"How did you do that?!" Nathan leaned in, eyes practically sparkling, his face drifting way too close to Natsu's.
"You're too close!" she snapped, shoving his face back with her palm.
Nathan stumbled half a step, blinking. "...Oh, sorry, personal space. I momentarily forgot that's a thing." He cleared his throat. "So? How did you do that?"
Natsu lowered her hand slightly, glancing at the splintered crater in the wall before answering.
"That's a Spellblade class–specific skill, Amber," she said. "It lets me infuse fire magic into runic-enchanted weapons."
Nathan's eyes lit up again.
"And since the bullets were made from runestones," she continued, lightly tapping the handgun, "I assumed they'd behave like runic constructs. So I figured… it might work."
"…And it did," Nathan muttered, staring at the wall like it had personally betrayed physics.
"…Can I do that too?" he asked, already knowing the answer — yet still hoping reality might be negotiable.
Natsu gave him a look. "…It depends."
"On?"
"You said you've been using skills," she said. "So you've awakened a class, right?"
"I don't know about the 'awakening' part, but I have a Hunter class."
"…Hunter?" she repeated, brows knitting slightly. "…I've never heard of that one."
That makes two of us.
Natsu went quiet for a moment, organizing her thoughts. Then she began explaining.
There were three ways people in this world could use magic.
The first was learning it.
In theory, anyone could learn magic from scratch — through study, repetition, and a frankly unreasonable amount of patience. It meant memorizing chants, understanding mana flow, and aligning spells with one's natural affinity.
Because that was the catch.
Affinity dictated everything.
Fire users got fire. Water users got water. That was it.
There were rare exceptions — people born with dual or even triple affinities — but those were rare.
The advantage of this method was flexibility. You could learn multiple spells, refine them, experiment as you like.
The downside was time. Years — sometimes decades — just to become competent.
The second method was awakening a class. With it came functioning, ready-made skills. No dramatic chanting needed — though you still need to say the skill name to use it.
This method was the most efficient, but restrictive. Because once someone's awakened a class, that was it, your growth path was locked, and you can't learn new magic anymore.
And worse, not everyone could even awaken one. It was random — perhaps, even unfair. Some people tried their whole lives and still got nothing.
Natsu, however, learned her shape-shifting magic before awaken her class. Hence, she was able to perform magic out of her class skill.
The third method was Divine Blessing. A gift from the gods themselves.
If a deity took interest of someone's devotion — and sometimes over curiosity, whim, or sheer boredom — they could grant a blessing. And with it, a unique ability tied to their domain of authority.
This method functioned similarly to class awakening, but less reliable. Because it depended entirely on whether a god felt like it.
"…So," Natsu concluded, folding her arms, "those are the three ways."
Nathan stood there, absorbing all of that.
"…Okay," he said slowly. "And I'm guessing your Amber falls under a class skill."
"Yes."
"And since I don't have anything like that…"
"You probably can't use it."
Nathan deflated instantly.
"…So," Natsu added, tilting her head slightly, "have you ever learned any elemental infusion magic?"
"No," Nathan said flatly. "I literally just got into this world two days ago."
"Do you have a skill that lets you channel mana into weapons?"
"…Nope."
"And your blessing is for stealth…"
"…Yes."
Natsu nodded once. Then, without hesitation she tell him. "No. You can't do what I just did."
Nathan's shoulders slumped like his soul had just disconnected.
"…Noooo…" he groaned, dragging his hands down his face. "I just wanted to shoot fire-infused 9mm rounds like a normal person…"
Life was cruel, and deeply biased against cool people.
"There, there," Natsu said, patting his back gently. "I'm sure you'll be strong in other ways, and perhaps your system might enable you to do something similar in the future — considering how absurd it is."
Please don't comfort me, Nathan thought grimly. You're making it worse.
Because now — now he had to live with the knowledge that Natsu could:
• Shoot just as well as him.
• Fight better than him in close combat.
• And infuse bullets with badass magic like some kind of walking war crime.
This is illegal.
Nathan sighed deeply, staring at the damaged wall again. "…I'm jealous."
"I can tell."
"…I'm very jealous."
"I can tell that too."
"…I don't like this feeling."
"You'll get used to it."
"…That's not comforting."
• × • × • × •
A little while later—
"I'm going to wash up," Natsu said, stretching slightly.
"I thought you already done that?" Nathan said. "Since you had swam to secure our breakfast."
"Thanks to that, I smell like a dead fish right now…"
"...My bad, go ahead," Nathan replied, still emotionally recovering from being outclassed in yet another category.
"Don't peek, okay."
"I will not!"
She grinned teasingly and headed toward the river, leaving Nathan alone.
He sighed.
"…Alright," he muttered, rolling his shoulders. "Time to do something productive before my thoughts spiraling again."
First — Daily Quest.
A notification popped up.
[All Daily Quest Completed]
[Reward: SP +1]
He didn't hesitate and dumped the point into his Magic stat.
[Mana: 34 → 44]
"…Finally," he exhaled.
That stat had been bottlenecking him for a while. Every skill, every crafting session, he always out of mana.
"This should help."
Then, another notification chimed in.
[You have completed the Tutorial Phase]
[Reward: SP +5]
[Shop System Updated]
Nathan blinked.
"…Tutorial phase?" he frowned. "No one said a thing about that…"
Not that he was complaining.
"Five SP…" he muttered. "That's five days' worth of daily quests."
He immediately spent some of them.
[SP: 5 → 2]
[Mana: 44 → 74]
The change hit instantly.
"…Oh."
A subtle hum ran through his body.
"…Okay," he said slowly. "That's a game changer."
Then he checked the 'updated' shop.
"…Wait."
Something was wrong —No, something was missing.
"The general item category…" he muttered.
Gone.
Replaced by:
[Crafting Recipes]
[Raw Materials]
Nathan stared.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
That tab had everything.
Water. First aid kits. Emergency provisions.
All the basic survival essentials.
"…And now the system just removed it?" he muttered. "Without any warning?"
He rubbed his forehead. "…Seriously?"
"Well," he sighed, "there's a river here. And as long as I don't get hurt, I won't need first aid."
As for Emergency Provisions—
"…Not going to miss those."
He still remembered the taste.
—or the lack of it.
Then he moved on. "Alright. Let's see what we do have."
He opened his inventory and check his runestone stock.
"…I don't really need higher rank ones right now," he muttered.
F-Rank was the only type of runestone needed for ammo crafting.
As for E and D ranked one?
Better to liquidate.
[Sell: E-Rank Runestone ×26]
[Sell: D-Rank Runestone ×1]
[+57 SC]
"…Not bad."
It's not amazing. But profit was profit.
Still, compared to yesterday's massive income — from illegally harvesting high-value wood — it felt shallow.
"…Yeah, let's not do that again for now."
The problem was — he cannot differentiate Ironwood tree with regular tree. If somehow he ended up accidentally cut down another one…
Just thinking about it made his back itch, and his survival instincts scream.
Sure, it was profitable.
Very profitable in fact.
But—
"I'd rather not get turned into charcoal by a dragon."
A reasonable life goal. Nathan closed the system and leaned back against the wall.
The forest was quite. Sunlight filtered through the trees, casting soft shadows across the wooden structure.
He flexed his arm, eyeing the ragged sleeve of his shirt.
Getting bitten by a Jumper sure leave some mark…
"…Actually," he straightened slightly, "I might've seen something useful earlier."
He opened the shop again, skimming through the updated categories.
[Crafting Recipes — Mana-Enchanted Clothing — 20 SC]
"Mana-enchanted? That's interesting."
[SC: 71 → 51]
When he opened the recipe tab on the crafting menu, he was greeted with an overwhelming variety of options — simple T-shirts, button-up shirts, trouser, undergarments, and many more… there was even a cute summer dress listed among them.
"…Well, turns out that twenty SC was a good investment," he muttered. "At this rate, I could open my own boutique."
But there was one problem.
"I need 'Rag' as a material…"
"What are you pondering about?" Natsu's voice cut into his thoughts.
"Oh, you're done with your—"
Nathan trailed off the moment he looked up.
Natsu stood there, hair still slightly damp, her fox ears flicking faintly as droplets clung to the tips. Her cheeks held a soft flush from the cold water.
And she wasn't wearing his black, butler vest, only the white, button-up shirt. Without the outer layer, the fabric sat closer to her frame, giving her a cleaner, sharper silhouette.
Cool.
Yet undeniably beautiful.
To put it simply — Nathan's brain was momentarily out of service.
"…Is there something on my face?" she asked after a short silence.
That snapped him back instantly. He straightened a bit too fast.
"N-nothing," he said quickly. "I was just… thinking about where I could get some rags in the middle of this forest."
"…Rags?" she repeated. "For what?"
"To make more practical clothes for this environment."
"You can do that too now?"
"Apparently."
Natsu stared at him for a second.
"…I don't even know what to say anymore." she sighed. "…Would any kind of rag work?"
"I think so. It didn't specify anything."
Natsu hummed, tapping her chin lightly. "…Then just strip zombies naked after you kill them."
Nathan froze.
"…Excuse me???" Nathan was confused beyond reason.
Then it clicked.
"Wait— actually… that could work," he admitted slowly. "But don't their clothes disappear with them after dawn?"
"Their weapons don't," she replied simply.
He blinked. then a grin slowly formed. "I think… I'm going to start robbing zombies tonight."