'Five days remain until those of you who are not suited for adventuring will all be sent home. At this point, I'd like you guys to start thinking of what you want.

We have enough budget to give each of you who are not eliminated by then a gift. This gift isn't just a reward for your hard work or to congratulate you on becoming a trainee Adventurer rather than a washout, but also something that may save your lives. Not everyone came here from a well to do family, and while you will be issued basic leather armor and a weapon, different Adventurers have different needs, and so rather than give you something that might not be useful for you anyway, our practice is to ask you what you think you will need, and that is what you will get. Your assigned budget is one silver piece - anything that costs more you will have to buy yourself after you start actually working. You have the rest of today to think of what equipment you lack based on your experiences so far, and tell one of us about it. If you don't ask for anything, you will get nothing.

Today's theory lesson is about nature. Who aside from Alicia can tell me about the primary terrain type in Westerland?' (Gwyn)

'Forests.' (Silas)

'I guess it's not too surprising given the amount of time you hung around a noble, but Silas is correct. We're pretty lucky to live in a country where the land is fertile enough for trees to grow, and so also fertile enough for farmlands to easily be cultivated. But the drawback of this is?' (Gwyn)

'Beasts. Of the animal, humanoid and human varieties.' (Michael)

'Very good. Because we have so much available food, herbivores like rabbits and boars are not uncommon, and the wolves that hunt them. And that supports humanoids like goblins, kobolds and orcs, and of course, other countries with less have an incentive to fight us. But this isn't a lesson about politics, it's about animals and terrain.

Trees are much more important than a lot of people understand. In addition to providing food and wood, they also hold the ground together. In the earlier days of our civilization, when this was not properly understood, people often cut trees indiscriminately in an area for more wood to reduce the effort of transporting the wood, and without the trees to hold the moisture in the soil, those areas often experienced landslides that got people killed and property destroyed. Logging practices by law now restrict the cutting of trees beyond three out of every four trees, so that the one that remains keeps the ground intact.

Like what we used to be, kobolds and goblins don't understand the importance of trees, and often bring landslides on themselves overlogging in the areas where they are overly abundant. Strangely, orcs do seem to understand this principle, and it was from first observing them that our ancestors figured out the landslides were not actually a punishment from the Holy Gods, but just a natural result of our own stupidity. Why you need to understand this principle is because when dealing with goblins and kobolds in particular, you need to be really, really careful not to get caught in a landslide yourself, since the ground doesn't look very different from normal, but may behave very differently from what you expect, especially after a storm.' (Gwyn)

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'Can we weaponise this by intentionally attacking their territory from higher ground after a storm with ranged weapons, securing ourselves to trees and then triggering a landslide on them with earth-based magic?' (Joshua)

'Why does it sound like you're planning to actually do this? It's not a bad idea, though unless you're really sure of the land you're standing on, you might get yourself caught in it. So I wouldn't recommend it unless you're severely outnumbered, and if you were severely outnumbered in the first place, you should run the hell away instead of thinking of ways to fight when outmatched. Each one of you is worth a lot more to us alive than monsters are worth dead, so try not to do shit that can get you killed unless not doing it can also get you killed.

Next, about wild animals. Because we rear animals in this land where predators exist, it's not uncommon that ranches get attacked by wolves and the like. Do you recall the ratio I mentioned for guaranteeing victory in a fight?' (Gwyn)

'Three to one for comparable enemies, sir.

'Correct, Rachel. Bearing that in mind, how much should you outnumber wild animals to fight them safely, given that they're animals incapable of advanced planning or using weaponry?' (Gwyn)

'They're just animals, so shouldn't it be ok even if they outnumber us as long as they're not outnumbering us three-to-one?' (Alicia)

'In my family we are taught never to fight wolves unless we have at least the same numbers as them.' (Michael)

'That's probably why your parents lived long enough for you to be born. Don't look down on animals too much, while it is not necessary to secure a three-to-one ratio, you still should not fight them when outnumbered unless you're in terrain where they can't strike back. For instance, shooting wolves from the top of a tree. And Alicia, you may find that animals can be much more dangerous than you think especially when cornered. From the five adventurers out of ten who die each year after graduation, one usually dies to wild animals in spite of our warnings.' (Gwyn)

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'So what did your students pick? Anything we'll have trouble getting?' (Gwyn)

'The usual. Gloves. Daggers. Throwing knives. Boots. One request for a grappling hook.' (Sophia)

'It warms my heart that one of my students picked a grip trainer. But mostly the same as Sophia's. Except the hook.' (Glenn)

'I got one request for a portrait of me.' (Elaina)

'No murdering students, please. We already lost one this year for no reason.' (Gwyn)

'I would hardly call that no reason, and he would have dropped out sooner or later anyway with balls like that. Or the lack thereof. But what did your students choose?' (Elaina)

'Mostly the usual. But one chose something special.' (Gwyn)

'Let me guess, Reinhart chose a comb to look prettier.' (Elaina)

'No, it's the girl with no magic. She chose a notebook.' (Gwyn)

...

...

'I'll eat my words. Magic be damned, she'll live.' (Sophia)

'I thought I was appreciated. You're one lucky bastard.' (Glenn)

'If only my students would care more about what I say than how I look...' (Elaina)

'I shouldn't have said that she should have gone home. Now I look like an asshole.' (Gwyn)

'You are one. But one lucky one.' (Sophia)