The days passed after that night with heavy slowness.
The nightmare never left Adam's mind, but he no longer ran from it.
Instead… he woke up every morning carrying the same single thought:
"I will never be weak again."
He was only thirteen, younger than most students at the academy and physically one of the weakest.
But one thing began to set him apart from everyone else…
His mind.
Training at the Academy
The training field was alive every morning with students.
The sound of wooden swords clashing, instructors shouting, and feet pounding the sandy ground filled the air.
The noble students often mocked Adam.
"The boy from the orphanage."
"He'll never become a real hunter."
But Adam never answered.
He didn't care about their words.
He only watched.
Every movement.
Every mistake.
Every pattern in their fighting.
And when his own training began…
He repeated the motions hundreds of times.
Strike…
Retreat…
Dodge…
Twist.
He wasn't the strongest… but he was becoming the most precise.
The Notebook
At night, he sat alone in his room.
He opened his notebook.
And he wrote.
Weak points of the monsters he had read about.
Fighting moves used by the strongest students.
The mistakes they made.
Over time, the pages filled with drawings, notes, and strategies.
No one knew about this notebook.
It was his secret weapon.
The Forest
But the real growth didn't happen inside the academy.
It happened outside.
Behind the academy walls stretched a vast forest…
Dark… filled with wild creatures and small monsters.
At first, Adam was afraid to enter it.
But after the nightmare…
Fear was no longer enough to stop him.
Almost every evening, he would sneak out of the academy and head into the forest.
There… he fought alone.
The First Real Battle
One night, he faced a Shadow Wolf.
A creature faster than any normal animal.
Its green eyes glowed in the darkness.
It attacked suddenly.
Adam barely dodged its claws.
He fell to the ground and rolled between the roots.
His heart pounded violently.
But instead of running…
He began to observe.
The attack…
The retreat…
The turn.
After minutes of being chased, he realized something.
Every time the wolf lunged…
Its right side was exposed for a very brief moment.
A moment so short…
But enough.
When the wolf charged again—
Adam moved.
He ducked under the claws.
Then delivered a quick strike with his training sword to that exact spot.
The wolf howled and staggered back.
Then it fled deep into the forest.
Adam collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
But for the first time in a long while… he smiled.
The Passing Years
Days turned into months.
Months turned into years.
Between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, Adam changed a great deal.
He didn't become massively muscular.
He didn't gain overwhelming power.
But his body became faster.
His movements became sharper.
And his mind… became far more dangerous.
In training battles inside the academy, he began to surprise his opponents.
Students stronger than him fell because of one perfectly timed, calculated strike.
Yet even then…
He pretended to be ordinary.
He didn't brag.
He didn't talk much.
He just trained.
Wrote.
And returned to the forest.
At Fifteen
One night, Adam stood on a high rock deep inside the forest.
The moon lit the thick trees.
Below him lay the body of a huge forest beast, defeated just minutes earlier after a long fight.
Adam breathed slowly.
His body was exhausted… but his eyes were calm.
He closed his notebook after writing the final note.
Then he looked toward the deeper parts of the forest.
The darkness there felt thicker than usual.
As if something was hiding among the trees.
But he didn't move.
He just watched.
Because a strange feeling began to creep into his heart…
As if someone—or something—was watching him.
From somewhere in the dark.