David stood in front of a half-empty soda shelf, tilting his head. “Huh. Interesting brand,” he murmured just before a sizzling bolt of lightning leapt from his hand, vaporizing the snarling hound creeping up behind him.

  He kept his mana perception running at full intensity—it painted the world in faint pulses, every creature with mana signatures within two hundred meters outlined like blips on a radar.

  Wandering deeper into the dark aisles, he turned toward the frozen section. Days had passed since the power grid died, and most of the food had gone bad. But back when he came here via remote controlling a robot, he hadn’t had time to look properly. Maybe now, with actual hands, he could find something worth eating. After all, there were limits even to how much cafeteria sludge one man could stomach.

  He rummaged through half-thawed packages, brushing aside the cold mist spilling from open freezers—until his eyes caught on a single unit that had ice stored in it. And next to the ice there was a golden treasure: frozen french fries. The potatoes didn't defrost too much thanks to this proximity.

  “Nice!” David grinned aloud, raising a triumphant fist—and instantly fired another casual bolt at a monster-dog darting from the shadows. The creature collapsed mid-leap, smoke curling from its charred form.

  [Level up]

  After collecting a small feast from the supermarket, David packed the bags into the car and started driving back to his base. Two shadowy shapes leapt from behind a building as he was getting close to the gate. And as they landed next to his car, the creatures dissolved into their own shadows. David was not surprised because he noticed them using his “radar” and made a move using [Law of Darkness] instantly.

  He parked, carried his groceries upstairs, and finally allowed himself a proper meal. With a long sigh, he set his plate aside, wiped his hands, and headed for the roof.

  The night air was cold. Crystals shimmered together in the pile where the robots had placed them as he sat cross-legged under the stars. “Alright,” he muttered, cracking his neck. “Back to work.”

  He began absorbing mana from the crystals. 200... 400... 600... The numbers ticked in his mind, a feeling somewhere between meditation and sitting in a sauna, only the sauna was inside, not outside... It's hard to explain to someone without mana.

  To stave off the monotony, he mixed in training with [Multicast], hurling twin bolts of energy into the sky at regular intervals. Even so, the hours stretched endlessly. Finally, in sheer defiance of boredom, he propped open his laptop beside him and began watching some random show. Between mana surges and arcs of light, laughter from an old sitcom echoed faintly over the rooftop, blending strangely with the hum of magic and the stars above.

  By the end of the iteration, David reviewed the results of his relentless training.

  [Unbound Focus 2 → 4]

  Now he could release up to four spells outside his body simultaneously.

  [Multicast 3 → 5]

  Casting three or even four spells at once cost him almost nothing now. When he tried doing it without using his hands or combining different elemental Laws—it demanded focus. But even then, he could tell this wasn’t his limit.

  His magical core pulsed brighter than before.

  [You have improved your Magical Core: Rank D → D+]

  [You have improved your Magical Core: Rank D+ → C-]

  “Brrr… I swear, if I have to look at another mana crystal, I’ll lose it,” David muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “When I get out of here, I’m finding a better way to grow this thing. Anything but eating more of those damn cores.”

  Still, a faint grin tugged at his lips. Now I can shoot with overcharge almost twice as long.

  He stretched his fingers, sparks running along his palms.

  “Alright,” he said, exhaling sharply. “Time to fight.”

  David stood on the rooftop, the night wind brushing against his face as he waited for the next wave. The air was charged with tension and static, his leg wrapped with a copper wire that sparked faintly from the excess energy coursing through it. The tingling discomfort didn’t bother him anymore—it was almost familiar by now.

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  He knew what was coming. First, the flying ones. Then, the mega panthers.

  When the first silhouettes appeared against the dim sky, David raised his hands. Lightning surged outward, a deafening crack splitting the air. Each bolt shot through the night tracing burning lines through the darkness. He pulled energy through the copper wire, feeling it pour into his veins.

  A few of the creatures dove toward him, screeching and trying to shoot fireballs. David increased his pace and added some darkness. Spears of shadow formed before him, shimmering faintly before shooting out into the air. When the dark spears struck their targets, the flying beasts seemed to deflate midair, collapsing into lifeless sacks that plummeted to the ground.

  But when his lightning hit, the result was far more dramatic. Each impact made the creatures pop with a wet, explosive sound. “Guess you’re all full of something flammable, huh?” he muttered to himself, his voice barely audible over the storm of energy that surrounded him.

  A sudden beep echoed in David’s earpiece. He grinned. His new detection system worked! Well, he had to do something to keep his mind busy while digesting all those crystal cores, didn’t he? The setup was simple—robots programmed to recognize any large moving object in the area. The panther monsters were roughly the size of trucks, and in this dead city, there wasn’t much else that fit that profile.

  "NORTH-EAST," said the mechanical voice through the earpiece, flat and emotionless.

  David spun toward the direction and broke into a run. As soon as he caught sight of the massive shadow slinking between two buildings near the office, his hands were already alive with energy. Lightning crackled violently around him, his mana pulsing in rhythm with the copper wire coiled around his leg. Sparks leapt and hissed, and then—six bolts of lightning roared to life.

  Two from his hands, four hovering beside his body, all converging toward the panther-beast. The copper wire on his leg glowed, feeding him borrowed power from the building’s reactor grid.

  The monster’s barrier shimmered, then shattered under the relentless barrage. For a moment, it stood frozen—its dark fur illuminated in white light—before disintegrating into dust and smoke.

  David exhaled slowly, glancing at his mana reserves. Only twenty percent down. Not bad. He tapped the copper line with his boot, half-smiling. “Let’s just hope you don’t melt before this is over,” he muttered, eyeing the faint orange glow where the insulation was starting to give way.

  “WEST,” the earpiece crackled, followed almost instantly by, “SOUTH-WEST.”

  David cursed under his breath and sprinted toward another edge of the rooftop. From his elevated vantage, he spotted them—two massive panthers, their barriers glinting faintly. Without hesitation, he raised his hands, the air filling with the electric hum.

  Six lances of lightning burst forth, arcing toward the beasts. The first panther didn’t even reach the perimeter fence before collapsing into a smoking heap. The second leapt clean over the barrier, landing in a blur of motion that sent one of David’s defense robots tumbling. The machine crashed to the ground, one leg torn off, but even lying on its side, it continued to fire a steady stream of bullets into the creature’s barrier.

  The shots couldn’t penetrate, but the robot didn’t stop. Its sensors stayed locked.

  A few moments later, David’s lightning found its mark. The panther staggered, convulsed, and finally crumpled to the ground.

  “Good work, buddy,” David murmured, giving the fallen robot a quick nod before glancing across the streets around the office. “How many of them were there in total in the last iteration? Four?” He frowned, replaying the last encounter in his head. “Last time, the final two showed up together. Guess the spawn order shuffled this round.”

  He scratched the back of his neck thoughtfully. Maybe the system added a touch of randomness to each iteration. Hard to say for sure—he’d always been changing his own approach, and there were too many lesser monsters beyond the perimeter to notice small differences in timing.

  Still, it was a theory worth keeping an eye on.

  “North,” the earpiece whispered.

  David exhaled sharply and took off across the rooftop. Running had never been his thing—heart pounding, lungs burning. He wasn’t exactly the stereotype of an overweight nerd, but an athlete he definitely wasn’t. Or hadn’t been.

  Now, though, things were different. His muscles felt denser, more responsive. The system had given him strength no athlete could dream of. He ran light and fast, his breath steady, his legs a blur. If he focused on the feeling, he was pretty sure he could run another twenty kilometers without even slowing down—

  —but that thought shattered when a panther leapt at him from below.

  “Shit!” was all he managed before its shadow swallowed him. He hadn’t noticed the beast climbing the building. It slammed into him, claws raking, sending him stumbling off the edge.

  And then—something yanked him backward by the leg.

  In a violent swing, he whipped back up like a pendulum and landed hard on the rooftop, both feet thudding against the concrete. For a second he just stood there, stunned, not entirely sure what had saved him. Instinct took over—he raised a hands and fired. Bolts of lightning exploded from his fingertips, striking the panther square in the chest. Its shield shattered with a flash, and a moment later it was nothing but smoking fur and silence.

  David blinked. Slowly, he looked down at his leg. The copper wire was still there, sparking faintly.

  “Well, that’s... one way to do base jumping,” he muttered, giving a shaky laugh.

  He brushed off his torn shirt and checked himself over—just a few claw marks and scratches. Alive. Almost intact.

  Then the system soured his mood.

  [An Examiner has been assigned.]