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

The first few recruits took reluctant steps into the forest, each of them armed only with a knife, the students took their first step into the wilderness. In the forest, it isn't just normal animals that were there for them to hunt. It was filled with many dangers, such as the many carnivorous plants, the plentiful mutated beasts and of course the beast king. In every forest there lies the strongest beast, no other beast nor military personnel would encroach into its territory. Experienced military personnel that is.

Z was alone, young and afraid he walked into the deep stretches of the forest, the sun had set and he had spent hours in the darkness, walking deeper into the woods he tripped over a piece of log. Falling down hard, he placed his palm onto the moist floor of the forest pressing on some dried leaves and wet mud.

Z raised his head and looked up, only to stare at a skull of a human that had been rotting for years. In a panic, he immediately backed up into the tree and started to cry. This thoroughly traumatised the boy, making him hug his legs and cry in the corner. He felt a pat on his shoulder and immediately reacted shrugging it hard.

He turned and looked behind him and he saw a young girl, with black hair flowing down onto her shoulders, her eyes were clear but lifeless as if all the emotions were sapped out of her. He could not see her clearly in the darkness, but her features were illuminated by the bright moonlight and it was bright enough for him to make those out.

Realising that it was that very same girl that hit him earlier that day he immediately raised his hands to block his face in a panic, but after a few minutes, he slowly peeked out of his guard and realised that the girl was just staring at him.

Z tried to speak to the girl, unsure what would happen if he did, he decided to take a risk and just try it out. "Hello... I'm Zero Cromwell."

The young girl turned and looked at him,

"Alice" She replied with a single word. Immediately after she replied, a dark glow came from her hands as she swung them with force sending a dark blade past Z's face into the darkness behind him.

Z immediately fell to the ground as his legs lost strength. He almost lost his life, why wouldn't he be afraid.

Alice slowly walked into the darkness as she dragged a corpse of a mutated wolf back into the moonlight and dropped it beside Z.

"You, eat?" she asked as she began to use the knife to skillfully skin the mutated wolf beast.

'Growl' Z's stomach started grumbling as he nodded his head and respectfully agreed to it.

--------------------------------------------------
'Crash!' a loud sound resounded out of the cookhouse, as Z was startled out of his daydream. Everyone turned their head and looked into the direction of the sound.

It was was Kyzil, Sergeant Scuse stood beside him, a tray of food is seen on the floor beside them.

"Didn't I tell you, you were not allowed to eat normal food for lunch? Who's the one who gave him the food? Come out." Sergeant Scuse said angrily, his eyes crimson.

A scrawny young boy stood out, with his head looking on the ground. He had a black eye and was ashamed of it.

"Why did you give him your food?" Sergeant Scuse asked as his vision landed on that scrawny boy.

"Because... because... I feel sorry for him and... I wanted him to eat..."

The boy replied with a sort of uncertainty in his voice.

"Tell the truth, you won't come to any more harm."

Sergeant Scuse continued to pressure the boy

The boy started having tears drip from his eyes as he clenched his fist he started to recall the incident that took place just now and how he was coerced into forking out his food by the other nobles to give to Kyzil.

"Kyzil, you have disobeyed a direct order, go run 20 rounds around the compound. Don't come back until you have finished"

Kyzil's face turned red as he stared down the boy,

"You damn peasant! How dare you! You don't deserve the food! Sacrificing it to me is your honour and you! How dare you implicate me into this mess! Trash! It's your fault"

He turned to Z and shouted too as he stomped away angrily. Z shrugged his shoulders and continued munching on his nutrition bar once again. He didn't let such insignificant things affect him and was mainly focused on how to dismantle the system that was in place.

After lunch they were allocated into their quarters, it was pretty much the same for Z and Odrunn as they were still paired up with each other sharing the room. In the following weeks to come, there were huge turnouts in the morning where everyone was caught unprepared on the first day, jolting out of their beds, as they rushed into the square and braced themselves for the tough training ahead. Progressively the speed of their training increased and so did their intensity. Many of the recruits suffered during this period of time. Because they were restricted from using their manifests, the recruits who relied on it the most suffered the most.

Weeks flowed on to months, as the individual recruits put in their utmost effort to survive. Even Odrunn wasn't as big as he was before, due to his manifest, he was able to keep up with the training with no trouble at all, continuously building up his strength.

Today was the day that the recruits were going to get some defensive artefacts and armour that suited them. The equipment was sponsored by the military and they were second hand, but it was good enough for the recruits to have their own equipment.

Excitedly, everyone gathered in the empty square as they looked on in anticipation for the armour and artefacts they will receive. In front of them were large cases of equipment and plenty of staff checking through the equipment.

At the side, prestigious looking cases filled the grounds. Compared to these resplendent cases, their ordinary cases looked almost shoddy. But these factors did not deter the new recruits from excitedly anticipating what was in the cases.

Vero Irgas stepped forward first, of course, he stood in front of one of the resplendent case. His family had sent him a care package within it was equipment crafted to fit his size. The staff opened up the case and within lay a golden armour. Excitedly he picked it up and wore it, looking like a golden war god on the field. It was armour made of special material and although it was tough and could withstand damage, the material could stretch out according to body size. This was very vital for Vero, whose body size can change due to his manifest. His manifest Multi-size allowed him to grow up to twice his size and allowed him to be efficient in blocking attacks from the enemy. His family were so happy with his manifest that when he awakened they immediately held a party celebrating his accomplishments.

He opened up the next case and within it lay an artefact. It was a shield, picking it up, he activated it with his hands immediately a barrier appeared in front of him. This was the latest version of the shield artefact, able to create a forcefield around the user and even change the direction of the forcefield. Vero laughed, with his manifest, multisize he could adjust the forcefield and charge forward valiantly into battle.