Chapter 94| Dex’s problem hidden with fortune

Chapter 94: Chapter 94| Dex’s problem hidden with fortune

Zane lay on his bed looking at the ceiling for two minutes.

Then... "Hey Dex."

"Hm," Dex said. Not turning around.

"Earlier," Zane said. "This morning. When I asked about your girlfriend."

Silence.

The laptop screen flickered. Dex hadn’t moved.

"That smile," Zane said. "That wasn’t your normal one."

Another long pause. Long enough that Zane thought he was going to let it go and they’d move on. The fake smile would then get filed under things they didn’t talk about.

Then Dex closed the laptop.

Turned around.

Looked at Zane with the easy energy completely gone for the first time since Zane had moved into this room.

What was underneath it was quieter. Older. The specific look of something that had been carried for a while and had learned how to be carried without showing.

"Okay fine," Dex continued."There was a girl".

Zane said nothing. Just let the space exist.

"Second year of my hero track," Dex said. "We did field assignments together. She was an A-rank. Had a kind of Barrier Formation sigil." He looked at the desk. "Not Pris. Someone else. Before Pris joined the squad."

"What happened," Zane said.

Dex was quiet for a moment.

"Field assignment went entirely wrong," he said. "Intel was incomplete. Happens more than the NSA reports say it does." He paused. "She got hurt. Badly. Retired from the hero track. Moved back to her family."

Gerald wheezed.

"You still talk to her," Zane said.

"No," Dex replied. "She asked me not to." A brief pause. "Said it was easier that way."

Zane looked at the ceiling.

’Easier,’ he thought. ’The specific kind of easier that costs the other person more than they let on.’

"Is she the reason you kept going," Zane said. "After what happened."

Dex looked at his desk.

"Partially," he said. "You don’t stop because something went wrong. That’s not how this works." A pause. "But yeah. She’s part of why I take the field work seriously now."

The room was quiet.

Gerald wheezed.

Zane looked at the ceiling.

’Dex,’ he thought. ’Who names heating vents and updates hentai walls and eats noodles at 2:45 AM. Carrying that the whole time.’

"You’re actually something else man," Zane said.

Dex looked at him.

Then the corner of his mouth pulled slightly. Not the easy energy version. Something smaller. More real.

"Don’t tell Torre," he said.

"Torre would probably already know," Zane said.

Dex stared at him.

Then... "Yeah," he said. "Probably."

He opened his laptop again.

The easy energy didn’t fully come back. But something else settled in the room that was different from what had been there before. The specific texture of two people who had exchanged something real and had both filed it under permanent.

Then the system surfaced quietly.

『 Dex — Familiarity +8% 』

『 Current: 70% — GENUINELY CLOSE TIER UNLOCKED 』

『 Impact Breaker ceiling update pending — new threshold available 』

Zane stared at the notification.

’70%,’ he thought. ’Dex just crossed the genuinely close threshold.’

Then he felt it.

A warmth spreading through his right hand. Not painful. Not dramatic. Just.. present. Like something shifting at a level below the skin. The specific sensation of something that had been operating at one ceiling suddenly finding room to move.

Then...

Ding!.

『 SIGIL UPGRADE INITIATED 』

『 Impact Breaker — C-rank → B-rank transition in progress 』

『 Upgrading... 』

Another warmth. Deeper this time. Running up his forearm.

『 IMPACT BREAKER UPGRADE COMPLETE 』

『 Previous status: C-rank — 90% output 』

『 New status: B-rank — 20% output 』

『 Host has successfully leveled the Sigil to maximum threshold allowed by current target familiarity. Further output increase requires continued familiarity growth or system intervention. 』

『 PERKS UNLOCKED: 』

『 Shockwave range increased: +0.8 meters → New maximum range: 4.2 meters from contact point 』

『 Activation speed improved: +0.05 seconds → New activation speed: 0.74 seconds 』

『 Daily quest resumed: New target activation speed 0.70 seconds 』

Zane sat up on his bed.

Looked at his right hand.

’B-rank Impact Breaker,’ he thought. ’At 20% output. C-rank was 90% and now it’s B-rank at 20%.’

’That’s actually how tier upgrades work,’ he thought. ’The rank resets at the bottom of the new tier. 20% B-rank is still stronger than 90% C-rank.’

The system surfaced.

『 Correct. B-rank 20% output exceeds C-rank 90% output by approximately 30% effective force. The ceiling has significantly expanded. The system notes daily quests has resumed. New activation speed target: 0.70 seconds. 』

’B-rank Impact Breaker,’ Zane thought again. ’Ironclap is going to lose his mind, how would he take it if he knows his original hard earned sigil has been surpassed by someone that can copy sigils, ironic isn’t it.’

Across the room Dex was still at his laptop. Completely unaware that the Sigil he’d been carrying since before he arrived at Aldren had just upgraded in someone else’s hands.

Zane looked at his palm.

’Elegantly structured,’ he thought. ’And the daily quest is finally back.’

The system surfaced.

『 The system notes the host missed the daily quest. 』

’Don’t push it,’ Zane thought.

Gerald wheezed.

He looked at Dex still at his desk. Laptop open. Something on the screen now that he was actually watching.

’Ironclap,’ Zane thought. ’Running Impact Breaker at whatever his actual ceiling is. Carrying a retired A-rank hero in his history and showing up every day anyway.’

’Genuinely something else,’ Zane thought.

He looked at his palm one more time. Then across the room.

Dex had reopened his laptop. The easy energy slowly returning the way it always did after something real had been said and both people had decided to let it settle.

"Hey," Dex said calling Zane’s attention. "You haven’t noticed my new wallpapers since the weekend."

Zane looked at the wall.

He’d been so occupied with everything. Sunday, Maren, the system upgrade, Dex’s story. That the wall had existed entirely in his peripheral vision.

He looked at it properly now.

"I thought it was the old ones," Zane said. "You know, your usual big boobs standard collection. But looking at it now I can see these aren’t worn out."

"Freshly printed," Dex said. With the specific pride of someone who had spent his pending allowance exactly as he’d planned.

Gerald wheezed.

Zane switched positions on his bed.

’At least he’s returning back to normal,’ he thought. ’That’s the Dex I know.’

Gerald wheezed.

’B-rank Impact Breaker,’ he thought. ’And a fresh hentai wall. My monday is definitely complete.’