Do not confuse golems and elementals. A golem is always corporeal in nature, while elementals are frequently incorporeal, with varieties like fire, lightning, and air elementals being nearly immune to physical damage. A fire-aspected golem might be made out of lava, or red-hot iron, while a fire elemental is akin to living flame.

  In the rare cases where it may be difficult to distinguish between the two at first glance – earth elementals, in particular, often look very much like golems – the tactics applied are generally the same for both creatures, so do not fret if your Identify returns an unclear result.

  - Bonnie, Level 41 Beastmaster,

  “What does that mean? How does the System know?” I asked, curious.

  “I have no idea to the second part, but in practice, it means that the intensity needs to be high enough to match a real fight. Basically, you need to that you’re going to get hurt – badly – if you don’t defend yourself. Your duel today wouldn’t cut it

  “I have Tactical Reposition myself, and I can tell you, it never once activated for me when I had one of those training collars on. Knowing that safety net was there, even if I never got hit, was enough in my mind to keep it from counting as combat.”

  I swallowed and reached for my glass of water. “So, what do I do then?”

  “You have two choices. One, you just wait for real fights, whether it’s a monster attack or your turn in the dungeon, and you let it go up naturally. I can’t force you to train a triggered Skill like this, it’s against school policy.”

  That didn’t sound very appealing. I wanted to train of my Skills, not just some of them.

  “And my other option?”

  “It involves a lot of pain,” he replied grimly. “You’ll have to get in the ring with someone who can kick your ass, and you have to , not just think, that they’re going to kick the shit out of you. If you doubt it, feel like they might hold back too much, it won’t trigger. Which means we kick the shit out of you, if not every single time then close enough it doesn’t make much difference. Like I said, I can’t – won’t – force you into this.”

  I hesitated for a long while.

  “Can we, uh, can we try that? If it’s too much, I can always stop, right?”

  “You’ll have the option to stop the training anytime sessions. Once a session starts, it won’t end until the instructor decides it’s over – if you think you can stop just by calling out ‘yield’ or something, well, that’s definitely not combat according to the System.”

  “Oh. I, well, I think I can handle it at least once, and then decide afterwards if I want to keep going?”

  Feeling slightly sick, I quickly explained my Aspect to him, which he took in stride, and then switched with Raylan and went back to our table. It took a while for him to go through everything with the others, and shortly after he finished we heard the assembly signal.

  Outside in the square we found everyone standing around expectantly. Thompson came out of the administration building and we all gathered in front of her.

  “I’ve consulted with your instructors and we’ve got the updated team assignments. My assistant Wilson will be calling each of the Squad leaders and the re-assigned students to my office for discussions. Please stay either here in the square or in the bar so he can find you easily. First off, let’s start with Azure, Tara, Arlo, and Jayce – come on in to my office.”

  I was definitely not nervous about having the beautiful Tara in my Squad. We all stood in front of Thompson’s desk, since there were only two chairs.

  “Azure – you, Raylan, Zaire, H’ruk, and G’hala have all been confirmed to stay in the advanced track. Joining your team will be these three – Tara, Arlo, and Jayce – giving you a full Squad of eight. Do you have any questions?”

  “I guess I was hoping to get a dedicated Healer? G’hala seems more effective as a fighter from what I know so far.”

  She laughed at that. “Azure, there are never enough Healers to go around. None qualified for the advanced track, and if one does, I’ll place them with the other Squad who has no Healer at all. Only half of the standard track Squads have a true Healer, and I’m not throwing someone who isn’t ready into the advanced track just to fill out a spot.”

  I nodded, since there wasn’t much else I could do.

  “So there’s only one other Squad in the advanced track? I guess they’re all trainees then?”

  Thompson nodded. I looked at Arlo and Tara, both standing there in their expensive armor.

  “You two didn’t want to stick with that Squad?”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Thompson answered for them at the same time as Tara shook her head vigorously.

  “Trainee Tara has… personal reasons for preferring your Squad. And Yuri, who leads the other Squad that will be in the advanced track, has a strong interest in exploring stealth tactics. As I’m sure you’re aware, that is challenging with firearms without the right mods. Given that, I think adding Arlo and Jayce to your Squad makes sense. You’d be going in loud anyway. I’m also hoping that putting our two gun users together will help with your training.”

  “OK, then what’s next?” I asked.

  “Trainees Tara and Arlo, Recruit Jayce – do any of you have any questions?”

  When none of them spoke up, the Head Instructor waved us all out of the room.

  Tara looked at me with a bright smile and stuck out her hand. As I shook it, she introduced herself.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Azure. I’m Tara, Tara Gleason.”

  I stepped back in shock and dropped her hand abruptly. I saw the confusion in her eyes even as my thoughts whirled.

  I whirled and fled back into the Head Instructor’s office, almost slamming the door behind me. Thompson looked up with surprise.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “Head Instructor, I don’t think I can have Tara on my Squad after all. I just learned that she’s a Gleason, and, well, it’s kind of a long story but her family got my parents killed!”

  Her eyes narrowed slightly and she sighed, then gestured to one of the chairs in front of her.

  “You’d better sit down and explain that, Azure, and try to make the story as succinct as possible.”

  My heart was pounding as I sat and tried to gather my thoughts.

  “I grew up on a farm outside of Sunland, which is basically run by the fucking Gleasons – they control the dungeon, the general store, everything. Five years ago there was a large undead attack on the town. I was injured,” I touched my scar, “and I don’t remember everything, but what I know is that my parents tried to flee from our farm to the town for protection.

  “The town gates were closed and my father and a few others died trying to hold back the monsters long enough for someone to lower a rope for their families. My mother and I made it onto the walls, but the undead almost overwhelmed the guards and my mother was forced to fight with them – and she died too.”

  I paused, trying to catch my breath after rushing through the painful story. Thompson waited silently for me to continue.

  “What I learned later is that most of the Gleason’s dungeonjacks never left their stupid company housing. See, a lot of them are Level 29, and the town dungeon is Tier 1. So their contracts with Gleason say that they’ll lose their jobs if they reach Level 30 since they wouldn't be able to enter the dungeon in Sunland anymore. Even if the town is fucking under attack!

  “Gleason’s shitty contracts kept most of the town’s strongest fighters just sitting on their asses while people were dying! Maybe if they were there the gates could have been opened and my parents both lived! Or at least, they wouldn’t have needed non-combat Classers like my mother to fight on the Wasted walls!”

  I was breathing hard and blinking back tears. The Head Instructor gave me a sympathetic look. She stood and fetched a cold glass of water from the sideboard and handed it to me. I wrapped my hands around it but needed a few minutes before I could compose myself enough to take a drink. Finally, I looked up at her.

  “I hope you can understand why I don’t think I can accept having Tara fucking Gleason on my Squad.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss, Azure,” Thompson stated and I could feel my heart sinking as I somehow knew I wasn’t going to like the rest of her answer. “This all took place five years ago, you said?”

  I nodded, and she continued.

  “Tara is the same age as you, obviously, which means that she was hardly responsible for making business decisions. I understand your point that Gleason as a business bears some responsibility in the deaths of your parents. Unfortunately, contracts like you described are legal to the best of my knowledge. In addition, Tara is not even the child of the head of Gleason Enterprises – she’s his niece.”

  “I get that it’s not her personally, but that doesn’t change my feelings about her family! Besides, it seems like they’re sketchy in other ways too, like there were no non-humans at all living in Sunland – isn’t that their fault too?”

  Thompson sighed and nodded. “The Gleasons are what might charitably be called human supremacists – at least, Tara’s uncle is. The fact that she’s willing to join a Squad with multiple non-humans on it should be considered a point in her favor.”

  “Fuck! I can tell I’m not going to win this argument… Please at least tell me why?!” I begged.

  “First of all, Tara has her own compelling personal reasons for not wanting to be on Yuri’s Squad, and I can’t simply boot her into the standard track. Nor am I willing to compromise and promote a third, underqualified, Squad to the advanced track simply to accommodate her.

  “Then there is the fact that your team is in need of a tank or defensive specialist. You’re heavily biased towards offense right now and you need some balance. I can justify your Squad relying on a hybrid Healer role, but not that missing a defensive specialist. I offer you a choice, though you’re not going to like it.

  “You can give up your Squad leadership role and take a spot on another Squad in the standard track, but unless an entire Squad moves up to the advanced track you’d be stuck in standard. I doubt I could convince Yuri to accept you into Squad, and given what I heard about the little scene outside yesterday, I doubt you’d want that either. Would you prefer to drop into the standard track?”

  I shook my head immediately. Leave Raylan, Zaire, and even the orcs – who I was starting to get along with well? Not to mention, I’d be holding myself back on my training, maybe increasing my chances of getting killed later on… Not an option.

  “Then I’m sorry Azure, but you’re going to have to work this out somehow. As much as the Guild tries to stay out of politics, I can’t boot a Gleason from the advanced track without justification, and this doesn’t qualify. I suggest that you be honest with Tara about the circumstances. In my experience, things like this come out eventually and they can rip a Squad apart if not handled right. Talk to her, and if you change your mind later you can always drop back to standard.”

  I left the Head Instructor’s office with my shoulders slumped. Outside in the reception area, I found Arlo and Jayce still waiting for me, but Tara was nowhere to be seen.

  “Where did Tara go? I need to talk to her privately.”