Green flames quietly danced around the surface of a young boy’s body. Sitting cross-legged on his bed, his dearest, cageless bed, Braun’s mind zoned out as he let his body evolve on its own. His muscles turned harder, his bones turned denser, and most importantly, his luck turned luckier.

Yes, luck, the mysterious factor that determines one’s fortunate path in the world. Maybe it was due to his previous mastery over destiny, or the differing underlying rules of Arte and his home reality, but Braun found it easier to enhance conceptual aspects of himself such as luck.

For months, he had continuously directed his ever-increasing zenithral power to the development of his luck. His body had evolved enough for a one-year-old boy, so it was time for his luck to shine through. He still remembered the various legends of heroes his mother had told him when he was younger, and their broken as fuck plot armor.

In his to-do list in a fantasy world edition, Braun had added a task on killing a hero for funsies, so he was sure as hell gonna increase his luck for that. Even if he may be in a different reality and he had spent a short time as a divine god, his pettiness for lucky, chosen bastards of destiny still remained.

Besides killing a hero, I’m also going to kill everything else. There’s also the goal of eating a thousand different delicacies, exploring every land, and some other fun things to do in this world. Braun grinned as he thought of the far future.

At the very least, he was going to spend a century in this world and perhaps even create his own family if things doesn’t get messy like back then. There wasn’t a web of destiny to screw him over this time, so it should be possible to live a pleasant, easy-going life.

Braun’s grin faltered.

Oh, who was he kidding? Braun rubbed his forehead and sighed.

He had spent a long time with zenithral power already and knew the various secrets of progression. One of them is a tiny little thing called conflict.

Conflict was his bread and butter, it was the love of his life, a partner that would exist across time and space. The sexual tension between him and hardship is as palpable as solid air. As long as he lives, problems are gonna arise to force him to grow, a curse brought by Zenith.

This mere realization nearly brought the child to tears, but he held on. Braun was determined to live the easygoing fantasy life he always dreamed of, and he was gonna pull off a few bullshit if he had to.

Pushing his problems to the back of his mind, he instead stared at the setting sun, and the clamor from below.

Besides increasing his own luck, Braun had also been experimenting a lot with his weakened zenithral power, to explore the various applications it had over diverse fields. Zenith was the literal manifestation of all progress, which included the development of a business, and he knew a certain person who was a hard-working businessman.

Throughout the past months, Baun had actively been using his flames to help spark the golden age of his father’s artificing business. If his father’s business exploded in popularity and attracted more customers, he would earn more money, and his money is Braun’s money. In essence, the shop’s success is Braun’s success!

And the results were no less than shocking.

The Pendragon Empire has a very simplistic economy with a system of copper, silver, and gold coins. Recent progress in technology has slowly introduced the concept of paper bills, but for now, coins are the most in circulation.

A copper coin is essentially a penny, a silver coin a dollar, and a gold coin a hundred dollars if he had to compare it to the money back in Dela.

As a Rare Class Artificer who was quite good at his job, Delmore had set up his own artificing business where he takes commissions from various people such as mercenaries, rich people wanting to buy some magical trinkets for self-defense or adventurers that explore dungeons.

The magical equipment that he produces is naturally expensive and nets him a good amount of profit each time, but business is still dependent on the number of customers he has. However, for the past few months, Delmore’s artificing skills had grown significantly, and the name of his store had gradually spread.

More and more customers were attracted to his shop, and soon enough, gold coins were flowing in aplenty. From a commission-based business to a magical shop store, he just had to wait for people to walk into his store, buy his already-made magical equipment, or accept commissions from them with an increased price.

There was also the fact that Erna had grown to be a skilled manager and businesswoman, acting as the brain of the whole business and the decision maker for many of the shop’s development. With the husband and wife duo in charge, their family’s net income had grown greatly.

Back when he was just born into this world, Delmore had begun earning around 30 gold coins a month, which was around 3,000 dollars in Dela. This was already a respectable amount and could fund a family of four without problems, but now? After a year had passed since his birth?

Delmore’s shop was earning an eye-widening 150 gold coins per month. It’s a straight-up five-fold increase in his earnings! This amount of money allowed the family to eat high-quality meat every day, buy a ton of household stuff, and most important of all, Braun had more books to read!

With the complementary synergy of his increased luck, Delmore’s increased skill, Erna’s newfound knowledge of business, business was booming, and two of those factors arose from his simple action—his wish to develop the family business.

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Zenithral power was as mystical as ever and was the biggest cheat one could have.

As he waited for time to pass, he felt his gut instinct tell him that it was time, and he stared at the door in anticipation.

A series of loud footsteps came rushing in, and a young girl with brown hair tied into a ponytail, and bright blue eyes full of innocence, burst the door open and shouted, “Happy birthday, Braun!”

Ah yes, the birthday.

Smiling at his sister and getting down from his bed, he giggled and hugged his sister. “Thank you, sis!”

“Hehehe, come on! The food’s ready!” Mina grabbed Braun by the waist and put him on her shoulders. Displaying surprising strength for a six-year-old girl, the girl carried him down the stairs and into the kitchen where his mother and father were already waiting.

A grand feast had been prepared on the table, with a wide variety of meats, vegetables, fruits, and desserts laid out. Plenty of his favorite food was on the table, like deep-fried Plump Pig meat, crimson mangoes, and pasta with wyvern meat chunks.

Wyvern meat… Just thinking about that precious meat akin to A5 Wagyu made the boy salivate. Perhaps it was due to the mana in the air, the influence of the system, or something else, but Wyvern meat was just heavenly.

Thinking about the fact that dragon meat was many times more tasty than that made the boy excited for the future because he was for sure gonna eat dragon meat every day for a month and cook it in a variety of different ways. Deep-fried, stir-fried, stewed, used in fried rice, everything!

“Happy birthday!” Delmore and Erna hugged their youngest child and enjoyed a warm embrace

Braun grinned and stared longingly at the meals prepared. Ending the hug and barely holding back his excitement, the young child sat on his chair and urged his parents to light up the candles on the cake.

Of course, as he looked at the cake, he was once again reminded of the strange culture this world held, cultures very much reminiscent of traditions from Earth.

Questions for later, I’m still a kid! Braun once again did what he does best—push his problems away and burn those bridges when they have to be burned.

Instead, food was here, food was life, and food was his focus.

“Blow in three!” His mother lit up the candles and stepped back, letting the child blow with gusto.

“Two! One!” Braun blew the candles, letting the faint smoke emitted from the candles gather into a smoky number one.

“Happy first birthday!” They shouted in tandem, and as Erna prepared to sit down, both Mina and Delmore were already rushing to grab their share of the feast.

Fuck the birthday boy, they had to eat!

You gluttonous bastards! Braun screamed in his mind as he struggled to reach for his plate, his tiny arms barely grabbing the plate’s edges.

He then rushed for the wyvern meat, yet his fork was intercepted by another.

“Foolish brother.” Mina maniacally cackled and stole the wyvern meat his fork had poked. “That’s mine!”

“You bastard!” Braun shrieked.

“Foolish daughter!” Another fork came flying in, stealing the wyvern meat from Mina’s fork.

“You bastard!” Mina shrieked.

Staring at the all too familiar scene, Erna silently filled her plate with pasta and filled her cup with some crimson mango shake. She had accepted the fact that her family was full of gluttonous weirdos, and there was nothing she could do about it.

…

The table was empty and no food was left. Delmore, Mina, and the young Braun had filled their stomachs with food, bloated to the point of bursting. Only Erna was left with a bit of class, drinking her juice with a calm, dignified look.

“You foolish husband.” Erna sighed and gathered all the dishes in the sink, before kicking Delmore on the leg. “You forgot that you still have a present for your boy.”

“Right.” Delmore groaned. He stood up from his chair and walked towards a nearby wooden chair, a present nestled on top of a pillow.

“Happy birthday, Braun.” Delmore grinned and passed the wrapped present to the young boy.

Grabbing it curiously, wondering what could be inside, Braun slowly opened the gift. When he saw the thing inside, he widened his eyes, surprised.

“A quill?” The tone of the child sounded judgemental; he grabbed the golden quill, fiddling with its elegant design.

“It’s not just a quill, it’s a magical quill!” Delmore grabbed the quill from the child’s hand and infused his mana into it, causing a blue edge to glow around the surface of its golden frame. Waving it across the air, mana solidified and formed glowing blue lines. Then, as Delmore drew a rune in the air, magical laws were infused into the symbol, causing a red flame to flicker into existence.

“This is the basis of runes, and a great tool for enchantment magic.” Delmore returned the quill back to Braun who now wore a look of awe. “I plan on teaching you the basics of artificing since you’re still classless, and give you the option of becoming an artificer down the line if you ever want to.”

“Your sister over there could have also become an artificer, but she was impressed by some dwarves back then and got hooked on hammers and flames.” Delmore sighed and looked at Braun with hopeful eyes. Clearly, he wanted the boy to inherit the family business and keep the magical shop running.

“Classless…” The boy mumbled the word, his eyes gravitating to the golden quill with childish guilt.

“Is there a problem?” Delmore asked, curious as to why the child appeared to have a weight on his shoulders.

Braun took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“Mama, papa… There is something I have to tell you.” The child paused, waiting for his parents’ confirmation.

“Yes?”

“What’s the problem, dear?”

By this point, the two had an ominous foreboding feeling encroaching on their minds.

“You see…” Braun raised the quill, infusing his own mana into it. It glowed a sharp blue color, and copying Delmore’s movement, he wrote the rune for fire, causing sparks to spontaneously combust in the air. “I already have a class.”

“Y-You do?!” Delmore nearly fell back from shock.

“What?!” Erna cried out in surprise.

“No way!” Mina gawked at the revelation.

One has to understand just why they were so surprised.

First of all, accomplishing the requirements needed to unlock a class is not something a one-year-old boy should be capable of doing. Second, a class, the first-ever class one acquires, their Common Class, poses a lot of significance to the rest of one’s future.

A swordsman would essentially be trapped in sword-related classes. A chef would forever be involved with food. A blacksmith would continue to be involved in smithing.

So, for a one-year-old boy, a stupid baby boy, to make such a significant decision at such a young age without parental guidance and years of wisdom… It’s a recipe for disaster.

“Don’t worry, Mama, Papa,” Braun assured them that he didn’t make no mistake.

“My unique skill, Prodigy, complements well with the class I chose,” Braun added.

“You have a unique skill?!?!” The entire family was dumbfounded by the new revelation.

“Yes.” Braun nodded his head as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “Prodigy gives me an easier time to unlock new classes, and also the acquisition of new skills that my class could attain.”

“It also accelerates the development of my skills, speeding up my mastery of them by a significant margin.” Braun continued. “Because of that, I decided to pick a class that would greatly complement well with my-“

[Lie (S) -> Lie (Z)]

“Unique skill.” He didn’t even bat an eye at the notification.

“And… And what class did you pick?” Delmore asked the most important question.

“I chose.” Braun grinned. “Generalist.”