Zhen Liu began going into how stats worked.

"Your most important stat is, of course, your mana. One needs to try to increase your maximum mana bar by as much as possible, because without mana, Liberomancers are sitting ducks save for their skills. If you run out of your skills though in addition to running out of your mana, you'll be no better off than a normal person. Mana recovers in a percentage-based manner over time, so those with a larger mana bar will also recover more mana within a set period of time."

"Next, you have your other stats, with the second most important usually being Attack. This affects the damage that you do using your magic, as well as the area in case of area-of-effect attacks. Then there is Resistance, which reduces the damage you take from magical attacks, and also lets you resist the effects of certain spells and abilities. I wouldn't worry about that though as most of you will never be fighting other Liberomancers in this siege or even later on in life, and the dryads do not have any magical offensive attacks you need to be wary of."

"Then, we come to the other stats - Wisdom, Charisma, Luck, and Speed. Their effects are a bit less clear, but many spells have effects which depend upon them. Many skills have the strength of their effects tied to Wisdom. Charisma affects the chances of spells like [Charm] working and the like. Luck is involved in affecting the outcome of some spells. Speed is known to increase the range of attacks slightly. Different elemental specialties also specialize in different stats; fire elementalists spend more points in Attack while light elementalists spend more in Charisma, for example. Though again, for most of you I wouldn't worry too much about this latter point. Most of you are far from the point of picking a specific specialization."

Someone raised their hand.

"Yes?"

"Do stats also have other effects? Like will Speed make me run faster? And will Charisma make it easier to talk to girls?" As he said the last bit he seemed to have realized he shouldn't have as his face turned red and there was laughter from all around. I couldn't hide my own smirk, but I was also curious.

"Quiet! We're dealing with a life-threatening emergency here, stop behaving like a bunch of youngsters!" Zhen Liu called out for discipline. "But to answer your question - no, it does not seem so. Raising your Attack only modifies the damage done by your spells, not by your fists. Resistance does not make your body physically capable of taking more powerful hits. And Speed will not make you run faster, but if any of you ever learn how to fly with certain spells, it does improve flying speed."

I had reached much of the same conclusion - because my luck was terrible despite how much I raised my Luck stat! There were some people who differed from this view though, such as those who swore that raising Wisdom had made them wiser in real life, though objectively proving or disproving this was rather difficult. Of course, you could easily see that raising your Speed didn't make you faster, but could you say for certainty that raising Wisdom didn't make you wiser? That was harder to tell, though I thought this was more of a placebo effect than anything concrete.

Discussion then went on to some basic spells and what they did, how best to utilize them, etc.

"Moving on," Zhen Liu said. "Let's talk about the enemy we'll be fighting - the dryads!" He took out a piece of paper. "This is a drawing of one, so you all know what one looks like before they arrive here. Pass it around, but I expect to get it back in pristine condition - the class before you 'lost' it and this wasn't cheap to make, I'll have you know!"

The drawing eventually came to me. It was quite detailed, showing what looked like a log standing upright on two thick legs that ended in spiked branches. A face was visible through a hollow in the log which was vaguely humanoid, and two large 'arms' ending in two claw like hands that erupted from the midsection of the main body.

This looked nothing like the beautiful women decorated with flowers that I was used to thinking about whenever I heard the word 'dryad.'

"Dryads are a form of magical beast - though some people prefer to call them magical plants, but that's all semantics," Zhen Liu said. "Much like plants, they need water and sunlight, and if they behaved entirely like plants, just soaking up the sun and water all day long, there would be no issue and we wouldn't be in our current predicament. The soil where they originate from is poor in nutrients, and they need other kinds of nourishment for certain vitamins as they are capable of locomotion like animals. As such, they also drink the fresh blood of creatures in order to supplement their diets and to maintain themselves. If they only drank it from animals, we wouldn't have any issues either, but they reproduce to the point where they resort to hunting other prey from other locations once there are too many of them - such as humans, lizardmen, and anything else for that matter."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Most of this lined up with what I already knew about them from what I had heard in last year's Book Fair. At this point though, I put my hand up.

Zhen Liu looked a bit nervous when he saw this, but still pointed at me and signaled it was okay for me to ask whatever was on my mind. Was he worried I was going to ask him a hard question that might make him look dumb in front of the class? "Do we know why they're coming here instead of staying in Hitutsa like they normally do?" I was still salty at this bit because my plans of leaving had been ruined and wanted to know if the guild had found any explanation. Essentially, I wanted something tangible to blame for my misfortune.

"We… are not sure why that is, Master Liberomancer," Zhen Liu said. "Many magical beasts occasionally produce individuals who are stronger and smarter than the rest, and sometimes have different magical abilities as well. Most of the time these are called 'lords' or 'princes' or the like. There are creatures known as 'dryad lords' which are said to be more intelligent than normal dryads, although thankfully they don't have any offensive magical abilities either. It's only a guess, but we think that perhaps one of the dryad lords exerting some influence over the herd sensed danger before they were going to run into Hitutsa's armies, and so decided to change course. Ah, that is only a theory of course - I could be completely wrong. Does that um, answer your question satisfactorily Master Liberomancer?"

It didn't in the sense that I still had nothing or no one to blame, but I nodded, realizing that Zhen Liu was really trying his hardest and I was interrupting the flow of the lesson. I was a Rank Three Liberomancer and he was only Rank Two, and while it wasn't my intention to intimidate him by asking a question, it was clear that he was put off-balance by it. It was made worse by my status as a Master Liberomancer. I kept my mouth shut and shot him a gentle smile, letting him know that everything was alright and that he should continue. He visibly relaxed after that and the lesson continued.

"Right, so - many of you must be wondering - how can we kill them then? After all, that's what we are really here to discuss. Their bark is rather hard and while not as strong or thick as proper plate armor, it will still resist things like arrows and spears unless launched from a very close distance. Unfortunately, they also do not have any easily vulnerable vital points that can be exploited or struck with traditional weaponry. Their main method of attack is using their claws though they are able to make primitive weapons like spears and bows. They are rather resilient and can regenerate parts of their body, though this requires consumption of blood without which this ability is severely limited. They are weak to fire-based spells, though they don't have any particular resistances to any other element based on what data we have. Their most threatening aspect right now is the sheer weight of their numbers, and the fact that they can go a long time with only sunlight and fresh water, so they aren't as easy to starve out as a traditional force."

Someone raised their hand.

"Yes?"

"If that's the case, aren't we doing the wrong thing by holing up in the city? If they can survive on just sunlight and fresh water, shouldn't we go out into the field and meet them head-on if they can't be starved out?"

"That could be a potential solution, and is what Hitutsa was planning to do, as a matter of fact," Zhen Liu said. "Unfortunately, the attack has occurred far too swiftly for us to be able to mount a sufficient response like that in time. Given this, and the huge loss of life that would no doubt occur if we were to meet them in open battle, hunkering down is the preferred strategy. Also, although they can go without fresh blood for some time, lack of it not only affects their regeneration but also makes their bark brittle and greatly weakens them. There are a huge amount of them, meaning most of them are likely not well-fed. They do not have an easy answer to deal with our walls lacking anything like siege ladders, so for now, the strategy will be to remain within the city until the capital can organize an army to relieve us."

"Now, coming to what your positions will be during the upcoming siege - most of you are Rank One Liberomancers so you will be assigned to supporting and logistical roles, as, I'm sorry to say, but your worth in combat is not much. Do not despair though, as your support will be the foundation which will allow those who are stronger to better concentrate on fighting. Rank Two Liberomancers will be the main foundation for our defense in terms of numbers, and Rank Three Liberomancers in terms of quality of firepower. How many of you can cast [Fireball]?"

I raised my hand along with two other people.

"Good, [Fireball] is quite useful against the dryads and will be our preferred offensive option," Zhen Liu said. He then looked at me and added, "Of course, [Grand Fireball] and [Inferno] are even better."

He likely thought that I would know [Grand Fireball], a Rank Three spell, though I didn't.

[Inferno] was a Rank Four spell that was also fire-based, though it was the signature grimoire of the governor's family of Arconia.

By this point, over two hours had passed since the class had started. "Alright, I hope this was informative - any other questions?" Zhen Liu said, a bit exhausted from having to give the lesson. There were none, though many people were talking to each other as the anxiety in the room started to become palpable. "Alright, class dismissed!"

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