’What happened while I was unconscious, System?’ Ravian addressed the system silently, lying on the bed like the others but with no real intention of sleeping.

[Sovereign Pulse was used twice while you were unconscious, host. My assessment was that this was preferable to letting two days pass without utilizing it — had that happened, your body would have been exactly the same as before you lost consciousness. But I imagine you can already feel the difference.]

The system explained in its usual calm, genderless tone.

’You’re right. I feel... different.’ Ravian raised his fist toward the ceiling, opening and closing it slowly, feeling the shift in its strength compared to before.

’Not a dramatic difference, but it’s undeniably there.’ He could sense it in the way energy moved through his muscles right now.

’Where does my strength sit relative to the people around me, System?’

[Calculating...]

[Based on physical strength alone, you are clearly stronger than the average Tenth-Rank Awakened — the Awakened rank itself. The only ones among them who might surpass you are certain races born with exceptional physical power from birth, such as the orcs you fought previously.]

’How am I this strong when my physical constitution hasn’t even reached 20% yet? What you’re saying essentially means I’m physically stronger than any human Awakened at this rank.’ Ravian turned it over in his mind, well aware that a strength increase this significant in such a short time was not a small thing.

[That is partially correct, host. At the Tenth Rank — the very beginning of the Path for soul power holders, the Awakened rank — your body is already absurdly strong, and that is entirely because of your Sovereign Pride Physique. Even at this early stage, it makes all the difference.]

’Damn. And here I was thinking I was falling behind — turns out I’m already ahead of most.’ Ravian sat up from where he had been lying and looked around at his squadmates. They were all asleep.

He got out of bed and stood up.

"Where are you going, Ravian? At this hour?" One of the four sleeping men spoke up.

"Hmm?" Ravian turned, unable to see clearly with the oil lamp extinguished.

He tracked the voice and found him — Malrik, who apparently hadn’t let his guard down even in his sleep.

"Go back to sleep, Malrik. I woke up to deal with that orc corpse," Ravian said simply.

"Are you going to sell it?" Malrik asked, rubbing his drowsy eyes.

"I was thinking about it, yes," Ravian confirmed.

"But now? Why not wait until tomorrow?" Malrik sounded far too sleepy to be having a conversation, yet he was having it anyway — because it was Ravian.

"I’m fine. I don’t feel like I need sleep right now, so I figured I’d put the time to use," Ravian replied, already heading toward the orc corpse.

What Malrik said next made him immediately regret telling him anything.

"Then wait for me — haaah..." Malrik yawned.

"I’ll come with you. I don’t want you going out alone when we still don’t know how your body is going to hold up if you end up in a situation that needs fighting." He pushed himself up from his bed.

"No, no, no." Ravian quickly moved to push Malrik back down.

"Hmm? Why not?" Malrik raised an eyebrow.

Ravian couldn’t think of anything to say. He didn’t want to be too vague either — things had just started to settle properly among the squad, and he didn’t want to stir suspicion. Then a thought came to him that he felt was reasonable enough.

"I’m... I’m going to go meet Lysandra. Just to talk for a bit," Ravian said — and immediately felt the urge to throw himself into the nearest river.

"Ohoho." The sleepiness vanished from Malrik’s eyes entirely, replaced by something much more awake and much more amused.

"Look at this guy — going to meet her after teaching her a lesson, right before bed? And what’s with that expression — are you blushing?" Malrik grinned at him in that particular way that every man understood.

"Ugh — just sleep, you idiot commander," Ravian muttered, pushing Malrik back onto the bed a second time, deeply regretting the entire conversation he had just initiated.

"Hahaha — the brave warrior is actually a shy little chicken when it comes to women," Malrik laughed, watching Ravian with poorly contained delight.

"The virgin commander is speaking?" Ravian said flatly, having finally noticed that Malrik was showing no signs of going back to sleep.

Malrik stopped.

"Hang on — that’s not funny. At all. And I’m not inexperienced because I can’t find a girl — I’m inexperienced because I chose this," Malrik said with complete seriousness, his smile flattening into something that looked remarkably like a child whose favorite toy had just been taken away.

"Pfft—!" Ravian barely stopped himself from laughing out loud and waking the other three, pressing his hand over his mouth.

"Hold on — I swear, if you laugh one more time, I will demolish this new tent of yours using your own useless body," Malrik said, fixing Ravian with an irritated stare.

Ravian pressed his lips together with considerable force and nodded at Malrik in solemn acknowledgment.

"You know what? Forget it. To hell with you — I don’t even want to come anymore. I hope some bear finds you out there and drags you across every corner of this camp," Malrik said, throwing himself back onto his bed with his arms crossed and an expression that left no room for interpretation.

"I’ll see you later, Commander," Ravian said, giving him a small farewell.

Then he crossed quickly to the oil lamp, lit it for just a moment, and went to stand in front of the mirror that had been brought in — nearly the same size as the one in Lysandra’s tent.

"What the F—" Malrik squinted against the sudden light.

"Could you just leave quietly?"

"Sorry," Ravian said, already checking his reflection with a quick sweep.

’Hm. Did I actually put on weight or something? My face doesn’t look sickly thin anymore — it’s starting to fill out again, little by little. Seems Evelyn wasn’t joking when she said I got more handsome.’

He tilted his head, looking at himself from different angles, but then—

’I still look completely ordinary,’ Ravian decided, studying his reflection with a dry, unbothered look.

And then he remembered—

"A man has never been judged by his appearance, Ravian."

That was what Lysandra had said to him once.

Ravian gave his head a quick shake to scatter the memory.

’Since when are you a romantic, you absolute idiot?’ he muttered to himself, turning away from his own reflection with a look of mild contempt.

"Finish whatever you’re doing and get out of here, for the love of— or I will personally come over there and kick you out myself," Malrik said suddenly, having watched him smiling and frowning at his reflection like a man losing his mind.

"Alright, alright, calm down," Ravian said, moving quickly to put out the lamp and making his way over to the orc corpse.

"Hup!" Ravian exhaled as he got both arms under the body and tried to lift it. It took two more attempts before he managed to get the orc off the ground.

’That’s roughly... four hundred kilograms?’ He estimated based on the difference between the orc’s weight and his longsword, which weighed approximately three kilograms — the standard weight for an Awakened’s weapon here, noticeably heavier than the swords ordinary people used.

’Which means this orc weighed more than a hundred longswords stacked together. The humans fighting these things with bodies that average eighty to a hundred kilograms were genuinely out of their minds.’

Ravian thought this with full sincerity, momentarily forgetting that he himself was one of those genuinely out-of-their-minds humans who had fought these things.

He made his way out of the tent — and stopped the moment he stepped outside.

"Lysandra?" Ravian said.