Johannes was unable to sleep. So many questions have been formulated in his head.
How will people react, when I suddenly don't need the tubes anymore? And how will I even be able to hide this fact from my family? he thought, his body now less frail than before.
The hospital bed suddenly felt like a cage. It was the sole reason he had to come up with a reason for his newfound ability to breathe. As he laid in his soft prison, the heavy blanket was weighing down on him, as his anxiety rose.
A thought entered his mind. What if I just say that I have been awakened? It is not unlikely for one to become an Awakened nowadays. Johannes' anxiety sunk down, eventually he calmed down. Because he would technically tell people the truth.
Awakened is a general term for those people that have been granted the powers of skills, as not everyone dived into dungeons. Their body structure appeared to be different from normal human beings, as it was way sturdier. The only thing that could confuse people is that Johannes body was still weak. It was nowhere near the power of those hefty Awakened's builds.
But honestly, Johannes would have liked to hide his changes for as long as possible. His situation has always been rough and if at some point word came out that he was not actually an Awakened but was able to buy skills?
Johannes was unlike those Divers and he intended to hide that for as long as he could. While rolling his eyes, he uttered to himself People nowadays can be pretty terrifying.
With the mere idea of what could happen, his pale body shuddered. He has never heard about anyone that was able to just buy skills and use them. While people are technically able to learn new skills from skillbooks that occasionally appeared, they would go through hefty lengths to learn the abilities.
Because the requirements to learn such skills was extraordinarily harder than obtaining the book. Thus, most of these books were just sold to the strongest Divers in order to gather money for better gear. That seemed to be the quickest way to get stronger.
I am a Fighter, not a Diver, he described himself as after thinking for a few minutes.
And he was determined to hide that fact for as long as possible, until he was strong enough to at least defend himself when people understood that he kept growing. As for some sick reason there are people out there, who want to squash upcoming Divers in order to stay relevant themselves.
Divers were categorized into ranks and those of higher ranks wanted to stay at the top. The categorization spanned from SSS at the top, continuing SS, S, A, B, C, D, E and lastly F.
At some point S rank was too inflationary, thus they decided to add SS. When people stronger than SS Divers appeared, they had to add yet another system to properly evaluate their strength.
Nowadays, they all get assigned numbers as well. With this, Divers can drop out of their ranks if they decline in their ranks due to either not diving or other people climbing over them. Hence, Divers of lower ranks will do everything to keep others under their ranks.
After this really tiring night, Johannes eyelids closed as if they were forced to. He was unable to stay awake any longer and accepted the warm embrace of sleep.
[Breathing lvl 2]
[Hint: Raise Your Levels By Breathing]
Johannes woke up to the messages of the mysterious blue screen.
"Thanks. Who could have guessed that [Breathing] levels by breathing?" he muttered with a mocking smirk.
Well, it's 7 AM and nobody has been here by now? Anyways, I want to try meditation now he paused, scratching his head as he continued his thought - and concentrate on my breathing.
Closing his eyes was the first step. What followed was a rather uncomfortable position in which he attempted to sit cross-legged. Ignoring the awkward pose, he started to slowly breathe in and out.
His lungs were slowly filled with air, growing in size. While he pressed out the air, his mind was calm. It almost went blank, until he found himself standing in an infinite room full of darkness.
[You Have Entered The Dark Room], the system let Johannes know.
The weak Johannes could now see himself, as he was almost floating. Mocking his own body, he gazed upon his fragile shell. Then, suddenly a man approached him. His appearance looked like one of those dramas he used to watch.
With a towering physique that would let most Divers pale in comparison, he slowly closed the distance between them. His forearms looked bigger than Johannes' legs, is what the weakest man in the room thought.
Strength. This man was oozing of strength - that was an undeniable fact that was as obvious as the principles of physicality.