Lowly Ascent

In the East, lay a city with walls 6 stories high. However, this city was nice on the outside but horrid on the inside.

As Cain's carriage entered the city after paying a toll, he saw streets filled with garbage, with burn barrels acting as light for passerbyers, and disgusting alleys filled with corpses.

The city was as far as the eye could see, terrible.

Even the sky above the city was foggy and the streets were covered in a thick smog that smelled like rotting corpses and excrement.

It was not even half the size of Free City but was 100 times worse! Even Cain wasn't used to such a scene, he promptly hurled out the window just because of the sheer amount of uncleanliness and filth that remained in the streets.

Others in nearby carriages also had similar responses.

As they went deeper into the city, the trash receded but what replaced it was gates and checkpoints.

After the checkpoints, were clean streets. Yet this didn't make Cain happy one bit. The area they entered was filled with luscious buildings and extravagant facilities, the area itself must have cost millions of silver to build!

This city was split into rich and poor, the area Cain entered was only available to the rich and nobles of the empire.

The hardworking middle class couldn't live here which meant they were stuck living in that pigsty Cain saw before!

'How is this city even operating in these conditions!'

He was furious at such blatant corruption and mistreatment of human lives, though his anger quickly died down as Cain had no right to talk about the treatment of human lives. His thoughts were hypocritical.

This still didn't stop Cain from holding contempt for this system that was blatantly taking advantage of the common people.

He still needed to settle down and begin his work, but how was that going to be possible for a merchant, who didn't have enough money to cater to nobles?

A crime lord might work but Cain had second thoughts as he suspected the criminals were organized under nobles, seeing as they could get away with running such a city. 

Cain's mind worked rapidly as his thoughts increased and his brain gave off a light purple hue

'With a system that drains wealth from its people while keeping the people subservient, there was only one way for it to work. The people must worry about something more than the nobles, something more close by.'

This would be organized crime. Cain was confident that nobles were using criminals to keep the populous in check.

If that was the case then getting involved in crime would lead to the nobles taking notice, which he didn't want.

This meant Cain had to join the government, either a non-military or military-related branch. To Cain, the choice was obvious. He had to choose the military.

In the military, he could rise the ranks faster due to the start of the war which allowed him time to train in the many skills he wished to take up and improve.

'Risk for reward, it's the most basic type of exchange!'

In this case, he would have to kill to progress, though he was fine with killing as long it led to the eventual end of killing itself.

Cain would do anything it takes to make the world better. However, human greed knows no bounds and to fix such an inherent flaw, a lot was needed to even begin.

'If I join the military, I would need to show a bit of my abilities, as long as I don't overdo it, I shouldn't get noticed.'

Cain quickly entered an inn to ask where to sign up for the military before heading back the way he came.

The military held its headquarters as well as most of its power in the city between the area of the rich and poor, where checkpoints were located. It was to protect the nobles and allow them to have full control over who and who didn't enter the real part of the city as the poor section was just that awful.

Cain was directed by guards as he navigated this section of the city, it was like a poorly made maze that was impossible to navigate. He had to repeatedly ask for help from those on duty.

Of course, most of Puffrid's real military power was on the front lines of the war, the kingdom of Puffrid held more than 25% of Netherane which meant a lot of resources could be given to the military, and the cities under Puffrid didn't get to have 5% of the total military force.

For the other parts of Netherane under the control of different factions, the Union previously held 15% before its destruction.

The Empire holds the most, around 30%, the rest belonged to dangerous areas and places of no interest.

The war at the moment is focusing on the 15% that is now held by no one.

After a bit of navigating through the maze, Cain found the Headquarters of the military in Peoria. It was a big square building made of stone and brick, it had pillars holding up the entrance and the surroundings had something similar to barbed wire.

Upon entering, Cain saw many people running around with papers in a hurry, it seemed that this was also the place where intelligence was sorted before going to a different branch. Cain ignored the chaos and walked up to the front desk.

"Excuse me, is this where I can sign up to join the military?"

The clerk was sorting papers and was surprised by Cain's presence. "Sign up? Hon you don't have to do that here, just go to a random booth in the outer city"

"I don't want to have to walk through there," He replied flatly.

"Oh...well you do look like a noble, but nobles usually join through their families so they don't have to sign up at a recruiting booth"

Cain scratched his head as he made up an excuse. "My family was destroyed, we were based near Free City..."

The clerk looked at Cain with pity while lightly shaking her head.

"I'm sorry to hear that hon, just fill out this paper and go outside. When you leave, to the right, a ways down is the barracks where recruits are sorted out and sent to different locations, if you're a Grade 2 plague doctor, you can captain a squad, same goes for a middle-low rank augmenter. If you're none of those, you'll be a foot soldier"

The clerk gave the full run down, since Cain was a noble, there was a good chance he fit one of these requirements so she gave him a full explanation.

Although most nobles did not fit these requirements, the clerk was witty, if Cain was the only surviving member of his family, he must be worth something.

Cain filled out the application, he was then given a paper and sent to the barracks. It took him a while before he found them and entered.

Inside were ten youths standing at attention before a grizzly middle-aged man, he looked like he was chewing and spitting them out by all his screaming.

"You maggots! You may be born with a silver or even a gold spoon in your mouth but you're not men! I will make you men! I will make you weaklings crumble and make you build yourselves again! Do you hear me!"

"YES, SEARGENT!"

"Dismissed!"

Cain walked through the recruits and handed a note to the sergeant.

"Sir, I'm here to join the military"

The man looked at the paper before looking back at Cain and handing it back.

"You don't look like a pup, boy"

"I survived the siege of Free City"

Many recruits gasped, not able to control themselves, even the sergeant grew wide-eyed before regaining his composure.

"Then you have one tough shell, join the rest. We head out in a few months"

"Ah sir, what do I do with my servant and carriage?" Cain asked. 

"That? They can come with you, use them to travel and whatnot. We usually have people take care of them at military camps like for these weaklings behind you"

Cain smiled and thanked the sergeant before finding a bunk and getting situated.

'How fast and easy. The war effort must be going full throttle.'