Ivan had waited at the top of the mountain for over ten minutes before other people began to appear. They had managed to climb to the top after so much struggle but all had their excitement from being the fastest squashed when they saw that there was someone resting at the finish line.
Some decided to rest while others left in stubborn denial to continue the race. Since Ivan had beaten them to the top of the mountain, they were determined to finish the morning run before him.
Ivan simply ignored all of these while shaking his head in pity for them, they seemed to have forgotten the five repeaters after seeing only Ivan here and were bent on getting back before him; Ivan on the other hand was waiting for Ralph and Glen who showed up a while later and were among the five ten people people to arrive after Ivan and the repeaters.
They rested for a while more before resuming.
On the other side of the plateau were twenty ropes that were attached to the mountain and stretched into the forest behind it. The trainees looked down and all they found see were the short trees that cover to half of the mountain from where they stood, the base of the mountain from behind was definitely not fit for walking on as there was simply no way to climb it without using specific tools; who knew what will happen if someone fell off the rope?
"Scared?" Ivan asked Glen and Ralph with a teasing smile on his face.
Glen reacted in a way that showed that he was clearly nervous about climbing on these ropes while Ralph had an unreadable look on his face, he simply walked over to one of the ropes.
"Try to keep up" Ralph said to Ivan before stepping on the rope which shook a bit from the sudden disturbance.
Step by step, Ralph walked calmly on the rope with his hands spread out to balance himself with the weak current of the night breeze, he quickly disappeared into the darkness of the retreating night and the shadows of the tall trees, only the constant shaking of the rope showed that he hadn't fallen off.
Seeing this, some trainees stilled their minds and moved toward other ropes and began to advance as well.
Ivan also didn't want to be left behind and moved as well.
The journey back after climbing the mountain was much smoother and relaxing, after they entered the forest by walking on the rope they had to climb down on those ropes as well before navigating through a forest once again.
They arrived back at the field where five people in trainee uniforms and the two instructors were waiting, the night sky was already starting to brighten up a bit and they were now able to see further than before now.
Ivan speculated that it must have taken them over one hour to finish the morning run.
The instructors allowed them to rest as more trainees arrived at the field before falling on their back, dead tired and out of breath.
After finally waiting for almost another hour and some of the trainees had yet to return, instructor Logan turned to instructor Nathan before nodding at him.
Instructor Nathan received the meaning of Logan's nod and disappeared from where he was standing, when he reappeared, he was carrying two unconscious trainees in his arms.
He roughly dropped them to the ground before disappearing again, this process went on for quite some time and Ivan had lost counts of how many trainees the instructor had brought back in Just a few seconds; some were unconscious while others were simply too exhausted to even move a finger, they numbered almost a hundred in less than twenty seconds!
"Now that everyone is here, we will move to the next part of the morning training" instructor Logan's loud voice rang in the ears of all the trainees, with the exception of those who were unconscious of course.
"You all have wasted too much time with just the morning run and that leaves us with little time before breakfast. As a special first day treatment, I'll let you all off this time by only using thirty minutes for the second part of the morning training. Mind you, those who failed to complete the morning run will all have to do two sets of exercises tomorrow morning as punishment!" Instructor Logan said authoritatively.
" Umm, doesn't that mean that they will be late for breakfast and might miss it?" A trainee raised her hand and asked weakly.
Instructor Logan shifted his eyes in her direction before responding while staring right at her face.
" That's right, you're here to train and not get fed fat. You won't always have the chance to eat breakfast when in the dreamscape, so you'll have to get used to it!"
The girl's neck shrank in fear, instructor Logan's words and gaze scared her.
"Now take your forms! Legs wide apart! Hands on your toes! Bend this way! Stay steady! Up! Push it!"
For the next thirty minutes, Ivan and the other trainees received instructions from instructor Logan who made them do a lot of uncomfortable stretches and even push ups.
By the end of the thirty minutes mark, Ivan's body was screaming in protest to the strain it was being put under but one glance at some of the other trainees showed him that he was fairing better than most of them; Ralph and Glen included, they were in terrible shapes after the thirty minutes of exercise.
''Looks like my endurance is better than others because of those scums, should I feel grateful for it?' Ivan mused to himself while looking at the completely drained trainees.
"You can now leave, you have thirty minutes before breakfast time so make sure to wash up and get enough rest. I don't want no dead fish showing up during my breakfast, and prepare yourselves for the combat training after breakfast" instructor Logan spat out before leaving the trainees on the field.
"Damn! That was inhumane, I almost died!"
"He keeps calling out orders like it's easy to follow them, my body hurts, boohoo"
"Double set of training? I would rather quit!"
Many of the trainees immediately began to vent after Logan and Nathan left, they spewed a lot of rubbish about the difficult training and the instructor's lack of sympathy.
Ivan stared at these trainees with a weird look, he did not think that the training was extreme at all since the instructor already told them that they were going to surpass their limits in six months.
It was hard but not difficult, some of these trainees were just lazy and too used to comfortable living that they found this new routine as a threat to their lives; Ivan was even thinking about arriving late on purpose so he could get a gravity bracelets but erased the thought the moment it formed, he didn't think that he would be able to climb that slippery mountain under such conditions.
Ivan left the field with Ralph and Glen after the two got control over their aching bodies, they went back to the dormitory where they had their baths and changed into new sets of tracksuits before going out to the cafeteria.