Ch. 19 My New Team

Sean and I walked away from the computer terminal and towards the door to the Guild Training Grounds. "All of your new team members have been messaged, they should be here within an hour or two. So go ahead and check out the facilities while you wait." I nodded as he opened the door and my three Raccoons ran out of the door ahead of me.

Taking a good look around I saw where each area of the Training Grounds was divided into each type of training. The Tanks were training against a line of pads that were held up by metal poles, mechanically swinging back and forth, slamming into them. It was impressive how well the Tanks held up against the brunt of the attacks.

The area where the Melee DPS were training was mostly against each other, some wielding short swords, some wielding daggers and others wielding handaxes. They were trading blows and blocking as best they could while the supports were healing them as fast as they could. I could tell it was more draining for the supports than the DPS.

Then last was the ranged area. There were archery targets set at different distances from the starting platform and they were constantly moving. There seemed to be an element of randomness to their movements. It was pretty impressive, also it was where I was headed, after I spoke to the Support and Melee guys so my girls could train with them.

'We will be careful my human.' Bella said with a laugh in my mind as I set off to the Ranged area.

Once there I saw about 20 different people there. 2 were using throwing axes and daggers, 6 were using crossbows, 5 were using bows and 7 were using guns. There were plenty of targets for all of them to use and more, so I walked over to one of the free spaces.

There was a small booth set up where the line of shooters was placed. Walking up to it I saw a short, very slim young man walking up to me. "You must be a fresh recruit am I right?" he asked in a voice slightly higher pitched than I was expecting.

"Yeah, the name is Odellin." I said holding out my hand. He shook it "John. This is the ranged training area. We have setups for magic and for physical ranged damage. Which do you use?" he asked and I responded "Both. I have some useful spells for magic damage and I like my crossbows, but they are mainly to keep me from draining myself with spells."

He nodded thoughtfully and walked me over to a free booth. It looked like a carnival booth setup. "So you slide your badge over the scanner and select the type of practice you want to use. The targets appear and you try and hit as close to the red as you can. Your score is recorded at the top of the booth. You have 2 minutes per session, so I suggest for magic using instantaneous casting."

I nodded with a smile, this was gonna be fun.

Two hours later and a LOT of meditating, I was exhausted. I couldn't get higher than a 91 on my score, no matter how hard I tried. I tried using Force Missile, but it hit the target anywhere it had the ability to hit instead of just where I wanted it. However I was quite pleased with my jolt and ray of frost spells, although my aim would have to be better. I wanted to try and get the maximum score of 150, but I wasn't that good with my aim yet apparently.

My girls though definitely fared very well against their opponents, I noticed their dig skill was alot more useful than I had given thought to.

I was about to start another round when my phone went off. The rest of my new team had arrived. So I recalled my girls to my side and walked over to meet them.

The nine of them were all in a group together, each fully equipped.

They all turned to stare at me as I walked over, then one of the Tanks, which I guessed from his heavy armor and shield, walked up to me and held out his hand "I am Kenneth Thompson, but you can call me Kenny." I shook his hand "Odellin Hundai, you can call me Ode."

Kenny was young, 23 years old, with short red hair cut close, military style. No facial hair, freckles adorned his face and nose. He was built like a linebacker with broad shoulders, bulging muscles, from what I could see under his armor and a suit of armor that definitely looked like something you would see in a medieval movie. He had a huge shield on his back and a one handed hammer at his waist.

Matthew and Tommy were brothers, they could almost be twins, but one had a longer nose and stronger chin, Matthew, than the other. They were both as tall as Kenny at almost 6 foot, with black hair, almost the same suit of blue and red armor that Kenny wore and both with shields. Tommy had a longsword strapped to his waist while Matthew had a handaxe strapped to his. They were brothers, born a year apart to two different dads, their looks coming from their mom apparently.

Felicia was an older woman, 31 and had gray streaks in her otherwise brown hair. She had a hooked nose and a look on her face that bore no foolishness, she was definitely a mother. 5'7 inches tall, she wore a light set of what looked like leather armor with patches that hid chain mail links to protect vital parts of her body. She wielded twin short swords that looked like very short scimitars.

Jessica looked to be as young as Claire was, 19 years old herself. She was short at 5'2" tall, but she had more muscles than I did. She had bleach blonde hair that flowed down her back to her waist in a braid and the same leather armor Felicia wore. She wielded a handaxe and a hammer that looked like a mallet.

Nicholas, or Nick, as he liked to be called was in his mid twenties with short curly dirty blonde hair. He stood about 5'10" tall and like Jessica was definitely more muscular than I was. He too wore that same leather armor, but his weapons of choice were Kamas, which was an interesting and unique choice. I liked it.

Tyson was shorter than I was, 5'6" tall and skinnier too. There was very little muscle to him, he was bald and had a nose that looked like it had been broken more times than he would like to count. He wore a blue and white robe, with the Blue Dragon sigil on the front and wielded a staff that looked exactly like the twin snakes circling eachother symbol for healing, with a green gem at the top.

Aaron looked much like a typical soldier, assault rifle slung across his shoulder, his leather armor camoulflage colored and a dome shaped helmet that made him almost look like he was a Vietnam veteran, but at 35 years old he couldn't have been. He sported a small patch of beard under his chin and had a gruff look on his face.

Guy was the shortest of everyone, at 4'11" tall he wore a suit of leather armor like Felicia and Jessica, had short hair and very little muscle to him, wielding a bow and quiver of arrows and was older than everyone at 45 years old.

Once the introductions were out of the way we all talked about our different abilities and how we fought, which brought attention to my Raccoon Squad. The team was very interested in the girls.

We stood there talking and getting a feel for each other for almost three hours. When I finally realized the time I had to make a hasty retreat. The others all nodded and we promised to meet back up tomorrow early in the morning to work out battle strategies.

It was almost 9 at night when I finally pulled up to the house. Lynette and the babies were sitting in the front room on the couch watching TV when I got inside. My little girl ran up screaming "Adah adah" over and over. I bent down and picked her up, then it hit me.

I was holding my little girl and she felt like she weighed as much as a gallon of milk weighed, if that. Grinning to myself I walked over to the fridge and got some milk, the gallon jug weighed nothing. She wiggled in my arms as I poured myself a glass and I didn't spill a single drop.

I knew my levels and my stats had been affecting my daily life, but it was still shocking sometimes. I hadn't focused as much on STR as I had on DEX and INT, which had me wondering what else I could do.

I decided to test myself tomorrow and enjoy the night with the family. My Raccoon Squad was curled up in front of the fireplace, sleeping and paying us humans very little attention.

Waking up the next morning I got out of bed and put on some jogging pants and a t-shirt. Putting on some tennis shoes the girls woke up. 'What are you doing my human?' Bella asked me in my mind. 'Going for a jog, you and the girls wanna come?'

She nodded and nudged her sisters. I grabbed the house keys off the door and headed out. It was a nice day outside, very few clouds, but the sun wasn't fully up yet.

I started jogging, picking up speed and trying to see if I could compare this to anything. There weren't a whole lot of cars on the road, or other joggers. So I pulled out my phone and used google maps.

I doubted I was running that fast, but maybe it could track how fast I was going. I almost stumbled as I saw 21 MPH on my phone. I wasn't even running fully. Looking down at Bella I said "Let's see just how fast this old man can go." She grinned and we all took off.

I was running as fast as I could and pulled out my phone again a few minutes later, a huge grin plastered on my face. I was pushing 40 MPH. The girls were having a harder time of it than me, so I slowed down a bit.

We continued on like that for another hour before we got back to the house. I was amazed at just how fast I had been going. Increasing my DEX was awesome. If increasing my DEX made me that fast, did that mean I was a genius too?

I pulled out my phone again and began looking up what the increasing of stats did to people in ways other than Rift Breaking. It was quite informative and I realized if I ever wanted to quit I could probably go to college and learn to be anything. The man who had been able to figure out the code and formula for creating the devices to read Rift Gate power levels had a 25 INT. I was sitting on 32.

Pulling out my Sudoku book when I got home I opened it to a page that had stumped me when I was still working on it almost a year ago. Instantly I felt like an idiot. I could see exactly what numbers needed to go where. For almost a half hour I was a machine, clearing page after page, until 76 more pages were filled. I was definitely overjoyed.

'Silly human' Bella said and I laughed 'Maybe, but I'm the smartest silly human you've met.' she rolled her eyes at that, I laughed again.