...But our families are there in A city too and we still have to provide for them."

After learning the formations and training for a bit they returned to their dwellings, doing maintenance for their equipment was necessary, there were mud and blood on the armour and artefacts. Who knew when it was last cleaned.

Slowly, time trickled on as they resumed training, physical training was a must in the mornings however it was now added in with a little bit of formation training as well. It was basically all the recruits needed to know when you were in a squad, however, it was also only just the beginning of their training, they needed practical experience to back up the knowledge that they had just gained.

The field was once again crowded, the months that just passed seemed like a blink of an eye. Once again Staff Sergeant Ufrad took the stage in the center of the field.

"Well done recruits, the basic training for Vanguards is more or less completed. All of you have grown a significant amount and what you need to know you have already learnt it with your bodies. Although some of you did not manage to finish the training 100%, you still have time to improve on your abilities."

He cleared his throat as he looked at all the recruits on the field each one of them had been trained by his team.

"Finally, the school has decided that all of you will join the military for a joint exercise. The dark forest has recently had an overpopulation of mutant beasts. Seeing as this is such a good opportunity for all of you to try out being in a team, the school wanted to push forward a proposal for all of you to participate. On top of that, for your efforts and help, all of you will be provided with a grade 5 special serum each."

Voices started resounding amongst the recruit as the mention of the special serum riled them up. One had to know that these special serums were not mass-produced, they were limited to only given out for military merits. The nobility did not have a source providing them with special serums so even they wanted in on the action.

"If I could just use it once, I'm sure I can jump into tank levels of power straight away" A voice in the crowd exclaimed.

"With your slow-wittedness, I think even if you had 5 it would still do nothing for you." someone else replied back.

Voices were heard back and forth discussing the usages of the special serum. For Z however, he knew that by consuming a grade 5 serum now, it would vastly increase his strength. But at the same time, he knew that it was hard to increase his strength with just grade 5 serums. Previously while Z was with the incubator, he had consumed quite a number of grade 5 serums. However, only the first time he consumed the serum it gave him a jump to the tank level. After that grade 5 serums just didn't provide him enough juice to level up more time. Z surmised that he would have to take grade 4 serums or even grade 3 if he wanted to make the jump to warship level.

"We will split you up into your groups now, you will then be allocated a squad leader to go to and he will be in charge of you for the forest mission, these are all experienced soldiers and they will not let you get into any danger if you just follow their instructions."

Staff Sergeant Ufrad told them with confidence as he signalled for the rest of the staff to split the students up. After some reshuffling, they were split into groups of 5 just as luck would have it, Z was part of a group that consisted of Odrunn, Vero, Kyzil and David Chambers. However it was no matter of chance that this occurred, neither was it luck.

Staff Sergeant Ufrad knew that Z and Kyzil has had a conflict with one another and was looking forward to seeing how they would work together in a cooperation situation within the team, Odrunn was put there because he knew that no other team would be happy with him being around, being one of the weakest of the batch and Vero was there to balance out Odrunn. Finally, David Chambers was one of the recruits that caught his eye, during the run to the camp months ago, David was the one who started to using his manifest first and his guts caught his attention. Since he was already going to be monitoring Z and Kyzil, he thought he would just throw David into the team as well.

Immediately after they were split up, the tensions soared as Z and Kyzil came face to face with one another once again. Z sat down quietly as he munched on yet another nutrition bar that he got previously from the cookhouse. Odrunn stood by his side looking on the ground, trying to avoid conflict at all costs. Kyzil walked up to Z who was sitting on the ground and stared down at him, who was basically unperturbed.

"You peasants, better stay out of my way. Weaklings like you should learn to stay in your own lane and not get in the way of us nobles."

Seeing Z still unresponsive, made Kyzil extremely angry. He clenched his fist and just as he was about to do something, he felt a large hand grab his shoulder.

"Hey Kyzil, we are all teammates, and he managed to knock you down, so I don't think of him as a weakling at all. I'm Vero, nice to meet you."

Vero extended his large hands towards Odrunn and Z, Odrunn shook his hand immediately and replied.

"I'm Odrunn, this is my boss Zero, he.... doesn't talk much?"

He worriedly turned to look at Z who was still eating the nutrition bar. Z stood up and wiped his hands on his uniform, he grabbed Vero's hands and shook it firmly.

"Nice to meet you." This exchanged lasted for only 3 seconds, but to Odrunn, it felt like an eternity. He was worried that Vero would have taken offence at Z's rudeness, but thankfully the storm has passed.

David who was by the side, came over to introduce himself as well and they started mingling. The only person who stood apart from all of them was Kyzil, he dared not act out in front of Vero, with Vero being from a noble family that even Kyzil dared not touch. He did not want to lower himself to talk to the commoners in the group.