Divine Heritage: Only I Can Judge The gods-Chapter 58: One Month to the Second Realm?

The new recruits were standing in the large backyard of the squad house. Today, their training would officially begin and they were currently waiting for Thalia’s briefing.

Ark was standing between Elise and Kiera while Luke was at the farthest point from him as possible.

As though he and some sort of contagious disease.

Elise leaned towards Ark.

"Did you do something to him back at the center? He’s usually a rather chill person."

Ark glanced at the boy, he did look rather kind, the only time he ever frowned was when he was around.

"Not everyone likes people from the slums, I’m surprised you even still speak to me after finding out."

Elise gave him a weird look. "But I’ve always known, I mean... it’s pretty obvious."

"What do you mean it’s pretty obvious?" Ark gasped. "What part of me makes it so obvious?"

She squirted her eyes as she watched him closely.

"W-well, I can somehow just tell... I don’t exactly know how," she said, averting her eyes from him.

Ark already knew what she had in mind. It had always been easy for people to tell he was from the slums. He had sunken eyes, a lanky build and tattered clothes.

But these days he was finally filling up the gaps in his frame and dressing far better.

Very soon no one would be able to recognize him.

Elise then continued:

"Anyway, I think you should talk to him and clear up the misunderstanding before it gets any worse."

Ark frowned slightly.

"Why should I be the one talking to him when he started it?"

Luke was the one who had disrespected him without cause, if anything, he should be the one apologizing for yesterday.

Elise tapped his shoulder playfully.

"You don’t have to be like that, you’re not a girl, only girls hold grudges. Look at me," she said, pointing her thumb at Emma.

"I always apologize to that one even though she’s always at fault."

Emma grabbed her thumb with shocking accuracy, considering she was blind and squeezed it, causing Elise to wince in pain.

"You’re the one always messing with me," Emma said, while still staring ahead.

While they bickered, Thalia walked through the back door and made her way towards the group.

***

Thalia left the kitchen and walked into the large backyard they had, moving over to where the new recruits stood.

Although she had brought most of them to the squad house about a week ago, this was the first time she was officially addressing them.

"I’m sure you’ve probably been wondering what happens next. You passed the selection exams and yet for the past week you’ve all done practically nothing."

Thalia’s eyes landed on Elise who was nodding attentively, "What are you doing?"

The girl laughed nervously and stepped over to where Thalia was.

"As you know, Elise here is your senior, she completed her trial and joined us a year ago."

Only Ark looked surprised at her words which made sense since he was the only one who didn’t arrive on the first day.

"Now back to business." She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

We have received approval from the squad captain to visit the second realm in one month’s time."

"As new curse bearers, the first thing on your list is improving your core capacity."

There were three ways to do this, one was by meditation, the second was by using your curse which would naturally improve your core capacity—

"And the easiest of them all is by slaying apocalypse beasts."

"But we can’t just wait for gates to open, that is why we have to visit our neighbors. In the second realm, there are places called dungeons which are basically breeding grounds for these beasts."

"This will be our target once we get there. Any questions?"

Luke raised his hand before speaking.

"I noticed that the house is a little empty. Where are the other squad members?"

"They are on a combined mission with the first squadron, only Natasha, Elise, the doctor and I were left to receive you guys."

Kiera raised her hand next.

"How long are we going to spend in the second realm?"

"It depends... We will stay as long as it takes to make you strong enough. Elise will be joining us as well, since she missed last year’s excursion due to unprecedented reasons."

She then glanced at Ark to see if he had any questions but the boy was just staring into space, if she didn’t know better she would think he was having some sort of conversation in his head.

Thalia waited to see if they had any more questions, when it was clear that they were satisfied she clapped her hands loudly.

The back door opened and two military men moved past the door, holding a shelf filled with various forms of wooden weapons.

Accompanying them was a woman who wore clear glasses and had her light brown hair tied up in a high ponytail.

They dropped off the stack and left the yard, leaving the woman behind.

"Good morning guys, I am Natasha, the squad secretary, sorry for the late introduction, I had business at the center."

They all greeted her in response.

"Like I said..." a small smile appeared on Thalia’s face. "We have one month, but that doesn’t mean we will be slacking off."

"Pick your weapons. Your goal today is to land a hit on home, and as a reward..." A mildly suggestive smile appeared on her face.

"I will let whoever can land a hit on me touch my b—"

"Vice captain!" Natasha screamed, cutting her off, her face blushing a deep shade of red.

Thalia brought her hands up defensively. "I’m joking, I’m joking. I’ll let you use my new game console."

"Hell yeah!" Luke screamed, causing everyone to turn their attention to him.

Kiera shook her head in a disappointed manner causing him to shrink back in horror.

Emma sighed. "Doesn’t that appeal only to the boys? I don’t see myself interested in games."

’Did she just make a blind joke?’ Thalia was unsure of whether she should laugh so she just kept quiet.

She brought her finger to her chin, tilting her head slightly.

"Oh, then for the girls, I’ll give you this."

Light blue sparks suddenly materialized out of thin air, moving towards her hand before disappearing, leaving behind a small golden button.

Everyone noticed the change in the environment immediately it appeared, the subtle scent of flowers.

"This artifact has only one use, it produces a nice floral scent that can be adjusted by the user. I got it some time back but never really had any use for it."

Emma seemed very much satisfied but was about to ask one more question before Thalia cut her off.

"Of course, you can use a bow, but not your bow, I don’t want to lose an eye."

Emma nodded and Thalia continued:

"Once I tag you and say ’tag’, it means you’re dead and out, pretty simple right? Alright, take your weapons, let us begin."

Natasha jogged away from the scene, standing next to the building just before the first person moved.

Whoosh!

The air trembled as Ark launched the first devastating attack, leading the charge with Kiera not too far behind.