Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 135: Training Montage

‘And who are these guys?’ Isaac asked Bailey via auric Morse, keeping his frown to a minimum to avoid scaring the group of twenty-something people, most likely students.

‘Potential interns for you. People whose growth you can shape to create any support [Classes] you need.’Bailey replied using the same method, while adding out loud “Everyone, this is Dr. Thoma, the second in command of the [System] research team.”

Isaac blinked in surprise at that proclamation. Sure, it was probably right given that everyone else would listen to him under almost all circumstances and even Bailey usually deferred to what Isaac thought was correct, but he’d never heard it stated out loud.

“Hi everyone.” Isaac gave them all a little wave “I look forward to working with you.”

‘So, are you interviewing them, or why else are they all lined up outside your office?’ Isaac asked.

‘I was waiting for you to show up so I can get started while you listen in from your office.’ Bailey replied as he called in the first person.

Isaac just headed to over to said office while threading his [Aura] through the wall and into the Professor’s room.

The ‘interns’ were somewhat of a surprise, but Bailey had told him to think about what he wanted in a subordinate and Isaac had sent him a list, something that had evidently resulted in this whole affair.

“So, what makes you want to work here?” Bailey asked.

“This is the hottest place to be right now, who wouldn’t want to work here?” the interviewee answered the question with another question.

Isaac grimaced. He wasn’t a big fan of that attitude. It sounded like this person was in this for the prestige, but Isaac needed someone who would be excited for the magic to continue to get stronger and grind for not just XP, but [Skill] Levels. Yet that person could not be so focused and ambitious that they wanted to follow their own path, because what Isaac needed was extra mana for summoning and someone to learn spatial magic for a whole host of potential applications.

So Isaac sent that along to Bailey, who quickly brought the interview to a close.

The next few candidates also fell through for one reason or other. One woman already had a pretty solid [Warrior] build that Isaac couldn’t use for the purposes he needed his assistants for, a man who had his heart set on a general [Elementalist] build, and so on, and so forth.

Then there were the people who were clearly only here for the support for levelling that was being offered, given that they were going to have to be a considerably higher Level to be of use, but it was abundantly clear that they were going to be cutting and running the instant they felt they were strong enough. Of course Bailey had put clauses in the contract that would make that a very costly affair, as well as a very hardass non-compete to ensure that they couldn’t run to a large company and have them pay of the ‘breach of contract’.

Stuff like that was going to become very common, very soon. Training and job experience had been valuable before, sure, but actually power-levelling employees was vastly more expensive and Levels far easier to take to another employer.

And then you had people with the wrong level of competence. Some would have to be watched constantly or else they’d end up dead while others would have been wasted as mere assistants. After all, true power came from following your own path, not the one set by another. Therefore, Bailey and Isaac tried to send those on to other faculties where their services would be out to better use and future growth assured.

But in the end, they did find a few solid candidates, and Bailey brought them into an empty summoning room, where Isaac stood waiting behind a large table covered in seemingly random equipment.

“Good morning.” He greeted “You’ve talked to Professor Bailey about the theory behind this job, but there’s a lot of practicality to this job as well.”

Isaac gestured at the glowing Tier 2 circles behind himself.

“As the professor told you, we’re looking for someone to Level up into a spatial [Mage-Class]. You’re both under Level 10, so you’ll need to grind a lot of XP to get to that point. Now, I’ll be watching over you as you do that and make sure you don’t get hurt, but fighting to gain power isn’t for everyone.

“So, I gathered a large array of equipment that you can use, please pick something, tell me when you’re ready, step up to a circle, and I’ll activate it. Once again, I’ll make sure no one gets hurt.”

The response to that announcement was incredibly varied. Some immediately went for a weapon, with many grabbing swords. Notable were the ones who picked basic weapons like a mace, spear, or even a Bec de Corbin, because those didn’t require much knowledge to properly use. Poke until the other guy stops moving, or crush them flat, those weapons were that simple to use. Swords weren’t overly complex, mind you, but still not as easy as the other weapons.

“Can you tell us what’s in those circles?” a black man who hadn’t moved from his spot besides Bailey asked.

Isaac grinned internally. Finally, someone asked.

“Slow creatures with an easy weak point. Animated Garden Gnomes.” Isaac stated.

“Can I ask what that weak point is?”

A politely phrased question, acknowledging that that might be something Isaac wanted to keep to himself, but the guy had had both the balls and insight to actually ask.

“They have a core at their center. Smash the ceramic exterior to expose it, then break the core itself, or stab at the joints from afar until they fall apart, then go for the core.” Isaac explained.

The man nodded and finally chose his weapon, a large flanged mace that required some degree of enhanced strength to actually wield, but he seemed to have that.

At the same time, there was a scramble to switch out there weapons, but Isaac had only placed out one basic weapon per student, then surreptitiously removed many of those when they weren’t being watched.

A couple of people threw down their swords in disgust and left, but the rest remained.

Several more people backed out when the monsters emerged. Isaac gave them a bit of time to rally, but the moment someone’s opponent got closer to another person than them, an [Aura] with a vastly empowered [Death’s Embrace] made it crumble into dust. That [Skill] couldn’t normally kill people, only reduce their Stats, but when Fortitude dipped into the negative, that was usually pretty fatal.

In the end, there were two people Isaac wanted to hire. The man who’d asked the questions, a foreign exchange student from South Africa by the name of Andre Nkosi, and Zhou Li-Mei a petite Chinese woman in her mid-twenties who’d picked up the Bec de Corbin.

Once the mess was cleaned up, easily done by tossing the debris into storage, Isaac stood before the pair, happy with his choice.

“So, before you’ll officially be employed you’ll still need to deal with a mountain of paperwork in the normal German style, but once you’re done with that, I have some stuff for you.”

On the table before him, Isaac placed his last few first stage Aspects. Fire, Air and Water Elementals, Shadow Drake, and a pair of Lesser Space Elementals.

“We don’t actually know how to obtain a [Space Mage] [Class], but slotting an Aspect of the Lesser Space Elemental is almost certainly a requirement. You’re also free to pick one of these other Aspects to gain some combat power to tide you over until you evolve your [Class].”

Isaac waved them out of the room.

“See you soon.”

While they left to wade through the literal mountain of paperwork, Isaac stayed in the room, preparing circles for them to use, while laying out instruction manuals on how to most efficiently the monsters that would pop out when the circles were powered.

And lastly, he dumped a small desk and office chair in the corner of the room so he could work while his assistants trained. Eventually, they’d be fine on their own, but they needed to be supervised at least in the beginning.

Soon enough though, far faster than he’d expected, the pair of now official assistants came into the room. Well, Isaac had actually been pretty far off in his original estimations because he hadn’t expected them to have [Skills] for quick comprehension and writing even though they’d had the [Student-Class] because if your Stats were high enough, you were nearly as fast as those [Skills] would made you. The common versions of those [Skills] that was. Higher rarity ones would have given other, significant boons.

It was a lot like [Teaching] in that way. The common [Skill] most lecturers in this university had were pretty good, letting the recipients of said teaching quickly learn and maybe gain the subject of the [Class] as a [Skill] that was essentially a way to keep track of one’s comprehension. Someone like Isaac, on the other hand, could teach ridiculously powerful [Skills] with a supernatural flair to them.

For someone like Isaac, who had his eyes set on reaching the peak, those [Skills] would have been a waste of points. But for a regular [Student], reaching that Level would have taken literal years. Gaining [Reading] at a high rarity might have been useful for Isaac, but the basic version was not.

“Alright, I’m glad to see you’re both now officially a part of the team. I’ve prepared a training regimen for you guys, and I’ll be right here in the room to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

Isaac gestured to the desk he’d stuck in the corner, then handed each a small rubber ball.

“And this is a little demonstration of how safe this is going to be, please put one of those in a pocket, any pocket, and at any time during training, shout ‘help’ and I’ll cut it apart in under a second without damaging whatever pocket you put it in. I know fighting monsters isn’t the safest profession, and it can get scary at times, but it’s safe with me here, and it’s important to me you know that. But first, I’ll teach you a [Skill] that will make all of this a lot easier.”

The Andre looked surprised while Li-Mei seemed skeptical, but when Isaac proved that he was paying absolute attention to their actions and perfectly able to intervene even with his nose buried in a book, that worked wonders for reducing their tension. Also, ending up with an epic [Skill] after less than an hour of instructions worked damn well to establish what he could do for them.

Even though Isaac spent much of the day working on writing a paper on [Skills] and their various advancements, the impact rarity had and so on, he also observed his assistants intently. Not just to make sure they survived their ‘training’, but to understand them.

It was fascinating how much one revealed about themselves in their fighting style.

For example, Isaac himself was a very utilitarian person. If something worked, it worked, no matter how it looked. If someone saw it or was likely to see it, on the other hand, he’d change his approach but only by so much that it didn’t look too bad.

Andre was similar, but vastly more cautious. Utilitarian, but he approached each fight as if it were a cornered housecat, spitting and hissing and ready to claw the face off anyone who got too close. He’d either end up a fantastic [Mage] as he grew more practiced, or merely a good one if he kept up the current pace.

On the other hand, Li-Mei was excitable, curious, and adventurous to the point where she would have likely ended up injured if it hadn’t been for Isaac. Yet it was also abundantly clear that the only reason she was willing to take those risks was the safety net her new boss provided and when Isaac told her to be more careful, she immediately changed her approach.

Eventually, Isaac went into the next room over to start summoning on his own, but not before proving that the walls between them were no obstacle to his ability to make sure nothing went wrong.

And at the end of the day, the two were chomping at the bit to continue, but Isaac reminded them that they could continue tomorrow, but also gave them a little ‘homework’ in the sense that they should be practicing certain [Skills] when they had the time.

But while they got to go home, Isaac was finally in a position to go after certain foes and that needed to happen ASAP. Then again, when had he ever not had a ton of work to do since coming to this new timeline.