We filed into the locker rooms. My body ached in that satisfying way that meant I’d actually pushed myself, but I wasn’t destroyed. Three weeks ago, a sim run like that would have put me in the medical wing.

Now? I felt great.

Jordan appeared beside me at the lockers, his expression serious for once.

"Hey."

"Hey yourself."

"I wasn’t actually mad. About the training thing." He pulled off his tactical suit, revealing the lean frame underneath that never seemed to bulk up despite all of Misato’s circuits. "Just surprised."

"I know."

"You’re getting scary good, man. Like, actually good. Not just surviving anymore."

I shrugged. "Had to happen eventually. Can’t be dead weight forever."

"Yeah, but..." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "Just don’t forget you started as one of us, okay? The lottery rejects. Don’t become another Blair."

The comparison stung more than it should have.

"I won’t."

"Promise?"

I met his eyes. "Yeah, man. I promise."

He nodded, apparently satisfied. "Good. Because if you do, I’ll tell Naomi to dump you and Belle to shoot you. And you know they’d both do it."

"Terrifying threat."

"Isn’t it?" He grinned and headed for the showers.

I followed, letting the hot water work out the kinks in my muscles. The upgrade to C-rank strength had come with unexpected benefits—faster recovery times, better muscle endurance, increased stamina across the board.

But Jordan was right. I’d changed. Not just physically.

I moved through the academy now with confidence I didn’t have before. I’d killed an alpha. Cleared multiple gates. Built relationships with three women who actually mattered to me despite the extraction mechanics.

I was becoming dangerous.

The question was whether dangerous meant successful or whether it meant I was setting myself up for a harder fall.

The debrief room was cramped and smelled like stale coffee. Misato stood at the front with her tablet, reviewing footage from our run.

"Overall, solid performance. Belle’s detection kept us from walking into ambushes. Jordan’s shadow work has improved significantly." She paused the video on a frame showing Jordan holding five wolves simultaneously. "That’s your record. Don’t let it make you lazy."

"Wouldn’t dream of it," Jordan said flatly.

"Naomi, your blast timing was perfect. You didn’t waste shots and you conserved stamina." Another pause, this time on Naomi’s sustained beam cutting through the forest. "But that beam at the end cost you forty percent of your reserves. In a longer engagement, you’d be useless after."

Naomi nodded. "I’ll work on efficiency."

"Good." Misato’s eyes found me. "Monroe."

"Yeah?"

"You made three separate calls today without waiting for orders. The rear guard. The dual blast. Staying behind while we extracted with the chest." She played the footage, showing each moment. "All three were correct tactical decisions. All three could have gotten you killed if Jordan hadn’t been covering you."

"So... good job but also reckless?"

"Exactly." She smiled slightly. "You’re learning to read combat situations. Keep that. But trust your squad more. We’ve got your back."

Something warm spread through my chest. Not the system notifications or the essence boosts. Just genuine appreciation for Misato treating me like an actual asset instead of charity.

Belle leaned back in her chair. "What’s our rating?"

"A-rank. Again." Misato closed her tablet. "We’re consistent. That matters. Guilds notice consistency more than flashy one-off performances."

"Speaking of guilds," Belle said carefully. "I found something during my enhanced detection period. There’s a Platinum-tier mana crystal in the restricted section. Buried behind three layers of wards and probably illegal to harvest. But it’s worth maybe a hundred thousand credits on the black market."

Jordan sat up straight. "That’s... a lot of money."

"It’s also expulsion if we get caught," Naomi pointed out.

"Only if we get caught," Belle countered.

Misato studied Belle with new interest. "How confident are you in the location?"

"Ninety-seven percent. My Silver buff hasn’t worn off yet. I can feel the exact signature, depth, and ward configuration."

"And you’re suggesting we..." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"I’m suggesting it’s information worth having." Belle’s smile was sharp. "What we do with that information is a separate discussion."

The room went quiet. We all knew what Belle was really proposing. A heist. An actual criminal operation that could fund our entire semester or get us expelled.

"We table it," Misato decided. "For now. But Monroe, keep giving Belle those buffs. Having Silver-tier detection on demand is strategically valuable."

Belle’s eyes flicked to me briefly. "Oh, I plan to."

The subtext was so thick Jordan actually choked on his water.

Naomi’s expression went carefully neutral. "When’s our next gate?"

"Wednesday. Same time. Another Tier II, but this one’s scanned as swampland with amphibious hostiles." Misato pulled up the briefing documents. "Frogs. Big ones. With paralytic venom."

"I hate frogs," Jordan announced.

"You hate everything."

"True. But I especially hate frogs."

Belle stood and stretched, the movement drawing every male eye in the room despite the tactical suit covering everything. "I need food. Who’s coming?"

"Me," Naomi said immediately.

"Obviously you," Belle replied. "I meant the boys."

Jordan was already halfway to the door. "Food sounds incredible right now."

I grabbed my bag. "Yeah, I’m in."

Misato checked her phone, her expression shifting into something complicated. "I need to handle something. I’ll catch up."

Blair, obviously. The tension between those two had been building since our rankings posted. Misato spent half her time defending her decision to stay with our squad, and the other half avoiding Blair’s increasingly angry texts.

We left Misato in the debrief room and headed across campus toward the dining hall. The afternoon sun painted everything gold, and the ocean breeze carried salt and possibility.

Belle walked between Naomi and me, her blue hair catching the light. "So. Aurora."

I’d been waiting for this.

"What about her?"

"You spent the entire weekend with her. Bought expensive chocolate cake. Let her dress you in designer clothes." Belle’s tone was conversational, but her eyes were sharp. "That’s very boyfriend behavior."

"We’re... something."

"Something." Belle repeated.

"How romantic."