he could focus on eating and meditation. The food smelled delicious, and even the first serving, which had filled his body with energy to be burned off, wasn’t enough to actually sate the hunger. Once he was settled into a comfortable meditation position in the middle of the bed, Karl began to focus on the improvements to the Taming Space. The excess energy was pouring freely from him into the space, causing the tree to grow, and the patch of grass underneath to slowly, but steadily, expand. Once that burst of energy was gone, Karl paused to pick a plate from the pile. The obvious choice would be the pasta dish, as he knew for sure that it was a good one, and he had it devoured in a matter of minutes, while briefly wondering how much he was going to regret his over indulgence in the morning. The energy flowed into him just as smoothly as it had the first time, and Karl poured it all into the taming space, then repeated the process with the meatloaf special. As he finished transferring the energy from that one into the space, a feeling of fullness, like he wouldn’t be able to transfer much more energy, appeared in his mind. That was a good sign that this was not some bottomless pit where he was throwing energy with no end in sight, but the space itself was far from complete. As the space began to resist more transfer, Karl carefully moved the nest up into the tree, so Hawk could have a more natural spot to sleep, and looked at the small grass patch at the bottom. At this rate, it would take months to even fill the rest of the space with grass, much less add a sky and everything else it would need to feel like its own little world. But the feeling of power in his body was being influenced by the abundance of energy both in his body, leftover from the meal, and from the beast space itself. Maybe he could get Sergeant Rita to test his strength next weekend, after he had more time to adjust. He might really have made it to the Awakened standard, and not just based on the attack power of [Rend]. Now that the beast space was fully sated for the moment, Karl focused on seeing what he could do with the leftover energy. First on the list, since it was food-based, was to try giving the excess directly to Hawk. The bird’s body happily accepted the power, but Karl couldn’t tell if it was making any appreciable difference. It made Hawk happy, though, so it really wasn’t a loss. They were partners now, and a happy partner was never a bad thing. For the rest of the night, Karl focused on using all the energy that he could muster to empower Hawk, who had finally reached the end of his growth phase, and had started to increase only in power, but not in size. Karl managed to finish the remaining two meals at breakfast, as Hawk was feeling hungry again, and wanted the filtered energy in addition to its meat and the daily allowance of berries to flavour his food. With the amount that Hawk ate, Karl felt like he might have restricted the consumption of junk food too much. It made a good seasoning for Hawk’s meals, and it didn’t hurt his appetite, so there was no real reason not to let him use them all the time. On the way back to the room from the patio to wait for Sergeant Rita, Karl went and picked another three Mountain Gooseberries. [Now that you’re fully grown, you can have more of the berries. They won’t make you stronger, but I know that they taste good.] Karl informed the overjoyed Windspeed Hawk. [Mmm, good stuff. I will put them on everything.] Hawk agreed. That gave Karl an idea. The meat that Hawk was eating was just plain meat. Normally, the discount cuts that his mother bought would marinate in a sauce overnight. If he squished the gooseberries into a bowl of water and threw the meat in with them, it would coat everything, just like Hawk wanted, without running them out of berries. He would set that up tonight, so Hawk’s meals would be ready for tomorrow. A knock at the door let him know that it was time to get to work, and when he opened it, he noticed that Rita was giving a curious look at the cart full of empty dishes. “Something changed in my appetite yesterday. It seems to be back to normal now, but I was just ravenous, and my body was taking in all the energy that it could get.” Karl explained. “That’s relatively normal. It usually happens to warriors when their body advances a Rank and needs to adapt to a new power standard. I suspect that you actually made it to the Awakened Rank in body last night, or Hawk did, and the energy needed to come from you. One of those two answers is most likely the correct one. How is his growth coming?” Rita replied. “He looks fully grown for a Windspeed Hawk. He was growing quickly again last night while I was feeding energy into him and the space in my mind, but then it seemed to settle.” Karl called Hawk out onto the bed, and Rita crouched to get a better look at the proudly preening Hawk. “He looks more mature now. The softer feathers are gone, and the pin feathers are larger and stronger than the last time I saw him. Your skill is brilliant. One week to bring a Windspeed Hawk to maturity. Even if your ability was just to train combat birds, I can guarantee that the Academy would still rate it as a top-notch success.” Chapter 34: More Resources Chapter 34: More Resources Karl smiled at the Sergeant. “If it’s a great success, that means there will be more resources, right? We’re still finishing the ones you gave us, but now that Hawk has reached full maturity, his growth is slowing to a crawl, and it’s going to take more than just my efforts to keep him growing at this sort of rate.” Sergeant Rita laughed. “If you can keep growing at that rate, what would the rest of the elites call themselves? I think it’s natural that you would have to slow down at some point and consolidate your powers, but if you can keep feeding Hawk extra energy, he should progress toward the Ascended Rank from Awakening in a relatively short time. I will find you what resources I can, though I’m not sure what the Hawk can use now that we’ve tried the two that seemed the most beneficial to it.” “Well, if there is an upgraded version of the strength stone, or some more powerful infused blood, that would be great. I don’t know if the air stone will do much. He’s still digesting the second one he ate, and the first was so powerful that it caused a huge breakthrough. But if there are other air type resources, maybe they will help him as well? Every time that he improves, my body improves as well, I just need to train my skills and stamina to keep up, so resources for Hawk seem to be the most effective way for me to grow.” Karl suggested. Hawk was definitely a fan of that plan. He didn’t mind if Karl got strong, they were a team, but if the plan was to make him the most powerful Windspeed Hawk, then it was definitely a good idea. Their next stop was back at their usual training grounds, and Hawk was looking forward to being able to show up the mages of the class with his new skills. Now that he was fully grown, and his power was getting better, he could block many more shots to protect the targets. Karl could tell that it wasn’t actually about the target, it was more about Hawk wanting to show off his skills and get praised, or cursed, by the mages. Both were fine in Hawk’s mind, as long as they were recognizing his might. That was the important part in the Hawk’s mind, reminding them all that he was the predator here, and all the mice were his. “I swear that Hawk is picking on us. It gets better by the day, just to remind us all that we’re beneath it.” One of the mages announced, sweaty and exhausted at the end of the class. “It’s a Windspeed Hawk, do you really think that it has some innate grudge against mages?” One of the others scoffed. Everyone turned to look at the Water Mages, whose fluid attacks drove the bird particularly crazy, and then back at the questioner. “I mean in general. It’s pretty obvious that the Hawk has a hatred for water attacks. But I doubt that he hates mages in general.” Karl smiled. If only they knew that Hawk really did see himself as innately better than humans, who couldn’t fly, could barely see, and didn’t even hunt their own meals. The fact that Hawk himself didn’t hunt his own food was a matter of luxurious living in its mind, so that didn’t count. At least, to him, it didn’t. Instead of returning to rest, Hawk decided to circle in the sky for the afternoon while Karl trained his martial arts skills. His great hope was that he would finally find something that was able to be hunted in this Academy. Unfortunately, there were no rodents, no pests, nothing at all wandering around the grounds. The spells that the mages had put on the Academy, and the constant use of powers had long since scared everything away from the academy itself, and he didn’t have permission to go out in to the fields around the grounds to hunt for a snack. Karl’s words had been “Be where I can see you” and that didn’t extend out into the fields on the far side of the wall. If Karl had told him to stay where the others could see him, Hawk might have just given up and gone back to rest inside. But while the hunting didn’t work out as he had hoped, Hawk did find a few good things. There was a nice tree along the side of the strength training grounds, where he could rest his wings in the shade. There was a carving on one of the buildings that almost looked like him, there was an old lady who kept taking pictures of him, and finally, the truck docks. Once he could figure out how those things worked, he would be in for a treat. Even from up in the sky, he could tell that the buildings behind the docks were just packed full of good stuff. Karl mostly ignored Hawk’s adventures, and only occasionally reminded him not to make trouble for anyone, or take food from strangers. Not everyone would know that he was Karl’s Hawk, so some might try to poison or attack him like he was a wild monster. Sergeant Rita had another book full of information for them to study, this time on Monster Biology, in hopes that they would stumble across something that might help Hawk continue to grow at an accelerated rate. Every Elite wanted to be famous, powerful, or both. That was the whole point of the training regimen here. So, her job as a private instructor was to do what she could to help Karl keep advancing and live up to the potential that the senior staff believed he had when they observed him on the train. If the final result was intense early growth, leading to stagnation and a growth plateau, that just meant that they didn’t understand the next step in his training. But the next time that they saw a class like this one, they could use his experience as a baseline and start growing the new elite from there. Chapter 35: Efficient Casting Chapter 35: Efficient Casting Karl sat on the balcony of his room with a stack of textbooks, trying to determine if there would be some surefire way to help Hawk advance from the Awakened stage to Ascended without a large delay. From what he knew of the Windspeed Hawk, their progression usually came from improved skills with [Rend] along with an increased ability power level. The mana infused monster blood should help with the second part, and they were doing daily training, which no wild Hawk would ever have a reason to do. Mostly because they hunted for food, not for sport, so they wouldn’t use their skills a hundred times a day. That gave them some sort of advantage over the wild growth rate, but there had to be more that he could do than just grind their skills over and over. Hawk had already learned the [Wind Barrier] from the Headmaster’s Wind Beads, so the Windspeed Hawk could absolutely learn new things from mystic resources, he just had to get his hands on them. A knock on his door distracted him from his confusion, and Karl went to open the door, finding Dana with a smile and a bag full of books, plus a small plate of food. “I brought a gift for Hawk. Someone told me that they had them around their house in the farmlands, and the Hawks really liked these, so I asked the kitchen to find one.” She greeted him. That caught Hawk’s attention, and he flew in from the other room to land on her shoulder and check out the plate. It was a small animal, skinned, but intact and raw, but to the Windspeed Hawk, the smell was divine. “It’s an Iron Jaw Mole. They’re farmland pests, as they dig huge holes for their nests. They’ve got great jaw strength, as you would expect, but that’s it. Unfortunately for them, they’re even weaker than the Earth Mice in the fields outside the Academy, and they’ve got no ranged attacking power at all.” The trio walked back to the patio and Dana set the plate on the table, where it was immediately attacked by Hawk. “Mind your manners, I don’t need you getting blood splatter on the textbooks.” Karl reminded him. In response, the Hawk pushed the plate to the far side of the table, but didn’t slow his pace, happily tearing the small animal to bits. “What are you working on today?” Karl asked as Dana set out a pair of notebooks, but no reference text. “Mana control. According to the teacher, I still use too much for every spell, and that inefficiency is why I’m having trouble with multiple spells and my channelling speed. For now, they’ve asked me to just focus on Magic Missiles and Fog, and not to expand my spell repertoire yet, or I will ingrain bad habits into new spells. So, I want to get my efficiency increased as quickly as I can.” Dana explained. Hawk looked up with interest. That topic sounded like it would be useful to him too. He could kill more water balls that way, and taunt the mages. Taunting mages was way more fun than Hawk had expected it to be, especially when they weren’t allowed to attack him directly. “That sounds like good advice. I need to find a way to keep Hawk progressing now that he’s reaching full growth. All this good food and the handful of special items they could find that were suitable for Hawks have brought him up to full-grown in record time, but he is going to hit his natural bottleneck soon, and then it’s up to training whether we can make the leap from Awakened to Ascended before the first semester is over.” They studied in silence for a few minutes while Hawk finished eating, and then the bird flew up into the trees and brought them back a singe pear, perfectly ripened. Karl remembered this one from the guidebook. It was supposed to help refresh the body and remove stress. A common enough effect for magical plants, but useful when studying. Karl cut it into thin slices, and Hawk took one small bite before ruffling its feathers and turning away. The pear smelled incredible, but it was too sweet, not at all to Hawk’s liking. The humans could have it. Karl laughed at the Hawk’s disappointed look and cut the pear into slices for them to snack on. Then, Hawk stepped across the table and directly onto Dana’s notepad. “What are you doing, little man? Have we ignored you too much?” She asked, and stroked his head gently. Hawk preened at the attention, then shook himself and focused. He raised one claw, and created a [Rend] blade in front of him, then decreased the intensity to almost nothing, before bringing it back up again. Then down until it was almost invisible. [Tell her about the waste.] Hawk demanded. “He wants you to understand that the harder you push yourself, the more mana you waste. Try what he’s doing with your Magic Missiles, and I think you’ll see, hold it in place and keep decreasing the power. The mana cost drops exponentially.” Karl explained. Dana looked skeptical, but she did what he asked. The first few Missiles nearly fired out across the Academy Grounds, as she had never before tried to hold them in place, but after a few minutes, she could hold and guide them where she wanted as she slowly reduced the power from the default full activation to barely a glow of light. “How did you know to do that?” She asked as she mimicked Hawk’s cycle through the power range. “It’s instinctive for Hawk, and he taught me. By the logic of a Windspeed Hawk, you should hunt with just enough power to take out your prey, so you don’t waste more energy than you get back.” Karl explained. “So that’s it. This is a huge breakthrough. I can see where I was going wrong, I was just focusing on the spell activation sequence, and letting it go. I thought that I was doing well by controlling the direction, but if I focus on the mana flow, I can do so much more with it. There are likely so many things that we can learn from magical creatures that we have never thought of ourselves. The teacher’s directions aren’t even this detailed, and I’ve never seen another student actually reduce the power of their spells. They just increase their endurance and cast everything at full power every time, but with better control as they grow.” Karl thought about that for a moment and shook his head. “No, the senior students have learned to control and split the power as well. I guess they just thought that it would be too difficult for a new mage? But it makes casting spells way easier. Even if you do it at half power, you should be able to cast at least five missiles for every one that you could before.” Chapter 36: Practice Makes Perfect Chapter 36: Practice Makes Perfect Dana and Hawk spent the rest of the evening practising their skill control together, while Karl focused on finding more about the growth cycles and power increase triggers of various magical beast species. There were so many, but Karl was certain that if he worked on it, he could find some sort of pattern to the triggers. It should be either something to do with their skills, their body’s alignment to an element or some sort of environmental factor. He didn’t believe that it was completely random and that it was all up to luck, with study, they should be able to trigger the advancements deliberately. The meditation and movement of energy to Hawk was certainly going to help, though he couldn’t tell how much. But every meal since the advancement had given him a surge of energy, as he was absorbing the nutrients and embedded mana much more efficiently than a regular human would. That should be something normal for the Elites, as the kitchens did deliberately prepare that sort of meal for every student, so the real difference should be that he could share the excess with Hawk, instead of wasting it. Once it started to get dark, Dana finished making notes on what she had learned, and then returned to her room for the night, while Karl prepared to eat one more late night meal and meditate on transferring that extra energy to Hawk to help him grow. The only problem was that they would have to wait until there was a noticeable change to find out if these methods were working, and even then, they wouldn’t necessarily know for certain which of the methods were the ones that had the largest impact. There was no exact measuring method, which was why they had just loosely grouped monsters into categories based on their power rankings, but that also meant that near the boundaries of those rankings there could be some uncertainty, unless the body or power went through a notable change. For example, when a Devil Cat went through the process of moving from awakened to Ascended, it grew a second tail. That was a pretty simple and surefire way to tell. Many birds would gain a distinctive pattern on their feathers as they grew more powerful, and most mammals would increase in size in a sudden growth spurt. Windspeed Hawks didn’t go through most of that, they kept their appearance, except for the claws. Once a Windspeed Hawk reached the Ascended level, their claws would turn from a dull black, to a translucent obsidian, and that claw material was an exceptional resource for elites learning similar skills. It could be ground up and mixed with monster blood in the same way as the strength stones, and drinking it would increase skill understanding. [Haha, yeah, make them eat my claw clippings. They grow back quickly.] Hawk giggled in Karl’s mind, equating the broken claw parts to human toenail clippings. Just a shed waste product that it no longer cared about. [Well, if we can help you grow to that level, we can help the others out then. We will show them how far ahead you are, just by being yourself.] Karl joked, stroking the bird’s ego for a moment before he began to meditate. In the morning, they both felt refreshed and a bit better than they had the day before, so that became their routine. Mornings with the mages, afternoons of martial arts training, and then evenings of book studies, while Karl worked on learning all that he could about magical beasts and the triggers that could cause them to advance, while Hawk worked with Dana on their mana control. His rate of growth was incredible, and while he had an advantage to begin with, thanks to his species, Hawk was rapidly outgrowing anything that could have been expected of a juvenile Windspeed Hawk. Normally, they wouldn’t need to use the [Rend] attack more than a handful of times in a day, as it was primarily for hunting, and occasionally for self-defence. But by the end of the week, he could keep it up for hours at a time. Dana was also progressing at a crazy pace with his help, and she now had full control over her magic missiles. It was quite impressive to see her hold them in place, or move them around the room with her mind. The process still drained her much faster than she would prefer, but it was a vast improvement on the first day that she started working with Hawk, when she didn’t understand at all how she was supposed to control the mana flows. So, it was with greatly improved confidence that they headed for the meeting spot for the next practical skills meeting. The same group of fifty-four students were gathered in the field, waiting for the teachers to arrive, and Karl took his spot next to the other team leaders. Sergeant Rita arrived a few minutes later with the two mages, driving one of the Academy’s cargo buggies filled with gear. “We have something new and fun for everyone today. These are the new experimental products from the weapons development department at the Golden Dragon National Research University. What you all are going to do today is go on a little field trip. The danger will be a bit higher than usual, as you will be leaving the Academy Grounds entirely, and not just going to the outskirts, but the University has asked us to test whether these new weapons with their fancy technology can actually improve the user’s strength by a whole rank.” Sergeant Rita announced. The mages were more than a little skeptical, as their powers were based on mana flow and control, which were both internal factors, they didn’t use weapons in the same way that the warriors did. If it was just for the warrior classes, it would be a great safety measure for Elites in general, but not specifically for them. However, when they took the tarp off the cart, there was a box with everyone’s name on it. The University really had come up with something for everyone, and the students began to become excited to see what it could do. Chapter 37: New Claws Chapter 37: New Claws Karl made his way to the stack of boxes, where Sergeant Rita was organizing everyone into a single file line to get through the stack more efficiently. She handed him a large box, and he stepped aside, trying to decipher how to open a box with no visible latches. The answer turned out to be a fingerprint scanner in the middle of one side, hidden beneath the paint. To students who grew up in the city, it was obvious, but the small towns didn’t have any need for such high-tech security in their daily lives, they just taped the boxes closed and called it secure. Inside the box was a new set of gauntlets, similar to the ones that he already had, at least in external appearance, but they were lighter than the training units, and the claws on the fingers seemed to be made from some sort of actual monster claw, instead of alloy. What sort of difference that was supposed to make to his [Rend] attack was a mystery, but there might be something else hidden under the nondescript black metal upper glove that covered his arm nearly to the elbow which would help with mana channelling, or serve as some sort of amplifier for his skills. The only way to know was to test them, so Karl stepped away from the crowd, where the warriors were happily beginning to wave their new swords around, and gave them a flex to send a claw attack into the air. The power activation feels much more natural, even than when he is doing it barehanded. The gauntlets weren’t strictly necessary for the skill, unlike a sword skill. He had fingernails of his own that would do the job, but with these new gauntlets on his hands, the power seemed to flow to the monster claws and form much more smoothly than he could manage on his own. It didn’t feel like it was more powerful than usual, and the energy he put in was the same, but his recovery felt like it was faster than usual, as if the weapon was returning some of the expended energy to him. With these gauntlets, Karl was certain that he could fight all morning with ease, and not have to take nearly as many breaks during the defensive training with the mages. It would certainly drive his classmates insane to have that many more skills coming up to block their attacks, but they were getting better anyhow, so it could be good for them. It only took a few minutes to get all the weapons handed out, and for chaos to spread through the field where they had gathered. There were sword attacks and spells flying all around, a large stone golem standing to one side, and the ground was trembling from someone’s magic. It was insanity, but the teachers were content to wait until the students had all begun to calm down before they said anything else. “Alright, calm down, everyone. You know what’s coming next. But this time there is a twist. This week, we will be putting you in pairs. There are two of each number in the bag, pick one paper and find your partner for today’s exercise. You will all be working individually in a large region, so don’t expect backup if there are issues.” Sergeant Rita explained, while the two mages looked excessively pleased with their ingenuity. The device that the University had made for the mages varied from person to person, but mostly, they were in the form of a small rectangular frame full of crystals and tubes that could be hung from the user’s belt. Aesthetically, they were a strange choice, but better than the hooded coat with the wires running all down the inside that one of the mages was wearing. Dana had one of the boxes, a flatter one that was a little larger than a paperback novel. That gave Karl a great idea. If they were allowed to keep these prototypes, he could suggest putting a regular book cover over some of them so that they blended in with the academy’s usual apparel a bit better. That should also protect them from damage and dirt, which clearly wasn’t a concern for the design team working on magician enhancing tools. “Sergeant Rita, what are these gauntlets made of? Do you know?” Karl asked as she approached him with the bag of numbers. “Just various monster parts combined, as far as I know. It’s supposed to be something about combining the aspects of magical beasts to create magic items.” She replied with a shrug. Karl took a number from the bag, and waited for the rest of the students to choose. He had drawn number seventeen, but the look on the teachers’ faces said that simply shouting your number to find your partner would not be tolerated. Or at least not before the numbers were all passed out. So, Karl decided to wander and check numbers with the others who had received their cards. He was at the edge of the group to begin with, and his path simply followed the Sergeant through the crowd. The others were doing the same, but in an organized manner. They were beginning to line up based on the number of their paper, with number one moving over toward where Karl had been standing in the beginning. Karl caught on quickly and moved to roughly where he thought pair seventeen should be, and found himself standing next to Dana, who was holding a card identical to his. “Well, that makes it easier. We already know each other’s basic skills, and they should work well together. You take the lead, Hawk scouts, and I will deal damage from the back.” She informed him with a smile. “That works for me. How is your new tool? Is that mass of stuff really better than what you were using earlier?” Karl asked. “It seems to be, but we will find out once we actually have to use them. The box is a focusing device, and you use it when you’re casting the spell to intensify the effects. It’s a bit difficult to use properly at first, but with some practice, it should increase my magic power by quite a bit.” Dana replied. “Now, we just need to find out what we’re going to test it on.” Chapter 38: Are We There Yet? Chapter 38: Are We There Yet? Once everyone was sorted, the Mages began their spell casting again in preparation to transport the group somewhere. This version seemed far more complex than the first time that Karl had seen it, and the effort was visibly draining on the two mages. That must mean they were going quite a bit further than the outskirts of the Academy, which had been a simple and effortless spell for just the elder teacher. But they appeared in the target location just as smoothly as they had the first time, and Karl found himself standing next to Dana in a ruined warehouse, still stocked with bags of dry goods and one slowly leaking barrel of honey that had attracted a huge number of bees. “We should move before we anger them. I don’t fancy being stung by bees today.” Karl whispered as Dana took in their surroundings. Hawk was eager to get out and see what was going on, but until they knew what sort of danger level they were facing, Karl didn’t want to send him up blindly. Dana gestured toward a large hole in the wall that seemed to lead out to a main road, and the duo began to move, making their way out into a ruined village. “This just happened. I can still smell fresh blood and gunpowder.” Karl whispered. Both smells were unpleasantly familiar after a childhood of helping at the mines, and with his enhanced senses, courtesy of Hawk, he could pick them out much more clearly than ever. “What do you mean?” Dana replied softly. “This village was attacked in the last day or two. That’s probably why we are here, to help clean out the monsters that have tried to move in. I will send up Hawk now, so we know what we’re up against, and then we can come up with a plan. It’s a good thing that you have been working on your mana control because I think that you’re going to need Magic Missile far more than the fog today.” This would be a brutal crash course for the first year students, even if they were the handpicked best of the batch. They had only been at the Academy for a few weeks, and they were mostly working with one or two abilities that were still at the Common Grade. That should mean that the threat level here wasn’t too high, but if it were just Common Grade monsters, the townsfolk should have been able to chase them off. Perhaps the response hadn’t come quickly enough and the elites had dealt with the stronger monsters too late, leaving just the dangerous local wildlife for the students to clean out. [There are angry pigs. We’re killing them, right? Then eat them?] Hawk reported. [Tell me exactly where they are in relation to me, and how many. I also need to know how strong each is, or how many of them are Awakened or higher.] Karl replied, training the Hawk how he wanted the scouting reports to be structured. [Nine pigs, all injured. One with awakened power. Two hundred metres in my direction from the building. Oh, there are more monsters south. If you go that way, there are six Goblins, none awakened. They’re lazy, making a campfire.] [You know the routine, work first and then eat. Lead us to the Goblins and keep an eye out for more monsters. The book said that Goblins travel in large bands, so there are likely more of them around.] Karl replied. “There are some wild pigs that Hawk wants to eat, but there are Goblins on the south side of town. That would explain why things went so badly here. Even if they’re weak, they’re smarter than most wild magical beasts, and they come in large numbers. We are going to have to clear out the six that are left here first, and then we can look for more stragglers and anything else.” Anything else, meaning survivors, but it would be uncouth to say that out loud so early into their mission. Dana nodded grimly, not really ready to see a true monster in person and in the wild with just one other student beside her, but she knew that this was the training mission, and they had been sent here specifically to take care of this threat. Hawk circled the town, looking for movement and anything else that the other two might find. Work first, and then eat, so the faster he helped them get all the work done, the better. That meant that he couldn’t miss any of the targets. [I found more Goblins. In a house, four doors up from you and across the street. I can see two of them from my perch.] Karl relayed the message to Dana in a whisper, and then kept walking. “What are you doing?” She hissed. “If they know that we have seen them, they will call for assistance instead of trying to ambush. Hawk has his eyes on them, he won’t let them actually ambush us, just stay close to me and when they rush, you cast Magic Missile.” Karl whispered back as he walked. Karl crossed the street, watching the building that Hawk had marked with his enhanced peripheral vision without turning his head. The Goblins didn’t have great eyesight, so they would assume that if he wasn’t looking at them, he hadn’t seen them, and sure enough, as soon as he passed, they charged out with a battle cry. It was just three wounded Common Grade Goblins, and two of them fell to Hawk’s [Rend] before either Karl or Dana could respond. Karl took the last with a flex of his fingers, and the town fell silent again. [Hawk, keep searching, that cry might have alerted the others.] Karl directed. The Hawk flew away, and Dana gave it a look of admiration. “He’s got great reflexes.” She muttered. “He’s definitely a good friend to have on a day like this. He’s gone to scout for more Goblins, in case something heard and responded to that battle cry.” Chapter 39: Goblins Chapter 39: Goblins Karl kept them moving south toward the edge of town, even when he felt the occasional pull of exertion, as Hawk took out lone Goblins that had been hiding in town. He was not happy about the situation, as they smelled terrible and were inedible to him, but there was the promise of Iron Tusk boars in the distance as soon as he found and eliminated them all. “They really prepared a brutal test for us today. Hawk has found five more wandering Goblins so far, and we’re still not to the larger pack of six. Take out whichever ones you want when we arrive. Your spell is slower to cast than Rend, so I will let you lead off the attack, and then I will keep them from getting to us. How are you doing on the multiple missiles’ effort?” Karl asked. “I can still only control two at a time, but once I get the spell started, it should be much faster to send the next volley. Are there any awakened rank Goblins in the pack?” She replied. “According to Hawk, they’re all Common grade followers, there is no sign of a stronger leader. The Elite who came here first likely dealt with the stronger foes and then left the rest, or they ran and came back.” Karl replied. Karl caught a glimpse of flames in the distance, on the outskirts of town, and put a finger to his lips to signal silence from here forward. The goblin camp was loud, preparing for something, and they didn’t even have a guard out when Karl led the way to the edge of the clearing where they had set up. Once they were close, he crouched, getting low to the ground so that his uniform didn’t stand out quite as badly, and did his best to move silently. It was clear that there had once been many more Goblins here, but presently only six remained, easy prey for the two Elites. Dana focused and put a pair of Magic Missiles into the back of two of the goblins near the fire pit, while Karl took out the one closer to them. Then he aimed for the one who reacted the fastest, and another who was trying to run. Dana got the last of them in the back, and Karl rose to his feet to go make sure they were really dead. There would be nothing worse than having what they thought was a defeated enemy come from behind and ambush them, but as he made his way through the camp, Karl immediately began to regret moving in for a closer look. He had forgotten what Goblins eat, which was mostly the flesh of the villagers they slaughtered, and the stench was overpowering. But after motioning for Dana to stay put for the moment and watch for reinforcements, he checked all the bodies, giving them all a quick stab with a pilfered goblin sword before moving back to their hiding spot. “They’re finished. Let’s move back into town and take care of the rest of the targets, then we can kill the pigs and have some lunch before waiting to see what else we are supposed to be doing here. I think that this should be it, but I was expecting a bit more guidance.” He explained. “So was I. When they said that there wouldn’t be much of a chance that we would be meeting the other students, I didn’t think that they meant we wouldn’t even be in the same town. What does Hawk say about the situation?” Dana replied. [Nothing else is moving. I even went up high, and there was nothing else around but the pigs. I even stopped at the houses, and there was no sound of heartbeats or movement inside. Does that mean that we’re done, and we can have lunch now?] Hawk replied, hopefully. [Meet us before we go deal with the pigs. There is an awakened one there, and it might not be safe for you to go alone. Who knows what sort of ability he might have.] The wild Iron tusk Boars were happily rooting through the town’s garbage pile when Karl arrived, with Dana right behind him and the Hawk circling overhead. The largest of them was Hawk’s target for lunch. It was newly into the Awakened rank, and gave off a sense of power that Dana recognized long before Karl did. “It has magic. I’m not sure what, but it can use some sort of magical spell.” She whispered. “Alright then, we ambush it. All three of us at once will attack the largest boar, and then we will deal with the others. How is your stamina holding up? Have you rested long enough since the fight with the Goblins?” Dana nodded. “I held back, so the expenditure wasn’t nearly as high. I am ready to fight.” She moved to Karl’s left, then climbed up on top of a small stone shed and lay on her stomach to get a good angle of attack. That should keep the boars away from her for a moment, until they could knock down the wall, but she wasn’t so high that she would get hurt jumping down. [Hawk, your dinner is served. Attack the big one when Dana does, with as much as it takes to kill it. I will deal with the others.] Dana fired a pair of Magic Missiles into the Awakened boar, and six streaks of [Rend] came down to meet them, converging on its neck as the beast reared back to block the missiles with its tusks. Then Karl attacked, throwing Rend attacks into the closest two boars and moving forward to attract the attention of the remaining three. They were all close to Awakened in power, and their hides were beginning to toughen, but it wasn’t enough to keep his attacks from penetrating. Then Hawk arrived, sending out two more attacks into the back of the charging boars, while Dana targeted the last survivor, a greedy one who hadn’t stopped eating as soon as the others had. “Well, that was anticlimactic. I thought that it was going to be a much harder fight.” Dana noted. “Don’t jinx it, we are still not back at the Academy. But I will cut up these boars so that Hawk can get a fresh lunch, and we will bring them back with us.” How he was planning to do that was a mystery to Dana, but after Karl pulled a textbook from his coat for reference before beginning to butcher the pigs, she assumed that he had some actual plan. Then, the first of them disappeared, just vanished in front of her eyes, and Karl moved on to the next. Chapter 40: Not A Day Trip? Chapter 40: Not A Day Trip? “What the heck was that? Where did they go?” Dana gasped as an entire hundred kilo boar vanished for the second time. “There is a mental space granted by my powers. That’s where Hawk stays when he’s not out playing. I can store things in there, like meat, and it doesn’t go bad. There is only one small issue that I’ve found. Only food can go in there. I tried to put my textbooks in, and it wouldn’t work. But meat can go in and out no problem.” Karl explained. “What a strange restriction. But it is for your pet, right? So perhaps it’s only things that are good for the pet that can go in and out. Why don’t you try with a resource that you know he can’t use later and see what happens?” Dana suggested. “That is brilliant. Perhaps the magic of the beast space will help me learn what will be best for Hawk. Trying to find a way to help him advance more quickly is my current topic of study, other than the basic training.” Karl explained. “Glad I could help. But shouldn’t someone have shown up by now? It’s getting close to lunch, and these practice missions usually only last an hour.” Karl shrugged. “Well, technically, they’ve got us all day. So, I suppose it’s not a big deal if we have lunch here at the nearest house. No, scratch that, I heard from Hawk what is inside, let’s just eat out here.” Karl used his sword to cut some sliced pork to grill over a fire, using branches as skewers, while Dana prepared a fire. “Give me just a second. I know the spell to create a small flame, I just haven’t mastered it yet. We don’t have to make fire the hard way, or go rummaging through houses looking for a fire starter.” She explained. The village had been ransacked by Goblins, so whatever they found inside the houses was not going to be pleasant. Dana was aware of the stories about Goblin atrocities, but she really was not intending to find out first hand what it looked like up close. It took three tries before she managed to get sparks to form and the dry branches to light, but after that, the fire started to burn quite well, and the duo waited for the heat to build so that they could begin to roast the meat. “Do you think that this could be some sort of surprise survival test? Tomorrow is the day off, and we don’t have classes for another day and a half, so there wouldn’t be any delay to our learning if they had us stay here to hunt for an overnight trip.” Karl suggested. “I hope not. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t bring any sort of camping equipment.” Dana joked. There was a whole town behind them, but without any sign of survivors, and no visible battleground, being able to search the town itself for supplies was questionable. There was no telling how much was left in town, and how much had been taken with the ones who fled. “Well, if nobody comes for us by dinner, we will have to go looking for supplies to get through the evening. I don’t know if we want to stay in town, as the ruined town will draw more monsters searching for food.” “That is a good idea. We should get settled in as if we were waiting for a conventional pickup after a mission. That seems like the best option, since this class is intended to prepare us for rescues and missions after we graduate.” Dana suggested. The three of them settled in around the fire, waiting out the time until the meat was cooked, and deliberately ignoring the fact that there was a ruined and abandoned village right behind them. They would have to face the fact that numerous people likely lost their lives here in the recent past, but for now, they would focus on their lunch and the possibility that they didn’t get all the monsters that were nearby. But two hours later, after they had finished eating, and Hawk had searched the town twice over, going into every open house to make sure that there were no survivors or other hidden monsters, but there was nothing. In fact, there were very few bodies at all, though there was quite a bit of blood in some of the houses, according to Hawk. “Should we go back to where we started, in the middle of town? Perhaps there is some sign there that will let us know what we’re supposed to be doing. I feel like we should have gotten some message by now, and that maybe we weren’t supposed to be sent to an empty town. I mean, think about it. We’re both technically still Common Grade, though I am already at Awakened in peak power. They shouldn’t have sent us out into the unknown unsupervised for too long, it would make more sense if we were here to deal with the Iron tusk Boars. Maybe there was supposed to be someone here to meet us, but they were gone before we arrived because of the Goblin attack.” “So, you think that someone was supposed to let them know that we were finished? That makes some sense, since it is sanctioned by the Academy. Perhaps we could find something that would let us contact them? I mean, even a cell phone would do the job, and there should be a working landline in some of the buildings.” Dana suggested. Karl got to his feet, and sent Hawk back up to scout the town, in case there was anything coming for them, while they walked back to the town square. It was an eerie feeling, now that there was nothing around and moving. No birds, rodents, nothing at all. The town was just completely silent. But there were lights on, so it hadn’t been completely destroyed, just left uninhabited. Just as when they arrived, the centre of town was empty, but now, Karl wasn’t looking for monsters, but signs that someone knew they were coming and might have left behind a message for them. Chapter 41: Low and Slow Chapter 41: Low and Slow The first thing that Karl noticed about the centre of town was how clean it was. There was no sign of battle here, no indication that there had been a last stand to defend this place. So, logically, the majority of the inhabitants must have simply left, or fought to the end in another part of town. Reluctantly, Karl checked the large stone building nearby, whose doors were left open to the elements, and found that while the interior was a bit messy, there was no sign of a battle here either. So, either they left in advance, or the attack happened at night when nobody was at work. If the battle did take place at night and made it past the perimeter security that every village should have, it would make sense that there was very little to see in the streets. The Goblins would have invaded homes, and by the time that the alarm was raised, most of the town would have been killed in their sleep. The government building still had power to the computers, so Karl whistled to catch Dana’s attention and gestured for her to come inside. “Do you know how to work this? I’ve never seen that operating system before.” He asked. “Oh, no problem. We used the same one at school. It’s even still logged in. I wonder why their computers don’t have a time-out feature when you’re gone too long?” She asked. She tapped a few keys and then clicked on the home button and smiled. “It looks like they did leave us a message. There is a text file in the middle of the home screen.” [Dearest explorers and salvage teams. The residents of this village intend to return within thirty days of the posting of this notice, making the town’s property ineligible for salvage. A surprise Goblin attack with the threat of ongoing invasions forced us to evacuate to safe point Alpha, as designated on the government maps for this location, and once the region is deemed safe and the Elites have finished their work, we will return. Mayor Dingwall.] “That’s dated this morning. We were likely already gathered for the morning briefing when this was posted, but I think that a lot of the blood we saw was a fair bit older than that.” Karl noted. Dana thought about the timing of the message and its implications, and then looked back outside. “They said that it was likely there would be continued attacks. We only found a handful of stragglers, plus whatever Goblins Hawk killed inside the houses. That doesn’t really constitute an ongoing threat, does it? I think that tonight they are likely to come back again, looking for survivors and loot.” “I think that you’re right. They are going to come back, not just the small scouting squad that they left here, but a whole Goblin tribe looking for supplies. The book I read on monster biology says that they don’t like being outside during the day if they can avoid it, so it will probably be after dark. That gives us about seven hours before they might start to arrive, assuming they attack with the twilight. But what can we do to fortify and prepare for them? This building is solid stone, with a stone roof, so it’s not too bad. We could lock all the shutters and wait here, or we could barricade this place and return to it after we hunt Goblins in the town. They won’t be expecting someone to be hunting them while they’re scavenging for food.” Karl suggested. “The problem with that is I can’t see in the dark. Maybe you can, but I definitely can’t. I would be working blind, and I’m not a close combat fighter, so I can’t really stay behind alone with my skills.” Dana reminded him. “Why don’t you create a huge fog bank that hides the entire town? It will make the Goblins easier to hunt one at a time, so I can send Hawk to ambush any of them he finds out in the open, and then we can fight whichever ones manage to make it here. They won’t realize their companions are under attack right away if they can’t see them, and the shouting won’t lead them straight to us, so we can fight them in smaller groups. Unless there is a better building here in town, but it looks like the rest of them are mostly made of wood, and I wouldn’t trust that the Goblins won’t burn them down to get us out if they’re desperate.” “Alright, that plan works. I will start building the fog now, since it lasts until I want it to dispel. Once it hides the whole village, we should be a little more safe. How well can Hawk see through the fog?” Dana asked. “Keep it closer to the ground and it’s fine. If you can see for ten metres in the fog, that means that if it ends at ten metres in the air, Hawk can see through it just fine. Even five metres off the ground should be enough to blind the Goblins and still leave them visible from the air.” It was a devastating advantage to attacking from above, and the Goblins wouldn’t be expecting a monster attack on their raiding party. Not many monsters would attack Goblins, as they weren’t edible. They would only attack if their territory was invaded, or the Goblins made the mistake of getting greedy and targeting them. “We should prepare a fire as well. Lanterns, something that will allow us to light the room so that we can see properly around the entrance once the fighting starts. The power might go out at any time if they’re attacking, Goblins are pretty smart, so some torches would be a good idea.” Dana added. “There is an auto repair shop just down the street. I will get a bunch of oil and rags, then tie them around branches. That will work for torches to light the area, but I will look for an oil lantern as well. I’m not sure that they will have one here, but they were pretty common in the mines.” Chapter 42 Well Rested Chapter 42 Well Rested The mechanic’s shop was just down the block, and Karl approached as silently as possible, in case there were still goblins inside. Hawk said that he hadn’t found any, but he was also under orders to either stay high in the air or out of sight so that he wouldn’t get attacked before the real battle started. The building was an old cinder block building, darkened with years of soot all around the three bay doors, with a small office to one side. What he needed would likely be in the shop itself, but he also wanted to find a proper lighter and some food that wasn’t just roast meat. There should be a vending machine inside, and if anyone came back to see it broken, they would just assume it was the Goblins, since they trashed everywhere else in town. But strangely, the glass doors were intact, the windows unbroken, and the shop itself seemed undamaged. That could be an issue if it was all locked up, but when Karl tried the side door to the actual shop, it opened smoothly, revealing a dimly lit set of three bays, each with a car parked in them. Karl went to the first, and found a cigarette lighter in the cupholder, which went to his pocket, then he noticed a grease barrel on a two - wheeled dolly. That was perfect. It would burn slowly, it stuck to the rags for torches if the power went out, and there was a whole drum of it here on wheels. Karl loaded a large bag full of rags on the grease barrel, then went through the door to the front of the shop, where the distinctive smell of a workshop faded, and a pungent odour of herbs prevailed. Maybe that had something to do with why this place wasn’t trashed? It was worth a shot, and Karl quickly found the source of the smell, bags of herbs soaked in fuel, giving off a rather obnoxious odour. There were spares in the front office, ready to be assembled, so Karl grabbed two and a small can of fuel to activate them. Then he made his way to the vending machine, which was unlocked and open, seemingly prepared for the likelihood that someone would be here before they returned. So, he grabbed a few bags of snacks and stuffed them in his coat, just in case they were here all night. “Hey, is anyone here? We’re elites from the Academy, here to deal with the monster issue.” Karl called, just in case someone was hiding in this well protected shop. There was no answer, and the room was deathly silent, so Karl returned to his work. He needed at least a few long sticks for the torches, and those should be found in the parts department. Any long metal or wooden rod would do, and as luck had it, they stocked cargo bars for securing freight inside trucks. Two metres long, made of light metal and easy to disassemble to shorten them up a little. They would make great torch bases, so Karl grabbed four and brought them to the grease bin along with the scent buckets. There was a large length of chain nearby as well, so Karl added that to his pile of goodies and headed back out the way that he came in, carefully closing the side door so it didn’t make a loud noise. Dana’s fog was already spreading out from the government building, covering most of a city block and pouring down the streets. Given a few more hours of work, and she would certainly have the whole town covered, making Hawk’s work easier this evening. “I’ve got what we need. Snacks, torch materials, and even a couple of bags of herbs that should get soaked in fuel to keep monsters away. The shop was completely untouched, so I’m pretty sure that they work. We can set them up in the entryway to the building and see if they keep the Goblins away for the night.” Karl explained. “Perfect. Once I finish with the fog, I will need some sleep, so if you want to rest now, I will wait for Hawk’s signal that something is coming. It’s going to be a long night.” Dana reminded him. “Good point. Hawk’s warning should wake me up, but if it doesn’t just poke me or something. I’ll rest on the couch at the back of the lobby, out of sight of the doors, in case something passes by.” He had left the door open a crack, the same as they had found it, and there were only a few lights on in the lobby, but there was still a chance that a monster passing by the door would notice them. “Wait, first put the herb bags where you think they need to be. It will be too late to mask our scent if we do it later in the evening.” She reminded him with a grim look. Karl was still hoping for the best, that there wouldn’t be anything coming back tonight, but Dana was prepared for the worst, and that was a full goblin tribe arriving to clean out the town tonight, and finding them holed up in this one stone building. The bags were quick to prepare, and the scent rapidly filled the lobby, making Dana’s nose twitch in irritation at the pungent odour. But if it kept monsters away from their resting spot, it was a good thing, and they might actually be able to rest until Hawk gave them the signal that something was coming. He was resting in the Beast Space right now, preparing for his night of activities, but he would come out once Dana was finished with the fog, or the evening approached. Some foods could only be hunted at night, and the Windspeed Hawks, as a species, had a great sense of when the transitions would be, as that was the point when the nocturnal animals would be active, but groggy and not quite as alert as usual. But he didn’t get to sleep that long. Dana woke them both up around six in the evening, an hour before sunset, to let them know that the fog was finished, and it extended out past the edge of town. Now, she was going to rest until the attack started, while Karl and Hawk could take over. [You know what to do. Head up into the sky and make sure that nothing is going to sneak up on us. Let me know if you see anything moving out there.] Chapter 43 From Above Chapter 43 From Above The hawk took off into the afternoon sky, making a larger loop around the town to see if there was anything approaching, while watching for anything that might take the opportunity of the fog to move about. He was pretty sure that he hadn’t missed anything during the day, but there were always ways to hide from him, so maybe like a mouse in a hole there were hiding monsters in the town just waiting to come out. He had gone ten kilometres out, moving in a spiral pattern as he circled the town, when he found what they were waiting for. [I found it. A whole bunch of Goblins are headed to the town now. They’re just putting out their fires and starting to move. Do you want me to follow them?] He asked. Karl frowned. That was close to the worst-case scenario that they had imagined when they prepared for the evening. [Keep tabs on them, but make sure that is the only thing coming our way. We can likely deal with a pack of Goblins, but if there is something stronger than a Common Monster, we could be in trouble.] He replied. Karl had an impression of where Hawk was in relation to himself, so he knew that that Goblins weren’t too close to the town yet, and he had some time before they arrived, but not enough that he could count on making any real fortifications. What he should do was call the Academy and make sure that this was part of the plan. Since they didn’t know if the teachers were aware the town was empty when they were sent, it would be best to make sure. All he had to do was find the academy’s phone number somewhere. Assuming that it was even listed. Contacting the Elites wasn’t something that a regular person could just do casually, so the number might not be easily available even with the computer here in the lobby. They should have most of an hour before the Goblins reached the town, so he would wake Dana up in half an hour to get freshened up and have something to eat before the fighting started. [The Goblins are splitting up. They will be going all over town, but not in a big pack.] Hawk did his best to explain the situation as the Goblins got closer to the town’s low wall. [Alright, you can start working once they are in the fog and separated. Just don’t get hurt. I will wake Dana now.] Karl replied. He gently shook the mage awake and gestured toward the break room in the back of the lobby. “There are washrooms back there, if you want to get clean and grab a drink before the fight starts.” He whispered. “How long do we have?” Karl listened to Hawk’s running updates and did his best to calculate. “I would say about five minutes until they’re actually in town, and fifteen or twenty before they reach this side of town. They’re about to reach the outer fog now, and they have slowed to a slow walk as they search.” Dana disappeared into the back room and came back a few minutes later with a lunch box in each hand. “They’re still good. Or at least they smell like it. They were in the break room fridge, but I’m sure that whoever’s lunch this was will forgive us.” “Do you know the Academy phone number, or how to find it? We should probably call them to make sure this is part of the plan.” Karl suggested as he finished the container of leftover spaghetti and the two sandwiches. Whoever brought this had a serious appetite. “I can try finding it, but I’m not sure that it’s a public number. Let me know if anything is getting close.” Dana agreed. She sat at the computer to search for the Academy’s contact information, and Karl moved to watch the outside of the building on the monitor at the other desk. There were only a few security cameras, but they circled the building, and there was an extra one at the entrance. “Wait, we forgot to check the other doors. Give me one minute and I will make sure that none of the side doors are unlocked.” Karl hissed as he realized that they had missed an important step in securing their base. There was only one other exterior door, a fire exit at the back of the lobby, but when Karl reached it, he realized that it wasn’t and couldn’t be locked. But he had some supplies, so there was a chance to barricade the door. He went back to the front and got one of the cargo securement bars and the length of chain he had taken from the auto repair shop. The bar could be set across the hallway, and the chain looped around it and through the handle on the door. The hooks on either end of the chain would hold it in place, and the handle looked solid enough, bolted through the thick metal fire door. Karl didn’t know for sure how strong a Goblin was, but there was no chance that he would be able to pull that door open, even if he had someone along to help him. It took a few tries to get the bar in the right spot across the hallway walls, but once he had the chain pulled tight, the door was very secure, and they no longer had to worry too much about anything sneaking in behind them. [They’re in the fog. I will start to eliminate the Goblins now.] Hawk reported. “They’re in town. Hawk is starting to work now, but we’ve got a bit before they reach this side of the city. They’re probably going to try to loot the houses as they go, so it might take quite a while before they reach us.” Karl whispered. [They’re not all stopping. A bunch of them are running further into town through the fog. They could be near you soon. Do I scout or do I hunt?] Hawk asked. “They’re not doing a methodical search, they’re spreading all over town and coming our way. Get ready.” [Try to give us a warning when anything gets close to us, but hunt as much as you can.] Chapter 44 Night Fight Chapter 44 Night Fight Karl checked the placement of the scent bags in the lobby, making sure they were going to fill the room to deter goblins, then put another one out in the back near the lunchroom, in case they had to retreat. Making it harder for the Goblins to pick up their scent would make it easier to ambush them, and the more that they could kill before the tribe realized anything was wrong, the better. [They are coming right for you. Maybe they can smell you?] Hawk asked a few minutes later as he watched the Goblins headed directly for the middle of town, next to the government building where Karl and Dana were hiding. [Thanks. We’re on it.] “Dana, climb up on that desk and open the window above you. You can fire magic missiles from there, right? That should give you a better angle on the Goblins that are coming for the town square. I am going to step outside and close the door behind me, so I can attack them properly.” Karl whispered. Dana didn’t approve of that plan, but if they were going to fight the Goblins, it was better if someone drew their attention away from her. If Karl was inside the building, he couldn’t do it. But if he was outside and her scent was blocked from the Goblins while she attacked, it could work well enough for them to clear out most of them with little risk. The real danger would be that they would get tired from the exertion of multiple spell castings. They would be restraining their powers, so the exponential mana cost as you approached your limits wasn’t as much of a hindrance, but there were still limitations on how much they could do. Even Hawk couldn’t hunt all night long without a break, that wasn’t in his nature at all. What Dana needed to focus on was making the magic arrows more like actual arrows. Normally, they were glowing spears of magic. But she didn’t want them to glow tonight and give away her position. The first Goblins came as a pair, skulking through the streets searching for something that they would never find, as Karl’s [Rend] tore them both apart at the same time. Their bodies fell into a bush along the side of the road, next to the building that they thought would hide their presence, and Karl returned to waiting. The smell of Goblin blood would certainly bring others to him, which was precisely what Karl wanted at the moment. They were all spread out across the town, so they wouldn’t arrive in a group, but if they arrived a few at a time, they would be no match for him and Dana. Given his physique, even if he were just to fight them, Karl was fairly certain that he could take one or two Goblins at a time without using skills, but there was a serious risk that he would be wounded, and neither of them knew any healing skills. Karl heard the rustle of a branch, when there was no wind in this fog, and turned to find another trio of Goblins trying to sneak up on him. A streak of faint light hit one in the back, punching a hole through its chest, before Karl tore the other two apart with [Rend]. Even at a quarter power, which put virtually no strain on his body or energy, the four streaks of light shredded the Goblins with ease. They might be strong for their size, but they were soft, and their hide was no match for his attacks. In the sky above, Hawk had realized the same thing. He used only the bare minimum of power to take out his targets all over town, saving as much as he could for later. Karl always gave him a reward for doing a good job, and it had to be an excellent reward if he managed to keep up the battle until all the Goblins were gone. Unlike Karl, who simply fought where he was, Hawk had started his battle on the downwind side of the town. That way, the scent of Goblin blood would be blown back across the areas he had already cleared, instead of wafting over the village, as Karl’s kills were doing. Not that the Goblins were all that concerned. Most of them were still focused on loading large bags of stuff from houses, and Hawk just had to wait to kill them until they came back out. But as they moved through the houses and didn’t hear their fellow tribesmen anymore, they were becoming concerned, and that was causing more of them to move toward the smell of blood. [You have more incoming. They can smell your fight.] Hawk warned as he took out both a Goblin and an Earth Mouse at the same time. Karl probably hadn’t banned him from eating his kills. At least Hawk didn’t remember him doing it, so he happily ate the mouse before looking for more Goblins. It was a good night. There was work, but there were also mice, and a promise of rewards later. Maybe he could even convince Karl to give him a whole vial of that blood juice that was so good for his strength. Dana tapped on the windowsill to get Karl’s attention and pointed through the fog to where a group of four Goblins was trying to sneak up on them. It was a terrible effort, as their eyesight was not good, and through the fog, Karl could see much further than they could. What they were going by was the smell of blood, but there was none on him, or in the building where Dana was hiding, so they were on the wrong side of the square, out in the open when Dana’s spell took two of them out before they even noticed they were in danger. Karl was about to attack when instinct told him to move, and he sidestepped while turning, barely avoiding being hit by a flying dart fired from a Goblin blowgun. Using his full strength, [Rend] killed the creature and three of its companions at the same time, slicing them into pieces that fell into the grass. Dana took out the other Goblins across the park, and Karl gave her a thumbs up in approval. He would have to be extra careful of those darts, in case they had some sort of poison on them. They didn’t look like they would kill if they didn’t, and that made them his largest concern in the increasing darkness. Chapter 45 Easy Pickings Chapter 45 Easy Pickings The darkness was also a benefit to Karl, as he could hear the Goblins running into various things around town, where the lights in the houses had been broken or turned off. They might have a sneaky dart gun, but if they couldn’t see him, then it wouldn’t really matter what sort of weapons they had, they wouldn’t be able to hit him. With that in mind, Karl shifted into the shadows of an alcove and waited for more Goblins to be attracted by the noise and the smell of blood. He could hear Hawk hunting in the distance, the short shrieks of Goblins as they were assaulted from above, cut off before they could get a full word out, but Hawk’s narration said that he was still high in the sky, using the dark to his advantage while attacking down into the fog. The Goblin tribe didn’t stand a chance tonight, and they were so easy for him to kill that Hawk was barely trying, just using multiples of very low powered attacks to eliminate the pests without tiring himself. Bird type monsters were the reason that Goblins lived in caves, and they had no real way to deal with an irate bird whose territory they had invaded. They could only wait for it to swoop, or run and hide until it calmed down. Another pair of magic missiles from Dana took out two more Goblins on the edge of the central square, while Karl saw another scurry into the corner by a set of stairs. It had seen its comrades fall, but couldn’t see the attacker, so it was hiding and waiting for its chance. He couldn’t afford to let it warn the others, so Karl crept up to the stairs and then tossed himself into the air using the railing so he could see down at the hiding Goblin. The height shocked him. Karl wasn’t really used to the additional strength of his body, and he had thrown himself nearly three metres in the air, but it gave him a good view of the target, and his [Rend] took it out with ease. Then Karl caught the edge of the roof beside him to slow his fall, and carefully dropped to the ground, limiting the noise he made on the sidewalk. The soft thump didn’t seem like it would carry far, and Karl returned to the shadows in front of the government building to wait for more Goblins to approach. Their eyesight might be terrible, but their hearing and sense of smell weren’t, so they had to know something was up by now. The stench of Goblin blood was all that Karl could smell, and he didn’t even have any on him. Then, the sound of bare feet slapping on the concrete as they ran in his direction caught Karl’s attention. There was a larger group coming for them, and as they reached the square, they started to shout, calling for reinforcements as they searched for the culprit. Karl stepped out into the street and cut down two of the closest Goblins from a block away, where they were barely visible through the fog, even to his eyes. Dana hadn’t started firing magic missiles yet, so she probably couldn’t see them, but the Goblins understood which direction they were under attack from and turned to run toward Karl, waving rusty blades and clubs as they screamed. Swinging his arm in a wide arc, Karl sent out a three-metre wide quartet of attacks which scattered the Goblins, with some leaping to the side, some dropping to the ground, and an unfortunate few being torn to shreds. That made them stationary targets as the first Magic Missiles hit them, and Karl picked off a few more with smaller attacks that would be harder to see in the dark. More bare feet were running toward them in the fog, and a shrill screech of Hawk hunting came from overhead as he followed his targets back toward Karl. It took a moment to activate Rend, and Karl couldn’t do it as fast as Hawk could, but for a moment, the Goblins were held at bay, creating a mess of bodies in the middle of town, and covering the blood in black blood that stunk of rot and metal. Then, the Goblins were too close for Karl to keep them away with Rend, and he decided to switch tactics. He drew his blade and chopped at the closest one, breaking its arm and knocking its crude wooden shield aside before the blade cut deep into its neck. Dana focused on the Goblins closest to him, keeping them from surrounding or bypassing Karl and heading for her, while Hawk worked his way in from the back. It was impossible to tell how many were left in the fog as Karl traded blows with three more Goblins, trying to get an attack in without leaving himself open. They were surprisingly strong for their size, but not strong enough to be called Awakened Monsters, as they were learning as they failed to stop Karl’s counterattack. A wave of sword light in the form of [Rend] sliced through the Goblins in front of him, giving Karl some breathing space, but the larger attacks were hard on his stamina, and he wouldn’t be able to do that too many more times. Instead, he retreated toward the government building, using smaller Rend attacks as he went, and the Goblin pack began to falter. “I can’t keep this up.” Dana warned from the window above him as Karl reached the door to the building. “That’s fine, you don’t need to. Lock the window and take a break, I will defend the doorway while Hawk works outside. I think he has a bit more in him.” Karl wheezed, winded from the exertion of fighting a larger Goblin pack. [I have been going easy on them, small attacks is all it takes, and they’re too dumb to fight back.] Hawk gloated. [Just keep it up and get rid of the rest. Don’t let them find a way into this building.] Chapter 46 Don’t You Listen? Chapter 46 Don’t You Listen? Hawk circled the square, targeting the Goblins who tried to leave the area in other directions, while seeing Karl standing in the doorway of the building, under the lights, drew more of them forward. Dana slumped as she climbed down from her perch on the windowsill, and went to sit in one of the chairs in the break room to recover and get some energy back. The snacks weren’t much when you were used to roasted monster meat, but there was some of that left as well, and the break room was well supplied with energy drinks and a free coffee maker. The Goblins were hesitant at first to approach Karl, after seeing him kill so many of their own, but mostly they were waiting for more numbers. Numbers were strength to Goblins, and once they had enough, their courage was unbreakable. Karl leisurely cast Rend at the best targets, forcing them to keep moving or become lumps of meat, while Hawk gave him steady updates. [We are down to less than ten of them now. Most are in the square, but there are some on the other side of town who are running away.] Hawk informed Karl after five minutes of the cat and mouse game with the hiding Goblins. [Don’t let them get out of town. If we’re going to make the area safe for the locals to return, we can’t have them sending survivors back to wherever they came from. I will keep fighting these while you’re gone.] Karl sensed Hawk turning to find the cowards, and looked for a clean shot at the remaining attackers near the building. They were trying to sneak up on him, staying in the bushes around the other buildings, but that wasn’t hard for Karl to pick out. What he didn’t want to do was to attack too fast and tire himself out before they made a large push toward the door. Hawk said that there were less than ten, and with the one he had just killed in the rose bushes, that should be less than six, but he didn’t know how many were still hiding somewhere nearby and how many the Hawk had found running away. The bird was too distracted with his hunt to give updates, but there was nothing moving near Karl right now. So, he waited, and then waited some more, until finally, one of the Goblins came sneaking around the corner of the building, and tried to jump him. Karl didn’t even turn his head as he flicked his finger and sent a blade of energy to cut the creature’s head off, dropping it on the steps with a thud. Hawk finished his work and began to circle the town, looking for more targets, but there were none to be found. Everything in town was either dead or in hiding, which meant that all that remained was for the local police force or militia to do door to door searches and clear all the houses before the residents went back in. Hawk landed on the roof, and Karl opened the window for him, so he could come inside when he was ready. “I’m going to close the door and rest for a bit. Hawk, keep a lookout at the front of the building so nothing surprises us. Dana will switch with you in an hour or two.” Karl informed the bird, making sure that Dana could hear his side of the conversation. They both needed the rest, and though they wouldn’t be getting much sleep today, just relaxing and meditating would help a lot. That’s precisely what Karl had planned. Some roasted Monster Meat to get the energy flowing through his body, and then meditation to refill his and Hawk’s energy storage. With a bit of luck, they would feel refreshed again in a few hours, and they would be ready to face the next day, after calling someone to come find them. For the next hour, Karl rested and meditated, regaining most of the energy that he had burned through, while Dana did the same, then they both got up to check in with Hawk and make sure that nothing had been happening around town. [Make one more flyover of the place and if there isn’t anything changed from last time, you can return to the beast space and sleep for the rest of the night. I think that we’ve gotten through most of the threat now, and I will take care of getting us back to the Academy in the morning.] Karl informed his feathered partner. Hawk flew off, making his rounds over the town, while Dana went to search the computers in the office to find a useful phone number and Karl guarded the door. “I’ve got something. There is a government emergency line here, direct dial red phone. Do you want to make the call, or should I?” She asked. “You can make the call. Let them know that we’re students sent out on a mission, the town appears to be clear, and that we could use a ride back to the Academy.” Karl listened to the one-sided conversation and tried not to laugh as Dana struggled to get anyone to believe her. “No, we are students from the Academy sent here to clear the Monster infestation. Of course, I know the town has been overrun, and it was evacuated, that’s why we’re here. We are elites from the Academy. Yes. No. Let me try this again. Sergeant Rita and Professor Mills sent us here on a mission, using a transport spell. We have finished clearing out the Goblin tribe, and we need a ride back. Just contact the Academy, don’t make me take this to your supervisor. Oh, he’s right there, is he? Put him on the phone. This is the Awakened Rank Mage Dana, assigned with the Awakened Rank Warrior Karl, to do monster control of this town. The Goblin tribe has been eliminated, and we need you to contact the Academy to pick us up, our phone was damaged. Yes, over fifty Goblins were found and killed, the entire tribe is dead, unless there are some that left the area entirely. There are no more signs of Goblins here. Yes, I understand very well what making a false report and impersonating an Elite could mean. But as I’m not doing either, please send for an Academy transport. Fine, sending for a military police unit works just as well. I will remain on the line until they arrive.” At that point, Karl couldn’t hold it any more, and he began quietly laughing, using his arm to stifle the noise. Not for long, though. The sound of helicopters in the air alerted Hawk to incoming visitors only a few minutes later. [Return to the Beast Space, I don’t want any misunderstandings. They’re all idiots, and they’re not listening to Dana.] Karl instructed. [At least it will be light soon, so they won’t be dumb and blind.] Hawk replied. Chapter 47 Incoming Troops Chapter 47 Incoming Troops Dana sighed over the phone and dissipated the fog so that the helicopter could see to land. “Yes, I know there is an unnatural fog here. I created it and I am dissipating it now. They will be able to land in under a minute.” She was explaining over the phone. “I will send Karl out to flag them down with a torch, that should be pretty recognizable, right? Yes, we prepared for a power outage, should the monsters be smart enough to cut the main power. You’re not all that bright either, but you’re right here on the phone with me, aren’t you? Don’t underestimate the monsters.” Karl laughed as he grabbed a pole and tied a rag around it, then dunked it in the grease and lit it up. The torch created a bright flame with thick black smoke as the excess grease burned, but it was impossible to miss in the rapidly thinning fog. The helicopter didn’t land, it just dropped a group of ropes, and a team of men in black uniforms with rifles in hand dropped into the town square and formed a defensive ring. They seemed a bit too paranoid by Karl’s estimation, they should have been informed that the threat was already gone, but they seemed to take their jobs very seriously. “Academy warrior Karl?” The team leader shouted over the noise of the helicopter. “That’s me. The helicopter can land over there, we already cleared the town, so there shouldn’t be any more Goblins here.” Karl shouted back. Instead of landing, the helicopter moved to a higher altitude and away from the landing zone, flying in a circle around the town, presumably looking for more threats. “Let’s get you to safety. Where is the mage?” The team leader asked. “Inside. But as I’ve told you, it’s already safe. Look around you, there are no more living Goblins.” Karl repeated. The team leader hustled him back inside, but most of the team remained outside the building, searching the square, which was covered in dead Goblins from an evening of battle. “I need you to put your index finger on the scanner for me.” The team leader insisted, and Karl complied, scanning his identity the same way he had a thousand times before, clocking in and out of the mines for his after school shifts. [Identity verified. Golden Divine Academy Elite student, Karl. Awakened ranking assessment under review pending formal exam.] The man looked between his identity scanner and Karl, then at Dana and back again with a surprised expression. “See, we told the guy on the phone what was happening, but it looks like nobody actually believed it. You are welcome to explore the town, though. It will still need to be swept to make sure that there isn’t anything hiding in the houses that we didn’t detect, and someone will have to clean up all the Goblin bodies in the streets. I’m reasonably sure that’s not part of our job description.” Karl explained. “There are more coming. We were scrambled in advance from the base when we got the report that there were some kids pretending to be elites in the town, but they were already scheduled to be dispatched here to clear the village and find the Goblins. It should be two hundred men, so they can scour a town this size on their own. Now that we have determined that you two are who you say you are, is there any coffee?” The team leader replied. “Right here. There is a free coffee maker in the lunchroom. We weren’t sent with overnight supplies, so we owe a couple of people for a lunch, but other than that, everything in the building is still mostly intact.” Karl informed him with a smile. “Oh, that’s an easy fix. You don’t have them yet, as you’re still students, but once you graduate you’ll get a code generator app for your phones. Just write out the redemption code for anything that you need to use in the line of service, and they can apply for reimbursement from the government. I will put in for it today, it will make their overall damage claim easier to process with one preapproval code in place.” The team leader grabbed a couple of napkins from the counter, and wrote down a string of numbers and letters on each of them before stuffing them into the empty lunchboxes. Then Dana put them back in the fridge where they found them, and the rest of the team started to enter the building. “Sir, the area is clear. No sign of life anywhere in the area. We will secure the building now.” One of the soldiers informed them in an extra serious tone. “You can relax, they’re real elites from the Academy, not kids playing pretend where they shouldn’t be. I’m not sure why we didn’t get the message, but when they say that they killed off the Goblins, I believe them.” The team leader informed his men, who began removing their face masks and lining up at the coffee machine. “Best news I’ve heard all day. I can’t believe we got chased out of bed at five in the morning because some pencil pusher didn’t know what to do with Academy Elites who don’t have an authorization code yet.” One of the men grumbled. The team leader set his mug down and nodded in agreement. “You have to understand, they’re minimum wage assistants. The ones who answer the phone, that is. They live off the minimum subsidy for Elites, and answer the phones at the call centre for elites and government officials, but they’re not Elites themselves. They don’t have much else, so they like to go on a power trip at work. Just give them your student ID number the next time they ask, and it will automatically transfer you to one of us. Their job is to deal with local bureaucrats requesting assistance, but when we call, they’re just the receptionist. I’m assuming that the two of you are starting your final year, preparing to go into the military?” The team leader asked. “Actually, we’re in our first year, and they were preparing her to become an Idol. We are both in the practical skills special class, since we’re a bit ahead of most, and they sent us here for training without any explanation. I would assume that they thought that there was still someone here to greet us, since the town was evacuated only a few hours before our arrival, but it is what it is. The situation is dealt with now.” Chapter 48 Special Forces Inbound Chapter 48 Special Forces Inbound The special forces team all turned to look at Dana with smirks on their faces. “Oh, they’re preparing for the next Archmage are they? An Idol’s career is notoriously short, and her attitude is shit, so they’re going to have to replace her sooner than expected. Don’t get me wrong, her power is top-notch, and she will be one of the top Elites for a long time, but as an Idol, you can’t be that horrible to your fans forever.” One of the special forces team members laughed. “Does everyone just know everyone, then?” Dana asked as the soldiers laughed. “Well, there is only one Academy for the Elite students, you see. Other than the Team Leader, who is a bit older, we’re all about the same age, so we were in school together. Once you’re through the first year of crammed classes, you’ll find that there is a lot of time to socialize and get to know each other. The most popular people in school become famous outside school as well, and there are only a hundred or so of us per year who graduate at Ascended or higher. You’re both reaching Awakened in your first year, so you’re almost guaranteed to be part of that group, and you will know a lot of soon-to-be famous people, that’s just how it is as an Elite.” That made sense. Only one Rank above Ascended was Commander, and they were the sort of powerful people that everyone in their hometown would know by name. Either because they became politicians, or because they were so fantastically wealthy that they owned half the town. The Lithium Mines had a Commander Rank warrior who took the experimental treatments during development of the Serum as the Mayor, but most towns only had a few elites stationed there for security. Between the government stipend for powerful elites and their connections, it wasn’t hard for them to get wealthy in only a few years and live in luxury wherever they had been stationed. Other than the two that were on duty at the door, the rest of the special forces team gathered to ‘secure’ the two young elites and drink coffee while they waited for the main force of the army to arrive. “Did you find anything stronger than a Common monster here?” The team leader asked as he got up to pour another cup. “Just one Irontusk Boar that was clearly awakened. If there was a leader among the Goblins that wasn’t at the Common Rank, I didn’t notice. They’re a bit difficult to tell apart in the dark, especially with the fog, but I don’t recall any of them surviving a direct hit.” Karl replied. “Why did you choose to cover the town in fog anyhow? Wouldn’t that just make your job harder?” One of the special forces team members asked. “Not really. It makes it harder for the Goblins to see where they’re going, so they’re attacking blindly until they’re almost on us. But I’ve got a Hawk as part of my Class skills, and he’s great at hunting in the fog. You see, if it stays close to the ground, he can see down into it, while they are looking forward and unable to see much.” Karl explained. “Oh, so it is like the Druids that have an animal companion instead of a beast form?” One of the others asked. “Sort of. It’s a Windspeed Hawk, and he’s just made Awakened Rank.” “An actual magical beast, not just a Hawk? Now we’re talking. That would explain your confidence in hunting in the dark. Those things are a menace.” The man grumbled, remembering a time when his team was attacked by one. They all sat and waited until the team’s radios announced that the trucks were reaching the town limits, and the army was spreading out to do a full search of the town. “Well, that’s the end to happy fun time. They will want us all on standby in case they find something. They’ve got rifles, but they’re not Elites, so they will call for us if they find anything more than a lone injured Goblin.” The team leader explained. Then he led them all out into the open area in front of the building, what Karl had deemed to be the town square, which he now realized was actually used as an open air market, but all the stalls had been packed away until its next open day. Today was Sunday, the usual off day for most labourers, so it would have likely been opened, if there were anyone left in town. But the empty space had made it much easier to fight last night, and eliminated most of the good hiding spots for the Goblins to sneak up on them. [More Goblin corpses here. Requesting sanitary cleanup.] [Goblin cleanup at sixth and main as well.] [And at seventh and main.] Karl smirked as the reports of bodies strewn all over town came in, and the special forces team tried not to laugh. “You really did just set a Windspeed Hawk loose in the fog, didn’t you? There are dozens of them here, which makes sense for two elites fighting together, but there are random bodies all over town, one at a time. You would have to be pretty sneaky to get them like that without alerting the others.” The team leader commended them. “It was an excellent tactic. With Dana’s fog, not only didn’t they see Hawk, they didn’t see the bodies of their tribesmen either, so they just kept doing what they were doing until he had time to get to them.” A few minutes later, the Command Vehicle, an armoured sedan car, reached the centre of town, and promptly ran over a goblin corpse, spreading the stinking blood all over the undercarriage. “I hope they don’t want us to get in that. The smell is going to linger for days.” Dana muttered. “Don’t worry about that, you will be returning with us to the Academy. I already sent for approval from your teachers.” The team leader whispered. Chapter 49 Streets Swept Chapter 49 Streets Swept A sharply dressed officer in his formal uniform stepped from the sedan car with a grimace on his face for the smell of dead Goblin that his driver had just run over. “Greetings, it is a pleasure to meet you both on your debut mission. I am Base Commander Colonel Ryan, in charge of the purge of the town today.” He greeted them, sounding much more enthusiastic and less professional than either Karl or Dana had expected. “Greetings, Colonel Ryan, but this isn’t our debut mission, this was a training mission from the Academy, we’re not up for graduation this year.” Dana replied with a sweet smile that seemed to relax the officer even more. “Not a debut mission? Well then, I guess there is no need to plead for tickets to your inaugural event. But to have sent just the two of you for an incident of this magnitude is incredible. To think that a pair of Elites in training could be this powerful.” He gushed. Karl didn’t miss how the Special Forces team all rolled their eyes at his flattery, but with the enhanced peripheral vision, he didn’t have to turn his head to see them clearly, so the man didn’t notice that Karl’s attention wasn’t on him. “I have two hundred men scanning the town now in pairs. They shouldn’t take long to do a door-to-door sweep and search every home, then we can return to the base to wait for one of the older Elites to come pick you up.” The Base Commander informed them. “Sorry, Colonel. There are already arrangements in place to bring them back with our team. We will be extracting them to the Academy as soon as we have verified that the mission is complete, and the town is safe for residents to return to. Unfortunately, there will be no time for photo shoots or any publicity events this time, but I’m sure you understand. Security is paramount for the Academy, after all.” That was when Karl realized what the Colonel was after. He was trying to make friends among the younger elites, networking to expand his connections in the future. It was probably part of his job as a base commander to be in the know about everything that was happening at higher levels, but it was a bit strange for both Karl and Dana for someone with that sort of influence to have an interest in them. With so many soldiers moving through the town, it almost felt like things were getting back to normal. There were people in the streets, hurrying about their business, workers with wheelbarrows cleaning up, even a fire truck had been pressed into service to clean the streets of Goblin blood, as the stench was becoming unbearable in the sun. But in the minds of the common soldiers, it only reinforced how terrifying the Elites were. These two were still students, and already they were tearing through entire Goblin Tribes that would have taken their whole unit to safely deal with. Everywhere they went, there were more Goblin bodies, and even Karl hadn’t bothered counting how many of them Hawk had dealt with since they arrived here. All that really mattered was the number that were still alive, and when they could be finished with this assignment and go home to a proper meal. In the distance, at the town’s garbage dump, a filthy fire was sending thick black smoke into the air as the soldiers used diesel fuel to ignite the bodies of the Goblins, purging them so they wouldn’t spread disease through the area, and eliminating the worst of the evidence that monsters had actually overrun the town. From what Karl could hear on the radio in the Base Commander’s car, they were instructed to clean up as much as possible so that the residents would feel safer when they returned, as if the disaster had been mostly prevented, not dealt with after the fact. It was one of the small political niceties that helped the people feel confident that they were being looked after, and in this case, it could have been much worse. If they had waited for the army, the Goblins would have looted the majority of the houses and caused massive amounts of property damage during the overnight hours. The Special Forces team leader observed the progress with satisfaction. “They will send a cleaning crew through in the afternoon, as it appears that the town really has been cleansed, but the soldiers will remain for most of the week, just in case. We can start getting ready to head back. Was there anything else that you wanted to make a note of before we leave?” “Yes, these herb packs, I want to either know what is in them, or bring one with me to analyze at the Academy. They seem to be an effective monster repellant, and it kept the Goblins from trying to go straight for us in the government building.” Karl noted. The team leader opened the bag in question, sniffed, and then nodded. “I have the recipe for this. It’s a pretty common pest deterrent, but the herbs for it only grow in a few areas of the country, this being one of them. I didn’t know that it would work for Goblins, but it works very well on insect type monsters, as well as regular bugs.” The local mosquito repellant deterred Goblins? Perhaps it just masked the scent of humans so that they didn’t realize the area was inhabited. But if it worked, it worked, and Karl gave the team leader a thumbs up to signal that he would want that recipe later. “Excellent. Then we are off to the Academy. Base Commander, we will return this evening with a full report for you.” The team leader announced. “Thank you, Major. I will look forward to the detailed exploits of these two outstanding trainees.” The helicopter returned as they were speaking, and landed on the roof of the building, which was accessible through an internal stairwell that was marked “Smoking Area”. “You look more excited now than you did when we arrived.” One of the team members noted. “I’ve never been in a helicopter before.” Dana and Karl replied in unison, then burst into laughter at their synchronized thoughts. “Well, we can change that. Hop in and fasten your harness. The Academy won’t forgive us if you get injured on the ride home.” The team leader informed them with amusement clear in his expression. “Yes, sir!” Chapter 50 Career Paths Chapter 50 Career Paths The helicopter lifted off and turned toward the east, flying high over the treetops, and roughly following a river. “It’s beautiful from up here.” Dana spoke into the microphone, nearly drowned out by the noise of the helicopter. “It’s like nothing you’ll get to see on the ground. You two did good down there. I don’t know what the Academy originally sent you to do, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t for the Goblins. I checked while we waited, and the other teams of students all went to take out a handful of magical beasts and then called for a ride home the first afternoon.” The team leader informed them, now that there were no more curious ears around to overhear them. “I thought that might be it. There was a group of wild Irontusk Boars near the town. That was a nice light start to the day, and at first, we thought that might have been it, but then we realized that all the houses were empty, and they hadn’t just brought everyone inside to wait.” Karl agreed. “So, you just started to scout the town for Goblins and then killed them all until we showed up?” One of the other special forces soldiers asked. “We thought that we might have underestimated the teachers, so we cleared out all the Goblins and then called in on the hotline in the government building, but they didn’t believe us and threatened to send the military police. That ended up being you, and they asked that we stay on the phone until you arrived so they didn’t have to put out a search warrant for us.” Dana laughed. The soldier rolled his eyes in amusement. “They’re a bunch of idiots. I’m sure the boss went over proper protocol already, but calling them is usually a last resort. Getting in contact with a military unit or the Academy directly will make your lives a lot easier. Do you think that they’re going to give you a promotion after this? I see you’ve still got the first year Common Grade badges on, but there’s no way that either of you is still Common Grade. We saw the fog and the bodies, that is definitely beyond the skills of two Common trainees.” “We will see. If they do, it will be great. You know how it is at the Academy, power gets respect. So, if we can get them to give us the black badges, we will at least be able to show off to our fellow first year students.” Karl agreed. The special forces team laughed at their own memories of school. They were also among the first to advance, so they knew very well that there were plenty of social benefits that couldn’t really be quantified about being the first with the black badges. Then later, when you moved up to the Bronze Ascended badge, usually in your second year, you were among the real powerhouses. With the body enhancements of the warrior classes, Ascended Rank brought about huge changes to their physique, and it was at that point when they could be called truly superhuman. Karl could already jump up onto the roof of a single story house, but that was still plausible, by Elite standards. When you could throw someoneover the house, then you were getting into the feats associated with the Ascended. “We’re not far from the Academy now. It will be about another half an hour before we arrive, but you should prepare yourself for a lot of questions from the students. It is the off day today, and you’re returning in a special forces helicopter. I wouldn’t call that subtle, so your friends will want to know what you were up to.” The pilot laughed as he gestured to a spot in the distance that should be the Academy. The helicopter wasn’t flying particularly fast, and the side doors were open, allowing the team members to let their legs dangle out the side while they were held in by a safety lanyard. Normally, that would be concerning, but Karl had seen them rappel down ropes from that same position, so it couldn’t be too dangerous, no matter what it looked like. As they got closer to the Academy, they could see all the students out in the yard relaxing and studying, and Karl could see all the heads turn as they noticed the sound of an incoming helicopter. It wasn’t the sort of noise that you would hear every day, so it attracted a lot of attention, especially when it started to set down on the helipad next to the main building. The doors were open, so everyone could make out the two white and gold student uniforms among the dark green special forces outfits, and the innate need to know all the school’s gossip kicked in. “The teachers should be out here soon. They want a statement from you on what happened during the mission, so I wouldn’t count on keeping your day off.” The Pilot informed them as the rotors began to slow to an idle. “Yeah, I was afraid that would happen. But hey, if you guys put in the good word for us, maybe we can get those black badges right away.” Karl joked. The men at the door unhooked themselves and stepped down to offer a hand to Karl and Dana as they exited the aircraft, while Sergeant Rita and two teachers that Karl didn’t recognize were jogging across the field toward the helipad. “It looks like we’re in for it right away. Sergeant Rita is my personal tutor.” Karl informed the team member beside him. “She’s not all bad. But if I recall, she really loved her physical fitness, so as her student, it might be difficult to see.” The man joked. “She is pretty good, honestly. But I’ve got a class that nobody has seen before, so she’s always pushing for every bit of new information. This report will be a long one.” Karl explained. Dana seemed to recognize the other two teachers, so they must be from the mage classes, and they were gesturing for everyone to come meet them, not just Karl and Dana.