Chapter 5.23 - New Arrivals

With Nok in school full time, and the departure of the more hostile diplomats, Serin decided to improve himself. It had been a while since he had done a bit of work on his skills, and even longer since he had entered the dungeon. He knew he could devote time to work on raising his stats for 4 hours each day. Thinking back to his times when he had the largest stat raises, he realized he needed to develop a training regime that had the intensity of his combat experiences, but used his non-combat skills. Serin also realized because of the lowered risk to bodily injury this sort of training would have, he could mold the routines to be used by the teaching staff at Haven's Training Academy. To ensure that the training was specialized to hone specific skills under individual stats, Serin did a bit of work. Using the preserve that had been developed for changeling hunts, Serin molded a large section into a fake town, with surrounding environments. This way both the Training Academy and the Protectorate could take advantage of this space. Serin also realized that a fake town was nothing without fake residents, and since changelings developed very little from using skills outside of combat, they gladly played the roles of town guards, townsfolk, etc.

Serin worked with Lady Eris and Edel to develop a set of 6 training scenarios that could also be used to train children, as well as more advanced versions to assist in training those of the protectorate that had already raised their luck stat to 50, but were not quite strong enough to hunt in the Capital Dungeon. Since Serin's skills were about on par with many of the middle and elder school children.

The first scenario was called Recon and Raid. This was an Agility based training scenario. The objective was to Sneak into the town, blend in with the townsfolk and avoid suspicion and guards, find the town leader hidden in the populace, steal his key, find and loot his vault, and escape. To add variety, false alarms and traps were added, roaming guards, it was very well created. Besides training the various agility based skills, this training also served as training for future protectorate missions. With the added variety, it ensured that the students, as well as Serin himself, learned the valuable skills, and didn't just memorize the scenario.

The second Scenario was the Dance. This Charisma based scenario took place in the banquet hall when not in use. Each person at the Dance was a foreign dignitary, and the three competitors were rival princes attempting to garner favor. With similar starting resources, they simply had to convince everyone else of why they should. Serin truly struggled at this since he had always leaned on his intense power to intimidate political rivals. When they attempted the scenario as strictly training, advancement halted, so out of all the scenarios this was the most expensive. Three people would compete with the prize of not having to clean the waterworks with the Homunculus the next day

The Third Scenario was by far the most painful, and was called The Escape. Each person would attempt to Survive and Evade capture from a hostile party. Armed with no weapons they had to stay one step ahead. Should they get captured they bracelet worn during the exercise would paralyze them for 3 minutes and slowly heal them as the captors hit the participants with sticks. After 3 minutes they would have a chance to run again. Serin had been a glass cannon the entire time, and forsaking his defensive magics, he had never been beaten so hard in his life.

Serin skipped the 4th scenario called The Lockbox. As it dealt with Intelligence, Serin saw it was a Magic and puzzle based room that shifted based on the complexity required. Serin thought it was interesting but he chose not to participate. His intelligence was high enough, and the purpose of designing and participating in the training was to bring all of his non-spellcasting skills up.

The 5th Training scenario was the Funniest in Serin's Opinion. Called 'Slime attack!', the participant is an adventurer that must prepare breakfast for another person, chop some wood, and defend against four slimes that attack. The reason why this scenario was used was because each slime had to be defeated with a different weapon, and every single item from doors and chairs to the armor and weapons, weighed up to 10x normal, based on the participant. Serin found that although he could usually get the sword to defeat a simple green slime after a few minutes, flipping an egg when the spatula and the pan each weighed 25kg was not easy.

Serin also chose not to participate in the Willpower event as his Wilpower was high enough. "The Relay" was a set of events that revolved around the willpower skill. And albeit strange in nature (like keeping a stone aloft with various elemental magics based on the shifting color of the stone) Serin would have to pass.

So for the next month Serin participated for 4 hours each morning with other students. Lady Eris was astonished at watching how it helped her students, to such a degree that the curriculum was adopted as part of regular classroom training. Edel was also impressed. Serin knew he was having trouble with a skill gap for the first 20 levels of the Protectorate. Even if the newly plated reached that level, Edel wasn't confident in their fighting prowess or ability to think strategically. He hoped that this developed Training Arena would help bridge that gap.

For that month, when Serin was not training with the students, he split his time in various functions. Often he was pulled away for his duties as sovereign, but every now and then he would meet up with Olma, Jeffrey, Dana, and Iris. Dana was acting as the personal tour guide for the King and Princess of Thul while they enjoyed their stay.

Serin even chose to share a few secrets.

Serin gave Jeffrey and Iris a weapon, and they accompanied Serin with a team heading into the Dungeon.

"Each region, when it meets the criteria for establishment, is granted this, a dungeon." Serin began to explain.

"We know that this Dungeon is a minimum of 100 levels. Creatures in the dungeon come from everywhere, and several of the creatures you see domesticated on our farm are from here as well. As yours is a nation state of tamers, we know that our outings into the dungeon would be of much use to you, if anything to increase your repertoire of available summons."

As they entered the dungeon, Serin pointed to a few horned rabbits. Jeffry laughed, "those are just horned rabbits. We have children fight those!"

Jeffrey then saw as these rabbits saw the approaching team and ran straight at them, launching small balls of ice from their horns.

Serin chose to not step in, as he was guiding a group of lower level adventurers, but Jeffrey watched as one of the rabbits slipped through and stabbed an adventurer in the chest.

Serin, watching the group healer go down to a rabbit, then stepped in, dispatched all the rabbits, and proceeded to perform life saving healing on the healer.

Serin then looked at the group, "I hope you know you are not authorized at this time to go lower."

A few complaints were heard as he finished healing their healer, Serin then looked at the team. "What is your reasoning for me not restricting all of you?"

The team leader looked and complained, "It was just the healer who went down! The rest of us are totally battle ready!"

Serin laughed. This was one of the groups of newly plated working on joining the protectorate. "So your logic is only the healer should be restricted since the rest of you faired well, correct?"

They nodded. Serin looked at the healer, "Rayne, isn't it? Your class is battle medic?" The scruffy boy with light golden eyes and blonde hair nodded as he adjusted his now ruined leather chestpiece. "Why is it you are a battle medic, and not a Healer. Explain the difference for the group."

Rayne was a bit nervous, "Although I do know the healing arts, my main focus is to increase the offensive and defensive capabilities of the fighters near me."

Serin nodded, "and what is the negative effect of doing so. It says so on your spell."

Rayne huffed, "my overall defense drops when i do this." Serin nodded, "and what else?"

Rayne then looked at him, "it builds Ire."

Serin then nodded, "Ire, or as the Gole call is 'aggro' is the tendency for enemies to target you. Rayne, your battle medic, must put himself in harm's way to increase the overall strength of the team, so it is the team's responsibility to ensure his safety. So far, the only person who is acting like a team here is your battle medic,"

The team looked downtrodden. Serin continued. "Now that I have stepped in on this level your entire team automatically fails to go to the second level. Looking around i see that most of you are wearing the older model protectorate armor, so i assume it was a gift from a parent. However when I look at Rayne, I see he is wearing the minimum armor to be allowed in this area. If this team was smart, Rayne would be wearing the most protection. Instead you, the team leader, let him in here wearing that. If i wasn't present, he would have died before you got him out. I will be informing Lady Eris that instruction in team dynamics of fighting should be stronger enforced since you six need the lesson again."

Serin was a bit embarrassed that he had to lecture newly plated in front of a fellow sovereign. That was not his purpose for the trip. But some things can't be helped, Serin mused.

The leader decided to argue again, "We could just learn the regeneration magic ourselves and not bring a healer!"

Serin started to anger, his ruins intensifying. Then he calmed down. "Fair enough. Rayne, you are to stay by my side and not heal or buff anyone. If the 5 of you can survive the floor without injury, I will consider letting you pass to level 2."

Jeffry smirked. Iris chatted with Rayne, "So what other skills do you have as a Battle Medic?"

Rayne was smitten. Although this girl was a few years older, he still was blushing, as best as a Lybringer coud Serin mused. "Well, I can heal, although I am not as proficient as a dedicated healer. However I have a constant passive spell in my class that reduces fatigue generated and increases Stamina generation for everyone within its area of effect."

Iris smiled, "That is quite powerful." Rayne laughed it off, "Sadly princess it has its drawbacks. I cannot attack with it active. Although I can still cast Buffs on Allies and debuffs on enemies, since those don't do damage."

Iris looked, "do you have any offensive capabilities at all?" Rayne smiled, "not really. I can cast a few elemental spells but I am only intermediate with Cryomancy and Pyromancy. Firbolt and Icicle are my go to in a pinch, but I use the skill sets for burning hands and icy touch. They can be used to stabilize someone bleeding out while regeneration is applied."

As this conversation was going on, the other 5 were being kicked around like ragdolls by the giant birds of the floor. Serin watched as the party was collectively being beaten. If they had been able to be about 20% stronger, they would be winning, Serin thought. Then looked at Rayne and winked. One of the bird started to head straight for the party leader who had his shield knocked away. Its beak ready to pierce one of the open spots of the armor. Serin brought his bolter rifle up, and proceeded to discharge a single round, decapitating the beast. The bird continued to run and crash into the leader, but then fell over and spasmed. Serin discharged a round and killed the remaining birds.

Serin smiled, "Looks like without the boost of your Battle Medic, you all were defeated. This means if I was not present, this floor would have consumed you and killed your party. You are not authorized to enter level 1 without a guide now. Have Elder Merrin update your cards when we leave."

They looked upset but they understood. Serin then took the group to the floor leader. Jeffrey pulled a sword and shield, "Mind if i try to take this giant bunny down?"

Serin smiled, " Rayne, please buff King Jeffrey."

Jeffrey smiled and charged in. The rabbit, seeing the singular opponent charging him, met the charge. Jeffrey was fast but the giant bipedal rabbit was faster.

A few kicks later and the rabbit had kicked king jeffrey to the side. Serin was surprised the strongest in their kingdom was taken down by the first floor boss.

That's when Iris leveled a rifle and shot the rabbit in the leg.

Unable to hop, Jeffrey came over. The struggling rabbit attempted to kick him but he held it still. Soon enough Jeffrey started using a bit of magic on it. Serin watched as the bipedal rabbit shrank in size, but still retained its bipedal nature and clawed feet.

Then, with the rabbit healed and following Jeffrey, the first floor dungeon was complete.

Serin was awestruck. This king had just tamed an untamable creature of the dungeon. Jeffrey laughed, "Yeah these are a lot stronger, but I am the king of a nation of tamers. Just had to disable the little fella first."

Serin saw that this rabbit was not as weak as the horned rabbits of the surface, and not as strong as the floor boss, but was somewhere in between. Serin looked at the injured party. "I hope you 5 have learned your lesson. Practice as a team, and go to some of the new training devised by Lady Eris. You 5 need to increase your capability and teamwork before you attempt the capital dungeon again."

With that the group exited.

Serin looked at King Jeffrey and Princess Iris and as he was about to invite them to dinner, his Kingdom management screen popped a notification.

Serin smiled, "It looks like you two will be witness to a historic event of our people. Another group has called for our aid.

***