How To Survive A Calamity-Chapter 233 - 232: Aftermath [1]

The weekend bled into a new week, and Aegis Academy slipped back into its first-year curriculum as if nothing had happened.

Despite all their efforts they couldn't to hide the things that weren't okay much longer without suffering even more backlash

The Dungeon Incident had nearly crippled the school's reputation. No amount of damage control could fully hide the cracks—so instead, they decided to pretend the cracks weren't there.

Or rather… force them shut.

"Get your arses moving, you little shitheads!!"

And that's how I ended up sprinting under the blistering sun, lungs on fire, with a demon in an instructor's uniform screaming murder behind me.

Not that I was suffering alone.

The track field was a battlefield—first-years in gym gear, red-faced and gasping, each one fighting for breath.

Gym class.

The cursed hour.

Today's joint session had one goal for us fresh meat: run until your legs hate you, then run some more.

The field was massive—easily four times the size of a standard track. But Aegis wasn't a standard academy, and its students weren't exactly mundane humans either.

Everything here, from the training grounds to the cafeteria meals, was built to match Awakened standards. Even something as "mundane" as running laps was scaled to near-military extremes.

One lap around this oversized ring? Doable. Two? Manageable. Three or four? Painful, but possible.

But twelve?

That was murder—no matter how you looked at it.

Or—

At least, that's what I would've whined about back when I was still Mortal Rank like the rest of my classmates.

Huff…

Since my recent rank-up, though, everything had changed. My base stats, my stamina, my speed—they'd all seen a serious boost. I wasn't the same runner I was a month ago. Not even close.

It was nothing like leveling up a few times. A Rank Up was something far more substantial—leaps ahead of the small, meager gains that came with regular level-ups. Sure, I'd always gotten more value out of each level than most, but this… this was on another scale entirely.

Still, even with that boost, keeping up with this torture was brutal. I'd lost count of my laps after seventeen.

"Move those legs, you little twerps! Heck, even my grandma sucks ass better than you maggots!" the bald-headed, demon-voiced instructor bellowed from behind.

I blinked. Was that really something an instructor should say to their cadets?

Apparently, after everything that had happened, Aegis was hell-bent on pushing us harder than ever. No mercy, no breaks— we already had enough of that—just pure, unfiltered hell.

"Damn… isn't it supposed to be winter or something? What the heck is up with this sun…?" The raspy voice of a male cadet—clearly on his last legs—pulled me out of my thoughts.

He looked half-dead, tongue lolling out, dark brown hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. His arms hung limp at his sides as he stumbled forward—calling it running would've been generous. Honestly, I was worried they might just fall off.

But he wasn't wrong.

I tore my eyes off him and tilted my head back toward the blazing sun. My brilliant idea of staring straight at it lasted about half a second before I flinched away with a hiss.

We were supposed to be at the tail end of fall, but winter this year seemed to be dragging its feet— ironically, just like many of us here right now.

The sun, unfortunately, looked perfectly content in its throne high above, showing no intention of moving anytime soon.

Well… maybe the wind's a little colder, I thought, though the idea drifted away as my legs carried me on autopilot.

Among the parade of sweat and despair that was my classmates, I spotted a few familiar faces. And even in this misery, there were still the monsters—cadets like me—who seemed just as unfazed as ever.

"Another one!" the instructor barked, his voice dripping with disdain. A wave of groans—and outright sobbing—rippled through the ranks.

Most of the cadets looked one step away from meeting the reaper. Someone really should up on those kids.

Meanwhile, Ceres Walker powered ahead like a runaway freight train—already a full lap and a half ahead of everyone else.

The beautiful, enigmatic silver-head hadn't even broken a sweat despite the blistering heat. At this point, I genuinely questioned whether it was fair to place someone like that in our class.

Deandra was among those keeping pace near the front, though compared to the inhuman force that was our Rank 1, she was clearly struggling. I knew better than to mock—or underestimate—the stamina and grit of our venerable class rep, but next to Ceres, her efforts looked almost human.

After all, Ceres was two ranks higher and an entire Realm above her in power.

'Well, Deandra also seems like she's on the threshold of Mortal Rank.' a close observation had me able to tell. She wasn't far from breaking through like i have.

And she wasn't the only one.

Alexander, that bastard, had shockingly broken through to Eta Rank as well at some point during these past few days.

I don't know why i didn't see that coming.

No.

I don't know why I assumed those around me wouldn't be Ranking Up anytime soon like i did. I've been too stuck in my own world and matters to actually calm down and look at my peers.

I guess i was wrong. Some of these guys did have interesting talents and potentials, after all.

Damn... There really was nothing special about me.

The realisation kinda hurt...

Sigh.

Maybe I'll start paying more attention to my classmates and those around me after all.

And so, running a dead lap...

I made a casual mental note to myself.

"Barff!!"

After a few more grueling laps—and a few more unfortunate cadets who ended up throwing up, or worse—Gym Class finally came to an end.

"Pathetic!"

The instructor's glare swept over us—his bald head flashing like a polished warning under the searing winter sun—before he finally waved us off. This text is hosted at ⓝovelFire.net

My lungs felt scorched, every breath dragging like sandpaper through my chest. Sweat stung my eyes as I tilted my head back, shielding them from the blinding light, praying the wind might cool the furnace my body had become.

Despite how i may have sounded leisure, this shit wasn't easy.

But...

"It's over... fuuu..."