The city was still asleep when Ji-hoon slipped out.
The sky had not yet decided on light. A gray mist clung to the streets like it belonged to them, wrapping around lampposts and the sleeping outlines of cars. He moved without sound, hands in his pockets, hood up, cutting through back streets and narrow alleys until the buildings thinned into forest.
He needed a place where no one would see.
The edge of the city bled into wilderness without warning. Wild grass bent beneath his shoes .trees watched him with a silence they'd been practicing for centuries. Dew clung to every surface, cool and wet, and the wind smelled like earth that hadn't yet learned fear.
This would do.
Ji-hoon stopped at a clearing where moss had swallowed old stones. The canopy above let in enough morning gray to paint the world in quiet shades. No humans. No guild patrols. No systems but his own.
He exhaled slowly.
[Dragonization: Stage I ]Activate? [Yes/No]
He didn't hesitate. "Yes."
The world bit back.
The fire started at the base of his skull, spreading like a slow blade pressed against every nerve. His vision split into two then three then stitched itself back together, clearer than it had any right to be. The wind stopped being a sound and became a texture. Every leaf shuddered with weight he could measure. The ground felt alive beneath his feet, a heartbeat under the moss.
His pupils narrowed into gold slits.
Breath came easier this time. The first transformation had been like drowning. This one was…..swimming through pain he could name.
[Transformation time: 00:00:07][All stats: x2][Anchor strain: Low]
Ji-hoon rolled his shoulders, testing the new balance of his body. Muscles coiled like wire beneath his skin, not bulging, not monstrous efficient. His senses reached farther than his eyes. He could hear the water dripping from a cracked branch a hundred meters away. He could smell a fox somewhere beyond the tree line. The world was no longer big; it was close.
He crouched, then launched forward.
The clearing blurred around him. The first step cracked the earth beneath his foot. The second pushed him halfway across the space. He twisted, springing off a tree trunk and landing with a fluid thud. His hands didn't even tremble.
"Faster," he whispered.
And he was.
Minutes bled into motion. Ji-hoon sprinted, jumped, pivoted between trunks, learned how his body wanted to move in this state. The air rushed against his skin like water against a blade. He struck at invisible targets thrusts, slashes, kicks each strike heavy and precise. This wasn't strength alone. It was something cleaner.
The burn in his head returned slowly, the dull warning that his body still wasn't a dragon's.
[Warning: Anchor strain rising.][Recommended deactivation.]
He ignored it.
"Not yet."
The pain thickened. His breathing sharpened into quick, even draws, and the edges of his vision began to pulse gold. When the headache finally snapped through the fog, he let the transformation go.
The world slammed back to normal.
His knees hit the ground, palms catching the cold dirt. His skull throbbed like someone had rung it like a bell. But beneath the ache was something different this time control. Endurance.
[Total activation time: 00:17:36][Anchor stabilization: +2%]
A faint laugh escaped him. Seventeen minutes. His first time outside the trial dungeon, and he'd lasted that long.
"Again."
He closed his eyes and reached for the spark sitting beneath his ribs. The system didn't speak this time it didn't need to. The power flowed into him like water finding a familiar crack.
Pain answered, but softer.
[Dragonization: Stage I ][Anchor strain: Stable]
He rose, teeth bared against the rush of pressure behind his eyes. Faster this time. Stronger. The world's heartbeat was clearer. His own pulse slowed, steady, matching something deeper something old.
Ji-hoon pushed harder.
His steps cut through the forest floor. He moved in patterns he didn't know he remembered. Muscles learned. Bones adapted. The system's numbers ticked higher. The pain lingered, but he carried it now, like an old scar.
Minutes later, when the ache finally forced him to stop, he didn't collapse.
He stood still in the middle of the clearing, chest rising slowly, breath fogging in the air. Sweat beaded down his forehead. The gold in his eyes burned steady, not shaking.
[Total activation time: 00:42:19][Anchor stabilization: +5%][Endurance threshold increased.]
He didn't smile, but something settled in his chest a quiet, dangerous confidence.
A strange quiet filled the clearing. It wasn't the forest. It was something else.
Ji-hoon's enhanced senses caught it first the subtle pressure, like a gaze that wasn't there a moment ago. He froze, head turning slightly, pupils narrowing.
There.
At the edge of the trees, a shimmer. The air folded for a heartbeat, then straightened like nothing had happened. No smell. No sound. Just… something watching.
He didn't chase. He couldn't not yet. Whatever it was, it moved faster than even his new reflexes could track.
[External presence detected.][Source: Unknown.]
The system's cold text didn't help.
"Great," he muttered, rubbing at his temples.
When he finally powered down the transformation, the pain came like a wave. His head pounded, his muscles trembled, and the forest seemed too loud in its normal quiet. But it didn't crush him like before. It was bearable now.
[Anchor strain: Moderate → Low][Synchronization: 12%]
He sat on a mossy rock for a while, letting the forest breathe around him. A single leaf dropped from above and landed in his open palm. Warm. Alive. Fragile.
A month ago, he would've been powerless against what was coming.Now the gap was narrowing.
The sun finally cut through the mist, golden light slicing between the trees. Ji-hoon rose slowly, brushing dirt from his clothes. His pupils flickered gold in the sunlight just for an instant before dulling back to black.
The world wasn't going to wait for him to be ready.
But now, for the first time, he felt like he could be.
[Dragonization Synchronization: 12%]Your body remembers fire.