Chapter 9 009
The afternoon training session was mandatory for all students regardless of rank. Every day between two and four, the academy required each student to log a minimum of two hours in their designated training zone. Attendance was tracked and absences without valid reason resulted in point deductions from the overall ranking score.
Kael arrived at the physical training zone exactly on time.
The moment he stepped through the gate, the atmosphere shifted. Students who were already mid-session slowed their training and watched him enter. Some moved subtly to the far end of their platforms. Others pretended not to notice while clearly noticing everything.
He ignored all of it and walked to the weighted training section.
The heaviest barbell loaded on the rack was two hundred kilograms — the maximum standard weight available in the physical zone. It was typically reserved for Platinum ranked physical enhancement users. Kael had never touched it before today.
He stepped up to the bar, set his feet, and gripped it with both hands.
He pulled it off the rack cleanly and pressed it overhead in one smooth motion.
It felt like lifting a chair.
He completed twelve reps, re-racked it without noise, and pulled up his quest log.
TING!
[DAILY QUEST UPDATED]
[Lift a total of 500kg: Reward 8 Attribute Points]
[Progress: 200kg — 1 of 3 sets completed]
He loaded more weight onto the bar. Then more. By the time he finished his third set the bar was bending slightly under the accumulated weight and a small crowd had gathered twenty meters back, watching in near silence.
TING!
[Lift 500kg Quest Completed! +8 Attribute Points]
He racked the bar and moved on without acknowledging the crowd.
Next he went to the sprint track and ran fifteen kilometers at a pace that had the few students training on the same track stepping off to the sides to avoid being caught in his draft.
TING!
[Run 15km Quest Completed! +8 Attribute Points]
He stopped at the edge of the track, breathing steadily, and distributed the sixteen new points immediately.
Five into Strength. Five into Speed. Six into Agility.
[Strength: 25]
[Speed: 25]
[Agility: 20]
The difference was immediate and tangible. When he rolled his shoulders and shifted his weight from foot to foot, the ground beneath him felt different — like he was coiled rather than simply standing.
One quest remained for the day.
Spar against a Platinum ranked opponent.
He looked around the training field. After what happened in the cafeteria that morning, no Platinum ranked student was going to volunteer. He would need to find another way.
"You've been at it for forty minutes straight."
Kael turned.
Zane Holloway stood a few meters away with a water bottle in one hand and his training jacket slung over his shoulder. His expression carried the same measured calm as always.
"You came back," Kael said.
"I train here every afternoon," Zane replied evenly. "You're the one who came to my zone." He looked at the bent barbell still sitting on the rack and then back at Kael. "That's Platinum level output. Your official rank is still Bronze."
"It won't be for long," Kael said.
Zane was quiet for a moment. Then he set his water bottle down on a nearby bench and pulled his training jacket back on.
"I'll spar with you again," he said. "Properly this time. No holding back on my end."
Kael studied him. "Why?"
"Because I'm entering the tournament to win it," Zane said simply. "And if you're going to be in my way I want to understand exactly what I'm dealing with before we meet on a platform in front of the entire academy."
It was the most straightforward thing anyone at this academy had ever said to Kael. No mockery, no politics, no hidden agenda visible on the surface. Just honest competitive calculation.
Kael respected it.
"Alright," he said.
They moved to the nearest empty sparring platform. The students already gathered nearby shifted their position to get a better view. Word traveled fast and within minutes the crowd had doubled.
Zane settled into his stance. Kael stood opposite him, relaxed.
This time Zane did not hold back from the start.
He activated his speed burst immediately and crossed half the platform in a fraction of a second, driving a sharp right hook toward Kael's temple.
Kael's upgraded Reflex fired before his conscious mind processed the movement. He rolled his head back, let the punch skim past his jaw, and countered with a straight left to Zane's ribs.
BAM!
Zane absorbed it and spun away, resetting with impressive composure.
He came again. Three rapid bursts of speed in alternating directions, each one launching a strike from a different angle. Left body shot, right uppercut, spinning elbow.
Kael blocked the body shot with his forearm, ducked the uppercut, and leaned back from the elbow by a single inch.
The crowd was completely silent.
Zane reset again, breathing harder now. His eyes had changed. The evaluating look was gone. In its place was the focused intensity of someone who had stopped testing and started competing.
"Your reflex is faster than this morning," Zane said.
"I trained this afternoon," Kael replied.
Zane came again, this time combining his speed burst with a feint sequence that was technically the cleanest thing Kael had faced since waking up with the system. Left feint, drop step, right knee drive, transitioning immediately into a clinch attempt.
Kael read the feint, sprawled his weight back to deny the knee, then caught Zane's reaching arm and redirected his momentum, sending him stumbling two steps past.
Zane caught himself at the platform edge and turned back.
For the first time, he smiled. It was small and brief but genuine.
"You're going to cause serious problems in that tournament," Zane said.
"That's the idea," Kael replied.
TING!
[Spar Against a Platinum Ranked Opponent Quest Completed! +15 Attribute Points]
[BONUS NOTIFICATION]
[Repeated high quality sparring sessions detected.]
[NEW PASSIVE ABILITY UNLOCKED: Combat Adaptation — Lv.1]
[Effect: After sustained engagement with a single opponent, user begins passively reading and adapting to their movement patterns, reducing effective reaction time against that specific opponent by 15% per exchange.]
Kael read the notification without letting his expression change.
Combat Adaptation. It meant the longer a fight lasted, the more dangerous he became. Every exchange was not just practice — it was data his system was absorbing and converting into pure advantage.
He looked at Zane across the platform with new appreciation.
Sparring him regularly would make both of them sharper. But it would make Kael sharper faster.
He distributed the fifteen new points. Five into Strength, five into Speed, five into Bravery.
[Strength: 30]
[Speed: 30]
[Bravery: 15]
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
NAME: Kael Voss
LEVEL: 3
HP: 40/40
TALENT POINTS: 20/20
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 30
Speed: 30
Agility: 20
Bravery: 15
Reflex: 20
TALENTS / ABILITIES
Talent Detector (Lv.6)
Lightning Speed — Cost: 5 Talent Points per use
Talent Drain
Dark Cannon (Lv.1) — Cost: 3 Talent Points per use
Talent Resonance (Lv.1) — Passive
Combat Adaptation (Lv.1) — Passive
OPTIONAL QUEST PROGRESS
Reach Level 5 before the tournament: Level 3 of 5
Zane stepped off the platform and picked up his water bottle. He drank slowly, glancing sideways at Kael.
"Same time tomorrow?" he asked.
Kael stepped down from the platform and picked up his jacket.
"Same time," he confirmed.
Zane nodded once and walked away toward the far training zone.
The crowd that had gathered began to disperse slowly, students murmuring among themselves. Kael caught fragments as they passed.
"He kept up with Zane Holloway the whole time—"
"Did you see that elbow dodge? That was inhuman—"
"What rank is he now? He can't still be Bronze—"
Kael tuned them out and started walking back toward the academy building. The sun was beginning to drop toward the western edge of the sky, turning the training fields a deep amber.
He had two weeks and six days until the tournament.
He was Level 3 with Combat Adaptation now running quietly in the background of every exchange, building its database with each session.
Two more levels to unlock the hidden talent slot.
He thought about Lena Park eating alone in the cafeteria. He thought about the robed figures gathered around a table of candles in a darkened mansion somewhere in Oak City, one of those candles now burning when it had been dark for years.
And he thought about Master Harlan, the old man who had pressed a small black orb into his hands on his deathbed and told him it would only activate when he was truly ready.
It had activated at the edge of a nine story rooftop.
Kael wondered sometimes what the old man had seen in him that nobody else ever had.
He intended to find out.
