Sam was waiting for her near the guards’ checkpoint. He’d obviously been there a while, dressed in what looked like exercise clothes and wearing practice weapons and armor borrowed from the Golden Swallow gym. His spear made an odd contrast to the shorts and t-shirt, but Alex just reminded herself that her axe and shield probably stuck out just as much against her own outfit.
He seemed a little uncomfortable, probably because he wasn’t alone inside the containment area. Audrey was waiting beside him, her club slung over her shoulder and a wide grin plastered on her face. She looked up as Alex cleared the checkpoint and gave her an exaggerated wink. Alex remembered what they had been saying about giving her a ‘chaperone’ and felt her cheeks grow red.
She waved at them as she walked up. “Hey guys. You ready to work today?”
Sam nodded with a sidelong glance at Audrey, who was still just grinning. “Yeah. What do we do first?”
“Well, first we need to make sure that we are working on your Skills, right?” Alex paused, aware that she was about to trample on about fifty different unwritten rules of Surveyor conduct. “Can you tell me what your Skills are?”
Sam hesitated, obviously reluctant to say anything. It was clear the unspoken rule about not revealing too much information about himself was still in place, but Audrey didn’t even pause. “I’ve got Lifting at 4, Leap at 5, Melee–Kanabo at 18, and Blocking at 12.”
Alex broke into a grin. She hadn’t expected anything less from her former teammate. “Okay, it seems like you’re a good way along. What Skill Chains are you planning on using?”
Audrey tilted her head to the side. “Skill Chains? Didn’t you get in a lot of trouble for using one of those?”
“I mean, yeah, the company’s not a big fan of them for E rank Surveyors. I’m not sure why.”
Sam raised a hand. “I think it’s because our Attributes are low enough that they believe we need to focus on having enough Skill ranks to make up for it. That, and we might end up choosing Skill Chains we don’t end up making permanent anyway.”
Audrey snorted. “If that’s the case, I don’t know what they are so upset about. Alex has a Skill Chain going, and it seems like she could take on anything she runs into.”
Alex waved the words away with one hand, feeling her cheeks redden again. “I kind of already had a plan for how I wanted to develop my Skills from the first place, so I’m not worried about creating one that I’m not going to keep around for later.” Then she focused in on Audrey specifically. “Honestly, it feels like you would want to combine your Melee Skill and Blocking, anyway. From what I know, they combine into a Skill called Weapon Mastery, which is more or less what you’re going to want anyway, right?”
The Squire paused, her expression going thoughtful. “I mean, yeah, probably. Thing is, won’t my Skill level go all the way back down to zero?”
“At first, yeah, but it’ll probably level back up a lot more quickly than you are gaining things now. Trust me, with the Surveys we’re hitting now, you won’t have much of a problem.” Alex grinned. “It’ll be especially easy if we keep sparring outside the Surveys too, and you’ll have another slot for a new Skill to develop in the meantime. Plus, with how far you’ve leveled it up, you might get a few really good Titles out of it too.”
“Titles can help boost your Skills in other ways, right?” Audrey frowned. “Okay, I get it. So if I Chain those two on the next Survey, we can spend some time sparring to get them back up before my next one.”
Alex nodded. “For now, though, we’ll probably want to work on your Blocking, since that one is lower. If we can get that one up to fifteen or so, you’ll probably get more Titles out of Chaining it.” Then she turned to Sam. “How about you?”
He hesitated for just a moment longer, though it didn’t seem to be out of mistrust now. Instead, he looked like he was thinking hard, and about more than just Skills. “My highest one is Melee–Spear. It’s at level 12 right now. I’ve also got Inspect at level 9, Focus at level 8, and Technical–Lockpick at level 4.”
“Huh.” Alex thought it over. It was obvious he hadn’t been trying to specialize in combat, which made his reluctance to be on the front lines make a lot more sense. “All right. You aren’t going to be able to get something like Weapon Mastery, obviously, but you have some other options you could go for. I think if you Chain Focus and Inspect, it might give you Analyze, which can be useful. Chaining Focus and Melee Skills gives you Battle Trance which I’ve heard can be really good, and if you Chain Melee and Inspect—”
“It gives Battlesight.” Sam said it confidently enough that she realized that was exactly what he wanted. He confirmed it a moment later with a nod. “Yeah. That’s the Skill I want to Chain into. So how do I Skill train Inspect? I feel like I’ve only been able to get ranks in that almost accidentally.”
“Searching around an area can help with that. You can always practice it by rummaging around in the houses around here.” Alex gestured to the containment area, trying to ignore the feeling that she was giving something away. “I’ve actually got that one too, so I know it works. You might be able to get some ranks in Lockpicks too, if you brought them.”
He nodded, and Audrey spoke up before Alex could continue. “What good is it to level up the other stuff? We only get to carry forward one Skill, right?”
“Yeah, but the other Skills can give you Titles that carry forward too. Especially when you hit level five and change Roles.” Alex waited until Audrey nodded, and then continued. “So I have Skills in a few different things. Inspect, like I said, along with Running and Dodging. My main Skill, and the one that I’m carrying forward, is Combined Arms–Axe/Shield. That one is at 17, so remember that when we are sparring later.”
She gave them a grin, and Sam grimaced. Audrey just looked excited, at least until Alex continued. “I think we should start off with a run. It’ll help my Skill, and the conditioning will help you guys, even if you don’t have the Skill. After that, we can spar for a couple of hours, and then spend a couple more working on things like Lifting, Inspect, Focus, and Leap. Any objections?”
It was clear the Squire wasn’t all that excited about the prospect of an endurance workout, but it would do her good. When her former teammate held her peace, and Sam just nodded, Alex grinned. “All right, let’s get started!”
By the end of the afternoon, Alex wasn’t sure her new sparring mates were going to come back the next day.
The run hadn’t gone too badly. Alex had not gone too hard; she knew her superior Speed would make it hard for Audrey to keep up. Sam had surprisingly kept pace, but she suspected that he’d been putting his free Attribute points into Speed as well, so it wasn’t that shocking. All the same, they were both sucking wind pretty hard by the end of the second perimeter lap. At that point, she decided it was time to introduce them to sparring with the new and improved Alex.
Sam had been the first to recover, so he’d been the first one to face her. He made a joke about giving her practice against Grue; she had grinned at the comparison, though he seemed a lot less intimidating than they were. In fact, he’d seemed almost afraid as he approached her, practice spear ready to stab.
The first exchange was over in moments; she trapped his spear between shield and axe and twisted the weapon away, just like she had with so many Grue. A second exchange was over almost as quickly as she dodged to the side and caught him with a pretty hard hit to the side. It left him grimacing over his side for a while, but he still got up and came at her again.
It took him another ten minutes of getting beaten before he called for a break, but by then he was grinning. Maybe his rank had already gone up? Alex had been a little tired, but not nearly enough to need a break herself, so she had just gestured for Audrey to come over.
The Squire had been grinning confidently as she stepped up, her practice club swinging over her shoulder. Alex smiled back at her and then settled into a crouch. They watched one another for a long, long moment. Then Audrey had charged, her club ready to strike.
Theoretically, it should have been far more even. A Squire’s Strength boost meant Audrey would always hit harder, and unlike Sam, Audrey had been practicing with her weapon obsessively. Alex had every confidence that her former teammate could hit hard enough to knock her on her back.
So instead of meeting the club head on, Alex slipped to the side and shield-checked Audrey from the side. The Squire’s expression had become one of surprise as the devastating overhead strike glanced off the shield, and the shove nearly knocked her over completely. As Audrey staggered, Alex followed it up immediately, bringing her practice axe around and performing a quick weapon trap that wrenched the club free and left the Squire staggering empty handed.
A profound surprise washed across Audrey’s features, only to settle into a kind of stubbornness as Alex gestured for her to recover her weapon. The next exchange had Audrey approaching a little more cautiously, so Alex charged instead. She grinned at Audrey’s surprise, and pushed her hard back on the defense, using both shield and axe to force her off balance before delivering a quick blow to the leg and arm that ended the bout.
The next ten minutes more or less followed that same pattern until Alex called for a break. Fatigue was finally starting to get at her, and she could tell that Audrey was slowing down a little, too. Her former teammate sat down, an unsettled frown on her face as she thought over the results of the spar. Alex hoped it would convince her to be a bit more defensive as she fought; all-out offense was effective, but only up to a point.
Once she’d rested a bit, they went back to the improvised ring, and they continued to clash for another hour, ten minutes against Sam, another ten against Audrey, then a rest. By the third cycle, while she rested, the other two sparred against each other. Audrey won the majority of the spars against Sam, but the Adept did his best to give as good as he got, actually slipping past Audrey’s defense to land a hit or two with his practice spear.
Then, after the fourth set of bouts had come to an end, Alex gestured for them to stop. “Okay, let’s get back to training some of the other Skills. Audrey, try and lift some of the stuff around here, like a car or something. You probably won’t get it all the way up, but it might be enough to convince the Skill to level. You can either do that, or you can start practicing long jumps or running long jumps; either one will probably give you some ranks. Once you get closer to something like ten, we can start having you jump between buildings or actually lift cars.”
Audrey had been frowning over the first part of the advice, but by the end she was grinning again. “You’re saying I might eventually be able to chuck a car at some Grue? That sounds sweet!” She began trotting down the street, looking for something to practice on.
Sam chuckled to himself and then glanced back at Alex speculatively. “I’m guessing you want me to start doing breaking and entering practice, right?”
Alex nodded. “Yep. The lockpicking thing pretty much saved our butts on that last Survey, and I would be super happy to see you get that way higher. The main thing is Inspect, though. Take your time to search through the buildings as you go, and you might see some more increases there.” Then she paused. “Make sure you lock everything up after you’re done. We don’t want kids sneaking in here or something.”
He nodded and set off to the nearest house. She watched him go and then went back to her shade tree to grab a drink of water. She was going to need to put a lot of running in to make up for the distraction that sparring had been. At least she’d gotten another level in Dodging, though. That increase had to count for something.
When Alex came back the next day, she was surprised to find an even larger group waiting for her.
Audrey and Sam were both there, but Joanna was standing there too, along with the whole rest of her new team. Alessa looked faintly intimidated by Audrey and Joanna, but Brian and Tim mostly just looked impatient to begin.
She tried not to sound intimidated as she jogged up to them, all standing under the shade tree. “Hey, sorry. The bus was a little late today.” Alex looked around at all of them. “You’re all here to train?”
“Yes.” Joanna glanced at Audrey, who was grinning rather widely. “I’m aiming for Battle Trance. How do we get my Focus up?”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Throwing distractions at you while we spar might help out with that.” Alex looked at the rest. “Brian, Tim, are you going for Combined Arms?”
“Now we are.” Brian half-glared at Sam. “Apparently it makes you able to take on anyone, according to some people. We can’t take it before the next Survey, right?”
“Nope. You can only Chain things after a complete Survey.” She paused. “Alessa?”
“I want Weapon Expert. I’ve already got Blocking, so that and Melee should work, right?”
“Absolutely.” Alex saw the mountain of work in front of her and tried to force a smile. “So, shall we get started with a run?”
By the time she staggered back to the dorms that night, Alex was practically dragging herself across the threshold.
The training session had seemed to go on for ages. She’d hoped the run would tire them out some, but the Porters in the group hadn’t even flinched, and even the Adepts had managed to finish, huffing and puffing and still ready to spar as hard as they could.
Fortunately, they had been more than willing to pair off and test each others’ Skills. The air had been full of the sound of practice weapons and pained grunts as they went through the motions of combat. Unfortunately, every single one of them was interested in testing themselves against her as well, something that meant she was almost constantly fighting them for more time than she was resting. It only got worse when Sam and Joanna put forward the idea that since she seemed to be the most highly trained among them, she should be fighting them two at a time, instead of one on one.
By the end of the sparring session, she had nearly collapsed from fatigue. It had taken her a few minutes—and a handful of prodding comments from Joanna—to get her up and moving along the perimeter on her second run. The other Surveyors had spread out through the abandoned houses, putting in their own practice. They were still very much at it by the time the guards put out the signal for them to head home.
Now all she wanted to do was crawl into her bunk and be unconscious for as long as humanly possible. The only real thing she was looking forward to was the fact that Joanna’s team had a Survey scheduled for Monday afternoon, so there was no possible way that she would have nearly two teams’ worth of Surveyors to spar with tomorrow. She hoped.
Alex staggered into the room and found Clara waiting for her with two other Surveyors she only partially recognized. She nodded to her former teammate, and then did her best to fall gracefully into her bunk.
Clara seemed to be struggling not to laugh. “So, how was the training?”
It took an embarrassingly long moment for her to respond. “Good. Just tiring, is all.” Alex wasn’t lying, either. The pain and exhaustion had been more than worth it. She’d gained another level in Combined Arms—a rare achievement, at this point—and another three in Dodging. She’d even gained one in Inspect and Running too, though she wasn’t entirely sure if that would matter as much for her next Survey. One part of her mind was already wondering if she should just let the Grue kill her, if it meant she didn’t have to be this tired again.
“I was just telling Ruth and Marcel about where all of you were today. They’d heard something about Skill training, but they didn’t think it was going to be worth their time.”
Alex snorted. “Well, if they want to get through the next couple of Surveys, they might want to reconsider.” She cracked an already bloodshot eye at the three Surveyors, studying them for a bit. Marcel was a wiry guy, a little taller than Clara with short-cut hair and a serious expression. Ruth was shorter, with long blonde hair and a surprised look on her face. “You still aren’t level two, right? The Survey is going to ramp up the difficulty because three of your team already are, and there’s still that Killer running around. I didn’t manage to get him last time. Not yet.”
Ruth blinked in surprise. “You’re going after the Killer? That’s crazy.”
“The thing is going after me. Why not return the favor?” Alex tried to chuckle, but it faded out into a tired sigh. Even laughing kind of hurt a little. “Look, just stay close to the others tomorrow. It’s going to be rough, but if you take out enough Camps, there shouldn’t be enough Grue to stop you from getting to the exit. From there, come out to the containment area with us, and we’ll all work together on your Skills so that you don’t feel like you are behind next time. Okay?”
Marcel folded his arms. He seemed unimpressed. “You’re talking about Skill development, but I’ve heard that the team captain had censured you specifically for the way you are developing yours. Why should we trust what you say about how to get ready for a Survey?”
Alex finally persuaded herself to open both eyes and sit up enough to stare back at them. “Because for what it’s worth, I’m going to be heading through the portals ahead of you, and your team captain isn’t. Besides, you don’t have to listen to my advice about your Skills at all. You can’t Chain Skills or anything outside of a Survey. All we’re doing is leveling up the ones we already have. Is there some company mandate that says you shouldn’t have high Skills?”
Marcel and Ruth looked at each other, still obviously hesitating, and Alex sighed. “Good luck tomorrow. I hope the Survey goes well, and so well that you feel like you don’t need any additional Skills and you’re just fine without extra help. All I know is that after the last one I went on, my team and I need to put in all the work we can manage. Okay? That’s all we’re doing out there, and the door’s open for anyone to come.”
Then she wavered a little and gave Clara a look. “For now, though, I think I’m tired enough that I’m going to pass out. If you need me for something, either wait a couple of hours, or just handle it yourself. Good night.”
Clara burst out laughing, which Alex didn’t feel was entirely fair. The Acolyte led the other two Surveyors out of the room, saying something in a low voice that Alex didn’t even bother to try to make out. Instead, she fell back over onto her bunk and closed her eyes. The world and all its catastrophes could just hold on until she was ready for them. In a few hours or so.
“So you seem to have been rather busy.”
Zach’s wry comment brought Alex’s head up off of the desk for long enough to give him a glare. He chuckled to himself as he dropped into the chair behind the desk. “Sorry, sorry. I’ve heard that you’ve been doing a lot of training lately.”
“You have?” She looked up again, this time a bit more curious. “Who told you that?”
“I’m friends with some of the guards out at the containment area. Ron says he is surprised you’re still planning on coming back today.” Zach raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? If you get too tired, it might not go very well for you on Thursday.”
“Yeah, I know.” Alex finally pushed herself all the way up and off the desk. She stretched, trying to work some of the soreness out of her arms and shoulders. “We’ll take it a bit lighter today. Besides, the increase in Skills is worth the cost. Especially considering what’s probably going to be waiting for us next time.”
She hadn’t heard officially that she was going on a Survey Thursday afternoon, but she was reasonably certain it would be the case. Joanna’s team was going Monday, the next team would be going Tuesday, and if they stayed true to pattern, the Group’s secret project would claim Wednesday. So unless the team captain was going to switch the order up out of nowhere, Liliana would send her team through the portal right after that.
Zach was nodding sympathetically. “At least you managed to make a solid difference in the amount of magic coming out of the portal last time. The readings showed a pretty major drop after you came through.”
“Well, it should have.” Alex cracked a weary smile. “We took down a Camp. That’s supposed to make things better, right?”
“Yeah, it should, actually.” Zach frowned a little, tilting his head to the side. “Where did you learn that?”
Alex blinked. She really needed to keep better track of the secrets she needed to keep. “You’re not the only one who can read, Zach. There are books about this kind of thing, right?”
He studied her for a few moments longer. “Yeah, I suppose there are.” Then he shrugged and looked away, rummaging around for his tablet. “In any case, you were right to go for the Camps. The more of those get destroyed, the more the magical energy goes down. It’ll track back up over time, but the more Camps go down in quick succession, the better off the portal will be for everyone.”
She nodded. Of course, that equation meant that the main recipients of the extra magical boosts would be her group. The last team was the one that was going to get the easiest runs, most likely. Would that make them level up faster, or slower? “Are there any other ways that you’ve found that we can drain off more energy? Or ways we can get ready for Thursday?”
Zach leaned back for a moment, thinking. “Well, there are a few different options. Going after a Killer tends to work, but that is exceptionally dangerous. Just completing the Quests that you get from the portal could help, but if you’re looking for something a bit more dramatic…”
He fished out a tablet and hit a few tabs before sliding it across the desk to her. “One other surefire option that I’ve heard of is to knock out an Anchor Point. They look like this.”
Alex picked up the tablet, and saw a rough sketch—probably the best some Surveyor could do, since they couldn’t bring anything technological back through the portal. There was a spiked wheel of purple crystal, with a column of purple flame rising straight up through the center of it. She reached out to the image and touched it. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. Where do you usually find them?”
“Hard to say, honestly.” The researcher shook his head. “We’ve spent a lot of time trying to predict where they would show up, but there’s never been a consistent pattern. Sometimes they show up around small buildings near monuments, other times, inside a random hollow house. I’ve even heard of times when Surveyors ran across one in the middle of a subway station of some kind. The only thing we do know is that destroying one tends to seriously limit the magical energy coming from a portal. Taking one of them out can drop a C rank portal all the way down to E rank in a single Survey.”
She whistled at the thought of that kind of change. It would make any Anchor Point an incredible find, and an immediate priority target for any Surveyor. “What’s usually guarding them? If there are that many Grue around a simple Camp…”
“Yeah, that’s the only real problem, I guess.” Zach shrugged. “They typically have plenty of Grue, sure, but they usually have even more than that. Not Killers, maybe, but there are higher order entities out there. Drakes, Liches, all kinds of things. The best thing you can do is mark the location and then pull back so that you could tell higher level Surveyors. Then they can go in and destroy it.”
Alex nodded. It made sense…just as long as she trusted the Group to do the right thing. Given their current nonsense with the portal, she wasn’t feeling quite so generous. “Yeah. I will.”
Zach gave her a wry look. “Of course. What else would you do?” He held out a hand, and she gave the tablet back with a grin. With a roll of his eyes, Zach dismissed the picture with another few taps, and then set the tablet aside. “Now then, if only so I don’t feel like I’ve just given you another new suicide mission to go on, let’s talk about something else. The RDD handed over that atlas you recovered. When you went to the library, were there any other books whose subjects you could recognize? Something like a section on physics, or magic, or…”
That day, as Alex practiced and ran and sparred, she couldn’t help but feel a rising sense of concern. Joanna and the others had gone into the portal over an hour ago, and it was all too easy to picture her former teammates half-buried under an army of Grue. Would they have gotten the same kind of welcome her team had? Or would taking out the Camp have lowered the threat level just enough?
She was sparring against her teammates—two on one, and they weren’t exactly giving her much time to rest between bouts—when they finally came back out. Alex saw the flashes of light as they left the vortex, and she called a brief halt to crane her neck. A few moments later, she breathed a sigh of relief when all five people stepped onto the official Golden Swallow bus, ready to head back towards the dorms. Some of them looked like they were limping, but they were all walking under their own power.
As the bus went by, she caught sight of Audrey and Clara in the windows. The Squire gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up, while Clara looked a little more solemn. They both looked at least a little tired, though. It would be interesting to hear how it went.
For the time being, however, she had other business to take care of. Alex turned back to face Alessa and Tim, both of whom winced and brought their weapons up a little higher. She smiled. “All right, let’s go again.”
“You were right about it being rough.” Joanna’s team had clustered around a table in the cafeteria, picking at their food. Alex had found them there, still listlessly picking at their dinner. Ruth had a bandage on her upper arm, and Joanna was still holding out her leg, as if there were a brace on the knee.
Clara was the only one talking, and even she seemed like she was on her last legs. “The horns blew again, and they were all over the portal. We tried to hit the Camps, but there were more of them waiting there too. We managed to hit two of them, and then booked it back through the portal before the Killer caught up to us.”
Audrey had been sitting with her head dangling back over the edge of the seat. She looked up, bleary eyed. “Good thing you made me practice Blocking so much, Al. That guy almost got me, but I Skywalker’d it right out of the air. Hah!”
She slumped back across the chair, and Clara gave Alex a tired smile. “It was rough, Alex, but I think most of us were pretty much ready for it. I do think that I’ll be joining you guys for training tomorrow, though. I need to be much faster out there.”
Joanna looked up from her food. Her face seemed like it was made of iron. “We’re all going to be there tomorrow. And every day after. Anyone disagree?” She looked over at the last two teammates. Ruth tried to scrunch herself down in her seat, but she stayed quiet. Marcel visibly flinched, but he nodded. Satisfied, Joanna looked back at Alex. “There were a couple of times when we almost bought it out there, but we were ready because of that training. Thanks.”
Alex felt a sudden burst of discomfort. Part of the reason that the Survey had been so hard was probably because her team hadn’t been able to kill more than one Camp. Beyond that, the portal’s magic had probably grown stronger after the weekend had let it fester. “Don’t mention it, Joanna. We’re all in this together.” She hesitated. “But I think that on Wednesday we aren’t going to be able to train. At least, not in the containment area.”
The Adept frowned. “Are you trying to rest your team? That’s fine, but that shouldn’t stop the rest of us from working on things.”
She shook her head. “No. I mean, it’s not just that I’m trying to get us rested. I just think… the containment area will be busy on Wednesday. That’s all.”
Joanna’s expression grew a bit confused, but before she could ask her next question, Alex heard Sam speak up from behind her. “Is that a hunch, Alex?”
Alex jumped, spinning to look at him. He was standing with a lunch tray, watching her closely. Where had he learned to move so quietly? She realized he was still waiting for an answer, and slowly nodded. He smiled, but there didn’t seem to be any humor in the expression. “And maybe you have another hunch that we’ll have a Survey on Thursday? One that’s going to be as bad or worse than Friday?”
Wordlessly, she nodded again. His eyes narrowed for a moment, and then he returned her nod. Sam’s smile grew a lot more genuine, on the outside at least. “Well at least we’ll have some rest before it. And some time to spend on whatever we need. Right?”
He asked the question to Joanna, who looked back at him with faint surprise. The Adepts looked at each other for another moment, and then they both nodded.
Alex felt another burst of…not dread, but uncertainty. Had she given too much away? “Well, just make sure you’re ready for Thursday. If it’s going to be bad, we can’t afford distractions.”
Sam stepped past her, his grin growing wider. “Of course, team captain. Wouldn’t want to disappoint you.”
She went red. “I’m not a captain.”
He set down his tray and gave her a quick salute, making her flush that much more. “Right, right.” A tired chuckle ran through the others, and Alex drew back, headed for the food line. She could use the break to figure out something she could say to discourage whatever they were planning, at least. It definitely wasn’t an attempt to avoid those chuckles.