Assignments

Regis walked towards the familiar area in the forest near Camp Cerberus that had been used for the war simulation exercise. All the cadets of the camp had gathered once more for a new assignment.

"The assignment this time will be individual assignment, but we are free to form unofficial groups to complete the tasks." Alex summarized the instructions that were sent to his holowatch.

"Besides, the information about the content of the assignment is quite vague. 'Bring back the specified parts of the mutated beasts and synthetic beasts.' I think this is the kind of mission where we will have to find further details as we simultaneously proceed with the mission. There should definitely be some additional information of the mission that has not been sent to our holowatches." Avner nodded in response.

"Cadet with the last enrolment will enter first."

"Yes sir." Regis turned after hearing the familiar voice of the instructor and started walking towards the elevated platform beside the lieutenant. His vision blurred when he stepped on top of the platform and the surroundings changed abruptly.

Once the surrounding view stabilized, Regis immediately scanned his surroundings. Unlike the first time, Regis already had his gear on before stepping on the platform. After he confirmed that there was no creature in his surroundings, Regis tapped his holowatch and read through the screen that popped up.

'No change.'

Since no new information had been updated after entering the synthetic forest, Regis could only rely on the little introduction of the mission. He checked the complete set of battle gear provided to him and started moving in the pattern he was taught in his military classes which was the most optimal route for searching over a large area.

The scouting range of his helmet was only a few hundred meters, which was nothing compared to the vast area of the assignment, so strategic scouting was still a valuable skill. After observing for a while, Regis was able to conclude that the density of synthetic beasts and mechanical creatures was higher than the previous time.

After scouting for a while, Regis still couldn't figure out the purpose or the task that he had to achieve and just scouted the surrounding area, taking notes on the locations and species of the synthetic beasts in his surroundings.

'Task 1: Collect a horn from a synthetic beast.'

A message popped up on his holowatch display.

'Just synthetic beast with horns, no specific beast. Generally, people tend to select the strongest target to score better assessments, but I doubt that this assignment is just about show of might. What is the purpose of this assignment?' A holographic screen popped up in his field of vision.

Regis racked his brain while scrolling through a list of synthetic beasts that fit the bill that he encountered while scouting. Regis did not want to select a creature purely based on strength and instead decided to play to his strengths.

<Name: Regis Kleeve>

<Race: Subhuman Mutant>

<Mutation: Sub beast Mana type>

<Evolutionary stage: 1 (___)>

<Age: 16>

<Stats:>

<Strength: 2.8> <Agility: 2.2>

<Endurance: 3.4> <Mana capacity: 1.4>

<Reaction speed: 3.5 milliseconds>

'Sigh! There is no such thing as endurance or stamina when it comes to mechanical creatures and synthetic beasts, and the second-best stat is strength. I should find one that has lower hit points and weaker defence.' Regis added filters and finally found the most ideal type of mechanical creature from the list.

Once the target was decided, Regis traced back the path he had taken and was soon standing in front of the synthetic beast.

It was a Olvet valley goat with two horns protruding from the sides of its skull. His helmet had estimated the synthetic beast to have an approximate agility of 3.1, and strength of around 2.8.

Both the stats were higher than Regis, but he was the newest cadet and one of the weakest when it came to comparing stats. But this didn't discourage Regis. Combat wasn't just a battle of stats and he also had full set of equipment that greatly added to his combat output.

Regis stopped advancing once he reached around ten meters from the mountain goat and looked at his target carefully. The synthetic beast stood only seventy centimetres tall, much smaller than its counterparts found on earth. Its horns looked overgrown for its small face, while its legs appeared very thin.

'It is a species resembling a goat, but from a different star system.'

As if sensing Regis' gaze, the goat perked up and turned towards him. It lowered its head in a manner that its sharp horns were pointed straight at Regis.

'Is it trying to warn me…oh shit!!'

Regis jumped towards his side. While he was still thinking that the goat was warning him to stay away, it had already leapt at him at a frightening speed.

'Crashhhh!'

'Crashh!'

Regis alternately looked the creature that was turning towards him while shaking its head lightly and the large tree that had been uprooted as well as broken at trunk.

'That thing does not require any form of buildup for such a crazy charge.'

The goat had just leapt at Regis from its initial position and it was already so fast. Just from this one exchange, Regis knew that he could not afford to let the goat have space for movement. He planted his feet in the ground and lunged at the goat with the help of his hoverboots.

While in the middle of turning around, the goat jumped backwards while its side was still exposed to Regis who was charging at it. The punch missed by a few inches, but Regis had no time to grieve the miss. He twisted his body and charged towards the synthetic beast.

With its face towards Regis, the goat lowered its face so that its horns were in the trajectory of the incoming punch. The punch never came. Instead, the goat felt something hit its hind legs.

Regis followed the goat and feinted a punch towards its head. The goat was able to react to it and immediately lowered its horns. Instead of testing the strength of his gauntlets against the horns, Regis stepped forward while maintaining his momentum.

The goat crashed into a tree once again, but from the rear. Regis capitalized on the opportunity that he was waiting for and immediately delivered an upper cut to the chin of the goat. Still in mid-air, the goat had no time to stabilize after the crash and received a powerful hit to its chin.

Regis followed the upper cut with a hook, but immediately stepped back after the attack connected. He lost the chance to chain any further attacks, but that wasn't what bothered him.

'Self-scan'

'Scanning…...2%....10%...40%...100%'

The complete armour set that he received this time was a melee hand to hand combat type, so it had no canons mounted on the hand. But that wasn't a problem for Regis as he had already tried on all forms of combat gear in the virtual world. The camp also had compulsory training of hand-to-hand combat among many other combat forms, which he had been following diligently.

'That last hook was way too weak.'

The scan was completed in the time that Regis took to retreat two steps. A small diagram of a human appeared in a corner of Regis' vision.

'There really is a problem.' Regis looked at the red coloured hands of the diagram. His gauntlets were malfunctioning.

'Reporting issue…. Reporting issue...gear malfunction…'

Regis looked at the string of notifications projected by his helmet screen and turned back towards the synthetic beast. He could only curse his extremely bad luck. The gear malfunction was one of the rarest problems that a soldier could during a fight. Due to the near perfect manufacture and maintenance of gear, the chances of this happening were next to none.

The goat didn't know and didn't care for Regis' problem. As soon as it got the space to breathe, it stabilized itself on the ground. The mechanical lens that was its eyes reflected a human silhouette. The goat pointed its horns forward and leapt towards the silhouette.

Regis dodged the leaping charge and turned to face the goat once again.

'Should I continue or should I wait for the mechanical aide. But I doubt that they will come. Afterall, adapting to changes in external factors is also a domain of combat. Maybe this malfunction is the test..'

In the end, Regis decided to continue fighting despite the malfunction. Despite its intelligence limited by its processing unit, the goat had not only finished mapping the surroundings so that the previous blunder didn't repeat, it had also understood its advantage in the confrontation.

Regis could feel that the goat was actively trying to increase the distance and gather momentum before leaping at him. He wasn't surprised by the change. The AI running these synthetic beasts were designed for adaptability.

Despite the goat's efforts, his plan was simple but effective at the same time. He closed in on the goat whenever he had the chance and delivered a barrage of attacks whenever he found an opening. His strikes were visibly weaker than before the malfunction, but still useful in dealing damage.

Regis bent to his side to dodge the airborne goat and twisted his body to deliver a powerful kick at the unguarded belly. The goat was sent flying away on impact and crashed into a tree, shaking the entire tree violently.

Regis stabilized himself after the kick and immediately moved in the direction of the goat. He punched towards the goat, but the synthetic beast dodged towards its side. The punch shook the tree once again while some pieces of wood broke free from the trunk.

'Self- scan'

Regis looked at the results of the new scan and his eyes widened in realization.

'What the... so, this is the missing detail.'