With the heavy conversation finally settled and Theo's breathing evening out into a rhythm of sleep, Kael decided it was time to clock out.
He lay back, staring up at the darkened ceiling, but his mind didn't shut down immediately.
Instead, it drifted to the glowing gold numbers that had been haunting the periphery of his vision for the last thirty days.
[Objective: Advance to Master Sigil Rank.]
[Time Remaining: 04 Months, 29 Days, 11 Hours.]
Kael let out a silent, mental groan.
This past month had been stressful. Not just "annoying friends" stressful, or "heavy workload" stressful, but genuinely, existentially stressful.
When the System had first dropped that six-month deadline on him, Kael had panicked. well, he had panicked in his own way—which involved lying very still and staring at a wall for two hours—but internally, he had been scrambling.
