With each step away from the dungeon, the cold mountain air refreshed Akira's lungs, which still burned from the heat of battle. The sun was beginning to dip behind the peaks, casting long shadows across the rugged landscape. He moved toward a secluded path—one he had remembered since childhood—a path leading to one of his father's hidden houses deep within Mount Suraksan, near Seoul.
No one knew about this place, not even his closest allies or those who monitored his every move.
"It's perfect," he muttered to himself. "A place to retreat, grow stronger in secret, away from prying eyes. They'll notice I'm not dead soon enough, and I can't handle them yet."
The house was unassuming but meticulously built, seamlessly integrated into the mountainside, blending with the natural rock and trees. Inside, Akira found a large wooden table, a simple bed, and a broad fireplace capable of filling the room with a subtle warmth. He sat down, letting the events of the day wash over him as his thoughts swirled with new realizations.
"Today, I learned six new things," he said, leaning back and replaying every lesson from the dungeon in his mind.
First: Dungeon Bosses with Cores Are Stronger
"The dungeon bosses with cores... they're stronger," Akira mused. "The E-rank boss was more resilient than I expected, and I could tell it was because of the core it held. Bosses with cores are on another level. I'll have to prepare better if I want to keep up this pace and grow stronger."
Second: Leveling Restores Everything
He clenched his fist, remembering the sensation. "Every time I leveled up, my body reset to peak condition, as if the fights had left no mark. My stamina, my strength—everything refilled as my stats ticked upward by one, balancing themselves thanks to Perfected Symmetry. That single increase doesn't just feel like a number. It's significant... like I can actually feel the difference. One point adjusts me to a new potential."
He could feel it—the power, the precision in his movements. Even a single point made a leap forward. "It might sound minor, but that one increase is like breaking through a barrier, making me feel... stronger."
Third: Experience Requirements Change
He grumbled as he thought about how the experience needed to level up increased with each step. "I can't rely on E-rank dungeons forever. Eventually, they won't be enough to fuel my growth." The thought agitated him, but it also thrilled him. "I'll have to find higher-level dungeons, tougher opponents." His journey was only going to get harder, and that excited him.
Fourth: Passive Skills
"A passive skill is an ability that's always active, providing continuous benefits without needing to be consciously activated. Unlike active skills, which require deliberate use and often have cooldowns or specific requirements like Soul Infusion, passive skills work in the background, enhancing my capabilities in subtle but significant ways."
Fifth: Magic Stones and Monsters
"Not all monsters leave magic stones," Akira noted. "Those that turn to ash don't. Those that leave bodies do. It's strange—too consistent to be a coincidence. But I'm not here to solve mysteries."
He pulled a magic stone from his satchel, rolling it between his fingers. The faint teal glow pulsed softly, like a heartbeat. "Magic stones aren't supposed to appear in low-level dungeons like this. At least, that's what Eri told me, and even the StarNet confirmed it. So why did they appear? Was it luck? Or... something else?"
The thought gnawed at him. Magic stones were rare in low-level dungeons—these dungeons were mostly used for rookies who had just awakened their powers to train and get accustomed to dungeon combat—yet he had found them embedded in the walls and scattered among the monster remains. It didn't make sense.
He clenched the stone tightly, feeling its warmth seep into his palm. "But it doesn't matter. I don't care why they appeared. My pursuit isn't about solving mysteries. It's about revenge. It's about getting stronger."
Sixth: Soul Infusion and White Mana
His eyes focused on his hand, where wispy tendrils of mana had appeared during Soul Infusion. But this wasn't just any mana—it was pure, shining white.
He searched the internet for information about white mana or anything related to it, but what he found shocked him: this type of mana didn't exist.
From everything he'd learned in the past year—working with Eri and scouring every available resource—white mana was an anomaly. Since the evolution of mankind, only six types of mana had been documented:
Elemental Mana: Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind—the basic building blocks of most skills.
Arcane Mana: Rare and difficult to use, often employed by sorcerers to bend reality and distort space.
Divine Mana: Used by healers, this rare mana restores health and is sometimes called Divine Power.
Shadow Mana: Dark and elusive, used by assassins and spies to manipulate darkness.
Beast Mana: Drawn by those who summon or transform, echoing the energies of nature.
Astral Mana: The mana of mentalists, used to enhance psychic capabilities and illusions.
And then there was white mana. His mana.
"Unlike anything I've ever heard of or seen," Akira muttered. "I learned only demonic humans use other source of energy, which falls outside these six types. So what the hell is this? I've never heard of it, not once."
He traced the vessels in his arm, remembering how they had shimmered with that bright light in the dark dungeon. A faint memory flickered in the back of his mind—a fleeting moment from his childhood when he'd seen a similar glow during a storm, but he brushed it aside.
"Soul Infusion isn't just a power boost. It's different. But if I keep thinking about it, more questions will keep appearing. Right now, I need to focus on my goals."
What Akira didn't yet understand—what he couldn't fathom—was that Soul Infusion wasn't just enhancing his body. It was tapping into something deeper, something far more dangerous. A sense of mystery hovered over him, mixing with his excitement.
"Today, I disappear as a shadow. Tomorrow, I return as a storm."
The crisp mountain air filled his lungs, and Akira felt an uncommon sense of contentment wash over him as he leaned back. Here, he would grow, transform, and when he re-emerged, nothing would stand in his way.
Akira woke to the morning sunlight streaming through the small window of the secluded house nestled in Mount Suraksan. He groaned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. His muscles still ached from yesterday's battle, but they were energized by the rush of power that came with it. The quiet of the mountains stood in stark contrast to the chaos of the dungeon.
As he sat up, the familiar ping of his status window echoed in his mind. Instinctively, he opened it to find a new notification waiting for him.
DING!
[Daily Quest: The Ultimate Body Training]
[Objective: Complete full-body training to enhance your physical attributes.]
[Details:]
[Push-ups: 0/1,000]
[Sit-ups: 0/1,000
[Squats: 0/1,000
[Goal:]
Perform all exercises continuously, without resting, one after another.]
[Reward:]
[+2 to All Attribute Points]
[+1 "Title: Unyielding" Bonus (Increases stamina regeneration during subsequent training.)]
[Note:
[If any exercises are incomplete, the quest will reset the next day.]
[Akira tilted his head, intrigued. "Train every day, huh? Another one of these passive challenges."
He stood and stretched, his arms reaching overhead as his neck cracked with a satisfying pop. "Alright, let's keep this up. Let's do it."
Akira stood in the center of the training room, beads of sweat already forming on his brow despite having just begun. The sun had barely risen, but the fire of revenge burned brightly within him. It was this unrelenting desire that drove him to push beyond all limits.
He glanced at the quest requirements: 1,000 push-ups, 1,000 sit-ups, and 1,000 squats. Simple, yet brutal.
"No time to waste," he muttered, cracking his knuckles.
He dropped to the floor and began his first set of push-ups. Every rep was a step closer to his goal; every drop of sweat a reminder of his refusal to back down.
"One. Two. Three."
He counted under his breath, his form perfect, his body moving like a machine. The burn intensified with each rep.
"Focus. Just a few more."
By the time he finished the push-ups, his arms trembled a bit , and his chest felt like it was on fire. Without pause, he moved to the next exercise: sit-ups. He lay on the mat, hands behind his head, and began crunching, lifting his body off the ground with deliberate precision.
The moment he finished the last sit-up, he flipped onto his feet and launched into squats.
"Let's go," he muttered, his legs burning as he lowered himself again and again. "800... 900... come on, just a hundred more."
When he finally completed the last squat, his legs felt like they were on fire.He stood, panting, and stared at the quest screen.
"That's it. I'm done," he said, a small smile creeping onto his face. "Just getting started. The stronger I am, the closer I'll be to crushing anyone who dares stand in my way."
!Ding
[Quest Complete]
[+2 to All Attribute Points]
[+1 "Title: Unyielding" Bonus]
"Great," Akira said, sitting down to catch his breath. But his mind was already racing toward the next challenge.