Karl watched the beasts fight with the two Lamia bodyguards, while Rae and Remi compared them to the bodyguards and Golems that they had.
It was hard to tell whose were the most deadly between Karl and Rae, as they both had [Offensive Optimization] available, and the Lamia had to hold back against the student beast.
But there was some argument over whether four arms with swords was better than eight legs, when only the front two were normally used to attack.
They wanted to test the theory, but they didn’t want to give away their actual power level while they were still being observed by others. The beast clerics weren’t bad sorts, at least not in the mind of the beasts, but they weren’t part of the team.
[They told us the first day that you should always have a secret reserve of power that nobody else knows about.] Hawk reminded them.
Not So Evil Lady had said it very clearly.
The students training against the Bodyguards changed, and the pair of white Lamia tested them to their limits, making them improve their strategies in ways that the clerics hadn’t thought of before, and use their skills and bodies in the most effective manners.
The teacher was impressed that the training could go so smoothly, and with Karl using Skill Master on both the students and his own beasts, everyone was making progress.
Most of the team couldn’t use the skills that they were seeing, but there was hope that it would give them inspiration to more easily learn other skills that they were compatible with.
It was also valuable training for the team, as they had been fighting Giants for a while, and now they had the chance to watch battles with multiple body styles.
The Bodyguards had some combat skills, but at first, they lacked combat instincts. Even after practice, they were still lacking compared to a trained Elite, but the same was true of Golems, so Karl put the spell on the same general level.
Karl let them practice until lunch, when the older students went to their indoor training, which was more private, as it was church doctrine, and the humans weren’t followers of the beast gods.
The cafeteria was busy at lunch, but Dana had many questions for Karl.
“When did you learn to use Bodyguards? Or are those Remi’s? Plus, why can they use your skills?”
“I honestly have no idea. Remi has never sent hers into combat yet, so I don’t know if they can also use some of her skills. If they can use even one or two of her skills, they will be very dangerous. But mine came out as Lamia, and hers are Naga Warriors. It might be the form that determined the abilities.
But for the Lamia, their outfit looks more decorative, while for the Naga bodyguards, Bestial Raiment looks like it’s actually making Epic Grade armour on them.”
In his mind, Remi was trying not to laugh, which was making Hawk increasingly suspicious. [They can use Bestial Raiment and Tsunami.] She laughed.
Naga were a water element monster by nature, so it made sense that the warriors would be able to use one of her water type skills. Hawk sighed in resignation. He knew that was coming, and he was beginning to accept that his little sister didn’t fully appreciate the wonder that was fire magic.
“So, now between you, you can have six summoned constructs? That’s a bit unfair.” Dana sighed as she did the mental math of his combat power.
Karl shrugged. “Many things with the Elites are simply unfair. Even Morgana, who is incredibly capable now, had to extensively tattoo her own body to get to a point where she felt safe in combat. Speaking of which, I should see if she can help me out with some of those the next time we meet. But I learned something while I was back in time. The class that you start with wasn’t always the one you had to stay with. When you gained enough power, you could try to modify your class through advancement. We all went through the First Advancement Trail, but I don’t know if any of us managed to upgrade. We all got some good rewards, but as for actually upgrading our classes, I don’t think we can know if it happened until the System is active enough to give you your Skill Tree or a full Status report.”
The others nodded, and Karl saw them silently trying to bring up both, just to see what they found. They didn’t manage to pull up a skill list, but they all had a detailed status that described their abilities.
Orthos sent a cleric to join them as they were finishing their meals. “I have a map for you and details of the mission.
The anomaly will appear forty kilometres straight north of the town of Halsearing. Unfortunately, the monsters monitor for portal openings, in case of invasion. So, we will bring you to the human controlled port at Lutonade. I suggested Penbeck, which is held by tribal trolls, but it would add hundreds of kilometres to your journey.
The issue is that Lutonade is a pirate port, known as a stopover for slave ships headed overseas. It is not a friendly place, and travelling with any females, much less with so many young and healthy ones, makes you a target.
The third safe option is to bring you to the wilderness at the Charham River Delta. It’s a safe spot for Portals, but it’s a swamp, and you would have to travel three hundred kilometres through the wilderness, or eighty kilometres north to get to the nearest village outside the swamp where you could get on a road.” He explained.
He motioned to all the spots on the map, and other than the pirate and slaver issue, Lutonade seemed like the best option.
But tempting slavers when they had a mission to complete didn’t seem like a great idea.
The road from Penbeck was a large loop, skirting the swamp, and would be over seven hundred kilometres of travel to make the three hundred kilometres of direct travel.
“Would slavers actually attack Dragon Clerics?” Lotus asked.
That was generally considered taboo among all the human nations on the continent. Kidnapping a dragon cleric brought nothing but bad luck.
“The other continents don’t hold to that standard, so the slavers from Newbon don’t care who they grab. They’ll just claim that they’re random commoners when they auction them. We’ve even had them try to auction transformed beasts who were drugged so they couldn’t shift back.”
Karl could only imagine how much of a mess that would have been when the drugs wore off and the beast shifted back. Buying a docile human or beastkin slave was a very different level of risk than a pissed off dire bear in the living room.
Dana pointed further up the road. “It says that there are docks at Hatbury. It’s also a bit further and the road runs past Lutonade, but that should be better than showing up in the city.”
The cleric looked at the reports. “Yes. That should be possible. That town is about half human, a trading camp between human fishermen and the Orc and Demon Tribes that live inland.”