- Squad's First Training

The next morning, Gus and the others gathered in the kitchen. After the box opening, he had sent them all a message to assemble at five in the morning, wearing casual exercise clothes.

Following his conversation with Joel and Connor, Gus decided to assign his remaining points. Firstly, he checked his skill tree associated with strength, the Hercules skill tree. Like he had done with the Alexander tree, he purchased the first and only skill of the tree available to him, 'The Son of Jupiter.' Following this, he used his 100 points that he had earned from the level up to buy a point in the speed category.

After both upgrades, and putting on the 'Warrior's Basic Socks' he had pulled from the level 3 box, he checked out his stats page.

*Level [3] {1405 / 2000 EXP}*

*Strength [3 (2)]*

*Speed [3 (2)]*

*Stamina [2 (1)]*

*Leadership [3 (2)]*

*Combat [3 (2)]*

*Durability [2 (1)]*

*Ranged [2 (1)]*

*Proficiency [2 (1)]*

Skills:

History's Greatest Commander x 1

The Son of Jupiter x 1

Points:

System [0]

Strength [0]

Leadership [28]

Overall, Gus was pleased with the progress that he was seeing, even if more than half of it was purely from the socks he had unboxed.

One thing did intrigue him, however, and that was the rate at which his stats would actually increase his physical prowess.

'Damn,' he thought. 'Should've tried to do something like lift some weights before I put the point in.'

His next action was to tell the others to be up and ready by five in the morning, before going to sleep.

Entering the kitchen, he noticed that most of them wore disapproving looks of disappointment or annoyance. To his surprise, however, there were a few that seemed to be fine with it. Following Connor's words the day before, Connor and Joel had kind of expected something like this to happen. After all, it was Connor who gave him the idea. In fact, Gus was tempted to tell the others that it was Connor's fault, and that they should blame him for this.

Aside from them, he saw that Krista was surprisingly enthusiastic about the early morning session he had planned. The only reason Gus could think was that she still felt a little bit guilty about the mission, and was determined to make up for it. Also, although she was not entirely happy about the time, Claire at least looked like she was keeping an open mind about why they were all instructed to be awake at least an hour or two before they had to be.

"So, I'm not sure if any of you saw when we were on the shuttle on the way here, but each floor of this station is somewhat like a circle," Gus began. "And, when we went to the shopping area, did you notice how this floor seemed to follow that, and is kind of circular in appearance?"

"Where are you going with this?" Emmy asked.

"Don't tell us you've gone insane and you got us up for that," Kyle said jokingly.

"I'm getting there. Well, since the floor is circular, it gives us a perfect route around that brings us right back here."

"Like, for exercise?" Anten asked.

"Exactly. Cardio training," Gus confirmed.

Before anyone had the chance to respond, Joel and Connor began speaking in support of the idea.

"It'll help us for combat classes!"

"It's a good bonding exercise!"

"It's a good way to start your day!"

Their enthusiasm raised suspicion for some of the squad, who thought Gus had somehow paid them to speak in support of it. Of course, the real reason they did it was so that Gus could get more points as part of his system, which would lead to him becoming stronger.

Once everyone was fully convinced, Gus led them outside. The route, which consisted of a number of miles, took them from the residential area up to the stores, passing the right side of the school area as they did so. They wrapped around behind the large structure that held all of the stores, before returning to the residential area via the opposite side of the school.

As they went behind the stores, they saw a large structure that hadn't been mentioned to them when they arrived. A quick break with the purpose of figuring out what it was decided that it had to be the arena that they had played the game in.

Gus arrived back a few moments before the others. While he did not feel any faster, it was certainly possible that the two points he had active in his speed stat were the reason why he arrived first.

When everyone was back at the house, Gus received a message from the system.

*For training with your squad you have earned a reward.*

*Reward: [20] Leadership points.*

'Wait, only twenty? Why?'

*At the current skill level, twenty is the most you can earn for training with your squad. Level up your stat and unlock more skills to be able to earn more.*

'Damn. At least I can get twenty points a few times a week consistently, perhaps even daily. That'll cause me to start scaling it very high, which is fairly decent.'

Looking at the time, Gus realised they might have spent a little too long outside. Hurriedly, they all rushed to get changed and go to the combat class.

Rushing to the school with minutes to spare, they arrived moments before Officer Cain. Rather than immediately start the lesson, he gathered the class around.

"Now that your first week at the academy has finished, I feel it is time to tell you about something. Normally it would not be this early, but some have already partaken in what I am about to tell you about," he said, glaring at Gus's squad. "At the academy, we have what is known as the Experience Protocol."