CH208 Simulation Gym

***

Dreams aside, Fen's growth was a welcome development—it meant Alex now had more cards up his sleeve.

There was only one issue.

"I'm going to miss that fluffy white fur…" Alex muttered.

At this, Fen smirked—well, as much as a wolf could. He shook himself as if tossing something from his coat.

To Alex's surprise, Fen's black fur shifted back to its former snowy white. He wasn't completely white, though—his mane and spine now had a faint, glossy grey sheen.

The fiery warmth in the air around him faded, replaced by the familiar icy chill.

"Wow, so you can alternate between forms? Like ice and fire modes?" Alex's eyes lit up.

Woof!

Fen nodded proudly.

He went on to explain.

According to his own intuition, Fen had yet to fully awaken the potential of his mutated bloodline. His lineage granted him dual affinities—Ice (water) and Fire—two inherently opposing elements.

While the Blazefrost Orchid allowed him to balance the backlash from these elements, it didn't remove it entirely.

Back when his bloodline first awakened, Fen had been a cub. His body wasn't yet developed enough to withstand the full fusion of both elements and unleash its complete potential. To cope, his hidden wood/nature affinity had been quietly soothing the fusion, breaking it down into manageable stages that aligned with his growth.

Now, in his two distinct modes, he could use the opposing element to a limited degree.

In black-fur fire mode, he could reluctantly employ certain Ice abilities—particularly those that let him rapidly cool internal and surrounding heat. Likewise, in white-fur ice mode, he could manage limited bursts of fire abilities.

"You're quite an honest one, aren't you?" Alex chuckled, rubbing the wolf's head.

Fen's explanation matched his colour scheme perfectly.

In fire mode, his predominantly black fur, with white patches along his spine and neck, indicated his Fire affinity was dominant while Ice was secondary. In ice mode, the reverse applied.

Alex stayed with the wolf for about half an hour before leaving him in the cultivation room. He wanted Fen to make full use of the fort's excellent cultivation facilities to consolidate his breakthrough before the upcoming battles.

Upon stepping out, Alex ran into Jared, Udara, and Allen Holder.

"Young Master Alex, your training continues," the Dark Knight announced, turning on his heel to lead the way.

Alex's lips twitched. Then he sighed, knowing there was no point in wasting breath arguing with Jared about supposed "rest days."

He nodded in greeting to Allen and Udara. Udara silently took her place behind him as his guard, while Allen's expression carried both amusement and curiosity.

Udara and Allen had just wrapped up their first lecture session together. Udara had been on her way back to Alex's quarters when Jared appeared.

Allen decided to tag along after hearing Jared was in charge of Alex's warrior training. The idea of a mage undergoing such drills intrigued him enough to come watch the 'fun'—or rather, the torture.

After all, Allen knew firsthand just how 'gentle' Jared was as a drill sergeant. The thought of that same 'gentle' treatment applied to a mage—who were usually considered fragile relative to warriors—was too amusing to miss.

But watching Alex keep up with Jared's punishing regimen without a single complaint quickly changed Allen's view.

If he didn't know better, he wouldn't have believed Alex was a mage at all.

While Jared continued verbally tearing Alex down—claiming he was worse than even a Fury Squire (Class 0 warrior)—Allen Holder knew better.

Alex was now able to keep pace with an early Intermediate rank warrior who was giving his all, using Internal Energy, while relying solely on his own flesh and blood—without [Body Strengthening Magic], nor [Dragon's Kumite].

Jared might have been a strict—arguably sadistic—drill sergeant, but he had a gift for drawing out hidden potential. And Alex had plenty to draw from.

After countless body refinements and the natural enhancements from his bloodlines, Alex was finally tapping into his physical potential.

Too bad he wasn't fully aware of just how far he'd come. Surrounded by warriors who were all monsters in their own right—even Udara, the weakest, could overpower him in a brawl—Alex still felt like the weak one.

He knew he was improving, but the exact measure of his growth eluded him. Besides, all he really cared about was that he could now protect himself with his fists long enough to cast a spell. That was enough. He still thought of himself primarily as a mage, even if he could hold his own in the other two branches.

Allen Holder, impressed by Alex's tenacity, couldn't resist offering a few tips on using hidden weapons.

Alex's eyes lit up immediately.

This—this was why he endured the torture sessions. They improved him. They made him a better member of the Brotherhood. And what better extra skill to learn than hidden weapons?

Unfortunately, mastering them wasn't simple. It came with its own brand of repetitive, muscle-burning drills.

By the time he staggered back to his quarters—with Udara's help—it was close to midnight. His limbs screamed in protest, refusing to move, but his mind remained sharp.

He called on OmniRune, prompting it to digitise his memories and feed them to a Sub-AI routine tasked with analysing the Fury Warriors' sparring methods, using footage from the training ground cameras he'd installed back at Ashen Castle.

Once the data was compiled, OmniRune would be able to reconstruct the Fury family's standardised combat styles. From there, it could study stronger individuals—especially the ones Alex was meeting now—and refine those styles, even creating specialised variants: Swordsman, Knight, Archer, Assassin, and more.

Alex imagined programming those styles directly into the Nest Queen's drone templates, so the resulting drones would develop to perfectly execute them.

In theory, he could mass-produce soldiers in record time.

"What if I use the simulation function to create a sparring partner who has perfectly mastered these styles?" Alex suddenly wondered.

Sure, OmniRune was still just a pattern-recognition engine—nothing close to sparring with a real human—but as it evolved toward true artificial intelligence, the simulation's quality would also improve.

His eyes lit up at the thought.

With its current limitations, the best he could hope for was something like a 'boss AI' from a combat game—predictable moves, limited variation. But that would still help him master the styles.

And by the time he needed a true grandmaster-level AI opponent, OmniRune might be advanced enough to provide one.

There was no reason to wait.

All he needed to do was tweak the simulation function and give a few prompts to the Sub-AI already running.

If it worked, his consciousness body could descend into the simulation and face the AI sparring partner head-on.

Sure, the simulation had no physical effect on his real body—but that was exactly why it was perfect for him.

According to Jared, Alex's body was already incredibly strong—so much so that there was a dissonance between his body and his mind.

His mind simply wasn't aware of what his body was capable of, subconsciously placing limits on his movements. To truly improve, Alex needed to raise the ceiling of what his mind believed he could do.

Easier said than done.

Especially for someone like him—a rational, methodical thinker who planned almost every move before executing it. It was hard to just let go and fight without restraint.

The simulation gym solved that problem. Inside, he knew he couldn't actually injure himself, no matter how hard he pushed. He could go all out. Over time, repeated testing and confirmation would teach his mind exactly where his physical limits were.

'Perfect… why didn't I think of this before?'

Then another realisation hit him.

He sighed. "Great… more work on my plate. I release miss the Enclave."

And so, Alex spent the entire night building the Simulation Gym. Fortunately, descending into his mindspace was only a little different from deep meditation.

With his body's natural regeneration and the Everspring Rune working together, he was back to full strength by morning.

And the Simulation Gym was ready for beta-testing.

Alex tested it immediately.

Half an hour later, he got out of bed, rubbing his temples.

"Turns out this method eats up mental energy and Spiritual Force like crazy… who would've guessed?" he muttered with biting sarcasm.

For someone with an eidetic memory, he had a habit of forgetting (overlooking) the most obvious things—a fact that was more than a little ironic.

He absently stroked the strands of hair returning to his chin as he reflected on the test.

"Needs a lot of updates and improvements," he concluded at last.

"Still… the framework's in place. I—or even OmniRune—can work on perfecting it over time."

A few hours later, a message pinged on his Beta Bracer. The shipment from the Golden Palace had arrived.

"Haggleworth is efficient as always," he said with a faint smile.

Throwing on a coat, he left his quarters and, before long, exited the Fort on horseback, heading east to meet the courier.

A wyvern touched down a kilometre from the Fort, on the side facing Fury lands. Alex met it there and received the package.

Once the courier departed, he transferred the cache into his Sanctuary Pocket Dimension and returned to the Fort.

The rest of the day was spent working on solutions to the Voidheart Core's shortcomings. By nightfall, he trained with Allen Holder, Jared, and Udara—finishing the day with another Simulation Gym session, this time after a round of debugging from OmniRune.

The third day followed much the same pattern, with one difference—an afternoon meeting with Lord Marshall Lawson to discuss the plans, objectives, and targets for Alex's new taskforce division.

When asked for a name, Alex had already decided.

Exercitus Alexii (Alex's Army).

***

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