Unexpected Bonus

Deon stayed in bed for another day before finally leaving the medical tent. Once he emerged from his rest, he was immediately greeted by soldiers who all suddenly started to treat him as if he were a respected veteran. The newbies had gazes of admiration and respect, whilst the actual veterans of the unit treated him as an equal. Even the captains were now acting more casually with him.

'What's going on?' Deon felt doubtful towards this sudden change.

"Soldier Deon, it's good to see that you're up. Are you properly rested now?" Commander Reana emerged from her tent and greeted Deon promptly.

"Commander!" Deon saluted. "I'm feeling much better, thank you for letting me rest properly."

"Mm. Follow me, I need to speak with you for a moment."

Deon's heart lurched for a second. Had he been found out? No, that didn't make any sense, he would be apprehended immediately if that was the case. Then…

His eyes lit up as he realised what was going on.

"Soldier Deon, I would like to promote you to vice captain on account of your battle prowess and clear devotion to the military." Commander Reana showed a rare smile, but it just as quickly vanished, morphing into her usual cold indifference.

"Thank you commander, it would be my honour to accept!" Deon replied excitedly.

'Vice captain already…not bad.'

Vice captain was a temporary rank given to those who should be able to qualify as a captain, only their circumstance didn't allow it. In this case, Deon hadn't been enrolled in active duty for long enough to receive the rank of captain, there was a requirement to spend a minimum of one year in service before becoming a captain. There was no further time requirement to become a commander, though becoming a commander in less than two years was extremely uncommon.

Even if he had been serving for a year, Deon still couldn't become a captain just yet though. This is because he was assigned to the 37th unit, which already had a formal command structure, there was currently no space for a 7th captain.

Deon knew that becoming a vice captain was rare. It also symbolised his potential; anyone able to become a vice captain within their first year of service would almost always reach the rank of commander eventually if nothing unexpected happened!

Suddenly, Deon had an idea.

What if he reached the rank of commander in a single year?

A commander…this was a highly esteemed rank, commanders had much more freedom than captains and soldiers. Take Commander Reana for instance, whilst she had been ordered to occupy this spot on the mountain, how she handled the matter was entirely up to her own discretion.

Not only that, but even if they didn't understand her actions, would anyone in the 37th unit dare to question her?

If Deon had this sort of freedom where nobody around him would even think to question his actions, he could only imagine how much he could achieve in a short period of time.

Well, reaching the rank of commander so quickly was not common at all, there were only one or two instances of this happening in the history of the kingdom. Deon thought about each of these exceptions.

Both of the men that had reached the rank of commander after one year were able to do so because they ascended to become 2-Star shamans. They were both nobles and had practiced as shamans for years beforehand, so upon entering the military, they quickly rose up the ranks.

Deon didn't have this kind of background, but he did possess sufficient talent, he would definitely make rapid progress as a shaman.

At the end of the day, power was still the most important. Someone could work hard for years, accumulating merit and achievements in the military, but unless they became a 2-Star shaman, they would never ascend to the upper echelon. A 2-Star shaman was all but guaranteed the rank of commander, even becoming a lieutenant was just a matter of time and work.

It wasn't so easy to become a general though. Just being a 2-Star shaman wasn't always sufficient to become a general.

Deon was pulled down from his daydream by Commander Reana's continuation.

"Good. We will hold a makeshift ceremony later today, but for now, let's go through a few more things…"

Besides the rank of vice captain, Deon was also given 1,500 merit points. His eyes bulged slightly at that number, but quickly calmed down and realised that it made sense when he thought about it.

For one thing, 250 of those points were a reward for his vice captain promotion.

Aside from the promotion, he had killed more than ten shaman soldiers and a peak stage 1-Star enemy captain. Not only that, but he was also a part of the group that discovered the enemy's hideout and uprooted them before they could pose a threat, even risking his life to finish the job.

The commander didn't say it explicitly, but Deon knew that he was also being compensated for all of the spirits that were found in the cave and on the dead Fan soldiers' bodies.

Unfortunately, he couldn't spend all of these merit points right now, since they were both near the top of a mountain and stationed within what was soon to become an active war-zone.

However, outside of his expectations, Commander Reana was actually willing to provide Deon with one of the spirits that he needed.

"Think of it as a personal promotion gift, a congratulations for reaching the rank of vice captain. I don't need it anymore and was planning to give it away soon anyway."

Just like that, Deon obtained the hardened organs spirit for free! This spirit was relatively cheap anyway, it could even be bought in the academy shop and was worth two drop spirits.

Deon had never forgotten that he needed to build up his body and eventually use all of the mythril class body tempering spirits to improve his talent. This was a slow and arduous process which couldn't be rushed though, each lower class spirit needed to be used before using the higher class versions, or else his body could easily sustain severe damage.

The hardened organs spirit sat in his soul space peacefully and unmoving. It looked like a small kidney and passively used the origin energy in his soul space to strengthen Deon's organs without him doing anything.

This spirit would take a full year to show the complete effect. Using this spirit which only had a mild effect would be considered a waste of space by some, but Commander Reana simply thought that Deon was trying to better protect himself after being stabbed in the stomach.

Later that day, a brief ceremony was held to appoint Deon as a vice captain of the 37th unit. As a commander, Commander Reana had the power to make this decision for her men. To become a full fledged captain would require the acknowledgement of a Lieutenant or someone of equal or higher standing.

It may seem strange for an eleven year old to become a vice captain in the military, but the standards in the spirit content were far removed from those on earth. In the Kingdom of Restari, you were considered an adult at 15, but being an adult wasn't even a requirement to join the military for those competent genius shamans.

Deon had both the strength and the bearing that made him entirely able to handle the role of vice captain. And besides, the vice captain position was more of a status symbol than anything, he didn't really have much actual authority besides being the best candidate for group leader when they were exploring the mountain in smaller groups.

For now though, Deon wasn't exploring the mountain like before. Over the past three days, most of the surrounding area had already been surveyed. The soldiers sent out were mostly just patrolling the area, whilst everyone else was working on fortifying this base camp.

Commander Reana recognised that erecting defences wasn't the best use of Deon's time, so she allowed him to train. This also applied to anyone who had a decent chance of breaking through their realm and reaching the next stage during the following few months.

A week passed by without much happening. The camp was expanded and guards were posted at smaller checkpoints, such as the cave discovered by Deon and his group. If they encountered any enemies, they were to fire off a single rifle shot into the air and quickly return to camp before getting into conflict.

They unexpectedly encountered no trouble in this time period, giving everyone a false sense of peace and security. Nobody truly believed that such peaceful times would last however, everyone remembered how eight members of their unit had already lost their lives miserably in a single conflict.

As expected, the peace didn't last for long. On this day, a messenger arrived at the 37th unit's camp with an order from headquarters, alongside some recent intel. This message was delivered to Commander Reana, but she immediately called the captains and Deon into the command tent to explain.

With the information, they were given a map. This was a map of Jing Mountain, pointing out every key location, occupied by both enemies and allies, within two miles of their own camp. On this map, half a mile South East from them, there was an x marked, this was their target.

They were to engage in their first large scale battle against the Fan Kingdom!