Wilder couldn't help but muse on why the Blackhawk faction would build such a huge gravity room; it seemed impractical in all honesty; a smaller room would do, especially with such a small amount of people.
"listen up!!" From above them, a voice resounded.
This time it wasn't coming from the platform with the lever; it was coming from another one.
There seemed to be several platforms like that on each side of the gymnasium.
"If you are affiliated with the Warhawk Academy, please form a line together, and if not, go on to the side and form another line." The man who was at the top of the platform bellowed in a commanding tone.
Almost immediately, everyone fell into separate lines, even sapphire.
Seeing them move with such uniformity, the man on top of the platform nodded with approval.
"Welcome ladies and gents, this is the Blackhawk training facility. You have been chosen to be the elite of the elite in the Army. You have been chosen to be Blackhawks elites, and as such, you will train like Blackhawks elites. While your friends and family are having a great time at home having fun, you will toil, you will sweat, and you will become men and women." The man then went ahead to give a long speech in hopes of raising morale.
His aim was to spark the spirits of those here.
But after his long speech, he then turned his head to the side of the building, prompting all the cadets to do the same.
There were two doors standing tall; these weren't the doors wilder and the rest had used to coming in; this door looked more like the ones used to move heavy and big objects in and out of the building.
"boom!!" After a few seconds of staring, the door swung open abruptly, revealing a roll of ladies with metal carts.
"Shhhh," the sound of carts rolling over, could be heard in the next second as the ladies made their way toward the cadets.
"What we have in these carts are called feelers; keep in mind they are experimental, and although they function properly, don't strain them too much," the man explained.
These feelers were actually tightly fitted combat clothes; they had a sort of glowing blue line that ran down their treads, though, so they sort of stood out.
"I am sure most of you already know about the energy we call mana, but I will explain even further. Unlike in high heaven, where you can use spells to do crazy stuff like fly, mana in real life is very different not only in its use but also in how it can be used...." The man on the platform took a brief pause.
"By the way, you can call me Juwade," he suddenly said.
This caused the cadets to have a bit of an awkward expression on their faces. He had forgotten to introduce himself, but there was no reason for him to cut his explanation short.
Wilder was eager to hear about how energy was manipulated on earth.
"Where was I?" Oh yes, so you all know about that. Okay! As you must know, the enhanced human stage is where every fighter would get their first exposure to mana."
"Shit" Wilder felt like smacking himself in the face. The guy had completely skipped a section of vital information he needed, and he was acting like it was only natural.
As he went on, Wilder kept a close ear on every word. He had basically explained that at the earlier stages of the enhanced human stage, one would need to keep improving their muscles and organs to better sense the mana in the air, and these feelers were there to help them do just that.
The feelers were capable of making the skin more sensitive to mana, and they also helped as a conduit for the manipulation of mana.
"Incredible, I know, but keep your grummy hands to yourselves for a minute." Wilder, who was staring in amazement at the feelers, heard a voice resound.
It was Juwade, and he was speaking to none other than Wilder.
For some reason, Wilder's hands seemed to have a mind of their own. It was the same with Anya when they were sparing; the hand seemed to have a habit of grabbing what it liked without giving it any thought.
Wilder quickly retracted his hand from the feelers and resumed looking straight forward.
Juwade couldn't help but shake his head after seeing this. He really thought that he could pretend like it hadn't happened.
"Take 5, and when you come back, I want you all to have your feelers on," Juwade said as he proceeded to take a seat on the cold ground.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
After a few short minutes, the cadets formed their lines once again; the only difference now was that they had their feelers on.
Seeing them, Juwade nodded.
"Now even with the feelers, it'll still be hard to sense mana, especially if you haven't felt it before, so we have two factors to help improve your chances of feeling the energy," Juwade said.
He then pointed upwards.
"First, we have the gravity room; it will help your organs and skin upgrade as it senses mana, and as for the second factor," Juwade paused for a second before gesturing to the other man who had activated the gravity room previously.
"Voommmm," a sound emitted from below Wilder and the rest, causing a little bit of panic.
But what followed next completely destroyed the lines.
The floor seemed to part ways and slowly reveal a transparent body of water beneath them.
woaaaa-
A huge mouth slowly opened from the depths of this body of water and rushed towards the cadets.
"Shit," several of the cadets quickly leapt and scattered to different corners of the gymnasium; it was absolute pandemonium.
But soon they realized that the transparent floor was a huge barrier blocking them from the monster.
"These are Mana puffer whales." Juwade spoke as if he didn't see what just happened.
They were whales that were stuck in the body of water below them; they had blue skin and scales and were very beautiful. Juwade went on to explain that these creatures were a species of whale that were not good at refining mana, hence whenever they absorbed it, there would always be excess mana left off.
That meant that their habitats were always saturated with mana.
"Now it's time for the real show."