Skye was bored during the whole lecture. Most of the knowledge being taught was already mentioned in the book which he read and that too more elaborately than what the teacher was saying.
He felt that rather than listening to the monotonous voice of the teacher and fighting against the urge to sleep, his time would have been well spent if he just read the books on his own.
It was the same way, when he was on Earth. He was really intelligent and generally studied the subject by reading books on his own.
He would sometimes completely read the book before even the teacher taught that subject, and he would understand it much better than his peers who listened to his teacher and used to intently make notes of everything his teacher said, word to word.
He felt, it was a waste of time attending classes, hence he usually slept at the back of class whenever he got the chance. In his mind he has a perfect justifying reason for such behaviour.
The people who wrote such standard books are generally experts in their fields and they passionately wrote it, in a way that people who are not so experienced in that subject, may also understand it once they read their book.
So, was it not better to learn directly from the experts in their own words? rather than listening to some guy lecturing in a monotonous tone, who doesn't even have that passion for the subject nor for teaching it?
He would only listen if the teacher was a real expert in the field or even if they are not an expert he would still listen if they taught passionately. Expert or not, respect should always be given to people who taught passionately.
He somehow got through the whole class without sleeping and came to the martial arts class. The hall was even bigger than the ground they exercise on in the morning; more than twice as big.
It was a wonder, and he couldn't imagine how they built such a large castle with such huge halls.
There were people of different group already training in the hall, it seemed like the training hall was a shared space and different groups were allotted different times to come and train.
As the other people of his group already came here yesterday, they knew what they had to do, so Skye naturally followed them. After the lecture Skanda wanted to talk to others so he went up ahead and now Skye was alone.
Skye saw some people in slightly different military uniform than the one he wore. Instead of his khaki coloured uniform, they had on darker shade of it, slightly like tan coloured. And on their shoulder pads on both sides, there were 2 yellow coloured stars sewed on them.
They were the Lieutenant's. He read about them in one of the books.
Basically, the military ranks in EDEN were divided in to 11 ranks. The starting rank was one of a Cadet, then comes Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel and so on.
In the outer cities of EDEN, the highest ranked officer was a Colonel who would be in charge of a large sized city, a Lieutenant Colonel for a mid-sized city and a Major for a small sized city like Carcassonne. Higher ranked officers can only be seen in the inner layers of EDEN.
There were around 20 or so Lieutenants in the training hall and they were teaching people in batches of 100. Skye quickly joined a batch and started paying attention to what they were teaching.
Physical exercises and martial arts etc, were never his strong suit. On Earth he might never need them but here he did not know when he would be in danger and seeing the process they were going through each day, it felt like storm was lurking around the corner, slowly brewing and thunder could strike any time.
So, he paid particular attention in martial arts training class. The initial 1 hour was a demonstration of different moves to be used in different situations and then they paired up the 100 people into 50 pairs and made to follow the steps shown by the Lieutenant and practise amongst each other.
They were basic moves for self-defence like how to block yourself from attacks to your vital points. How to deal with people sneaking up on you and other basic patterns to attack for beginners who never fought before.
The whole system of the castle was like a basic police training academy on Earth and martial arts training was also similar.
According to what was mentioned in the time table, they would be taught the basic moves for the initial week and then proceed with the intermediate and the advance classes as they progress.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Skye got paired up with one the very fit people of their group. He was around the same age and height as Skye, but he had a straight face with intense eyes and blood red hair.
With his physically fit body and his serious face he looked dangerous.
He was one of the people who could complete the whole morning exercise and still remain standing, so Skye put in all his efforts to train with him.
But because of his low physical stats no matter how much strength he exerted it still did not help him much. The guy would not even budge a little.
Any punch Skye hit him was probably like a baby hitting him. But any punch the guy threw was like being hit with an iron rod, his movements so subtle, his punches so heavy, his presence domineering, his grip inescapable and death to his opponents inevitable.
He was the perfect example of the famous catchphrase 'Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee'.
No matter how much he blocked, he was still getting hurt. In just a few moments he took many punches all over his body. He could only raise his arm and cover his face as his core was getting pummelled.
If he slacked in his defence even a little, he would get a resounding punch directly to his face. In few moments he fell down and other people around Skye couldn't help but sneer, mocking him.
What Skye did not know was that, even though the guy who he partnered with was not the strongest guy in their batch, he was very serious all the time and never showed sympathy on anyone.
The people who he sparred with yesterday, were all weaker than him. But he still fought with them and mercilessly beat them up. He even beat up a kid!
That's why today not many people wanted to spar with him and unfortunately, since Skye did not know this, he went up and got paired with him.
Skye did not want to give up just yet, if he wanted to survive, he needed to learn to deal with guys physically stronger than him. So, breathing heavily, he slowly got up and gathering his strength.
They sparred once again and once again a few minutes later Skye fell back down, now unable to get back up anymore. He still did not want to give up, so he activated his skill and only slightly gathered the divine energy around him to replenish his strength.
He sub-consciously used his strength yesterday in the infirmary and it seemed like no one noticed it, so he bravely activated his skill, albeit slightly, to gather some strength so that he could fight again.
As expected, divine energy gathered around him and he slowly absorbed it all through his pores, replenishing his strength. When he got enough energy to stand up, he stabilized his breathing and continued to fight with his skill still active.
The result was not much different and he still got crushed and fell down with thud. The people around him were mocking him, looking at him as if he was a fool, but it did not matter to him.
He would eventually become stronger and show his greatness to the world, so he silently endured all the mocking and resolved to get stronger and better.
After a few minutes he got up again for the fourth time!
With the amount of beating he got, he felt like his legs were noodles, his arms so heavy and slow, as if lead was flowing in his veins. With his body screaming in his mind he couldn't think straight nor could he even stand up straight, but he did not want to give up just yet.
Even though it may be just a sparring match and he should not take it so seriously, his partner was sparring as is he was in an actual fight. So, should he take it slightly? He could accept being weaker than others, but he could not accept losing to others in determination.
Anyways he had his cheat skill and he could heal himself up within a day, so he did not want to give up easily and go all the way.
But his opponent thought differently, he did not spar with Skye this time. He just had a long look at Skye, gave a nod and went away to spar with someone else.
Seeing his partner walk away, Skye finally let go and fell down.
Palace workers came and took him away to the infirmary to get him treated.