How to Get Girls, Get Rich, and Rule the World (Even If You're Ugly)

He came at me with everything.

The creature surged forward in a burst of claws, teeth, and frustrated rage. Three arms came down at different angles, carving rifts into the ground as if the stone were clay. The echo of that impact reverberated through the tunnel's ribs, and I knew that standing still for even one second meant one second less of life.

I dove sideways, rolling into a floor crack, my body protesting in every joint. The heat from the strike still licked at me. But I didn't run.Not yet.

My eyes scanned the environment like a cornered predator still convinced it could bite the hunter's throat. And there they were — the elements. Small, broken, imperfect... but enough.

Scrap fragments.Stones with stains of ancient soot.Cracks scorched by spells cast here long before me.

Residual magic. Dead heat. Fuel for my art.

I extended my trembling hand. One finger was still tingling from the earlier mental collapse, but I managed to focus.

The system recognized it.

| MAGIC ACTIVATED: Repulse Spark |→ Source: thermal slag + residual coal→ Effect: short-range heat burst

The spark appeared between my fingers with the hesitation of someone about to be swallowed. But it came.And it was enough.

I ran toward a side wall where stones were loose and, using the tip of the pickaxe, struck a rock infused with ferrolume — the magnetic ore I'd been saving. A crack pulsed through the structure. Energy spread like veins of living silver.