On the early morning, the sergeant roused the conscripts from sleep. Will was no stranger to such things, as his body was already used to this. He immediately clambered out of bed, even if his mind was yet to wake, his ears listened to the words uttered and his body responded naturally, but he was still half-witted from sleep. The entire survivor of those conscripted on the first day were finally started to train for real.
Everyone was groggy either from exhaustion, most were taken from the countryside, and they were no stranger to waking up so early in the morning. However they had just been through their first battle, exhaustion unlike anything else they ever experienced.
They were made to run and run hard. Men on horses, the overseers, corralled and encouraged them with the crack of their whips, their eyes devoted to any of those that needed further encouragement.
They ran in steep slopes and muddy roads.
Come the rising of the sun, more than half had either succumbed to exhaustion or too injured to move. And when the sun had reached its zenith, barely a dozen had managed to stay upright and move forward, those that lagged behind felt the frightening fury of the whips. The whips never connected but the sound was so frightening, that the men cowered from it.
Finally they reached sparse field of grass and sand. They were told to pick up wooden spears and swords and they were put to the test.
Will never like having nothing to do, and the army was a long, list of always something to do. On the first hour of dawn, they were made to do drills till they stomach retch out whatever was in their stomach, which was nothing because they had not even had their breakfast. The overseers worked them to the bone till they were unable to move, grasped their weapons, till their very hands bled and smearing the wood with their rough blood.
Those that won were to be given food. While the losers were to starve out for half the day. The losers all lied out in some corner, too weak to even move. Will was lucky he was not among them.
They all went to the nearby river to wash the mud off after they had their food. And the rest of the day assigned to various ask.
They managed to get a bit of shut eyes and was then assigned to a variety of tasks. From woodcutting, foraging, weapon cleaning and so on. There were no such things as idle hands for the conscripts, they were made to work.
It was little different than in the farm, as Will had realized just a different set of chores. For the first hour he spent but cleaning the various weapons, he got some lessons from the resident smith, who under him worked over and a dozen apprentices. It was menial labor but it kept him busy and his mind drifting.
The overseers began to notice Will's quiet focus on doing menial tasks. And when a senior Noble officer asked for some lowborn conscript to haul of his items for his assignment, the overseers recommended Will.
He was brought to the Officers Quarter, the part of the encampment that housed much of the nobles within the army's encampment. Brightly colored tents and magnificent armors caught Will's attention but he was attentive enough not to lose sight of his task at hand.