Kaius and the boys had breakfast together before heading to class. During breakfast and the walk to class, Zane was fully engrossed in his datapad. He'd been searching non stop on information about the black market, but he still couldn't find much.
Kaius's group was the last to enter the class, but their seats in the front row were still open. The group took their seats as Saige walked into the class.
"Good morning everyone, today we will be talking about the rank structures of Elementalists and the EGF." Tapping on his datapad and swiping up the Four Elemental ranks were displayed on the board.
Saige continued his lecture, "as i'm sure you all know Elementalists contain four ranks, Apprentice, Wielder, Mage and Master. Apprentice and wielder are your basic ranks where the majority of humans are, it's very difficult to attain the rank of Mage as it entails a battle for dominance. It's very hard to obtain the rank of Master as it requires a complete unification of the Elemental and human. Over the years we have seen the number of Masters increase, as humans continue to evolve and grow we've gained a better grasp on the abilities of the Elementals at an earlier age."
"Now when it comes to military rank we have your regular troops as well as your officers. Any Elementalist rank can be a regular EGF troop, there are no rank restrictions, it's more of a choice as officers lead the charge. Not everyone makes the cut, and some of you may not go on to become officers. Officer ranks have pre-requisites and require one to be of a specific Elementalist rank."
Saige tapped his datapad and more words appeared on the board as he continued to speak. "The highest EGF rank an Apprentice Elementalist can hold is Captain. A Wielder may hold the rank of Major and below, and a Mage may hold the rank of Colonel and below.
There are times when one may progress as an Elementalist extremely fast, this is why we add the "and below" portion to the rank. So for instance, you may meet Lieutenants at the rank of Mage as they are still progressing in their military career. But you will never meet a Colonel who is not at least a Mage."
Hearing Saige's words made Kaius think of the interaction between Lt. Taylor and Lt. Cruz. Kaius couldn't be sure about Lt. Cruz but he knew Lt. Taylor was a Wielder. Now the way Lt. Taylor quietly left after Lt. Cruz's dismissal made sense to him.
Skye raised his hand and Saige nodded towards him, "Sir, what about Dual Elementalists?" "Good question" Saige said. "When it comes to Elementalists that control more than one element, they are only required to attain the appropriate rank in one of their elements. It is a lot harder for multi element users to progress because they have to progress their abilities in each element. Multi element users are very rare because it's extremely difficult for the human body to handle uniting with more than one Elemental."
Kaius thought about his uncle and dad, they were both Masters and Generals, but Jason was a dual wind and water Elementalist. Kaius was pretty sure he was a Master in both elements, but he couldn't be sure. Zane raised his hand next, "sir so does that mean Kaius would have a harder time ranking up since he can control all the elements?"
Saige shook his head "Kaius is a special case, he does not wield multiple elements but is a Chaos Elementalist who's element is all the elements, there is a big difference." Some of the students looked confused as they didn't understand. Saige pointed on the desk to Chaos who was lying down eating a mango, all the students Elementals were present in the classroom as Saige had instructed the day prior, but some of them were in wisp forms floating around. "The great Chaos is Kaius's only Elemental, a multi elemental user would have more than one Elemental."
Chaos looked to Saige and winked as he enjoyed the praise. Some of the students still looked a bit confused, but Kaius clearly understood. This was a good and bad thing, only having one Elemental would make it easier than a multi Elementalist to rank up, but he would still face the difficulties of understanding the intricacies of each element.
Saige could see that some of the students were still confused but he didn't want to give away all Kaius's secrets. Saige sat down at his desk "we'll stop the lesson here for the day, your free to do as you wish until your afternoon courses, enjoy the rest of your day" he said. As soon as the students left the room Zane turned around and told the boys of his plan to check the market district again.
"I'm kind of hungry though" Skye said. "We'll just grab something at the market while we're looking around, please guys" Zane said. The boys nodded and followed Zane to the Market district.
The search did not go well and honestly Kaius and Skye started to believe that the black market might just be a myth. Dejectedly Zane walked over to a stand with a picture of a pear and four white dots on it. He decided to pick up some pears for Speedy. Leaving the market district the group went their separate ways as Skye and Kaius had to go to their new earth course.
The new course was on a part of the base they hadn't been to yet, when they entered the area they saw everyone was wearing the gray uniform similar to the one Lt. Taylor and Lt. Cruz wore.
Kaius and Skye were definitely out of place and often got weird looks. The students arrived at a regular looking building and went in. They found the directions and entered a huge training area where many people were sparring.
Everyone in the training stopped what they were doing and looked towards Kaius and Skye. A short muscular man with black hair and a buzz cut walked and over with a smile. "Cadets, Is there something I can help you with" he asked.
"Sir, we have been transferred to this course" Kaius said. The man laughed "you boys must be in the wrong place this isn't the Junior Defense course. We're training very hard here so you boys should find where you belong."
Kaius immediately realized this man was an idiot and not someone in charge, he hadn't even asked their names. "We're definitely in the right place, is the instructor here yet" Kaius asked. The mans smile disappeared as he spoke to the boys, "don't waste the instructors time, this isn't a nursery, get out of here before I get angry."
Kaius was not planning to leave, "we're waiting until we speak to the instructor" he said. The man was angry, he stomped his foot causing cracks to appear on the ground around him, "either you leave, or you fight" he said. Skye started to say something but Kaius put up his hand to stop him.
"Then we fight" Kaius said.
The man was furious now, and as he raised his fist another muscular man with brown hair and a buzz cut grabbed him, "hold on there brother, I think we need to punish these two the right way" the man said smiling.
The short muscular man calmed down and smiled back "your right brother, how rude of me to keep all the fun to myself, since you two say you belong here then we'll battle like real men." The man looked to another man who pressed a button on a wall causing a steel cage to lower from a compartment in the ceiling.
The cage was big, about the same length and a little wider then a basketball court. "In this place we battle until we can't battle anymore, the winner goes on to face the next opponent non stop until he loses, and we keep doing this all day, you lose you get back in line until its your turn again, so you better get your rest in between losses because you'll be going in multiple times" the black haired muscular man said.