The rest of the day was spent on improving the new ways that the teams had come up with to use the Rend skill. Mostly Karl worked on his control to keep a strand of it stationary, but they also worked on disguising the skill, as some monsters would recognize the Rend ability and have a trick to deal with it.
For example, some beasts with tusks could take the Rend directly and let it break against the tusk, doing little damage to their body. But if you made it look like a different skill, for example having the rend form not as a streak of energy but as a disc or a spear, it would confuse them, and they might not be able to deal with it.
Dana had done something similar during the fight, by dimming the light from her magic missiles. The small alterations to a spell could make just enough of a difference to get you through a tight spot or to get an edge on your competitors.
“Alright, everyone, you’ve had your fun. We will meet back here again next week at the same time.” Colonel Valerie announced at precisely four in the afternoon, the usual ending time for classes.
The Saturday classes were usually a bit more flexible with their timings, but Karl was fairly certain that her personality didn’t allow her to run overtime without prior written authorization. If she was off schedule, she was definitely the sort of person that would be bothered by it.
“See you two next week. Don’t forget to practice, if they give you some leisure time. We will be making up a lesson plan for you.” One of the mages laughed.
The Colonel hurried the students back to the car while the others changed tasks to planning for something, obviously in a rush to get them back to the Academy on schedule.
The drive was a quiet one as Karl and Dana both focused on the things that they had been learning for the day. Learning new ways to use skills was entirely different from just learning the skill. Instead of just gaining knowledge, you had to work to change the way that you thought about, imagined and solidified the spell. It was a different way of using the knowledge that you knew, a way that ran contrary to how you had been thinking about your skills.
It was more of a test of mental flexibility and creativity than anything else, and for Karl, it was draining in a way that normal training was not. Eventually, he was certain that he would get used to it, but today he was oddly exhausted and glad that tomorrow didn’t have any plans but staying in to relax and practice.
When they were back on school grounds, the Colonel put back on her ‘Professor Valerie’ friendly facade and her expressionless professionalism turned to a polite smile that was somehow still completely devoid of emotion.
“So, what did you think of the first day of special training? Was it everything that you had hoped for?” She asked, looking at them in the rearview mirror of the car.
“It was certainly something unexpected, that’s for sure. I never thought about trying to use my skills that way, but it is going to make a huge difference the next time I come up against monsters like that Goblin Tribe.” Karl replied.
Hawk was in full agreement. Rend was his ability, he should be best with it, but they had weird human ideas on how to make it work that would be great for harvesting meat. Especially pigs. Pigs were stupid, and he could make them stampede in rage, so they would trip over the Rend wire, or get their tusks stuck on it, and he could attack their soft and juicy underside.
[Hawk, go have a snack. Your food daydreams are distracting.] Karl reminded his partner.
Hawk wasn’t wrong, though. Plenty of creatures could be made to charge in rage, and they wouldn’t be looking closely enough to notice the thin string before they ran into it. They would be too focused on what he was doing, and the trap could be set in advance.
Dana turned toward her noisy room with a soft smile on her face. “Let’s see how the neighbours like me now. I’ve got some great ideas on how to make the Golem and Magic Missile work together, so I will be practising them late into the night.”
Karl laughed at her comment. The booming noise of the neighbours practising their attack abilities could still be sporadically heard, they hadn’t given up on their goal of being the next to reach Awakened Rank yet, but the stomping of a Stone Golem would be horrendous where the Magic Missiles were normally silent.
“I think that I will focus on trying to improve the actual power of my abilities. Stretching the attack out the way they want puts a lot of drain on my mental abilities, so I need to work on them first and control second.” Karl replied as she waved goodnight.
But before he turned in, Karl realized that he did actually have some Academy credits after their away mission, and he didn’t need to change his room, so he could spend them on some resources for Hawk.
He headed back downstairs to the supply room and waited for the clerk to answer the bell.
“Welcome back. I saw you headed off campus this morning, so I didn’t expect to see you today. What can I do for you, possibly a uniform repair?” The man asked.
“Nope, my uniforms are fine. We were just doing some offsite training, not a mission. What I need is an Awakened or Ascended Rank strength stone, and some Ascended Rank monster blood if you’ve got it.” Karl replied.
“Ah, the strengthening mixture. Be careful using too strong of a potion when you’ve just broken through. It’s best to mix a little bit into a shot of water and see how that works out for you.” The clerk warned him.
“Thanks, I will be sure to portion it out slowly if you’ve got the good stuff.” Karl agreed.
The man opened the computer to some sort of inventory screen, and entered Karl’s identification by scanning his badge, then frowned.
“You’re still a bit short on credits. I can get you an Ascended Rank stone, but no blood, or both at Awakened with the credits you have.”
Karl nodded. He had expected that a simple mission wouldn’t get him too far, even if it was the most common of items.
“I will take the Ascended Rank stone, and I will mix it with the blood I saved from the mission. I still have a fair bit of Awakened Rank boar blood.” Karl agreed.
He actually had the whole boar, so he would be able to get half a litre or more of the blood out of it, enough to last Hawk for weeks at the proportion it should be mixed with the crushed stone.
“Pleasure doing business with you. Do you want that stone ground fine or coarse? I’m assuming you aren’t going to try to eat the thing intact.” The clerk asked.
“Ground as fine as possible. It mixes better that way.” Karl agreed.
“And there you are. Good luck with your training.”
As soon as the transaction was done, the man disappeared into the back room, leaving Karl holding a small bag of powder, like some illicit drug transaction.
