Chapter 11:

Day at the training camp

Blade: Belonging


We spent most of yesterday moving all our stuff over to the military camp. Despite being exhausted from that we still got forced to do morning drills. 15 laps around the whole perimeter of the camp followed by 100 push-ups to warm us up.

All the other guys seemed to be in their top conditions, none of them seem close to exhausted yet. Sometimes they amaze me with their unexpected capabilities. I hope that we can get going with some actual work soon, being in training is too easy for me and from what it seems it might be too easy for all of us here. The other’s who were in training before us seem to be fairly competent themselves.

The drill sergeant wasn’t giving us a catch of breath. The moment we finished all the push-ups we got forced into heavy lifting. If it looked like it was too easy the drill sergeant would instantly add more weight to us. Not only did we have to lift those weights we also had to carry them around the training camp. This lasted the entire morning. Even when I had my own training I never felt this much pain.

Around noon we finally had some food to eat. It was an ideal diet mix; potatoes, meat and vegetables with a fruit drink. It was a pretty good meal. It was fairly well prepared so they seem to care enough to make decent quality food for us. I wanted to find some time to talk with Takeo but our schedules are so tight we have no time for anything. Once something finishes we have to start another thing. The portions we had to eat were large enough to last the entire break we had, once it was done we had to head out back to training.

Luckily this training was more mental based rather than physical strength. Since controlling mana requires a lot of concentration the ideal training for mana is concentration and who doesn’t love concentrating while being pinned down by a weight underwater? Well, I don’t but that is exactly how I had to train, the only difference was I was sitting under the waterfall as well as being underwater.

Being able to stay underwater for longer than 1 minute is impressive in itself, but some of these guys exceeded my expectations. Some of these guys have been sitting under the water for around 5 or so minutes. As someone who had to train since I was young, I can exceed that but the fact they can manage that much is impressive. We spent a while here since we had to repeat this a few times to see if it’s a fluke or if we can actually manage to last as long as we did on our first runs.

Soon after we had another meal, this time it allowed us to have a mix of what we wished (only out of what they had in the buffet). Choices weren’t huge but at least it gave us a bit more of a mixed dinner. Unfortunately, once again time had run out and the final training session of the day was starting. We had an 8 mile run through the forest and back to the camp. As soon as we returned we were allowed to wash and return to the barracks.

Now I have encountered an issue. Unless I’m either first or last I will have a few issues during the washing. I need my privacy when it comes to cleaning, if I end up being in a place around people I will have to go wash with everyone else. If I make it there first I can quickly finish and leave before anyone comes or if I’m last I can make sure no one is with me. The only issue with being last is that there’s a punishment the next day for whoever comes last.

One thing I had learnt from my trainer which they don’t seem to say here or they might not be aware of it; you can use mana to give your body a boost in terms of strength. Mana reinforcement is quite convenient in a situation like this one where I don’t need to use any mana for magic. I can give myself a boost without anyone knowing and make it first to the finish line.

Luckily for me, thanks to me knowing about mana reinforcement I was able to easily beat everyone else. The main issue is now that I set myself a high standard I will have to make sure to try to maintain it. Not like this will be any huge issue, just a matter of investing the time to build up my mana capacity and overall body strength so I won’t have to rely on mana.

All that’s left for me is washing and heading back to the barracks for rest. Quite the exhausting day as a whole and it seems like this will be the daily routine until we finally get some live experience going.

Oshitami
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