Watching it flicker and disappear told me that it was definitely something magical in nature. It wasn't a huge magical presence like Victor, barely a flicker, really, but I figured I was familiar-enough with magic by now to recognize its presence and that was definitely the presence of magic. My eyes narrowed. It was obviously a monitoring spell of some kind; someone out there was interested in me and I had no idea who they were. Unfortunately, my implanted [Tempestus Scions] training knowledge gave me very little to actually work with; as far as I knew, this was outside my 'pay grade' in the sense that Stormtroopers were not trained to fight against magic-users or 'Witches'. However, I did have an expert in hunting down magic users right here in my [Inventory]. With a flicker of my will, I summoned the Culexus Assassin, who appeared right beside me – silent as the grave.

As I understood it, the whole purpose of a Culexus Assassin was to hunt down and kill witches and mages, magic-users. It might not be exactly the same as the ones in his home universe, but I was fairly certain that at least a few rules were somewhat equalized; otherwise, a lot of the things I'm pulling from the Warhammer 40k universe would be useless here.

"Can you trace the source of that?" I pointed at the flickering embers of the spell as they fluttered about where they used to be, on the wall.

The Culexus Assassin nodded wordlessly. "Good. Trace it to its origin if you can. If you do find the source, do not engage. If you're attacked, defend yourself, but focus on retreating. And, most of all, maintain your anonymity. Come find me once you've found something of value."

I felt like didn't have to tell the Culexus Assassin to be stealthy, seeing as most people apparently wouldn't even be able to see him at all – something about the mind and soul rejecting the very existence of the Culexus Assassin that they simply refuse to see or look, creating a strange invisibility about the assassin. It didn't affect me, of course, but I was fairly certain that just about every other human being wouldn't see him; supposedly, even technology wouldn't recognize its presence, since it was a blight upon reality or something like that. As for mages... no idea; they'd probably just see a humanoid darkness or something. Whatever the case, this guy was trained to hunt down targets across worlds that were far larger than Earth, hidden in dystopian mega-cities that stretched on for miles and miles, top to bottom. Stealth was probably the last thing I had to remind him of. But, hey, I felt like yapping.

The Culexus Assassin nodded and fucking vanished before my eyes. Literally. I blinked and he wasn't there anymore. My gaze drifted to the spot he'd been standing on and the distinct lack of footprints. I wasn't sure if the Culexus Assassin teleported or he just moved way too fast for me to see; after all, I was probably at the top of what humans were naturally physically capable of doing, but there were far higher, greater levels beyond even that and, clearly, the Culexus Assassin was far above me in overall power. That was fine. As a Gamer, my potential was literally endless.

I stood up and shook my head. I wasn't in any mood to attend classes today and, frankly, my grades were high enough that I could afford to miss several classes if necessary. No, today, I was going to see how much I could possibly lift at the gym. Shouldn't be too many people at this time; so, I could go as crazy as I want to. Plus, I knew a cheap gym that did not have CCTV cameras or even a coach, just a bunch of rusty weights and broken treadmills; not sure how it's still open, honestly, but it was probably the best place to test just how strong I was and to see how much I'd have to lift to gain more strength.

STR – 25
DEX – 20
VIT – 25

Pretty good, honestly. I knew for a fact that I was now on the upper end of what humans were capable of through honest training and maybe a lot of juice and some steroids. So, I was strong and, with the Tempestus Scions Training, I was now able to better leverage that strength, alongside applicable martial arts – hand to hand or with combat knives. I had to get stronger, however, and I needed to do it quickly. Lifting was the easiest and quickest for STR, jumping around with weights for DEX, and jogging with weights for VIT. Basically, from now on, the only way I'd evolve further was through lifting. Fair enough.

So, seeing as I had nothing else to do in the backyard – and the Culexus definitely would've noticed if there were other magical shenanigans going on – I decided it was time to start lifting. So, I went back inside, got changed into some proper gym clothes, and jogged all the way from my house and into that rundown gym that somehow still stood. And, yep, it was freaking rundown indeed. Old and withered. It felt like it'd been here since the 70's. A security guard, who stood out in the front, glanced at me for a moment before looking away. For how old it probably was, however, the gym was generally clean. Sure, the equipment was rusty or malfunctioning, but the floor was dust-free and the walls weren't covered in graffiti or spiderwebs or anything like that. It was empty too. No gym coaches or anything like that, save for the fifteen-something year old clerk, who was too busy playing games on her phone to notice anything – and the security guard who looked like he'd rather be asleep.

Perfect. I dropped the two dollar session fee on the clerk's desk and went ahead and started stretching – gotta warm up first, like mom taught me. After that, I got a bar and loaded it up with a hundred kilograms of weights in total, fifty kilo plates on either end. I started with a deadlift. Light. Too light. Not even remotely close to challenging. Pulling the bar up into an overhead lift didn't make it more challenging. I felt the weight, of course, but I knew I wouldn't be improving from it.

Shrugging, I added fifty more kilos on each end, bringing the total weight of the barbell up to two hundred kilograms. A single deadlift told me that it was still too light, but I could feel the weight now – definitely in the 'okay' end of heavy. But not quite heavy enough to be an actual challenge. Not good enough to spur my growth. Still, I performed an overhead lift just to be certain and, yep, too light. I set it down and went ahead and doubled it, adding a total of two hundred more kilograms and bringing the whole thing up to a staggering four hundred kilos – not quite heavy enough break the world record or anything like that, but definitely on the upper end of what most Strongmen and Bodybuilders could lift.

I breathed in and huffed, before I grabbed the bar. This time, I grunted and panted as I pulled it up, my going tense as I used just about every muscle I had to pull four hundred kilograms off the ground. The bar itself began to bend from the effort of supporting two hundred kilograms on both ends. Still, I lifted it up without too much hassle. My arms and shoulders, my back and my legs, all burned with the effort of keeping it up. Oh, damn, I'd forgotten how good this actually felt. I brought the barbell down and brought it back up, an action I repeated seven more times before I felt that I couldn't do it anymore.

Holy shit. My eyes were wide as I stared at the barbell.

Actually, if I really pushed myself, I could probably do a little more. Heck, I felt like I could even put on a little more weight, bring the whole barbell up to a weight of four hundred and fifty kilograms. That actually sounded like a pretty good idea. After all, the reason I came all the way out here was to test just how much I could actually lift.

I breathed in, panting as massive beads of sweat rolled down the side of my face, before I nodded to myself and went to the plate rack, getting several more plates. Screw it. I might as well just go for the full five hundred and see if I could do it; so, I added another hundred kilograms. I breathed in again, I wrapped my fingers around the bar and pulled. My whole body strained, my bones, muscles, and ligaments screaming. Even the bar itself groaned as it struggled to keep the weights in place. I gritted my teeth and pulled and pulled, until my posture straightened and I'd done a perfect deadlift. Every single muscle in my body screamed, by bones shook, and my ligaments groaned. This was it, I realized; this was the maximum I could probably lift for now, with 25 points in STR.

Holy shit.

Before I could set it down, the bar broke and collapsed entirely, both sides crashing into the floor as I stood there, waiting for the scolding that did not come. I glanced around and, sure enough, the clerk was still there, flicking through her phone with pods in her ears; meanwhile, the security guard was asleep, his head leaning against the glass window, arms crossed over his chest. Huh. Well, that's good, I suppose. Wouldn't want anyone to know about what I'd done. Five hundred kilograms might've been within human capabilities, but not when that human was me; I was a lot fitter now than before, but, based entirely on looks alone, I should not be capable of lifting five hundred kilograms of the floor.

So, if someone shot a video of me while I was lifting that, a bunch of questions would be asked. Most people would rightly think that it's faked, of course, but a few would get curious, and then they start asking questions, and then they'd start digging. And, sooner or later, someone was going to figure out that it wasn't faked at all. And that this somewhat fit kid just managed to deadlift five hundred kilograms.

As I walked out of the gym, I checked my stats and smiled. "Would you look at that?"

STR – 25(+3)
DEX – 20
VIT – 25(+2)

The plus two to my VIT was definitely unexpected – a surprise, but a welcome one. I suppose my heart was pounding hard when I lifted that weight off the ground. And that probably aided the ridiculous growth. DEX was going to be a bit of problem to get right, but I a myriad of ideas were already appearing in my head – most of them involved a lot of climbing and jumping, of course, but manual dexterity was probably going to be the hardest to train, even without the System on my side. Also, I'd probably just stick to four hundred and fifty kilograms next time, instead of jumping ahead to five hundred. As I'd done with the burpees, I'd likely get more out of properly pacing myself, instead of going for the absolutely limit.

Because, right now, my whole body felt as though it was about to just fucking fall apart from the strain of lifting all of that. I needed to rest. Though, I could probably do a few more burpees in my room with mom's leg and arm weights, just to see how many more points I could squeeze out of today, before I passed out. Tsk, and it was still morning.

I managed to walk maybe ten steps before the Culexus Assassin reappeared beside me, bowing. I almost jumped out of my workout clothes, but otherwise kept myself composed. There were other people in the street, I noted, but none of them seemed to notice tall, black clad, skull-faced super assassin who was walking right next to me; otherwise, someone would've started screaming. "You found the source?"

The Culexus Assassin nodded and a function of the system that I hadn't known before suddenly made itself known now as a flood of memories filled my head and I saw the assassin as he maneuvered the rooftops, following a faint trail of magic, which stopped in one of the abandoned warehouses just outside of town, close to the woods, actually, by the Mill Brooks Preserve. Of course, following my orders, the Culexus Assassin did not venture into the warehouse. Instead, he scouted the surrounding areas and memorized every nook and cranny, every detail, before retreating. Whatever was inside seemed content to just stay there. "We'll investigate it tomorrow. Can you track it again tomorrow?"

The Culexus Assassin nodded. Good.

Despite everything, I grinned. The moment of truth was coming. Briefly, I wondered how many points I'd get for whatever hidden quest was tied to this one. "Man, I can't fucking wait."