I worked tirelessly for countless hours, and this was it…the result of all my effort! My heart raced as I failed one last time.

  Please, please… let it overflow.

  “Can I choose a snowflake as my mark and Ice Princess as my alias?” I blurted out before the blue box even materialized.

  My hands felt unresponsive, my body growing increasingly numb. Well, I’d expected as much. Then a pleasant young man’s voice echoed in my ears. “Attention, Seed speaking. Manipulation not detected; achieved solely through legitimate system means. An exploit, which will be fixed. Reward in progress… Grandmaster not obtainable, suggesting Expert, level zero. Do you consent?”

  Yes, I do, dear System! I screamed in my mind.

  Suddenly, my vision was engulfed in blinding white light, and I felt the strange hold on my body slowly release. I yelled triumphantly, “I am an Expert Enchantress!”

  My shouting jolted Lucas awake, and he yelled, “Alfa six!” Once he got a grip on this reality, his bleary eyes focused on me as I ran around clapping and cheering. After a moment, he asked, “Is that… good?”

  “Yup! Spell and job levels have six to nine ranks, and normally, reaching expert takes years!” I bounced over and hugged him, then quickly shifted to hugging a nearby tree.

  He watched me with a bewildered stare, eventually standing up and dusting off his clothes… slowly. Giddy, I hugged another tree with the biggest grin plastered across my face. He gently touched my shoulder. “Okay, but… how does that help us?”

  “Silly Lucas, we can sell enchanted items!”

  Lucas buried his face in his hands for a moment, then looked back at me, hesitant. “I hate to say it, but you need to hear this. The most expensive item they’ve sold went for around twelve gold. Even if we sold for fifteen, that’s just thirty dollars. How do you expect to make ten thousand? Charlie…” He trailed off, unable to meet my eyes, and walked away.

  Silly guy, I thought. He never had much imagination. “Stop being so rational,” I called out. Spotting the spear nearby, I threw it toward him, and it shattered on impact. As expected, he just stood there like a lost puppy. Not everyone had a knack for exploiting the system. Next thing on my list?

  Enchanting a shield.

  “Hey, Mr. Mage, find us a fallen tree! I’ll make a shield, and that’ll be our ticket to greatness!” I grinned, spreading my arms wide. “We need a big one… at least a foot wide!”

  Lucas nodded reluctantly, and we started combing through the woodland, which was full of trees. So, who would’ve thought that finding a fallen one would be so hard? The sound of snapping twigs marked our progress as we thrashed through a small, overgrown ravine.

  Finally, we spotted the perfect tree.

  Well, almost. It was mostly decayed, with mushrooms sprouting all over it. “Yep, that’s… fine, I guess,” I muttered, cutting out a large circle. The decayed wood nearly crumbled in my hands, but I carved an improvised handle with a chisel.

  What a masterpiece! A rotten shield!

  As Lucas rested on the trunk, I handed him the shield. He inspected it, eyes widening in surprise, nearly causing him to lose his balance. He turned to me with a look of pure disbelief, like I’d just offered him a non-alcoholic beer. I burst out laughing at his expression.

  My jokes are the best!

  “I get it, Charlie. Do what you must. I’ll go fight some wolves over there,” he said, leaving me to my unstoppable laughter as he climbed up out of the ravine. Had he finally gotten fed up with me? Whatever… I’d save him. The weight of this debt still felt like a bear sitting on my chest, so I turned my focus back to the shield.

  Here’s hoping it’ll work.

  Now that I had something to enchant with Fire Resistance, it was time to engrave the runes. Since I couldn’t afford any mistakes, I replayed the instructional holo-video a few times. They’ll remove holo-videos in the future. They said the system fought back and removed a lot of features.

  Meh. Nonsense.

  Following the figure in the video, I scattered the dust across the shield. But no matter how carefully I tried to spread it, the dust clumped stubbornly.

  Useless garbage!

  I clenched my fist, blew it away, and tried again. This time, the wind swept in and scattered it.

  Finally, after managing to place the dust and set the Essence of Fire at the center, I wiped the sweat from my forehead. Wasn’t this supposed to be one of the easier jobs? The rune itself was simple, just one symbol, but that didn’t mean it was easy.

  It took a few tries to picture it clearly in my mind, and even then, the faint imagined contours weren’t easy to trace.

  The tricky part was channeling my mana to create the rune by hand. Any halfway decent artist would’ve laughed at my attempt as I carefully drew the lines.

  But hey, I wasn’t an expert; I was The Exploiter. The rune pulsed, mana bubbling up as if I were holding a pot about to boil over. The moment I poured in all the mana, a blinding red light burst from the shield, forcing me to shield my eyes.

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  The dust absorbed the rune like a sponge, engraving it on the surface of the rotting wood exactly as I’d drawn it, like a child’s drawing, but it worked!

  A stunning snowflake, about three inches in diameter, formed at the center where the Essence had been placed. And below it, the name I’d chosen during my little exploit, Ice Princess, curved neatly around the snowflake’s base.

  Great! Without further delay, I headed back to the village, instinctively tiptoeing and even leaping over shrubs.

  Behold the art of running!

  A small part of me expected the system to mock me with a “Level 0 Running” notification, but the system windows stayed silent. Disappointing. My stamina only held out for a few minutes, so I had to walk the rest of the way.

  Of course.

  At least ten NPCs crowded the auction house, and I squeezed through them without a single apology. Four customers were lined up for Ryan, who was now in full business mode.

  Come on, move! Sell your useless wares to the NPCs, not my Ryan!

  Despite my inner urgency, I had to wait. When my turn finally came, I said, “Hey, Ryan, look at what I made!” I dropped my shield onto his counter and puffed my chest with pride, almost splitting my robe in the process.

  This robe is useless! Can’t hold my boobs, bah!

  He picked up the shield, examining it intently and turning it over in his hands, then looked at me with utter confusion. I rolled my eyes. “God, Ryan! Ignore the shield itself; focus on the enchantment!”

  That foolish Irishman inspected it again, and his eyes suddenly widened. He tapped it with a tiny hammer, and before I could yell at him to be gentle, he exclaimed, “Five percent? How is that possible? The best enchanting I’ve seen barely reaches two percent!”

  I couldn’t hide my grin. “I’m just that good. Can you get in touch with Lisa, the Fire Goddess? I heard she’s rich. And I… kind of know her.”

  Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. “For heaven’s sake, don’t call her that! Yes, I know someone who can reach her. But why? Are you looking to sell your services?”

  “Yes, I need credits, and I need them fast… ten thousand. Desperate times, desperate enchantress. All I need for the fire resistance enchantment is Essence of Fire and Enchanting Powder.”

  He nodded, understanding. “Lisa’s the one. She has a beef with some guy over her friend, and she’s aiming to get into the fire dungeons to beat him or something. I don’t know, youngsters being youngsters. But you are right; her paren’t are rich, I’ll get you the money.”

  As Ryan made his calls, I sat cross-legged on the ground beside him, observing the constant bustle of the auction house. Seed only gave each booth two chairs, and I couldn’t hog the customer’s seat across from Ryan.

  Low-level players came by one after another, selling whatever scraps they found lying around for a few pitiful coppers.

  One player even brought in a wolf’s pelt. A wolf's pelt! After unloading all his furs into the unlimited storage box next to the booth, he grinned happily at the meager two silver coins he received.

  Seriously? Does he know two silvers are basically… nothing?

  I glanced at Ryan, biting back a comment. I hadn’t realized he was in this mafia-like extortion business. “What’s wrong?” he asked, clearly annoyed by my staring.

  “Nothing. It’s just… all that work for two silvers?” I watched the dwarf shuffle away, shaking my head. “Wouldn’t it be better for them to fight specters and collect plasma? They’d level up faster and earn better money… several times faster.”

  Ryan smirked, flashing a rare hint of a grin. “You’re such a power gamer, aren’t you? Don’t deny it; I know one when I see one. Just enjoy the game. By the way, have you heard about the Duke’s quest? Are you going?”

  I slipped into the customer chair to get off the rough ground. “Wait, what quest? I haven’t heard about that.”

  Leaning to one side, Ryan shot me a smug look, clearly enjoying a moment of superiority. “The Duke’s ship expedition is arriving soon, and they’ll be recruiting players for a main quest.” He glanced around the hall with a sigh. “Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to level up to seven in time.”

  I’d never heard of this duke’s expedition before. It must be a minor main quest I’d skipped in my last life, so I knew nothing about it. I was more interested in those in the Imperial Capital.

  Yes, I was human. No, I was not ashamed of being so vanilla.

  But main quests were always rewarding. “Sounds interesting, Ryan. I’ll try to make it, and thanks for the tip.” Still, my top priority was securing a steady gold supply. For that, maybe I should buy the meadow… the best early-game property in the elven forest. Irwen might be a variable, but she shouldn’t attack right away, right?

  The plan was simple: get the place, build a fortress and in a week, two and we would turn a massive profit. If I could get Lucas to help develop it, we’d be raking in money.

  “Ryan! You old snake!” Lisa’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts as she gave Ryan a firm handshake. “I hear you’ve got something interesting for me?”

  Unfazed by her playful tone, he handed her my shield. “Check out the enchantment.”

  “Ice Princess?” Her eyes sparkled with amusement. “What a cute nickname! Do you know her?”

  I stood up, brushing off my worn, dusty robe, but a sudden wave of dread rose in me, and I quickly sat back down.

  Okay, you’ve got this.

  Ignoring my body’s urge to stay silent, I forced myself to stand again and said, “Me. Princess.” An imaginary weight pressed down on my shoulders. Why? Why is this happening now? I stared hard at the ground, taking a deep breath.

  It’s just a conversation in a game. Nothing to be afraid of, right?

  “Sweetheart? From Frexie?” Her eyes widened as she looked me over, focusing on my hair. “You are adorable!” Before I could react, she hugged me tightly, squishing my face to her chest. I was suddenly speechless… for an entirely additional reason. “But how is that possible, Princess?”

  Despite the nervousness clawing at me and the lump in my throat, I replied, “Look, my title.” Feeling a strange pride at this insignificant victory, I shared my full name with her.

  “You’re the Hero? How can I be one? Is there a Fire God?” She couldn’t stop herself from babbling. I endured her embrace as she patted my hair like I was some kind of doll; not that I had much reason to complain. She gave me two very compelling reasons not to.

  “Psst! Secret!” I said, hugging her back. “The leader of the first party to clear the scorching dungeon gets the title Fire Tamer. Cool, right?”

  “The Fire Tamer?” Her eyes lit up, and she started bouncing, dragging me along in her excitement. “How many enchantments can you do? Can you tell me more?”

  I averted my gaze, feeling tongue-tied.

  Not now, please. Where’s my wine, or better yet, whiskey, to loosen me up?

  She still had me locked in her embrace, staring at me with a pleading expression just inches away. I wanted to answer, but the words wouldn’t come.

  Come on, body, work with me here.

  Finally, I slipped from her hug and sat down on the ground behind Ryan, who spoke, “Lisa, I said the trade goes through me. I’m the middleman.” Oh, thank you, Ryan. “There’s nothing like this enchantment on the market, so our services are costly.”

  “How costly?” Her tone turned serious faster than I could blink. “You know gold’s scarce… the demand’s way higher than the supply. The exchange rate’s up to three-to-one now, and I can’t buy gold in large amounts.” There it was—the fiery heiress I vaguely remembered from my past life.

  She was living in the same city; people nearby got spawned nearby in Rimelion, and she used to be a semi-celebrity, even appearing on Katherine streams, but that was fifteen years ago so my memory was spotty.

  “We’re aware,” Ryan replied smoothly, “so we’re offering you the option to pay in credits instead. Twelve thousand should cover it. And as a gesture of goodwill, we won’t sell fire resistance to anyone else; not until you complete the dungeon.”

  “That’s steep. But The Fire Tamer…” Her gaze swung back to me, and her face lit up as if she wanted to devour me with that grin. Instinctively, I squeaked some barely coherent words, jumped up, and backed into a stall wall, hiding behind Ryan. I’d rather face the ultimate boss than her right now. “Will she enchant the equipment for the entire party?”

  “Yes, as long as you supply the ingredients. Essence of Fire and Enchanting Powder,” Ryan answered.

  “Deal. I’ll have my cousin send the money to your account right away.” She walked toward me, eyes sparkling. “Princess, could you come to our rented room at the tavern this evening?” Without warning, she buried her head in my chest, guiding my hand to pat her head.

  What the hell? Is this normal behavior?

  “Yes,” I said, though it was all I could get out. It was enough for her; she flashed a bright smile and took off, waving at me from a distance. I let out a tired sigh, my shoulders slumping.

  I can’t be thinking about dating a girl now, can I?

  She was far friendlier than I’d expected, nothing like the ruthless “fire destroyer” from the rumors. Her friendliness was the reason I liked her right away. Definitely not the close contact with her chest.

  Of course not.

  “A pleasure doing business with you.” Ryan turned to me with a smile and gestured for me to head out.

  “Thanks, Ryan, same here. And please send the money right away.”