After lunch, Morgana led them to an empty room, which might have been a consultation room, as there was nothing more than a simple desk in it with two chairs and a side table with a pot of coffee and cups.
“I don’t have all the books that we’re going to need for the lessons, but I do have an aptitude test for you, both to judge where you are in your education, and to see if your head injury is causing any lingering effects when you need to focus.
I know that they will try to steal you back to the battle lines with the other advanced students even sooner than they said, so we should get the basics laid out now.” Morgana explained.
Karl nodded. “Before we start, who did all that ink for you? Some of those tattoos are incredibly intricate.”
Morgana chuckled. “I did them all, but they’re actually all spells. As a Witch Doctor, one of my abilities is a blessing or a curse on a target to enhance their abilities. So, the few who have the class all chose to cover themselves in the spells to mimic the abilities of the other classes, with enhanced mental powers and physical skills.”
Karl smiled and thought about the last of the Rank Two attack skills that he hadn’t learned.
[Brutality] increased the strength and size of the target by ten percent per rank. If he had been thinking ahead, he could have used that during the last battle to help even the size difference between him and the Frost Giants, as well as reducing the strength advantage of the Royal Rank Giant.
Morgana rapped her knuckles on the desk. “You look lost in thought. Care to elaborate?”
Karl shrugged. “Just thinking of what I could have done differently in that last fight. There are a few Class Abilities that I could have taken advantage of and the fight might have ended differently.”
Morgana shook her head. “Don’t second guess yourself. That only leads to doubt and hesitation. Neither of those things will help you survive, so just put them out of your mind.
Now, here is the aptitude test. Much like your graduation test from middle school before the injections, but more difficult.
You have all afternoon to finish it if you need, but it usually only takes an hour or two.”
Karl opened the booklet and picked up the pencil, then smiled as he realized that it was a multiple choice test. Multiple choice was easy.
But after the first page of general knowledge that all changed. It became long answers, more in depth questions about things he had learned at the Academy, things he had no clue about, and complex math questions whose answers he could only guess at.
The only sections of the test that he was certain that he had done alright on were the botany and monster related questions. The math was a lost cause, while he might have done alright on the magical theory, though he suspected that section had no real right or wrong answers, as long as you actually knew how to use magic.
Every class did things a little differently, so their understanding of magic wasn’t the same, and they would describe the answers very differently. Even the beasts had conflicting answers about how and why some things worked.
For example, Thor said that you knew the Circle of Protection was working because it felt right on the scales. How did you relate that to anyone else? It wasn’t the sort of thing that you could explain in words, but Thor’s impression told Karl just what it should feel like on the scales – if Karl had scales.
“Alright, I think that is all the questions. I can see now that there are plenty of things in life that I don’t know the answer to. Like the volume of a cylinder. But there should be at least a few of them where I did alright.” Karl informed Morgana, who was reading the notes of his training as he worked on the test.
She flipped through the test, and got to a question in the math section, where she looked startled. “How did you get the answer to this?” She asked, turning the book back to him.
“Oh, that’s a force and velocity thing. One tonne is about what a juvenile Lightning Cerro weighs, and if he hits a wall with his brute strength at a forty kilometre an hour run, he will exert about that much force. Thor loves smashing things. Poles, barriers, walls. They’re all fun. So, I have seen it in action enough times to know the answer.
I didn’t use some fancy calculation, but I’m pretty certain that’s right.” Karl explained.
“It is. All of the ones on applied force are close to the proper answer, which was shocking, given how badly you did on the rest of the math questions.” Morgana replied.
Well, at least she didn’t try to sugar coat it.
Then she went through the rest of the booklet, only smiling when the got to the botany section, where Karl knew all the plants in question, and the monster biology section, where Karl knew the vital points and the likely skills of the common species referenced.
It had all been on common threats in the Golden Dragon Nation, so it wasn’t hard for him to recall the early lessons that Sergeant Rita had gone through with him when they thought that Common Rank Monsters were going to be the target of his missions for the first year.
“Alright, I understand where you are at now. They went over the survival portions of the training first, and left the others until you had settled into your class, which they obviously never got to as you left the Academy to play in the woods.
That doesn’t change much except the starting point for your next bit of training, and I will have the books here by tomorrow so we can get to it. Honestly, it’s going to be a fairly simple and enjoyable course load.
The first thing you will need to learn for geography is the basics of all the different environments. How to traverse them safely, the creatures you are likely to find, what plants are edible and which are poison. How to hide your scent, and how to blend into your surroundings.”
She paused at that point, noticing that Karl had been partially distracted by the team’s running commentary.
“I need a real-time translator for you. I get the feeling that I’m missing out on two thirds of the conversation, and I’m the one speaking.” She commented in a dry tone.
“Sorry. They’re all giving me hints on the areas that they know best. The plains, the forests, the swamps, the sky. Rae is a Bloodbath Spider, so she has a natural ability to blend into her surroundings, and she doesn’t really understand why it won’t transfer to me, when it did transfer to her Golems. Thor thinks that blending in is overrated, and we just need a stronger pack. Hawk is laughing at their inability to fly away from danger.” Karl narrated.
“So, you’re saying that you should be good at the wilderness survival portion of the training? That’s a real time saver. I thought that we would have to call in a Nature Priest to help.” She sighed.
“We can still do that. I have one in the group, well two of them if High Priest Doug and his team will be staying with us. But Colonel Valerie said that the next mission would be with the Academy students, so possibly not.” Karl suggested.
Morgana shrugged. “Well, I am also a Commander, so probably not. The war isn’t going well for us, even with the Elites on our side. Every line is spread thin, but your time in the Frost Giant nation gave them hope that the new generation of students might have either some sort of power advantage as the World Dragon’s favour returns to the people, or new ideas that would overturn the prevailing logic of battlefield engagements.”
“The sort of logic that doesn’t bother to count the number of Giants before sending teams deep into enemy territory to engage them? Yeah, I can think of a couple of ideas that would overturn that line of thinking.” Karl agreed, with anger slowly taking over his voice and expression without him noticing.
