"You were supposed to report early in the morning, not at lunchtime," Kennil showed a severe expression on his face while saying that. "It might be a bit too late for this, but you will have to catch up with the training of the other first years. Take your boots out and put on the armor, carry the shield and the long spear, and start running."

Gaius wanted to smile… It looked like he wasn't going to receive special treatment, but he was fine with that. Things would be more fun that way… without making a fuss or saying anything, Gaius decided to follow the orders.

Three minutes later, Gaius was already running on the back of that group of kids who weren't even ten years old. Their pace was quite good, but he could see a lot of them sweating bullets and looking like they were about to collapse… they had been running for a while.

After ten minutes, Gaius felt the soles of his feet burning since the sun was right above the training ground and the sand of the place was burning like hell… Kennil told everyone to stop and go to have their lunch and return in two hours, but Gaius was supposed to keep going. He could tell that this method of training was good enough to create minions, but not for him since he was aware of it and he had a few ideas to counter it.

“Hehehe, this is even better than I had expected,” Gaius showed a small smirk when he began to run alone.

The head instructor and Gaius were the only ones left behind, Kennil was willing to skip lunch to welcome Gaius and make an example out of him. Too bad for him, but Gaius was planning to use that opportunity instead in his favor.

Gaius Lv 82 (39.000/82.000) - Limitless Summoner

Health: 765/765

Mana: 770/770

Stamina: 235/335

Strength: 66 + 30

Endurance: 21 + 15

Adaptability: 01 + 11

Magic: 131 + 01

Resistance: 21 + 01

Wisdom: 250 + 16

Dexterity: 31 + 12

Perception: 31 + 33

Luck: 01 + 26

Free points: 00

After the war, Gaius gained a lot of free points and he only used the extra ones to increase his Wisdom. Thanks to that, he could recover a bunch of mana. He was planning to burn that easily over time to make the exercise easier for him, but he changed his mind and used the seventy free points that he had instead. When he increased his resistance by twenty points, the heat decreased around him. When he increased his endurance, his feet stopped hurting and when he increased his strength, the plate armor suddenly looked two times lighter.

“I guess this will do… it is a bit tiresome, but this will make for a good workout,” Gaius thought. "Still, I probably shouldn't do that again... doing this to confirm a few things is a better option, but it is enough.

Two hours later, the other kids returned and frowned when they saw Gaius still running… It looked like Kennil wanted to make him run until he fell and begged to stop, but there were no signs of that.

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Gaius couldn’t remember the last time he pushed his body like that. Maybe it was due to his age, but his father never let him train that much… In the end, he kept running until the sun began to set and the instructors ended the training session of that day.

“This pace is fine since my stamina regeneration is pretty high as well… around one percent of the total per second,” Gaius thought. “It seems a bit late to learn this, though.”

Although the instructors left, the kids only sat on the ground for a short while and then soon got up to clean the equipment that they had used… it seemed that it was part of their daily routine and they didn't have all the time in the world to do that.

The soles of Gaius' feet were burning like hell, but he still went to follow the others and help them. Soon he realized that they were looking at him with weird eyes, and they didn't want to talk with him and he was fine with that… he couldn't see the point of making friends with kids, it would be more useful to spend his time focusing on his goal. He was used to being the outcast of the class, he didn't spend his high school years mostly alone for no reason, and he forged his spirit in the flames of loneliness. Gaius felt that he was becoming the king of depression just like his father.

After they finished the cleaning, the students headed to some simple rooms that could be found inside the buildings. Most of them had enough space for four kids at the same time, but it didn't take long for Gaius to find an empty one for himself… there weren't many things inside it though, aside from the beds and some tables. The life of a soldier in training was pretty simple…

After he unpacked his things, Gaius heard the sound of the kids in the other rooms leaving and when he went to check, he saw them walking around with some towels. Gaius was hungry, but it looked like they had to clean themselves first and they also had a time limit since only the kids from the southern area of the dorms left their rooms. Ten minutes later, they returned and then the kids of the eastern area went… Gaius was in the Western area, so it looked like he and the other first years would go last.

Half an hour later, Gaius followed the first years and then found a massive bath in the basement of the building. It looked like a Japanese public bath and the kids were following the same procedures as one. First, they stored their clothes and then covered their lower halves with a towel before cleaning themselves with some water. After that, they enjoyed five minutes in a large pool of warm water.

"Ew… a sausage fest," Gaius thought and laughed in his head.

Still, Gaius soon forgot about that and wondered if it was a coincidence that they had such a thing and followed the same procedures of a Japanese public bath. Maybe he was thinking too much thanks to his geek knowledge. Nevertheless, soon everyone had to leave, even though it was obvious that they wanted to stay for much longer.

"No one is willing to talk with me, so I guess I need to learn by observing them," Gaius thought.

After returning to his room and changing his clothes, Gaius heard a lot more footsteps after a while and he saw everyone walking together. As expected, at dinner time, they all had to go at once… it looked like they would have some free time after that, but everyone looked too exhausted to do anything.

Regardless, the refectory of the place was on the last floor of the building and there were a bunch of large tables and seats for everyone. Gaius followed the first years since it was clear that the students were divided into their years, but he soon sat on the far end of a table that had fewer kids. After ten minutes, some people who worked in the kitchen of the place brought some large pots filled with stew for each table, they also brought some large pieces of bread too… it smelled good. The people were raising soldiers there, so the food had to be good as well to make them gain some muscles.

Although the stew and the bread were served, not a single person began to fill their bowls. They only did it after the instructors arrived and began to serve themselves… Gaius knew that discipline and chain of command were everything for the army, but it was quite annoying that they would go that far when he was starving… he didn't eat lunch that day!

Gaius was quite hungry, so he really filled his belly, but when he looked to the side, he noticed that the younger kids weren’t that hungry… Too much exercise sometimes messes with their motivation to eat and it looked like those kids hadn't gotten used to the daily life in the training grounds yet. Maybe not all of them were handpicked by Kennil and the other instructors and they were just granted that position since their fathers were in the army... it was hard to say.

“While that isn’t my intention, I will have to make them look bad… if things happen well, they will feel a bit motivated to improve themselves, though,” Gaius thought while he was filling his second bowl of stew. "This sounds like a poor excuse, but what can I do? I am not going to starve for strangers, sorry kiddos."