Training was boring.

  There wasn't much expected out of a collector. Mostly, he just needed to stay out of the way.

  The room itself was a makeshift gravity chamber. Vespara was three times Earth's size, and they had dialed the gravity up to match what they expected on the planet's surface. They wouldn't gain attribute points from this, like with the Earthbound system, but it was still necessary. Muscle memory could get people killed, especially when you had no idea how your skills and strength would translate to a new world. If you got used to jumping four feet in the air when you could only hop a little over one, it could change the outcome of a fight.

  "Again."

  Juliet drove the team without pause. No one was quite sure how she did it. She had to have other work to do between reports, logistics, and command briefings, but she spent more time in the chamber than anyone else.

  It felt like she was cutting the bottom off a blanket and sewing it back onto the top, somehow making it longer.

  Ethan misstepped. His foot was only an inch out of place, just a fraction too much weight on his forward foot, but in the increased gravity, that was enough to send the giant toppling.

  Dane shifted immediately, stepping back and pulling his weight with him.

  The suppression field pressed against him as he moved, the artificial gravity compounding it. It was slower than he had expected, even though it felt like everything else had slowed down to nearly a standstill.

  Ethan hit the mat with a heavy thud.

  "Again," Juliet said.

  Ethan pushed himself up with a grunt.

  Travis came out as soon as the drill was over, getting close enough that he was almost touching Dane as he muttered about speed not being typical for C rank.

  "Travis," Juliet said without turning, "deploy your turret and step back into cover."

  "Roger, ma'am."

  Though he answered instantly, he blatantly continued analyzing Dane instead of following the order.

  Juliet's voice sharpened.

  "I meant now."

  That snapped him out of it.

  "Right. Yes. Now."

  He turned, already moving to comply.

  Dane exhaled slowly, resetting his stance as the chamber hummed around them, gravity pressing down just a little harder than it should have. His mana sight picked up the chains he perceived as gravity, and he noticed that they didn't look larger or heavier despite the pull increasing. It was as if they had become shorter. He had never thought about altering the length before. He made a mental note, but was pulled out of his thoughts by the Corporal.

  "Positions," Juliet said.

  The training bots pressed in.

  This time it wasn't Ethan who lost his footing.

  It was Abby.

  Her stance slipped just enough under the increased gravity, her guard opening for a split second, and Dane made a decision. If he stepped in and took the hit, it would look natural. It would look like a mistake.

  He moved forward and took the collision head-on.

  The impact rang out through the chamber, loud enough to turn heads, but instead of being thrown back or even staggered, Dane held his ground.

  But Abby didn't. He had been expecting a harder hit. He used Identify, and that's when he realized that while Ethan was a solid C, Abby was a late D. She stumbled away from him, her balance faltering, and the blade in her hand snapped clean from the force of it.

  He didn't feel it either. He looked down at the broken weapon, then back up, realizing a second too late what had just happened.

  Behind him, Travis was already talking again, his voice low but quick as he tried to piece it together.

  “Durability… that’s not… that’s at least B rank…”

  Dane exhaled slowly.

  So much for staying in the background.

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  "That's enough for today," Juliet said.

  The room's mood shifted immediately, tension bleeding out of the group as people straightened and stepped back.

  "Hit the showers."

  Dane turned to go to the locker rooms, but Juliet grabbed him by the wrist. She gave him a look that said, "Not you."

  Juliet didn't pull him hard. Even though her grip on his wrist was firm enough that he stopped without thinking, the rest of the team was already moving toward the locker rooms without them. For a moment, neither of them said anything. The hum of the chamber filled the space they left behind.

  "Walk with me," she said.

  It didn't feel like a request. So Dane followed.

  They moved along the outer edge of the chamber, away from the others, past racks of training equipment and inactive robots. The gravity was already easing back toward normal, but the pressure still lingered.

  Juliet let go of his wrist once they were clear.

  "You're not subtle," she said.

  Dane didn't respond.

  "You weren't subtle in the cafeteria," she continued, "and you weren't subtle just now."

  "I was trying to get Travis off my back. How was I supposed to know that she would bounce off of me like a paper ball?"

  "You already moved faster than you were supposed to when Ethan fell."

  That made him glance at her.

  She wasn't looking at him. Her attention stayed forward, posture straight, controlled like always.

  "That's the problem," she said. "You don't think about what it looks like. You see something wrong, and you act. That's fine in a vacuum. But if you were really a D rank, as I introduced you as, you would have been carted out of here today."

  Dane exhaled slowly.

  "I'll handle it."

  "You broke her weapon."

  He didn't have an answer for that.

  Juliet finally looked at him.

  "Ethan noticed," she said. "He didn't say anything, but he noticed."

  Dane's jaw tightened slightly.

  "I can deal with that too."

  "That's not the point."

  She stopped walking.

  Dane did the same.

  "The point is that Ethan is responsible for this team," she said. "And right now, he doesn't know what you are."

  "I'm a collector."

  Her expression didn't change, but something in her eyes did.

  "You don't believe that."

  "No," Dane said. "But that's what you assigned me."

  Juliet held his gaze for a second longer, then nodded once.

  "Then let me be more direct," she said. "You need to tell them."

  Dane shook his head immediately. "No."

  "Why?"

  "Because you can't rely on me."

  He ran a hand through his hair, searching for the words and not liking any of them.

  "I'm not here because I want to be," he said finally. "I'm here to pay off a debt. That's it."

  Juliet didn't interrupt.

  "My sister keeps her nice place in the city," he continued. "I do my time, I follow orders, and when it's done, I'm gone."

  "And you think keeping them at arm's length makes that easier?"

  "Yes."

  She studied him.

  "If you just wanted to stay a nobody, you shouldn't have tried to play hero with Martha," she said

  "That was different...."

  She cut him off. "I received an emperor's quest last night."

  He eyed her suspiciously. The last time he heard of that was when Amelia was being told to spy on him or try to kill him.

  "Whoever you are, the emperor wants me aid you."

  His eyes went wide at the implication.

  "Why"

  Juliet shook her head in confusion.

  "It didn't say," she said. "I accepted that quest, and it pushed me into B rank last night. It said that when the quest is complete, I will be an A rank.”

  Dane's expression hardened slightly.

  "I still can't see your level," Juliet said.

  "That's because I don't have one anymore."

  She went silent. "What do you mean you don't have a level?"

  Dane looked away.

  "When I reached 250, I felt my ascendents' core fire up. It was after a fight with the two strongest people that I have faced." He paused for a moment, then continued. "I can't just tell Ethan my rank because he will start looking at me differently, like you are now. I will go from being one of the crew to being the one who is in charge, the one who has to kill the big bad. It is alienating. Do you know what it feels like to have the only people who can understand you be enemies? The only people who are going through the same thing are destined to become more fuel for progression?"

  Juliet's tone softened, just slightly.

  "I'm not telling you to give them your life story," she said. "I don't care where you came from or what you've done before this."

  Dane let out a quiet breath.

  "Then what do you want?"

  "I want you to give them enough to work with."

  He frowned.

  "We will tell them you are a Peak B rank," she said. "And you need to tell them a couple of skills that can work well in formation."

  Dane considered that.

  "I don't trust them."

  "You don't trust anyone."

  That one he didn't argue.

  Juliet crossed her arms, studying him again.

  "You keep this up," she said, "and you're going to end up alone."

  "I'm fine with that."

  "No, you're not."

  He looked back at her.

  She held his gaze, completely unflinching.

  "You'll tell yourself you are," she said. "You'll convince yourself it's easier. Cleaner. But one day you'll look up and realize you're the only one left in the room, and you won't know how to change it."

  Dane didn't respond.

  "You'll end up some old hermit on the edge of a town," she added, "too disconnected to remember how to be around people."

  That almost got a reaction.

  Juliet let the silence stretch, then stepped back slightly.

  "The choice is yours," she said. "I'm not ordering you to do it."

  Dane nodded once.

  "… I'm not telling them everything."

  "I didn't ask you to."

  "I'll tell them I am low grade B rank," he said. "And some of my skills. Enough that Ethan can plan."

  Juliet watched him for a moment, no doubt catching that he didn't want to tell them that he outranked Juliet in terms of power.

  "We're going out tonight," she said. "The whole team."

  Dane frowned. "I told you, I don't drink."

  "You don't have to. It's not about the alcohol," she continued. "It's about them seeing you as part of the unit."

  Dane looked past her toward the locker rooms, where the rest of the team had already disappeared.

  "They're going to ask questions."

  "They already are, but I can't think of a better place for you to tell them that the person I put in charge of monster dismantling is actually stronger than the Vanguard."

  That… was fair.

  Juliet's expression softened, just slightly.

  "Come," she said. "Have a soda. Sit there. Say as little as you want." She paused for a second, then continued. "No one's going to judge you for it."

  Dane let out a slow breath.

  "…Fine."

  Juliet gave a short nod, like that had been the expected outcome all along.

  "Good," she said.

  Then she turned and started toward the exit.

  Dane followed.

  This time, she didn't have to grab his wrist.