Saurai stepped out of the ring and spotted Bryn waiting near the combat screen. The boy's eyes widened with surprise as Saurai approached, not a bead of sweat on his brow, his breathing as steady as stone.
"Whoa, you're not even sweating?" Bryn asked, half-impressed, half-bewildered. "You were dodging like crazy in there. I thought you'd be drenched."
Saurai gave a modest shrug. "I wasn't fighting. I was Just moving."
Bryn shook his head in disbelief. "You make it sound like you were strolling in a park."
Saurai didn't answer. His attention had already shifted to the glowing leaderboard above the arena floor.
🔹 Final Rankings – Group 1 Combat Drill
Rank. Name. Class. Points.
1. Delphine Ray 1-A 140
2. Meghan taylor 1-C 97
3. Saurai Lian 1-E 96
4. Shia Mendez 1-F 95
5. Gregor Talin 1-D 92
6. Marya Daris 1-B 90
7. Vani Aeron 1-E 82
8. Kevin Welser 1-C 80
39. Bryn Dalle 1-E 72
62. Coral Dalle 1-A 65
Third place. 96 points.
Saurai stood silently, absorbing it. He had removed three bots on his own and assisted in two others. Combine that with the full survival bonus, and his performance had earned him far more than he expected.
Originally, he hadn't wanted attention. But the more he observed this world. The more he understood that fame could be a currency. He knew Being noticed gave you access. Access meant knowledge. And knowledge was his current need for his survival.
He was afraid of the spotlight but Not if it led to something useful. Then he looked towards where Cassius was standing but he was not there anymore.
A soft mechanical hum followed as the bot platforms retracted into the floor. Bruce stepped forward onto the elevated dais, hands behind his back, his expression unreadable. His voice rang out clearly, silencing the arena.
"Alright, cadets. That concludes today's combat exercise."
A wave of motion passed through the gathered students. Most stood straighter.
"Some of you performed well and others struggled. That's expected. Today was many of you had your first live drill against autonomous bots. But I want you to remember one thing that these machines were not even using full combat AI. They operated at a basic training level. In a real encounter, you wouldn't have lasted thirty seconds if you weren't working together."
Silence.
He let the weight of those words settle.
"All of your performances were recorded," Bruce continued. "The bots logged your movements, reactions, and combat style. Based on that data, you'll receive your individual performance reports tomorrow. These will outline your strengths, weaknesses, reflex timing, energy expenditure, and coordination levels."
Around the room, some students murmured, shifting nervously.
Bruce's voice remained firm. "Your instructors will use these insights to customize your training path, combat modules, drills, even resources access. So treat this data seriously."
He motioned for the cadets to follow him up the stairs into the sitting arena, a semi-circle of elevated seats overlooking the training field. As the students settled in, a holographic display flickered to life above the instructor's platform, showing graphs, combat replays, and dynamic highlights.
"Let's look at some common mistakes first," Bruce began.
A few clips played: students overextending their attacks, stepping out of the boundary rings, and falling for basic feints. Each was accompanied by constructive critique.
Then the screen shifted.
"Now, Ring Five," Bruce said. "A group worth noting."
The screen played clips of Saurai and Vani working in tandem. Then a slowed replay of Saurai calmly dodging, baiting, and maneuvering a bot toward the edge until it self-deactivated by crossing the boundary. Finally, the four cadets coordinated loosely to survive until the final seconds.
"This team stayed together," Bruce said. "They weren't flawless but they communicated, they helped one another, and they survived. That's rare for a first-year group. Because of that, their team earned a combined 100-point bonus. It affected everyone's personal rankings."
Beside him, Bryn gave a small clap. "No wonder you're up there, huh?"
Saurai didn't smile. But he allowed himself a quiet moment of satisfaction. He hadn't overpowered the bots. He'd outlasted them. And most importantly, he'd learned.
Bruce moved on, highlighting top performers like Delphine Ray and Marvin Klaus, praising their precision and speed. Others were cautioned about recklessness, tunnel vision, or poor ring awareness.
But no comments were made about Saurai.
Saurai didn't mind. He listened intently to the critiques given to others even analyzing what to avoid, what to copy. Even silence was a kind of message.
Eventually, Bruce concluded the debriefing.
"You may use the rest of this period to practice until lunch. Or rest."
The arena split apart and some students sprinted to begin sparring again, eager to correct their errors. Others sank into seats, mentally and physically drained.
Saurai simply sat where he was. Bryn flopped down next to him.
"Not training?" Bryn asked, glancing sideways.
"Not right now," Saurai murmured. "Still watching."
Together, they observed. Saurai's gaze was sharp, dissecting the others' postures, breathing rhythms, even how they adjusted their footing under pressure. All of it fed into a growing map in his head a silent network of understanding.
The lunch bell rang a little while later.
"Finally," Bryn muttered. "I need ten plates."
Saurai stood. "Let's go."
The cafeteria buzzed with noisy celebration and banter. Some students huddled in excited groups around the combat scoreboards, pointing at names. Others nursed sore limbs and bruised egos in silence.
Saurai ate quickly, listening more than speaking. A few glanced at him as they passed, but no one approached. That was fine.
The real learning came later.
The next class was Monster Nutrition, held in one of the upper-tier domes which had glass-walled and full of sterile white light. The instructor, a spectacled woman with tired eyes and a flat tone, started explaining the structure of sea creature organs and their historical uses.
Saurai barely looked up.
He was already diving through the advanced materials on his digital terminal. His fingers scrolled past anatomical charts, biochemical diagrams, and pages of dense scientific text.
He read about harvested monster parts and how certain tendons could improve flexibility, or cartilage could be ground into supplements that boosted reaction time. Liver enzymes from electric types were used in neural stimulants. Bone marrow from deep-sea brutes could accelerate healing. But with all of it came risk. Some organs, even after purification, were unstable. Others could trigger mutations, allergic reactions, or cognitive disturbances.
Even centuries after humanity began harvesting sea monsters, much remained unknown.
Their depths were still murky. Their biology still refused to follow rules.
Saurai paused at a section on bio-resonance fields, highlighting a passage.
"Certain organic structures retain vibrational imprints, interacting with human tissue through unknown harmonics. Some effects are beneficial. Others were not."
He stared at the words for a moment.
Then muttered under his breath, "It's not just what we use but it's how we use it"
His pen hovered above his notes, motionless.
There was something hidden in all of this. Something deeper. He couldn't name it yet, but he could feel it felt like a current just beneath the water's surface.
Something was wrong with the world.
And he was going to find out what.