Two months had passed since I joined the hunters as a trainee. I spent most of my days either fighting with dummies, slow sparring with platoon mates, exercising, eating or sleeping. There were occasional team-building activities that challenged us to work with each other to achieve a particular objective, which was fun. One thing that I came to appreciate, though, was that despite being part of an elite training camp, most trainees would only do the minimum required amount of training.

Sure, they were still better performers than me given their higher baselines and experience. Still, I was already solidly better than an eighth of all the trainees. I had been training like a madman to meet Uncle Tim’s requirements and getting tutored by both Stedras and Darren, yet others had taken the chance to rest on their laurels. Perhaps it’s because I never felt that I had done much in joining the hunters, but it never felt like a laurel I could rest on. I have also come to realise the sheer gap between an awakened and an unawakened when they are both equally hardworking.

Say, for example, Stedras. Perhaps not the most conversational, but he certainly one of the hardest workers in the entire batch of trainees. I wouldn’t tell him this, but I use him and Darren as my role models. Stedras’s base fitness is already top-tier. When he augments his movement with an ice slide or combat with ice guards and weapons, it pushes him to unreal levels. But this didn’t come easy. He had been training with his affinity ever since he got it years ago, and got this adept through many experiments and trials.

I would compare Stedras to Gireld, a mist user in our neighbouring Great Stag platoon. He would probably be among the bottom few of the awakened, being a rather lazy guy who took it easy once he awakened. His only use of the mist is to simply emit some mist around him. That’s it: no ingenious methods, no experiments. Honestly, I cannot understand how anyone could squander a gift as rare as that, but to each his own. Seeing him fall behind many unawakened in the rankings is a perfect reminder of the cost of taking it easy now.

On the topic of high ranking unawakened, there is a dual sword wielder from the Sand Scorpion platoon in C Company. Currently holding the highest rank among all the unawakened, at number 10 overall, he beat out at least another 15 awakened through sheer martial and physical ability. Which definitely impressed the hell out of me. If he was in our company, I would have definitely trained with him, or at least asked him about his training regime. As it was, there was not much communication between companies, and it was likely we would have to compete against him if there were any competitions. Fortunately, we had two members of the top ten in our platoon, so I should just focus on pulling my weight first. Still, I was full of respect for the guy.

Today was a special day, actually. If you stopped for a moment and listened, you’d hear all the companies abuzz with chatter about today. Because today was the day we would enter the mausoleum. Officially it was the local headquarter, which featured a virtual training environment that was second only to the one in the capital. Still, I preferred mausoleum to ‘HQ’. This was going to be the first platoon wise grading session since the start of training. So far, all our practice has been just to get our fundamentals and abilities up with no stakes. Now it is time for us to start showcasing our worth to the Hunter corps and the empire.

Currently, we are all lined up in our platoon formations, on three sides facing the podium. Master Instructor Dubois stood on the podium, chest puffed and moustache pulled to perfection. All of us stood stock still, having been conditioned through rounds of punishment to accept the virtue of standing still in formation.

“Listen up, trainees! This is going to be your first taste of real combat, both individually and as a group! Your life will not be at risk, but your emotional resilience and your ability to cooperate when stress is going to be tested. Do your best, because the platoon rankings are finally open! Individual scores are also going to be tabulated, with this being the start. Rewards await the worthy! Don’t get scared by this, because reality is far worse. Good luck, and let your training guide you.”

Dubois stepped down to a resounding “Yes, Sir!” from the trainees. I was a little curious as to how the training would happen, given that it was supposed to be a realistic simulation of the monster hunts that Hunters usually do. I’d heard rumours that the reason our simulator was of such high quality was our proximity to the wilds, which made it easier for sampling and loading of monster types. Or something like that. Either way, an opportunity to use something “second only to the capital” is definitely one to be cherished, and doubly so when we are being scored.

We later had a smaller brief by lieutenant Curtis, before splitting into platoons to decide on our strategies. Naturally, Darren headed our discussion, as the strongest. But instead of Stedrall, the second in command was actually a man called Peras. He was the fourth-strongest in our platoon, but had experience in both leadership and strategising. He had some practical experience due to a set of events that pushed him to prominence during his time in the grey wolf town guards. He definitely fit the role, having established a good base of rapport with the whole platoon and was the nominal leader of bunk 1.

We decided to split by bunk, given how close Darren was with bunk 2 and Peras was with bunk 1. Bunk 2, having monopolised both awakened, would be at the front. The two awakened would spearhead, with the rest slightly fanning behind them, to be split at any time into two sub-squads to follow Stedrall and Darren if needed. Bunk 1’s squad would follow behind at a 45-degree angle to our right, with a similar split decided. The idea was to give us the flexibility to focus on both the left and right sides while being able to swarm large, strong targets at a moments notice.

Overall, we expected Darren, Stedrall, Peras, and Manud, our platoon’s third from bunk 1 to have excellent showings. The rest of us, who were pretty average, aimed to boost our scores through cooperation and to clear out the fodder so our stars could shine. We had a few hours to ourselves to practice, so we took the time to go through some kind of commands and simulate movement between obstacles. I was definitely nervous after realising how little of our team combat lessons I remembered when stressed. I hoped to fix that once our simulation was done.

Once preparation time was up, we were asked to head up to our bunks and rest while waiting for our turn in the simulation chamber. Some were calm, idly chatting away or even sharing stories about their time in the guards. As for me, I started sipping water to calm my nerves, but only stopped when half the bottle was gone and my stomach was queasy. At some point, I couldn’t wait for it to start, just to get it over with so that I could relax. Eventually, I decided on a quick nap since I wasn’t able to get myself to calm down.

It felt like only a few minutes before I was woken up to join the rest of the platoon in moving to the headquarters. Asking around, I found that about two hours had passed since we went up to our bunks. I felt that much less nervous after my nap, though how much of that was because I wasn’t fully awake yet I couldn’t say. We quickly but quietly entered the headquarters, a building that had been barred to us until now. Even then there were areas of such high-security clearance that the only way to live after entering those areas was to sign away one’s life to the hunters. Lieutenant Curtis met us outside the building and guided us to the simulation chambers in short order.

Once we got there, we realised that the testing room was pretty big. It was smaller than we expected though, were we going to fight the simulated monsters in close combat or something? To be fair, anything they did would have impressed me, but I couldn’t see how a room of that size would be able to replicate real-life situations. As we stopped outside the door, Curtis tapped his identification card on a scanner before releasing a pulse of his energy in a dedicated hole that he places his palm in. The light beeped green, and the doors opened up with the hiss of pressurised air.

“Welcome to the Simulation Chambers, Lieutenant Curtis. Reset will be complete in five minutes twenty-five seconds.”

“Come in, guys. You guys are the third platoon to be entering this place, I hope the break gave you time to relax and come up with some basic plans. What we are expecting is that you don’t panic, do your best to work as a team and complete the objectives. There are three objectives, and your scores will be calculated on how well you do for all three. Don’t get too stressed though, it’s rather fun inside once you get used to the danger. What happens there stays there, after all. Have fun and good luck!”

In usual Curtis style, the only thing that he looked like he meant was the part about having fun. As we entered the room, however, I was almost blinded by how white the entire place was. I felt like I had entered an entirely different world, one with technology so alien I might as well have been abducted. About a hundred bed-like pods were in the room, evenly spaced out. There were a few people in white researcher coats, checking a few displays that were attached to some of the screens.

As we entered, they directed us to the different beds and told us to strip to our undergarments. Unprepared, many of us hesitated until rushed by the researchers. Lieutenant Curtis was around to ensure that there were no problems, and we were accompanied by his laughs as we all jumped at the cold contact of the pods on our bare skin. Eventually, we were told to wear the helmet that was placed on the side of the pod. The helmet covered my eyes and was akin to a smooth metal ball we wore to cover our faces. I could already feel my limbs getting more lethargic, and soon surrounding light was shut off as the pods closed.

The darkness lasted only a few moments, however, before I found myself standing on grass. Looking around me, I could see my fellow platoonmates sharing the same confusion I felt. We spared a few moments to explore the realistic grass and move our body, all the while surprised at how real everything felt. We equipped ourselves from an arms rack and a supply depot that vanished after a while. Darren soon called for us to split up into the two squads, which we did quickly. After that, it was a matter of following the pace of the two awakened before me, which meant I could spare the time to look around and observe the surroundings.

We were actually on rocky terrain, interspersed with grassy patches. If I had to guess, we were on the flat part of a mountain. Beyond that, I had no clue. Internally, I went over the three monsters Curtis has introduced to us earlier. The corrupted wolf, a wild wolf touched by a rift’s energy, which turned them into more robust, more aggressive wolves. The Khargs, a genuine rift species which were stronger mutated wolves with chitinous plating around some areas and claws of steel. And lastly, the Kharg’ul, the pack leader, who was said to have a bio forge within itself that generated a vast amount of energy that powered the monstrosity. It was said to be able to conduct electricity through its claws, its teeth, or the spikes that ran along its back.

I had tried to come to terms with the fact that I would be fighting such vicious monsters. I had only succeeded in distracting myself. Now, moments before the fight, the thought of fighting any of the vicious beasts mentioned makes my hands shake uncontrollably. I knew that I had to master this fear and get used to hunting these monsters if I ever wanted to have any semblance of real strength, but I simply could not keep my hands from shaking. I could see some of the squadmates were the same, hands shaking as they outwardly showed no expression and simply jogged along with the group. I could only hope that we would overcome our fear and act when necessary.