Free Web NovelChapter 20: INSTRUCTOR E. VESPERA.
The senior division building looked nothing like the rest of the academy.
There were no glowing signs or pretty fountains. It was just a tall tower with narrow windows that didn’t let much light out. Holden climbed the stairs two at a time.
He stopped in front of a plain black door. There was just a small metal sign that said INSTRUCTOR E. VESPERA. Under the name, it said in smaller letters, DO NOT KNOCK UNLESS SUMMONED.
He had been summoned, so technically he was allowed.
He knocked anyway.
"Come in," said a voice from inside.
The door slid open.
Vespera sat behind a wide desk that had absolutely no clutter on it. There was just a cup of cold tea and her intense, piercing stare.
She didn’t look up right away. She was reading something on a glass tablet, her silver hair tucked behind one ear.
"Sit," she said.
"I’ll stand," Holden said. "I’ve had a long day."
That made her look at him. She looked up quickly. For a second, she looked a little bit happy. But then the look went away, and her face became cold and serious again.
"Fine," she said. "Stand, then."
The door behind him closed shut.
Click.
Holden heard the lock engage.
He didn’t get the chance to wonder why a teacher’s office needed a lock that strong.
The atmosphere changed.
It happened all at once. One second the room felt normal. The next, it felt like the entire building had dropped ten floors in half a heartbeat.
Holden’s knees buckled.
Thud.
He didn’t collapse completely, but he had to fight the urge to just fall over. Every part of his body suddenly felt three times heavier than it should. His shoulders slumped, and his back arched forward as if an invisible weight had been dumped on his spine.
Across the room, Vespera hadn’t moved. She just sat there, sipping her cold tea like nothing was happening.
"This," she said calmly, "is what Rank 4 feels like to someone who hasn’t earned it."
Holden’s jaw clenched. Sweat broke out on his forehead. The pressure pushed down on every joint in his body.
His system pinged in his mind.
[Hostile environmental pressure detected. Adapting.]
The system saw a near death crushing weight and called it a workout opportunity.
Holden planted his feet. He refused to let his knees touch the ground.
"You’re shaking," Vespera said, watching him over the rim of her cup.
"I’m cold," Holden said through his teeth.
The pressure kept growing. It felt like the room itself was trying to fold him in half. His vision blurred at the edges. Somewhere in his chest, something groaned.
Crack.
He felt a sharp pain in his side and thought a rib had snapped.
But the multiplier didn’t care about pain. It only cared about input.
[Pressure registered. Adapting cellular structure. Multiplier applied: 100x.]
His body, already pushed to its limit, suddenly started rewriting itself. What should have taken weeks of brutal training under heavy gravity happened in seconds. His bones thickened. His muscles compressed tighter, denser, harder. Every cell in his body screamed and then became stronger than before.
It hurt so much that black spots appeared in his eyes.
But Holden had felt worse. He had felt hunger that gnawed at his stomach for days.
This was just pressure.
He breathed in. Slow.
He breathed out. Slower.
And then, somewhere deep inside his core, something clicked into place.
[Breakthrough achieved. Fighter Rank updated: Rank 1, 5-Star.]
The crushing weight didn’t go away. But suddenly, it felt like someone had taken two bricks off his back instead of ten.
Holden straightened up slowly.
He stood in a gravity field that would have crushed most older students. He was standing completely straight, as if the force was just a light breeze.
For the first time all night, Vespera’s cup paused halfway to her lips.
She set it down carefully and the pressure vanished.
All at once, like a switch had been flipped.
The air went back to normal. Holden’s shoulders, which had been screaming for the last few minutes, suddenly felt weightless.
He almost stumbled forward from the sudden lack of resistance. He caught himself at the last second, refusing to give her the satisfaction.
Vespera studied him for a long moment. She didn’t change her expression, but her look became much more intense, like she was finally taking him seriously.
"Do you know what that test usually does?" she asked.
"Crushes people?" Holden guessed.
"It breaks them," she said. "Third years. Grown men with five years of training. They hit the floor and stay there until I lift the field."
Holden rolled his shoulder, testing the new strength settling into his bones. "Guess I’m allergic to floors."
"Sit," she said again. This time it wasn’t a request either, but it didn’t feel like a threat anymore.
Holden walked to the chair across from her desk and sat down.
Vespera sat back with her fingers crossed, watching him with intense focus. No matter how many times she looked at him, he didn’t fit what she expected. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
"Good," she said. "Now we can talk business."
