Guardians Academy

Now that he had power, it was time for revenge!

The first victim to suffer the wrath of the powered-up Cody Rivers was the training dummy in Cyril's virtual training space.

"Attack like a spring! Strike- and recover!" Cody tried his best to imitate Cyril's demonstration. He frowned. "Something feels wrong. I request a holographic replay."

Next to him, a hologram of Cyril appeared, and the springing attack was demonstrated once more.

"It's… bouncier… when he does it." Cody noted, bouncing a bit on his feet and feeling it was wrong somehow. "Like a spring… hmm…"

Using what he newly learned from Cyrita, Cody tried to channel some Psuche into his legs.

POW! This time his lunge was much quicker, much more powerful. Cody slammed straight into the dummy, ramming not just his sword, but his face into it. "OW!"

For a moment there, Cody rolled around on the ground holding his head. "Augh! That hurts!!"

Apparently whoever designed this Virtual Space thought pain was the best teacher. There were safeguards against dangerous levels, surely, but it seemed that those settings had been raised very high. Very high indeed. Cody sat down dizzily, clutching his head, groaning on the floor for a long time.

The next time he tried it, he tried it without a training dummy in front of him. But still, it felt wrong.

"Too much power. Not enough spring-back. No spring at all." Cody concluded, frowning. "It has to be bouncy, not straight-charge…"

It had to do with the way he used Psuche, he recognized. Like this, jumping back on just leg muscle strength suited the Spring Attack more than his Psuche-boosted charge. Maybe he should just train his muscles and rely on that…

Meanwhile, it seemed he'd acquired a more powerful, if somewhat dangerous, technique. That Psuche-boosted charge was risky, but in the right circumstances, it could be a lifesaver. For example, if there was a Mole Serpent and he couldn't swing or stab his sword hard enough to pierce its scales, a charge like that…

Would probably get him killed. But maybe, just maybe… if he could score a good hit with a good weapon, he could kill the Mole Serpent too. At least he would have a chance.

"I have to learn to control the amount of power and how far I go." Cody figured. "And then… I'm going to find Specs and get a sword mod."

***

The second victim of powered-up Cody was supposed to be a Mole Serpent, but for that to happen, he needed that sword mod first.

"This is… really stock-standard." She mused. "Never been modded, so your options are quite plentiful. How many credits do you have?"

"Uh… why…?" Cody hesitated to reveal such sėnsɨtɨvė information.

"I want to know if you're planning to buy a cheap mod or an expensive one." Specs said. .

"A cheap one." Cody answered immediately. He only had 72 credits left and still had to pay for his class tomorrow! "Definitely a cheap one!"

"For 20 credits, I can plug in an external electrifier unit, but it will add more weight and mess around with the balance some." Specs observed. "For 40 credits, I can open up the hilt and use a much smaller, lighter but equally powerful electrifier that fits inside the hilt itself. Or if you're going for really, really cheap, I can add a extendable sharp point for 10 credits. Or you can follow Crystal's style and put in an Edge Mode."

"What's that?" Cody asked.

"Basically, it turns your blunt practice sword into a sharp sword." Specs said. "The easy way to do it is to add in an extendable blade, which would cost you 15 credits, tops. But Crystal's method is to make an internal blade, essentially turning the blunt layer into a sheath. That will cost 30 credits, but the upside is that your Practice Sword can still be used as a Practice Sword as long as you don't turn the safety off. There's an even more expensive version that uses nano-modulation but I don't think you want to spend 200 credits on a basic Practice Sword. For that kind of money, you may as well install an energy edge option, like an activatable plasma edge, or a force edge. Heck, you may as well buy a better sword."

It turned out that junior students in the Academy had a tendency to follow the Mod styles of senior students. Due to its balance of power and pricing, (along with the popularity of the newbie-helping girl herself) a lot of new students liked to copy her Mods rather than strike out on their own. Compared to the more expensive Lightshow series by Elliot of the Mirror Edge, or the Ever-Blunt 2H Practice Sword series by 'Autumn Leaf' Aki, Crystal's Newbie series had smaller, easier, cheaper steps going all the way to +7. While Elliot's series reached Tier 5 power in 3 expensive steps, and Aki's reached Tier 5 in 2 even costlier steps, Crystal's took at least 5 relatively low-priced steps to reach Tier 5 levels of power.

The downside? Bulk and weight. By the time you reached +7, the Practice Sword felt more like a broadsword than a saber. In fact, most students who used it liked to stop at +3 or +4 before getting a proper main weapon, keeping their Practice Swords just as backups or training.

According to her, added weight wasn't actually bad for training. It was a Practice Sword, after all.

Some people liked the weight. Some people didn't. There were also students who never modified their swords at all, preferring to outright buy new and better weapons, not to mention students who usually didn't use swords in the first place.

Anyway. 30 credits for Crystal's +1 Mod was basically the most he could afford. This left Cody with 42 credits, bȧrėly enough to afford paying for tomorrow's 40 credit class.

"So, can I qualify for Tier 1 Survival Rating, with this?" Cody asked.

Specs shook her head. "Nope. You still need the Tier 1 Kit."

"Even though my Practice Sword +1 is rated at Tier 3 in terms of weapon power?"

"Yep. You still need that Kit."

"You're not just saying that to make a sale, are you?"

"Would I do something like that?"

"…"

While waiting for Specs to Modify his Practice Sword, Cody asked Orb about missions and bounties for the day. Missions were the same as before, but as for bounties…

1. Remove Zapper Coccoon (20cr each)

2. Kill a Trash Can Bandit (70 cr)

3. Kill a Mole Serpent (140 cr)

4. Find and Eliminate Cause of Weed Mutations (450 cr)

"What just happened?" Cody stared in a daze.

The good news was, the Bounties now offered more credits. Of note was the fact that it wasn't about 'finding' or 'catching' or 'trapping' anything anymore, they were 'remove', 'kill' and 'eliminate'.

The bad news was, the language had changed from 'the' to 'a'. In other words… they were clearly expected to face more than one Trash Can Bandit, and more than one Mole Serpent. Not to mention that they weren't dealing with Zapper Caterpillars any more, but Zapper Coccoons. This, along with the increased rewards, clearly indicated that their targets were not just growing in strength but outright evolving. What happened after the Caterpillar completed its Coccoon stage? Wouldn't it come out as a Butterfly or Moth or something? At that point, it would be able to fly. Taking down a flying target would certainly be a lot more difficult than whacking a caterpillar or coccoon.

For a moment, Cody was tempted. Coccoons didn't seem too difficult to take out. But the problem was, he had no idea where to find them. Were they in some farmer's fields? In a plantation? An orchard? The quarry? The forest? The wetlands? The caves? The mountains? The possibilities were endless and the map was very, very big for one small boy with no information and just a tricycle. He could very well spend all month searching and never find anything.

"I need more classes, better gear, the Tier 1 Kit… I need a lot more credits." Cody grunted. "I need better missions, better pay. In short… I need to level up."

The Advancement mission for level 6 was a Supply Run for Provisions. Cody's mission was to go to the barn of a recently killed farmer and bring as much stored grain as he could back to the Village Warehouse. Every kilogram of grain would net him 1 credit.

"So… I only need 33 kg of grain to level up." Cody mused. "That doesn't sound too bad."

At that point, Riki sauntered to Specs' stall. "Hey, Specs! I need a Tier 1 Kit!"

"Give me a minute!" Specs hollered, adjusting some settings on her autoforge before turning to Riki. "The Kit will cost you 100 credits. Do you have that kind of money?"

"Uh… not really. Can't I loan it first and pay you back later?" Riki scratched his head. "I need it to qualify for Tier 1, so that I can do the Level 6 Patrol Missions. They earn 33 credits. I can pay you back most of it after doing 3 of those."

"Oh? I thought your pay-back Top Priority was Cyrita, including 50% interest. I hear she's very fussy about money."

"Um… well… I'll pay you back after I pay her!"

"I thought after Cyrita, you owed Elder T. And Oren. And Na'Sar. And Kenneth. You even owe the System."

Riki went for broke and started bowing down to Specs. "Oh great grandaunt! Oh my ancestor! Please lend me the money!"

"Who's your ancestor! Go do some other missions and let me earn my own money in peace!"

"But… but the other missions… need me to know real life skills that I don't know!" Riki protested. "I don't know anything about construction or electronics or forging! And the last one requires me to leave the Village! We're not supposed to go out alone!"

That's right! Cody suddenly realized he had a problem and leapt at the opportunity. "Come with me, then!"

"You? You're taking the Supply Run mission for Provisions?"

"Yeah!"

"Great!" Riki beamed. "Where do we need to go?"

Cody paused and sent him the map.

Riki's face fell. "This… isn't this…"

"What?"

"This is Farmer Andrew's place!"