Chapter 59: Contact and Contacts

Karl woke up the next morning to the sound of laughter, and stomping feet. It wasn't a combination that he associated with his room, which was normally silent, and for a moment, he was completely disoriented. "Hawk, he's not a perch, I am trying to train the golem to fight." Dana's voice laughed. The sense of confusion faded, and Karl hurried to get dressed before heading out to the balcony, where a nearly naked statue was doing some sort of Kung Fu, while Hawk sat on its head and chirped directions that neither the Golem nor Dana could understand. "He says that the foot is too high, and it makes you vulnerable to leg sweeps." Karl informed the mage as he stepped outside to meet them. "Oh, good morning. I hope you don't mind, I used the shower first. The plants are all watered as well, and I think that hammock is enchanted. I might not have slept for long, but I haven't felt this refreshed in a long time. I was meditating, but Hawk was bored, so we started to water the plants, and then I thought I should try out my new spell. The Golem is good at smashing, but I think if it's used by someone who actually knows martial arts, it will get better. The Golem responds to mental commands, but I know almost nothing about combat in that sense, so all I can tell it to do is basic attacks." She rambled as she adjusted the Golem's movements, so its steps weren't as high. "If it works that way, you'll have to get the teachers to let you sit in on some of the fighting classes I attend. I use clawed gauntlets to fight, so it's almost the same as martial arts, even when I'm armed." Karl suggested. "Or you can help me teach the golem. Once I understand the basics, it should be enough to get started." Dana suggested, with a determined look at her summon. "Alright, let's start with the three basic combat stances, and then we can move to the guarding positions, since he already understands the basics of punch and kick from the spell." Dana led the Golem to mimic Karl as he moved, and the Golem caught on incredibly quickly. They weren't intelligent in a true sense, but the spell allowed the Golem to be slightly adaptive, and the more it fought, the better it would do the next time that it was summoned. The understanding was mostly the mages, but either the System or the spell itself enabled it to retain skills it had gained when dismissed and resummoned. After about ten minutes, Karl and the Golem began to shadow box, holding back their powers so that they didn't actually injure each other, though they both had Awakened Rank physiques, at least in theory. Karl hadn't had to test that yet, but he hadn't been injured during training since the day that his absorption of energy from food had improved, despite taking just as many hits in training. However, kicks from sparring partners and a full power punch from a stone fist would be an entirely different experience, he assumed. "Alright, now that I've had a morning workout, I need to shower, and then we should go get some breakfast before classes start. Will I see you again after class?" Karl asked. "I'll be back after dinner to study. I suspect that we're both going to be busy today, with all that happened this weekend." Dana agreed. She was completely right. By four in the afternoon, Karl was completely exhausted from the upgraded training regimen, and Sergeant Rita still had more plans for his day. "Now that you have been promoted to the rank of Awakened, you are considered somewhat of a proper Elite, though you are still in school. Normally, this class comes up in the second semester, but we need to start going over the duties and responsibilities that come with the position of an Awakened Elite, and the chances that you could be called to assist with attacks whenever you are off campus. Well, theoretically you could be called to them when you are on campus as well, but there are plenty of senior students to go through before it would be your turn, as we award credits for outside duties, and there is a waiting list." Rita explained. "Wait, there is a waiting list for the emergency responses around the Academy?" Karl asked. "That's the part that caught your attention? Yes, the senior students all want to have them to pad their resumes, and for the extra resources that they can get. Especially if they're graduating at Awakened or barely into Ascended Rank. But right now, it is important that you know the basics, like how to send a message to Elite Operations, the emergency contact numbers, and a few other things that would have helped you out on your last trip. I'm sure you're aware that the phone call could have gone more smoothly if you knew to give them your Student ID number as an introduction, so you would be transferred to someone with a functional brain, but you could also have contacted the Elite Force stationed at the airbase directly and saved some time. Also, there were other Elites in the area that you could have called on if things went wrong, they just didn't respond because the Mayor sent the signal that they had all evacuated safely. With the civilians gone, the military could take their time." While the Sergeant's explanation made a lot of sense, as it was undoubtedly safer to hunt for the Goblins in the daylight, it would have made more sense to do the whole job the first day and not wait until the second day to deal with the rest of the Goblin infestation, after the homes had been looted overnight. But, Karl assumed that this wasn't the only thing that they had to do, so he wouldn't hold it against the soldiers for showing up when they were ordered to. "Alright, let's see that data. I will start memorizing it before dinner, then keep working on it after class until I have it all down." Karl replied, resigned to the overload of data that was coming his way.