He screamed.
And screamed.
The burning sensation engulfed his entire body, like molten metal flowing through his veins.
"You fu—! Why, you piece of shit—! AHHHHHH!"
He cursed the system.
He cursed the god.
He even cursed the author.
His body glowed violently. Heat emitted from his veins, his bones, his flesh — especially his heart. Every inch of him radiated scorching light. His clothes burned away instantly. The blood covering him from the Goblin General evaporated into steam.
Brighter.
Brighter.
And suddenly—
It went off.
The light vanished.
The pain disappeared in an instant.
His legs gave out, and he almost collapsed, but he somehow forced himself to stay conscious.
He stood there, trembling.
Then he looked down.
Silence.
His clothes were gone.
"…What the fuck. Where are my clothes?"
He immediately covered himself, glancing around in panic, face burning with embarrassment.
"It's really gone… gone… my chance to become filthy rich in one fell swoop…"
His voice cracked dramatically.
"Now who's going to take care of my mansion? My maids? My luxurious food?!"
He clenched his fist and shouted at the ceiling.
"You damn system!"
After a moment of sulking, he wiped his face.
"Whatever. Let's just see what I got."
He remembered something about fire magic.
"It better be good… or else…"
But first—
He looked at the Goblin General's corpse.
He walked over and started searching through it, tearing here and there with slight disgust.
"This is really disgusting…"
"It should be around here somewhere…"
Then he found it.
A small orb emitting faint light.
"Gotcha."
He picked it up and glanced at the torn corpse.
"Looks like there's nothing more valuable left. At least I got the monster core[1]."
Now—
"My magic."
His eyes sparkled.
"I can finally do explosion… hehehe…"
He straightened himself.
"No more poses this time."
He raised his hand.
"Explosion."
…
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
His face went blank.
"…Really? Again?"
He sighed.
"Fine. Let's try the most basic spell."
"Fire."
A small flicker appeared above his palm.
It trembled weakly.
A tiny flame formed.
His face lit up.
"Yes! Yes! Finally! I can use real magic!"
Then he stared at it.
The flame was small.
Very small.
Actually, too small.
Just the size of a candle flame.
His smile slowly died.
"…This is it?"
His face twisted in irritation.
"What the hell is this? Even beginners learning magic for the first time produce flames twice— no, thrice this size!"
The tiny flame flickered pitifully.
He sighed dramatically.
"This all really sucks…"
He dismissed the flame.
"Whatever. I should go."
He stepped toward the teleportation circle—
—and suddenly froze.
A realization hit him hard.
"…How am I supposed to reach the inn while I'm naked?"
His expression went completely dead.
---
At the inn.
Somehow — through questionable stealth and extreme desperation — he managed to sneak back.
A child pointed.
"Mommy, why is that boy naked?"
"Sweetie, you must be imagining things."
He wanted the earth to swallow him whole.
After finally dressing up—
"That was hell-level embarrassing," he muttered.
He looked at the monster core in his hand.
"At least I can still get a decent amount of money from this."
Then another thought surfaced.
"It's also time for academy enrollment."
He frowned.
"But how? Just how?"
The way Lucas got admission in the academy even though he sucked and had no magic…
He said,
"A bit too… yeah just too… no, I really meant too pathetic."
He thought.
If he remembered correctly, Lucas got admission because he was a "victim."
He thought with a pity face.
His pity face grew even pittier as a chill ran down his spine.
After he failed the practical exams to get admission into the academy, he was approached by—
His pity for him rose to a level incomparable with anything else.
A fat, oversized, probably over-a-thousand-years-old hag.
And the reason?
Because he was good-looking.
She offered him a deal — spend night with her, and in return, she would arrange his admission, since she was the mistress of some shady noble family.
But of course, he refused.
But it didn't end there.
Later that same day — actually, that night — he got kidnapped.
And when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a large bed, completely naked, his mouth stuffed and tied shut with cloth.
What stood in front of him was utterly unbearable.
A walking disaster.
The same fat old hag from the morning.
Ready to use him as her.... living dildo.
At that moment, even someone living in the underworld would have considered themselves blessed compared to him.
He was certain his fate had been sealed.
But by some absurd twist of luck—
Her husband returned home unexpectedly.
What followed was pure chaos.
Later, in exchange for his silence about the entire incident, Lucas was quietly granted admission into the academy.
He recalled it with a complicated expression — half pity, half disbelief.
"Like I'd ever stoop that low," he muttered under his breath, a shiver crawling down his spine.
No.
Absolutely not.
"I would rather die a thousand times than that," he said firmly, shaking off the lingering chill.
He exhaled slowly.
"Now what do I do… exactly what do I do?"
There were other methods. Other paths.
But—
"I'll think about that later," he muttered, his gaze dropping to the monster core in his hand.
The faint glow reflecting in his eyes.
Then, a grin slowly spread across his face.
"But first…"
He tossed the core lightly in his palm.
"Let's sell this."
It should fetch a decent price.
"At the very least, it'll earn me some good money… hehehe."
---
At the Adventurer Guild
He looked around.
He thought in a slightly bored tone, It's exactly like other fantasy guilds… typical adventurers, quest boards, ranking systems and all that… except…
He walked up to the counter and placed the core down with a bright smile.
"I'd like to sell this."
The man behind the counter was bulky. No — overly muscular. Built like a moving wall.
The man picked up the core, examined it carefully, then looked at him with cold, serious eyes.
"Did you kill the Goblin General?"
He forced a smile. "Yes."
Except instead of a beautiful receptionist girl, it's a muscular macho guy. You damn author.
I don't even know why I'm getting angry right now, he thought irritably.
"Well done, kiddo!" the man suddenly grinned brightly and smacked his back hard in praise.
His soul almost left his body.
Are you trying to kill me by hitting that hard, you absolute moron?!
"Th-thanks for that," he said with a painfully fake smile.
The man counted and handed him fifteen silver coins[2].
He blinked.
"Wait."
He quickly dumped a pile of small monster cores onto the table — around a hundred or more.
"I'd like to sell these too."
With all the goblins I killed… I'm bound to get rich, he thought, a greedy, excited smile spreading across his face.
"You really are something, kid," the man said, impressed.
He added another ten silver coins to the stack.
"Here. Your total — twenty-five silver coins."
He stared at the coins with a satisfied smile.
It's not much… but I can live for the next six months without worries.
For now, at least.
The person said, "It's already Nightveil 24[3]," while glancing outside the window. "New Year is only a month or so away."
He said, "Yeah… New Year's coming soon."
"Wait—did you just say Nightveil 24?" he asked in sudden surprise.
The person replied, "Yes. Why?"
He calmed himself. "Nothing."
Inside, however—
A small smile slowly formed.
Looks like I don't have to think about the admission now…
[1] A Monster Core is a crystallized mana nucleus formed inside monsters. It acts as the source of their strength, abilities, and life force.When a monster absorbs mana from the environment over time, that mana condenses into a solid core within its body. Stronger monsters possess denser and purer cores.
[2] 100 Copper coins = 1 Silver coin 100 Silver coins = 1 Gold coin 100 Gold coins = 1 Platinum coin
[3] Basically November 24th