Chapter 96 – Training Missions

As Sam approached the missions board, suddenly a group of buff men who looked like soldiers approached him.

"Hey! You're Samsara right? The first place finisher of the survival mission" one of the men approached him.

"Yes. What can I do for you?" Sam asked

"I'm Brad. These are my teammates Tom, Arnold, Donnie, Will, Jackie, Sly and Jet" he said introducing his team

"We are the ones who defeated the hydra!" one of the other guys, Tom said

"Really? That's very impressive! How did you do it?" Sam asked, astonished

"We ah... our team originally consisted of 40 people. But only 8 of us survived. This team consists of the special force members from the US team and the China team and we were participating in war games when somehow we were killed and brought here. We teamed up with Jackie and Jet and their teammates from China" Brad explained. 

"I didn't see you in the clearing" Sam wondered aloud

"Oh, then you were probably summoned to another starting point. Luckily we were summoned with our full gear on. We had all our basic gear, namely our M16s, grenades and even a few claymores. Otherwise, how else could we kill the hydra. Even then.... so many lost" Brad said. 

"Just my luck I was summoned nude" Sam muttered under his breath. 

"Anyway, we wanted to invite you to join our team to do missions. Will you join us?" Tom asked

"I'll be glad to. But why me?" Sam asked

"You're the top ranker right? Even if you ran from the hydra, we faced that monster. It's nigh impossible to run from it. And you're a level 10, while we're only at level 5 at most" Brad said

"Fair enough. I'll join you guys. Safety in numbers" Sam said, seeing their gear. They had swapped their clothes for leather armor, but kept their body armor and modern weapons on top of swords and shields. Apparently there was even a mage and a priest in this group. 

"Great! We're thinking of starting slow, taking this mission ranked easy to test the waters first" Brad said and Sam nodded

Brad picked up a paper posted on the board that said "Eliminate the Goblin Nest" and walked to the teleporter with the group. 

--

The group of 9 teleported to a clearing in a forest, similar to the one they were summoned in the original survival tutorial. 

All their weapons were drawn with the military guys preferring to use their ancient weapons instead of their modern firearms to save ammo. 

"Aargh" one of the men shouted as an arrow pierced his shoulder

Several more arrows flew in towards them as they blocked with their shields. 

Sam deflected them and charged at the direction of the shooter, immediately killing a goblin. 

Mere moments later, multiple goblins charged at him carrying crude weapons from rusty swords, to crude maces and some even had pickaxes. 

Sam instantly sliced two of them that were closest and the military guys charged as well to back him up, killing the remaining goblins. 

Goblins were not the most dangerous creatures around. Their strength was that of a human teenager, and their battle skills were non existent, like a civilian wielding a crude weapon. 

As a group, they continued charging forwards, combing the forest and killing more and more goblins until they arrived at a hill with a cave.

Hiding behind trees, they saw a goblin standing guard outside the cave, picking it's nose and scratching its ass. Not the most watchful of guards.  

"That must be the goblin nest" a black soldier named Will said. 

"I reckon a grenade will make short work of them" Arnold said

"Hey hey. Conserve our modern arsenal for real threats. This is supposedly only a training mission to level up. Swords and shields only" Brad said

Arnold nodded, realizing his mistake as the rest laughed at him. 

Brad gave several signals and one of them moved by himself. 

Sam watched in silence as the lone soldier clinically got behind the goblin and sliced it's neck. 

"Lets go" Brad said.

The slaughter was quick and fast, as the goblins were caught unaware and unprepared. 

The group stood over the dead bodies of the goblins, they secured the area and treated the minor wounds they got. 

They started teleporting out of there and the next instant, they were back at the Training Lodge.

Checking their statuses, each of them got an equal share of the points for completing the mission and individual points based on number of kills. This wasn't very much to Sam as it was insufficient to level up but a few of the group managed to gain a level.

"Thanks Sam. Lets do this again sometime" Brad said, shaking his hand. The rest high fived him or fist bumped him.

"What are you going to do now?" Tom asked

"I'll try the mission again solo" Sam said

"Wow. Tough guy. Don't overstrain yourself. Good luck" Jackie said, punching his shoulder

Sam nodded and waved goodbye

--

Sam transformed back to his male body. This was the third time he was soloing the goblin mission. 

The first time, he summoned Alice, who cleared the mission by herself, to test if he will gain the experience points. It was a success

The second time, he transformed to Sharon, but had Mindy as her chaperone to ensure her safety, and let Sharon fight by herself. 

As he had hoped, she had all his skills as a Level 10 Magic Swordsman, even though she used it differently due to her decision making. And at the end, he still acquired the points

At the last try, he let Sharon completely solo the mission, without any one chaperoning her as she finished the mission. 

Sam was glad it worked. It meant that he could sleep while they both continually took missions non-stop. 

And so, this was what Sam did. Day after day, mission after mission, he fought non-stop to increase his level, to make sure he was fully prepared for life in Fantasia