They continued walking on, following the coldly efficient general.

The next part of their tour included showing them the facilities and various facets of the second-year boot camp.

It included a large spa with boiling springs and various single-room homes scattered along the bank of the river.

One thing that Dale quickly noticed was the apparent lack of any class buildings. Before he could bring it to his teammates’ notice, a recruit raised her hand.

"Sir, there seems to be no classes. Where will we resume the various courseworks that we already started?"

General Malcolm turned to the girl who had asked. "You don’t. From now on, the only classes you will partake in are those provided by the task.

With the sole exception of those training to be medical officers, all lessons are hereby dismissed."

Dale nodded as he listened in. It wasn’t as though he was particularly fond of any of his classes.

If there was any saddening part of it, it would be the lack of constant training with Lord Byron.

Now, the only way to train was to spar with people and go beast hunting... if there were any tasks like that.

Knowing the military, there would most likely be a few tasks like that.

Everything was fine except for one crucial detail.

Dale kissed his teeth and raised an arm since no one was willing or curious enough to ask, "Excuse me, sir. You mentioned rankings. How would the first rankings be determined?"

General Malcolm’s eyes formed a deep crescent as he smiled. "Fair enough. I was waiting for one of you to ask this question. There will be a mass assessment tomorrow." He paused and studied everyone’s expression.

Dale ensured his face wouldn’t break neutrality. Who knew what was going on in the General’s head?

The Awakened quartet was just like him, maintaining an air of impassivity.

Others emulated them but few still showed signs of distress and worry, particularly the Dormant among them.

General Malcolm wasn’t General Todd or someone Dale was more familiar with. For all he knew, the veteran would change his mind based on the general reaction.

"An assessment to see how you react according to various situations you might encounter on the battlefield. If there’s one thing that should be known about the warfront, it’s that a balanced battle is the best case scenario."

He finished answering and resumed his match through the boot camp.

Now that Dale thought about it, the place was seeming less like a controlled environment and more like a guild.

’The residential areas, rankings, food being paid by us, and available tasks.’ Before even entering the military and learning about them, he knew about the existence of guilds.

Guilds were technically private ability users.

Unlike Dale and the sort who joined the military after gaining their ability, guild members were far more similar to mercenaries with a few differences.

While mercenaries worked for the highest bidder, using their insidious ability skills to satisfy their clientele, members of a guild were no different from the members of a union.

They came together to create a larger organization whose sole purpose was to prevent extortion and bullying from more powerful people.

From what Dale had heard — mostly from rumors — if a member of a guild was killed by another guild, something known as a guild war almost always broke out.

The military would step in to mitigate it at that point.

’In hindsight, it almost seems like a gang.’ Dale chuckled at his own joke.

A guild was also hired by private organizations but could be, and was majorly, patronized by the government. There were a lot of menial tasks within the Utra nation that the government could give to them.

Such as killing off a beast roaming too close to a city or clearing a road of debris.

Needless to say, the similarities between their boot camp and a guild were uncanny.

’Yes, guilds are rare and few in between but you at least know where they are. We were practically kidnapped to bring us here.’

General Malcolm talked about some of the history of the boot camp but Dale didn’t bother to listen.

He wanted to share a few of the thoughts he had with the members of his team as soon as possible. Else, who knew, something might distract him.

And with his recent streak, that was very much a possibility.

The General finally seemed to have exhausted his bank of knowledge about the history of the underground city.

"And so, this officially marks the end of the tour. I expect all of you to put in your best tomorrow and while it’s natural that many of you will find yourselves at the bottom — as is natural in the world, don’t go down without a fight, and good luck."

Then he turned away and took a few steps then paused, "Oh, almost forgot. After here, head to the clinic for a checkup and to be assigned a room number."

He took another step and Dale could almost hear the humor in his voice as he said five words that utterly shook everyone there: "All teams are now dissolved."

Before any of them could recover, General Malcolm was already out of their sights.

Dale placed his hand under his chin, running a hand through his hair as his thoughts ran at a thousand miles a minute.

’Survival of the fittest, right? It seems as though I’ll have to push my weight.’

Austin placed a hand on his shoulder, "Do you want us to help?" His eyes held a double meaning.

They were saying that they’ll intentionally flunk so that they’d be on a similar rank.

Dale turned to look at the redhead. Behind him, he could see that Sarah, Trevor, and Gary were worried about him.

’Is it because I’m Dormant?’ He was sure that was the reason.

He pulled his arm back. "No. I’m fine. I’m good." Then he turned around and walked away from them.

Walking to the clinic m, he couldn’t stop thinking.

’I need to Awaken. I can’t hold them back.’ In the slums, it was people like him who got dropped.

He had to grow stronger.