Jelani stared at the mission screen floating in front of his face for a long moment.
"Ten pushups for Level 1 Body Refinement," he read aloud slowly. "Ten pushups for Level 2. Ten pushups for Level 3. Ten pushups for Level 4."
He looked up at nothing in particular, blinking.
"That's it?"
{That's it.}
"Ten pushups."
{Are you going to keep repeating it or are you going to do them?}
Jelani looked down at his hands. His back still ached from where the wolf had torn into him, and every time he twisted wrong a sharp spike of pain reminded him that he was not, by any measure, in good condition. But ten pushups. He had done ten pushups before. He had done ten pushups as a child without thinking about it.
He got down onto the ground, placed his palms flat against the dirt, and started.
The first one hurt. His back screamed at him and he gritted his teeth so hard he tasted something metallic. The second one was worse. By the third, sweat had broken across his forehead and his arms were shaking — not from exertion but from the effort of breathing through the pain without crying out loud.
He finished the tenth one and collapsed face-first into the dirt.
For a moment nothing happened. Then he felt it.
It started in his chest — a warmth. It spread outward along his limbs, down through his fingers and toes, and then it crashed through him like a wave. He gasped. His vision went white.
DING.
Mission Complete: Do Ten PushupsReward Granted: Level 1 Body Refinement
He barely had time to register it before the warmth surged again, sharper this time, and his body began to change in ways he couldn't quite describe. His muscles didn't get bigger — not visibly, not yet — but something underneath them shifted. Like his bones were being remolded.
DING.
Passive Mission Progress DetectedPushup count toward Mission 2: 10/10Reward Granted: Level 2 Body Refinement
"What—"
DING.
Pushup count toward Mission 3: 10/10Reward Granted: Level 3 Body Refinement
DING.
Pushup count toward Mission 4: 10/10Reward Granted: Level 4 Body Refinement
Jelani was on his back now. He didn't remember rolling over. The sky above him was pale and early-morning grey, and he was lying in the dirt next to a fire that had burned down to embers, and his entire body felt like it was on fire and also like it had never felt better in his entire life.
{Stop making that face,} the system said. {You look like you're dying.}
"I might be," Jelani wheezed.
{You're not dying. You're Level 4 Body Refinement. Most people your age spend two years reaching Level 4. You did it in approximately forty seconds.}
He stared at the sky.
"That's insane."
{Yes. That is, in fact, the point.}
He sat up slowly, testing himself. The ache in his back was still there but it was already different — duller, less urgent, like a wound that was days into healing rather than hours. He raised one hand and clenched his fist. He could feel the difference. He couldn't explain it precisely but he could feel his body was much stronger.
He stood up. He did not wobble.
"Level 4," he said quietly.
{Level 4,} the system confirmed.
He thought about the city. He thought about the disciples walking around in it, Level 3 and Level 4 practitioners who had killed his father because they could, because no one strong enough had been standing nearby to stop them. He had been Level 0 then. Less than Level 0. He had been nothing.
He was Level 4 now.
He looked back at the mission screen.
Seventy more pushups until the milestone.
He cracked his knuckles, dropped back down to the ground, and started counting.