After the instructor left, everyone started moving and checking the bunks to seek their beds and boxes, I waited whilst seeing who were going to be my colleges until we were dispatched to the frontlines.
Many of them had well-built bodies from physical labor, but it wasn't suited to combat, rather, I was more oriented to systematic labor, yet, everyone was rather small in stature, the tallest being 5´7 inches, since they lived by the day and performed weight exercises, they didn't must have the chance to grown and they should, or maybe their stature was always destined to be that.
A scream could be heard through the room, a rather young man with the exceptional height between the new recruits and a especially dark skin with dirt colored hair and dark eyes that shined rather than obscure was waving his hand with a weird expression on his face.
- Aron! you bunk is here.
- Thanks Leonel.
I quickly thanked him, our bunks were right next to each other, and the men who had the upper beds were chatting about blacksmithing and what their favorite tools were.
Ignoring their chat, I looked into the box, their contents were what I expected of the military, dirt brown pants with a line pattern and a one written on roman numerals, a green shirt made of cotton, a heavy leather dark green jacket with the symbol of a lion standing next to a sun, a pair of dark brown combat boots, and a first aid manual, with instructions in how to treat light injuries such as light cuts, bruises and in the most extreme cases gunshots.
And hidden between the clothes and manual, was the most important item and the object of my curiosity, a flintlock, it had the design of a wooden with black flint, with a chamber for gunpowder and the ammunition.
The gun felt rather alien in my hands, this was used to kill me back in my first life, and I had killed a demon with one in the former, but rather than falling in a dilemma I had another question.
"How?"
Everything I had seen showed a rather medieval era, except by the domain of the librarian, but that was an exception since he has knowledge of basically everything, but there were inventions of times that hadn't happen yet, like the heartbeat monitor and holograms, that could be attributed to magic and supernatural phenomena, but gunpowder was an exception, I new by the books the librarian gave me that gunpowder wasn´t a new invention and the name of it creator, but the librarian told me it wasn´t the whole truth.
There was a chance it was "invented" by an emergent, but emergent rarely survived and those who could communicate properly were even rarer, and if by chance of faith the criteria were meth, how many people knew how to make gunpowder from scratch, without the help of pre-invented machinery?
I need access to more information as soon as possible, since I had to complete the rather impossible task of defending this world to alien forces, if another earth could be called that.
The sun was setting, and through communicators inscribed in the walls though glyphs, it was announced that dinner would be served in ten minutes.
Some men grabbed their bellies showing how hungry they were, so they left their boxes and took their ids.
It was a blank piece of paper with a number written on it, with instruction written down the numbers
"Leave a drop of blood."
Some pinched their fingers with their nails, and some other bit their lips, I punctured my index finger with the flint of the gun, the droplet quickly ran down my finger and made contact with the paper, it started shining, and the numbers took a unique golden color, stripes were installed under the numbers and my name was added on the other side of the card.
As the last of the men finished the procedure, we left the bunks and walked towards what looked like a cafeteria.
As we approached the door a unique scent flowed in the air, it could be only described as the odor that fat makes when cooked, for some of the group it was a familiar scent and some others found it gruesome, I had no reaction towards it.
As we opened the oak door, a peculiar sight welcomed us, benches of putrid wood accompanied by metallic tables with clear signs of detriment made a unique contrast with the hard stone floor.
- Shrimps!, are you going to stand there, we have 400 men to feed in this camp, be glad you were the first!.
A goblin who looked like a woman, or rather a woman who may be a goblin screamed at us, as we regained our composure, 2 officials entered the cafeteria.
- Astra, 2 bowls of worm porridge with some piglet fat.
- Roger that!
The woman left us dazed and shocked, worm porridge?, was that even edible?, I knew the answer, it was, I had been eating it as a desert for the past 6 springs of my new life, sort of, it was a different recipe as the main ingredient was a "luxury" variant, the Linton worms, a volcanic subspecies that fed on volcanic waste and people, its taste was similar to that od pepper and red chili.
I walked towards the staple and waited patiently for the cook, for the astonishment of the people.
- Yeah, a rather young one, he looks like twelve maybe, yep, trying to look though, I despise arrogant brats, just because his son of some general he thinks he is better than any other troops.
The soldiers murmur quite loud, but I decided to ignore them, they didn´t knew my circumstances neither they cared, I just had to make my way to go back to the front lines and get information as soon as possible.
The goblin came back and noticed my presence, with a rather angry face he spout
- Kid, what do you want?
- 2 serves of worm porridge with…
- Only corporals get fat.
* Hmm *
- Then just 2 serves of porridge.
The goblin stared for quite some time before serving the officers sitting in a corner.
She went back to the kitchen and some metallic noises could be heard, and as she came back, a rusted metallic bowl with a greenish paste inside it was at her arms.
- Here it is, 2 serves.
- There is only one.
- In this bowl is enough space for 2 serves, now scram.
She looked angry, but I had no reason to refuse her order.
I took the bowl and looked for a corner to sit down and devoured the dish in an instant, it had a heavenly flavor, compared to the metallic taste and putrid taste of its predecessor this could be very well a 4 star recipe from extraordinary cuisine.
Yet, I felt uncomfortable from the gazes everyone gave to me.