12 P.M
Outside of the portal gates of the dungeon trials.
—Beeep!
"...and that marks the end of the trial"
With a stopwatch in his hand, the instructor in charge of the dungeon trials announced the ending of the class. Following this, all of the students inside of the dungeon stopped whatever they were doing and exited the dungeon.
—Wooosh! —Wooosh!
It was only after ten minutes had passed that everyone had finally exited the dungeon. Doing a headcount, the instructor nodded his head and tapped on the tablet in his hands.
"Alright, that seems to be everyone...I'll quickly post the team results online"
—Ping! —Ping!
Instantly everyone's watch vibrated.
===
1st Place - [Team 23]
2nd Place - [Team 15]
3rd Place - [Team 7]
===
"Third place huh?"
Having just exited the portal, I suddenly felt my watch vibrate. Turning my wrist, I stared at the leaderboards. I was instantly surprised by my group standings.
Despite not having killed the boss monster, we had actually managed to secure third place.
Not bad.
"You've got third place? That's pretty good"
Arriving next to me, Kevin looked at the rankings on his watch. His team got second.
"Not as good as you. You've got second place"
"It doesn't really matter since second place doesn't really get anything"
Kevin shrugged his shoulders.
Only first placed individuals got the extra points. Second place and below only had boasting rights.
Not that it mattered, since he wasn't someone that liked to boast.
"You're right"
"By the way, when did Jin become so strong?"
Suddenly Kevin switched the topic. Recalling the moment when Jin beat the five-tusked Mammuth, Kevin's face couldn't help but become serious.
During that moment, Kevin was actually able to see Jin's last attack. Albeit only slightly, he knew that Jin right now was leagues above the Jin of the past.
"Hm, Jin?"
"Yeah, I feel like Jin has become incredibly strong somehow"
Pausing, Kevin stared at Jin in the distance. I too looked at him.
At this moment, Jin was the center of attention. Having killed the boss monster right under everyone's eyes without the use of any trickery, he naturally gathered a lot of the people's attention.
'He's completely different from how he was supposed to be...'
Despite all of the attention he was getting, he remained indifferent.
From being this arrogant young master to this cold and indifferent one. It was safe to say the Jin from the novel was no longer here.
The Jin right now was much stronger than back in the novel. In fact, not just by a little.
No.
He was leagues above the Jin from the novel.
I wasn't the only one who felt Jin's incredible growth.
Kevin felt this, and so did Aaron who was supposed to have humiliated him during this trial.
Despite Jin not having accumulated as many points as Aaron in the beginning, by killing the five-tusked Mammuth, he left Aaron in the dust by gaining 1000+ points.
Staring at Aaron whose face was incomparably dark, I knew that he no longer cared about Kevin anymore.
He had switched target.
His target was now Jin. He wanted to repay him back for today's humiliation.
Once again, another change occurred.
"Enough about Jin, wanna grab some dinner?"
Suddenly, I felt a slight tap on my shoulder. It was Kevin. After a bit of thought, I nodded my head.
"Yeah, I might as well. Where to?"
"Let's go to the school canteen"
"Sounds good"
Despite my surprise, I wasn't unhappy with this development. No, it was quite the opposite in fact.
The stronger Jin became, the brighter the future was. He was after all one of the people that was supposed to defeat the demon king in the future.
Taking one last glance at Jin in the distance as I headed to the canteen with Kevin, I smiled in relief.
'This isn't too bad...'
In a way, this eased some of the burdens I had.
...
11 P.M
Inside of a private training area.
"Huuu..."
Sitting crossed leg in the middle of a training room, was Jin's topless figure. Closing his eyes, he exhaled, and turbid air escaped from his mouth.
'Everyone has tasted defeat in their life. Your father, your grandfather, the current strongest person in the human domain...'
'No one in this world is exempt from defeat'
A calm yet firm voice echoed inside of Jin's mind.
It was his father's voice.
'Countless great warriors face defeat. What matters is not how they lose, it's how they react to the loss'
'Will they accept the defeat and move on, or will they look back to that moment until the end of their life? Will you truly let that one defeat dictate your future?'
Like a morning alarm, the words rang inside of Jin's mind continuously. It was as though his mind had been smashed by a hammer repeatedly.
His mind became completely numb.
'Don't let yourself drown in needless thoughts. Grow up more. Get up and move, as you always did'
'Although we put a lot of hope in you, what does it matter to you about what others think? It's your life to live, not ours nor the others'
'Stop being pathetic and realize that what truly matters is yourself, not the others! Your true opponent is not whoever beat you, but you yourself!'
'If you can't beat yourself, what does it matter if you beat every single person in the world?'
The words stopped there.
Those were the words his father had told him once he had locked himself inside of the training room for two months straight without stopping. It was right after the Hollberg incident.
At first, Jin didn't really understand the true meaning behind those words.
It was only after the codebreaker trials that Jin truly understood what those words meant.
Throughout the code breaker trails, the only thing he did was listen to Ren. Like a puppet, he moved as Ren had asked him.
He could clearly remember how he felt during that time. It was as though he was trapped inside of a metal cage filled with water bound to thick metal chains...
It felt suffocating.
Listening to someone else's commands disgusted him to no end. It was against everything he had worked for since he was young.
Yet, despite him knowing this, he did not protest once.
He couldn't bring himself to protest against the one guy that had humiliated and defeated him in the past.
It was then that Jin realized...
The problem was not Ren, but him.
There was nothing stopping him from rebuking Ren's orders, yet he didn't. There was this seed that he had implanted inside of his mind that made him listen to whatever Ren said.
After this, he finally understood...
He had subconsciously placed himself below Ren. It was not Ren that had placed him below, but he himself.
Jin Horton.
Only after Jin came to such a realization that he was finally able to understand the meaning behind his father's words.
'Stop being pathetic and realize that what truly matters is yourself, not the others! Your true opponent is not whoever beat you, but you yourself!'
Like the morning bells of a church, the words continuously tolled inside of his mind.
From that moment, Jin realized what he had to do.
He had to stop giving a fuck.
'That's right. Who cares about Ren, Kevin, or anyone else. At the end of the day, everyone is different. Even if I am weaker now, it doesn't mean I'll be weaker in the future...'
No longer did he care about Ren, Kevin, and the others.
No longer did he waste needless time caring about his pride or the nonsensical bubble he created around himself to make him feel superior to others.
He just stopped caring. The only thing that mattered to him was, he, himself. As long as he kept increasing his strength, what did everything else matter?
It was only after he realized this that his strength saw a significant rise...
With his mind no longer clogged, Jin felt as though everything was clear to him. Training became less laborious, and everything started to flow more smoothly.
He felt reborn.
"Haaa—!"
Suddenly, Jin opened his eyes. He screamed out loud and a wave of air spread out from his body. Like a gust of wind, everything near him flew away.
—Swoooosh!
Suddenly, Jin's muscles bulged and hot steam escaped from his body. The room quickly became engulfed by the hot steam.
"Haa...haa..."
Once the steam died down, Jin's topless figure stood in the middle of the room. His breathing was rugged and sweat dripped all over his body.
Once his breathing calmed down, Jin slowly stood up and walked towards a nearby mirror. Staring at his body in the mirror, Jin brushed his damp hair up revealing his two deep green eyes.
"Haaa...is this D- rank?"
After months of intensive training, Jin had finally broken through to <D-> rank.
Oddly enough, he felt nothing.
He knew that compared to moments before, his strength was superior, but...
"It's alright I guess"
Without celebrating his breakthrough, Jin walked back to the training ground. Picking up two large metal bracelets, he put them on.
Why would he celebrate for a measly D rank promotion?
—Clank! —Clank!
"Khhh..."
The moment Jin put on the metal bracelets, his knees almost gave out. Clenching his teeth, Jin placed both of his hands on the ground and did a handstand. With firm eyes, Jin slowly lowered his body and counted.
"1...2...3...4...5..."
He was to repeat this until his muscles gave out. This was what Jin had been doing for the past few months.
Train, train, and train even more.
There was no need to celebrate the fact that he had broken through to D rank.
He had realized that only once he truly surpassed himself and reached the top he was allowed to celebrate.
Before that, nothing else mattered.
If the Jin of today was weaker than the Jin of yesterday, he had failed.
