Chapter 107| A Different Atmosphere Entirely

Chapter 107: Chapter 107| A Different Atmosphere Entirely

Room 714. 11:15 PM.

Zane pushed through the door.

Dex was face down. Boots still on. Gerald wheezing at his standard interval. Torre was not present. Probably in his own room apparently having won the argument with dex tonight.

Zane set his bag down quietly and sat on his bed.

The system surfaced.

『 Overnight processing initiated — Bond depth recalibration in progress 』

『 Bond depth recalibration complete — updates will be delivered at minute intervals starting from now 』

『 Current bond depth: 58% — 2% from next threshold 』

『 System Note: Thursday was noted. The system is processing. Rest well. 』

’Rest well,’ Zane thought. ’The system giving me sleep advice now.’

He lay back.

Gerald wheezed.

Dex muttered something about a sandwich.

Zane closed his eyes and let nature take its course.

_ _

Zane arrived at the training grounds five minutes early for once. He was well suited in his training gear, bag dropped at the edge of the pad before Maren had finished her stretch.

He checked the time on his communicator. 6:20 AM Friday. He took note.

Maren was mid-stretch when he arrived. One arm pulled across her chest, the focused patience of someone who had been here long enough that the warmup was as deliberate as everything else.

She looked up.

Their eyes met.

The Friday morning version of whatever Thursday had made them.

They both gestured with hand waves and went to their respective businesses. It was already some sort of routine for them.

He picked his bag, took something, then dropped it and moved to the wall.

The system surfaced.

『 Daily Quest — Impact Breaker activation speed 』

『 Target: 0.70 seconds 』

『 Current: 0.72 seconds 』

『 Reward: +0.01 seconds per completion 』

『 Milestone reward: HIDDEN — unlocks at 0.70 seconds 』

"Another day, another daily quest." He muttered in a lone tone.

He pressed his palm flat.

Impact Breaker — B-rank 20%.

The shockwave rolled through the composite surface. The wall doing its work. The reps coming clean and methodical the way they always did at this hour.

At twenty reps Maren called water break.

He walked back to the pad.

She was already sitting. Her water bottle open, the fitted training gear doing what it always did in this corner at this hour and showing no signs of retirement. She looked at him as he sat beside her.

"Daily routine done?" she said.

"Almost." He looked at the wall. "Few more reps after."

She nodded. Drank. The easy silence of two people who had shared a Thursday and had come back to their corner on Friday morning without needing to make a thing of it.

He went back and finished his remaining reps.

『 DAILY QUEST COMPLETE 』

『 Impact Breaker activation speed: 0.72 seconds → 0.71 seconds 』

『 Progress to milestone: 0.71 / 0.70 seconds 』

『 Milestone reward: HIDDEN 』

’0.71,’ he thought. ’One more day.’

He walked back to the pad.

Maren was standing now. Water bottle back in her bag. The specific pre-drill posture of someone about to resume their session.

Then she looked at him.

"How about a game," she said. "Been a while."

Zane looked at her.

’We always know how Maren’s games end,’ he thought. ’Someone loses a favour or their dignity. Usually both.’

"What kind of game," he said carefully.

"First to touch the other person wins." She said it with the flat delivery of someone presenting a training exercise. "No reward. Just training. We both try to make contact while dodging the opponent."

He thought about it.

’Seems reasonable,’ he thought. ’Touch-based evasion drill. Practical application of speed and reaction time.’

"Fine," he said.

She looked at him.

"Start," she said without delay.

She burst forward immediately.

Overdrive. He clocked it at roughly 50% output from her movement speed. Fast. Controlled. The chain activation running clean the way it always did.

He activated in sync.

Overdrive — 50% C-rank output.

His body dialed up to the familiar frequency and he sidestepped her first approach cleanly. Her hand passed his shoulder by a margin that was closer than comfortable.

She reset. Came again. Different angle this time. The arc approach, the one he knew better than anyone because he’d drilled it himself.

He dodged again.

She pulled back and looked at him.

"You’ve grown a lot." Something between assessment and genuine surprise in her expression. "Early days you couldn’t match this speed."

’Early days I wasn’t running your Sigil,’ he thought.

He said out loud."Training I guess."

She narrowed her eyes slightly. Then."Okay. Full throttle."

He felt it before he saw it. The air displacement came half a second ahead of Overdrive at maximum output. Her chain activation at full capacity. The speed differential jumping noticeably from 50% to 100%.

She dashed forward.

He tracked the approach. Calculated the gap.

’Looks like I’m going to lose this one,’ he thought. Then everything henceforth occurred in slow-mo.

The system surfaced immediately.

『 And who said so?. 』

『 Bond depth recalibration complete. 』

『 Bond depth 40-70%: +20% increased output to Sigil of choice 』

『 Bond depth 70-100%: +30% increased output to Sigil of choice 』

『 Current bond depth: 61% — +20% output unlock available 』

『 Select Sigil of choice. 』

’Isn’t it obvious,’ he thought. ’Overdrive.’

『 Overdrive selected. Applying +20% output bonus. 』

『 Overdrive output ceiling update: C-rank 90% → C-rank 110% 』

『 Note: Output exceeding 100% on a C-rank Sigil initiates tier upgrade sequence. Overdrive — C-rank → B-rank transition triggered. 』

『 OVERDRIVE UPGRADED — B-rank confirmed 』

『 New output ceiling: B-rank 10% 』

『 Window: 8 seconds maintained 』

Zane stared at the notifications for half a second.

’B-rank Overdrive,’ he thought. ’Just like that.’

He activated Overdrive in accordance — B-rank 10%. He wouldn’t risk losing.

The surge hit differently from anything C-rank had produced. The quality of it sitting at a completely new ceiling.

He sidestepped her approach completely.

Clean. The gap wider than any previous dodge in the session.

He moved inside the closing gap and her hand passed his arm by millimetres.

She Stared at him.

"That’s my most full power," she said. The disbelief sitting openly in her expression for once. No calculating stillness, just the genuine reaction of someone whose ceiling had just been matched. "Are you cheating Zane?"

He held her gaze.

"He looked at her steadily. "No. I swear."

She kept going anyway.

’Maybe it’s time to wrap this up,’ he thought. ’Classes will start soon.’

He activated both simultaneously, the first time since the drill.

Impact Breaker — throttled to C-rank equivalent 50% output. Overdrive — B-rank 10%.

Controlled. No need to bring the full ceiling to a training drill.

Two B-rank Sigils running in tandem.

He placed his hands backwards. Impact Breaker firing through the contact and pushing him forward while Overdrive ran through his system naturally stringing his speed and reactions into something cleaner than either alone.

He closed the distance before she could register the change.

Both hands caught hers.

Held them.

"Maren." His voice even. "It’s enough."

She looked at her hands in his.

Then at him.

Her face cycled through three expressions in under two seconds. Disbelief, recalibration, something that landed on the specific look of someone whose model of a person had just been completely revised.

"Zane." Her voice came out slightly different from usual. "Are you sure you’re the same person I knew."

He held her gaze.

Smirked.

"Yes," he said.