Zion stood up from the couch, stumbling forward for a few steps.His entire body felt numb and weak, though the pain had faded away completely. But most of all, his mind felt utterly exhausted.
"How long was I gone for?" he asked, scratching his stomach.
[Host’s breakthrough took exactly two days, four hours, and twenty-three minutes,] Uriel responded cheerfully.
"That long, huh," he said, closing his eyes for a mont as he felt his stomach rumble.
He paused for a mont, quickly taking out the rcenary Guild’s interface to order so food to his room.
"By the way," he mumbled, throwing himself onto his bed. "How is Koru?"
[He’s fine,] Uriel said, a hint of hesitation in its voice. [But he’s very impatient.]
Zion let out a soft sigh, a small smile appearing on his face.
"I’ll go et him once I’ve eaten sothing... and slept a little."
As he waited for his food, the scenes from the mory fragnt replayed in his mind. Everything up to the final monts had been completely the sa.
’That final mont,’ he thought, staring at the ceiling of his room. ’How did the scenes adapt to the changes?’
The nanosuit had shown him it couldn’t fabricate faces of people he had never seen there. Yet the final sequence hadn’t existed in his mory at all.
[The suit adapted,] Uriel said calmly. [It studied your mories closely, noting the behavior of each and every person as accurately as possible.]
"Ah," Zion let out, closing his eyes for a mont. "And then it produced a new scene from there."
[Yes, though it couldn’t factor in the strength of the people in the stands and such.]
He nodded slowly. "I figured."
So of the people present had A- and B-rank strength, yet none of them had jumped him.
Zion laid peacefully on his bed with his eyes closed, nearly dozing off while waiting.
Finally, an order of freshly cooked at was delivered to his door, setting off the alarm on his rcenary card.
"Ugh," he muttered, pushing himself off his bed.
He quickly opened the door, grabbed the food, and closed it again.
The amazing aroma coming from the E-rank Bristlehorn deer at entered his nose imdiately, overwhelming all the exhaustion for a short mont.
As he dug in, Uriel’s voice echoed through his mind.
[Host, if I may ask,] it started calmly. [Are you planning to test out your new weapons today?]
Zion shook his head, his mouth stuffed full.
"No," he said between chewing. "We’ll do that after resting up and speaking with Koru."
[Noted.]
After a few minutes, Zion had completely devoured his al.
He stood up slowly, holding his stomach as he walked over to his bed.
Finally, he threw himself under the covers, falling asleep nearly the instant his head touched the cushions.
Hours flew by in silence as he slept peacefully.
[Host,] Uriel’s voice suddenly echoed through his head.
"Uh?" Zion’s eyes slowly opened to the sound.
[Koru is getting restless,] Uriel said again. [It would be wise to visit him before sothing happens.]
Zion sat up slowly, rubbing his head as a light headache subsided.
"Koru?" he muttered, staring out in front of him. "Right."
[You’ve slept for eleven hours straight,] Uriel continued, voice soft. [That makes it over two and a half days since you last saw him.]
Zion nodded, getting up from his bed imdiately.
It didn’t take long before he’d changed clothes and knocked on Koru’s room on the opposite side of the corridor.
The door hissed open after a few seconds, a large stone giant greeting him.
"Zion!" Koru said enthusiastically. "You’re finally awake!"
Before Zion could even respond, Koru continued loudly.
"I can feel you’ve grown stronger," he said, nodding with a grin. "Does that an we are leaving this planet soon?"
Hearing that, Zion simply smiled.
"Yes," he answered. "I’ll search for a good mission to take as soon as possible, and then we can go."
Koru tilted his head, stone brows furrowing. "Then do it now," he said. "Staying here feels wrong."
After a brief pause, he added, "And I am very bored."
Zion let out a chuckle, shaking his head lightly in disbelief. "Alright, give a couple of hours and we can leave."
"That sounds better," Koru nodded, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.
After talking a little more with him, Zion left and went straight for the training room on the sa floor.
’Uriel, if you can search for a well-paying mission,’ he thought. ’I’ll go check out my new weapons.’
[Affirmative,] Uriel responded cheerfully. [I’ve already had the rcenary Guild restock our supplies while you were breaking through.]
’Good,’ Zion thought, nodding approvingly as he swiped his card to the personalized training room.
The door slid shut behind him, sealing the training room completely.
Zion stepped forward, his gaze sweeping across the wide, empty space. Reinforced walls surrounded the room, the floor beneath his feet layered with thick impact plating.
He stopped at the center of the room.
"Uriel," he said calmly. "Can you show my current status up to C-rank first?"
[Affirmative,] Uriel replied.
A holographic image popped up in his eye instantly, revealing several familiar progress bars.
[Neural Synchronization Rate: 21.9%]
[Physique (Augnted): 9.3%]
[Bone Integration: 6.2%]
Zion stared at the image for a mont, raising an eyebrow. A lot of things had changed compared to last ti.
’The muscle integration bar is gone,’ he thought. ’Instead, there’s bone integration now.’
He paused for a mont. "Care to explain, Uriel?"
Uriel didn’t waste any ti.
[Host has completed muscle integration during the breakthrough,] Uriel reported. [To advance to C-rank, nanobot density within the bones must reach the required threshold, allowing gradual reinforcent.]
Zion nodded slowly. "What about the augnted thing?"
[With muscle integration complete,] it continued. [The upgrading of muscle strength is now counted under your Physique.]
He let out a quiet breath.
"Alright. So, enough to do in the future," he said, the holographic display fading from his vision as he dismissed it. There was no point staring at percentages any longer.
He rolled his shoulders once, then stepped forward.
"Now that that’s out of the way," he said, "let’s see how much my weapons have changed."
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