Richard (Day 1)
“Listen up, you are all being selected as part of our grinding teams. You all were brought up to speed yesterday.” I listened in closely. After being transported here by the Almighty System, my head was swimming as I was bombarded with new information constantly.
We were all drafted. Anyone who refused was beaten up and taken away. I wisely kept my mouth shut. The soldiers didn’t allow for any nonsense. The first day had been orientation, mental health evaluations, and crying about what had happened as they put it.
Today was our second day where we would be put into a grinding team. “We need crystals for the war effort. You are going to get those crystals. That means kill monsters. You will be trained and equipped with the appropriate weapons. There will be a trainer who will help you settle into your camp. After that you meet your quota.”
“What about time off or breaks?” someone asked. The soldier answering questions had clearly been trained to do so. My bet was that if he sucked he would get shipped off to the front lines as he called them.
“You meet your quota, or you get put on the front lines. Without stats, you are cannon fodder at best, dead meat at worst. You all got an initial restoration, and you will get equipment and training. But you better meet your quota or die trying. You won’t get any more healing.”
“What if there aren’t enough monsters?” another person asked.
“Hunting camps have been spread out to maximize grinding the zones and your instructor has been trained with the monster type you are dealing with and nearby monster types. There will be enough unless you are slacking. Don’t slack. In addition there is a small bit of leeway built into the quota, so you can keep everything after the daily requirement for yourselves.”
No one complained about it being unfair. The first three people who complained were whipped and beaten to death. Questions were fine as long as they were productive. After that, anyone who complained was taking away. Probably to die on the battlefield. I didn’t want to die, so I just shut up and listened like most other people.
The tallest tree is hit first with lightning and all that. “I don’t really understand the command structure or how we move up?”
The soldier smiled at this. “That is a great question. You work hard, and you will get promoted to being a soldier instead of a grinder. If you want to advance quickly and get stats, then you will pick the front, otherwise you pick the rear and logistics like me.”
“But you survive, kill some scalies, well then you get promoted. People die left and right out on the front and you survive grinding long enough you will get pulled eventually. You live long enough, then you get rotated off the front to be a trainer.”
“Why scalies?” I asked.
“Our mortal enemy is the Dragon Empire run by the great she bitch black dragon empress herself. Her soldiers tend to wear metal armor that looks like scales, so they are scalies.”
“Is she really a black dragon?” Someone else asked.
“To put things in perspective, she managed to wound Champion Michael in single combat and destroy the City of Purgatory in its entirety. The higher ups are working on a way to fight her. But if you see her, you are probably already dead. There is no way you can flee, fight, talk, or do anything to her. Her stats have reached over one hundred thousand, which means billions of crystals.” I gulped at that. We had seen demonstrations of skills and high stats yesterday from the person running the recruitment camp to put it into our heads we weren’t on Earth anymore.
“Champion Michael is currently looking into a way to kill the Divine Empress, which you all better pray to the Almighty System he succeeds, and Chief Administrator Clarissa is managing the war effort.” I said a prayer to whomever might be listening that I lived, Almighty System and Champion Michael.
Richard (Day 33)
“Killing these ants are a pain,” one of my teammates named Donald muttered. We had one archer whose job was to shoot the summoner. The rest of us killed the baby ants and covered for the archer. Problem was it took some well placed arrows to kill the summoner and then someone would aggro another.
It was hard grueling work to kill the ants, but I kept my mouth shut. Complaining was no use. It took us most of the day to fill our quota and then we worked a bit more to kill the remaining monsters off that we could before it got dark.
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We split the extra crystals and returned to camp. In the morning a cart would come by, deliver supplies, pick up the quota, and sell luxuries if we wanted to buy them. We could also pay for a promotion to soldier. Most people bought luxuries, but I was saving up to get out of this grind.
If a person tied or just gave up. Someone new would replace them and the rest of the group would explain how things worked. The trainer actually had four camps they rotated in between, one every day. Checking in and evaluating our performance.
“Better than dying on the front,” Carl added.
“Maybe, but it can’t be that bad. Just bunker down or something,” Donald replied.
“You are thinking modern warfare. You notice there are no guns. There are skills sure. But no guns. It is all swords, shields, and bows. You are going to be fighting in melee combat out on the front,” Carl said.
“Better to get powerful and live, than die like a dog,” Donald complained. He liked to complain about everything.
“I agree with you. I don’t want to be stuck doing this long term either,” I replied and Donald gave me a thumbs up at our little campsite. “I mean, there are people stuck grinding and people getting that quota. I want to be getting that quota, or at least working for myself.”
“Good luck, I don’t think you will live,” Carl said.
“Stop being an ass. Rather live on my feet. I heard a rumor,” Donald said.
“Really from where?” Carl asked.
“From the quota guy, we got to talking a couple days ago. He was subbing in for someone else. Anyways I heard the war is going badly. They pushed our forces back into Purgatory. If they manage to push all the way through, then we are finished. Only thing between us and those scalies,” Donald said.
“Propaganda. I mean honestly, who would ever believe using babies as human weapons. It makes absolutely no sense. And a screaming throne? It would be headache inducing to listen to all day while sitting on it.” I wasn’t so sure. This place had crazy things, who knew what was real and what wasn’t.
Richard (Day 70)
“Alright, listen up. You all got the special boost food that had been provided. You have stats. But you don’t know what the hell to do with them. That is why we gave you some initial stats to train with and get used to.”
I was standing at attention at the drill camp. I had been here for the last five days. We had been put through our paces. It was brutal. Anyone who complained was cut. Anyone who didn’t meet the standard was cut.
The reasoning was, there were limited number of special rations to boost stats. They were needed for the best of the best of the best. The Purgatory Army couldn’t have any lay abouts or people not pulling their weight.
“Melee combat is about speed, movement, and using force to quickly alter your trajectory. That means no leaping around like bunnies. Which is why we have been having you run.” I agreed with this. Too many stats and it was like being in low gravity.
The trick was to kick off low and the trainers showed everyone what to do and explained the proper footwork. “Now we are going to combine movement with speed. You move in with a sword and stab. Watch how I do it.”
The trainer shot off and then stabbed out and whipped his sword to the side. He did it again in slow motion and then again at his max speed. “You want to yank your sword free and to the side when your feet are planted to counter act the torque on your body. Otherwise you will get all sorts of messed up. Feet planted when you swing, so you can put all your stats into your swing as well.”
“Your stats aren’t doing everything all at once. They do bits and pieces and add up to a maximum amount. So if you are kicking off or landing while you swing, your swing will be half assed. Only swing when your feet are on the ground, or you are moving. Also don’t be afraid to block and swoop in on someone else who is blocking. Teamwork-“
“-makes the dream work!” we all shouted back, and the trainer nodded. At least there were no push-ups or other physical punishments. People who were here wanted to be here. If they made trouble or messed up, they were gone. There were only thirty of us left from the initial fifty. This training camp went for 10 day cycles, or a deek as they called it around here. Then we would be off to the front under a Captain as part of a unit.
“Alright, now spread out in a line. Go back and forth. Stay in your lanes. Sparring leads to too many injuries and we need those crystals for fighting soldiers, not stupid trainees.”
We lined up and began zipping back and forth. “Richard! Keep your feet closer to the ground. You need to be able to adjust quickly!”
“Yes sir!” I called back and worked to adjust my footing as we zipped back and forth. Eventually a halt was called and we put our swords on the rack and given shields. We had to run around the track and block stones the trainers threw at us.
There was no healing, so each cut stuck with a person. It was hinted we would get a restoration before going to the front lines, but no one liked getting hit. A couple people had lost eyes. The trainers liked to aim for them.
No moving in formation either. Since the goal was to get our Perception and Sense stat trained and focused to recognizing attacks. We needed to be constantly aware of anything that might be coming at us from any direction.
It was mentally exhausting, but I liked this a lot more than grinding. Grinding would be so easy now once this training was done. It surprised me they didn’t train more people, but that special food we had been given had really done wonders. Each day I felt like I was getting better and better.
The biggest challenge would be surviving the front lines. The trainers were tight lipped, but things weren’t going well. Our forces were barely hanging on against the scalies. If they broke through our lines, we would lose the grinding zones and then things might totally collapse.
There had been rumors about Champion Michael, but no one knew where he was. Some people said he was a myth, but one trainer claim to have actually met the man once. It was rumored his stats were far beyond any of ours and he grinded on level 4 monsters to try and get stronger to defeat the queen lizard.
I quickly brough up my shield but a second stone hit my foot. “Pay attention! Less day dreaming Richard! Those scalies will eat you up for breakfast if you don’t!” I focused more on the stones flying and less on rumors I had overheard.