The next few days passed quickly and uneventfully as I rearranged the training area in an almost Feng Shui array around a bare central area that would eventually contain a small fish pond. The pine tree was positioned to one side of the pond area and two benches were already planted in place on either side. Surrounding the area would eventually be some low grade bushes or wild berry plants but for now there were only a few pieces and now central water yet.
Ever since Eliza had spent a couple of hours with the kobold archers they started getting progressively better, now hitting the foam target no less than two out of three times with some full sets now and then from eighty yards. When they could hit the target with more frequent sets I would go ahead and move them back to one hundred yards.
These troops were not being trained to support a person or team but to instead fight mostly on their own.
These swordsman, phalanx, and archer units needed to be able to take care of each other in both small and large scale situations for the reclamation of land from territories. These few, though, would mostly be used for breeding and training the action-taking generation. It would probably take a year of effort and funding before anything was actually put into action.
The goblins were now ready for testing their armed combat memory by doing their sets without assistance today was the first day and there was already little trouble at all except for remembering a kick or stance that trips them up. This, though, was something that would correct itself as they 'perfected' the techniques by adapting to them as much as them to their bodies. The kobolds, though, were already doing their weapons drills while wearing weight.
Because this was the alone part of training, Poniard and Glaive were having fun with training weapons running around fighting on the agility course. Just yesterday I had check her max strengths using the same equipment I used at home and was amazed. Poniard had upper body strengths comparable to my own when I had recently recovered from my surgery.
She could overhead press over three hundred pounds either sitting or standing. When it came to her lower body strength she could one-legged squat four-and-a-half hundred pounds while she herself turned out to weight just under one-seventy. She had the physical build of a lower D agility type Protector but the supposed magic capacity of C grade mages.
Compared to an adult evolution kobold this might not seem like much but it was enough for her to avoid being struck even if she never struck in kind. Then there were moments when her magic lines would flash and her body would crackle with black and purple electricity. In those short bursts of a few seconds she could easily equal Glaive's strength.
My team came over again in the afternoon near the end of today's training. This time, though, I had invited them to come over and enjoy the atmosphere after adding a cast steel park grill by the pond area. I had to procure this myself and place it across from the pine tree but it was still C grade MP scrap even if it was low on the spectrum.
Even thought they still brought some snacks and drinks with them I had already procured the meat to adorn this evening's grill. Lucinda even showed up not long after to join the festivities and spend more time with my team. Her opinion of them had changed slowly at first but then improved greatly after everybody came together to buy the raptors.
Technically, everybody could already bring their raptors home because of the brainwashing they underwent but Karen's place was supposedly an alchemy hazmat quarantine zone and our team leader was still finding a new place to live. As it turned out, they were looking for a small property not far from my training compound where they could keep more than just a single raptor. The idea of goblin servants was apparently an attractive one.
After half an hour of just enjoying the environment with the raptors wandering around I finally took out main event of the evening. It was a long slab of lower D alpha wolf meat from along the spine. I had been marinating it overnight in a special rice wine made from mana water poured on top of a thick glaze of sweet herbs and light spices contained in a blended compound of honey and onions to make sure the meat was thoroughly tenderized.
On the grill had been cooking a large base of oak coals but then I brought out a small bucket full of large and small bark pieces that had been soaking in water, canned fruit, and a big bottle of rum for as long as the meat marinaded. When I told the director I would try to raise my team's MP rating as much as possible to tackle kobold dungeons I meant it.
This alone was proof. Fifteen pounds of Protector-safe portal meat at this grade started at around five hundred dollars per pound. This was meat taken from the Alpha mount to an ogre in a cross-breed lower D dungeon. It was not often that people resorted to consuming portal goods to raise their MP but I had reached a certain level of desperate.
Nobody had any complaints even when I introduced the meat as that of a wolf and afterward mentioned its grade in passing. Frank and Fred had already drank a six-pack of bottles between them and simply cheered. They were currently drinking water to keep themselves 'ready' for more drinking.
Just the smell from the smoke that billowed out from under the grill's lid filled the area with a sweet but spiky scent that made my mouth both tingle and water in anticipation like when thinking of sour candy. Everybody congregated around the large grill for this part, simply enjoying the flavorful atmosphere while swapping early war stories with Lucinda.
Lucinda was the only person present who had been an active combatant since day one but the others had all been working portals for over a year and training beforehand. In this way, they were all able to relate to stories about mistakes and advances in how situations were handled. Then talk started turning toward the dark side of conspiracies concerning the still unexplored towers around the world.
It was around this time that Poniard decided to come up to me and says, "Want beer."
"Ask properly," I say without even looking at her.
Sighing like a dramatic teenager, which I might have been right this moment if my life went differently, Poniard asks in a sickly sweet and innocent voice, "May I have a beer, Sifu Malcolm?"
"Can Poniard have a beer?" I ask with a shrug to my family before looking toward Ms. Gwyn.
Ms. Gwyn started to say something about asking who bought them but then I took out my phone and started playing on it. Two seconds later, "She can't handle more than two or three, right? It should be fine, we brought a few dozen. Does Glaive want a beer?"
"Yesh," Glaive says suddenly from nearby, hearing her name and beer in the same sentence with the upward inflection of a question.
"They can both have one of those cans and then a bottle apiece," I say, pointing at two of the taller single cans that had been brought to the cookout. "Poniard is bigger than last time and they both have some experience, so the half a bottle extra should be alright. They've eaten plenty today and will eat plenty more, too!"
Frank or Fred one mumbled something to his beer that made his brother not only scowl at him but also slap the back of his head. I only pretended not to hear his remark about drunken goblin whispering but I still appreciate Fred's effort to keep his brother in line. I almost considered not asking him to feed Malco.
Once they were drunk off the twenty-odd-ounce cans of six-percent beers Poniard and Glaive went to fetch their training weapons and spar while enjoying the physical affects of being buzzed. I had gotten drunk once on two quick shots of cheap vodka in the academy but I ended up passing out an hour later and never really left my tent at the time. I would not make it a habit to let my familiars drink or ever drink in larger quantities than tonight, but on occasions like this it should be fine.
The first time I raised the lid on the grill the look at the meat and tend the fire my eyes watered and my throat burned from the strength of the alcohol used in the process. I had only marinaded the meat in a few more ounces than pounds, but I had added the same twenty ounces to the wood bucket. Just getting a face full of smoke and vapors made me feel like I had just taken a shot.
Everybody who currently had a beer in their hands jokingly sang praises for what I confessed was my first attempt at cooking with alcohol. I should have gone much lighter on the meat but the wood content was probably appropriate considering how watered down it was. However, the meat was already starting to discolor even on the top after twenty minutes so it was time for the first flip.
The meat was thick and coated thickly in a glaze that was only a little runny, with the low heat of around one-sixty F and a grill full of smoke and vapors it would be a long time yet before the glaze even started caramelizing. When I closed the lid back on the grill the others were upset but it was unavoidable. They could only nibble on snacks and stand in the smoke.
"Is that safe?" Eliza suddenly asks, pointing toward the agility course. When I turned to look I saw Poniard holding their wand and talking animatedly in both English and goblin to Glaive. Glaive was holding what looked like another wand but it was a reddish copper and ended with a simple red stone.
"Probably not," I admit hesitantly, wondering if Glaive would even be able to use a wand.
"Definitely not," Karen says suddenly, running with their beer held up and out as Glaive started waving the wand around.
Nothing happened at first but then Poniard seemed to scold Glaive so Glaive nodded along and held up the wand. Then Glaive spoke and suddenly a bright red ball of fire appeared at the end of the wand. "STOP," Karen yelled from around half of the way there, getting Poniard's attention. Poniard flicked a wrist and the wand flew out of Glaive's hand so that the flame went out without an operator.
"How the hell?" I ask, looking toward Leo and Ms. Gwyn. "I'm only just getting to the point where I can feel mana every couple of minutes, how the hell did Glaive just make fire with a wand?"
"The tools are a catalyst that draw on your mana?" Leo asks in confusion, fixing his glasses after drinking from his beer. "The user does not need to feed the catalyst, the catalyst feeds itself through contact. How much mana the user has is much more important than what they can do with it. How else do you think our healer can fight with a fire scepter?"
Looking toward Si-Pon who was wetting his beak in a shallow bowl of alcohol at the base of the pine tree, I say, "That would have been good to know."
"We've talked about it before..." Ms. Gwyn says a little awkwardly, looking everywhere but at me with a frown that said she was struggling not to laugh. "On our first mission, maybe?"
"Ever time you got paid for the first few months you were working, I yelled at you to buy healer equipment," Lucinda chimes in from where she stood between Emilia and Eliza. She was getting along particularly well with those two, especially Emilia who she joked about up until my operation. "What happened to you plans for sub-healing or whatever?"
"I unlocked the hidden tamer occupation and became a protagonist?" I ask as a joke, earning a few grins and chuckles from the others around us. "Tell you what," I add while taking out my phone to manage my market accounts. "I've got enough contribution left and credits stockpiled that I can buy some materials and make a some healer gear for the team. Those water bottles were over a hundred MP days ago so they're probably halfway to D grade by now. Cha-ching!"
Everybody helped themselves to a bottle of mana water rather than the drinks they brought with them but little did they know that I had used half a case just for the wood bucket.
When Karen finally came back with a pair of pouting and chagrined familiars who no longer had any toys to play with, she looked at me and then glared and Si-Pon before saying, "How can you guys be so careless with magic? Even if this is a licensed training compound or whatever, magic is still illegal within most city limits because it creates MP radiation! Not to mention how this kobold probably has no magical awareness or knowledge whatsoever."
"No, Si-Pon gives lectures," I argue with a sheepish smile. "But, yes, ma'am, I will see to it that a proper firing range is arranged to contain the MP radiation. Until then I am still allowed to freely use F grade magic anywhere on the property. When I have an underground bunker constructed along the left side of the property, though, I will be approved for as high as some D grade elemental magic."
She started to argue with this but then I hurriedly said, "With the proper funding and zoning, I can change the location and size to fit a higher grade facility, somewhere you could probably test your projects as high as C grade in. Funding would be provided once I started putting out magic familiars by the Bureau to ensure the quality of their own goods."
*