He had cleared the two B ranks without incident.
Not without effort — B rank demanded enough that effort was always part of the accounting — but without the kind of difficulty that required post-clearance reflection. The elemental applications had scaled cleanly to the higher rank threat levels, and the multipliers he had used had stayed in ranges his reserves could sustain without the step-change cost he had felt after the twenty-three times output in the Thornwood Labyrinth.
Clean clearings. Both of them.
The two D ranks after that had been exercises in discipline rather than difficulty — the rank gap between his current level and D rank threat architecture was wide enough that the primary challenge was not being careless. He had not been careless. Both gates had closed behind him with the quiet efficiency of completed objectives and he had moved on without ceremony.
Nine gates cleared.
One remaining.
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