Gragareth Station had a gym and a weightlifting room, which I decided to take advantage of.

Of course, the way I lifted weights did draw a few stares from the troops there. The all-black armor and helmet stopped them from asking questions directly, but

Soon enough, they found someone.

"Belessar?" Major Heath's voice greeted me. "What are you doing?"

"Working out."

Heath took in the weights floating in mid air - all one hundred kilos of them. "I see."

I lowered the weights to the ground and waited for my MP to recharge. "I can make things float in mid-air."

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"I noticed. So did quite a few of our men. Do you do this every day?"

"It's a new skill. Needs some practice. I'm not disturbing anyone."

"Can't disagree with that. I'll speak to the boys, you stick with your practice."

After that, the British troops gradually trickled back to the gym. Apart from being a bit wary, they didn't treat me any differently from, say, the exercise bike in the corner.

Being ignored was fine. I did miss the camaraderie of Doyle's platoon, though; if I'd done this in Tanisport, Acosta and Kim would be providing running commentary and Tucker would be giving me long-suffering looks.

It was a gentle reminder that the men of the platoon had slowly become my friends. Well. Work friends, anyway.

I wondered how Jimmy, Mike and Lou were doing. Or where they were.

Until Grumman was dead and Agni dealt with, it wouldn't be safe for them to return to Tanisport.

But someday, I'd want to meet them again.

In the meantime, I'd better focus on power-leveling Levitation.

LEVITATION INCREASED TO LEVEL 2. 10% REDUCTION IN MP COST. LIFT 1 KG FOR 1 SECOND FOR 0.9 MP. ROUNDS UP TO THE NEAREST WHOLE NUMBER.