George still hadn't woken up after three days. The healer scanned him and reported that it was his mind healing.
“It's not that simple, isn't it? Your face is concerned.”
“No it's not. I say it's his mind healing, but not in the normal way. You say he experienced a severe trauma?”
“His entire village was destroyed by bandits. Though I don't think they were normal bandits.”
“I'm a healer, I don't care about bandits. Your job, not mine. The boy is young. The mind doesn't fully mature until the age of twenty one. Before then, it was fragile. The boy is only sixteen, a very vulnerable time. He is matured enough to understand everything that happened, but not mature enough to deal with it. This damages the mind. This can cause insanity, irrational rage, lack of emotions, and such. To prevent this, the mind will shut down to heal. Allow itself to deal with it without the interference of other thoughts and emotions.
This is normally healthy and important. Normally, people want to forget the trauma. So the mind puts a… a lock on the memories. The victim still knows about the trauma, but the details are smudged. Normally, the boy would know that his father died heroically, but wouldn't remember the dozens of weapons stuck in the body or the lifeless gaze.”
“You keep saying normally. What is happening to the boy?” Asked the Captain
“Like I said, normally, people want to forget the trauma. This boy doesn't. He is subconsciously refusing to let go of those memories.”
“But you said his mind is healing.”
“It is, just not in the way it's supposed to. Normally, people become numbed to other people. Their emotions are closed off and you really have to fight to get them to open up. Over time, they recover and become perfectly normal. This boy isn't allowing that. I’ve never seen it before. It certainly isn't unheard of in the medical field, but it is very rare. When the boy wakes up, he will be different. I have the training to see ‘how’ he changed, but I am unable to steer the mind in the most healthy way. I could try, but I wouldn't have the faith that I wouldn't damage something.”
“So we can't do anything to help him until he wakes up?”
“Correct. On the high note, his physical injuries are healing wonderfully. No issues at all. When he wakes up, he should be near perfect health.”
“Well at least there's that.”
“As his doctor, I must ask. What is your interest in the boy?” The woman stared at the captain, not letting him avoid the question.
“I was assigned to evacuate his village and transport them here. Their kingdom is being ravaged by bandits and monsters. I wasn't fast enough. The worst part? His wasn't the only village burned to the ground. He is simply the only survivor of the most recent attacks. Eight villages, seven hundred sixty nine people. A single survivor out of nearly eight hundred people. I was supposed to protect them.”
“I’d say that your interest is just, if I didn't know you. What is your interest in him?”
The captain smirked, “It was the fire in his eyes. I’ll support him up until he joins the military, after that, he’s on his own. I'm interested in what he’ll accomplish. He’ll likely die in his first battle as most do, but on the off chance that he survives. Just what will he do?”
“So your interest in him is because you're bored?”
The captain spun around and grumbled as he walked away, “Yeah sure, cram everything I just said into ‘i'm bored’.”
The healer smirked as she turned her attention back to her patient.
*****
George woke up sometime in the middle of the night.
He leaned forward, ignoring the pain in his side. He saw that he was still in the hospital. Beds lined both walls and filled the long room. Patients, in various degrees of health, laid on many of the beds. Doctors and nurses traveled between each of the patients. While most of the patients were asleep, they medical staff regularly checked on them.
No one seemed to notice that George was awake, and he was fine with that. He wanted to meditate. Following the same steps as last time, he slowly worked his way through all the events. He didn't know how long he sat there, but when he opened his eyes he saw two things. One, that the sun was starting to rise through the window. Two, that one of the doctors was sitting in a chair watching him.
“Yes?” He questioned
“Intriguing. Were you meditating?”
“Yes.”
“It is very effective. Any who, my name is Gloria and I am your doctor.”
“When can I join the military?”
“Right to business! First, you must pass a physical to ensure you are physically capable. Secondly, you must pass a psych evaluation to ensure you aren't some type of lunatic. Only after passing both of these will you be escorted by Captain Meldin to the recruitment office. Luckily for you, these same tests that i’m going to make you take are the same tests that you’ll need to be recruited, so think of it as saving time.”
“Fine, let's get started.”
“Wonderful. Are you able to stand?”
“Of course.” George quickly left the bed.
The speed at which he stood confused Gloria. He should have been a tad weak from the lengthy sleep. She called over a few nurses. One of them brought over a curtain while the other closed the curtains on the sides of the bed. George looked around curiously, wondering what was happening.
“Strip.” Commanded Gloria
“What?”
“Take off your clothes, including undergarments. I need to check your wounds as well as your physical condition.”
“Could’ve just said that.”
George soon stood naked without shame.
Gloria was the epitome of professionalism. Within moments she had examined the entire body and written everything down. George put his clothes back on and sat down on the bed.
“You are a bit more fit than normal, but everything is in order. Your injuries are healing nicely.”
“I used to run through the forest with the other kids.”
“That explains it. Tell me, do you feel this?” Gloria asked as she placed a finger on the still healing stab wound through the bandages.
“Yes.”
“Yet no reaction. On a scale of one to ten; ten being the highest, how much does it hurt.”
“Six.”
“Hmmm. Thank you. Now then, onto the psyche evaluation.”
“How does this work? You ask a few questions and grade my responses?”
“No, all you have to do is sit still.”
Gloria raised her hand towards his head and whispered an incantation. Her hand glowed a pale blue for a moment, but no other reaction occurred.
“That it?”
“Yes. I will now review the data I collected just now. In the meantime, stay here and rest. I’ll be back in an hour or two.”
Gloria walked off. George continued to meditate, blocking out the rest of the world.
*****
Gloria sat down at her desk while she looked at her screen. She had long ago moved her settings around to make it much easier for her to look through such complicated information. She slowly read through all of it, scrolling down with her finger. Others preferred to control their Menus with their mind, but Gloria preferred a more physical approach. She gradually started to understand George completely.
“Joph, could you summon the Captain please?” She called out to her assistant.
“Captain Meldin?” He confirmed
“Yes, that idiot. I wish to speak with him.”
“Of course madam.” He ran off to fetch the military Captain.
It only took a few minutes as the training ground was near the hospital for obvious reasons.
“Seriously? You pulled me away from watching the new recruits struggling through their first PT. What is it?”
“It's about that boy you're so interested in.”
“Ohhh! Due tell!” He sounded like a child who was just given candy.
“Please sit.” The Captain did so.
“Physically, he’s fine. A little above average for his age, but absolutely nothing special.”
“So it's mental.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Either shut up and let me speak, or leave.”
The Captain nodded.
“Yes, it's all mental. I’ve already given you a general explanation, but it's so much more than that. After a thorough examination, I’ve found quite a few interesting things. First, Absolutely no block was naturally placed. This in itself was already noticed. Second, while he does feel pain, it doesn't seem to impair him in any way. No flinching, no increased heart rate, elevated blood rate, nothing. He feels it, but it's like it doesn't matter to him. Third, as I expected, his empathy is gone.
All of his emotions are in perfect working order, but those emotions simply don't extend to others, at least most. His empathy is perfectly fine when it comes to those he claimed as family or loved ones. I'm forgoing numbers now because there are more than I care to label.
His protective tendencies have shot through the roof. This isn't surprising honestly. He was unable to protect those he loved, so his mind improved his protective instinct. Think of it like this, empathy takes a lot of energy. Now that his mind nearly completely ignores empathy, it has all this energy. It has put some of that energy into his protective side, boosting it.
The mind put the rest of that excess energy into his instinct. Instinct is simply what the body can sense. Sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste. That, itself, hasn't been touched. He doesn't have enhanced any senses outside of the ordinary. But his instinct will now be a bigger presence in his conscious mind. For most, it's a side effect. A feeling of wrongness that you'd have to focus to feel. For the boy, it’ll be like someone poking him in the side until he deals with it.
Like I said before, the mind at this age is at its most vulnerable. Very moldable. The boy seems to have subconsciously removed everything that he deemed unimportant to his goal, whatever it may be. Things like shame, gone. A boy his age would normally be beat red at being naked in front of a beautiful woman like me.”
“Maybe because you're not. OW!”
“I swear, what does my sister see in you?”
“Honestly? Beats me, but I certainly love her.”
“Whatever. I know i'm beautiful, it's annoying to see all the stares all you men send my way.”
“Oh please, you enjoy it.”
“Sometimes. Anyway, for the boy, not only was there no blushing and trying to cover it, but there was absolutely no reaction down there. You were that age before. You know how impossible it is for that age group to control it.”
“Ugh! Don't remind me!”
“Yet no reaction. I believe that shame, nervousness, sexual attraction, and even some social norms were completely wiped from his mind. Thats not to say he isn't attracted to the opposite sex, he simply doesn't allow it to control him as normal people do. He honestly seemed confused about why we brought out curtains when we asked him to strip. He doesn't see the issue. I say some norms as he still says please, thank you, and similar gestures. Even my spell can't detail the exact norms that he doesn't possess anymore.”
“Using the same analogy you used, what did his mind do with all the energy that is no longer bogged down by those?”
“That is what worries me. I've dealt with new recruits after their first battle. They are mortified that they killed people. Felt their warm blood and saw their cold gazes. That's normal. We’re conditioned from a young age to believe that all sentient life is important. Going from that viewpoint to a killer shocks people. All that energy, a massive amount for a mind, all went into his killer instinct. He’ll feel nothing from killing people.”
“That's good isn't it? He wants to be a soldier.”
“Yes, but why does he want to be a soldier?”
“To get stronger.”
“And if he becomes a soldier he’ll be granted a system that makes him stronger that more death he causes. If he feels nothing from killing, and he wants to get stronger, what's stopping him from going on a slaughter spree?”
The Captain leaned back and placed his hand on his close shaven beard in thought.
“You say he doesn't feel anything from killing. No remorse, but also no joy. You also said that he is still aware of people’s emotions, he simply doesn't have the desire to act on it.”
“Correct.”
“Then does that mean he would run over a child if it got in his way?”
“No, there’s circumstances that would even make you run a child over, but if he was just going from point A to point B, he would just walk around. He still sees innocent people as people.”
“Then all I have to do is make sure he understands that he can only kill enemies. I’ll pay close attention to him while he’s training.”
“If I sign off on him, I want him to be re-evaluated a week after training starts, a week before training ends, and after his first battle should he survive.”
“You just want to study his mental condition.”
“Yes! And I can use the excuse of being a good doctor to get paid while doing it! Besides, you’re willing to risk him going on a killing spree if it’ll sate your curiosity.”
“So greedy, but I agree. I’ll have the entire trainee group re-evaluated to ‘study the mental changes from civilian to soldier’ and to not single him out.”
“Good. That's everything. To sum up, if he can quickly adapt, he’ll be a great soldier.”
“Now that that’s settled, the wife wanted to see if you were free for dinner tomorrow.”
“Yeah i’ll be there. Any special occasion?”
“Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!”
*****
George was eventually woken from his meditative state when he felt Gloria staring at him. He opened his eyes and confirmed the feeling.
“You meditate a lot.”
“I was taught that it could help me concentrate and calm myself.”
“Who taught you that?”
“My father.”
She hesitated for a moment before she quickly changed subjects. “You have been accepted as a recruit. Captain Meldin will escort you there. He will also be your trainer. Hey! Don't keep us waiting!”
Captain Meldin came out of the office at the end of the room and made his way over.
“Yeah yeah, I was thinking.”
“Well, I am now releasing him from the hospital, now take him and get out.”
“Ok, geez. Let's go lad.”
Captain Meldin started to leave and George was quick to follow. After a few moments, George started to ask questions.
“How long is training?”
“You’ll know in a few minutes. Luckily there was a new batch of recruits brought in today so you’ll join them.”
“So i'm guessing that the secretiveness is still in effect?”
“Correct, but in a few minutes, I can answer a lot of them.”
The training grounds were near the hospital and they soon reached it. It was large, yet fairly empty. There were three story buildings at the far end. That was strange as most buildings were too structurally weak to support more than two stories. George assumed that they were the barracks, offices, armory, kitchen, and such. At the left, there was a small forest of training dummies. To the right, a large obstacle course. The center was clear of anything.
“Come on boy.”
George followed the Captain into one of the buildings, but instead of going upstairs or a room on the first floor, they went downstairs. Two flights of stairs deep. It was damp and dark. At the end of the long hallway stood three steel doors. Outside the middle door stood two guards fully armored in plate and wielding short swords and shields. The Captain didn't even glance at the guards and walked through the middle door without hesitation. George followed after and found a sizable room filled with benches, other people, and nearly two dozen more guards similarly equipped. At the head of the room was an elevated podium, which Captain Meldin stood at.
“Let's begin, everyone please sit down.”
Everyone was already sitting, the request obviously directed towards George. The moment the Captain had spoken, the door behind George closed and locked. George sat down, but kept his attention on the guards and ready to move if needed. The Captain continued to speak.
“I’ll say this one last time everyone. If you aren't certain you want to be a Soldier for the Telronian Military speak up now, because there is no turning back if not.”
Most people fidgeted, but none moved to speak.
“Alright. Let's begin. Every Soldier of Telron is granted a tool that will help them survive, both in the daily life of a soldier and in battle. Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. These are the stats one can improve upon. Strength, how much you can lift and how hard you can hit. Intelligence, how much mana you have and how hard your spells hit. Wisdom, how fast you mana regenerates. Dexterity, how fast you can move and how quickly you react. Constitution, how much damage you can take and how long you can work. Charisma, how easily you can sway people’s opinions and how easily you can lead them.
This tool doesn't magically allow you access to these stats. Everyone has them. Everyone works on them. You’ve all heard that the more monsters you kill, the stronger you get. That is correct, but it applies to anything you kill, including people. When you kill something, you gain a small percentage of its soul, strengthening you. Normally, it automatically strengthens whatever stat played the biggest part in the death. For example, if you punched a man to death, it would increase your strength. Obviously, this is why mages are uncommon.
This tool instead prevents that small part of the soul from immediately being used, and instead stores it for future use. With this stored Soul Power, you can use it to strengthen whatever stat you decide. So, if you wanted, you could store enough Soul Power and use it on Intelligence, becoming a mage.”
That caught everyone’s attention. Mages were very rare and usually filthy rich.
“However, for me personally, that's not the best part. Usually people would wake up feeling like something has changed and would have to spend days trying to figure out what. This tool states exactly what changed in simple words. Which yes, means that you must all be taught how to read and write.”
A small part of George dreaded having to learn, but it was very quickly eliminated.
“We’ll go into more detail later, but today we will start simply. I asked before starting if anyone had any doubts of joining. That is because this information is something our enemies would kill for. As such, each of you must sign a Magical Contract. For those of you that don't know what that is, it is a written contract that is enchanted with magic. This specific contract prohibits any releasing of information about this tool to anyone who doesn't already have this tool. Very few people are allowed to release this information and even fewer are allowed to grant it. For those wondering, if you break the contract, knowingly or not, you will die. And you’ll die feeling as if a billion ants were eating you. Yes, it's cruel, but this information is what makes our military so powerful. I would gladly do the killing myself if it meant keeping it secret.
Now then, let's start the contracts. I have a stack of prepared contracts, one by one, each of you will come up and sign it. If you can't write your own name, then you can sign using your thumb. Let's begin.”
As he said, one by one, they were called on to sign. It was a slow process. When it was George’s turn he stood and approached the Captain.
“So this is what's so secretive?”
“Yep.”
“How can I be sure that this contract does what you say it does? For all I know, by signing, I’ll be a slave.”
“The Contract is void if the information given about it, verbal or written, is false. If I lied about it, it wouldn't work.”
“Of course, I couldn't be sure of that as I can't read. However, if it isn't what you claim it to be, I swear to whatever God you worship, that I will break free and get revenge.”
The captain smirked, “Trust me. I’ve seen your hate, and I believe you when you say that. Thumb please.”
George signed with his thumbprint and started walking back to his seat. On the short journey, he heard the recruit that had taken his place complain loudly.
“I refuse to sign this shit! You can't make me! I demand to be let out of this room!”
“You don't have a choice. You agreed to this after staying silent when I asked if anyone didn't want to be a Telron Soldier.”
“Do you know who I am?” The man brat shouted.
“Are you going to sign or not?” The captain calmly asked.
“Of course not!”
The Captain nodded to a guard. Without any hesitation and with deadly efficiency, the guard drew her sword and quickly skewered the brat. Another guard came up behind the brat and grabbed the corpse. The female guard withdrew her blade, cleaned it by whipping it, and sheathed it. The Male Guard took the body to a small side room, broom closet really. They both returned to their posts, and acted as if nothing had happened. All within seconds, the Recruits were down by one.
“I believe I gave plenty of chances. Three while you were signing up and one more before you started. You have crossed the point of no return.”
The Captain’s emotionless stare bore into everyone’s hearts. George crooked his head in curiosity. The brat seemed to be from a powerful family. If they were willing to go that far, then what was in store for George? He was excited to find out.