As promised, Vara got Theo into the guard house and quickly got Theo her armor and loaned mana rifle. They were of the same make as what the other guards were wearing and the quarter master was quick to measure her once and make her sign another legal document.

  The armor was stained black leather. Hard enough that rapping her knuckles on it made it sound more like wood, and in a design like that of the scouts. Theo much preferred the freedom it allowed over the thicker design that Grett and Vara wore, and she was pleasantly surprised to hear that she was allowed to keep it as part of her contract.

  The mana rifle was light, made from a single bar of metal and a polished wooden stock, it lacked the weight of any of the guns she had shot back on earth. But using it was much the same.

  It didn’t have a safety, but it also didn’t really need one. There wasn’t a trigger, just a. Spot for her to rest her finger where she could push her mana into it which would prime the rifle before she could will the rifle to fire. There was no kickback from the rifle, only a small pop and a blast of light that left a charr on the target the quartermaster had directed her to aim it at.

  It took such a little amount of mana, and was easily more effective than her [air bullet] and using it actually gave Theo ideas on how to refine her skill.

  She also received a proper harness for her sword, chasing to keep it strapped low on her back since that’s where Theo had grown used to carrying it over the last day.

  They made a quick stop at the store for Theo to retrieve her purchase, and while it was clear Mels was curious about what exactly it was for, the woman didn’t push Theo for details upon seeing her hesitance on explaining it.

  Theo liked the group and would probably explain it to them later if they asked, but for the moment it didn’t quite feel like the right time. She could already feel her nerves rising as they climbed the stairs of a watch tower to take position on the wall.

  It wasn’t like she would be in any real danger if things stayed the same. But the expectation of violence was still the same and she found herself antsy as she waited with the squad.

  There were dozens of guards, as well as other members of the city all ready to defend their home. The most interesting group was a small cluster of those fire mages she had seen managing the pyres that had been used to dispose of the dead rats.

  She could feel their mana whenever they passed by, patrolling up and down the wall in their issued armor and looking quite professional.

  Vara explained that there was a specialized squad of the guard, and their leader was quite prideful in how they presented themselves when on duty.

  The waiting was the worst part, the bells clanged as the city’s scouts returned, using rope ladders that had been hung for them to scale up to the walls before they also readied their mana rifles and a quick word down the line told everyone that nothing had changed from what the scouts had seen.

  Theo’s eyebrows rose in surprise as she saw what she could only describe as a carpet of rats running through the edges of the forest onto the burned ground. The large mana cannons on the wall didn’t wait for an order to fire, their shots louder than her rifle had been and followed by the feeling of crackling mana as they recharged from the odd mana batteries that supplied them.

  There were just so many of the rodents, most no larger than a small dog, but some were obviously a higher tier, and even if mana sense hadn’t told her that, their size would have.

  Soon, the air was filled with the constant drum of mana rifles firing. Skills going off every now and then as mages or people with their own abilities unleashed hell onto the swarm. It seemed endless to Theo and she didn’t bother wasting mana on her [air bullet] outside of a few circumstances where she had a moment to practice the skill or aim for the larger rats that could take a few shows before going down.

  Whenever the rats began to pile too high at the base of the walls, one of the squads of mages would come along and burn the pile to ash with great gouts of flame that left the air reeking of burnt hair and meat.

  Theo would use her magic to blow the worst of it away from the walls, but the smell was inescapable and she knew she would be taking a bath as soon as she returned to her room.

  Time dragged on and Theo was reminded of the boredom she had felt clearing out the infested animals by the trial doors. This wasn’t really a fight. It was just repeating the same actions over and over until there weren’t any rats left to kill. The few stragglers that trailed out from the trees died before even getting close and then it was time for the clean up crews to go about their business.

  She stayed to watch as the gates opened and carts were rolled out to collect the bodies for butchering and burning. Vara then gave the go ahead for the squad to leave and she followed them back to the inn for her premeditated shower and to finally fall asleep.

  When she awoke the next morning her legs were sore from standing all night long and stretching only did a little to relieve it. She didn’t see anyone she wanted to speak with in the inn that morning and after a quick breakfast made her way back to the Seekers guild to collect her badge and see about training.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  She had expected it to take more time for Rikard to schedule her, but the woman who she had spoken with the day before, Marian, told her that he would meet her in the training yard at the next bell and so Theo went ahead and started going through a routine to warm up for expected exercise or drills.

  Rikard showed up precisely as the bells rang and gave her an approving nod as he went through his own warmup.

  When he had finished he called her over and outlined what he had planned for her.

  It was mostly drills. Having her practice swinging her sword and blocking in patterns designed to engrave the motion into her muscles as well as get her used to her particular style of blade.

  Theo’s sword wasn’t a design Rikard was familiar with. But he explained that he had put some thought into it and had come up with his training based on a saber and what he described as a scythe blade.

  Since Theo’s weapon was bladed on both sides it allowed for her to make use of certain motions and attacks that wouldn’t work for a straight blade or a normal saber.

  He talked her through strategy for fighting both men and monsters. More heavily emphasizing the human aspect of combat as a lot of the strategy there could be turned to fighting more humanoid monsters and oftentimes fighting people was much harder than fighting something that was simply just trying to bite or gut her with its claws.

  She was by no means skilled at fighting people. Outside of her natural instincts that he praised more than once, Theo knew that she would need to practice daily if she wanted to see any real improvement.

  After sword drills and sparing, he moved on to skill usage. She felt comfortable explaining what she could do with her own skills and he helped her understand different timings and positions that her enhanced body could hold or perform.

  He explained to her it was almost more than just training the skills too. At each tier up the body got stronger, faster, more durable and it took time for most people to push past the limits the body had been born to be wary of.

  Most people he had met who rapidly climbed the first few tiers almost always held back subconsciously, inborn muscle memory that prevented the body from tearing muscles or breaking bones.

  There was also the physical stamina aspect of training her body. While she was strong just because of her tier, the more fit she was the more effective the increase in strength would be.

  Theo asked about more general information too, like what was the known tier limit and the growth curve of each tier.

  According to Rikard, tier twenty five was the limit for this plane of existence. Reach twenty five and the System will make you ascend in the near future. It was very rare for someone to reach that tier, but it did happen from time to time and was usually a world shaking event. Though he did mention that with integration he had no idea if the rules had changed.

  The current champion of the kingdom's army, a man named Berthol, had climbed his way up the ranks and was a known prodigy even before he reached the height he was currently standing at. Which was tier twenty two. But there were stories of Berthol beating a tier twenty three in a straight fight.

  The growth curve was exponential to some extent. There weren't any hard measurements as each person varied greatly in their attunement and at the five break points strength would be shown in different ways. But it was generally considered that every tier except five, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty five had a roughly fifty percent increase towards their base strength at each break point.

  At each break point that increase would, and Rikard emphasized roughly, double their base physical capabilities from their current strength.

  “The System likes it when people become stronger. If you play by its rules, and find opportunities, it will always find a way to help you grow.” He took a drink of water before continuing. “Sophius was a low tier outpost for many years before the guilds had set up their halls. Which has attracted more and more people over the years. Its proximity to the wilds and the relatively weak monsters has made it a great starting point for many, and people began to settle down. There are other places in the kingdom where the tier average is higher. But most people simply don’t want to or have what it takes to hunt down monsters or go through rifts or dungeons to increase their tier beyond the natural rate of accumulation that happens as you grow. I’d say most people outside of stronger regions and cities end up around tier three before the end of their lifetimes, and starting late can make it harder to catch up. It’s why most noble families have their own hunting grounds and such. It’s a lot easier to clear a dungeon if you know all of the threats it can produce.”

  Theo asked more questions but Rikard eventually ended their session and told her the library would have better information and the mage trainer she would be meeting the next day could help her understand some more.

  Theo was surprised and happy to hear that Rikard had offered to sponsor her and that the guild was waiving her payment so long as she chose to clear out some requests in the coming month.

  Theo took Rikard’s advice to go to the library and spent the rest of the day relaxing her strained muscles and learning more about the world she was in.

  The world had been called Adamantus before integration, but if what Vara had said about the system changing things was true she had no idea if it would keep that name or not, and more than one civilization even before the integration had their own name for the planet.

  Day and night cycles were still in line with what she was used to with Earth. Though if she had figured out the time correctly, it seemed like currently each day and night were closer to fifteen hours each, and a month was an unchanging twenty five days with ten months in the year.

  With magic being a thing, weather systems were completely different and tended to remain static with only slight deviations during the apex of the summer or winter seasons. Instead, areas of Adamantus had localized weather effects. With some nations being built in lands of frost or fire. Though those were the most mundane.

  There was one place she read about that experienced strange patterns of shifting gravity that caused mountains and cities to rise or fall as if they were boats during a tide.

  Theo left the library with her head swimming with information. There was simply too much to read and understand in one day and she eventually just grew too tired to absorb anything more. Instead she spent the late hours of the day resting and absorbing essence from her feather before she once again took to the walls.