Chapter 411:Survivors.

Chapter 411: 411:Survivors.

The timer reached one minute, then the pressure decreased, completely gone without much of a warning. He nearly stumbled because his body had been compensating for resistance that suddenly wasn’t there.

The rings stopped and Ravenna caught herself with one step.

The chamber doors opened.

Several remaining candidates exhaled loudly.

Silver rolled his shoulder, bad idea, pain travelled through it.

Ravenna immediately noticed.

"Your shoulder."

"It’s fine."

"You just made that face."

"What face?"

"The one you make when something hurts and you’re deciding whether pretending it doesn’t will somehow make me ignore it."

He flatly looked at her.

"That’s a very specific way of putting it."

"I’ve had almost a week to become familiar with it."

He smiled.

An instructor entered.

"Candidates will proceed to recovery station before combat assessment."

He started toward the exit.

The instructor looked directly at him.

"Candidate Ruddington, medical review is mandatory."

He stopped.

"I didn’t say I wasn’t going."

"You looked like you were considering it."

Ravenna smiled.

"He was."

He stared at her, feeling betrayed.

"Whose side are you on?"

"My own."

She walked past him. He laughed and followed after her.

The recovery station occupied the next section of the evaluation complex. Medical personnel checked blood pressure, core stability, physical strain and signs of energy depletion before allowing candidates into the combat phase.

Ravenna sat first.

Her readings were excellent with only elevated fatigue and moderate core strain; nothing concerning.

The medic handed her a small recovery dose.

"Take it."

She looked at the medicine.

"Necessary?"

"Preventative. Pressure above your registered threshold places unusual strain on the core even when you feel stable. You have combat assessment next."

She drank it.

The medic moved to Silver. His examination took longer.

The woman frowned while reviewing his readings.

"You were injured recently."

He nodded.

"Yesterday."

Her head rose.

"Yesterday?"

"Most of it has healed."

"I can see that. I’m asking why you participated in extended pressure evaluation the day after sustaining this much trauma."

He glanced toward the observation window.

"They told me to."

The medic stared.

He smiled.

"That sounded less intelligent after I said it aloud."

Ravenna folded her arms.

"Much less."

The medic examined his shoulder.

He winced.

"There."

"Muscular strain and residual tissue damage. Your ribs are still healing. Nothing appears reopened."

He relaxed slightly.

"Good."

"That doesn’t mean you should behave as though you’re fully recovered."

She nodded immediately.

Silver looked at her.

"You don’t need to encourage her."

The medic handed him medicine.

"Drink."

He did.

Another small vial followed.

He stared at it before taking it.

"More?"

"Core recovery."

Silver drank that too.

The medicine spread warmth through his body.

He leaned back.

And that was when something occurred to him. There has been no prompt since he woke up.

Silver’s expression changed slightly. He waited, still nothing. The system had been upgrading since yesterday.

He focused inward.

Usually that was enough but nothing appeared.

He frowned.

Still offline?

He remembered the final message.

[System Upgrade: Synchronization in Progress.]

That had been yesterday.

He had slept an entire night.

Silver wasn’t particularly worried yet. The system had explicitly told him it was undergoing a full upgrade after completing Stage One. It made sense that something larger than an ordinary function unlock could take time.

Still... He had become accustomed to it. The silence felt strange.

Ravenna noticed him staring into nothing.

"What?"

"The system," he whispered to her.

Her expression sharpened.

"What happened?"

"Nothing... That’s the problem."

Ravenna waited.

"It’s still offline."

"Since yesterday?"

"Yes."

"Can you open anything?"

Silver tried.

"No."

She frowned.

"Did it say how long synchronization would take?"

"No."

"Then why are you surprised?"

Silver looked at her.

"Because systems normally have the decency to include loading percentages," he whispered back harshly.

Ravenna stared.

Silver smiled.

She shook her head.

"If it told you it’s upgrading, let it upgrade."

"That’s easy for you to say."

"You survived most of your life without it."

"So did you."

"I still am."

He paused, then smiled.

Fair.

She stood.

"And you have a combat evaluation without it."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Are you challenging me?"

"No."

She picked up her sword from the equipment rack.

"I’m reminding you that you know how to fight."

He watched her walk toward the next hall, then stood. That was another fair point.

The simulated combat assessment was nothing like the wilderness examination Antony had described.

This was concentrated performance.

The enormous combat hall could be reconfigured into different environments using movable structures, automated barriers, mechanical targets and reinforced terrain sections. Each candidate entered alone while instructors observed from elevated rooms.

A briefing appeared.

[COMBAT ASSESSMENT]

[OBJECTIVE: PROTECT DESIGNATED TARGET.]

[SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: NEUTRALIZE HOSTILE ELEMENTS.]

[EVALUATION: COMBAT CONTROL / ADAPTABILITY / RESOURCE MANAGEMENT / TARGET PROTECTION / DECISION-MAKING.]

Silver read it.

A mannequin-like simulated casualty stood behind him.

He looked toward it.

"So you’re my responsibility."

The countdown began.

3

Silver drew the academy-issued handgun.

2

His other hand rested near the sword provided to replace the one he’d lost underground.

1

[BEGIN.]

Three targets emerged.

Silver immediately fired.

Phantom Draw Lv4 showed immediately His weapon cleared the holster smoothly, his first target acquisition nearly instantaneous.

Bang.

The first target went down and the Second was already moving.

Bang.

Third accelerated but Silver easily tracked it.

Bang.

Center mass.

No system prompt followed, that still felt strange. More targets appeared, mechanical this time.

They were fast, one moved directly toward the simulated casualty.

Silver Short-Stepped.

Space folded and he appeared between them. His sword came free.

Space Slash.

The attack crossed the distance and split the target in half. Another projectile launched from his blind side.

Spatial Sense was already active.

He turned before seeing it but didn’t dodge.

A spatial barrier formed.

The projectile struck distorted space and deflected away from the protected target.

In the observation room, an instructor leaned forward.

"Defensive spatial application."

"High energy cost."

"Yes, but look at placement."

The barrier had protected both Silver and the objective. He released it immediately since there was no reason to maintain the drain.

Another wave appeared.

Instead of teleportation, he moved normally this time.

He used cover and conserved ammunition. A mechanical attacker attempted to flank but he sensed it, turned and fired twice.