Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 547
🕑 Added 2024-01-26 20:03:18 +0000 UTC"Alright." I said as everyone got back in line. There was a palpable air of fear overlaying the camp as they all stared at Gabe and I. Alanna was in the back, glaring at me, and everyone else seemed to afraid to even speak. "Now that we have that out of the way, we can move onto our real first day activities. Don't be so uptight, I already said Gabe won't be involved in any of the upcoming monthly tournaments. Alanna is the one to beat next time." I gestured to the silver haired girl.
That seemed to perk them up. Having Gabe fight the girl had been effective on multiple fronts. Establishing his rep was one, but it also diminished hers. She's had too much authority outside my command structure, and now she didn't. This had the added benefit of increasing the confidence of all the other recruits because she wasn't quit so unassailable anymore. Gabe hadn't just beaten her, he'd CRUSHED her. One blow to end the whole thing.
Bringing up the future prize pool seemed to shake her out of her funk too. She squinted at me in suspicion, but eventually her face smoothed into a determined expression. Demia looked pleased, and I was with her there. Step one of my plan was finished, now for step two.
"For your next exercise." I said with a grin. "We're going to be doing a bit of teambuilding. The winners of this exercise will receive points. That's how I'll keep track of the top ten percent and figure out who can participate in the monthly tournaments. If you all do well, I'm open to increasing the prize pool for the tournaments. Possibly including stronger gear or materials."
Carrot and stick. I'd never been a commander obviously, but I'd run raids in DS before. Managing a large group required a few special considerations.
One, give them a reason to do what you want. Two, give them a reason to be afraid to screw up. And three, give them a reason to ignore the second reason when it's not relevant. Now I just needed a better idea of what everyone could do so I could figure out where to focus my attention.
Once everyone had calmed down, I sent them out unto the training field. Alanna raised an eyebrow. "Ok...we're going to stand around in a big crowd? You gonna start shooting and see who ducks behind a rando?"
Snapping my fingers, I withdrew a series of brushes, passing them all out. "Nope. Your job is easy. You're going to pick teams. Ten people. Each team will get a color of paint, then I'm going to put you all under a stealth effect to prevent you from seeing. I want to see what Hamill's training taught you. Winning team gets a point each."
They took the brushes and I went ahead and got out some paint. I'd been considering a similar exercise for a while in the abstract so I had the stuff on me. Once that was done. I grinned and waved a hand. "Well, looks like we're good to go. Now...begin." I triggered Moonlit Night. After that, I triggered Piece of Mind.
While the stealth fog blanketed them, the secondary mental process tweaked the skill, splitting my focus so each team could see their own members but nothing else. The soul weight was minimal of course, given my current soul strength, so the mental component was all I needed to worry about.
Piece of Mind was weird every time I experienced it. I'd tried it out already, though not on anything big, and it was such a strange sensation.
In DS they obviously couldn't beam a second concurrent mental process into your head. It was closer to picture in a picture. A small image in your eyeline that let you keep track of more than one thing at once. In reality though, Piece of Mind actually let me focus on two things at once.
The biggest thing I had to get used to was that both minds were using my eyes and ears, but since they were focused on different things, it split my focus in a fascinating fashion. It was like trying to look at things individually with both of my eyes. My focus was split but it was still MY focus. I looked forward to seeing how the ability would advance, because I could already see so many uses for it.
My recruits, meanwhile, were shocked and alarmed. The whole area had been consumed with fog that muffled the senses, and aside from teammates they couldn't see a thing.
Gabe had stayed out of it, so I let Alannas team stick with nine. She'd get an extra point if she won, which I hoped would somewhat temper her frustration at being used as an example. Once their sight vanished, I expected them all to freak put, but to my surprise, everyone kept a level head.
They were all seasoned mercenaries and had gone through Hamills training, so maybe I shouldn't have been so shocked. Immediately, I smiled, triggering a shadow clone to slip out into the fog.
My shadow clone was a stored F-rank ability, so it wouldn't be too unfair, aside from the obvious visibility advantage. I had it slip among the recruits, tagging legs and shoulders with its staff, drawing attention to the proper directions to get things started.
"An interesting exercise." Admitted Demia. "I'm not familiar with any like it. Where did you get the idea?"
I shrugged. "Various tests and fights I've been in. You run into things like this enough and you learn to twist your brain into that shape. My own mentor loved doing stuff like this. My way is a bit more humane I think, but then, I'm not aiming to get them a paired combat skill." I paused. "My girlfriend and I have a Skill called paired duelling, that allows us to synchronize in battle, is there a large scale version of that?"
"There is."She said bluntly. "But it takes years in the same unit to build the cohesion necessary to get it. No newborn mercenary unit is going to manage. Especially on their first day."
I briefly entertained the fantasy of having them all wish for it, but that was untenable for multiple reasons. Firstly there was no way I'd be able to scrape together enough wishes on top of my contract, second I wanted them to get it and had a vested interest, which would make fair compensation nearly impossible, and thirdly I wasn't sure if it would be more expensive because it was such a rare Skill. Theoretically it could be cheaper because it required so many components, but that was unlikely.
As I watched a recruit get pinned to the ground by a swarm of ice spears that somehow didn't turn him into a lifeless slab of meat, I made a considering sound. "What is this Skill called if I might ask?"
"Legio Unius." She answered in a reverential tone. "It takes decades of training for units, even small ones, to achieve that level of synergy. Of the imperial armies I've heard of, only the Emperor's royal guard has managed, and every single one of them is at the Marquise level. Working in concert they're capable of holding off threats in the low King level. A full legion of five thousand soldiers all specializing in the same Path and able to synergize flawlessly. If they someday reach the Duke or even King level, they'd be unmatched."
I was...boggled. Five thousand B-rankers taking on an S-ranker was nuts. Even a weak one, it was staggering. The differences between ranks became more pronounced as you went up. For instance, the next rank up I'd get was D-rank, which would not only MASSIVELY increase my stat cap, it would also push my Impact up over one hundred points. At B-rank, two ranks up was more than a hundred points of Impact just for advancing.
Of course, I imagined their souls were all the full two ranks ahead and polished. Strung together with the kind of bond I had with Callie, it was no wonder they were terrifying. I hadn't considered the outliers that must be roaming the universe really. Like I knew the Vampire could fight a god at S-rank, but it was clear there were many other roads to power. What kind of monstrous aces did the Church and the Cult have up their sleeves that I just hadn't heard about? I'd have to ask Chelsea.
To my surprise though, I wasn't worried...I was excited. I had my own army now, and even if they didn't jump ship to my territory when I got it (I was sure I could buy out their contracts from Camden for a bit of extra wish priority) I was going to learn to make my own force like the one she was talking about. Maybe Nat could help me and the others all get that Skill if they ended up working for me. I was imagining a vanguard of attackers channeling Mephistopheles, cavalry with Belial.
Interpreting my silence correctly, Demia burst out laughing. "Learn to walk before you run, Solomon. And yes, I know what you're thinking. Every commander thinks the same thing when they hear about the royal guard. Usually as children, but still, it's a common thought process." I was pretty sure she was wrong, or at least only partially right, but I saw her point.
"Yeah, I might've gotten carried away." I chuckled wryly. "This is going faster than expected." I noted as Alanna demolished yet another team. "I have no clue how she's penetrating the fog, but she's perceiving something. Think she has some kind of truesight?"
The blue haired woman nodded. "Probably. Lancer's a precision Job. They're best served with extreme accuracy and a heavy perception focus. Might plays a role, but knowing where to strike is as important as how hard. You should have a roster waiting for you back at your barracks when the day ends, with a list of your recruits and their Jobs and specialties. That'll help with the formation training we're going to do."
We watched in silence for the next ten minutes as her team of nine finished sweeping up the competition. I allowed the fog to dissipate, nodding to the last of the team members, smirking around at the sprawled bodies covered with markings of orange paint.
"Impressive." I told her diplomatically. "I'm going to be learning more about formations for us to use, but assuming we need squad leaders you'll definitely get the job. As MVP you'll be receiving two points instead of just the one that the rest of your team will get."
The others didn't even look mad, but Alanna beamed. The points were nonsense, of course, though I was considering making them a kind of currency tradeable for better gear or something once I had my funds in order. I needed to talk to Anna about monetizing some wishes. I looked around at the others, all getting to their feet and resuming their neat rows at attention.
"Excellent work. I saw plenty of promising recruits, and I have a good idea of how you all operate." That was true. my second thought process had been keeping track of them via Piece of Mind, and I marveled again at how convenient that skill was. "Now that I understand how you fight, I need to know what your limits are." I saw faces fall, and I tried not to smirk as they all realized what I meant and collectively gulped.
Of course, that didn't save them. As someone who had spent the last week or two grinding myself into meat paste with shitty conditioning exercises, I had plenty of ideas for what to put them through and what kind of limits to place on the training. As they all dropped to the ground to start their burpees, I smirked behind the privacy of my mask. Misery loved company. And I didn't want them thinking I was TOO reasonable.
