Library

The boys soon arrived at the mess hall. The place was busy and full, as both recruits, and bona fide Nobles walked around, ate, and spoke amongst themselves.

Making his way into the busy hall, Rowan kept an eye out for the acquaintances that he had made on the aircraft that brought them to the organization's headquarters. He wanted to know how they were doing, as they had not been able to see each other since then.

"Who are you looking for?" Connor noticed Rowan's behavior and asked.

"The people I roomed with on the aircraft. I was wondering if any of them might be here, but I can't find them." Rowan shook his head. He was not able to spot them even with his good eyesight, so he just put the matter aside for now. Maybe they would cross paths later.

The boys quickly ate before returning to the training hall where Maxwell was. When they stepped into the hall, the noticed that all the trainers were gathered in one corner, chatting with each other. They were all Barons.

"Ah, you guys are back? I was thinking you would take longer." Maxwell noticed the entry of his trainees and bid his mates farewell. He moved over to the spot where they boys had trained earlier.

"It's just the same thing that you need to do. Drink this geno fluid, and practice. You can only do this three times a day, so after this, there will be one more round to go before you can leave and do whatever you want." He explained.

"Yes sir!" Robin gave a salute, causing the others to smile.

"Your kids are surprisingly enthusiastic, Maxwell. Ours are rather bland and too serious." One of the Barons still talking in the corner commented with a smile.

"Yeah? Well, I like them like that." Michael rebutted before turning his attention back to the boys and handing them a bottle of geno solution each.

The practice session continued as usual, and after the effects of the geno solution had passed, they were handed the third dosage.

.

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"Good job, boys. You can go and rest, or explore the base. Make sure to stick to the areas where you have permission to pass. Don't get in trouble, and I will be seeing you tomorrow." Maxwell bid the boys farewell as they left the training room. They had finished all three rounds of practice, and would be free for the rest of the day.

After parting ways with their trainer, the boys began their exploration of the Black Gold base. There were many leisure spots where they could relax.

"Let's go to one of the pools. The temperature there is cool, and we can swim." Elijah suggested, examining a map of the areas they were allowed to visit.

"I want to head to one of the gardens up on the surface. I miss the sun already." Robin said.

"Where do you two want to go?" Elijah turned to face Connor and Rowan.

"The library." The two of them said at the same time.

"..." Everyone kept quiet for a few seconds before shrugging at once.

After settling on where they wanted to go, the four split up. Elijah went to the pool, Robin went to one of the gardens on the surface, while Rowan and Connor made their way to one of the many libraries that could be found in the areas accessible to them.

"It's not a surprise why I want to go to the library, but why do you want to go there?" Connor eventually asked Rowan as they made their way to the library.

"I just want to learn more about xenogenics." Rowan smiled. "We will be spending a lot of time hunting them down in order to gain merit points. I want to know all about the possible xenogenics that we might bump into so that I can start working on a response on how to take them down, or how we could best evade them if we can't beat them." He said.

"Oh, that's quite smart!" Connor snapped his fingers in understanding. "I was just going to take a look at the different books that are in the library. I have a passion for literature, especially fictional works. But I also like to read a lot of books on interstellar stuff, and other species." Stars shone in his eyes as he began explaining what he loved. Rowan dutifully listened like the good friend that he intended to be. When he was little, there were some of Eric's friends that were chatterboxes, so he had turned into an excellent listener over the years.

"Oh? My dad told me a bit about other species when I was younger, although most of it was fictional. I don't know too much about other species except for what was taught to us in school." Rowan rubbed his chin in thought.

"Ah, that stuff is too generic. They only paint the other races in the light they want you to see them in. My family has access to the galactic network. More access than most on Henan, at least. With that privilege, I was able to scour the network for information on some other races." Connor leaned in to whisper the last part.

The galactic network was the interplanetary network that linked together the immense amount of planets that had been discovered. Even if that planet was not populated and occupied, as long as it had been discovered, then it was connected to the galactic network. Most people referred to it as the Skynet as a more convenient name.

"The Black Gold Organization has a great archive of both physical and digital information concerning all this. I planned on browsing through it while I am in the library."

"Oh... Well, I guess I can put aside my own reading up on xenogenics for now. It will still be a while before I become a Noble and have to deal with them. Let's go read up on the other species." Rowan eventually decided to read with Connor after some thought.