Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening

Chapter 21: Dissection



'They're really taking their time.'

Thought Kieran on his way to the kitchen for his daily job.

It had been a few weeks since he met Leora at the entrance of the library and everything had been going pretty normal.

He had gone to the library earlier than usual, immediately after the morning drill, to complete a book he was reading.

Stepping into the cafeteria, the place he spent most of his time in; excluding the library, he noticed a commotion between a first-year like him and an upperclassman serving at the waiter at the counter. The pervious guy had left on some important job, at least that was what the head chef had told him.

Moving closer, he was able to gain more on the context of the problem.

"What do you mean I have to pay, they've been free all this while."

The first year shouted, some of the other first years who were standing behind him, watching, hummed in agreement.

Looking calmly at all of them the second-year recruit answered,

"Are you dumb? You were told about getting free things for a week. Well, hasn't it been over a week now?"

Confronted with these questions, the recruit decided to be hard-headed and pushed,

"That doesn't mean shit! If the period was over, a message would have been sent"

He said and some recruits went along with his reasoning, others backing out in understanding.

Not all of them were stupid, they had realized their mistake.

'Fools!'

Kieran thought looking at the recruit and the others who were still supporting him.

Waiting, he was curious to see how this would end.

Getting irritated, the senior recruit spoke in a devilish tone,

"Did you really forget where you are? You're in a military camp, one of the dreaded ones at that. The fact that you haven't realize only twenty percent of each year is considered an actual graduate already makes you a failure."

Kieran's face darkened at that last part. Leora had mentioned something similar, but it didn't think for it to be so low. Twenty percent of his current year equated to just fifteen.

So, at the end of the two-year programme, only fifteen of them would be qualified as products of the camp, the rest were discarded.

"You're lucky I'm still on punishment or I'd have beaten the shit out of you and taught you the proper way to treat a senior recruit. Now scram!"

He said, scaring the recruit and those behind him away, ending the drama.

Now that the whole commotion was over, the few second-year recruits who had been watching earlier sighed in disappointment.

"You're late!"

The head chef reprimanded him the moment he stepped into the kitchen, the other cooks turning to give him encouraging smiles.

"Had to finish something."

Kieran stated.

"Doesn't matter, you seem to be taking this for granted. You won't be getting payed today."

Danzo concluded, causing Kieran to frown.

'Did someone make him angry?'

"Now don't just stand there! Come with me, I have something I want to show you."

The head chef said, leading him into the pantry.

Walking to the end of the small pantry, the head chef placed his hand on a spot on the wall, leaving Kieran to wonder until the wall shifted to reveal a hidden passage.

'They must have a thing with hidden walls and passages'

Kieran thought feeling slightly amused.

Stepping though the long passage into one of the rooms it was connected to, he felt a rush of cold air hit him.

"It's a cold room, where we store all the fresh and special ingredients. Come see what I wanted to show you."

He said, leading him to a big table where the carcass of a weird creature was placed

"I'm sure you've realized that since we aren't on earth and on a different planet, not only are the plants different but also the lifeforms."

"Although, we did bring some native livestock from earth and mutated them to make the menu a little more familiar."

The chef said, his eyes shining as he dived into a what he was passionate about and Kieran quietly listened.

"This was one of the first planet we had conquered and at that time those fools had almost wiped out all lifeforms on the place. Getting one like this is quite rare, it's a Girith too. I'm quite lucky today, HAHAHA!"

He said, bursting into a loud laughter.

The creature on the table, a Girith, as the head chef had called it was huge around four meters tall. It looked like a muscular deer, but without the antlers. It had scale amour like that of a rhinoceros and its blue flesh could be seen through a split on its belly. It looked like it had been slashed by something.

"This one was killed not long ago"

The chef said touching the hard exterior, which he claimed to be warm.

Moving closer, Kieran could notice the blue blood that hadn't stopped flowing completely along with the occasional twitches of the flesh. It seemed to have died in shock.

"Alright, go change up so we can get started."

Danzo said grabbing some protective gear and a chainsaw that glowed red hot the moment he put it on. Watching all this in silent marvel, Kieran also dressed up before joining him.

It took them a few hours to completely dissect the Gririth and lay them properly on the huge table.

BEEP

Hearing his watch beep, Kieran wiped off the blood on the glass of the helmet. Turned out it was the alarm be set to remind him of his class in an hour.

Looking at his self which was bathed in blood and gore, he thought,

'What the hell did I just do? I reek'

"I have to go. I've got a class in an hour"

"Oh, there's a room where you can wash yourself, down there."

The head chef pointing to a door at the far end of the huge space.

"Thank you"

Kieran said before making his way over holding his clothes with a metal stick he found on another table, making the chef burst into laughter.

It took it almost 30 minutes to get the blood which had somehow seeped through the gear, off his body.

Despite all his efforts, he couldn't completely get it out of his hair, giving it a blue shine when he dried it.

Dressing up, he walked out to meet the head chef who had just finished arranging and inspecting the body parts for any damages.

"You're done. You got some on your hair, I should teach you how to put on the gear properly next time. The blue shade looks good on you."

Danzo commented but Kieran remained still staring at him.

"What is it? Don't you have a class to attend to kid?"

"The smell."

Kieran said stiffly.

"Hahahaha, it's rare to see such an expression on your face. I totally forgot to warn you about the stench. Here, use this."

He said, throwing him a spray can.

"Why didn't you interfere earlier?"

Kieran asked referring to the incident that happened when he got to the cafeteria.

"Hmm, that? Why should I? This camp has the reputation it does for a reason. It might look peaceful and calm, but it's a dog eat dog world and its even fiercer in the camp. Letting them realise for themselves is the best thing anyone could do."

He answered brushing away the matter.

"You should be careful too. The Nobles aren't as easy as you think."

"You won't be able to do it alone."

He gave him a warning.

"Hmm."

Kieran responded, spraying the can which surprisingly erased the stench.

On his way to the class, Kieran noticed a strange atmosphere among the most of the other first years he came across and an intense hostility from the second years.

'It must be awful' Kieran thought, looking at the recruit who had wasted their time.

"You're going to be late if you walk at this pace."

A soft voice said and he turned his head to see Ruby beside him.

"Come on, let's go."

She said, increasing her pace and Kieran, thinking about what the head chef had said earlier decided to follow.

Thanks to their change in walking speed, they managed to get to class on time, and as usual, Kieran took a seat at the back corner looking startled when Ruby joined him.

"I prefer not having some weirdo staring at me from the back."

Before Kieran could process what she said, the instructor walked in, the class already full.

"Today we'll be talking about beasts and combat equipment."

She started off.

"This planet, Kirshof, was one of the easier planets for humans to conquer back then. The only thing here were the beasts, the intelligent race here were years in the gutter, so it was easy to wipe them out. The only problem the military faced were the beasts and adapting to the extreme climate."

"When we first got here, the beasts were a real problem to deal with, as most of them had a hard exterior, even the energy weapons that had been developed back then were of no use."

"During your time here, you must have noticed some senior recruits and soldiers carrying swords, melee and other weapons of the old era..."

She went on to explain how they had gotten the idea from watching the native race and how they hunted the beasts. They were able to make a more effective method by combining their technology together with that knowledge.

This method also proved to be effective on other planets, there were several strange alien species. Some, could absorb their energy attacks and in cases like those, the soldier's weapons and hand to hand combat skills became useful. This caused the integration of such training into the military training programme.

One of the reasons noble families taught their descendants martial arts.

"In your next physical training class, your current combat ability will be tested and you will start your hand to hand combat training, along with your weapon training."

She said, concluding the class.

'I wonder what weapon will suit me'

Kieran thought deeply as he left the class with ruby.


Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters.