... 'Onwards towards City A Military Academy!' he thought to himself as he sat down on his seat and slowly fell asleep.

The journey took a couple of hours, the transport vehicle travelled on a road full of potholes and bumps, making the journey ever so uncomfortable. But of course, Zero was long used to this mode of transport.

The transport vehicle pulled up to the Astregon military academy as the doors opened. A few students immediately dashed out and went onto the grass and started vomiting. The ride has been a tedious one and their physiques couldn't take the bumpy ride.

A line started to form outside of the school's huge gates, which was the only entrance to a location covered up by huge walls as far as the eye can see. It was a breathtaking sight from anyone who came from the smaller towns in the outskirts and villages.

A middle-aged man could be seen in the centre with a loudhailer

"Nobility on the left, everyone else stays on the right. If you have time to ogle at the school get in line!"

Z shuffled slowly to the right with the rest of the students and joined the queue as all the nobility took an express route into the left path. The Nobility put on airs as they walked slowly through the gates with their servants waiting on them hand and foot.

Z shook his head, The preferential treatment of nobles was truly too different. Z's dislike for the nobles stemmed from somewhere deep within him. It wasn't that he was jealous of their wealth and their family background, it was from the fact that these good for nothing second and third generations were really toxic in the military, they were basically shoved into leadership positions and they lead thousands of commoners to death in a battle. He had heard many stories from the time he was in the resistance with many of the members there losing their buddies or families to the incompetence of these noble incompetent sons.

He stood in line for an entire 45 minutes before reaching to the front of the queue.

In front of him a table with school staff holding what seemed to be a scanner.

"raise your Commswatch and let me scan it for registration,"

the staff said obviously bored with his job.

Getting his watch scanned, picked up a guide book and continued on to the path to the main hall. In City A, a citizen could have a chance to join a military school for education, after which there will be a military selection to decide if you are good enough to command and lead a squad of your own or if you're only cut out to join the militia.

The militia is large in number and is used mainly to do general labour and logistics. They are also mostly used on the battlefield as meatshields.

Citizens living in the outskirts of town usually wouldn't be able to afford to send their kids to the academy, which ends up having their kids conscripted as Militia.

Z got jostled along the path as he moved forward, it was a long long walk leading up to a beautiful grand building. He entered through two large doors with gold trimmings and beautiful ornamental. It was a huge grand hall, capable of filling 3,000 people at its max capacity.

Z shuffled forwards quickly as found the seat he was allocated to and quickly took it. Upon taking the seat he felt his body being pushed aside. A huge boy, 1.8 meters tall sat down in the seat beside him, his fats overflowed accidentally pushing Z aside. As he gazed at the meat mountain a hearty deep voice resounded,

"Excuse me, I'm so sorry. My name is Odrunn Braveflight. Nice to meet your acquaintance." The meat mountain spoke loudly as he reached out his hand towards Z.

"It's okay, no harm done. I'm Zero." Z quickly shook his hand as he introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you man, have you already manifested? What's your manifest? I haven't found out about my manifest, but I'm sure my manifest will turn out awesome! I'll have the best manifest and people will cheer my name! Odrunn! Odrunn! Odrunn!"

Odrunn said loudly while spittle shot out of his mouth, drawing attention from the crowds of students around him.

Zero stared at the fatso beside him for a couple of seconds before looking forward, ignoring him completely.

Just as Odrunn was about to continue talking,

"tap tap tap!" tapping sounds could be heard on the sound enhancement system.

"Dear students of A City military academy. I am your principal, Mauritius Davenport. You are the lucky ones who have a slot in our dearly beloved military academy. Today, we are here to determine the tiers of your manifests.

Envoy Hatetrail is here with us today to give you an evaluation. It is a long process as each of you has to be graded individually, but bear with us as we proceed.

Today, based on your manifestations you will be graded and your manifest will be classified into different grades based on tiers. A tier would be for those that abilities can be used 5 ways and it B tier would be 4, C tier would be 3, so on and so forth. Unmanifested students will be graded U tier, not to worry, you still have 4 years in the academy to let your manifest awaken, even if your manifest is unable to awaken, if you have attained good results, you still can be a commander of the militia.

Noble students should already understand what the ways of using your abilities are. For the rest, don't be discouraged! you will learn about it in the lessons to come.

Last but not least, S tier would be for those that have a manifest that does not fit into the 5 ways of usage. He or she will be immediately be shortlisted as a shadow guard trainee to serve as guards for nobility.

Should that happen, the student will graduate from the school immediately and begin preparation for training elsewhere. With your salary being paid and your families fully taken care of.

With that being said! Nobles, please step forward, Envoy Hatetrail, if you would do the honours?"

Principal Davenport left the stand and took a seat off the stage.

Murmurs resounded as the student body started to get excited "If I can be a Shadow Guard I can pay for my family."

"Shadow Guards are so cool. They can command nobles if the situation depends on it."

"Even the generals of the army have to give respect to the shadow guards."

Z sat to the side quietly as he began laughing cynically. 'The Shadow guards you respect are the worst type of people, they are powerful, but they have lost their humanity in the process. This time, things will be different. I won't be put into that position ever again!'