A message arrived on Khan’s phone while he walked toward the prisons of the camp. Martha had immediately questioned him about his recent behavior.

‘What was that?’ Khan read on his phone.

‘I thought she would get it.’ Khan thought before writing an answer. ‘Use this chance to look good with your friends. Give them some funny story too.’

Martha didn’t answer, so Khan could guess that Professor Norwell’s lesson had started. She would probably send a message later, but he wouldn’t be available for the entire night.

The familiar lawn unfolded in Khan’s vision before the trapdoor opened and revealed the path toward the basement. Lieutenant Dyester was waiting for him, and a lit cigarette was already in his mouth.

“Don’t waste time,” Lieutenant Dyester ordered after the trapdoor closed behind Khan. “You will spend the next months practicing footwork. Get in position! The quicker you memorize the moves, the sooner you can start adding mana and turn them into techniques.”

Khan unlocked his phone, muted the notifications, and activated the training program for the Lightning-demon style. Then, he placed the device on the table before pointing its camera in his direction.

The scanner of the training program was active. The holograms would tell Khan whenever he failed to perform the correct moves, and Lieutenant Dyester would add tips that came from his experience.

Khan had the perfect training room. He only lacked countless hours spent sweating and spitting blood now, but he didn’t hesitate to start accumulating them.

The night went by slowly. Khan never stopped practicing the basic footwork required to begin the proper training of the Lightning-demon style.

His movement started to grow sluggish as his ankles and overall legs reached their limits. Lieutenant Dyester suggested practicing slower versions of the techniques once the pain became unbearable, and Khan followed his instructions.

Khan felt barely able to climb the staircase when the training session ended. His ankles were killing him, but Lieutenant Dyester didn’t do anything to help him.

“I’ll make sure to have some lotions ready from tomorrow onward,” Lieutenant Dyester announced while he inspected Khan’s struggles. “You are on your own tonight.”

Khan didn’t bother to answer. He limped out of the basement before walking slowly back to his dormitory. The curfew would still take an hour to arrive, so he could avoid hurrying.

Khan collapsed on his bed once he reached his room. The pain on his ankles had only gotten worse after the long walk, but he couldn’t allow himself to rest just yet. Two training sessions were still waiting for him.

‘I’m definitely going to die,’ Khan laughed in his mind before straightening his position. ‘Mental training comes first. I can deal with the attunement later.’

Khan was so busy with his schedule that he almost overlooked Samuel. The boy wasn’t sleeping. Instead, he was staring at him from his top bunk on the other side of the room.

“What is it?” Khan asked while setting the alarm for the first training.

Samuel opened his mouth, but no words came out of it. The boy seemed to go through a mental struggle before making up his mind and giving voice to a weak “nothing”.

Khan revealed a faint smile, but his expression grew cold after Samuel lay back on the bed. Something had changed in his behavior, and Khan could only find one explanation.

‘Visiting Professor Norwell’s class has started something,’ Khan thought.

Of course, Khan was only considering the worst possible reason behind that seemingly harmless gesture. Samuel didn’t do anything too strange in the end.

However, Khan didn’t dare to relax. His guess could turn out to be wrong, but he didn’t want to ignore those signals completely and regret it later.

The conflict in Samuel’s expression could only lead to his friends. Khan didn’t believe that those bullies had forgotten about him, but the lessons on the training camp had kept everyone too busy to plan an act of revenge.

Still, something might have changed after he visited Professor Norwell’s lesson, and Khan didn’t dare to overlook that possibility.

Khan put that matter aside for the time being and focused on his training. Hours went by as he obtained an initial success with the mental exercise and continued to endure the usual pain during the meditations.

After his second alarm rang, Khan lay in bed and prepared himself to sleep, but a sudden thought reminded him about Martha.

‘She did send something,’ Khan sighed before reading the message on the phone. ‘I don’t want to badmouth you to gain the favor of these harpies.’

‘I thought she knew how to handle politics,’ Khan chuckled before writing an answer. ‘Don’t mind me. You might get free synthetic mana with my sacrifice. You can always tell me how great I am when we see each other in secret.’

Khan couldn’t help but laugh after sending that answer, but his exhaustion inevitably had the better of him. His eyes began to close as he set the alarm for the morning and went back to his nightmare.

.

.

.

The week went by quickly and without issues.

Martha accepted the role that Khan had forced her to play, but her pride didn’t allow her to ignore him. She even straight-up refused to hide their friendship. Her new friends questioned her about that behavior, but she justified it by describing Khan’s devotion to his training as his only good quality.

Professor Thogett’s lessons didn’t get any more interesting during that week, but Khan still decided to put xenolinguistics as one of his possible subjects for the second semester.

Khan had continued to understand the Professor’s words whenever she used the Nak’s language, so he had to dive deeper into the matter. Moreover, learning alien languages sounded right since he wanted to explore different planets in the future.

His sessions with Lieutenant Dyester improved after the soldier requested lotions and specific remedies for Khan’s joints. He could stop limping back to his dormitory alone at night, and the lack of pain led to an overall better training experience.

Khan continued to grow used to the pain felt during the meditations, and his mental exercises also showed some improvements. His ability to move the mana in his brain developed as he piled nights of training.

Samuel’s strange behavior didn’t lead to any repercussion, but Khan didn’t lower his guard, especially since he found the boy awake at night more often. That situation was strange, and he even saw Samuel peeking at him from time to time.

Something was definitely up, but Khan decided to pretend to ignore the matter until the bullies made their move. The regulations of the Global Army would protect him as long as he wasn’t the first to attack.

Sunday arrived and led Khan to have a long training session in the prisons. His body reached its limit on that day, and Lieutenant Dyester felt forced to send him back to his dormitory three hours before the arrival of the curfew.

The Lieutenant didn’t feel disappointed in his endurance. Instead, he didn’t hold back from giving positive evaluations regarding Khan’s determination, dedication, and talent. In his opinion, the boy was improving far faster than he had predicted.

Khan couldn’t feel happy about those words since he was still far away from a perfect execution without mana. He had needed only a week to reach a decent level of expertise with the palm force and the shadow step, but the Lightning-demon style required far more training to provide the same results.

His day instantly improved when he saw Martha waiting for him at the entrance of his dormitory. The duo decided to spend the remaining hours before the curfew together, and laughs often resounded between them.

Then, before the clock could signal nine pm, Khan’s phone rang. Martha felt immediately interested in the matter since the boy didn’t have many contacts inside the training camp, but her eyes widened when she saw that the message came from the Global Army itself.

Khan didn’t hesitate to open the message, and Martha even clung to his shoulder to peek at his phone. The communication used the Global Army’s profile, but it came from Professor Norwell. The soldier had notified Khan that he could start his training as a mage in the following week.

“She must have requested a training program for your element when you notified her about your attunement,” Martha explained before wearing an annoyed expression. “Why did it take them so long? Almost an entire week has passed.”

“I have the chaos element,” Khan revealed. “I guess it’s rare.”

Martha remained speechless at that revelation. The elements weren’t an important topic among recruits since all of them could achieve similar levels, but there were a few exceptions.

The chaos element was one of the exceptions due to its connection to the Nak. Humankind didn’t like to see their soldiers wielding the same power as their enemies, and Khan had preferred to keep it a secret for that reason.

“That’s quite unlucky,” Martha announced before continuing when Khan shot a confused glance toward her. “I’ve heard that humans don’t really suit that element. Learning chaos spells might take you a long time.”

****

Author’s notes: Part of me feels that this is too slow, but maybe my desire to reach the fighting parts is affecting my judgment. I don’t think I can accelerate the pace without neglecting important details, and I want to avoid that. Still, let me know what you think.