The doctor who had examined her gland was a Beta, while the one now in charge of Zoe Pierce’s external injuries was an Alpha.

Her body was scanned on the medical bed.

No external injuries were found.

The Alpha doctor quickly scanned Zoe Pierce’s various data points, but his brow furrowed when he reached the spiritual power section.

Zoe Pierce had already sat up. Seeing the Alpha doctor’s expression, she grew a little nervous. She glanced at the screen, adjusted her clothes, and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Your spiritual power fluctuations are a bit abnormal. Have you been exposed to some sort of stimulus?" He pointed to the curve on the graph; the fluctuations were too active to be ignored.

Zoe Pierce suddenly recalled how incredibly smooth her spiritual power had felt just moments before. After a moment’s hesitation, she described the traumatic experience she had endured in the ruins.

At that moment, the few people who had been watching from behind the glass partition pushed the door open. "Excuse me, is there a problem?"

The moment the tall, well-built Alphas stepped inside, the once-spacious room immediately felt a bit cramped.

Adrian Chapman stood at the front and addressed the man, "Old Man Vincent, is something wrong with my student?"

The Alpha doctor pushed up his glasses. "There’s a slight issue with her spiritual power. I recommend we redo her Comfort Level assessment."

Adrian Chapman was taken aback by this unexpected turn of events, especially since he knew that as a doctor, Old Man Vincent wouldn’t make baseless claims.

He glanced at Zoe Pierce, but saw no surprise on her face. In fact, her calm demeanor made it seem as if they were the ones overreacting.

"Then I’ll leave it in your hands," Zoe said. She had a faint inkling, and this was just a chance to verify her suspicion.

Determining an Omega’s spiritual power rating wasn’t difficult; the technology was well-established. It only took about twenty minutes for Zoe’s new results to come in.

Her Spiritual Power Level had risen from A-level to S-Class.

Everyone was stunned by the result—everyone except Zoe. When she saw it, she knew her intuition had been correct.

While comforting Chase Shaw earlier, she had felt how incredibly smooth her spiritual power was.

"If I remember correctly, your Spiritual Power Level went up before because of that mine collapse." By a strange twist of fate, she’d been in a similar situation, and it had stimulated her spiritual power once more.

’From any angle, Zoe Pierce’s case is an extremely valuable case study.’

’But throwing her into another place on the verge of a mine collapse just to see what would happen would be far too inhumane. Still, it made one curious... could her spiritual power grow to S+?’

Dr. Vance looked up and, as expected, caught Adrian Chapman’s warning glare.

’He saw right through me.’

’So fiercely protective.’

Dr. Vance smiled and gave a surrendering shrug. It was just a thought.

Seeing that Dr. Vance had received his warning, Adrian Chapman withdrew his gaze. That was how it was with old friends; sometimes, a single thoughtful glance was enough to know exactly what the other was thinking.

Zoe Pierce’s spiritual power growth had been an accident from the start, and this time was no different.

This should be a good thing for her. With her spiritual power nearly on par with that of the entire Alpha squad, providing comfort would be much smoother.

They were thinking about Comfort Levels, but Zoe’s mind was on something else entirely. ’This means my spiritual power mimicry will be even easier to use.’

’To put it simply, I’ve gotten stronger.’

’Is my spiritual power on the same level as Miles and the others now?’

’Does this mean my individual combat strength can match theirs?’

Zoe turned to look at Miles and the others, but quickly threw a bucket of cold water on her own excitement.

’My spiritual power might have caught up, but in reality, I probably still have a long way to go, especially with basic physical conditioning and Body Techniques.’

’Those things take time to build. There’s no way a few months of practice can compare to Alphas like Miles and the others, who have been training for over a decade.’

’And I can’t even begin to compare to the physical conditioning of professional soldiers.’

’But I have my spiritual power to make up for it.’

’Spiritual power is like being a Mage, and physical prowess is like being a warrior. I feel like I’m a warrior-mage now, cultivating both. The effects might not be obvious in the short term, but they’ll show over time.’

’As long as I persevere, I’ll definitely succeed.’

First, she doused her own hopes with cold water, then she gave herself a pep talk. Zoe’s mindset shifted perfectly.

When it was time for her scheduled gland examination, her expression was even more serious than it had been during the check for external injuries.

She had to be. She’d suffered enough because of it.

The gland examination took longer than the spiritual power assessment. With Adrian Chapman present, Chase Shaw and the others were forced to wait outside, unable to go in.

This time, even Erin had to wait outside.

The Beta doctor wasn’t Dr. Lancaster, whom Zoe had seen before, but another doctor she didn’t recognize. She was also a female Beta, looked a bit older, and she meticulously and gently went over all of Zoe’s data. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Then, she stated with certainty, "Your gland has fully recovered to the level of a normal Omega. Once this temporary mark fades, you will begin to experience heat cycles like a normal Omega, so you’ll need to be mindful of that."

"However, I can’t determine your cycle just yet. Once it stabilizes, it can be managed with regular inhibitor injections or a temporary mark."

"If you feel your body growing hot, accompanied by... certain urges toward Alphas, then you can be fairly certain it’s the start of your heat."

Fearing that it had been so long that Zoe might have forgotten what a heat cycle felt like, the doctor offered a simple description.

Zoe didn’t react much to the first part, but when the doctor mentioned having "certain urges toward Alphas," her expression wavered slightly.

She gave the doctor a slightly skeptical look, which successfully made the normally deadpan woman pause.

The two women stared at each other. Not a word was spoken, but they both understood perfectly.

’Right. The word itself was clear enough, but the doctor still had to describe it to make the meaning even more... vivid.’

For a moment, all Zoe could do was nod obediently.

Seeing this, the doctor took the hint and let the matter drop.

Zoe headed for the door, her thoughts turning to what a Beta doctor had once said about her glandular defect.

’From a certain point of view, Alphas and Omegas seem to have inherited the genes of wild animals.’

’Only Betas are free from this sort of trouble.’

’They’re the ones who are like normal humans.’

’But all things in the universe follow their own rules. They were given this flaw, but they were also given an incredibly potent spiritual power.’

’An equivalent exchange.’

When she walked out the door, she saw the group of people waiting for her.

Since this concerned her gland, Adrian Chapman couldn’t be as direct as he’d been about her spiritual power test and just ask to see her report. He simply asked, "Are there any issues? Do you need your teacher to help with anything?"

Zoe shook her head and smiled at Adrian Chapman. "No, everything’s fine. Thank you, sir. It’s all normal."

She was speaking to Adrian Chapman, but deep down, everyone else let out a small sigh of relief.

Compared to Nina Hayes, they had much more faith in the military’s doctors.