When Jeff woke up, he began his day with a wash and breakfast, followed by two hours of physical activity to build up muscle before another wash. After that was six hours of mentors. Two hours were devoted to etiquette training, two more to educating him about how to lead an army and logistics. The final two were about magic. All of this begins at the crack of dawn and over some time around three in the afternoon after that was a two-hour training session to use an arming sword and parry dagger. Sometimes in conjunction, but more often than not, individually. He had to admit, he was picking it up fairly well. It helped a lot that he did not have any bad habits to drill out of him. Since most of his exposure to sword fighting amounted to movies and video games. That and a kid swinging a lightsaber around pretending he was one with the force.
At around six, he finished his exercise for the day and returned to his room for another wash and his dinner before moving to the red dorm common room and meeting with the other supports. Usually, it acted like a big college dorm for many of the unusual kids. Like himself, many of them were loners and did not quite fit in for one reason or another in their past lives. Most of them are gamers or avid solo room heroes. Just like every day for the past week, the big four sat at the central table playing some copper tip poker.
“ You look good.”
Jeff lifted his AS and 3S and tossed in two copper to the pool.
“ Thanks, this is the casual dress I helped design after that debacle ten days ago. A few less layers than the other two sets.”
Amanda could only nod at this as she put in her coppers to stay in.
“ Yea, heavy armor is a pain to get in and out of, but the defense is no joke. What is your rating plus 3?”
Jeff shakes his head.
“ Two, but my formal dress has that and my war attire has five.”
Amanda and the other two whistle to that as Bobby calls as well.
“ Nice, this getup only grants plus six, and has an encumbrance of forty percent till I am used to it.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Jeff chuckles to that as Janice tosses her cards and the next three cards are shown.
“ Well, yours is made out of steel over steel over heavy leather. Mine is mithril over soft leather. The cotton actually weighs more than the metal if you can believe that?”
Jeff tosses in two more coppers and Amanda matches again. So does Bobby. The fourth card shows and Jeff privately grimaces still only having a high A.
“Yeah, and how much did that cost you? Ten gold tips? I only need one set to last me for a fraction of the cost.”
Jeff nods to this but also puts in yet another two copper. Which causes the others to do the same again. He almost smirked as AD shows as the fifth card. Not wasting a halfway decent bluff. He tosses in five coppers.
“ True, but at least I have something practical to wear if I ever get invited to a dance. I start lessons on those next week by the way. As you all will be mingling more with nobles than I am, I highly recommend it as well.”
The girls wince at that as Bobby looked horrified.
“ They wouldn’t force us would they?”
Jeff sighs and looks at Bobby in the eye.
“ Medieval society, skill levels, and stat sheets, my maid is a literal dragon's spawn. How can they not?”
Bobby turned white as a sheet before Janice put a hand gently on his arm.
“ Relax, you got time.”
Bobby looked at her and began to blush.
“ I... yea... we got time still. Socialism is just one of those things I never did in sim games.”
“ It will be all right. Just picture yourself in a dating sim. I mean you used to stream. You should know how to craft a persona.”
Bobby relaxed a little more as Jeff could not help but laugh as he lost the hand to Amanda’s strait.
“ Fake it till you make it. I feel I will be doing a lot of that myself. So down to business. Did you all see the draft they put on the wall?”
After Amanda claimed her winnings she could not help but sigh.
“ All good intentions and hot air. The idiot that wrote that will make whoever follows it broke in a year and worse the next.”
Jeff and the others nod to this. Leading Janice to take the lead in the conversation.
“ First off, we can not compete with the established juggernauts. They have decades of head starts on us. I mean we probably have a few ideas and things they do not from our own worlds we could bring over, but more than likely it has all been either tried and failed or too expensive to be practical.”
“ Agreed, I like the shared ownership idea, but it does not talk about inheritance nor equal sharing but unequal contribution. I would be more than willing to put in a thousand gold talons to the venture, but I would want an equal worth of the company in return. I know I will not be the one to acquire or produce any of the products, but I am fairly sure I will be one of the early primary consumers. And I will be putting my neck on the line showcasing their work for other potential clientele.”
Amanda could not help but chuckle at this.
“ And I will be using it too. I will be damned being caught on the front lines like you might, but I have no disillusion that I do not see myself in convoys taking my path through every greedy bandit and noble between home and the front and back.”
Jeff offers her a fist bump and her gauntlet collides with his leather glove.
“ Then there is the slavery clause.”