“Where you going?” Elaine asked curiously as she shifted her gaze from the television to Rob who was kneeling on the ground and tying his shoes.

“Nothing much,” Rob answered and stood up. “I’ll be meeting a friend for some… business; if you can call it that.”

“Business, how fancy,” Elaine said sarcastically. “Who’s the friend anyway?”

“Melvin,” said Rob flatly.

“Melvin?!” Elaine shot up, widening her eyes in surprise. “You guys were friends?! Since when?”

“Since the ogre dungeon.” Rob opened the door with a click while glancing at his sister with a pleased smile.

“Wow…,” said Elaine. “I, wow… uh, damn. I thought you just tried to act like that mysterious loner hot guy, but maybe you really just don’t have many friends. Well, good for you, I guess.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rob snorted, rolling his eyes at her condescending impression of him. “Now if you only spend more time on training than lazing around, then you’d be a lot better already.”

“Sheesh! You’re starting to sound like dear mother!” Elaine waved her hand and manifested a hand made out of mana, pushing Rob out of the door with a gentle push. “Just go on your date already!”

“Sure, sure, it’s a date,” said Rob. He laughed as he slowly closed the door. “Maybe you’ll find me as a part of a noble household by tomorrow.”

“Whore!” Elaine shouted loudly.

“And I’m proud of it!” Rob retorted and closed the door.

“Ugh,” Elaine huffed and returned to lying down on the sofa to mindlessly watch some TV.

“…”

“Maybe I should train…”

…

Rob activated his divine sense, inspecting a large spherical boundary around him as he walked toward a dark corner to hide in the shadows. When he saw that no one was around, he took a step forward and the entire area around him shifted, from the dark alleyway to a strange underground cellar.

He looked around, and saw a long hallway with glowing rocks placed at the ceiling in a long line, illuminating the entire place in bright white light. The ambient mana was dense as far as he could tell, and he could hear a low hum coming from the numerous rooms around him, barricaded by a thick wall of metal enchanted with numerous layers of magic.

“How convenient,” Rob mumbled with a smile. Teleportation was one of the many boons he had gained from his status as someone who was in the top ten. Using his reward, he gained access to restricted sections of the library and rapidly expanded his set of spells, focusing on many quality of life magic that would speed up a lot of things and increase his insight over the fundamentals needed to create his own repertoire of spells.

Now, if others were to see this display of space magic, they would gawk in surprise and wonder how someone who has below-average talent in space magic managed to do one of the most iconic spells to learn.

While teleportation isn’t that hard of a spell to learn since it’s heavily developed over the course of human history because of its convenience and incredible use, it’s still surprising of how masterful he had cast the spell.

If Rob was to be asked that question, his answer would be quite simple - a different mindset and training regime. He had lived through various universes and realities, each having its own unique power systems, and that included magic.

He ignored talent entirely and instead focused his training on a different area that others would normally ignore because of this world’s education system, mana control!

Talent, or the aptitude of a person regarding a certain element, is just how easily they could control their mana in regards to that element.

Someone talented in earth magic would find it far easier to do earth magic compared to other branches of magic, but Rob deduced that this was essentially the same phenomenon as someone finding writing with their right hand easier compared to their left.

In theory, one could just train themselves to be ambidextrous, just like how a mage can be naturally talented in two or more elements, and the thing he found to bridge that gap in talent was to focus on his fundamentals.

All spells are laid on the foundation of one’s mana. The better you control your mana, the better you can get at magic! It wasn’t a cheat per se, but more of a unique ideology or philosophy. It was his mindset, essentially.

Spell formulas, motions, and chants, they’re nothing but pillars to support the basic foundation of mana control. Obviously, his level of mana control is just absurd, especially with how he can be walking and cast teleport at the same time, which is a highly difficult feat, but that’s just him relying on his memories and experience to skyrocket his level of mana control.

He already had the control and had just sealed it to limit his overpoweredness when starting over in a new life. All he has to do to regain his skill is train, and because of that, his rate of growth in terms of general skills is far faster than others, a minor cheat if you will.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Of course, if he properly sealed his memories that spanned across eons, then this phenomenon of relearning wouldn’t happen and he truly would have to start from scratch, but this is his life, and he dictates the rules he’ll live with.

Rob walked toward a nearby room and slowly opened the door, revealing a swirling mass of blue and purple that formed a dimensional entrance. He sifted through his memory and recognized this dungeon as Crawling Jaeger Den, a nest full of the infamous B Rank monster - Crawling Jaeger.

Crawling Jaegers are massive spiders twice the size of an average human male, with rockish gray fur and horrifically long legs. They had numerous eyes, magical eyes, that could visibly see mana. Their legs have highly acute geo-sensing, with each step providing a 3D map of the entire area around them. They can move at breakneck speeds, are highly resistant to magic, and have absurd physical strength and vitality. Their web is far stronger than any normal metal, and they can also bite at an unfortunate fellow to release fatal toxins that can kill a human with a single dose.

It had been shown to be capable of wiping the floor against a Grand Mage, with its great speed and resistance to magic. Only by having a party of at least one Grand Mage and one Grand Knight would they find it comfortable enough to fight against one of them, but even with that, they have to be careful of its poison and sticky web.

Now, Rob was standing in front of a dungeon that heat has a den full of those buggers, dangerous buggers.

He yawned and raised his arm. The wristband on his forearm blinked with a golden light and the strange sigil in the form of a golden clover released a burst of the same golden light, forming a mysterious golden screen.

“Good morning, boss!” a cheery voice called out from the screen, showing Melvin’s haggard face, with bags under his eyes.

“Mmm,” Rob hummed and nodded his head. “How’s the progress?”

“It’s been going well,” said Melvin. He snapped his fingers, creating an illusory show of lights and lifting a series of graphs and data on the screen that hovered above his palm. “Regarding the funds for the steroids project, we’re a quarter through and should be done by the end of the month. I had also been contacting some of the shadier guys in the underworld and I had established some friendly relationships with them since they’re hooked on our little drug and couldn’t help but want more.”

“According to the data gathered, we could expect that the fame of our little wonder dust is gonna skyrocket soon, probably in a few months, but definitely less than a year,” Melvin added. “Adding on to that bucket of good news, I’ve managed to convince my father to invest in those companies you listed out.”

“On to the bad news, some people are starting to notice some of my actions in the underworld and are trying to locate the source through divination. I did use various methods to distance myself away as far away from that little issue by using wooden avatars, mind-controlled animals, hired goons, and such, but there’s still a link,” Melvin said, worried about this little problem that he had no way of solving.

“Don’t worry,” Rob said. “I’ll solve that problem right now.”

“You will?” Melvin’s eyes brightened up. “But how?”

“Just watch,” Rob yawned and, in the blink of an eye, appeared right beside Melvin inside his room using teleport.

Melvin swiftly stood up with Rob’s sudden presence, but Rob stopped him from practically prostrating on the ground like a loyal slave and instead grabbed Melvin’s head. His eyes glowed dimly with a golden light, and even though nothing happened, Melvin felt as if something was… taken.

Rob waved his hand as if throwing away something invisible, and in another blink, he was gone. On the screen floating in front of Melvin, Rob said, “Done. It took a lot less strain than I first thought, so this is a little boon for us. Starting from now, you can be a lot more risky with your actions, though still partake with caution. As long as you receive weekly treatment from me, your divination problem will be solved.”

“It’s… done?” asked Melvin, bewildered by what Rob had done to fix the problem.

“Just don’t think about it,” Rob dismissed his problem and waved his hand. “All you have to do is do your task, and we’re good.”

“Yes, sir!” Melvin answered.

“Good,” Rob said. “Moving on, let’s talk about another project you’ll have to start very early, and I expect it to be finished in a week so I can begin my experiments.”

“Experiments?” Melvin inquired.

“In the Peaceful High Woods, I’ve found a nice little F Rank Dungeon full of horned rabbits placed deep underground. The dungeon itself is a wide-open grass field, and the space is pretty big, so we have some room to build a big laboratory.”

“The laboratory itself just needs to have its bare skeleton, I’ll be the one to actually build the thing. What I need you to do is deal with the area outside of the dungeon. I need it covered in anti-divination magic, remove all hints that may lead to people finding the dungeon, and some other minor details,” said Rob.

“That’s certainly possible… but in a week? I don’t have enough funds to hire enough manpower, there’s also the problem of transporting the hired mages, and having people know that this dungeon exists is also another big problem in regard to information sharing,” Melvin mumbled, doubting the overall feasibility of the plan.

“You don’t have to worry about that. Your family has some pretty skilled mages in those fields, right?” Rob asked.

“Yes?”

“Then it’s simple. I’ll enslave them, just like you, and we’ll teleport over to that place later. I’ll even teach teleport to one of your family’s mages and problem solve.” said Rob with a snap.

“Oh!” Melvin’s eyes lit up in excitement. “Then this changes a lot of things!”

“With the entire family by my side, I’d be able to do a lot of things far faster than before! Funds, connections, manpower, it would all be problems of the past!” Melvin laughed ecstatically.

“Okay, we’ll cut our meeting close for today. I’ll brainwash them later once I’m done with this since I’m already in your family’s manor,” Rob said.

“Goodbye then, boss,” said Melvin. “See you later! And please say hi to mother and father for me!”

“Sure, I got you,” Rob chuckled and closed the golden screen. He waved his hand, pulling out a silver gun from his storage ring, gripping it lightly as he stretched his arms and legs.

He stared at the dungeon entrance, not a hint of fear in his eyes. Instead, there was a sense of boredom, laziness, even.

“Fuck, let’s do this,” Rob murmured, stepping forward and entering the dungeon.

As space around him warped, he was greeted by a wide cavern, with wide tunnels leading to expansive darkness and shadowy corners. He covered his eyes in mana, giving himself night vision, and aimed his gun at the ceiling of the large cavern.

Various magic circles formed above him, with differing colors and containing a large amount of mana within them.

As he did so, he could hear the faint sound of numerous footsteps rushing towards him from the numerous walls, and with his enhanced vision, he could see the vague figures of shadowy spiders running at breakneck speeds toward the source of the sudden commotion.

“Come, you little buggers!” Rob roared, pressing the trigger, and out came a volley of bright beams of light.