"Huff, huff." Sean had been going on for eight laps, and he was at his wit's end. "Who thought joining the army was a good decision!"
He made a huge mistake by shouting, wasting his breath even more. Although underground, the Camp was humongous. It made one question why it was even called a 'camp' in the first place. That would be because in relation to other military bases such as the Arctic Frontier, it was nothing but a mere playground.
"Just one left!" Sean had finished the 9th lap just now, and all the could think about was placing in the first 10, and get a nice shower and then sleep. His hopes shattered the very next moment as he heard Captain Henry's voice.
"Alright, the spots are taken. You can rest until the remaining weaklings finish, then follow me."
Sean was confused. He was sure he had only three to four people ahead of him, and no one had overtaken him, let alone six. Then it dawned on him.
"This bastard! He wasn't going to let anyone rest in the first place! He just wanted us run our asses off! And I fell for it..."
Although Sean and many others thought of Captain Henry as a jerk, he had a reason for this. He wanted to see which ones would be able to see through his ploy and conserve energy, and those who could keep such a high pace for such a long time. Basically, he wanted to see the brains and the brawls of the new batch.
'Over twenty muscleheads who can back it up and four sly bastards; we can make decent groups out of this.' Then the figure of Sean slowing down caught his eye. 'Looks like this guy is not just muscle for brains after all. Him slowing down also made the guys behind him realise it as well, this batch is gonna be good.'
"Hah, hah... Finally over..." Finishing his last lap, Sean slumped down. After slowing his pace he was placed somewhere between 40th and 50th. He still had some time to rest as there were still over 450 trainees running. Some were about to start their last laps while a few couldn't continue anymore. They would not be sent back as Captain Henry said before, but they would definitely be put into a more strict training regimen and lower prioritised groups. After everyone either finished or collapsed to the ground, Captain Henry called out to the trainees.
"Get your asses up here, boys, I will assign your groups now." He then proceeded to divide them into groups of six, with most having boys and girls mixed. "Barrack A-2; Tyson Nite, Sean Mcgrath, Latoya Dobtson, Klein Harold, Samantha Covett, Jayden Jarrick. Group Leader is Latoya Dobtson. Barrack A-3..."
'Oh Harsen, what did I do to deserve this...'
"Hey, Sean! It seems we are together again. Too bad I couldn't be the leader. Oh, how rude of me. I'm Jayden Jarrick, everyone. Pleased to meet you all. You can call me JarJar if you want."
"No thanks, I wouldn't want a mouse beating the shit out of me. I'm Tyson by the way."
"Samantha here! Nice to meet you, I hope we have a great time together!"
"Klein."
"Well, I'm Sean." Everyone introduced themselves except Latoya.
"You must be Latoya then, right? I wonder why he chose you as the leader, if you don't want to be one you can cede it to me."
-Nods.
"Don't even try, Jayden. I'm sure Cap has a reason to make her the leader." Said Tyson.
"It's because she figured out he was lying, the first group's leader is also likely to be one of them too. Some figured it out later in there too, just like us. He made us run to sift us."
"Huh, Klein could actually talk for more than a word?" It appeared Jayden knew Klein too.
"Not all of us have a loose mouth like you."
"Now, now. Let's not fight from the first day, right? How about we tell more about ourselves, like our aptitudes. I will start; I'm Red, with tinges of Orange!" Samantha pacified the situation.
"Why bother, I bet all of us are Reds." (K)
"Um, actually..." (T)
"No way!" (J)
"Yeah, I'm an Orange." (T)
"And here I thought you would be like Yellow or something." (J)
"If only I were... But since I'm not, I have to enrol to prove myself." (T)
"Could you be from Nitefall Guild's Nite family?" (Sean)
"How did you know?" (T)
"I knew someone who worked there. Anyways, I'm a Red too." (Sean)
"And that's it for the groups. Every leader, come forward!" Just then Captain Henry finished calling out the groups. "These are your and your groups' smart watches for your time in the military. They can be used as walkie-talkies and will have a holographic map function. Find your barracks through that and rest for the day. I expect everyone at the training grounds at 0500 hours. Disperse!"
After receiving the watches, Latoya distributed them in her group. They quickly found their barrack through the map function and headed there. It was a building large enough to accommodate all 500 trainees and maybe even more. It must be said that there were 25 other barracks just like this one, starting from A to Z. There would be other trainees coming too over the week, filling the camp with 13,000 trainees.
"Do girls and boys stay together in the same room?" (J)
"We should have separate changing rooms and showers but yeah, the rest is shared." (T)
------
"Hah, there is nothing like a shower to refresh. Oh, all of you were already done." (J)
"You would have too if you didn't sing an entire album." (Sean)
"Anyways, where were we left? Aptitudes? I'm a Red too, but there is a considerable amount of Orange too. How about you, Latoya? " (J)
"Red." (L)
"Hey, Tyson, do you know anything about the Engraving Order?" While Jason was bothering Latoya, Sean wanted to ask what was bugging his mind since he left off the Blackhaven Train Station. "I heard that chest is the correct way to go but there have been those that started with the head, do you know why?"
"Huh? Who is suicidal enough to start from the head? It's extremely hard to engrave the head socket, which is why we leave it to the last. The previous five engraving experiences helped with it tremendously, not to mention chest socket improves vitality and endurance, arms improve dexterity and strength, and legs improve speed and strength. All of these are helpful for the head socket, which improves Ether control. Yes, it sounds overpowered, but it's just as deadly."
"Is that so, thanks." Not getting an answer Sean lay down on the bed. 'There should be a reason why Ms Hudson advised me to engrave the head first, but why? If there was an advantage to engrave the head first it would make sense, but is it worth the risk?'
The trainees all woke up before sunrise the next morning. They would not, could not be late. Finding the location of the training grounds from the map function, all groups were lined up there at 5 a.m. Captain Henry Hawks showed up just after that, with four others whom the trainees did not know who they are.
"Good morning trainees. I will assume everyone is here since those who are not will be leaving with the first train anyway. Today, we will have an extensive physical examination. After the examination ends; we will immediately start with a 20-lap around the training grounds, then move on to practical training and later the courses. Courses include weak points of Abominations, specifics of Engraving and Evolution, weapon mastery, Ether manipulation and so on. Now I will leave you to the warrant officers here, they will supervise your examination and training."
The physical examination was nothing big, just a check-up for chronic disease or disabilities. With the emergence of Gates and Ether, the medicinal field advanced by bounds, freeing humanity from most of the diseases and incapabilities they suffered from. Even though there were new diseases related to Ether, they were in small numbers after hundreds of years. Most of them were either cured by Ether injections or staying away from places where Ether was more condensed. After the physical examination ended it was time for the warming up run. Although shorter than the run yesterday, it would be still a hard task to run around an area of six soccer fields.
---
"Haaah, all this running is killing me. Why don't we do something different for once? Elementary school? Run around the school. Middle school? Run around the school? High school? Run around the school. Military? Run aroun- umph" (J)
"Just shut up and run." (K)
"It's fine, it's the last lap anyway. I can't wait to eat my fill during breakfast!" (J)
It was 9 a.m. when they finished their run, with the examinations taking no longer than an hour. It was then Jayden learned that their breakfast was something he shouldn't look forward to.