After that night,Si-Hun had a new beginning.
Nothing like he thought.
He still continued becoming stronger,sure the change was slow but it was visible to him.
How his shirts were a little tight on the arms,how he could easily take down goblins and ghost deers(deers that can ghost a predators by being almost transparent).
He could do more than 30 push ups,and his pull ups went from 3 shaky pullups to 20 strict form pull ups.
This was a drasctic change for S-Hun,the weakest predator.
"Where's all that strength coming from? An old senior predator asked Si-Hun.
"Nothing,I've just started to take things seriously.."
"Seems like it.Keep going."
People were noticing how he was growing.
Si-Hun realized how everything he ever wanted before came with self awareness,but it didn't feel like anything.
He wasn't doing it to prove to anyone now,he was doing it for himself.
He still worked out at the hills at 4 a.m,everyday,without excuses.
Just pure discipline in its truest form.
Toaday was a normal day.
Like every other day,Si-Hun went to the hills to hit a workout at 4 a.m.
He continued his routine, push ups:4 sets of 30 reps, pull ups:4 sets of 25 reps, Squats:4 sets of 25 reps, crunches: 4 sets of 20 reps, followed by a 5 mile run.
He was pushing through it.
His personality was becoming more different than how it was before.
He was more cold,reserve and thought before he spoke,listened more than speaking,preferred staying alone more,was more quiet but observed everything.
After he was done working out,he went to the hills for the run.
He was running and completing laps when on his 4th lap,he saw something very bright;a portal.
"A portal,here,and with no examiners and protection?"
He went near cautiously near the portal standing at a distance.
He couldn't smell the mana.
The air was very tense and heavy,pretty unsual and nothing like the portals he had ever entered.
The air was more cold near it and the wind was blowing very fast.
Everyting's pace felt like it was increasing,even his heart's pace was uneven.
He was sensing something strange and "pulling", like something was inviting him inside.
"Why aren't there any examiners near this thing,that is very unlikely."
He searched his pocket for his phone but it wasn't there.
"I remember my I brought my phone with me."
His phone wasn't with him.
The truth was that he did brought it with him but…it just vanished.
"I want to go in there but it doesn't feel safe.I don't smell any mana so it could be a low rank portal."
He thought for a while.
He couldn't stay here,if it was a low rank portal,he could gain experience by killing some monsters.
He didn't want to miss the chance and let his curiosity get the better of him.
After careful consideration,he finally stepped inside the portal.
Just as he entered,the portal gate vanished behind him.
He looked back startled.
"Oh god what did I get myself into!"
He said panicking.
"How will I go back!?"
Everything was too hard to process.
He sat there sinking in worry.
"Sitting here won't do anything,I have to explore this place,though it is a bit dark here."
He got up and took careful steps ahead.
He was in a weird place,everything was very ancient.
There were carvings on the walls that seemed like….
"These seem like hieroglyphics! I remember from my history class where we took a look at a sample from Egypt but.. why is this in a portal? There is something wrong with this portal."
He took a look at those hieroglyphics and studied them carefully.
He started to walk again but stopped right in his tracks when he saw that there was no ground ahead to a certain distance.
He had to solve a...
"Puzzle?"
He saw that there were a few blocks in the distance that had weird symbols on them.
He could jump from one block to the other but he wasn't so sure if he should try that himself.
He picked up a rock from the broken wall beside him and threw it at one of the blocks to check what happens when something touches it.
He was very confused about this and started to wonder what to do to get to the other side.
He looked at the patterns and noticed that one of them had the exact same symbol as one on the wall beside him.
"Could they be… related?"
He looked at the other symbols to see if there was any resemblance.
And yet, there was.
He saw very weird symbols.
But come to think about it,how could he break the symbols from the walls and collect them.
He was lost in thoughts when he saw scattered pieces with one piece having the same symbol as one of the symbols on the block.
"There could be more,I need to search."
He searched and turned a bunch of stones scattered all over the floor.
He finally collected every stone wit the required symbols.
"Finally."
But now was the hard part.
What will he do with the stones now?
He thought and thought about it but nothing came to his mind.
Everything felt too dangerous to execute.
He was still thinking when he recalled how he threw the stone at the block first and the block broke.
"I can try throwing these stones on these blocks with the same symbols."
He threw the first stone with the same symbol.
He waited.
"It didn't break this time!"
He then jumped on that block.
When he did,the block suddenly started glowing and he saw the letter "C" glowing on the block.
"Woah!It startled me.Why is this glowing?"
He threw the other stone at the second block and it said "H".
He kept going and passed a total of 9 blocks with each one saying the letter:
"C", "H" , "O", "S", "E", "N", "O", "N", "E".
When he finally got to the other side,suddenly the blocks behind him all broke down with a loud thud and there was dust everywhere.
"Test number 1 passed." A voice he didn't recogonize spoke from somewhere. The voice was deep and commanding.
"What the hell is this!? Hey! Whoever you are,reveal yourself!"
He covered his nose and mouth with his hand to prevent inhaling dust particles.
The dust suspended away he finally had time to think about the letters on the blocks.
"Chosen one? What does that mean?"
He was pretty confused.
He couln't understand what was meant be the word "CHOSEN ONE."
Little did he know that this was just one of the hard tests that he needed to pass to reach the end.