The teachers continued to {torture} train their charges with a varied but focused schedule around the same basic tasks and topics. Each one was different every time, the rundown came out like this:

Combat, brutal brutal combat. None of which was the basic duels that each and every student had done for… basically their entire lives. As the instructors stated “An adventurer in a duel is a dumb adventurer that’s probably had too much to drink. If you’re in a fight as an adventurer, then it’s probably going to be a group fight, it’s probably going to be at an unfair advantage, hopefully for your side, and probably going to end up as a one sided slaughter.”

Survival, survival, and more survival. You need to eat, you need to drink, and you need to not die to the terrain. This involved a lot more cooking then most of the others had ever done in their lives, and was one of the things that most of the supports excelled at. I say most but the healers did not and could not cook worth a damn.

Travel and upkeep. This was probably the most mind-numbingly boring task that the instructors drilled into each and ever classmate. Oddly enough they were the most strict on paperwork. Again, this was where most supports excelled and most other classmates were found wanting.

Observation, odds and ends, secondary and tertiary concerns. This was something that again the supports excelled at, though not completely dominated. Some of the more observant long ranged DPS was able to excel here. Though it was the second most mind-numbingly boring. This included keeping watch and staying on a set task, that may or may not have been incredibly complicated.

Basically for the DPS, tank, and healers, they all failed pretty hard on anything not directly combat related. Which was why they were especially hard on the CC and support on anything that was combat related.

Either way, the teachers put the students through grueling, ever changing, but always the same, tests and tasks. Soon however, was the [Crawl].

“Calm down, calm down! I know your all excited to perform a [Crawl], for some of you it might even be a first time. Let’s just go over a few points first. As a growing [Town] this town has [Sewers] and as we all know that trapped underground mana and aether creates a perfect breeding ground for monsters and the ilk, it is a system recognized [Environment]. Although a [Crawl] is different from a [Dungeon] don’t let that fool you. It is just as, if not more dangerous then a regular dungeon. It will grow and shrink with the [Town] itself.” Said the Giant.

The giant then continued with “[Crawl]s are different in that every part is the same and that every boss is technically of the same level. Although some bosses are of higher or lower level. This is why there are occasional punitive missions to destroy one particular boss, and remove them.

Although monsters can still respawn, particularly if their boss is still present, spawning in a [Crawl] is very different then from a dungeon. This means that most [Monster]s are unique. This also means that we will literally never know what we will find down there. But for those of you about to ask, yes we do have an accord with the ‘city’ goblins, a recognized sub-species of goblin and a recognized sub-race. We only come down to cull them when their numbers get to big, or when they get the ‘smart’ idea to revolt and take over the surface world. Any questions?” The giantess knew that the last semi-rhetorical questions was necessary but it was one of those questions that every teacher always regrets to ask.

Immediately after the teacher asked the completely rhetorical (she had hoped) question hands rose up, and she internally sighed.

Micky re-prepared himself to go down into the [Crawl]. This wasn’t the first time he had gone down into a dungeon environs… but he didn’t want it to be his last. His instructors nodded in approval and possibly mild annoyance at his preparedness. But that was what saved lives, so none of them said anything.

His groupmates on the other hand… still didn’t say anything, but you could tell the ones that had been through this a thousand times (or at least acted like and but didn’t really care). Of course the instructors had blocked him up with another group. While Prin and he were enough for a low level party, this wasn’t about low level parties, this was training. As training, it was best that Micky and Prin work with a full group of at least four, if not ten adventurers.

This particular exercise was with a strike team of four. Two pairs that could split up and fight separately but coordinated with each other. It was preferable to have a dedicated tank, if not two, and a healer along with a DPS. But not every team could have that, not even the guy bank rolling the whole damned miss adventure. In fact, they hadn’t shown him favoritism, or a flying fuck really, at all.

So Micky was pared up with two melee DPS including Prin, and a ranged DPS. They were currently going over their plans for this little miss adventure. The boss would be running around but it wasn’t something they were planning on fighting. The area they were going to drop into was too high leveled for them to face easily, which was the point.

The teachers would have at least one teacher stationed near the [Neighborhood Boss] from killing a student. Of course maiming wasn’t covered in this. The teachers would also be spread out to protect the students should they run into trouble. And the next step down [Boss]es weren’t too far behind the top [Boss] anyway.

So this exercise was not really about fighting and grinding, but about fighting and surviving to grind another day. They had a specific quota minimum to fill. As well as some set targets. But the only way to fail was to go in as four and come out as less.

Micky was finished poli-checking(because he forgot how many times it was) his gear and stuff when people finally got fed up with him. Plus it was their turn.

So bringing along an apprehensive Micky, and a happy go lucky Squishy, Prin escorted them into a sewer entrance. But will they come out again?

That was Micky’s worry, but didn’t really seem to be anyone else’s. They traveled down the white brickworks into the belly of the beast. The town’s bowels were dark. But Micky had an answer for that. Apparently only he and Prin had any form of preparations though. So while Micky pulled up the rear with a mana torch, Prin led with a mana torch.

Micky thought about using regular torches but bad air was a thing. So he used mana torches because the sewers had notorious bad air circulation, and also lit up in flame pretty easily if rumor was to be believed.

They traveled down well passed when the white turned to brown, which was actually a very strictly marked layer of the sewers. This [Crawl] was an infinitely complex sewer system that expanded with the city. It didn’t have much in the way of traps or environmental hazards aside from the odd mana rich environments that always made something go weird.

Micky and Co. hadn’t come across anything on the entire way down. Monsters not wanting to leave mana rich environs from low ones was a common occurrence so there was nothing wrong there. But it still creeped Micky out. He wanted to fight and be done with it.

The crew continued until they heard wet plops on the (now) brown stone. It looked like Micky was going to get his fight after all. The creature rounded the corner soon enough, correction creatures.

They were menacing and quickly got ready for a fight. Micky and Co. got ready to face them. Prin charged ahead while the second melee stayed behind in order to face a charge from the other side if necessary. The ranged DPS moved forwards to face their foe in these cramped quarters, their range advantage would be useless in this environment. Micky buffed them all and prepared for a fight.