Tuesday night. The warehouse.
The queue changed. Pure physical conditioning, structured by FSIS around load, speed, and endurance thresholds Peter had not pushed against since before Phase 1.
He started with strength work. A modified rig FSIS had built into the dimensional gym let him load weight incrementally past anything available in the real world, calibrated to test the outer edge of his current fifteen-ton lift capacity.
The bar groaned. Peter held it steady, adjusted his stance, and pushed.
Crack!
One of the support struts gave first, not the bar. FSIS flagged it immediately.
"Structural failure in the rig, not in you," FSIS said. "Recommend reinforcement before continuing."
Peter set the weight down carefully. "How close was I to the actual ceiling?"
"Unknown. The rig failed before reaching it."
'Then we build a better rig,' Peter thought.
He spent forty minutes redesigning the load frame himself, sketching the reinforcement pattern directly into the dimensional fabricator's interface, watching it print a stronger version in real time. Then he went back to the bar.
This time it held. The numbers climbed higher than either of them had projected.
[Physique: 27.3 → 28.6]
Speed work came next. A sprint course through the dimension's replicated city block, obstacles shifting position each lap so his body could never memorize a single path. Wall transitions. Vertical launches. Controlled falls from height with no margin for hesitation.
By the ninth lap his time had dropped enough that FSIS flagged it without being asked.
"Sprint speed now measuring at one hundred twenty-six miles per hour in open terrain," FSIS said. "A four percent increase over baseline."
Peter did not stop moving. He adjusted his breathing and kept the pace steady through the tenth lap, then the eleventh.
'Small gains add up,' Peter thought. 'That has always been the rule.'
He finished the day with two hours of pure endurance work, no talking, no system checks, just motion until his body found the point where effort became rhythm. FSIS logged the final numbers without commentary.
[Physique: 28.6 → 29.1]
[Spirit: 11.9 → 12.3]
"Spirit growth this session is notable," FSIS said as Peter cooled down. "Sustained focus under physical strain appears to correlate with Spirit stat increases, separate from combat training specifically."
"Does the dimension expand with it?"
"Not at this increment. The next expansion threshold requires a larger jump than tonight produced."
Peter nodded. 'City block is enough for now. I am not close to filling it.'
He left the dimension at 10:14 PM. The warehouse was exactly as quiet as he had left it.
---
Wednesday night. The lab.
This session had no combat queue. Peter sat down at the research bench with three monitors active and the sealed case containing the six stolen lizard serum vials open in front of him.
"Stability window remaining," Peter said.
"Thirty-one hours before molecular degradation accelerates past usable thresholds," FSIS said. "Current compatibility rating with your genetic profile stands at 98.7 percent."
"That number has been sitting there for two weeks. I want to know why it will not move."
FSIS pulled up the full molecular structure on the center screen, a tangled model of protein chains and binding sites that would have taken a human researcher years to fully map.
Peter studied it in silence for a long moment.
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