Chapter 28: Forging the Mind
Philip was given time to rest.
Then the next trial began.
When he opened his eyes, the world had changed again.
The previous grandeur—the marble halls, divine monuments, or endless battlefields—was gone. Now he stood in a simple, square room. The walls were smooth stone, dark and unyielding. There were no windows. No doors. No visible light sources, yet he could see. The room felt eternal, carved into the silence of a world that had forgotten time.
A single bed sat in one corner. A desk and chair occupied another. Inside the desk drawer was a book—plain, bound in unmarked leather, and filled with empty pages that never ended. No food. No water. And strangely, no need for either.
At first, Philip waited.
He sat cross-legged on the floor, eyes on the walls, expecting them to shift or melt away. Perhaps the ceiling would open. Maybe a voice would boom out, declaring the challenge. Something. Anything.
But nothing came.
No sounds. No time markers. No change.
He sat. He waited. He slept.
He woke.
Again.
Again.
Again.
At first, he tried to count the hours. Then the days. But there was no sun. No hunger. No thirst. Not even the need to relieve himself. Just a cycle of sleep and wakefulness that became more like blinking—brief periods of darkness between eternal silence.
Time broke.
He began writing in the book. It was the only thing that changed.
He wrote everything:
His name.
His life.
His fears.
His questions.
His dreams.
His regrets.
Each page became a timestamp.
He began numbering them.
One.
Two.
Three.
By the time he passed ten thousand pages, he felt—guessed—that he'd spent over a century in the room.
Still, the walls did not change. Still, no voice came.
With nothing to do, he began to train.
He started with martial forms—basic moves from childhood, street fights, kung fu movies, anime sequences he'd memorized. It was crude at first. Sloppy. But he had time—infinite time—to perfect every motion. Every punch became sharper. Every kick, more fluid. His body, once average, hardened.
He learned control.
Then he learned power.
He pushed himself to exhaustion—but never felt tired. So he trained harder. He struck the walls again and again, testing his strength. Eventually, he began to dent them. Not visibly, but energetically. He could feel them resist less and less. Something inside him was changing.
When his physical growth hit a plateau, he turned inward.
He began experimenting with telekinesis. He learned to manipulate objects in complex ways spinning, flipping, rotating different parts at once.
Soon, he was floating too.
Then he began teleportation. At first, he blinked to different corners of the room. Later, he could reappear inches behind where he started, moving mid-punch or kick to double his strikes.
Then came the energy.
Philip had always suspected his powers were more than raw force. Now, with time as his ally, he began to study their essence. He called it mana, the way it was often labeled in games and novels. It gathered in a pool just below his navel. He learned to circulate it, expand it, and condense it.
He visualized fire, and flames erupted from his palms.
Water, and mist filled the air.
Earth, and the stone beneath him shifted.
Wind, and air currents danced like ribbons.
Metal. Light. Darkness. Plant. Space. Time.
As long as he imagined it—and poured enough mana—it happened.
He created iron ore one day, shaped it, smelted it with conjured heat, and laughed like a child. He imagined returning to Earth, selling raw metals.
He began crafting spells he'd seen in manga, manhwa, and games. The more vivid his memory, the stronger the effect. He created swords of flame, controlled his shadow to spar with him, launched meteor-like punches, he tried to see if he could summon something by opening spatial cracks—and once, just for fun, but nothing happened, he only felt pure dread and decided against it.
He began sleeping again—only to meditate deeper.
He controlled his breathing.
His heart rate.
His muscles.
Every cell.
Until his body obeyed thought alone.
He no longer remembered his old face.
He no longer remembered his age.
Only the training remained.
Eventually, he discovered there was more than mana.
There were three distinct energies inside him:Mana – Vibrant, moldable energy that responded to will. It flowed like a river and gathered around his navel—the core of action.Soul Force – He noticed it after being struck by the Titan in his earlier trial. This energy was white-gold, radiant yet subtle, residing in his head, sharpening his mind, expanding his perception. He could now see without his eyes, hear without sound, and feel emotions in the air.Heart Energy – This was different. Dormant. Alive. A pulse in his chest that refused to be controlled. It resisted all attempts to be moved or shaped. But it watched him. Patiently. Like a god inside a cage.
The gem on his forehead, absorbed the soul force . At first, it drank everything—like a black hole. But slowly, he noticed it no longer consumed him completely.
It wasn't that the gem stopped feeding.
It was that he had begun generating more than it could absorb.
One day, during a meditative trance, he poured a bit of Soul Force into the book by accident.
It shimmered.
And then—it responded.
Words began to appear. His life. His training. His energy levels. His soul condition. His progress. All recorded in precise, analytical language.
[Book Entry: Subject #0001
CORE STATUS
Name: Philip Tobechukwu Egboluche
Title: Unknown (Emperor Candidate Detected)
Trial Name: Forging the Mind
Time Elapsed (Subjective): ∞ (Localized Time Collapse Estimated Equivalent: 1,287 Earth Years)
BODY CONDITION
Vitality: Immortalized (Stasis-locked during trial)
Physical Strength: Planetary-Class (Low Tier)
Speed: Transonic (Can reach ~Mach 1.3 at peak movement bursts)
Endurance: Near-limitless in closed system
Combat Reflexes: Autonomous-tier (Muscle memory executes before conscious thought)
ENERGY CENTERS
Mana Core (Navel)
Current Elemental Affinities:
Fire (Sage)
Water (Sage)
Earth (Sage)
Air (Sage)
Light (Sage)
Darkness (Sage)
Plant (Sage)
Space (Sage)
Time (Adept)
Void (Locked)
Soul Core (Mind)
Read/Write: Full conscious memory access
Clairvoyance: Activated (Short-range future prediction active during duress)
Memory Compression: Perfect recall
Ather Core (Chest)
Status: Divine Seed Detected
Awakening Progress: 10%
Emotional Compression: Stable
Dominant Emotion: Serenity
Adaptive Energy (Locked)
Resonance: Syncing with Emperor-Class Artifact (Crimson Crown)
ACTIVE ABILITIES LEARNED
Mana Manipulation – Mastered
Elemental Conjuring – Adaptive, Up to 7 types simultaneously
Flight / Levitation – Multi-vector control, combat-viable
Spatial manipulation – silent cast
Energy Absorption – Passive (Gem-assisted)
Weapon Conjuration – Custom structures, 90% stability
Astral Projection – Stable up to 5 minutes
Reality Anchoring – Anchor forged, linked to inner soul mark
Mental Defense – Immune to standard illusion/mind-control spells
Temporal Sensitivity – Noticed 3 microseconds into future (during crisis)
ARTIFACT INTERFACE
Item Detected: Crimson Gem of the Emperor
Status: Active Catalyst
Current Sync: 82.2%
Effects:
Auto-absorption of ambient energ
Automatic defense activation upon unconscious threat
Synchronizes and harmonizes energy types
Unlocks relic signatures in proximity (range: 5km)
Stores latent energy in pocket dimension
SOUL CONDITION
Soul Stability: 97.5%
Lucidity: High
Willpower: Beyond Measurement
Spirit Constructs:Inner Shadow: Tamed
Thoughtform: Philosopher-Modeled (self-aware)
Meditation Avatar: Fully autonomous, capable of acting during sleep
Awakened Abilities
#####%%%%%
Subject has exceeded all known mental compression thresholds.
Subject's mana and soul cores continue to grow even in a sealed space—evidence of self-generative core structure.
Heart Core awakening remains a mystery. The presence of divine imprint suggests latent god-heritage or Emperor-class inheritance.
If exposed to external conflict, subject will adapt at exponential rate.
Subject is now considered Transcendent Potential-Class.
Recommend early ascension trial upon exit.
DAILY LIMIT: 3 QUESTIONS REMAINING
❖ Ask your question.
He asked a question.
The book replied.
It had become sentient, but bound by rules. It would only respond if fed Soul Force, and only answer three questions per day.
It became his companion. His teacher. His journal. His mirror.
Through it, he discovered forgotten techniques. He learned how to cultivate Soul Force. How to divide his soul into fragments and call them back. How to anchor part of himself in space so that, no matter where he went, he could always find the way back.
He asked it about the jewel on his forehead. It told him it was not merely a power source—it was a catalyst, designed to awaken dormant Ather which is what planet absorbs from the universe. The jewel would turn his heart into a world core allowing him to use all energy below ather. He asked what his title meant the book told him he was inheriting the title of the Emperor of this section of the universe and with that the power but he would be the one to decide what kind of emperor he wanted to be.
That shook him.
He no longer asked when the trial would end.
He no longer waited for doors.
The trial was not a battle.
It was a forge.
He was the metal.
Time, the hammer.
Solitude, the fire.
And now, after centuries—millennia, maybe—of stillness, of silence, of unbroken focus, he realized something:
He was ready.
Not for escape.
Not for reward.
But for whatever came next.
In his time with the book he asked many questions about the world,where he was and who the emperor was and about techiniques the book just taught him a mana circulation techinique which will continue to strengthing him passively and a soul condensation techinique which will let his soul grow fast. After practicing for years.
Then—without warning—something shifted.
A crack echoed through the room. A small one. Barely audible.
The wall opposite him—unchanged for thousands of years—breathed.
Not opened. Not broke.
Breathed.
A ripple passed through it.
Philip stood, calm, composed. There was no excitement in his chest. Just a serene certainty.
He closed the book, bowed to the desk, and whispered:
"Thank you."
Then he walked toward the ripple.
And the wall vanished.