Chapter 260: That Is Vaguely Threatening

The promise of being put to work sounded vaguely threatening, but they were used to that, having lived their whole lives with the Rossi Family, as trusted members of the Don. Despite his casual attitude towards titles, Vinnie was an extremely intense person to work for.

"Well, at least we have work. But I am looking forward to seeing what we can do with the points. I’ve got a bunch of new skills now that I spent the ones that I already had, and I put most of them into magical item creation skills.

I don’t actually have much for combat abilities, to be honest.

But I can do wonderful things to this pulse rifle that the Coordinator gave me," the Techno Wizard informed them.

"Yeah, I don’t see her letting you risk yourself in the dungeon without a really good reason, Matteo," Yara laughed.

"A man can dream. After a lifetime of cleaning problems for this grump, a bit of freedom to play around in a dungeon and collect pork for the smoker sounds mighty fine to me. Perhaps I should have saved some points for combat.

Never mind, I will just upgrade my gear to make up for it.

I don’t suppose that she’s likely to blow a gasket if something goes wrong, is she?"

Yara laughed and shook her head. "Not the first time. You should be more afraid of what happens if it works. There are no other Techno Wizards in Marimgar that I know of, just a bunch of repairmen and a couple of Tinkers.

Your skills are all new to the city."

They stepped into the dining hall, where the buffet had been refreshed in anticipation of over sixty new arrivals rushing to fill themselves before bed. The moment that the scent of roast pork, fresh baked bread, tuber stew and garlic roasted veggies hit their noses, all thoughts of tomorrow were forgotten.

But Kalli was already scheming.

[ I wonder if I can get him to make an attack helicopter operate on mana? They’re not super expensive to purchase, since they’re old tech, and we’ve got a few of them already. But if we swapped the main weapons for lasers or Pulse Cannons, while keeping the rocket pods, they could be great additions to the force.

Or . . . we could buy some transport helicopters. They’re way cheaper than utility speeders. They’re loud, and they’re not any faster, but for the price? If that wizard can make them run on mana, they’re totally worth it. ]

Her musings helped pass time, and before she knew it, her alarm was warning her to go to bed.

A simple sleep exercise helped her get the rest she needed, relax the jaw, relax the shoulders, let the fingers and legs go limp, clear your mind and breathe evenly. It worked every time, no matter where she needed a nap, even in her chair.

The morning alarm pulled her back to consciousness, and Kalli took a quick shower before heading to the cafeteria for breakfast before the gym.

She had given the new arrivals the same schedule she had set for herself that morning, so she could keep an eye on them, and sure enough they filed in as a group just after she filled her plate.

"You’ve got a big appetite for such a small human," Matteo informed her, slightly impressed that she thought she could actually eat all that was on her plate.

"We burn through a lot of energy, and with the gym coming up, ninety minutes of maximum exertion is no joke. So, don’t go too light on breakfast, or you’ll be hungry before lunch. And do remember to pack a little snack to go, for when you take a break in between.

The rest of us all have snacks in our storage backpacks, but I doubt that your lot does. At least, not ones made from the higher energy magical plants."

Matteo nodded. "That is true. I packed a sandwich after dinner, but I ate it before bed."

Many of the others nodded in agreement, especially the women.

They had been a bit embarrassed when they arrived to eat like pigs, so they had taken what they deemed an appropriate amount of food, plus a snack to go. Only to find that their bodies adapted to the energy quickly, and they felt much more powerful than they had.

On top of being full for the first time in ages.

They had received some modified food from the trials, and they had a proper chef class with them until the last trial. The chef had been able to help with the food situation using whatever ingredients they could find. But after the house fell, things went downhill.

"Why don’t we come train with you, Coordinator?" Matteo asked in what he considered his best suave tone.

But the response was not what he was hoping for. Kalli didn’t turn him down, but the particular glee in her expression was enough to tell him that he had made a horrible mistake before she even began to speak.

"Oh, that would be wonderful. Bring along a dozen or so about your physical strength, and we will share a training room.

I got an advanced one with adjustable gravity and high-tech training machines. So, you can do a full-body workout, without grossly overloading the machines. It’s a wonderful thing, especially for those of us who are dedicated to physical conditioning."

The words sounded reasonable, but the expression promised pain.

And that pain came fast once they reached the gym building, and Kalli directed them to the changing rooms.

"There are fresh training clothes in there if you don’t want to work out in your armour. Putting it in your backpack and taking it back out makes it perfectly clean, so you can if you want to. But I prefer training clothes instead.

Get changed, and we will do some comprehensive training.

I think that five times gravity should be a good start, but I can bump it up, if it’s not enough for some of the bigger guys."