Military Obstacle Course

5 am, morning warm-up and jog. When I woke up, Takeo-san was still asleep so I quietly got changed and left. It was still pretty cold outside, but under the sun, you could feel the heat. Since it was so early in the morning, the streets were pretty empty, and the sky was very clear. I tried clearing my mind to prepare for the exam later today, but my mind was just stuck on what happened last night with Takeo-san. I will have to try not to do anything stupid like that again, getting close to people only causes distractions.

The capital seems surprisingly peaceful at this time, since it was still early I decided to look around to see what was where. Looking around, everything seemed to be so close, with plenty of shows nearby unlike my home town. Having so much fun walking around caused me to lose track of time, and slowly the streets began to fill up with people and shops began to open up. So I headed back to the dorms for breakfast. When I got in, I checked the time and it turns out I spent a good few hours since it was already 8 am. I quickly went up to the room to get changed.

"Good Morning Kato-kun. Where have you been?"

"Oh, Takeo-san, good morning, I just went out for a morning warmup and jog."

"I see, what time did you wake up for it?"

"Hmm, it was something around 5 am when I looked."

"Woah, really?"

"Yeah, why the shock?"

"I didn't really expect it to be that early."

"It's not that early."

"Why do you do that anyway?"

"Well, I don't really know why. I just do it because my trainer told me that it's a good way to prepare yourself for the day since you never know what could happen. Also, he said it's healthy."

"Seems like you are a pretty dedicated student."

"As long as it helps me get closer to my goal, I'll do it."

"Good luck with that then Kato-kun."

"Thank you very much, Takeo-san. I hope that you also get closer to whatever your goal is."

"Yes, I will, thanks."

"I'll be getting changed and just quickly clean up, so you can go ahead without me."

"Oh, okay, I'll see you at the dining hall then."

"Yup, bye now, Takeo-san... "

Takeo-san left and closed the door, now I can finally get changed without any disturbance. I took my clothes off and started grabbing some clean ones out of my bag. As I grabbed a top, I heard the door squeaking behind me. Quickly I turned around and summoned my blade, and checked what it was. I checked the door but there was nothing there, other than the sound of footsteps down the corridor. I closed the door and quickly got dressed and headed over to the dining hall.

Everyone seemed to be already at the dining hall, enjoying their meals before we had the exam. I grabbed a quick snack and just waited by the windows till we had to go to the exam. However, I'm not allowed to have some peace apparently.

"Look who we have here, the cocky little boy."

"Nice to see that you idiots haven't run away yet, would have made me sad if I didn't have anyone to play with."

"Haha, as if we would run away from the likes of you."

"Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you did, you seemed pretty scared while you were in my ice"

"It was a shock, not fear, and I didn't expect you to use blade arts inside the carriage."

"And I didn't expect you to be such idiots."

"I see you still speak like you are the best one around here."

"From looking around I'm pretty certain that I am."

"I think I will have to teach you your place."

"Oh my, how scary."

"You should be scared!"

And the general had to come at the worst time possible, a way to ruin the fun.

"Well well, looks like we have a little trouble maker here."

"General seems like you have great timing to ruin the run."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Care to continue, while I take everyone to the examination arena?"

"Tsk, too late now anyway, ruined my mood."

"Well, that is quite unfortunate. Very well, shall we get going to the arena then?"

Although the general did ruin the fun at the dining hall, since I'm all worked up, I can have a lot of fun at the exam. I'll make sure that they regret disturbing my peace.

We followed the general to the exam arena, honestly, it's been a while since iv managed to feel this excited about an exam. However, not everyone felt the same way as I did, many of them looked like they were about to throw up, which did cause us to walk pretty slow. The slow walk was making me agitated so I started to walk quicker, making my way to the front. Looking around at everyone here, most of them don't seem to be much other than angry faces. They all seem to lack that something, which makes you better at blade arts.

"Kato-kun!"

"Oh, Takeo-san, hello."

"Yes, hi, you seem to like causing trouble."

"I don't cause trouble, it's the idiots which walk over to me and disturb my peace."

"Haha, of course, it is."

"What's so funny?"

"Sorry, sorry, it's nothing."

"Ehh? Are you an idiot or something?"

"You have quite an interesting personality, Kato-kun. Anyway, I'll probably see you during the exam."

"Oh, okay, good day."

Seems like Takeo-san is just as stupid as the rest of them. Men are really a bunch of idiots, maybe I should stop trying to understand them.

Finally, we managed to arrive at the arena and it was huge. Compared to anything I have ever seen before, this area beats all of them combined, but it seems like I'm the only one who's amazed by the massive structure.

"Attention recruits! Now we are at the arena. Before the examination starts, you have some time to prepare in the armoury, you are allowed to wear anything you wish. Any further information will be announced once you enter the arena by the examiner themselves."

Everyone walked in and as the last person passed the gate, it got lowered and closed us in. Now there is no turning back.

"Kato-kun, I'm surprised that you are still so calm."

"Oh, why wouldn't I be calm?"

"Usually people aren't calm while going to an exam, specifically a military one. Here most people don't have anything to lose so they will be pretty hard to beat."

"No, that's what makes them weak."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that since they have nothing to lose, dying for them is pretty easy. They don't have to fight for their lives, since they have nothing to lose in it anyway. Those who have something in life, and want to fight to protect it will be better soldiers since they need to live to protect what they love. Dying isn't an option for them."

"Well if they don't want to die why would they need to join the army?"

"So that they can help protect what they love, rather than leave it for someone else to do it."

"So everyone who has nothing to lose is weak then?"

"Not necessarily, but most of the time they will be weaker than those who have the stuff to lose if they die."

"Ah, makes sense."

"That reminds me, what is your reason for enrolling for the army?"

"Oh, well it's- Oh look we arrived, I'm going to go find some armour, we will talk later Kato-kun."

"Right… okay."

Soon after, Takeo-san was gone once again. I looked around, and found some light armour, just in case, but everyone seems to be putting on heavy armour. Personally, being heavy seems to put you at a disadvantage in most things other than defence. Although I'm not an armour type person myself, having some is always useful, better than getting hit by a blade art or the blade itself.

After about 10 minutes, the gate leading to the arena opened up. Seems like the fun is about to start.

"COME OUT RECRUITS, IT IS TIME FOR THE EXAMINATION!"

Slowly we all began walking out, some of the guys were already sweating, others seemed like this was the norm for them. As we entered the arena there was a large crowd sitting around the arena cheering and yelling, looking like they were using the exam as a source of entertainment. Would be pretty embarrassing to fail while everyone is watching. Looking up at the sky, it was still clear and the sun was shining pretty strong. It will be quite hot for those under all the heavy armour.

"Welcome recruits to the military enrollment examination! Today you all will have to face three stages. Depending on how you perform in those will result in you being able to enrol or not. Now bring out your blades!"

All the other recruits began summoning their blades, I waited a minute so that I was able to take a look at everyone's blade, and possibly think about the advantages I could have over them. Since almost everyone was done I had to summon mine as well.

"Die Klinge meiner Seele ist die Zugehörigkeit meines Lebens"

Before my hand there was a bright light, I reached into the light and grabbed the handle, I drew the sword out of the light, there it is, my blade. Almost everyone has a blade, all being in different shapes and sizes along with their own magical attributes to use to protect yourself.

"Now, let me explain what the first stage is, as you can see, it's an obstacle course! You may think it's boring, which you are right, but it is important that you are able to pass any obstacle that you may come across while being at war. It is also a good warm-up for you!"

An obstacle course, that is pretty expected. Those in heavy armour will sure have fun in this heat.

"Before you start, I will say this. Those who fail to complete the obstacle course during the 5-minute time limit will not proceed and will be sent back home. Now that you are all aware of that, let the first stage begin!"

A 5-minute time limit seems like a fair number is going to get sent back out, it appears that they want to get rid of the useless ones first. Luckily for me, the obstacle course wouldn't be much of an issue. After all, I did spend over a year travelling around. The first obstacle is pretty simple, normal bunny hops.

"Hahaha, some of the recruits can't pass the first obstacle, poor choice of armour, or maybe they are just weak. Hahaha."

Of course, most would have expected this to be a deathmatch and those who survive the longest would win. Seems they haven't thought this far ahead. The next obstacle, once again, is simple, easy monkey bars. Easy if you aren't weak, or don't have ridiculously heavy armour. Looking behind it seems that there are 8 recruits who have already dropped out. What a waste of time, how can they even call themselves men. As much as I'd love to hate on them, there is no time to waste. The next obstacle is the usual mud crawling. I didn't really want to get muddy today but I can't help it now. It's quite funny to see all those big buff guys get stuck in the mud. Being slim doesn't mean that you are weak, I'm a pretty good example of that.

"HAHA, some of the recruits are stuck, wonder how the muddy recruits will do with the wall hahaha"

Usually, I wouldn't have any issues with wall climbing, but it seems that they are smart enough to put a mud pit before it. I decided to freeze all of the mud and quickly smash it so that I won't end up slipping on the wall.

"Would you look at that, we already have a recruit on the other side of the wall hahaha! Everyone else better pick up their speed before they fall too far behind!"

"WHAT?! SOMEONE IS AHEAD OF ME?"

This has to be a joke, who is this? They are going to regret making me so worked up. I don't intend to get beaten on an obstacle course. They will definitely be my main target in the final exam.

"Another recruit is crossing the wall, wondering if they are going to catch up to the current first place holder."

Honestly, the commentator has become annoying, the only useful thing he said is that someone managed to get past me. Getting on to the top of the wall wasn't too hard, mainly thanks to not slipping every second. I looked over the edge to see if there was any ladder to get down using but turns out it's just a big leap into a pool of water. It's a bit annoying having to get wet now, but I can easily solve that by freezing my clothes again.

Not to waste any time, I dived straight into the pool. Quickly swimming back to the land I froze my clothes and rushed towards the next obstacle which, once again it's going up, at least this time it's only a rope climb. Quickly I began dragging myself up the rope, hopefully, whoever was ahead of me isn't too far ahead.

"HAHA! Seems like someone isn't good with walking on heights, this will cost him some time. HAHA! Looking a little bit behind some of the recruits are struggling to get out of the pool, maybe they can't swim. HAHA!"

Well, that's good to know, I don't have to rush too much. I never thought that men could be this weak but still to come to a military recruitment examination, seems rather embarrassing. Still, I'm surprised that someone managed to get ahead of me, yet the fact they are stuck due to being high up is just pathetic.

As I got to the top of the rope, I was able to see someone crawling across the planks. I started walking on the plank beside their one, and slowly began to see more of them. As I approached them, they turned around and continued to scoot their way along the plank.

"Good day!"

"K-Kato-kun?"

"Oh? Who's this?"

"Uhh… it's n-no one…"

"Takeo-san, you idiot."

"Wh- t-this isn't Takeo!"

"No one other than you calls me by my first name, idiot."

"N-no I'm-"

"Didn't you mention you were going to get some armour?"

"I was, but it would only slow me down, so I ended up not getting any."

"I see. You do realise that there will be fights, some armour would be fairly useful for that. Unless you are so confident in yourself that you wouldn't need to wear any, which I suppose is good for you."

"Wait.. there's fighting during the exam?"

"Of course there is. This is the military, right? Why wouldn't they test our blade arts?"

"I thought that was going to be tomorrow…"

"That's going to be the final exam, where we have to do duels against each other. The second part of the exam is survival against waves of monsters."

"Wh-"

"See you at the end of the first stage!"

"Wait, Kato-kun!"

Before he was done speaking I decided to leave, I ended up wasting more time than I intended to, I wouldn't have expected Takeo-san to have gotten this far, I'm quite impressed by that. Even so, he isn't strong enough to beat me. He's just like every other male, a bunch of muscle head idiots.

I jogged to the end of the plank and jumped into the next pool of water. Unfortunately, this time the only way out was to go through an underwater passage, well this will get rid of the weak recruits. I grabbed my breath and ducked into the water, swimming off to the other side of the underwater passage.

"Amazing someone is almost at the finish line! HAHA, only if they can hold their breath for that long. HAHA!"

As the commentator was speaking I managed to get out of the pool, and crossed the finish line. Soaking wet I fell onto the ground and let the sun dry me up. Hopefully, no one else is going to get here anytime soon, or my peace will be ruined.

"Ahhh. We have the first recruit finished. It took them 3 minutes, amazing! Now let's hope that the rest don't take too long, HAHA."

Men sure do be pathetic sometimes, or maybe it's just this hopeless group. Simple obstacle course, even the average person would be able to pass things, unless they are an idiot, which turns out to be fairly hard to manage here. Despite there being only 2 minutes left, it feels like an eternity waiting for the other idiots. I wonder where Takeo-san is, he wasn't that far behind me. As I was thinking about that, someone popped up from the water. I thought it could have been Takeo-san but I was wishing for too much.

"1 minute remaining and only two have managed to finish! Haha, seems like this could be the lowest amount of passes we had on the first stage in a very long time!"

These guys must be really pathetic-