By the end of the evening after the basics of everyone’s current skills and combat status, as well as the major details of their recent adventures had been relayed to every applicable agency, and all of the same questions had been answered five times, everyone in Karl’s group was thoroughly ready for a nap.
Overlord Niall had gone to his apartment hours earlier, leaving them with Colonel Valerie and the representatives of the Government and Military.
Neither of them was particularly annoying on an individual basis, they just had to individually verify all of the reports, separate from any influence by the other party members.
That meant that they were spread through every room of the house to get their answers, and everyone had to repeat everything for their assigned interviewer, then as a group, in case they missed something that might be important.
Of course, they had all come to a silent agreement that there were some things they wouldn’t talk about. If it wasn’t public knowledge and the people involved could squish them like a bug, it got ignored.
If it was embarrassing to a group member, it got ignored.
But other than that, they gave a fairly complete report of the events as they remembered them. The real saving grace was that Lord Nacht had brought a report from the Divine Beast Nation with him when he arrived nearly a day earlier than they had, and that outlined the parts which had happened in the Bruse Temple.
At least in a vague way.
So, while the interviewers were confused about the part where they were providing what sounded like daycare services for the acolytes, at least Karl didn’t have to go into great detail about how that had come about, or why they had agreed to be sent to the Newbon Empire in the first place.
They simply said that it was an order from the Archbishop, and nobody questioned that fact.
Colonel Valerie put her pen down as she finished summarizing all of the notes that she had collected. “Alright, I think that we have everything that we need from you today.
I have been informed that you will be receiving a visit from the mental health professionals tomorrow, and that there should be some acolytes brought to you for a training program being overseen by the Inquisition. Those students should arrive later in the day, and I am looking forward to seeing what sort of results might come from the partnership.” She declared.
“You and me both. I think that letting them spend time training with the team should have significant effects on their growth, and there is some hope that we might be able to trigger a system awakening for them naturally, without the use of an anomaly like the Orb.”
The Colonel sighed and rubbed the tension out of the back of her neck. “Don’t remind me of that nightmare. It was open for four entire days before it ran out of energy and the ruins vanished.
Nearly every Elite over the rank of Ascended was sent there to attempt to advance their Class Marking by the time that it had vanished, and the more we sent, the more confused the situation got.
Most of the stronger ones could advance, but few of the weaker ones. Even with the same skills, different Ranks didn’t get the same options, and now we’ve got dozens of new class markings to collect data on.”
Karl shrugged. “At least the new classes will have more of a system interface, so they can tell you all about the Class Skills, the Skill Tree and any other benefits that they get. It’s a huge victory for the record keepers, as they now get to file data for the next group of young Elites, so there are fewer cases of unknown markings.”
Tessa winked at the haggard Colonel. “Plus, you can pass it all off to the Blue Dragons and let them do all the recording and analysis, then just read their summaries to guide next year’s training.
The Academy should be nearly through the school year, right? We lost some time in an anomaly, so I’m not quite adjusted yet.”
Colonel Valerie nodded. “Yes, the next intake is coming soon. They will advance at the end of the standard school year, and that’s in just over a month. But this round will be somewhat different from the previous ones, as we have a new technique.”
“A new trick?” Karl asked.
“Yes, we have numerous System imbued items from the dungeon. We will have each student attempt to wear one that our analysts think will suit them, and then if they awaken the system with the item, they don’t need the injection.
It should increase our success rate, and greatly increase the number of new students.
In fact, they are so enthusiastic about it that they’re building another dorm building for the purpose. There is some speculation that this year’s intake might be as large as the entire student population.
Both current and before the early graduation filings that were done for student soldiers who have been serving on the front lines.”
Karl had almost forgotten about that. There would have been many casualties on the line, and the students who had grown significantly stronger would have been graduated early.
That sort of practical combat experience helped many of them advance, so they might actually have many more Commanders now than they had when Karl and his team had last checked in with the Academy, even after combat losses.
“Will you be back tomorrow to check in on the new arrivals?” Karl asked.
Valerie shook her head. “No, I will give you a few days worth of training before I start directly monitoring your progress, assuming that there is some. However, it will be my agents who bring them to you, so you might see some friendly faces, depending on who is back from their mission in time.”
“Then I will be looking forward to it. I will send you a message if there are developments.”
Colonel Valerie laughed, and Dana pointed at the wall. “We’re in the city now. No need for radio phones, magical messengers or anything fancy, you can just call her office.”
“Right. Totally forgot about that. I suppose that means I should likely be expecting to start receiving calls soon. I’m not going to need a secretary to deal with spam calls from business reps, am I?” Karl asked.
“Doubtful. All calls to the building go through the switchboard downstairs, and they will pass you the messages from anyone who doesn’t have either prior authorization or the clearance to call.
If you had spent more time in the Academy, most of the calls would be coming from your fellow Elites, but nearly everyone you know is already in this room, unless the two High Priestesses are going back to the dorms tonight in preparation for their formal rank testing tomorrow morning.”
Lotus emphatically shook her head. “Not a chance. I will have breakfast early and go over before they miss me, but I’m not sleeping on those rock-hard cots when there are perfectly good beds available.”
Karl doubted that the beds for a Royal Ranked High Priestess were that bad, but Rae was going to make hammocks in the spare room, and those were hard to beat.