"The first and second year students will be getting their magic today and the third year students will be going on their first expedition."
Hearing what Summer had just said, the third year students did not know how to feel about it. From the time they all became third year students, the only thing they had done was train and focus on the flow of magic in their body then train again.
They all came to school expecting to witness an entertaining duel but now knowing they were going on their first expedition on such short notice, they were speechless.
"Is this possible?" a third year student asked. "We won't even be able to inform our parents."
Summer had waited a while before continuing with the announcement. She was aware that the third year students would be shocked at hearing what she had just said and it was understandable.
"I assure you that all of your parents will be informed." Summer said. "If there is more information which you need to know about it will be given to you by your teachers. Third year students, please convene with your respective trainers. That is all, you may now leave."
Getting down from the stairs of the bleachers with Kevin, Smith, Max and Diane following him, Jake immediately headed to the training room and saw Miss Anna standing and looking out of the window with her hands behind her back. There were other students in the training room but Jake did not spare them a glance and went to meet Miss Anna.
"Is it true?" Jake calmly asked when he reached Anna.
"Yes it is." Anna answered. "Wait for the rest of the students to join us before asking any more questions. I'll explain everything at once."
After the whole fifteen students were complete in the training room, Anna went to the front of the training room, where she normally stayed when she taught the students.
"I know this has come as a huge shock to all of you," Anna began, "but this was not something that was planned by anyone. You all are aware that another war against the Werts might break out at any moment, and you need to be prepared for the worst case scenario. The soldiers of Veda had already noticed movements on Repol, but recently, something transpired between the Werts and our soldiers."
The students were listening to Anna with rapt attention and were not taking their eyes off her for a single second. At this point, everything she was saying to them was extremely important and crucial to what happens next.
"All of our ships and satellites that were in the orbit of Repol were destroyed, even our soldiers that were on Repol scouting were killed and by the looks of it, everything was done by a single wert. The attacks of our soldiers were able to damage the wert but that barely slowed it down."
"Aren't we going to take anything with us?" Jake asked. "Basic necessities like clothes, food, credits."
"All of that will be provided on the planet we are going to, but some credits will be given to you all now. Step forward one by one to receive the credits."
Stepping forward to meet Anna one after the other, all the students were given a wrist watch and were told to put it on immediately.
"These wrist watches are different from the normal ones you guys wear." Anna said. "Your credits are stored in these wrist watches. On the planet you're going to, you will use these watches to transfer credits from one person to another."
"All you have to do is ask for the code the person set on his or her watch, input the code and the amount of credits you want to send then your transfer is complete. These watches are interplanetary so they will work on any planet you travel to for your expeditions."
"You can set the code for your watch now. I'm sure most of you have already seen how to do it." Anna said, looking at the students who had begun checking out the wrist watches. "But before you set the code you will see an option telling you to register. To register the watch you will use a PIN. Your PIN should be different from your transfer code."
"Even if your watch goes missing, all you have to do is get another watch and input the same PIN you used to register the former one. After that all your credits will be restored to the new wrist watch."
"That's enough talking for now. Follow me, it's time to use everything I've taught you guys."
Walking out of the training room with the students following her from behind, Anna made a turn and climbed up the stairs then stopped in front of a very thick and heavy metal door.
"I've always wondered what was behind this door." Max said in a hushed voice.
"Me too." Kevin said, also in a hushed voice. "I could never get in no matter what I tried."
Taking her head closer to the side of the doorframe, a retina scan was done by a device attached to the doorframe which unlocked the door.
Seeing the metal door open by sliding behind the wall, the students followed Anna as she stepped into the room behind the door.
Entering the room, Jake and the students saw other students who they assumed had to be other third year students, standing in the room. There were other trainers in the room along with a man in his early forties in a military uniform standing in front of the students with his arms folded across his chest.
There were four emblems on the left side of the uniform, slightly below the shoulder, which signified the man was a General in the Veda army.
The emblems were shaped in the form of a Phoenix with its wings wide open and fire at the top of its head. The Phoenix is the insignia of the Ansteria district.
Seeing Miss Anna walk up to meet the man, Jake and the students went to join the other third year students they had seen in the room.
"General Paul." Anna said as she got to the man in the military uniform.
"Good to see you again Anna." General Paul replied.
"How is my father?" Anna asked.
"Well. Do you think this is a good idea?" Paul asked, referring to the students going on their first expedition now.
"Yes." Anna said. "Though there is still a lot for them to learn, what better way to learn than through experience?"
"Spoken like a true soldier." Paul said. "I expect great things from your students. Let us begin."
With the rest of the students now present in the room with their respective trainers, General Paul stepped forward and began speaking to the students. "As some of you may already know, I am a General in the Vedan army. I am General Paul and I will be the one transporting you all to your destination."
"Whoa! He's a General?" a student said in awe.
"That's even higher than a Brigadier." another student said.
"How strong will he be?"
"Please separate yourselves into your groups and then move to meet your trainer." Paul said.
After the students separated themselves into their different groups and moved to the person who had been training them since they became third year students, Paul went to a trainer and his students while the trainer stepped back.
"Hold hands." Paul said to the students that were in a homeroom together. "The rest of you wait here."
Holding the hand of the person next to them, the students were connected to each other through their hands and General Paul also held hands with the students.
Seeing General Paul and the fifteen students suddenly disappear from the room, some of the students were surprised while some were anxious about what was to come.
"Has he taken them already?"
"Looks like we're we going by teleportation."
"How long will we have to wait?"
While the students were talking amongst themselves, they saw General Paul suddenly appear again out of nowhere.
"That fast?"
"It didn't even take him up to twenty seconds."
"That's probably why he's a General."
General Paul kept moving from one set of students to the other and was teleporting them from the room to the planet where they will have their expedition.
"That felt really woozy." Kevin said as he felt his legs touch solid ground again. Even if it was only for a few seconds, the teleportation made some of the students feel a little bit dizzy for a short while.
"It's like that when it's your first time." Paul said, looking at the last set of students he had teleported and noticing the ones that were barely affected by the teleportation.
'These three have a high mental fortitude.' Paul thought, looking at Jake, Kyle and Rick.
Looking around, Jake noticed they had been teleported to a room that was just as big as the one they were in not long ago. There were some people in the room who were apparently soldiers, due to the uniform they were wearing but only two out of them had emblems.
Both of the soldiers had one emblem on their uniform and were standing at attention along with the other soldiers in the room which was because they were still in the presence of General Paul.
"At ease soldiers." General Paul said to the soldiers then turned to face the students. "You will be instructed on what to do by the soldiers you can see behind me. Your expedition starts now so good luck."
After saying that, General Paul teleported away from the room and left the students with the soldiers to begin their first expedition.