The dreaded day arrived.
Lea arrived at the training institute after her mom dropped her off at the entrance.
"If anyone bullies you, take their picture and send it to me."
"I'm not going to do that, Al."
Lea was on the phone with her brother.
He was actually supposed to drive her to the training institute today but too bad, work called him away.
Alan pretended he didn't hear her and continued with his nagging, "If anyone bothers you, just hit them with your cane like I showed you. Your cane is made with the sturdiest material so it won't break easily."
"You said that many times already," Lea told him with a fed-up voice. "Gotta go now, bye."
Lea abruptly ended the call. She checked Shannon's message next.
Shano-non: Good luck on your first day of training
Shano-non: If anyone bullies you, just tell me their names. I'll dig up their deepest dirt so you can take advantage of their weaknesses
Shannon was basically telling her the same thing as her brother.
"Why are the two closest people in my life acting like this?"
Lea's grumbling did not match the smile on her face.
.
.
.
The second Lea stepped inside the assembly hall, she could feel the curious glances and habitually lowered her eyes to avoid direct eye contact with anyone.
Still not used to the presence of other Awakeners aside from her brother, Lea gripped the handle of her cane to steady herself and quickly took a seat at the back.
Shortly after, a man with a body that can only be described as buff, walked up on the stage and introduced himself.
"My name is Mike and I'm the Head Trainer in charge of your batch."
The head trainer then began explaining the courses of the mandatory basic training, "…In addition to combat training, you will also be lectured on the Awakener Laws. A friendly reminder to all of you, most of the delusional idiots who think they're above the law just because they awakened were either fined with an exponential sum of money, or are currently serving their time in a prison made especially for Awakeners."
Mike slowly swept his gaze at the faces of the newly awakened to let that fact sink in before continuing, "Awakeners who act in a way that endangers the lives of others will be punished accordingly. I sincerely hope I won't hear any of your names on the news as a criminal in the future."
The young Awakeners especially those who looked like rebellious youths, tensed up when they met the head trainer's fierce gaze and hurriedly looked away.
After delivering his warning, the head trainer moved on to the next topic.
"As for the facilities around the training institute, you're free to use them at any time of the day. There are also private training rooms but they're very popular and almost always fully booked so you should reserve a room early."
Excited murmurs went around the assembly hall but quickly died down at Mike's stern face.
"I'll warn you now not to slack off in your training. Doesn't matter if you have a strong skill or a seemingly trivial skill because at the end of this 3-month training period, your performance during the group evaluation will affect your base Awakener grade and the possibilities of getting recruited by people from Awakener-related fields."
Basically, their future career prospects are dependent on their performance.
The excited murmurs returned, this time louder than before.
Lea was probably the only Awakener in the assembly hall not showing any interest.
"So do your best while you're here and you might just end up leaving with a couple of recruitment offers from the top Awakener teams."
After Head Trainer Mike concluded his speech with encouraging words, every Awakener was issued with an x-watch.
"The x-watch is already linked with your Awakener ID. Please check to make sure you received the correct one."
Everyone was too focused on admiring the famed x-watch that's exclusively worn by Awakeners to hear what the head trainer just said.
Lea, having already seen the x-watch many times on her brother's wrist, confirmed her account on the x-watch before strapping it on her wrist with indifference.
The x-watch was a bit loose on her wrist but it didn't matter. Now both her wrists were cuffed with smart devices - the x-watch on her right wrist, and the fitness tracker on her left.
After the x-watches were distributed, next was the skill assessment. Combat and non-combat Awakeners were separated into different training rooms which they were then further divided into smaller groups according to their skill category.
Lea was grouped together with Awakeners with the Enhanced Sense(s) skill. Unsurprisingly, there weren't that many people in their group.
Lea curiously watched from the side how other Awakeners' skills worked differently from hers.
The first Awakener to be called out for the skill assessment wore a noise-cancelling headphone. He was tested by correctly telling the name of the songs played at the lowest volume which Lea almost doubted a song was actually being played.
The next Awakener was a chef with a skill related to taste. Five bottled waters with their labels taken off were brought out, and the chef had to guess which water belonged to which brand.
It was interesting to watch the chef take a sip of each bottle and make comments on things that she didn't understand before correctly guessing the brands in one go.
The spectators watching on the sidelines clapped as if they were watching a live show.
Compared to combat-related skills, their skills weren't that fancy but the diversity of the Awakeners' background made the skill assessment interesting to watch.
Just like the Awakener before Lea shared similar skill as hers except their skill functioned like a magnifying glass and it only worked on a very small scale.
"Awakener Lea Carter."
Lea stepped forward when the trainer responsible for the skill assessment called her name.
"Please state your skill and what it does."
"I have enhanced eyesight, I can see far-away things really well," Lea explained her skill in the simplest way.
Skill verification came next.
At the trainer's signal, several drones flew up to the high ceiling carrying banners. Then, the trainer spoke to Lea, "This is to assess how far you can see. Read the word on the banner, starting from the closest drone."
"Isn't that impossible?"
The Awakeners in her group murmured amongst each other at the seemingly impossible task and even tried to make out a word by squinting their eyes.
The text on the farthest banner was printed in the default font size 12. Reading that with just their eyes, no one could read that.
Yes, probably no one but Lea.
Lea had to tilt her head back to look up, and her skill [Eyes of an Eagle] activated. She discovered with Alan's guidance that she did not necessarily have to recite the skill's name out loud to activate it. She only had to think of using the skill and the skill would activate by itself.
"Coby's steak"
"Grilled shiitake mushroom"
"Kimchi soup"
Lea recited the words she saw on the banners with ease, unlike the trainer who looked confused as if something was not right.
Just as the trainer turned to look at the person controlling the drones with a look that said, "Did someone change the banners?", Lea was already looking at the farthest and last banner.
With an amused smile, she read the last banner aloud, "If you can read this, the next group dinner will be Harley's treat."
"What? That's not-"
Judging from the dumbfounded look on the trainer's face, that was not the actual words Lea was supposed to say. The person flying the drone was enjoying it though, not at all feeling bad for using Lea's skill assessment to prank their own colleague.
Lea held back a sigh and stepped away for the next Awakener.
Unlike the typical plots in manga, other than demonstrating her skill, Lea's first day at the training institute was uneventful (thankfully).