Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

At breakfast, the food they fed us was copious but bland.  We waited two more days before all bunks were filled.  I was given a translation amulet which was charged at breakfast by one of the magicians who healed injuries.  His name was Damian and I made efforts to befriend him.  I thought it smart to be on friendly terms with the man who literally held your life in his hands. With the amulet, it was great to finally be able to talk to others freely.  Most of the men in our 100-person barracks were here because they, like me, had opted to be a soldier rather than a laborer to pay off their crimes.  Most of the crimes were not as petty as mine though, lots of murderers and assault cases. 

After two days of relative freedom, our barracks were filled and our training began.

We had seven trainers who also served as wardens.  One of our group tried to escape and he was promptly put on trial and executed.  It made me have second thoughts about my choice to join and erased all thoughts of escaping myself.  The man’s bed was promptly filled with another recruit.  There were seven barracks.  Each with 100 bunks.  When a barracks was full the 7-month training began, usually on the first of the month.  Each barracks had seven trainers and there was a large estate building that housed the command staff.  I wasn’t sure how many command staff there were but Damian, who lived there, said it was over 50 not including attendants.

In the morning we ran with weights before breakfast.  Then ate a large meal.  Then we had a lecture that sounded mostly like propaganda to me.  Our seven instructors schooled us in hand-to-hand combat after the lecture.  We were told if you lose a tooth save it and the magician can heal it back in place.  After hand combat we had another meal.  Then we were schooled in sword forms.  There were 7 sword forms we had to learn each with 7 segments.  We practiced with weighted swords striving for perfect movements.  If we were good they would give us a heavier sword.  After a few hours with the sword, we spent time with one of the instructors.  Each one taught another weapon, dagger, axe, crossbow, short sword, two-handed sword, spear, and polearm.  They told us our goal was not to master another weapon but to learn enough to know how to fight effectively against someone with these weapons.  So we rotated every day between instructors in groups of 15.  After the cross-weapon training, we did some more fitness training till sunset.  Then we had a shower, healing, and food.  We had two hours to ourselves before lights out. Lights out just meant no talking.

Most of us slept.  I however noticed one of the only two women in our barracks of 100 practicing with a staff.  Her name was Helena. I befriended her after some effort.  The other woman in our group usually moved from bed to bed at night, whoring herself out for favors.  Helena did trust me after a few days and I spent my evenings thereafter gaining proficiency with the staff.  At night before going to sleep I always tried my damnedest to charge the medallion myself.

My body was broken repeatedly during training but we had good healers.  Torn ligaments, broken bones, concussions, cuts, internal bleeding…all of it was repairable with magic if they got to you in time.  I got healing just about every day and found myself starting to become numb to the pain.  At least I was now able to function relatively normally with a broken arm.

After three weeks we were tested on the tablet again.  Fourteen of our 100 washed out after the test and were sent to the regular army training camp.  Some of us were surprised but after I talked with Damian I found out the amount of resources to train members of the Legion of Lion was five times that of the regular army.  So the commander liked to cull the groups early.  This way, he explained, our instructors could focus on the more promising soldiers.

Damian, being one of the dozen or so magicians, let me peruse my results.  Most of the other soldiers just had their results copied and sent away.  Making friends with the man had been a boon for me.

My physical stats had made good progress.  I was more curious to see my magic skills which had barely moved but still, they had moved! So the hour I had spent every night in bed trying to charge my amulet had done something.  It gave me the motivation to keep at it.

After the tablet reading, we had a large round of combats over three days to rank the remaining 86 members in the squad.  I placed 48^th in hand combat, 37^th in sword combat, 67^th with daggers, and 29^th with sword and shield.  It had been the first time we had been given a shield so I thought I did well.  Then the top three placers in each combat got a minor essence of strength or power for a reward.  What is essence?  I found out there were two types of the essence.  One that could raise your potential in stat and one that could raise your stat without having to bust your ass in training.  The bottom three placers were sent to the army camp reducing our barracks number to 83.  

Talking to Damian I found each minor essence costs between 1 and 20 gold coins depending on which stat.  It takes between 10 and 30 minor essences to raise force a stat up one point.  Unfortunately, minor essences usually have no effect once a stat reached half of a person’s potential.  There were major essences that could help raise stats too about 80% of your potential and were ten times as effective at raising stats over minor essences.  But major essences cost between 50 to 500 gold and were reserved for the upper class and nobility.  There were also apex essences but they were very difficult and cost hundreds of gold and could raise someone past 80%.  The other brand of essence that raised a person’s potential were rare and expensive and reserved for nobility.  Using them on yourself was a crime unless you had permission from a noble.

I began the next three weeks of training extremely focused on improving my combat skills.  The instructors noticed and gave me more attention in practice sessions.  I didn’t want to fall below the imaginary line that would have me sent to the regular army.  If I was going to survive in this world I needed this training.

The next tablet test yielded good results for me.

The tester only recorded my physical and mental stats, ignoring the magic column again.  I had substantial gains in my physical stats which showed up in weapon practices.  My fortitude potential had increased from 87 to 88.  I asked the tablet testing mage about it.  It wasn’t Damian this time but my goodwill among the mages seemed to have spread.  He said the tablet was older and not perfect.  A person’s general potential could move up a point or down a point between readings.  Six people were expelled from our barracks after the tablet testing bringing our number to 77.  I found out the goal was to finish with 30 Legionnaires.  The top 6 in our class would be sent to the capital to join the royal legion and the remaining 24 would form a platoon under the command of a mage and be sent on missions in the lands.

Combat testing was fairly intense this time as everyone realized they might not make it and have to go to the army.  The army was considered fodder to hold the borders.  Life expectancy was not very high.  I finished 18^th in sword ranking, 20^th in sword and shield, 29^th in dagger, and 9^th in hand-to-hand.  We were also tested on our marksmanship with the crossbow and I finished 18^th.  Once again prize essences were handed out to the top three for each event and three soldiers were cut.

We then had a day off with our first in 6 weeks of intensive training finished. 

 

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