Chapter 18 - Military Spirit Catalogue

The commander kept introductions brief and soon enough, they were once again travelling. This time though, they were each given a horse to ride.

There were horse riding lessons in the academy, but not much emphasis was placed on this. Everyone was at least able to ride a horse properly though, so they set off promptly.

Since the mountain war preparations were rapidly ramping up, the base camp for the 37th unit was actually situated just outside of the kingdom walls by the Northeastern corner. The military were moving various units to this area to set up camps at tactical locations, slowly approaching both Jing Mountain and the Fan Kingdom.

They arrived on a field that was previously farmland, but had been converted into a military encampment recently after the last crop was harvested. Green tents, large and small, were scattered across the centre of the field, whilst soldiers could be seen training all around.

For the first time, Deon could finally see Jing Mountain. The kingdom walls were tall, so he was unable to see past them before, but now, the mountain entered his eyes in all its glory.

He felt somewhat stunned. The academy had described this mountain as 'small', but this was only relative to the mountains of this world. It was comparable in size to the largest mountains on earth, perhaps even slightly larger.

When he thought about the fact that to the West of the kingdom there lay an endless mountain range where even the smallest mountains were of this size, and the largest dwarfed Jing Mountain completely, Deon once again realised that the spirit continent was truly massive.

The arrival of the new recruits attracted the attention of the other soldiers. It wasn't long before the other captains arrived. The other lingering soldiers also gathered after the commander issued a meeting order.

"I expect the new recruits to quickly integrate with everyone else. To accelerate this integration and bring everyone up to a sufficient standard, I have devised a daily training plan for you all to follow. Captains and soldiers will be training together."

Deon once again noticed that the atmosphere turned gloomy as the commander mentioned her training regime. The new recruits all looked baffled as they saw the miserable expressions across the faces of their senior soldiers.

Well, they soon understood the reason behind these expressions. The commander called it training, but it was closer to torture.

They woke up at first light, then went for a ten mile run around the fields. Next, they were allowed to spend ten minutes eating breakfast.

After breakfast, they sparred in close combat, no weapons or spirits were allowed. After sparring like this for an hour whilst rotating partners every five minutes, they were then allowed to use weapons and spirits and sparred for another hour. Obviously they were trying to avoid seriously injuring one another, but some accidents would occur daily and small injuries were so common that they were not even worth mentioning.

Thirty minutes was allowed for lunch break.

Rifle practice came next, then more intense exercise, followed by practice in setting up and taking down camps rapidly, and so on.

At the end of the day, they were given a large meal to eat. By the time this meal was finished, only four hours remained to sleep until they were forced to wake up and begin training once again.

The commander said that they would be able to integrate into the group like this, and she was somewhat correct. Whilst they rarely had the energy to chat with one another, the soldiers all developed a mutual understanding that stemmed from their shared suffering.

After a week of training like this, Deon encountered a problem. He was close to breaking through into the late stage of 1-Star, but he had no time to train to this level. After pondering this issue for a while, he approached his captain.

The 37th unit was split up under the commander and every 50 soldiers were assigned to a captain. Deon's captain was a serious looking man called Captain Dan. He had short black hair and Deon had honestly never seen him smile or laugh even once. He was extremely strict with everyone, but he was also equally fair.

"You want to borrow a sustenance spirit? What for?" Captain Dan frowned at Deon's request. He didn't understand what he was thinking at all, meals were the one piece of enjoyment they were allowed each day, yet he wanted to forsake this? For what reason?

"Captain, truthfully I'm very close to reaching the late stage of 1-Star, but I have no time to train. If I have the sustenance spirit then I will have free time to spend training my rank without giving up sleep."

Dan nodded slowly. He didn't say it, but thought that this idea was destined to fail. Whilst the sustenance spirit could provide them with nourishment, they would still crave food after not eating for a long period of time, and it would wear down their mind during this intensive regime.

Generally speaking, the sustenance spirit was used as an emergency measure, not as the standard. If they had food available to them, then shamans would always choose to eat.

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That said, Captain Dan thought this could serve as a good lesson to Deon. He agreed and lent him the sustenance spirit, since he didn't need it currently.

The training went on. As time passed by, the training didn't become easier, but more difficult. They weren't given enough time to rest, so this extended training session steadily wore down everyone's willpower. The troops all felt exhausted without exception, yet they were driven on by the desire to keep up with their comrades.

Deon was only able to spend less than an hour each day refining more origin energy in his soul space. This was an extremely slow speed of progression compared to what he was used to, but his improvement was steady and increased each day.

Originally, he should have been able to reach the late stage within a single week by training for 12 hours each day, but under the commander's strict regime, he spent slightly over three months to reach this point instead.

As the commander watched over the troops' sparring after breakfast, she noticed that only 49 people were present in Captain Dan's group. The session had only just started, but it was still unacceptable for someone to be late. Her eyes darted about and she quickly deduced whom was missing.

"Captain Dan, where is Soldier Deon?"

Captain Dan hadn't noticed Deon's absence. Like everyone else, he was thoroughly exhausted and his mind was beginning to falter. Just as he looked up tiredly, Deon's voice rang out from behind.

"I'm here, commander. Apologies for the delay." His polite words did not fit his childish figure at all. Seeing the barely suppressed smile on Deon's tired face, the commander furrowed her brows.

"Why do you look so happy to be late? Are you having fun, wasting time and slacking off?"

"Sorry commander, I'm just happy that I became a late stage 1-Star shaman." Deon replied, then held up his hand and showed the grey origin energy which now shimmered in the early morning sun.

He had no intention of hiding this. He wanted to quickly rise through the ranks and to obtain more power in the military. For that, he needed to show his worth.

As expected, everyone who heard him stopped and gasped.

Late stage 1-Star shaman, but he was only 11 years old!

Wait, that wasn't the real issue here…

"You were training your rank?" Commander Reana stopped and stared at Deon in disbelief. She had been observing each and every soldier carefully. Although she acted cold, she truly wanted her unit to become the best. Because of this, she knew that Deon had not been late to training once until today.

Which could only mean…

"Commander, Soldier Deon borrowed my sustenance spirit a week after training began. Honestly, I had forgotten about it…this is my mistake commander." Captain Dan hurriedly explained.

The commander didn't turn towards Captain Dan, but continued to stare at Deon.

"You gave up your meals so that you could improve faster?"

"Yes commander." Deon nodded. "Originally it shouldn't have taken me this long, but I was only able to refine origin energy for an hour each day. Ah, it's been so long since I've eaten, I'm really looking forwards to lunch…" He mumbled that last bit. He didn't actually intend to say that out loud, but between his exhaustion and hunger, his mind was a bit of a mess right now.

Even if he had greater willpower than others after enduring the underworld trial, his body was still that of a mortal child after all, only slightly strengthened by the dense and bronze muscle spirits.

The commander nodded slowly. After turning to the soldiers who had all paused their training, she yelled out:

"Why are you all standing around? Get back to work!"

She then told Deon to follow her into the command tent. The command tent was spacious and served as a sheltered area for the commander to fill in any paper work that needed doing. Drapes hung around the sides to hide the inside of the tent from the soldiers' view.

Deon looked around and saw that there were multiple bookshelves, along with a desk and seven chairs. He took a seat after being instructed by the commander and waited patiently.

The commander sat down on the chair behind the desk and pulled out a folder from the side drawer. She looked through the folder silently, then removed a small booklet and a single sheet of paper. She placed both items on the desk and looked towards Deon.

Unable to suppress his curiosity, Deon glanced down at the booklet and read the title, 'Military Shaman Catalogue'.

"Commander, this is…?"

"Once a member of the military becomes a late stage 1-Star shaman, they obtain the qualifications to access the military's catalogue. It's a similar concept to the catalogue at the academy, this book lists the various resources and spirits that a shaman can purchase through the military."

Deon's eyes brightened. He had heard about this whilst chatting with some of the more experienced soldiers in the unit. Not many had reached the late stage of 1-Star though, and those who had achieved this level were not permitted to share the details of the catalogue with others.

After glancing at the sheet of paper, Deon saw that it was indeed another contract.

"Since some of the items within the catalogue relate to the military's war spoils and various missions, you will need to sign this contract stating that you won't discuss this with any unqualified people, or anyone outside of your own unit."

Deon nodded. He signed the contract after skimming it through, then turned towards the booklet expectantly. The commander continued to explain to him.

"Some things can be purchased with drop spirits alone, others require merit points, whilst others also required the buyer to be of a certain military rank. As you are only a soldier, anything pertaining to the above military ranks will not be listed in this catalogue."

Deon nodded, but then asked:

"Merit points? I haven't heard about these."

Commander Reana blinked in surprise, then sighed.

"You really have been secluding yourself and training too hard, to not have heard about merit points yet."

Deon scratched his head and waited for her to continue.

"Merit points are obtained by accumulating achievements. The fastest way to earn merit points is to participate directly in wars and to achieve something impressive, like killing an enemy general."

Deon smiled wryly. Killing an enemy general? All of the surrounding nations used a similar military system, where generals were all at least 2-Star shamans. If he really did achieve something like that, then he would probably be promoted to commander directly.

The commander slid the book across to Deon and he took it carefully, but he did not open the book right away. The commander secretly praised him for this in her mind, she felt like his patience was pretty amazing, even most of the captains hadn't been this restrained after receiving their catalogue.

"Whilst it's impressive that you managed to reach this stage at such a young age, don't get ahead of yourself, Soldier Deon. Remember that true battle ability is not based solely on your shaman rank. As of right now, your battle experience is still lacking and your spirits are not yet optimal."

"I understand commander, thank you for the advice." Deon understood that what she said was partially true.

She was wrong about him having no battle experience at all; after fighting for so long in the underworld trial, his combat sense was extremely formidable. That said, he had only been fighting as a mortal soul throughout the underworld, he was still inexperienced when it came to fighting with spirits.

This was the reason that shamans were forced to go through strict military training rather than being allowed to focus solely on their shaman training. The general thinking of the kingdom was that it would be better to boost a soldier's mindset, discipline and physical ability first, then focus on their shaman training after nailing these essential basics.