As it turned out, using ten mana when under half mana hurt a lot more than using over forty to get to that point. So much so that Jeff felt blood leaking from the corner of his nose and the Sargent laughed seeing that.
“ Well now, a good thing to know our saviors can bleed. The way the nobles act, you bleed gold and crap mana crystals.”
Jeff could only shake his head as he wiped the blood from his lip. He had already equipped the armor to one of his spare cards and summoned the unit.
Your ‘nameless (M) boss’ has been equipped with ‘trainee soldier gear’. You have unlocked the ‘rookie soldier’ path for your cards.
Rookie soldiers come pre-equipped with trainee soldier gear and will disappear when the card evolves. This effect is caused by manually putting on trainee soldier gear. (cost an extra 2 mp)
Elites and higher-ranked cards can not equip this armor.
Trainee soldier gear provides 1 defense and a bonus of 10% training. They are incapable of dealing more than 1 damage in return.
You can upgrade blank cards into this class for 2 mp each.
“ Well, good news and bad news. The good news is I won't have to take more of your gear for my other summons. The bad news is, my boss, can't make use of the armor they just put on him.”
To emphasize that point, the gear started turning to dust and faded away as mana particles, which left it a bare skeleton for all to see for a moment. To everyone’s surprise, those particles turned into a set of common plain clothing, similar to the other summons. Except it seemed a little more well-made. Seeing this caused the sergeant to whistle lightly.
“ Now that is something you do not see every day. Matter to mana and back to matter in an instant. Not sure why your mana constructs are so pure, but I imagine that helped with the conversion ratio.”
Jeff blinked at that comment.
“ Conversion ratio?”
Sergent Mar nods.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“ Yep, we mere mortals are poor conductors of mana. All the squishy bits and all that. At higher levels, we start turning into mana. That is one reason why high-level individuals go sterile. Mana has replaced the extremities first. At least that is the reason for men. Women... well... mana does not take too kindly to interference from a new life.”
After that, there was an awkward silence and all eyes gradually drifted to Jeff’s makeshift squad of summons. With the pause another otherworlder approached.
“ You the trainer? If you are done with this scrub I need to learn how to use my sword better.”
Jeff takes a moment to look at the man who seems to be dragging a sword made for a giant, or maybe Xilna if she was being adventurous. Instead of addressing the idiot, Sargent Mar looked at Jeff again.
“ Right, first, you take the rest of the day off. Order some food to help with mana recovery. Since you are a summoner, which is an auxiliary mage subcategory, you qualify for it. Come back in the morning and I will have someone here to make a daily schedule for you and another for some gear. If you want you can leave your summons here to observe and learn.”
Still feeling sore, Jeff decided to save whatever energy he had left in order to walk back to his room and only gave a nod to the sergeant before doing so to his boss before leaving. The sergeant on the other hand looked at the squad of summons and noticed all but one watching the rookies while the boss was watching him.
“ Private, take the new recruits to one of the corporals and get acquainted. Don’t make them do anything they don’t want to do, but feel free to be a little rough. Dying is a learning experience for them. So pain and injury is a minimum with them. That said don’t push them too hard either. They are untrained and untested. And make sure they are suited up.”
The sergeant watched one of the private’s solute before the others grabbed the sacks of training armor and gestured the constructs to follow. Only the boss paused to watch the sergeant a few extra seconds before leaving behind the others. With his current work out of the way he turned his attention to the increasingly annoyed otherworlder.
“ So kid, you want to say your peace before I tell you how wrong you are or do I just get to say it now? Either way, I know what I am doing and you are wrong.”
The otherworlder grew more red in the face as he lifted his sword to have it rest on his shoulder. Obviously, a move made in misguided pride.
“ I ain’t giving up the buster.”
Any joy and amusement the sergeant had with dealing with Jeff was gone now and he looked at the slab of wagon armor.
“ Well kid, I hope you enjoy strength builds because that is all you are going to be able to have lugging around that monster. And even if you do ever get to the point of swinging that damn thing you be lucky to hit a stationary target with your dexterity being so low. On top of that, you will not have the stam for a second swing. You’ll be a one-and-done failure.”
“ I will repeat, I ain’t giving up buster... Now what I need is a giant mech suit and...”
For the next ten minutes, the sergeant endured a childish rant of grandeur and expectations. For a second he entertained the thought of a warrior who could use that quarter ton of metal as described and had to admit if the issues of mobility and stamina were fixed, it would be a huge addition to the front lines of the war. Unfortunately, such a project would far exceed the budget of one of the otherworlders. After a minute he decided to kick it up to requisitions to send it to the crafting hero’s organizations. Maybe something will come of it one day.