Chapter 40:

Chapter 40:

After a 12-hour journey, they arrived at a camp prepared for the outdoor practice. The cadets who got out of the vehicle immediately gathered at the center of the base and listened to an explanation from Fletta, the general instructor of the practice.

“This place, as you know, is unsafe within the borders. There are no small towns, let alone cities.”

Fletta is a woman with light gray hair and scars all over her face. Like many teachers and instructors, she had fought in the Great War. Perhaps that’s why her voice had the power to draw people’s attention.

“So go to bed early and don’t think about doing anything stupid in the middle of the night. Departure will be early tomorrow morning.”

Fletta finished her explanation with a brief warning and stepped back. Afterward, the teachers and instructors led them to the building where they would spend the night. The building they were guided to wasn’t looking nice compared to the academy’s dormitory, but at least there was no problem sleeping overnight.

“It’s been a while since I’ve slept with many people.”

Daniel spoke up after the instructor had stepped back. Abel nodded. Only the boys in the class shared the same room.

“You should probably go to bed early tonight.”

“Huh?

“Because you’ve been sleeping in the vehicle all day long?”

At Daniel’s question, Abel thought for a moment before speaking.

“Now that I think about it, you probably won’t sleep.”

Daniel had no problem pulling an all-nighter. Abel left Daniel to do his thing and then sat upright on his bed, not planning on sleeping himself. Fletta said they wouldn’t start practicing until early morning, but Abel knew the truth.

“Maybe in the next four hours.”

The practice will begin at dawn, and it’s just after midnight. Abel guessed the time to be around 2:00. So they had four hours left. At that level, it was often better to meditate than sleep, making his body sluggish.

The last thing he wanted was to fall asleep like other cadets. It’s a plan that was anticipated in the first place, their first outdoor practice. The cadets, who fall asleep late with tension and excitement, would be unable or too sluggish to wake up for the practice that would be starting early in the morning.

That’s where the assessment will begin. It is to see how you respond in an unexpected situation. In that sense, Abel is already at a different starting line than the others.

“Inhale, exhale.”

Abel took a long breath and began to meditate slowly. It was a deeper meditation than the one he had done in the vehicle. It was just a way for him to pass the time while staying awake.

He tuned out the chatter of the cadets in his quarter, and as time passed, it wasn’t long before his quarter became silent. Everyone had fallen asleep. It was quiet but not peaceful. It was more like the night before the storm. Abel felt a sharp sense of uneasiness rising through him, and when it reached its peak.

Wooooooo~!

A loud noise pierced his ears. As soon as Abel heard the noise, he opened his eyes.

“Ugh...”

“What the...”

There were groans everywhere. Some quick-witted people opened their eyes and seemed to be trying to figure out the situation, but their eyes were still full of drowsiness.

On the other hand, Abel gathered up the things he had set aside and headed outside. The sound that still resonates loudly was one of the things he had learned in class.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøv€l-B1n.

The meaning is simple. An enemy invasion is expected, so everyone should assemble immediately. The location of the meeting point must be found yourself. It’s usually marked in a way that’s immediately noticed, like the red lantern that was shining off to one side. Abel headed in that direction without hesitation and soon found himself in a relatively large clearing.

“Abel!”

Upon arriving at the clearing, a booming voice greeted him. It was Karl. Karl looked at Abel and smiled.

“You’re the first to arrive. Excellent.”

“Thank you.”

Abel simply thanked him and stood in front of him. Karl then turned to him and asked.

“Did you guess this would happen?”

It was a bottomless question, but Abel didn’t have a hard time answering it.

“I was considering a number of possibilities.”



“Well, I’m not sure. But since they said we will start practicing right away, shouldn’t we be heading to where the Gigant is?”

Another Cadet answered. It was a reasonable answer. They’d been told that the gigant to be used for the practice was moved to the practice place in advance, and there were no gigant for practice at the camp.

“Is that right?”

“I think so. I wonder how the practice would go.”

Once the silence was broken, each cadet said a few words. It wasn’t necessarily because they wanted to say something, but it was to calm their fears and nerves. Abel, on the other hand, stayed out of the conversation and waited quietly. This was not the time to chat leisurely.

It would be easy for them to think they could just hop aboard their gigants and fight real battles, but the Del Mordor Academy is not that easy. As Fletta had said, their training had already begun. Abel hugged his pack tightly as he reflected on that. And what he had expected happened less than 20 minutes after their departure.

Whooooo!

A deafening sound echoed, and simultaneously, the car shook violently. The cadets, who had been chatting earlier, were frozen in place by the unexpected noise and shock.

“Everyone get off! The vehicle is broken! We have to move!

Then came the voice of the driver. Most cadets were hurrying to leave the vehicle because they couldn’t understand the situation properly, but a few weren’t. First, Kalian, sitting closest to the door, shouted as he hit the cadet about to open the door.

“Wait! It could be a trap!”

“A trap?”

“Yes! You heard the explanation at the beginning: the safest place to be in times of danger is inside this vehicle. We must stay inside until we have clear guidelines for what’s happening !”

He was right. The horsepower vehicles prepared for the cadets were not just moderately sturdy but also had a level of protection. It was enough to serve as a temporary barrier in case of emergency. In the event of an attack, the cadets were taught to assess the situation from within before taking action rather than getting off hastily.

“Huh, but the driver told us to get out!”

“That’s right!”

However, the cadets’ whose faces had turned pale at the unexpected incident, tried opening the door with a fight. Then, Abel spoke up.

“Kalian is right.”

”What?”

”Let’s get one thing straight before that. Has anyone here heard the driver’s voice?”

At Abel’s sudden question, everyone became mute. They had to be because none of them had heard the driver speak. Before this, the driver of the horsepower vehicle hadn’t said a word even after 12 hours of driving. At that time, Abel had just thought he was relatively silent and let it go, but when he was in this situation, he had other thoughts.

“The cry just now could be a trick. You all know, right? The driver’s seat is relatively less protective.”

Unlike the back, the driver’s seat’s protective ability is considerably lower because the field of view has to be wide open. Therefore, there is a high possibility that the enemy pretends to be the driver and tries to lure the cadets outside.

“Then....”

“What are we supposed.... to do?”

Abel’s words caused the cadets’ to mumble blankly. The better ones merely looked around with cautious expression, unable to offer any solutions. Seeing this, Abel added another word.

“It is a principle to stand by in combat posture,”

It was simply a word based simply on principle. The reason he didn’t offer another solution was simple. There was no need to do anything more.

‘We just have to wait,’

It wasn’t necessarily because he knew the game but because he could think about it calmly enough. There were too many weird things to be an enemy attack.

Squeak-.

Abel hadn’t even thought about it for less than a minute when the vehicle’s back door opened. Not only Kalian, who had been blocking the door but also the cadets around him quickly backed away. Although he had no weapons, he was determined to fight even with his bare hands.

But that vicious spirit quickly dispelled. This was because the person who appeared through the open door was none other than Karl.

He looked at the cadets and said in a bright voice.

“That was a calm response. Class A all passed.”

The cadets all had confused expressions.

[To be continued.]