《Awakened, Book I》 Prologue: Jake Hawkins
Ender, World-Capital of Nenov, Sector 8. August 30th, 3091 ¡°JAKE! GET YOUR DIRTY TEENAGER ASS OUT OF BED, RIGHT NOW!¡± A familiar voice echoed. Jake¡¯s eyes shot up, his heart racing furiously until he realized what was happening. He sat up, tossed his covers to the side and promptly got out of his bed. He¡¯d barely taken a single step toward the door when he heard shouting again. ¡°JAKE HAWKINS! IF YOU DO NOT WAKE THE HELL UP RIGHT NOW, I WILL BEAT YOU UP.¡± Grandma Al¡¯s voice resonated in his ears, immediately sparking a fear in his gut only his dear grandma could instill in him. ¡°I¡¯m coming!¡± Jake shouted back, horrified, and he heard Grandma Al¡¯s snort echo all the way to his room in response. He made his way toward his closet, taking out the uniform he¡¯d prepared the night before, before putting it on. He stood in front of the mirror for a moment, making sure his new outfit fit him perfectly, and his eyes went back and forth between his clothes and his face. Jake was a six-foot-tall, slim-as-a-toothpick 18-year-old with cool brown hair that cascaded all the way down to his shoulders. His facial features were sharp and defined, which would have been a good thing if it hadn¡¯t made him look even scrawnier than he already was. The rest of his face looked pretty average, except for his eyes, which were a shocking silver-gray that looked almost identical to the shimmering gray of the distant nebulas that littered the vast universe. The uniform was a sleek, nearly pitch-black military uniform with only a small insignia placed over his heart to complete the look. For years now, he¡¯d almost drooled at the sight of the uniform, and now there he was, in said uniform, finally getting ready for the grand departure. A few seconds later, Jake finally made his way down the stairs almost going two at a time, getting down to the kitchen in record time. If there was one thing Grandma hated, after all, it was waiting. ¡°Took you long enough! I swear you¡¯re just the same as your father sometimes, a damn hooligan! Now, do you have everything prepared for the academy, or are you also as forgetful as your father was? Jake looked at Grandma Al momentarily, raising an eyebrow at her. She must have been pretty anxious about his departure to bring up his late father, as she only ever did so when she was either absolutely pissed or very stressed out. He didn¡¯t stare at her for too long, however, as he was very aware of what would happen if he did. Instead, he answered. ¡°Yup, everything is packed, and it has been for two days now, just like I told you yesterday.¡± She looked at him for a moment with a frown, before her features softened, and she looked at him the way only a mother ¡ª or grandmother ¡ª could. ¡°Let¡¯s go, then.¡± She said, giving him a warm smile. He made his way across the small kitchen, before ending up in the middle of the living room, where something caught his attention. In front of their apartment¡¯s only couch, was a small, worn-out holographic display that was so faint you could barely make out the image. The thing must have been older than Grandma Al herself, and it was the only thing in the house that seemed to be worth a credit, even in its current state of disrepair. On the small display, a very professional-looking middle-aged woman was currently giving a rundown of the week¡¯s event. ¡°We have just received confirmation as of ten minutes ago that the Intersystem Alliance has lost yet another military outpost at the frontier, as our border remains under the constant attack of the invaders. The Alliance has refused to provide any additional information at the moment, even though this one marks the 13th outpost falling under the corrupted this week.¡± Jake couldn¡¯t stop himself from listening to the news report for a few seconds, before closing the display with a wave of his hand. Both of his parents had died when Luke was still an infant before he¡¯d even turned a year old. They¡¯d both been soldiers, and they¡¯d both died fighting on the front lines during the war, which was still raging all across the universe even today. It had progressively gone from bad to worse during the last few months, as the Intersystem Alliance?¡ª?the current government which had been born from the union of the galaxy¡¯s strongest and most influential races a few hundred years ago?¡ª?kept losing more and more territory to the invaders. Since the day his parents died, Grandma Al had raised him singlehandedly while working full-time as a school janitor. As a result, he¡¯d spent every school year at a boarding school somewhere on Nenov?¡ª?his home planet?¡ª?most of the time in one of the less reputable schools of the capital, as they couldn¡¯t afford for him to go anywhere else. Still, they¡¯d spent every summer break together and Grandma Al was the closest thing to a mom he could have ever hoped to have, even though he had to admit she tended to have a short fuse or two. It was fair to say that Grandma Al had sacrificed a lot for him, too much even. Yet, she had this unrelenting determination on her face, which he¡¯d always found odd, like some sort of weird pride and confidence that shouldn¡¯t belong on the face of a school janitor, yet it did. She was a tall and slim woman with gray hair and creamy white skin, and looked to be anywhere between her 40s and 50s, although Jake believed her to be closer to her 60s. She¡¯d never actually dared to reveal her actual age to him, and she¡¯d hit him in the back of the head the first and last time Jake had asked her about her age. She may have been his Grandma, but the woman could throw a punch, so he hadn¡¯t asked her ever again after that. He wasn¡¯t afraid to admit it in the slightest; he was terrified of Grandma Al, but the good kind of terrified. She was an extremely odd woman and an even weirder grandma, but she was also family. They both made their way to the small apartment¡¯s entrance, where Jake threw over his shoulder the three bags that had been waiting next to the door since the night before. Two of those were Grandma Al¡¯s, but what kind of grandson would let his old grandma carry her luggage on the way to the spaceport? ¡°Don¡¯t forget your coat, dear.¡± Jake glanced to his left, and grabbed his coat, barely managing to stop himself from rolling his eyes. He hated when his Nana babied him more than anything else, but as he¡¯d said earlier, life was too short to tempt fate that way. He was about to leave when he turned around to get one last look at the apartment he¡¯d grown up in. The small two-bedroom wasn¡¯t luxurious by any standard, even for this neighbourhood, but it was still where he¡¯d spent most of his life until now. In a weird, incomprehensible way, Jake felt sad. He¡¯d dreamed of the day he¡¯d move out of here for as long as he could remember, yet now that the day had come, he couldn¡¯t help but feel like he¡¯d miss the place, if only for the memories that came with it. He looked thoughtfully for a few seconds, then took a deep breath, and with his heart pumping and a smile on his face, they set out for what would be the beginning of a completely new life for him. They stepped outside the apartment, before making their way across the narrow streets of Ender, the capital of the planet. It might have been more appropriate to describe the narrow, poorly-lit hallway winding between the massive skyscrapers that arose from each side as an alley, or maybe a path, as there was simply no way even the smallest shuttles would fit in here, so calling it a street would be kind of an exaggeration. The fact that the streets were narrow didn¡¯t mean that they were empty, however, as a crowd of people unfurled everywhere around them, cramped and dirtied, and as always everyone on these streets looked nothing short of miserable. Only Jake and Grandma Al, in their sleek black uniforms, looked out of place for once.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. They¡¯d spent the last 17 years living here, in the slums of Ender, which was widely considered among the poorest areas of the sector, although they were far from the worst off around the neighbourhood. A smile made its way onto Jake¡¯s face, as he looked all around him. It was a nice feeling to know that starting today, his life would change. The last years had been hard, but today marked the day he became a cadet at the Royal Military Academy?¡ª?or RMA for short?¡ª?one of the best academies across the entire Intersystem Alliance, where he¡¯d go through basic training before finally becoming a full-fledged member of the military. They both entered the station and headed toward one of the shuttles that were headed to the spaceport, which was almost half of them by all accounts. The shuttles were rectangular vehicles made out of hyper-resistant carbon alloys that could carry around a few hundred passengers per trip and were able to reach speeds of around 500 miles/hour by gliding across electromagnetic ramps. A few years ago, he had learned at school that the ancestor of the shuttles were called trains, although no one had seen one in almost a millennia by now. They climbed into the vehicle, and thankfully there were still many seats available in the car. He wasn¡¯t sure he would have been able to endure Grandma Al¡¯s complaining for a full hour, although he knew his ears were far from safe just because they¡¯d be able to sit for the ride.
Royal Military Academy, Earth, Sector 1. September 2nd, 3091 ¡°Good morning, cadet, and welcome to the Royal Military Academy.¡± A tall, muscular but otherwise non-descript officer declared to Jake as soon as he¡¯d stepped foot through the gigantic door that led inside the compound. Grandma Al had already gone her separate way a few minutes earlier, as her first shift would start soon and Logan needed to head to the infirmary before he started class tomorrow morning. ¡°My name is Private Woods, and I will be in charge of guiding you across campus to the infirmary, where you¡¯ll be provided with an Alliance-issued neuroimplant, far better than anything you could have ever seen or heard of on civilian markets. You¡¯ll also need to undergo a small medical exam with the officer in charge of inserting the implant inside your brain, as part of the usual procedure.¡± The officer said, and he must have noticed Jake¡¯s puzzled expression because he immediately spoke up a moment later. ¡°I know you might have a lot of questions, but they will all be answered after you¡¯ve received your implant. For now, I ask that you remain patient. Is that clear, cadet?¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± He answered The officer made a small gesture to follow him, and they both were on their way to the Academy¡¯s hospital a few moments later. It had only been a quarter hour or so since Jake had arrived at the Academy, and he was pretty certain his mouth had stayed wide open the entire time he¡¯d walked from the entrance gates to the hospital. The entire trip from Ender to Earth had taken almost two entire days, for a total of forty hours, during which he¡¯d spent most of his time either sleeping inside his cabin or exploring the spaceship. It wasn¡¯t every day you got to set foot in a ten-kilometer-wide spacecraft after all, especially considering the fact he¡¯d never set foot inside any spaceship before. Even that, however, was nothing close to the impressive appearance of the RMA. While he had expected the Academy to be huge, he was extremely shocked to realize how much he¡¯d underestimated the sheer size of the compound. All of the Academy was surrounded by a gigantic force field that made the whole thing look like it was housed under a giant bubble. According to Private Woods, the school grounds covered an area of 100 kilometers wide in diameter, most of which was covered by forest, and students were under no circumstances allowed to step foot inside unless they had an officer¡¯s authorization. While his home planet had looked like a gigantic steel warehouse crammed with metallic skyscrapers, the academy was like a haven of nature, and every building was littered with trees, plants and vines, contrasting greatly with the sleek, polished black and white carbon alloy the Academy¡¯s structures were made out of. Jake looked up at the gigantic building in front of him and took a deep breath before entering through the large gates. As soon as he stepped inside, his heart sunk in his chest as a giant pair of yellow eyes bore into him. It was the first time he¡¯d ever seen a Kreigen, and it caught him off guard for a second. The alien must have noticed his reaction because he let out a small chuckle, before speaking up. ¡°First time seeing a Kreigen before, cadet?¡± Jake¡¯s eyes widened, and he suddenly realized he¡¯d been staring at the officer for a few seconds now. ¡°Y-Yes. I mean¡­ I¡¯m sorry sir.¡± Jake spat out, and the words twisted on his tongue momentarily before he could finally speak. The Kreigen was around two meters and a half tall while being twice as wide as the average human. His skin was murky brown, its texture reminiscent of a snake¡¯s scales, an impression further accentuated by his slitted, predatory yellowish eyes. Despite this reptilian aspect, his build was predominantly humanoid, except for his reptilian face, though his complete lack of hair¡ªacross his entire body¡ªadded to his otherworldly appearance. ¡°I am First Lieutenant Neilr, and I will be in charge of your medical examination.¡± The Kreigen said, amused, before he gestured for him to follow him. They both entered a small room that looked like a classic hospital room, with a dozen weird-looking medical devices attached to the walls, along with a single examination chair located in the center of the room. ¡°Sit, cadet.¡± The officer said, and Jake executed right away. During the next half hour or so, the officer ran more than two dozen types of tests, using every single medical device in the room to do so, before he¡¯d disappeared for the last few minutes. During this whole time, not a single word had been exchanged between them, except for a few questions that the Kreigan had asked him directly at the beginning. When the officer finally came back, he was holding a small tablet in his hands and immediately made his way toward Jake and spoke up. ¡°You¡¯re really fucking weak, even for a human, but that should change pretty quickly once you¡¯ve gone through basic training, so I¡¯m not too concerned by that.¡± Jake was taken aback by the abrupt honesty for a moment, wondering why the hell the Kreigan was telling him that, but he still managed to respond without too much anger in his tone. ¡°Yes, first lieutenant.¡± The officer snorted before he finally continued with the medical evaluation. ¡°Except for your weak ass body, you¡¯re pretty much well above average in all neurological and mental acuity tests, and you¡¯re perfectly healthy, so that¡¯s good. Now, it''s time for the fun part kid.¡± As soon as the last words had left his mouth, the officer took a step back, and a mechanical device that had been fixed to the ceiling slowly went down until it reached a few inches above Logan¡¯s head, where it stopped. ¡°After we¡¯ve inserted the neuroimplant inside your brain, you¡¯ll be taken back to your dorm by one of our staff.¡± Of course, Jake had known about this part all along, as it was common knowledge that every cadet would receive upon their acceptance at the Academy one of the Alliance¡¯s top-tier neuro implants. The benefits of the implants were rumoured to be not only extremely potent, but also numerous, and he couldn¡¯t help to feel somewhat excited, even though his brain was about to be opened by someone who looked like they would belong on the front lines rather than the insides of a hospital. ¡°Yes, sir.¡± He answered anyway. And before Jake knew it, the anesthesia kicked in and he fell asleep.
Owens Family Estate, Mars, Sector 1. September 1st, 3091 Noelle had been walking toward her family¡¯s private spaceport when she¡¯d been summoned to an audience with the family¡¯s patriarch through the message functionality of her neuroimplant. She had been minutes away from departure for Earth before she¡¯d been forced to turn on her heels and make her way back to the main family¡¯s compound by shuttle. Now, she was currently standing impatiently in front of the large gates that led to the audience hall, where she¡¯d meet with the family patriarch in a few minutes. She let out a sigh of relief when a small message notification appeared in the corner of her eye, with the large gates opening up simultaneously. She stepped through the doors and walked all the way toward the man standing on a huge metallic throne on the opposite side of the room. She bowed slightly in front of him, as a show of respect, after which the patriarch spoke up. ¡°Your uncle tells me you will start attending the RMA tomorrow, is that true?¡± His voice was powerful and steady, yet still domineering. It only made her hesitate for a second, however, before she answered. ¡°Yes, patriarch.¡± ¡°I see. I¡¯m assuming I do not need to remind you of what is at stake here.¡± Her heart clenched and she had to fight with all her might for her next words to not get stuck inside her throat. ¡°No, patriarch.¡± He paused for a few seconds, visibly looking for the right words. ¡°Tomorrow, you¡¯ll finally become an awakened, and I have no doubt you¡¯ll be just as talented as your father was in that regard.¡± He stared at her for a second which felt like an eternity, and a chill went down her spine at his next words. ¡°However, I also hope you understand what will happen if your performance at the Academy is subpar?¡± ¡°Yes, patriarch.¡± A small smile appeared on his lips, and the words that followed were let out in a softer tone than before. ¡°Do not disappoint me, my dear granddaughter.¡± Chapter 1: Howdy, Partner! When he woke up a moment later, Jake was shocked to see that lines of text were unfurling in front of his very eyes. They were so numerous in fact, that he didn¡¯t have time to read the text before it disappeared out of sight, replaced by new lines over and over again. After a few dizzying seconds, the text finally stopped appearing in front of him, and he could see the room again. He was about to get up when a strong and scaly hand pressed down on his chest, and he fell back in his chair. ¡°Easy, kid. Stay down for a bit.¡± Officer Neilr muttered. He looked up at the Kreigen, who still looked just as pissed as he¡¯d looked when they¡¯d met moments before. Jake¡¯s head was pounding like crazy, and almost on instinct, he brought up a hand to his right temple, where he felt the familiar texture of a bandage. ¡°Your operation was a success, and you¡¯ve now been granted access to the full functionalities of your neuroimplant,¡± He said with a particularly loud sigh. ¡°Now listen to me kid, and listen well because I ain¡¯t repeating a word of this a second time.¡± ¡°To the corner of your field of view, you can see a small semi-transparent circle, I want you to focus on that and think about expanding it. Doing so will activate your implant for the first time and initiate the tutorial. I have a few other implants to take care of tonight, so if you need anything just ask one of the receptionists. Once you¡¯re done with the tutorial, you better go get settled in your dorm right away.¡± The Kreigen turned on his heels, and he had barely taken a step toward the door when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. He seemed to hesitate, but a moment later, he spoke up. ¡°One more thing, cadet. This implant is by far the most valuable thing you¡¯ll receive during your time at this academy, except maybe the awakening. If you listen to your implant, you¡¯re going to be just fine. Remember that.¡± And just like that, he rushed back toward the door and stepped out of the room. Jake looked at the door before he focused back on the small semi-transparent circle in the corner of his eye, and it expanded into some sort of holographic interface. Before he could analyze the screen, however, a voice echoed in his ears. [Howdy, partner!] The small voice was robotic by nature, although he couldn¡¯t pinpoint exactly where it had come from as he looked all around the room. ¡°What the fuck? Who¡¯s here?¡± Logan said as he looked around the room furiously. [Ah shit, why did I get stuck with the dumbass. I¡¯m the implant idiot, nobody¡¯s ¡°here¡±.] The implant responded, and the way it said the word ¡°here¡± almost seemed condescending. Jake¡¯s eyes widened for a moment, and he sat on the examination table for a moment, mouth agape, without knowing how to respond to the asshole that was now stuck in his brain. [Well, are you ready for that tutorial or not?] Jake sighed before he finally spoke up. ¡°Hum¡­ sure?¡± [Wonderful! My name is ED1427B089, but you can call me Ed!] He was taken aback by the sudden change in expression. Moments ago, the implant had been condescending and irritated, while it was now cheerful and enthusiastic. [Now the first thing you must know is that you do not need to speak aloud to communicate with me, as I am in your head and can hear your thoughts. I mean it, the other cadets will literally bully you if they hear you speaking to me out loud, and I¡¯ll be damned if I let myself get stitched up inside a loser¡¯s head.] Almost feeling embarrassed at the AI¡¯s remark, he simply shrugged and waited for the implant to continue. [Now, the second most important thing you need to know is that I am by definition an extension of your mind, which means I can stock information and memories for you, kinda like extra storage space on a tablet, but I can also perform calculations or analysis, among a ton of other things. I also have access to the Alliance¡¯s Central Database to look up any information your clearance level allows you to access, as well as the internet, for more general information.] Awesome, Jake thought. [Now, let¡¯s take a look at some other functionalities, starting with the status screen.] At that moment, a holographic screen appeared right in front of him. It looked a lot like the type of holograms they used in classrooms to display the lectures to students, although something felt a little different this time. Status Name: Jake Hawkins Rank: Cadet Biotic Energy Capacity: xx Biotic Energy Recovery: xx Base attributes Strength: 3 Dexterity: 6 Constitution: 3 Recovery: 3 Perception: 7 Cognition: 12 Specs [ None ] Skills [ None ] He looked at the screen for a while. He¡¯d heard some rumours on the forums, but to think that it was even better than he¡¯d imagined, he almost wondered if this was all a dream. [For now, the only thing worth mentioning about your status screen is that each attribute listed acts as a measure of your capabilities. The rest should be pretty self-explanatory, even for you.] Jake ignored the implant¡¯s snarky comment and then looked at the screen for a second before he silently asked Ed to elaborate on the role of attributes. [Strenght | Measure of your physical strength and power] [Dexterity | Measure of your agility and reflexes] [Constitution | Measure of your damage resistance and stamina] [Recovery | Measure of your body¡¯s regeneration and recovery] [Perception | Measure of your perception and insight] [Cognition | Measure of your overall mental faculties] [Biotic Energy Capacity | Measure of your core¡¯s maximum capacity] [Biotic Energy Recovery | Measure of the recovery speed of your core] After he¡¯d read through everything in under half a minute, he still took a moment to absorb the information, and as soon as he¡¯d wrapped his head around the whole attributes thing, the implant spoke up again inside his mind. [Secondly, I have been linked to a newly created banking account under your name with IABanking Solutions, and you will be able to manage, invest and use your credits just like with any other client account.] [There is also a messaging and communication functionality within the implant, as well as a GPS device that will work anywhere inside IA colonized territory.] Jake looked through the holographic screens that kept popping up in front of him, mouth still agape at the situation, until the door suddenly swung wide open, revealing a tall woman, dressed in very stylish business attire. ¡°I¡¯m Miss Abrahams, cadet. I¡¯m part of the school¡¯s administrative staff, but today I¡¯ll simply be guiding you back to your dorm.¡± She said, smiling. She gestured at him to follow her, and they made their way toward the dorms. According to Miss Abrahams, there were ten first-year dorms, each housed by five cadets who would be sharing living space for the entire year. He couldn¡¯t help but be slightly nervous at the thought of living with four other cadets, as he wasn¡¯t exactly great at socializing, he instead preferred to keep to himself. Still, when they finally arrived in front of his dorm¡¯s metal door, his heart was pounding with excitement, and he sheepishly opened the door after mumbling his thanks to the lady. While he had expected the room to look somewhat like a high-class luxury suite with multiple bedrooms, he¡¯d instead entered some kind of empty open area, with a few couches spread sparsely here and there. The room was made from sleek-looking grayish metal that covered every inch of the ground and walls, which gave the common area a warehouse vibe like most buildings'' interiors he¡¯d seen back on Nenov. Five doors were spread evenly across the walls, and Logan could tell these were the individual rooms they¡¯d be staying in. He didn¡¯t get much more time to have more than a glance, however, before a high-pitched voice echoed inside the room. ¡°WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?¡± The voice shouted. ¡°Do they really expect us to live like we¡¯re from the fucking slums for sixteen weeks? Wait until my mom hears about this!¡± Next to her, two other cadets shook their heads in agreement, echoing the girl¡¯s thoughts. A small distance away stood another cadet, who looked at the trio with an indifferent expression. Now, if there was one thing Logan was good at ¡ª at least according to Grandma Al ¡ª it was getting in trouble. So when he heard the girl, a tall 5¡¯10 blonde girl with ocean-blue eyes complaining like a bitchy princess over the dorms, he let out a small chuckle he¡¯d in vain tried to keep in, and four pair of eyes turned on him.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Hum¡­ Hi?¡± He said to the room, hesitantly. ¡°What the fuck does that mean?¡± The blonde girl said after having turned around, revealing pristine features hidden under a very angry frown. Jake was taken by surprise for a moment, and he struggled to find the words as all hopes of the girl having mistaken his laugh for anything else than an insult were blown away by her annoyingly high-pitched voice. ¡°I mean it¡¯s not that bad, there¡¯s couches we can sit on and there''s even a giant holographic display facing them ¡ª ¡± But he didn¡¯t even get to finish before the girl interrupted him with a rageful cry. ¡°And who are you exactly?¡± She asked, although it sounded more like an insult than an actual question, Logan still answered. ¡°My name is Jake Hawkins, it¡¯s nice to meet you. I guess we¡¯ll be roommates for the next four months.¡± He said hesitantly, but instead of replying to him by introducing herself like any normal human being ¡ª or normal living being ¡ª the girl simply gave him a condescending smirk and ignored him. What the actual fuck is wrong with that girl? [If that was you trying to charm the lady I can deduce with 99,8% certainty that you failed. You know what, screw the numbers you definitely did not impress her.] With a sigh, Jake simply made his way toward one of the couches and fell into it. Not only was he as socially inept as a worm, but at least three of his roommates were condescending garbage, and he realized his first interaction at the Academy had gone way worse than in the nightmares he¡¯d had thinking about it the previous night. Suddenly, a small chuckle made him realize he wasn¡¯t alone in the common room, and he shot a glance to his left, where a girl was looking at him, laughing. Even sat down on the couch, it was clear she was almost as tall as he was, and she had long curly brown hair awkwardly stuck in a messy bun, along with piercing brown eyes and a dashing smile. She must have been the most beautiful woman he¡¯d ever seen, and by far, although she still carried herself with the distinct grace and strength of a soldier, when she spoke up to him his heart almost exploded out of his chest. ¡°You¡¯re funny, Hawkins.¡± She said with a smile. ¡°Basic training hasn¡¯t even started yet and you¡¯re already mortal enemies with the Laura King.¡± ¡°Laura King? As in the King Conglomerate?¡± Jake asked. ¡°Precisely.¡± The girl answered with a smile, and he grimaced. I am so fucked. He couldn¡¯t help but despair at his own rotten luck when the girl who was sitting near him spoke up again. Even though he came from the slums of some pisspoor planet 3 whole sectors over, even he knew how powerful the King Conglomerate was. ¡°My name¡¯s Noelle Owens. It¡¯s nice to meet you.¡± He looked at her for a few seconds. After a moment, he simply shrugged his shoulders and answered. ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you too,¡± Jake said, visibly uncomfortable, before he tried changing the subject as he grew progressively more awkward. ¡°So, any idea which room¡¯s mine?¡± He added, motioning at the large bag he was carrying on his back. The thing was extremely heavy as it was filled with everything he owned, and he couldn¡¯t wait to drop it off somewhere. [Wow, you got a chance to talk to a pretty lady here and you go back to your room for a wank? Pathetic.] Shut up, Ed. With a finger, she pointed to the door that was on the immediate right from the entrance, and he got up and walked over to the door, which he opened. As he¡¯d expected, his room consisted of a very small bedroom, with one bed, a nightstand and a closet full of Academy uniforms. To the farthest wall next to his bed, a small entranceway led to a toilet, shower and sink. He dropped his bag on the edge of his bed before he walked back inside the common area, which was now empty. He looked around the room, realizing he was now alone, and sat back on one of the couches. He sat there for a few minutes, going over the functionalities of his new neuroimplant while arguing with Ed when the door swung wide open, which gave Jake a start, and a huge Akari stepped inside the area, and she stayed immobile for a few seconds before she suddenly shouted. ¡°CADETS, GET THE HELL OUT OF YOUR ROOMS.¡± She shouted at the top of her lungs, and Jake shot up to his feet with record speed. An instant later, the other four were standing in line right next to him, unmoving. The Akari were a tall alien species that looked almost identical to humans, except for the fact that they had talons instead of feet and a gigantic pair of black wings fixed to their back, along with a set of pitch-black ram horns glued to their heads. They kind of looked like a weird mix of an eagle, a human and a ram, although comparing them to a ram to their face was akin to declaring war on their entire species, according to the rumours. The officer looked them all up and down for a moment before she let out a dissatisfied sigh and spoke up. ¡°I am First Lieutenant Gwyra, and I will be in charge of your cohort for the next three years.¡± She said, looking at every one of them furiously. ¡°We will begin basic training tomorrow at 0700 sharp. Be sure to be at the first-year training hall by then. Now, you are free to go to the cafeteria if you are hungry but know that there is a curfew in place at 2200. You DON¡¯T want to find out what happens when you get caught outside of your room after curfew.¡± She finished, menacingly, and then she left. Clara gave him a glance for a second, and he was glad to see she was as confused as she was, but they both started making their way toward the cafeteria moments later. As for their three roommates, none of them even spared them a glance, so they knew it¡¯d be futile to ask them to join. They¡¯d barely taken a few steps outside their dorms before a small notification appeared in his line of sight. [Destination set to Dining Hall] He gave the text a puzzled expression for a second, and he was about to ask Ed for clarifications when he looked in front of him, where a giant blue arrow at the very top of his line of sight looked to be pointing to his right, and that''s when he understood what was happening. That GPS function was pretty cool. They made their way across the giant hallway of the dormitory before they stepped outside the building through the main gate. Once more, Jake was taken aback by the beauty of the giant outdoor compound, and he couldn¡¯t help but look all around as they walked and he made small talk with Noelle. A minute or so later, they stepped inside the dining hall. While he¡¯d already caught a glimpse of the dining hall from afar a few minutes earlier when Mrs. Abrahams had brought him from the infirmary to his room, he was still as shocked as he¡¯d been the first time when he¡¯d entered the dome-like greenhouse that was littered with so many trees and plants that one could have believed this was a park instead of a cafeteria. A glance at Owens told him she too was extremely amazed to see such a sight. The whole building was akin to a giant greenhouse and was almost entirely made out of glass to allow for a maximum of natural light, and the insides were filled with various fruit trees, vegetables, and other comestible plants. Almost everything except the biggest trees seemed to be grown out of the same, giant hydroponic system and the whole thing was one of the most impressive things he¡¯d ever witnessed, as the area offered the perfect blend of nature and technology. To his right, a small area was filled with students who formed a straight line and both of them made their way to the end of the queue. It only took about two minutes for them to be left standing in front of a small counter, behind which a robot with more arms than he could count stood, soundlessly. Suddenly, Jake¡¯s neuroimplant flared up and he heard Ed¡¯s voice inside his mind. [Don¡¯t just stand there you idiot, take your plate and eat!] He was taken aback for a moment, but he glanced back at the small counter in front of him and realized trays were now standing in front of him and Cadet Owens respectively. They grabbed their trays and made their way to the nearest table before finally sitting down right next to a beautiful flowering tree, growing right next to a patch of lettuce. The whole time they¡¯d walked from the counter to their seats, their eyes had been glued to the trees, flowers and plants that surrounded them, but once they finally glanced at their plate, Jake hadn¡¯t managed to keep his voice down. ¡°An entire fucking chicken, veggies, two entire bowls of rice AND a whole litre of water? What the hell?¡± He almost shouted, and he looked at Owens¡¯ plate next. Although she also had roasted chicken as the main dish, her plate only contained two fist-sized amounts of it with a bowl of rice with veggies and potatoes. It was still a lot ¡ª too much even ¡ª but his plate was simply ridiculous by comparison. He didn¡¯t have to wonder for long, however, before a notification appeared in the corner of his eye. [I¡¯ve taken the liberty of starting you on a new dietary protocol, I call it: Bulking season baby!] Jake stared at the text, his mind going a thousand miles a minute before he finally spoke up. ¡°But why?¡± He said aloud, and he saw from the corner of his eye that Owens was cracking herself up at the sight. [Because you look like a skinny little bitch, and I can¡¯t have that. Now eat up or it¡¯ll get cold.] Jake stared at the text for a second once more, and he thought back to the words of First Lieutenant Neilr, who¡¯d told him word-for-word to just do whatever his implant told him to do from now on. He let out another exasperated sigh, and he grabbed his fork and knife before he finally dug in. Even if he had been extremely hungry at the start, he had only been halfway through his plate when he¡¯d started feeling full. In fact, he¡¯d only kept going due to another notification flaring up in the corner of his eye. [Skinny bitch. Don¡¯t forget I have full control over your brain functions. In simpler words: don¡¯t finish your plate and I¡¯ll make your life hell, bro.] ¡°That damn AI is starting to get on my fucking nerves¡± Luke muttered between two spoonfuls of rice. He looked back to Owens in front of him, who was almost done with her meal and had started attacking the jug of water next to her plate. ¡°First time with a neuroimplant?¡± She asked, but she didn¡¯t even wait for an answer before she continued. ¡°I¡¯ve had one my whole life, or at least as long as I remember¡­ didn¡¯t like it at first, but there¡¯s a reason they say the implant alone is worth going through basic training. What¡¯s more, the Alliance-issued models are miles above even the best ones that are available through civilian markets.¡± [She¡¯s not wrong.] Jake ignored the text, instead trying his hardest to make small talk with Owens. He would probably be spending at least an hour and a half in the cafeteria to finish this mountain of a meal, so might as well kill the time and talk with the beautiful girl. Furthermore, after his interaction with King earlier, he was pretty sure she¡¯d be the only roommate to ever speak to him during the 16 weeks they¡¯d be stuck here together. Unsurprisingly, Clara Owens¡¯ parents were part of a family which had a long history of birthing high-ranked military officers and pretty much all of her family members were either on active duty or retired from active duty. Her family¡¯s reputation in the Alliance was above that of King¡¯s although she was by far much more humble than the blonde. Most of her family lived on Mars ¡ª one of the most populated planets of sector 1, along with Earth ¡ª and had arranged to send her to the academy before she¡¯d even been born. Still, even though she knew she¡¯d never had much of a choice, she still insisted she was here out of her own accord. Jake had listened to her talk about her upbringing for almost an hour, even asking her multiple questions at times. He was amazed at how different their lives had been until now. She¡¯d grown up being tutored by the best teachers in the sector, surrounded by family members who invested large amounts of time and resources in her education so she could one day join the army and make them proud. Jake, on the other hand, had only ever known Grandma Al and had never really been spared a thought by the rest of the world. She was the rising star of an all-powerful family, while he was invisible. When she¡¯d asked about where he grew up, he¡¯d been intentionally vague, simply saying he was from Ender, as he didn¡¯t want the girl to know he was from the slums. After a while, however, Ed finally spoke up through his mind. [She¡¯s weird as hell, although you¡¯re by far weirder. I¡¯ll keep an eye on her though.] He wasn¡¯t exactly sure what the implant meant by ¡°keeping an eye on her¡±, but he still thanked Ed for his service while making a mental note to stop by the infirmary and have his implant double-checked by the Kreigen. Still, Jake ended up having a great time and after two entire hours spent talking at the cafeteria since he hadn¡¯t been able to eat his meal any faster for fear of throwing up, they¡¯d both made their way back to their dorm. As soon as they got back, Jake said his goodbyes to Owens before he went back inside his room and prepared himself to sleep. [Kid, you really suck at girls. It¡¯s painful to watch, if I had eyes and ears I¡¯d close them every time a girl is in your vicinity. Unfortunately, I don''t, and I am forced to endure this torture.] He ignored the implant and entered the small shower before brushing his teeth and putting on clean underwear. He¡¯d barely reached his bed when a notification came into view again. [Time to go to sleep] ¡°What? I can¡¯t sleep now; it''s not even 2000!¡± Jake almost shouted in disgust. A small countdown appeared in the upper right corner of his field of view. He¡¯d initially wanted to ask the implant about any other functionalities he had, but when the countdown had gone from ten to five, another notification appeared. [ Might want to get into bed now, kiddo. Unless you¡¯re fine with sleeping on the floor, it¡¯s your call.] Jake¡¯s heart sank. He had no way to know for sure but he suddenly had a very bad feeling about this whole countdown thing, and he jumped onto his bed as fast as he could, slid into his covers before one final message came into view. [Goodnight.] And then the fatigue hit, and Jake finally understood what Ed had meant by the fact that he had access to his brain functions in their totality. Gone were the days of having trouble falling asleep, he thought, as he realized the neuroimplant had put him to sleep. Chapter 2: Awakening
The next morning, Jake woke up at 0600 sharp, and he immediately noticed something was wrong as soon as he stepped out of bed. He¡¯d always been a heavy sleeper, and it was common for him to sleep through multiple alarms until his poor grandma finally decided she¡¯d had enough and simply hit him repeatedly until he got up. All of this to say, there was no way in hell he¡¯d just woken up at 0600 all by himself, without an alarm waking him up. [You snore like an ogre, dude. It¡¯s going to take me weeks to fix that.] He ignored the text ¡ª along with the fact that Ed had somehow insinuated he could make his snoring stop ¡ª and instead held his arms up in the air and stretched as he let out a yawn. He wasn¡¯t sure he¡¯d ever slept that well before, and he was extremely surprised to see that he didn¡¯t feel the usual grogginess from waking up. Ed, why do I feel so great? I feel like I¡¯ve slept 15 hours and then drank a litre of caffeine. Also, what the hell is an ¡°Ogre¡±? [That kid, is the power of hormones. I raised your melatonin level last night, which made you fall asleep instantly. Afterwards, I improved your body¡¯s recovery speed by triggering the right hormones, proteins and body functions. Then this morning, I messed around with your hormones again and boom, there you are. As for the ogre, don¡¯t worry about it.] That''s¡­ insane. [No, kiddo. It¡¯s science.] Afterwards, Jake spent around ten minutes putting his uniform on and brushing his teeth, and when he stepped out of his room, he fell face to face with King, who didn¡¯t even spare him a glance before she snorted and walked out of the common room into the hallway. Good morning to you too, he mused after the two boys following closely behind the girl everywhere she went ¡ª Jake hadn¡¯t caught their names yet ¡ª passed him to catch up with King who was on her way outside the dorm. The two guys were both tall, with brown hair and brown eyes, although one of them looked a little chunkier than the other. Overall, their features looked a lot similar, and they might have been brothers, Jake realized. An instant later, however, a door opened up and Owens stepped out of her room, dressed in the same black and red uniform as Jake. It was a type of combat suit made of a hyper-resistant carbon mesh that was way too tight for his taste, although he had to admit the suit looked a hell of a lot better on Owens than it did on him. Overall, the suit was both incredibly sturdy and slick, as well as being so light and flexible you could barely feel the whole thing. In a fight, the suit would be able to absorb a small amount of damage, although most weapons these days were able to go through small protections like these like they were butter. An instant later, Owens and Jake were making their way toward the cafeteria, and he couldn¡¯t help but feel a sense of dread as he approached the dining hall. Yesterday, he¡¯d learned that Ed was essentially responsible for the food that ended up on his tray. The implant tailor-made each meal so that they would be the best suited for his dietary needs, and Ed had decided that he needed to gain 30 pounds of lean muscle mass, which resulted in the implants trying to force feed him these gigantic meals through taunting. By the time he¡¯d finally arrived in front of the service robot, his heart was full on hammering the insides of his ribs, before he finally grabbed his tray with a dead look in his eyes. He was so scared to look down at the content of his tray, that he didn¡¯t even spare the food a glance before he finally sat down next to Owens. As he did, he looked down at his plate and almost yelped. The entire plate was filled from corner to corner with a mountain of steak, and two more bowls of rice were sitting next to it, along with a bowl of soup and a whole platter of fruits. An entire steak, in the fucking morning. He still felt full from the chicken he¡¯d eaten the night before, and now he had to do it all over again, and for a moment there he felt sick. But that''s when he noticed something he¡¯d been looking forward to: coffee. [Bulking season baby. Fuck with me today and the coffee is gone tomorrow] With a sigh, Jake ignored Ed, picked up his utensils and started eating. While yesterday, he¡¯d had more than two hours to finish his meal, this morning he had to gulp the entire thing in less than forty minutes if he wanted to make it on time to class. In the seat next to him, he was almost relieved to see that Owens seemed to have a plate that was almost as big as his own this time, and he could tell from her expression she wouldn¡¯t be laughing at him this time around. In the end, Jake had ended up almost throwing up when he¡¯d gulped down the last of his rice in one go, and the both of them had managed to make it in time to the training hall. Upon arriving inside the building, they made their way next to the other cadets who all stood in two orderly lines in front of the teachers. The training hall was a building of huge proportions, consisting of a gigantic dome-like space separated into three distinct sections. The left-most part of the facility was a classroom, although there wasn¡¯t anything in the whole room in terms of holographic display, tablets or any technology whatsoever you could usually find inside a typical classroom, which was probably because their implants would be able to do all of these things moving forward, Jake assumed. In the center part of the facility, which was the part they were currently standing in, the space was inherently empty and the floors were covered with mats. Finally, Jake shot a glance to his right where the remaining area was filled with various weights, strength training equipment and other devices he didn¡¯t recognize. By the time 0700 arrived, First Lieutenant Gwyra was standing in the center of the hall, arms crossed, looking furious. Next to her stood one other training officer, standing a step beside her and looking equally pissed. The students, on the other hand, all shot mortified looks at each other for a minute or two, as nobody dared to ask the officer why she was still silent even though it was a few minutes past 0700. Finally, three students entered the room at the same time, panting, before they started running toward the class. Jake looked at First Lieutenant Gwyra, trying to see what her reaction would be when he blinked, and she was gone. He hadn¡¯t been the only one to see the officer disappear out of thin air because most students started looking around for the teacher, and then all pairs of eyes turned toward the three students. In front of the students stood the First Lieutenant, and she stayed still for what felt like an eternity, and Jake could see the student¡¯s expression turning white. ¡°Second-lieutenant. It seems we have found some volunteers for a visit to the isolation room. If you would please take these three for the remainder of the week, I¡¯d be most grateful.¡± Her words were like ice on the students¡¯ faces and the three of them grimaced before they followed the officer to wherever the isolation rooms were. Jake couldn¡¯t help but take one last glance at the Second Lieutenant, a Zerkan. The Zerkan species closely resembled humans, except for the fact that they were around a foot shorter on average and that their skin was completely blue and their eyes as big as an average human¡¯s closed fists. Furthermore, their facial features were a little bit narrower around the chin and larger around the forehead, which gave them an odd look.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°Cadet Hawkins.¡± The First Lieutenant¡¯s voice was low and subdued, but he still grimaced. She was back in front of the class as fast as she had disappeared, and everybody was looking at her except Jake, who had been preoccupied with staring at the Zerkan for a few seconds now. ¡°We do have a fourth room available if you are interested.¡± ¡°N-No ma¡¯am!¡± He replied anxiously, wondering once more how she¡¯d moved across the room in an instant like that. She stared at him for a second, during which a chill went down Jake¡¯s spine, and he let out a silent sigh of relief when she finally went on with her class. ¡°Now, I hope all of you are aware that this will be the only warning you ever receive about being late to class during the next three years.¡± She said Among the class, nobody even dared to look at anybody but the First Lieutenant. She had a commanding presence and her features were hard, almost mean, which was enough to discourage anyone from even breathing too loudly when she spoke. ¡°Usually, I would start by introducing myself as well as the Second Lieutenant Valadis¡± She started, pausing for a second to scrutinize the room. ¡°But it seems like today is going to be a little bit different.¡± She said, giving the cadets a wide smirk. ¡°For those of you who haven¡¯t figured that out already, I am First Lieutenant Gwyra, and I will be your training officer for the next sixteen weeks¡± The officer kept still for a few seconds, and then she continued. ¡°This training hall will be where we¡¯ll all be spending most of our time for the foreseeable future. While we are in the hall, you will keep quiet unless I have authorized you to talk, and most importantly you will under no circumstance argue or talk back to me.¡± ¡°YES MA¡¯AM!¡± The cadets shouted back. ¡°Good. Now please follow me to the classroom.¡± For the third time today, First Lieutenant Gwyra disappeared out of thin air, only to reappear far away to their left in front of the rows of seats. The cadets started walking toward the hall when a shout echoed through the whole training hall. ¡°I DO NOT HAVE THE ENTIRE FUCKING DAY, CADETS.¡± Instantly, the 47 cadets all dashed to their seats, and only a few seconds later, Officer Gwyra spoke up again. ¡°Every day from 0700 to 1200 and from 1300 to 1800, you¡¯ll be in this class with me.¡± Suddenly, a giant holographic display flared to life behind her, and lines of text started appearing as she kept talking. ¡°During the first semester, most of our time will be spent focusing on the basics of the basics. As you already have access to all the information you could ever need thanks to your implants, we will cover very few theorics during training and the basics will consist of mostly building up your attributes and improving your skills. You¡¯ll be taught everything about combat from hand to hand fighting to firing with a biotic gun. Then she took a second to look at everyone, gazing at the cadets with her piercing eyes, before she finally spoke up again. ¡°Finally, we¡¯ll proceed with your awakening no later than at the end of the day.¡± Jake looked at Owens next to him with a puzzled expression, and she only gave him a small knowing smirk. Even he knew what the awakening was, but he¡¯d expected it was something that would happen toward the end of basic training, not at the start.
Jake had barely managed to keep the steak he¡¯d eaten earlier in his stomach during the three hours they¡¯d spent running, jumping, sprinting and doing various other basic strength exercises like pull-ups and push-ups. They¡¯d spent the last two hours getting a crash course over their implant¡¯s capabilities as well as anything else they might need to know for their awakening this afternoon. Whille awakening was a simple process, it was a very risky undertaking and one needed to be very well prepared for it. They were now all standing in front of the First Lieutenant, panting, and the officer looked even more pissed than she¡¯d been when they¡¯d stepped through the training hall this morning. ¡°This generation sucks.¡± First Lieutenant Gwyra said before she continued, and Second Lieutenant Voladis simply nodded, before letting out a sigh of his own. ¡°You¡¯re all dismissed. Be back here before 1300, although I wouldn¡¯t mind sending some more of you idiots to the hole if you¡¯re up for it.¡± Jake turned to his left, and he could see that Owens looked almost as bad as he felt. Her dark black hair was a mess and her skin was covered in sweat, and she looked back at him with a grimace, and he replied with a groan. [Dining Hall, here we come ] His entire body was so sore he could barely walk, but he painfully made his way back to the cafeteria with Owens trailing next to him, although she showed no signs of fatigue or soreness as they made their way to the dining hall. As Jake sat down, he was almost relieved to see that his plate was filled with salmon, roasted veggies and a bowl of rice. The whole thing almost seemed to be of reasonable proportions this time, but he instantly regretted thinking that much after taking a few bites, as he still felt full and bloated from the last meal he¡¯d eaten that morning. Like always, it was a veritable supplice to eat the entire thing, but some taunting from his neuroimplant had done the trick once again in making him keep going, out of ego. He and Owens had barely spoken a word during the entire break, and Jake was glad she seemed to understand he wasn¡¯t in the mood for chatter at the moment. After they¡¯d both finished their plates, they went back to their dorm and immediately headed for their beds without a word, and at that time, he hadn¡¯t needed Ed¡¯s help for him to instantly fall asleep. When he woke up around fifteen minutes later, his body was so sore he had a hard time getting out of bed. Still, he arduously made his way out of the covers, which now weighed a ton for some reason, and he stepped out of his room. From a glance, he could see that every single one of his four roommates were heading for the door, and Jake was glad that King and her followers seemed too tired to mock him for now. Owens waited for him to catch up beside the door while the three others slowly made their way toward the training hall. When they¡¯d arrived in the large hall a few minutes later, it was obvious their dorm hadn¡¯t been the only one to be feeling like shit after this morning¡¯s training. The large majority of students looked to be struggling to stand up straight, and they looked so tired Jake guessed he wasn¡¯t the only one who would have skipped the afternoon classes if it weren¡¯t for their barbarian instructing officer. Out of the whole class, only a few, including Owens, still looked somewhat fresh even after the gruesome morning training. To his great displeasure, Laura King was among them. As soon as 1300 hit, First Lieutenant Gwyra spoke up. ¡°I¡¯m glad everyone got the message. Now, who can tell me what biotic energy is?¡± She asked, and King instantly raised her hand. ¡°King.¡± Instantly, the girl seemed to perk up like a puppy who¡¯d been offered a treat, and Jake couldn¡¯t help but give her a disgusted look as she spoke up. ¡°It¡¯s a form of energy that exists almost everywhere across the universe, and every living being can absorb it naturally, although the awakening acts as a sort of attunement to that very energy, allowing the awakened to wield that energy as naturally as they would move an arm. It can also be used by our bodies as a nourishment to improve beyond what can be considered physically possible, or to accomplish all sorts of incredible feats, like that time this morning you seemed to teleport.¡± King said, with a smug face that made Jake want to barf. ¡°Very well. However, all o you need to be aware that biotic energy is incredibly hard to cultivate and use, and it will take years for most of you to grow strong enough to use even the most basic of skills during combat. For our first class, the main goal will be to have each of you awaken, and then have each of you learn a basic technique that will help you grow these powers.¡± The Akira added. ¡°I want everyone sitting down on the ground, now.¡± Jake executed, his heart pounding inside his chest. He stared at the First Lieutenant as she stayed still for a moment, and he almost looked at Owens to see whether or not he was the only one not feeling anything different, but then it hit him. In an instant,hke felt a pressure on his body like the gravity had grown tenfold, and he barely managed to stay upright. [ Awakening initiated. 1% ] After a few seconds, a small progress bar appeared at the bottom of his vision, and his expression turned horrified when he realized the progress bar had only filled to two percent after a few seconds. If the progress was as slow during the rest of the process, he¡¯d be sat there for a few minutes at least. With a wince, he looked to his right, and he could see that everyone seemed to be struggling with the mysterious pressure as well. Half a minute later, the pressure turned into pain and he closed his eyes shut for what felt like an eternity. By the time the awakening had reached its end, the pain was so intense he almost blacked out for a second, and he wished with all his heart he could end his supplice one way or another. Just when panic had started to take hold of him, he heard Ed¡¯s voice shouting a blurry of incomprehensible words, and he decided to take a look at the progress bar for the first time since the start of the torture. [100%] As soon as he saw the progress bar filled up to the max, relief overcame his mind and body, and he felt the pain whisk away into the darkness before he lost consciousness. Chapter 3: The First Step When he finally woke up again, the first thing Jake saw was the worried face of the First Lieutenant looming over him. He slowly sat up, wincing painfully as he looked around trying to figure out where he was. ¡°Relax, cadet. You¡¯ve only passed out for a few seconds, you should be fine.¡± Jake looked at the officer, his thoughts starting to slow down for the first time since he¡¯d woken up. He was about to ask the Lieutenant what had happened when he was interrupted by his status screen appearing in front of him, along with lines of text. Status Name: Jake Hawkins Rank: Cadet Energy Core: 20/20 Recovery Rate: 0.1 He read through the text, his brows furrowing more and more as he went through each subsequent notification. ¡°It seems like you¡¯ve passed out from the shock of awakening, I''ve never seen it happen before but I hear it¡¯s something that happens from time to time. You should be fine in a few minutes.¡± Officer Gwyra looked to the side and met eyes with Officer Valadis, with the both of them looking concerned. Jake had never heard about anyone passing out from awakening before, not that anything about the awakened was common knowledge anyways, but he felt anxious at the thought that something might have gone wrong. Jake looked all around him, and he could see the sneers on all of the other cadet¡¯s faces. He¡¯d never heard of such a thing happening before, yet he could tell from the other expressions it was most likely bad. [Don¡¯t worry kid, you¡¯re going to be fine] How do you know? [You¡¯re core¡¯s capacity is a lot smaller than average, which means the amount of energy the Akira released to trigger your awakening was too much for you to handle. But don¡¯t worry, you pulled through in the end and there are no subsiding issues, as far as I am aware of. Wait, that¡¯s fucking bad then, what should we do? Jake shouted internally. [Don¡¯t worry, a core¡¯s capacity is very easy to increase, it only gives the others a head start on you, although in your case the head start is tremendous.] Jake stood still for a moment. What the fuck are you on? [I assure you, as long as you trust me and do as I say I¡¯ll make a powerhouse out of you kiddo.] He was about to sit up when a powerful hand grabbed him under the arm and lifted him like he barely weighed anything more than a feather. ¡°Here you go, cadet.¡± Second Lieutenant Mayers said. Jake looked around for the second time, and he could see most of the other cadets speaking in ushed tones between themselves. On the other hand, the commotion wore off instantly when the First Lieutenant spoke up. ¡°Everybody listen up!¡± She waited a few seconds for every cadet to quickly turn back toward her, then continued. ¡°Although we¡¯ve been sidetracked for a few minutes, I expect all of you to refocus on the task at hand. I¡¯m sure you have a lot of questions right now, but let¡¯s go through this one step at a time. The first thing you need to know is that you¡¯ve been awakened, which by itself comes with a lot of benefits.¡± She held up a hand, and an instant later a glowing ball of swirling energies materialized in her hand. ¡°This is biotic energy, and it can be used by the awakened to accomplish various things, like this ball of pure energy here. If I threw this thing at one of you guys, you¡¯d die.¡± Was that a threat? [Sure was.] ¡°Biotic energy is the foundation of the awakened and their powers, and with time and dedication, this power can grow strong enough to level entire planets and decimate armies with the wave of a hand. To do that, however, you will first need to start with the very first step.¡± With a shake of her hand, the glowing ball of energy simply dissipated in a woosh, before she went on with her explanations. ¡°Now if you could please open up your status screens, I will provide you with further information.¡± The Akira said, and every cadet obeyed. Status Name: Jake Hawkins Rank: Cadet Energy Core: 20/20 Recovery Rate: 0.1 Base attributes Strength: 3 Dexterity: 6 Constitution: 3 Recovery: 3 Perception: 7 Cognition: 12 Specs [ None ] Skills [ None ] ¡°The first thing you¡¯ll notice is that your implant has added a measure of your overall biotic energy capacity and recovery, which doesn¡¯t really need any explanation. If your biotic energy reaches zero, you will faint, and probably injure yourself and die, so don¡¯t go there unless it is absolutely necessary.¡± Immediately, Ed¡¯s voice echoed inside his brain to clarify a few things about the training officer¡¯s explanation. [Usually, newly awakened have a natural biotic energy capacity of nearly 100 to 150 units, with the most talented of them reaching as high as 200. As for their recovery, most of them have a recovery speed of around one unit per minute, with some of them even reaching two units. I guess what I¨¨m trying to say here is: you suck.] The implant''s words felt like burning water on an open wound to Jake, who had hoped his situation wasn¡¯t nearly as bad as the implant had first made it out to be. Unfortunately, he now realized it was way worse than he could have ever imagined. ¡°Now, as for the last two sections of your status screen, I guess you will see for yourself soon enough.¡± With a wave of her hand, a small cubic box appeared on the ground next to her, and the Akira only waited a brief moment before finally explaining what was going on. ¡°Every one of you will come and get a small marble from the box over here, and then you¡¯ll all go back to your seat and await for further instruction.¡± One by one, every cadet went to the front of the classroom to pick a small bead inside the mysterious box. Every marble was made out of some unknown metal, and Jake immediately noticed the small metallic marble was a lot heavier than an object of this size would have originally suggested. ¡°Now, you should all receive a small prompt through your implant in a few seconds.¡± Jake only had to wait a few seconds before a small line of text appeared in his line of sight. [You¡¯ve received a digital grimoire. Learn Basic Telekinesis? (Yes/No)] [Digital grimoires can contain either skills or specs, and can be obtained through various ways by the awakened. They are essentially imprits, and with the help implants, they can be used to instantly learn skills or specs within a matter of seconds. Since their invention, no one really bothers learning skills and specs any other way, since it¡¯s so convenient.] As always, Ed provided aditional explanations during the training officer¡¯s class, and it was the Akira expected the implants to handle most of the teaching, since she didn¡¯t bother teaching them anything beyond the basics. ¡°Once you¡¯re done learning the skill, you can start using it to make the small marble in your hand levitate. Don¡¯t worry too much about how to do it and just follow your instincts. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find that skills learned through digital grimoires are very convenient to learn and use under very little time. Once you¡¯ve used the skill for a minute or so, you¡¯ll run out of biotic energy, so please head to the conditioning area where Second Lieutenant Valadis will take care of the second part of today¡¯s training.¡± Without a moment of hesitation, Jake sat back down at his desk and held the hand holding the small marble in front of him. Then, an instant later, the marble was moving around in the palm of his hand from one side to another, although it was still far from floating. It was a weird sensation for him to be able to use telekinesis as easily right away, and it felt like he¡¯d known how to do it for all of his life.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. It only took around five or six seconds before an intense pain started to radiate inside his stomach, and that¡¯s when the extent of his limitations were once more brought to light as he used his energy core for the first time. The pain increased progressively until Jake lost his concentration on the skill and the pebble in his hand finally settled down, with Jake looking at his palm with a look of disbelief. He still opened his status screen with a thought, wanting to confirm whether or not his hunch was right or not. Status Name: Jake Hawkins Rank: Cadet Energy Core: 2/20 Recovery Rate: 0.1 You¡¯ve go to be fucking kidding me. After only five seconds of casting Lesser Telekinesis, his core was already empty. He looked around to see every other cadet still levitating their marble with great ease, and Owens to his left making the marble spin in wide circles over her head like she¡¯d been doing this her entire life. Ashamed, he stepped up from his chair and made his way toward the conditioning area, with everyone around him shooting him surprised or mocking glances. The two officers in particular exchanged a confused look for a few seconds, although only for a brief moment. When he arrived in front of Officer Valadiss, the small Zerkan instantly spoke up. ¡°How much time until you¡¯re core¡¯s full again?¡± [200 minutes] Ed answered in his mind and Jake told the officer as much a second later. The officer almost grimaced but seemed to think better of it at the last moment, and simply asked him to wait for the others to finish so they could take care of the second part of today¡¯s training. [Stop worrying so much, kid. Since you can¡¯t use your biotic energy a lot for now, we¡¯re simply going to have to go at this a different way, starting with building up your body and increasing your core¡¯s capacity. Might be a little gruesome but you¡¯re going to catch up in no time, just trust me.] For once, Jake was glad for his new implant and he was thankful that his usual pettiness had been replaced with compassion somehow. Moments later, the last of the other cadets were finally joining the rest of them in the middle of the open area. Unsurprisingly, Owens was the last of the cadets to arrive, and as soon as she did, Second Lieutenant Valadis spoke up. ¡°Thanks to the first Lieutenant, you¡¯ve all had hands on experience with skills a moment ago, which uses biotic energy to accomplish various feats. However, my job today will be to introduce you to the concept of specs.¡± [You¡¯ve received a digital grimoire. Learn Basic Reinforcement? (Yes/No)] ¡°In contrast to skills, specs provide a passive boost to your abilities, requiring no active expenditure of biotic energy to activate. However, training your specs will require a continuous and substantial drain of biotic energy. The best way to manage this is with the help of your implant. It can use a portion of your energy recovery to feed into the spec, strengthening your body. This will, in turn, grant permanent bonuses to attributes or energy capacity, for example.¡± [How much of your biotic energy recovery do you want to allocate toward improving your spec? I suggest to use all of it at night, and only half during the day so that you can at least practice telekinesis a few times a day, although I really suggest focusing on your spec for now. ¡°We¡¯ll do as you say for now, let¡¯s focus on reaching 100 units in core capacity before we do anything else. When class finally ended at 1800, Jake had spent the last four hours going through some gruesome conditioning, and he¡¯d barely managed to use telekinesis twice, and only for a few seconds. The good news was that officer Valadis had revealed to him that conditioning would greatly benefit the speed at which the Basic Reinforcement spec progressed. Although not all specs could be improved that way, the basic reinforcement one could, and it was the main reason why they were using this particular spec for basic training. As a result, he¡¯d spent the whole class training his body as much as he could, while Ed had allocated Jake¡¯s entire energy recovery into improving the spec. Jake picked himself up and slowly headed for the exit. His first day at the Academy had been utterly underwhelming, as he¡¯d found himself lightyears behind every other cadet. While Ed had promised him he would be able to catch up provided he worked harder than everyone else, he still had to consciously force himself to stand upright and keep his chin high as he exited the class. He was headed to the dining hall when Owens suddenly appeared right next to him, and she looked concerned as she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Jake looked at the girl for a few seconds. He had expected the girl to simply ignore him ever since he¡¯d awakened as a failure, but for some reason it hadn¡¯t been the case. After a few seconds, he gave her a small thankful smile, before finally answering. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine. Disappointed, but fine.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be too worried about starting at a disadvantage. To be honest, my father was also considered a failure when he first awakened, n-not that you are a failure or anything. But he ended up growing into one of the strongest awakened of his promotuion, so what I¡¯m trying to say is to not be too discouraged with today. So long as you work hard, you¡¯ll catch up in not time.¡± Jake knew she was trying to make him feel better, yet she was so bad at it he couldn¡¯t help but let out a small chuckle in response, which evolved in a full blown laugh. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll work extra hard to catch up with you, you don¡¯t need to worry about me giving up or anything.¡± Owens was about to respond in turn when they finally reached the dorms. They stepped inside the large door that led to the common area, where an unexpected guest was waiting for them. An old woman was sat on one of the couches, near which a kettle of tea was still lightly steaming on the adjoining table. ¡°Grandma Al!¡± Jake called out to her, and she instantly turned her head toward him before giving him her usual smile. She gestured at Jake to come sit with her, and he almost ran over to the couch next to hers. Owens awkwardly took the seat next to his after Grandma Al signalled her to do so, before pouring a cup to each of the cadets. ¡°Good evening, dear. My name¡¯s Alice, but you¡¯re free to call me Grandma Al like this idiot does.¡± She said to Owens, who still looked somewhat nervous. With a shaky voice, Owens introduced herself awkwardly to the woman in turn, and Grandma Al seemed to like her because she offered the girl a very wide and pleasant smile. Then, after a few seconds, she turned back toward Jake and the smile on her face had completely disappeared. ¡°I hear your first day hasn¡¯t gone quite like you¡¯d expected?¡± She finally said after taking a few sips of tea. Jake looked at her and he could see she had meant no harm with that statement, although it still stung to know that even his grandmother had learned how miserable his first day at the academy had gone. ¡°Could have gone better, but at least I can say I¡¯m an awakened now.¡± For almost a full minute, she simply nodded and continued to drink her tea in complete silence. Jake had long become used to those long stretches of silence where Grandma Al seemed to enter through more and more lately, so he simply sat there and waited for her to continue. Next to her, Owens had noticeably calmed down after a while, and she was drinking tea in silence with the other two. ¡°I¡¯ve come to tell you that I¡¯m going away on a special assignment for the school. We won¡¯t be seeing much of each other for the remainder of the trimester.¡± Jake was taken aback by the statement for a moment, and he almost choked on his tea as a result. ¡°Where are you going? Also, what does the Academy need out of a janitor?¡± ¡°Cleaning, of course. Now I can¡¯t tell you where I¡¯m going, and please keep the fact that I am going way to yourself. You too, miss Owens.¡± He looked at her with a puzzled expression. The fcat that his grandma was going away on a special assignment for the school was suspicious in and of itself, but the fact she needed to keep it a secret for whatever reason was the cherry on top. It was only after she looked straight at him intently for a few seconds that Jake realized she was dead serious, and that''s when he finally nodded, still a little confused. He didn¡¯t really understand what was going on, but he would make a point of keeping the secret the best he could. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll need to be going now, but before I go, I want you to have this.¡± Grandma Al suddenly said as she turned toward Jake, before she took out a small metallic object from her uniform¡¯s pocket. In Jake¡¯s hand, a small pendant made out of a metal alloy he¡¯d never seen before stood in the palm of his hand. ¡°It was your father¡¯s. It¡¯s one of the few things we recovered from his body the day they died. I hear it can be quite helpful for the awakened, so it¡¯s yours now.¡± Jake was taken aback by the present, and he was about to voice his thanks to Grandma Al when Ed went crazy inside his brain and started screaming. [AN ARTIFACT!! IT¡¯S AN ARTIFACT.] Now, Jake didn¡¯t know much about the world of the awakened, but even he knew what an artifact was, and Ed confirmed his earlier guess when a definiton popped up in jis field of view. [Artifacts are objects that can grant powerful boons to their awakened wearers, similar to the bonuses granted by specs.] What does this one do? [It grants a biotic energy recovery bonus of +1, which means the amount of time needed for you to completely refill your core has gone down from 200 to 20 minutes. That is massive, kiddo, you just multiplied your biotic recovery over 10 times!] Jake couldn¡¯t believe his eyes, and he looked back to Grandma Al before he finally thanked her profusely for the pendant. His eyes shot back to the small medallion, on which a majestic hawk was carved beautifully. He turened the pendant around, only to find his name was carved out of the back of the medallion, surprising him even more so than the gift. Jake Hawkins ¡°Your dad gifted this necklace to your mom on the day you were born, and she wore it as a good luck charm on the front lines. They had originally intended it to be a gift for you, once you awakened.¡± Jake looked back to Grandma Al, who was staring off into the empty space looking almost depressed, but he didn¡¯t interrupt her. Finally, they made conversation for a couple more minutes before Grandma Al finally had to go and said her goodbyes to the two cadets. Jake was weirdly reminded of all the times he¡¯d had to say goodbye to Grandma Al whenever he¡¯d depart for boarding school at the beginning of the school year. It was only a few moments later that Owens said her goodbyes to him as well and Jake was left alone in the middle of the dorm. For the first time in a while, he felt sad. Yet, as he held on to his necklace tightly in the palm of his hand, he somehow felt like the motivation he¡¯d lost earlier today had found its way back to him, stronger than ever. He went back inside his room, and like the day before, showered and cleaned himself up from the arduous day of training. Before going to bed, he spent a couple of seconds making the marble levitate and even tried to do the same with his toothbrush, which was way easier since it was much lighter than the mysterious metallic marble, but even then he only managed to lift the thing for around a dozen seconds before the headache. Finally, he was about to go to bed when a small notification popped up to the corner of his eye, along with Ed¡¯s voice echoing inside his mind. [Your recovery has now reached a new total of 1.1 units per minute, which means it¡¯s around just as high as every other cadet in your promotion, if we exclude a few outliers, so we have a lot more options than we initially did concerning your training.] ¡°I want you to allocate a whole unit into improving my basic reinforcement spec. Our main goal for now is going to be to improve my attributes as well as my core. Until I¡¯ve caught up on that front, Basic Telekinesis can suck it.¡± [Very well.] Finally, Jake painfully made his way into bed as his body protested against the fatigue and soreness accumulated during the day. Still, for the first time since this morning, a wide grin was plastered on Jake¡¯s face as he slowly fell into a deep slumber for the night. Chapter 4: Combat Training An entire week had gone by since Jake¡¯s awakening, and every subsequent day had been a brutal testimony of just how bad that day had turned out for him. It had only taken the rest of the cadets a day or two to decide he wasn¡¯t worth a credit as an awakened, and he had been actively discriminated against ever since. Snarky comments, disdained looks and blatantly obvious bullying were now all part of his daily routine as a trainee, and every cadet avoided him like the plague as much as they could. Only Owens, for reasons that Jake still couldn¡¯t begin to understand, hadn¡¯t been shaken off the slightest by his new top-tier garbage status amongst the cadets. Although one thing was sure, even though she was by far the strongest awakened among the trainees, she was just as easily rejected by the rest of their promotion. Thanfully, her presence alone had discouraged many cadets of taking advantage of their superior abilities, and he¡¯d never been directly attacked by one of the other cadets since they were most likely scared of the girl¡¯s powers. [The nail that sticks out gets hammered first] Echoed Ed¡¯s voice inside his mind. What the hell is a nail, Ed? [I honestly don¡¯t have a clue.] With another exasperated sigh, Jake pushed the earlier conversation aside as he¡¯d rapidly grown used to not giving the implant too much thought during the last week. He wasn¡¯t sure exactly what it was, but he was beginning to feel like his implant was somewhat different from the others. If there was one thing that was certain, however, it was that implants weren¡¯t supposed to spout crazy nonsense all the time or even hold a conversation the way he and Ed sometimes had, nor were they supposed to be able to make any decisions whatsoever without consulting him at first, like the time Ed had decided to start him on a new dietary program, for example. Still, it¡¯s not like he wanted to replace Ed or anything, but he was still wary of whether or not there was actually a problem with his implant. The matter of Ed aside, every single day had gone by in a flash during the last week, with classes mostly consisting of training with their telekinesis skill and going through various conditioning exercises that usually involved crawling, jumping, sprinting, running, and other movements meant to increase their overall fitness. Although he still couldn¡¯t use telekinesis more than a few seconds in a row, he¡¯d had plenty of time to focus on conditioning and improving his Basic Reinforcement Spec, which had provided him with a pretty nice boost to his attributes so far. Status Name: Jake Hawkins Rank: Cadet Energy Core: 30/30 Recovery Rate: 0.15 Base attributes Strength: 5 Dexterity: 8 Constitution: 5 Recovery: 5 Perception: 9 Cognition: 14 Specs [Basic Reinforcement | Lvl. 2 | All attributes +2, Core +10] Skills [Basic Telekinesis | Lvl. 1] Every one of his attributes had grown by two full units during the last week, thanks to Jake spending a lot of his biotic energy continuously toward improving his specs. In contrast to skills that cost a small amount of energy everytime you tried to use one, specs needed to be reinforced by continuously pouring some of his biotic energy into it, so that the energy could be used to reinforce and enhance his body, offering a permanant boost to one¡¯s abilities. It was also on his spec that he had decided to focus all of his efforts during the last week, barely keeping enough energy to practice telekinesis a few times a day at most. Although the increase in attributes was minimal, Jake still knew his body¡¯s abilities had grown a lot during the recent week, whether that was his speed, strenght, or any other attribute, he already felt a slight difference compared to the week before, which meant he was one step further to catching up with the rest of his promotion. Overall, his core had even grown by ten units since the awakening, which meant it had grown by a whopping 50% in a single week. While he was still leagues below the rest of the cadets, he was more than thrilled with the speed of his progress so far. On the other hand, he was slowly getting used to the gigantic plates of food he needed to gulp down at every meal, and Jake had unsurprisingly taken a total of 5 kilos of lean muscle mass during the last week only, which was a result of the intense training and gargantuan meals, but also mostly thanks to Eds meddling with his body. The implant could stimulate the hormones responsible for muscle growth and tissue recovery, as well as increase the body¡¯s production of testosterone amongst various other things. In simpler terms, his implant did an even better job than anabolic steroids when it came to shaping him up. Like every morning, Jake and Owens had made their way to the cafeteria together and eaten their respective meals before heading to the training hall for their morning class. However, in contrast with every other morning training they¡¯d attended in the past week, today started a little differently with Officer Gwyra making a surprising announcement. ¡°Starting today, we¡¯ll spend every morning going through combat training and every afternoon will be for conditioning and skills training.¡± Every cadet in the room let out a small gasp of exclamation, clearly interested in getting some hands-on experience. With a wave of her hand, she quickly and efficiently silenced the few cadets who¡¯d let themselves get overtaken by the exciting announcement, before moving on with the class. ¡°For now, we¡¯re going to be working in pairs, which will change every day under me and Officer Valadis¡¯ supervision. Partners will all go through fights of 10 minutes at a time, after which you will be granted a few minutes to recover, before starting over again, for the whole duration of the class. Now, make your way to the mat that¡¯s been assigned to you through your implant.¡± After saluting the officer along with the other cadets, Jake looked to his right where one of the mats seemed to be glowing in a bright blue light that was similar to his implant¡¯s GPS feature and pretty close from where he¡¯d initially been standing. When he stepped inside the small square, his opponent was already waiting for him in a readied stance. The other cadet was very tall, at least half a foot taller than Jake was, and at least twice as large. His dark, pitch-black hair and tanned skin gave him a menacing look somehow, and Jake could feel himself grow anxious at the thought of the upcoming fight. The cadet looked nothing short of a monster as his square jaw, strong chin and chiseled muscles gave Jake the impression the boy was made out of rock. He was still mentally preparing himself for the fight when he was jolted out of his stupor by the First Lieutenant, who spoke up loud enough for everyone to hear. ¡°Do not intentionally kill or injure more than necessary your opponent. There are obviously no other rules you should be made aware of.¡± Jake looked around him in a panic for a few moments, he couldn¡¯t believe he was going to be fighting with his bare fists against another cadet. Furthermore, it was clear that the so-called rules mentioned by their training officer were far from restrictive. The academy uniform was made of a hyper-resistant carbon mesh that would protect both his fists and his body and greatly lessen impacts, although he would still feel the blows to some degree. Moreover, he had no protection whatsoever to his face, even though it felt like the most important place to protect. He was still panicking internally when the First Lieutenant announced the beginning of the fight, and Jake¡¯s opponent immediately dashed toward him and opened with a wide swing from the right that he only barely managed to dodge in time. For almost a full minute, his opponent kept swinging his fists at him without pause, while it felt progressively easier and easier for Jake to dodge with every assault. On the other hand, his opponent kept swinging wider and wider and Jake felt like he could almost predict his opponent¡¯s move as he evaded every one of the giant¡¯s strikes. Finally, when Jake felt his opponent was starting to grow tired and lethargic enough, he countered with a strike of his own. He¡¯d never really fought anyone before, nor had he ever taken any interest in fighting, yet he felt like someone else for a few seconds as he unleashed a fury of compact hits at the other cadet. He punched, elbowed, kicked and even kneed his opponent as he became an unstoppable barrage of strikes. It had been his plan all along to wait for the cadet to tire himself out as he preserved his stamina, although he had to admit it had worked out a lot better than expected. The boy was strong, without a doubt, but he was also a lot slower than Jake and had a hard time landing any hits on him because of that. The fight had barely been going for more than four minutes that his opponent was already lying on the ground, panting, although Jake was hardly in better shape himself. They¡¯d gone through a lot of training during the last week but his body was still miserably out of shape, with his recent increase in attributes just barely improving his overall fitness level, and as a result the small four minutes he¡¯d just gone through had taken everything out of him. It only took his opponent a few seconds to catch his breath before he was standing in front of him again, with his nose bleeding profusely from the last hit to the face he¡¯d taken from Jake. They exchanged blows for a second time, and by the time their duel was over they were both lying on the ground completely exhausted, although Jake was the clear victor of the match. The other cadet had only managed to land a hit on him once when he¡¯d used his telekinesis to make Jake trip by pulling on his feet, jumping on the occasion to land a hit right in his face. Thankfully, it seemed like the hit had been pretty shallow, and Jake had taken it to the side of the jaw, where the bones were strong enough to withstand an almost exhausted cadet. Jake had also been extremely lucky to land on this particular opponent, who seemed to also be limited by under-average biotic energy reserves, which meant their fight would be based on an exchange of blows for the most part, instead of a telekinesis contest, like some of the matches he saw all around theirs. Jake was about to get up on his feet when he finally looked up to the line of text that had appeared through his implant a few seconds before. [ Winner: Cadet Hawkins ]Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. As he lay on the floor and looked over to meet the eyes of his opponent, he couldn¡¯t help but feel ecstatic at the sight. He couldn¡¯t tell whether it was the fight itself or the look on the other cadet¡¯s face that had made him feel that way, but one thing was sure. Fighting was awesome. He was still trembling under the excitement of his recent victory when Ed¡¯s voice flared up in his mind for a second time. [Now, one thing is sure. You¡¯re probably as talented for fighting as you suck for biotics. This is good, at least you have something going for you now.] Jake pushed the implant¡¯s snarky comment aside and he promptly got up from the mat as the First Lieutenant¡¯s voice announcing the beginning of the second round echoed inside the hall. By the time the morning class came to an end, Jake and the other cadet, who he had learned was named Cadet Ryan, had fought each other around 20 times. Jake had tried at first to use his telekinesis during the fight to affect the cadet¡¯s movement like his opponent had done before, but his proficiency with the skill and his energy reserves were simply too lacking. While he could make the metallic bead levitate for a few seconds, the amount of energy that would be required for him to move his opponent¡¯s leg was simply far higher than what he had available at the moment. In contrast, Cadet Ryan had been able to use his telekinesis once almost every fight or so, using it to his advantage to slow Jake down or amke him slip up at times. Jake had still spent some time practicing telekinesis during the class once or twice, however, as he knew he needed to improve his mastery of the skill for it to become useful, and he had no real other way to spend his biotic energy anyway. Although he did make sure not to spend too much of his biotic energy when he did, as doing so would largely weaken his body and he¡¯d be at his opponent¡¯s mercy until he¡¯d recovered, whcih would take a long time in his case. Surprisingly, he¡¯d had the upper hand during every single fight they¡¯d gone through during that morning. Even though most of his opponent¡¯s stats were noticeably higher than his, especially his strength, his superior dexterity and raw instincts had been enough to triumph over Ryan. According to Ed, however, it was actually due to the fact that Jake¡¯s perception and cognition was much higher than his opponent¡¯s, which had turned out to be to his advantage thanks to the other cadet¡¯s very forward style. Ryan was probably the recruit with the highest strenght attribute amongst their whole class if only judging by his looks, so he would probably make short work of anyone that tried to fight him head on, but would obviously struggle against someone like Jake, who relied on strategy and speed rather than brute strenght. Still, when he finally stepped out of the training hall followed by Owens, Jake¡¯s body was painfully aching all over, and he had trouble walking. His body and face were littered with painful aches and small bleeding wounds as a result of the hits he¡¯d taken during training, and his face was so swollen one of his eyes had closen shut. However, he still felt pretty lucky as almost half a dozen other cadets had been sent to the Academy¡¯s hospital during the training after getting injured. Owens, on the other hand, looked like she¡¯d done nothing but laze about for the whole morning, as she happily followed him while talking as usual. ¡°There¡¯s a rumour we might go on our first assignment in the next few weeks,¡± she said enthusiastically. ¡°What¡¯s an assignment?¡± Jake answered with a grimace that came from the pain. ¡°How do you not know what that is?¡± She asked him with a puzzled expression, and he simply shrugged his shoulders in response. ¡°Assignments are contracts issued by the Alliance, in other words, they are jobs issued to us soldiers. Some very powerful private entities can also issue such contracts, like powerful and influencial companies or families, although the Alliance issues the bulk of assignments around here.¡± Jake looked at her like she¡¯d already lost him, and she let out a small sigh of exasperation as a result. ¡°All of this to say, assignments are very important for the awakened, since going on assignments is how you get paid, although we probably won¡¯t since we¡¯re only cadets. Most of those jobs are also very dangerous, which often leads to improvements in skills and specs both.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re saying we might get shipped to another corner of the universe soon, but that we¡¯ll get stronger faster over there and probably get paid so it¡¯s fine? Sounds rough.¡± ¡°Pretty much, yeah. It will probably be as some sort of final exam or something. Once we graduate, we¡¯ll be able to choose our own assignments, and there are tons of things to do for the awakened in the universe. You can go to war, cleaning assignments, siege assignments, exploration missions, mining operations and even treasure hunts all over the universe. Possibilities are literally endless.¡± Clearly, Owens was very eager to embark on such adventures as she almost seemed to brighten up entirely as she talked. Still, when they arrived at the cafeteria the both of them grabbed their plates and sat at their usual table, next to the flowering tree. During the previous week, Owens had revealed that the tree was in fact a cherry tree, originating from Earth, and Jake had to admit it was one of the most beautiful things he¡¯d ever seen, especially since his home planet looked like a gigantic pile of garbage floating in empty space. It was only a few minutes into their lunch break that a towering figure appeared right next to their table. Jake looked up, surprised to see Cadet Ryan¡¯s massive silhouette casting a shadow over their small table. With a swift motion, the cadet pushed his tray next to theirs and sat down in the empty seat. Jake shot a glance at Owens, who looked as surprised as he was. Not once since their first day did they get anyone to even speak to them, so having someone sit at their table felt like a miracle of some kind. Still, Jake looked back at Ryan, who was intently fixing him in the eyes, before he decided to make an attempt at conversation. ¡°Hey man, can I help you?¡± For a long time, the cadet didn¡¯t even seem to notice Jake had spoken up, and he simply kept staring at him like Jake had killed his mother or something, but then, he answered. ¡°Not really.¡± Awkwardly, Jake looked at Owens who looked ready to explode in laughter for some reason. It wasn¡¯t the first time Jake had caught the girl laughing in the weirdest situatuions, but he still refocused on the cadet¡®s intense galre. ¡°O-Okay?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s fight again tonight. I¡¯ve asked the First Lieutenant for additional training time and she has agreed to let us use the training hall for two hours after dinner. Owens, you¡¯re more than welcome to join as well.¡± For the thousandth time since the arrival of the giant, Jake and Owens exchanged a surprised look before Jake finally accepted the offer. Not only had he very much enjoyed fighting during training earlier today, but Ed had also advised that extra training time after basic training would only benefit his growth in the long run since his spec needed both training and biotics to improve at optimal speed, and he was just about to ask Owens the same thing when the giant made his appearance. For the remainder of their lunch break, the three of them stayed mostly silent as they ate through their trays of food, with the three of them making idle conversation from time to time, especially inquiring about Ryan, who was unsurprisingly not very talkative. For the first time since they got to the academy, however, Jake didn¡¯t complain about the size of his tray for once, as one look over to Ryan¡¯s plate was enough to make his stomach cramp in anticipation. Who the fuck eats three whole chickens in a single meal? That is just sick. [See how well I treat you? I could be a whole lot worse, you know?] It was only after the three of them had finally managed to gulp down their respective meals that they¡¯d made their way back to the training hall together as a group. Thankfully, the afternoon was quite a lot smoother compared to the morning they¡¯d just spent hitting one another, as they spent the majority of their time focusing on telekinesis and conditioning. Once again, Jake mostly focused on conditioning as he couldn¡¯t use telekinesis all that often yet. By now, everybody looked to be able to make the marble levitate for almost a minute straight, and Owens and a few others had even moved on to a bigger piece of metal to improve the challenge. Apparently, increasing skill levels provided enourmous boosts of ability to the skill, and Jake was the only cadet still stuck to level 1 as of today. But the biggest difference between him and the other cadets was felt in their ability to recover biotic energy at a very rapid pace, far eclipsing his own. Since he was pouring almost his entire biotic energy recovery into improving his specs, very little was left for him to use his telekinesis skill. All of this meant that not only the other cadets were miles above him already, but their biotic skills would progress much faster than his thanks to their superior capacity and recovery, although he would probably be improving his specs a little bit faster than the others. Toward the end of the class, Officer Gwyra and Officer Valadis had gathered them up in the middle of the open area of the training hall for the second time today, before making yet another announcement. ¡°We have just received confirmation that we will be departing for our first assignment in exactly three weeks.¡± Every cadet looked absolutely shocked for a second, and most even started whispering among themselves until the Akira finally spoke up again. ¡°Usually, a cadet¡¯s first assignment happens at the end of basic training, but the Alliance thinks it would be a good idea to provide all of you with more hands-on experience, so the last 12 weeks of basic training will exceptionally be spent on the field.¡± Almost expectandly, King immediately raised her hand, and Officer Gwyra relunctantly allowed her to speak up. ¡°What exactly does that mean for us? There is a good reason why cadets aren¡¯t usually sent on assignments before the 13th week of training, and it¡¯s mostly because the Alliance believes most cadets wouldn¡¯t make it out alive if they sent them out sooner than that. Is there a reason in particular as to why the Alliance has revised their standing on the matter, First Lieutenant?¡± Jake had to admit, that girl had the makings of a damn politician, and although she blatently questioned her commanding officer¡¯s authority, she¡¯d done it in such a way it would be hard for Officer Gwyra to even reproach her anything. However, it seemed that Jake had greatly overestimated the Officer¡¯s patience, or maybe her ability to care. ¡°Cadet, if you ever talk to me like that again, you won¡¯t even need to make it on an assignment before I fucking rip your head off, are we clear?¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am!¡± King echoed back, visibly growing pale at the commanding officer¡¯s answer. Still, Officer Gwyra had apparently taken note that every other cadet had wondered the same thing, and she sighed before finally speaking up again. ¡°However, you are right. The Alliance is currently extremely short on manpower, as I¡¯m sure you all know already, which means they¡¯ll be counting on the new recruits to fill in the gaps for the entry-level assignments, which is why we¡¯ll need to contribute to the war effort from now on. However, you all don¡¯t need to worry about your own skin just yet, we will not be headed for the frontlines, but rather for the frontiers where we¡¯ll complete some entry-level, garbage assignments that even some useless civilians with limited gear could handle. If every one of you does their job properly, everyone here will live to see the end of basic training.¡± Almost every student as a whole seemed to relax at the words of the training officer, like she¡¯d lifted a huge rock off the collective shoulders of every trainee. Still, it was evident she wanted to dodge further questioning because she immediately changed the subject. ¡°As a result of these unforeseen circumstances, you will all be lent basic combat equipment, which will include a full set of basic armour, as well as a meelee and ranged weapon of your choosing. We will meet tomorrow morning at the Academy¡¯s armoury at 0700 sharp to proceed with this particular matter, although you will only receive said gear at the beginning of next week. Understood?¡± For a moment, every cadet inside looked ready to explode in joy at the thought of finally receiving gear , but they still answered the officer instantly. ¡°Yes ma¡¯am!¡± After the officer had dismissed them, Jake quickly made his way toward Owens, who was already talking with Ryan in hushed tones, although the both of them looked so agitated Jake could have thought they were shouting from a distance. ¡° ¡ª bullshit. A lot of cadets will die if the Alliance follows through.¡± Owens said to Ryan in a subdued tone, and it was only mid-way through her sentence that Jake had been able to make out what she was saying. ¡° Yes, it¡¯s almost unavoidable. However, I believe that they do not have a choice right now. I¡¯ve heard some rumours, but it seems that the Alliance is losing more ground on the frontier than they¡¯ve let on.¡± ¡°Yes, I heard something about 100 outposts falling to the hands of the invaders this week.¡± ¡°It¡¯s that bad?¡± Ryan almost shouted. Jake, who knew next to nothing about the state of the war outside almost felt out of place as the two cadets discussed in hushed tones of the recent events. ¡°Has to be. Why else would they send literal month-old cadets on a damn assignment, when even entry-level ones have a near 20% fatality rate amongst those having already graduated basic training. It was only after Jake had been listening in on the conversation for quite some time that he finally understood what the two of them had been insinuating. It seemed that the war that had lasted for more than twenty years was finally coming to an end, and judging by the information they had, it was unlikely they¡¯d be the ones coming out on top.