On the way back, only the roaring of the engine of the vehicle could be heard. The officers, who picked up the team, didn't want to comment unnecessarily. Because of this, it was a silent ride back to the camp. The first mission the trainees were sent to had an incident, so the army would make the necessary compensation. After picking up a few more teams, the vehicle returned to the camp. Not everyone was brought back as they had set off earlier than planned, so only a few teams that had completed their mission early and were waiting at the extraction point could be brought back. When they were back, the group leaders were called to give their reports. Left alone at the training grounds, the groups started to talk about their mission with other groups.
-"It was definitely an Orange, I tell you!"
-"We found a pack of Reds just below the cliff, they were fighting each other like they were fighting for supremacy."
-"Wow you guys are so cool, we found nothing."
Listening to them were Group A-2, they did not want to take on everyone's attention. It would be tiring to deal with every question they would have. Latoya meanwhile, didn't have such chance as she would be reporting everything, down to what everyone in her team did in the course of four days. She hadn't expected it to be so through, so she struggled to remember everything. After giving her report, she left for the training grounds and joined her team. She was the latest the return as a Crumbling was a significant issue, with their two Aberration hunts. Although the worm was killed by Captain Henry, they were given the merit for it as they had survived it until he came.
---
"A Crumbling... It popped up in an annoying time." A female voice complained over the Holo-Call. "What was the previous rank of the Gate?"
"It was a Rank 3 Gate, Ma'am." On the other side of the Holo-Call was Matt Harron, a Sergeant Major in charge of the Southern Evolutionary* Camp. He was talking to a Major General, Thea Mullins, a 5th Rank Evolutionary.
"Is that so... I will send a team to support your Captain there, then. With them, he should be able to successfully conquer it. Oh, are there any promising prospects you would like to send over to me?"
Sergeant Major paused for a moment, thinking about the talents of the new batch.
"There are a few. Most promising prospect currently is Sherry Anderson. She has shown great leading capabilities and combat affinity. She has great thirst for knowlegde and improvement. We also expect her to do well with her Ether Control despite her low aptitude. One of the other promising prospects would be Tyson Nite, but we expect him to return to his family after serving his time. From the same team, Latoya Dobtson, the team leader is also a talent. According to one of our officers, this group has been focusing on Ether Control under the tutelage of Tyson Nite, with Latoya Dobtson being first to form a string. There is also a boy that is not that far off, Sean Mcgrath. He has shown great combat affinity and more knowledge about Abominations than most other trainess, likely due to being raised by her in an orphanage." Although Sergeant Major Matt didn't specify who, both knew who he was talking about.
"Great! Try to send them to me, they are sure to be grow into great assets."
---
AN HOUR LATER AT THE TRAINING GROUNDS
Captain Henry Hawks stood in front of the trainess, with his arms crossed and his back straight.
"Everyone completed their first mission successfully. Although there were some mishaps along the way, everyone was safe in the end." There were injured trainees that were caught by surprise when the Abomination shift happened, but they were limited to the sectors near Secter 12-A. "All of you had your merits calculated, and I will announce the top three. The first place will be receiving a special reward for their accomplishments. Now, the third place is..."
"Group C-12! They have successfully killed a Rank 1 Orange and two other Rank 1 Red Abominations, and brought back their cores with their ability mediums. Sum of their merits are 1392 Merit Points. Before them, the second place is..."
"Group A-1! They perfectly lured a Rank 1 Yellow Aberration into a trap, and managed to kill it. They have also killed one other Rank 1 Orange Abomination, and brought back the cores. Their sum of merits are 2045 Merit Points. Lastly, in the first place..."
"Group A-2! With luring a Rank 1 Green Aberration to a trap and impeccable teamwork, they have managed to kill it. There is also a Rank 1 Yellow Aberration they have successfully hunted. They brought their cores and ability mediums back, bringing their merits to a total of 4273 Merit Points. They are also awarded with storage rings of one cubic meter each. Please hand your Uni-Forms to the staff so they can incorporate the rings to them. That's it for your first mission, review what you did right or wrong and strive to get better! That is the human spirit that has fought against Abominations for centuries! Rest for today, I wan everyone here tomorrow at 0500, dismissed."
With that, they were free for the rest of the day. No one focused on Captain Henry trying to be dramatic while announcing the ranking, as the killing of a Green Aberration was too much of a big deal. They couldn't understand how six unengraved trainees could've fought and won against something like that. What they didn't know is they were quite lucky with the Green Aberration, as it was weak enough in defenses for them to be able to kill.
Not wanting to entertain the crowd, Group A-2 quickly slipped to their room.
"Haaah! Is this what being famous is like? Did you have crowds like this after you, Tyson?" Jayden was overwhelmed by the other trainees unending questions. Thankfully they could get away before they were surrounded by everyone.
"Not like this, but I've had my own share of paparazzis." Tyson answered.
"He did not announce the Crumbling." Sean suddenly interrupted. "Why would they want to keep it a secret, its a great excuse for the mishap."
"The government wants to keep it under wraps or whatever, its always the same." Klein said.
"That's true... Anyway, I'm hungry as hell. Who wants to grab a snack with me?"
"No way! I'm not getting out there again until tomorrow! I will sit down meditate." (Jayden)
"You meant to sleep, how do you manage to sleep in that position anyways?" (Klein)
"I'm hungry as well, let's go and grab a bite." (Tyson)
"I will come too!" Samantha said. With Latoya also nodding, the group of four left for the cafeteria, leaving Klein and Jayden behind by themselves. Klein did not stay in the room for long as he went to take a bath, leaving Jayden alone in the room by himself.
---
The group woke up earlier than normal tomorrow, to lend their Uni-Form to get their storage rings added. They then directly set off for the training grounds before they were late.
"Today you will be doing Enhanced Virtual Reality Simulation Training, EVRST for short. We will put you against a plethora of Abominations which you will fight against alone. Although it is important to always face off an Abomination as a team, there are situations where you are separated and alone. You would have to survive until you regroup with your team. EVRST will be this week's main training course, right after your physical exercises and before lessons. Since we have limited gear, you will take turns using it, the first group will be doing physical exercises while the second one will be using EVRST equipment to train."
After that, Captain Henry divided trainees into two and sent one half to run around. He led other half to a big building where several human sized capsules were lined up.
"This is the EVRST gear, it will scan you to recrate an exact copy of your real body in the virtual world. The 100 to first complete this training will receive their private EVRST gear, so you can train by yourselves after this week. Abominations are only limited for Red for this training, but you can manually change the parameters after you finish the training. Now, get inside."
The trainees hesitated slightly before entering the open capsules. It was because they were readying themselves to be one of the first 100, not because they were afraid of some capsules. Sean stepped inside the capsule in front of him and laid down, if it could be called lying down when he still was on his feet. The lid of the capsule closed with a 'FSHHH' sound and a green laser scanned Sean. Right after a helmet was fit onto his head. When he opened his eyes he found himself in a totally white world.