After an hour Captain Stonewall came back and saw that few of the chosen were still eating. He got angry and shouted loudly, "You are now in military and it is mandatory of you to obey the commands of your senior officials. I left, ordering you to finish eating and assemble within an hour. Now the hour is up and you are still eating. Anyone who doesn't follow the orders is not needed in military. Since this is the first time, I will only give you a light punishment."
Captain Stonewall punished them by ordering them to run 20 laps around the ground. "One lap around the ground might even be up to a mile and they had to run for 20 laps? That was a light punishment?" Skye thought.
The rest of them were made to do some stretches, then light jogging, then push-ups, then lunges, then push-ups and light jogging again. This cycle repeated for 3 full hours!
By the end of the 3rd hour only a few dozen people could still remain standing. People with low physical stats have already collapsed midway. Most of them were kids and few middle-aged people.
Few of the young people like Skye, who had low physical stats, barely managed to hold on up-to an hour into the training and then they too collapsed. At-least they get to rest once they exhaust themselves. But those few people who got punished by Captain Stonewall have also got exhausted and collapsed but they had to run again, after recovering their energy, until the night.
If they did not run, then the Captain beat them with a staff. Getting beaten by the Captain seemed much worse because he beat without any mercy. Some of the chosen were angry because they were made to do all this, without even telling them why and for what. But they suppressed the anger seeing Captain Stonewall mercilessly beating the others. Everyone one of important figures they met until now, all looked very powerful, so the chosen could only silently endure for now.
After all this exercise they regretted choosing to enter the city. Since they were the chosen, some of them thought they might be getting more rewards and a better life, even more than staying out of the city. But the first day itself woke them up from their daydreams. They realized the days ahead might be just as hard if not harder.
Everyone's muscles were sore and they could hardly move their bodies, they sat on the ground and massaged them until they felt better. Some did not get up again, fearing they will be made to exercise again.
As the evening was approaching now, Captain Stonewall ordered them to assemble again and this time they followed his commands swiftly.
"Why do you think I made you all do this? " he asked, but nobody dared to answer him.
"Have you all gone dumb? Answer me when I ask a question. Unless you want to run around the ground like those others." Captain Stonewall said sternly.
One of the chosen closer to captain felt his hairs stand up, he raised his head and saw that the captain was glancing in his direction. Afraid that he would be punished like others, he immediately answered loudly , "It is to help us increase our strength?"
"You are right, but also wrong."
"The main reason I made you all do this is to make you realize the extent of gap between you and your fellow chosen. Out of all of you, only a couple dozen people could endure for the whole 3 hours, and some of you even collapsed within 30 minutes."
"If I leave you all in a jungle full of beasts, who do you think will be the first one to die?"
"If I leave you all in a battlefield, who do you think will be the first one to die?"
"You are all chosen to become the next Divine Agent, do you think you can become one without any strength to protect yourselves or any strength to kill?
"Some of you have already realized, but for those of you who haven't. Hear my words. In your own worlds you might be a kid whose parents took care of him, or a student studying in reputed universities, or an employee who worked for a multinational company, an intelligent investor, a rich business man, a working housewife, a single mother, a King or a Queen."
"It doesn't matter anymore. You can't go back to that life nor can you live the same way here. In your worlds you might be spending all your time, working for somebody else, so that you can earn more money, and in turn buy better things to spend your time on. But in this process, you give more importance to your money and not your life and your time. "
"But in EDEN your life, and in turn your time, is the ultimate currency and the only currency. To do anything in EDEN, it cost's life force. To eat or to drink or just enjoy your life, you have to spend your life force. Even to use your skills you have to spend your life force. But there are only a few ways in which you can earn life force."
"The quickest way to earn money is to kill, so, now tell me, what do you think will happen if you are weak?" saying this Captain Stonewall took a pause and solemnly looked at the chosen.
He did not say anything for a moments to let this truth soak in to the chosen. The chosen have come from very different worlds so they might not come to terms with the workings of EDEN, but they have to start someday, and the captain wanted that day to be today.
The quicker the chosen accepted this truth, the quicker they can be trained and deployed to help his brethren who are fighting in the battlefield.
One of the chosen raised his hand and the captain gestured for him to speak. He said" Do you mean to say that as long as we have life force, we will be eternal? " to which the captain replied in an ambiguous manner
"In the wilderness, strong prey on the weak, and possessing immense wealth without the strength to protect it, is a great sin to your life."
There were couple more questions to which the captain answered and then he dispersed them all, saying "That's all for today. You can enter the castle and someone will escort you towards the dining hall and your quarters for rest. Tonight, think about what I said and what your life is going to be like in EDEN. Assemble here tomorrow morning at sharp 8. This is ground number 8, don't forget the number and those of you who don't assemble here on time will be heavily punished."
People slowly moved towards the castle, talking with others and discussing what the captain just said. Just yesterday they were all strangers and within a day he saw them form groups and being friendly with each other.
When Skye entered the castle along with Skanda, he was pleasantly surprised. From outside, the castle looked a little rough as it was made of stone. But form the inside he could see smooth stone walls, with delicately carved patterns on them. The castle was tall, with high arched ceilings with handing chandeliers of glowing crystals which provided ample light all around. The central hall was as wide as the ground they were training and there were broad winding staircases in the central hall, connecting different floors in the castle.
As Skye was looking around a female palace worker approached him and said " Sir, can I help you with anything?" Skye looked at her and then towards her back, where there were both male and female palace workers, dressed in black and white butler attire. They were waiting on duty to help the chosen as and when required.
Skye turned towards the kid and spoke "I need some time to think, so I'll go to my room now. Let's meet tomorrow at the ground." Skanda then greeted him good night and left to his own room.
Skye then asked the palace worker about the direction to his quarters and she escorted him there. After walking for a while, they came in front of a door on 3rd floor where she gave him a key and left shortly thereafter when Skye dismissed her.
Skye opened the door and saw that it was simple quarters with 1 living room and 1 bedroom with attached bathroom, before taking her leave, the palace worker explained the workings of the room, and following her instructions he switched on the lights. There were glowing crystals at each corner of the ceiling and they provided ample light all around.
The quarters had only few furniture, a bed and a cupboard were placed in the bedroom; one couch, a table and a rack with few books, were placed in the living room. Tired in both body and mind Skye just flopped on his bed and slowly drifted to sleep.