[Miss You]

The man that emitted a visible blue aura, kept closing the distance. His menacing appearance made Johannes look on the dark floor, rather than meeting the gaze of his eyes.

A floor like that was unheard of for the weak man. Everything was pitch dark, yet the floor felt like it was illuminated by some kind of moonlight. It was glowing, yet dark as the darkest night.

After some time, the man stood in front of Johannes. Barely one meter apart, he started to speak.

"You are weak. Do you want to know why?" the unknown adult asked.

Maybe because I have been connected to machines for my whole life, unable to breathe without artificial help? - is what Johannes wanted to say, but he only mustered up the courage to nod.

"[Breathing] is the core of my strength. If you are unable to breathe properly, you are unable to produce any strength." he made Johannes understand. 

If not for [Breathing], there was nothing else that the fragile man was missing as much during his whole life. In a sense, he understood what the disgustingly strong man explained.

"I have been unable to breathe for most of my life", he finally spoke as some kind of adrenaline spike rushed into his head. Regret entered his mind, as he figured he should not have spoken out.

A warm smile overcame the man. "I know. I know more than you would think. We are going to change that today".

"But how? Where even am I?" Johannes asked as he felt enabled by the earlier warm smile that strangely enough felt familiar. The man stopped Johannes in his tracks. With a single look, he silenced further questions — they weren't needed

"We are going to start. I won't allow any questions, as you will understand soon enough."

Johannes accepted the words of the man and followed his instructions eagerly.

"Sit down, cross your legs and start to meditate. Walk the small path between life and death. If you lose yourself in the eternal realm of darkness, you will go mad", the man warned Johannes.

The weak man certainly did not understand what he was being told. A glance at his face would show that to anyone, as he was unable to hide his emotions through facial expressions very well.

Yet, Johannes did exactly as instructed. He closed his eyes, seemingly content with his training. Suddenly, he fell down into a hole. The duration of the fall felt like an eternity, however realistically it was only for a few minutes. 

The wind was howling into his ears. It was almost deafening. At some point it started to hurt his face, that suffered cuts from the strong current.

While his heart started to race, increasing his beats per minute into an abnormal rate, his mind told him to calm down.

How could I calm down in this situation? Why would that be my first impulse, while I am falling down a mighty long fall? he snapped at himself. But he knew his inner voice was right. If it was not for the system, he would not even be breathing without any help.

Thus, the fragile shell of a man deduced, that the system probably did not want him to die. At least not yet, where he did not level his skills.

In hindsight he understood that this was a tall gamble, that was further from the truth than he could have known. While the system tried to support him, he was still plunging into a crack of darkness. His weak heart could have very well stopped beating.

During the fall though, he started to accept his fate, cleansing him of any fear. His breath became stable again, his heart was barely above his usual rate anymore.

Eventually, he hit the ground and opened his eyes. Johannes was still sitting there cross-legged, while the sturdy man judged his performance.

"You did well to overcome your fear and to stabilize your breathing. That was the only way to survive this fall. If you had not done that, I would have let you hit the ground", the man added in an oblivious voice.

"You... would have let me hit the ground?" he was shocked. "What would have happened to me then?"

"Oh" he smirked "you would have gone mad. Probably?"

Johannes never felt as strong as in this moment. But he knew that he was not, so he deterred from attacking this psychopath.

" ... Well, how did this make me any stronger though?" he asked in a snarky tone.

"You will see, once you wake up from your meditation. By the way, I am Master Atem. Remember my name".

Master Atem snapped his fingers and Johannes woke up again.