Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening

SWOOSH!!!

The sound of an object sweeping through the air could be heard on a side of the mountain that was a little far off from where the recruits were stationed.

Behind the tall canopy of trees, Kieran's figure could be seen swinging a metal rod around while Ruby watched from the side on a tree, popping some berries into her mouth.

"I don't know why you still swing that rod around. Don't you think it will better if you familiarised yourself with the real thing?"

Ruby asked pointing to a black, metallic scythe that glistened due to the few rays of light that fell on through the thick cover of the trees.

Pausing in his practice, Kieran wiped the drops of sweat that had slid down his chin before throwing the rod to the side, moving to pick the scythe that was placed beside a tree.

Picking up the scythe whose colour reminded him of the black material he always saw in the underground cavern, he wondered if it was made of the same material but quickly came to the same conclusion as always, it wasn't!

He had a feel that that material was worth more than to spend on basic recruits like them.

Moving back to the centre of the clearing, he took on the same position as earlier and began the same training, unaffected by the change of weapons. This time his swings were faster, fiercer, each of them had a sharp edge to it.

Meanwhile on the tree branch, Ruby just looked at him while popping the reddish berries into her mouth, lamenting a little when she ate the last one.

'His rate of improvement is crazy, but why does it seem like there's something on his mind. He's been more quiet lately.'

It was quite funny how she could say that Kieran who barely spoke and was considered a mute to most had gotten more quiet.

Two hours later, just when she was about to speak out of boredom, Kieran finally stopped swinging the scythe around like a bot.

"I'm done."

He said, picking up his jacket and the rod in one hand.

"Finally!"

She exclaimed in relief. She had been watching him practice for the last five hours.

The first few were fun as she had gotten to spar with him but after, she quickly lost interest in seeing him swing a rod around.

"You've improved, so no need to be go hard on yourself."

Walking alongside the rocky mountain path, she tried to strike a conversation with him but all she got was utter silence and she kept her mouth shut after that. After all, it wasn't a pleasant feeling to be brutally ignored.

The clearing was a place they had found after Kieran asked the head chef for a secluded place on the mountain that wasn't close off to first-years like them.

After the first combat practice class and the spar with Sabrina, she had always tried to approaching him and Kieran didn't even want to know what for as he always rushed out the moment the classes ended, skipping the spar even he had energy left.

Apart from that, training his skills using the camp's facilities wasn't sustainable for him, he didn't doubt that his credits would be exhausted in no time if he tried it. So, he turned to the one person he could think of, the head chef, Danzo.

Luckily, he got what he wanted as the head chef described this area of the camp and the path to get there.

For the past two months, he had been coming here without Ruby to practice his skills more, at least here he didn't have to worry about anyone spying on him or any sudden interference. He only decided to show her his hidden spot today.

The last two months had been hectic, the false feeling of warmness and comfort in the camp had been totally erased. The competition between the recruits only got fiercer especially after eight of them got booted from the camp over the last three months for failing to be in the ranking which changed based on their activeness and how well they were faring as recruits.

Kieran didn't have the full picture on how the ranking system worked, since he thought it was going to operate on a battle-based format, but he didn't really care. That was business for the camp to handle.

One of the recruits though, had managed to escape getting kicked out by paying a hefty price of ten thousand CP.

The recruits were blown away by this sum, as most of them worked their asses off just to get enough to barely get them through each day. Even the rankers who got a monthly stipend didn't have the guts to even mention such an amount which kept everyone wondering how he managed to pull it off, they just couldn't comprehend it.

Kieran on the other hand came to the conclusion that the recruit made a deal with one of the high-ranking recruits in their year, a deal that he would probably regret for the rest of his life.

Kieran just like some others wasn't bothered about the incident since it had nothing to do with him and didn't affect him. Although his ranking in list had dropped in the past two months since he reduced his activeness, he was still in the top ten so he didn't care much.

They had also progressed in their classes in the past two months, both the theory and practical ones. The camp made them sit through long hours of talks about warfare and strategies that could be used in battle and all other tings related to the topic.

They really meant it when they said that were going to turn them into all rounded soldiers. They had basically been stuffed with knowledge in the past months.

The practical classes had even been getting more serious and dangerous ever since they got their weapons, since according to the instructor, they could only progress greatly when they felt death breathing down on their necks, and funnily, he wanted them to become used to that feeling lest they peed themselves when they reached the real battle field, in his words.

"What do you think this one's going to be about?"

Ruby asked the moment they stepped back into the camp, asking about the class they were about to attend.

"Finally getting out these metal walls."

She nodded in agreement to his words as she had the same thought in mind. The instructor, Selena had informed them a few months back that they would be moving out to explore a little of the planet, but she doubted it was going to be a nice vacation like the instructor had presented it.

Pushing her thoughts to a side, she rushed into the classroom taking a seat in the middle, meanwhile Kieran took his usual spot the back. Although she was the only person Kieran happened to move with, even she needed a brake from his deafening silence.

2:00 PM

The instructor, Selena showed up at exactly this time when the class was supposed to start. The recruits had already gotten the fact that she didn't want to spend a single extra second with them.

"Alright! I'll be going straight to the point this time."

She said in a professional tone that they had all gotten used to.

'At least one normal person exists here.'

Kieran thought while listening to her words.

"Tomorrow, you will be moving out of the camp to scout an area on the planet. All you would be need will be given to you tomorrow before you depart. I will be sending each of you a map on the location. Use it however you wish, class dismissed!"

She said taking her leave immediately, not entertaining any questions.

"Well that was pleasantly short."

Richard said walking out of the class the moment the instructor left, he had just voiced the thoughts of the remaining recruits.

Kieran watched as he marched out of the class, before his vision got filled with the other recruits did the same.

In the past few months, the number of times he had come across Richard outside the classes could be counted on a single hand.

Every time they met, they just paused, looked themselves in the eyes, before ignoring the others existence. It was like a truce, a silent agreement between them, but Kieran had no idea how long that would last.

Each time he saw his face, had this immense urge to smash it into a wall or something and he was pretty sure Richard felt the same way. What left him surprised though was that Richard had never lashed out or lost control ever since that day in the locker room.

He didn't even hear anything about him picking on other recruits. All these rang alarm bells in Kieran's head, but at the end of the day, all he wanted was to beat him up. He didn't give a fuck whether he changed for the better or whether he had a reason for being so lowkey.

TI-RING!

The notification sound of his watch broke him out of his thoughts that were starting to get dark.

'She's fast!'

Kieran thought looking at the map that had just been delivered to him, it hadn't even been five minutes since she left the classroom.

'Time to get to work then. They should be done with it by now.'

He thought again, making his way out of the already empty classroom to an unknown part of the mountain.