Chapter 64: The Assailants (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bUMEpLvsr_fDDRzC-021yfKpQMz8D6gcHygq-kfF6qo/edit?usp=sharing

--

Life and lessons at the academy moved on, regardless of Cayden’s revelations or resolutions, and he showed up to the next morning’s Frontline Combat 101 class sore and tired. Jeremy gave him a curious look as he walked into the arena, likely in reaction to the deep circles under Cayden’s eyes, but the lesson began before he had a chance to say anything.

As usual, it started with ten laps of grueling cardio under the effects of the equalizer. It felt tougher than usual, but Cayden wasn’t sure if that was because of his tiredness or if Instructor Barry turned up the equalizer’s setting. But, along with the rest of the class, he pushed through and finished his ten laps with the dullahan chasing and yelling the whole while.

Cayden wasn’t sure if any of those who’d abandoned the class on the first day had returned. He hadn’t seen anyone forced through an extra set of the pain trials, but he didn’t have a good enough memory of his fellow students to recognize any of those who’d left, so it was entirely possible that they had talked to Instructor Barry and made it up outside of class.

“Circle up!” Barry called, and the students tiredly pulled themselves into a ring around the instructor. “So far, we’ve just been workin’ on generalized training: stuff that’s important, but nothing that’s specific to you as frontline fighters. Everything you’ve done, the other classes have also been doing. And yes, that includes the mages in the damage-dealing class. As much as some don’t want it to be true, physical conditioning is an important element for all types of adventurers.”

“Why haven’t they been training with us, then?” a student on the far side of the circle from Cayden called out. While Instructor Barry still made full use of his [Intimidate] skill when ‘motivating’ them during the workouts, they’d quickly found that he was much less strict when it came to the lecture portion of their class – short though they were – and actively encouraged students to call out when they had questions.

“Good question. While physical conditioning is important for all classes of adventurers, some classes will always have higher physical stats than others. Grouping you based on type is an easy way to ensure that you all are at least somewhat in the same range of physical stats as those around you, which makes it easier for us to judge the limits of your current abilities. Which we need to know, so we can best push those limits forward.” Cayden wondered how they dealt with the differences in stats in the damage dealer’s class. Surely there’d be a huge variation between the mages and the more physical damage dealers, like the archers? But he wasn’t curious enough to interrupt the class to ask, and after Instructor Barry waited a moment more to see if anyone else had a question, he continued.

“Of course, while physical stats are beneficial for all adventurers, certain classes benefit the most from certain stats. Such as vitality and frontline fighters. While some of you are able to protect your teammates with methods other than throwing your bodies in the way,” his eyes, which were constantly sweeping over the crowd of students, paused on a boy Cayden recognized as the one who conjured barriers in the first day’s fights. “There will come a day when you run out of mana, or an attack catches you by surprise, or something else random comes flying toward you, and the only thing you have left to defend your team is your body. On that day, having a higher vitality is certainly good. But more importantly, you need to know exactly how high of a vitality you have. Not just the number on your status, but you need to know in your gut how strong of an attack you can take. So in that split second before the attack hits, you can decide whether to tank the hit, protecting your allies and trusting in your healer to patch you up, or whether to dodge and hope your teammates are quick enough to do the same.”

Some murmuring broke out among the students, but the gorgon girl, who consistently finished last in every conditioning exercise but gamely showed up and gave it her all in each class, was the first to raise her hand.

“Why would we ever dodge? As frontline fighters isn’t it our job to take the hits our team can’t? You said we’ve got higher vitality. If we can’t take the hit, doesn’t that mean our teammates definitely can’t?” her voice sounded offended at even the implication of intentionally letting an attack pass that might hurt her team.

“Bein’ willing to sacrifice yourself for your team is a noble sentiment, one that I wish more people had. But fact of the matter is, for most of you, your own life comes first. Nothing wrong with that – being teammates is all well and good, but asking someone to give up their life for you? That’s something entirely different.” The gorgon only looked more offended after his words, but Instructor Barry didn’t give her another chance to speak before continuing. “But even if you are willing to give up your life for your teammates…should you? What if you’re deep in a dungeon when this happens? Without a frontliner, will your team be able to make it out alive? Trading your life for theirs might be worth it, but your life for fifteen minutes more of their lives? And what if, unknown to you, your teammates are quick enough to get outta the way in time regardless of what you do? You’d be trading your life for nothing.” He paused and then shrugged. “Of course, there may truly be a time and place when it’s worth it to trade away your life. But if and when that time comes, it should be your own choice, made with the knowledge of what you and your teammates can do. Not as a result of instinct and just hoping for the best. Which brings us to today’s lesson: how much can you take?” He gestured to one side of the arena. Where there normally was a smooth wall, the paneling had been removed to reveal a strange series of contraptions. Cayden had noticed them in the ten laps around the arena, but he hadn’t truly registered their presence until now – a testament to how tired he was.

Barry led the class over to the first contraption in the line. While perhaps it was complicated for this world’s level of technology, it didn’t seem overly complex to Cayden: just a thick pole studded with small metal spikes attached to a pulley with weights hanging from one side and a crank on the other.

“This is what we call the assailant,” Instructor Barry said after the class formed a new circle around the contraption. “This one here is the level-ten ratling assailant. Stand in the marked spot and pull this lever,” he pulled the lever. As the weight dropped, the pole swung out, impacting against the instructor’s shoulder with no noticeable effect. “It’s been carefully measured to deliver an attack as close to what a level-ten ratling could pull off as we can manage. No enchantments, just good hard science. That being said, they do not have the same defense as their monsters. Do not attack my assailants. They will attack you, and you will take it – hence the name assailant.”

He gestured down the line of contraptions as he began turning the handle attached to the pulley of the first assailant, the weight slowly rising as the pole reset itself. “Each of these represents a different monster from a nearby dungeon that uses physical attacks. You’ll be going down the line and testing ‘em out to get a feel for what hits you’re able to take. For now, don’t be using any active skills or external items. This is supposed to just be you versus the monster at your weakest – anything that you might not have if you’re out of mana or in a worst-case scenario, don’t use. We’ll do this again later on with stronger monsters with items and skills.”

“...isn’t this dangerous?” a kid at the back of the class tentatively called out, and Instructor Barry laughed.

“What’d you think you signed up for? Being an adventurer is dangerous! But you’re right, and we’ve taken some steps to deal with injuries – ah, and here they are now.”

On the other side of the arena, six students were led by an adult across the sands.

“Some of you may already know them, but these are some of your classmates from the support class,” Barry said. “Specifically, these are all the healers in this year’s incoming class.” He grinned and then winked at the frontline combat students, a disconcerting expression coming from a man who spent so much time in class yelling at them. “My recommendation: try to stay on their good side.”

The woman leading the students reminded Cayden of Matron Oakly: she was older than many of the other instructors, but her back was ramrod straight and her hair was pulled back into a strict bun. In the center of her forehead, she had a slim, white horn that seemed to glow with an ethereal inner light.

A unicorn. One of the rarer races that Elise had found mention of, but had been unable to determine the requirements to unlock.

“Instructor Barry. Are your students ready to begin?” the woman asked, her clipped voice a perfect pair to her appearance.

“Gimme a minute, just finishing explaining,” Barry replied, before turning back to the class. “This here is Instructor Tilda. All the respect that you’d give me, give her double – she’s the one who’ll be saving your life if something goes wrong.” Instructor Tilda didn’t respond to the dozens of eyes that were suddenly much more focused on her. “Anyways, back to the assailants – don’t be stupid and rush to a level higher than what you can handle. The healers are here to get some practice in on small injuries, not to save your lives. And finally, while I don’t recommend it, anyone who wants one can claim a potion of numb pain before we get started. In my opinion, better to get a feel for how much it hurts, but it wasn’t up to me.” He sighed, and the class shuffled in place, no one willing to be the first to ask for a potion or step to one of the assailants until Instructor Barry shook his head. “But enough jawing! Get goin’, and yell out if you lose a limb!”

The class surged forward when Instructor Barry said ‘get’, but enough of them stumbled over his follow-up words that Cayden was able to claim one of the first spots at a nearby assailant. After the previous day’s resolutions, it wasn’t the lesson he was hoping for, but Cayden wasn’t one to dismiss a lesson simply because it didn’t meet his most immediate needs. He could imagine how useful in-depth knowledge of a monster’s threat level would be on a delve.

Between Elise’s research and his own experience in dozens of different dungeons, he felt he was already fairly capable at judging a monster’s threat. While levels weren’t the end-all-be-all to how dangerous a monster was – a level one hydra would be more dangerous than a ratling, regardless of its level – across dungeons of the same tier, it was fairly effective. It wasn’t foolproof, of course; monsters like the zepples with extremely weak defenses had much stronger attacks than others at the same tier. But with enough experience, it was possible to guess with some certainty how strong of an attack a new monster might have.

While Cayden had delved close to a hundred dungeons, many of those were repeats. The attacks from the assailants would be invaluable in broadening his experience with different monsters. It wouldn’t help against monsters that had non-physical attacks, like the zepples or the acid from brantings, but for all the others, it would be well worth the time and injury.

Stepping into place in front of the first assailant, Cayden prepared to get hit.

Previous Chapter -- Next Chapter