Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening

BLARE!!!!

A loud alarm rang throughout the first-year dorms, the watches of the recruits lighting up to notify them of their daily drill.

«All recruits are to gather and assemble correctly at the third mountain top»

«You have 7 minutes to do so»

«Failure will resul…...»

Dismissing the notifications, Kieran opened his previously closed eyes. It was just 4:30 in the morning. Grabbing his jacket, he made his way out the room.

On his way to the mountain top, he met several first years also making their way to the same destination. By now, everyone had gotten accustomed to the morning drills and the slight tricks the instructors usually played like waiting ahead of the time, like today.

At first, it caught some of them off guard but they had adapted and were now constantly on the lookout for any surprises, even the time they were given to prepare had been gradually reducing.

Arriving at the mountain, the recruits arranged themselves and awaited the presence of the two instructors.

Today's objective was mountain climbing. They were assigned to one of the smaller mountains and had to pick up flags at several check points. They had a time limit of an hour and half.

"Alright, you can all start now."

The instructor Marcus said and they all started the race to complete the objective.

'Let's get this done and over with, I can't be late to work.'

Kieran thought to himself while running at a medium pace, his eyes as sharp as always.

Not long into the race, some recruits already had accidents and were brought in by the droids. Those at the forefront had no time to care about those involved in the accidents and in about an hour, the first batch of recruits arrived looking battered.

Kieran stepped forward to report the number of flags, he had gotten a total of seventy-two, the placing him at the top in this exercise, but he wasn't aware of this development.

The moment the dropped the flags, he left to his dorm to take a quick shower washing off all the dirt he had accumulated during the exercise, as for the small cuts he got from the sharp rocks while climbing the mountain, he didn't think he needed any help with that.

Along with the development in his senses and physical capabilities, his healing factor had also improved.

'The cuts should be gone in a few hours'

Not wasting anymore time, he made his way to the cafeteria and moved to the back, into the kitchen, ignoring the glaring look of the senior recruit at the counter.

Ever since the next day when he learned that Kieran had gotten the position of a cook, he always felt a deep sense of embarrassment and glared at Kieran anytime they came across each other.

Being coldly ignored didn't help it too.

Entering the kitchen, Kieran picked up an apron and a hair net while nodding at the other cooks present who also responded in kind. Apart from him and the head chef, there were only three other cooks; two young men and one woman which made them look understaffed but each of them was as capable and efficient as three average cooks combined.

They didn't need the extra numbers. The two guys went by the names of Logan and Charles and the lady was called Jane.

Over the past two days, they had accepted Kieran and helped him in any way they could to help him level up his skills unaffected with is plain and cold persona.

"Is he still in the pantry?"

Kieran asked Logan, referring to the head chef who always holed himself up in the pantry only appearing occasionally.

"Yeah, it's the usual."

Logan replied.

Walking over to the pantry, he entered without announcing his presence, fully turning on the lights which had been previously turned off leaving the place in darkness.

"Urgh!" Feeling the sudden brightness of the light sting his eyes, the head chef groaned.

"You should get out more"

Kieran said to the chef who had adjusted to the light.

"So says the socially awkward kid. That's hilarious."

The chef replied with a smile on his face

"Go help the others, since you're here, we'll be having a rush of people coming in. When that's over I'd have a lesson with you"

The chef ordered and Kieran complied, walking back into the kitchen to help the others prepare for the rush hour that was about to come.

Looking at the back of the young man, the chef smiled softly more assured of his decision.

The rush hour usually happened after the morning drills which was one of the reason Kieran didn't waste anytime and left immediately he completed the drill.

Very quickly the number of students entering the cafeteria had increased substantially and the kitchen quickly entered overdrive.

Cooking for around seventy first years and the other years who also came in waves around this time was no easy task.

Despite the huge amount of orders, he managed to pull though with a tired expression on his face. Looking at the other chefs who looked like they could still take some like that a few more times, Kieran shook his head, he still had a long way to go.

While the others were taking their breaks, Kieran went back to meet the head chef. He had asked the man if he could teach him and he had surprisingly agreed, so he usually had a lesson with him before his shift ended and he headed to spend the rest of his time in the library.

That was how Kieran had decided to spent his days, from the kitchen after the morning drills to the library to discover new things, and that quest was made easier by Leora who had continued to help him.

Lately he had been thinking of incorporating another job to his schedule, although he knew that only the lesser jobs like cleaning and other dirty jobs were available. He couldn't waste any opportunity to gain cp, his job at the kitchen was a fluke, it could have easily gone sideways.

"I'm done"

He said to the head chef.

"Hmm. Alright, let's start todays lesson."

The head chef replied, his face taking a serious expression.

.....

At the end of the lesson when Kieran was about to leave for the library the head chef, Danzo, stopped him.

"Earlier, while you were busy, you got a message. Since you pretty much have no friends, it must be from the camp. It should be important."

Danzo informed him.

"Ok, thanks."

Kieran said before taking his leave.

Along his way, he checked his watch and opened up the message

«Level one first year recruit, Kieran Callum»

«Report to the MPO, you have a package»

Fiddling around with his watch some more, he found out that MPO stood for military post office and it was located somewhere at the base of the camp.

Memorising the map, Kieran made his way there. The size of the place couldn't be told from the outside as it was built into the walls of the mountain. No soldiers could be seen stationed there only some droids floating at the sides.

"Level 5 droids? I see why now."

Kieran muttered to himself as he managed to identify the level of the droids but not the type and model.

The droids were something he had been hearing of and even seen several times, they were stationed at several points in the camp. Even the instructors used them to recover those who were injured in the morning drills, but he had learnt more about it when he came across a book in the library.

Unfortunately, he wasn't high enough, so he had asked Leora who gladly explained it to him.

They were a set of machines created to help with some military activities, they were only activated under specific command from soldiers with enough authority level or under specific situations which had been placed into their program. There were several types of them like the ones who helped with in the infirmary and the combat ones which he suspected to be the ones here. Like most things in the military, each of them was divided into nine levels.

Combat droids from level five upward were qualified to be deployed on the warfront to assist the soldiers, the level eight and nine could even participate in special missions, according to Leora. So, Kieran's surprised to see the level 5 combat droids which looked like golems.

Walking closer to the front of the post office, Kieran couldn't see an entrance, just a counter sticking out of a wall with an opening in front. Moving closer, the wall lit up with some instructions.

«Place your watch and complete the biometrics procedure to confirm your identity»

Following his watch and scanned his fingerprints on a scanner that just popped out of the counter.

«Identity: Level one first year Kieran Callum confirmed»

This appeared and a small sealed box came out of the opening before the screen went dark again, the place return to its previous tranquil state.

Taking the box, Kieran headed to his room, dropped it and resumed his journey to the library, continuing his daily schedule.

"I thought you weren't going to show up today."

Leora said when she was Kieran walk in.

"I had a package"

He said making his way to one of the corridors.

"As cold as always."

Leora said, boredom back on her face as he looked around the empty lobby.

"I should really bring up my game. He still hasn't called me Big sis yet"

She muttered to herself, thinking of ways to get a reaction out of Kieran.