"I was imagining how things could go so wrong, you know? In one minute, everything can seem different, but in another, it all seems so simple and meaningless."

Well, that was a thought I had once... It's what I wanted to keep of myself... But now, it all seemed so far away...

"I must regain my focus on what is important."

According to the guard, I had only seven days to get out of this cell... I'm not sure how many days have passed—maybe three days? Maybe five? I really don't know. I became so immersed in cultivating and repeating the positions of the figures from the book that I entered a state where everything seemed to connect and flow... But unfortunately, my memory isn't coming back. Perhaps I should get out of here. Maybe I should invest my time in finding a way out.

I hadn't noticed, but it had been very quiet all this time; no guards had passed by, making it difficult to keep track of time...

A small area was illuminated in that dark place. It was, in fact, the door opening.

My body trembled, and I could feel the vibrations coursing through me. Doubts filled my mind about what might lie ahead. Someone could come to end my life, so I gripped the handle of the rusty sword with all my strength. But the vibrations of fear of the unknown wouldn't stop, even as I tried to calm myself. It was pure instinct...

...

However, no one entered, nor could I hear any sounds. I remained on high alert all that time, neither moving nor leaving. I was paralyzed—that was the right word...

My body started to lose strength; the continuous state of alert was causing fatigue and a headache.

But I couldn't stay like this forever...

"Damn it, move!"

I implored my body to act, but nothing happened... And slowly, that light faded into the darkness, leaving only the darkness again.

"HAHAHAHAHAH, GREAT! IS THAT HOW IT'S GOING TO BE?"

I laughed like a madman, questioning what had gone wrong with me. Was this normal? The light evaporated, and my fear disappeared... I felt safer in the darkness than in the light; it was as if everything became clearer in the darkness.

...

"Did I faint?"

Thinking about it after my blackout, it made sense for my body to just shut down. I didn't know how long I had been on high alert, nor how many thoughts and possibilities had crossed my mind.

But now, I felt calmer. Still, I didn't know how long I had been unconscious.

Slowly, I stood up, organized my mind and body, and checked if anything had happened to me while I was asleep.

"Nothing... thank goodness..."

At that moment, I drank the last of the water from the puddle that had helped me survive this infernal time. It was time to leave and see...

...

Or maybe not.

...

Maybe yes?

...

No, it's better to stay, wait a bit longer. I really don't have to rush, right? It's seven days, and yes, why am I forcing myself to get out of here in seven days?

Damn...

In small steps, I left that chamber, feeling each step I took.

"They are square stones, perfectly placed, dusty, with some moss in parts. The space where only two people could pass together."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

My senses were sharp, and I could accurately deduce each brick, tile, and carving within five meters ahead of me...

Time passed as I walked in a straight line, without many changes.

I was starting to get used to that place.

My fingers slowly traced the wall, trying to feel for any change in the architecture that might help identify a possible exit or change of territory. But nothing...

"It seems to be an endless corridor; I've been walking for a long time but haven't noticed any change... I'm starting to get tired..." I murmured tirelessly to myself, pleading for a rest.

Even though my vision was accustomed to the dark, and I had a certain adaptability, the exhaustion seemed to double, the loss of the sense of time, the confusion in my mind not knowing what kind of expression my own face was making—after all, it was all dark...

It was exhausting, confusing, but I was vaguely happy; after all, there was no threat upon leaving that place, and in a way, I was "free."

The smell of something was entering my nose, but I couldn't deduce what it was...

It was different from what I had smelled all this time.

"I should stop; my body is fatigued, and this unknown smell could be dangerous."

Was there something in the world that exudes danger just by its smell? Cosmo doubted himself, but it was his anxiety, his fight-or-flight mechanism alerting him every second...

I sat on the ground, leaned my body slightly against the wall, and tried to breathe...

I felt something crawling up my body, slowly, as if it were slithering... I felt it coldly moving more deeply between my clothes... Was it a living being?

"Don't be afraid," said a calm and serene voice.

And promptly, I did what that voice told me...

"The smell of a human... how long it has been since I've sensed something like this, dry and wounded skin... What are you doing here?"

"I-I don't know..."

Indeed, Cosmo didn't know what he was doing there...

"I just want to get out of this place."

"Fufu... Then you should have gone west... No? I know your senses are sharp enough to deduce the way out..."

Cosmo was startled; it really didn't make sense for him to continue on that trajectory.

"My senses deceived me? Some kind of mystical enchantment?"

"Fufufufu, I don't advise panicking now, nor questioning it. That way, you might wake up the others."

"..."

"Who are you? Or rather, what are you?"

Upon asking that, I felt "it" leaving my body.

"What a silly question... Would you explain to someone something they wouldn't understand? It's a waste of time..."

Cosmo felt the loss of interest from that being when questioned. Maybe to a human, it was a plausible question, but to that being, it seemed tedious...

"S-sorry..."

"Fufufu... There are several people gathered to the west; I believe that's where you should go..."

"Now... wake up..."

Gently, my eyes opened, and darkness still dominated the entire environment.

"Did I collapse again?"

My stomach growled, my hands trembled, and my body produced a cold sweat... My body was exhausted and hungry. I didn't think twice and put the moss from the ground into my mouth, chewed it, spat it into my hand, and put it back into my mouth. I repeated this process three times before I could swallow that sticky, bitter moss. But it relieved my hunger and also my anxiety.

Now with my stomach full, I kept wondering what that dream was about, what it meant...

Cosmo turned his gaze to the direction mentioned in his dream...

"What should I do..."

Cosmo hesitated to leave his sword, but something told him it might save his life...

"In doubt again?... hopeless."

After countless doubts about the right decision to make, he heard his own voice in his mind disagreeing with each action. He slightly bowed and thanked it, even with his stubbornness... he understood that it was just his mind working in a complex process for a simple task. Surviving.

I understood that the more I thought, the more of a burden it would become...

Then he realized, instead of questioning myself, I should move forward and try to calculate the deferred action.

"Actions must be taken regardless of command, and the mind must calculate the possible scenarios and measures of subsequent actions to keep the original action capable of manifesting..."

...

"Fufufu... I'm really going crazy."

*****

Time had passed, and Cosmo began to feel changes in the territory around him.

"More humid, less dust..."

It was all an indication that there, it was more common to have life. Perhaps humans?

Calm down, I'm rushing; it might be humans, but they could be as harmful as demons.

Cosmo's maturity led him to a vague speculation of good and evil in each human being.

"I shouldn't trust anyone, not here, nor outside."

Cosmo had lost all his self-questioning, but his thoughts reflected on each process as if that illumination he had had become his new self, his personality shaped with a lighter mind, with less fear of acting... it demonstrated an important point to Cosmo that he hadn't realized. Time!

This is not a change that happens in 2, 3, or 6 days. He had been walking a linear path in search of an exit for a long time, and then the corridor suddenly expanded. Now, more people could easily pass through.

"I'm close to the exit..."

His body was slowly consumed by a mix of happiness and excitement, but also fear coursed through his spine about what might be ahead.

His steps gradually slowed down, the light was a little more visible, and his eyes could barely adapt, so he stopped.

He leaned against the wall, slowly gripping the sword and crouching to the ground with tears streaming down his face...

"Forgive me, sir... But sir, there's someone still in there, in the tunnel..."

"Are you crazy? No one would survive 30 days in that pl

ace; I searched everything."

"Sir!..."

"Tsk, if there's no one there, no food for you for 3 days..."

Cosmo's enhanced hearing made him understand what they were babbling about.