Chapter 5 - Military Outpost

I brainstormed what I would have to do as I walked to the nearest military office. The main thing I was thinking about being the fact that I still couldn't fight. I was hoping that the military would provide training for anyone able enough, and since there was an ongoing war they would be eager to accept anyone who applies. A few minutes later I had arrived at my location. 

I was surprised to see a quite chic, well designed building instead of the bleak buildings we had for military in my home world. I walked in to see people hurrying around the place quite urgently but still maintaining decorum. This was quite a good sign, since maintaining calm during war was a large part of the victory I suppose. That's what people said anyway. I looked for the nearest person who wasn't occupied and saw someone having a coffee. I felt sorry to interrupt possibly their only break, but I didn't have much other choice. I walked up to them, gestured for their attention and said "Hey, I'm really sorry, but I've come here to enroll in the military, do you know where I have to go to do so?" They seemed really happy to help, I guess there weren't many people that were looking forward to joining the war. The man in front of me had brown hair, was slightly chubby and wore a formal blue suit. He had the gait of a confident man and I guessed he probably held a high management position at this office. He eventually led me through a series of white lit corridors, to a door that had a sign saying "Recruiting and HR". I thanked him again before heading through the automatic door. 

Inside there were a couple people sitting at desks. I headed up to the one on the left, where a young guy who seemed like he was just out of college was and told him that I wanted to be recruited. The same happy smile from earlier showing that he was glad to have a new recruit showed again and he said, "Of course, I just need your details to enroll you. You can use your device code to do so." I was not sure how to do so, but as soon as I thought about giving him the code, the code was projected out onto his desk. He thanked me before using his own device, which projected a violet light to scan the code and a minute or so later, he projected a form onto the desk. He looked through the form and his eyes widened. He kept his calm thought and said "You have some good arts and attributes for fighting, if you enroll you will probably get a frontline role, are you ok with that?" I nodded and before he could finish I asked him "Would I be trained based on mu school?" He nodded his head and said. "Our military is divided based on schools, you will be put into the beginner tier fighter school based on your experience. I will just assign you your school and register you and you can go to the other building to meet your instructor." I waited a bit more until I got a message on my device that I had been registered into the military. I said "Thanks a lot, I want to help the humans get peace again." He slightly frowned, as if he didn't believe that would happen in the nearby future. Even though the atmosphere was calm, there seemed to be some hidden away feelings that we might not be able to solve this using peace. There was a smaller version of the transporter device from earlier on the road, in the building that led to the other building. I stepped on the transport and after a few seconds I was blinked into the other building.

This building though was less flashy but still similar to the previous one. The major difference were the weapons hitched to the walls all over making it look like an armoury. The weapons were .. intimidating, more so than guns. I had no clue what they were but they still made me fear what they were capable of. I looked around for people but couldn't see anybody in my line of sight. To be fair, there was not much I could see. The room was open but had a lot of vehicles that looked like tanks and small rooms at the corners to hide away a lot of the space. 

I started to walk to try to find someone in this building but just as I was about to take my first step. "Are you the new recruit?" the soft voice questioned. I nodded while replying "Yeah, that's me." She smiled before saying "Thanks for joining, not a lot of people want anything to do with the military. You mind if I ask which school you have?" At this point she has walked ahead of me and was speaking with her back to me. I still hadn't seen her face but, she had striking green hair that went all the way to her waist, she wore a grey coat and pants that seemed to be part of a uniform. She was only about 5'3 so I guessed she must have had a healer or a support role. 

After a short pause, I replied "Fighter." As I did she flipped around, revealing her face for the first time. The first thing that I noticed was the scar that ran from her left eyebrow down to the left corner of her lips. The scar was gruesome and definitely didn't flatter her but she wore it with pride. Other than the scar the rest of her face was definitely reflective of her soft, soothing voice. She seemed to be in her mid thirties but I had no idea how people from this planet aged. She had a small nose, which held up a pair of round Harry Potter glasses. Her eyes were deep grey and were slender and cat like. A few wrinkles and smile lines were embedded onto her fair skin. She had a soft expression complementing her face. Though she had soft features to her, there was still an aura of control around her. 

But anyways, after she turned around she said, "Oh, you don't look it at all. Looks like you'll be seeing a lot more of me." She smiled and extended her hand out before saying "I'm Cathryn, the Fighter instructor for this outpost." 

I hid my slight surprise before shaking her hand. She seemed to have a casual vibe so I thought there were no need for formalities. I said to her "I'm sorry, I have little idea what the fighter school does, could you explain?" Unlike the others, she wasn't surprised by what I said but instead got to answering my question. "Well our military uses the system to organise its troops quite well. The fighters are at the front of the battle, they mainly do damage while being protected by the tanks. The daggers act in stealth taking out the strongest enemies without detection. The supports, rangers and magicians stay at the back. Magicians can use their long range spells to deal damage, supports give assistance and healing to all the troops and the rangers use bows of all kinds to deal damage. Though schools don't always tell the full story. Some people have really unique skills and attributes so their schools can be quite deceiving.

That was a lot of new information so I didn't really pay attention to the parts about other schools. What I really got was that I would be part of the frontline in war. It was quite a risky role but it probably was also the one where I could really make a mark. I thought for a bit before asking her "Do I get to training or..?" There was an awkward pause before she started to speak again. But after a minute or so, I heard her say "You have great potential as fighter. Well it's decent. Your attributes do seem tough to master." What? Either these people were being really vague or they assumed that I had some knowledge that most people would have from living on this planet. But I felt that this person probably would give me the answers I was looking for. 

I asked her again "Is there any place I can train my attributes?" She smiled before saying, "Of course there is, just follow me." She turned around without saying anything else and started to walk towards a door leading to the outside. Looks like my instructor wasn't too talkative, god forbid I ever get to meet someone normal. Just as I headed towards the door as well, my mind was suddenly assaulted by a blaring alarm. Fearing that the alarm was raised because the base was being attacked, I raised my hands almost pretending that I knew how to fight. I looked around and, strangely so, noticed the instructor still calmly walking towards the door.

I thought about it for a while, and realized that it must have been my alarm from the other world. Everything in my mind suddenly clicked and I realized how long I had been in this world. I needed to go back. 

I shouted in hurry from across the building, "I'm really sorry but I need to use the washroom, where is it?" The hurry in my voice must have been crystal clear because she hurriedly pointed to a corner of the building. I ran over there and stepped inside small cubicle for the gents. The toilet was different than the human toilet but I couldn't be bothered to notice much about that now. I quickly woke myself up and I was back at Earth.

As quick as I could I slammed my hand on my phone to stop the alarm. As I pulled it to my face to look at the time, I knew I had messed up. I saw that the time was already 11 AM, which was way past what my parents considered acceptable. That thought was quickly affirmed by hearing my mothers voice screaming my name. I just knew I was in for it.