Thebe knew it was not a good idea to stand out where everyone was supposed to be the same, and yet that was exactly what he was doing.
Thoughts began running through his head.
"What's he going to do to me? Am I going to be used in some sort of experiment? Will he kill me if he finds out I'm different?"
The crass, hardened look on the commander's face completely lifted, and turned into a smile that reminded Thebe of his father.
"You have extraordinary talent! Your donor must've had terrific genetics."
The dread completely washed off of Thebe's face once he realized he was being praised, rather than condemned.
"I'm placing you and a small group of other warriors into a special program; one to better hone your skills - not like the rudimentary training the rest of them get."
"You will be moved into a separate part of the facility, solely dedicated to the top of the program. After lunch, I will take you and the others to get settled. Glory to Dyrus!"
"Uh - Glory to Dyrus!" Thebe had managed to muster out, still taken aback by the change in situation.
Still full of relief, Thebe went to the dining hall. It was massive - large enough to accommodate all of the soldiers for a meal.
That day, for lunch, they were served a tall glass full of a viscous, slightly chunky liquid.
The sight of it grossed him out, and the thought of drinking it almost made him gag. Although, after seeing everyone else happily drinking away, he gave it a try.
Regret.
What Thebe had willingly let enter his mouth tasted like a mix between wet dog and expired milk.
However, he had remembered that in this glass was enough nutrients to sustain and grow a person at a significant rate - extra nutrients he would need to survive.
Thus, he plugged his nose and chugged.
After that… jarring experience, Thebe decided to go sit in his barrack until the commander retrieved him.
Once he entered, he was relieved to find the barrack empty.
He laid on his bunk, once again being alone with his thoughts.
*sigh*
"I can't believe I died. Again. After all that time spent with my parents…"
"Maybe if my mana core developed sooner I would have been able to save them."
"My… mana core?"
"My mana core! Do I still have it? Dad said it was the core of a person's being, would that carry along with my soul?"
Thebe then began to focus on his stomach, searching for the small piece of energy that was his mana core from his previous world.
He sensed it.
"Oh my god. I still have it! My mana core!"
Thebe, as if looking at himself from a third-person view, could see his mana core clearly, with the core branching throughout his body, akin to the veins to a heart.
The mana that flowed through him and the core was a dark gray, and seemed to shimmer as it moved. The core, barely the size of a marble, was located in the middle of his abdomen.
"Yes! Yes!! I can still use magic, even in this world!"
As he came to his conclusion, the door to the barrack opened to reveal a familiar man adorning an even more familiar purple hat.
"0732, time to go."
"Yes sir."
The commander then proceeded to lead Thebe down a long series of winding hallways until stopping at a large, metal door.
"This is it. Your new home."
"Great…" Thebe thought to himself.
The commander then opened the door, revealing a massive room. The room contained around a few dozen beds, looking much more luxurious than the last bed he had had. Each bed had a nightstand and TWO whole pillows - one more than before. The room was also far more spacious when compared to his previous one, now also containing a large table with one chair per bunk.
"Well, have fun!" The commander said, before shoving Thebe into the room and slamming the door.
The sound from the door caught the attention of all of his new bunkmates. All eyes were on him.
"Uh… Hello everyone."
They received the introduction rather well, going up to him and introducing themselves.
Like with his last bunkmates, he got to know their tags, and personalities - which were pretty much exactly the same. Unfortunately, none of his previous bunkmates made the cut, and were left behind.
There were a total of twenty kids, including Thebe, in the advanced program.
One thing he had noticed was the significance in their tags.
The tags were, in order, 0001, 0002, 0003, 0004, 0007, 0009, 0010, 0011, 0012, 0014, 0015, 0017, 0019, 0020, 0021, 0022, 0025, 0026, 0032, and 0732 - being Thebe.
This was far too unlikely to be coincidental.
After a few hours of familiarizing himself with his bunkmates, like last time, the lights suddenly turned off. They all headed to their beds. Not much longer, and they all fell asleep - except for Thebe who, like always, receded into his thoughts.
"They seem nice - must be encoded in the inserter."
"Still, I can't get over the fact that every single person here has such a low number. This wasn't random, since something like that is nearly impossible, so why were the top 19 people out of thousands in the first 40 listed?"
Thebe continued to wonder, eventually coming to the conclusion that the better genetics were given a higher number on the vat - numbering them in order of expected outcome. 0001 being the best.
Thebe also came to the conclusion that him, being 0732, stood out FAR more than anyone else.
Pushing that thought to the back of his head, he began to again focus on his mana core.
It was still there, same as the last time he had sensed it. He could feel his core and the tendrils that extended from it.
As he continued to focus, he felt his abdomen heat up and his core activate. He felt a pulse throughout his body as the mana shot into his veins.
While his mana was circulating, he felt the tiredness from the day slowly fade, and a power unlike anything he'd felt before infuse into his body.
"Oh my God, this is incredible!" Thebe thought, exalted.
This thought did not last long, however, as his core ran out of mana and Thebe immediately lost consciousness due to exhaustion.
The next morning, all were awoken just as they were before: Bright lights and a blaring voice over the intercom.
"DAWN HAS BROKEN, CAMPERS! IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP!"
"Uggghh. What happened? Last I remember was… My core!"
Before Thebe could finish his thought, the commander made his way into the barrack - rather loudly.
"Goooooooood morning! I hope you've all gotten acclimated! Special training for you lot starts today! Eat your morning rations and head down the hall, to the left. Be there in 10 minutes!"
And with that, he was gone.
"Oh god, not the rations…" Thebe muttered.
However, Thebe noticed the familiar aroma of pancakes and bacon fill the air around him. Immediately darting out of bed, Thebe saw what could only be described as "Happiness", as the large table before him was laid out with a complete American breakfast.
Joining his bunkmates at the table, he began to shovel nearly every food onto his plate. Obviously, this world hasn't really lived up to Thebe's standards, and while his previous life was full of joy, his parents were still very poor and could only afford to eat potato soup almost every day. Because of the years of little to no taste bud stimuli, Thebe was salivating buckets at the thought of the food in front of him.
Thebe took his first bite.
Heaven.
After the first bite, which was almost civilized, Thebe's bunkmates witnessed what they would've described as "a mix between a man and a snake" by the way he nearly unhinged his jaw to shovel the food into his mouth.
After the very satisfying meal - and more than a few odd looks from his bunkmates - they all headed down to the new training room.
The new training room was nothing like the old one. For one, the new room was indoors - and much cleaner. It also held much more advanced and better maintained training equipment, which made the soldier's eyes light up at the sight of them.
Some of the things Thebe had noticed were training weights, a shooting range, what looked like a boxing ring, and some sort of pod in the corner of the room.
"Warriors! Gather up!" commanded the commander.
The soldiers then proceeded to gather up.
"It's time for the tour!"
The commander led the group to the gym area, which contained the weights.
"Here is where you will train your muscles. Repeated movement and stress on your body will allow it to grow and improve, so be sure to visit this section often."
After this brief explanation, the group was led to the next section: The shooting range.
"Now, I'm sure you're all familiar with shooting. Use this to get better."
The commander began to lead the group to the next station before stopping.
"Ah, I forgot! The rifles and ammo are in a locker at the end of the range. They will be restocked at the beginning of every day, so use as much as you all please!"
This time they were ACTUALLY going to the next area - which were the rings.
"This here are the sparring rings. In order to train hand-to-hand combat, be sure to challenge your fellow trainees. The floors are tough, but shock absorbent. I can't say the same about fists, however."
And now they were all being taken to the final area, the one Thebe was most curious about.
"These are the Mental Endurance Training Shells, or M.E.T.S.s for short. While your physical body is incredibly important in battle, that's not the only part of your body. Your mental strength and resolve are imperative to survival on the battlefield - of which can be trained by using the M.E.T.S."
The commander proceeded to open the pod, which Thebe thought seemed space-like.
"By spending time here, you can increase your mental strength. It may not be the most important out of all of the training you can do here, but know this: In a fight between two identical people, the one with a stronger psyche will win. This concludes the tour! NOW GET TO WORK!"
The commander then exited the training room, probably to go train the common soldiers, and left the twenty to train on their own.
Thebe, obviously, went straight to the pod. He enthusiastically hopped in, sat down, and shut the door.
What Thebe hadn't realized, however, was that there was no technology to this pod. What it does is it locks the door for an hour, not letting the person inside leave. Thebe would soon come to realize this.
"Uh oh. Oh you've got to be kidding. It… it just locks me in? What the hell?"
After around five minutes of nothing but boring darkness, Thebe had a significant thought.
"Well, if I'm going to be stuck in here for a while… might as well work on my mana."
Thebe closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, and focused on his core.
After a few moments, his core activated and began to circulate mana throughout his body.
What Thebe had noticed, however, was that it was different from last time. The flow felt less forceful, and the mana felt less hot. Another aspect that was different is that he was still conscious.
Thebe had managed to continue circulating mana until the timer on the pod was up, and the door opened.
"Oh hey, the door opened." Thebe thought to himself as if he didn't just sit in the dark, alone, for an hour.
When Thebe exited, he saw all of his numbered friends diligently training.
He decided to bounce between the firing range and weights for the rest of the day.
After a few hours of this, he and everyone else heard an announcement over the P.A.
"Training is over for the time being! Time for lunch! Head to the cafeteria!"
Right as the announcement ended, the door to the training room opened.
"Except for you all, which has free reign over both the training room and your barracks. Do as you please."
Before anyone could say anything, the commander turned around and left, seeming to have better things to do.
While a few of the trainees went to lunch, a majority stayed behind and continued to train.
Thebe, remembering what breakfast was like, decided he was hungry.
As he walked out of the training room and started towards the barrack the most wonderful, savory scent made its way to his nose. Thebe then began to speed walk to the room, getting extremely excited at the thought of what heavenly food awaited past the door.
What sat on the table were meat and vegetable kebabs, bread, various fruits, and individual slices of cake.
Thebe, being a gentleman, leapt to the kebabs - grabbing a plate along the way - and putting as many on the plate as he could.
Luckily for Thebe, there weren't as many people around to see him devour the food as if he hadn't eaten in weeks.
After the rather satisfying meal, he scarfed down a slice of cake and returned to the training room.
Feeling full and slightly sluggish, Thebe opted to go back into the pod rather than participate in any physically strenuous training.
Unlike last time, he got straight into circulating his mana.
Like last time, he felt warm as his mana flowed, which seemed smoother than earlier.
"I'm guessing the more I cycle my mana, the more open my mana veins get, leading to a less forceful and easier flow."
Thebe's theory was exactly correct.
He proceeded to circulate for the rest of the hour.
At least, that was the plan, until he felt an odd pressure in his abdomen.
He had assumed it was just breakfast and lunch "taking its course" so he ignored it. However, the pressure only kept continuing to increase, until Thebe decided something was wrong.
Looking at himself, he noticed his mana core was significantly larger than usual, likely a result of the mana exercises.
Out of curiosity, he proceeded to go back to circulating.
What he observed was that his mana core kept growing and growing, and so did the pressure.
The mana core grew to a certain point before stopping dead in its tracks.
Thebe continued.
The pressure was nearing unbearable. He was losing focus on his exercise and was about to give up.
That was when a sharp pain entered Thebe's stomach. What he had seen, however, was his mana core suddenly shrink back down to its original size.
A surge of power flowed into his body, dying out shortly after.
Before, mana would only flow through his body when he activated his core. Thebe had noticed that now, it flowed freely - though not as well as when he does it manually.
Noting the process of expansion then shrinking, Thebe assumed his mana core compressed into a more refined, powerful version of itself.
Unfortunately, this whole process left Thebe feeling utterly exhausted.
He decided to head back to the barrack and rest for a short while.
Rather than rest for a while, he fell asleep the second he lied down, not waking up until the Goodnight announcement from the commander.
"Well done today my warriors! I saw some very good work out there! Let's keep this high-effort up! There's only two years until you truly become warriors deserving of the Dyrus title, so work hard. Glory to the Dyrus Empire!"
"Two years…" Thebe thought, thinking of the future.
He thought about the training he would have to undergo, then he imagined all of the food he would be able to have. After that, the two years didn't sound too bad.
Unbeknownst to him, however, is that those two years would move faster than he could ever have expected.