As Alex walked out of the assessment chamber, he couldn't help but replay the last seven days in his mind. The strategies he had employed, the risks he had taken, and the unexpected challenges he had faced.
Each memory was a lesson, a reminder of what he was capable of.
'Maybe my strategic thinking wasn't as bad as I originally thought it to be?'
He had made fire without tools, extracted chemicals from the earth, and crafted a bomb with nothing but his wits and the environment around him.
The survival videos he had binge-watched were more than just entertainment; they were the lifelines that had helped him succeed.
"Adapt and overcome," he reminded himself.
Alex reached his dormitory, a stark contrast to the rugged, wild environment of the simulation. He stepped inside, the familiarity of his personal space grounding him.
He headed straight for the shower, letting the hot water wash away the grime and exhaustion of the past week.
He hadn't actually accumulated any dirt or grime on his real body, but the feeling was more like a placebo.
As he stood under the stream, he allowed himself a moment of vulnerability. The relief of having his powers back, the rush of emotions from his success, and the stark realisation of how fragile normal human life could be.
He had walked a thin line between life and death many times over the past year, and it had changed him.
Clean and refreshed, Alex dressed in comfortable clothes and sat at his desk, staring at his reflection in the mirror.
The face looking back at him was the same, but his eyes held a new depth. He had been reminded of the limitations of humanity and the extraordinary gift of being an Awakened.
Back when he was a normal human in the real world, people always said that being whisked away to the Primordial Expanse was a curse, and in a way they were right.
But it was more of a door to a whole new world (literally) opening up for them.
Sure, there was a very real risk of death from this, but even if you were the biggest coward in the world, you would still be able to make it back from the Primordial Expanse given enough time.
In fact, the highest percentage of people that came back from the Primordial Expanse were the cowards, as they were grounded in reality.
They knew when something was too risky to take on, they knew when something was completely out of their league, and they knew exactly where to draw the line.
It was the people who didn't know these things that perished the most in the Primordial Expanse and gave it the bad reputation.
Many people, when forced away to the Primordial Expanse and given all of the fantasy abilities and system panels, get main character syndrome and start to act like the world revolves around them, like they are the main character in their own story.
But it doesn't take long before reality hits them in the face like a 100mph brick.
He couldn't imagine the fear she must have felt in that situation.
"The Whisperer, being a creature that feeds on people's souls, is sensitive to emotions. And what are emotions? They are just a bunch of chemical reactions in our bodies."
Alex tilted his head, even more curious to know what she was going on about.
"I tested it, and I was right. The Whisperer was sensitive to certain chemicals I found throughout the periphery of the temple, and I scattered a lot, and I mean A LOT of them all around the temple over the first few days."
Alex blinked in surprise, "There was such a thing?"
"Yes," Mira continued. "The Whisperer was only an F- rank awakened, so it's abilities were weak on the relative scale of awakened. It wasn't able to differentiate between different types of chemicals, so it couldn't tell the difference between me, and the various other random plants I had placed all over the temple."
Alex couldn't help but laugh, taking his palm to his forehead. "That's genius. Simple, effective, and completely bypasses any need for confrontation."
"So, how did you kill it then?" But there was still this part that Mira had missed out.
Mira giggled. "I didn't."
'???'
"What? Then how did you pass the test?" Alex was thoroughly confused at this point.
Mira looked amused at Alex's confusion.
"Well, the original plan was to burn it to death, I was going to trap The Whisperer in a room I filled with a bunch of dead wood and set it alight with it trapped inside. But..."
Mira paused, looking as if she was still confused about the situation herself.
"...but The Whisperer killed itself..."
Alex: "..."
Mira: "..."
'What?'
Before Alex could even ask, Mira continued.
"It turns out The Whisperer was eating every plant and chemical I had placed in the temple." She spoke, giving some more background.
"But one of the plants I placed turned out to be poisonous..."
'...'