“Welcome to the Pit maggots!” The drill sergeant shouted. Ander winced. The shout was far from necessary. Nobody was talking, most of them looking dubiously at the giant sinkhole they were all crowded next to. Not to mention the use of the word maggots. How stereotypical was he trying to be?
Very, it turned out, as the man was wearing a military uniform but with the sleeves rolled up to show his biceps, and a big old cigar hanging out of his mouth. Ander expected him to have a gun propped against one shoulder, but instead the man had a greatsword. All in all the man looked like he wanted to chew you up and spit you out like a wad of bubblegum.
“Here you will be turned from the puny weaklings you are into something the High Lord can look at without disgust!” Ander resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He wanted to give the man some of what was coming to him, but the man was level 52. Which was more than twice Ander’s level. Still, Ander refused to cringe like the hatchlings around him. Which was a mistake. Apparently.
“Do you have a problem with what I am saying boy!” Ander’s face twisted as the drill sergeant bowled over several hatchlings to get to Ander.
“No sir.” Ander tried to be respectful, but he couldn’t keep the vitriol out of his voice.
“I don’t like your tone boy!” The drill sergeant said. “Give me fifty pushups. Now.”
“No sir.” Ander’s pride was on the line now. He couldn’t let this bully get the better of him. The ‘fight’ if you could call it that lasted for three seconds. Ander saw the drill sergeant lunge toward him, and made a wind assisted dash backward to avoid the incoming hand. Which worked, until the drill sergeant pushed off in a leap of his own and snatched the front of Ander’s shirt with ease. Ander was then unceremoniously slammed onto his back, and then flipped over and slammed again on his front. He was lucky they were on loamy forest soil. If they had been on stone or concrete he likely would have cracked his skull and broken his jaw.
“Pushups. Now.” The drill sergeant said, giving Ander a vicious kick in the side when he did not comply fast enough. Ander struggled to his arms and started giving his pushups. They were hard at first, but as Ander pushed off the pain, they got quite easy. When Ander had reached 10 however, He felt a booted foot crash into his back and force him to the ground.
“Did I give you permission to stop doing pushups boy?” The drill sergeant ground his foot into Ander’s back as he struggled back into pushup position. When Ander had finally gotten to fifty, he collapsed onto the ground completely spent. “Is there something wrong with your brain boy? I didn’t give you permission to stop!”
“But,” Ander said in helpless panic. “I already got to fifty!”
“I only counted twenty.” the drill sergeant said with a grin. He knew what he was doing, Ander knew it, and the. But there was nothing for it but to keep going. After 163 pushups, he finally relented, and allowed Ander to collapse to the ground. Ander watched with tired incredulity. It was like the bad guy from Avatar just walked out of the screen for the express goal of humiliating him in front of everyone. Snickers passed through the group, but that didn’t seem to bother the drill sergeant. Not at all.
Ander shoved himself to his feet, ignoring the liquid fire that roared through his arms. This, this, drill sergeant would not get the better of Ander again. He was a complete dickhead. Ander couldn’t let someone like this get the better of him. His pride wouldn’t allow it. The drill sergeant was going on about how things had changed since his time, and how there was no real discipline in the training these days. But he stopped when he returned to the front of the group.
“You see over there maggots?” He was pointing to the other side of the sinkhole where a single unbroken wall rose for several hundred feet from the bottom of the sinkhole to the top. “That is THE Wall. You can get out of here any way you like and be accepted back into society, but If you have any honor you ascend The Wall. It is sheer with few handholds, and you have to make it to the top. Fortunately for you maggots, there are three platforms along the way where you may rest. You simply have to beat the guardian who lives there. I hope to see you all, because I am one of those guardians. The last one you have to beat before making it to the top.” He then grinned straight at Ander. “But don’t you worry. I’ll go easy on you.”
What. A. Dick.
From there, Ander and all the other hatchlings were herded onto a wooden platform hanging from a series of ropes. Despite this, the platform was quite stable, and it barely shook as it started to lower.
“What did you do to get on Kesh’s bad side?” Ander looked to see that Karsish was standing next to him. Karsish had decided that they were friends after their first conversation together. Ander didn’t mind really, the man could be pleasant enough and was quite knowledgeable. Which was quite useful after finding his Walker of Memories skill damaged beyond use. The thing was that Karsish was decidedly bookish, and always wanted to do scholarly things. While Ander was doing the relay courses, Karsish could be found in the library. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if Karsish wasn’t always trying to pester Ander into joining him. Ander liked books and learning as much as the next guy, more probably, but Karsish was on another level entirely.
“Nothing.” Ander replied “Just looked at him wrong. Though I am pretty sure he was looking for someone to make an example of.” Karsish nodded with a knowing look.
“Hey, so Ander? As you might expect I am not going to try my luck at the wall. It is really far too dangerous.” Karsish cleared his throat as Ander looked at him curiously. “I am going to attempt the scribe’s path. And you should join me. With the war going on, if you take the wall it will make you highly likely to be drafted.”
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“What's the ‘Scribe’s Path’?” Ander asked.
“Oh, sorry. I guess I forgot to tell you. The Wall is how warriors make it out of the pit. The Arc is the method for farmers and craftsmen. The Path or the Scribe’s Path is how scribes make it out of the pit. Each one of these is a series of tests that proves the individuals have mastered the skills they have set out to accomplish, and that they deserve to move on. Master Meathead over there obviously only cares about the Wall, but there are other ways to get out of the pit.”
“And you think that I, Ander, should take the Scribe’s Path.” Ander laughed slightly. “ Do you remember how many times you invited me to study with you, and I decided to do the relay courses instead?”
“I admit that I am very well suited for the Scribe’s Path. But don’t let that scare you off. I believe you are plenty capable of making it through. Besides, it doesn’t mean you have to give up on fighting or whatever. It just means that you will not be chosen for fighting related jobs in the future. It really isn’t that much of a loss if you ask me.”
“I will keep that in mind.” Ander said. He wasn’t really going to consider it, the wall presented both too good a challenge for Ander to work toward, as well as the opportunity to beat the drill sergeant at his own game. This was a training ground after all. But something bothered Ander as he looked down to the bottom of the miles wide sinkhole. It had neither filled with water, indicating that there was a way for the water to escape, nor were there all that many people. Sure the area was large, and there were a few large buildings, but if Ander had heard correctly, there should be thousands of people down there.
“Where is everybody?” Ander asked.
“Probably in the caves or the ruins.”
“Ruins?” Despite dying in the ruins, Ander had missed both the exploration and the combat.
“Yep. Big monster infested ruins. They say it is a training opportunity like no other.” Karsish sneered, an odd expression on his usually shy face. “I am pretty sure they do it because it’s cheap. Why should they dedicate troops to cull the monster infestations when they can send worthless hatchlings to do it instead. Besides, it means they don’t spend much money training troops that are going to be sent to a foreign battlefield anyway.”
“Sheesh. Looks like someone is a little bitter.” Karsish blushed slightly at that.
“Look, I trusted the High Lord to know what is best. Still do I suppose. But it is hard when this is the best that is offered.”
“It isn’t that bad. Think of all the interesting things we'll be able to see. We would never get that in a normal training camp.” Ander stopped for a moment, idly glancing below them. “Is there a reason we are lowering towards a lake rather than solid ground?”
“Sure, they likely plan to kick us out.” Ander stared at Karsish, who was standing there impassively.
“You were going to tell me this when?”
“It really was obvious that they didn’t have anywhere near enough rope to get us all the way to the bottom. Likely another cost saving measure. We will have near to a twenty foot drop to the water below. I suggest you dive. If you get lower you will be able to avoid the certain tangle of bodies floating around as these idiots figure out which way is up.”
The advice turned out to be quite timely as the elevator suddenly came to a halt. A number of hatchlings over-balanced and two unlucky hatchlings fell off the platform entirely.
“And we have arrived!” The drill sergeant shouted. “Maggots! Get off!” And with that, all the railings collapsed, swinging down to hang from cleverly disguised hinges. The Drill sergeant immediately started to push people off the platform and so Ander didn’t wait. He dived off feet first, the greatest move in his prodigious diving ability, and used the wind to guide him away from the other hatchlings. He ended up splashing down a solid seven feet away from the nearest hatchling and easily clearing the mess of bodies that Karsish had predicted.
At first, Ander had expected to see a number of injuries. Broken bones, lacerations, the works. And Ander was sure that would have been the case if it weren't for the water. It tasted sweet and refreshing like normal water. But it was heavy, heavier than high concentration saltwater like you might find in the dead sea. It was easy to float and swim in this water, and there was hardly any surface tension. While there was a tangle of bodies, most had sunk into the water with little problem, and then floated back up to the surface more or less safely. It seemed that the drill sergeant had more on his mind than simple murder.
Ander turned towards the shore and started to swim. He wanted to get somewhere he could dry his clothes and figure out what was going on. He felt that things were going to get complicated here in the pit. Indeed, as soon as he hit the shore he was immediately hounded by groups of people. At first he couldn’t understand what they wanted as they all talked over each other. But eventually he realized that they were trying to recruit him. Apparently there were three main factions in the pit. Since the leadership was very lax, it left the young exodar to organize themselves. Each of the factions had insignia they wore, and controlled tunnels to especially prosperous areas of the ruins. Ander listened politely to the pitch of each of the recruiters. They had seen his little show of gliding farther than anyone else, and were all clamoring to get him on their sides. He flatly refused.
It took him twenty minutes to extract himself from the recruiters, but he eventually succeeded. He was not interested in joining a faction. He had been fighting in ruins for a couple weeks now all on his lonesome, and felt that a faction would simply hold him back. While a faction might be able to provide things that most people would find it hard to get on their own, along with valuable collaborative opportunities, Ander didn’t feel it necessary in his case.
Instead, Ander simply started walking. There were a number of buildings in the middle of the pit. Together they made a small town on a very rigid set of straight streets. As Ander walked through he tried to look for places he could stop, maybe even rent for a night, and dry himself off. But every building was either an administrative or training center, or owned by one of the factions. He tried to enter a tavern simply to be pushed away by two bouncers. They were lower level than him, at twenty and twenty one, and likely did not have skills that came anywhere close to his in efficacy.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/739491419177353311/1114387093527998514/Malevolo_a_medieval_town_of_wattle_and_daub_buildings_built_int_d7f3790f-053d-4949-a49b-3f55369d6b9b.png]
Still, Ander didn’t want to stir up trouble on day one, and so he made his way out of the town and into a branch of the caves that had nobody around them. Here he found a small cavern not too far away from the main sinkhole and made himself a bed from a pile of leaves that had blown in this direction from the main sinkhole. It was getting late, and they had walked for several days to get to the pit in the first place. He should be fine here for the night, but he wouldn’t remove anything from his inventory in a place that others could easily find. So he pulled his cloak around himself and went to sleep.