Jayden and Skye came out of the cave and were back under the open sky. Outside, the atmosphere had developed into something warmer... noon was already setting in.

Jayden cracked his neck and looked at the forest around him. It was time for his second objective: mastering his new ability.

"Wait here, Skye," Jayden said. Then he dropped into a low runner’s stance, digging his boots into the dirt. He took a deep, centering breath. With his high Mastery stat, he assumed that simply pushing his physical running speed to the absolute limit would forcibly ignite the Super Speed ability.

He assumed wrong.

Jayden exploded out of his stance, his muscles propelling him forward in a massive leap. He hit the ground, running and tearing through the forest at a blistering pace.

The first kilometer didn’t produce anything except the familiar sensation of running fast... his natural speed enhanced by his enhanced physique, his stride covering ground at a rate that would have been impressive by any standard that didn’t include the ability he was trying to unlock. He pushed harder. Longer strides. More aggressive push-off. He found the edges of his natural speed ceiling and ran along them. Trees blurred past him. He vaulted over fallen logs, ducked under low-hanging branches, and kept pushing his stride faster and faster.

He stopped after five kilometers, trying to catch his breath. He’d been running with his full strength and speed for more than thirty minutes. And his stamina had dropped significantly.

[180/285]

But yet, nothing. The ability didn’t get activated.

He finally caught his breath, then ran again. And this time he didn’t stop. He ran for another five kilometers straight, carving a path through the dense woods until his lungs began to burn.

He finally skidded to a halt in a clearing, bracing his hands on his knees as he gasped for air. He checked his interface.

[Stamina: 100/295]

His stamina had declined substantially, and the ability remained exactly as inaccessible as it had been when he started.

"Why isn’t it triggering?" Jayden demanded, frustration bleeding into his voice. "I have the ability. It should have been activated by now."

[Perhaps mastering a kinetic ability like super speed requires more than just high Mastery and running really fast] Luna suggested coolly.

"Okay. But why am I burning out so fast?" Jayden panted, wiping sweat from his brow. "I know I’m going to get tired eventually but I didn’t think it’d happen this fast. I mean, it’s only been an hour or so."

[Jayden, this isn’t your morning three-kilometer jog for a Daily Quest] Luna chuckled. [You just sprinted ten kilometers at maximum output through an uneven terrain. You don’t have unlimited stamina., y’know. And you need to understand the fundamental difference between moving fast and running fast]

Jayden stood upright, catching his breath. "Alright, explain."

[Moving fast is a combat reflex, somewhat like the ability to close the gap on an opponent so quickly it looks like teleportation. And it relies simply on Agility and Perception] Luna explained. [It requires very little stamina because it’s performed in short, explosive bursts. But running? That’s sustained velocity. It requires deep reserves of Stamina, pure Speed, and immense physical endurance. That is the divide between someone who is merely ’quick’ and someone who’s an actual Speedster]

Jayden processed the information. "So, perhaps if I upgrade my Stamina and Speed, it would help jumpstart the ability," he speculated. "Or what do you think?"

[I cannot guarantee it will trigger the activation] Luna replied, [but fundamentally speaking, it is the correct approach. And it’s worth a shot]

Jayden didn’t waste time and immediately pulled up his status tab.

——————

*Name: Jayden Starrk

*Race: Werewolf

*Level: 17

*Exp: 4160/7500

*Hp: 830/830

*Ep: 360/360

*Shop points: 1,590,010

*Strength: 234

*Speed: 242

*Agility: 125

*Stamina: 295

*Perception: 94

*Defense: 138

*Charm: 82

*Mastery: 162

Stat points: 120

[Heart Rate: 45 Bpm]

<Skills>

*Health Regeneration [Passive]

*Beastlord Aura [Passive/Active]

*Beast Gene Integration [Active]

*Partial Transformation [Active]

*Dragon Eye [Active]

*Lunar Empowerment [Passive]

*Soul Bonding [Active]

<Abilities>

*Beast Energy Acquisition 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

*Telekinetic Force

*Poison Secretion

*Invisibility

*Enhanced Strength

*Matter Absorption

*Size Manipulation

*Pyrokinesis

*Intangibility

*Super Speed

<Titles>

*Regent Alpha

——————

Jayden stared at the information laid before him. He had 120 unallocated stat points. Without hesitating, he dumped 40 points into Stamina, and 30 points into Speed

[Stamina: 295 >> 335]

[Speed: 242 >> 272]

He left the remaining 50 points in reserve for emergencies. Glancing at the screen, he made a mental note to address his abysmal Charm and Perception stats later; they both needed to at least cross the 100 threshold soon.

Feeling the immediate, surging rush of the new stats locking into his biology, Jayden dropped back into a runner’s stance.

And then, he ran.

For the next six hours, the forest became his track.

Jayden ran through it with the particular focused stubbornness of someone who had decided this was going to happen today and was not prepared to accept failure. He varied his approach... using shorter bursts at maximum effort, longer sustained runs at slightly lower intensity, utilizing circuits that changed direction and terrain, exploiting downhill sections where momentum could assist, and uphill sections where resistance forced more output. He watched for anything that felt different, any sensation at the edge of his perception that might indicate the ability engaging.

Skye watched him from various positions around the forest, relocating every thirty minutes or so with the air of a patient spectator. She cheered him on periodically.

Master is doing very well, she said, somewhere around the third hour.

"Thank you." Jayden replied.

Master is very fast. she cheered, when she noticed he was getting tired.

"Not fast enough." Jayden said

Does master want Skye to run with him? she asked casually.

And Jayden thought about this. Running alongside the beast who already possessed the speed ability would be motivating, probably. But it would be pointless because there’s no way in hell he’d be able to keep up.

"Maybe later," he said, and kept running.

By the time the sky bled into deep hues of orange and purple, Jayden was utterly broken.

He collapsed onto the soft grass, completely starfished, his chest heaving violently. His body was drenched in sweat, his muscles screaming in protest. His Stamina bar hovered at a critical 10 points. He had taken only a handful of minutes to rest across six hours of relentless sprinting.

And he had accomplished absolutely nothing.

There was no activation of the ability, no feeling of moving faster. There wasn’t even that no slow-motion perception he felt in the morning back in the bathroom. It was as if he’d never even felt it.

"What am I doing wrong?" he breathed to the empty air, watching the sunset through the canopy. "I have the stats. I have the ability in my DNA. Why can’t I reach it?"

He lay there for a long time, watching Skye lazily bat at a glowing firefly. How does she do it? he wondered.

As the last light of the sun dipped below the horizon, Jayden pushed himself up, his muscles aching with every micro-movement.

"Alright, Skye," Jayden sighed, his voice raspy. "Let’s head home. I think that’s enough for today. I’ll try again tomorrow."

But as he took a step forward, the world stopped.

It wasn’t a gradual deceleration. It was violent and instantaneous. A falling leaf, caught in the evening breeze, froze perfectly mid-air, suspended by an invisible string. The sound of crickets warping into a deep, distorted, endless drone. The wind simply ceased to exist.

Jayden looked around, his heart pounding a slow, heavy drumbeat in his chest. Everything was trapped in amber. Everything except Skye, who was looking at him with her head tilted, completely unaffected by the temporal shift. But Jayden wasn’t even paying attention to her. He was focused on the fact that everything was now moving in slo-mo... no, there weren’t moving in slo-mo, it was he who perceived them in slow motion.

But he didn’t even question the phenomenon or try to fight it. He simply let go.

He took a runner’s stance, dropping his center of gravity and pivoting his foot against the dirt.

And then... he exploded forward.

BOOM! Crack!

A deafening, concussive sonic boom shattered the absolute silence of the frozen forest as Jayden broke the sound barrier from a dead stop.

The kinetic displacement was catastrophic. The ground directly beneath his launch point simply evaporated, a massive crater forming as he launched himself forward.

Whooosh!!

He tore through the woods, a blur of untethered kinetic energy.

The sheer force of his momentum displaced the atmosphere around him, creating a violent, swirling vacuum that ripped leaves from branches and uprooted small shrubs in his wake.

The earth shattered beneath every single footfall, leaving a deep, devastating trench carved into the forest floor.

His speed was so immense that the air friction superheated. His shirt shredded into ribbons, the fabric violently tearing away from his shoulders as he became a living missile.

He skidded to a halt nearly two miles away, his boots carving deep grooves into the bedrock before he finally stopped.

The world slammed back into real-time. The delayed shockwave of his run finally caught up to him, a massive gust of wind blasting past his torn clothes, carrying the sound of shattering timber and displaced earth.

Jayden stood up straight, his eyes wide. He looked back at the horrific, mile-long trench of destruction he had just carved through the wilderness. He looked down at his utterly shredded clothing, still in awe about everything that had just happened.

Just then, a cascade of notifications flooded his vision.

[You have mastered the ability: Super Speed]

[Alert! New Speed Classification Attained]

[Current Speed: Mach 1]

[Agility has been doubled]

[+300 Perception]

[Agility: 125 >> 250]

[Perception: 94 >> 394]