Chapter 2: Legion TrainingAt breakfast, the food they fed us was copious but bnd. I had trouble eating as my new reality sunk in. I listened ily to others speaking and heard familiarity in their speech but could not pce it. Some words almost made sense, but the heavy at and rapid speech made it difficult.
We had no guards when I walked around the buildings. That surprised me, but I remained close to my assigned building and watched the experienced csses training. They worked on ditioning, fighting with various ons, coordinated marches, and small formations of sixteen to twenty men. My stomach roiled as the muscur and fit men performed athletic stunts well beyond anything I was ever capable of. I had lost weight since arriving, but my gut was still evident, and I was worried about what I had gotten myself into. Even more so when a man had his arm broken from a club. I turned away, almost losing my breakfast from seeing the boig out.
We waited two more days before all bunks were filled. I was given a transtion amulet charged at breakfast by one of the magis who healed injuries, along with five others arently did not speak the native tongue. The mage was named Damian, and after he gave me the amulet, he showed me how to wear it.
“You o keep the cord tight so the amulet remains around the throat. This way, it is uo get damaged. They are expensive, and if you were in the regur army, you would not eve one,” Damian expined patiently.
I was relieved to finally have the ability to talk to others. I held it in my hand, and it looked like a closed pocket watch. “How does it work?”
Damian answered, “Runic discs stacked in oriented sequend are powered by aether.” I nodded as if any of that made seo me.
Since I knew Damian was one of the healers from watg the others train, I thought it might be a good idea to befriend him. “If you have time, I would appreciate some nguage lessons without the amulet.”
Damian looked me over. “Your body and mind are about to gh a daily gau. But if you have the energy, fier dinner.” He left me to my own devices.
With the amulet, it was great to finally talk to others freely. Most of the men in our 100-person barracks were here because they, like me, had opted to be soldiers rather than borers to pay off their crimes. Most of the crimes were not as petty as mihough, with lots of murderers and violent assault cases. I also found one be of the amulet: it always transted my speech at the same volume, so I could whisper a word and listen to the transtion aloud. This ahe others in the barracks, so I usually did practiced outside.
I spent most of my free time eg the words and developing a vocabury. I think the nguage was reted to English, so I rapidly added words to my mental diary. I was unsure if it was because I was a fner, my demeanor, or that I just did not speak the nguage without the amulet, but I had difficulty making friends. After two days of retive freedom our training began.
We had seven trainers who also served as wardens. One of roup tried to escape the sed night, and he romptly put on trial and executed. The follow-up speech by Sis, the Legion ander in charge, was not pleasant: “You leave the pound without permission of an instructor, and you will be executed. Know that you ot run. es—” he indicated seven men in a row “—will track you in minutes. You chose to be here to atone for your crimes and serve the Empire.” He made a hand motion, and one of the trainers grimly slid a long, pointed dagger uhe and up into the brain of the viotor. The defiant look on his face turo horror as he died. I promptly vomited and was not the only one.
The se made me have sed thoughts about my choice to join and erased all thoughts of escape. Two years of hard bor robably a better alternative. The dead man’s bed romptly filled with another recruit. There were seven barracks, each with a hundred bunks. When a barracks was full, the 7-month training began, usually on the first of the month. Each barracks had seven trainers, and a rge estate building housed all the and staff.
I wasn’t sure how many and staff there were, but Damian, who lived iate, said it was over one hundred, not including attendants. There were also more than the seven mages who had been on dispy at the execution, but Damian said their number fluctuated between ten and fifteen.
On the first m, we ran with a weighted pack before breakfast. Thee a rge meal as our bodies protested the abuse but yearned for susteo heal it. we had a lecture about the Empire and Legion that sounded mostly like propaganda to me. Our seven instructors schooled us in hand-to-hand bat after the lecture, but the lesson was more about the instructors showing us how superior they were to us. A number of my fellows got broken noses, dislocated shoulders, or torn ligaments that required healing. The grim lessons caused several painful screams. On one of my turns, I got an elbow to the fad spit out my two broken froh.
My instructor yelled at me, “Get your teeth, trainee. A magi heal it ba pce, but they would not waste aether in regrowing them.” I spit blood as I dropped to my knees and found them in the dirt. Damian washed and carefully lihem up before healing them. He patted me on the back, and I returo the training. Or, for a better description, the beating.
After hand-to-hand bat, we had another meal. I listeo the others pin as they ate, bonding over their hatred of the instructors but still not accepting me. I was oside looking in, not being able to break into any versations. We were brought to a courtyard with a huge barrel of worn, dull swords. We were each given one of the bdes, and the instructor spoke, “All bat be broken down into different movements woven together. The speed and power at which you execute these movements make you a petent swordsman.”
Then, we were schooled in sword forms. We had to learn seven sword forms, each with seven segments. We practiced with weighted swords, striving for perfeents. If we were good, they would give us a heavier sword. My shoulders and arms were soon ag and struggling to hold the bde.
After a few hours with the sword, we spent time with the instructors. Eae taught another on: dagger, axe, crossbow, short sword, two-handed sword, spear, and polearm. They told us oal was not to master another on, but to learn enough to fight effectively against someoh these ons. So we rotated every day between instructors in groups of 15. After the cross-on training, we did more fitraining until su. Then we had a shower fed by an aqueduct, received healing if needed, and more food. The bnd food suddenly tasted like ambrosia. We had two hours to ourselves before the su and darkness filled the barracks.
The first few days, I had trouble moving. My body just stopped responding to the inteigue. The instructors did not scream and yell at me like in the movies. Instead, they offered calmly worded threats that I would be sent to the regur army if I could not keep going. That seemed to motivate the other men, so I also forced myself to tinue. victed men in the army were usually sent to the front lines and used as fodder. At least, that was what the instructors told us. I pushed to keep myself from that fate.
Most of us slept for our free two hours. I, however, was outside and worked on mastery of the nguage. I noticed one of the only two women in our barracks, practig with a staff. Her name was Helena. After a few days, we started talking briefly while she spuaff. The other woman in roup usually moved from bed to bed at night, wh herself out for favors in bat csses.
Helena trusted me and after a few days, she tossed me a staff. “You talk and help practice.” I caught the staff and painfully stood.
“How you still move Helena? And why practice more?” I approached her.
“You just o tell your mind that your body doesn’t hurt. The more practice I get, the better my aking it.” She went into a series of attacks. She slowed, seeing how terrible I was at defending.
After some exges, I found she was a good teacher. A teacher who didn’t like to talk, just demonstrated. Close to su, I asked her, “Why are you even here? You seem like a warrior.”
Helena huffed. “Criminal debt.” She didn’t eborate. And I could tell she wasn’t going to talk further on it. But from then on, I spent my evenings gaining proficy with the staff. Getting my abused body to do the extra training was not easy, but I was findial resilieo the pain, like Helena said.
At night, before falling asleep, I always tried my damo charge the medallion myself. If there was magi this world and I had a wisp of it, then I could make it work for me eventually. After two weeks of this, I thought I might be starting to feel the aether, but I was unsure.
My body was brokeedly during training—literally. We had good healers to repair our injuries. Torn ligaments, broken bones, cussions, cuts, internal bleeding—all of it was repairable with magic if they got to you in time. I got healing just about every day and found myself starting to bee numb to the pain—whie of the instructors told me was the point. It was a hallmark of a legionnaire, fighting when his body was broken. At least now I was able to fun retively normally with one broken arm.
After pleting three weeks of hell, we were tested oablet. Fourteen of our hundred washed out after the test and were sent to the regur army training camp. Some of us were surprised, but after I talked with Damian, I found out the amount of resoureeded to train the Legion of Lion was ten times that of the regur army. This meant ander Sis liked to cull the groups early, which allowed our instructors to focus on the more promising men.
Damian, who was one of the dozen magis administering the test, let me peruse my results on the paper after they were copied. Most of the other soldiers just had their results copied a away. Making friends with the man had been a boon for me.
Physical
Mental
Magical
Strength
(+10/+0)
31/79
Intellect
(+0/+0)
25/54
Aether Pool
(+0/+0)
7/21
Power
(+7/+0)
29/82
Reasoning
(+2/+0)
35/59
eling
(+1/+0)
3/55
Quiess
(+2/+0)
18/49
Perception
(+1/+0)
45/60
Aether Shaping
(+1/+0)
1/8
Dexterity
(+3/+0)
17/55
Insight
(+1/+0)
19/48
Aether Tolerance
(+0/+0)
19/50
Endurance
(+11/+0)
41/87
Resilience
(+0/+0)
40/71
Aether Resistance
(+0/+0)
3/19
stitution
(+3/+0)
22/65
Empathy
(+0/+0)
9/21
Prime Aether Affinity
Space
Coordination
(+7/+0)
17/60
Fortitude
(+6/+0)
30/87
Minor Aether Affinity
Time
My physical stats had made goress. I was more curious to see my magic skills, which had barely moved. But still, they had moved! So the hour I had spent every night trying to charge my amulet had done something. It gave me the motivation to tihe effort.
After the tablet reading, we had a rge round of bat petitions over three days to rank the remaining 86 members of the squad. I pced 48th in hand bat, 37th in sword bat, 77th with daggers, and 29th with sword and shield. It had been the first time we had been given a shield, so I thought I did well. I was surprised I had done so well, but then again, most of the men in the barracks had not been warriors before ing here.
Then, in a sort of awards ceremony, the top three pcers in eabat got a minor essence of strength or power for a reward. The small marble-sized balls were dark purple e, which the winners eagerly ed. What is an essenbsp; From Damian, I found out there were two effects of essences. Ohey could raise your potential in stat, and the other was they could raise your attribute without having to bust your ass in training. After just three weeks of training, the bottom three performers were sent to the army camp, redug our barraumber to 83.
Talking to Damian, I found that each minor essence cost between one and twenty gold s depending on which stat. Physical stats were the cheapest, while magical stats were the costliest, aal ones fell iween. Generally, it took 30 minor esseo forcefully raise a stat up one point without any training. Unfortunately, minor essences usually had little effece a stat reached half of a person’s potential, uhe individual also trai.
There were also major essehat were about an in diameter. These could help raise stats to about 80% of your potential without having to train. They were also ten times as effective at raising stats over minor essences, meaning you only o use 3 for an increase. Acc to Damian, major essences cost between 50 to 500 gold.
Finally, there were apex essences. They were the size of a golf ball but were very difficult to harvest, cost hundreds of gold, and could raise someone past 80% of their potential without training. More importantly, though, apex essences were the only thing that could raise your potential: your stat’s limit ceiling. These essences were rare, expensive, and reserved for nobility. Using them on yourself was a crime unless you had permission from a noble called a First Citizen.
I spent the hree weeks of trainiremely focused on improving my bat skills. The instructors noticed and gave me more attention in practice sessions. I didn’t want to fall below the imaginary lihat would have me sent to the regur army; if I was going to survive in this world, I also his training. I found my body acclimating to its new reality, and most of my body fat was goer just six weeks.
The ablet test, three weeks ter, yielded good results for me.
Physical
Mental
Magical
Strength
(+6/+0)
37/79
Intellect
(+0/+0)
25/54
Aether Pool
(+1/+0)
8/21
Power
(+7/+0)
36/82
Reasoning
(+0/+0)
35/59
eling
(+0/+0)
3/55
Quiess
(+3/+0)
21/49
Perception
(+3/+0)
48/60
Aether Shaping
(+0/+0)
1/8
Dexterity
(+1/+0)
18/55
Insight
(+1/+0)
20/48
Aether Tolerance
(+0/+0)
19/50
Endurance
(+6/+0)
47/87
Resilience
(+1/+0)
41/71
Aether Resistance
(+0/+0)
3/19
stitution
(+2/+0)
24/65
Empathy
(+0/+0)
9/21
Prime Aether Affinity
Space
Coordination
(+12/+0)
29/60
Fortitude
(+7/+1)
37/88
Minor Aether Affinity
Time
The tester only recorded my physical aal stats, ign the magin again. I had substantial gains in my physical stats, and was being from all the on practices. My mental fortitude potential had increased from 87 to 88. I asked the tablet testing mage about it. It wasn’t Damian this time, but my goodwill among the mages seemed to have spread.
He checked the records. “A single point in potential increase is not unheard of. The tablet’s calibration could be off, or you could have just been on the cusp between values. You shouldn’t worry about it. Don’t be surprised if it is back to 87 on your reading.” I had waited to be st in line so I could review my scores, and the three mages administering the test packed up the three tablets they were using carefully a.
Six people were expelled from our barracks after the tablet testing, bringing our o 77. I didn’t even bother to figure out who they were. Rumor spread among us that the goal was to finish with 30 Legionnaires. The top six in our css would be sent to the capital to join the Royal Legion, and the remaining 24 would form a ptoon uhe and of a mage and be sent on missions across the Telhian Empire.
bat testing was fairly intehis round as everyone realized they might not make it and have to go to the regur army, which was sidered fodder to hold the borders. Life expecy was not very high. I finished 19th in sword ranking, 24th in sword and shield, 29th in dagger, and 9th in hand-to-hand. We were also tested on our marksmanship with the crossbow, and I finished 18th. Once again, prize essences were handed out to the top three for each event, and three more soldiers were cut—74 of us remained.
We, shogly, were given a day off. It was our first free day in six weeks of interaining finished. I noticed another man shedding tears of joy when it was announced.
