The bright light shining from the large orange led ball attached to the underground city's ceiling shined above all of its citizens.
The bright light paved a way for all of those trying to find their way in a city that was both dim in some areas and bright.
Ivory wiped her eyes while she approached the familiar muddy terrain.
She had decided to arrive at the training camp's location early.
The young woman was able to fall asleep right away last night and wake up early to leave the inn and reach her destination.
Ivory mutters under her breath, "Why did I get up so early?"
Nearby a shadow seemed to be moving on its own without a person or creature to cast it.
What was she even really looking at?
Ivory walked closer toward the shadow while it transformed itself into a human.
The younger woman felt her jaw drop to the floor.
Lyra? How did she become a shadow? Could this somehow be related to her ability?
Would this also mean that she would be the one leading the training camp?
The older woman wore a grey camo quarter zip with a pair of grey camo pants on.
Lyra hadn't noticed Ivory because she had her sights on something else entirely.
Lines of shorter and taller red punching bags with several black targets on their bodies were placed in rows.
The older woman's eyes had changed from the first time she had met her. There was less life to them. On top of that she was sweating profusely.
It wasn't too long ago when she couldn't lift a wooden door. Had she been lying to Ivory back then that she couldn't lift it?
Lyra gave a low round house kick toward one of the taller punching bags. The punching bag wobbled but stood up straight, tanking the blow.
How long had Lyra been training for?
Ivory politely smiles, "Hey Lyra…."
Lyra grabs her water bottle placed on the ground, "Ivory, It's good of you to come early. Though, I'm letting you know this training camp won't be easy."
Ivory says, "I need to get stronger. I can't rely on the people around me forever."
Lyra drinks a few sips of water and retrieves a small white cloth from her pocket to wipe her face.
Lyra says, "You really should reconsider…"
Ivory sighs, "Are you going to say that to everyone or just to me?"
Lyra gives a half smile, "Everyone but especially you. Your heart is just not in the game. I can tell."
Ivory shrugs, "You can't stop me from trying to learn about what these abilities are and training to get stronger."
Lyra throws her hands in the air with a defeated expression on her face, "I guess you're right. I can't."
The older woman tilts her head slightly to look behind Ivory.
Lyra says, "Looks like Ronan came. Another trainee, you two can stay here and I'll be right back."
Lyra walks a few steps before turning back, "Heads up though, he doesn't talk much."
The older woman walks away and Ivory quickly turns around.
She notices a couple of footsteps away, an individual wearing a grey mask and a brown cloak stood watching her.
Ivory jumped.
This was the same cloaked figure she had sworn she saw at the bar.
I guess she wasn't just seeing things.
Ivory's voice trembles, "Who are you?"
The cloaked figure stared at her and unlike their stature, their eyes were strangely familiar.
Why did it feel like the two had met before?
The cloaked figure shrugs.
Ivory smiles, "No I'm definitely seeing things. You're a hallucination."
The cloaked figure shakes their head.
Ivory says, "Oh? I'm curious, why do you go around wearing a cloak and a mask?"
The cloaked figure shrugs.
Ivory says, "Hm okay."
The young woman had decided to try asking yes or no questions next.
Ivory says, "Your name is Ronan right?"
The cloaked figure nods their head.
Ivory says, "Are you new to this underground city?"
The cloaked figure nods their head.
Ivory smiles, "Me too. I can't believe what I've stumbled into."
A thought almost slowly pierces her chest. The next question almost hurt to ask.
She sighs, "Are you here to learn how to fight to end up joining this war?"
The cloaked figure pauses before shaking their head.
Ivory smiles faintly, "Huh…"
Lyra at this time walks back with multiple people.
Street vendors wearing purple robes hauled in various carts filled with different kinds of food.
This was an improvement from the last time Ivory had an interaction with the street vendors of this underground city because they didn't try to rob her.
Was this all because the rules of cause and effect had worked once again?
Icarus's speech must have moved so many people. It must have convinced them that they had to work together despite their differences.
Sunburn users and sunburn users with the mutation might be able to actually get along now.
Lyra orders the people in purple robes to place wooden tables and different boxes of food on top of them.
The vendors placed wooden chairs next to the tables and started rummaging through the boxes to empty its contents.
Pastries, donuts, fries, pasta, steak, chicken wings, and many other items were placed on display.
Ivory muttered under her breath, "What was going on? Why was there so much food?"
At that moment more people had finally started coming in.
A young man with long black and red hair, tan skin, wearing a pair of camo military sweat pants and a shirt, swayed with his footsteps.
His two friends that were wearing the same outfit desperately were trying to hold him up straight.
One of them was a young woman with green eyes, blonde hair, and a tired grin on her face.
The second person was a man with pale skin, short brown hair, and ice cold blue eyes.
The man who couldn't seem to walk straight says, "I shouldn't have drank so much last night."
The woman who could barely hold half of his weight says, "You shouldn't have drank so much today either…"
The man with ice cold blue eyes says, "Honestly, It's quite disappointing. How can you be a light weight as a sunburn user?"
Ivory quickly looked down while the group walked past her.
The man with ice cold blue eyes stares at Ronan with a perplexed expression on his face but quickly dismisses his appearance.
Ivory turns to Ronan, "Have any idea what's going on?"
The cloaked figure shrugs.
Ivory shrugs back.
As more time passed, more sunburn users arrived at the training camp.
Everyone had slowly begun to take their seats.
Ivory and Ronan decided to take a seat at an empty wooden table. The table was for five and there were only two of them.
The emptiness at their table would definitely be noticeable to others.
This day just kept getting better.
Ivory sighs, "Shit, we're the only table that's not full."
Ronan sighs.
At that moment, the three she had run into earlier made their way to the only empty table available.
The man who had one too many drinks says, "Heya, how are we all doing?"
Ivory says, "Good…"
The drunk man smiled, "That's what's up. I'm Byron by the way."
The tall man puts an arm around both of his friends, "Call these two Iris and Kian. They're my buds, you know. My buds."
Iris swats his hand away but gives the two of them a polite smile.
Kian looks at the both of them with utter disgust.
This situation reminded Ivory of what her mother used to say to her when she was young.
Drunk people would always act in ways no one would or could expect. The best thing you could do is stay alert and keep your distance away from them.
Ivory says with hesitation, "I'm Ivory and this is Ronan."
Byron smiles and looks toward Ronan, "Awesome and I have to say. Your outfit is so cool. It blows my mind. You know?"
Ronan gives a thumbs up.
Byron burps with the smell of generic whiskey filling the air, "When can we dig into this great smelling food on the table?"
Iris elbows him, "Not until you're instructed to do so dumbass."
Byron frowns.
I guess waiting for this delinquent was the equivalent of a prison sentence.
Ivory tries to hide her disgust. She desperately wanted a mask such as Ronan's to mask the awful scent in the air.
At this time, Lyra walks in front of all of the wooden tables and chairs in the area with a mic in her hands.
Lyra says, "How are we all doing tonight?"
The crowd cheers.
Lyra says, "Great to hear that you all have some energy but this isn't just a casual get together. This is the beginning of a training camp to fight in a war that none of you're prepared to fight in."
Lyra chuckles, "If you think you can just show up drunk to every session then just do me a favor and get the hell out of here."
The crowd was silent. The tone shift was obvious. This wasn't a game anymore.
Lyra sighs, "Oh my creator…"
Lyra shakes her head, "Moving on, there are several different types of food placed on each of your tables. This will be the first test. Eat as much as possible."
Lyra waves in a line of guests, "These individuals will proctor each of you and estimate how many calories each of you have consumed."
Lyra yells, "Remember your limit is when you can't eat anymore. Let the test begin."
Ivory muttered to herself, "What the hell is this? Weren't we going to begin combat training?"
The idea of this test made absolutely no sense.
Ivory looked around at the different tables around her.
Proctors seemed to watch a small portion of sunburn users at a time at each table. After a group was finished, the boxes of food would be refilled.
The thought spun around in Ivory's mind. Why was it that only some people at each of the tables were chosen to go first?
A proctor with long brown hair, blue eyes, pale skin, who wore sharp black rectangular glasses approached their table.
The middle aged woman wore a white dress shirt with a red swan pin, a pair of blue jeans, and a brown leather belt.
The proctor says, "Hello my name is Elisa and I will be proctoring this session. Byron, Iris, and Kian please go first."
Byron slurs his speech, "Can do. Can do."
Byron, Iris, and Kian ate a variety of different dishes. Steak slices, pizza slices, and chicken wings but they didn't even dent the box.
Eliza nods, "Estimated caloric intake for each of you is a maximum of 6000. This is average. Good."
Eliza turns to Ronan and Ivory, "How about you two next?"
Ivory nods, "Sure."
In the next few minutes, Ivory and Ronan ate as much as they could. The box had to be refilled twice but the second time there was only half of it left.
Ivory tried to bite into another slice of pizza but dropped the slice.
Ronan laid his head down on the table.
Eliza says, "Caloric intake maximum of 12000. Average. Good."
Kian furrowed his brows, "What? You just said our caloric intake maximum was average. How would theirs be average if it's double ours?"
Eliza says while walking away, "People with the mutation are ranked differently."
Kian scoffs, "This is bullshit."
Iris pats Kian on the back while he mutters under his breath.
Byron says, "How did y'all even eat that much? You have a portable incinerator in your stomach or something?"
Ivory shakes her head, "No clue."
Ronan keeps resting his head on the table.
Several minutes later, Lyra had gathered all of her data from the test.
Lyra places the mic close to her lips, "This is as expected. The first test is complete and now we all will review this data together."
Lyra says, "Sunburn users without the mutation can only eat 6000 calories at a time. Sunburn users with the mutation can eat 12000 calories at a time."
Lyra smiles, "Does anyone know why this is?"
The crowd was quiet again. No one had a single clue as to why that was.
What really separated the two groups?
Ivory herself was just as confused. She had found out why groups of people were separated before but not why their results differed.
Why was this the case?
Lyra says, "Sunburn users burn calories at rapid rates so they can eat more calories than the average person. Sunburn users with the mutation also burn calories faster and due to the unique construct of their abilities, allow them to eat double the amount of calories of the average sunburn user."
Lyra shakes her head, "This is beside the point. I'm merely just playing around with terms which none of you fully understand yet. None of you even know how your own abilities really work so let me explain it to you. Let this be our first lesson."