Chapter 52: Start Of Training Arc for Everyone

(Last text heavy chapter)

It was the fifth day of receiving recruits. Unlike the first and second days, the number of recruits was way lesser which amounted to a few hundred or just a few dozen volunteers. Most of them are third or fourth born of a clan that didn't get the chance to inherit anything and sent to the army to gain merits and climb the ladder of society.

That batch however is the most troublesome one. As devils born in noble families, their attitude is problematic but thankfully shut down by the presence of Falbium that reminded them that they lose their statuses after joining the army and will be treated as equal. Without the presence of Falbium however, they immediately cause trouble which Ray has to personally hand out disciplinary actions as the leadership isn't formed yet due to delay on the final screening.

"*Sigh* This is the sixth time in just two day. I can't take it anymore." Ray reaches the end of his patience dealing with the troublemakers.

"You! Run a thousand laps around the base. If you stop once, start from zero and repeat again." Ray gave the disciplinary act for this repeating offender which the name he didn't even want to remember.

The devil wanted to cry out injustice as an entitled person he is but shut up because Falbium is standing next to Ray and looking intently at the devil. He reluctantly starts running as ordered.

"I'm sorry that you have to deal with this, Ray. However, I believe that once he is trained, he will be a useful addition to the army." Falbium apologetically said and Ray could only nod in agreement.

The devil is actually part of a descendant of a lesser known devil but their bloodline is blessed with affinity to water elements like the Sitri Clan that are greatly proficient in healing.

"Anyway, let's talk about their training schedule." Falbium reminded Ray about this topic that he wanted to discuss for the last few days but Ray was almost always unavailable because he is busy overseeing and managing the base.

"The training should go by the usual schedule which Baraqiel is familiar with when he is the combat instructor for the Fallen Angels unit." Ray said to Falbium who nodded in reply as he made mental notes of this discussion.

"However I will make adjustments since the old schedule might not be applicable now." Ray pointed out. "Previously, I would spend a minimum of 12 hours of 'training' with me then 6 hours with Baraqiel and another 6 hours for rest."

Falbium nodded as he made his mental notes and realized why Ray needed to make adjustments.

Unlike previously, where the Fallen Angels unit only taught with one on one fighting technique in the form of CQC training by Baraqiel, Falbium will now teach military tactics and strategies.

Tactics are very important for the army since proper application can allow groups of lower Class to resist and even repel higher Class combatants. For example, a group of ten Low Class would normally stand no chance against a Mid Class but with proper battle formations and tactics, the group of Low Class can at least fend off a Mid Class. If double the numbers, the group of Low Class can even defeat stronger opponent

This capability is especially important because the alliance has numbers but not enough top combatant when compared to the Khaos Brigade that have Ophis snake to instantly promote strength of top combatant to even further like Katerea Leviathan who sits on Ultimate Class but reached the borderline of Super Devil in raw power after consuming the snake.

Falbium will be incharge of teaching the army and implementing military tactics to improve their performance during a battle while Baraqiel will be incharge of teaching individual combat techniques. They will both be allocated 4 hours each and the grinding will take up 10 hours which leave the recruits 6 hours of time to rest and do their own stuff.

After Ray told Falbium his plan for time allocation, he left and moved to the ongoing screening process. The final screening will decide the recruit's unit. The unit is separated into vanguard, ranged, support and logistics. Recruits with appropriate skill or ability will be screened and separated into which unit that suits them and for example the devil that is given a disciplinary act that has affinity to water element and suitable to be healer will be screened to the support unit and trained by doctors invited from Sitri Clan's hospitals.

For other units, there will be instructors with their respective roles to teach just like support units have special doctors and other medical practitioners to teach the units to hone their skills.

Ray himself is part of the instructor group for the Ranged unit to teach in firearms combat techniques that were recently added because Azazel found ways to replicate powerful firearms like Ray's own. It wasn't difficult as the technology and capabilities to produce them already existed but it just never been used before because the supernatural look down on firearms as mortal weapons.

Azazel is able to mass produce the firearm strong enough to handle the power output from a Mid Class combatant and for higher Class, they need to be custom ordered from the dwarves of Norse mythology.

Speaking of Norse mythology, Azazel is able to convince their leader Odin to join the alliance and will soon officially join in another week or two since many things need to be prepared before Norse can officially join the alliance. Though Odin already verbally agreed to join if according to what Azazel said.

Ray moves to the shooting range next to a big medical tent where support unit screening is being held.

"Ray! You finally arrived. Raynare already left a moment ago to find you because she thought you were late." Mittelt greeted Ray with a wave to attract his attention.

"No way I'm late as I always wake up faster than you and Raynare. It is just the trouble maker again and I have to deal with it as it is my duty for now until leadership for each unit is established." Ray explained with a sigh at the end as dealing with this many people exhausted him a lot more that he was constantly under stress since he was appointed the leader of the army.

Ray wanted to get the screening done immediately and established a leadership structure and dumped all the trivial tasks to his subordinates. He should handle only the important paperworks instead of having to do trivial tasks like checking supplies in the storage warehouse or the equipment there is faulty or lacking.

"Oh, that guy again…" Mittelt muttered and seemed to be under deep thoughts for a moment. "I heard he was a member of a branch family of Sitri clan whose bloodline was diluted because his grandfather married a commoner or something and his attitude is because of bullying by his peers."

"You know, the noble lineage stuff that I'm glad we Fallen Angel didn't have." Mittelt finished with a huff before she looked at the shooting range where several Fallen Angels from his unit were handling the screening process.

"Indeed. The social hierarchy complicates stuff especially when few of them actually tried to bribe me to give their sons higher positions." Ray sighed again after remembering the incident that he let Falbium handle and Ray heard the noble family was punished by Sirzech.

The screening continued until late evening where it finally finished and the people were divided into their own unit which had their own barracks allocated to make the training easier as different unit's barracks had their own training equipment and facilities. The Ranged unit for example have a shooting range next to the barrack for firearm and magic users to train or the support have their own barrack built close to the hospital building.

...

It was 6pm after a light supper before the recruits will have their first go on the Mission stages to grind their levels.

Ray then summoned his operators that had been long left collecting dust because they didn't have real use lately until now which is due to the new function for Mission mode.

Due to his followers reaching hundreds of thousands, his operators can now act as terminals that send the recruits into the lobby instead of needing him to do it manually. The operators themselves act like npc which Ray found funny to be given the role to be real npc.

After summoning all 40+ operators out, he teaches the people how to interact with his operators and sends the first group of recruits into the lobby where the trio is on the other end sending them off to the stages to get them started.

After sending them all off, Ray also enters the lobby to find it expanded appropriately to fit the large crowd inside.

"Who is going to volunteer to be in the first group?" Raynare asked after she finished explaining about the stage.

None volunteered as they are afraid to be the first one until few lift their hand from the back. They are a group of three devils and one fallen angel that come from the vanguard unit. The mix of two races surprised Ray but he welcomed it with open hand as race separation is a problem here due to their past enmity but this can be the first step to abolish it.

"Finally a group volunteers. Anyway, just select one of the stages that appeared on the squad leader screen and your group will be sent into the stage." Raynare explained and the squad leader of the group had a screen appear in front of him. He followed Raynare's instructions and vanished from the lobby and a live see magical like a Light spear the fallen angel wields instead of using it as projectiles.

Since the stage is an easy one, it only has a total of 10 waves and the crowd watches until wave five before they also form their own squad to start the grinding after knowing what to do from watching the first group.

Thousands of stages formed as the recruits started their grinding and Ray along with the trio observed their progress in the lobby.

Raynare instantly loses her strict and professional personality that she shows in front of the recruits just now and coyly seeking attention from Ray which caused Mittelt to roll her eyes at Raynare. Mittelt, unlike Raynare, didn't bother to hide her true self and act as she normally would even in front of the recruits, unlike Raynare who wanted to maintain her professional persona when dealing with the recruits. Kalawarna as usual feel like a third or fourth wheeler in their relationships which they all used to and didn't find it awkward at the very least.

"Ray, look at this screen." Kalawarna suddenly called and Ray looked at the screen she pointed at.

He saw a squad full of recruits from a support unit which is having trouble with their first bosses since none of them are a decent fighter at all as most of them are specialized in healing rather than fighting.

"Hmn, I forgot to address this problem." Ray facepalmed. "Although we have to train even the support and logistic unit to be capable of fighting, I forgot most of them actually sucks in fighting and specialized in other departments instead."

The trio nodded and discussed with Ray. They decided that for now until they are capable of fending themselves, a non combat oriented unit will form a group with at least two from the combat oriented unit of the vanguard and the ranged unit.

When the first group returned, Ray and the trio greeted them and showed them how to check their progress before sending them off again. This continued until midnight when the training ended for today and everyone returned to their barracks.

Ray returned to his home with the trio in tow. He stopped a few steps before his front door and looked at the trio.

"Are you girls sleeping in my house tonight?" Ray asked and Mittelt with Raynare immediately nodded while Kalawarna stared at Ray's eyes for a moment.

"I'm just following Raynare…" Kalawarna said before looking away from Ray's gaze.

"Suit yourself then." Ray said before knocking at the door which sent Lancelot running to open the door and greet Ray.

"Welcome back Ray… and the ladies?"

"They want to sleep here tonight." Ray informed Lancelot who nodded without questioning it much and opened the door wide to invite everyone in.

"I will heat up the stew and rice. So, go and take a bath first, Ray." Lancelot said before he would wear his apron and dive straight into the kitchen to prepare us our late dinner though I wonder if he had enough for the other three unexpected guests.

Ray went into his room then the bathroom to take off all his clothes for a cold water shower that he preferred over hot water since it made him feel more refreshed. Then Mittelt and Raynare walked in before taking off their clothes like it's normal when it clearly isn't. Ray already has an inkling where this is going considering everyone has been very busy this week and rarely have time for their usual affectionate bonding.

"You two did realize that Lancelot is heating up our meal and we didn't have enough time to do it now."

"Don't worry, we will be quick." Raynare replied offhandedly while Mittelt nodded before jumping on Ray's back.

"Can't we wait until later? Like during sleep time?" Ray tried to persuade since he really is hungry and couldn't wait to have a warm meal and rest but the faces of both girls tell him that they wanted it here and now.

"We do it now in the shower and clean up immediately after. Isn't it more convenient to do it now than later?" Raynare said in a lecturing tone which Ray nodded as he also agreed that once he touched the bed, we wouldn't want to wake up again because he is quite exhausted mentally.

Then Ray and Mittelt spend almost 20 minutes with their light 'exercise' before taking another five to clean up afterwards. When he exits the bathroom, he looks apologetically to Lancelot as he has to wait for them and heat up the food for a second time.

Being a bros he is, Lancelot simply nodded and didn't say anything as he went to reheat the food. When the trio joined the table, they ate their dinner while chatting about random topics before going to bed an hour later. Ray sleeps in his own room, next to the already asleep Cheshire while Lancelot stands guard while everyone is asleep as part of his routine since he didn't need sleep as a weapon soul.

——————

The last two chapters are filled with nonsense, I noticed as I tried to explain the changes. This and the previous two chapters were supposed to be skipped through time skip but I decided to write it to prevent confusion if I start to add my changes to the DxD plot.

(Minor Spoiler)

I wanted to end Ray's stay in DxD soon but after he defeated the Khaos Brigade. Which I guess is approximately another 20-30 chapters. He contributed to the DxD world and gained power as reward before he departed the DxD world as a hero. I will end the canon part after the DxD team victory against Khaos Brigade because my knowledge is limited to that part only from the novel.

Also, should I snag Ophis? I do like her as waifu but her addition to Ray's group will make his future advance very easy unless I purposely make Ophis not help Ray. The Lolimancer effect will make Ophis do whatever Ray asked, technically but she can resist it to some degree if she wanted but knowing her personality of only caring about what caught her interest, she would definitely follow Ray like a lost puppy asking for snacks and be friends with Cheshire.

Next is the harem… Raynare and Mittelt are definitely in. Xenovia will follow soon, Ravel is 50/50, Kalawarna is probably will join but yet to decide how/when/why, the twins I actually add to be the comedic duo but I failed miserably on doing so. Then the virgin Valkyrie will join.

Then lastly is Valina. I initially genderbend her not to join Ray's harem but to actually pair up with Issei for whatever reason that I forgot. But letting her die in a sacrifice for victory would probably be better at this rate since it's too late to change the story. (Juggling between two fics makes me forget or mix up the details which led me to forgetting what my plans are for the continuation of the story. Shouldn't have procrastinated on listing down my ideas which I haven't updated till now since the Kokabiel attack on Kuoh.)