Chapter 16 - Shaman Military Academy Exam

"Deon, I still can't catch up to you, it's really unbelievable!" Jophan gasped for breath after completing the assault course and turned towards Deon in wonder. Jophan didn't question him, but he knew that Deon must have obtained some spirits to help him rise to the top of the physical fitness class.

After improving his body with the bronze muscle spirit, Deon was now superior to Jophan physically. Even so, he knew that once Jophan finished with his dense muscle spirit, the gap would be closed, but Deon still had the advantage of the swift leaf spirit to help him move more agilely across some of the obstacles.

"Deon and Remi are prodigies Jophan, haha." Risa laughed at Jophan's downcast expression.

Remi didn't look at all pleased when she was called a prodigy. She was still ranked below Jophan on the assault course, and now, even Deon had overtaken her!

Over the course of the year, Deon ended up spending more time with Risa, Remi and Jophan. These four were in all of his classes and they were also ranked second, third and fourth in the physical fitness trial. Besides this, they also excelled in all other areas. The four of them were the four most likely in their class to graduate this year. Of course, this didn't consider all of the other classes, which also possessed many geniuses and talents.

"Hey, what division will you guys join?" Jophan asked later on as they were eating in the cafeteria like usual.

"War division, shaman battalion." All three replied at the same time, then looked at each other in surprise.

"You three too huh? That was also my plan." Jophan nodded, not looking as surprised as the three of them.

"Remi, you're really going to the front lines?" Risa asked with some worry.

"I need to, to prove myself to my father. He will never be impressed if I hang back and become a spirit refiner or tactician. But what about you Risa, I didn't take you for a front lines soldier?"

"Ah, my family also has its struggles. Historically, we join the current war directly and become true soldiers, it's a sort of tradition."

Jophan then turned towards Deon.

"You really intend to join up, straight after graduating?" Hearing this, the girls paused, then looked at Deon with dumb expressions. They hadn't really thought about it, but, was an eleven year old really allowed to fight at war? It definitely felt strange.

"I do. I'm going to join the shaman battalion." Deon answered firmly.

These days, he had been facing pressure from his teachers and the general to become a spirit refiner for the kingdom, but he firmly refused and insisted on joining the shaman battalion.

There were multiple battalions amongst the combat active soldiers.

Standard battalion, the largest battalion that comprised the ordinary soldiers. Often used to make up the mass of armies, they were sent to the front of the front and used as cannon fodder, to put it bluntly. The soldiers were ordinary people, whilst some captains and most commanders were shamans, then the lieutenants and generals were all shamans.

Elite battalion. The soldiers were ordinary humans, but all commanding officers were shamans. This battalion was smaller and the troops were often used for elite level missions.

Home guard battalion, as it sounded, this was the home guard. A mix of shamans and normal humans, larger than the elite battalion but a bit smaller than the standard battalion. In the event of invasion, shamans from typically non-combative divisions would be drawn into this group.

Shaman battalion. The smallest and most elite battalion, composed entirely of shamans. The soldiers were largely new recruits and those with less talent. After achieving accomplishments, one could rise up the ranks and command their own group of shaman soldiers.

A captain commanded 10 to 50 men, a commander led 100 to 500 men, a lieutenant 1000 to 5000 men and a general usually at least 10,000 men. These were only general numbers though, there were many cases of elite groups with smaller numbers.

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Admiral was the highest rank in the military and could only be received in rare circumstances. Admirals were all-powerful 2-Star shamans with an impressive history of military service and achievements. These people were far and few inbetween, there were currently only three admirals in the kingdom.

Each of the admirals had the ability to take command over an entire war, they could even choose to go to war at their own discretion, though they would be reprimanded by the king if they did this and lost.

"Ah, I want to be an admiral…" Jophan sighed absentmindedly as he became lost in thought.

"As if!" Remi rolled her eyes. "Do you think anyone can become an admiral? Let me tell you, each of the current admirals are late stage 2-Star shamans!"

"I know, I know." Jophan laughed, this was common knowledge. "Let me dream at least."

The months flew by and before he knew it, Deon had been in the academy for a full year.

Today was the day of the final examination. If he passed this test, then he would be able to sign up for the shaman battalion immediately, even being fast tracked towards becoming a captain in one year if he achieved enough merit.

Deon had been forced to spend most of his time studying and was unable to reach the late stage of 1-Star, but he was only a single step away.

Deon's class all stood nervously at the assault course. The examination had many parts, but the assault course came first. Only 26 out of the 30 members of their class were present. Four students had failed to successfully refine the dense muscle spirit from the vital physique spirit as of yet, doing this was the prerequisite for taking the exam.

Out of everyone here, only four were mid stage 1-Star shamans; Remi, Deon, Jophan and Risa.

"Deon, you're first."

Unexpectedly, Deon was up first. The class watched closely, wondering if Deon could complete the course within the required ten minutes.

What a joke, if the number one student in class couldn't pass this, then who could?

"Begin!"

Deon shot forwards, but didn't immediately activated the swift leaf spirit. He waited until he reached the first obstacle before activating this spirit, then spent his full concentration on completing the first step as quickly as possible.

A faint green light appeared around his body. Deon rapidly jumped from one leg to the next, moving at record speed across the twenty wooden poles which protruded out from the ground. Many people's jaws dropped as they saw this, he really did look like a leaf in the wind, drifting over the obstacle. Deon made it look too easy.

Next, the climbing wall. Deon didn't slow down, jumping up the wall like a monkey, then directly floating down from the other side. He landed on the ground softly, before exploding forwards with a surge of intensity, shooting through the 50 metre sprint.

His usage of the bronze muscle spirit showed its effect here, and then even more so on the following obstacles.

Tugging a 50 kilogram crate with a rope for 30 feet, pushing a boulder for 20 feet, then carrying a jagged rock for 25 feet.

Next, crawling through an underground tube, filled to the brim with mud, for a gruelling 50 feet. This was an obstacle that allowed Deon to show the benefit of his small body, he was always the fastest here.

Finally, after exhausting himself thoroughly, he needed to jog for another thousand feet before reaching the finish line.

"7 minutes 43 seconds!" The examiner called out in praise. This was a really amazing time, it could definitely be the fastest in the year!

The course was supposed to be difficult to complete within the 10 minutes time limit, to undercut this by over 2 minutes was really amazing.

One by one, everyone went up. Only Jophan, Risa and Remi passed. Risa only just made it through, with a time of 9 minutes 52 seconds.

After congratulating one another, Jophan spoke seriously.

"We can't relax yet, we have the full day ahead."

Indeed, it was quite the taxing day.

Sparring against the instructors, shooting at a target with musket rifles, multiple two hour written exams with only ten minutes of breaks between, followed by an oral exam in front of a commander and five captains. By the time the day was over, they were all extremely tired.

Somehow though, all four of them passed. Four people passing in the first year from one class, this was an amazing result. There was no doubt that the teachers of their class would be rewarded for this.

As expected, Deon's time on the assault course was the fastest out of all of the first year recruits. He was actually only beaten by a single person across all years, and it was already that person's third attempt.

A week later, it was also revealed that Deon had attained the highest score on the written exam, even when looking at the second, third and fourth year recruits. He was given a medal and allowed to choose not only the battalion, but also the troop that he wanted to enter.

This was a privilege granted to everyone that passed the exam on their first attempt, but Deon was given first priority. After carefully looking through the various troops within the shaman battalion, he actually chose a newly established section, the mountain war troop.

The military was split into divisions, the divisions split into battalions and troops. He had opted to join the mountain war troop of the shaman battalion, in the war division.

Recently, tensions with the Fan Kingdom had reached an all time high as they fought over the rights to Jing Mountain. Mountains on the spirit continent had special significance, they were places filled with high spiritual energy, where nature thrived, giving birth to a wide variety of herbs, metal ores and even spirits.

Many of the uncommon spirits supplied in the Kingdom of Restari were obtained from Jing Mountain. Absolute ownership over this mountain would give the kingdom a quick rise to power, but the Fan Kingdom also thought the same way.

The mountain war troop was a newly created troop within the war division, it was also the troop that would soon join the war against the Fan Kingdom on Jing Mountain. Whilst the two kingdoms often had small scale skirmishes, it was inevitable that a full blown war would break out within the next year. The mountain war troop was encouraging shamans to join this war.

Surprisingly, Remi and Risa also joined this troop. Well, it made sense given their family background. As for Jophan, he joined the Southeast war troop, a troop that regularly deployed units to fight against the various nations around the Southern and Eastern region of the kingdom.

Deon was forced to decline the invitations into various non-combative divisions once again, before eventually, he was accepted into the mountain war troop.

The fire of anticipation shone brilliantly in Deon's eyes…finally, he would soon be fighting once again!