I Was Mistaken as a Genius Mage in a Game

"……Ah! The artifact."

As soon as Samael disappeared, I ran straight to the deepest part of the dragon's nest.

The fact that I had seized the Akliptus Forest Region without even fighting that bastard was certainly something to be happy about, but I couldn't forget the real reason I had come here.

I hurriedly conjured lightning, reducing the dragon's corpse to ashes, and then began rummaging through the countless treasures and magical materials buried beneath it.

There was a reason I was acting so hastily.

[Bloom] had less than a minute left…

If I moved recklessly, trying to load the treasures into my inventory, the artifact might get bound to the wrong person—an absolute disaster I had to avoid.

The countless treasures shimmering under the starlight were nothing more than worthless stones to me at that moment.

'Found it!'

Amidst the unnecessarily dazzling piles of gold, I discovered a red-orange crystal radiating an unusual energy, and I couldn't help but inwardly cheer.

The flawless red-orange crystal, without a single speck of dust, was shaped into a perfect octahedron, as if a skilled artisan had just finished polishing it. However, among the many artifacts in this game, this one had rather underwhelming power.

[Launches a magic attack proportional to the character's mana stat.]

Compared to artifacts that could summon massive pillars of fire, grant resurrection, or even allow one to steal another’s memories, its impact was rather lacking.

A normal mage might look at it and say, ‘It just adds extra damage to Bolt… A bit disappointing for an artifact.’

A normal mage, that is…

'Now I can finally deal with trash mobs…!'

For a One Strike Mage, there was no basic attack to deal with the countless weak enemies scattered throughout the world. That’s because every magic spell in existence, except for Bloom, was completely unusable.

With strength, agility, and endurance all set to 1, even bludgeoning an enemy with my staff to incapacitate them was impossible.

That’s why, within my bizarrely twisted mage build, this artifact—dropped as a reward for slaying a young dragon—held an importance vastly different from what it would for an ordinary mage.

Others could simply cast Bolt to deal with weak monsters, but all I could do was sit still and cheer for my team, hoping they would take care of it.

"But those days are over…!"

I thrust my thin arm into the treasure pile and tightly grasped the octahedral red-orange crystal.

In an instant, the crystal shattered into countless tiny fragments, which swiftly climbed up my arm and began swirling near my heart.

The fragments hovered in front of my chest, as if preparing for something, before abruptly piercing through my clothes and sinking into my skin.

"Huh? Oh, shit, what the hell."

In the game, it had simply appeared in my inventory with the text (Bound), so I hadn’t expected this kind of event to occur.

Thousands of crystal dust particles burrowed under my skin, yet I felt no pain.

Instead, I experienced an unfamiliar sensation—an alien presence lodged somewhere near my heart, as if something that wasn’t originally part of my body had taken root.

I focused on the sensation.

It didn’t feel harmful. On the contrary, concentrating on it seemed to clear my mind and calm my heart.

"Uh… Manifest?"

My instincts told me that was the correct command to use while focusing on this unfamiliar feeling.

As soon as I murmured the word, the red fragments hidden beneath my skin began to emerge into the air.

They coalesced and reassembled, eventually forming a perfect octahedral crystal once again.

The crystal floated gently above my left shoulder.

'Oh, it works. Now I can leave all the trash mobs to this guy…'

Just as I reached out to touch the floating crystal on my shoulder with a satisfied grin, my consciousness was suddenly pulled away to a familiar place.

Losing my balance, I collapsed helplessly onto the pile of gold, and at the same time, I felt the crystal shatter and burrow back into my skin.

…It seems five minutes have passed.

***

"My god…"

Alter Heindel gazed down at the boy sleeping soundly atop the gold and silver treasures, his expression filled with astonishment.

Five minutes.

In just five minutes, this boy had proven his worth and demonstrated that he was destined to be the future of humanity.

When the boy had confidently walked into the dragon’s nest, Alter had merely watched his back with anticipation.

Over the past seven days of teaching him, he had indirectly witnessed the boy’s talent and knew that a young dragon was no match for him.

Indeed, the boy had silenced the dragon with a single, precise strike aimed at its vital point.

It was a beautiful strike.

Lightning, by nature, seeks to spread through the surrounding air.

Suppressing that natural tendency was a key indicator of an electro mage’s skill level.

Even if one generated 100 units of lightning with their mana, if only 60 reached the target while the remaining 40 dispersed into the air, what was the point?

From that perspective, the boy’s strike was absolute perfection.

A single bolt of lightning pierced through the dragon’s hide as effortlessly as tearing paper.

It shot forward in a straight line, like an artist’s brush stroke across a canvas, leaving behind a brilliant white streak in the night sky before vanishing.

Not a single spark ignited the surrounding wheat fields. Such precise control was something that even Alter, an 8th-circle high mage, could not confidently claim to achieve.

'And then that demon appeared… What the hell was that?'

But the boy’s feats did not end there.

A high-ranking demon had suddenly appeared overhead.

Rather than panic, the boy had smirked in amusement, as if he had just stumbled upon a bag of gold coins on the street, and proceeded to toy with the demon.

As if he could kill it anytime he wished.

A high-ranking demon that even Alter himself was not certain he could defeat.

'…So he’s still hiding more power.'

On top of that, the boy had demonstrated the composure to restrain his power, considering the battlefield before him.

The Enker Highlands were a critical grain-producing region supplying the entire continent.

If an electro mage fought recklessly against a high-ranking demon here, the ensuing lightning fires would reduce precious crops to ashes.

Many possessed power, but few understood when and how to wield it.

And this boy understood.

Not only did he possess exceptional magical talent, but he also had the insight to assess the battlefield and the nerve to remain unfazed against a high-ranking demon. Furthermore, he had the strategic mind to pressure his opponent into surrendering the militarily significant Akliptus Forest Region without a single casualty.

The boy’s potential was so vast that even Alter, an 8th-circle mage, could not fully grasp it.

"G-General…! General Bin?! What’s wrong?!"

"…This is what happens when [Bloom] ends. The backlash from releasing all the mana in his body over a short period."

Alter reassured the panicked officer as he placed a hand on the boy’s small shoulder.

'But why Bloom, of all spells?'

Bloom was considered the least practical spell within the current electro magic system.

Its sheer power was undeniable, as it released all remaining mana over five minutes, but the severe recoil made it rarely studied in depth.

At best, mages learned it as a last resort.

Yet the boy's Bloom was on a completely different level.

It had reached the same degree of refinement as the Bolt spell that Alter had spent eighty years perfecting.

If even the Grand Lord mistook this boy for a high-ranking mage and personally came to kill him, it was understandable.

Alter smiled as he lifted the boy’s frail body, feeling honored to be the teacher of a mage who would go down in history.

"Let’s return. Our mission is complete."