"First mission. Two months."
Professor Vance dropped the stack of folders on her desk. Every student in the lecture hall leaned forward.
"You'll enter Ashwood Dungeon. C rank. Teams of three. Your objective: retrieve essence crystals from the second floor and survive." Her eyes swept the room. "Fifteen percent of you will fail. Five percent won't come back."
Silence.
"Team assignments are final. No substitutions. No complaints." She pulled out the first folder. "Team Seven: Jayden Cross, Marcus Garrett, Cinna Vael."
Jayden glanced back. A small girl with auburn hair and nervous eyes met his gaze. Cinna. Bozo rank. Healer.
*Great. A glass cannon team.*
"Jayden's team captain," Vance continued. "You're responsible for strategy, resource management, and keeping your team alive. Questions?"
"What's on the second floor?" someone asked.
"Essence beasts. Shadow wolves, stone golems, occasionally something worse." Vance's smile was cold. "You'll find out."
She dismissed the class.
Marcus caught up to Jayden in the hallway. "We got the healer."
"I noticed."
"She's Bozo rank, man. Barely stronger than you were three weeks ago."
"Then we make her stronger." Jayden stopped at a bench. "Two months. We train every day."
Footsteps approached. Cinna stood a few feet away, fidgeting.
"Um. Hi. I'm "
"Cinna. Our healer." Jayden gestured to the bench. "Sit."
She did. Barely.
"You any good?" Marcus asked.
"I I'm okay at basic healing. Minor wounds, fatigue recovery. But I'm slow. And my range is only three meters."
"That's it?"
"I'm working on distance healing. It's just… hard." Her voice dropped. "I know I'm the weakest link."
Jayden studied her. Scared. Self aware. But she'd shown up.
"Two months," he said. "We fix that. You learn distance healing. Marcus and I get faster and stronger. We go in prepared or we don't go at all."
"You really think we can "
"Yeah." He met her eyes. "We're not dying in some dungeon because we didn't train hard enough."
Cinna's expression shifted. Something hardened there.
"Okay. When do we start?"
"Tomorrow. Dawn."
Week One.
Training ground seven. Every morning.
Jayden and Marcus sparred while Cinna practiced on injured essence beasts they'd captured. Small ones. Rabbits. Birds.
"Focus on the flow," Jayden called. "Don't force the healing. Guide it."
Cinna's hands glowed green. The rabbit's broken leg mended. Slowly.
"Good. Now from five meters."
She backed up. Tried again. The glow flickered. Failed.
"Dammit."
"Again."
Marcus slammed into Jayden with stone gauntlets. They'd been drilling manifestation combat for an hour.
Jayden's shadow blade parried. Still weak. Still flickering.
*Need more power.*
He pushed harder. Channeled more essence.
The blade solidified. Just for a second.
Marcus's next punch shattered it.
"Your manifestation's trash," Marcus said.
"I know."
"So why not train it separately?"
"Because I need to fight while using it. Not in a vacuum."
They clashed again. Jayden's speed had hit 10.2 units. Close to matching Marcus now.
His shadow blade reformed. He thrust.
Marcus blocked but Jayden saw the opening. Omni flickered in stealth mode.
**[Left side exposed. 0.4 seconds.]**
Jayden pivoted. Slashed.
His blade carved through Marcus's guard. Barely. But it landed.
"Shit," Marcus breathed. "You're getting scary."
"Not scary enough."
Week Three.
Cinna healed from eight meters.
Not perfect. Not fast. But consistent.
"I did it!" She was actually smiling now.
"Good. Now do it while moving."
Her smile died. "What?"
"Dungeons don't stand still. Neither do we." Jayden gestured. "Marcus gets hurt. You're running. Heal him."
Marcus punched a training dummy. Hard enough to split his knuckles.
"Go."
Cinna ran. Her hands glowed. The magic stretched across the distance.
Marcus's knuckles sealed.
"Faster," Jayden said. "You took four seconds. In a real fight, he's dead in two."
"I'm trying "
"Try harder."
She flinched. But nodded.
They drilled for three more hours.
By the end, Cinna could heal from ten meters while sprinting. Not perfect. But functional.
"Better," Jayden said. "Tomorrow we add combat pressure."
Week Five.
Jayden fought Elena every evening. His shadow blade had evolved.
Still weak. But stable now. It didn't flicker unless he pushed too hard.
Elena's ice clashed against his shadows. Light and dark colliding.
He was faster. 11.4 units. Almost matching her.
But she was still ahead.
Her blade came from his blind spot.
Jayden's eye pulsed red. Just for a heartbeat.
**[Behind. 0.2 seconds.]**
He spun. Blocked.
Their faces were inches apart.
"You're using it," Elena said quietly.
"What?"
"The full mode. I saw the red."
"I "
"Don't lie to me." Her voice was ice. "You're still hiding how much that eye can do."
Jayden stepped back. "I have to."
"I know." She dismissed her blade. "Just be ready. When the mission comes, you won't have the luxury of hiding."
She walked away.
Jayden stood there, chest heaving.
*She's right.*
In the dungeon, he'd need everything. Full power. No holding back.
And people would see.
Week Seven.
Marcus broke 1,000 damage units on the training dummy.
"Yes!" He pumped his fist.
His stone gauntlets had evolved. Thicker. Sharper edges now.
"Sonnet rank," Jayden said. "Officially."
"Damn right." Marcus grinned. "What about you?"
Jayden struck the dummy. His shadow blade extended, sharper than before.
**[892 units]**
Still Novice. But close to the threshold.
"Almost there," he muttered.
Cinna healed them both from fifteen meters away. Her range had tripled.
"We're actually ready," she said, surprised.
"Maybe." Jayden looked at his team. "One more week. We push harder."
"Harder than this?"
"Yeah."
Week Eight. Final week.
They fought as a unit now.
Marcus tanked. Jayden struck from angles. Cinna healed from range.
Professor Vance watched their final drill. Said nothing. Just marked her tablet.
When they finished, she approached.
"Your team improved more than any other group." She paused. "That's either impressive or suspicious."
"We trained," Jayden said.
"Clearly." Her eyes narrowed. "Jayden, your speed increased 30% in two months. Marcus crossed into Sonnet rank. Cinna tripled her effective range."
"Is that a problem?"
"It's unusual." Vance handed him a folder. "Your mission details. Ashwood Dungeon, second floor. You leave in three days."
She walked away.
Jayden opened the folder. Maps. Beast classifications. Survival protocols.
And a warning in red text:
**RECENT ACTIVITY: Increased essence fluctuations detected. Possible C+ rank threats. Extreme caution advised.**
"Shit," Marcus muttered, reading over his shoulder.
Cinna went pale. "C plus? But we're barely trained for regular C rank "
"We train for three more days," Jayden said. "Then we go in ready or we don't go at all."
He closed the folder.
Two months of preparation.
Three days until hell.
*Better be enough.*
**End of Chapter 7**
**[TEAM STATUS: Jayden (Speed: 11.4, Manifestation: Stable), Marcus (1,000+ damage, Sonnet rank), Cinna (15 meter healing range). Mission: Ashwood Dungeon 3 Days.]**