Calista Elise Medley

  First-Year One Student

  Level 2

  XP: 18/100

  HP: 100/100

  EP: 73/100

  Reputation Status: Hated— -155 RP

  Strength: Lvl 2 (10/30 pts)

  Stamina: Lvl 5 (8/30 pts)

  Pain Tolerance: Lvl -2 (0/15 pts)

  Agility: Lvl 14 (25/30 pts)

  Speed: Lvl 6 (5/15 pts)

  Intelligence: Lvl 8 (4/50 pts)

  Self-Control: Lvl 4 (10/50 pts)

  Weakness: Lvl 20 MAX (20/20 pts)

  “We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Harrison said, reading the stats. “You’ve got great agility; I’ve seen you in class. That helps your Speed a little. You’re very smart and you learn quickly.”

  Calista blushed, flattered, and played with her necklace. “Thanks.”

  +5 Rel-P

  “On the other hand, you maxed out your Weakness Level. You’ve let your weak points get the best of you. Your self-control’s nonexistent— I feel like your Pet’s being nice by giving you a Level 4. You have no pain tolerance. Your stamina’s improved some, but you need a lot more than a Level 5. And your strength…” He shook his head. “Not there.”

  Calista’s face fell. There were a lot more negatives than positives. Harrison didn’t hold back at all. Yet, she appreciated his honesty.

  +5 Rel-P

  “Missing classes definitely tanked your XP.” Harrison looked on his AIDA band at additional details. “With your Weakness level, I’m not surprised. Your social anxiety shuts you down easily. Reconstruction therapy has side effects that can limit you. Breaking down damaged cells, replacing them, rebuilding tissue… it’s a long process. You’ve got a good diet and the exercise you get helps strengthen your muscles, but you’ve got a long way to go. You’re only 113 pounds, and you need to be past a certain weight to qualify… you’re 5’9”, so you’re pretty underweight.”

  Calista stared at him. “So, in other words, I’m hopeless.”

  “Case in point. You see a difficult road ahead and you assume you won’t make it at all.”

  Now she glared. “Okay, I get it. Don’t rub it in.”

  “Your core strength is the most important thing. Thing is, you have pretty good balance, so your core strength is probably better than we think, but when you tighten your core, it hurts you.”

  “My core? Like…” Calista motioned to her waist.

  “Everything here.” Harrison motioned to his entire abdomen. “Jupiter, could you show the Transparent Scan from Calista’s medical records?” He tapped his Pet, which detached from his belt and shone a light on Calista’s displayed freeze shot.

  Now, instead of her dressed in the combat suit the school provided at her exam, it was an entire image of her muscles. Calista cringed at the way her face looked.

  She approached the image, shocked at the sight. At first glance, it looked normal, but as she studied it, she noticed a bunch of irregularities. Some of her bones had places that looked cracked or brittle. Her muscles looked sort of strong and red in some places, and purple and loose in others. Her biceps had ugly, white scars left over from when her ballooned arms were ruined in the raid. It didn’t hurt that much anymore, so Calista didn’t realize the extent of the damage.

  “The meds are working, that’s for sure,” said Harrison. “See here? That’s brand-new tissue.” He pointed at the strong, red parts of her body, which weren’t many. “All of this here…” He circled her abdomen, which had a lot of purple. “That’s why it hurts so much.”

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  “How do we make it hurt less?” Calista asked.

  “Keep taking those meds and keep exercising. That’s the best you can do. The more you move and dedicate yourself, the more your body will adapt. That’s the amazing thing about human bodies— how adaptable they are. Even with all this damage, if you commit to your routine, it’ll find a way around it while the meds do their job.” Fascination sparkled in Harrison’s blue eyes as he spoke.

  +5 Rel-P

  Calista stared at him for a bit, studying his deep dimples, his messy brown curls, his thick eyebrows. He didn’t need any mod to look as perfect as he did. What would her own face look like without any of the small mods she did over the years, like brow reshaping, eye enlarging, or nose lifting? What would her body have been like if she just grew naturally like a normal Earthian?

  Would she be as pretty? Would she have been acceptable to the followers? Would she be stronger and more capable as a fighting student?

  “You’ll need stronger stretches in warm-ups and strength-focused workouts. Your report says you should be fine to upgrade workout by now,” Harrison continued. “I already have a bunch of good stretches for you that you should be able to do; you’re flexible, but you’re in a lot of pain when you stretch, right?”

  “When I do the ones I’m not used to, yeah.”

  “Time to get used to those.”

  ===

  Calista thought the new ‘stretches’ would be much like the ones she did in class— extreme toe touches, Achilles stretches, and others alike. Instead, he had her do the ones that caused her incredible strain and aching. Even the simple ones like the rib stretch— hugging herself and inhaling to expand her ribs— brought bubbles of protesting pain from her bones and her surrounding muscles. She never realized how weak her ribs were.

  Afterwards, Harrison had her do planks, upside-down hangs, and dead hangs from a bar that generated eight feet above the training mats. It wasn’t as exciting as Calista expected, like a combat exercise or a CD-Sim spar, but if he said it was necessary, she’d take his word for it.

  She finally achieved the plank after a few tries. The upside-down hang was a little easier, succeeding after three tries— her legs were the strongest part of her body, ironically. The worst part was the dizziness that came when she stood back upright.

  The dead hang felt absolutely impossible. She thought her low weight would help, but her lack of strength hindered her terribly; she felt like she was made of lead. The first few times, her fingers easily pried off the bar in a few seconds. Harrison would casually say, “Again”, and restart the timer while browsing on his Pet screen, checking the Hub.

  Calista had a feeling he was doing that on purpose. The longer she stayed on the bar or in a plank, enduring the awful pain in her arms, the excruciating stretch of her body muscles, and the pinching in her abdomen, the more she got irritated at the sight of Harrison relaxing and browsing whatever he wanted. He wouldn’t let her move on to the next exercise until she hit the limit of one minute.

  After the fifth attempt at a dead hang, she stumbled back on the mat, wincing at the shock in her weak ankles. “Can we just move on to punches and kicks or something?” she panted.

  “Again,” Harrison said dismissively. He was lying flat on his back on the mat now, his Pet hovering above him with the projected screen.

  “I made it to forty seconds!” Calista protested.

  “Limit’s sixty. Try again.”

  “Can’t we just save it for tomorrow?”

  “We can end the whole period for now. It doesn’t affect me.” Harrison didn’t look at her, but an irritating smirk crept on his lips, just barely showing his dimple.

  -2 Rel-P

  Calista huffed, glowering in irritation, and stomped her foot. She went back to the bar and climbed up the side to reach it, dead-hanging once again. The pain wasn’t getting any more bearable. “How does this… help at all?” she strained.

  She watched the timer carefully, praying for it to reach sixty. Forty-three… forty-four…

  She let go. Her fingers felt contracted, unable to open, so she flattened them against the mat and stretched them.

  “Again.”

  -2 Rel-P

  He was starting to ruin that word for her.

  The timer was at 0:57 after a couple more attempts. Calista was too exhausted. Her arms trembled and her muscles were screaming for her to stop. “Could you just round it up?” she coughed out, clutching her ribs as she recovered.

  Harrison sighed, finally standing up, and looked at the timer on the AIDA screen. He shrugged. “I guess. Since it’s the first day, I’ll give you a free reset.”

  Calista’s eyes pierced through him with anger. That was a ‘free reset’? She was about ready to challenge him, but she knew better.

  “Remember, eight o’clock tomorrow night. For now, get some sleep and take some supplements.” Harrison winked at her as Jupiter retracted into his belt and shut down the AIDA.

  “And we’ll be doing some actual training tomorrow night, right?”

  “What’s ‘actual training’ to you?”

  “Um… applying what I’ve learned in Combat? In Weapon Use? Disciplines?”

  “Right… can you punch something without crying at the pain in your fist? Or kick something without your joints stinging? Or take a hit at all?”

  “I…” Calista’s mouth flapped. “Well, no, but I won’t learn how by hanging from a glitching bar.”

  “We’ll see about that.” He left through the orange entrance door.

  -3 Rel-P

  “I just don’t see how this helps!” Calista trotted after him, disgustedly wiping a layer of sweat off her forehead. The Guild hallway was empty, most students having gone back to their dorms by now. “Aside from some strength and stamina, how will this help anything else?”

  As soon as she crossed the doorway, her UI updated.

  +10 XP

  +8 Strength

  +6 Stamina

  +10 PT

  +5 Agility

  -5 Weakness

  Calista fell silent as she read all the updates. Harrison watched her with a huge grin that made her temper simmer. She pridefully turned up her nose and walked away. “See you tomorrow!” he called after her.

  +3 Rel-P

  And so she did. Every day, after the brutal training in classes, she’d suffer another hour of brutal training under Harrison. They would arrive at the hallway with everyone else, ignoring the stares, which diminished every day as they got used to seeing them there. Calista’s Rep Level didn’t dip that much over the week, but it was still on that ‘Hated’ status.