A day has passed since the test at the school.

I once again went up the attic in hopes to find something that may be useful for me in the future.

It's crazy how dusty this place can get in a couple of days.

One thing that I instantly noticed was that the attic was no longer cold. It was the same temperature as the whole house... I'm guessing Daruma was the reason it was so cold up here.

I did my routine one again, I cleaned off all the dust, then went through box to box, sorting them out.

After a whole day of cleaning and sorting, nearly 3/4 of the attic was clean... I really was hoping to find something important here. Since I came this far I might as well finish it off.

As I was nearing the end of the pile I saw a little bookshelf, very well built, and it had some writing all over it, the writing was totally indecipherable. The language didn't look English, perhaps it was the old way of writing...

But why would something of this origin be in my attic? Is this our bookshelf or did this belong to the previous house owner? If this item is ours... is my mom a challenger? Or perhaps my father?

I was conflicted, but that wasn't the only strange thing.

The books in the actual shelf had covers that were extremely detailed, it felt wrong for me to look at them, let alone touch them.

Looking at the name of the book, it is covered with writing which again is totally illegible. Is this a language which was created thousands of years ago or is this a book from the Ethereal?

I open to the first page and—

Where am I? I'm no longer in the attic...

The scenery is beautiful, it's just an endless sky with a mirror as the ground. I don't even feel my own hands, am I dreaming?

I scan the scenery, and in the corner of my eyes I see a man, he's quite the distance away.

I took one step and immense pain flooded through my head, I was brought to my knees from just one step... What place is this? I tried to take another step, and once again the pain wasn't anywhere on my body, but only my head.

Step by step, I took 1 step every 10-20 minutes. It took me around 3 days and 3 nights to reach this man... He better be worth it.

As I look at the man he is holding a horse stance... Has he been going at this for all this time? I was confused, I didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to get out...

I Just followed along with this guy, I got into position and did the horse stance after 5 minutes my legs began to give up, and I fell on my ass. The guy smirked... he fucking smirked at me, I thought this man was a statue.

After a couple of days I was able to hold the stance for 10+ minutes, but I still had no clear objective. At least I don't have to eat or drink, but what I'm worried about is my family and school... I've been gone for like a week, I hope mother Isn't going crazy.

Training and training and training... for 500+ hours I finally was able to do the horse stance for 1 hour straight. My body was well built, but my legs were monstrous. Was this the purpose of this training? For me to become more fit?

As I was about to go in for the stance once again, I was pushed out of the area and plopped back on to my attic floor.

My progress transferred over to the real world... my legs were extremely built, my core was super defined... and my head was super clear. Was that a checkpoint, to hold the Horse stance for 1 hour? Wait.. how long was I gone for?! I checked my phone and only an hour passed.

Only an hour!? If I was there for 500+ hours training... 72 hours just walking... and only 1 hour in the real world, the time is at a 600:1 ratio... holy shit.

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I looked back at the shelf to perhaps indulge in the other books but they were all blank, I looked back at the first book, nothing happened.

Was it a one time thing? Let's hope not, I have made a lot of progress today, let's try again tomorrow.

"Stephen, dinners ready." mom says.

Thank you mom... I was famished. As I headed downstairs mom and Shella both gave me confused eyes.

"Stephen... are you taking steroids?" asks mom.

"What?! No?? Why would you ask that?" I replied.

"Bro... How did you get so fit in such a short amount of time?" asks Shella.

Oh. That's what they were talking about, I can't really say that I was dragged into another world and trained for like 3 weeks...

"I've been working out for a long time now... You just realized?" I responded.

I think I played it off like a champ.

We all sat at the dinner table, I had this question for a while, and now it's a thing I must ask.

"Mom... were you ever a challenger?" I asked.

She started coughing... I guess that question did come out of nowhere.

"I've tried to keep my life a secret, but now I guess I cannot hold the truth anymore... Yes my dear, me and your father were both challengers. As you know he died when you were very young. We were ordinary challengers, I ranked B, while your father ranked A, but after your father died, I quit being a challenger." mom said with sorrow filled eyes.

I was surprised, yet at the same time I wasn't. There were just too many weird things in the attic for me to just overlook such a thing. On the other hand, Shella looks like she just saw a ghost.

"Why do you ask?" said mom.

When I cleaned the attic I saw this weird bookshelf which doesn't look like a human made...

"Ah... I knew I should've cleaned it myself... Yes those were trophies and treasures me and your father gathered when we were challengers. Though the books in the shelf were blank and held no real value, they looked very nice so we decided to keep them." she replied.

"The pages were blank? They didn't have anything in them?" I warily ask.

"Yes. They were just paperweights... If you want you can throw that crusty thing out." Mom responded.

"Can I take it to my room? It looks quite nice..." I ask.

"Sure if you like it" says mom.

Weird, I'm the only one who was sucked into a whole new world? Does it have to do something with the powers Daruma passed on to me? I'll have to do more research later.

"Mom, can I ask one more thing?" I asked

"Yes dear," she responds.

Since my mom and dad were both challengers I wonder what element they both used in battle. "What elements were you and dad?"

"Elements... Yes, I am a fire user, while your dad was a water user. He was a quite capable character, only if he was here with us now, he would love to see how strong our boy is." mom says on the verge of tears.

I get up and hug her... while thinking about what would happen if I were to lose my life on the battlefield, how mom and Shella would feel.

I need to get stronger.

After we finished eating dinner I went to bed so I could wake up early tomorrow.

*It's 5:00 AM*

It's a bit early... but I want to make sure if I can train I have adequate time to do so.

I went for the book that was the Horse Stance, but then the book to the far right started resonating with me, it started glowing and so did I... yeah yeah it's a sign I get it.

I picked up the book and got on top of my bed, I opened the first page and once again I was dragged into a new world this time.

This world on the other hand was nowhere near as beautiful as the first. There was very little land, and oceans of lava. The skies were bright red, and the sun was almost scorching my skin.

I look behind me and see a trial...

[TRIAL LEVEL 1]

There were rocks on the ground that formed a path... they were all red hot.

I walked as fast as I could but half way through the bridge the pain was too much and I had to get off. As soon as I took a step away from the bridge, I was transported back to the beginning.

The pain was there, it hurt a lot more than the horse stance training. Will all the other books be as painful as this?

I couldn't go right away as the pain from the first run was still lingering, but after a short 30 minute break, I was able to go for round two.

This was just a constant battle for 2 days and nights straight. After like a billion runs I finally completed the bridge. The pain I felt was incogitable.

There was an old man next to me. He held a fire, I put my hands over the fire without even knowing... It didn't burn me? I felt a weird tingle, but it wasn't too unpleasant.

Finally I was able to finish trial number 1, but as soon as I finished it, I was sent back to my bed. I checked the time and it was 5:50, this meant the time ratio was 60:1. The time there seemed closer to real life... was it because it was much harder?

I ran to the stove and put my hands in the flames... It sounds dumb, but I had no other way to test it out.

To my surprise, the flames didn't burn me, it was the same tingle feeling I felt back in the dream world... I'm immune to fire?

I went to the garage to find the old propane gas torch we had, I shot it at my hands, but it actually hurt... It seems as though only low level flames I can endure, but when the heat is too high, then I start to get affected. Huh... I guess I need to train more to get immune to all the flames in the world?!

Well... that's for the future, right now it's only 6 o'clock, I still have 2 hours to burn before I head to "Central Capital"... I should go for a run.