Toby stopped running and forced himself to stay upright. His body felt weak, every muscle screaming in pain. The pressure building inside him was so intense he felt like he might collapse and pass out at any second.

  Seven minutes. Seven minutes left. He had to finish this quickly.

  He saw people fleeing from the direction of the village. Mothers clutching their children, faces pale with fear. Behind them, their village burned wildly, flames devouring rooftops and streets without mercy.

  Just what was that fire dragon doing here?

  Several people rushed past him without even sparing him a glance. They did not care who he was. Survival was all that mattered.

  Toby tightened his grip on the sword with both hands. The blade’s glow intensified, growing brighter and larger as the charge climbed to 85%.

  [Synthesis Equipment Card - Windstep Boots Tier-2 deactivated.]

  The blue light around his legs faded. The small wings at his heels dissolved into particles, reforming into a card in front of him before dropping to the ground. Its glow dimmed.

  Breathing heavily, chest rising and falling rapidly, he reached toward the card case on his chest with his left hand. He pulled out another card. It showed an image of a disk radiating light downward.

  [Synthesis Support Card - Radiant Scout Disk Tier-1 activated.]

  The card activated and began spinning around his body. Moments later, something materialized above Toby’s head, a hovering disk.

  He clenched his teeth, and the disk shot upward, then sped off into the distance.

  [Synthesis Support Card]

  [Radiant Scout Disk Tier-1: Deploys a floating disk that emits powerful adjustable light within a limited radius.]

  He focused on everything at once, the charging blade in his hands and the dragon in the distance, which was now flying even higher above the burning village.

  “Please let the distance be enough,” he muttered under his breath.

  The disk had already shot so far ahead that he could no longer see where it had gone.

  Then, suddenly, a massive burst of light flared in the sky. It was like a giant spotlight snapping on, its beam locking directly onto the dragon soaring in the air.

  “W what is that?!” someone screamed nearby.

  “Look up! Look up!”

  “Why is there light on the dragon?!”

  “Run! It’s going to attack again!”

  Panic rippled through the fleeing villagers. Some stumbled. Others covered their heads as if expecting another wave of fire to descend at any second.

  “It’s angry! The dragon’s angry!”

  “Get down! Everyone get down!”

  Their voices overlapped in fear, sharp and desperate, as the blazing beam illuminated the massive creature in the sky.

  Toby clenched his teeth. His body felt like it was forcing him to collapse, like it wanted to slam him face-first into the ground and end it all.

  He had no other choice. He had to do this.

  Even with the body of a twelve-year-old.

  Well… yes. In truth, he had been reincarnated into this world after dying from food poisoning in his previous life. A stupid death at twenty-two years old. Broke. Still a virgin. Alone in a shabby apartment.

  So no, he was not truly twelve.

  The problem was, reincarnating here did not automatically make him special. There was no divine blessing. No overwhelming power granted at birth.

  He had been given a weak Innate Card. Only after disaster struck his family and his clan did Toby realize that maybe, he could exploit something within this card system and use it to climb upward at an unbelievable pace.

  To become strong.

  He gritted his teeth again as the dragon flapped its massive wings and unleashed another torrent of fire from its jaws, sweeping across the village.

  Now the dragon was flying toward him, drawn by the bright beam of light from the disk that had captured its attention.

  Good. Even a simple item like a floating spotlight was enough to provoke it.

  Now he had to prepare his finishing strike.

  The eyes. The head.

  If he could land a fatal blow, enough to make the dragon fall from the sky, then he could kill it.

  He had to.

  The flying disk returned faster than the dragon could close the distance, but the creature was already clearly visible now. Its body was not enormous like a fully grown dragon. Perhaps it was still young. But it had four legs, massive wings, and blazing eyes.

  This was undeniably a dragon. Damn it.

  This was completely unreasonable. What kind of level 10 Novice was supposed to kill something like this?

  Well… maybe those blessed with powerful Innate Cards could.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  [Synthesis Equipment Card - Radiant Scout Disk Tier-1 deactivated.]

  [Synthesis Equipment Card - Windstep Boots Tier-2 activated.]

  The dragon shot toward him at terrifying speed. Flames poured from its jaws, scorching the ground as they advanced. In mere seconds, the fire would reduce Toby to ash.

  But he was ready.

  He gritted his teeth and gripped the sword with both hands. The blade now shone so intensely that it appeared several times larger than before, its light roaring with compressed mana.

  In the distance, villagers continued fleeing in panic.

  Everything felt as if time had slowed.

  Toby clenched his jaw tighter.

  Then he ran, charging straight toward the dragon descending upon him.

  He stomped hard against the ground, and his body launched upward.

  It happened in an instant. His small frame shot into the air just as the dragon swooped low, preparing to engulf him in flames.

  Toby twisted midair and dove downward, cutting through the wind. He held the sword with absolute determination.

  He could see it clearly. He knew exactly where this strike would land.

  He screamed as the heat and slicing wind tore against his skin. Then he crashed directly toward the dragon’s head.

  The sword shot forward and pierced into the monster’s skull with brutal force.

  “ARGHHHHH!”

  With his small body, Toby forced the blade deeper into the dragon’s head. Intense heat engulfed him. His clothes caught fire. His skin burned.

  He was burning.

  But he refused to let go. He drove the sword in even further.

  ROAAAWRR! ROAAWRRR!

  The dragon roared wildly, thrashing its head in every direction. But the blade remained embedded.

  Then it happened.

  Toby’s body was violently thrown from above. He was flung away with crushing force.

  He could no longer feel what was happening to him.

  [Synthesis Weapon Card - Channelblade Tier-2 deactivated. Entering cooldown.]

  [Synthesis Equipment Card - Windstep Boots Tier-2 deactivated.]

  [Reason: Insufficient mana supply.]

  [System Warning: Innate Card output unstable.]

  [Forced Deactivation protocol initiated.]

  [Innate Core Card - Second Pulse deactivated.]

  Toby felt all strength drain from his body. His vision blurred, dark spots creeping into the edges of his sight. Cards scattered away from him as he was hurled violently to the ground. He hit once. Twice. Again. Each impact shook his bones, and the world grew dimmer.

  Until finally, he stopped.

  He lay on his back, unmoving. Above him, the sky spun faintly. In his ears, he heard only distant screams and the furious roar of the dragon echoing across the burning land.

  “Someone help him!”

  “He’s just a kid!”

  “The dragon is going to fall! Get away!”

  “Move! Move! It’s coming down!”

  Their voices overlapped in terror, sharp and frantic, blending with the dragon’s thunderous roar that shook the air itself.

  Oh. So this was really how it ended.

  Not bad, he guessed. He had made it this far.

  He had been born with a fragile constitution, his lungs weak and his body prone to illness. Even simple winters left him bedridden for weeks.

  When he was six, everything burned.

  He lost his mother. He lost his mentor. He lost his grandfather. All in a single night swallowed by flames.

  While other children ran and trained under the sun, Toby often watched from the sidelines, smaller, thinner, always a step behind.

  When they awakened their mana cores at ten, he did not.

  Toby awakened at eleven.

  And when it finally happened, the memory returned. The same kind of flames. The same suffocating heat. Fire raging wildly, devouring everything around him.

  **

  “Tobias, stay here. Don’t go anywhere. You’ll be safe here.”

  The woman with long black hair and a pale face gripped his shoulders tightly.

  “You’ll be safe. They won’t find you. Stay here. Don’t come out until everything is over,” she continued, her voice firm despite the tremor in the air. “You must leave. Leave this kingdom. Go far away. Never come back.”

  “Mom, no. I’m not leaving you. I don’t want to be away from you!” he cried, his voice breaking with sharp emotion.

  “No one will recognize you. You’ll be safe. You just have to hide who you are. Forever. Don’t ever think about coming back,” she said.

  Those were the eyes of a mother ready to sacrifice herself for her child.

  “Mom!”

  Tobias screamed, but the door in front of him had already shut.

  He was sealed inside a narrow hidden chamber built beneath the floor, barely large enough for him to sit and curl into himself. Darkness pressed in from all sides.

  Even so, he could still feel something, the faint energy that had wrapped around his body right after his mother left.

  Then the shouting outside grew louder.

  “Where is the boy? Show us where the child is!”

  “Drag that woman out here! You think you can defy us?”

  “Not a single one of that bloodline is allowed to live!”

  “Burn it all! Burn everything! Reduce it to ashes!”

  The roar of flames followed. The sound of destruction. And somewhere beyond those walls, his mother did not scream.

  Tobias remained frozen in that cramped space, feeling the intense heat pressing in from every direction. Even though the flames did not touch him directly, the air grew thinner. He choked, struggling to breathe.

  His body ached from the suffocating heat, but the pain in his chest burned even more fiercely.

  He was angry.

  For the first time in that world, he cried.

  He had been reborn there, born again from a mother who gave him warmth he had never known in his previous life. The first real affection he had ever received.

  And it was taken from him so quickly.

  They killed her. They killed everyone. Burned everything. Left nothing behind.

  Until…

  A system notification appeared before his dimming vision. His mind wavered between past memories and the present flames raging around him in this trial.

  But he could still read the words clearly.

  [System Notification: Target Identified - Rare Emberdrake Juvenile, Fire-Attribute Dragonkin.]

  [Critical damage detected. Cranial penetration confirmed. Severe internal trauma.]

  [Rare Emberdrake Juvenile has retreated from the combat zone.]

  Another window appeared.

  [Village Damage Report:]

  [Residential Structures Destroyed: 47/63]

  [Confirmed Fatalities: 29]

  [Survivors Evacuated: 54]

  [Primary Threat Status: Repelled]

  A third notification followed.

  [Mission Evaluation in Progress…]

  [Threat Successfully Driven Away.]

  [Massive Damage Dealt to Primary Target.]

  [Performance Contribution: 72%]

  [Combat Risk Factor: Extreme]

  Then the final result appeared, glowing brighter than the flames around him.

  [Final Assessment: SS-Rank - Legendary Feat]

  And beneath it, words that made his fading consciousness tremble.

  [Inante Card Condition Fulfilled.]

  [Second Pulse will undergo 1st Ascension.]

  [Ascension Process Initiating…]

  The light from the system window shone in his fading eyes as darkness slowly closed in.