Chapter 17 - The Shaman Battalion's 37th Unit
The military acted quickly. Deon was presented with a change of clothes into the standard military uniform. He was also given the opportunity to gain a free basic spirit, but he turned this down.
He already had a few tokens and simply didn't need any more, whilst he didn't want to look after another low value spirit right now. However, General Senlin pulled Deon aside and reminded him of the most sensible course of action.
"You should trade in your tokens for drop spirits."
Deon almost smacked himself in the head for not thinking of this. Really, this was quite dumb to forget!
The drop spirit was a spirit costing five tokens in the academy catalogue. This spirit had the ability to quickly replenish a shaman's origin energy. It contained an extremely dense and pure spiritual energy that could be refined in seconds to recover one's origin energy. The spirit was expendable, disappearing after use.
More importantly, this spirit was the standard currency amongst shamans. The academy's tokens were worthless outside of the academy, but drop spirits retained their value across the entire spirit continent!
The key point though, was that this spirit could be fed on spirit mountain water, spirit spring water or spirit lake water. All three of these ingredients were cheap and readily available.
A pint of such water could easily store 100 of these spirits, whilst this number of drop spirits could feed on this water for thirty days before needing more. Not only that, but this spirit could last for ten days without sustenance before it even started to lose any vitality!
It was the perfect currency. Especially when considering that there was a common 1-Star water lily spirit which could store up to a gallon of water. 2-Star and above shamans would all use this spirit, hence allowing them to store hundreds or thousands of drop spirits within the lily in their soul space, without consuming more origin energy to support the drop spirits.
A 1-Star spirit could be sustained with ten times less origin energy than a 2-Star spirit, so it was normal for a 2-Star shaman to hold onto ten 1-Star spirits in place of a single 2-Star spirit.
Deon wouldn't use the water lily spirit just yet, but having some actual currency of the shaman world sounded good. His spatial ring couldn't store spirits, but it wouldn't be too much of a bother to keep his drop spirits in a metal flask.
"Actually Deon, I summoned you here for another reason. As the highest scoring student on the exams this year, you're being given three drop spirits as a reward. This is the same every year."
"Many thanks general." Deon smiled.
"Mm. Alright, you should hurry up, your carriage departs tomorrow."
"Yes general." After saluting, Deon made his way to the spirit hall for a final time.
He had seven tokens remaining. Combining his reward for graduating as well as his prize for scoring the highest, Deon left the spirit hall with four drop spirits, storing them in a metal container filled with mountain spring water.
He also spent one token to buy a decent cauldron, as well as some more resources. He possessed his own cauldron from Blood God's inheritance, but this way it wouldn't arouse suspicion when he revealed it.
The following morning, the newly graduated recruits who had been assigned to the mountain war troop were picked up by a coach of carriages and taken to the Northeast corner of the kingdom. They never left district 30 as they travelled, even though this journey took them from one corner of the kingdom to the opposite corner.
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Travelling this distance with so many horse drawn carriage took three days, during which time Deon and the others were able to see many different parts of the military.
The military in the Kingdom of Restari really was vast, composed of many different divisions; guard division, war division, refining division, resource division and strategy division.
The war division was of course the most prestigious.
Deon took in the sights with great interest, it was his first time really seeing the full scale of the kingdom's war machine. The factories to produce rifles, the many buildings where spirits were kept and maintained, the tents acting as hospitals for injured soldiers, so on and so forth.
Finally, they arrived at their destination in the Northeast corner of the kingdom. The number of soldiers stationed here was clearly much higher than in other parts of the kingdom. From all the activity and commotion, it was obvious that a war was imminent. In fact, there were many rumours circulating, saying that this war would begin within the next few months!
The new recruits were dropped off at the assignment sector, an area of land allocated to organising the many troops in the military. This time around there were a few hundred people looking to join the war division.
They were all led out from the horse drawn carts and made to line up on the dirt grounds. As they stood there to attention silently, the officials walked around and assigned them to specific units one by one.
When the official came across Deon, he glanced at his childish self doubtfully, then turned back to his paper before returning his attention to Deon.
"You're Deon?" He asked.
"Yes, captain." Deon replied.
The official shrugged, then continued.
"You've been assigned to the 37th unit of the shaman battalion. Commander Reana will give you further instruction." The official pointed towards a unit that was waiting a couple hundred feet away, as new recruits slowly joined their ranks.
Deon nodded and saluted the official, then departed from the line and made his way across the grounds.
"Eh?" A large burly man looked down at Deon and blinked. He felt dazed for a moment…he was inside district 30 right now, wasn't he? Wasn't this the assignment sector for the coming war at Jing Mountain, why was there a child looking up at him?
Deon saw that this man had the emblem of a captain on his chest and quickly straightened up.
"Captain, new recruit Deon, reporting!"
"Huh?!" The man's eyes widened and he could only stare blankly, at a loss for words. It was understandable, it wasn't exactly common for 11 year olds to join the front lines of the military…no, this could probably be considered a first!
The man felt himself being pushed aside lightly and realised that the commander had stepped through.
"You're Deon?" A woman with a cold gaze stared down at him. She had short black hair and a tall slender build, her eyes contained not a trace of the kindness that people would usually show towards a child.
"Yes commander." Deon replied promptly.
"They said that you were the top scoring student, but failed to mention that you were a child. Don't think that you'll be getting off lightly. If you are unable to keep up with the rest, then you will be subject to the same consequences as anyone else."
The six captains underneath Commander Reana felt like she was being too harsh, but Deon only smiled lightly.
"Thank you commander, I'm glad that you're willing to treat me equally."
The woman paused for a moment, then burst out laughing. She laughed loudly, but only for a few seconds before her cold gaze returned.
"Join the others."
"Yes commander!"
Deon looked back and saw that 15 or so recruits were waiting in the tent behind them. He jogged across and stopped, waiting for the remaining soldiers to arrive in their unit.
After encountering their cold and stern commander, nobody dared to speak whilst they waited. Deon's eyes widened slightly as he saw that Remi had unexpectedly been assigned to this unit, but they still didn't speak. He had some ideas on this unit after seeing some other familiar faces joining their ranks.
Another half hour passed by and finally, all 32 of the new recruits in this unit had arrived.
"Soldiers, line up!" The commander yelled out, causing everyone to hurry and take their positions in an orderly fashion.
"My name is Commander Reana, you may address me simply as commander. You are now all proud members of the 37th unit of the shaman battalion! The 37th unit is a free standing unit, meaning that we are unaffiliated to a lieutenant or general and take our orders directly from central command. The unit currently has a total of 300 soldiers with six 50 man captains. Know this, only those who place in the top 10% in both the physical fitness exam and overall exam have the chance to enter this unit, making the 37th unit a unit of elites."
Deon had already guessed as much. He recognised some of those around him as geniuses from the academy after all. If it was random, it would be too much of a coincidence for Remi to be placed with him yet again.
Looking around, he saw that the newly recruited soldiers all had an excited gleam in their eyes. They were elites, valued talents! They already felt proud. Well, Commander Reana had no plans to allow them to become conceited though.
"Listen carefully. Although you may be elites of the academy, you are still a bunch of useless rookies in my eyes! Just because you did well in the military's most basic training doesn't mean shit! To whip you all up into shape for this war, I have devised an intensive training regime. This training regime will be mandatory for all soldiers and captains in the 37th unit until the day that the mountain war commences."
From the expressions on the captains' faces, it seemed like they had neither expected to be involved in this, nor did they want to participate. Wait, why did they look so fearful? That burly man looked like he was about to cry!
Deon sighed. It seemed that he was in for some more tough training before he could make his way onto the battlefield.