Chapter 16

The next day Sam woke up in his hospital bed with ever single part of his body aching, the day before all he had felt was tiredness and yet today it gave place to an insane pain, it felt like each of his muscles was perpetually electrified with a taser.

He couldn't help but groan out loud and when he did he realized he wasn't alone in that room and everybody was looking at him.

The room was relatively big and could accommodate around 20 beds while leaving enough room between them for the nurses to come and by freely.

Sam looked shyly at everyone as he thought he had woken them up and muttered:

"I'm sorry."

But his voice was extremely hoarse because of thirst, he looked around his bed but there was no water and he wasn't able to stand to get it himself so he started looking for the button to call a nurse, as soon as he was about to press it the guy on the bed next to him stood up and said

"No need to bother the nurse, you want a drink ? I'll grab one for you !"

Sam looked at him surprised, why was he so nice ? But he didn't mind and instead smiled and said:

"Thanks a lot, just water will be enough."

Sam's mood was lifted by meeting a good person, he had grown up as a poor orphan and nobody cared about him except Edward and his family so he was particularly sensitive to people being nice to him.

Soon the guy was back with a small glass bottle of water, the bottle was cold in Sam's hand and similarly to old plastic bottles that weren't used anymore to conserve the natural resources of the planets that humans had conquered this bottle was extremely flexible, for a human in the 21st century this would have been a weird thing but to Sam it was extremely normal.

He opened the cap and took a sip, the cold water humidified his mouth and then slid down his throat and made him feel extremely relaxed, what made him feel weird however was that once again everyone in the room was staring at him !

He felt too shy to say anything for a long minute before he cleared his throat and said:

"Uhm... is there something wrong ?"

This time everyone else realized that they had been staring and they felt apologetic, soon the guy who had went to buy water to Sam said:

"How did you kill that grade two midnight cat alone ?"

His eyes were sparkling as if he was looking at his idol and he acted just like a kid by throwing his punches and kicks in the air while imagining the scene.

Sam finally understood what was happening, it was too dark at night for him to see the faces of the soldiers who were beaten by the beast and just now realized he had been put in the same hospital room as them, suddenly he felt a lot more relaxed as they were also soldiers.

"I wasn't alone, my friend and that grade three soldier girl also fought with me."

"No need to be modest, we all saw Ella's recording of the fight ! She had her holographic lenses recording everything and sending it right to her cloud but she had forgotten about it and remembered only later, everyone in the army already knows about what you did !"

The guy said with a big smile while everyone smiles at him, although happy about the recognition he was having Sam couldn't help but feel shy when they all looked at him like that.

"Uhm... thank you."

That's all he could think of saying, to begin with Sam had never been someone really extroverted and he had a very small amount of friends : Edward. So when so much people looked at him, asking him questions and stuff he very fast felt overwhelmed.

Sara who was also in the room looked at Sam with curious eyes, there was a hint of relief on her face tho and she asked him:

"How are you alive ?"

Sam had never seen Sara as he was being followed sneakily since the beginning so he didn't understand her question and thought she was talking about the midnight cat so he just answered:

"I was lucky to have two strong teammates who helped me kill the beast."

Sara understood she hadn't been clear enough and added:

"Not the midnight cat, that time with the ruby rat."

Sam finally understood, after meeting with the big group of examinees being escorted by a senior soldier he understood that there must have been more soldiers who had that task given to them and she was probably the one who was following him, he thought about it and answered vaguely.

"I fell into a hole in the pool and woke up in a cave, then I just kept hunting."

He wasn't a good liar so he decided it was best to just say less and she wouldn't realize anything but she looked very suspicious, she added straight away:

"What about the blood in the pool?"

"That was the ruby rat's."

Everyone looked at Sara and finally she gave up on probing further, to be honest she didn't even need to but she just wanted to satisfy her curiosity.

Sid who had his arm in a cast smiled slightly and said:

"When I saw you fighting that ruby rat I never imagined you would be this strong, you even have a skill ! Your family must be loaded."

Sam didn't think it was necessary to correct him and just smiled, he looked at his side where a pouch was lying with all 48 grade one cores he had hunted in four days, he wanted to use them right away to cultivate and climb towards the grade two of evolvers but he had to keep them and use them as proof of his clearance of the examination two days later.

During the next two days Sam became closer with the other soldiers and started making friends with some of them, especially Sid. Even though he looked cold and distant; as soon as he got to know you he was extremely talkative and friendly!

Everyone felt admiration towards Sam and they all treated him well, during these two days Sam got so much admiration and friendliness that he felt completely overwhelmed and didn't know what to do, after spending a whole day with these guys he would feel as tired as if he had hunter for a whole week !

Finally Sam was able to stand up alone even thought he still felt week and came the day of the examination's end, Sam who was aiming for the Elite corps felt a little bit dejected but still went anyway.