Back in the office of Vice Chancellor Monnet, an important decision was taking place.
"I already informed you about the new changes made in student's training last month, didn't I?" Vice Chancellor Monnet asked Battle Instructor Riley.
"Yes ma'am," he nodded.
"Mm. How are the preparations for it? Give me a brief overview here and later send me the documents for it," replied the Vice Chancellor.
"Alright ma'am. Just as you've informed me about the changes, my staff and I have worked on implementing them.
We designed a plan which would ensure that students would be pushed to their limits and forged in fire so that we would have a very strong batch of awakened," Battle Instructor Riley began.
"Stop beating about the bush and cut to the chase," Vice Chancellor Monnet cut in.
"Alright ma'am. The summary of this matter is that if we want to make this 'Spartan style' of training effective, we have to encourage bullying.
Or at least let the students know that the school won't look out for them unless it's an 'extreme' matter.
We are not only making them stronger than the previous batch but rather we want people who are smart, cunning and know how to make the most out of every situation," Riley answered.
"Sounds reasonable. What else?" Vice Chancellor Monnet asked.
"So my staff and I decided to increase the training regimen, encourage conflicts and frequent battles, have their seniors bully them a little, basically anything which would keep them on their toes," said Riley.
"I want to see results. You've three months to show me this works. As you may have noticed, even if you've not noticed which would be daft of you and I believe you're not daft, Earth is edging closer and closer to war.
Already, the Voronoi are using subtle means of suppression to distract us and delay us from obtaining critical assets.
They've increased the number of races which are attacking us from two to three.
It's only a matter of time before the galaxy gets consumed by the fires of war.
I'm adding this to your plate Riley.
When they get to their second year, send some of our best students, those who have come out of the training plan strong, to the moon base.
I give you authorization for it," Vice Chancellor Monnet spoke.
Riley's face paled.
"But Vice Chancellor, sending them to the moon base is suicide!
That's where the alien races' attacks are mostly concentrated!
It's like sending kids to a fully blown warzone!
Even the third year seniors who are those who go there before they graduate die sometimes. Their mortality rate on that moon base is thirty percent!
Please, Vice Chancellor, reconsider this," Battle Instructor Riley pleaded.
"Were you not the one who said a few minutes ago that you've designed a plan to forge the students in fire?
To me, sending them to the moon base is also part of the fire.
Those who are able to return learn valuable lessons and how to survive.
Those who don't return?
Then they were either too weak or too stupid.
It could even be both.
All the schools have been tasked with this, Riley. The quality of our students must be above the rest.
When they graduate and are deployed to the frontlines to do their national military service, they won't be strangers to it and that would decrease the mortality rate of students from here.
Is that clear?" Vice Chancellor Monnet's voice was steady and solid.
Even though she had never once raised her voice, to battle Instructor Riley, it was as if her voice was booming in his ears!
"Yes Vice Chancellor," Riley answered.
"I'm glad we could come to an agreement, Riley. You have up to the next morning to send me a revised version of your plan," said Vice Chancellor Monnet.
"Yes ma'am," Riley replied.
Inwardly, he was thinking, "Come to an agreement? More like a forced agreement!"
Vice Chancellor Monnet tilted her head and a light smile creeped unto her lips which didn't reach her eyes.
"Do you have any problem with what I said, Riley?" She asked.
The temperature in the room felt like it had dropped to almost a zero!
Riley shuddered in fear.
"No ma'am," he croaked.
"I thought as much. You may leave," said Vice Chancellor Monnet.
Riley literally rushed out of the office.
When he finally got out, he took in deep breaths to calm himself.
That woman was scary!
Now that he had finally calmed down, he began to process what the Vice Chancellor had told him.
"So the situation on the frontlines is that bad, huh?" he murmured.
The Voronoi were really sly.
According to the rules of the DAUN alliance, colonized races would be left alone by their colonial masters to develop for a century then after that, they could finally fight for their freedom.
The rules prevented the colonial masters or more powerful races from being the first to attack but they would be free to retaliate if they got attacked and could then take the initiative to carry on from there.
That century was to allow colonies to grow in peace and it was enough for the race to be able to nurture at least one planetary realm expert!
Unfortunately, this stipulation was full of loopholes.
Earth knew it and the Voronoi knew it.
Nothing prevented them from pitting their vassals against each other to prevent or even delay the revenge of vassal races with extreme talent.
Well, that was the situation earth had found itself in.
The other vassals of the Voronoi were the Gnarlians, the Maviitsi and the Kobolds.
They had also been colonized around the same time as Earth had been and so far, unlike Earth which had been able to nurture nine Planetary realm experts, they had only been able to produce three planetary realm experts each!
Now one would wonder why they would choose to antagonize Earth and not rather work together to take down the Voronoi and share the spoils.
The reason was very simple.
Jealousy and fear.
Jealousy because Earth's ability to birth talents were far higher than all of theirs combined and fear because they feared that if Earth was given more time, they would surpass them and even conquer them!
All the Voronoi needed to do was to give them a little push and that was all it took for the Gnarlians and Kobolds to attack Earth.
That was fifteen years ago.
Well, it couldn't really be called a war.
There were minor skirmishes and raids which were more annoying in itself than the damage they caused because Earth had to divert its attention due to these raids.
The Maviitsi had shown no sign of joining or interfering but now, for an unknown reason, they decided to attack.
Unlike the Kobold race who were pure physical warriors with only a few of their race walking the Spirit path and the Gnarlians that had the form of winged beasts that also relied on their physical attributes, the Maviitsi were mysterious and mostly walked the path of the Soul and Spirit.
They were a tall, slender and graceful race with blue skin, humanoid appearance, strange white eyes, pointed ears and white tribal tattoos.
Their tribal tattoos weren't exactly normal tattoos though. They were strange runes which had been drawn unto their body.
Rarely had they ever been seen fighting and their powers were strange.
Thus, no one could accurately evaluate how strong or powerful they truly were.
Even the Voronoi who had colonized them found them strange because they didn't put up any form of resistance when they showed up to subjugate them.
They were weird.
And them being one of the few races proficient in the Soul path didn't help too.
The Soul path was the only path which Earth's greatest minds couldn't wrap their minds around.
With the Maviitsi joining in, the casualties of Earth's soldiers would rise.
No wonder the government was so concerned and pushing for the newly awakened to be thrust into daring situations which made them tougher so they could be thrown onto the frontlines.
The kidnappings done by the Dusk Organization frustrated their efforts and put them on edge, especially in the last month.
"Peace is slowly going… that's if it's not long gone," Battle Instructor Riley sighed to himself.
Well, if had to push the students to their limits and turn a blind eye to various forms of bullying and extortion, he damn sure will.
Besides, it wasn't as if he wasn't doing anything about it anyway.
Scratching his hairy beard, he made his way to his office.
There was work to be done.