Chapter 9

The time for me to roll out of bed came way sooner than I would have liked. I hadn't expected to be going out so soon, but I had to admit that it was probably for the best. Sitting up, I decided to check my stat screen.

STR:5.5

DEX:6.5

INT:15

CHA:4.5

EXP: 625/12,800

I checked my alarm clock for the time before, remembering that my alarm clock wouldn't work anymore. "How the hell am I expected to know what time to be there?" I whispered so as not to wake my roommate up. It was definitely early in the morning. Message.

"You could have just asked me the time, dummy. By your species and dialect would be 0415. Would you like to display time alongside stat page?" I agreed to change my system and was happy to know that I wasn't late. Dragging myself onto my feet, I walked over to the closet to grab a new uniform. I looked at the camouflage pattern on it and the "U.S. Army" sewn into it.

"Is there really any point to wearing this anymore?" The thought quickly left my mind, and I took it to the bathroom. Turning on the shower, I twisted the knob to the left and waited for the water to heat up. After about five minutes of waiting, I realized it wouldn't be able to anymore. There's no power for the water heater. I sighed dejectedly and stepped into the cold shower, still needing to be clean. The shower lasted only a few minutes; I wouldn't say I liked the water's chilly bite, but at least I would be clean. Stepping out, I dressed and shaved off the beard I'd been working on for a few days since our walk back to town began.

Ready for the day, I headed out the door. The sun was still down, so it was a little difficult to find my way through the halls of the barracks, but once I made it outside, the glow of the barrier around the town created a soft light that I could find my way around. I decided to run the way there to test how my stats worked without the heavy ruck on my back. I was definitely faster, and it only took me about fifteen minutes to find my way back to the road that we were supposed to meet at.

Triggering my stats display to open, I checked the time. It was almost 0500, so I was probably going to be much earlier than the others. I didn't have to wait very long at all though Bravo came strolling up only a couple of minutes after I did. We said our good mornings and hellos and waited for the others. They began showing up sporadically for the next 15 minutes. Everyone in my squad showed up before any of the others. Once they'd all arrived, I explained about the new time display that I'd received earlier.

"I guess intelligence really is an important stat. I kept putting mine in dexterity to keep up. I only put a few in intelligence." SGT Savant explained. Nodding my head, I agreed with him.

"But your casting speed has also gotten much faster than mine. Maybe dexterity has some sway over magic too." I defended his own decisions to him, which appeared to make him feel better about them. We waited another hour before the group that we were supposed to train showed up. There were six of them carrying system weapons, and another four had come with them wielding rifles. The general and the lieutenant from the day prior were in this group and four lower enlisted soldiers. The four lower enlisted had chosen mostly mele classes, but there was one Black Mage caster among them.

"Looks like I won't have anyone to train personally." I chuckled lightly, but SSG Underwood had a serious look on her face. She walked up to the general and saluted before beginning to speak.

"With all due respect, sir, why didn't you bring a healer?" After being presented with this question, the man had a semi-shocked look on his face and uncharacteristically stumbled to find the words to respond.

"I uh thought we would start by training combatants. They're all first aid qualified if that helps. Besides, we have PFC Hayes to heal us, right?" He responded. The staff sergeant tried to keep her eyes from rolling into the back of her head.

"Hayes only has one actual healing spell, and it's a single target spell. He isn't equipped to handle a group this size with that. You'll have to give up one of your warriors and bring a healer to train with you. Trust me when I say you'll need one, especially when you start going out by yourself." SSG Underwood finished her explanation, and the highest-ranking officer grunted his understanding but looked a bit chastised, which I was sure was a feeling that he wasn't used to anymore. The man still turned to his party and chose the other two-handed warrior to head back and find a healer to go on this training portion.

The boy looked dejected but did as he was ordered. It was beginning to look like we were going to be conforming to the old army adage, "Hurry up and wait." To pass the time, we taught them the formation that we had come up with to be more effective while we'd been out there. After that, we had everyone show us the skills they'd been awarded when choosing a class. It seemed that all of the base skills for the classes matched up, but I knew that would change soon as people started building their skill trees and unlocking different skill trees. I still hadn't figured out what the prerequisites were to unlocking new skills, but I assumed that it had something to do with both leveling up and building our stats.

After an hour, a new person showed up. It was a female soldier with blonde hair she had no rank on, so we knew that she was a "fuzzy," which is what we call people when they have no rank yet in the military. We caught her up as quickly as we could and then headed back towards the giant forest. The group had to stop every fifteen to twenty minutes because the newcomers had yet to raise their dexterity. Still, the forest was only a couple of miles out from the main base, so it didn't take very long to get there.

Standing at the edge of the newly grown trees, the new party looked up in awe at them.

"Wow, this is so crazy!" The blonde girl exclaimed loudly. All of the members of my squad looked at her with a flash of annoyance and some fear. It was my responsibility to train her, so I was the one that walked up to her.

"Hey," I said in a hushed tone. "You need to speak softly out here. You never know what creatures will hear you." The girl flushed as she understood the situation, but she nodded, and I went back to my own group. After a couple of minutes of shuffling around, we had a new formation that included all of us—the casters in the back warriors upfront and rogues in the middle. The girl next to me was clutching her staff very tightly against her uniform. It was clear that she was scared. I felt like I should say something to her, but I didn't even know her name, something I would have to do sooner rather than later.

"Hey, what's your name?" I asked. She looked at me a little surprised. I think she thought that I was mad at her for her earlier outburst.

"I-I'm Rachel, ah er that is Sena." She pointed to the name tape sewn to her uniform. I felt like an idiot for not just reading it. I normally would have, but I guess there wasn't really anything normal anymore.

"Ok, Sena, I just want you to know it's going to be ok. My whole squad has been through this forest once already. We're all gonna take care of you." This seemed to calm Sena down a little bit. She took a deep breath and nodded her approval. "Glad that worked." I thought. A few minutes later, we were already a hundred feet into the mass of trees. It didn't take long for something to find us. It wasn't the scorpion monsters that we expected, but another coyote. The monster snarled at us, and the new additions to our group paled.

"Ok, everyone prepare yourselves at the lowest level; one of these things can decimate a platoon-sized element." SSG Underwood called from the front of the formation. The monster lowered itself and prepared to pounce. SPC Roberts stepped up to the front of the group. His shield glowed red, and the coyote's head whipped towards him. With his sword, he motioned for the other shield warrior to stand behind him. The monster pounced on Roberts with its jaws wide open. The jaws snapped shut over his small shield, and Roberts grunted.

"Hit it now!" Speaking to the boy behind him. The other shield warrior jumped a little bit at his words but then sprang into action. He aimed at the coyote's neck and swiped his sword down hard. Unfortunately, I thought the fight might be over if he landed this critical strike, but I was wrong. The red bar appeared above the coyote's head, and we were all shocked.

"Level 10 Coyote."

I barely had time to understand the information when the coyote snapped its head to the side where his new attacker stood and grabbed him in the center, massive jaws closing and causing a fountain of blood to spew from the boy. The monster shook him a few times before tossing him to the side. Sena tried to run towards him, but I held out an arm to stop her while simultaneously activating my minor heal.

"You can reach him from here. Do it now!" She raised her staff as I did and added her own mana to the mix. I cast it on the boy again and saw him twitch. He'd be ok with a few more minor heals from Sena. "Keep casting it on him!" I turned my attention back to the fight. Bravo was trying to flank the coyote to one side and the lieutenant to the other side. The general and SSG Underwood were both activating the same rage blade skill. The generals' blade bounced off the creature leaving only a small scratch, but SSG Underwood, who was a higher level and had much higher dexterity, swung through, leaving a nasty gash on the large dog.

It turned to her and let out a loud snarl, but she just backed away, and Roberts let his shield glow red once more, and the beast's attention was grabbed once more. I let loose a stone shot, and SGT Savant was yelling at his trainee to keep firing off his basic fire spell while he shot off frost spells to try and slow the monster down. SGT Turner and her own trainee, a tall black girl, had made their way a little farther back and were shooting arrows.

For the first time, I noticed a small red circled of light that encompassed the outside of her dominant eye. The attacks went on for a few minutes until eventually, we could bring the monster's health bar down to zero. When it finally fell, there was a cheer from the lower leveled people and a combined shushing sound from my squad, and the others quieted down sheepishly.