CHAPTER 3 ‒ The First Awakening

"Ah, Mr. Kang." The soldier reacted to the tall man's comment.

"Will you be leading today's training?" The soldier sounded hesitant.

Kang stepped forward, his gaze sweeping over the group, assessing them.

"Of course. I want to see with my own eyes what this pathetic ‘last hope’ of humanity is truly worth." 

His voice was filled with pride ‒ and arrogance.

The soldier nodded and continued leading us toward the training grounds. Instead of wooden weapons, we were given real ones. Some people in the group exchanged confused looks. No one knew what this was supposed to mean.

"What the hell…?"

A young woman’s eyes widened, her voice trembling.

"Real weapons? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

Kang looked at her, his expression turning serious.

"What this is supposed to mean!?"  He spoke, but it sounded more like a roar. "Do you think we have time to train you like regular soldiers? We have one year, no more. We can't afford to be gentle. I don’t give a damn if you die in the process!"

The group fell silent.
It didn’t matter if everyone survived ‒ as long as a few became strong enough.
That’s what he meant.

I looked down at the blade in my hand. It was rough and already damaged in some places. Probably not sharp enough to kill… but definitely sharp enough to hurt.

The young woman pressed her lips together and lowered her gaze.

Kang observed the group ‒ satisfied.

Time to begin training.

"You will form pairs of two! I don’t care with whom. Treat this fight as if it were a matter of life and death. Show no mercy. Because if you do…"  His grin from before returned. "Then I won’t either."

My eyes met those of the tall man I had spoken to earlier. Without a word, we nodded ‒ that was enough.

We stepped aside and formed a pair for training. The others moved slowly and hesitantly.
No one really attacked. No one knew how to use a weapon.

Kang watched the spectacle ‒ then burst into laughter.

"Holy shit, are these really supposed to be the heroes who will save the world?!"

He slapped his right hand against the ground, laughing loudly.

Everyone fell silent, their eyes locked on him.
No one had wished to be chosen as a hero. No one understood why this was happening at all.

"As if we had a choice!"

The red-haired woman, who had protested earlier in the hall, raised her voice.

"If you want to save your damned world ‒ then do it yourselves!"

Kang did not like her reaction. His laughter stopped, and he stood up.
He stepped toward the woman, and before she could react, he drove his fist into her stomach.

The red-haired woman gasped in pain and collapsed.
She spat onto the ground.

"You piece of trash!"  Kang started kicking her."If we could do it ourselves, we wouldn’t need you!"

He suddenly froze mid-movement, and his expression shifted ‒ from arrogance to fear.

"Those things… they are nothing an ordinary warrior or mage can defeat."

For a brief moment, Kang's gaze drifted into the void, as if he were reliving memories of an old battle.

The red-haired woman saw his hesitation ‒ and took her chance.

With a wild scream, she leapt up, her blade flashing ‒ aimed straight for Kang’s head.
But he raised his arm. Metal clashed against flesh. A dull thud. Blood trickled from a small wound on his forearm.
He swung again, but the woman deflected it with her blade and jumped back.

Then, she prepared for a charge.
As she moved, something changed.
Her veins surfaced ‒ black, like cracks in her skin.
A tremor ran through the air.
The ground beneath her trembled.
Then ‒ an explosion.
An invisible force surged across the training ground, kicking up dust.
She stormed forward.

Kang staggered back, his eyes widening for a brief moment. He drew his sword from its sheath, barely managing to block the attack before her blade could reach his throat.

She froze ‒ as if her own body had betrayed her.

Kang seized the opportunity. His knee slammed into her stomach.

She gasped, blood dripping from her lips before she collapsed once more.

"Oho, enhancement magic! Seems like some of you might actually be useful after all!"

He turned away and returned to his previous spot.

The silence was suffocating. What they had just witnessed was magic. That was the whole reason for all of this ‒ to awaken it. And from the looks of it, someone had already succeeded.

But at what cost?

The woman was still lying on the ground, trembling.

Everyone resumed their training, but they swung their blades without purpose, without direction.

The rest of the session was pure agony. Kang kept interfering, forcing us to fight properly. If someone refused, they were beaten ‒ or worse, forced to face Kang himself.
That was the far crueler option.

When I hesitated to strike my training partner with full force, I was thrown to the ground.
I felt a hand on my shoulder ‒ but before it could pull me up, a boot crashed into my face.

By the end of the training, many of us lay on the ground, bleeding in our own filth.
No one, except for the woman, had managed to awaken anything.

"That’s it for today!"

Kang’s voice reached me only faintly.

The pain was still throbbing in my head.

When I tried to focus on it, a sharp cold pierced through my entire body.

Kang had ordered the soldiers to douse us with cold water ‒ to snap us back to our senses.

Some managed to get to their feet and helped the others.

As I pushed myself up, I felt Kang’s gaze on me.

I didn’t know what it meant, but I had a bad feeling about it.

After the training, the soldiers led us to the dining hall.

In reality, it was just an old barn, offering little protection from wind and rain.

When we arrived, we saw another group already there. They didn’t look any better than we did.
After us, the other groups that had been sent for training started arriving as well.

But some were still missing."

Hey"  I spoke to the tall man who had been my training partner.
"Where’s the rest?"

He gave me a lost look. "I was just wondering that myself. I guess they might be getting a different kind of training."

His gaze wandered, already forgetting my question.

As the red-haired woman passed by, he stopped her.

"Hey, you. Want to sit with us?"

The woman looked at him with her swollen face. No sign of rejection ‒ so she sat down.

"How did you do that earlier?"

As if she had already expected the question, the woman sighed and buried her head in her hands.

"I don’t know..."

She sounded annoyed.
Apparently, the others had already asked her the same thing, and she had no patience to answer again.

The tall man noticed and didn’t push further.

"Forget it. Was stupid to even ask."

"And how are you two holding up?"

The woman lifted her head and looked over at us.

I wanted to smile ‒ but my face wouldn’t obey.

"Shit. I’m still freezing..."

I rubbed my hands against my chest, trying to warm myself.

"Couldn’t have said it better myself."

The tall man nodded in agreement.

"I see."

The woman fell silent as food was carried from table to table.
Everyone watched with hungry eyes, anticipation thick in the air. But when the food was finally placed in front of us, disappointment set in.

A piece of dry bread, a bowl of murky soup, and a bruised apple.
It wasn’t a feast ‒ but it was edible, and that was all that mattered.

Too exhausted and broken from training, no one cared what it was, as long as it could be eaten.

Just as I was about to take my first bite, I heard footsteps at the entrance of the barn.
The others lifted their heads as well, turning to look at the newcomers.
It was the other groups ‒ the ones who hadn’t trained with us.
They looked terrible.
But that wasn’t what truly killed our appetite.

Out of the two groups ‒ forty people in total ‒ only twenty-eight returned.

The rest?

Not even their bodies remained.

The survivors dragged themselves inside, wounds gaping across their skin ‒ burned, scratched, broken.

None of them spoke a word.

They didn’t have to.

Their eyes said everything.