The morning after the Mount Inwang meeting, my body felt like it was made of solid lead and lightning.
The [1.2% Synchronization] was a double-edged sword. While it gave me the power to crush stone like dry bread, it also made my "F-rank" muscles ache with a density they weren't designed to carry. I lay on my floor, staring at the ceiling of my bedroom, watching the dust motes dance in the morning light.
Except, I wasn't just watching them.
[Notice: 'Aether Perception' (Rank: B) is active.]
The dust motes weren't just dust. They were surrounded by microscopic swirls of energy—atmospheric mana that had been stagnant for centuries, now reacting to my presence. I reached out a finger, and the air itself seemed to bend, a tiny ripple in space following my movement.
Spatial manipulation is like a muscle, I realized. The more I look at the world as a fabric rather than a solid, the easier it is to tear.
"Jin-woo! You're going to be late!" my mom called out from the kitchen, her voice accompanied by the sizzle of an egg. "The Academy bus doesn't wait for 'Limit Breakers'!"
I rolled out of bed, my feet hitting the floor with a silent thud. I checked the mirror. The [Universal Deception] was holding, but I looked... sharper. My jaw was more defined, and my eyes had a clarity that didn't belong in a 12th-grade classroom.
"Coming, Mom!"
I grabbed a new hoodie—a plain black one to replace the one I'd shredded in the subway. As I walked out, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a new device, a sleek, high-end model that had been left in my locker this morning with a note that simply said: 'Secure. Use this.'
A message was already waiting.
[Ice Queen]: Training Room 7-B. After hours. Don't be late. I have the stones.
The day at the Academy was a blur of whispers.
News of the "F-rank Limit Break" had spread like wildfire. Every time I walked through the halls, students would stop and point. Some looked at me with pity—the common belief was that a Limit Break ruined your future potential—while others, like Park Taeshin, looked at me with renewed malice.
"Hey, Thermos!" Taeshin barked, blocking my path near the cafeteria. "I heard you got lucky in the pits. A one-time spike? You look even scrawnier today. Did you burn up all your mana for a single rat?"
I looked up at him. Usually, I would have lowered my head and apologized for being in his way.
Now, I just felt... bored.
[Passive Skill: 'Dragon's Fear' is reacting to hostile intent.]
I didn't do anything. I didn't even flare my mana. But a cold, primal weight suddenly settled over the hallway. Taeshin, who had been grinning, suddenly froze. His hand, which he'd raised to shove me, began to tremble.
His eyes widened, his pupils shrinking as his primitive hunter instincts screamed at him that he was standing in front of a predator he couldn't even fathom.
"Step aside, Taeshin," I said softly.
He didn't argue. He didn't mock me. He scrambled back, his face turning a sickly shade of white, and nearly tripped over his own feet as he let me pass.
"What... what was that?" I heard one of his cronies whisper. "Taeshin, you okay? You're sweating like crazy."
I didn't stay to hear the answer. I had a different kind of monster to deal with.
Training Room 7-B: 6:00 PM
Training Room 7-B was located in the subterranean levels of the Academy, reserved for "Individual Elite Research." It was soundproof, mana-shielded, and, most importantly, private.
When I entered, Yoo Sae-rin was already there. She was standing in the center of the room, surrounded by ten large, glowing purple crystals.
[Notice: High-Grade Mana Stones detected.]
[Quality: Rank-B.]
[Recommendation: Consume immediately to stabilize core.]
"You're late," Sae-rin said, her icy eyes scanning me. She was wearing a simple combat outfit, her hair tied back in a high ponytail.
"I had to make sure Min-ah wasn't following me," I replied, closing the heavy steel door. "She's getting suspicious. She knows my 'Limit Break' story is a lie, even if she wants to believe it."
Sae-rin gestured to the stones. "These cost me thirty million won on the black market. My father thinks I'm practicing an S-rank ice-pillar technique. Don't make me regret the investment."
I walked to the center of the room, the proximity to the stones making my core hum with hunger. "How do I do this? Usually, hunters use a refining machine to absorb mana."
"You aren't a usual hunter," Sae-rin said, crossing her arms. "The way you absorbed the hearts in the Gate... it was direct. Try it again."
I sat cross-legged in the center of the circle. I closed my eyes and reached out, not with my hands, but with the [Eternal Solar Core]. I felt the "thirst."
[Absorbing High-Grade Mana...]
Suddenly, the ten stones didn't just glow—they disintegrated. The purple energy turned into liquid ribbons of light that spiraled around me, entering my skin through every pore.
"Guh—!"
The heat was instantaneous. It felt like my blood was being replaced by molten gold. I could hear the System's voice, no longer a drone, but a resonant chime that echoed in my skull.
[Synchronization Increasing: 1.5%... 2.0%... 3.5%!]
[New System Function Unlocked: The Sovereign's Vault (Shop).]
[New Attribute Unlocked: Aether Density.]
I opened my eyes, and for a second, the room was gone. I saw the world as a grid of white lines. I saw the "Aether" flowing through the walls, through Sae-rin's body, through the very air.
"Jin-woo? Your eyes..." Sae-rin stepped back, her hand flying to her throat.
I looked at my hands. They were translucent for a split second, flickering between the physical world and the void.
"I can see it now," I whispered. "The Aether. It's not a power, Sae-rin. It's the... code of the world."
I stood up, and the floor beneath me didn't just crack—it warped. I didn't walk toward her; I folded the space between us. In one step, I was inches from her face.
She didn't flinch this time. She looked up at me, her breath hitching. "You're evolving too fast. If the Association sensors pick up a spike like this, even the 'Mask' won't save you."
"Then we need to test the Mask," I said, my voice vibrating with power. "Hit me."
Sae-rin blinked. "What?"
"You're an A-rank, the best in the school," I said, a dark smile playing on my lips. "If I can hide my power while defending against you, then I can hide it from anyone. Don't hold back. Use your 'Glacier Point'."
Sae-rin's expression hardened. She loved a challenge. She raised her hand, and the air in the room instantly plummeted below zero. Frost crept across the walls, and a jagged, three-meter spear of crystalline ice manifested above her head.
"If you die, I'm keeping the phone," she joked, but her eyes were deadly serious.
"Try it."
The ice spear launched with the force of a railgun. It was designed to pierce Rank-B armor.
I didn't move. I didn't dodge.
[Skill: 'Universal Deception' – Active.]
[Skill: 'Spatial Distortion' – Initiated.]
As the spear reached a foot from my chest, it didn't shatter. It simply... slid. The space in front of me curved, causing the spear to divert around my body as if I were a ghost. It slammed into the reinforced wall behind me, turning it into a crater of ice.
I stood perfectly still, the System readout hovering in my vision.
[Mana Output Detected by Academy Sensors: 1.5 Units.]
[Actual Output: 4,500 Units.]
"Impossible," Sae-rin whispered. "I felt the mana... but the room's sensors didn't even trigger a Rank-D warning."
"The Deception doesn't just hide my rank," I realized, looking at the blue box. "It re-writes the laws of physics for anyone watching. To the world, I'm a flickering candle. But to those who know..."
I reached out and touched the wall, the ice melting instantly under my touch.
[Notice: New Shop Credits available.]
[Would you like to browse 'The Sovereign's Vault'?]
Yes.
A screen appeared that Sae-rin clearly couldn't see.
[Skill Book: Aether Step (Rank: S)] – 1,000 Credits.
[Consumable: Dragon's Breath Elixir] – 500 Credits.
[Weapon: Fragment of the First Sovereign's Fang] – 10,000 Credits.
[Passive: Heart of the Chimera (Rank: A)] – 800 Credits.
I looked at my 500 credits. I wasn't even close to the Fang, but the Elixir...
"What are you looking at?" Sae-rin asked, walking over to me. Her frost was still clinging to her sleeves, making her look even more like the Ice Queen.
"The future," I said. "Sae-rin, you said the Gates are opening from the inside. What did you mean? What is coming through?"
Her face went pale again. She leaned in, her voice a ghost of a whisper. "My father's scouts found something in a Grade-A Gate last week. It wasn't a monster. It was a man. Or it looked like one. He was wearing armor made of a metal that doesn't exist on Earth, and he was holding a banner with a dragon on it."
My core pulsed violently.
[Alert: Resonance detected.]
[The 'Outsiders' have found the trail of the Sovereign.]
"They're looking for me," I whispered.
"They're looking for the person who drank the Marrow," Sae-rin corrected. "And if they find you before you reach 100% synchronization... Jin-woo, they won't just kill you. They'll use your heart to open the Great Gate."
I looked at the training room door. The world felt much smaller now, and the Academy felt like a cage.
"Then I need more stones," I said, turning back to her. "We need to go deeper. No more scavenger pits. I need to enter a Grade-B Gate. Tomorrow."
"You're insane," Sae-rin said, but she was already reaching for her phone. "I'll handle the paperwork. But if we die... I'm haunting you forever."
"Deal."