Like a bolt of lightning, all the recruits who were mentally drained felt like their strength has once again left their body.

One by one, the recruits who were on the floor stood up as they walked like zombies to the centre of the square.

Staff Sergeant Ufrad handed over the command to Sergeant Scuse as he started the training. He gathered the recruits together and started to ask some questions

"Let me ask you a question! What is the role of the vanguard in a war!"

A young man, well built with a scarf around his neck stepped out,

"Vero Irga!" the young man said his name,

"It is to be the shield that defends the people in times of adversity and to uphold the defensive line to protect humanity!"

"Good answer!"

Sergeant Scuse replied

"Vero Irga, the Irga family has been generations of Vanguards, it's one of the few noble families that pride themselves on being Vanguards. It seems you have inherited their pride and it's a good thing. Anyone has any other answers?"

"To make sure the unmanifested commoners do not run away and throw our face."

Kyzil Dyamra, a smaller noble stood beside Vero as his lackey sneered as he looked at the Unmanifested and the commoners scattered around. This led to the weaker willed commoners looking on the floor while the rest just clenched their fist in anger.

Sergeant Scuse faced twitched, but he just couldn't say anything because there were previous cases of Vanguards going Awol.

Z looked at Kyzil, as usual, calm and composed. However, for someone as prideful as Kyzil, he took it as a challenge and he couldn't stand that a commoner was staring at him right in the face.

Immediately he walked forward, face to face with Z,

"You Commoner, what is your name!"

Z continued to look forward. This kind of conflict was just unappealing for him, there is no purpose for him to even engage in such as small fly like this.

Immediately, Kyzil threw a punch towards Z's face. Z, had plenty of combat experience, fighting against people way stronger than him all equipped with A grade manifests. Even though Z doesn't use any manifest, he still could easily win against Kyzil.

Step after step he dodged blow after blow from Kyzil who's eyes turned red in anger from being unable to hit Z.

"YOU ARE A VANGUARD! YOU NEED TO STOP MOVING AND FIGHT LIKE A VANGUARD!" Kyzil screamed as he charged up his hands creating a small force field in front of his fists as he started swinging even faster.

Z just dodged all the hits and with every hit, he started to get closer to the recruits behind him. Finally, Z didn't dodge anymore the roaring fist coated with a forcefield flew towards his face he twisted his body ever so slightly, as he grabbed the wrist of Kyzil and using the force of his attack, slammed him into the ground hard.

"Getting hit without purpose is just stupid when faced with a situation where if you were to dodge and other people will get hurt, a Vanguard's role would be to defend that person whatever the cost. Standing and taking damage just for the sake of being a shield is purely stupid."

Z spoke as he released the arm of Kyzil who was on the floor struggling.

'Clap clap clap'

"Well spoken Mr Cromwell, I do agree with you in which the age-old tradition of having a vanguard take every kind of damage is long due for a change. However, I believe this is an unauthorized fight and since you two took it to your own prerogative to fight each other, you will both be punished. The both of you will not have proper food for lunch whether or not you finish the training."

Sergeant Scuse said as he stared down the two young teens.

Kyzil gave a scowl as he moved off to the side, Z being mostly unaffected. He had mostly been eating nutrition bars anyway and his previous experiences resulted in him not being picky with food at all.

The first day of training was mostly mild, there was a lot of running involved, on the basis that Vanguards are required to have the stamina to move around with their heavy armours on them at all times. Those that had manifests that augmented types would generally have lighter armour, but it was a fact that since most of the un-manifested were placed in the Vanguards, most of the recruits would most certainly have to be doing the same type of training.

Soon, the long day ended, with most of the recruits rushing to the cookhouse without even showering, they stuffed their face with real food. The cooking wasn't the best but it was bearable. The nobility sat in a corner trying not to vomit as it disgusted them that they're having subpar food with commoners.

The commoners on the other hand, stuffed their faces with whatever food they could find. Boiled eggs excited them and they thought that it was a delicacy. Odrunn sat quietly eating mouth by mouth looking at Z at the side eating nutrition bars.

Odrunn leaned over and whispered, "Boss, I may get punished, but do you want some of my food?"

Z smiled as he said "Keep it for yourself man, looks like even if you ate 2 portions it still wouldn't be enough. Why would you share it with me?" Z put the nutrition bar in his mouth and took another bite. As he recalled scenes of his training days.

-----------------
"Okay Recruits! now that we have gotten your accommodations settled, lets go get some grub"

Instructor Swet spoke with a cold voice, the recruits were sprawled out on the floor a few of them holding the pieces of bedding that they fought so hard for. After hearing what Instructor Swet said, they left the bedding on the floor reluctantly and followed him out, all of them were looking forward to a good meal at the cookhouse, however, they were sorely mistaken.

"Recruits, behind me is the cookhouse" Instructor Swet pointed at his back, behind him a vast expanse of forest.

"But.. Instructor, it's the forest behind you." A recruit raised his hand and asked.

"Excellent observation, yes, this jungle is your cookhouse, it's time for you to eat a week's worth of food in there. First come first served, isn't it fun?" Instructor Swet chortled as he continued to eyeball the recruits that came in.

"Instructor... Do we bring back the food we catch? It's very heavy to bring it back" The same recruit, feeling braver asked again.

"That's a good question, it would be rather bad of me to ask you to bring your food back with you. It's unfair of me. All of you can just eat a week's worth of food in the jungle over a week, just stay in there for a week. If there are corpses, we will clear them over the week. Have fun now boys and girls."

Instructor Swet gave a laugh as he waved off the recruits that had a dumbfounded expression on their faces.