“What’s up my listeners?! This is the Voice of the People, coming at you live here on K-RAD, the only radio station that brings you the ! It’s bright and early and time to kick the fucking day off right with some hot tunes!
Let’s set the day on fire right out of the gate with an underground classic, ”
- DJ Demophon Kerner, on K-RAD LA, April 4th, System Year 453
Mason’s idea of training was what I’d call an exhausting day. We started off with more drills like the training I’d done with Raylan the previous – Unlike the day before, when we’d stopped so that we could get on the road, we just kept going.
Hassan ran me completely out of mana shooting bread-tiles at Raylan, then had us spar sword-vs-knife again – though this time I had somewhat of an advantage as Raylan was very low on stamina after the first set of drills. Hassan claimed it would toughen him up, and he didn’t object even when I tried to get Hassan to let him rest up a bit first.
“I need to be better, Az,” he said with a serious look. “You and Zaire did most of the damage in there. I should have been able to hold my own against that Chieftain or at least let you get a clean shot without needing to take the hit I did.” He held up his arm, which looked fine after Vale’s attention. There was a thin, barely visible scar around the edge of where he’d been cut.
I didn’t agree, exactly, but when I started to object again Hassan cut me off.
“Tell me, Azure, how you’d feel if you had been the one with the knives, fighting the orc and taking the cut. Would you be content with your performance?”
That put a halt to my complaints. I was smart enough to realize that I’d feel the same way Raylan did in his situation.
doshouldboth
I gave him a quick salute with the training sword and moved into a guard position, then proceeded to kick his ass – mostly – until my mana had started to recover and his stamina was completely toast. Next, we were told to Identify each of the soldiers and guards. With sixteen soldiers, plus Captain Rivers, plus five guards, that ate through my mana quickly, but did at least result in my first Level in Identify. I’d also picked up one in Short Blades while sparring, though nothing in any of my Class Skills.
While we trained, the soldiers and guards were also kept busy, patrolling around the area, doing their own drills, and generally looking professional. At least the eight Tier 1s who’d gone into the dungeon got to take short naps, sleeping in shifts, before getting back to work. At first I was jealous, especially as fatigue started to set in, but I reminded myself of Raylan’s attitude and the fact that Mason still considered this training.
We eventually took a lunch break. At least one of the creatures that had attacked the group standing watch outside the portal was edible, and one of the Army guys had set up a large pot of stew to cook shortly after we’d arrived at the campsite. It was surprisingly good, with a lot more salt than I was used to, a lot of meat, and some vegetables as well. Zaire kindly Created a Jet Cola for me to wash it down with, and I spent another few minutes trying to memorize the spellform.
I felt much more alert afterwards, and jumped into the next set of drills with enthusiasm. We moved to the edge of the area and Hassan put up some Illusion Spells for me to use as targets. They looked like slowly spinning disks, each about the size of a plate and rotating at different speeds. One was red, one orange, and one white. The orange one was the closest to me, maybe twenty yards away, the red perhaps another ten yards further, and the white easily twenty yards past that.
“We’re going to see how many of your Skills we can train at once with this drill. You’re going to start with your weapon unloaded, and I’m going to call out one of the colors. You’ll have some of each type of shell in your bandolier, so you’ll grab the shell that matches the color of the target, load as fast as possible, and then take the shot as soon as the target spins to face you. Understood?”
The first time through was a bit awkward. I had my slugs at the bottom of my bandolier, taking up seven out of eleven slots. That left me only two spaces for my orange BB rounds and two for the red 4BKs. It was easy to grab a slug when Hassan called out “white”, but it took me longer to locate the correct round when he called “red” since it was in the middle. As the drill continued, I started to get faster and smoother in my movements.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Then Hassan started the targets moving in simple patterns, while still spinning. Each time I fired, he’d call out “hit” or “miss”, and if I missed, I had to load another of the same type of shell and shoot again until I got a hit. When I asked him how he could tell if I was hitting or not, he explained that he could sense the disruption of my attack trying to pull apart the Spell.
We continued the drill until I was down to my last few mana – even with every shell being recovered – then I was paired up with Zaire for some staff-vs-sword sparring. He wasn’t very good at melee, but the long reach of his staff helped him keep me at bay. He was happy to get a Level in Blunt Weapons, which did make a noticeable difference in his favor, but nowhere near enough to level the match.
I got a short break for water and mana absorption, then it was back to the shooting drill. The boost of energy I’d gotten from the Jet had long since worn off, and my performance suffered – to Hassan’s displeasure. Then sparring with Elin, rest, and one more round of shooting. Finally, I got a Level in Variable Load, and I tried to high-five Hassan in my excitement, but he just stood there looking at me with a sigh.
Variable Load (1): Enables your bandolier to conjure different types of shotshells. Conjured shells have a marginal bonus to damage and penetration.
Type: PassiveStolen from RoyalRoad. Support AzureInk by reading the original.
Cost: Variable
Cooldown: None
I went down the list, Inspecting everything. The descriptions were pretty generic like “slightly increases accuracy of follow-up shots” for Recoil Management. My Level in Inventory granted me “some” extra capacity, while Speed Load increased my reloading speed by “a small amount”. Basically useless information, unfortunately.
By the time I’d finished the third round of the shooting drill, I was exhausted through and through, and grateful that the sun was starting to get low in the sky. Cleaning myself up with a bit of mana, I rejoined the rest of the group as we gathered for dinner – more of the tasty stew.
I was too exhausted to chat much with anyone as we ate. After finishing my second bowl of stew – apparently Army cooks knew how hungry recruits could be and made plenty – I felt slightly more human. My resources had recovered quite a bit, but I was still totally drained. I turned to Block, who was sitting next to me.
“How come I’m so exhausted even after my resources are going back up?”
My question drew chuckles from around the group. Block smiled before replying.
“Stats don’t measure everything, Az. I don’t know if anyone knows why, that’s just the way it is. Stats enhance your body, but they don’t just entirely rewrite the way it functions. For example, if we each had 20 Strength, which of us would be stronger?”
“You’re bigger than me,” I replied, and he nodded.
“And so I’d be stronger, even with the same Stats. One of my instructors explained it like this. She told me that your resources are something like your absolute limits. If a monster attacked you right now, you run or fight until your stamina gave out, same as if you’d just had a night’s rest. But you’d be much less effective doing it right now, because of your exhaustion.
“Just because you fight doesn’t mean you’ll fight . That’s why you still need to sleep, even if your resources replenish in just a couple hours. Your resources are a hard limit on your body’s capability – if you hit 0 stamina, you pass out. Fatigue is more of a soft limit, and if the System tracks it somewhere, it doesn’t show it to us. Focus is sort of close, but it’s a short-term concentration type of thing.”
“And soft limits can be ,” Mason added ominously.
“I felt quite today,” I couldn’t resist saying, drawing a slight smile from Mason and a smirk from Block.
“Between the dungeon and the training, I certainly hope so,” Mason said evenly. “Rest assured, on days in which you attempt your first dungeon, I have plenty of ways to give you that extra push.”
I paled as Block snickered. Captain Rivers left her group of soldiers and moved her chair to a spot between Block and Mason.
“Army regulations mandate a minimum of 24 hours light duty after a dungeon,” she noted with a look at Mason.
“Never cared much for regulations,” he replied without missing a beat. “I’ve always said any Delver should be more than a match for an Army brat of the same Level. We’ve got to be, traveling and fighting in small Squads while you lot tromp around in great big hordes.” He grinned toothily.
The soldiers, who’d kept their eyes on Captain Rivers while they continued chatting amongst themselves, suddenly got a lot quieter at Mason’s statement. I was pretty confident they’d have spoken up to defend themselves if they weren’t so intimidated by the big Tier 4 Delver. Captain Rivers just bared her teeth in return. I watched the glowing spiderweb-like lines on her face shift with her change in expression, fascinated.
“It occurs to me that haven’t had a chance to get any training done today,” she noted calmly. “Perhaps a little friendly match would remind you how effective our training methods are.”
“It has been a while, hasn’t it? I’m curious to see how much you’ve improved.” Mason stood to his full, intimidating height, then abruptly turned and strode away from the circle, followed by Captain Rivers. The rest of us looked at each other with disbelief for a moment before scrambling to our feet to follow.
