"If you can put on armour and grab a shield, the vanguards will always be welcoming you."

Zero nodded, as he contemplated, being an "unmanifested" would mean he would be thrown to the vanguards, but it was not a position he could accept, it was the hardest position to climb in rank and it was even harder for a vanguard to get to meet the council.

For his plan to work, he had to be above board, he had to gain enough support to make a change. Just as he was getting deeper into the thought process, he heard Major Craig speak into the S.A.D.

"For now! Listen to the assistants and follow their instructions, they will allocate you to a position that is most suited to your manifest."

There was a lot of movement as the majority of time was spent finding where they were meant to me, close to 45 minutes later, they finally settled down with the instructors standing in a straight row in front of the students.

Z was hardly surprised that he had ended up where he is. He looked around and saw that Soli and Basil were where they belonged, in the offensive front. But what he didn't know was, why the oversized Odrunn sat down beside him.

"Hey, why are you here? Don't you have some sort of healing manifest? Shouldn't you be in support?"

Z asked curiously, wondering about the eccentricities of the meat mountain.

Odrunn blushed a little as he raised his arms to touch his head.

"Well, my manifest is a little different... I can't exactly manipulate it... So.. I'm a healer that can't heal others..."

Odrunn had an E grade manifest, this was negligible was it used to heal others, but because his manifest can only be used to heal himself, he was practically useless, he was just another target on the battlefield. With his personality and characteristics, the academy would deem that he was not worthy enough to groom.

Z shook his head as he looked at Odrunn's dejected look.

"Odrunn, I'm only going to say this once, the manifest is only as useless as the user. If the user knows how to use a manifest, even the weakest manifest is a deadly weapon."

Odrunn nodded, deep inside he thought that Z was just telling him this in order to make him feel better.

Major Craig gave the students a salute and handed over control to the instructors, as they stepped forward and gave instructions to their new recruits. The two vanguard instructors quickly took charge separating the vanguard recruits away from the rest of the group. They found an empty space as the instructors gave them the next set of instructions.

"Recruits! You are now training to be a vanguard, I don't care how you feel about being allocated here, but I suggest you keep your emotions in check when you go through the training. Tomorrow at 5 am, you are to report back here, we will be going for a training camp and you will all be leaving your dorms for a while."

The recruits responded with a "yes instructor" as they dispersed and went their seperate ways to pack up their belongings.

Z and Odrunn went back to their tentage as they began to process the things that happened today. Z whipped out a nutrition bar that was given to him as part of the daily meal and quickly started eating.

On the other hand, Odrunn who was beside Z was struggling to down the nutrition bar, it was as if he had never really eaten a nutrition bar before.

"Boss, how do you eat this? This is so tasteless and dry"

Odrunn complained as he tried to eat more of the nutrition bar.

Z looked up at Odrunn and replied calmly

"One bite at a time", he looked back down and continued trying to feel out his manifest and sensing it.

Odrunn shrugged at Z's answer and continued eating the nutrition bar while sulking away.

Soon the night fell as both of them fell asleep as they closed their eyes. The sun rose at 4 am, it was a relatively early time but the sunlight shone through the flaps of the tent shining on and annoying the sleeping Odrunn.

The upset Odrunn immediately tried to change a position and continued sleeping, but to no avail, all he could do is give in to fate and walk over to Z to wake him up.

Z snapped open his eyes as he was still in a lotus position, he immediately moved his legs and the two set off on their way to the meeting point established the day before.

The two of them had to walk at a faster pace in fear that they would not be able to make it on time. After reaching the grounds, there were already a group of people there, naturally, the instructors were there the earliest. The two instructors stood tall, looking at their commwatch waiting for the remaining students to come. Just after 5 am the last 2 students came running in, needless to say, they were punished severely for being late, this made everyone realise how serious this was.

After the 2 students were finished with their punishment, they limped back into line and stood up straight.

"Listen up kids, let me formally introduce myself I am Staff Sergeant Ufrad, and this is Sergeant Scuse. We will be guiding you on your path to being strong Vanguards."

The large Staff Sergeant Ufrad walked forward as he rotated his wrist.

"Now that everyone is ready, let's take a short jog. It's just an hours journey away from here if you maintain a steady pace at 20 km/h "

Some of the students, upon hearing the distance they had to run immediately turned pale. To Z this type of training was considered a walk in the park for him. Even though his body is weak for the time being, it did not mean he lost his mental resilience. Beside Z, Odrunn started making gagging noises as he started looking like he was going to vomit.