The dorm building was three floors high. It was a building owned by the academy. They had such buildings on every portal planet that were used for training. As the group walked through the door, they were greeted by a woman on the plumper side in her late thirties. "Welcome! My name is Mary, and I am the manager here. You are class 9 needing thirty rooms?"
"Just twenty-nine rooms for the students and one for myself. For the last room, just shove the Failure into a closet. I want to see everyone downstairs in one hour! And I mean everyone! That includes you too Failure!" Lilth did not hide her hate and contempt for Fate. Her words even caused a wave of giggles and muttering throughout the class.
"As you wish. If you would follow Bai Fan here to your rooms, I will go register you all in." Mary then turned to Fate and smiled as she said: "Miss Failure this way, please."
Fate frowned, hearing Mary, who was also a normal human, calling her a failure, but she knew that Mary had no other choice but for her to call her that. Each person here was just like Fate, a normal human who had been assigned the task to do these mundane jobs. This was the kind of job Fate was hoping to get when she registered to work on a portal planet. But unfortunately, to get such jobs would come at a cost. Such as the girl Bai Fan, she was young, but her face was badly scarred. This more than likely happened in her previous job.
Fate sighed and followed after Mary, who led her to a door down the hall on the first floor. "Dear, I am sorry for calling you a failure, but in front of the others, I had no choice. This room here is small, but it has its own bath. Here is your key."
Fate saw Mary's warm smile and almost teared up. "Thank you, kindly."
"Silly child, we normal humans have to look out for each other. If you need me just come to the front desk. I will have someone send you a meal later tonight when you get back. Also, take this..." Mary pulled a knife out of her waistband and handed it to Fate. "When I heard a normal human was coming to participate in the training for trinities, I prepared this. If anything, it may give you a chance to run away, or if worse comes to worst, you can kill yourself before your eaten live. "
Fate took the long knife and smiled. She did not have words to even describe how she felt at this time. In her sixteen years of life, no one has ever treated her so well. Fate was desperately trying to hold back her tears. Mary's kindness really touched her heart. Fate thanks Mary and walked into her room. She finally smiled brightly for the first time in a long time. "A room to myself!" It had always been her dream to be this free. Unlike her classmates, Fate did not bring any baggage with her. She planned to wear the same clothes. Although she would prefer to take a shower as well, she knew better than that. "I guess I will just lay down for a bit.."
Fate's rest was quick as she had to go out to the main hall. All the students were gathered around chatting away as Lilth came walking up. "We will now form teams! Groups of five."
Fate stood off to the side, acting like this had nothing to do with her. She was sure she would end up in the team with the least amount of people. Or so she thought. "We want the failure in our team!"
Hearing these words made Fate raise her head and looked at where the voice was coming from. It was coming from someone she recognized very well. It was the hot pink panties girl, Ella. And the three girls around her were the ones Fate had beaten up in the bathroom the day before. Fate let out a long sigh. 'Do these bitches think I am dumb? I already know they have plans for me… But it seems I will not be able to get out of this.'
"Good! It is good to see some of you are even willing to carry a failure. Since the failure is good at hand-to-hand combat, she will be your tank." And just like that, Lilth gave Fate the most dangerous role. The four girls in Fate's team all smiled and giggled.
"Come on, let's go, Failure. We want to reach level two before the day's end. So make sure you put your fighting skills to good use, okay?" Ella said sarcastically as she began walking out of the building.
Fate saw Mary walking towards her with a worried expression and looked as if she was going to say something, but fate shook her head and smiled at her before following the four girls out of the building. Mary walked to the door and watched Fate walk off and mumbled to herself: "I hope that girl will be okay..."
Fate and the girls took the portal that led to the settlement's entrance and stood just outside its gates. To each side of the entrance were two large turret-type weapons and six guards on each side. Fate could only assume they were used for keeping the monsters away from the settlement. The area outside the settlement was a dense jungle, something you could no longer find on Earth. The sounds of wildlife could be heard coming from the depths of the jungle. Fate wiped the sweat from her brow when she realized how hot it was out. Settlements were normally protected by a shield and temperature controlled. So the temperature difference from the inside and outside was like night and day. There was a single road that cut through the forest ahead of them. But what was standing at the entrance of said road was what made Fate frown.
"It's about time you five showed up." The person Fate least wanted to see was this man, Sergeant Greystone.
"Yes, we are here! Sergeant, as you suggested, we took the failure as our tank since she was so good at close combat." Ella said happily as she hung on the Sergeant's arm. The first word to come to Fate's mind at this time was the word "Slut". Ella was hugging the sergeant's arm so tight it was for sure that she was hitting on him. More than likely, Ella came from a lower-standing family, and the Sergeant looked to be someone who would be interested in younger girls. Fate had seen the looks he had given some of the female students the day before.
"Good! You girls follow me. I will take you to a good spot." The Sergeant let out a laugh and began walking down the road with Ella hanging off his arm.
Fate sneered as she followed behind them. She was debating if she should just run away or not. But she figured with the Sergeant's level; there was no way she could escape. It seemed no matter what she planned right now; she was stuck playing along for now. She just hoped she could make it out of this alive.
"About a kilometer up is a small field where you can fight slithers easily. Failure, you better prepare yourself." Sergeant Greystone did not even look back at Fate when he said this. He just continued forward.
Fate was sweating from head to toe. She could tell the others were not much better. Even Ella had let go of the Sergeant's arm as she began to sweat. As they continued to walk, they soon came upon a small field to the left side of the road. The field was filled with low-lying grass and rocks. Fate followed the group as they turned into the field. The girls collapsed by a large rock to hide in the shade. The Sergeant made four cups out of stone, and then the girl with the water ability filled them up. Just seeing the water made Fate lick her lips. Her mouth was already dry from walking in the hot, humid weather. But she knew better than to ask for any. She could only stand to the side while the others drank water, and she watched.
The Sergeant looked over at Fate, who was standing in the shade a few meters away, and frowned. "What the hell are you doing? Go into the tree line and get a Slither to come out of the jungle!"
Fate glared at the Sergeant, but when she saw him flip his hand farming a rock needle in it, she could only stomp off and make her way to the tree line. She had only walked a short distance when she felt a sharp pain in her leg. She looked down to see she was now bleeding. She turned and looked at the others, who were all looking at her smiling. "The blood will help attract them!" The Sergeant said as he waved his hand at Fate, telling her to move along.
Fate's leg hurt so bad she could only limp to the tree line. "Either way, I am going to die. I might as well try my luck in this jungle."
Unfortunately for Fate, the group she was with was not done tormenting her. She felt a strong impact on her back and felt her skin starting to burn as she fell forward and down onto the ground. Shortly after, she felt another impact on her back as she was hit with a water ball which put the fire out. Fate tried to rise to her feet and run away, but she was soon hit with a numbing sensation and the smell of burnt flesh. "Fuck!" Not able to hold in her cry of pain, Fate's body convulsed as lightning ran through her body.
As soon as the numbness faded, Fate gritted her teeth, dealing with the pain, and pushed herself up off the ground. "That's right, Failure, go do your job!" Ella's voice and mocking laughter could be heard from behind.
Fate turned her pain into anger and ran towards the tree line as fast as she could. "You want me dead, then so be it. I will rather fight monsters than deal with you fuckers."
Fate ran between two trees and out of sight of the Sergeant and the girls. Sergeant Greystone looked at the direction Fate was running in and smiled. "That area past the tree line is out of the safe zone. She is as good as dead. You girls rub some dirt on you and scrap up your skin a bit. As of now, I was only able to save you four. The failure was dragged off by some unknown monster."
"Sergeant, your plan was really good! I finally feel much better now." Ella smiled brightly as she winked at the Sergeant. The group laughed as they left the empty field and headed back towards the settlement.
Fate, who was still running, had already tripped many times, adding multiple cuts and scrapes on her hands, arms, and legs. "Fuck me! This should be far enough for now, right?" Fate leaned up against a tree, breathing heavily. She looked at her surroundings which were pitch black, and frowned. Her whole body hurt, and she was very thirsty. Her sweat was running through her wounds, causing them to sting. "I should have just fucking stayed home! What the hell was I thinking!? At least I get away from my mother? Really? How stupid can I be!? No… There was no guarantee that they would not have found me and dragged me here anyway. That fucking sergeant had it out for me from the beginning. I swear if I live through this, I will find a way to kill each one of them!"
*Sheee!*
Fate's face paled when she heard a strange sound coming from the trees close to her. The bushes rustled, and soon her fears came true. A large slimy looking black snake with six legs stood before her. "Really!?"
Fate took out the knife that Mary gave her and once again gritted her teeth as she took off running deeper into the forest!