Training Commences II

He turned back to look at who had stopped him. Then he saw a large man placing cuffs on the hands of another man. He wasn't the one being stopped.

'Seems he's a security officer.' Luke said to no one and continued to walk toward the source of the mana.

He arrived at a bare field about eighty yards wide and packed with people at the center. One after the other, they walked towards a circular object at the center of the field and then vanished. It was a portal.

A portal was a means of transportation that took a person to a predestined place. Using a portal meant arriving at a location you want. But it had a serious toll on first-time users. The device distorted space to bring its user to a certain location the user wishes to go.

Going through distorted space for the first time made users nauseous. Many users ended up unconscious or vomiting the first time. Using a portal was very expensive even though the transport was almost instantly accomplished.

So most people that continuously used portals as means of transportation had wealthy backgrounds or were people of high importance like high-ranking military officials and Chosens.

"Next." One of the guards shouted and someone from the crowd walked out. The guard inspected his ID card and handed it back to the owner.

"Please go ahead." The guard spoke and the person who had just been checked moved forward. Another guard ran a full body check and when they found him clear, they urged him to move forward.

"Twenty golds for usage." The third guard, the one closest to the portal, spoke and the person who had walked forward handed him twenty gold coins.

"Get in." He spoke to the man and he walked into the portal and vanished soon afterward.

The process repeated itself again and again.

"Next." The guard at the front shouted and another man walked forward. From afar, Luke could see his brown hair, his pale skin, and eyes. He seemed tired.

He handed his ID card to the guard and the guard inspected it. He looked at the card, then looked at the man. He repeated it a few times.

"Hey, Bhorig, bring the scanner." He spoke to another guard with a square-shaped machine in his hand.

This was the first different case since Luke had gotten here. He looked closely at what was happening. The guard with the card took the machine from the guard named Bhorig and placed the card on it. It showed something Luke was too far away to see but by the look on the man's face, Luke could tell it didn't go well.

"Why are you here? What do you intend to do if you pass through the portal? You know you'll die if you pass through it and yet, you intend to pass through?" The guard asked question after question, not giving the man a chance to answer.

"I'm tired of it all. Can't I just die in there?" The man finally lost it and yelled at the guard.

"I'm afraid we'll have to restrain you for your safety." The guard replied, taking out a cuff.

"Try catching me then." The man dashed past the guards towards the portal. Despite his presumed tiredness, he was swift. He rushed to the portal and when he was close, he smiled. He could finally rest in the bosom of eternal sleep once he passed this portal in his front.

"I'm really tired of this." Someone sighed, and the man turned his head, looking for the person. "Crazy people will always be crazy. Just get arrested and make our job easier for us." The same person spoke again.

When he finally saw the person standing at the front of the portal, a cold sweat covered him but he had already started and couldn't back down now. He rushed at the person.

"Ahhhhh!" He yelled as he approached the guard.

Bang.

The guard hit him and he saw the face of the guard before he fell unconscious.

"Take him away." The guard ordered and two others picked him up, cuffed him, and took him away.

"Check their IDs all at once. I'm tired of checking one by one." The head security spoke to the others. "If they all turn out to be fake and attack, I'll take care of them." He encouraged the guards.

"I won't say it twice. If you know you're using a fake identity, just turn back now and we'll forget this ever happened. But if you're caught during the search, I'll deal with you personally." He spoke to the crowd of about two hundred people.

"Commence the search from behind so there'll be no room for escape." The head guard ordered and the search began. Before they arrived at the back, quite a few people bolted. They were using fake identities and feared being caught. Some who believed they wouldn't be caught stood firmly.

They moved back to the front at a slow pace after checking the identity and searching the bodies of those at the back.

He's an imposter." One guard shouted.

"This one too." Another guard shouted. The people who had been tagged as imposters ran into the midst of the others in the front.

"Those who have been checked at the back, please walk to the left." The head guard called out to those at the back.

"Start the search all over on the rest." He shouted.

The ones that had been searched walked to their left. Luke had been hiding by a huge dumpster at the left and the moment they got close to him, he dashed into their midst. He wasn't seen by the guards and the people were too nervous to notice someone had joined them.

'My luck's pretty good today.' Luke was happy.

"Please step forward at once." The head guard ordered Luke's group and they walked toward the portal.

"Please pay the transportation fees and move towards the portal." A guard came forward to the group with a helmet in his hands. They each dropped their twenty golds in the helmet and walked towards the portal. Luke also dropped his fees.

While behind the dumpster, he had taken out more coins from his bag to make his fees complete.

They arrived in front of the portal and Luke was among the last people to arrive.

The head guard activated the portal but because they were more than one, it took a bit longer to teleport them all.

"Captain Sordein, quickly stop the one with a black backpack. I don't remember seeing him when we searched the back." One of the guards shouted.

Before they could get close to Luke, the group teleported.

"Dammit, we missed him. I'm deactivating the portal since I'm really mad now. No one is going through this thing until all your identities are validated." The head of the guard called captain Sordein was visibly red from rage. He was trying to make things easy for the travelers but they took him for granted and now, one even escaped his grasp.

"Report this to all units in the area they were sent. Damn, we didn't even get a good look at him. All we know is that he wore black clothing and carried a black backpack. Just report that to them and let them worry about catching him." Sordein shouted at another guard.

"Yes, captain." He replied and dashed towards a small tent not too far from the portal. He wrote a letter, placed it in a small box and it vanished. It was a teleportation device for transporting small items used in emergencies like this one.