Sanchez felt as though he were dreaming. If his daily training had not left his whole body aching, he would certainly have thought it was nothing more than a beautiful dream. But the feeling that his body was falling apart told him clearly that he was not dreaming.
He had become the oldest Card Adept among all the recruits. Every day, he could feel the strange looks coming from those around him.
Still, he did not care. He had long since grown accustomed to such looks. He simply trained diligently every day. He knew that whatever their reason for accepting him, he needed to give it his all.
He had no grand ambitions, nor did he want to prove himself. Truthfully, sometimes even he did not understand why he worked so hard. Perhaps it had simply become a habit.
As for the training, their current daily routine was completely different from every kind of training he had encountered before.
What they did most each day was actually physical conditioning and formation drills. The Card Adepts around Sanchez grumbled constantly. They had never heard of a Card Adept needing such enormous amounts of physical conditioning and formation drills.
But these fellows only dared complain in private. No one dared voice their complaints openly. Their instructor, the young man who had interviewed Sanchez, was truly intimidating.
It was not that his individual combat strength was particularly great, but that he possessed an imposing presence-a presence that compelled obedience!
Of course, there was never any shortage of unruly rebels among Card Adepts. Yet without exception, those fellows met miserable ends. At the slightest sign of trouble, they were immediately thrown out.
Large numbers of Card Adepts were kicked out every day. Some hot-tempered fellows flew into a rage when expelled and tried to