The recruits were silent. No one was eager to follow after Liam’s stellar performance. He had lifted close to two hundred kilos and was standing to the side looking on at the other recruits proudly. The others had all given him a wide berth, whether this was due to fear or respect Wren didn’t know.

“Miss Xiao Peters, how about you.” Lops said, singling out one of the girls in the crowd.

The girl he pointed out was thin, with long straight black hair, she was taller than Wren and held herself with a steady confidence that outshined that of the other recruits. It seemed Liam’s performance hadn’t had the effect that it had had on the rest of the recruits as she subtly nodded to the instructor and stepped forward.

The group were surprised to see that she didn’t start out on the lowest setting as Liam had done. She immediately put three weights on either side of the barbell and lifted it with practiced ease. She held it for the required three seconds before putting it back down on the ground and adding another weight to each side.

She didn’t say a word as she lifted the weights, preferring to complete her task with quiet and quick efficiency in contrast to the grand show that Liam had put on. Her face was stoic as she lifted the barbell twice more, not betraying an ounce of expression.

“I know my limits, I’m done.” She said. Her voice hard and to the point.

Lops gave her an affirming nod and proceeded to write on his clipboard.

“Who’s next?” Lops asked the class again.

Xiao’s performance seemed to restore some of the confidence in the rest of the class as a few of the recruits stepped forward. She couldn’t lift as much as Liam but her confident resolve and expert estimation of her own abilities garnered respect from the rest of the recruits and showed them that they didn’t have to lift as much as Liam, only perform the best they could with dignity.

She quietly made her way to the back of the class and found a place next to Wren.

They watched silently as one of the other recruits stepped up to the bench. Similarly to Liam he started from the lowest weight; maybe easing themselves into the higher weights was the better tactic. The boy managed three rounds before the strain became too much and he dropped the weights with a clang. Lops nodded and wrote on his clipboard. Three rounds wasn’t very impressive and many in the class thought the boy would be placed in one of the lower groups. This was only the first test however and he would have the opportunity to show his skills in other areas.

The rest of the recruits followed one by one, some displaying decent feats of strength, others not so much. None of them however showed the ability that Liam did, nor the calm and collectiveness that Xiao did.

“Hiding back here?” Xiao asked Wren, by this point half of the recruits had completed the test. Wren was still at the back though.

Wren looked at her pointedly, he wasn’t sure if she was joking or being serious.

“Not hiding. Watching.” He replied.

“An admirable tactic. But you won’t gain anything in waiting.” She said.

“Gain anything?” He questioned.

“Social standing, respect, credibility, whatever you want to call it. Do you not wonder why we’re doing these tests out here in these fields together and not in one of the training rooms?”

“The nice view?”

She kissed her teeth and shook her head.

“It’s so everyone can see. Everyone here is watching, our classmates, the other classes, the instructors. The only thing that matters at this academy is your ability, and if you don’t show off, if you don’t stand out, you have no power. You’re a doormat to anyone that walks your way.”

Wren looked about the field. She was right. Everyone was watching them, even the recruits that were running laps they were still watching his class with clear interest. The instructors were a bit more subtle, cutting furtive glances at recruits while they noted things down on their clipboards.

“Well maybe I don’t want to stand out.” Wren said to the girl.

“That may be so, but have you ever thought that standing out might be a good way of blending in?”

She left him with that thought as she went over to join the other recruits. It seemed she knew the person that had just done the strength test and was waiting for them to finish.

By now there weren’t many recruits left to do the first test, only about five. With the group thinning out Wren had finally become more visible and the moment he had been dreading finally arrived.

“Wren Spectre, you’re up.” Lops said.

He could feel every set of eyes in the near vicinity fall on him. They were looking him up and down, measuring him. They were not impressed. They wondered what he could do with his small wireframe body.

He looked to Lops who just gave him a lopsided grin and whipped a thumb at the weight set.

He stepped up to the bench and took a deep breath. Confident that no one could see it he conjured up the system screen and looked his stats over.

[Status]

[Name: Wren Spectre]

[Race: Human Level 1]

[XP 0/100]

[HP 14/20]

[EP 20/20]

[Strength: 5]

[Speed: 14]

[Stamina: 7]

His HP had gone up overnight, he was right in thinking that sleep would accelerate the healing process. But his health points were not what he was concerned with right now.

[Strength: 5]

He was unsure how those five points in strength would scale up to the weight test, were the numbers deceptively low and five meant he was actually really strong? Or was his strength as low it seemed.

Either way, he was about to find out.

Authors Note: As always thanks for reading, if you have any questions or queries then feel free to comment. I'd love to know how you're all enjoying the story so far.