Meitre paced back and forth in her office, rereading the same report Reizo had written earlier with worried eyes.
"You've gotta be kidding me." She muttered. "No wonder you're taking in new trainees."
She slumped back into her chair and sighed. "But you've chosen such a strange pair. Can they even be trusted to do the right thing? They've already lied to you about how they got into the forest."
She set the report back onto her desk and rested her head in her hands. "I really do hope your backups can live up to your expectations."
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It was 4am in the morning. Zeigel had woken up to the sound of someone knocking on their door while Saliza was too deep in her sleep to wake up. He glared at the door and rested his head back onto his pillow, trying to force himself back to sleep.
I'm still asleep so I can't open the door. Too bad, whoever you are.
The knocking persisted for about five minutes before finally coming to a stop.
Zeigel smiled and began to doze off, but the silence was once again ruined by another knocking. This time, the sound came from the window.
Zeigel got up and rubbed his sleepy eyes to see what was causing all that racket.
What the fuck?
He rubbed his eyes again to ensure that he was seeing things correctly.
The one knocking on the window was none other than Reizo, who held a piece of paper against the window with 'OPEN THE DOOR' written on it.
Tch, now I definitely can't ignore him.
Zeigel did as he was instructed and unlocked the door. As soon as he did, Reizo opened the door and barged into the room.
"Wha- weren't you just at the window?" Zeigel asked in surprise while rubbing his eyes again.
Reizo nodded, offering no explanation as to how he appeared in their room so quickly.
"Is Saliza here?" He asked.
"She's fast asleep in the bedroom."
"Wake her up. I want the two of you down in the lobby in fifteen minutes." Reizo ordered before leaving.
Zeigel groaned and cursed as he dragged himself back to the bedroom.
He'd better be treating me to breakfast for waking me up so early. The only thing I ate yesterday were the fries that tasted like mushroom stems and meatballs that tasted like miniature cabbages. They weren't exactly tasty, but it was way better than that false steak. I'd really appreciate a free breakfast.
"Oi, wake up!" He shouted at Saliza who continued to sleep. He climbed up to her bed and began slapping her mask to wake her up.
"Stawp...wha u wan?" She asked in a sleepy voice.
"Reizo wants us downstairs. We're probably gonna start our vanguard training now."
Almost immediately after hearing the words 'vanguard training', Saliza sprung up from her bed.
"Really?" Her voice was now full of energy. "Finally! It's vanguarding time!"
She hopped off her bed and slipped on her shoes before rushing downstairs.
"You don't need to go down immediately! He gave us fifteen minutes to be down!" Zeigel called after her. "At least brush your teeth first! There's free toothpaste in here!"
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After freshening himself up, Zeigel made his way down to the lobby where Saliza was excitedly running back and forth while waiting. The only other person there was a receptionist working the night shift who was entertained watching Saliza run around.
How the hell does she have this much energy in the morning? I can barely keep my eyes open.
"Can you believe it Zeigel! Our first day as vanguards!"
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"I wanna sleep."
"Oh come on now, where's that vanguard spirit?"
"...I wanna sleep."
Reizo entered the lobby with a cup of red coffee in his hand. He gestured with his other hand for the two to come to him.
"I'll take you two to the training grounds. Follow me." Reizo said while sipping his coffee. His voice still sounded quite emotionless and tired like a sad robot.
Saliza cheerfully skipped alongside him while Zeigel trudged with a big frown on his face.
So no breakfast then.
They were led to the gate of the borders behind the headquarters. The guard stationed at the gate gave Reizo a surprised look.
"I can't believe Wren was right! You really did become a trainer!"
Reizo nodded while sipping his coffee.
"Hopefully taking on some new vanguards will make you less gloomy." The guard laughed as he opened the gate for Reizo.
"Good luck with your training!" The guard waved at Reizo.
Unlike the entrance located on the other side of the border, this one had a path that led to a massive field surrounded by tall metal fences that vanguards used as a training grounds.
Once they reached the training grounds, Reizo brought the two to a large tent located near the edge of the place. Inside were benches and a board.
"Today, I'll go over the basics of using the vanguard bracer and after that, we'll go on your first mission."
Reizo chugged the last bit of coffee and burnt the cup in his hand.
"To start off." He held out his bracer and a screen appeared above it. "Try to do this."
"How?" Zeigel asked while staring at his own bracer. "Is there like a button on this thing or something?" He tapped the gems on the bracer but nothing happened.
"You just gotta do this." Saliza repeatedly summoned the screen directly in front of Zeigel, much to his annoyance.
"Not helping!" He pushed her arm away from his face.
"The bracer acts on your will. It will do whatever you want it to do." Reizo explained.
"So do I just tell it to summon the screen and it'll... Oh hey it worked."
The screen floating above his bracer displayed his stats, skills, and equipment.
STATS
LEVEL: 1
ATK: 0
DEF: 0
SPD: 0
AVAILABLE POINTS: 3
MANA: 100/100
SKILLS
No skill slot available
EQUIPMENT
[EMPTY]
[EMPTY]
[EMPTY]
[EMPTY]
Doesn't this kinda look like something straight out of an rpg game? I'm not trapped in a game am I? Ah who cares if this is a game or not, I'm getting out of here regardless.
"Strange," Reizo peeked over Zeigel's shoulder to observe his stats, startling him.
"Jeez! Don't don't that!"
Reizo ignored him and muttered, "Normally people start out at level 0."
Reizo turned to Saliza to observe her stats as well.
"You too." He muttered. "That means both of you either killed several one star monsters or a two star monster in the past."
"That's the result of our training in the forest!" Saliza puffed her chest out with pride.
"Getting lost in the forest isn't something to be proud of."
"Wait, what do you mean by one or two star monsters." Zeigel asked. How did I even level up?
"I'll explain that later. For now, I'll teach you how to cast spells."
Zeigel and Saliza's eyes both lit up. They sat down obediently and paid very close attention to what Reizo was about to teach them..
"We're ready to learn!"
"Please teach us, sensei!"
Reizo held out his hand and a gem on his bracer began to glow.
"The vanguard bracer gives the user the ability to create different elements and materials, as well as the ability to heal. Again, the bracer acts on your will so in order to cast spells, all you need to do is visualize the spell you want to cast,"
He aimed his palm at the ground and shot out a small ball of fire.
"And the bracer will make it happen. Though, if you try to cast a spell that isn't possible to create, nothing will happen."
"It's that easy?" Zeigel asked, sounding surprised.
"Yes."
Woohoo! I'm spared from needing to do any learning or training to use magic!
Reizo knelt down and created a stream of water from his fingertip to extinguish the fire on the ground.
"There are two ways to cast a spell. You can either charge it up with mana like what I did earlier to make the spell stronger, or have it continuously active while it drains your mana like what I'm doing now."
Zeigel raised his hand. "Is it possible for me to cast spells that do more than just create elements and whatnot?"
"No."
Well that's disappointing. I was really hoping that magic would be more diverse here. Then again, that means there isn't some sort of spell that can reveal if I'm from Earth or not. Suddenly this doesn't seem so disappointing.
"Now, onto skills." Reizo continued. "Skills are spells that have been registered into a skill slot and can be casted instantly. Every ten levels, you'll gain a skill slot, up to a maximum of five at level 50. Skills will also have a cooldown and cannot be casted again until the cooldown finishes. The timing for the cooldown depends on how much mana is used. The more mana a skill uses, the longer the cooldown."
Saliza raised her hand.
"Got a question Saliza?" Reizo asked.
"No, why?"
"You're raising your hand."
"I just thought I'd look more like a proper student if I raised my hand."
"...okay then," Reizo briefly contemplated if he made a mistake before continuing.
"Moving on, I'll be covering levels and stats. As you can see on your screen, there are three stats in total. Everytime you level up, you gain three points that can be used to increase one of the three stats.
ATK increases the power and potency of your attacks. DEF makes you more resistant to any form of damage. SPD makes you faster.
Once you've added a point to a stat, you cannot undo it, so if you're not confident which stat you should invest in, save your points until you're certain where it should go."
Saliza raised her hand once again.
Reizo sighed. "Do you actually have a question this time?"
"Yeah, what are your stats?"
"123 in ATK, 51 in DEF, and 126 in SPD."
"So that's how my stats should be."
"That's not what I said." Reizo let out another sigh.
"Let's just move on to the last part, your equipments. You can register items into your equipment slots, allowing you to cast spells and skills through them as well as gain bonuses if they have any. Furthermore, your equipment will be enhanced by your stats, making them stronger and more durable."
Reizo stepped out of the tent and began creating mounds of earth.
"Go ahead and try out your bracers. When you're done, we'll head out and begin your first mission."