Viswa roamed around the building until evening.
He noticed that the backyard of the building basically connected to a large forest and there is even a mountain in the horizon.
The air is very fresh and pure. He even found a lack that is not too far away from the building. But he only ventured into the forest but didn't go to the academy side. When he tried to go there, someone a man from inside the orphanage told him not to do it.
It seems like outsiders are not allowed to enter the academy grounds during working hours without a proper reason.
Viswa didn't mind and just passed the time.
Soon, it is dinner time.
There is a large dining hall in the ground floor of the building where the dinner was held. Then only he realized just how many people are staying in the orphanage.
There are more than sixty kids and they are of different ages. The youngest seemed to be over 4 years old with the oldest being almost fifteen. Same as the current Viswa.
These people saw Viswa, and they all welcomed him warmly. They tried to accommodate him to the best of their ability so that he will feel included and not left out.
Viswa suddenly felt awkward with this hospitality. He is not used to this kind of affection from total strangers.
"Don't worry, you will get used to it. This is how the people of this orphanage are. When I first came here, my reaction wasn't that far off from yours."
A young man with silver hair said to Viswa to comfort him. He is one of the six people who are of the same age as Viswa.
"I am Jiva. Nice to meet you. Before you, I was the latest edition to this home. I joined in six months ago."
"Hello, I am Viswa, I just joined today."
Viswa shook his hand politely and asked.
"So, you are also taking the admission text of the academy?"
"Of course, not just me the other five are also going to do the same."
Jiva pointed at the remaining five who just came back with their food plates. They all introduced themselves to Viswa, but they were nowhere as cheerful as Jiva. They all looked exhausted and seemed like they couldn't be bothered with anything in this world.
"Don't mind their behaviour. They have been training a lot lately. There are only a few months away from the academy and since we are all of the common birth and cannot rely on our bloodline, we need to increase our odds even just a little bit.
And it is known that the stronger the body the better chance to get good results. So we are all doing the last sprint for the exam.
Viswa nodded and asked.
"You seem to be fine though. You don't seem as exhausted as them."
"Don't compare us to this guy. He is a freak."
One of the other five commented and Jiva just shook his head with a smile.
Viswa thought for a moment and asked.
"I am new to this place and don't really know much about the admission test. When you have time can you give me some insight about it?"
"No problem. But I suggest that you get used to the environment before we have that talk. All of this might be overwhelming to you."
"Thank you, that would be really helpful."
They finished their dinner while making some small talk. But neither of them talked about their origin. They didn't ask about their native place, parents, or what circumstances led them to be here. Not just him, none of the other kids asked him about these things.
Viswa was relieved because of their behaviour.
"We are off to train. We will see you later."
Jiva said with a smile and left after they finished their meal followed by the five remaining candidates. Meanwhile, Viswa finished his dinner slowly. Because the food once again is awful. He could feel different spices within the food given to him, but the problem is that there is a massive imbalance in those spices.
They are not used well. When having that soup, he felt like he is having concentrated saline water diluted with some liquid chili sauce. Only the presence of the stale and unseasoned bread made it easier for him to finish it off.
He went back to his room after dinner and looked out of the window. It is already dark out and he could feel the cool breeze.
He really wanted to hit the sack soon. But at this moment, he felt chills down his spine as he heard a familiar voice.
{I knew you would try to slack off. Didn't I tell you that training starts today? You are not going to sleep before midnight.]
Viswa sighed and nodded dejectedly as he walked out. According to Mr. Guide's instructions, he walked into the forest. They arrived at a relatively open area before Mr. Guide told him to stop.
[Okay, now let's start with the most basic training that you used to do back on earth. You must have your special forces training regiment or whatever right? Also, show off any meager skills that you might have. Let me see what you have.]
Viswa nodded and turned serious. He started working out. He was surprised to see that he actually managed to do the first set of his training very easily. The strength of this body is not that far off from his original body.
But this only made him think of the boy in a new light. After all, he is pretty sure that he was not as strong as the slave boy when he was of the same age.
Soon, he started sweating profusely and panted heavily. After his training regiment was over, he started performing some fighting routines that he used to practice. He is decently proficient in his hand-to-hand combat skills and some close combat skills with knife and dagger.
He is also good with hiking, and scouting and his gun proficiency is rather high. But he couldn't showcase those skills.
As he was done with the routine, all of a sudden a prompt appeared on the system screen. His skill column is unlocked.
He opened it enthusiastically to take a look and was dumbfounded.
[SKILLS
BASIC HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT- 10%
BASIC KNIFE SKILLS- 9%
BASIC SHOOTING SKILLS- 15%
BASIC CLIMBING SKILLS- 12%
BASIC RECONNAISSANCE SKILLS- 8%
BASIC COOKING SKILLS- 6%]
He is dumbfounded when he looked at the skills.
"May I know what these are? Mr. Guide? I don't quite understand these metrics."
[As I thought, you are practically useless, aren't you?]
This only made Viswa feel dumber.
"What happened? Are my skills that bad?"
[I thought since god chose you, particularly for this, you would have at least one advanced skill. But there is not even an intermediate skill. All you have are basic skills. You are not good at anything, are you?]
Viswa didn't know what to say for that.
[Anyway, this is also a good thing for me. I don't have to make you unlearn anything since all your basic skills only have close to 10% proficiency. I can teach you from the scratch and it is good that you focused most of your chicken brain on basic skills and didn't focus on some fancy flashy skills.]
Viswa just stayed silent and waited for him to continue.
[Alright, now let's start your training. I want you to get on all fours]
Viswa nodded and assumed the position even though he was confused.
[Now, start digging.]
Viswa looked at him in confusion.
[What? Did you finally use up all of your brain cells? Start digging into the ground.]
"Using my bare hands?"
[What? Are your hands too precious to dig into the soil? Start digging.]
"How long?"
Mr. Guide looked at him with an evil smile and said as he pointed at the mountain on the horizon.
[Until you reach the peak of the mountain. Dig a tunnel through the ground and bring back the soil outside bit by bit. Use your legs, arms, your mouth if you have to. You have to dig a tunnel and get the soil out. That will be your training until you go to the admission test of the academy.
Of course, I have something else planned as well. So, start moving.]
Viswa didn't even know how to respond, but when he saw that Mr. Guide's fingers are getting dangerously close to snapping, he started digging. He pulled off some grass away and started pulling the soil off of the ground.
But after around twenty minutes, he only dug a very small pit and he fell down exhausted.
Mr. Guide floated over the dug-up pile of soil and said.
[This soil has a relatively high clay content. Go ahead and start separating it.]
Viswa was dumbfounded when he heard that.
"How am I supposed to do that?"
[With the water of course. When you place the soil in a large amount of water, the clay will deposit at the bottom of the water.]
"Okay, but I am exhausted, let me recover a bit."
[Your recovery speed is high because of your positive Karma. So, you don't have to worry too much. Just start walking while relaxing a bit. At least you will save time.]
Viswa looked at his status screen.
[NAME: VISWA (Current State: Exhausted and Recovering)
CULTIVATION LEVEL: NONE
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE: NONE
ATTRIBUTES
SKILLS
MISSIONS
ACHIEVEMENTS {LOCKED}
SHOP{LOCKED}
KARMA POINTS: + 56
TICKETS: 0]
He wanted to open the attribute section once again, but Mr. Guide interrupted it.
[What the hell are you looking at? The only change you have is it's showing your current status. Your attributes won't just change because of your current exercise. Just start walking.]
Viswa sighed and stood up and started walking toward the orphanage building.
[*snap*]
*BUZZ*
Viswa felt a huge shock to his body and jumped up.
"What happened? I am going."
[Why are you going there? Lake is in the opposite direction]
"I know, I am going there to get the bucket."
[There is no need. I forgot to tell you something. Whatever task I give you during the training time, you cannot use any tools. You can only use the things that you find in the ground and they cannot be of wood or metal.]
"So, if I want a bucket…"
Mr.Guide looked around and pointed to a rock.
[That rock is the over right size, carve it up with another smaller rock into a bucket.]
Viswa's mouth is wide open as he looked at the large rock beside them and then looked at Mr.Guide.
"Mr.Guide even if it is possible, it will take months if not days for me to finish carving that up. But you asked me to separate the soil."
[Yeah, but I didn't put any timeline on it did I? Basically, you are going to dig for most of your time and during the time you are recovering, you are going to do whatever I tell you to do from the things you collected from the ground.
Don't worry, the rate of recovery is faster in this world than back on earth, and with your extra recovery rate, it will be much easier.
And of course, your extra recovery will make it even faster.]
Viswa didn't even know what to say about that. He could only feel dejected and asked.
"So, what do you want me to do with the separated clay?"
[Make some sculptures]
"Sculptures?"
[Yes, make any sculptures that you could. Maybe start with that rock. Make a sculpture that looks like that rock.
From the looks of it, you wouldn't be able to do anything anytime soon. So, I will take my leave. Don't slack off, I will check on your progress.]
Viswa watched as Mr. Guide disappeared.
And he turned to look at the heap of soil and the pit in front of him. He sighed before getting to digging once again.