Chapter 104: Three Hours To Lie
The medical wing settled into its familiar rhythm of quiet monitoring distant footsteps, the occasional beep of diagnostic equipment, hushed conversations between nurses conducting their rounds. Alex waited until the sounds faded completely, until he was certain no one lingered outside his door with curious ears.
Then he pulled up his status window.
**[STATUS WINDOW]**
**[Name: Kael Ashford (Alexander Chen)]**
**[Age: 19]**
**[Level: 4]**
**[Class: Adept]**
**[EXP: 309/4500]**
**[Rank: ???]**
**[HP: 120/120]**
**[Strength: 15]**
**[Agility: 15]**
**[Stamina: 15]**
**[Essence: 20,000,000/20,000,000]**
**[Available Stat Points: 30]**
**[Ability: Mimicry]**
**[Ability Slots: 1/2]**
**[Mimicked Abilities:]**
- Slot 1: Fire Manipulation - SS Rank
- Slot 2: EMPTY
**[Skills: Adept Eyes, Phantom Step, Emergency Overdrive, Enhanced Recovery]**
**[Warning: Dimensional Marker Detected - Cannot Be Removed]**
Thirty stat points. The reward for defeating an SS-Class guardian stared back at him, waiting for allocation. Alex’s tactical mind began the familiar calculations, weighing immediate combat effectiveness against long-term survivability.
His current stats were balanced fifteen points each in Strength, Agility, and Stamina. That symmetry had served him well enough, but three days of sustained combat had revealed critical weaknesses in his build.
Specifically: Phantom Step.
The skill had saved his life more times than he could count phasing through the Warden’s axe, dodging the Void Stalker’s claws, creating openings in impossible situations. But each activation drained his stamina reserves at catastrophic rates. The more he used it, the faster his body gave out, until he was fighting on pure willpower while his muscles screamed for rest.
’Emergency Overdrive nearly killed me because my body couldn’t sustain Master-rank power output,’ Alex thought, studying the numbers with clinical detachment. ’But Phantom Step has been draining me in almost every serious fight. If I’d had deeper stamina reserves during the Warden battle, I might not have needed to risk Overdrive at all.’
The mathematics were brutal but clear: Stamina was his bottleneck.
Strength determined how hard he hit, how much he could lift, his overall physical power. Useful, certainly but fire manipulation provided most of his offensive capability. Raw physical strength mattered less when you could incinerate opponents from range.
Agility governed reaction time, movement speed, coordination. Critical for combat, absolutely but his Combat Echo already provided enhanced threat detection, and Phantom Step covered escape options when speed alone wouldn’t suffice.
Stamina, though... Stamina determined how long he could fight. How many times he could activate Phantom Step before his body failed. How much punishment he could endure before exhaustion claimed him. It was the foundation that every other capability rested upon.
’The Warden fight lasted less than two minutes with Emergency Overdrive active,’ Alex recalled. ’But if I’d had the stamina to sustain conventional combat for longer, if I could have kept using Phantom Step without worrying about my body giving out...’
He could have won without risking death.
Decision crystallized with the same cold clarity that had kept him alive in the arena.
**[Allocate Stat Points?]**
**[Stamina: 15 → 30 (+15)]**
His finger hovered over the confirmation, then pulled back. Fifteen points in Stamina would give him the endurance foundation he desperately needed, but completely ignoring his other stats felt... shortsighted.
’No,’ Alex decided. ’Not all thirty points into one stat. That’s how you create specialists who excel in narrow circumstances and fail when situations change.’
He recalculated.
**[Strength: 15 → 18 (+3)]**
**[Agility: 15 → 19 (+4)]**
**[Stamina: 15 → 38 (+23)]**
The distribution felt right enough enhancement to Strength and Agility to maintain balanced combat capability, but heavy emphasis on the stat that would actually determine whether he survived extended engagements.
Alex selected the allocation and confirmed.
The transformation began immediately.
Not the violent agony of leveling up, but something subtler and more pervasive. His muscles didn’t bulk up dramatically, but he could feel them becoming denser, more efficient. His cardiovascular system restructured itself, optimizing oxygen distribution and waste removal. His lungs expanded fractionally, increasing capacity without requiring conscious effort.
The changes to his stamina were most pronounced. It felt like someone had taken his body’s natural endurance and simply... deepened it. Not infinite reserveshe could still feel the limits but those limits had been pushed back significantly. What would have exhausted him after five Phantom Step activations now felt sustainable for at least a dozen, maybe more.
**[Stat Allocation Complete]**
**[Strength: 18]**
**[Agility: 19]**
**[Stamina: 38]**
**[New Baseline Established]**
**[Phantom Step Stamina Cost Reduced: 40%]**
**[Physical Endurance Enhanced]**
**[Recovery Rate Improved]**
Alex experimentally flexed his hands, feeling the improved strength in his grip. He shifted his weight, noting how his balance felt more stable, his reactions a fraction sharper. But it was the stamina enhancement that made him smile coldly.
’Now let’s see something try to outlast me.’
The second ability slot remained empty, taunting him with possibilities. Sarah’s temporal manipulation still whispered temptation at the edges of his thoughts, but approaching her while she was recovering from trauma felt... wrong. Pragmatically useful, strategically sound, but ethically compromised in ways he wasn’t ready to embrace.
’Later,’ he decided. ’The slot will wait. I need to see what other abilities present themselves naturally, without exploiting people’s vulnerability.’
The door to his room opened without warning.
Alex’s Phantom Step nearly activated on pure instinct before he recognized Professor Harold’s measured footsteps. He forced himself to relax, letting his newly enhanced stamina settle back into dormancy.
"Kael." Harold’s professional assessment swept over him immediately, the kind of automatic medical evaluation that decades of practice had made reflexive. "You’re looking much better. How are you feeling?"
"Better," Alex replied honestly, because the stat allocation had made that literally true. "Still sore, but functional."
"That’s... remarkably fast recovery." Harold moved closer, his healing essence flaring as he conducted a more thorough examination. "Your injuries from three days ago should take at least another week to fully heal, but you’re showing regeneration rates that..." He paused. "Have you always healed this quickly?"
’Careful,’ Alex’s tactical mind warned. ’Harold’s too experienced to fool with vague answers. Give him something that sounds medically plausible without revealing system mechanics.’
"I think the dimensional rift environment changed something," Alex said, which was technically true the Masters’ regeneration tank had absolutely altered his recovery capabilities. "High-stress survival situations can trigger adaptive responses, right? Maybe my body learned to prioritize healing more efficiently."
Harold’s expression suggested he wasn’t entirely satisfied with that explanation, but he accepted it. "Possible. I’ve documented similar cases in veteran hunters who survived prolonged dimensional exposure. Your body may have developed enhanced regenerative capabilities as a survival adaptation."
He stepped back, dismissing his diagnostic essence. "Regardless of the mechanism, you’re recovering well enough that I’m comfortable clearing you for limited activity. No combat training for at least two weeks, and I want you back here for follow-up examinations every three days."
"Understood." Alex shifted position, testing his body’s responses. Everything worked smoothly better than smoothly, actually. The stat enhancements had settled into his physical structure like they’d always been there. "When can I leave?"
"Tomorrow morning, assuming no complications overnight." Harold moved toward the door, then paused. "Though there is one matter that requires your attention before discharge."
Alex’s tactical instincts sharpened immediately. "What matter?"
"His Majesty King Kendrick has requested a personal audience with you." Harold’s tone remained professionally neutral, but his eyes carried something more complex. "Not a formal debriefing Captain Aldric will handle that separately. The King specifically asked to speak with you privately about your experience in the rift."
Every calculation Alex had been making about staying under the radar, about recovering quietly before anyone paid too much attention crashed into sudden irrelevance.
The King wanted a personal meeting. Not through intermediaries, not as part of group debriefing, but a private conversation between the kingdom’s ruler and the student who’d survived three days alone in dimensional hell.
"When?" Alex asked, keeping his voice carefully controlled despite the spike of... what? Anxiety? Anticipation? He wasn’t sure.
"In the next three hours." Harold’s expression carried weight. "His Majesty was quite clear the moment I cleared you medically, he wanted to see you. He’s been..." Harold paused, choosing words carefully. "...very insistent. Checking on your recovery status every few hours personally."
Alex felt something cold settle in his stomach. The King wasn’t just interested he was actively monitoring, waiting for the exact moment Alex could be summoned.
’No time to prepare. No opportunity to rehearse answers or coordinate stories. He wants me while I’m still raw from the experience, before I’ve had time to construct careful narratives.’
Smart. Brutally effective. The kind of tactical thinking that came from decades of ruling.
"So I’m being discharged directly into a royal audience," Alex said flatly.
"Essentially, yes." Harold’s professional mask slipped slightly, showing genuine concern. "Captain Aldric will escort you to the palace immediately after I complete your discharge paperwork. The King has cleared his schedule for a private meeting no advisors, no witnesses, just you and His Majesty."
That was somehow worse. A private conversation meant no political theater, no performance for watching nobility. Just two people talking one a traumatized student carrying secrets he couldn’t share, the other a grieving king desperate to understand how to prevent future disasters.
"How long do I have?" Alex asked.
Harold glanced at the medical equipment. "I’ll complete your final examination in about two hours, process the discharge documentation, and Captain Aldric will arrive shortly after. So... roughly three hours total before you’re standing before the King."
’Three hours to figure out how to explain surviving dimensional hell without violating the Masters’ restrictions or revealing system mechanics or discussing the arena that doesn’t officially exist.’
Perfect.
Just perfect.
"Understood," Alex said, because what else could he say?
After Harold left, Alex lay back and stared at the ceiling with renewed intensity.
The meeting wasn’t in forty-eight hours. It was in three hours.
And he had absolutely no idea how to navigate it without either lying to the King’s face.
’I need a strategy,’ Alex thought, his enhanced stamina doing nothing to calm the tactical calculations racing through his mind. ’Something between complete honesty and dangerous deception. A version of truth that satisfies royal curiosity without revealing what I can’t share.’
He had three hours to figure it out.
Starting now.