*** Patrick ***

  ‘I think I’ve been making progress, but it is hard to tell. I can feel the energy in the pebble, and it feels like it is seeping into my fingers, but I can’t see any change in it.’ The situation for Patrick had been mostly the same for the past hour. It felt possible, but progress wasn’t discernable.

  The trainer had been sitting quietly with her eyes closed after distributing the pebbles. An hour (and a half) glass next to her was almost empty. The other recruits were mostly quiet, with just a little whispering and mumbling randomly occurring.

  Shortly after the hour glass had emptied the trainer opened her eyes and looked at it. With a small huff she got up and said, “We are almost at the training camp, I will help those who have not finished absorbing the crystal.” She then went to the back right corner of the room.

  Strapped into the chair Patrick could only see seven other recruits, and none of them had finished either. He sardonically thought, ‘I wonder if this is why we are strapped in?’

  Behind him, presumably where the trainer went, a man began making a creaky moaning sound. ‘She did say it wasn’t fun if she had to help.’ He continued for about a minute, and then the sound changed to labored breathing.

  Ten seconds later, the woman two rows behind started to make short squeaking sounds, like an elongated battle with trying to force hiccups to stop.

  The woman in the front row, all the way to the left, was having a panic attack. Her face was red and she was working her jaw up and down like silent chittering. The man on his right had his eyes shut as tight as possible with his lips compressed to half their normal size. The sounds from the back row had a similar, but lesser effect on several others he could see. Patrick felt the instinctual stress from the noises and everyone else’s reactions. He consciously relaxed his grip on the rock which he was gripping tighter.

  ‘ok, relax, although it sounds annoying, they aren’t going to harm us. … Probably just pushing us past our comfort zone.’

  The next sound came from the back left corner. ‘huh, I guess someone absorbed it.’ Various grunts, groans, and whimpers came from all the other recruits before him except for whoever was directly behind him.

  When the trainer started on his row he was finally able to see, she placed her hand on the woman’s sternum and the other on the crystal. It took longer than when the trainer had absorbed it herself, but after about 40 seconds the crystal faded from view. The recruit had held her breath and loudly exhaled after it was over. Being able to see it occur was less disturbing to Patrick than just hearing their discomfort and having his imagination fill in the blanks.

  The panicking woman in the front row had put the rock in her mouth and was working on swallowing it. The trainer was aware of what the recruit was doing, but did not seem concerned.

  Another two minutes and the trainer leaned over Patrick, she had a somewhat tired look on her face. He offered her the crystal, but she shook her head and closed his hand around it. She covered his hand with hers and put her other hand on his chest. First he felt a slight chill originating from her hand on his chest, and then energy flowed from the crystal into his hand. His forearm physically swelled. His forearm and the whole right side of his body felt like an overfull balloon. There wasn’t any physical swelling other than his forearm, but he had a phantom feeling of doubling in size. The process finished quickly and his crystal disappeared without a trace. Patrick felt out of breath, like he had just surfaced from a deep dive. Soon the swollen feeling receded and he got his breathing back to normal.

  The trainer finished his row, and instead of going to the right, as usual, she started on the left to help the one who swallowed the crystal. It didn’t seem to interfere, the trainer put both hands on the woman and went through the same process. The recruit was still flustered after, but had stopped freaking out.

  A few minutes later the trainer returned to the front of the room and announced, “When we arrive you will have ten minutes to freshen up and use the facilities. After that line-up on the white line and order yourselves by height. You will have some spear training followed by a briefing. Remember, no talking or goofing off. You are on duty and are expected to be focused on training.”

  — 09:15 —

  Patrick was standing in the rain, on the white line, with the other recruits after spear training. The rain was warm and the air muggy. He was surprised that it wasn’t more annoying. The weather was unpleasant, but forgettable. It helped that the sweats and footwear seemed to naturally repel the water. ‘I wonder if I’m just happy to be outside?’

  It was hard to tell with the humidity, but the air seemed extra wet somehow. The smell was worse, a mucus-y mustard-y scent that luckily wasn’t strong enough to gag anyone. The sky was overcast, and the light levels were overall dim. Maybe it was from being in space so long, but gravity seemed stronger than Patrick remembered.

  They were in a well trimmed grassy courtyard that was adorned with chalk lines in a variety of colors. The room they arrived in was 100 feet off the side. From the outside he could make out a huge handle on the top of it that he presumed a wyrm or drake had used to carry the room. He didn’t catch sight of it, but heard a slow beating of wings while they were lining up to leave. The landing was so smooth and gentle it wouldn’t have been noticeable if he hadn’t been paying attention. The buildings’ walls looked like thick plastic, but felt like stone when you touched them.

  Spear training reminded Patrick of the karate club he was in years ago with some of his friends. During the session they spread out and worked on how to stand and how to hold the spear. There was a trainer in front, facing them, and everyone did their best to mimic his movements. Three other trainers circulated among the recruits to correct mistakes, sometimes using a six foot staff to tap what body part needed to be shifted. Patrick made his share of mistakes, but it was a relaxing distraction. Once he got into the flow of it, it felt normal, like something he might have done on Earth back before this craziness.

  One of the trainers walked in front of the line and ordered, “Every second person take two steps back and move to the right in back of the person who is on your right now.”

  Once everyone was settled he repeated the order and added, “After you are in place tighten it up so you are an arm’s length from the person ahead and to the right of you. This arrangement of four rows and four columns is called the square formation. We use the square formation for briefings.”

  “Welcome to camp Zeta. Your mission objective here is to learn how to function in a Dragon Corps unit and develop your physical and magical skills. The camp’s trainers’ mission is to support you in achieving excellence. It will be a lot of work. The good news is that this is the best place in the galaxy for you to become an outstanding Dragon Corps soldier. Our training methods will maximize your physical and magical potential. The bad news is this is a water world, so I hope you enjoy the rain.”

  The trainer continued after the joke fell flat.

  “Your training will be a lot of work, and your results will wholly depend on the effort that you put in. In case you missed it, you are here because you asked to be here. You requested to join a knight training program rather than the regular recruit program. This program is not designed to break you down mentally or emotionally. We are not playing any mind games. Extraordinary results require extraordinary effort, there are no shortcuts. There is no room for half-measures. If you are not putting in your all, or otherwise not meeting expectations you will receive demerits. Five demerits and you are out of the program; shipped out to the next regular recruit training.”

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “You will be on duty and training for at least nine out of the 16 hours each day. There will be four hours of ‘lights out’ time, and your other three hours each day will be at your discretion. You may use those three hours to relax, to socialize, for extra training, or to expunge demerits.”

  “A core part of your training is to seamlessly work as part of your team. While you are on duty you are not an individual, you are a part of a whole. To remind you of this no personal names will be used while on duty. How you address each other during your personal time is of no concern to us. While on duty everyone will be addressed by their role, including your trainers. There are four trainers assigned to your recruit hexad, including myself. We will be rotating who the duty commander is each day. The two solid stripes you see on each of my arms marks me as the day’s duty commander. One solid stripe on each arm denotes the trainer role.”

  “You will be trained on the four core Dragon Corps roles and practice each of them. During the next couple of weeks you will earn a code-name related to your assigned role. For now your role is soldier.”

  “Our first group assessment is in two hexnights, just 32 days. As recruits from an Eden world you are new to magic. The good news is that your soul is pliable and this training will maximize your potential. The bad news is that you are starting from zero in magical skills. To help compensate for your lack of skills we will provide equipment that you can channel magic through. Magical equipment is the standard way that magic is employed in the Corps. Basic equipment skills can be learned in weeks rather than the years or decades it takes to learn spells.”

  “Based on your earlier performance it is clear that everyone is starting from zero with spear skills. The spear and shield are the basic loadout for Dragon Corps soldiers and you will become proficient with them. You will also work extensively on how to move and operate as a group. Both as a four person quad and in a 16 person hexad. Once the hexad has reached a minimum level of performance we will engage with the local wildlife. As a water world the local flora and fauna has been corrupted by water mana. You will gain practical experience in combat, magic, and teamwork battling low level monsters.”

  “Your fellow recruits are your siblings-in-arms. Endangering or recklessly harming your siblings will result in demerits or a dismissal. Although you are stronger and tougher than you have ever been in your life, injuries are real and can derail your sibling’s chance at a position as a knight. Magic is real, but injuries and death are still real. Remember magic is a type of energy, not wish-fulfillment.”

  “You have 10 minutes to get a drink of water and freshen-up. Then you will return to your current position to work on magic channeling. You will need a rod from the table by the water fountain, grab one before returning to formation. Fall out.”

  —

  Patrick returned to his position, third row, second column, with the training rod. It was an inch thick piece of wood about the length of his arm. He was a couple of minutes early and examined the patterns that were engraved on it. There were four different patterned strips that wrapped around it. The bottom pattern was alternating grooves, each about a pencil width. The strip above that consisted of boxes that each contained a diamond shape. The next pattern was raised knobs arranged in a diagonal pattern. The top one was large skinny triangles that alternated facing up and down. The commander returned to the front and began.

  “Fall in.”

  “This is a training rod, its purpose is to help you to learn how to create a weave. Different types of mana work differently. In order to create a useful spell the mana has to be injected in a specific pattern. The Dexterity exercises you did during your assessment was your introduction into how to create weaves. Magic equipment simplify it by providing receptacles that only allow the correct pattern through. You can just blast the correct mana type into the equipment and it will work because the equipment filters out mana in the wrong location. Skill is still important though. Brute forcing the mana in will cause your spell to be weak because you are wasting most of your energy.”

  “These training rods are to help you develop magical muscle memory. The patterns on this training rod are the standard level one weaves that the Dragon Corps uses for the four elemental mana types. More advanced equipment will use more sophisticated weaves. Your goal is to reach a basic level of proficiency with at least one mana type before the first assessment, and with all of them at the proficient level by the end of the semester.”

  “In order to channel mana it must first be in your mana pool. On your trip here you absorbed a water mana crystal, so that is what we will work on during this session. You will receive a wind crystal with dinner and that will be the mana type we use in the next session.”

  “The water pattern is the second from the top, it has a pattern of raised circles. Move the energy from your mana pool into the training rod. When you succeed a cord of water will extend from the end of the training rod. A trainer will tell you when you are done, at which time you will move to the next area and practice spear stances. Begin.”

  It took a while, but Patrick eventually got it. He held the rod around the water stripe, and as he channeled the little circles acted as voids that drank in the magic. On the other parts of the rod the mana backed up and created a small amount of pressure. The backed up energy didn’t seem to go anywhere specific, it just pushed back on his hand and dissipated into the air. The pressure was similar to the feeling he had when he was trying to draw the energy in from the water crystal.

  At first the water dribbled out of the rod. The constant rain and humidity didn’t help. ‘Why are we outside instead of inside?’ Patrick kept at it, slowly improving the cohesion and length of the water cord. The trainers moved from recruit to recruit placing a hand on the recruits’ shoulders as they passed by. After 45 minutes Patrick felt wrung out and wasn’t able to make progress. The best he had done was a four inch cord for 25 seconds. After that he was having trouble keeping the cord cohesive for more than a few seconds.

  The next time a trainer checked on Patrick, she sent him to join spear practice. He returned the rod to the table and joined the six other recruits who were already there.

  People continued to join the spear stance practice, and ten minutes after the whole hexad was there they were given 30 minutes for dinner.

  Dinner was considered personal time, but no one was interested in talking. It was another day of a life-time’s worth of information to take in, and everyone was trying to get their bearings. Dinner was a self-serve affair of cereal bars and energy drinks. Patrick grabbed two cereal bars and one of the drinks. The food was edible and probably nutritious, but lacked any flavor.

  The group was allowed to sit in a gazebo to absorb the air crystals. The pebbles were the same size, but had a whitish-translucent color to them.

  Only three recruits absorbed them on their own, everyone else, including Patrick, needed help to absorb the energy.

  The hexad went back to spear training for an hour, and then worked on channeling air mana. Sending air mana into the alternating grooves produced a breeze out the end of the rod. As people emptied their mana pool they were sent to spear practice until the whole group was done.

  The commander spoke up, “This concludes today’s training. The trainers will pass out your day’s feedback and a copy of the camp’s rules. You have been assigned a bed in the barracks, ‘lights out’ is at 16:00 and you are expected back here at 4:00 in line formation. You may turn in early if you wish. No socializing in the barracks, it is strictly for rest. There is a rec room for socializing. Dismissed.”

  The other trainers were between them and the building that had the barracks and rec room. One of them handed Patrick a rules book and a piece of paper with his name on it.

  Name: Patrick Pear

  Date: 73bc25-2026-20

  Reaction: n/a

  Body: n/a

  Strength: n/a

  Absorption: 0-2

  Mana Pool: 1-0

  Power: 0-3

  Skills:

  Spear: 0-2

  Shield: n/a

  Fire: n/a

  Wind: 0-3

  Sea: 0-2

  Terra: n/a

  Patrick could guess at the categories, but had no clue what the numbers meant. He was exhausted and just wanted to rest. ‘I’ll figure it out tomorrow.’

  He went to the barracks and found his assigned bed and went to sleep.