Onyx's knees hit the cold ground faster than a blink. His claws dug into the patch of dried earth he called a floor, elbows locking as his body positioned itself for the task. His gaze fixed on the glowing screen before him. One fall, one rise.
[Progress: 1 / 10,000]
His eyes flared like flame catching dry branches. He couldn't count to ten thousand, but the system did it for him. Soon, the cramped hut filled with the sound of strained breath and the heavy scent of sweat.
[Progress: 153 / 10,000]
[Time Remaining: 23h 32m]
The speed he displayed was proof of a dragon's might. Even the lowest-born could perform hundreds of push-ups without strain, their bodies forged for endurance. Yet beyond a thousand, even they began to falter. True dragons were sustained by the divine flame in their chests, a source of draconic force that fueled both muscle and magic.
Onyx didn't know that only a pure-blooded, highborn dragon could complete ten thousand push-ups without tearing their body apart and barely breaking a sweat. Yet even if he had known, those eyes, burning brighter than stars, wouldn't have faltered.
Time crawled forward.
[Progress: 498 / 10,000]
[Time Remaining: 22h 10m]
His arms trembled under the strain. The once dry earth beneath him was now soaked in sweat, darkened by the effort. His pace slowed drastically, each push-up taking nearly ten seconds, but he refused to stop. Even when his own body began to betray him after the five hundredth, his brows knit tightly together, a guttural grunt breaking the silence with every rise.
Outside, the sun had long fled, and moonlight now seeped through the cracks of the hut's entrance, washing his trembling form in silver.
[Progress: 600... 700... 800... 900... 999 / 10,000]
Five long hours passed before the once steady rhythm broke. Onyx's body finally collapsed, face-first into the ground, motionless. His body had betrayed him, yet the achievement was undeniable. Only the most gifted lowborn dragons, those who were blessed with strong or evolved divine flames could possibly have come this far. But he, without even a flicker of flame, had done it through years of back-breaking labor in the mines.
A minute passed. Then ten. The still body twitched, a hoarse grunt tearing through the silence. Onyx pushed himself up once more for the thousandth time. As the moonlight slipped through the cracks and touched his eyes, a faint glow began to ripple across his skin, one he didn't notice.
[Progress: 1,000 / 10,000]
[Sub-requirement for Transformation Triggered: Initiating Recovery]
Without realizing it, the once thin, fragile scales across his arms began to thicken. Muscles bulged faintly beneath the skin, giving his frame a stronger, more defined shape. The change was subtle, but his speed returned. He didn't question it. He didn't glance at the system screen. His gaze was vacant, lost in the rhythm: pushing, rising, falling, like a god consumed by purpose.
[Progress: 2,000 / 10,000]
[Time Limit: 12h 43m]
Another surge of dark light washed over his body, muscles tightening as wings and claws grew sharper. Every thousand push-ups seemed to reshape him, strengthening what should have broken. The morning sun began to creep through the empty space he called a door, it was time to return to the mines.
The overseer stood with whip in hand, glaring at the spot where Onyx had appeared every single day for the past fifteen years without fail. "What nerve. Did he wake up today and decide to test me, that little brat…" His high-pitched voice dripped with killing intent. Powerful wings beat once, kicking up dust as he rose into the sky. It took him less than a minute to reach the small hut in the mountains.
"Onyx! Get your ass out here right now, or I'll—what the hell?"
His eyes widened. The ground was soaked, the hut trembling with every thundering push-up. In the center of it, Onyx moved like a machine: up and down, relentless, his body glistening like molten metal under the dim light.
"He's lost it… this kid… he's gone mad…" The overseer's voice cracked. "Gods, did I overwork him?" For the first time in two hundred years, he felt his heart skip. Never had he seen a dragon, much less one without divine flame, move with such manic resolve.
"Kid, stop! You'll kill yourself!" He stepped forward, reaching out, but the moment Onyx's gaze snapped toward him, he froze. Those eyes burned with fury and defiance, as if saying, touch me and you'll die.
The overseer's hand stiffened midair. He staggered back, pale-faced. "I… I should report this to the chief. Yeah… not my problem."
His wings beat once more, and he was gone, leaving only the rhythmic sound of fists and breath, and two onyx eyes burning in the dark.
[Progress: 2,999 / 10,000]
Another soft glow washed over him, making his dark, ashen skin gleam like metal under sunlight. His speed rose again. It was a wonder if he even understood how any of it worked, how his body hadn't broken yet.
[Time Remaining: 11h 23m]
It took the village chief nearly an hour to receive the news and reach Onyx's hut, worry etched deep across his weathered face.
By then, the miracle was already taking shape.
[Progress: 5,999 / 10,000]
The entire hut quaked, dust raining from the ceiling with every motion. When the chief saw it, his old dragon legs gave out beneath him, dropping him to the ground, eyes wide as the sky. What is happening? he thought. For a moment, he believed a highborn had possessed his adopted son's body.
Another glow followed, thicker and heavier than before, though invisible to the elder's eyes. Onyx's pace surged once more. The chief could only watch, silent, as the young man's push-ups carved a pit into the earth itself.
That day would later be remembered, though never spoken of, as the birth of a monster deep within the mountains. The elder alone knew what had occurred and sealed the truth, disguising the quaking peaks as a natural disaster.
[Time Remaining: 8h 14m]
[Progress: 10,000 / 10,000]
[Initiating… Evolution]