Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL]

“Alright,” I say in front of my second class of the day, though thankfully one of forty-five students. “This is Introduction to Combat Training. I’m Seraphina Mortensen, this is my partner, Chloe Jacobs. I’ll be the instructor of record, and good news, everyone who shows up to class regularly and puts in a reasonable effort will get an A. What we are hoping to get out of this class is as many Skill Ranks, levels, and stat increases as practicable, so you will be better prepared for whatever path you plan to pursue after this.

“Law enforcement, military operations, private security and adventuring, these are some of the most common reasons why you might be wanting to take this class. Maybe you just want to see the new world and don’t want to fear getting eaten by goddesses only know what, and maybe you just really want to live out your childhood dream of being a supervillain.”

This gets a few chuckles. Even Chloe chuckles for a bit before giving me a bit of a side-eye.

“I’m serious. I’m not here to judge; I’m just here to prepare you to the fullest extent of my capabilities for wherever your path in life might lead you.

“Before we get started, the most important rule in this class, and the rule that is going to hopefully save all of you from ending up in the hospital, or worse. Whatever Chloe says, goes. From the time you step onto this field until the time you leave, Chloe is your highest authority. Her authority in this class supersedes my authority, your parents’ authority, any rules or regulations from administration, and even the deities you may or may not worship.

“If I say go and she says stop, you will stop. If I say class ends at 1:45 and she needs to leave at 1:30, then congratulations, you all get to leave fifteen minutes early. If I say to demonstrate a new Skill and she says it’s too dangerous, then I better not see you channel a single point of [Ether].

“She’s the best damned healer in this city, bar none. It’s her job to make sure one of you doesn’t do anything that she can’t put back together, and your job not to make hers any harder than it needs to be. She has graciously volunteered her time and expertise to be here today to keep you safe. Have I made myself clear on this?”

A chorus of ‘yeses’ and ‘sures’ and ‘whatevers’ follows. I take a deep breath to give my anger and irritation a chance to settle.

“I said,” in a calm voice, before shouting, “Have I made myself clear on this?”

“Yes, Miss Mortensen!” a plurality of the class says along with a smattering of ‘Yes, Instructor’, ‘Yes, Ma’am’, and even a couple of ‘Yes, Dr. Mortensen’. The latter of those makes me feel pretty good, despite the fact I have no claim to the honorific.

“Now then,” I continued. “Eventually, I will prepare some training weapons for all of you to engage in sparring matches, but before any of you pick up a weapon or a suit of armor, we are all going to do a nice little warm-up. Five minutes to stretch, do some jumping jacks, whatever it is that you need to warm up. After that, we’ll have a little competition.”

My students spread out among the field, while I turn to Chloe.

“I got a letter from some courier today.” I draw it from my [Inventory] and slip it into my girlfriend’s hand. “I don’t have any proof, but I think it’s genuine. The courier who sent it didn’t identify himself in any way, but he was fast and had an [Inventory].”

Chloe looks over the note and reads through it before dissolving it into her own [Inventory] with a flash of silver light. “That sounds like him, but… why is he apologizing to both of us?”

“That’s the part that didn’t make sense to me, either. Maybe it was because he knew that we’d both end up going down this same path. We were besties for well over a decade.”

“You say it like we’re not anymore, Sera.”

“Still friends, just with way better benefits.” I give her a wink.

“Oh, absolutely.” Chloe flashes me a lewd image of a particular position we tried out last night. “Benefits are second to none.”

By now, all the students have stretched, or at least had the opportunity and failed to avail themselves of it. If they end up getting cramps or worse as a result, well, they are adults, and there’s only so much babysitting I can be expected to do, especially when I’m the youngest one among everyone gathered.

“For today, we’re going to run laps.” I get no shortage of groans. “This will be an effective way to gauge your current abilities and help me organize you into groups of similar level and strength. The rules are simple. We’re going to run laps for the next forty-five minutes, testing both your [Speed] and your [Vitality] stats in equal measure. The winner, whoever that may be, is the one who completes the most laps in the allotted time. You’re allowed to use any Skills, any equipment or accessories you have on your person, but you are not allowed to trip, attack, stifle, or otherwise interfere with your fellow students in any way. Chloe and I will be disqualifying anyone who tries, and reporting them to the Dean of Students for further disciplinary action.

“And, just to provide the proper incentives, whoever does the best in our little challenge will win a prize, courtesy of yours truly.”

“But, that’s not fair,” one young woman with jet black hair says. “Not everyone is going to have the same Skills and levels and opportunities as everyone else.”

“You are correct… What is your name?”

“Martina, Miss Mortensen.”

“Martina brings up an excellent point. My little game is not fair. But you know what else is not fair? Having a bunch of overgrown lizards the size of skyscrapers raining hell and fire upon our homes. We got off lucky, but if it weren’t for sheer dumb luck and a couple hundred people who risked life and limb that night, we’d have it just as bad as hundreds of millions of people who were either displaced or killed not two months ago. Chloe and I were among those people fighting that night. Some of you may have seen us on the news.”

The couple of people who were foolish enough to blow me off earlier are now listening with full attention, trying to get in some last-minute stretches before I send them off.

“I’m going to be teaching you to survive here, and the threats that are coming for you, your friends, your families, everyone in this city, and indeed, the entire Earth, are not going to go easy on you just because you are low leveled. The harder you work, the more Skill ranks and levels you gain out of this, the better prepared you will be to defend everything you care about when the hordes of monsters lurking just outside the city come for you.

“Hence, no handicaps. You won’t get them out there, and that’s how I’m going to train you. If anyone doesn’t like it, get stronger. There’s some low-leveled dungeons in and around town that you can fight in if you want extra credit and a head start. Have I made myself clear?”

“Yes, Miss Mortensen.” No hesitation from my students this time around. I hold back the urge to sigh. Sympathy for politicians this morning, sympathy for drill sergeants now. Truly, what am I coming to?

“Alright, you may begin.”

No one wastes more than half a second before they’re moving from the middle of the field out to the track surrounding to begin laps in a semi-orderly succession. Normally, I’d make them all sweat it out here in the imposing August heat and humidity, call it part of the conditioning and preparation for the harsh conditions they might have to fight in going forward. However, I do have a small bit of mercy still tucked somewhere deep down in my heart, enough to conjure a few glyphs together and form a nice chilled breeze as they begin their laps around the track.

Chloe, admittedly, doesn’t have much to do today, and if all we were ever going to do was run laps every day for the rest of the semester, I wouldn’t have asked her to help me out. As it is, the students all need to see her in a position of authority, and… after thinking about it for a bit, I have an idea.

“Chloe, can you fly up and keep track of everyone’s lap totals? Also make sure no one cheats?”

“Easy enough. What are you going to be doing?”

I sprout my wings. “Putting on a demonstration.”

“Do you want me to use my [Saintess’s Blessing] as well?”

I have to think about it for a moment. It might be cheating just a bit, but the sooner these wannabe fighters see the true level of the world, the sooner they’ll either buckle down and start giving a hundred and ten percent, or decide that it’s not for them. Either way, my actions are going to save lives, and with that as a moral justification, I give Chloe my assent.

The world slows down in my eyes as every fiber of my muscles twitch with raw energy just waiting to overflow. The magic of the System sharpens my mind and body alike, allowing both to defy the normal physical limits placed upon them.

I move with unnatural celerity, nearly two hundred and fifty points of effective [Speed] allowing me to sprint past my students as easily as an Olympic medalist passing by a crawling infant. Despite having given them all nearly a minute head start, I’m far from the last one done with the first lap. Fourteen seconds later, I’m done with the second lap, a half mile completed in under half a minute and right near the very front of the pack.

If I were flying, or not deliberately going out of my way to avoid all the students who might as well have been frozen in place, I could have gone even faster still. As it is, I’m still quite literally running laps around everyone. Some of the students have stopped and are watching, some of them have grown despondent, and a few of them have actually managed to grasp the assignment and are working that much harder after seeing what I’m truly capable of.

After five minutes, I’ve already run six-and-a-half miles and I’m not even close to winded, thanks to just shy of three hundred points of [Vitality] coursing through me. My perception being what it is, I can also hear a few grumbles from some of the students, whining that the whole ‘first place prize’ I’d promised was a sham from the beginning.

It wasn’t, and still isn’t, but I’m not going to correct their misconceptions. Overcoming adversity in all its forms and reacting to changing battle conditions is a part of combat training just as enhancing their combat parameters. If these students can’t even handle a bit of showing off in an environment where they are as safe as safe gets, protected by the best single fighter and the best healer in the whole city, they don’t deserve to win my prize.

[Valkyrion’s Perception] picks up something high above and in the corner of my eye, stilling my body and sending my heart racing. Too big to be just a large bird… Moreover, I’m sensing a large quantity of Ether that suggests something quite powerful. Something heading straight toward us.

“Do you sense that, too, Chloe?”

“Something evil approaches.” Her hand moves to her heart. “Powerful and–”

“Everyone!” Chloe shouts. “Stop what you’re doing and seek shelter immediately! We’re under attack. This is not a drill!”

The students all start scattering in a morass of screams and pandemonium, one which spreads like wildfire throughout campus. I, meanwhile, can only summon the mental energy to sigh and lament the trouble that comes with these phenomenal new powers. Although, I am left silently asking the world: Was it too much to ask to give me one easy day to start off my new life as a mature and responsible adult member of society? Yes, it was?

Ah well. At least now I have an appropriate target to vent all my frustrations. A small comfort, but one which I’ll gladly accept.