As he thought about what the protocol might be for changing locations now that his official mission was over, Karl realized that Colonel Valerie was still here somewhere, and he had her number in his phone.
He scrolled the handful of numbers in the phone’s directory and sent her a simple text message.
[I have a request from the church to go to the Seminary Academy. Do I need to do any paperwork to let the school know where I am?]
His phone dinged a few seconds later with her reply.
[I will take care of it. Have them arrange for your transit back to the Academy when you are finished, or update the mission log if they’re sending you out again.]
That was simpler than he had expected it to be, but then a second message came in.
[Sergeant Rita will join you for your time at the Seminary Academy.]
“Are you good to go now?” Doug asked as Karl read the second message from Colonel Valerie.
“It looks like it. They’re sending my personal tutor from the Academy to join me during my time there, so I think they’re expecting me to be gone for a while.” Karl agreed.
“They’re sending a Tutor? Not a Professor?” Doug asked.
“Yeah, I usually train under the guidance of Sergeant Rita, or a pair from the Bureau of Elite Development. All three are around somewhere most days, though the other duo sometimes have work to do.” Karl explained.
Doug nodded and smiled. “It looks like we got to you too late, they’ve already found you a cute girlfriend who just needs to make the first move.”
The twins laughed and Karl chuckled. “If it’s about Sergeant Rita, she’s got competition from the first years.”
“Oh? Do tell.” Bob asked.
Karl realized that they didn’t know who he was talking about. “I forgot for a moment that she wasn’t on the same helicopter on the way in. There is another fast-growing student, a Mage named Dana. She’s already Awakened Rank, and has been on all the same missions I have, only we got separated onto different teams this time.”
Bob smiled. “Well, at least you had the good sense to go for someone close to your growth rate instead of befriending the charity case. That always ends up messy when you get too far apart in power and end up on separate details with very different social status.
Or worse, they stop giving them details and the company you work for just hires them to be your shadow or bed warmer. More than one of the lowest performing Elites was hired as an ‘assistant’ for a much more powerful friend after they graduated.”
Karl recalled that Bob had graduated at Awakened and had only made Ascended afterwards, so in his case the experience was likely reversed, where his crush surpassed him, and he was the one left behind by social pressures. He didn’t seem like the type to take a demeaning or low paying job just to be close to someone.
It was a difficult thought for Karl. Would he end up forced apart from his friends because of his progress? He had once heard the mine foreman say that it was lonely at the top, regarding being an Elite or a company boss, but Karl had always just assumed he thought like that because he was a douchebag and nobody liked him.
Doug led them out of the building, and Karl saw a very familiar head of curly hair in the distance, pushing a cart of supplies around. He would know those curly locks anywhere, even if she wasn’t wearing an Academy Uniform with the familiar black Awakened Rank badge on the coat.
“Speak of the devil, that is Dana, the mage I went on the mission with. I’m not sure what she’s doing in camp here, but we can go say hello if we have a minute.” Karl explained, while waving in her direction.
Dana spotted them and ran over with her cart to greet Karl with a big hug, which brought some stifled laughter from the mages and a whispered “aren’t they adorable?” from Doug, that he probably wasn’t meant to hear.
“Dana, it’s good to see you again. When did you get to the base camp?” Karl asked.
“Five days after we were dropped off. My group was completely useless, and our guardian cleric brought us back to the nearest base, who transferred us here, and put the other three on work detail for avoiding their duties. The cleric’s report was far from a glowing recommendation of their skills and work ethic, but he put in enough of a good word for me that I didn’t get any sort of punishment. They just reassigned me to look for another team.
I’ve been doing day trips with some groups to get the experience, but I haven’t found a full-time group yet. It doesn’t help that they upgraded the threat level here to Ascended, so there aren’t many groups in the area I can even join, since most of them have Commander Rank leaders.” She complained.
Karl nodded in understanding. “They transferred us here because of that upgrade. The rest of the team here are all Ascended. This is Bob, the lead warrior, Brother Doug, of the Green Dragon, and the twin mages Danni and Donni.”
Dana did her best to hide her envy at Karl, having gotten a good group right from the start. She had been bouncing between groups for a week without any real hope of getting on full-time. The groups were already at full strength, they were just taking on an extra for the day so that she could get the experience.
“Where are you off to now? Back into the field after you resupply?” She asked, with a gesture to her cart.
“Nope, off to the Seminary Academy for a bit. They wanted to talk to us about a thing.” Karl explained vaguely.
“Alright. Good luck, I’ve got to deliver these supplies, and then I’m off in the morning with another fresh team. They’ve just arrived back, but they’re military, so maybe it will be better.” She replied, then waved at everyone and made her way toward a group of trucks.
Doug chuckled as she left. If she thought that things were going to get better with a military group, she was in for a surprise. But at least it would be somewhat stable, and they probably wouldn’t ship her back to town after a single day, like these short mission sorts.
Once Dana was gone and social time was over, Doug led them to a convoy of white buses with church logos on the side, which were just discharging their passengers.
The young clerics were giving Karl a curious look, and he realized that he actually had met most of these people before. They were students of the Seminary Academy, being shipped out to supplement the groups here.
He leaned over to whisper to Doug. “Should we really be headed back when things are so bad that they’re sending bus loads of students out to the front lines?”
Doug smiled and patted him on the back. “It’s not like that. They will be assigned as the second or third healer for a ten person military unit to gain work experience. This is a common thing for both Academies once the students are in their second years.”
The group stopped to wait for the buses to be ready to start loading again, and the students took that as permission to come say hello.
Sort of.
“Brother Karl! Is Thor here?” One of the girls called from three buses away.
That brought dozens of eager looks their way, and Karl called out the happy Cerro to say hello to everyone.
“He’s getting big. Good afternoon Thor.” The girl giggled as she ran over to rub his horns.
Thor was quickly swarmed, and the Mages gave Karl a questioning look.
He just shrugged. “Thor is a people person. He makes friends everywhere that we go.”
He was making even more friends here, behaving like an attention starved puppy around impressionable young clerics.
“At this rate, we’re going to have to give them a refresher in the interacting with wild animals course when they get home.” Doug chuckled.
“Thor is thoroughly domesticated. But I wouldn’t recommend doing that with a wild Lightning Cerro. Though who knows, maybe they would like it, and it’s just that nobody has tried.” Karl agreed.
“Oh, someone has tried. That’s why we teach the course.” Doug countered with a smirk that said he was familiar with the story behind why the course existed.