Chapter 6-168: We’re in the Army Now (1/2)

The Present...

“Wait, what?” I had to interrupt. “You killed a Genius Loci... as a Six?”

Sama gave me a smug look. “Hey, I know how to build to power, too, and I’m already a Sage.” I rolled my eyes at the jibe. I wanted my Sage of Focus Title badly. “Please don’t think I’m weird for doing something in sixteen years that it took you less than three months to be able to do.”

“Ouch! Peace, peace.” She snorted at me merrily. Okay, I deserved it. Yes, I could take out a Genius Loci now, too, and there was literally nothing it could do about it. “But... why aren’t you a Ten? You soloed a Twenty!”

“Because Rantha Racial Levels are just that damn expensive, and the carryover onto normal Class Levels is just as bad.” She sighed heavily. “I could maaaaaybe have made Rantha Seven with the Karma. Then I realized that I needed all that Karma to take deep Class Levels, or it was going to take me grokking forever to get them later on. It all went into multiplier-priced Class Levels.”

“Ee in was something of an event, when Lily planted Vines in the head of a target dummy forty yards away as casually as lobbing a softball, and Sama deftly put two bolts in for its eyes, and six more for a smile around that long nose, they realized the two girls had alternatives.

Hilarity ensued when they wanted to cut the hair of the two of them. Sama’s hair shattered the teeth of the electric razor after the sergeant insisted that they needed to be cut down, and when they tried to cut down Lily's hair, it literally regrew back around the razor faster than they could cut it. Muttering things about magical Curses, the observers allowed the two to pass through, to the envy of the other women recruits. They were given standing passes to carry around for the inevitable questions about why their hair was not at regulation length, and to wear it up and braided.

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“They think we can’t hear them complaining about us getting to keep our hair,” Lily smirked as the two of them sat at the mess hall table. Their hair had been rapidly, almost magically braided up into long and interwoven designs behind them, behind which it was still patently obvious that they had all their locks.

There were a lot of Powered young women who were extremely annoyed with them for being able to keep their hair. After all, one of the privileges they’d been able to enjoy their entire life had been to look any way they wanted to, as Powered were expected to show off and look different from ‘normal’ people. Now they were being forced into nigh-identical uniforms and couldn’t even keep their hairstyles. Even their tats were mostly covered, if they had them.

“They should get Cursed at birth so it’s not an issue,” Sama shot back without the slightest bit of guilt. “Oh, I forget, they’re Powered. They’re cursed by greatness. Being envious of two unpowered people must be massively unwelcome for them!”

A fist slammed at the next table, and a tall woman rose to her feet, turning to glare at them. She was supermodel attractive, ripped, and could have stepped off a skin mag cover. “Not everyone in here besides you two is Powered, hags!” she cursed at them, clearly irked at her long brown locks having been trimmed back to less than an inch long.

“And the woman with a false face is complaining about her fake hair getting trimmed,” Sama promptly phthbbbed back, making crimson blossom on the woman’s cheeks. “You don’t even have the right to complain, so why the fuck are you talking?”

“Cause she’s an Amazon, and they don’t like Hags?” Lily answered brightly.

“Well, I don’t like fake-faced goddess-whores, either, but at least she has the grace not to be an Eryllian,” Sama agreed snidely, and despite themselves, the young women at the other tables snickered.

“What did you call me?!” the Aethran Amazon fairly screamed at them in disbelief.

“They are known for their eyes, not their ears,” Sama advised Lily calmly, not moved in the slightest.

“Yeah, but if she’s not an Eryllian, you’ll feel guilty after you mess up her pretty face. You shouldn’t goad her,” Lily went on, as if the Amazon wasn’t looming behind her.

“She’s a Three, come on. She’s got a perfect face and some arena experience, and thinks she’s seen the world. She’ll be sparring with you, she’s got spear calluses.”

“Oh, is that so? What’s her Oak and Willow at?” Lily asked, still not looking back.