[Killer Quest — bing

Goblins extermination: 1st wave

Rewards: 5+ fp per kill]

Lucian stared at the quest screen, a slight frown creasing his forehead.

Standing entirely alone in the dense, pitch-black forest... Lucian wasted no time. Getting straight to the point, he initiated a mental link.

"System... how much total FP do we have right now?"

[Son... you currently have 5,786 FP remaining.]

"Okay... so with this much FP, can I buy all the cheap skills in the store?"

[Yeah... leaving aside the special skills, you can buy almost everything else for now.]

Lucian fell silent for a moment. Ever since the curse was broken, his senses had sharpened drastically. Even after being awake for twenty-four hours straight, his mind was crystal clear.

He knew it—this wasn’t the time to hesitate. Whatever advantage he could grab right now... he had to take it.

He murmured quietly, "Okay... buy it all."

[Congratulations, moron.. you have gained:]

[Combat Skills — Ding!]

Enhanced Reflexes

Danger Sense

Combat Prediction

Blade Mastery

[Utility Skills]

Memory Palace Linguist’s Intuition

Social Engineering Mastery

Stealth Enhancement

[Magical Skills]

Spell Analysis

Elemental Affinity

Mana Reinforcement

[Total FP Cost: 4350]

[Remaining FP: 1436]

[Good luck with your quest, son. Don’t die while holding so many new skills. Even God would laugh miserably at you otherwise.]

Irritated, Lucian clicked his tongue and cursed under his breath.

"Bitchy system." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He shook his head, letting out a slow sigh. Doing nothing else, he simply stood there, closing his eyes and spreading his arms wide as if projecting his senses outward to feel the surrounding area.

The faint vibrations beneath his feet, the shift of the wind, the subtle rustling of leaves... everything began mapping out in his mind with crystal clarity.

Lucian was standing in a massive clearing, almost a thousand meters wide. With his newly acquired skills coursing through his veins, he felt absolutely certain that he could effortlessly handle any open assault.

...And then—

Rustle...

The bushes in every direction began to shift.

Crimson eyes glinted in the suffocating darkness—not just one pair... but dozens.

Goblins.

They slowly stepped out of the shadows, moving deliberately to form a massive ring around him. It looked like an execution setup, an arena prepped for slaughter.

Lucian stood dead center in this circle of death. The edges of the ring were lined with snarling, mocking, laughing goblins. Some clutched crude clubs, others held ragged bows. But they were all basically the same—nothing but weak, low-level fodder for the current Lucian.

He opened his eyes, slowly tilting his head as he surveyed the horde. An eerie calmness settled over his features, his face radiating pure confidence.

Somehow he knew now that he could handle this much.

Then, he raised his left hand. A sharp crackle echoed from his fingertips...

Lightning.

Vibrant arcs of pure blue electricity sparked to life. Making a slight, taunting gesture with his fingers, he murmured,

"Come on, ugly mugs... let’s see how you dance.""

The moment the words left his mouth, the entire goblin horde shrieked. Front, back, left, right — they lunged at him from every conceivable direction in a frenzied rush.

Lucian didn’t even flinch. Keeping his composure and that eerie smile as he raised his right hand. Swirling currents of blue wind began to envelop his fingers.

With a soft whisper, he shifted his hands into a precise gesture.

Three fingers perfectly straight, snapping the other two shut against his palm.

"Chain Lightning."

Blinding blue electricity erupted like a living serpent of energy. It struck the first goblin, violently convulsing its body, before instantly splitting. In a rapid, devastating chain reaction, the arc jumped to the second, the third, and beyond.

CRACK!

With every deafening strike, the mana-infused current overloaded their bodies. Before crashing to the earth, smoking and charred, their green skin frying to pitch-black in a matter of seconds.

Simultaneously, from the other hand above his right palm, a swirling sphere of concentrated fire roared to life — blood-red at its core, bleeding into deep orange, with edges glowing a blinding, searing white.

The heat was so suffocatingly intense that the very air around it warped and distorted.

"Pyroclasm Surge."

In the very next split second, a limitless torrent of raging fire blasted forward, washing over the horde like liquid volcanic magma.

The moment the flames kissed their flesh, the goblins instantly ignited, glowing fiercely like molten rock. Their foul green blood vaporized into the air before it could even spill, leaving behind a rapidly growing mountain of twitching, burning corpses.

Lucian just stood there. Motionless. Unbothered. That same eerie smile plastered across his face.

Between the arcs of lightning and the waves of magma, a fountain of green blood and mangled bodies filled the clearing.

An absolute, one-sided massacre had just begun.

Crack... crack... crack...

Foom! Foom! Foom!

19... 25... 31...

The thick, nauseating stench of ozone and scorched flesh began to choke the entire area.

Some leaped from the shadows above; others tried to slither and sneak from the blind spots below... but it didn’t matter. The moment they crossed into the 20-meter radius around Lucian, the living, breathing goblins were violently reduced to a perfect, ever-growing ring of mutilated bodies.

[You have gained +5 FP]

[You have gained +5 FP]

[You have gained +5 FP]

[You have gained +5 FP]

[You have gained +5 FP]

Lucian’s breathing remained perfectly steady... his mana would drain, pull from the rich ambient energy of the Forbidden Forest to refill, and drain all over again in an endless cycle. He no longer needed to suppress a damn thing. He was unleashing eight years of pent-up frustration all at once.

That thrill... that rush of adrenaline wasn’t going to stop as long as that smirk remained etched on his face. And that smirk wouldn’t fade until he was entirely satisfied with his twisted little entertainment.

This gory game of slaughter continued for nearly twenty uninterrupted minutes.

Thick smoke choked the air in every direction... slowly, the waves of attackers began to thin. Their numbers dwindled, until finally, a heavy, dead silence fell over the clearing.

Not a single living goblin remained.

Lucian finally stopped. Resting his hands on his knees, he leaned forward, taking deep, heavy gasps of air.

Huff... huff...

Straightening back up, he wiped the sheen of sweat from his forehead and opened his eyes.

For a fleeting second, his irises glowed a brilliant, crackling blue before slowly fading back to their natural, piercing silver.

His gaze swept over the 20-meter radius around him.

Across the entire clearing, every single mangled corpse lay exactly on the periphery of a perfect circle — a sight that was utterly eerie and chillingly calculated.

Not a single chunk of flesh or drop of blood had crossed into that inner perimeter.

"System," he murmured, catching his breath.

"Did I accidentally unlock a new hidden skill? ’Obsessive Compulsive Destruction’? I mean... a perfect ring? Seriously? First Myra’s ’hands-on training,’ and now this... all this aesthetic precision is a bit new to me."

The System’s voice crackled dryly in his head.

[That’s all you, kid. Between Combat Prediction, Enhanced Reflexes, and Mana Reinforcement — when you layered those passives with Chain Lightning and Pyroclasm Surge, your subconscious mind defaulted to establishing a ’clean kill zone.]

[Your attack perimeter was locked at exactly 20 meters. Zero splash damage. It’s not OCD; it’s just ruthlessly efficient, high-level magic control. As for your ’aesthetic precision’... that’s just an upgraded reflection of your own personality. You thought about an execution setup, remember? You got exactly what you asked for — a perfect ring for your little show.]

Lucian shook his head with a faint scoff.

"Great. So I’m a naturally precise psycho-killer. Now stop yapping and tell me the loot."

Ding!

[You have gained...]