"Another scorpion?"

Jun heard the scorpion nearby, somewhere in this dark place.

He thought he had managed to kill it earlier, but more kept appearing from who knows where. Either that, or the hallucinations were starting to get to him.

As a loner, surprisingly, he didn't feel any hatred toward the scorpion. It felt threatened and attacked just to defend itself, much like he would if given the chance to kill it.

In such a confined space, Jun was the threat the scorpion needed to overcome to dominate the area. This gave Jun the idea that this test was meant to teach them how to dominate in this enclosed space and to do the same outside as well.

One of them had to survive, such is the nature of the outside world.

That damn scorpion settled on the moss, the only spot where Jun placed his waste.

After spending months, maybe even years, in this place, Jun could now see in the dark.

Everything was in black and white inside his mind. The sounds shaped his surroundings, and his silent breathing did a better job of describing his environment in great detail.

But even though he had slowly adapted to the darkness over time, Jun had never seen with such clarity as he did now. It seemed that some change had occurred in his body when he fought against the venom that had penetrated him.

"Is it some effect of the venom?"

He had heard stories of people becoming stronger after surviving poisoning.

Jun thought the same might be happening to him after thinking about it for a long time. Maybe watching too many movies had made him someone who loved fantasy, but now it was the only thing that comforted him.

The problem was that he hadn't just developed a resistance to the venom, some other changes had occurred in his body as well.

If this was a test, then the food must have indeed had some kind of drug that healed him so he wouldn't die completely.

But every week, a new creature appeared in this dark place, and somehow, the people here made sure he got stung.

New venoms, new sensations, new antidotes.

That was Jun's wild imagination, the food was the antidote.

What he didn't know was that his mind was playing tricks on him. There was no such thing as an antidote; what he was developing was new resistance to poisons and toxins.

As more weeks passed, Jun let himself be bitten, knowing that after the venom didn't kill him, it made him stronger.

He took advantage of this time to build up a thick layer of callus on his hands, aware of the use of swords in this world and how constant practice could cause serious damage to his hands.

That's why, before leaving this place, he needed to have some advantages, these advantages would make the difference between life and death.

After a while, the creatures that entered this place stopped biting him. Instinctively, Jun began to assert his presence on this lonely site.

At times, he would disappear from this place when his breathing stopped, as if he didn't exist.

"I am Jun. I am nine years old. I am alone in this world, and when I leave here, I will be invincible." Jun's mantra had changed, showing that he had grown stronger.

He practiced navigating through the darkness without a sound or presence.

Days passed quickly as he repeated the same routine over and over.

Jun's routine consisted of eating the served food and training his body with long squats, among many other exercises to strengthen each of his muscles.

Regardless of his age, Jun was improving tremendously.

He didn't know if it was the potential of his body, the mutations from the different venoms that had infected him, or just because he spent so much time in constant training due to his solitude.

Managing his breath like a true assassin, Jun simulated the knowledge he assumed an assassin would have and trained so hard that he ended up exhausted.

If he didn't do this, he would have already gone mad and would be in terrible pain.

Eating food, training his body, simulating strikes—this was the only way to make the most of his time in this place.

In the darkness, Jun was slowly becoming a powerful warrior.

No, a silent assassin.

…

In the same location where Jun was surviving, a man dressed in black with a scarf covering the lower half of his face and a vicha, a black band covering his forehead down to his neckstood.

The most striking thing about this man was that both the band on his forehead and parts of his black attire had red lines, like flames, covering different parts of his outfit, such as his belt, the sleeves of his arms, and the hilt of the sword resting beside him.

His tunic had even more red markings, indicating his high status in his clan.

Without a doubt, he was an assassin, a very cruel and bloodthirsty person who had emerged victorious from every one of his battles.

"How many of the seeds are still alive?" The man's hoarse voice echoed in the dark, cold, and damp room.

"The latest updates from the faceless elders say that out of the five hundred ninety-nine seeds, only fifty remain alive, many of whom stand out, but one in particular has the potential to become the new Black Moon of our village."

"Was it the one the master selected?" the man asked in surprise.

"Indeed, the selected ones from the Shiyuu clan have poor judgment in choosing men. I suppose the same is true with our Haiyue Clan when giving the women we find." The man stood up to get a better view of that special selection.

Five years remain until a new crescent moon is chosen in the Haiyue clan. That means this seed could become one of the most outstanding if taught well.

"We will select our crescent moon a year before the Shiyuu princess. Maybe this time we could reunite the clans through the representatives who will have the right to see the world."

"The last time, they killed each other. I think that should be questioned more."

"That is our nature, we are proud, and being tied to tradition can be somewhat harmful. It's not for nothing that I killed the princess of my time."

"Since then, the Haiyue clan has confined him here to train the clan's seeds, the outstanding ones. I hope the next crescent moon will have better patience."