Chapter 54: Scared Children
Kalli waved her hand to get the attention of all the rescued students.
"Can you all tell me what happened between the start of all this and today? I need to know what sort of skills, classes and gear you have that might help you survive. Are all of you level two yet?"
One of the girls shook her head. "None of us are. Our teacher took us all to the Library for the first day, and we’ve been there ever since. At first, there were other students, and some other people with powers, but last night when those things attacked, they went out to defend us.
By the time that the older students arrived, we were all that was left. We hid in the upper secure rooms where the monsters couldn’t get to us, and that is where the Student Council President found us."
Kalli sighed. These kids were in for a very rough adaptation to the new realities of the world, and they had less than a week to get up to speed and up to level two.
It was going to be necessary to go for the "tough love" approach.
"Alright. Then I will bring you up to speed with the current situation.
Every student was granted a class and the title of hero. While not every one of them wanted it, you’ve got it now. And with that comes responsibility. With training, you will become strong enough to fight off all the monsters that have invaded the city, and save the rest of the people who survived.
But there is a time limit.
In under five days, every hero who hasn’t reached level two will be deemed a failure and their powers will be stripped from them, leaving them as a civilian casualty of the disaster.
I don’t want that to happen to any of you.
So, unless you have a class that gets some sort of noncombat skill you can use, like the Tinkers that can repair gear, we need to get you equipped and send you out to fight.
It will be the rat demons at first. A metre tall, fast and dangerous. But the least dangerous of everything that we’ve seen.
Now, do any of you have a skill that doesn’t need battle to advance?"
Ten of the kids raised their hands.
"Alright, what skill is it? I will find you a job to get you levelled up."
The kids looked a bit embarrassed. "Uh, it gave us the Bard Class. Our only skill is to sing and play instruments to give others a buff for an hour."
"Well, that’s almost a combat class, and I suppose it likely will be one later. But that makes it easy. The band will do band stuff every day, to buff the groups that are going in and out of the Academy.
If you have different buffs, you can pick the appropriate one."
The bards nodded, and Kalli continued. "Now, do we have any healers, mages or other spell casters?"
Three hands went up.
"We’re all mages."
"Alright, move over to the side, so I don’t forget what class you’ve got.
Now, are the rest of you warriors? Or do we have other combat classes? Warriors, raise your hand."
All but one.
"You, without your hand raised, what class did you get?"
"Ranger?"
"Alright, so a scout type and ranged fighter.
Because you all came here with nothing, and we’re very short on time, I am going to grant you all a weapon to get you started. Then, we will arrange for you to join groups of more experienced students on quests to kill the rat demons.
That’s the only way that you’ll manage to get to level two in time."
Kalli wasn’t sure how that was going to work when the entire bloody group was warriors. Worse, barely teenage warriors with no muscles, no courage and no combat skills.
They couldn’t just slam forty unskilled warriors into the existing groups, who were already operating with a warrior overload and limited group sizes.
But they couldn’t clear the dungeon on their own, either.
"What if we don’t want to? I can’t do it. I can’t kill those things. The teachers tried, and they all died."
Kalli shrugged, and slowly removed the silenced pistol from the pocket of her robes. With a moment’s concentration, she did her very best to channel the spirit of her old boss, right down to that terrifying "business" inflection he used when he was angry.
"Let me be more clear. You will help the group. You will fight. You will reach level two. Or you will die.
If this is unacceptable to you, I will kill you now, so we’re not wasting food on you."
The students stared at her in horror, standing casually in front of them with a gun in her hand and absolutely zero sympathy for their situation. However, they had absolutely no doubt that this strange senior meant every word of that speech.
Even the other students from Kalli’s class were giving her horrified looks.
She wouldn’t really kill the middle school students, would she? No, this had to be a motivational speech.
One of the warriors gave a wailing cry that sounded more like despair and charged at Kalli.
Everyone began to move, but she didn’t raise her gun.
Instead, she simply sidestepped his clumsy movements and swept the boy’s feet from under him. Then, she stepped on his chest and leaned forward to put the gun against his forehead.
"Have you got all the stupid out of your system yet? Don’t test my patience, this is not a game, and cowardice will only get more people killed."
The boy raised his hands over his head, keeping them well away from the gun as he nodded frantically.
"Good, I’m glad that we got that all cleared up. Now, is there anyone else who doesn’t want to work for their keep?"
Fifty heads frantically shook, as the new students accepted their fate.
"Wonderful. I will have training schedules and mission briefings for all of you in the morning. But for tonight, there is one very important and completely safe mission for you to complete.
Sixty minutes of heavy exertion. Continuous. So, hit the gym and get tips from the seniors, as the stats it gives you are going to save your life very, very soon."
