The rest of the day was eventless. When my father and brother returned we had some small talk. The man from the Bundeswehr returned later in the evening as well and finished his list. He didn't show any particular emotion.

We had dinner and I tried once again to learn more about the way I change forms but didn't make any progress.

I went to bed around 10 pm. The next day also was eventless, until the instructor from the military arrived, which was a bit into the 3rd lesson.

We were told that for convenience's sake, the 10b would also take his lessons with us.

The lessons would take place in the sports hall so changing into appropriate clothing was required. 

My sister didn't have any old sports clothes remaining so there was no need for me to do so. Luckily. I don't think I am ready yet for that kind of thing. Changing in the girl's room...

Anyways, because of that, I was standing at the side of the hall with just socks and my normal clothes. 

The instructor looked like a rugged old man who was always grumpy. However, it was easily noticeable that he did some kind of training as he had quite a lot of muscle. Well, that or he modified his appearance to look like it. He was waiting for the rest of the students to gather when he noticed me.

"Hey, the little girl over there. Why are you still in normal clothes? Don't you have any sports clothes?"

"Eh? Ah, yes. Because of the change, I no longer have any fitting sports clothes."

"Ah, so that's what it was. Then make sure you've got some next time. I don't wanna see you without them again."

"Yes, I will get some new ones."

Even though I'd like to avoid it for a bit more.

Shortly after that, Brian entered the hall and quickly noticed me. He threw me some menacing stares but didn't do anything else. 

Looks like he still feels somewhat scared from our last encounter. 

It only took 2 more minutes until the rest of the students finished changing and gathered in the hall. 

"All of you quieten down! I want to start already. Then, first of all, let me say that basically all of you are way to slow. If the same what happened in Stuttgart were to happen either here in Wolmirstetd or somewhere near here you would need to be way faster than this. The next time we have some lessons together I want all of you to be here and ready within less than 5 minutes."

"Isn't that way too short?"

One girl managed to say something before everyone else.

"When several dozens of cockroaches the size of a medium-sized dog come running at you, you will know that there is no fast enough."

"Huh? What do you mean? There are no cockroaches that large!"

"Lying for no reason. What kind of instructor is that?"

The students who could not believe what the man before them just told them started whispering.

"Quiet! For those of you who think that I am lying, I'm sorry to disappoint you but I am serious. The news already reported that the animals come in strange appearances and are abnormally strong. However, that was only in the beginning. As time passed, many animals became bigger and bigger and their appearances started to become more strange. The current situation is that many bugs have become as large as dogs, rodents vary from small dog size to large dog size and dogs are as large as bears. If you don't want to believe me then that's that. But I will still instruct you with that in mind. Now start running some laps. I need to know how good your stamina is. While the status tells you many things, there are still individual differences. Run until I say you can stop."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Many students still looked at the instructor as a liar and complained but I believed him. No, I had to believe him. He stank of blood. And not just his own. I could smell dozens of different smells on him and many of them were at the very least not from humans.

So I started running without complaining. As my new body was very light and vastly superior to my old one, I had no problems doing so for quite some time. 

The instructor just watched for a long time, roughly 20 minutes before he started calling out to certain students that they could stop.

The first few that he told to stop were those who were slightly or extremely obese before the change. Even if all their stats but the ones related to the mind increased, if the base was low then it still is somewhat low afterward.

Within the 30th minute, he called out 7 students. None of them were people I really knew. After another 5 minutes, he again called out 3 students. 

This continued for another 15 minutes where he occasionally told students to stop running. 

I was slowly starting to sweat more than before but I still didn't have any real problem. 

"You there, the little boy. Yeah, you. You can stop."

Ah, it seemed that Maurice was called out.

After that, we continued running for 15 minutes where he also called out Tim and Ben. I was now starting to sweat heavily and my breath also became rugged.

"Ok, that's enough. You can all stop now. Running for an hour straight is enough for now. By that time you should have managed to get into some kind of a shelter. For those who haven't managed to last that long, we will have to work on that. "

"Ugh finally."

"I already thought we would be running the entire day."

With some wheezing and heavy breathing, the remaining 13 students stopped running, including me.

"Good. Rest for a minute then we will continue."

 I looked for Maurice and found him sitting on a bench.

"Man I already thought that you were running better than before but to think it was to this extent."

"Yeah, it's really ridiculous compared to before."

"To think that the slightly obese Mark would ever be able to keep up with the more sports orientated students. The world must be turning crazy."

"Judging from the past few days, wouldn't you say that it already is crazy? If someone told people that there would be mana, that gods really exist or that usually docile animals would cause an entire city to lockdown then that person would instantly be declared as someone who has lost it."

"Right you are."

"Break time's over. Gather up." 

The students sluggishly gathered in front of the instructor. 

"Hurry up already. I already told you that you are too slow. Do you think that some crazy beast would wait for you to get away?"

"You keep talking about these crazy animals, why are you so fixated on them?"

"First of all, because I was told to do so. Other than that... I've seen some of the footages of these animals. As well as some captured ones they took for research. Believe me, they aren't something you want to encounter. And when you do, you will want to be able to run away from them."

The tone in which he said that sounded like he really, really knew what he was talking about so no one said anything. Though I think there is more to it than what he told us. Such a smell of blood isn't just there for no reason. 

"Anyways, that doesn't matter right now. Let's get to the next thing..."

Afterward, we did some more normal exercises to see our limit. Nothing really special. He said that he would only start giving us the real training once he has evened out the difference between our physical abilities a bit more. 

----------------------------------------

This continued for a few days. During that time nothing exciting happened. I had school and lessons with the military instructor while I was getting used to my new body and my situation. 

The world was slowly recovering from the shock that everyone received and the situation in Stuttgart was also improving. 

The Bundeswehr managed to clear out most of the "strange" animals and parts of the city were accessible again. 

However, that also came with its bad news. As they were able to enter the city again, they were able to see the destruction that these animals caused. 

The news reported that the last time they counted the people living there was in 2015. At that time the population was 612.441 thousand. The military estimates that roughly 25% of that number died in this event. 

Most parts of the city are also heavily damaged and are in need of extensive repairs. 

There is still no news of my Mother. It appears that she was caught up in it after all. Hopefully, she is just hiding somewhere. 

The government has also started investing a lot of resources into a project to find out what has caused this. They want to be able to stop this from happening again.

The animals that managed to escape Stuttgart and were traveling north-east have mostly scattered and most attempts to find these have failed. The big packs that stuck together were already eliminated, as far as we know at least.

Today is Friday and I went to school like I normally do.

Little did I know that this day would be this second worst day of my life.