Khan had grown used to spending entire nights training, but his schedule featured something different at that time. The Global Army had sent him a book featuring a deep description of the Ef'i's language and grammar, so he deployed the "enhanced reading" to memorize most of its contents.
Memorizing words and grammatical rules wasn't enough to grant Khan mastery over that alien language. His accent would remain off without practice, and he would still fail to apply everything he had learnt in an actual conversation. His understanding wasn't natural enough to speak properly, but he planned to fix that issue on Onia.
The morning arrived before Khan could complete his usual training routine. Eunice knocked at his door, and he left in a hurry to follow her through the many corridors. The two exchanged casual words, but she soon understood that his mind was elsewhere.
A familiar area eventually unfolded in Khan's vision. Eunice remained behind while Khan entered the room with the teleport and consoles that he had seen when he first arrived in the structure.
The soldiers in the room stared at Khan with strange expressions. Some appeared disappointed, while others experienced conflicting feelings that their faces didn't even try to hide.
Khan wasn't as unaware of the situation as before. The nomination for Onia's tournaments had even improved his status greatly, so he quickly approached the Guko next to the teleport and voiced a loud question. "Are they disappointed that they didn't get my mana core?"
"Yes," The Guko replied before anyone could stop it.
Khan wore a fake smile as he stepped on the teleport and glanced at the soldiers on the consoles. The latter avoided his gaze, and they stuttered when they voiced the indications necessary for the teleport.
The soldiers didn't know that Khan was only teasing them. They were afraid that he could report them to a superior and use his status to make their lives harder. Of course, Khan had no interest in all of that, but their reaction gave him a clearer understanding of how important he had become.
'I guess I need to win the tournament,' Khan thought as synthetic mana began to fill his surroundings.
A series of orders rang before a blinding light filled Khan's vision. When the glow vanished, he found himself in a similar room that featured a far different atmosphere. Green metal covered most surfaces, and dark consoles stood at the edge of the circular area. Still, the alien figure standing in front of the teleport claimed most of Khan's attention.
"Welcome to Onia," The male Ef'i exclaimed in perfect human language. "A Lieutenant is waiting for you outside the building."
"[Thank you]," Khan said with the best accent he could muster while stepping out of the platform.
The Ef'i wore a polite smile before adjusting his white medical coat and approaching one of the consoles. Khan glanced at his pointy tail before moving his eyes toward a soldier that approached him.
"Sir, we must perform a routine check before allowing you out of the building," The man said in a polite tone while showing the way toward a corridor.
The man had a single star on his right shoulder, but he still addressed Khan as "sir". Khan ignored that matter and limited himself to nod before following the soldier across the corridor. A series of scanners stood in his way, but he went through all of them quickly.
"Do you mind if I check my stats?" Khan asked when the building exit appeared in his view.
The soldier at the end of the tunnel nodded before handing over the screen in her hands to Khan. He only cared about one stat, and a bit of disappointment appeared inside him when he read it.
'Only fifty-three percent attunement with mana,' Khan exclaimed in his mind. 'I had to fight and travel for entire weeks, but I still meditated a lot.'
Gaining only two points on his attunement with mana in almost four months left Khan surprised. He could sense that the next checkpoint was still far, but he didn't expect to have improved so little.
'I'll be a second-level warrior in my third year at this pace,' Khan thought while handing back the screen. 'This is far too slow.'
Khan's thoughts inevitably went on the [Blood Vortex] after acknowledging the limits of his meditations. He had something that could make him improve faster, but his ability to manipulate mana had yet to reach the intended level.
'I need to work harder on my Niqols' techniques,' Khan decided. 'The [Blood Shield] isn't a problem for now, but it will also need to reach the next level after I become a second-level warrior.'
His thoughts stopped when the exit slid open and a familiar face appeared in his view. Lieutenant Unchai wore a broad smile as soon as his eyes fell on Khan.
"Sir, I didn't expect to see you here," Khan stated.
"I decided to receive you as soon as I heard about your nomination," Lieutenant Unchai chuckled as his smile saddened. "I thought that you would have liked a familiar face here."
Khan nodded without adding anything else. His eyes moved among the red-brown environment as he inspected the small camp that contained the teleport. Tall buildings and a few squads of soldiers were visible from his position, but the almost unbearable heat remained the most striking feature in the area.
"Nothing has changed here," Khan sighed before glancing at the second star on the Lieutenant's left shoulder. "Well, almost nothing."
"You aren't the only one who has been busy," Lieutenant Unchai announced while leading Khan toward one side of the small camp. "Instead, Onia is as hot as always. Even a catastrophe wouldn't change that."
"I thought you would have gone back on Earth after our training session," Khan stated.
"Earth has been a bit of a mess after Istrone," Lieutenant Unchai explained. "The Global Army had a shortage of recruits, so many teachers decided to switch professions or find temporary jobs. The situation has started to stabilize lately due to the new year."
Khan went silent. Istrone had been a tragedy that had caused deep consequences in many aspects of the Global Army. Humankind had basically lost a year to recover from those losses.
Lieutenant Unchai led Khan in an area with a few cars. A few soldiers stood next to them, and they didn't hesitate to perform military salutes when they saw the two. One of them even approached one of the vehicles, but Lieutenant Unchai waved his hand to dismiss him.
"Do you know how to drive?" Lieutenant Unchai asked while placing a hand on a car.
"I never had the chance to learn, sir," Khan replied.
"You are learning now," Lieutenant Unchai stated while jumping on the passenger's seat. "It's pretty easy. Hop in, and I'll show you."
Khan imitated the Lieutenant and jumped on the driver's seat. The car was completely black and had no roof, but its comfortable insides and metal surfaces weren't hot even if Onia's two suns had shone on them for a while already.
"Press that to turn it on," Lieutenant Unchai explained while pointing at a button and the two pedals under Khan's feet, "That to accelerate, and that to stop. I told you, easy."
Khan didn't know why Lieutenant Unchai was giving him that chance, but he didn't ask any questions. He turned the car on and timidly pressed on the accelerator. The vehicle began to move forward, and he instinctively held himself on the steering wheel to keep it still.
"Try to turn on the right," Lieutenant Unchai ordered. "Get used to how the car reacts."
Khan followed the order and performed slight turns inside the camp. He learnt all the basic functions quickly, and the Lieutenant eventually told him to leave.
"You can accelerate here," Lieutenant Unchai said as soon as the car left the tall fence around the camp.
Khan immediately pressed on the accelerator, and the car shot forward. Hot winds blew on his face as the vehicle sprinted through the barren plain outside the camp. A smile even appeared on his face as he recalled the feelings experienced when he flew with Snow.
"Can you handle this speed?" Lieutenant Unchai asked in a surprised tone.
"Sir, I used to fly far faster," Khan exclaimed as he tried to perform sharp turns without slowing down.
The car remained stable as Khan kept testing it. It was completely different from an Aduns. If it weren't for the wind, he would barely notice that he was moving.
"You need to learn how to fly a spaceship then," Lieutenant Unchai suggested. "Those things can go far faster than any Tainted animal."
"Do you know the Aduns, sir?" Khan asked.
"No, I've only searched a few things on the network after studying your profile," Lieutenant Unchai explained. "Did you really fly on those creatures' backs?"
"It's safer than you think," Khan laughed.
"Is it?" The Lieutenant questioned, but Khan limited himself to shaking his head without interrupting his laugh.
"Ok, slow down a bit now," Lieutenant Unchai said while tinkering with the screen in front of his seat. "You need to turn to the right and continue straight for a while to reach our destination."
"Where are we going, sir?" Khan asked while following the indications.
"Our destination is one of the largest human camps on Onia," Lieutenant Unchai revealed. "The humans have built it around a big mine of faswite, but the Ef'i have a few buildings there. The tournament for first-level warriors will also happen there."
"I thought the event would have been grander," Khan responded. In his mind, something like the tournaments would need a city or vast settlements.
"Wait until you see it," Lieutenant Unchai replied. "Also, the surface is never important with the Ef'i. Life thrives underground here."
Khan nodded before falling silent. His eyes went on the screen in front of Lieutenant Unchai from time to time to make sure that his direction was correct. He didn't know how the car could know its exact location in areas that the Global Army's network didn't reach. Still, he didn't voice questions and decided to focus on the winds blowing on his face.
'This is too slow,' Khan thought as he slowly pressed harder on the accelerator.
"You have changed," Lieutenant Unchai eventually announced. "I guess that's normal after everything you have been through."
"How so, sir?" Khan asked while feeling glad that the Lieutenant wasn't scolding him about the car's speed.
"You look mature," Lieutenant Unchai explained.
"I have always been mature," Khan declared.
"Maybe you didn't change too much," The Lieutenant scoffed, and Khan laughed. Then, the soldier noticed that something was off and turned toward Khan to question him. "Are we going faster than before?"
"Not at all," Khan promised. "It must be the heat, sir."
"What heat?" Lieutenant Unchai shouted before heaving a helpless sigh. "Fine, you can go as fast as you want, but slow down once the camp is in sight."
"What are the rules of the tournament?" Khan questioned now that the Lieutenant mentioned the camp again.
"One versus one fights," Lieutenant Unchai began to list the rules, "No weapons allowed, and avoid killing if you can."
"That's it?" Khan asked.
"That's it," Lieutenant Unchai confirmed.
"Can I really kill them?" Khan continued.
"Do you want to?" Lieutenant Unchai asked in an emotionless tone.
"No," Khan replied before continuing with words that brought a pensive mood to his mind, "It's just easier."
"You have really changed," Lieutenant Unchai sighed. "You can use spells, but I'd avoid it in your case."
"I guessed as much," Khan revealed.
The Ef'i were a battle race. They would respect Khan if he won, but they would inevitably hold grudges if he ended up killing many of their young soldiers. That went in the opposite direction of his goal.
"Will you be fine without your knife?" Lieutenant Unchai asked.
"I don't know," Khan admitted. "I'll come up with something."
"They are stronger than us before the evolution," Lieutenant Unchai reminded. "Their tail is also a natural weapon. I don't need to tell you that they are quite challenging."
"I remember," Khan sighed. "I'll just hurt them badly if I must."
"You have grown confident in yourself," Lieutenant Unchai commented. "That's good."
"It's pointless to lay low right now," Khan added. "I need to win."
Lieutenant Unchai stared at Khan for a while before moving his eyes on the sterile environment. He almost couldn't recognize Khan. The latter had gone from a playful kid to a confident soldier in a single year. The sight was almost depressing.
"Do you know anything about Lieutenant Dyester?" Khan asked after a while.
"As far as I know, he is the same as always," Lieutenant Unchai explained. "Ylaco's training camp has gained new recruits, so he has to work again from time to time."
Khan nodded, and silence arrived again. The car continued to shoot through the barren path until a series of structures appeared in the distance and forced him to slow down.
The camp was far larger than Khan had predicted. It wouldn't be wrong to call it a small town due to its sheer size. A tall fence stretched for hundreds of meters around multiple dark buildings. A few green structures also stood among them. The settlement could contain thousands of soldiers, and that was only the surface.
"So?" Lieutenant Unchai asked in a proud tone.
"I don't understand why you call this a camp," Khan stated, and the Lieutenant laughed.
A few soldiers stood in front of the fence's entrance, but they moved aside when they noticed Lieutenant Unchai. Khan led the car inside the parking area to the right, and his inexperience with those vehicles became evident in that situation. It took him a while to complete the procedure correctly.
"You'll get better," Lieutenant Unchai comforted Khan after they stepped out of the car.
"I bet the spaceships are harder to ride," Khan sighed.
"Not really," Lieutenant Unchai revealed. "You can't hit anything in space, and you can complete some procedures with the auto-pilot."
Lieutenant Unchai led Khan outside the parking area, and a few soldiers quickly approached them to be their guides. However, a scene that Khan found familiar played in his vision before the two men could say their names.. He could see a group of Ef'i approaching his position, and he even recognized Teco among them.
