A few hours after the questions restarted, First Lieutenant Zyn gave them a tour of the fortress while explaining how some things worked. Most of the military rules explained why and how things worked and the consequences of disobedience, but it still left a lot of daily routines vague. For instance, Shen knew he couldn't loiter in a "shaft," but not what it was.
He soon got his answer. Huge vertical shafts were spread all over the fortress, allowing one to go any floor. Their style broke from the monotony of the official Classical-like look; instead, they were monstrosities of pure stainless steel. Any warrior who couldn't fly could get to any floor using the countless square voice-activated enchanted platforms.
Theoretically, even F-ranks should serve on the front lines every two and a half Earth years. However, they were just too weak to be useful. Whoever came was made errand boys or guides stationed everywhere to help lost people get where they wanted. They were black uniforms with a big white "Guide" word written on their chest and back.
E-ranks were at least trained in combat. They also received a brief Path training in the hopes they could progress further.
"It's brief and almost useless, however," Lieutenant Specialist Karlov added.
"Better than what I could get home," First Lieutenant Zyn countered.
Karlov shrugged. "Anything is better than nothing."
"Exactly," Zyn replied, and Karlov let go.
Shen took notice of the exchange. Whatever training the military could provide was also likely better than what Earth had had until now. He would do his best for humanity, but building on some foundations was faster than starting from scratch. Unless the foundations were rotten, of course. He would need to check on it.
The fortress was a maze with different areas. It was hard not to know where you were because there were signs every few hundred yards, but you could get lost—hence the F-rank guides. There were few big public rooms, all of which were staging areas for the military.
Some assembly areas and shafts were wide enough for millions of people to stand side by side, but it was forbidden to loiter in either. The enclosed social gathering areas Zyn showed could each accommodate a few thousand people at most. The military was serious about no politics, and it partly accomplished it by making big gatherings a chore or outright illegal, depending on where they were held.
What surprised Shen the most was learning that the fortress was mobile. The city-wide metal cubes could be turned into small cubes by their Fortress Commander, and no one inside would be harmed. Unfortunately, no one could enter or leave it when it was miniaturized.
"The defenses are good enough," was all Zyn said when Shen asked which defenses the fortress had.
He also learned he wasn't in La'sing-2, though Zyn was posted there, and they would leave once basic course was complete. The mobile fortresses he had seen outside were all stationed in La'sing-0, also called Central. The recruits that had chosen to come to the La'sing Region—also called La'Sing Chain of Command or La'sing Front Lines—would be trained there and deployed later.
The vast majority of conscripts had been allowed to go to their chosen location. Some, however, had been relocated at the military's convenience. Shen and the six others—five, now—were part of those who got to go where they chose. Having favors helped, as it made them look more reliable.
More interestingly, Shen finally learned how exactly the Void tried to consume Reality. Liya had been unhelpful, saying she would learn about it when he needed to.
Central protected a Reality Node. Every universe had 33 Reality Nodes, and each Node had 33 Supporting Nodes, also called Subnodes. Nodes were the supporting pillars of Reality, and Subnodes protected them. One couldn't get to the Node without controlling at least 17 Subnodes.
Controlling a Node allowed someone to have great influence over a chuck of its universe. From how Zyn explained it, it was like a weak domain covering a colossal region of space. The controller could make some Laws less or more potent to a point, which had all kinds of implications.
If a single force controlled 17 Nodes and was strong enough, it could change the Laws in the entire universe. That's how the Alliance forced its Laws of Life into its multiverse with over 30 universes.
"How's that different from pushing a Realization into a set of Laws?" Shen asked as they walked through yet another wide corridor.
Zyn had allowed them to put forth any question that brushed on the subjects he talked about without asking for permission.
"That's not something for a C-rank to worry about," the First Lieutenant replied. Just because the recruits could ask things didn't mean he would answer what they wanted to hear.
Karlov agreed with the First Lieutenant. "Instead, you should worry about saying something like 'set of Laws.' It makes you look like an idiot." That explained the strange looks the three cultivators and a Guardian gave Shen. "Call it Axioms." Now, the cultivators looked weird at Karlov. "As in the Axioms of Fire, from which stems the Laws of Fire."
"Did you mean Dao, Lieutenant Specialist?" Erin, the female cultivator, asked. They were speaking using Stangue, but she used a different language for "Dao," which the system translated as the closest word in the languages Shen knew.
Shen had never heard about the Dao before researching modern Earth's cultivator novels, then glimpsing at the religion and philosophy behind it. It was an interesting concept, very similar to a Path in some aspects but also very different in many others. He supposed calling the set of Laws of Fire the Dao of Fire would make sense.
"Only Stangue in the front lines, unless allowed otherwise by a Captain or during an urgency that you would report faster using a language you're more comfortable with," Karlov reprimanded. However, he sounded more bored than admonishing as he pointed out the rules. "If you want to understand Axioms as Dao, that's your business."
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That should close the subject, but Shen wondered why Liya had never told him the foreign "Axiom" word to use instead of "set of Laws." He bet on military secrets. The rules stated such secrets existed and that people were formally informed about what was a secret and not to spread them.
"Is that nomenclature a military secret, Lieutenant Specialist?" he asked.
"No," the First Lieutenant replied instead.
"It depends," the Lieutenant Specialist corrected, unbothered by how it made Zyn look ignorant. "Some secrets aren't black or white, but a range of how much information you can share. Let's suppose someone developed elite training that borders on being illegal, but not quite. They would likely leave some things out that they might consider irrelevant, but that, if shared, would cross the boundaries and make everything else illegal."
Shen got the hint about them knowing about Liya's training, but one thing still didn't make sense. "Why keep good training secret at all, Lieutenant Specialist? We must all serve from time to time. We'll learn about it anyway."
"Only special forces get training on particular methods and techniques that are illegal to share and use against anything but officially sanctioned external threats. Said skills become irrelevant at peak B-rank and higher, except against the Void, which is why we teach them at all. At lower ranks, they make anyone vastly more effective at killing. Guardians already have heightened combat predisposition and cause enough internal damage to the Alliance without being taught techniques meant for the enemies of Reality itself."
In Earth's terms, Karlov was telling Shen that not everyone should know how to build an atomic bomb when they had access to the resources to build it. A few should, so they could use it against existential threats. However, no one wanted everyone walking around with the power to destroy cities, even if they could already destroy a few neighborhoods by themselves. And whoever already had the bombs were forbidden from using them domestically.
That sounded reasonable enough, all things considered.
Shen could tell Staff Lieutenant Uya hadn't been trained on such elite techniques because he believed his training was much better than hers. Yet, Liya had only shared what she could, and Shen already stood above every C-rank without a mastered Law he had found. If there was more to learn, it might let him defeat Uya without first mastering a Law. That was huge.
Maintaining social order and the status quo was likely also a reason to keep such things secret. That was especially true if, indeed, such techniques were useless for and against peak B-ranks. No reason to make weaklings more lethal when B-ranks were the actual protectors of Reality anyway. It would only give those B-ranks headaches.
Which led Shen to another question. "Why do C-ranks and lower serve at the front lines at all, First Lieutenant? Can't a B-rank's domain crush every Void Spawn up to their rank?"
"Five main reasons. One, fighting on the front lines might affect how far attacks reach, even domains. Two, if our strongest fighters die, yet our weak ones miraculously rank up, we want them to know how to fight. Three, the Alliance's enemies aren't limited to the Void, and strong enemy fighters might lock up our best while the weaker forces fight. Four, fighting for one's life is a good way of fomenting rank progress, and the whole Alliance wins when our warriors grow stronger. Five, the Void sends weaker troops first through new Tears when they happen in civilian territory, and we want people prepared to protect the area until strong backup arrives."
Shen had guessed as much, but it was good to get confirmation. "A Tear, First Lieutenant? Like a Tear in Reality?" He knew they could be artificially created by a Guardian or cultivator. They could also randomly appear because the Void didn't like to obey rules like "only invade through Nodes."
"Yes," Zyn replied, quickly adding, "But enough of that. You'll be briefed on most of it later. As I was saying, 33 Nodes per universe, 33 Subnodes per Node, acting as protective buffers."
He went on to explain that Subnodes were located in a special kind of spacetime continuum called subnode space that stood between Reality and the Void—between existence and nothingness. Likewise, Nodes could be found in node space, which was also in that boundary but closely tied to Reality and supporting big chunks of the universe.
If the Void took control of a Node, it didn't just affect the local Laws. Instead, the part of Reality linked to that Node simply ceased to exist. Billions of billions of galaxies just disappeared. If any planet had defenses or warriors that could protect them from the Void for a period—usually a short one—they could try to get back to Reality in another place, but it was seldom accomplished and almost always only by A-ranks.
And if the Void took over half the Nodes of a universe, the universe was instantly consumed.
That sounded like a very convenient reason to have people fight to their deaths to protect a Node. If any random B-rank, or worse, C-rank, could flee after losing a Node, there would be almost no incentive to do their best until the end. The Alliance would just crumble.
Paradoxically, the Alliance still being around told him that the Nodes thing was likely true, at least partially. Anyone strong enough could unveil such a simple lie. They wouldn't risk their lives for people they didn't care about, and the Alliance would be long gone.
The rest of the two Standard days until the others arrived were spent like that, learning how everything worked, with a few moments to socialize among themselves. The recruits were kept guarded against interacting with anyone else, though.
Shen worked his differences with Luthdel, who understood the cultivator would rather not attract attention. Attention, as the sorry high elf had learned, came with its own dangers if you weren't strong enough to protect yourself. Luthdel promised to behave.
The Guardians were nice conversationalists but were cautious about Shen. He had nothing he wanted from them, though, except to train his social skills.
The three cultivators and the Association behind them made Shen curious, but they refused to engage in more than polite superficial conversation. Whenever he asked something about cultivation, techniques, or the Association's inner workings, they found an excuse not to talk to him.
The muscular Kav had given subtle hints that he might speak with Shen privately, but they didn't get such an opportunity.
At the end of the second day, Zyn got them to stand once more in front of the mobile fortress. This time, the Recruits had their backs against the fortress, just like Zyn and Karlov. Zyn stood in the center, Karlov was a little behind and to the side, then came the six other C-ranks.
"Congratulations on doing the bare minimum," the First Lieutenant said. "You have just been promoted."
| Military Promotion: Recruit → Junior Lieutenant
The promotion was par for the course. Everyone below A-rank started as Recruits in the military, then became Junior "Something" upon completing the introductory training. C-ranks became Lieutenants. Basic course was supposed to come next, and they would be promoted again afterward, which meant crossing the "Junior" from their designation.
"We're short on people," Zyn continued. "So, before basic training, each of you must pick 300 C-ranks and 3,000 D-ranks and teach them everything I taught you. You have one Standard day."
The task was obviously also a test. If the military were that short-handed, they would need to promote some newcomers to leadership positions. This was the easiest and quickest way to mark some people for closer observation, and those with system favors had gotten an edge over the other C-ranks.
Not even a second later, 19,800 teleportation lights filled the empty area. 1,800 turned into C-ranks, and the rest into D-ranks, all humanoids, standing in rows. The C-ranks came first, then the D-ranks.
Precisely 300 C-ranks were Ethereal Harmonization human cultivators with at least one mastered Law. Exactly 3,000 D-ranks were also human, of which 52 were mana-wielding Guardians and 2,948 were Fate Origin cultivators.
All 3,248 human cultivators immediately looked around until they found Shen. Then, they cupped their hands and bowed their heads. "We greet Field Commander Shen."