Chapter 40: The First Professional Training Session
Two hours after their ascension to the throne, Empress Zoe and Empress Theodora, who had just become co-ruling emperors of the Eastern Solomon Empire, encountered endless troubles.
First was the domestic industrial problem.
Since the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches, the exchange of science and technology between the two sides had completely ceased.
So far, the civilian industry of the Eastern Solomon Empire had recovered to 40% of the ancient Solomon Empire, and some complex household appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners, and televisions had resumed production.
In terms of military industry, they were currently only able to manufacture firearms and mortars. This meant that the rockets, powered armor, and aircraft currently sealed in the warehouse were almost used up one by one.
Looking at the dense reports, most of which were marked with bright red deficits, Empress Zoe rubbed her brows in distress. She finally understood why her father had gone on an expedition to the Seljuk Empire. The reason was simple: no money.
The treasury revenue of the Eastern Solomon Empire mainly came from the surplus of import and export trade, as well as the output of the mainland, especially the Anatolian Peninsula.
The rise of the Seljuk Empire in the east was both sucking blood from the Empire’s East-West trade route and threatening the production order of the Anatolian Peninsula. Launching a war was in the Empire’s interest.
The only problem was that they unfortunately lost.
So how to preserve Anatolia became a headache-inducing, almost unsolvable problem.
The Seljuk Empire controlled the densely populated Caucasus and Syrian regions. In the Battle of Manzikert, they had deployed as many as 100,000 combat-ready troops, including 20,000 Transcendents. This was no longer something that the Eastern Solomon Empire, with its remaining troops of less than 20,000, could match.
“Can we borrow troops from the West?” Theodora said seriously. “Our Solomon Empire is known as the ‘Shield of Civilization,’ guarding the eastern gate for the Western world.”
“If Constantinople falls, the first to bear the brunt will be the Venetian city-state, the Holy Solomon Empire, and the Hungarian Kingdom. We might as well borrow troops from the three countries in the name of ‘defending the Christian world.’ Especially the Holy Roman Empire, its Empress Theophanu is from the Sclerena family of the Empire, which can act as an intermediary between the two countries.”
“Agreed.” Zoe nodded. “Lord Bryennios, please go and sound out the Sclerena family.”
The Grand Domestic, Bryennios, hurriedly bowed in agreement.
“In addition, the position of the Western Church must also be considered.” Theodora added. “Since the split between the Eastern and Western Churches, the technology sharing agreement has been terminated, causing the Empire’s powered armor production line to almost come to a standstill.”
“We might as well try to reconcile with the Church, and in the name of the threat of heretics, ask Pope Innocent to launch the Templar army to help the Empire repel the Seljuk heretic invaders.”
“Empress Theodora.” Zoe said gently, “You should know that the split between the Eastern and Western Churches was caused by the struggle for leadership in the ideological and religious beliefs of the continent. What if Pope Innocent demands that our Orthodox Church submit and revise the classics according to the will of their Pope, and even allow Catholic priests to enter the country to preach?”
“In times of national crisis, how can we talk about heresy?” Theodora felt that something was wrong, but she still subconsciously expressed her thoughts. “The right to preach must never be given, but revising the classics seems to be acceptable. Since the Church’s science and technology are ahead of ours, it proves that their classics may not be entirely useless. If necessary, can we persuade Patriarch Alexius to make some concessions?”
Zoe was silent for a moment and said faintly:
“In that case, I will go and sound out Patriarch Alexius.”
The two Empresses continued to discuss and approve the proposals submitted by the Grand Domestic Bryennios one by one, while Lady Varomina, the official scribe, quickly recorded them into edicts. It was already late at night when all the government affairs were dealt with.
…
Time went back to the evening.
The thief girl, Mia, walked down the street, lost in thought. Unconsciously, she came to Asker’s ancestral home again.
She still couldn’t accept the fact that Maestro and the others had abandoned her, taking the rest of the guild with them to Kiev.
Now it seemed that everything had been pre-arranged, including finding an excuse to deliberately kick her out of the guild, mentioning intentionally or unintentionally before that Asker’s team had made a lot of money, actually hinting and inducing her to go to Asker.
It was all to leave her here.
Mia stood in front of Asker’s ancestral home, hugging herself timidly.
She didn’t know how to face Asker. Her previous joke about joining his team was just to find a temporary place to stay until Maestro calmed down and she could go back and plead with him.
But now that the Thieves Guild had completely withdrawn from Constantinople, if Asker didn’t accept her, she would really have nowhere to go.
“What are you doing standing outside?” Asker’s voice rang out. Mia hurriedly looked up and saw Asker standing by the window, his hands on the windowsill, looking at her.
“Dinner just arrived, you came at the right time.” He tilted his head and gestured to Mia. “Come in.”
Mia whispered “Hmm” and walked up the steps, quietly wiping the mud off her boots. Opening the door, a long table had already been set up in the living room, laden with a variety of delicious food.
Although it was all takeout.
“Listen up, everyone, we have two new members.” Asker clapped his hands, attracting everyone’s attention. “On the right, is Sidlipha from Helsing, who will be our team’s melee DPS.”
The girls applauded. Only Peggy slapped the table, stood up, and said unhappily:
“She’s the DPS, then what am I? Am I not the DPS?”
“No one said there could only be one DPS in the team, Peggy.” Asker explained. “Besides, Strength DPS and Agility DPS are different. You should know that enemies have the distinction between heavy armor and light armor.”
“Against lightly armored and unarmored enemies, Agility DPS is more efficient at killing, because in the time it takes for Strength to attack once, Agility can attack 2-3 times. But against heavily armored enemies, single attacks will be severely weakened and reduced, and that’s when Strength DPS is needed for brute force armor penetration.”
“No problem, I’m good at brute force.” Sidlipha nodded upon hearing this, her transparent sky-blue eyes stared at Peggy for a moment, then she suddenly smiled. “You smell of blood, I like it.”
Peggy pursed her lips awkwardly, stopped talking, and sat back down. Sidlipha didn’t ask any more questions, but just ran to the middle of Medea and Peggy, pulled up a chair, and sat down.
“Hello.” Medea smiled at her.
“Oh, beauty. Hello, hello!” Sidlipha’s eyes lit up and she said quickly.
“And this one is the Shadow Thief from the Thieves Guild, Mia Cinquemani.” Asker continued his introduction, pushing out Mia, who was still a little reserved and timid. “She will be our team’s scout, responsible for reconnaissance, support, lockpicking, and trap handling.”
“Clap, clap, clap!” The girls applauded again, looking at their new companion with friendly eyes.
This 14-year-old girl had healthy light wheat-colored skin, big and lively eyes, a small nose, and lips as thin and tender as petals. Although her figure hadn’t fully developed yet, she was a real beauty just by looking at her face, especially the shy and timid look on her face when she saw strangers, which was simply pitiful.
“Come, come, come! Mia, sit on my right!” Nuo almost didn’t hide her fondness, pulled up the chair next to her and beckoned her over, treating her like a younger sister.
“Go ahead.” Hearing Asker say behind her, Mia bit her lip and trotted over to Nuo.
While the two Empresses were working on government affairs all night long in the Palace of the Golden Throne, everyone in the ancestral home had already finished dinner. At Asker’s suggestion, they started playing board games and card games, the kind where you have to drink a can of beer if you lose a round.
In this lively atmosphere, Sidlipha and Mia successfully integrated into the group – Mia even drank so much that she threw up and ran to the bathroom four or five times. Sidlipha also got drunk, drunkenly picked up a soup spoon from the dining table, and slurred that she wanted to show everyone a set of sword techniques. Eleanor and Asker worked together and it took a lot of effort to hold her down.
The next morning, Asker woke up from his hangover with a slight headache.
E-sports players shouldn’t actually drink alcohol, as it would numb the nerves and reduce reaction speed. But… in this world, it didn’t matter.
He finished washing up and went to the second floor. This was originally the guest room and servants’ quarters, but now it was all allocated to the girls. Walking quickly through the corridor, he knocked on each door.
“Get up! From today onwards, the team will have daily training during non-mission hours!”
He announced loudly in the middle of the corridor. Now that most of the necessary roles in the team had been assembled (only the gunman and the Arcane Mage were missing), it was time to start using the training plan of an e-sports player to strengthen and polish this team.
“Aaaah.” The girls who came out of their rooms cried out in unison, making Asker’s eyelids twitch. In the game world of “Iron and Fire,” the best players were basically all male. After spending a few months in professional clubs, the e-sports teammates around him were all male.
Training with a group of girls… it was unimaginable for him before.
But awkward as it was, the training plan had to proceed as usual.
Twenty minutes later, everyone was fully armed and entered Furnace Island with Asker.
The top of the central mountain peak of Furnace Island was already piled high with building materials that had been transported in yesterday. Everyone found a place to sit down and listened to Asker’s plan:
“In professional player training, different roles receive different specialized training. Of course, since everyone is still a newcomer, there is no need to break down the training plan to each individual.”
“My current plan is that in the first month, I require everyone to master the basics of attack, defense, and dodge thoroughly. In the second month, I will teach you advanced combat techniques.”
Did he mean that they had to start learning from the basics? Eleanor and Sidlipha were a little depressed. These two had been trained in combat since childhood, and they didn’t take Asker’s saying about “laying a good foundation” seriously. Just as they were about to speak, Asker interrupted them:
“I know that some of you may have learned some miscellaneous martial arts in the past, so you think you have a higher starting point than others and can skip my basic training and start learning advanced techniques directly. For those who have this idea, I can only say: Sure, as long as you can beat me, you can skip the basic course.”
Eleanor and Sidlipha immediately shut up. Beat Asker? You must be joking, it would be good enough if they could withstand five moves in front of him.
“Do non-combat professions also need training?” Medea raised her hand and said. “For example, I am a Psychic, and Nuo is a healer. We both don’t directly fight on the front lines in battle, do we also need to take your basic course?”
Asker turned around and put one hand on his sword. Suddenly, with a clang, the sword was unsheathed like lightning and slashed straight at Medea’s neck. The latter didn’t even have time to scream, she just instinctively shrank back, her hands protectively covering her chest in fear.
The blade stopped in front of her, and Asker said coldly: “If it was on the battlefield, and the enemy’s sword was slashing at you, could you tell him: No, I’m a spellcaster, I don’t directly participate in combat, you can’t use weapons to attack me?”
“I can use my supernatural abilities.” Medea’s face was pale, and she still argued. “I can use my psychic abilities to subdue him first.”
“Heh, will you have time?” Asker said.
Medea was speechless. In fact, the moment Asker’s sword slashed down, her first reaction was to curl up. Such a clumsy performance couldn’t be refuted.
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