As he stood, he took in his job and found himself shocked to find he’d already reached level twenty nine and was almost half way to thirty. This gave him pause as he considered his options as well as felt a pang of regret. If I had a priest job, I could level two jobs a day to thirty! Joe grimaced with that realization and although he knew he could take the thirty minutes to run out and back again to change his job, he was already visiting the temple district once a day doubling that wasn’t something he was really happy with doing, especially as he’d been warned specifically to keep his rapid job changes hidden. He figured he could just stay and continue one in any case, but when he ran the numbers, he saw that he would be lucky to get another two levels and he really couldn’t see the justification spending an entire half of the day only gaining two levels that he really didn’t need. My mental stats are… insane as it is. I need to work on my physical and combat stats, not my mental ones anymore. Joe paused in thought for a bit before he decided that it was a much better use of his time if he devoted more time to training the other three.
True, they were very weak for now, but he would soon have them up to his stats in another five or six months and while that was almost useless when it came to training a martial arts master, it was more than enough time to train a relatively well rounded soldier. They wouldn’t be elites by any stretch of the imagination. That would take another three or four years at least. But, they would be able to easily hold their own against the average monsters they’d been fighting and if they worked as a team, any boss like mobs as well. This could leave him free to focus on any other worse creatures and leave him free of worry as well. Joe mulled it over in his mind, considering carefully before liking the idea. They could be ready in half a year and have the stats I have now, which would make them very strong for this world, and they could easily handle these small fry one on one or any helpers in the boss room. Joe grimaced at the memory of the one boss fight he did have with five significantly more difficult monsters in this very dungeon. Would they be able to handle those mini bosses one on one? Maybe? They need a lot of training! But they’ll much more likely live to … yeah.
Coming to terms with his thoughts, he accepted his latest plan and began putting it into action, “Right! A bit of a change of plans. You guys need to up your training, so we’re going to change the afternoons to training times. I’ll have you still do teams of two in the morning, both with each other and with me, but you need to start working with me in teams of four, and in teams of three. You also need to start practicing a bit more fighting one on one with monsters and also with different monsters as well. I want to have you guys trained in about six months to be able to easily fight any monster in this dungeon alone without worrying about getting hurt at all!
“So, the plan is we will keep doing mornings as usual. But, after lunch, we will start doing teams of three and even all four of us working together. We’ll do that for about thirty minutes, maybe an hour, depending on how well you are learning and growing. After that, we’ll spend the rest of the afternoon with each of you fighting monsters alone. Today, we’ll spend most of the afternoon fighting goblins, but we’re also going to head down to the second floor and you’re going to learn to fight the monsters there as well. We might even head to the third floor. We’ll wait for a couple months before you take on the dual core mini bosses on the fourth floor, OK?”
All three excitedly listened to Joe as he explained the new training plan until they heard his hope to have them fight the dual core monsters on the fourth floor. At that point, all three sobered and looked a bit wide eyed, worried about Joe’s comment. The three fidgeted worriedly and Joe chuckled.
“Relax! I’ll make sure you will be safe. Besides, I would never have you fight them until you are well prepared. Right now, you may feel incapable of fighting them, but in another five or so months, you will have better base stats, although you will still have to really practice your forms to make sure you are ready to fight.”
The three stood straighter at that and nodded, although fear still seemed evident and Joe didn’t push it, simply leading the way out to the fight.
“OK. You three start practicing fighting together. I’ll find my own goblins, but I’ll join you a few times for you to learn how to fight as a team of four. I will just suddenly appear, and you will have to get used to changing what you are doing and letting me join you. I may join you for the whole fight, or I may simply come quickly to attack one or two times before leaving again quickly.
“Watch what I do and get used to it because after a couple years, you all will be doing the same with each other as well, being able to move into combat and out helping one another as each is needed while still fighting your own foes, OK?”
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The three nodded excitedly and stared up at Joe until he finally waved them off, “What are you waiting for! Go!”
The three smiled exuberantly and took off into open room although they quickly slowed and settled into formation with Garnedell in the middle and slightly forward, taking the aggressive position to be the main defender. Joe nodded before leaving them to their fight and turning to his own goblin.
He killed his quickly, not wishing to waste much time, so that he could look back in on the other three. He found them just engaging one, and he watched carefully to make sure they were doing well enough. He then flicked a stone at another goblin just beyond them, and it started charging towards him. He stepped forward close enough to intercept the goblin quickly enough, but stayed back far enough so that the goblin would pass quite close by the other three. How will they handle an extra attacking goblin?
As it turned out, they didn’t; not well. Kilniara had her back to the goblin as it came charging forward, so did nothing, but both Garnedell and Zilnek jerked in violent surprise as it charged past, Garnedell attempting to garner it’s attention and keep it away from Kilniara even as Zilnek abandoned the fight to charge around his sister and protect her back.
Kilniara jerked in surprise at the other two’s reaction and turned her back to the first goblin, bringing her staff to bear on the other one. With all three focused on the other goblin, their first one screeched wildly and wound up to strike at Kilniara. Joe flinched and started moving forward to intercept the strike but then stopped when he saw Garnedell quickly react, swinging his own staff up hard to block the overhead strike, smacking it back over the goblin’s head, stumbling it. Using the reaction of blasting the goblin's strike, Garnedell had his staff flying back at the first to intercept it and bring it under control, but Joe had already jumped forward and stabbed at the goblin with the spear, deliberately telegraphing his strike to give the goblin time to react and defend itself.
When Joe defended, the other three gawked a bit in surprise, although Garnedell reacted well enough and was already back on their first target. Seeing that Garnedell was doing well enough dealing with the goblin alone, Joe didn’t rebuke the Acokzau siblings but waited to see how long they would take to react. They watched Joe for several moments, doing nothing, and Joe almost thought he would have to verbally smack them a few times but Garnedell’s shout brought them back to their own fight and Joe nodded his head, but wasn’t too pleased.
“That wasn’t too good!” Joe called out, a sing song tone to his voice that hinted at a light relaxed attitude but sent shivers down all three spines as the voice seemed to be a strange amalgamation of lighthearted goodwill and the promise of pain, both hiding a fear inducing anger.
“You weren’t even careful of what was around you! Kilniara, you are now dead. Zilnek, you might not be dead, but you are now all alone in the world. Your sister is dead, and your family is dead! You have no one. Maybe, if you're lucky, Garnedell might still be alive, but you abandoned him to fight alone while still failing to help your sister.
“Garnedell! You failed to defend. You failed to warn. You failed to bring your fellows back into the fight with you while they were staring at me like I was a fairy!
“Kilniara. Zilnek. Do you like watching men prance around while your companion fights for his life alone? Good job! You just killed Garnedell.”
All three stiffened at Joe’s words, and Joe punctuated his comments by dancing in every once and a while by slipping his spear strikes in and around them before returning to his own goblin. As they tensed up more and more, Joe killed off his own goblin quickly, wanting to be cautious as he watched their fight but continued to flash in and out of their sight and slip his spear in with ineffectual strikes that left small wounds all over the goblin’s body. He didn’t want to kill it too quickly, but still wanted them to become much more aware of what was around them.
As they grew ever more tense, Joe finally brought the training to an end and killed the goblin quickly before stepping back and looking at all three, disappointed.
“Well, that was horrible!”
All three hung their heads but said nothing and Joe shook his head, “Welp. Again!”
Joe sent them off again, but this time they were much more cautious and aware and when Joe called in another goblin as before, the three became aware of it much earlier, with Garnedell calling attention to it and even dragging their goblin away from the first as it came towards Joe. Garnedell, however, failed to check behind him and a third goblin roared in anger and leap towards them and Joe grimaced. He leapt towards the goblin he’d grabbed and killed it with a single strike before returning quickly, watching as the goblin charged ever closer with Kilniara and Zilnek both failing to offer any warning to Garnedell.
Joe stepped up to the group, pulling in closer as he saw how they were completely unaware of the new attacker and at the last instance, Joe invaded their group and drove his spear down past Garnedell, slipping just past his neck and shoulder to strike deep into the goblin’s right eye, killing it instantly.
“Nice job, Kilniara! Zilnek! Garnedell just died because you didn’t tell him a goblin was behind him.”
Joe continued to berate all three while he dance around, slipping into their ranks to ineffectually offer strikes at their goblin. Joe kept up his tirade the entire time, pointing out their flaws even as the fight continued until they were able to take it down. When the goblin died, Joe pushed them to fight another and did the same thing once more. This time, all three reacted well, Garnedell calling out the new goblin and moving them away with Kilniara and Zilnek warning him of what was behind him, guiding him to go left or right as needed.