As soon as Jeff got back to his room he called Xilna for dinner and then went to take a bath. While he was gone Xilna and the summon he had her teach, unload the trolly of reading material and his dinner. Half a book of reading later he decided to call it a night.
The following day, Jeff knocked on Rachiel’s door wanting to know what she had planned later but got no answer, so awkwardly after a few minutes of waiting, he moved on with his day. After a brief hello with the Sargeant from the day before, who immediately directed him to a corporal. Then moved on to his next otherworlder problem
“ Right, I am Corporal Shang. Any comments about my height; no, good. You otherworlders keep pointing it out. Now, I have been voluntold that I need to help you arrange training for yourself and your spawns. I watched them yesterday and found them adequate... for new runts. You are not big enough to want heavy or even medium armor. So, medium-light. Hard leather with metal reinforcement at key points. Chain mail under armor at most...”
As Jeff listened in rather shock, he was manhandled by a dwarf half his size. The Corporal kept grabbing parts of his body as if measuring him.
“ ...Normally, I would suggest a spear as your primary, but seeing you as a commander type, such a commoner type weapon would be wildly inappropriate. So sword it is. Any preference on type?”
It took a moment for Jeff to realize that was a question and was about to suggest a rapier as a joke but paused to really think about it.
“ You are the expert, but I picture some kind of short to medium length one-handed sword. Perhaps either a dueling dagger or a buckler or even both as an offhand.”
“ No, no shield. Does not fit with a light armor noble. I know stupid, but being an officer is as much leading as being seen as able to lead. So you want some kind of blocking. A dueling gauntlet. Yes, I heard stories from outworlders about this thing called a duel disk...”
Jeff backed up shaking his head.
“ Nope! My cards do not work like that. I can maybe store cards in it...”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Corporal Shang grips his beard and thinks for a moment.
“ I think we can make something that will allow you to quickly cast four cards and still maintain a high defense rating. Let me see one of your cards.”
Hesitantly, Jef complies. Creating a new rookie card for 13 mana. Which did not make him feel very well since his mana was still fairly low. Shang immediately ignored the teen and instead focused on the card.
“ I can work with this. Mind if I take this back to the shop? I promise not to lose it.”
Jeff holds his card protectively as he eyes the dwarf trying to gently but forcefully take the card away.
“ I want a receipt.”
Stang pauses a moment before grumbling and gets out a notepad.
“ Freaking otherworlders... messing with a dwarf's good time. I am about to make him some cool gear and he wants a freaking receipt. Next, he going to demand his gear in a timely manner, well made, and on the cheap. Freaking nobles.”
Jeff listened to the dwarf grumble to himself as he wrote out a note of requisition. Which he did not even know was a thing.
“ So, now you got official paperwork. We should have a prototype in about a week. Since I now have your measurements, I will be off...”
It takes Jeff about thirty seconds to realize he was left alone and another thirty to further notice he did not get a schedule made. Looking around he found the Sargeant from the day before busy and his summons with a squad of rookies being instructed already. With a sigh he went to the track and ran for about half an hour until he felt tired and decided to spend the rest of the day studying.
-----
The next book Jeff read was about the races and their history. It became abundantly clear right away that it was written by a human supremacist. The very first sentence was in fact stated that humans were superior because of their culture and technology. Beastmen were stupid savages that did not know how to do anything but fight and breed. Dwarves were nothing more than molerats who knew how to drink and breed. That dragons and their kin were oversized horny lizards. Mermen were overstimulated fish... In fact, the only entry he found that did not have a race as overstimulated primitives were the elves. Who the writer called abstinence-loving tree huggers who come closest to humans' level of culture. Except for the fact they presumably never have relations.
After glossing over the rantings of a racist hypocrite, Jeff had enough reading so he decided to check on Rachiel again but found her still not in her room. Not having any idea of what else he could do he called Xilna who suggested then lead him to the auxiliary commons room, or the red dorm comune room. Where he found about a dozen others he recognized from the first day they were summoned. Unfortunately, no Rachiel was seen here either. Not wanting this to be a waste of time, he decided to sit in a chair with a deck of playing cards and started playing solitaire while listening to a few uninteresting conversations. After about five minutes a female voice spoke behind him.
“ So, another one crawls out of his hole huh? You're lucky, there are still a bunch of hero teams looking for aux’es.”
Jeff takes a moment to move a newly flipped K to an empty spot and finds a joker in the deck. Ignoring the card he sees a dark-skinned teen clearly showing off her chest with her arms.