[High-Tier Physical Strength Mission Purchased.]

[Brace yourself, dumbass... you’re being teleported now...]

"Wait, teleport?" Lucian asked in alarm, but before he could squeeze out another word, his body began to dissolve into thin air.

When he finally opened his eyes, he was greeted by absolute darkness — lying flat on a hard surface.

As his vision slowly adjusted, all he could see surrounding him was a pitch-black floor, jet-black walls, and a massive, dark ceiling looming above.

He immediately sat upright and looked around. As the full scope of the scenery registered in his mind, his breath caught in his throat — the place was utterly breathtaking.

He was lying on one side of a colossal cavern. The cavern was massive, stretching out like an underground industrial site. High above, jagged rock formations interlocked to form a ceiling, though thin streaks of moonlight still managed to filter through the massive gap in the stone.

The ground was a mess of broken, charcoal-colored rocks. To his left, heavy iron chains dangled near streams of lava that poured down the cave walls. On his right, A wide river of lava flowed through the center of the cavern, its surface churning with heat. Along the side walls, more molten rock poured out from dark openings, streaming down the jagged stone faces and merging into the flow below.

Still in a daze, Lucian stood up and slowly walked forward. Resting dead ahead of him were two imposing objects: a gigantic, oversized hammer and a colossal anvil.

Just then, ding—

[Location: Time Box - Titan’s Forge]

[Objective: Strike the anvil with the hammer for 10,000 hours.]

[Rest Permitted: 6 hours of sleep per day.]

[Time Limit: 600 days.]

[Note: The mission will officially commence the moment your hammer strikes the anvil.]

"Wtf... wtf... what the actual f*ck?!" Lucian screamed at the interface. "System, what the hell is this?!"

He was completely dumbfounded. But beneath the shock, his biggest panic was about the academy — if he stayed trapped in here for that much time, what would happen to him in the real world?

"You drunk, sadistic system! You literally said this would take one night! What the hell is this 600 days crap?!"

[Calm down, child... This is a Time Cube. Once you finish your training here, you will be returned to the exact same moment you left.]

Lucian just stared at the glowing screen, his eyes twitching violently.

Then, letting out a long, heavy sigh, he accepted the cruel reality presented before him.

Wearing an utterly defeated expression, he stepped forward and wrapped his hands tightly around the thick hilt of the colossal hammer...

"So... when you said ’extremely high pain’ and ’minimal time consumption’... this is what you meant."

[Bingo.]

He glared blankly at the system screen.

"So now I have roughly twenty months... and until then, I just have to stand inside this giant, boiling lava chimney and swing this damn hammer at an anvil for eighteen hours a day..."

[Spot on.]

A few moments passed in heavy, miserable silence.

"Well... what else can I even say at this point?"

Resigning himself to his brutal fate, Lucian stripped off his academy blazer, rolled up his sleeves, and started doing some basic stretches. And then suddenly a thought straight him up.

"Hey, wait a second. What about food?"

"How am I supposed to survive in here without eating for hundreds of days?"

[Yes, yes, I will provide your food. Stop your crying. You’ll get it when it’s time. Now shut up and get to work.]

"Okay okay."

Ultimately, Lucian had chosen the High Tier, so he hadn’t expected it to be easy. At the very least, he wasn’t facing a constant life-or-death struggle here, unlike his time in the Forbidden Forest.

Or so he thought. Time would soon tell if he was right.

He stepped forward, tightly gripped the thick hilt of the heavy hammer with both hands, and hoisted it high above his head in one fluid motion.

"Alright, Lucian... get ready to tear every single muscle fiber in your body," he muttered under his breath, hyping himself up.

[Day 1: Hour 9]

Sparks and dense soot from the flowing river of lava constantly evaporated into the air. Carried by the scorching drafts of wind, the ash particles began clinging to Lucian’s sweating, bare skin. At first, he didn’t pay it any attention.

CLANG! CLANG!

But soon, he felt a strange heaviness and abruptly stopped.

"What the hell is this now...?" He violently shook his arms, sending a thick cloud of black dust flying into the air.

The volcanic fumes weren’t burning him, but they were rapidly forming a dense, black crust—literally adding physical weight to his body. He quickly calculated that if he didn’t scrub it off every six hours, at least two kilograms of solid weight would accumulate on his back and arms, acting like an agonizing second skin.

He paused, trying to think of a permanent solution. But looking around at his desolate surroundings—nothing but pitch-black rocks and a raging river of magma...

"There’s no other way," he muttered through gritted teeth.

"Just ignore it and keep swinging... I can’t afford to stop for the next few hours."

[Day 1: Hour 18]

He finally dropped the colossal hammer. Leaning heavily against a massive black boulder, he desperately chugged down water, struggling to catch his breath.

"System... food. Give it to me. That’s enough for today... I can’t swing this thing even one more time."

Despite the fact that his body had grown considerably stronger recently, that strength felt utterly useless right now. To survive the next twenty grueling months in this infernal volcano forge, he had to completely shatter his limits.

With that grim thought weighing on his mind, he devoured his meal and immediately collapsed bare-chested onto the cracked ground, instantly sleeping out.

[Day 2: Hour 18]

[WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! Get your ass up, you dumbass, unless you want to be turned into a roasted meatloaf!]

The System’s blaring, frantic voice exploded directly in his mind.

Lucian snapped his eyes open... and as the sight in front of him slowly registered, his eyes widened in sheer, paralyzing horror.