Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 259: Boiling Frog

The military was a place that embodied the very concept of “regulation”, at least in theory. Discipline, a strict hierarchy, rules for absolutely everything.

Which just meant that when things weren’t going well, it was all the more obvious, blindingly so.

And the reactions to the “miscommunication” that had caused chaos at the highest levels of government most certainly fell under the umbrella of “not going well”.

The true nature of the incident was still somewhat shrouded in mystery to most people as no one had officially announced anything, but the mess had been impossible to hide as every head of state had been informed of the Ankou.

Sure, there might be a few tinpot dictators and warlords completely lacking in legitimacy who hadn’t gotten the memo, but most of the world had received the warning. However, the real issue was that not everyone had gotten the all-clear quickly as the Americans had been understandably reluctant to widely announce the fact that the White House had been infiltrated. The information about the situation having been resolved had eventually trickled through, but not before noticeable military preparations had been made by quite a few nations.

This, in turn, had been noticed by various journalists, as had been the chaos at the White House, sparking countless speculation which had then become the sources for several conspiracy theories.

At the same time, it hadn’t taken long for soldiers to become suspicious of the sudden “drills” caused by their leaders being alarmed.

Thankfully, the full truth had stayed hidden. [System] messages might not be possible to fake, but pictures of them certainly could be. The various absolute rulers on planet Earth had been the only ones in their respective governments who’d gotten the warning and had apparently decided against widely announcing the whole mess. Presumably, the fear had been that they’d be called liars and lose some integrity in the eyes of their subordinates.

But where the mess had largely become a mystery in the eyes of the public, it had merely become a source of too-rapid development for the crowd in front of Isaac.

In the end, they’d settled on meeting in Grafenwöhr, an airplane hanger. It was fairly centrally located and had plenty of space available not only for this but to set up whatever was needed for training. In addition, well, it was a training ground and used to the sheer chaos of [Systen]-based training.

That didn’t mean that it was ready for the sheer chaos of having such a disparate group all but dumped into it.

Isaac, though, he didn’t have to deal with any of that. He was just staying nearby, observing, checking out the “kids”.

In hindsight, scouting out potential students was the real use for the power to recognize worthy warriors he’d gained alongside his Einherjar race. Sure, it was useful for picking out powerful enemies from crowds who might have otherwise hidden from sight, but finding students was where it truly shone.

It was initially shocking how many people didn’t meet those criteria, but it did make sense when he really thought about it.

For one, the standards of his ability were incredibly high. Someone who would strive to reach the point where they would be worthy of being chosen to fight in the final battle for the survival of the world, fighting monsters capable of cataclysmic acts of destruction.

Also, there were plenty of reasons one would join the military that didn’t involve getting better at fighting. Patriotism, getting a paid-for education, wanting a path out of a bad situation, a desire for structure, and more things could have placed people in the group in front of him.

General Ardouin was a member of that illustrious group, but only a few other commanding officers were. Horn wasn’t, being “just” an extremely well-trained professional capable with decades of experience on the job.

As for the actual prospective trainees, there were perhaps twenty people who had what it took, another thirty or so who might be worth looking at, and four hundred and fifty who’d quit before the end of the month. He gave those names to Horn and made a slow retreat until he’d left Grafenwöhr, then teleported right back to the university to make some arrangements.

Not to mention that he had several requisitions to make of the Bundeswehr’s stocks. Horn had apparently rushed to give Isaac everything he’d asked for, even before the whole international angle had been arranged. Isaac suspected that the general had hoped that he’d just train the German contingent in case it didn’t work out with their allies.

Of course, once Isaac had selected the group, there’d been a whole lot of people who’d wanted to get their protegees into his class. He’d hemmed, hawed, … and let in a few more people. The ones who’d get themselves kicked out the fastest, naturally.

***

Day 1

Second Lieutenant Allan Smith had had one hell of a week.

First, there’d been a completely unscheduled “drill” that had involved putting the entirety of the United States military on high alert.

Then, the drill had ended with sudden and unexplained suddenness while at the same time, something had gone down in Washington. He hadn’t been there to see that part, but it hadn’t been hard to put two and two together after reading the newspaper.

After that, he’d been packed up and shipped off to Germany along with several for God only knows what reason. Only to then find out that all of NATO and several allies outside of it had sent people just like him, around five hundred altogether.

And now, he’d been taken from even that group for “special training”.

“Special training” was one of the most terrifying phrases that an officer could say, just as bad as “opportunity” or “you’ve all volunteered”.

Yet it didn’t seem all that bad so far. He, and around sixty others were in a bog-standard lecture hall, “decorated” in the sparse style of a military building, waiting for the teacher.

Mind you, said teacher wasn’t late, it was just that everyone here was at least half an hour early.

12 pm. That’s by when they were supposed to be here. Ten more seconds before the teacher was officially late. Not a good start.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

…

One.

Zer- … in the very instant the clock hit twelve, a portal flashed open behind the lecturer’s desk, revealing a young man wearing dark grey outdoor clothing that was similar to military fatigues, but could not be mistaken for them even at a distance. Shockingly black hair, and green eyes that seemed to glow with an inner light were somehow clearly visible even all the way across the room. Wait, that couldn’t be …

“Good afternoon. My name is Isaac Thoma and I’ll be your instructor for the next eight months. During that period, from 12 pm to 12 am, You. Are. Mine.

“No, I do not hold a formal rank in any military, but I have been given authority over you and if anyone has a problem with that, there’s the door. Feel free to argue your case to your superiors, not to me.

“What you do with your time when I’m not here is up to your superiors, but if I were you, I’d prepare for eight months of non-stop effort.”

Thoma stepped around the desk while he grabbed a sheet of paper off it. A softly glowing blue orb manifested above his free hand, around the size of a marble.

“Some of you might have realized that all of this is very last minute, and you’ve probably realized that this has something to do with what happened last week. If you the full truth of the matter, you’ve likely received orders to not spread that information. If you don’t, suffice it to say, there was a miscommunication that caused most militaries to go on alert, exposing some gaps in overall preparedness. Specifically, officers completely integrated with the [System].”

He held up the hand with the glowing marble.

“And that’s where you come in. I’m going to throw you into the crucible over and over again, all the while teaching you tricks that maybe a hundred of your superiors can pull off.

“First of all, we have mana manipulation. Before your imagination runs away with you, let me show you what two thousand points of mana do to a sheet of paper.”

He flicked the marble into the sheet of paper, causing everyone to flinch, and quite a few people even ducked under their tables. Not that it would do much. He’d have taken precautions, and if he hadn’t, they were all dead anyway. Two thousand mana was enough to power an artillery spell capable of leveling a city block.

The sheet of paper twitched but did nothing else.

“Mana can act as reality’s cheat code in the right hands, but it requires proper instruction to do so. On its own, generally, it’s invisible and intangible, even when significant amounts of it are compressed all you’ll see is a little heat and light. Anything beyond that is the result of mana filtered through the lens of spells or [Skills]. Even [Manaweaver] needs a [Skill] to facilitate the manifestation of solid shapes and energy blasts.

“So no, you won’t functionally become wizards along with your [Class] abilities. However, you’ll be able to use almost all magical objects, even badly made ones that do not automatically interface with the user’s mana.

“It’s also possible to refine the use of certain [Skills] via mana manipulation. For example, one can interface one’s mana network with someone else’s training field [Skill] to make use of it even when one is too powerful for the [Skill] to contain.

“Also, skill at mana manipulation transfers almost directly to skill with the elemental abilities you’ll get from the Aspects you’ll get later.”

Holy shit! Ho-ley fucking shit! Right at that moment, Allan didn’t care what he had to do, what hell Thoma would put him through if he got those Aspects. In theory, anyone could get them by killing monsters. In practice, they were so rare that one might only see one or two a year, and even then, there was no guarantee the specific one that dropped would be useful for you.

Many officers had one or two, usually one for regeneration and one to grant them an elemental attack ability in case the enemy did somehow reach them.

Special forces were usually loaded with Aspects, easily doubling the number of [Skills] at their disposal.

And then there were the most powerful people in the world, S-Rankers, who were wielding levels of power that should have remained in the realm of comic books, who had more Aspects than Levels!

If someone like Thoma promised to give them Aspects, then Allan would be able to grow to incredible heights.

“Which brings me to the final part of this introductory speech. The bad news. Because this was all so last minute, parts aren’t ready yet. That means that you all get to do the easy part up front, instead of having it spaced out across the months.”

With that, he pulled a small sack from beneath the lectern and emptied it on the tabletop.

With a metallic clatter, countless small objects scattered across the surface. Where those … rings?

“These are second-generation storage rings. They are absolute garbage, with barely enough space to store a standard moving box and they’re literally impossible to use by anyone who doesn’t wield near caster-level mana control. Your lunch is in there.”

Thoma grinned evilly as the trainees around Allan shifted nervously, “Don’t worry, if you can’t get into your rings, I’ve got some bread and water over there. Now, everyone come grab a ring and then I’ll teach you how to get started. Oh, and you’d best learn quickly because come Monday, the key to the bathroom will be in one of these.”

“But the first three people to open their rings will get one of these,” He announced as he pulled three more rings out of his pocket and laid them on the lectern in front of him, “Fourth-generation storage rings. They each hold to cubic meters of material and can be freely used by anyone, no matter their skill at mana manipulation. They can also only be used by their designated owner.”

***

Day 7

The last week had been the weirdest of Allan’s life, hands down. Dr. Thoma had sat at the front, working on preparing the future training exercises. He’d answered questions when they were asked, given hints, and made suggestions.

But he’d also asked some very weird questions. Favorite video game and playstyle in it. Chess knowledge. Sports preferences.

Also, true to his word, Thoma had stuck the key to the bathroom in one of the rings and the few people who hadn’t mastered mana manipulation by then had been in serious trouble.

Today, though, things had gone to a head.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Are you insane?”

Thoma had laid out adult diapers at the start of this particular lesson, “in case anyone couldn’t hold it for another twelve or so hours” and some of the people who were still struggling had lost it.

“Lieutenant Hampton, there are three kinds of people in this room. Those who have gone above and beyond in training and their studies, those who have a certain je ne sais quoi that didn’t make it into their file, and those with patrons who were going to be easier to fend off after their darling already flamed out. So, lieutenant, which category do you think you fall into? And who will I get to tell all about how their recommendation was bullshit?”

Thoma hadn’t even been looking at Hampton for most of the speech, only locking eyes with him during the final sentence. It was surprising just how much contempt had been packed into that “lieutenant”.

“I’ve got top marks at …” Hampton began. Smith knew him from training, he was from an old army family. And he’d been an exemplar soldier on paper but with a certain air of annoying, smug, superiority about him. Allan had been very surprised to see him here, but now, things made a little more sense.

“Does this look like your old environment?” Thoma asked acidly, “I don’t care about what your file says you’re capable of, I care about what you can actually do. And from what I’ve seen so far, what you can do isn’t enough. So either put in the effort to catch up, or get out.”

With that, Thoma rose to his feet and strode towards Hampton, with what had to be an [Aura] boiling off him, “Make your decision. It won’t get any easier from here on out.”

Hampton stalked out through the door with what little dignity he could muster and that was that.

Thoma turned around at the door and flashed them a grin. A grin they all knew to interpret as “he just had an evil idea”.

He led them to what looked to be a standard assault course.

Isaac Thoma would like to teach you the Skill [Medieval Leader]. Would you like to learn this Skill?

Y/N

The message suddenly appeared in Allan’s face and he nearly tripped, but he caught himself and accepted.

Medieval Leader (rare)

This Skill is an essential component of leading a group of your fellows into combat.

Firstly, it allows for the creation of an official, System-acknowledged party with all the advantages that entails (knowledge of each other’s health states, locating allies, XP sharing).

Secondly, the user can remotely talk to party members up to five hundred meters away, as well as create location markers and share information, with the distance increasing another one hundred meters per Level in this Skill.

Cost: 100 mana to establish, 300 mana per day to sustain

“Party-based communication is an essential ability on the modern battlefield. Since you’re all still using your starter [Class], you won’t have a [Skill] to create one yet. Until you get your own, use this one to practice.

“This is where you’ll practice. That is an assault course absolutely stuffed with traps, including alchemical irritants, tear gas, and so on. You fine folks will take turns guiding the others through the course with the intel I provide. Good luck, and you’d better hope that the people you steer into a trap aren’t petty enough to retaliate.”

***

The evil grin dropped off Isaac’s face the instant he was out of sight of the trainees. He wasn’t a big fan of playing the tough guy, most of the time. That stuff was reserved for nepo-babies and others he wanted to unleash his wrath upon, not people doing their best. Of which there were none left.

Graciously accepting them had short-stopped a lot of arguments, and the spectacular self-destruction that followed had both spurred on everyone else on and proven his judgment was sound.

But all in all, this was going fairly well. No one had reached his level of mana control by this point, never mind caster-level skill, but all remaining people were proficient enough to be able to reliably use even the beyond-terrible first-generation storage rings.

And he really was a big fan of the assault course. It was absolutely stuffed with all sorts of fun things. He’d probably be able to use the video footage of his training to start a prank YouTube channel and get a million followers in a couple of weeks. He wouldn’t, but it was that sort of problem.

If he’d had completely free reign, he’d have gone with painful traps that would be healed once the course had been finished, but he was limited by military regulations. Instead, he’d gone in the direction of causing another kind of pain. Ego damage. Get stuck upside-down in solidified foam that still allowed one to breathe for half an hour and you’ll do your damndest to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Of course, the task was massively complicated by the fact that they had practically no command or coordinating [Skills], but that was actually a good thing. Because under those circumstances, they need to get creative, they couldn’t just rely on [Skills] to get the objective meaning of their orders across.

***

Month 2

After three weeks of alternating mana control exercises and being chased down exceedingly insane assault courses, Thoma led the group out into a large chamber with a summoning circle in the far corner.

“This, ladies and gentlemen, is where you’ll be earning your Aspects.”

A thin, razor-sharp blade manifested in his right hand as he spun around and offered it to them, hilt first.

“This is a ‘True Copy of Mimung’. Obviously, there can only be one Mimung, but this thing is every bit as good as the original.

“I know you’ve speculated a lot about why I was asking all those questions earlier. I was working out which Aspects would go best with your personality, and the build you had in mind. So, who wants to go first?”

Almost half the hands went up at that, but Allan was slightly faster and was called over. But the moment his right hand grasped the hilt of the legendary sword, Thoma revealed what he had in his other hand. A black bag, the kind that would go over a prisoner’s head in a spy movie.

“Oh, I almost forgot, you’ll have to wear this. I’ll intervene if you’re in danger, but beyond that, you’ll have to rely on your comrades to guide your blade. Figure out who you’ll be listening to, how many people should be involved, and so on. Good luck.”

And with that, he teleported to the far corner of the room, where he’d set up a laptop and a literal pile of paperwork.

***

Allan’s breath was loud in his ears, the fabric of the bag rough on his face. Sweat slicked the handle of the blade he held, conjuring up horror scenarios of what might happen if he dropped it in his mind. It was so sharp that he could chop someone of his power level in half and not even notice. If he dropped it on his foot or stepped on it … it didn’t bear thinking about.

“Duck, horizontal slash!” Yu ordered via the party. In the end, it had been decided that only one person would be passing along information to the person fighting to streamline the process and Allan had gotten along with the man from Korea the best so far.

He did his best to obey the orders, a [Skill] meant to facilitate better information sharing between [Students] of all things helping guide him, but he didn’t manage to execute it properly.

A palm to the chest threw him clear while the bag was plucked from his head.

He saw the dead body of the Echoing Wailer, a massive frog-like monster, lie there, split clean in half by Thoma’s blade. And the Aspect that glimmered in the corpse.

Thoma grabbed it and pulled it into his storage, “This will go to the base stores for the higher-ups to fight about. I killed that monster, and Aspects work best when you harvest them yourself. Figure out where you went wrong and try again.”

Allan just barely managed to strangle his cry of protest, letting out a low wheeze. His Aspect …

***

“Duck!”

Allan ducked, feeling a shockwave blast past overhead.

“Stand up, two steps forward, stab.”

He didn’t feel it as the blade hit the monster, cleaving flesh as though it weren’t even there. But he did feel the resulting spray of blood.

“Turn and run!” Yu yelled. He didn’t need to tell Allan twice. He just took off. That had been the plan, fatally wound the monster, then leg it.

“WALL!”

The warning came a little too late. Strong hands stole the sword out of his hand a split second before Allan’s forehead met the straw-padded wall.

A [System] message appeared in his vision.

Echoing Wailer (Lv. 9) has been slain. 35 XP gained (50 XP base distributed across 11 people as per their contributions)

“Not bad,” Thoma’s voice came from right next to him, “Now do it again until you have the Aspect. But I have to ask: DID YOU NOT REALIZE THAT IF YOU SHOULDN’T RUN WITH SCISSORS, RUNNING WITH SWORDS IS AN EVEN WORSE IDEA? DID YOU SOMEHOW MANAGE TO FAIL KINDERGARTEN, SMITH?”

Honestly, that particular roasting was one hundred percent deserved. Allan was just happy that Thoma had taken the sword from him before he’d run into the wall. Legs could be regrown nowadays, but he doubted he’d live down dismembering himself with his own sword by running face-first into a wall.

***

“Alright, folks, you’ve all managed to earn two Aspects and talked everyone else through the process as well. And now, you’ve earned the right to advance, to evolve. Once. I’m sure some of you have gathered enough XP to hit Level 25 and beyond. Don’t. Advance as high as you can within the bounds of the First Evolution, then stop. If you want feedback on potential Evolutions, come see me. I’ll be in the next room over for privacy,” Isaac announced, then promptly left his victim- … er, trainees, alone.

[Class] choice was an extremely personal and delicate decision, after all. He wouldn’t force them to spread their options far and wide by discussing this in public.

By making everyone get two self-harvested Aspects, he’d ensured they’d get at least an epic [Class] based on them. In addition, they should all get some bonus to [Class] quality based on the thoroughness of the training he’d put them through.

And, of course, there’d be hybrid [Classes] based on training, held Aspects and [Skill] Levels.

Throughout the evening, three-quarters of his trainees dropped by his room for a consult, to the point where he was late for his midnight appointment.

But it was worth it.

He ended up with two particularly impressive [Class] holders. One of them was a Lieutenant Second Class Allan Smith from the US Army, who’d gained the [Apprentice Conductor of the Battlesong] [Class] based on his sound Aspect, strategic thinking, and willingness to push far. He’d been one of the first to unlock his storage ring, but he hadn’t stopped at that, instead working tirelessly to keep improving and he’d even asked if Isaac could break one of the rings in a way that made them harder to use without fully destroying it.

Of course, he’d almost run into a wall while holding the impossibly sharp Mimung and there were several other rough edges that needed to go, but overall, he had potential.

The other was a Sowi, a Korean rank equivalent to a Second Lieutenant, called Yu Gwanik, who’d become a [Master of Unconventionanlity]. He could come up with impressive tricks, working around Isaac’s orders, but he was also the one who’d sent Smith at the wall. He’d also need some serious seasoning.

Now, he’d give everyone a month to get used to their new [Skills], and then, he’d give them a serious challenge.

***

Month 3

Isaac Thoma was insane. Definitely. Living proof of that was standing right in front of them.

Allan did his best to present a confident front, but deep down, he was desperately wishing he’d had the presence of mind to grab one of the adult diapers “just in case”. That would have been embarrassing, sure, but more embarrassing than wetting himself in front of his peers?

Thoma stood in the center of the arena, a Demon Lord chained to the ground behind him. Fanning out to either side stood twenty figures armored in police tactical armor, wielding a variety of weapons. This group looked weirdly familiar, but Allan couldn’t quite place them. They did look impressively capable, though.

“I can see the question marks in your eyes, and I’d like to remind everyone that being aware of the most elite units on the planet is going to be your job,” Thoma declared, “But I’m going to let that go just this once and explain. Standing in front of you are twenty members of GSG-13, Germany’s most elite monster-hunting team. Left to their own devices, they could tear that [Raid Boss] apart in less than five seconds. It is just Tier 6, after all.

“But they’re not going to be free to act as they want, it’ll be up to you to direct them. Any member of GSG-13 who has to dodge or activate a [Skill] on their own volition is eliminated. If they’re all eliminated before the monster is dead, you guys lose and get to try again. If you screw up badly enough that I have to intervene, whoever is responsible for the cock-up is out of the program. We’re moving into serious territory here, and the consequences of failure can’t be healed away with a simple potion anymore.”

He paused for a second, apparently to let that sink in, before he pulled an officer’s saber out from somewhere, then unsheathed it slightly to grant them all a brief look at a resplendent blade.

Allan could already tell where this was going. That sword would be the prize for whichever of them managed to do … something. He practically drooled at the thought of getting his hands on that thing. He was technically allowed to carry one as an officer of the United States Army, but prior to the [System], they’d been entirely ceremonial. Now though, they could be incredibly powerful and there was no doubt in his mind that the sword Thoma was holding aloft was of the highest quality.

“There are two ways for you to beat this challenge, and each will have a different reward.

“The easy path is blindingly obvious, but I still think it’ll take a while for you guys to figure out. Whoever comes up with it first gets this sword, an officer’s saber forged by one Helmut Stagmer, which can also cosmetically alter itself to fit the uniform regulations of your respective organizations.

“The hard path is the straightforward one. Create and execute a plan to take down the [Raid Boss], and you’ll get to advance to the second Evolution. Fail, and you’ll be running drills until everyone’s mana pool has recharged and cooldowns [Skills] have been recovered. Then you’ll get to try again.

“So, establish a party, figure out your roles in the roster, make a plan, and then I’ll have the chains released. You have ten minutes.”

And with that, Thoma vanished off to somewhere. The first time he’d done that, Allan had been utterly terrified, horror scenarios of what might happen with their safety net gone running through his mind. But as it turned out, he was always around, and paying the needed level of attention.

Ten minutes passed in a flash. A month spent figuring out how to best guide each other through combat had let Allan and his peers figure out how to best split up the work, who was best at planning, and who could convey orders most succinctly.

Allan himself was tasked with most of the planning as his [Class] was all about directing a battle in a way that made it all come together in the end. A little like an orchestra, which was likely where its name came from.

Of course, the name also almost certainly borrowed from his twin Aspects of wind and sound. They let him create illusions of distant battle in places that were out of an enemy’s direct line of sight, had granted him several debuffing [Skill], and let him hit hard at point-blank range.

Not that it would do him much against a [Raid Boss] at almost twice his Level. He’d be limited to guiding and advising, his direct actions would be beyond useless.

But he’d try nonetheless. And hopefully, they’d win this quickly.

***

“Thank you for letting me borrow your unit,” Isaac said to Habicht, who was sitting next to him in the observation room.

“Thank you for remembering to go through the proper channels,” Habicht responded, “You would not believe the number of times I’ve had people talk to me about potential deployments, then assume that they’ll have my time without ever making sure to file the paperwork. I think they’ve decided they don’t need me, and they expect me to somehow magically have arranged to be available.”

“That sounds like a nightmare,” Isaac commented.

“So, what exactly are they going to be learning, anyway?” Habicht asked, “My people know how to take that thing down in seconds, and all your trainees would have to do is tell them to use that train- … that’s the easy way, isn’t it? Why wouldn’t they figure that out?”

“Because they just spent six weeks micromanaging each other to fight monsters blindfolded. They learned how to use the knowledge of the big picture to guide those who don’t have that knowledge, and now they need to learn that generally, micromanaging is bad leadership. They need to learn to trust their subordinates.”

“They won’t learn that during the two days you have us,” Habicht pointed out, “What are you going to do afterwards?”

“Oh, I’m going to borrow some folks from the Bundeswehr and dress them up in spare GSG-13 uniforms. I’m also going to use my training area as a new arena under the excuse of wanting to use more varied opponents, but they’re too dangerous to have here in full. And, of course, the trainees will be in the arena too, so they can experience the consequences of fucking up on their own skin. They might not stick around once the arena drops, but I doubt they’ll forget them.”

“Ha, bet that’s the last time they’ll forget to check the abilities of their subordinates,” Habicht laughed, “You are an evil, evil, man, Isaac.”

“I don’t need them to like me, I need them to survive,” Isaac shrugged.

“And that’s exactly the attitude that’s needed in a trainer,” Habicht replied, then looked back to the arena, “Oh look, there goes Wirt.”

The last man standing had been Wirt with his tower shield, but then he’d had to resort to activating his big area shielding [Skill] on his own to tank one of the demon’s fire waves, thereby eliminating him as per the rules of the game.

He clearly realized that a moment later and activated another [Skill], creating eight spectral copies of his and flickering between each image. Each time he manifested in one of the shapes, he bashed his tower shield into a joint, eye, or other vulnerable spot, knocking the monster down where several others took it down with well-placed bullets and blades.

Isaac jumped back into the arena through the wall and announced, “We’ll, that didn’t go too well, didn’t it? Thankfully, you’ll have more than enough time to come up with new tactics while everyone’s [Skills] come off their cooldown and you run drills.”

***

Allan mentally cursed everyone and everything as he ran the damn assault course for the dozenth time. At the moment, things were arranged so that one person had to guide the other thirty-eight through the course at the same time, a task made all the more difficult by the fact that the people in the course were broken up into squads of four or five.

That also meant that instead of getting to sit out a quarter of the runs as part of a ten-man command team, they had to go on thirty-eight out of thirty-nine runs through the devil’s own bloody backyard.

There was an easy solution and a hard one. The easy one was supposedly obvious, but the only obvious one he could see was the hard one, which was making this work as intended. Coming up with and then executing a plan, against an incredibly fast monster, using people who could run back and forth the arena twice over in the time it took him to get out a single syllable.

Micromanaging wouldn’t work, exceedingly detailed orders given ahead of time for every single possible scenario would require his temporary subordinates to memorize them all. And you also couldn’t program people like robots.

Maybe something looser would work, guiding the flow of combat in general, working on abbreviated orders, and so on?

But he really needed to find the easy path. What could be easier than ordering others to do the fighting on your behalf? Just saying “make it happen” and then grabbing popcor- … Allan went sprawling as he tripped over a root, too distracted to notice it. The solutions had been too fucking obvious, just like Thoma had said.

For the rest of this particular run, he could barely contain his excitement, and the moment they reached the end, he staggered up to Thoma and announced, “Is the easy way just telling them to use their standard tactics against this particular monster?”

In lieu of a proper answer, Thoma pulled out the officer’s sword, handed it over, and then asked, “Everyone, we just saw how the fine folks of GSG-13 deal with a [Raid Boss] without being micromanaged once they were all ‘eliminated’. Now, you have to show me you can get anywhere near that level on your own. Obviously, you can’t use the easy way to win now.”

***

Month 4

The massive Demon Lord loomed over Allan and his fellow trainees. This was the seventy-third time they’d been in this position, and they’d failed seventy-two times. But no more!

In an instant, they all retreated, running off like bats out of hell to the far side of the arena while the soldiers under their command spread out to avoid being wiped out in a handful of attacks.

They’d had everything from the most elite of units to grass-green battalions straight out of boot camp under their command. The latter had probably only been there to make sure the trainees knew to check the quality of their subordinates.

Right now, they had two platoons of third Evolution soldiers complete with a trio of tanks at their disposal and that should be enough to win. In theory.

An initial blast of fire wiped out three of their people before they could even get started.

But the monster paid for that as it lost both eyes to tank shells a split second later.

Gunfire and shoulder-launched rockets hammered into steel-tough skin, tearing it open and causing rivulets of blood to run down its body, but didn’t inflict fatal damage. Yet.

The demon tried to go after the tanks, the greatest source of damage, but they’d targeted its eyes for a reason.

Allan’s [Discordant Battlecry] echoed across the battlefield, hammering into the monster’s eardrums and all but deafening it. Even at Level 27, the [Skill] couldn’t truly harm the monster, but while it rang out, it prevented the monster from hearing much of anything else. And let’s be honest, bringing a [Skill] to almost the maximum Level in a handful of months had to be some sort of record.

One of the tank’s drivers gunned the engine when it saw a chance and ran into the monster’s foot while using an acceleration [Skill]. The impact dented the front of the vehicle but jerked the monster’s leg to the side at precisely the wrong moment. The foot came down at a terrible angle, its ankle gave way with a sickening “pop” and the monster fell to the floor.

And then it was over. Every trainee unleashed every [Skill] at their disposal and collectively, that boost combined with the monster being on the ground, was enough.

The arena faded around them, and injuries vanished alongside any and all loot.

“Good job everyone,” Thoma called out from the sidelines, “Now, feel free to advance to the peak of the Second Evolution, and once you’re done with that, we’re going to have some fun.”

That declaration had them all shivering. “Fun” for their trainer usually meant horror for them.

***

Month 6

On Allan’s left hand, an intricate ring glittered, a spatial storage device normally reserved for high-ranking officers or rich people.

Below that hung an officer’s saber better than what even generals carried.

His uniform, along with everyone else’s, was made from the most durable fabrics in the world, made by a master tailor.

Potion orbs were strategically hidden all over his body, ready to be swallowed in a split second if needed. He should have looked like an exemplar

And yet here he was, knee-deep in mud in the pouring rain, trying to guide his platoon through weather that he’d believed to be a sign of the world ending under other circumstances.

Under these circumstances … he knew it was just Thoma amping up the difficulty.

But he’d made it this far, was currently Level 60, holding an epic [Class] since the First Evolution, and had seven maxed out [Skills]. The ludicrous training was working, and the way he saw it, things were worth it. Mostly. He still couldn’t wait for this to end.

***

Eight months of this. Eight bloody months of paperwork and babysitting. They’d be over in two weeks. Two weeks and then he’d be free.

He’d kept working constantly, without breaks or holidays, just brief fun excursions between training. He hadn’t participated in Events, only taken part in a few [Raid Boss] fights, and barely done anything else.

Once this was done, he’d run off to the boonies, somewhere without cell service, and sleep for a week.

Isaac sighed as he let himself collapse into his chair. The trainees were out treasure hunting, trying to figure out how to get a storage ring of provisions while navigating a minefield of magical traps and patrolling “sentries” that had been provided by the Bundeswehr.

Two more bloody weeks.

But his trainees had grown to incredible heights, and so had his training [Skills].

He’d also bought a new [Skill].

Fire Soul (legendary)

You are fire, all the way down the very core of your being, embodying not just the physical flames themselves, but also the idea of it all.

Burning heat, raw destruction, sheer power, creation, alteration, transformation, light, warmth.

This Skill empowers your flames and increases their impact on the world. Pre-existing heat, mana in the environment, and all other available energies bend themselves to enhance your flames, lowering the cost of all fire-related abilities by 35%.

When you use fire, you aren’t wielding magic, you’re manipulating the world itself, truly altering reality.

Your flames grow nigh-immune to standard methods of dispelling and will destroy opposing elements and energies when backed by your will.

Not only that, but all your abilities may be infused with flames for a substantial boost, either in terms of raw power or bringing their nature more in line with that of fire (this depends on the ability in question, not all Skills will gain the full, or any, boost from Fire Soul).

It seemed underwhelming at first glance, but it was useful beyond measure. All fire-based [Skills] became cheaper and easier to use, and he could inject fire into all his attacks. He could also ignite his [Auras], transform his soulbound weapon into literal flames, and so on. When he whipped that out in public for the first time, his opponent might just die of fright.

And, of course, his overall Level had risen to one hundred and forty-seven.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit

Species: Einherjar

Level: 147

XP: 900,129/1,480,000

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 4,000/4,000

Stats

Fortitude

260 (+20)

Perception

600

Strength

330 (+15)

Agility

650

Magic Power

400 (+10)

Magic Regeneration

650

Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill

Aura

Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range, combat, blood, regeneration)

Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection)

Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid-range, combat/mental/sensory, armament)

Central Skills

Form of Horror XXVII

The Chosen Weapon XXX

I Am The Sword XXV

Grave of Swords XXX

Armory of Ancient Times XXVI

Legacy of a True Warrior XXX

Divine Fire XI

Champion of Mankind VII

Skills

Hundred Faces XXVIII

Stealth XXIX

Power Strike XXX

Piercing Strike XXX

Sundering Strike XXX

Blades XXX

Sneak XXVII

Sweeping Strike XVII

Far Strike XXX

Manifold Strike XXX

Hunter’s Gaze XXX

Phantom Step XXIV

Unknown Fear XXX

Bestial Regeneration XXVIII

Undying Focus XXX

Tools of Terror XXI

Fleeting Presence XVIII

Crippling Blow XVIII

Absolute Blade Mastery XXV

Compounded Impact XVIII

True Cut IX

Legendary Blow XVII

Fully Geared XVIII

Knightly Leader XXX

Analyze Person XVII

Continent Strider XVIII

Burden of Power VIII

Expert’s Insight VIII

Blessing of Innovation XVIII

Lessons of History VIII

The Meaning of the Name XV

Titanic Presence VIII

Fire Soul V

General Skills

Gralloch XVIII

Alchemy XV

Death’s Embrace VIII

Bloodline of the Hellborne Survivor (Empower Relatives)

Advanced Bureaucracy VIII

Police Procedure VIII

Healing VI

Quest Giver III

Omniglot (109 languages known)

Member of the Round Table (Shade: Seon Yoo-jin)

Accumulation of Knowledge (unranked)

Well of Wisdom’s Blessing (unranked)

Enhanced Dragon-Scale Web (unranked)

Crimson Runic Script VII

Unrestricted Speech II

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack)

Flight of the Poltergeist

Ephemeral Form

Haunting Pursuit

Greater Hydra (3 stack)

Hydra’s Regeneration

Redundant Organs

Ignore Injury

Megalodon (2 stack)

Shark’s Body

Wave Charge

Twilight Weaver (3 stack)

Lesser Illusion

Perception Interdiction

Warp Wave

Razor Apparition (3 stack)

Remote Wielding

Immortal Blades

Razor Trails

Dragon (3 stack)

Draconic Heart

Moment of Immortality

Dragonscale Mantle

Least Demon Lord (2 stack)

Moment of Immortality

Grand Hellflame

Space Elemental (2 stack)

Fixed Point

Space Affinity

Ankou (full stack)

Freedom from Mortal Limits

Eternal Restoration

Implements of True Death

Reaper’s Cloak

Death Knight (3 stack)

Death Knight’s Endurance

Ghostly Armor

Armored Echo

As for [Knightly Leader] and [Legacy of a True Warrior], they’d likewise grown substantially stronger.

Knightly Leader (legendary, Level max)

Many a tale has been told of a heroic knight, of the dragonslayer, the rightful king who returns from exile to bring peace and prosperity to his home. All of these tales focus on a single individual, the knight, yet that knight is never alone. He has pages, squires, comrades in arms and occasionally, a mentor that’s along for the ride.

This Skill is an essential component of leading a group of your fellows into combat.

Firstly, it allows for the creation of an official, System acknowledged party with all the advantages that entails (knowledge of each other’s health states, locating allies, XP sharing).

Secondly, it allows the user to draw upon all the experience about leading men that Master Hildebrand gathered over the course of his life, and apply it to the situation at hand. (this information has been updated to include the System, Classes, and Skills)

Thirdly, any commands given by the user will be able to override irrational panic if necessary.

In addition, the user can remotely talk to party members up to ten kilometers away.

And finally, the user can set up contingencies ahead of time, so orders are issued without the user needing to fully articulate potentially complex statements in the middle of a fight for their lives. These orders can be canceled at any time, should it be necessary, and new ones can always be added though it would be inadvisable if a distraction would endanger them.

After countless fights where the user has used this Skill to lead a disparate collection of people to victory and empower them with new training, it has evolved to vastly empower the user’s ability to turn a collection of random individuals into a solid group.

Anyone who becomes a member of your party can be taught directly using Legacy of a True Warrior and will gain basic combat and cooperation tactics should they not already have them.

In addition, you gain an innate understanding of the dynamics of the people you lead, where the cracks in the group lie, and where your current subordinates are lacking. It will also provide hints as to how these flaws can be compensated for.

And now, Knightly Leader has reached the pinnacle of its power, granting its user a presence unlike any other, one representative of not only you, the leader but also of the people you lead.

If you are in command of a group, you may borrow your subordinates’ Auras, melding them into your own and creating a titanic presence that emanates from the entirety of your formation. The Auras’ costs are doubled for their holders and may be withdrawn from the collective at will.

Each individual Aura may be projected away from its user up to a distance of ten times its original range, but a member of the formation must still be within the standard distance of all component Auras.

Cost: 100 mana to establish, 300 mana per day to sustain

The combined [Aura] would be a stone-cold bitch to control, but it would also be beyond powerful once he learned to control it. An entire formation having a combined [Aura] … that would be the stuff of Legends.

Legacy of a True Warrior (legendary, Level max)

Once upon a time, there was a man. A warrior, teacher to a legendary king, and his companion in all his adventures. And now, you hold that man’s legacy. His knowledge, his skills, his experience in combat both figurative and literal. Not only that, but all of that experience has been improved by the knowledge of how to apply it to a world with the [System].

But even though Hildebrand’s personal achievements are hardly small, they pale in comparison to what his student achieved. As such, the core of this inheritance is all about training others.

Anyone you train will pick up all lessons at a vastly accelerated pace, a pace that will increase even further if the training is related to knightly endeavors, such as horse riding, medieval politics, or combat with traditional weapons (sword/axe/bow/spear).

But that is only the beginning of what you are now capable of. You may now impart the following Skills onto your students (these are weaker versions of your Class Skills, they can only be taught if you have the Skill yourself):

-Knightly Discipline (downgrade from Knightly Leader, enhances group coordination)

-Epic Blow (downgrade from Legendary Blow, allows the stacking of multiple identical Strike/Shot/Blows)

-Phantom Armor (downgrade from Fully Geared, allows for the storage of a single set of armor in an extradimensional space)

-Veteran’s Knowledge (downgrade from Expert’s Insight, grants overall knowledge and the occasional flash of insight)

You may only teach 5 Skills per week, the number increases by one per Level in Legacy of a True Warrior.

Skills taught this week /17155

However, there is one more way the Heir of Master Hildebrand can teach people. After reaching Level 10 in this Skill, the Heir may teach groups of up to five people at a time. This will only grant a rare Skill, rather than an epic one, but only use up a single timeslot. Using a few hours of one-on-one training and 80% of a slot, the Skill can be upgraded to its full power.

In addition, this Skill allows the Heir to seamlessly interface with training Skills used by coworkers.

After countless fights where the user has turned a disparate collection of individuals into capable warriors, forging them into warriors capable of slaying Demon Lords and even Dragons, this Skill has evolved to create an army of legends.

Any individual who walks the same path as the Heir and works with them to achieve their end goals will passively be taught the Skills that Legacy of a True Warrior can grant and these Skills will rapidly level (up to the Heir’s Level in the specific Skill) as long as they continue to support the Heir in their endeavors.

And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, granting its user the ability to teach all basic Strike, Blow, Shot, Armor, and military discipline Skills to their trainees. The cost of teaching these [Skills] is one-fifth of the normal cost.

In addition, the user will have access to these Skills at Level thirty but lack threshold bonuses.

In addition, once per week, the user may temporarily enhance all of their subordinates’ Skills of the above types to the next threshold. This boost will last for six hours.

Another incredible boon. He could teach all of the very basics now, including active [Skills], and having access to a lot of knowledge-based [Skills] would be useful beyond measure. Not to mention that he now had access to the basic [Warrior] and [Archer] active [Skills]. His [Strikes] were better because they did have their threshold bonuses, but he’d still gotten a solid boost to his versatility.

Isaac leaned back in his chair, placed his feet on his desk, and was about to take this chance to just daydream, but then his phone rang with an alert. The “if you’re S-Ranked, please help, if you aren’t, run” kind of alert.

Oh, fuck!