Alex cut down a pair of Soldiers, her axe flashing through their smokey forms without pausing. A Knight came howling at her, and she blocked its descending sword. Her counterattack carved the arm from its shoulder before she shield-checked the dying Grue aside to make room. She paused for a moment as fatigue flooded through her limbs, her breath rasping with each desperate gasp.

They had run into the patrol just short of the first nest of Camps. While her team had been moving well, Alex herself had not been enjoying life nearly as much. The lack of Motion Trance had become a heavy weight of agony on her as the day wore on; she'd used to merely tolerate the times when they had rested to give Joanna the time to recover between jogs, but now she was nearly as bad off as the Adept, spending half her time just hoping the aches would leave before the next fight.

The battles had been… unsettling, to say the least. None of the Grue were a real threat to her; as she'd expected, even without Combined Arms she was more than a match for any of the creatures, fatigued or not. Yet all the same, it had felt wrong as she fought them, and not just because her arms and legs were starting to ache with each swing.

There was a gap between her speed and strength before and what she had now; each strike seemed to come just a little too late, and not cut deep enough when it landed. When she used the Storm, the wind didn't seem to push hard enough, and the lightning didn't reach as far as it should have. Her dodges took far more effort than before, and there were far more times that Clara had to heal a bruise or cut that Alex felt like she never should have taken.

It left her feeling frustrated, even as the last of the Grue in the patrol collapsed. Instead of stepping aside to let the bodies burn and moving to start collecting the remnants, Alex half collapsed to one knee and panted, trying to keep air moving into her weary lungs.

[Recovery increases to 1!]

[Focus increases to 7!]

Joanna laughed, sounding a little breathy herself. "Welcome back to the land of normal people, huh?"

Alex gave her a narrow look, even as her breathing slowed. "I still have… more Life and Speed than you, Thinker." She forced herself back up to her feet. "How long have we been here? Ten minutes?"

Sam exchanged a look with Clara. "More like fifteen. Are you sure you want to—"

He cut off as a distant, familiar howl rose over the hills. Alex grimaced. "Yeah. Let's keep going." She started walking towards the Camps. "We need to… get through the Camps before it reaches us."

Joanna spoke up as she jogged to catch up. "What if it catches us as we hit the Grue?"

Another howl rose over the other world, but Alex just glanced at Clara. The Acolyte shrugged. "Still not close enough yet."

"Then let's finish this, at least." Alex broke into a trot, trying to avoid thinking about the way her legs ached. She could hear Grue up ahead, about four or five Camps' worth. "We don't have the… time to waste."

The nest turned out to be located inside a high school of some kind. It had a decent number of facilities set in place around the main building; there was a football field with a track around it, a soccer field next to a pair of tennis courts, and a broad parking lot half-full of broken-down vehicles. In the main building itself, Alex could identify a decent-sized gym, numerous wings full of classrooms, stacked three stories tall, and a small trailer set up behind the main building, apparently to give the place some extra space.

Two of the Camps were on the football field, another was between tennis courts, and a fourth was at one end of the soccer field. More were located inside; she could see masses of Grue moving behind the windows, and sentries standing at the doors.

Her team hit the tennis courts first, smashing through the packs of Grue clustered around the glowing crystal. The creatures threw themselves at Alex and her friends, only to be cut down in waves. Alex felt her breath growing short and her arms heavy, but the enemy gave way quickly enough that the crystal began shivering to pieces long before her strength gave out.

From there, they attacked the soccer field, tearing the Grue apart with about as much ease as the ones at the tennis court. Even with the breath coming harsh in her throat, Alex still hacked her way through the crowds of Grue, destroying them as soon as they came within her reach. The others piled in alongside her, their attacks laying waste to the pack until the last of them fell.

[Focus increases to 14!]

[Objective Progress: 2 of 30 Camps destroyed.]

Alex was still wavering on her feet, her arms and legs aching from the effort of the battle, when Clara looked up and grunted. "Incoming, airborne."

She blinked and turned to see an all-too familiar sight winging its way over the tennis courts. The Shifter was in its batlike form, winging its way through the sky towards her. Fighting the ache in her legs, she straightened up. "Are we ready?"

[Additional Objective Located]

Joanna grimaced. "As we'll ever be." The Adept braced herself, closing her eyes to focus. "Clara, can you bring it down?"

"I'll shut its mouth, at least." Clara loaded her crossbow and brought it to her shoulder. "Alex, can you still take it out when it lands?"

Alex nodded, though she felt a slight hint of hesitation. Sam caught her eye and nodded, as if to reassure her that she'd have backup. She smiled and then turned her attention back to the approaching Shifter, hoping that she had the strength left to finish it.

Her heart beat louder in her ears as the thing got closer. It was immediately clear that it was aiming straight at her; she could feel it staring down at her as its wings beat, driving it a bit higher into the air.

Then it dove, its mouth already open and ready to spew poison towards the ground. Alex summoned up the Storm, ready to scatter any of the lethal stream that came close.

She heard Clara's crossbow fire, saw the bolt shoot upward. It caught the Shifter directly in the face, making it flinch backwards from the impact. Vines immediately sprouted across its jaws and eyes, blinding and binding it. The Shifter immediately jerked upwards, trying to abort its dive as it lost sight of its target.

It was too late. The dive had already brought it into Joanna's range, and the Adept reached out with her own power. Ice abruptly coated its wings, weighing the Shifter down and freezing its limbs in place. What was once a controlled dive became a much deeper plunge, one that would end in a crash right ahead of Alex herself.

Alex braced herself, watching the Shifter drop. She tensed, willing her weary limbs to be ready for the effort she knew was coming. Her focus narrowed, shifting so that it was concentrated around the motion of the plummeting creature. The Shifter thrashed, trying to beat its wings again, to claw at its face and free it from the vines. It managed a single, jerking movement that slightly altered the angle of its fall.

Her stomach jumped as the Shifter plowed into the fence surrounding the tennis courts, ripping through the chain-link as if it were paper. Pale grey smoke sprayed into the air like blood from a dozen small cuts, and Alex realized abruptly that it wasn't going to stop before it reached her. She jumped backwards and put her shield up, getting it between her and the tumbling Grue.

The impact still sent her tumbling backwards, even as she heard the Shifter's skull crack. Alex went flying backwards, her momentum a mix between her own jump and the Shifter's help. She rolled when she hit, coming back to her feet with her weapons still in her hands. Her bruises were already healing from Clara's power, and she launched herself forward.

She met the still sliding Shifter as it spent the last part of its momentum, carving a gouge in the earth. Her axe came down once, twice, three times, four. Each strike bit deep into the Shifter's skull, parting hide and cracking bone. It thrashed beneath her, the vines tearing from its face and the ice crackling from its wings.

It didn't move fast enough. Alex reared back one last time, her axe held high. She brought it down with all the strength she had left.

The Shifter jerked one last time, a reflexive twitch. Then it lay still, its body relaxing into death within what remained of its bonds.

[Focus increases to 19!]

[Objective Progress: 1 of 5 Shifters destroyed]

She took a few deep breaths, her grip loosening and tightening on her axe before she ripped it out. The body began to burn as she looked back at the others with a shaky smile. "So, how long do you think we have before the next one?"

Sam raised an eyebrow as Clara and Joanna looked at each other. Before they answered, another howl rose, and Alex grimaced. She turned towards the football fields. There was plenty more work to do.

They made it another twenty minutes before the next Shifter arrived.

At that point, they had cleared out the Camps at the fields and moved inside. When the burrowing Shifter struck, they had already cleared another two groups of Grue from inside the school itself, breaking the Camp inside the gym and another inside some sort of auditorium. Sam hit the Shifter as it tried to dig a hole beneath her in the main lobby of the school, blasting it with his mind. She killed it when it surfaced inside the wreckage of the school's offices a moment later, thrashing its way out of the school's foundations.

The third Shifter found them long after they'd cleared the Camps from the school's workshop and the science labs. They had been moving towards the next nest of Camps when it stepped out of the woods and confronted them, the lashing tail ready to strike. It was Joanna that killed that one, burning it when Alex's fatigued arms almost failed to bring her shield around in time. As the Adept's blazing sword had carved through the thing's corpse, she was forced to admit that it was time to leave.

They had changed course, running for the portal, and they'd still run into two more Shifters before they reached it. Clara and Sam had finished them off, both times when Alex had been too slow to respond. She couldn't really begrudge them the kills either, given that the alternative would probably have ended with her dead.

Clara put an additional crossbow bolt into the latest one as it burned, just within eyesight of the portal. "I think we can say that there's no chance of you coming in here on your own, and especially not with E ranks in tow. Not yet, at least."

Alex hated the fact that she couldn't argue the point, but it had been pretty explicitly proven over the past hour or two. She shook her head. "No. You're right." It seemed like every bone and muscle ached. Even as she tried to keep her breathing steady, it kept hitching with slight stabs of pain in her side. Her mental focus was just about gone, too, despite the Skill more or less reaching maximum during the last Shifter fight. "I'll just… have to stick to training."

Sam nodded. "A good idea. It might help the E ranks out a lot, too, to have someone focused on getting them ready. I know we gained a lot of levels fighting Abbott. They'll definitely gain a lot fighting you."

Joanna gave her a close look. "As long as you don't reset everything, at least."

She gave the Adept a crooked grin. "Couldn't even if I wanted to." Alex shook her head and started limping towards the portal. "Let's get home. I think… I could use some rest."

It took an effort to ignore the chuckle coming from Sam, but she managed it. Somehow.

[Mission Report]

[Priority Objective Partially Completed. +80 Experience]

[Additional Objective Partially Completed +60 Experience]

[Additional Objective Partially Completed +30 Experience]

Alex winced at the report. It had not been her worst Survey, but it definitely was a strong contrast to what she'd been seeing as a D rank. She made a mental promise to get better for the next time she entered the portal.

[Current Portal Status: Stable, Magic Level Decreasing Slowly]

[Current Portal Level: D2]

[Local Area Population: None]

She nodded and dismissed the words. It would be a long time before she got back into this portal anyway, unfortunately.

[Battle Maneuvers*** increased from 30 to 31!]

[Running increased from 0 to 6!]

[Recovery increased from 0 to 4!]

[Focus increased from 0 to 30!]

Of those, only Focus had shown a decent amount of growth, and even then it was something a bit unpleasant. She'd only really reached that level because of the fact that they'd run into so many patrols and Shifters; if she hadn't also been concentrating on trying to recover, she might not have reached the maximum still. The slow growth of both Recovery and Running were agonizing, especially given her plans. Fortunately, she still had other options.

[Combat Balance has reached level 40! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]

[Combat Balance has reached capacity for Titles. No more are available.]

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

[Reset Combat Balance to ascend Permanent Skill?]

She agreed immediately. Even if it felt a little like cheating to gain the ascended Skill thanks to its previous level, she would take what she could get—especially given the ongoing struggle of raising Battle Maneuvers.

[Combat Balance becomes Combat Balance*. Skill quality doubles. Skill will require quadruple effort to increase.]

Alex grimaced as the power and potential flooded through her, the one draining away and the other expanding. It had been a while since she'd felt it, so it was more than welcome now.

Then some more familiar words appeared.

[Focus has reached level 30! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]

[Reset Focus to gain a Title?]

She denied the option, knowing that she had plans for the Skill.

[Holy—Storm has reached level 30! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]

[Holy—Storm has reached capacity for Titles. No more are available.]

[Reset Holy—Storm to add maximum levels?]

Alex denied this option as well. She'd taken it when she had no other options, but this time was different.

Then another blast from the past arrived, and she smiled despite herself.

[Skill Chain available. Do you wish to combine Focus and Running?]

[Warning: Chained Skills lose all previous levels]

Alex denied the option. As much as it tempted her, accepting it would deny her the option of regaining Motion Trance. After all, she couldn't combine Recovery with itself. If she wanted the Skill back, she needed to get Marathoning and Meditation again. She shook her head as another unlikely option appeared.

[Skill Chain available. Do you wish to combine Holy—Storm and Running?]

[Warning: Chained Skills lose all previous levels]

As interesting as that possibility was, she denied it again. There were other plans to explore.

The option she'd been waiting for appeared, and she sighed in relief.

[Skill Chain available. Do you wish to combine Holy—Storm and Focus?]

[Warning: Chained Skills lose all previous levels]

This time, she accepted. As useful as Holy—Storm was, she was certain she could do much better with something of a higher tier. She felt the rush of power within her as the Skills shifted, and a new set of amber words appeared.

[Skill Chain unlocked! Skills Holy—Storm and Focus removed. Skill Concentrate—Storm gained! Skill Chain bonus gained! Title Sanctified upgraded to Title Dedicated (Increases Skill grade of Holy, Concentrate, Focus and Zeal Skills by five.)]

[Skill Choice available. Please select an additional Skill.]

She selected the Focus Skill again, knowing she'd need it for Meditation, eventually. It wouldn't hurt to practice leveling it up while she waited for Running and Recovery to improve, at the very least.

As the amber words faded, Alex closed her eyes. She felt like she'd been run over by a truck, but at least her friends had gotten her back home alive. That fact was something she could appreciate, even as the light washed over her…

Tollworth was waiting for them outside the portal. He was tapping his foot and clutching his clipboard as if he was ready to bludgeon someone with it. Alex grimaced and glanced back to see the rest of her team still leaving the portal. They didn't look any happier to see their employer's representative than she was.

He stalked forward, moving in his stiff, officious gait. "Surveyor Morrison, I've been informed that you have once again lessened the magic output of the portal."

Alex nodded. "Not as much as last time, but at least it should stick for a while."

His eyes flashed with annoyance. "I've been asked to remind you that your duties here are to stabilize the portal and train our recruits. As such, you are hereby forbidden to go on any more of these… stabilization missions until the energy in the portal rises to its previous level."

She started to give a sarcastic answer, but she paused. "That sounds fine with us, Tollworth. In fact, we're going to shift our schedule to provide even more individualized training for the recruits. Does that sound acceptable to you?"

The man paused, a hint of confusion in his eyes. He looked down at the clipboard as if searching for the part of the script where things had gone off course. "I… need to warn you that if you don't keep to these instructions your contract will be canceled?"

It was hard not to laugh at the sudden uncertainty in his words. She nodded again, hearing Sam's quiet snicker behind her. "We understand, Tollworth." Fatigue crashed in, smothering her amusement. "Now, if you could let us go rest?"

He hesitated for another few moments and then nodded. As he stepped aside, Alex started to limp off in the direction of her dorm. Food, sleep, and the end of another day was all that she could think about now.

The next day dawned early.

Alex groaned as she rolled out of bed. The aches in her body had faded, but they hadn't completely vanished. She'd known they wouldn't, but confronting that reality was still painful.

Her friends had been kind enough to excuse her from the evening training session, but they had also already told the trainees that the schedule had changed—which meant that the first batch of them would be waiting for her in the training yard very, very soon.

She took her time getting ready, shrugging into her uniform and cautiously stretching out her still-tired limbs. A short while later, she felt a hint of relief as vitality flowed into her muscles; the aches began to fade from her bones and joints. After a few moments, she almost felt human again.

When she made her way outside, she found the first fifteen trainees waiting for her. Sabbir's team was among them; all of them looked a little uneasy at the sudden change in schedule. Alex forced a smile. "Good morning."

Sabbir looked back at the others before nodding to her. "Good morning, Valkyrie." He took a deep breath. "We have heard that you will not be taking us through the portal anymore."

"That's correct." Alex held up a hand as despair washed over their faces. "Unfortunately, I managed to reach C rank."

Rahima frowned. "Wouldn't that mean that you would be that much better at fighting?"

Alex grimaced as her leg twinged a little. "In some ways. I'm still adjusting to it." Then she shook her head. "Unfortunately, it also means that if I take you in, there will be tougher Grue that come looking for me. I can't fight well enough to make sure that you wouldn't end up getting hurt during the fight, so instead, you'll be going in with one of the other training officers."

Musam cracked a grin. "So does that mean you'll just be relaxing, Valkyrie? That seems unlike you."

She smiled back at him. "You're right. I don't think I'd know what to do with myself. So instead, I'm going to be training each team for about twenty minutes before you go into the portal. You'll have ten minutes after the session to ask me about Skill development or other advice. Then you'll have about two hours before you go in."

Sabbir raised an eyebrow. "And after?"

"After, I'll be supervising individual training. You'll spar amongst yourselves and work on private Skills like Running or Sense for a few hours. Then tomorrow we'll do it again." Alex smiled at the expressions on their faces. "Believe me, it'll be as tough for me as it will be for you."

Sanjida snorted. "I doubt that."

Alex shrugged. "Well, the tougher you are, the better I'll learn—so I encourage you to make life as difficult for me as you can over the next few days." She walked over to where a practice axe and shield were resting and hefted them. When she turned back to face them, the trainees suddenly looked a little more reluctant to speak up.

She smiled. "Who's first?"

After a little coaxing, Sabbir's team had gone first. The five Surveyors had surrounded her and launched their assault.

Unfortunately for them, it turned out that even in her reduced state, Alex was more than capable of dancing through their attacks and landing counters. Of course, she didn't just beat on the E ranks; she had gone through enough of that with Wells to know how ineffective it would be. Instead, she tried to mimic the restraint that Abbott had always shown during their sparring sessions, pushing the E ranks just hard enough to make them reach their limits without breaking them.

It was a curious kind of balance, but one that seemed to be working. By the time Sabbir's team was done, they were already reporting that their Skills had grown by leaps and bounds, and they had been full of questions while she'd tried to catch her breath and get ready for the next fight.

Her next opponents were not quite as eager, but they still stepped up to face her without complaint. Twenty minutes later, they too appeared to be enthusiastic about the experience, battering her with questions until she sent them off to wait for the others.

The E ranks weren't the only ones benefiting, however. As she finished the third round of sparring—spinning through one last all-out assault by the E ranks and dealing a few half-strength hits and faint lightning bolts to finish the fight—she saw amber words once again appear in her vision.

[Combat Balance* increases to 3!]

[Concentrate—Storm increases to 6!]

[Focus increases to 8!]

She nodded. Battle Maneuvers probably wasn't going to show much improvement, but seeing the lesser Skills increase was still a victory. Alex had already noticed the difference between Concentrate and Holy; she had needed to be extra careful not to send the trainees tumbling across the courtyard with bursts of wind, or to avoid singing them through their padded armor with lightning. The extra power was definitely going to be useful once she faced Grue again, and she was already grinning in anticipation of the day when she'd get the chance.

As she grabbed a bottle of water and fielded a few last questions, she looked over to see another set of E ranks walking over. Joanna had apparently been reiterating the changes to them; the Adept turned to look at her as she approached. "Are you ready to keep going, Alex?"

Alex heard the faint concern in Joanna's voice, and she nodded. "Yeah. The first groups are just resting now; they should be good to go in a while." She looked at the next set. "Anyone want to volunteer to go first?"

None of them volunteered; there were none of her previous teams in this group. Feeling a little mischievous, Alex coughed into her hand and called on the Storm. A small blast of air suddenly yanked a startled Page's hand up. "There's a volunteer! All right, let's get moving and see what you can learn."

The trainees gave their companion an impressive set of glares as Alex chuckled. She heard the Page trying frantically to explain as they trudged into the training circle.

Joanna, on the other hand, just gave Alex a searching look. "Are you sure, Alex? After yesterday…"

Alex shook her head. A moment later, another set of text appeared.

[Recovery increases to 8!]

"My Skills are already increasing. I'm getting a lot less fatigued now, I promise." She smiled a little. "Thanks for asking, though."

The Adept seemed unconvinced. "As long as you're sure." Then her eyes sharpened. "And if you are lying to me…"

Alex laughed. "I promise, Joanna. I mean it."

"Good." Joanna shifted her shoulders. "I've also been asked to remind you that you promised not to go running off into the portal when we weren't looking. I think Clara would be… disappointed."

She snorted. Alex didn't entirely remember making that promise, but she didn't see the harm. If she'd been struggling to deal with Shifters with her friends backing her up, she definitely didn't want to try it without their help. "I know, Joanna. I promise."

Then she looked at the E ranks who were waiting for her and grinned. "Besides, who needs Grue when I have trainees to terrorize?" The recruits looked glum at the question, and she heard Joanna try to cover a laugh with a polite cough. Alex grinned at her again and then trotted to face the new team. Things were going well after all.

She continued the pattern of training and resting through the next four and a half hours. As she worked, the teams entered the portal with the others. Alex couldn't help but feel a hint of jealousy as they disappeared. Even with the progress she'd been making, her Skills would likely increase so much faster facing actual Grue than they would training on the outside.

All the same, she forced the thoughts out of her head and turned back to the next team of E ranks that were stepping up to face her. Nurul's expression seemed almost eager to fight her directly, though she suspected he didn't know how much she outclassed him. Alex tried not to smile too widely as she took up her position. It was time to provide him with yet another bit of education.

The training continued for the rest of the morning, with Alex slowly cycling through the majority of the teams as the Surveys continued. She finished the last round of training while the third group of E ranks were still out. As the last team of E ranks staggered away to rest, she had sighed and gone to eat lunch.

On her way to the cafeteria, Tollworth intercepted her. For once, the clipboard-wielding man seemed happy, which made her feel… less than excited. He nodded to her. "Surveyor Morrison. May I just say that I have been encouraged by our results today?"

"You are?" Alex glanced at him in surprise. She'd expected to have to deal with some new bureaucratic nonsense. Somehow, his approval felt worse than his dislike. "I'm… glad to hear that."

Tollworth nodded. "In fact, my supervisor has been happy that the casualties for this process have been so low. At this rate, we should be able to have a decent number of Surveyors capable of handling this portal, and a few others throughout our corporation. We might even be able to lease them to other companies!"

She bit back on her first response. Her uneasiness had blossomed into full-blown dislike. "They are a good group of people."

Despite the emphasis she put on that last word, Tollworth didn't seem to notice. "I've been so relieved! There were a lot of people who thought that the ISE program was not worth investing in, but this should be the perfect proof of the concept. Perhaps we can even expand on it in the coming years." He gave her an apologetic look. "Not that I can guarantee you any employment beyond the current contract, unfortunately. You understand, I'm sure."

Alex had to force her response out through clenched teeth. "Of course."

"In any case, keep up the fantastic work! As long as the portal energy doesn't drop, of course." Tollworth grinned as if he was sharing a joke with her, and Alex bared her teeth at him in something that could have been mistaken for a smile. The Brownhat Surveyor nodded again and turned off along another hallway, heading towards the area where she assumed his offices were located. She walked a few more steps, enough to let the walls of the corridor to hide her from him.

Then she stopped, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. Her mind went back to the conversations she'd had with Forsmith, and some of the frustrations he'd shared with her. They rang even more true now than they had before. She'd worked hard, all of them had, in order to keep these E ranks alive, and now the idiots behind the entire training mill were taking it as a justification to do it even more. How many people would have died if things had gone like they'd expected? Even worse, how many were going to die if they expanded it?

She shook her head, trying to clear it of those frustrations. Lunch was calling for her, and then she'd be able to do some training on her own. Maybe a run would clear her head. Hopefully.

By the time the last of the Surveys was done, Alex had long since run herself ragged. She'd spent well over an hour and a half running around the perimeter of the school, forcing herself to continue moving until her legs were nearly ready to fall off. When her breath had come short, she'd slowed to a jog and let Recovery slowly restore her, before speeding back up to pace again.

The Surveyors that had come back from the initial Surveys were already starting their own practice. They were sparring with one another all across the training area, pushing each other as they tried to get ready for the next Survey. During those times that she tried to rest, Alex waved to them and tried to shout encouragement with whatever breath she had left in her lungs.

As her friends finally came back through the portal, looking a little worn after six hours of being in the other world, Alex jogged over to them. She looked them over for wounds, and was relieved to not find any. "How did it all go?"

Joanna answered, her words a little terse. "All of them got full clears. Sixty E ranks, all now at level two." She shook her head, obviously still a little weary. "We didn't get a full clear, but that was part of the plan, after all."

Clara gave the Adept an amused look. "You're just mad that they are figuring out Skill Chains before you did. It isn't their fault that they got Alex to help them cheat a bit earlier."

Alex gave Joanna a raised eyebrow, and the Adept shrugged. The half-disgruntled expression on her face said more than enough. "So they are already doing well, Skill-wise?"

Sam nodded. "Yep. In fact, they were a lot more effective out there today." He looked at where a few of the teams were still practicing, their spells and weapons clashing against each other. "I think by tomorrow we might start seeing the first tier three Skills out of them. They might end up giving all of us a run for our money by the end of this."

Joanna grunted. "That may be a problem in the future, Alex. If Brownhat can field sixty D ranks at nearly our strength to compete with…"

Alex shook her head. "They aren't going to be competition for us for a while, Joanna. After all, we're all going to be at C rank by next week—and even if we did miss out on a few more jobs, I'd rather do that than see these people die."

The Adept sighed, and some of the tension went out of her shoulders. "I know, Alex. It's not like I want them to get killed out there, but the way that Brownhat might try to use them…"

"I know." Alex shook her head, her thoughts going back to her conversation with Tollworth in the hallway. "There has to be some way to make it so that the program fails, but the Surveyors still survive."

Sam grinned. "Well, they do seem concerned about us trying to destroy too many Camps. Maybe we can work with that."

Clara shook her head. "They aren't ready for Camp attacks yet. Not without a lot more work."

He nodded. "Yeah, I know, but once they're leveling up a tier three Skill and closing in on level three…"

Alex chuckled. "That would be poetic if we ended up starving out the portal. Too bad we can't force it down to an E rank spot without hitting an Anchor Point."

Joanna snorted. "At least you see how bad an idea that would be." She shook her head. "Let us go grab some food, and maybe we can train later. For now, though, I think we could all use a rest."

The others nodded, and Alex stepped aside to let them head for the cafeteria. She turned back to the training yards, ready to commit to yet another few laps around the perimeter. As long as the E ranks were training, she wanted them to see her working as well. It might not make them like her, but at least they'd know they weren't alone in their struggles.

Even if she already wished her legs didn't feel like lead. She shook her head and trotted out on the path again, willing herself to continue forward. Every day was another step forward, and she wasn't going to let herself be stopped now.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.