Chapter 220. Training Session.
“You ready to get to work Rico?” Major Finley asked. From his tone, no was not an option for me.
“Roger that, what’s on the agenda for today?” I replied, trying to remember that yeah was not an acceptable answer.
“I’ll start off with some baseline evaluations to see where you are, then we’ll do some PT. After that, we’ll work on room clearing and finish off with some small unit tactics,” Finley said.
“Agent Lopez mentioned something about my minions helping your guys to train as well,” I said.
“You’re right, but I want to get you squared away and see what you can do before we dive into that. Can I ask you something?” Finley asked.
“Sure, shoot.”
“What’s it like, you know, traveling to other worlds? From what I learned in the briefing, the missions for you guys don’t always end well,” Finley said as he parked the car in front of what looked like a combination warehouse and gym.
“It’s hard to explain without experiencing it, but it’s a bit bizarre. I’m never sure exactly what I’m getting into with each summoning. Some are very interesting, but some you’d rather not remember. If you’re wondering, yes, I do end up dying a lot. Somehow, the system rebuilds us after a summoning ends. When I return here, I’m good as new, better actually since all my minor physical problems are gone,” I explained.
“I can’t imagine, but I’d love to check it out. Tell you what, if you ever get the chance to take someone from home with you, give me a call,” Finley said as he opened the door to the building and waved me in.
“Sure, you never know what the system will throw at me, and if I get a chance, and it’s under the same rules that I have, I’ll call you. I don’t want to bring you on a summoning when whoever I bring can die for good…” I started to say more, but noticed we weren’t alone as we entered the gym. A small formation of maybe twenty or thirty soldiers was standing at ease in front of us.
“Gentlemen, this is Rico Kline. He’ll be training with us and offering some insight into what we will be facing in the near future. Listen well, despite being a civilian, this young man has seen more combat than anyone on post.” Finley addressed the group before turning to me. “Rico, this is going to be our QRF for any system related problems that crop up in the area. They’ve all been read into the program and know about you and what’s going to happen here with the system.”
“QRF? Sorry, I’m not up to speed on all the military jargon,” I replied.
“Quick Reaction Force. If something bad happens, we’ll load up and respond. That’s why having your minions help train us is as important as the training you’ll receive. Now, let’s get to work,” Finley said.
Get to work was right, Finley started off with some warmup exercises, which would have qualified as a full workout to most athletes. My class was one that focused on my mind stat, but my other stats weren’t exactly hurting. From the latest database updates at Refuge, they figured out that an average human male had a strength of somewhere between five and seven. At fourteen, my strength was on par with a top bodybuilder. Thankfully, my body didn’t bulk up like a bodybuilder’s, it remained a lean and fit build.
It took some time for Finley to wear me down, between my strength and even higher constitution. My agility was higher than most humans at thirteen, but for some reason, I still stunk at throwing things. I mentioned it to Finley, and he said we’d get some practice at the grenade range. At the mention of grenades, I felt a little better about the training, throwing grenades sounded like fun.
After an hour or so of exercises, Finley had me spar with a few of the soldiers. My strength was higher than theirs from what I could tell, and I had the basic unarmed fighting skill, but the soldiers still destroyed me. I tapped out more here than I ever had in the dojo. It turns out, skill trumps brute power most of the time. We broke for lunch, which turned out to be MREs. Finley mentioned they rarely ate them unless out in the field, but he wanted me to get the whole experience.
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I could have done without the MRE experience. They supposedly gave me one of the “good” ones, a pizza slice. It compared with the worst school cafeteria pizza I’d ever eaten. The other side dish things weren’t bad, and I actually liked the jalapeno cheese and crackers. Still, I’d rather not experience another MRE if I could help it.
“Hey Rico, you’re supposed to summon things, how about showing us what you can do?” one of the soldier’s a young man named Cummings asked as we ate. The others had been relatively quiet around me, and I chalked it up to a combination of being a stranger on their home turf and having odd powers they’ve only heard about.
“I can, as long as Major Finley is cool with it,” I replied, looking over to Finley.
“Go ahead, I was going to have the men spar against your minions at some point if that’s okay with you. If not, at least they can get a peek at some of the things that they might eventually have to deal with,” Finley replied.
“Okay, I have five different things I can summon. What do you want Cummings, the weakest, the strongest, or something in between?” I asked. This led to a quick and heated discussion among the soldiers about what they wanted to see.
“Fine, I’ll say the biggest, meanest thing you got,” Cummings said.
“Nobody freak out, it won’t attack or hurt anyone unless I order it to,” I said as I summoned the mana slayer drone, choosing to make it appear just a foot in front of Cummings. As the seven-foot-tall killer drone appeared right in his face, Cummings squawked and fell backwards, much to the delight of the other soldiers who were always willing to poke fun at one of their own.
“It looks impressive, what can it do?” Finley asked.
“It’s called a mana slayer drone, and it’s a melee fighter that has innate resistances to any kind of magic. Drone, show us how you fight,” I ordered. The drone brandished its longer set of arms, the bladed claws gleaming in the light as it stabbed and slashed at an imaginary foe. Its smaller arms also swung and attacked. To top things off, its clawed feet gouged into the concrete flooring as it moved.
“Impressive, but I doubt its armor would stand up to rifle rounds. We’d shred it before it got close enough to use those blades,” Cummings said.
“You can’t kill what you can’t see,” I replied, ordering the drone into stealth mode. It disappeared, moved a few steps away, and appeared again.
“It’s invisible too?” Finley asked, as engrossed in my minion as the rest of the soldiers.
“Sort of, if you look closely, you’ll be able to tell where it’s at. As it gains new ranks, its stealth will improve. Just remember, anything this big is going to leave some clue to its position whenever it moves.
“Still, if we sprayed the area with bullets, we’d find it pretty quick. Once we see it, we can kill it,” Cummings said with confidence.
“Maybe, but what will you do when your weapons don’t work? There’s a simple spell that’s available to most summoned beings called Fail Weapons. If I cast that on your rifle, it’ll jam up, or the firing pin will break, or something along those lines,” I explained.
“Remember,” Finley started “there’s a strong chance that we’re going to have to go old school on these things. Current analysis by the science geeks is telling us that we can expect most modern tech will fail when the system integrates here. That’s why Rico’s here to help us. Rico, for my own curiosity, how do you get your minions? Is it random or is there a minion store somewhere?”
“I was given a choice of a few options. My class dictates that all my minions come from things that I’ve fought in the past. These mana slayer drones were attacking a starship I was summoned to help defend,” I answered.
“Wait, you were on a starship? And you fought one of these?” Finley asked, and from the murmur of the troops, they were impressed. The other soldiers were crowding around the mana slayer, knocking on its armor and testing the sharpness of its blades.
“Yes, it was a living starship powered by mana, and these drones are part of some huge army that is hunting down all magic users in the universe and killing them. Me and my minions fought and killed several of these, but we were overpowered in the end, and I was killed,” I tried to explain.
That brought up a whole bunch of questions about my class, how summoning worked, and my past experiences. After a couple of hours, Finley called a halt to the question-and-answer session, pulling aside a few of the soldiers to show me the proper way of clearing rooms and some basic formations that might work for my team.
I brought out the whole minion team, and even cut my own arm to demonstrate Elida’s healing spells. With my crew on display, the soldiers helped me fine tune some formations, order of march, and how to use cover and concealment to our advantage. By the time 5pm rolled around, Finley called a halt. I left the base feeling like I’d learned a lot in one day, and I was looking forward to continuing my training.
Finley thanked me, and explained that his men had learned as much, if not more, from me today as I’d learned from them. For now, we’d be going at it every day for at least eight hours. From what Marie told me when I got home, these types of training groups were sprouting up all over. Each country was trying to form a cadre of soldiers who knew how to fight the things that the system might unleash on us.
As far as I knew, my class was one of the few that could summon system created minions without mana. That meant I was going to eventually be on tour to help with all the other military and law enforcement teams that were forming. It was better they see things like killer drones, goblins, and gnolls before they had to fight against them.