The afternoon sun was harsh against the window when Adrian returned to the boarding house.
He sat on the edge of his bed, the memories of the morning still lingering. The examination. The orb. The look on the examiner's face when the light turned dark. He had passed or at least, he thought he had.
They hadn't told him anything. Just that the results would be posted in the evening.
He pulled up the system interface. Three red notifications stared back at him like a judgment.
[Daily Quest — Morning Cultivation: Incomplete]
[Daily Quest — Physical Conditioning: Incomplete]
[Daily Quest — Combat: Incomplete]
He stared at them. He had spent the entire morning trying to prove he was not a fraud, and the system did not care. It wanted its push-ups.
"But it wasn't my fault though, the examination took all morning,"
Lilith looked up from where she sat by the window. It had become her favorite spot in the room. "The examination ended four hours ago."
He opened his mouth and closed it. He had no defense. He had walked back to the boarding house, sat on the bed, and spent the rest of the afternoon staring at the ceiling, thinking about the orb and the light and the look on the examiner's face.
"Well, I completely forgot," he said.
"You forgot to exercise and breathe for thirty minutes?"
"It was a stressful morning."
She ignored him and went back to looking through the window.
He sighed and stood up. Quickly clearing a space between the beds, he sat on the floor and closed his eyes, reaching for the warmth in his chest.
The circulation had become almost automatic over the past days—five mornings of it now, each one smoother than the last. His body moved through the rhythm without thought, the energy flowing through him like water finding its course. Two more days and the skill would unlock.
[Daily Quest — Morning Cultivation: Complete]
[Reward: 10 EXP]
He moved straight into the conditioning routine. Push-ups first, counting to fifty, his arms burning by the end. Then squats, his thighs screaming. And finally the lunges that still made him unsteady, the same ones Lilith had drilled into him on the road.
The floorboards creaked under him, and somewhere in the building, a door opened and closed. He ignored it, forcing his body through the movements even as his muscles protested.
[Daily Quest — Physical Conditioning: Complete]
[Reward: 5 EXP]
[Total EXP: 415/500]
He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and looked at Lilith. She had not moved from the window, but her eyes were fixed on him.
"The Combat quest?" she said.
He nodded. "I need to fight something."
"In the middle of Aurelis?"
He frowned. The system did not care where. It just needed combat. But there were no Drakul here, no monsters roaming the streets of the capital.
Lilith rose from the window. Her movements were slow and deliberate, the same predator stillness she had carried since the ruins. "Then fight me."
Adrian stared at her. "Here?"
"You have done it before. On the days when there was nothing to fight." She stepped into the center of the room, her hands loose at her sides. "This is no different."
He drew his blade. The room was too small for a proper fight, but she was not asking for a proper fight. She was asking him to move, to think, to learn. The same way she had on the road, when the days stretched long between monsters and the Combat quest needed completing.
He moved first.
She caught his wrist before the blade could reach her. Her grip was light but unbreakable. She twisted, and he felt his balance shift, his body following the motion whether he wanted it to or not.
He planted his feet and pushed back, the way she had taught him in the grasslands outside Rivergate.
She let him. Her hand released his wrist, and she stepped back, her eyes never leaving his face.
"That's an improvement," she said. "You did not hesitate."
He adjusted his grip on the blade. "You once said that hesitation was a problem."
"It is." She moved again, faster this time, and he barely got his blade up in time to block. The impact jarred his arm, and he stumbled back, his shoulder hitting the wall.
She did not follow up and waited for him to recover.
"When an opponent is stronger," she said, "do not meet their strength. Redirect it."
"You could have mentioned that before I hit the wall."
"You were not listening before."
He pushed off the wall and came at her low, the way he'd seen Jarvis move. She sidestepped, but he was expecting it. He changed his angle, his blade cutting through the space where she had been a moment before.
Her hand closed around his arm again. She held him there, her grip steady, her face close enough that he could see the flecks of gold in her eyes.
"Good," she said. "You saw the opening before it came."
She released him and stepped back.
"Again."
They went again. And again. Each time she let him get closer, let him find the openings, let him learn. She corrected him with a word, a shift of her hand, a small adjustment to his stance.
"Your weight is too far forward. You are committing before you see the outcome."
"Watch my shoulder. Not my hand. The shoulder tells you where I will go."
"When you move, move. Half measures get you killed."
By the fifth round, he was breathing hard, his arms heavy, but his movements were cleaner than they had ever been. He could feel the difference in awareness.
The way she shifted her weight before moving. The slight drop of her shoulder when she was about to pivot. The small tells he had never noticed before.
She caught his wrist one last time and held it.
"When you fight tomorrow," she said, "do not look for power. You do not have it. Look for imbalance. Your opponents will rely on their spirits. They will expect you to do the same. When you do not, they will not know what to do with you."
She released him. "Use that."
He slid his blade back into its sheath. His hands were steady. His breathing was steady. But something in his chest was not.
[Daily Quest — Combat: Complete]
[Reward: 15 EXP]
[Total EXP: 430/500]
[Soul Energy Control Proficiency: 5/7 days]
[Bond Points: Lilith — 12/100]
He stared at the notification for a moment. A spar with Lilith counted. That was enough. He felt the bond between them grow stronger, more present than it had been in the morning.
She watched him from across the room with an unreadable expression, her arms folded. But through the bond, he felt something warm. Not quite satisfaction, but close.
"You could have beaten me," he said.
"I could have."
He studied her for a moment. "So why didn't you?"
She tilted her head. "Would that have helped you learn?"
He opened his mouth to argue, then closed it. She had a point.
Still.
"You could have at least let me land one hit."
Her expression did not change, but something in her eyes flickered. "If you want to hit me, you will have to earn it."
He decided not to ask how long that would take.
---
Evening came sooner than he expected.
Adrian stood at the window, watching the sun sink behind the rooftops of Aurelis. The sky was the color of old bronze, the clouds catching the last light before it faded. Somewhere in the distance, a bell was ringing.
"The results would have been posted by now," he said. "We should go."
Lilith rose from the bed and moved to the door. They both walked out of the building and into the street.
---
The main hall entrance was crowded when they arrived.
Adrian had expected the results to be posted quietly, maybe a list on a board that candidates could check in passing.
Instead, a crowd had gathered at the foot of the wide stone steps, pressing close to a large wooden board propped against the wall. Torches flanked it on either side, their flames casting long shadows across the names written in neat black ink.
Adrian stopped at the edge of the crowd, craning his neck to see. The first column was names he did not recognize. The second column, the same. He scanned quickly, his pulse steady, his face calm.
Beside him, Lilith stood still, her eyes already moving across the board. "Third column. Halfway down."
He followed her gaze. There, between a name he did not recognize and another he had already forgotten, was his.
Dorian. Accepted.
Combat Trials: Tomorrow. Seventh bell.
He stared at the word.
Accepted.
He had passed. The first part, at least.
Further down the list, he caught a familiar name. Cassius Vorne. Accepted.
Of course. Somewhere in the city, the boy was probably already celebrating, surrounded by people who had known he would pass before he even took the test.
Adrian looked away.
"Friend of yours?" Lilith asked.
He snorted. "Not even close."
A boy near the front let out a sharp exhale of relief, and somewhere behind him, someone was already walking away, their shoulders slumped. Adrian did not spare them a glance. He kept his eyes on the board and on his name.
"Just a little more," Lilith said quietly beside him.
Adrian looked at her. She was watching the board, her face calm, but there was something in her voice he had not heard before. Certainty, maybe. Or expectation.
"A little more," he agreed.
He turned away from the board. The crowd was thinning now, candidates drifting away with their results, some celebrating with friends others walking alone in silence.
Adrian kept his eyes forward, hands in his pockets with a beautiful vampire beside him.
He had made it through the first stage. Tomorrow, he would find out if he could make it through the second.