The violet vortex swallowed his consciousness and spat him out onto a surface that was not sand. Min-ho landed on a platform of translucent white stone that floated in a void of endless gold and silver clouds. The black desert was gone. In its place stood a series of massive floating islands connected by bridges of solid light.
[Notice: 120x Time Dilation Active]
[Total Duration: 2,880 Hours approx 120 Days]
[Location: The Celestial Forge Sector Zero]
'This place is different,' Min-ho thought while standing up and steadying his feet on the cold stone. 'The air smells like ozone and old metal instead of the stale dust of the dunes.'
He walked to the edge of the platform and looked down into the swirling gold abyss. There was no bottom. He saw ancient structures and broken towers floating in the distance as if a city had been shattered and thrown into the sky. He began to wonder if the Slumber Realm was actually a real place located in some distant corner of the universe. The textures of the stone and the way the light refracted through the silver clouds felt too complex to be a simple dream.
'Is this a graveyard?' he wondered. 'Did the System find the remains of a dead civilization and turn it into a training ground?'
The moment he tried to dig deeper into the history of the Forge he felt a stabbing pain behind his eyes. It was a clear warning from the System that his current level was too low to access the truth. He rubbed his temples and exhaled a long breath of cold air.
'It does not matter what this place was,' he thought. 'I am still clueless about how the System works but I know how to use it to get stronger. That is all that matters for now.'
He turned back to the center of the platform where a massive obsidian monolith had appeared. It hummed with a low frequency that resonated with the Star Forged Marrow in his bones.
[Phase 1 Mana Vein Expansion]
Min-ho sat in a meditative stance and closed his eyes. Immediately the gravity on the island spiked to five times its normal strength. It felt like his internal organs were being pressed against the floor. His mana began to churn and boil within his core. The goal was simple but the execution was grueling. He had to force the dense mana from his marrow into his narrow veins to expand them permanently.
He spent the first thirty days in total silence. Every time he pushed the energy too hard his veins would feel like they were being sliced by razor blades. He failed hundreds of times and woke up coughing phantom blood on the white stone. By the end of the month his veins had thickened and turned a faint gold color. He could now move his mana with three times the speed and intensity as before.
[Phase 2 Sovereign Intent Refinement]
The islands were suddenly populated by Shadow Echoes. These were faceless warriors that radiated a suffocating pressure. They did not use weapons. They simply walked toward Min-ho and their presence alone was enough to make the stone beneath his feet crack.
'I have to keep my own pressure active just to breathe,' Min-ho realized.
He spent the next sixty days in a constant state of mental warfare. He had to maintain Sovereign's Pressure at all times to counteract the weight of the Echoes. If his concentration slipped for even a second the pressure of the shadows would crush his lungs. He learned to weave his intent into his movements. He stopped thinking of the pressure as a wall and started treating it like an extension of his own skin.
By the fourth month his white hair had grown past his shoulders and his eyes were a permanent liquid gold. He stood in the center of the Forge while four high tier Echoes surrounded him. He did not move a muscle. He simply released a localized burst of his intent.
[Sovereign's Pressure Level 2]
[Gravity Anchor Active]
The air around the Echoes turned a heavy shade of violet. They were pinned to the ground as if invisible chains had been wrapped around their limbs. Min-ho walked through them, and his footsteps were completely silent. He delivered a single palm strike to each shadow, and they shattered into white particles that were absorbed into his skin.
He felt a sense of completion as the bridges of light began to flicker. His 2,880 hours were almost over. He looked at his hands and saw how the gold light now flowed naturally beneath his flesh.
'I have been here for months,' he thought as the gold clouds began to fade into the black of the real world. 'I hope I remember how to act like a normal high school student.'
He felt the familiar tug on his soul as his consciousness returned to his physical body sitting in his room.