Chapter 77

The second stop for this day is the new trainees; need to show them around a bit. Introduce them to the various people that will be taking care of training them and whatnot.

It doesn’t take long for me to find them in one of the smaller mess halls, all clustered together awkwardly like they don’t know what to do. There are a few that are a little more sociable, but most of them aren’t. It doesn’t take very long for them to notice me and look in my direction, like they want me to tell them what to do.

I gesture for them to follow me, and they do, quite quickly in fact. I spend roughly two hours showing them around, pointing out various locations like my favorite bar and my favorite restraint. Neither of which any of them could afford. I also order them to stay clear of the red light district, under the threat of completely removing any allowance they manage to earn while here.

When it comes time to bring them to one of the larger training grounds I decide to spar with them for a bit, unfortunately none of them really put up much of a fight. This seems to incense them into a desire to improve, which is part of the reason I chose this lot.

Towards the end of the last fight a certain group shows up, Joe’s group. As soon as the fight ends they attack me. Joe leads the charge with a short spear leveled at my heart, with Selena backing him up with a buff that I believe increases strength. I sidestep his stab and deflect the spear with a swipe of my short sword. Joe jumps back and the twins take his place, Jacob wielding a long sword, sally holding a tower shield beside him. I step into Jacob’s guard and thrust at him, only to have it deflected by sally, who then uses the opening to shove me backwards, out of Jacobs guard. Jacob by this time had recovered and prepared to strike. This one connected in a glancing blow across one of my ribs. I blink a short distance away, only for Joe too turn and throw his spear straight at me. I let go of my short sword with one hand and use it to catch the spear, which has a surprising amount of force behind it, obviously enchanted.

The spear vanishes a moment latter and reappears in Joe’s hand as he rushes me, this time with a different buff from Selena, this one increasing speed. I take a dart out of my inventory and link again before Joe can reach me, this time next too Selena, only to have something explode in my face, blinding me. However I still manage to stab her in the chest with the dart, which contains a potent paralytic, similar to the one I used on Elandrel, effectively removing her from the fight.

Upon seeing Selena collapse Joe throws his spear at me again, this time I just barley dodge, recovering from my blindness. The twins move up on me again, this time I target sally, fainting at Jacob first before stabbing sally in the wrist, removing her from the fight as well. I take another glancing blow from Jacob’s long sword before Joe flanks me.

Jacob and Joe thrust at me at the same time, and I take both hits head on before breaking Jacobs hand with my hilt in the opening. I blink away and use some healing magic on myself to repair the worst of the wounds before facing Joe again, this time one on one. Joe doesn’t give me much time to recover as he charges me; I avoid the charge only to get smacked in the side by the shaft of the spear. This time I completely drop my sword and grab his arm, bolstered with soul magic I squeeze it, shattering the bone. Too my surprise Joe simply switches to his left hand, while he is obviously impaired he can still fight.

I smile at him before speaking up.

“You pass” Jack

When I say that everyone visibly relaxes, and a small team of medic show up and fix everyone’s injuries quickly. After a moment the new trainees burst out in a round of applause.

“Come on you guys, I’ll buy you drinks. I believe we have a lot to talk about.” Jack

“First can you wake Selena up?” Joe

“Give her a minute; this particular poison doesn’t last very long.” Jack

Within five minutes we are sitting at a bar with drinks on their way.

“So, about that spear.” Jack

“It is a sentient weapon; it grows through use, although the occasional soul stone doesn’t hurt.” Joe

“And I doubt it is the most interesting thing about you.” Jack

To this Joe smiles uncertainly.

“And I see all of you have chosen specialties, Selena, I had you pegged for a support role since I met you. And you two certainly work well together.”

“Thanks, that means something coming from someone of your status.” Sally

A quiet nod is all I got from Jacob.

“And I see all of you evolved into high humans, congratulations. Well, all of you except Joe.” Jack

At this Joe audibly swallows.

“You’ve improved quite a bit; it is surprising that you haven’t evolved. There is a reason for this, no?” Jack

He just chuckles nervously.

“Tell me, you’re a hero, are you not?” Jack

With a small sigh, Joe responds

“Yeah, didn’t think that would get passed you” Joe

“ha ha ha ha ha, this makes everything better. Joe, I will be training you personally. Make sure we take full advantage of your gifts” Jack

“I don’t even know what It means, the title hero of humans just showed up one day on my status screen, and since then I’ve managed to get stronger faster.” Joe

“it means you get to kill a god, and take his place” Jack

“I don’t think I can do that” Joe

“of course you can’t, you nowhere near strong enough yet, but you won’t be doing it on your own, you’ll have these guys backing me up, as well as me, albeit more indirectly than them. You just have to remember who helped you get there.” Jack

Our drinks finally arrive at this point.

“How did you get that spear anyway?” jack

“We found a new dungeon a little ways away from here and were the first to clear it; we got this as a result of being the first to clear it. As everyone else couldn’t use a spear it was given to me.” Joe

“And Selena, what was that spell you used against me.” Jack

“An over clocked flash spell, basically I just consumed as much mana as I could to make light. Didn’t seem to be very effective though.” Selena

“No, it was effective, your technique was lacking, but it was effective.” Jack

The rest of the day passes with us drinking together, trading stories and just having a good time. I instruct Joe to go to sleep early, as he is going to want to be well rested for tomorrow and I head back to my house, sitting down in my room to meditate for the evening, to my surprise I find ghost asleep in my bed, with hunter in her arms like she was petting him. I let them sleep undisturbed as I meditate.

End chapter 77