The sound of flowing water resounded from the cabin's bathroom. Claude was currently washing himself with his face raised towards the showerhead.
If one were to observe closely at his body, they'd be able to see faint blue light coming out from the pores of his skin in liquid form.
'Load.'
Little by little, the glowing blue liquid dispersed away from his body and flowed down into the bathroom drains, disappearing out of sight.
'That took care of that...'
As he might've expected, the Load ability had forced out everything that weren't supposed to be within his body in its Saved state.
Everything had reverted back. Even the miniscule growth of his hair and stubble that'd happened during his journey here had shortened back to its previous length.
Actually, him taking a shower right now was just to camouflage the discharged liquid of the Grade-3 Nano Explosives naturally without anyone noticing.
*Clink*
He turned the shower knob off and dried his body before putting on a new set of clothes that Gill had prepared for him after they'd reached the Trainee Cabins the day before.
Claude came out of the small single-room cabin that he'd been in to see rows and rows of cabins with the same design lined up next to each other in a rather disorderly manner within the forest.
This was Sector-07, specifically the Trainees' Living District.
The whole Sector-07 actually looked pretty much alike. They had many cabins and activity areas separated into districts based on Divisions.
The Trainee District was in fact just what they had come to call the district for everyone who hadn't come of age or hadn't been assigned to any Division.
The cabins were mainly used for either living or logistics purposes.
As for the activity areas,
One would be able to see a variety of training equipment there. Starting from ones made out of raw materials such as training dummies and archery platforms. To cutting-edge machineries like multi-directional treadmills and virtual power measurement unit.
But what had stunned Claude the most when he'd first arrived yesterday afternoon was in fact the sceneries.
The sceneries of this place were similarly breathtaking like the outside!
It was nothing like the military camp that he'd imagined the place to be.
Lush forest and clear rivers adorned the edges of a large blue lake. Mountain ridges rose high in the distance, ready to show the panoramic views of the whole landscape within the Sector.
However, from Claude's perspective, all these sceneries sort of looked a little too familiar to him.
"Isn't this place basically a huge summer camp site...?" He mumbled inaudibly.
.
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Sector-07, Early Morning
Claude was wearing his new leather breastplate and belt pouch over a grey cotton shirt and dark green military pants.
He was in the middle of taking a walk around to familiarize himself with the area. However at the same time, he was also thinking about what his plans were from here on out.
'What now...' He pondered.
The first time he'd felt the sunlight after coming out of that godforsaken bunker, his one and only thought had been to enjoy his freedom to its fullest as he walked the land freely and unrestrained.
That had been the only thing in his mind.
Yet, no sooner than a moment later, he was hit with the reality that the world had changed drastically for him. He had quickly found himself lacking the strength to carry out what he'd wanted to do.
And then... Curiosity got the better of him.
Meeting Rex and company, seeing the strength and prowess that they'd displayed. He became intrigued with the development mankind had taken in this strange, new world to have survived this far.
.
One thing led to another and he ended up here.
"How did the world became like this while I was locked up..." Claude murmured.
His curiosities hadn't been quenched ever since.
The obvious solution seemed to be for him to equip himself with the appropriate strength and power that the Alliance had offered him before going around finding the answers for himself.
And yet...
'Is it even worth it? Another life of struggle...'
After his temperament had cooled down, he began to reflect on his impulses.
For him, it was the impulse that had prompted him to join the war the first time around. And it was even the same impulse that had pushed him to do it a second time!
Wanting to see the world!
Wanting to help the people around!
Wanting to fulfill a promise...
He could almost see the same pattern of story unfolded before him all over again. Meeting new people, fighting for a new cause.
But for Immortals like him, they will always carry the same ending.
It would end with him having to move on while the rest had stopped midway through.
'Why should I bear all the emotional burdens...?'
"I can just wait it out."
'This appeared to be as good a place as any to just slow down and live quietly.' He thought to himself.
"After around a decade or so, I can just fake my death and move on to another place with a new identity and a new life."
Maybe it'd take tens or hundreds of years for him, but sooner or later, any questions or curiosities of his would be answered anyway. Nothing stayed hidden forever.
He only needed to be a witness, not a participant of history.
"Right." Claude nodded as he reaffirmed his plan in his mind.
.
"Umm..."
Suddenly, he heard a cute soft trembling voice resounded from his back right after he finished his thought.
'?'
"E, excuse me!" The trembling voice got somewhat higher and louder the second time.
Claude slowly turned his back around to find that the source of the voice was a little girl barely above half his height wearing a similarly designed leather breastplate and armor of smaller sizes than him.
The girl looked no older than 12 years old with shoulder length auburn hair and a VERY nervous expression.
Claude had a blank look on his face as he pointed at himself to confirm, "Me?"
"Y, yes! U, um, mister Claude r, right?" She asked nervously.
Claude nodded.
"I'm, my name is Odette! I will be in charge of introducing you around the premises, please!"
'Please?'
"Oh, alright. Are you specially assigned by the administration office?" He asked politely.
Odette was startled by Claude's polite conduct, which made her even more flustered than before.
"N, n, no sir! Um, I took the mission from the ter, terminal!"
Claude couldn't help but to smile when he saw her jittery figure.
"Odette right? Don't be nervous, you can just call me Claude. Can you explain what you mean by terminal?"
"Yes! O, Odette will explain..."
.
"Every, um, every citizen of the Alliance have access to the terminal. The terminal can be used to either report, issue, or accept certain missions depending on your Division." She explained.
"Of course, every Division personnel have their own mandatory missions and duties, but the Elken Rangers Alliance encourages their people to accept optional duties or extra quotas for more credits."
"C, credits are basically our currency, so..."
"I see, okay. I more or less understand the gist of it for now. Thank you." Claude smiled as he thanked her,
"So which Division are you from?"
"N, no I... I'm a trainee! They also have tasks for trainees to build up our discipline and give us contribution points to later apply for the Division we want!"
"Hou..." Claude was impressed, within a day after arriving here, there were already a task issued to guide and introduce him around.
AND, there was already someone taking the task in a timely manner!
'For non-mandatory duties, their efficiencies are very high.' He commented in his mind.
"I see. I'll be in your care then! Thanks for taking the time."
"No problem! I mean i, it was my pleasure!" Odette mustered her spirit and bowed deeply at Claude.
After that, they started to go through each and every possible places to see in Sector-07.
.
.
"And so, that was all the activity areas!" Odette exclaimed cheerfully.
After circling around the Sector a few times and introducing Claude to all the facilities, Odette was feeling a lot less nervous and could already form a whole sentence without stuttering.
Even at the beginning when she had stuttered all over the place, Claude only followed behind her while listening patiently, which caused her to feel a lot more at ease with her duties.
"Among all of them, the 4th and 5th Division share a single large space for their activity area. They have the largest and most advanced training area out of all of them!" She explained with hype.
"Hmm, I still don't quite understand the difference between all the Divisions here though." Claude commented as he looked towards the large activity area in front of him.
the field was filled with people training and sparring all around. Some were even trying out complicated maneuvers that utilized the trees and other intricate manmade structures around them.
"Right!! I, I, I'm sorry..." At the realization that she had been introducing a lot of places without explaining the basics, Odette once again became flustered and brought back her stutters.
"No no, you're doing good, really. I can already pretty much understand the structures within the Alliance, I'm just lacking in the specifics." Claude consoled.
"R, right..."
*sigh*
She let out a complicated sigh mixed with both relief and disappointment.
'She's like a minefield...' Claude smiled wryly at her behavior. He waited patiently until she was ready to talk.
"Um!" In no time, Odette firmed her resolve as she nodded with clenched fist and turned towards Claude.
"S, so! The Elken Rangers Alliance adopted their name from the legendary Grade-X Beast called the Elken. The Elken is a giant deer creature that had been unofficially recognized as the 'Protector of the Forest' by both animals and all the others inhabitants of Forest Biome: Eden, when..."
'She started from the very beginning...' Claude sweated, 'But oh, I didn't know this.'
Without noticing Claude's expression, Odette continued to go on and on about the Alliance's origins, its visions and missions, and all the basic knowledges pretaining to the civilization.
Claude actually enjoyed the lecture, it was yet another piece of history as to how this current world came to be.
.
.
"...And after that, the 5 Divisions were born!" After a while, Odette seemed to have finally found her flow, completely forgetting about her supposed 'blunder' earlier.
'Oh, here we go.' Claude never once interrupted her as she went on and on explaining many different things.
"The 5 Divisions work together to sustain the survival and development of the Alliance!
The 1st Talent Division educates and trains all the trainees.
The 2nd Procurement Division provides foods and raw materials for the Alliance,
The 3rd Support and Logistics Division handles everything from equipment, maintenance, and um, all those difficult stuff within the base.
The 4th Conquest Division is the one that goes on exploration and dispatch missions.
And lastly, there's the 5th Guardian Division, they protect the base and enforce the laws! They're so cool..."
"And that's all of them! Of course, Sector Commanders and above leadership positions aren't included in the category." She concluded.
'So those last two are out.' Claude decisively crossed off all the ones that he felt could bring him any troubles or conflicts with others.
'I don't have enough knowledge nor strength to teach or train anyone, so the first one's probably out too. But...'
"Are there any more classifications within each Divisions?" He asked Odette for confirmation.
"Ah! Um, well, yes there are... B, but I'm just a trainee now so I don't know too much about them..." She somehow managed to sulk again after a single question.
'Did I step on another landmine...?' Claude felt somewhat worried for this girl.
"Don't feel down. You're my senior here right? I'm counting on you to teach me, I know even less than you after all." He tapped her head lightly with a smile on his face.
"! A, alright!"
"Um, it's because every Division is different. Even more so for the 3rd Division who does pretty much everything else from breeding animals to processing information..."
'Oh, they breed livestocks here too... Makes sense, it's less dangerous than hunting after all. Speaking of which, the 2nd Division seems to be filling that role of hunting and gathering.'
"Oh b, but! I know that every single branches of every Divisions have the same ranking and authority system for theirs members. They go from unranked officer up to 4-star rank officer and onto the Head and Vice-Head positions of the Division." She pointed out.
"See, you do know a lot!" Claude laughed at the side,
"Y- Yesht!! ...Urp." Odette accidentally bit her tongue.
'3rd Division's not bad, right? ...They put together all the non-combat jobs under one banner, how very like them.'
'However Richter told me yesterday that everyone from 2nd, 4th, and 5th Divisions had all gone through the Bio-Contact method, so doesn't that mean it's possible to get them without getting entangled into any unnecessary matters.'
Hunting and gathering are simple jobs that had no strings attached or any investigative elements to it. The 2nd Division had started to become more attractive to Claude.
He had no aversion to power itself, he just didn't want to be involved in any high-danger jobs or power struggles of the world.
If he had the chance to test out the Bio-contact effects and it's proven to be useful, he wouldn't mind 'Saving' a new more powerful state for his body to Load back to.
'Hmm...'
.
"Hey!" Suddenly, a voice echoed from afar.
"Isn't that Odie!? Heeey, Odette!"
Before Claude could finish his thought, both he and Odette heard a loud voice from the distance shouting in their direction.