CH613

“You two all ready to head off then?” Falk asked as he stood with them at the mini-gate, preparing to leave town as well for a bit.

“Yep,” Thera told her uncle brightly, trying to be optimistic about things in complete contrast to Ben who was groaning beside her.

“No. I’m already envisioning things going horribly wrong.”

There were still a couple weeks before the invasion points opened up but given that he and Thera would be going to a number of them, they were leaving a bit early to get the lay of the places to see where they’d be fighting and how they’d be of the most use they could, something he wasn’t remotely looking forward too. He could already see it being an outrageous amount of work that he wanted no part of as he once more wondered just what in his skillset made him think doing that was going to be a good idea.

<Not your skillset, your affection. Unless you think you can talk Thera out of it?>

No chance. It’s fine, I’m going to complain but I’ll put up with it and who knows? Maybe I’ll even survive the ordeal.

His teacher just patted his shoulder, understanding the feelings Ben was going through.

“Just do your best, both of you. And remember, when things get started if it looks like they’re going to go wrong, just run away.”

“Uncle, we can’t do that.”

“Sure you can,” The yeti shrugged. “If it gets to the point that that’s your only option then it’s better to live and fight another day.”

“You got it, Falk,” Ben told him, suddenly a lot brighter after getting that little piece of advice from his teacher. “We’ll flee at the first sign of danger.”

“…Seeing as how the first sign of danger is going to be the points opening up, at least try to tough it out for a little while.”

“Fine, don’t mind me, we’ll do our best and come out on top. And you? Off to see our beautiful superweapon?”

“Mmh, gotta give it one last look to be sure. Even if it got me my third tier, this is my last chance to try and fix it up if need be so since I won’t be seeing you both for a while, make sure you survive.”

“We’ll both be fine, uncle,” Thera told him, trying to reassure him with the bit of worry he was doing his best to hide from his face. “I’m one of the most powerful mages on the planet. Nothing’s killing me or Ben while I’m around to say anything about it.”

“Ha, good. In that case, I’ll see you both sometime after the points close.”

They parted with that, the two going off to their first location, a city neither of them had visited before but had been chosen as an evacuation point for the injured by virtue of its size, the presence of a gate, and the lack of any nearby invasion points to complicate things as they went to the large building waiting just outside of the network that had already been set up to be as obviously a hospital as possible for anyone coming through who might not be familiar with the area, going in to talk to a waiting receptionist who was there helping to guide some of the ongoing setup.

“Hello there,” Thera greeted, her card already at the ready with the relevant information displayed. “I’ve come to look at the area I’ll be working, I was told I was expected.”

“Ah, Thera, yes, right this way,” He responded professionally, not acting in any shock to have an awakened skill holder before him before he got up and led the two down the halls, off to the director of the place to handle them from there.

The author’s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

That very director gave a polite bow and a tired smile, clearly exhausted from who could guess how much work leading up to that point as she took over.

“Welcome, it’s a pleasure to have you here. It’s not going to be the most complicated but I’ll show you around.”