The basent of the Myeongdong departnt store didn't look like a shopping center anymore.
As Min-jae descended the silent, debris-strewn concrete stairs, the air temperature plumted. The scent of ozone and dried blood vanished, replaced by the choking, sulfurous reek of an underground forge. The walls were weeping with thick, greasy condensation, and the faint, rhythmic thud-thud-thud he had heard from above grew into a heavy, tallic vibration that rattled the marrow of his bones.
[You have entered the deepest sub-level of the Dungeon Zone.]
[Warning: The density of localized Mana has reached critical mass.]
[The Overmaster System is actively erecting a physical barrier. Absolute Zero Mana integrity maintained.]
Min-jae stepped off the final stair onto a floor covered in half an inch of black, stagnant water.
The sub-level was a massive, open-concept loading bay, normally used for delivery trucks. Now, the concrete pillars were cracked and scorched, illuminated by the sickly orange glow of a massive, glowing fissure in the center of the room. The rift wasn't green or purple; it was a dark, incandescent crimson, bubbling like liquid magma.
Sitting beside the magma rift was a creature that looked as though it had been carved from a mountain of volcanic iron.
It was a Shadow Orc Ironmonger—a specialized B-Rank Elite Blacksmith anomaly. It stood eleven feet tall, its imnse torso so heavily muscled that its neck was entirely non-existent, its massive, tusked head sitting directly between shoulders broader than a flatbed truck. Its skin was charcoal-black, covered in glowing, lava-like veins that pulsed in sync with its breathing. In its right hand, it held a four-hundred-pound solid iron smithing hamr, its surface crackling with destructive, high-density heat mana.
The Ironmonger wasn't forging a weapon. It was lting down the steel beams of the building's foundation, siphoning the raw ore to feed the crimson rift.
Thump.
As Min-jae’s foot splashed into the water, the giant creature froze. All three pairs of its deep-set, amber eyes snapped toward the entrance. It let out a low, rumbling grunt that caused the stagnant water across the entire room to ripple violently outward.
To a B-Rank Elite, a lone human teenager walking into its lair without a shield, without armor, and without a single shred of magic was a bizarre sight. It raised its massive hamr, the solid iron head glowing white-hot as the ambient mana of the room violently swirled into the weapon.
Min-jae didn't hesitate. He checked his internal gauge.
[Current True Ki: 25 / 30]
[Warning: Physical pathways are oversaturated. Internal temperature: 41.2°C.]
"Twenty-five units," Min-jae muttered, his voice echoing in the damp cavern. "I need five more to hit the threshold. But more importantly... I need you to hit ."
In his previous life, Min-jae had seen a high-tier Murim expert from the Iron Blood Clan explain the secret to achieving the Iron Skin realm. It wasn't sothing you could achieve through peaceful ditation or by reading a manual. Ki was like iron; if you just let it sit in the furnace, it would lt and destroy the vessel. It had to be beaten. It required an external, crushing pressure to force the internal energy to fuse directly into the cellular matrix of the skin, muscles, and bones.
The Ironmonger didn't understand the boy's words, but it understood the absolute lack of fear in his eyes. It was an insult.
"GROOOGH!"
With a deafening roar, the eleventh-foot monster lunged. The weight of its stride shattered the concrete floor beneath the water, sending a wall of black spray into the air. It brought the white-hot smithing hamr down in a brutal, vertical arc ant to turn Min-jae into a smoldering grease spot on the floor.
Min-jae didn't use Formless Step to dodge. He didn't use Mountain Breaker to deflect it.
He spread his feet wide, sank into a deep horse stance, and crossed his forearms directly above his head. He took a massive, chest-expanding breath, executing the Primordial Core rhythm in reverse—forcing all 25 units of his compressed True Ki out of his solar plexus and spreading it like a thin, highly pressurized golden film just beneath his skin.
Formless Style: Unyielding Vessel.
BOOOOOOM!
The collision was catastrophic. The shockwave of the impact blew the water entirely out of the loading bay, exposing the bare, cracked concrete floor. A blinding flash of orange heat and golden sparks illuminated the dark sub-level as the four-hundred-pound white-hot iron hamr slamd directly into Min-jae’s crossed forearms.
"Gh-hh!"
Min-jae’s knees buckled slightly, his running shoes blowing apart completely from the kinetic backwash as his bare feet drove two inches deep into the solid concrete floor. The fabric of his sleeves was instantly incinerated into black ash, exposing his bare arms.
His skin didn't burn. The mont the white-hot tal made contact, the extre external heat and the multi-ton crushing weight acted like a massive drop-hamr on his internal energy. The 25 units of golden True Ki trapped beneath his skin were violently compressed, forced out of his ridians and driven directly into his pores, his capillaries, and his cellular walls.
[Warning! High-density physical and thermal trauma detected!]
[Your Constitution stat is absorbing the impact...]
[The 'True Ki' matrix is undergoing forced fusion with the physical layer!]
The pain was beyond anything he had felt before. It felt as though millions of microscopic golden needles were being driven through his skin from the inside out, sewing his flesh to his bones. Min-jae gritted his teeth so hard a fine line of blood ran from his gums, but his eyes remained wide, locked onto the astonished face of the Ironmonger.
The monster was horrified. Its ultimate strike, reinforced by B-Rank heat mana that could lt a tank's armor, had been stopped dead by a human's bare skin.
"My turn," Min-jae rasped, his voice sounding like two grinding grinding stones.
Before the Ironmonger could lift the hamr for a second strike, Min-jae uncoiled his stance. The internal gold within him had changed; it was no longer a fluid current flowing through his veins. It had beco a structural part of his anatomy.
He drove his right palm forward, striking the side of the massive iron hamr head.
BANG.
The physical force of his 22 Strength, now completely reinforced by his hardened tissue, shattered the connection between the hamr and its stone handle. The four-hundred-pound block of iron flew sideways, embedding itself deep into a concrete pillar.
The Ironmonger stumbled back, all six of its eyes wide with panic. It raised its massive, clawed fists to defend itself, but Min-jae was already inside its reach.
[Active Skill Initiated: 'Formless Step'.]
With his bare feet directly connected to the earth, the speed of his step was absolute. He appeared right beneath the monster's massive, exposed throat. He didn't use a nad technique. He simply delivered a straight, compact thrust with his right hand, his fingers locked together like a spear point.
Pfft.
His hand, now denser than abyssal steel, pierced straight through the monster's charcoal skin, sinking up to his elbow into the Ironmonger's throat matrix. He found the central core—a dense, pulsing stone of concentrated magma mana—and clenched his fist, shattering it into dust.
"Gah... ugh..."
The eleven-foot giant froze, the glowing orange veins along its body rapidly fading into a dull, lifeless grey. It fell backward, its massive bulk slamming into the black water with a trendous splash, completely dead.
[You have defeated a Level 30 Shadow Orc Ironmonger (B-Rank Elite Anomaly).]
[The Overmaster System converting high-density vital essence...]
[You have gained 5 points of 'True Ki'.]
[Your True Ki pool has reached the threshold: 30 / 30]
[System Milestone Achieved: 'The Unyielding Vessel'.]
[The condition for 'Mortal Flesh (Stage 2): Iron Skin' has been completely fulfilled.]
[Initiating transformation...]
Min-jae pulled his arm out of the monster's throat, wiping the grey ash from his skin. As he stood in the quiet basent, a profound, tallic luster settled over his entire body. His skin didn't look different to the casual eye, but it possessed a faint, healthy sheen—like polished jade.
He flexed his fist. The air around his knuckles didn't warp from heat anymore; it was completely silent. He had achieved the second realm.
Suddenly, his ear twitched. His Perception caught the sound of dozens of heavy boots running down the concrete stairs behind him.
"Clear the floor! Secure the periter!" a voice shouted from the stairwell. It was the elite vanguard of the Miracle Guild, led by Choi Sung-min, the 'Iron Wall'. They had finally tracked the energy signature of the B-Rank boss down to this basent.
Min-jae didn't turn around to greet them. He looked up at the ventilation shaft in the ceiling, his body effortlessly leaping ten feet into the air, vanishing into the shadows of the ductwork before the first flashlight beam could cut through the dark.
The corporate hunters were looking for a monster. They had no idea that the thing roaming the dark of Seoul was sothing far worse—a man who was rewriting the rules of the universe with his bare hands.
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