Thursday had co and gone in a blur of solitude and research. Jayden had spent the entire day holed up in his room, diving deep into information about the Sabertooth Flare... a dangerous beast he’d marked as his next target.
The creature’s fire-based abilities and territorial nature made it a formidable opponent, but the exp and potential loot made it worth the risk. He’d ticulously studied its behavior patterns, weaknesses, and habitat, committing every detail to mory.
But Thursday was behind him now.
Friday morning arrived with pale golden light filtering through Jayden’s curtains. He woke before his alarm, his internal clock finely tuned after months of disciplined routine. Rolling out of bed, he imdiately dropped to the floor for his daily quest requirents.
After a quick brush and face wash, Jayden grabbed his gym bag and headed out. He jogged to the park, completed his daily quests, and then proceeded to the gym.
The morning air was crisp as he mounted his hoverbike, the sleek black vehicle humming to life beneath him. Within fifteen minutes, he’d arrived at Iron Peak Gym, one of the more upscale training facilities in Ruby City. It catered primarily to evolved humans, which ant the equipnt was built to withstand superhuman use.
Perfect for what Jayden had in mind.
He swiped his mbership card at the entrance and headed to the main floor. The gym was moderately busy for a Friday morning... several evolved humans were scattered throughout, working on their strength, speed, or ability control. So had visible mutations from their evolution: hardened skin, enlarged muscle mass, or crackling energy surrounding their bodies.
Jayden found an empty bench press station in the corner and dropped his bag beside it. Before touching any weights, he pulled up his status screen, sothing he’d made a habit of checking from ti to ti.
*Na: Jayden Starrk
*Race: Werewolf
*Level: 15
*Exp: 30/5800
*Hp: 730/730
*Ep: 320/320
*Shop points: 10
*Strength: 190
*Speed: 212
*Agility: 110
*Stamina: 219
*Perception: 81
*Defense: 122
*Charm: 71
*Mastery: 93
Stat points: 100
[Heart Rate: 45 Bpm]
*Health Regeneration [Passive]
*Beastlord Aura [Passive/Active]
*Beast Gene Integration [Active]
*Partial Transformation [Active]
*Dragon Eye [Active]
*Lunar Empowernt [Passive]
*Beast Energy Acquisition
*Telekinetic Force
*Poison Secretion
*Invisibility
*Enhanced Strength
*Matter Absorption
*Size Manipulation
*Regent Alpha
Jayden’s eyes scanned the information with satisfaction. He’d amassed quite a collection of abilities and skills over the past two months. But what caught his attention most were the 110 unspent stat points sitting there, waiting to be allocated.
"That’s a lot of points," he muttered under his breath.
He could distribute them all right now, give himself a significant power boost across the board. But sothing held him back... a lesson his mother had drilled into him during their training sessions.
"Don’t waste your resources on incrental gains when you might need them for a critical breakthrough later."
Still, having them just sit there seed wasteful too.
After a mont of contemplation, Jayden decided on a compromise. He’d use 20 points now and save the rest for when he truly needed them...perhaps during a difficult fight or when he discovered a new skill that required specific stat thresholds.
The question was: where to allocate those 20 points?
His Strength and Speed were already his highest attributes, both well over 200. Stamina was close behind. Those three ford the foundation of his combat style... overwhelming physical power combined with blinding speed and the endurance to maintain both.
Agility was lower at 110, but he’d found ways to compensate with his enhanced reflexes and combat experience. Defense at 122 was respectable, especially combined with his werewolf durability.
That left Perception at 81 as his lowest combat-relevant stat.
Jayden frowned thoughtfully. Perception affected his ability to detect threats, read opponents’ movents, sense danger, and process information in combat. With his Dragon Eye ability, he already had enhanced visual acuity, but raw perception determined how quickly he could react to what he saw.
"Perception it is," he decided, before giving the command ntality. The system chid instantly.
[Perception: 81 >> 101]
The change was imdiate, if subtle. The gym around him seed to sharpen into clearer focus. He could hear individual conversations across the room with greater clarity. The sll of sweat, tal, and energy residue beca more distinct. Even the fluorescent lights seed brighter, more defined.
It wasn’t a dramatic transformation, but Jayden could feel the difference. His awareness of his surroundings had expanded, like gaining a new sense he hadn’t known was missing.
Satisfied, he dismissed the status screen and turned his attention to the bench press.
He loaded the bar with plates... 300 kilograms to start. A warm-up weight by his standards, but well beyond what most ordinary humans could manage. Even so evolved humans with strength enhancents would struggle with that much weight.
Jayden positioned himself on the bench, gripped the bar, and lifted it off the rack with ease. He perford fifteen smooth repetitions, his breathing controlled and steady. The weight felt comfortable, almost light.
Too light.
He racked the bar and added more plates. 600 kilograms now.
This ti when he lifted, he felt actual resistance. Good. He pushed through twenty repetitions, his muscles warming up properly, before racking the bar again.
By now, a few gym-goers had noticed what he was doing. Whispers started circulating.
Jayden ignored them and added more weight. 1000 kilograms.
The bar bent slightly under the load, but the reinforced equipnt held. Jayden settled back onto the bench, wrapped his hands around the bar, and lifted.
The weight was substantial now, requiring genuine effort. But his enhanced strength, boosted further by his recent stat allocation, made it manageable. He completed twelve clean repetitions, his form perfect, before setting the bar down.
"Is he even human?" soone whispered nearby.
"Has to be evolved. Maybe a strength-type ability?"
"I’ve never seen anyone lift that much without at least so visible strain..."
Jayden paid them no mind. He moved to the squat rack next, loading it with similar weight. His legs were even stronger than his upper body... a necessity for the explosive movents required in his fighting style.
He perford deep squats with 950 kilograms across his shoulders, the weight pressing down but never overwhelming him. His legs pistoned up and down with chanical precision, twenty repetitions that left the watching gym-goers slack-jawed.
From there, Jayden moved through a brutal workout routine that would have hospitalized an ordinary person and exhausted most evolved humans. Deadlifts with 1500 kilograms. Pull-ups with an additional 600 kilograms strapped to his waist. Weighted sprints on the treadmill at speeds that made the machine whine in protest.
He hit the heavy bags next, his fists driving into the reinforced material with thunderous impacts. Each punch landed with enough force to make the entire bag swing violently on its chain. The rhythmic BOOM-BOOM-BOOM of his combinations echoed through the gym.
By now, nearly everyone had stopped their own workouts to watch. Even the evolved humans, people who’d taken the evolution serum and gained extraordinary abilities, looked on with a mixture of awe and disbelief.
One particularly muscular man with tallic silver skin... clearly soone with a tal-based ability, attempted to match Jayden’s bench press weight. He managed three shaky repetitions before his arms gave out, the bar crashing back onto the rack as he gasped for breath.
Jayden had done twenty.
"What the hell is he?" the tallic man wheezed to his workout partner. "I’ve got enhanced strength from my ability, and I could barely move that weight!"
His partner, a woman with crackling electricity dancing across her arms, shook her head slowly. "I don’t know, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Not even from the high-level agents at the EVA."
Jayden remained oblivious to their comntary, completely absorbed in his training. His focus was absolute, his mind clear of everything except the next rep, the next exercise, the next improvent.
He finished with a cooldown session... light cardio and stretching that most people would consider a full workout on its own, before finally grabbing his towel and water bottle.
As he headed toward the locker room, the other gym-goers parted before him like a wave. So stared with open admiration. Others looked nervous, as if suddenly aware they were sharing space with sothing far beyond their understanding.
Jayden freshened up and headed out, summoning his hoverbike on the spot.
The ride ho took only twenty minutes. When he arrived, the house was empty. Jacob had already taken Tasha and Jessica to Cassandra’s place, and Harleen had left for work.
Jayden headed upstairs to his room and stripped off his gym clothes, tossing them in the hamper. A quick shower washed away the remaining sweat, leaving him feeling refreshed and energized despite the intense workout.
He dressed in clean clothes... dark blue jeans and a black long-sleeve shirt that fit snugly across his muscular fra, and headed downstairs to the kitchen.
Harleen had left another prepared al in the refrigerator with a note: *Eat well, honey. Have fun at training!
Jayden smiled slightly and heated up the food. Grilled chicken breast, brown rice, and stead vegetables. High protein, complex carbs, essential nutrients. The perfect kind of als he needed to maintain his physique and energy levels.
He ate thodically, fueling his body for whatever the afternoon’s training might bring.
al finished and dishes washed, Jayden grabbed his leather jacket and headed out, closing the door behind him and locking it. His hoverbike sat on the driveway, waiting.
He swung his leg over the seat, the vehicle recognizing him instantly and humming to life. The engine’s purr was smooth and powerful, vibrating pleasantly beneath him.
Jayden pulled up the GPS on the bike’s holographic display and input Cassandra’s address. The route appeared, a glowing blue line projected into his field of vision.
With a twist of the throttle, he shot forward, the hoverbike rising smoothly off the ground as he guided it into the street.
The city blurred past as he accelerated, wind whipping through his hair. The sensation of speed, of movent, always cleared his mind. For these few minutes, there were no worries about pack bonds or training or mysterious pasts. Just him, the bike, and the open air.
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