Chapter 203. Working Together.
“Sorry, Melvin, I’m going to be burning up the mana in the training center today,” I told my friend. Melvin sent feelings through our connection telling me that he was almost as excited as I was to see how the new team would perform.
A quick check showed that the training center had around 70% of its mana remaining, plenty for a quick run with each new minion. It was odd that I didn’t have a figurine for each of my summons now. Instead, I just had to concentrate on which minion I wanted, select a location for them, and boom, they appeared. Having fewer figurines to manage was a nice bonus.
I wanted to start by summoning each minion individually and seeing how they operated. First out was the mana slayer drone, which I also used to test the extent of my summoning range by selecting a spot twenty feet away from where I was standing at the entrance to the training center. One moment the training center floor was empty, and the next, my mana slayer drone was standing there, no puff of mana or anything else to give away what had happened.
The drone was almost an exact copy of the ones that I had fought aboard the starship. It stood about seven feet tall and was roughly humanoid in appearance. Its legs had knees that bent the opposite way a human would, and the feet were equipped with a set of vicious claws. Two sets of arms extended from its armored torso, the top set were longer, and ended in deadly, bladed claws. The other, smaller set was more like a human’s hand. Each had four fingers and a thumb, along with an almost rubber-like substance on the metal appendages to help it grip things.
Testing out its maneuverability I had the drone perform some basic activities and was surprised to see how agile it was for something so heavy. It could sprint at double my best speed, and using its arms and clawed feet, had little trouble climbing up the ceiling. This minion would have no problems keeping up with the rest of the team and could hunt down anything trying to escape us.
My class change hadn’t altered the training center that much, there was still the row of shelves holding summoning figurines to use as opponents. I was surprised to see a few additions to the shelves. The system had placed copies of all the minions I’d declined into the training roster. I’d get a chance to see my choice in action against the ones I’d passed on. In addition to the new opponents, the training center had expanded by several yards on each side, giving me a larger battlefield to work with.
For the first fight against my drone, I summoned the Verminfolk assassin. I knew the creature had been summoned, but I couldn’t see it. The drone must have sensed something as it began to prowl around the training center, its clawed limbs occasionally lashing out to check for its foe. Almost too fast for me to see, the assassin appeared behind my drone, both blades stabbing into its armored torso. The verminfolk’s blades glowed briefly as they struck, and I could see that, despite its rather sturdy appearance, the armor on my drone didn’t do all that much to stop the strike.
If my drone had been a living being, I don’t think it would have survived, but my drone was still functional, despite some sparks shooting out from where it had been stabbed. The assassin disappeared again, but my drone was already counterattacking. Its torso swiveled to face the opponent, and the clawed arms lashed out. The left claw hit the invisible Verminfolk, and blood splattered as the blades easily sliced through the leather armor the assassin wore.
The two began to go after each other, daggers, and bladed arms swung and stabbed in a flurry of blows almost too quickly for me to see. Now that its opponent wasn’t backstabbing my drone, the dagger strikes were much less effective. Armored plates deflected about half the hits, and none of the others managed to penetrate more than an inch or so past the armor.
With the assassin fending off the bladed arms of the drone, the other, shorter arms reached in, grabbing ahold of the verminkin, and lifting the squirming and squealing creature aloft. A swift swipe of the clawed hands decapitated the verminkin before it disappeared back into mana vapor.
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My drone was a bit worse for wear, but it was all illusion inside the training center. As soon as the fight ended, it was back to normal. If I had to guess, the drone could have stayed in the fight longer if needed. I tested out a few other opponents, and both the tiki creatures and the plague warrior fell easily. Those opponents counted on their poisoned weapons or toxic auras to damage their foes and my minion was mostly mechanical in nature.
A bit worried, I had the drone purposely damage itself, cracking through one of the armored plates. Casting Health Bloom, I was glad to see the magic seemed to affect my minion as it would with living flesh. Maybe it was because it was my minion, or perhaps because it was a mana construct, but my spell worked normally. I also summoned Elida to heal him, and her healing spell worked also, but it didn’t seem to pack as much punch as it should have.
I’d take a slightly reduced healing rate to prevent any toxins from affecting my most powerful minion. Elida Silverbarrow was as effective as I hoped, and combined with the drone, I had the pair face several opponents. The pair held their own against most foes, only losing to much more powerful enemies, or when swarmed by greater numbers. If the enemy could get past the drone, Elida fell quickly.
I brought out the goblin trio to support them. The three looked much more imposing than when I had first seen them. New armor and better weapons served the team well. When combined with the drone and Elida, they punched far above their tier.
Adding the gnoll scout, Khurr, and the goblin Blieek didn’t seem to do as much for the team. They were my two lowest tier minions, so their limited effectiveness wasn’t surprising. Adding them allowed the team to deal with swarms of lower-tiered opponents a bit more effectively. With everyone summoned, I had seven minions on the battlefield, a new record for me without using any consumables.
As they gained higher ranks and added new gear, my team would only become more powerful. Every five ranks, I’d also be adding a new member to the lineup. After testing them out, I felt confident in my new class. Just for fun, I placed the team up against a team made of the best of the other options I’d had. The Verminfolk assassin, Grulnok, the ghoul, Lillia Fairwind, and Rupert went toe to toe against my dream team.
It wasn’t even close. The drone tied up Grulnok and Lillia, allowing the goblin Glurk and my gnoll scout to pepper the ghoul with ranged fire. The assassin dealt with Elida early on, appearing behind the healer and dropping her with his dual backstab strike. The goblins shifted their focus to the assassin, while the drone finished off Grulnok before moving to help.
The surprise MVP was my lowly goblin spearman who managed to sneak up on Rupert before running him through with his newly improved spear. Poor Rupert, he always seemed to get the short end of the stick in fights. With the Verminfolk assassin unable to return to stealth as the goblins worked him over, the drone moved in and dispatched him the same way he had done before.
Mopping up the last of the foes, my team was victorious, but not without losses. The two melee goblins, Glem and Glamb, along with Elida, were killed by the assassin. All the others, save for the lowly goblin spearman, had some level of damage. I purposefully kept out of the fight, letting the minions take the lead, but if I had been helping with my magic, the team would have ended up in much better shape.
“Hey, this place is nice, when do my boys get a crack at this training center?” Gary asked, startling me with his sudden appearance at the door to the training center.
“Wait, how did you get in here? I thought you had to stay in your expansion,” I asked.
“Yeah, I do, except that your portal to Somhagen appeared and I received notification from the system that it was time for our road trip. What do you say, buddy, are you ready to go? I’d hate to miss my opportunity because you spent so long in here that the portal disappeared,” Gary said.
“That can happen? How long do I have?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, this is only the second, no, it’s the third time I’ve been in a summoned being’s personal space. I’m sure the system will give you a nudge when it gets impatient, I just didn’t want to miss the bus,” Gary explained.
“Well, just give me a minute to grab a few things, and I’ll be ready to go,” I said, dismissing my team and heading to the reward chest to withdraw everything I wanted to take with me.
“This is going to be fun, don’t you think, Rico?” Gary said as we stepped through the portal.
“I just hope we don’t get into any trouble,” I mumbled back.
“Aw, you’re no fun, Rico, you need to live a little. Don’t worry, you’ve got me here this time, what could go wrong?” Gary asked. I really didn’t want to know the answer to that question.