"That logo… it has to be it!" Muria sat in his room, contemplating the restaurant logo he had seen before entering the villa area.
"It must be my unreliable mother who's come to find me. She's quick, I'll give her that! Since she's here, I should figure out a way to meet with her. It's a good chance to see how they're progressing."
However, just as he resolved to meet this visiting golden dragon, Muria encountered a serious obstacle: he couldn't find any free time to go and visit her. Aside from school, he was constantly with Susan, his "mother" in this life. She kept a close eye on him or, more accurately, clung to him constantly.
This meant that Muria barely had any personal time outside school hours; he was almost always by Susan's side. Before, this hadn't bothered him, but now that he wanted to act on his plans, he found this situation extremely frustrating.
"Seems like I'll have to go about this another way. There's no way I could explain this kind of meeting." Muria glanced toward the window. "Who would've thought that after being a good kid for so long, I'd have to break a few rules today."
After deciding on his plan to meet with the golden dragon lady, Muria sat cross-legged in his bedroom, expanding his awareness to cover every corner of the villa. His focus was on Susan, monitoring her movements.
He planned to slip out once she fell asleep, confident that he could avoid all the security systems and guards within the villa area. This wasn't difficult for him, especially since he and Susan had been sleeping in separate rooms. Once his reincarnated body began developing, Susan had been careful to keep her distance.
To be fair, she was a remarkably devoted mother. She practically doted on him, granting any wish within her power. No matter what Muria asked for, she would make it happen as long as it was possible for her to do so.
"Finally asleep!" Muria, having sat in meditation for most of the night, opened his eyes, which shone in the darkness—a testament to his superhuman physique. Hearing the calm breathing from downstairs, Muria stood carefully, avoiding any noise. Though Susan was quite strong, her alertness had dulled from years without combat.
Muria made his way to the window and climbed out. The ten-meter drop posed no challenge, and he landed silently on the lawn below.
The moment he touched the grass, however, several pairs of beastly eyes, each glowing a different hue in the darkness, blinked open within the garden's carefully tended greenery.
"Stay quiet!" Muria gestured, and the eyes faded back into the shadows surrounding the villa.
After a series of stealthy maneuvers, Muria managed to leave the villa area without being detected.
"Endless Delicacies!" Muria stood across the street from the newly opened upscale restaurant, examining the golden dragon logo on the front.
"Welcome, sir. How many in your party?" A young woman in a server's uniform approached him. Though she was surprised by Muria's appearance, she maintained her professional demeanor.
"Do you see anyone behind me?" On the cold, windy street, Muria glanced over his shoulder and posed his question to the surprised server.
"Uh, no," she replied, forcing a strained smile at his eerie humor.
"Alright, just messing with you. I'd like to know if your manager is in." Muria grinned.
"The manager, she…" The server hesitated, uncertain.
"Of course, I'm here. And what can I do for you, young sir?" A voice filled with amusement came from behind the server.
Muria looked up and spotted a tall, blonde woman leaning over the second-floor railing, looking down at him.
"Family business," he replied with a smile as he looked up at the smiling woman.
…
In an elegantly decorated tearoom, Muria downed his cup of tea, maintaining a calm expression as he met the blonde woman's gaze, who was studying him intently.
"Quite the luck, becoming a full member of a powerful family! Your start is a lot better than Ansel's," the woman said.
"This identity is decent," Muria replied with measured humility. "My natural gifts are good by ordinary standards, but they're still far from exceptional among the elite."
"The Douglas family has thousands of members with similar talents. I don't stand out."
"Tsk, listen to you! Makes me want to punch you," she said with a smirk. "If your father were here, his fist would already be plastered across your face."
"Why? Did my father's reincarnation end up in bad circumstances?" Muria asked, a bit surprised.
"Bad is an understatement. I think he might've seriously angered the goddess of misfortune." The woman sighed, her expression shifting to one of helplessness.
"Ansel's reincarnated family is one of the poorest in the Federation, dependent on monthly welfare just to survive. And if that wasn't enough, his star affinity came out at a mere 3%, the lowest recorded in their city."
"That's unbelievably unlucky!" Muria couldn't help but grimace at his father's misfortunes, unsure whether to laugh or feel sorry for him.
For ordinary humans, a typical affinity level was around 10%. Scores as low as 5% were as rare as those above 90%—one marked extreme talent, the other near-total inadequacy.
"Now, do you see how fortunate you are?" the dragon lady remarked. In this world, star-armored warriors were the mainstream. Low star affinity meant no future as a warrior, a bitter blow for someone like Ansel, who sought to make his mark.
"Is there any way to fix his star affinity?" Muria asked, genuinely concerned.
"At present, no practical solution exists. Humanity has been working on increasing star affinity since the day star-armored warriors emerged," she said, shaking her head.
"So what will happen to my father if we can't raise his affinity?" Muria pressed.
"Well, there is one way. Simple, direct, and completely safe."
"And what's that?" Muria asked. If there was a solution, he would gladly pursue it, considering even his own affinity was lower than he'd like.
"The power to make dreams a reality—near omnipotence!" The woman's eyes sparkled as she answered.
"Source energy?" Muria rolled his eyes. "You're as good as saying nothing. I used up all my source energy in the last world. There's none left."
As a beginner in the epic realm, he was far from stockpiling source energy. Only epic beings of the third or fourth tier would do such a thing.
"In that case, Ansel's only option is to forge his own path." The dragon lady shrugged, her tone resigned.
"And how is he supposed to do that with affinity like his?" Muria frowned. In this world, power was based on talent, and effort alone could only go so far.
"Don't worry. Despite all his bad luck, Ansel has some fortune left. This world had no star-armored warriors three hundred years ago, before the meteor shower. Before that, humanity wielded a different form of supernatural power. But when the star-armored warriors rose, that system fell out of favor."
"So, my father's planning to regain power through this lost system?" Muria asked.
"Exactly. He discovered a manual in his family's basement, one that trains the body into that of a martial artist."
"A guy with almost no talent finding a family-heirloom manual for a lost supernatural art in the basement… Why does that sound so familiar?" Muria stroked his chin. "So my father's trying to become a powerful martial artist?"
"Yes. Compared to star-armored warriors, I think martial artists—who rely solely on their own bodies and skills—suit him better." She gave a brief description of the martial artist's unique qualities.
"Hmm, this supernatural profession sounds like it could suit me too. Where is he now? I'd like to see the manual he found." Muria asked.
"He's left the Federation, heading into the wilderness to search for ruins of nations destroyed by the meteor shower. He wants to gather more martial arts secrets and create the ultimate manual."
"Heading into the wilds? If it's lost arts he wants, there's no place richer in knowledge than the libraries of the world's three superpowers."
"But he can't access them, so he's gone into the ruins, hoping to find what he seeks."
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