Chapter 58: Base Defence Is Important
Kalli took a combat stance across from the Sergeant, who darted forward to punch at her chest, the basic attack that everyone had been demonstrating.
She sidestepped as they had been taught, and blocked with the armoured forearm of her suit.
That made the strike entirely painless, and she remained on the defensive as Sergeant Sanchez circled her, throwing punches.
"Everyone see that? It’s simple. Just keep facing the target, keep your arms in position, don’t move them somewhere new after you block, and you can continue to defend. Many of the enemies will use claws or bare fists, from what we’ve seen.
So, just knowing how to block the different strikes will save you a lot of damage."
As they continued to practice, Kalli began to realize that the timing was all wrong. Not of the training session, it was perfectly reasonable to practice before bed. But the group’s movements were much too fast.
Even the mages were beginning to show signs of superhuman strength and agility, despite not being physical warrior classes.
She had been under the impression that the warriors and other melee classes were the only ones who were going to become superhuman, while everyone else got special powers to make up for not being as physically impressive.
Even her own skills were far beyond what one would expect of an average human after just two days of training with the quest.
How long they would actually be able to keep getting gains like that was questionable, but while they could, she would make the most of it to pump up her strength and stamina. She did consider building up her agility, but the most immediate threats seemed to favour being strong enough to physically deal with rat demons and to run if things got bad.
Once she could do that, she would consider adjusting the balance of her skills.
Before she went to sleep, Kalli made sure that all the quests were set to renew automatically, as there were no short-term missions on the list right now.
Working out, killing rat demons, killing pig men, rescuing students.
Those were the priorities, and two of them were hard mode quests, so they would award the teams two points each. Five points a day was a new skill every day, she assumed. At least in the early stages.
The way that her options got more expensive, she fully expected the System to price gouge the heroes on upgraded and extraordinary skills.
She wasn’t wrong. Many of the students were looking at their options, with the second and third tier spells costing 10 and 20 System Points or more, and considering whether they should diversify first, and get most of the early skills and some gear.
If they were going to need 20 points to get their next advancement on their main skill, it really was time to start looking at more options. Four basic spells or skills would add a lot more to their value than one high mana cost super skill.
But mostly, they were considering better gear.
Out of habit, Kalli woke up for a moment around midnight, heard nothing but one soldier on patrol in the grounds, and went back to sleep until just before dawn.
Getting up early earned her a hot shower, and she was among the first at breakfast, just in time to help Gerry put out the buffet trays. Breakfast today was a honey glazed pork with congee or oatmeal.
Basics, but filling.
The chef had also been up early making roast pork sandwiches to take with the teams.
"If they’re going to rescue students, there is a good chance some of them are going to be near starvation by now. They’ll be out of whatever could be eaten in the houses where they were staying. So, taking extra sandwiches with them will keep the rescued students strong enough to get back.
I’ve noticed that the boar meat seems to have a stamina recovery effect that is much stronger than regular food.
I think that if I could get more ingredients like that, we could cut down on consumption even more. Eating a dozen plain rice balls doesn’t touch the sides of their hunger when they get back, but one pork bun does," he explained.
Kalli looked at her points. She had enough to upgrade another category, but she hadn’t thought that they would need specialty food so soon.
"I can get you Uncommon Grade food products, but they’re twice the price of the common ones. And I don’t know if they’re much better."
"We can test later if you have extra points again. I know that we’re all short, and while I’m getting great experience cooking for everyone, I am not getting System Points."
Kalli sighed. "We will have to fix that. You’re the chef, we owe you. Tell you what, I will get you a cut from everyone’s quests, and pay you a point a day. That way you can buy skills as well.
As I recall, you’re a mage, so you’re not helpless if you can get yourself some spells."
"Oh, that would be wonderful. I’m working with nothing but [Flamestrike] here, and while I can tone it down to use it to sear dishes, I could use some actual magic if things break into the Academy.
I remember how you had to defend yourself last time, and that really should be the job of everyone around when there is an attack."
Kalli nodded. "We have been working on it. But until the next time someone tries to raid the Academy, we won’t know if the training is working.
Hopefully, that doesn’t happen. But you and I both know it’s going to.
There are still plenty of regular humans out there with no real way to defend themselves. Oh, speaking of that, you should hire some of them to help you in the kitchen. You know, the ones across the street in that building."
Greg nodded. "I have them coming in for lunch, and there are some coming in to work as cleaners in the dorms. That one sounded sketchy to me, a bit too ’sexy maid harem fantasy’, but that could just be because I heard it from Reggie."
