The Time God Slayer

Chapter 26

The remaining month Smoker can see the results of their training in the mirror. His muscles are more pronounced and he finds that he can do his personal training (lifting weights, running laps) more. It takes more reps and sets to make him tired compared to the time before he accepted Hikari's training. He feels more confident in fighting against opponents because Hikari pushes him to the limit every day. And she knows when it's enough training for the day.

The day before the test, Hikari had Smoker do his katas and a light spar. After that, Hikari gave him the day off and told him not to train anymore to save his energy for the test. To Hikari's surprise, he decided to spend the day with Hikari.

Truthfully, Hikari was going to practice with her katana but since Smoker wanted to spend the day with her, she might as well take a break from training too.

And a break they did enjoy. They walked around town, chat about their lives and the adventures they had. It was nice to just relax and forget about reality for a while. Smoker even got to introduce his friends to Hikari. He later regretted it because every time he looked at them while conversing with all of them, they gave him secretive smiles and directed at him. If Smoker chased then whenever he caught them doing that, Hikari didn't say anything and accepted it for what it was.

Despite the chasing, the blush that threatened to be permanent on Smoker's face, and the silent teasing of his friends, Smoker had a good break day. He went to sleep feeling no stress and ready for tomorrow.

Th next morning, he got up bright and early and went to the marine base. There were many recruits, most of them are teenagers or young adults. There were kids but only 8 in total, 2 of which are girls.

The examiner had them be lined up and split into 3 groups, all led by a marine lieutenant to different areas. The first group went into a building to take a written test on the laws, territories, and hierarchy of the World Government. The second group was led to a gym where there were many different equipments for working out. The final group was led to a wide open area where sparring matches would take place. Each group would only have 45 minutes to complete their task.

Smoker was placed in the first group along with the two girls and a mix of teenagers and adults. Each group had 22 people per group.

The written test had 100 questions that made Smoker's head ache. The marine lieutenant stated that they weren't expected to finish all the questions in the given time. What matters was that they answered as much as possible. The point of the whole recruitment tests was to accumulate enough points at the end of to be qualified as a marine. It makes sense, seeing as some aren't book smart but are still marine material.

The second test was where the marine lieutenant splits the group into 3 groups of 6 and 1 group of 4. The marines grunts that are stationed in the gym watch the recruits do (or attempt to do) the exercises the marine lieutenant barks out: 50 pushups, 60 sit ups, 100 jumping jacks, 30 pull ups, 30 bicep curls, 30 tricep curls, 30 shoulder press, 45 lunges. Not many finished doing all those exercises. The few that did are either sweating rivers of sweat by the end or looking unfazed. Smoker managed to almost finish the exercises before the time limit was up. The whole time he was doing the test, he was grateful that Hikari gave him a set amount of exercises to do, even if he felt like it was hellish training. At the end of the tests, the marine grunts nodded to the lieutenant, signaling that they've finished totaling the points.

They moved on to the final part of the test: sparring. Smoker was the most excited about this part. The marine lieutenant had them split into groups of two and start fighting when he yells out. Smoker's opponent was one of the two female kids. She has red glasses and short black hair. Once the marine lieutenant called to start, she introduced herself as Tashigi and called out to him to have a good match before proceeding to run towards him. Smoker dodged and tripped her, causing her to face plant into the ground. She nevertheless got up with a red mark on her forehead and ran towards him again. Every 4 minutes, each sparring partner is switched with another's so the marine grunts can see which opponent is difficult or easy for each person.