"Hehehehe! What's wrong? Hero of the Darkness, don't tell me that's all you got?"

A guy wearing the same uniform as Xiao who was taller but slimmer than him, with a mouse-like face, laughed and mocked at Xiao who was holding his stomach in pain as he crouched on the ground, covered with dirt.

"Hahahaha! Look how far I sent this trash flying," said another guy while laughing, he was tall and fat, like a mini size giant, and he was the one who punched Xiao so hard that it made Xiao tumble to the ground.

Xiao and this duo are now doing a sparring session, as it was part of the daily drill, it was also the session Xiao hated the most because, for some reason, lieutenant Carl always arranged this duo to be Xiao's sparring partner.

There was no training involved at all, it was a one-sided beat up from the duo, with the big guy, who's name is Tom, beat up Xiao while the slim guy, Jerry, cheered on Tom and mocked Xiao.

Since the daily training menu was the same for the last 30 days, Xiao has endured their punishment ever since day one of enlisting into the army. If it was not Xiao's undying skill, he would have ended up dead from the accumulated injury received from them.

And of course, there was no way for Xiao to file a complaint or do something about his current situation as he has no friends or allies here, aside from Owen who was also in the same position as him, so he had no choice but to endure the pain.

(Damn it...I think he just broke my rib.....shit!)

Xiao tried his best to get up from the ground, but Tom had already stood in front of him, and without giving him a chance to recover, Tom put his weight onto his left foot and stepped on Xiao's body.

"PUAH!" Xiao vomited out a scream of pain from the impact as his body sank deeper into the ground.

"HEHEHEHE! Get up! Mr Hero, I know you can do better than this, aren't you gonna save the world?" Hehehehe!" Jerry laughed and continuously mocked Xiao, Tom also joined the laughter while pinning down Xiao with his over 200-kilogram body weight.

(God damn! It hurts!)

Xiao was in so much pain that he was subconsciously tearing up and coughing out blood as his internal organs got damaged.

(How much longer until this God damn sparring session will end?)

And the sparring session continued for another hour before the sky turned orange and the whistle sounded that indicates the end of the drill for today.

Everyone has already left the training ground, except for two private soldiers. One of them was Xiao, who's still laying on the ground, recovering from the injury he received from Tom, the other one was Owen, who's still running around the ground, an everyday scenery ever since Xiao joined the army.

For Owen, he always got a penalty from lieutenant Carl to run round the ground, and for some unknown reason, lieutenant Carl always gave him more laps to, which Owen ended up having to run the ground endlessly until the drill of the day ended.

And because of his personality, Owen never complains, he did it with full focus and obligation.

(This is not training at all, there's no weapon training, combat training or even magic training, it was a God damn hell place in the first place.)

Xiao thinks back on the reason why he was put in here, all the expectation he had for being a soldier has shattered to pieces from the day he started his "training", which was running in circles aimlessly, marching training, running again, and finally the "sparring session". There was no practical skill being taught at all, Xiao can imagine that while the other heroes were discussing the matter of the Demon God and its army, he was wasting his life in this shit hole.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

(But what choice do I have? I have no power here, I am an outsider of this world, and to make things worse, I am a suspect in a murder case.)

Xiao thought that by joining the army, things might turn in a better direction, but in the end, it was just another painful day waiting for him to suffer.

(Screw this, let's just go home and sleep.)

But at least he got a bed to sleep in and a meal ready for him every day, for these two things were the one that kept Xiao from breaking down from the everyday suffering.

The bruise and injury on Xiao have slowly recovered, there was some speck of black particle coming out from Xiao's body while he was recovering, but Xiao did not notice it as he was too exhausted already, and Xiao has gained some of his strength back.

Xiao then gets up from the ground, brushes away the dirt that covered his clothes, and shouted at Owen, who's still running at the distance, with a face so pale that he was going to faint anytime.

"Let's go! Owen!"

Owen didn't catch Xiao's voice, he was too focused on his current action, and he was both physically and mentally exhausted to focus on any other things.

"Oh boy, guess there's only one way to make that idiot stop," Xiao murmured to himself as he prepared a tackle stance.

Once Xiao was ready, he sprints towards Owen while shouting:

"Hey! Earth to Owen! When are you going to stop running?! Come on, man! It's time to go back!"

Obviously, Xiao's voice has fallen on deaf ears to Owen, which was why Xiao tackled him down to the ground.

Owen was still looking dumbstruck while being pinned down by Xiao as he was still dazed from his endless running.

"Finally hear me? Good, time to go home," Xiao said as he softly slapped Owen's face, waking him up from his dazedness.

Finally back to his senses, Owen immediately lay down on the ground, taking a relaxed form while gasping for oxygen to fill his tired body.

After Owen gained some strength back, both

After going back to the barrack, Xiao and Owen was already dead hungry from all the activities from the day, they quickly headed to the dining hall to have their dinner, only to found out that the usual chicken drumstick with 2 pieces of hard bread and a baked potato meal for each person, was now a half baked potato, 3 and a half pieces of hard bread and no sight of chicken drumstick for the two of them.

Xiao let out a sigh, he knew that this amount of food won't quench their hunger, but what choice do they have, they don't have money to go out and buy food, even if they do, they are not allowed to be outside of the army ground at this time.

Both of them split the remaining food evenly and immediately wolf down the food, and in a blink of an eye, they finished it while still feeling hungry.

"I'm still hungry, Haha..." Owen embarrassingly said after his stomach growled in hunger.

"It was because!...." Xiao wanted to say that it was Owen's fault for being so late to return to the barrack, which let the other soldiers steal their food, but he stopped his sentence halfway as he thought that it was his choice for waiting for Owen that leads to this, he can't blame anyone for this.

Again, Xiao lets out a sigh and gets up from the table, suggesting to Owen that they should just go to clean themselves up and sleep, as the hunger will be dealt once they are asleep.

With everything being done, Xiao and Owen were now laying on their bed, with Owen already fast asleep, snoring peacefully.

Xiao was going to sleep soon too, as his fatigue had already reached the peak, but his mind was still wandering and thinking about something, mostly negative stuff.

(Another tiring and pointless day, am I going to be stuck here for the rest of my life? Well, so much for an exciting chance to live in a fantasy and magical world, only to end up as the lowest rank soldier.)

Xiao slowly turns his head and looks around his surroundings, which was a room full of people of the same rank as him, sleeping in their not so comfy bed so they can be energized again for another pointless drill.

(At least they provided my daily meal and a place to stay, and I'm still alive, for now, well, barely, let's just leave all of the worries to me for tomorrow, for now, sleep.)

And just like that, Xiao gave in to his fatigue and fell asleep, passing yet another day as a private rank soldier.