The newly established recruitment center for the special force against the Undead Coalition, formed by the kingdom of Ormunda, looked like your typical government building one could find in any dimension. It was a huge, tall, square building with an imposing aura of authority, and more than likely, a typical youngster would feel intimidated seeing such a monstrosity. Since Anton was a being from Earth and was used to seeing such infrastructure, he ignored it and entered the building with a straightforward attitude. The queue wasn’t short, but it moved extremely fast, so he quickly lined up behind the shortest one he could see, and after a couple of minutes, he was already in front of a table where a man who looked like an officer was sitting behind it. “Introduce yourself,” The man straightly asked. Anton said his name, his age, his address, his wizard rank, and his adventurer guild rank, and the fact that he delved the 65th floor of the Corridors of Amuneta dungeon alone, then he handed the identification token that was given to him when he registered as a citizen of Ormunda. That sentence startled the officer, and it made the man stare at him. Even the people behind him looked at him in surprise. The officer took Anton’s token and held it in front of a magic globe. Anton assumed that it was some form of data retrieval magical machine. After a couple of minutes, some papers spewed out from beneath the table, and after reading them, the officer put a stamp on them and then instructed Anton to go to “door number 5”. According to one of the men, who resembled a security guard due to wearing a uniform, door number 5 was located to the right. He followed the guard’s instructions and arrived at a door clearly labeled “5” and entered it after knocking twice. Upon entering the room, he saw 9 men already waiting and seated on chairs that were arranged to look like a classroom. He sat on one of the empty chairs and waited like the others. Based on his observations, the men were young. Around early 20s to mid-20s or late 20s. All of them exuded noble bearing and prideful expression on their faces, and Anton had an inkling that all of them were nobles. After a few more minutes of waiting, a middle-aged man entered the room and went to the front of the class. “Good afternoon, gentlemen. Based on your records, you are all officer materials and would be assigned as such.” The man was about to continue when Anton raised his hands. “Do you have a question, Mr. Sunders?” the man asked. “I don’t want to be an officer. I want to be a front-line soldier.” The man stared at him and finally asked his reasons. Anton then told a summary of his history, and reiterated his combat experience by delving and conquering the 65th floor of the Corridors of Amuneta dungeon alone. The officer stared at him for a couple more minutes and asked Anton to follow him. The officer brought him to a large room filled with a large number of men and women. Based on a quick count, there were a hundred of them. Anton understood that he would be swapped with one of the best men in the group. The officer called a man to follow him and left Anton with the huge group of people. Once the officer and the selected man left, everyone started talking to each other. He quickly joined a group, and thankfully, he was welcomed without any questions. After a few minutes of chit-chatting, he understood that everyone did not know each other and were just grouped. A few more minutes passed, and another officer-type middle-aged man entered the room. The officer told everyone to line up, and then he started telling them what Ormunda expected of them. Apparently, the first recruitment process would last for three days. That was to make sure that Ormunda would be able to gather enough people to form squads. The training would be around 10 days, and after that, they would travel to the kingdom of Mendoza, which was one of the kingdoms between Ormunda and New Drennor. The rest of the meeting was just the officer telling them the rules they needed to follow and to make sure that everyone understood the severity of the situation. The officer told everyone how dangerous the war was going to be, and more than likely, a huge percentage of us would die. Apparently, the pay for joining the army was huge, and it attracted a lot of people, but Ormunda needed to remind everyone that it was not all fun and games, and expected that a lot of people would change their minds. Anton understood that most of the young people here were novice adventurers, so everyone thought that the danger would be mostly the same as when they tackled the beginner dungeon. He mistakenly thought that because it was labeled as “Special Forces”, it would be mostly composed of elite soldiers. He was wrong. At least Ormunda wasn’t deceiving these young men and women and told everyone straight that this mission was highly dangerous, but the rewards were equally so. A couple more hours of information sharing regarding the reality of what would happen once the mission started, and a sermon about serving the people, the officer then told everyone to leave and return early the day after tomorrow if they still wanted to continue joining the army. After that, the officer left. After the man left, everyone started leaving the room one by one. Anton joined one of the groups to continue talking in one of the taverns nearby. The group that he joined consisted of 7 men and two women, and once they were seated comfortably in the tavern, they started talking while waiting for their drinks. “I will not be returning there. Based on what that officer told us, there’s a good chance that most of those who joined this army will die,” One of the men said. Another three men and one of the women declared that they, too, would not be returning and would just continue being adventurers. “This is a chance for us to go up in ranks in the government of Ormunda. If we serve well and do not die, we might be awarded with noble titles!” Another one said, and those who said that they would be returning the next day nodded, agreeing with him. Those who stated that they would not be returning looked like they would not change their mind, so after drinking, they all left. Those who remained were the ones who would be returning to the recruitment office, but they only chatted shallowly for around 30 minutes before everyone left to tend to their business. Everyone understood that there was a chance that they would be grouped with others, so instead of wasting time learning about each other, everyone wanted to prepare themselves for the long mission ahead. Anton went to a nearby inn and rented a room for the two nights. He spent the majority of the night and all day leveling up his ladder druid, but he only managed to level up to level 93. By the third day, he returned to the recruitment office and directly headed to the room where he was grouped with others. Based on a quick count, there were a hundred men and women inside, but he didn’t recognize anyone. The men and women who left with him the day before weren’t present, and Anton had an inkling that everyone in that group had changed their minds and didn’t return. Official source ıs 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝙣𝙚𝙩
