After my first long day of training, the next morning is not pretty…

I groan while stretching my arms and back out on the floor. My muscles feel sore and my skin feels tingly like mini pins and needles all over. My eyes adjust to the blinding white light around and I slowly sit up to let out a long exhale. All attempts at self-regeneration fail to fix much. It must be over-use of my abilities, I haven’t ever processed this much mana in one sitting. I’ve felt a similar way after a long hunting session, but never to this extent.

I grab another bottle of water, then a handful of fruit, and go for my morning stroll. The mind-numbing pacing begins again. I have to pee pretty badly after a long night’s sleep. At first, I panic but decide it’s really the least of my worries. Bodily waste can be easily burned to nothing but ash and water vapor.

After about half an hour of procrastinating and fully waking myself up, I get to work on my new training regime.

At first, it’s a bit of a tough start. My bones and joints feel sore and my muscles ache while holding onto my blades. I push through. Many tens of thousands of mana points surge through my body today.

After 10 total charge-up sessions over the next 8 hours, it feels like every millimeter of my body has been ripped apart with a dull knife and taped back together by a toddler. I collapse onto the ground beside my loot piles once again with a satisfied yet exhausted grin across my face.

A lot of progress was made today. Now, in just 25 seconds, I can store up to 4200MP in both blades. The progression is slowing, but it’s far from over yet. I can feel a breakthrough coming soon, I just have to keep pushing.

Day 3 comes along and I realize I’ve just been counting days by sleep cycles… I’m not exactly sure how long I’m out each “night” and it’s still even hard to tell how long I’m awake each “day”. They’re just guesses.

My teammates at the Association are probably worried sick and the Director most likely thinks I’ve bailed and gone rogue… None of that matters now though. My only worry is making it out of this prison alive.

Surprisingly, my body feels a lot better this morning. Sure, my joints and muscles feel like they’ve been run over by a truck… but that truck definitely lightened its load since it flattened me yesterday.

I take my usual morning pacing session while snacking on a handful of fruit, then get to work.

My body allowed for 12 full charge-ups today. In 35 seconds, I can store a little more than 4500MP in each blade. Together, that’s just over 9000. Every attack I release becomes tighter, and more refined. The mana lets out a higher-pitched hum and the crescents of light are denser and thinner.

Every collision with the white wall gives me another glimmer of hope. It vibrates and shakes the room a little bit more with every tweak I achieve while improving my ultimate attack.

I fall asleep and repeat the process on day 4.

Then again, on day 5.

Over 100,000MP surges through my body each day, and I’m able to handle more and more every passing moment. The outside world begins to fade away from the forefront of my mind as I focus on one goal.

“I need to create a stronger attack.”

On day 6, I start to get a bit frustrated. My progression is slowing down drastically, and my body’s fatigue is building up again. After 16 full charges, I can manage just under 10000 MP in total. This is pushing to my absolute limits. While hands cramp and flesh burns holding on for almost 40 seconds, this is the best I can manage.

Along with my nearing plateau, the slowly diminishing food and water supplies are nerve-racking. I’ve started eating less and conserving more water as well. There’s only 3 kg of jerky, 5 handfuls of fruit, and 10 bottles of water remaining.

I either strengthen this attack, or I die a slow and painful death….

Another 4 sleep cycles go by.

My progress is just getting slower and slower. I’ve managed to break the 10000MP mark, but it still takes me just over 35 seconds to fully charge the attack. It’s been 10 days in here, now I can manage 18 full charges.

On the bright side, the glistening waves of mana that come out of my blades are evolving in their own right. My wind has taken an even sleeker form. The more I concentrate and refine my mana, the more transparent the shimming silver air blade becomes. My fire burns hotter and condenses into a deadly-looking black blade of flames. It shows almost no signs of red leaking fire as it rips through the air.

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On impact, the wind expands into a dazzling silver and white explosion of light. The dense black blade now erupts into a mountain of bright red flames. Every hit shakes the floor beneath me more and more, but I’m increasingly discouraged when the energy disperses to reveal an undamaged white wall every time.

At the end of my long 10-day training marathon, I collapse to the floor in mental, physical, and spiritual exhaustion. Whispering to myself as I drift off into a long slumber.

“Am I ever going to make it out of here…?”

As I wake up the next day, my pacing ritual lasts a little longer than usual. Close to an hour….

The days start to all blend together as I ration out my food into tiny little portions, and separate my water into the empty bottles so I don’t accidentally drink too much at once. For the average human, I have enough for 10 more days… long and painful days… maybe…

I feel like I’m starving to death, and symptoms of dehydration are starting to kick in too. Luckily, with my self-regeneration skill mixed with the natural life energy properties of mana, an awakened person like myself can survive up to 2x longer without proper sustenance than a normal human. I still need to eat food and drink water, but this fact still buys me some time. Possibly, 10 more days of time. By then, my attack needs to be strong enough… I need a breakthrough.

The lack of nutrition and enough liquids over the next 4 days really begins to take a toll on my body and mind. I sleep longer through the night and begin to train less throughout the day.

The silent white walls around me begin to eat away at my sanity, and the lack of progression does not help one bit.

It’s been 14 days.

I can charge up to 10000MP in just over 30 seconds, and my attacks keep becoming more and more refined. There’s no numerical way to track the purity and density of the mana in each strike, so it’s hard to know how much progress I’ve really achieved in that regard. Due to mind and muscle fatigue, my full daily charges have dropped to about 12-14.

Over the last two weeks, well over a million mana points have surged through my body and have come rocketing out of my blades. I’ve gotten to know my new dagger very well, and have an even better understanding of my sword. We’ve become much closer, but at what cost…

What does any of this matter If I never escape from here?

This must be what happened to those C and B-Class hunters a while back. The event Tripp referred to as “The Incident”. He said they all just disappeared.

At the end of day 14, with my eyes gazing upon the white floor and feet dragging behind me, I fall asleep dreading waking up tomorrow. Another day mindlessly throwing full-force attacks at an unbreakable wall.

I’m thoroughly exhausted and disappointed in the turn of events that followed my greed for more power. All I wanted to do was fight a strong opponent, but then again, I’m constantly looking for a stronger opponent. There’s never an end to the journey to the top.

I let out a sigh.

“I’ve gotten way too ahead of myself…”

It’s just been lucky break after lucky break over and over. Every time I defeat an unbeatable opponent, there’s always a loophole. Is there no loophole today? Have I really met my match?

Letting out a long exhale, I let my weapons fall to the ground with a clang as I kneel in the middle of my piles of loot. There has to be close to 100 gold worth of items here. Counting my coins, pile of mana crystals, rare loot from the labyrinth, and especially… this ruby-colored egg…

I could easily sell every last penny of it and retire off in the mountains somewhere. I’ve already lived any hunter’s dream. A contract with the Association at 20 years old. Becoming a C-Class in just a matter of months… What more could I ask for? Why do I continue to sabotage my own life?

I stare at all my loot, regretting my decision to come to this dungeon over and over again in my head…

“I could have just stayed at that damn party.”

Anger and frustration have been building up in me for weeks. No amount of slashing at the walls can tame my current rage. The worst part about it is the only person I’m angry at is myself, there’s no one to blame here but me.

The closest loot pile to me is the pink crystals next to the ruby red egg. As much as I want to erupt into flames and start smashing everything around me, I pretty much can’t. My body and mental fatigue from constant training and lack of food and water have taken a huge toll on my resting energy levels.

All I can do is sulk in my own sorrow until tomorrow. A good night of sleep is the only thing that can ease my pain.

I lie down into the pile of mana crystals in front of me with the ruby red egg by my side and shut my eyes. Within seconds, I drift off into a deep sleep. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.

Hours go by and my body heals itself to the best of its ability. I wake up to a curious sound…

I hear glass breaking…. Or, more like body-hardening crystals hitting the floor.

I open my eyes slowly as the bright white light from my prison cell blinds me. Letting out my signature groan and stretch, I rub my face and adjust to the brightness.

The first thing I see are small red crystal fragments all over the floor mixed in with the mana crystals I fell asleep on. I sift my hand through the stones and pick the red fragments out to examine them closely.

“What… is this thi-“

*Crunch*

I turn my head around as I hear a loud crunch. Fragments of pink mana crystal fly into my field of vision as I activate all my stat-boosting buffs, grab my blades, and stand to my feet.

My jaw drops and I stare in awe at the sight before me…

There’s a small creature, no more than 1m tall with shiny black scales, wings, and a long narrow tail with an arrowhead at the tip. The underside of its belly, tail, and wings are bright red. The monster’s 2 horns and wide eyes match the crimson theme.

It stares up at me with a curious gaze while tossing a mana crystal into its mouth using its tail.

*Crunch*

I gulp, blink a few times, then whisper under my breath.

“A… Baby Dragon….?”