Ajax yawned loudly woke up early in the morning. It had been 6 days since he joined the restaurant. As promised by his colleagues, he has hands filled with work all daytime for the past 6 days. He was welcomed by his colleagues as he was willing to spend more time to finish up the grunt work. So, he had a good work relationship. He was even taken to dinner last day with them. Though he didn't get intoxicated he sang and danced along with those that were, tiring himself out.
Ajax had enjoyed this week working alongside them daily. He found that the entire restaurant was like a retirement home for guards who were injured or crippled or ones who have served their minimum time and don't want to continue to fight any longer. He learned a lot about the training and heard quite a few stories about the border guard from them.
During this week, Ajax had also been able to observe the different effects that mana had on various beasts and on the various organs they had evolved. He was also told about the various weird organs and organisms that were seen by his colleagues or those that they heard of.
Everything he learnt made him strongly believe that the mana in this world somehow amplified the effects of everything in this world , The special capabilities, techniques, everything followed logic and there was quite a bit of science involved behind every profession. But the growth of sciences was towards increasing the concentration of mana and their applications rather than trying to understand and break the smallest particles of matter as it was in his past life.
He quickly freshened himself up, packed his bag and found a ride to the restricted inner areas of the fort where he was supposed to report. This area had a separate inner wall and a gate usually denying entry to others.
Most of the days, the place would be restricted to civilian and non-military personal, but today it wasn't so. Everyone was having their identities verified before allowing them to enter. Many were like him who had ids and were registered to join the new batch of the guards. These were mostly young kids and teenagers with legitimate identities within the human realms.
There were others of varying ages who chose to enter the fort on this day to get asylum. The border guard accepted many who were considered criminals, political refugees, escaped slaves, etc. who usually had bounties and people looking to capture them.
They chose this day to enter as on this day, they know that there would be someone with enough authority present to allow them into the guard in exchange for their services. On any other day, they have to depend on their luck to be able to get in contact with such a person. So, it had become a kind of tradition for them to enter the fort on this day.
Ajax quickly provided his id and was given explicit directions to the point of assembly of new recruits. As he entered the gate, he saw that the architecture of the building was quite different from that outside.
Outside, the various owners could have the buildings built as they wished according to their own sense of aesthetics and preferences. One could have the buildings in different designs and made of different materials like wood, stone, lime, marble, etc. painted in different colours.
Inside it was a constant stream of grey. Everything was made of stone and steel. With the exception of the plaques which were made of wood, one couldn't see any other colour on the walls. There was not a speck of dirt on any of the walls. The roads were also much cleaner without even dirt which the carts would usually bring with them. It was like they was being cleaned immediately through some magical means.
He quickly followed the instructions and soon found himself in front of a large open area where everyone were being assembled. A lot of the assembled young men and women were talking to one another and have already formed groups and cliques. Based on the clothing, he could quickly identify those who were of common origin, mercantile backgrounds, nobles and royals.
From the things that he heard, Ajax knew that such cliques and groups were forbidden and any discrimination based on their background would be quickly stomped out during the training. He joined one of the groups of young ones from common origins and began to converse with them. But it was much harder than he expected.
To them, this was their best opportunity as they would be hard pressed to find methods to strengthen themselves. But they were still afraid and apprehensive as they hardly ever fought or were trained to fight. There was always a fear of death especially among those who spent most of their lives in sheltered environments as civilians.
So, with the exception of an ambitious few or the unfortunate, oppressed and understood that strength is a necessity for survival, the others were all quiet and tensed. Ajax knew that it is always good to get acquainted with his peers and it is better to do so with ambitious ones. With various stories he heard from his colleagues in the past week, he had decent material to start conversations and it was easier to have their concentration on him. This made it easier for him to join and mingle among them.
This continued for about half hour before the guards suddenly stopped allowing anyone to enter. There were nearly a thousand young men and woman on the ground. A line of guards suddenly formed around all of the young men and women surrounding them. Noticing this everyone became silent and began to look around.
In the silence, a steady clack of boots sounded attracting the attention of all towards a small group armoured guards who arrived into the ground. It was clear that the newly entered guards were the instructors or officials that were going to start the ceremony of inviting them. The group quickly got up a dais on the ground.
The group consisted of a total of 5 guards with 4 of them wearing heavy black metal armour that completely covered all parts and holding 8 feet long spears. The last one was a woman who wore a grey colored fully covering uniform, embroidered with silver and gold threads. She had a pair of blue eyes with shoulder length, blond hair neatly combed to one side. With a thin sword strapped to her belt and thick book held tightly in her left hand, she radiated an authoritative and commanding presence over all the ones present both guards and others.
"Attention everyone," she said stepping in front of all of them after giving the book in her hands to one of her guards. "I am lieutenant general Angeline Drew of the border guard. I am the head instructor responsible for training all of you. I am glad to see that so many brave young men and women are willing to join the guard, this year. We are the shield that protects humanity and allows the human civilization to develop and grow. I am glad to see that so many are willing to join this noble organization."
She signalled to someone and in a couple of seconds, a number of prisoners were brought in. "Every year we have a number of criminals willing to join us. To clear their names, they serve in the guard with honour. I am responsible for rehabilitating and allowing them to gain their freedom if they perform well enough."
"This time, I was requested to train the rest of you too," she continued looking at them. "Usually, this is the responsibility of general Dustblade not mine. So, to make my work easier, I decided that I will hold the training of all of you together."
The silence suddenly broke as they heard this. It was already considered a daunting task to be trained in the guard by everyone. Hearing that they had to train alongside criminals most of whom were much older and stronger frightened them even more and they began to discuss.
"It is a disgrace for us to be trained alongside these outlaws," yelled one of the more daring and well dressed. Hearing one the others also started to say similar things. Dustblade had enough reputation and infamy that no one would have questioned him. Seeing the new face and a feminine one, few of them gained enough courage to protest.
"SILENCE!!", she yelled. "I am the instructor and I make the rules. If any of you are unwilling, you can kindly get lost."
"Throw him out," she added and in response, one of her four guards moved to catch the kid and pushed him outside. Seeing this, the rest went quiet.
"Good. This is the prison where all outlaws are trained and anyone who fail to follow orders are imprisoned. I am the warden and this year I will have you live and train here, as I was asked to be the head instructor," she continued.
"Don't worry, no harm will befall you unless, you break the rules. The prisoners are controlled by magical means and they can't harm you. Today, you will be tested and based on your strength you will be divided into groups and your accommodations, uniforms and rules booklet will be provided. Make sure to read them, if you fail to follow any of them you will be punished."
After her little speech, the four behind her came forward and began to set up apparatus that could measure their aptitude and strength. Those were common ones that Ajax had seen before. All those who weren't from common origins are aware of them.
The first one was a simple strength measuring machine. One could punch or kick on a vertical board and it is used to measure their force. The second one was similar but instead of punching one has to properly hold and push it as far as possible and hold it in place as long as they could it was a common way for cultivators to determine their body strength and endurance.
The third was like a tread mill and it was used to measure the max speed one could reach. The last was the simplest of all and it was just a transparent orb and one was required to circulate push mana into it. It was used to identify the default attribute of man a person was naturally attuned to.
There were other ways but the guard always used this as they would allow the trainees to best identify their pros and cons. This is because most of the time, they would have to act in group and these measures would help them work on their teamwork better.
"So, who among is going to start?"
One of the well-dressed youths quickly moved forward. "I am at peak body strengthening, I will be the best you see," he proclaimed as he put his left foot ahead of the right and leaned backward and used his all to punch. The device quickly showed a number of 1360 as the youth receive exclamations and praises from others.
"1360, It is average," said the guard as he noted it down. His words stumped many of the trainees standing. They considered the youth to be best, but if it was low, they began to reconsider their own positions.
"I didn't do my best. Give me another chance," said the youth, but found the guard blocking him.
"No second chances, kid. You need to pay with merits to check," said the guard as he pointed towards the second test indicating him to move on.
"Yes, there will be no second chances in life. Here, if you don't give your best and try your best, you might not get a chance to survive," said Angeline looking at them.
The others followed him but the largest value on the first test was 1430. The very beginners who just started to cultivate had little strength and had a strength of 200 to 300 kg in general.
The second test was had a maximum performance of 700 kg and the third test had a maximum of 98 mps. Even Ajax didn't score high with results of 1270kg, 530kg and 82mps. Though he knew that he could definitely do much better than any of them in punch strength, he didn't. Most of the youth didn't even have a decent punch stance and technique.
He knew that he could easily get more with his experience, but didn't as he considers it a waste to show his strength here in public. He always had a habit of never letting anyone know his strengths completely and he continued to stick to that policy even in his second life.
The last test was the most boring for all. Almost everyone knew their attribute as they usually inherited it from their parents. Based on that, they all had a general idea and even cultivated using their parents techniques and guidance. The only thing was that this test more thorough. It allowed them to clearly know and there could always be deviations.
Most common among the them were fire, water, darkness and earth. This was always expected. After that there were few with wood and metal attributed mana. There were two special cases where multiple colors were seen indicating them to have mixed attributes and they were considered good talents.