As the others left, Lani stood there stiffly. She was worried that her secret had already been found out.

Instructor Zam stared at her silently for a few seconds waiting for everyone to get out of earshot. Lani clenched her fists in preparation for what was about to happen.

I’ll have to make a break for the gate. The razor wire on top will slow me down, but I could make it out. After that, I could disappear into the slums. If they seriously look for me though, which they probably will, I’ll have to make it out of the city. I could brave the wild. Maybe make it to the Monolith. Yeah, I should do that. I’ll need to be stronger to make it to another city.

“The way I see it,” he began, “there are only two reasons why you aren’t being challenged.”

Here it comes.

“Either you were in great shape before you entered the Monolith, which is a possibility based on who your parents were. Or, what I believe happened, is the Monolith gave you an extra multiplier to your physical parameters.

“Huh,” Lane deflated. That wasn’t what she was expecting.

“So, which was it?”

“Sorry, sir, but I really don’t understand what you mean by extra multipliers.”

“Well, the situation happens from time to time. The Monolith will give a boost to a person’s stats but it isn’t always equal.” Instructor Zam began to explain but he didn’t get distracted from his real goal. In between his explanation, he began to run her through some exercises. He led her to the pull-up bars and ran her through a series of pull-ups and hanging ab crunches. “If the average person has their strength multiplied by two once they get their core, someone like you might have theirs multiplied by three. A lot of times, if this happens, it also happens when the person reaches green core too. That is if they continue to excel in physical training.”

Lani thought about his statement. It wasn’t that her parents didn’t try to push her into being in shape and exercising when she was young, it was just that she was highly resistant to it, especially when she was a child. However, she didn’t really see any point in dissuading him from that notion. In fact, she liked the idea of making it about both of them, that way it would help to stop any deeper speculation.

“I suppose it’s a little bit of both, sir,” she said, testing the waters of that line of subterfuge. Technically, it wasn’t even a lie. She did exercise as a child and it could be true that the Monolith multiplied her physical statistics more on Core Initiation. Her intuition gave her the warm feeling that she was getting used to, and she knew she was doing the right thing. Instructor Zam nodded at her assessment.

Lani continued to exercise after that and while she found that she still wasn’t nearly tired, she did finally start to sweat. This made it more believable when trying to fake not being able to do more. After the prescribed half-hour, he let her go eat the with rest of the group.

“But that doesn’t mean you have any extra time, though. Just so you know, the running workouts are still going to continue. Good cardio is pivotal to our line of work. However, workouts will be split into that and weight training so everyone can get stronger. I hope that you’ll push yourself then, so we don’t have to do extra training all the time.

Lani showed up at the table that Imogen and a few others were eating at and plopped down. She thought it best that she pretended she was tired from the extra training. Even though she wasn’t tired, she was, however, famished. She hadn’t eaten in more than twenty-four hours, she thought in surprise. The last time she had eaten was a pittance of a meal at the jail before she was ushered on the bus toward the Monolith.

“Are you okay? Imogen asked. Then, she leaned in a little closer. “He didn’t try anything funny, did he?” I thought I could see a hint of savagery in her eyes as she asked, but I just shook my head.

“He thought that I didn’t push myself enough, and just made me do some more exercises.”

“That jerk. He’s just singling you out. I saw you, you looked just as tired as the rest of us.”

Lani was surprised at that comment, she had thought she did a horrendous job of hiding it. Perhaps Instructor Zam was just more observant than she thought. She also considered the impression that she was giving Imogen in regards to Instructor Zam. She considered saying something to lessen the seriousness of it all.

“You should eat,” Imogen insisted while pointing to Lani's plate of food. “The food is pretty good, for people like us at least.”

Imogen was right, the food was better than “pretty good” for people living in the slums, even for those people who earned enough to eat regularly the food was downright great. As soon as the food hit her lips, Lani shoveled it into her mouth with abandon and didn’t care who saw. She didn’t realize how hungry she had actually been and she thought that her advancement had something to do with it. The best thing about it was that they gave large servings and it was almost more than she could eat.

Lani wasn’t feeling brave enough to try it, but she thought that no one would even care if she got up and had seconds. Lani had eaten better before, but it had been a long time since then and the memory was as flimsy as fog on a cloudless morning. She had to rush while she ate since she didn’t have enough time, but for the most part, she thoroughly enjoyed her meal. No one messed with her and she had a new friend to share it with.

“What do you think we are going to do after lunch,” Imogen asked. Before that question, she had been talking about nothing in particular other than all the things they had been experiencing, but that was the first question she asked.

Lani finished eating and they both got up to go outside. Many of the others had already left and the time to get back to the training area was growing short. Walking out of the building, the duo noticed that everyone was gathered up in the middle of the training area. They jogged over there, not wishing to garner Instructor Zam’s ire.

The group wasn’t in a proper formation as they had been earlier, instead they were gathered haphazardly in a half-circle. Standing in the middle of the circle were the instructor and another Ascendant who was dressed similarly. Instructor Zam wasn’t saying anything, neither was the guest, he just stood there waiting for the time to tick away. Even once everyone was back from lunch and waiting patiently he didn’t say a word until the time was up.

“Alright, let’s get started,” Instructor Zam said right when the time was up. “Everyone in the front row take a knee.”

“You all might have noticed that I am not alone. This is my lead assistant instructor for you lot. If you don’t recognize him, he was in charge during your little foray to the Monolith. As a matter of fact. The entire team that escorted you there and back will be assisting with training this cycle. His name is Ascendant Sergeant Johansen. The others will be introduced later. Just to let you know, he is my second here, so if he gives you an order, treat it as if it is from me. I will let him give you a little information about himself and his team. Then we’ll continue with our training.”

Now that he didn’t have a hood over his face, Lani noticed that he was prettier than she assumed. He wouldn’t quite fit under the pretty boy moniker, but she thought that he might have when he was younger. His dark stubble across his face added to his ruggedness and blended well with the long hair that slightly fell into his eyes. He had blue eyes that scanned the group of trainees without stopping as he moved forward a little to begin talking.

“Good afternoon. As Instructor Zam already mentioned, I’m Josh Johansen. I’m currently an Ascendant Sergeant. For those of you who are still unfamiliar with the ranking system, that puts me one rank below Instructor Zam. My team, who you will meet later, is part of the Clearing Corps. We are one of the teams that specialize in keeping the city safe from monsters by going out of the walls and killing them. You will find out more about the Clearing Corps, and the other corps later in the training cycle, but it is considered the most dangerous of the corps. However, that also means we are the most adept at using our powers in combat.”

“And I couldn’t ask for a better segue than that,” interrupted Instructor Zam. Getting to use your powers proficiently is the most important lesson we will be teaching during your time as Ascendant Trainees. So with training before lunch and the additional training you are about to receive, you will have a good idea of what to expect for the next three weeks or so. The mornings will consist of cardio first, followed by weight training. After lunch we will be focusing on ability usage, and if everyone gets proficient enough, we will move on to practical application.

“Now, to impress upon you the importance of using your Monolith given ability, The Ascendant Sergeant and I will give you a preview of our powers. This is to show you what to expect at the next level and to push you, to push yourself. When you first begin to use your ability, it will be difficult to call forth and to maintain. However, with regular use and advancement, you too can end up like this.”

While he was talking, Instructor Zam was walking backward. Lani was confused about why he was doing it until he activated his power.

When he activated it, his eyes started to glow. Lani hoped that didn’t happen with everybody, or at least with every power because that would be an issue since she only mentioned one power.

“Whatever, you do,” Instructor Zam said, “Do not scream or attack. Please keep in mind that I am in full control.

The instructor’s body started to bulge in different places. First the muscles on his arms, then his legs. Lani thought he was just going to grow in size, but then his shoulders seemed to elongate backward far further than they should have. Instructor Zam, seemingly from the weight of the change leaned forward, but instead of staying that way to wait for the next change, he placed his hands on the ground.

His shoulders kept extending to grotesque angles until Lani feared they would burst from his skin. Instead of his clothes ripping and his bones protruding from his skin, it all seemed to be blending together. His arms started to elongate and bend in weird angles at the joints, and at the same time they took on a sheen like they were hard. His hands started to meld together and look like the point of a spear. His back legs started changing like the arms, his feet moving into points and the legs hardening and twisting at weird angles. But neither of those were as extreme as his head.

In a matter of moments his head was completely unrecognizable. Instead of a mouth, he had an upper mandible that was almost as large as his body and a lower one that was three-quarters the size. Both parts were pointed and looked like they could dismember or even cut a person in half if it got a hold of them. After the end of the transition, what was once Instructor Zam was a two-and-a-half-meter tall chitin cover monster with tiger stripes all over its body.

This thing looks like a giant bug. It looks like it jumped straight out of some old science fiction movie that my father told me about.

Lani felt her intuition screaming at her that there was danger nearby, but she held in the urge to escape. She looked over to Imogen, who had been standing next to her, but she wasn’t there. That was when she noticed that she was crumpled on the ground and unconscious. She looked to see how the rest of the other trainees were faring. Two other people were in the same position as Imogen and another handful looked as if they were about to run as far and fast as they could. One of the men was bent over a pool of vomit and he looked like another was about to come up. For the Ascendant Sergeant’s part, he seemed non-plussed at the situation, but she did notice that he was staring at the creature with narrowed eyes. It seemed to her that even he was affected by it.

Lani wanted to help Imogen off the ground but was unable to move due to her intuition. She took a deep breath and managed to slowly squat down while not taking her eyes off the creature that had once been Instructor Zam. She did her best to move Imogen into a more comfortable position, but it was difficult to do that without looking at her.

Suddenly, Lani’s intuition stopped warning her of danger and the creature before them began to morph back into the instructor. Lani let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and her muscled relaxed. She didn’t waste time focusing on Imogen and helping her to a better position.