Four years.
That's how long he had been inside the Chamber of Eternity.
To him, time no longer mattered — it had become a background noise, something meaningless. His body had grown, his mind sharper than ever, and his aura now carried the weight of a monster in human skin. The boy who once struggled to form a core was now someone whose very breath shook the ground beneath him.
He had already reached the level of a Black Core — an S-rank hunter, something that only a handful of people in the entire world could ever hope to become. But he wasn't just any S-rank — he was at the apex of it. The absolute peak that made even the strongest look fragile in comparison.
And yet… he wasn't satisfied.
There was still something missing. Something more.
He sat cross-legged on the floor, the air heavy with pressure. Around him floated dozens of weapons — swords, spears, daggers, axes — all spinning slowly as he controlled them with pure mana. His breathing was steady, his eyes closed. The floor beneath him cracked slightly with every exhale, a sign of how much power he had gathered.
He slowly raised his hand. A pulse of mana shot out, twisting in the air. It shifted from a faint blue glow into a deep crimson flame — fire, roaring with fierce intensity. The temperature in the room spiked, the air shimmered, and the walls groaned under the heat.
He flicked his wrist. The flame vanished, replaced by shimmering water that flowed around his fingers like silk. Then came wind, a sudden gust spiraling around his body. And then earth, solid and unbreakable, coating his arm in rough stone.
He had learned how to manifest mana into elements long ago, but this — this was on a whole new level.
He was no longer forcing mana to become something.
He was letting it.
Each element carried a feeling, a meaning — and he was beginning to understand all of them.
Fire was passion.
Water was calmness.
Wind was freedom.
Earth was resolve.
He began to blend them together, controlling all four at once. The floor trembled, wind roared, fire and water danced in balance, and the chamber itself felt alive — responding to his will.
He was testing something new: the limits of mana control.
He wanted to shift mana not just into one element but multiple at once — something that no human had ever done before. It took him weeks to stabilize it, months to perfect it. He broke his body several times, burned his hands, froze his arms, and even tore apart his mana channels in the process. But every failure was a lesson.
And through those lessons, he found balance.
Now, the mana around him wasn't wild or unstable — it flowed like an extension of himself. He could manifest a storm and a flame in the same breath without losing control.
The stages of his progress were clear now:
Beginner: those who could sense mana.
Intermediate: those who could shape it.
Apex: those who became one with it.
And he — he was Apex.
His power was unmatched, but his hunger for more kept growing. Every time he closed his eyes, he could feel something beyond the Black Core — something faint, like a ceiling that refused to break.
He began experimenting again. He'd mastered physical combat, mana control, and even ghost summoning — yet he still wasn't content.
Now, he focused entirely on refining his mana.
He wanted to compress it — to make every drop denser, purer, and sharper.
He sat still for days, channeling mana through his body, circulating it again and again, burning away the impurities. The air around him vibrated, dust turned to ash, and even the mana in the chamber seemed to bend toward him.
His veins glowed faintly beneath his skin. His breathing became faint. Every cell in his body was absorbing mana.
And then… something changed.
He exhaled. The mana in the chamber flickered. His core pulsed once, twice, then began to spin violently. His entire body felt like it was tearing apart — but he didn't stop. He kept focusing, compressing, refining.
A loud crack echoed through the chamber — his core had evolved again, reaching the very edge of what an S-rank could hold. His control, his durability, his mana output — all at the peak of human potential.
And yet… the chamber didn't react.
It was as if even the walls understood — he hadn't finished yet.
He stood up. Sweat dripped from his face. The ground was covered in cracks, smoke rising from where he had been sitting.
He took a deep breath and extended his hand. Mana surged once more, creating not just fire or wind but both — a spiraling inferno of molten energy. He grinned faintly. "Guess I'm still not done, huh."
The chamber echoed his voice back, the sound lonely yet proud.
Days turned into weeks. Weeks into months. He experimented with every combination possible — fire and wind, water and earth, lightning and stone — every fusion, every contrast. His mastery wasn't just growing; it was becoming instinct.
There came a time when he could create storms that circled the entire chamber, shape the ground beneath him, and evaporate water in an instant.
But most importantly — he learned to balance it all.
No more wasted mana. No more overflow.
Everything was exact, efficient, perfect.
He had reached what others would call the Apex of Power — the point where skill, strength, and understanding merged into one.
He was an Apex S-rank Hunter, a being few could even imagine facing.
And yet… he still looked up at the chamber's ceiling, his expression calm. "There's still one more step," he whispered.
He didn't know what came after the Apex stage. He didn't know what "Beyonder" truly meant. But deep down, he understood one thing — that he was close. Very close.
As he sat down once again, mana flowing quietly around him like a gentle storm, his eyes closed.
He wasn't training anymore.
He was preparing.
Because when he stepped out of that chamber…
The world would never be the same again.