<h4>Chapter 23: Basic Warfare</h4>


    Donovan stood in the hallway, hearing the lecturer of ss C teaching a chapter on the basics of warfare.


    Hearing all of those boring subject talks made him want to sleep as he had to work his head off just to learn a single page worth of the subject when he was a student in the academy.


    Him being naturally dumb didn''t help either.


    "Anything?" Mason Wolfe asked, walking from the side of the hallway where ss B and ss A were located; each of the sses was ced far away from each other, and it showed on Mason''s sweaty clothes.


    "No… The kid is quiet, I mean look at him." Donovan pointed at George, who was focusing on every word the instructor was saying and taking notes without even leaving his attention for a second. "The kid would be considered a nerd by my calctions."


    Mason looked slightly confused, "I can see that he is a nerd, but I don''t know about you calcting anything."


    Slightly offended about the soft insult, Donovan replied, "Hey… Sigh, anyways, what about you? What about those other kids?"


    "Nothing to worry about them, they are strong. I can''t really see anything suspicious, but we have a whole 4 years of making sure that they stay safe." Mason said.


    The both of them then walked back to the ss-B section of the hallway to make sure that the listed students in that ss were still safe.


    Little did they know, there was an eye that wasn''t paying attention to the instructor.


    Peyton had beenobserving the two Emerald City guards from a distance. Wondering why they have been pointing and staring at George Sterlinguard for a full minute.


    The other students couldn''t care less as they just thought that the Emerald City Guards were doing their random inspections on government property as they usually do.


    Although this was a known fact, Peyton couldn''t help but wonder why instead of doing their inspection, they would talk about George, ''Perhaps there is something that I am not getting….'' He thought before focusing back on the ss.


    An hour of the lecture went by, and the students inside knew that they were not getting as great a lessonpared to ones in the higher ss, but the books that they were using were essentially the same.


    And so if they focused, they might be able to be better than the 10 worst students of ss B.


    "That''s it for today''s lecture on Basic Warfare. Pleaseplete all of the assignments given to you… And prepare yourself because by the end of the month there will be the monthlypetition where all of you will be fighting each other to go up in ss…" She said before exiting the ssroom, looking as if she was about to pass out.


    The ears of the students tingled as they heard the opportunity to ce in a higher ss.


    It would, in fact, be a massive opportunity for all of them.


    Well, almost all of them.


    All of them, except George.


    The only reason why he was able to pass the test was that he was able to run for five minutes straight and buy time for himself.


    Thispetition will have the students in a ss Ranked Fight, where the top ten students in ss-C will be able to get swapped with 10 of the worst students in ss-B.


    This also means that George will have to fight against the best this ss has to offer to even get into ss B.


    ''Considering the attention I am getting… I need this…'' He thought before looking beside him at Jame beside him, who was packing his bags to get back to his room.


    "Hey James."


    "It''s Jame." He said while still maintaining a smile. He had been used to people calling him James for a long time.


    "Yeah, does this academy have a gym?" He asked. He wondered if anyone knew anything about the academy. It would be someone addicted to information and rumors regarding the academy, like Jame himself.


    "I do, and I was actually going to go there to test some stuff before I get ready for the night lecture. Would you like to follow me?" He asked.


    "Lead the way then." George replied, ignoring the stares that were directed towards him.


    The amount of stares that he received decreased in half. However, he wasn''tining, as fewer eyes on him would be better for him anyways.


    #


    As the both of them entered the gym, George felt himself in a different gym environment than the one he expected.


    He wasn''t expecting any machines, but all the gym had was a few rice bags hanging from the ceiling, and some stones, carved smooth enough to be carried.


    He couldn''t believe what he was seeing and turned towards Jame, expecting to see a disappointed reaction from him, but Jame looked satisfied. "The best money can buy." Hemented.


    "The best money can buy??" George nearly shouted but controlled his voice seeing that he wasn''t the only one in the gym.


    "Uh, yeah?" Jame replied, confused about George''s strange reaction.


    "Hold on, you are serious? Like, what makes the gym equipment the best money can buy?"


    Jame pointed to the smooth stone. "Those stone are carved to perfectly fit our hands to carry and those sandbags have been woven with the best material to not cut our hands from punching the bag too much."


    George bit his lips in frustration.


    He had already written a whole workout n for himself in a notebook, using everything that he knew when he learned Advanced Athletic Bodybuilding from his P.E. lessons back in high school.


    "If only they had proper dumbbells, just a dumbbell would be enough…" He whispered to himself before scribbling his workout n and changing it to non-weighted calisthenics workouts.


    He then turned to the exit before Jame turned to him, "Wait are you leaving already?"


    "Yeah, I kinda need to get something to boost my energy before exercising."


    "And what''s that?"


    George turned, smiling, "Anabolic steroids."