( One weekter )


    After one week of living his life within the snake-men ancestral chamber, Rocky finally developed a few symptoms of mental instability.


    He had begun talking to himself out loud as dialogues that previously happened inside his brain, now became open for all to hear.


    It was a gradual process, one that he did not realize himself, however, after a week of staying within the chamber as a blind man, he had be a bber mouth that spoke his intrusive thoughts out loud.


    Just like Jerome, who would bash Naya for chewing too loud on the breakfast table, Rocky now fought and bashed everyone at the slightest inconvenience as his patience level had gone down to zero.


    Every morning during the penance session, he would look at the sky and bber about things that he was sorry for, stating every small crime he had evermitted throughout his life and how regretful he was about it, as strangely he found confessing a very liberating feeling.


    Overtime, this habit had gotten worse as by day 7 he lost his speech filterpletely, bing a very different version to the Rocky that entered.


    On the other hand, his sensory skills saw major improvements, as he began to walk much better, listen much better and his swordsmanship improved my leaps and bounds.


    While he could not see it because he was blind, on day 7 his understanding of swordsmanship reached such a high level that sometimes there were spots of sword intent forming on his de while he practiced as his attacks became much stronger than before, showing great progress in his art.


    The penance chamber was a special zone where training for a day yielded results akin to training for a week and hence Rocky was able to progress rapidly within, however, he was oblivious to this progress.


    To him, the only thought clouding his mind was how to survive in this hellhole for 83 more days, as by day 7 Rocky already felt like he could not take living as a blind man for much longer.


    "I hate it…. I hate this ce, however, I hate being weak even more. Fuck-" Rocky murmured to himself as he hacked his sword against the dummy with even more strength than before.


    "I want my vision back, but what I want even more is power. I want to be the hero that everyone views me as, and for that goal, I will persevere.


    Sophia? I will make her regret not joining me here, by the time I go back, I''ll be so strong that everyone will be blown away" Rocky said as he painted himself the beautiful dream of shocking everyone with his progress when he returned.


    " La,, damn my voice is so bad….. why is it so bad? It''s the only thing I have left now, why do I hate it so much" Rocky wondered, as his out loud ramblings were a clear sign that he was slowly starting to lose it.


    **********


    ( 15 dayster )


    After the first fifteen days inside the chamber Rocky had lost his sanity and gained it back in a full cycle.


    On day8 he had a mental breakdown and was on the verge of quitting, when a particrly difficult torture session with the devil knocked him out cold.


    On day9 he struggled toplete his martial arts routine, but realized that he was able to circte mana within his body to increase muscle strength, as he stumbled upon the concept of the skill move [ Mana Reinforcement ] on his own and slowly began mastering it.


    On day10 he snapped out of his depression as he truly got a grip on his new style of life and was able to spend a full day without being tortured by the devil.


    On day13 he was finallypletely ustomed to his new form of life and even his ramblings to himself lessened as he felt like he had the strength to continue with the challenge and would be able to make it to the end.


    On day14 he began feeling brave, giving himself the hype talk, he decided to take another penalty the following day as he convinced himself that living this way was not too bad and that he could take it.


    Finally as day15 rolled around and Nubi came to take him for his evaluation, Rocky gave her a big hug and told her how much she meant to him, although she really did not.


    He happily followed her outside the main chamber, to the evaluation chamber, where once again he heard his own voice speaking to him.


    "Your second biggest w is your unused body potential.


    The human genes you have inherited are way too weak and do not express nearly what the human race is capable of.


    If you can survive the next 75 days having sacrificed your sense of touch, I will unlock the full potential of your body for you.


    Do you ept my offer?" The other Rocky said, as Rocky contemted the offer seriously.


    As per his understanding there were widely three types of human races:- namely humans, Enhanced Humans and Demi Humans.


    He was a normal human from Earth whose natural strength and stature was not too impressive whenpared to other races, however, intelligence wasparatively very high.


    Inparison Enhanced Humans were taller, had better strength and immunity and had bodies that naturally healed faster, however, they too had the same level of intelligence as normal humans.


    Finally, Demi-humans had all the advantages of an enhanced human, but also had a massive mana pool and innate talent that gave them an edge over normal humans by birth.


    Sophia was one such Demi-Human.


    However, it wasn''t impossible for a normal human to surpass both the other types of humans across the spectrum if they trained hard enough, which was why Rocky was not sure if this opportunity was worth taking or not.


    "Ha, an enhanced human or even a demi human is still far from reaching the true peak of your race''s potential.


    What I''m offering is beyond that stage" The other Rocky said, as if reading Rocky''s mind.


    "An enhanced human is still far from what the race is capable of?" Rocky muttered in disbelief as he finally grasped the allure of the offer being presented before him.


    "Living without touch huh?" He said out loud instead of thinking in his head, as he had unfortunately lost that filter slightly with time spent inside the chamber.


    He contemted on how bad living without touch could be and knew that it would get pretty rough for him.


    Having already lost his vision, his touch meant everything to him now as it was his means of navigation, his means ofmunication and his means of survival.


    "How will I survive without feeling? I will literally be unable to move anymore?" Rocky expressed his concern as the entity against him responded to his doubts.


    "I will temporarily grant you the ability of echolocation so that you can travel using sound.


    Will this punishment be eptable to you now?" The other Rocky said, as after deep contemtion Rocky epted the offer.


    " I ept-" he said as the fake Rockyughed like a maniac once more as his sense of touch and feel was taken away from him.