Zeras walked through the cold dimly lit environment as he followed the arrow on his watch to the direction indicated.
He discovered the Training Area was just behind the Cafeteria as he quickly navigated his way and arrived at the training area, an extremely long area of forest, and far in the distance were different mountain ranges with harsh and strange weather conditions.
Arriving at the training area, they were barely anyone around the place Zeras looked around for a seat but there was also none.
Looking at his watch, he could see the time which was 5:32, the training drills were supposed to start at 6:00. He guessed he was in a hurry to arrive there.
Unknowingly to Zeras, the world has changed. In the orphanage, the children would have been awakened around 5:00 in the morning for combat practice, but the same couldn't be said for regular people who wake up as late as 7 or even 8 in the morning.
Hearing Zeras wake up at 5:00 would have been shocking and a major part of the Drills on the EIA was training the new Cadets to be awake as early as 6:00 in the morning.
Zeras stood in a corner as he stood there waiting for training to begin.
-- -- --
28 minutes later...
There were about 160 new cadets already on the training grounds, as the time 6:00 clocked.
Two EIA instructors, a burly man with dark air and eyes, and a beautiful woman with purple air slowly descended from above as a dome appeared enveloping the students that were already in.
"Good morning, New EIA Cadets..." The burly man began as the New Cadets replied with vigor.
"A day has been given to you to familiarize yourself with the new environments and get used to the EIA. Henceforth, training shall begin and we shall all meet here every day for training at a particular time which is exactly 6:00 in the morning. Coming to the training grounds even a second after 6:00 will be deemed late and the latecomers will be punished..."
Zeras looked outside the dome as he saw some students who arrived late were prevented from joining them and taken away to another place. Probably the Punishment room.
"Today, we have a person among us who arrived here first before everybody else and that person will be given 100 points as a reward for their early mindset. Whoever it is good luck and keep it up." The Man said as Zera's watch suddenly beeped with a notification.
<Reward for being the first to come to the training grounds>
<100 points>
A smile appeared on Zera's face as he unknowingly gained 100 points easily...
"With that said. Let's begin the Drills. The drill's mission is very simple since you're all new cadets.
Did you see that Mountain over there?" The man asked pointing to a particular direction about a thousand kilometers away..."
"Yes Sir..." "Good. The drill is to get to that mountain and arrive at the top of it. When you get there, look for a teleporter and you'll be transported back here... Is there somebody who didn't understand?" The man asked as strange expressions appeared on the student's faces.
While a thousand kilometers might look far away for a normal human. For gene awakeners, they won't even run out of breath if they run that distance and back as with Mana, then they could go on.
Seeing the drills is just running and climbing the mountains it seems a little too easy for them.
"Since you're all silent. I believe you all get my word. Then listen well to the rules...
Firstly, you only have a duration of three hours to get to that mountain and use the teleporter, after three hours elapse and you don't find it, you'll be transported back to the beginning point and have to start all over again...." The man said clearly but the New cadets all scoffed in their minds.
Three hours? They could finish it in an hour.
"Secondly, fighting and teamwork are not allowed. The mission is a Solo mission. Any type of help will only result in punishment. Don't worry, even if you fall off the mountains there are Help Robots around who will pick you back up, so don't offer any help to anyone..." The man said his voice with a tinge of warning.
"Lastly..." The man said as he nodded to the purple-haired female instructors, who closed her eyes as the purple barrier suddenly flared with a purple light and covered the entire area up to more than two thousand kilometers.
Zera's face suddenly changed as a notification appeared
[A source of power has been detected trying to lock away the Host's Mana core.]
[Source has been overridden]
[Does the Host wish to negate the ability?]
The system asked as he looked around him seeing all the student's faces in shock as their Mana core was locked.
"No.." Zeras said.
[The Ability had been used on the host.]
[Host Mana core has been locked and Mana energy is no longer accessible...]
The new cadets' faces changed as they couldn't believe their Mana core had been locked and they couldn't access even a tiny bit of Mana.
"Lastly, this drill will take place without any of you using Mana. The two-hour counts start now. Good luck..." The Instructor touched the female instructor's shoulder as they both suddenly disappeared from the place.
Now left were 162 Cadets who were unable to access their Mana. Running a thousand kilometers and climbing a mountain almost 500 meters in height without mana was almost impossible to complete in just two hours.
The cadets immediately began running as time was already counting.
Zeras also immediately ran into the forest as the trail would also be a little hard for him due to him not having Mana but fortunately, unlike the rest of the students, he had more energy than most due to his Chaos Devourer gene that could absorb energy and his physical strength and speed were also greatly improved.
Normally, he could have agreed with the system to negate the ability but if he wanted to grow too, then he had to follow the norm and sweat hard too like the rest. Using Mana when nobody was looked unfair and besides he'll gain next to nothing.