_ _ _ _ _ _ _

His heart set on its goal, he began his work. Back in his room he opened the system shop and purchased a Grade D gene enhancer. The price was 50,000 CP, five times the price of the Grade E enhancer. After the purchase a similar injection appeared in his inventory, with no notable differences to the previous one. Without hesitation, Add injected the liquid into his arm and a familiar pain coursed through his body, but this time it was slightly less compared to the first time he had taken the gene enhancer. His consciousness gradually left him, while the enhancer did its job slowly modifying his body on the cellular level. In the morning, Add woke up and found himself similarly covered in sweat and grime, while his stomach protested of hunger. Ignoring all this, he opened his stats to see what exactly had changed:

_ _ _ _ _

STATUS

Name : Add (Adolf  Kaiser Weismann)

Race : Human

Credit Points : 395,000

ATTRIBUTES :

Vitality :  10 -> 18

Strength :  10 -> 20

Agility :  10 -> 15

Dexterity : 8 -> 12

Defence: 8 -> 15

Intelligence : 6 -> 7

Wisdom : 5 -> 6

Stamina : 8 -> 12

Charm : 5 -> 6

Magic Aptitude : Enhancement Magic (Low)

_ _ _ _ _

His strength stat had increased the most this time, while the others increased substantially. The intelligent and wisdom stats had increased the least which was a bit of a shame. He also noticed that although his stats had increased, the increase this time was not as much compared to the previous increment. In doubt, he asked the system for clarification. Its reply was somewhat expected, yet still kind of a letdown;

[The Gene Enhancers work by increasing the genetic potential of the host and purifying the genetic material. The viral machines present in the enhancer delete unnecessary portions of genetic material while inserting new and beneficial parts in their place. This leads to overall increase in the body’s physical capabilities.]

[Initially the host’s body was underdeveloped, and hence the stats were lower than average. As such after the first enhancer did its work, the effect appeared greater than it actually was. When the second enhancer was applied, it worked as it was designed to and the increase was more in line with the general trend.]

Add sighed, it was clear that he would have to keep taking the Gene Enhancers one grade at a time to accumulate their effects. Also, if one wanted to skip all the lower grades of Gene Enhancers and directly inject the Grade S enhancer, that was simply a death wish. Injecting a Grade S Enhancer in a normal body, or even a body with even the E grade enhancer applied, will lead to incontrollable mutations, which if not killing the person outright would turn him or her into a hideous mutant. Add definitely was not willing to become hulk, so he would do things step by step. He wanted to purchase the Grade C Gene Enhancer but it was priced at 500,000 CP! He would have to go collect more as soon as possible.

“This is such a pain….”

The young master was finally realising the joys of grinding. Despite this, he was in no hurry, everything would be done in due time.  After having his breakfast he decided to check the actual increase in strength. Going into the woods around the mansion, he found a large tree that had a hard bark and punched it with all the force he could muster. The poor tree shook a little in response, with many dead leaves and small twigs falling off while the area where the punch had landed had sunk about two centimetres inside. On the other side, his hand which normally should have broken was totally intact aside from a few scratches and a slight numbness. This clearly demonstrated that his strength was much greater than before. If a normal person punched this hard, they would probably not leave any mark on the tree but break a few bones instead. He then proceeded to test his stamina, his reflexes and anything else he could think of.

After hours of testing his abilities, he concluded that the increase in his physical abilities was rounded; rather than increasing his strength sharply the performance of the body increased gradually as a whole. it was as if he was evolving, not over the course of millions of years, but within hours. The gene enhancer really lived up to its name. He could only guess what the effects of the higher grades will be. For now however, he was content with the progress and he increased his own training regimen as well to keep up with the increase in his ability.

For the next few days, aside from physical and sword training he usually stayed in his study, not going to hunt any monsters. Occasionally he also went to inspect the training of the cadets which had been left to Kent. At his orders, Walter the treasurer also began collection information on the various situations and important groups and people in Rigel. Aside from that, the townsfolk often saw the young lord out on the streets with no guards whatsoever, leisurely walking around. What they did not know was that he was observing every notable detail, piecing together the various reports Walter was sending him. Of these what raised his concern was the poor state of law management in his territory. The 500 man strong militia was barely enough to watch over the town and the surrounding villages were only guarded by small groups of one or two dozen men. These were always at risk of dangers from both monsters and bandits that plagued the area. The militia itself had gotten corrupt and acted more like the lackeys of Dave the captain. It was clear that Dave had to be removed, but it was not the right time yet.

The other important thing of concern was the complete dependence of the traders and small businessmen on the merchants for any income to the territory. Due to the remote location of Rigel, only a few merchants were willing to come here to trade, and they had formed a sort of monopoly, buying the local produce at cheap prices, while they made large profits selling them elsewhere. The small traders of Rigel could not go to other large cities to trade by themselves as they were too far and the path was filled with danger. Only wealthy merchants who travelled in large convoys and could hire strong mercenaries to protect them could travel safely. This severely decreased the earnings of the people. But that was not it. Many important commodities like salt, yarn etc. and almost all of the currency came through these traders., making their hold on the economy even stronger. Add noted all these things in his mind. Soon he would have to take action, for if the Weismann territory was to prosper, it had to completely become master of its own economy.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Finally the month ended, and Add decided that the cadets had enough of the basic physical training. By now the 100 cadets had adapted into the schedule he had set for them, and almost all of them could now follow the clock. It was time for the real training to begin. Early morning of the first day of the new month the cadets assembled at the field for their every day training, but instead of Kent who was in charge of training them, they met the young master, no, the instructor again. His face was cold and expressionless as usual as he gazed at the cadets before him. They were still a bit sloppy but not beyond hope. The 100 men standing in 10 lines, silently, not speaking a word felt quite nostalgic to Add. After they had completed their routine run, he gathered them together.

“Cadets, today I have both good news and bad news for you people…” he began,

“The Bad news is, your physical training ends today. Congratulations you have completed it.”

The cadets were clueless. ‘Why would that be bad news ?’ they all thought. If anything it was the completely good news. They would be spared of exercising all day, and many of them could not help but smile. But the instructor had yet to finish.

“The Good news is that the actual training starts now! What you all had been doing till now cannot even be considered as warm up! It can only be called bringing you into shape! From now onwards, for the coming 6 months, you will be experiencing what real training is! So prepare yourselves!”

The faces of 100 men fell. They appeared to have suffered a great impact. For the past 20 or so days they had been toiling every day, thinking that  it could not get any worse, but today the instructor dropped a bomb, shaking them all up. One of them opened his mouth wanting to say something.

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“Instructor this---“

He was met with an icy look from the young instructor.

“You have any problems cadet ?”

Looking at his face and remembering how ruthless this instructor was, the cadet immediately shook his head and returned to silence. Not one man dared speak again. Satisfied at their response, Add continued;

“All of you, pack your things and meet me here by noon. This place is too small to continue further training. We will have to change places. At noon I want you all here, did I make myself clear ?”

“““Yes Instructor!”””

“Then you all are dismissed!”

After being dismissed, the cadets quickly scrabbled to pack their things. They wondered where the instructor wanted to take them to, and what did he mean by actual training. But one thing that all of them understood was that the Instructor really hated anyone being late, and it was not at all wise to anger him, or else the consequences would be really harsh.

“Well then, I should begin preparing as well, after all now begins the difficult part..”

Murmured the Young Master as he watched the cadets disperse, while Kent who had been informed of some details regarding what was to come, watched them with a slightly worried expression on his face. Once the cadets had packed their luggage and arrived at the gates of the Weismann estate as instructed, they found some horse carts waiting for them. Add had hired as many carts as he could, but even then it would take two rounds of travelling to carry 100 people to their destination which was over ten kilometres away in the north of Rigel. This place was chosen by Add a few days ago while he was exploring the area, for a potential place to build a training camp.

The place he finally chose, was a sparsely forested patch of land on the banks of a river name by the locals as Lucent. It flowed down from the ice caps of the great dividing ranges and was  quite large, at over 100 metres wide. The area was quite  wide and flat, and extended for around a kilometre till the sparse trees gave way to thicker forests. This place was a good spot to build the training camp he wanted, as I was far from the town and had no villages close by as well.

When the first group arrived, they were joined by a small group of carpenters and masons. These people were also hired by Add, to serve a particular purpose. To build the training camp from scratch in this otherwise desolate place. When the cadets learnt that they would be staying here from now on, for an in definite period of time, their faces were very spectacular to see. Since there were no buildings to stay in, they were given tents, each able to hold 4 cramped individuals.

As a whole, these tents formed a temporary camp. Only the young master had a smaller tent all to himself. Now, one may wonder if it was alright to camp in the middle of a monster infested forest, but Add had already thought of that. He had thoroughly gathered information about the possible risks, and monsters lurking around this particular area, and the results were not too depressing. He figured that was long as the group was alert, they should have no problems staying away from harm, and this would also serve as a good training for the cadets.

The Young Master had also brought the cooks and helpers who prepared the meals for the cadets back in the estate, who had arrived alongside rations and food supplies early in the morning. After the last of the cadets had finally arrived, Add divided them into 4 groups and assigned specific works to each group. The first two groups were told to follow the carpenters and clear the area by cutting down the trees which would then be used to make the buildings in which the cadets would be staying during the course of their training.

The trees in this area were rather thin, but tall, and their trunks were mostly straight, making them ideal building materials. The second group was charged with setting up the tents, and after that, collect water and helping the cooks gather. And the last group joined the masons, to dig temporary latrines, a work not so pleasant, but important nonetheless. Add himself kept making round of the entire premises ensuring that everything was going smoothly while also looking out for any monsters that came too close.

By the time evening fell, many small oil lamps lit up in the camp. These lamps did not use, oil derived from petroleum, that commodity had yet to be discovered by the people of Iseria. The oil used for them came from the seeds of a plant called “Klifol”. The oil was too disguising to be used as cooking, but served quite well as fuel for lamps and wicks. The Klifol trees grew in large numbers in the hills, so the oil was quite plentiful and cheap fuel. The cadets had their dinner comprising of bread, and a soup of vegetable and meat, after which Add explained to them the plans for the coming few days.

The cadets would be helping the carpenters and masons who would be building the buildings of this ‘camp’ from the next day onwards. All in all there would be the main building which would serve as the residence and office of the Instructor, that is Add himself, 4 barracks for the cadets, 2 barracks for the other people like cooks and helpers, 1 mess hall coupled with a kitchen (for having the meals), A large hall for evening lectures, an armoury, 4 storage sheds, a horse shed and lastly two bathhouses and sanitation facilities in the form of deep pit latrines. There would also be a 4 metre tall wooden fence surrounding all these buildings. Aside from that there were also the various structures and obstacle courses he needed for training the cadets.

Completing all these would take a lot of time, so Add had asked Walter to gather 100 more people to work alongside the masons and carpenters to complete it. The pay offered was quite nice with 30 coppers for a day’s work. This was a big project, and the masons estimated that it would take at least 6 months to complete all of it. A total of around 100 gold coins would be spent on this work, which considering the economic situation of the Weismann house, was a severe hit to the treasury, but Add had to go on with it. To train a proper army, he needed a proper place as well. The work would start from the next day onwards, and the training of the cadets would go on alongside it. After discussing this with the cadets, he began dividing them into groups. The 100 cadets were divided into 5 groups of 20. Add called these groups, “platoons”. Next he appointed a Lieutenant who would in charge/leader of each platoon, and a sergeant, who would serve as the in charge/leader in absence of the Lieutenant. These ranks were given to those whom, Add felt were suitable for the post. The other cadets would be given ranks after the completion of their training. When addressing a ranked cadets, the others had to place a ‘comrade’ before the rank of the said person; that is, when addressing a Lieutenant, others would have to call him “comrade Lieutenant”.  All the while Kent, who had also followed them here, kept noting the names of the people who were being assigned the ranks.

After this was done, Add informed the cadets that they would have to keep watch every night from now on. 10 cadets, two from each platoon were to be awake in shifts to keep watch and perform minor duties which included patrolling their barracks area, keeping watch for any animals or monsters from entering the premises and watching out for any cadets attempting to leave the barracks area. Each pair of cadets on watch would wake the next pair of cadets from their respective platoons, at the end of their one-hour shift. The ones left without having to wake up would be the first to start the watch next night. He dubbed this duty as Night watch. He also strictly emphasised that the Lieutenants and sergeants would be held responsible for any mistakes their platoon makes, and hence they were to see that the cadets under them were working properly and maintaining the discipline they were expected to. Once all this was done, the cadets were dismissed and everyone retired to their tents to sleep for the night.

_ _ _ _ _

The next morning, the cadets gathered together in lines and awaited their orders. They now had a much larger field to train in and the fresh morning air was quite soothing.

“From Today onwards you will begin the actual military training! On that matter, let me be frank with you all. When you were recruited, I believe many or even most of you had thought that your job will be that of a guard at the Weismann Estate. However, as you may have felt, that was not the case. For those who still have doubts, let me be clear; what I am training you to be, are not just pathetic watchmen, who can swing a sword or two. No! you lot are being trained to be soldiers! Soldiers who will represent the military might of our territory! In the future, it will be upon you all to ensure that the people of Rigel, including your families, and all that live in our territory, are protected from all threats, be it human or monster.”

The cadets stood still, as Instructor Add spoke with his usual cold and flat tone. There were helpless smiles on many faces, and worry on others. These people may not be geniuses, but with all that had been happening ever since they joined; it did not take too much thought to understand that they were not going o be just guards. And now they realised that their suspicions were all true, they were being trained for the army after all.

“I must also remind you that whatever you think that you know of the army, it would be best if you forget it, throw it out of your head. From now on, whatever I teach you will be the only things you need to remember.”

“Then before we begin, I will ask all of you a question, and I hope you will answer me honestly. Do you understand ?”

“““YES SIR!!!”””

“Tell me, what do you think a soldier fights for ? You there, try answering me…”

He pointed at a cadet who appeared to be under 20 years of age. The man in question became tensed, and his darted all around trying to find an answer.

“Uh..that…for the loyalty to the lord he serves, sir ?”

He squeezed out such an answer after thinking for a while. But Add shook his head and asked another cadet.

“For the honour of a warrior ?”

That was also not the answer he was looking for, so he asked another cadet. But no matter what answer they gave, it did not satisfy the instructor. Finally, he stopped asking any more cadets and spoke himself.

“The question I asked you, is a common question, every soldier will ask in his life at least once. The answer to this question, itself is the very essence of being a soldier. Unfortunately, none of the answers you have given me can be called the perfect one. So let me explain. What a soldier fights for is not honour, it is not wealth, it is not loyalty to the lord as well or any such things. He fights to protect three things. The first is to protect his “motherland”, the land where he was born, from which the entirety of him came. The second, is to protect his parents who raised him, his wife and his children. And finally, he fights to protect his fellow soldier, who stands by him in life and death. That is the difference between a soldier and any other person. He lives his life not for himself, but to protect those which he holds dear!”

The cadets listened in silence, his words reverberating in their minds. Till now, they had never thought of such things. The human society of Iseria was a feudalistic one, where the nobility was supreme. All armies were loyal to the lords and kings which raised them. Loyalty to the country as a whole itself was very rare, if not absent. The common belief was that the nobles were most important, and loyalty to them was of utmost importance, but what Add told them, was effectively disregarding the common beliefs of the people.

“So I want you to remember this well! From today, till the moment you die, you must always remember what it is that you are fighting for. What it means to be a soldier! Your life is no longer yours, but it belongs to the “motherland”. Why? Because all that is you came from the motherland, and when you become dust, that dust will once again return to her! I don’t know if there are any gods, for I have not seen one ever. But I believe that if there is any god, then it’s the land which gave birth to me. I hope that those of you that also consider yourselves to be soldiers will fight to ensure that the “motherland” will be safe, that your families will be safe, and that the soldier beside you would be safe!”

The faces of the cadets were now solemn, and even the many workers who were working around them, felt the heaviness of the words he spoke.

“The life of a soldier is not easy, go become a farmer if you want a easy life. This life is one of pain, hardship and labour! Remember! You are the first and the last line between all the dangers and the ones that you wish to protect! In this line of work, some of you will not make it. We are only human, so it is inevitable that we will die. You cannot change that fact, but; what you can change is the way you meet your end. Whether you die as a helpless man trying to survive, or a soldier who has the courage to take a stand and fight till the end. Take pride in who you are, for not every man can become a soldier. That is your honour, that is your pride! Do you understand!?”

“““YES SIR!!!””” Their voices echoed, as the cadets responded with all their might.

“If you are to die, defending your motherland, worry not for your families, for as long as I am alive I ensure that every such man would be labelled a martyr, and their families will be the responsibility of the state. I will make sure that your families don’t sleep hungry if you are no longer there to provide for them, so I want you to be relieved in that aspect.”

Hearing this, the cadets shook. They had never heard of this before. All of the cadets were from the common folk, and the nobles rarely cared for their lives. Once a soldier died, his family would usually be left to fend for themselves. Generally, when soldiers died, only the families of distinguished soldiers got some reasonable sustenance from the state, while the families of regular soldiers were given a few silvers and then left to fend for themselves. The cadets never expected Add to promise to take care of their families after they died, but having trained under him till now, they felt that he was not lying.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _