Chapter 113: Nine of a Kind

[Reward Calculation Complete.]

[Reward Granted.]

Reinhard’s eyes lit up instantly. The B-Grade investment had finally paid out, and the first line alone told him exactly how good a call this had been.

[Legendary Reward Granted: 9x C-Rank Mana Evolution Treasures.]

[Effect: Strengthens Mana pathways, increases Mana density, improves Mana manifestation, and accelerates adaptation toward C-Rank.]

Reinhard looked at the number.

Nine.

There were exactly nine people on the combined team.

Emily, Maki, Lily, Rhea, Seraphine, Rika, Kael, Adrian, and Mara.

The next rewards made the purpose even clearer.

[Additional Reward Granted: 9x C-Rank Body Tempering Treasures.]

[Additional Reward Granted: 9x Mana Core Refinement Crystals.]

[Additional Reward Granted: Combat Instinct Enlightenment.]

[Additional Reward Granted: 20x Advanced Recovery Crystals.]

[Additional Reward Granted: Team Mana Resonance.]

[Additional Reward Granted: 9x Awakener Breakthrough Elixirs.]

[Additional Reward Granted: 9x Mana Manifestation Enlightenment Treasures.]

[Additional Reward Granted: Legendary Expedition Compass.]

Reinhard read through the effects quickly.

The Body Tempering Treasures would prepare their bodies for the denser Mana of C-Rank. The Core Refinement Crystals would improve circulation and sustained combat, while the Manifestation Enlightenment would help them actually use the new power instead of simply possessing more of it.

Combat Instinct Enlightenment addressed another problem entirely. It would help them recognize openings, attack timing, movement patterns, and defensive habits faster.

Reinhard smiled.

The rewards weren’t just making them stronger. They were correcting the weaknesses he had seen during the last several missions. He gathered the treasures and returned to the others.

Lily caught his expression instantly. "You look suspiciously happy."

"Do I?"

"Yes."

"I got something useful," he said, setting the haul down on the table with the quiet drama of a man unveiling a trophy.

Lily’s eyes locked onto it immediately. "Can I use mine?"

"Not yet."

"Why?"

"Because I’d rather you not explode."

Rhea laughed from behind her. "Good advice."

"I don’t think I’d explode," Lily said, offended.

"That’s exactly what someone about to explode would say," Rhea replied.

Maki had already picked up one of the Manifestation treasures and was turning it over like she intended to defeat it in an argument. Seraphine caught her at it. "You’re doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Analyzing it before you’ve even used it."

Maki looked down at the treasure, then set it back on the table with the dignity of someone conceding a very small, very specific point. "I was curious."

"You were calculating."

"Those are different things."

"Not when you’re the one doing them."

Lily laughed, and even Maki couldn’t quite smother her own smile.

Reinhard turned to the Nephilim next. "I’ve got enough for everyone."

Rhea’s whole expression shifted. "For us too?"

"You’re part of the team."

The room went quiet for a second. Rhea looked down at the treasure in her hand before a real smile broke through. "You’re serious."

"Of course. Though I’ll expect results, since I’m basically your sponsor now. Consider this the single best investment decision in the history of investment decisions."

"That’s a bold claim."

"I’ve made bolder ones and been right every single time," he said, with the total, unbothered confidence of a man who had genuinely never once checked.

Adrian looked surprised. Mara studied him like she was trying to locate the catch. Kael simply looked at the pile of rewards like he intended to make his peace with it quietly. Rika gave a small nod. "Thank you."

"You’ll have to earn the results," he said, waving a hand like the gratitude was almost beneath him to accept.

"We intend to," Mara said, with the faint smile of someone who had already decided not to ask him to repeat the sponsor comment.

...

The advancement began that afternoon.

All nine Awakeners moved into the training area and started using the treasures under careful supervision, with Reinhard, Archon, and Yuna keeping the recovery crystals within arm’s reach in case anyone’s ambition outran their stamina.

The first changes showed up in the body.

Emily’s breathing slowed as her circulation steadied.

[Target Value Increased.]

[Emily Ashcroft: D → C]

A massive jump, the last time I saw that was for her Gnosis treatment.

Maki’s precise movements turned smoother as her body stopped fighting the extra energy pouring through it. Lily clenched her fists, felt the new strength settle in, and looked down at her own hands like she’d just met them for the first time.

Rhea gritted her teeth as the energy spread through her. "This feels terrible."

Mara glanced over. "You’re smiling."

"Because it’s working."

"You’re strange."

"I’ve been told that," Rhea said, unbothered.

The Core Refinement came next, circulation cleaning up one layer at a time until their Mana stopped feeling forced and started responding like it actually wanted to be there. Reinhard kept half an eye on the whole room.

"Don’t rush the breakthrough."

Lily glanced at him. "How would I even know if I’m rushing?"

"You’re asking me that question while actively trying to force more Mana into your own body."

She stopped immediately. Rhea laughed. "He’s already got you figured out."

"I wasn’t rushing."

"You were."

"I was testing," Lily said, arms crossed, daring anyone to disagree.

"Of course you were," Rhea said, clearly not buying a word of it.

Maki stepped forward with the brisk energy of someone reporting a finding. "Reinhard. My circulation feels different. I can maintain the same output with less waste."

Seraphine looked over immediately. "That’s the Core Refinement."

Maki nodded, then allowed herself a small, pleased smile. "That means I can make decisions faster."

"Now you’re starting to understand," Seraphine said, something like pride creeping into her voice.

The Manifestation Enlightenment hit last. Lily raised her palm, Mana gathering and condensing into a short blade instead of scattering uselessly the way it usually did.

She stared at it. "Did I just do that?"

"Yes," Rhea said.

"That was easy." The blade promptly collapsed. Rhea laughed outright. "Never mind."

"I had it."

"You had it for three seconds."

"Three seconds is still having it."

"That’s not how having something works."

Lily ignored her entirely and tried again. The second blade held for five full seconds, and she looked unreasonably proud of herself for it. "Five seconds."

"Congratulations," Rhea said, deadpan enough that it somehow landed as sincere anyway.

Nearby, Maki formed a thin construct and reshaped it once, then twice, dissolving and rebuilding it with none of Lily’s victory laps. Seraphine watched closely. "You’re getting faster."

"I think I’m starting to understand what you meant yesterday."

"About what?"

"Thinking isn’t the problem." Maki reshaped the construct again. "Thinking too slowly is."

"Exactly," Seraphine said, smiling.

Across the room, Adrian lost his manifestation twice before holding it on the third try, looking immediately to Kael for confirmation like he’d just passed a test only Kael could grade. "I did it."

"You did," Kael said, and that alone seemed to double Adrian’s satisfaction.

Rhea stabilized a construct almost instantly, then nearly lost it entirely out of sheer excitement. Mara caught the wobble before it became a problem. "Focus."

"Right," Rhea said, steadying herself, and if Reinhard had been paying closer attention he might have already clocked that word as the start of something that was going to get a great deal funnier before the week was out.

Rika’s breakthrough came quiet and efficient, Mana condensing around her weapon with barely a wasted motion. She tested the edge against a training construct and gave a single nod. "Better."

Emily watched her. "You adjusted faster than I did."

"You had more power to adapt."

"So did you," Emily said, and Rika let that one sit without an answer.

One by one, all nine stabilized.

But he wasn’t finished yet. "Everyone, stand together."

They gathered, and he activated Team Mana Resonance.

For a moment nothing happened. Then the air between all nine of them shifted, not louder, not stronger in any obvious sense, just cleaner. Emily’s Mana stopped tangling with Maki’s construct.

Rika’s weapon reinforcement slid alongside Lily’s pressure without either one stepping on the other.

Yuna and Mara started reading each other’s movement before it finished happening, and Rhea and Adrian adjusted position without a word passing between them.

Maki looked around, genuinely startled. "Our Mana isn’t colliding."

"It’s synchronizing," Seraphine said.

"Try moving," Reinhard said.

The formation shifted, faster than before, not because anyone had individually gotten dramatically stronger but because nobody needed to spend half their attention correcting everyone else’s mistakes anymore.

"That’s useful," he said, which from him counted as a standing ovation.

Lily beamed. "We’re becoming a real team."

"We already were," Rhea said.

"Now we’re a stronger real team."

Reinhard, for once, didn’t have a counterargument ready, which was its own kind of compliment.

That evening, Emily and Rika reviewed the Blackwater footage together in the training area, Emily watching the same clip three times in a row like repetition might change the verdict.

"I made three mistakes."

"Four," Rika said.

"Four?"

"You hesitated before the first attack, relied on an old movement pattern, reacted too slowly when the enemy changed direction, and spent too much attention guessing what the opponent used to be capable of instead of watching what they actually were."

Emily watched it again. She wanted to argue. She found she couldn’t. "I was hesitating."

"You were."

"You’ve gotten more annoying."

"I’ve been told that," Rika said, with a smile that suggested she’d absolutely been told that before and enjoyed hearing it again.

They moved to the floor, Emily drawing Aeon, Rika raising her own weapon, neither one treating the exchange like a lesson so much as a conversation.

Emily demonstrated an old footwork pattern built for fighting Awakeners who leaned hard on direct Mana Reinforcement, and Rika picked it up almost immediately before showing her how current fighters used Manifestation to redirect an attack mid-flight.

Emily tried it herself, her old stance locking her body into the right position, but instead of finishing the motion the way she had years ago, she folded in her restored Gnosis instead.

Space bent. Time slowed for a fraction of a heartbeat. Aeon slid through the gap and stopped directly in front of Rika, who glanced at the distance between them like she’d just watched a magic trick she couldn’t quite reverse-engineer.

"You changed the interval."

"I used to need the right distance before I could attack." Emily lowered the blade slightly. "Now I can change the distance after the attack’s already started."

She tried it again, stacking Aeon, Mana Reinforcement, Space, and Time together, and the result barely looked like effort at all, her strike skipping across a sliver of space before landing exactly where she wanted it.

Rika’s eyes narrowed. "That’s new."

"It wasn’t."

"It is now," Rika said, understanding instantly, and Emily lowered Aeon feeling, for the first time since returning to the field, like she wasn’t simply clawing back what she’d lost. She was building something that hadn’t existed before.

Across the room, Reinhard watched with Archon beside him, already halfway into trouble.

"They’re going to become friends," he said.

"They already respect each other."

"That’s not what I said."

"Then what did you say?"

"I said they’re going to become friends."

Archon finally looked at him. "They probably will."

"How long?"

"Why does that matter?"

"Because I’m curious, and because I have excellent instincts about this exact kind of thing."

Archon stared at him long enough to make a weaker man reconsider his life choices. "Fine. What are you proposing?"

"Whoever asks the other to train together first, wins."

"Emily."

"Rika."

"Emily."

"Rika."

"You’re very confident," Archon said.

"I am. It’s one of my better qualities, right up there with my face."

"Three days."

"Two."

"Three."

"Two."

"Three," Archon repeated, with the flat finality of a woman who had already decided she would not be negotiated with by a man wearing that particular grin.

"Fine. Three." He thought it over for another second, clearly unwilling to let a perfectly good bet end so simply. "First one to use the other’s first name."

Archon closed her eyes like she was praying for patience that wasn’t coming. "You’re making this unnecessarily complicated."

"It’s important."

"No, it isn’t."

"You’re still betting."

She looked away. "...Yes."

Neither Emily nor Rika noticed any of it.

Everyone else absolutely did.

Rhea’s mouth twitched the second she caught on, Maki looked down fast enough to hide her own smile, Yuna turned fully around, and Adrian became suddenly, deeply fascinated by the training floor’s tile pattern.

Kael glanced between Reinhard and Archon, weighed his options, and decided the smartest move available to him was total, permanent neutrality.

Back on the floor, Rika said, "You’re getting stronger."

"So are you."

"I’m learning from someone who already knows what she’s doing."

"Don’t make me sound old."

"You are older than me."

Emily’s smile vanished on the spot. "Careful."

Rika only smiled wider.

From across the room, Reinhard leaned toward Archon. "That looked like progress."

"They’re training."

"Together."

"They’re supposed to."

"You’re losing."

"They haven’t asked each other anything yet."

"Give it time," he said, with the serene confidence of a man who had clearly never lost a bet in his life and had no intention of starting now.

Rhea covered her mouth to hide a laugh that was, by this point, well past hiding.

The mission report processed shortly after.

[Mission Contribution Updated.]

[Ashcroft Family — Team Ranking: #38 → #34.]

Lily checked the board, then turned to Emily. "Did you actually get stronger?"

"A little."

Reinhard smiled, fully aware she was underselling it on purpose.

[Current Team Ranking: #34.]

[Current Ranking: Top 40.]

[Objective Status: In Progress.]