Chapter 176: 176: Awarding
Under the sun, on a vast grassy plain, eight teenagers were sitting in a circle as they laughed with each other. There are no trees at least ten meters around them. Yes, they are the team five but now team three. Andre, Luna, and Clifford also took their time to visit them. Thus, the current situation. The scouts were reorganized again due to the deaths of a lot of scouts. However, although that's the case. It was said that this year, the number of recruits would increase drastically due to the feat that the scouts did! The reputation of the Scout Regiment was all-time high after the successful operation!
"Say guys, it would be a year now since we joined the Scout, right? Or am I counting it wrong?" Kazuto scratched his chin. He felt that time flew under his nose and he didn't even realize it. Now, new recruits would join the regiment again, just like them last year. It was quite a complicated feeling for him. "Wouldn't that mean that we're seniors of those recruits?"
Andre smiled. "Yes, and they should call us senpai!"
"HAHAHA!" Everyone laughed at Andre's joke. Caleb, on the other hand, was a bit confused. Isn't senpai a Japanese word? Why did these bastards know such a thing!?
Clifford couldn't help but smile. Then he sighs with a dreamy look on his damn face. "It's really a good feeling to have juniors. At least now, we are not the same newbie anymore. We've upgraded."
"That's why in front of our juniors. We should try our best to look dependable and not do any stupid things." Luna chuckled, and she took a brief glance at Kidd, which made the latter roll his eyes.
'Why is she looking at me? I'm not someone to do anything stupid, right?' Kidd mused.
"Ehem..." Caleb cleared his throat as he intended to change the topic. Juniors or whatnot... As long as they don't become a nuance to him, it was all fine and all. Now he was quite busy. It had been three days since the return and he did a lot of damn reporting to the higher-ups of the Scout Regiment along with Roger.
Becoming a leader of three teams has some hassle that comes with it. If not for the benefits he would receive, he would have already willingly made others replace him. As he thought of this, he looked at everyone with a smile. "How's your preparation going? Two days from now is the awarding ceremony."
"Preparation? Bullshit! We don't need that.." Kidd retorted with a roll of eyes. "We only need to come up on stage as we stand stupidly to receive our awards and listen to the announcement of how many contribution points we would receive." As he said this, he looked at Johan with a mocking smile. "You're the one that needs preparation, aren't you?"
Rekka looked at his teammates, discussing with disdain. 'Why are they even talking about such superficial, meaningless things? We would all die anyway.'
He couldn't really understand people. Why pursue and amass wealth? When we won't be able to bring it to us to death? Why build grands of houses and desire difficult-to-get things when all of this would disappear when we die? In the future, the things we possess will become someone else's. Far in the future, the houses we built would be the house of a stranger. Ten years after we died, someone might still remember us through pictures and recorded things. However, a hundred, or even thousands of years later. Our names and things we did would be buried in the river of time with no one to remember that we were once alive.
Rekka sighed as he thought of this and stared at the sky with plain eyes. 'Everything is meaningless.'
Caleb didn't know what Rekka was thinking about or he would have already kicked him in the butt.
"You got me there. Yes, I do really need to prepare since I became the Team Leader. Fuck it! Roger told me that I need to come up with some kind of speech to rile up the damn crowd!"
"Huh? Do you really need to do that? Isn't Captain David the one that needs to do that kind of stuff?"
"Johan, how's your preparation going then? Have you finished the speech? Can we hear it?"
"That's right! We want to hear it! Come on... Don't be stingy!"
Caleb smiled warily from the barrage of requests and demands from his friends. Damn it! What preparation? He hasn't even written one word yet. What is he supposed to say? That's he's one of the leaders of an operation where there was damn lots of death involved? However, he knew that he just needed to avoid the mention of negatives and he just needed to highlight the good things.
"One question at a time. Indeed, it should be Captain David responsibility to rile up the crowd. But there are two speeches this time. For him and me. After all, even though the operation was his idea, he didn't directly participate in the process. One of the speeches needs a direct participant. It should've been Captain Roger, but he pushed it to me." With a helpless smile, Caleb proceeded. "As for my preparation? I haven't even written a damn word yet!"
Caleb felt depressed. Speech? That's not his forte! Fortunately, there was still a good thing that happened in three days.
***
Name: Caleb
Race: Human
Age: ???
Rank: Taboo Energy (Grade 3) 1580/100,000 + Tier 9 Walker (Destiny)
Physique: 320 [Strength, Stamina, Endurance, Agility, Flexibility, Power, Etc...]
Spirit: 210 [Mental Strength, Mental Resistance, Reaction Speed, Perception, Five Senses, Dynamic Vision, Mental Energy, Intelligence, Energy Recovery Rate, Soul Def, Soul Strength, Etc...]
Abilities:
-Passive Skill-
Shadow Sense.
-Active Skill-
Gum Gum Rubber. Taboo Energy Sensitivity. Phantom Step. Hardening.
Tip: The basic attribute of a normal human is 5.
***
Now, that he was a grade 3 Taboo Fighter. He can now accumulate 500 units of taboo energy without exploding! It was at least a consolation from the 100,000 points needed to become grade 4. 500x365 was 182,500 taboo units. He just needs a damn year this time to become grade 4, which can be said extremely fast!