Belli Mundi - Chapter 38
Later that Day Sam and the others stood in front of trainer Quincy, who was sitting at his desk. They had left Steve at the hospital, after which they had to report to their trainer. Normally they would have had a commanding officer but since they were still recruits, that task fell to their trainer.
“So you're telling me,” Trainer Quincy said, “that you've only managed to explore a little bit of the forest in the area you were assigned, and that after that one of you was injured beyond recovery in the field and you had to come back? At least tell me you have found something of interest.”
“Yes sir,” Jasper said, “we actually found two things. The first is some kind of huge mushroom. It was at least as tall as we were. It spread some kind of spores around itself that were pretty dangerous. I would suggest that someone of a higher level than us would be sent to investigate further, since those spores almost killed us. We have marked the location on our map.”
“Right, what is the other thing?” Trainer Quincy asked.
“The other was the creature that injured Steve.” Jasper answered. "It was some kind of black cat, with even darker spots on its body. We couldn’t even identify it, as it was extremely fast. It almost looked like it could teleport. It ambushed us and almost killed Steve with its first attack. After that we tried to fight it, but we were unable to hurt it. Only when the mages started to get involved did we manage to even damage it. Even that only gave it some small injuries, but that was enough to scare it off.”
“That sounds a lot like a void cat. The thing is, those are not native to the forest here. Their native lands are deep in the larger forest close to the center of the continent. To get here, they would’ve needed to travel for weeks. Even though they are masters of camouflage, they should’ve been noticed by the villages and cities along the way. For you it’s good to know that they are ambush predators. They won’t stay too long if their ambush fails. So make sure that someone watches the trees and is ready to intercept the cat. Else you need magic to injure it, as you’ve found out.”
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“Yes, sir. What should we do now? We’re one man short till Steve is healed, but we could explore a little bit of the edge of the forest.”
“No, with void cats around, there is something going in the area. I’d like your squad to be at full strength while exploring.”
There’s a moment of silence, but before they could even hope to get some rest, trainer Quincy comes to a decision.
“For the rest of the day you will join me on the field for some exercises. No reason to let this opportunity to train go to waste, is there?”
“Yes, sir.”
When trainer Quincy starts to stand up though, Sam steps forward.
“Sir, I have one more thing to add to the report.”
The trainer sits back into the chair.
“Go ahead Sam.”
“Sir, when we were in the forest, I found out that it isn’t a good idea to disable the status notifications. I turned them off while we were fighting the dungeon break, and I only checked my status again when we were infected by the spores from the giant mushroom. When I did, I had a lot of changes in my status. One of them was that my class had evolved due to not giving a response. This means that I didn’t lose out on the experience, but my class is now a [Legionary] at level twenty two.”
“Right, that shouldn’t be that big of a problem. The dungeon break gave you enough experience to almost finish the second tier, so you can start over again when you get to level twenty five.”
“I figured as much, sir. The thing is, that’s not the only problem. I also got a notification that asked me if I wanted to combine some of my skills. After discussing it with the squad, I accepted.”
“A combined skill, those are pretty rare. Did you get anything good? And which skills combined?”
“Well, that’s the thing. All of the skills I needed to take as a recruit combined to give me the [Legionary] skill.”
This gave trainer Quincy a pause.
“They combined into [Legionary], all three of them?”
“Yes sir, it did reset to level one though.”
“That’s normal, the combination isn’t though. I would need to check our records, but I don’t remember anyone getting that skill. It might be because of your evolved class. Normally we allow our recruits to take their own choice of skills for the last part of their training. This means that they don’t have most of these skills when they evolve their class to a full [Legionary]. Even though this skill is a little bit weaker than the individual skills, it should be an advantage after you finish your training. We normally advise to keep the [Discipline] skill, as it gives a little bit of experience while doing your regular duties as a legionary.”
“One more thing, sir. My special skill took all three of the skills that combined.”
It took the trainer a moment before he remembered what her special skill did. When he did remember, his eyes widened.
“You mean to say that..”
“Yes, I also have the skills at their original level as general skills.”