After the dizziness had subsided, Yune slowly opened his eyes.
Looking around, Yune saw a portal behind him, and he was surrounded by a big blue dome. It seemed like he was in the exact same place he was just a few second before, but it gave off a different vibe for some reason and the sea of people was nowhere to be seen or heard anymore.
The only people there being the eight children who had just received a mark and the commander.
And apparently someone behind them.
"Welcome to Zèta, you have officially left earth! So, I guess you can be considered aliens?"
Turning around, Yune tilted his head.
'Isn't that woman a little too happy compared to everyone else, especially compared to the commander.'
Seeing the woman smiling from ear to ear, her eyes sparkling with excitement, Yune didn't know how to feel. At least the woman looked… kind? Like a loving grandmother, maybe?
The old woman was anything but dressed formally, she was wearing loose fitting navy blue pants and a hot pink oversized twist knitted sweater, her white hair tangled and messy as if she hadn't taken a shower in a month.
Everyone was looking at the woman with a bewildered expression, the commander was even facepalming for some reason. Was it his mother?
But frankly, Yune didn't spare it much thought and quickly went back to thinking about what mark he could possibly have received.
It was only when he set foot outside of the dome that these lingering thoughts were drowned out.
A few hundred meters in front of him was, seemingly, the same tall wall that was as the fortress on earth, but what laid in front of it, and behind it, was unlike anything that was on earth.
In front of the wall were numerous buildings, each and every one of them bigger, more fortified and way more modern than on earth. The buildings didn't seem to have any imperfections, emphasizing clean lines and geometric shapes.
With humanity being able to construct a city from scratch, on empty land, it seemed as if they wouldn't be content with anything less than perfect.
Every single building was only constructed with three materials, a white cement, a honeycomb grey material and lastly the black fortified steel of some kind that was also used for the fortress walls. From the buildings he could see alone, hundreds of thousands of people could easily be accommodated.
And what laid behind the walls was only conformation that he wasn't on earth anymore, if that wasn't already obvious from seeing the city. Towering above the first wall, which was easily over a hundred meters tall, a mountain could be seen in the distance. Estimating the sheer size of it wasn't something Yune could even fathom. And he could also see some thick red brownish trees peeking over the walls… That were some tall trees.
But not a lot of time was given to the newly marked to admire this view as they were suddenly teleported in front of an especially large complex made up of the same three materials, spanning for hundreds of meters left and right.
Walking inside, still slightly disoriented from being teleported, which was in and of itself still something that was hard to believe, a lot of things happened in quick succession.
A student ID was made for them, a set of new clothes, which was a skintight black training suit, was given to them after taking their measurements and they were sent away to another room to take a quick shower before assembling back in the lobby.
Yune was the last to arrive back in the lobby. He was swiftly instructed to join the leftmost group of people, the biggest group consisting of four other newly marked.
They newly marked had immediately been divided in three groups based on what type of mark they had. This was also the reason why Yune was the last to be back, not because he took too long in the shower, but because deciding which class he should follow took longer than the others as they didn't know what mark he had.
Eventually it was just decided that Yune would be joining the combat class as there was the biggest chance a mark was somehow related to combat.
Now, standing in three groups, they were quickly accompanied by three instructors who, each, took a group of students to a different building inside the massive facility.
Yune's group had been guided to a building which fitted a whole running track, with a training facility in the center of it.
"Okay, start running laps around the field."
After saying this, the teacher turned around and walked towards the training facility where the students of the academy were.
But, before he could even take a step, one of the newly marked could be heard speaking in a boorish tone:
"How many laps should we run, one?"
This simple question almost seemed forbidden seeing the teacher's reaction. His whole demeanor changed as he turned around to look at the person who asked the question, a vein becoming pronounced on his forehead and his fist clenched as if trying to suppress the urge to hit the child.
"Until I say so, now start running!"
The teacher didn't need to say this twice as his loud exasperated tone shook the student's will to disobey, immediately starting to run as if their lives depended on it.
Yune, however, didn't hear any of this take place as he had already started running when the teacher asked him to the first time.
The other students were then quick to catch up to Yune.
"Can you believe that? Why did he get so angry all of a sudden?"
This got a strong reaction from the other students, wholeheartedly agreeing with him as they were still shaken by the teacher. Yune, however, straight up ignored him and picked up his pace, not wanting to be bothered by the other new marked as he had enough other thought in his head.
The students apparently didn't get this memo as they also started picking up the pace, trying to keep up with Yune. But, after a few minutes, they were slowly starting to fall behind Yune as he showed no signs of slowing down, even speeding up.
'Is this why we had to train our physical fitness every day at the orphanage? All in preparations for the improbability of one of us getting marked and being send to the academy… And them getting money?'
The thought of this only made Yune angrier than he already was, thinking his whole life had been a lie. There seemed to have only been things on Yune's mind that annoyed him ever since he got marked in the marking phenomenon.
Maybe unintentionally, or from trying to get these thoughts out of his head, Yune started picking up his pace even more than before, all the while looking at the middle of the field, the training facility, where the students of the academy were training.
Observing what they were doing, Yune followed the teacher around with his eyes, squinting them to get a better look.
Lap after lap Yune just kept running, but he wasn't even getting out of beath much. Well, at least that was one thing he was glad that he attended the orphanage for now, conditioning being one of the things that got hammered into him the most.
But even for Yune this was an impressive feat as he was running with a pace incomparable to how he ran before. He wasn't supposed to run so fast and for so long without even getting out of breath much. But being so focused on what was happening with the other students, Yune himself failed to notice this.
Unbeknownst to Yune, he was unconsciously using his mana, reducing the burden on his body, making him feel lighter and faster.
His body feeling better than ever, Yune just kept running at a tremendous pace, passing by the other new students lap after lap. All this time Yune was still squinting his eyes towards the teacher to see what he and the other students were doing.
Suddenly, the teacher turned around, looking at new marked for the first time since he had instructed them to start running laps around the track almost an hour ago.
Having looked back, there was one student who immediately caught his eye, someone who was looking like he wanted a fight, squinting his eyes with a mean looking expression.
Seeing this, the vein ono the teacher's forehead started getting more pronounced again, but not even a second later it was starting to subside again. He couldn't help but be amazed seeing how fast Yune was running even after an hour, still full of energy.
The corners of the teacher's mouth couldn't help but curve upwards as he started walking toward the running track.
Trudging on the track with a sudden happy expressions, the new marked were hopeful that they would finally be allowed to stop running. But they were quickly disappointed as the teacher walked right past them, heading straight for Yune.
"You, black hair student, have you always had such good conditioning."
Looking around, there was no mistaking that the teacher was talking to Yune as he was the only one there.
Yune opened his mouth to immediately say yes, priding himself for having the best conditioning at the orphanage, but at that moment it was the first time he thought back to how fast and long he had been running for.
'Wait, no. Normally even I don't run this fast and for this long…'
Out of habit, Yune tilted his head down to think. At that moment Yune could hardly contain his excitement when he saw a glimpse of a faint glow on his chest.
His mark was glowing a beautiful light purple.
'That means…I have been using my powers subconsciously already!'
With this thought popping up, Yune couldn't withhold his excitement anymore and cheekily smirked.
"No sir, normally I wouldn't have been able to run like this without breaking a sweat, I was just using my powers to enhance my performance now that I have a mark."
It took the teacher a few seconds before that reply sank in, but then his eyes suddenly widened and his eyebrows lifted.
"What?! You were using your mark already? But how? You only received your mark a few hours ago."
Yune's smile turned a little bitter as he answered the question.
"That's because I have been trained from a young age…"
Hearing this, the teacher misunderstood, thinking that Yune might be from one of the big families or clans.
The corners of the teacher's mouth instantly curled up as he put his hand one Yune's shoulder.
"Haha, you should have said so earlier."