CHAPTER 5: Precision Frying and the System GlitchThe trek from Oakhaven toward the southern mountain ranges took only a few hours of steady, intense marching. For an average mortal, it was an expedition pnned for days, requiring wagons, supplies, and a hired escort. For me, it was a short stroll—a perfect opportunity to warm up the vessel’s structure. I’m nineteen, I’ve got the power of a Creator on vacation, and I’m in the best shape of my life. Honestly? This felt less like a job and more like a high-end RPG with the best haptics imaginable.

  The mountains loomed ahead, raw and indifferent. But the closer I got to the Shifting Caves, the more I felt the "stutter" in the environment. It wasn't natural. To a local mage, this was "cursed nd." To me, it looked like a region with badly written collision code. The cave walls rippled as if the world’s engine was struggling to refresh the textures.

  "Time for some maintenance," I muttered, stepping into the dimness.

  The Basilisk: A Surgical Kill

  I walked through the tunnels without a torch. Why bother when my sapphire eyes could see in 4K resolution even in total darkness? I passed the "statues" of unlucky adventurers—frozen glitches in the system.

  Finally, I found it. The Basilisk. A massive nightmare of green scales and eight milky eyes. When its gaze hit me, I felt that famous petrifying shiver. "Seriously, Sis? This is your boss-level threat?" I chuckled. "Watch this, I'm only doing this once."

  I wanted to test my precision. Instead of a messy kill, I focused my lightning magic into a single, needle-thin impulse. As the beast lunged with its maw wide open, I simply pointed my finger.

  Bzzzt.

  A tiny spark, almost invisible to the naked eye. But inside? The lightning bypassed the scales, traveled through the optic nerves, and fried the Basilisk’s brain into ash in a fraction of a second. The beast dropped like a sack of bricks. No blood. No broken scales. It was a perfect, pristine specimen.

  "Clean," I said, patting the carcass. I pulled out my Magic Satchel—a premium inventory gadget. In a second, the entire fifty-foot body was sucked inside. No lugging, no mess. Just a clean inventory slot filled.

  The Storm Queen: Power Off

  Next up was the Wyvern on the Serpent’s Tooth peak. The wind there was trying to rip my head off, but as a "precise guy," I stood as solid as a mountain.

  The blue beast dived like a thunderbolt, crackling with electricity. "You want to fight with lightning? My favorite," I ughed. I leaped to meet it, catching it mid-air. It tried to fry me with millions of volts, but to my vessel, it felt like a pleasant massage.

  I used the same technique. A quick, concentrated electrical shock directly into its spinal cord, at the exact point that cut the signal to its wing muscles. I turned it off like a PC with a power button. We fell thousands of feet, and at the st second, I sucked the massive body into my satchel and nded softly on my boots, kicking up just a tiny puff of snow.

  Two legends in my pocket. Zero scratches. Sis was going to have a beautiful blue screen when he checked the regional mana logs.

  The Show at the Golden Griffin

  I returned to Oakhaven as the sun stained the sky deep purple. I pushed open the heavy doors of The Golden Griffin, and the usual tavern roar died down instantly. It was that beautiful, tomb-like silence I was starting to enjoy.

  I walked to the bar, feeling dozens of terrified eyes on my back. I leaned against the counter, where Elena was staring at me as if I were a ghost. "You’re back," she whispered. "And... you don't have a single drop of blood on you? Where are the trophies, Dave?"

  I reached into my satchel and pulled out just two proofs: the Basilisk’s glowing eye and a Wyvern’s cw. I pced them on the wood. "Contract closed, Elena," I winked. "But the main 'course' is for Sis. I want to see the look on his face."

  Elena turned pale. "Dave, Sis has seen everything. He won't be easily impressed." "We'll see about that. Get my dinner ready, I’ll be back in twenty minutes."

  The Meeting with Sis: Total System Lag

  The Guild headquarters was stiff and cold. I walked into Sis’s office without knocking. The man was buried in reports, looking more tired than the Basilisk I’d just fried. He looked up, recognizing me instantly from our previous meetings—the 'lucky' F-ranker who kept bringing in Golem cores.

  "Dave. Again," he sighed, taking off his gsses. "What is it now? Did you find another 'lost' item in the woods?"

  "Drop the attitude, Sis," I said, standing in the middle of his sterile room. "The Basilisk and the Wyvern. Problem solved."

  Sis froze. Then he slowly put down his pen. "Dave, I don't have time for jokes. My scouts reported silence in the mountains, but my sensors didn't detect a battle. No mana explosions, no fire. It’s logically impossible..."

  "Because it wasn't a battle, old man. It was an execution," I replied. "You want proof? Step back. I don't want to crush your desk."

  I reached into my satchel and 'spat' both massive carcasses onto the floor.

  CRASH!

  The floor groaned under the weight of two legendary monsters. The room filled with the scent of ozone and dead mana. Sis practically jumped out of his chair, his face turning red with disbelief. He walked over to the Basilisk, touching its unmarked scales with a trembling hand.

  "What the..." he choked out. "There are no wounds! Dave, I’ve seen your stats... this shouldn't be physically possible. How did you kill them? Where is the blood? It’s like they just... stopped living!"

  "Precision, Sis," I ughed, leaning against the wall. "I fried their brains from the inside. One tiny impulse, zero mess. Your system didn't register a fight because for the system, it wasn't a fight. It was a fatal biological error."

  Sis stared at me, then back at the beasts. I could practically see his 'processors' overheating. Everything he knew about ranks and power was going into the trash. "Dave... you’re causing a massive g in my reality. This viotes every procedure I know."

  "Get used to it, Sis," I winked, reaching for my payment. "And take care of those bodies. They’re in perfect condition. I’m sure Valerius will want to inspect them when he eventually takes charge here."

  I took the heavy bag of gold and walked out, leaving Sis with two tons of meat and the look of a man who just realized his F-rank tags were the biggest lie in the Guild’s history.

  I headed back to The Golden Griffin for steak. I was Dave—the guy who just made the city’s top official doubt his own senses. Vacation life is just beautiful.