Ivan, Glen, and Ralph followed the young lady as they navigated through maze-like corridors, the atmosphere was hushed as nobody said a word.
They soon arrived at a huge clearing that looked like it was in the outside world and not inside a building, the space was so huge that one could not see the end from one point; it was curved, and big trees that were planted scantily blocked one's vision. They also found a way to make the ceiling mimic the actual sky to near perfection with the only difference being the absence of clouds and a sun.
Iron benches could be seen positioned close to some trees on which some people sat while chatting, they were also able to spot a few passages from where they stood.
A lot of people could be seen around this space, some were in uniforms similar to the people who Ralph's group had encountered at the teleportation vault while the rest were in purple tracksuits, the age of those in uniforms ranged from the mid-twenties to mid-forties as far as they had seen while those in tracksuits were mostly in their teens, the oldest they had seen was at the early twenties.
"This is the lobby, you can come here to waste time if you feel that you have nothing useful to do with your life"
The soothing yet cold voice of the young woman finally broke the silence that had been ruling over their stroll but her words were not friendly in the least and made the three boys tongue-tied.
The lady turned and pierced the three with a sharp gaze which lingered for a few seconds before she turned around and resumed walking, the three followed.
"Over there is the cafeteria, be sure to be there by 7 in the morning, you can decide to skip during the afternoon but don't forget to come by 7 in the evening unless you want to miss dinner as well"
"This place leads to the classes where you will be taught various things, ranging from physical training to theories "
" Behind this, you will find the field where all trainees will undergo morning warm-ups every day. Make sure not to forget "
" Going through here will lead you to the weapon rooms "
" Here you will find the arenas "
" This leads…"
For a good couple of minutes, the lady showed Ivan, Ralph, and Glen different paths that led to different sections of the Tower that were accessible to trainees, this even included a library.
Although they did notice that everywhere she showed them was limited to the third floor, trainees had no business above the third floor.
It didn't bother them though, they were already excited about the new things they were learning.
Finally, after fifteen minutes, they arrived in front of a large door that was wide open. Inside was an even wider corridor that stretched deeper inside and on both sides of the corridors were doors that had numbers on them.
"Here are the boys' dormitories, you can find your access card which also holds your room numbers in your bags' ' the lady said while standing at the entrance of the boys' dormitories. Throughout their tour, she spoke only words that were necessary and never made a personal remark which made it impossible to try to understand her.
What Ralph did notice were the gazes directed at them by those in uniforms and tracksuits, some of them showed envy, curiosity, and surprise, and some extreme ones even showed pity. This made him even more curious about this woman's identity, she didn't seem to be older than them by much but those men in the control room seemed to be wary of her.
This did not stop them from searching the bags they had received at the control room and quickly pulled out a small gold card that looked like a credit card, it had some inscriptions on it as well as some numbers which were most likely their room numbers.
Ivan's card had the number 305, Glen's card had the number 321, and Glen's card had the number 209, Ivan and Glen's room happened to be fairly close while Ralph found himself separated from his friends.
"Now, go settle down and get comfortable because you won't get a lot of opportunities to do so starting tomorrow," the lady said and was about to leave when she remembered something and turned around "Training starts by 4 in the morning, so be sure to sleep early" she finally disappeared from their sight after saying this.
Now left alone at the entrance of the dormitories, Ivan and his friends stared at each other's faces. They could all read the expressions each one had and the burning determination in their eyes.
This would mark the beginning of a new chapter in their lives, they had failed but were given a chance to go ahead, and they swore to make good use of this second chance!
Stepping into the dormitories with the confidence of a new beginning, the three set out to find their rooms. They met a few people on their way and exchanged simple greetings, they only parted after finding Ralph's room.
They agreed to meet at the entrance of the dormitory in thirty minutes as it should be enough for them to settle down in their new rooms.
Ivan soon found his room after they parted with Ralph and it was left for Glen to go look for his room and give a reminder to Ivan about their meet-up as if worried that the white-haired boy would forget.
Ivan gave a forced smile since he wasn't fluent with the act before pressing the card on the scan that was on the door, he had seen Ralph do the same and the door opened.
Entering his room, Ivan was welcomed by a small but big enough space for a single person. The room was a simple room with white walls, a bed, chair, desk, a closet, and a door which Ivan discovered led to a private bathroom.
Ivan dropped his bags on the ground and approached the bed, gently touching it. The thought of having his own bed was a strange feeling for Ivan who never even had a home and caused a wave of strange emotions to wash through him.
He stayed like that for a good ten minutes before getting up, he began by taking out the things in his bags and keeping them in his closet.
His bag contained clothes that they had brought with them from the outskirt or bought while staying with the old driver and his family.
The bag handed to them in the control room however, contained five sets of purple tracksuits and five gray T-shirts, three pairs of black sneakers, some notes, and a trainee badge with his age, gender, and face on it.
Ivan had no idea when this information was collected but he knew that the tower would definitely have its way of obtaining information.
After arranging his things, Ivan went into the bathroom to take a quick shower before changing into a different set of clothes.
"Time to head out"
Ivan mumbled to himself.
Ivan quickly arrived at the entrance of the dormitory where Glen and Ralph had been waiting for him, he was the last to arrive.
Since there was still quite some time before it was time for dinner, the three decided to tour the place on their own before 7 pm.
They visited the places they had been to earlier to get better looks and to familiarize the different paths and corridors, they went back to the lobby and sat under one of the trees after a few minutes of touring.
" Damn! This place is big!" Glen exclaimed while looking at the people walking by, none of them were paying attention to them.
" I can't help but feel excited about tomorrow, this is really it" Ralph took off his glasses and said with a small smile on his face.
Ivan looked at the boy who rarely showed such expression and was about to express himself when the sound of commotion caught their attention.
They looked in that direction and saw a group of young boys and girls, a total of three girls and four boys surrounding another boy who looked quite battered. His cheeks were red with palm prints, his hair messy, and his tracksuit was covered in dirt as he knelt in front of a red-haired young man who seemed to be the leader of this group of young adults.
They were all wearing the same thing, by the way, purple tracksuits which showed that they were all trainees.
"You think you're something just because your family has a few powerful Nexulytes? You think you can mess with me?" The red-haired boy asked coldly before landing another slap on the already red face of the boy.
The other six laughed at this while the boy being hit did not dare to move or shield himself.
Everyone who was walking by seemed to not be able to see anything as they simply ignored the act of bullying.
This sight caused a frown to appear on the faces of Ivan, Ralph, and Glen. Especially Ivan who's eyes flashed with a dangerous glint. He knew more than anyone how awful it was to be bullied and it appeared to him that the same thing was happening right in front of him…a Nexulyte bullying a weakling!
(He didn't care if the one being bullied was a Nexulyte or not)
They decided to wait for a while in hopes that one of the people in uniform would come by but they caught sight of none even after a minute of watching the boy get bullied, unable to take it anymore Ivan rose up and walked toward them in heavy steps.
"Ivan!" Glen tried to call out but Ivan acted to not hear him, Ralph silently stood up and followed behind Ivan.
"Huh? Do you think you can disrespect my girl like that? I'll teach you a lesson!" The red-haired boy snickered and was about to hit the kneeling boy again when suddenly…
"Enough!"