As he could smell that this would be the end if it continued this way, he was starting to get frustrated.
'Is this really what I amount to? Will I really lose in some silly challenge?' he thought as he knew that was simply too small of a hurdle to fail.
He had many more important things that he had to reach.
If his strength really was only this much after a complete month of training, then why would he continue training?
If he couldn't succeed in reaching that level five, then why shouldn't he give up and simply accept that his life with forever be controlled by an outside force?
Jack, the system, his family, all those things were weighing heavily on his mind and it was harder and harder for him to believe in himself.
'No, this can't be the end, I wasn't sent here for nothing. This won't stop me, I need to conquer it,' he thought as he stopped running.
He would be facing whatever would be coming at him.
He knew that there weren't a lot of chances of him succeeding as only had access to his instinct.
But then, as he focused and focused.
He became sure, he was sure that whatever would come his way, he would be able to dodge it.
Even if he couldn't see, hear, or feel it.
His instinct was telling him that he was going to surpass to minuscule hurdle and reach greater heights.
Aiden stood there in the darkness, his mind consumed by thoughts of doubt and frustration. As he lingered in immobility, a peculiar sensation stirred within his consciousness.
It was an intangible presence, a subtle nudge from his inner self. It whispered, almost imperceptibly, urging him to move—to take action before it was too late.
Listening to this instinctive urging, Aiden made a split-second decision and swiftly moved to the right. The silence around him remained unbroken, leaving him uncertain of whether he had successfully evaded a projectile or if his action was in vain.
Maybe he was going crazy as it felt like he had felt days inside this place.
But it actually hadn't even been thirty minutes.
Then, he felt that his brain was once again asking him to move.
A few seconds later, he happened again, and again, and again.
It reached a point where he had to keep dodging over and over again because he trusted the signals sent by his brain over to him.
He trusted his instincts as he hadn't been hit by anything yet, well to his knowledge as he simply couldn't know.
He couldn't feel anything remember.
Maybe he was starting to bleed out, but well... he wouldn't know.
But as he kept dodging according to his instinct, a subtle light appeared in front of him, blinding him.
It was the portal in which he had entered this hellish dimension.
A dimension where your senses would become locked, leaving you defenseless.
He now understood why everyone kept failing this challenge.
Like him, they probably tried to think of solutions to dodge arrows and stuff like that.
Maybe some reached the stage where they could dodge by feeling the wind on their skin.
But none of them had probably succeeded in dodging the projectiles when having lost of all useful senses in the challenge.
That's why the reward was so valuable, the man who was advertising this place, thought that no one would be able to succeed as the challenge was too hard.
But, well... he had been mistaken.
Aiden had done it.
He had completed the challenge and level five which he had talked about.
He hadn't heard the robotic voice tell him, but he knew.
He knew that he completed the challenge flawlessly.
***
"You think your friend is going to succeed, ahaha," said the man laughing a little when he saw Emma's hopeful face.
"Of course, he will," she said with absolute certainty in her voice.
Even if she hadn't talked to him for the last few days or even a complete month. She had still observed him, he had trained himself to the bones.
She knew that he would succeed as the training he had gone through was probably worse than that.
However, her thoughts were interrupted as Finrod opened his damned mouth.
"If I may, if you didn't succeed then there he is simply no one that a kid from the Slums will be able to do so," said Finrod making sure to compliment Emma and insult Aiden at the same time.
However, he didn't expect that reaction to come out of Emma.
She was mad at Finrod for the words he had just said.
"You're so stupid, stop admiring me for a single second and learn to analyze your surroundings," she said frustrated that he was showing disrespect toward Aiden.
There were two reasons that caused her anger.
The first one was that she liked Aiden's personality, well his old one. He didn't care about her status, not treating her differently even once.
Because of that, she knew that he was a real person, not one that would flatter her ego every day, truth be told, it was a nice feeling to have someone like that close to her.
And the second reason was that she had acknowledged that he was stronger than her with the dagger which had caused him to become her temporary teacher.
This meant that even though she had accepted that Aiden was strong, so when Finrod said that he was inferior, she didn't like it.
In fact, she despised his opinion.
Then, as her mind was in complete turmoil, the portal reappeared, but this time, the face of the announcer wasn't one of joy.
He seemed unhappy as he had no cheeky little smile on his face.
It wasn't him that had a smile on his face, but Aiden.
The first smile he had shown in months of training.
This smile caused Emma to also smile, happy to see some emotions coming out of him.
Happy to have succeeded in overcoming this challenge.
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