Iona was on a run around the castle. It’d been a week since the tournament and Alruna’s present. The sun was shining, the weather was unseasonably warm, and Iona’s long strides were eating up ground, long blonde hair tied into a neat braid. She was running with a bunch of other squires, all of whom were at level 128 in both classes, all waiting for permission to advance.

They’d trampled the sad, pathetic snowfall ages ago, and it was practically like a springtime run.

The squires with a Wind-aligned class took the lead, followed by the Fire-aligned squires, then the Water-aligned. Wind was speed, and Fire being strength let those squires abuse their power, to convert it into speed. Water was careful and flowing, elegantly and precisely placing their feet in the right places.

But as time went on, the Fire-aligned classes flagged and fell behind, as they burned energy faster than anyone else. The Earth-aligned classes plodded along, massive endurance letting them keep going at their slower top speed for longer. As Wind and Fire classes became exhausted, they fell back, behind the Earth-aligned classes. And the Light-aligned classes.

Light didn’t directly help. Iona wasn’t faster, wasn’t stronger, nor was she tougher. What she did, better in some ways than Earth, was last. [Overflowing Invigoration] gave Iona nearly endless energy, allowing her to run, and run, and run, and run, and run. It’s why if she got lucky in the first few rounds of a tournament, she had a strong shot at winning the entire thing. Everyone else would be exhausted, and Iona was there, fresh and ready, eager to go.

It was a toss-up if the Light class or the Earth class was better in the long-haul. It really depended on the respective stats everyone had, skills, and most importantly – grit.

There was one other squire with a Light class, and she also had a Wind class. She was aiming to be one of the light, fast Valkyries, riding a pterodactyl, griffin, or some other fast flier, screaming from the sky to hit and run.

At the end of the run, Iona was in 7th place. The Wind + Light runner was in first, and a number of non-human recruits were between Iona and her. Most were beastkin of various sorts – Rabbit, cat, dog, fox, even a lumbering bear-kin – and the last was a werewolf.

Stats multiplied what was already there. Humans were on the physically weaker end of the spectrum as far as elvenoids went. Minotaurs were stronger. Centaurs were faster. Beastkin were stronger. Gorgons had their hair and…

Needless to say, in most grand ranking of elvenoids, humans consistently ended up near the bottom. Never last, but never above the halfway mark.

The [Biomancer] had helped Iona, but he’d also helped everyone else. It only narrowed the natural gap between Iona and the other non-human squires, it didn’t close it entirely.

With stats multiplying what was already there, a catkin with the same Speed as Iona was usually faster than her. A werewolf with the same Strength as Iona was usually stronger than her. A large part depended on how fast the catkin was naturally, and how they worked on their personal physical fitness and form. A werewolf was stronger than Iona, but only if they focused on exercising, if they made sure they had the base muscle mass to multiply.

Life wasn’t fair. Iona had gotten used to it a long time ago.

Iona did have some advantages. She’d won the genetic lottery in combination with the [Biomancer’s] gift, and ended up strong and tall. It gave her an advantage in reach, in leverage, and gave the System a solid base to multiply with stats.

The bear-kin was also the only one taller than Iona, and it was by a hair as the bear-kin was 6 foot 2 / 188 cm.

Really, it was frankly unfair how much of an advantage the System gave non-humans. They were showered with stats, while humans had to deal with only a +1 Free Stat. Not only that, but raw, baseline, they were significantly stronger than humans were. Nothing the [Biomancer] had done could change the stats the System granted.

At least humans had the flexibility to assign their stats where they wanted to. It made them better casters, better mages, by a small margin. They also tended to have some of the best endurance, but that was it. Just another elvenoid race living on Pallos.

Iona was toweling the sweat off of her when the grand central bell started to toll. She frowned – it shouldn’t be the top of the hour, that bell had gone off recently near the end of their run.

It kept going, and going, and Iona looked around at the other squires.

Something was wrong.

At first one squire, then the next, then all of them, abandoned the next part of the daily training, and started to stream back to Castle Valkyrie, to find someone who knew what was going on, and ask them for help.

They weren’t knights, they weren’t Valkyries – yet. Still in training. They’d brag and boast how they were the future leaders, the knights in shining armor that everyone would look up to. Yet, when push came to shove, they were lost, still looking for guidance of their own.

The Valkyries had a grand hall, a room where they could all fit. Iona squeezed in the back, seeing over most of the heads of everyone there, to where Sigrun was standing, in fierce discussion with a number of other senior Valkyries – Alruna included – along with a scout.

Iona couldn’t quite tell which organization the scout was from, but he was the center of attention.

A decision was reached, and Sigrun made an announcement to the room.

"A goblin horde is coming from the mountains, tens of thousands strong, if not larger. If they make it through the Wobby pass, they’ll spill out into the plains, scatter, burn, murder, loot, rape, and pillage their way through Rolland. They’ll be nearly impossible to stop. The mountains force them to come through the pass though, and we’re going to head off to stop them. We’ll be calling for reinforcements from the Order of the Red Lions and the Righteous Divine Fist Sect, along with calling for the King’s army. We’re also sending out messengers to as many other organizations as possible."

Sigrun took a moment, a heartbeat, letting it sink in.

"Valkyries. Move out."

Iona had to rescue one of the smaller squires from the sheer crush of bodies as everyone tried to leave through the same door at the same time.