Ted woke up to the feeling of warmth spreading throughout his body, some painless but uncomfortable sounding clicks going through his ankles. He opened his eyes and saw fur and a snout, and he almost had a panic attack, the first one in his life. It was a distorted version of the features the unluckiest of hikers would have seen as their last sight before being disembowelled by an angry ursine monster.
It clicked a second later that this was a healer from Kara’s race - called Bennie, he remembered - and that he was being healed with some sort of magic. He relaxed, and let the healing do its job. The Baraye stood up, moments later.
‘You’ll be okay. Sit up when you feel better.’ they said, in a voice very similar to Kara’s light tone, contrasting with the huge body.
Ted sat up almost immediately, surprised to see that he had not been carried to a hospital bed, but was still lying on the floor where he’d landed. He looked around for the others, seeing them walking or limping round to where he sat, the Baraye healer hustling over to them; it seemed Ted had been a priority. The bomb was in a bush, a dozen metres away from him, yet to be retrieved. Ted stood up, and stretched.
He turned, seeing the group now closer to him, all four of his squad drinking small vials as they walked, the effects immediately obvious as limps went away and frowns cleared to less pained expressions. Jerah and his team weren’t far behind, receiving a set of vials from the Baraye.
‘So, did we win? Ted asked, as the squad got closer.
‘We do not know.’ Eva replied. ‘We all saw a timer go off and then a notification of the mission ending. There is no indication of success however; it just says ‘TBD’.’
‘You got the bomb down, din’t ya?’ Red said, looking at Ted. Physically he was fine, but there were huge slashes of red paint across his torso, speckling onto his face.
‘I did…’ Ted said, hesitantly. ‘But I’m pretty sure Jerah kicked it off before it went off. I think I was hit by its blast.’
‘It was a real bomb?’ Toya asked, surprised. She, too, had red splodges on her body and arms, indicating a thorough defeat during the assault.
‘It wass.’ a new voice said, loud and confident, coming from Ted’s left. It was one of the instructors; a Sassar, the same one that had taught them the basics of Skills and Techniques, short, darkly scaled and long tonged, carrying the same dangerous aura that the others did. He was walking towards them with a clipboard in hand.
‘The reassson that you haven’t reccceived a mission failure or succccess notification is because we haven’t decided on which ssside succcceeded. Your team completed the mission as required in the mission statement; however, the purpossse of the mission, which wasss to blow up the fort, was a complete failure. In fact, the only victim of the bomb wasss the person who planted it.’
Ted looked a little sheepish at that, but this immediately developed into defensive anger.
‘What was I supposed to do? I’m not a one-man army; I got the bomb in the ring and then escaped.’
‘Did you essscape? You got blown up.’ the instructor countered.
‘Well, I escaped the fort.’ Ted replied.
‘Put it another way.’ the instructor said. ‘If thisss had been a real mission to infiltrate an Enemy fortresssss, would you conssssider this a successs?
That was a hard one to argue with.
‘But it was an open circle on the floor; how was I supposed to leave it there without anyone removing it?’ Ted challenged. The instructor looked up at him, derision clear even in his reptilian eyes. He turned to the group.
‘There wassss no time limit on this exercise. There were four entrancccessss to the fort, not counting the open rooftop. You outnumbered the defendersss. There were multiple optionss, including drawing the defenderss out, trying true ssstealth, or sssneaking in and defeating the defenderss at close quarterss; Eva, your prowessss here would have been perfect. Inssstead,’ the instructor raised his hands. ‘Ted, you were the only victim of your bomb. Ssso I will be voting this as a failure.’
Jerah and his squad had turned up by this point, and this speech elicited a small cheer from them.
‘Good effort, Theo.’ Jerah said, smiling as he joined the group, patting Ted on the arm. ‘But you were not quite good enough.’
‘I’ll get you next time.’ Ted said, grinning back.
‘I am not sure you will. It looked very much like you were running away from me today.’ Jerah prodded back.
They were interrupted by the returning Baraye.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
‘Back to the classroom everyone, we’re going to discuss what happened today and review the outcome.’
Together they turned, and made their way back to the classrooms from the training area they’d been in. On the way Ted caught up with Eva and the rest of the attack squad, to find out how their part of the assault had gone. Eva and Elssar were the only ones still ‘alive’, with Red and Toya definitely ‘dead’, and Ted’s broken ankles and the effects of the bomb blast almost certainly putting him on that list too. Toya had been hit by an arrow relatively early, and had to sit out, immediately reducing their numbers advantage, but Red, Elssar and Eva had made it much closer to the door before Red had been taken out by a spell from one of the Sassar mages. Despite the spells being offensive magic, they’d been transformed via some other magic in the training ground and translated into the red streaks.
Eva and Elssar had even made it to the door and were at the point of taking out the mage when Ted had run into the room and gone for the ladder.
They got to Classroom #1 and took a seat, the Baraye and the Sassar instructors moving to stand at the front.
‘Well, congratulations everyone on the completion of your first training exercise.’ Bennie said. ‘No matter the outcome, you all came up with a plan, and put it into action, so should be praised for that. We’ll discuss what happened, the success or failure of the mission, and what could have been improved shortly. For now, I recommend checking your notifications; most of you will have received multiple during the mission.’
That was true, Ted now remembered several popping up before dismissing them as he moved around. He opened up his Mission Log.
____________________________________________________________________________
System Message:
Through trials and training, you have gained a better understanding of how to move faster and more efficiently.
You have learnt the Skill: Agile Manoeuvres - Basic, Level 1!
System Message:
Through trials and training, you have gained a better understanding of how to move discreetly and more efficiently.
You have learnt the Skill: Stealthy Manoeuvres - Basic, Level 1!
System Message:
Through trial and failure, you have gained a better understanding of using your spear as a projectile.
You have learnt the Skill: Throwing Weapons - Spear - Basic, Level 1!
System Message:
Through putting the technique into practice, you have learnt the Technique: Dash, Level 1!
System Message:
Through putting the technique into practice, you have learnt the Technique: Drift, Level 1!
System Message:
Through putting the technique into practice, with disastrous results, you have learnt the Technique: Break-fall Level 1!
System Message:
Mission Update: Mission has been completed. Outcome has yet to be decided. Please speak to the Mission awarder for more details.
End of Messages
____________________________________________________________________________
‘I suspect most of you will have learnt multiple Skills and Techniques during the training exercise. This is one of the purposes of these exercises; learning something, first hand, under time pressure and whilst in danger, you will learn these much more efficiently and on a deeper level than via study or award.’ Bennie continued. ‘Would anyone like to volunteer some Skills or Techniques they have gained?’
Several of the teams called out some of the abilities they had gained, including Basic Mana Shield, because being hit by enough magic helped you learn how to stop it, Dodge, and Shield Bash.
‘That’s excellent everyone. If you want support on any of the things you’ve learnt, use the Help function in the CPS; if you’d like any more advice please come to myself or Sal.’ she finished. Sal was the Sassar instructor that had so kindly pointed out all the faults in Eva’s plan, and Ted’s execution of said plan.
‘And now, let’s move on to the actual Mission itself shall we? I’m going to break the news now to you, the winning team was the Defenders, for successfully stopping the destruction of the base.
There was another ragged cheer from Jerah’s team, though slightly less enthusiastic now that the adrenaline of the game had worn off. Every person in the room got a notification at that point, informing them of their failure or success.
‘Normally missionss will have bonuses or awards for successesss.’ Sal said, coming forward. ‘But not in training. But we will be taking note of them, for when you graduate.’
The Defenders seemed disappointed, the attacking squad less so. It made sense; it would be a little unfair if there were suddenly four recruits walking around with snazzier gear than everyone else. Perhaps experience could have been given? It would fit the mechanics of the game, but to date, Ted hadn’t seen any way of measuring how much work was required to get to the next level of a Skill or Technique. Maybe, considering he seemed to pick new Skills up by something as simple as breaking his ankles, at this low a level there was no point in doing so?
Something else to ask about or work out. For the next hour they went through the assault, what went wrong, and what went right. They’d not been given specific guidance before the mission, Sal explaining that the instructors had wanted to see what came out from instinct. Sal also went on to explain how their Classes would support their roles once their abilities were more developed; the GateKeeper’s affinity for time and space magic allowing silent and swift travel and transport; Red’s Disruption Mage would eventually allow more than just smoke, but illusions, weather control, and even some geomancy.
They were given time to get washed up and changed before the afternoon session, which would be spent entirely in the classroom, reading about the Skills and Techniques that could be learnt; the better they were understood, the easier it would be to learn them.
And with only four days left of Basic, it wouldn’t be long until they were actually out in the real world, travelling to the front, about to experience real danger.