Chapter 8 - The Military Academy

District 31 was by far the largest district in the Kingdom of Restari, from this it was clear just how much importance the kingdom placed on their military might. This district actually covered the entirety of the Eastern and Southern walls, making it 100 miles in length along the two walls, and spreading out from the walls for three to four miles. The military district was ten times larger than an average district.

The reason for the military district being located along these walls, was because the Eastern and Southern walls were the most susceptible to attack from enemy nations.

To the West of the kingdom there was an endless mountainous landscape, the terrain was unsuitable for an army to traverse. To the North there was Jing Mountain, protecting the kingdom from attacks from the North. This Northern terrain was too rocky, an enemy army would struggle to march across this land and launch a proper assault.

To the East of Jing mountain was the Fan Kingdom, the Kingdom of Restari's greatest enemy. Whenever the Fan Kingdom attacked, it was usually at the Eastern wall.

To the South lay a large grassy plain. This land was vast but flat, there were many nations, large and small, scattered across this region.

The military shaman academy was located in the Southwest corner of the kingdom. Although the term 'academy' made it sound like a school, the ages of the recruits in this academy ranged between 10 and 30. The majority of applicant were at least 15 though, since this was the age at which a person would be considered an adult in this kingdom.

Whilst it was possible to become a shaman from the age of ten, very few people would actually tackle the ascension at this age. There was no harm in waiting for a few more years, aside from wasting this time not training as a shaman. However, the chances of successfully opening the soul space would increase as the body became stronger with age, and as the child's willpower improved as they matured.

This was the main reason that the shaman military academy only accepted non-shaman applicants from age 15 onwards; they didn't want to needlessly endanger younger children when they could simply wait and make use of the greater success rate amongst older teenagers.

Not everyone that arrived at the academy was already a shaman, most were ordinary people who had been tested and deemed talented enough to become shamans, so the military was willing to invest in their futures.

By talking to some of the other new recruits in the back of the horse drawn carriage along the journey towards the academy, Deon learned that the military possessed a method which allowed them to measure someone's internal talent.

Internal talent was the innate talent that a person was born with, it described their ability to absorb spiritual energy from the surroundings. A shaman's efficiency in refining this absorbed spiritual energy was referred to as external talent, which was entirely dependent on the spirit used as the core spirit. Combining the two factors together gave the overall talent.

Only those who were not yet shamans had their talent tested, since this reading was the military's way of deeming whether or not a person was worth investing in. They would only accept those with an internal talent of low level 3 or above.

Deon was already familiar with this ranking of internal talent. Internal talent was split into levels, with 0 being the lowest and each rise in number signifying a large leap in talent. These levels were further split into low, mid and high. It was necessary to have an internal talent of at least level 2 to even become a shaman, but only those with level 3 talent were able to progress beyond the initial stage with ordinary core spirits.

It was unfortunate that 85% of people had a talent of level 0 or level 1, 10% possessed level 2 talent and only 5% had a level 3 or above talent.

As for Deon himself, his internal talent was high level 3. This was related mostly to the body that Blood God had given him to occupy. Although this was barely above average amongst shamans, when combined with his external talent, his overall talent was still monstrous.

Deon had at first wondered why Blood God didn't provide him with a more talented body, but he immediately understood after reading one of the books in his spatial ring, one of the few that he could actually read. This book outlined his new body's unique constitution in great detail.

In essence, the original talent of this body was much higher, but the process of fusing a foreign soul into a body was heaven defying, causing the talent to drop to this slightly above average level. Blood God had estimated that his talent should fall to mid level 3, but apparently the fusion process went slightly better than expected, resulting in Deon gaining a high level 3 internal talent.

However, there were many ways to improve one's talent. Although these methods were usually rare and extremely difficult, Blood God actually created this body with a constitution that would allow Deon to improve his internal talent repeatedly by following some specific methods! For now, these methods were only a distant goal for Deon, but he would certainly pursue this path in the future.

Deon was thinking of all this as he made his way towards the academy's courtyard. He had arrived at the academy a full week earlier, but was forced to wait for the ordinary mortal humans to undergo their metamorphosis into shamans. Anyone who had been accepted into the academy possessed the ability to tackle the ascension, but every year there were always some unlucky individuals who lost their lives during the process of refining their core spirit.

The previous day, Deon was made to sign a contract stating that he would enlist in the military for at least five years, starting from his 15th birthday at the latest. This was the condition for entering the academy and receiving the kingdom's financial support. Breaking this agreement would result in a horrific public execution, a consequence that was supposed to act as a deterrent to those looking to eat without paying.

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Well, it was quite effective. There were very few deserters. After all, joining the military didn't necessarily mean going off to war. If you were too afraid or simply didn't wish to bother with fighting, you could stay back in the kingdom and become a guard, or even enter a management, support, or strategy division.

After arriving at the courtyard, Deon looked around and felt a bit surprised. He could see a few hundred people all gathered here on the gravel floor that lay in front of the main academy building. Some were chatting, some stood alone as they waited, others looked a bit anxious. They all wore the same military uniform.

On a side note, Deon was also wearing this uniform. It was different to the one that he had seen the other soldiers wearing, it was blue in colour, symbolic of academy recruits. It still had the crest of the kingdom on the chest though; a bird of prey perched atop the point of a sword.

"Attention all new recruits. Form orderly lines and await the arrival of General Senlin." A voice that made everyone jump in fright resounded throughout the courtyard. Most of the people present had never heard such a loud voice before, making them feel afraid.

Deon looked forwards and narrowed his eyes. He was certain that this echoing voice came from the small woman standing on the front stage.

'Some kind of device? No, technology in this place is far behind earth's…then, a spirit?' Deon quickly guessed that she must be using a spirit to project her voice, but he was unable to confirm this before the woman descended from the stage without saying anything else.

Truthfully, Deon still understood very little about spirits and the world of shamans, but his understanding of the lower level shaman world was perhaps even more lacking. The texts left behind by Blood God described certain spirits, including the spirits he left behind for Deon, but this was far from a comprehensive guide. As for the sorts of spirits that were actually prevalent amongst low level shamans? Deon was still somewhat clueless.

Before entering the academy, he tried his best to learn about the shaman world in the kingdom, but it was too difficult. All he could ascertain for sure, was that generally speaking, shamans distanced themselves from ordinary human civilians, whilst most common people knew almost nothing about shamans aside from the highly exaggerated rumours.

Given that he understood so little of the shamans' abilities in this kingdom, Deon knew that he was taking some degree of risk by entering the academy.

He assumed that his non-existent background would be overlooked on account of his 'innocent' childish appearance, but what if he was uncovered as an outsider due to a cautious shaman using some bizarre spirit? What if his actions back in district 5, his killing of those men, was discovered?

Well, so what? He would simply take these risks! Wasn't it more exciting to live like this, embracing the danger in pursuit of the rewards, compared to always hiding away in fear?

Deon did not know if Blood God would approve of his actions, but to be honest, he couldn't care less about a dead man's approval. Blood God was dead whilst he was alive, Deon decided that he would choose the trajectory of his own demonic path.

The newly arrived soldiers in training did as they were told and formed orderly lines on the courtyard. The grounds were large enough to easily accommodate the four to five hundred people, but it was a bit chaotic trying to form proper lines with nobody to lead the way.

Deon took his place, but quickly realised that there was a problem. As more and more people fell into line, his vision was completely obscured. He decided to push his way forwards to the very front, or else he would be totally surrounded and unable to move or see.

Some of the recruits looked a bit surprised to see a child like Deon amongst them, but when they thought about it and realised that he must be some sort of genius to become a shaman at such a young age, they politely made way for him and allowed him to pass through.

He eventually found a place at the front, and looking around, saw that most of the smaller and younger people had a similar idea to him.

"Hmph, ridiculous, for this princess to be forced to mingle with commoners. Move!"

Deon glanced to his side and saw a beautiful young girl push past the final line and break out into the front. Her face was a bit red from being forced to push her way through, but she quickly collected herself and stood silently next to Deon. From a glance, he guessed that she was around 14 or 15 years old.

Long, curvy chestnut hair, eyes that matched perfectly and smooth skin across her face and hands, suggesting that she was well looked after and rich enough to avoid manual labour throughout her life.

'Did she really just refer to herself as 'this princess'?'

Deon decided to turn away and ignore her, she seemed troublesome.

At this moment, the crowd became silent. They all stared forwards as a strange tension permeated the air. Deon also narrowed his eyes, looking at the man who had just walked onto the stage.

He felt a deep sense of danger stemming from this man. This person was definitely far more powerful than himself!

Ever since arriving on the spirit continent, this was the first time that Deon had felt such a sense of danger…it was almost nostalgic.

The man was old, he looked at least 60 years of age. There was only one way that an old guy filled with grey hair could make Deon feel this degree of danger.

2-Star shaman!

Deon thought back to the information he had read in the military basics handbook and realised that this made sense. This man on stage must be that General Senlin, and it was a well established rule that to become a general in this country, one of the base requirements was to first become a 2-Star shaman.

Soldier, captain, commander, lieutenant, general, admiral.

These were the six major ranks within the military, with soldier being the lowest and admiral the highest. Of course, this wasn't exact, as a soldier within an elite shaman troop would certainly be considered more prestigious than the captain of an ordinary group of non-shaman foot soldiers.

The highest rank that an ordinary human could hope to achieve was commander, and that was only in exceptional circumstances and after many decades of pristine service.

In the end, shamans ruled this world.

"All recruits, stand to attention!" The old man's voice echoed throughout the courtyard. He didn't use any special means, his voice was simply that loud. Relying on only his voice to roar at hundreds of people, it was quite impressive and showed his experience.

Everyone straightened up and saluted to the general. They had not been taught to do this, but everyone knew the military salute and they couldn't help but go along with this powerful man's pace.

"At ease."

They relaxed, but only slightly.

"You are now all trainee recruits in the Kingdom of Restari's military shaman academy. Whilst this is indeed a point of pride, remember that this is only the beginning."

The old man spoke calmly and slowly, his aura and figure were imposing and firmly imprinted into the minds of all those present.

"The academy aims to raise up the next generation of shamans to serve this glorious kingdom in battle."

Many people became excited as they heard that. They felt their blood boiling, as if they could already picture themselves fighting in battles, earning glory and honour!

Deon was indifferent to such words. He just stood there quietly and listened.

"You will be shaped into fine soldiers, whilst also learning to become competent shamans. By the end of your training at the academy, you will all become powerful assets to this kingdom, each of you adept in the art of war."