Chapter 167 Gathering
More than a thousand young Originals were gathered in front of a large podium.
Everyone looked up to the podium, where they could see more than a dozen Instructors followed by a middle-aged man with brown hair, broad shoulders, and a fierce expression, who was standing in front of them.
Dominance radiated from his body language and eyes, preventing anyone from looking straight into the Commander's eyes, while his aura was even stronger, and was weighing down on the shoulders of the young Originals.
The weakest Originals were unable to move, and could barely exert their entire strength and willpower to prevent collapsing on the ground.
Desperation could be seen in their faces but nobody did anything to help them, even if the participants around the affected Originals noticed their struggle.
Everyone was on their own, and each of them was trying to endure the pressure that weighed on them with all their might and not fail right after stepping in front of the Commander.
"Is everyone present?"
One of the Instructors asked his colleagues, feeling that something was amiss.
There were still ten minutes left before the gathering was supposed to start which was why nobody had said anything until now.
However, for young Originals to appear later than their superiors was already more than enough for a few Instructors to frown deeply.
The Instructors were popular and powerful Originals, who had better things to do than to wait for some pseudo-prodigious talents, who believed that the world would bend for them with a snap of their fingers.
As such, it was only obvious for most instructors to feel frustrated, even more so in light of the recent incidents.
They were not even able to enter the ancient ruins dungeon portal because their strength was too high.
This was the biggest problem most instructors had. It was not difficult to determine that the runic armaments were powerful, extremely valuable for mankind, and rather cheap to produce as long as one gained the necessary knowledge.
From the instructor's point of view, they could only idle around and wait for the young Originals and the junior Soldiers they had sent out to fulfill a few tasks to purchase the goods they got their hands on within the ancient ruins dungeon.
Instead of being able to procure the production formula of runic armaments, they would have to purchase them for an exorbitant price from their students first and conduct thorough research if they wanted to create runic armaments by themselves.
Being in possession of a single runic armament formula wouldn't be enough either. It was necessary to know far more than just the production formula to create a runic armament because there were way too many complicated steps one had to pay attention to.
Even the tiniest mistake would render the runic armament as scrap, meaning that one would have to purchase several manuals detailing the creation process of runic armaments.
Just thinking about the price they would have to pay before they could start learning about runic armaments caused the stingy hearts of the instructors to bleed profusely.
Thus, the more time passed the more frustrated many instructors became, which was clearly visible based on their body language.
"5 minutes…there are still a few Originals missing," Kassandra suddenly announced, as a glint of worry flashed through her eyes.
She couldn't see, let alone sense Bella yet. Thus, it was only obvious for Instructor Kassandra to be bothered as her one and only disciple was still not there.
'She is definitely not dead…so why is she running late?'
Instructor Kassandra wondered about Bella's whereabouts while looking at a seemingly ordinary piece of paper before calming down.
As long as Bella Morningstar was not dead, everything would be fine. It would be a little bit annoying if Bella were to arrive too late but that was still fine as long as Bella would arrive, in the first place!
Nervously biting into her lower lip, Kassandra's gaze swept over the group of young Originals once again.
Rather than her expectations of finding around one thousand Originals the number of present participants was much closer to 5000. But in Kassandra's opinion that was neither too high nor too low.
In fact, it was a low number considering that the Teradan military camp had yet to start. However, an entire month had already passed since the young Originals had entered the nameless island.
Many young Originals had been injured severely, which was why they had been sent back to heal and recover from their injuries. Meanwhile, there were also quite a few young Originals, who had succumbed to this year's dangers.
While only a handful of Originals died in the first trial of the Teradan military camp, which had been to find the camp, to begin with, far more Originals disappeared or were lost in the ancient ruins dungeon.
There had been many reports from junior Soldiers and other young Originals speaking about the death of over 2000 young Originals.
This number was far higher than expected, proving that the dangers of the towers' and palace's traps were highly lethal.
What they found inside the ancient ruin's dungeon was not only numerous beast tribes but something even worse; a human's greed.
Even if it was something frowned upon, some Originals had mercilessly killed each other to get their hands on the treasures others had plundered.
Murder was officially forbidden but as long as one had enough strength or the capabilities to hide their sinful deeds, it was not as if the government could do anything against homicide.
It was not as if it was the first time that humans had killed one another to procure more treasures.
Inside dungeons, the difference between staying alive and succumbing to death was dependent on one's capabilities, nothing else….
'We have not had that many deaths for decades….' The Commander was not also frowning when looking at the rather small number of young Originals.
Officially the death rate in the Teradan military camp was extremely high, but unofficially, less than 10% of the camp's participants truly died.
Rather, it was closer to 5% at most!
The official death rate was just a means to scare young Originals, and to give them a teaser of what awaited them before the military camp would start; they wanted to test the determination of their participants and their ability to cope with the pressure of death looming over them.
There were more reasons to announce an exorbitantly high death rate during the few months in which the Teradan military camp was held but that was not important anymore.
Too many things had happened in the last few weeks and things were bound to get even more bothersome.
That was what the Commander believed, which was why he could only let out a sigh.
"Yes! They're coming!"
The voice of a young man suddenly resounded behind the Commander, who had wanted to start with his short speech. However, upon realizing who the voice belonged to, the Commander of the Teradan military camp felt like throwing a glance to his back.
As expected, he saw Junades, the youngest Original ever appointed to become an Instructor for any military camp, who had just shouted.
And as if that was not enough, Junades was appointed to be an Instructor for the most dangerous military camp with a stringent selection criterion- the Teradan military camp!
Seeing the tension on Junades' face being slowly washed away, the Commander turned his head to look in the same direction as the youngest Instructor.
Several Instructors followed suit, including Kassandra, who was also sighing in relief.
Bella finally arrived at the gathering, with Nial and Mathias by her side.
However, what caused many instructors to frown was that all of them were followed by a few junior Soldiers, carrying an unconscious Original each.
Meanwhile, Nial and his friends were also carrying one Original each.
Lying unconscious in Nial's hand was no other than Yves…the young Original, who was able to manipulate plants and boost their growth at an otherworldly high speed!
Yves Ygdra, one of the few promising young Originals, the one, who had been nurtured since the age of three, trained in numerous martial art techniques and techniques that allowed him to absorb mana faster than anyone else, was lying in Nial's arms, unconscious and full of bruises.
Meanwhile, Nial was merely smiling as he stopped in the last row of young Originals.
He ignored all the attention on him and those around him. Rather, Nial looked at the junior Soldiers before he gave out an order,
"You can lay them down! Thanks for helping us to bring them over."
**
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