[I think I have just the right thing for the baby Elites to try. Nutrition is important, and Rae’s new pet grew really well last night, though she couldn’t properly digest the soup.
I know that they have lunch coming soon, but I have made a mild berry juice to go with it.] Remi informed Karl while the Warriors were taking a break.
[Is it good for recovery? You could give it to the warriors now.] Karl suggested.
The others would be going for a break soon as well. They were getting frustrated with their inability to win against the veteran soldiers, even though they were Elites.
It was a humbling first day for them, a chance to realize that being a Common Rank Elite didn’t make them better fighters than regular veteran soldiers, so it should build their motivation to grow their powers.
[It should be good for energy, so I guess it could be used to recover between training rounds.] Remi agreed.
[And what is it made from?]
[I’ve got these berries I collected when we were back in time, and the tea made from the moss, and this minty leaf from Thor’s space for flavour. It’s not strong, Ascended Rank. So I think that they’ll be able to digest it.]
The moss was a potent resource, and according to Karl’s [Identification] skill, the minty leaf was good for growing mana density. The berries didn’t have a specific use listed, so he assumed that they were some sort of Ascended Rank food.
[Make one more. I want to taste test it before you pass it out. I know that your taste buds aren’t the same as humans.]
Remi happily passed him a potion bottle full of the juice, and Karl sipped at it, while the clerics gave him confused looks.
“Sorry, I was out of clean cups. It’s just a berry smoothie.” He explained.
It was tart, but refreshing, very suitable for drinking.
The old woman gave the potion bottle an intrigued look, and Karl wiped the mouth of the bottle, then passed it over.
She smiled and took out a long straw, then sipped the thick mixture.
“It’s mixed with ice? Oh, that is beautiful. What flavour is it? I don’t think I know that one.”
Karl shrugged. “I actually don’t know the name of the berries either. But they’re mixed with silver mint leaf and moss tea. You can have that one if you would like. I was just taste testing it before I gave it to the students with lunch.”
Once the break started, Remi came out in Naga Queen form to hand out the smoothies and take notes on the effects that they had on Common Rank Elites.
The fact that they were being used as experimental test subjects for a new blend of energy smoothie was lost on the students, but after feeling the surge of energy from the juice, the old War Cleric knew very well that this was not just a simple snack.
The lunch delivery from the apartment arrived at the same time, and by the time that they had finished eating, the students were practically vibrating with energy, but more importantly, their bodies were quickly refining the existing energy to push them up through the Common Rank.
“That is fascinating. Do you think that it’s a sympathetic reaction between the food and the drinks? They don’t appear to be taking damage from the situation, and the quality of the energy in their body is increasing.
I think it’s the moss tea and silver mint combination. The two are usually used together at lower quality for cleanses, but it appears that they are completely cleansing the nascent energy from the … oh, there they go. As I said, full cleanse.”
Lotus began to laugh as the five trainees began running for the training area restrooms. The effect of the juice was cleansing all impurities from their bodies. Absolutely all of them.
{I will add that to my notes. May have side effects. But we will see how they’re doing when they get back. It might become a standard issue item for the Academy if it works well.} Remi declared, speaking Serpent.
That was a fair wait, nearly an hour, before anyone returned to the training ground. They all had suspicious looks that said they would not be willingly accepting random food products from Remi in the near future, but they were definitely more powerful.
The old woman beside Karl nodded. “If you’re giving that recipe to the Bureau, tell them to issue it during the last day of the train rides. At least then they won’t be losing a training day.”
Joan, the new priestess, gave the woman a pleading look. “You still intend to give that evil juice to people? Did we not suffer enough?”
The old woman just smiled at her. “One hour of suffering to move most of the way through Common Rank. If it wasn’t for diminishing results, I would be tempted to ask them to issue it every morning for a week.”
Tessa patted her small charge on the shoulder. “Now that you’re back and fully energized, we can get back to training. Your mana levels have increased, so we can increase the frequency of your casting.”
The others realized they wouldn’t be getting off easily either, and their respective trainers dragged them off to practice.
They still had most of the afternoon left in their training schedule, and the warriors were swapping between offence and defence, while Owen was moving to mana training. Unfortunately for Sybil, Rae wasn’t feeling merciful, and had decided that the problem with her attempts to bypass the soldiers was a lack of practical skills training. So she was learning blade skills with the soldiers, and then when the rookies arrived, she would be moving on to unarmed combat techniques.
As a Rogue, she needed to know as much about fighting as possible. Skills burned too much energy, and using them would alert Elites and magic users to your presence.
However, Karl suspected that the intense schedule wasn’t as much about Sybil’s lack of skills as Rae’s frustration that she had to wait until dark to play with Overlord Niall.
The end of the day couldn’t come early enough for any of the trainees, or even Karl, who was getting that disquieting feeling that someone was talking about him.
The feeling was validated soon after the trainees had started their afternoon training, when Karl saw visitors from the Inquisition and the Government headed his way with determined looks on their faces.
Once he was back at his apartment, they would be less likely to come bothering him, but out here in public, everyone could see that he was just overseeing the training of juniors.
“Monarch. If we could have a bit of your time? The President and the Bishops have a few questions that they believe you can answer.”
“If I say no, they’re just going to show up at my house later, so we might as well do it now. Would the conference room over there work? I have a training skill active, and I would prefer not to get out of range of my students.” Karl reluctantly agreed.
“Of course. The topics at hand are private, but not particularly sensitive.”