Chương 27: An Insane Jackpot, and Control Squared

The entire inverted expanse of the Vael-Kharas Dungeon burst into brilliant golden light. The howling black vortex from moments before settled at once, dissolving into thousands of glittering motes of light, drifting through the hall. The inverted stone floor underfoot and the ceiling above stopped shaking, wrapped now in a warm, protective sheen. Floating right in front of Lucian was a treasure chest carved from a single block of jade, rimmed in solid gold, embossed with an empty circle.

Three glowing options appeared on the System's interface: OPTION A: Physical Strength ×3 (Stable growth). OPTION B: Mana ×3 (Capacity growth). OPTION C: EXTREME RANDOM VOLATILITY REWARD (Range: ×0. 1 to STAT²)! Lucian crossed his arms, eyes locked on the third option. Any ordinarily cautious person would call A or B the safe move — tripling a core stat was enough to blow past the ceiling most adventurers on this continent would ever reach.

But to a former financial analyst, tripling was just the arithmetic of someone working a salary. Exponents — squaring — were the real tool for building irrational wealth and breaking every rule the market ran on. The gap between someone with three million combat power and someone with ninety billion could never be closed with small, incremental multiplication. To leap across social tiers, you had to accept the risk that came with extreme-return bets.

Lucian reached out and pressed Option C without a moment's hesitation. Ting! Ting! Ting! A dazzling cascade of chimes exploded through his mind. Golden light poured out of the jade chest, flooding his vision. [FIRST CLEAR SUCCESSFUL: VAEL-KHARAS DUNGEON (RANK C).] [Host selected: Extreme Random Volatility Reward.] [SPECIAL JACKPOT TRIGGERED!] [REWARD RECEIVED: SPELL CONTROL SQUARED (Spell Control²)!] Spell Control: 308, 604 → 95, 236, 428, 816 (95. 2 BILLION!) [CONTROL RANKING: OFF THE WORLD'S MEASURABLE SCALE (RANK SS+)!] [SKILL EVOLUTION CONDITION MET:]'Silent Step Lv. 5' + 'Blink Lv. 10' → NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: 'SILENT BLINK' Lv. 1! Effect: Instant teleportation within a 15-meter radius. Completely eliminates sound, air pressure, and mana fluctuation at both the departure and arrival points. [OVERALL COMBAT POWER UPDATED:] LUCIAN VANCE Level: 25 Rank: D — Elite (Anomalous) Combat Power: 18, 940, 220 (18. 9 MILLION!) Lucian stood rooted to the spot.

He blinked three times, staring at the eleven-digit number under Spell Control. Ninety-five billion, two hundred thirty-six million, four hundred twenty-eight thousand, eight hundred sixteen.

"Squared?" he murmured, fingers trembling slightly.

"Not doubled — actually squared?" The system flashed a line of pale blue text. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. [Correct.]"Who in the world designed this System? This should be illegal." [...] The interface fell into complete silence, offering no further explanation. Lucian took a deep breath and raised his right hand in front of him. A strange, unfamiliar sensation spread from his fingertips into the space around him.

Before now, channeling mana had meant using his mind to shape every current of energy by hand, like a craftsman picking up grains of sand with tweezers. But now, with Spell Control sitting at ninety-five billion, manipulating mana felt as easy and natural as breathing. Lucian called up a thread of wind mana no thicker than a strand of hair. Normally, keeping so little mana stable was harder than throwing a fireball.

Turbulence, imperfect circulation, and simple biological error would scatter most of it before it crossed the room. Now every fraction of the current obeyed. Lucian narrowed his eyes at a ten-ton granite block standing against the wall and flicked his finger. Tick. The mana thread crossed the hall. Nothing exploded. No dust rose. Lucian walked over and leaned closer. A needle-thin tunnel had been drilled perfectly through the entire block from front to back.

The inner surface was smooth enough to reflect light, while the surrounding stone hadn't developed so much as a hairline fracture. Lucian stared through the tiny hole. Same amount of mana. Almost no waste.

"... Okay," he murmured.

"That's disgusting." This was the strangeness of an asymmetric stat sheet. Lucian's Mana and Spell Power were still firmly within his current tier. Ninety-five billion Spell Control did not give him ninety-five billion points of destructive force. It meant that almost none of the power he already possessed had to be wasted. Against armor seams, spell matrices, spatial coordinates, or any weakness small enough for ordinary mages to miss, that level of precision was terrifying.

But a small mana pool was still a small mana pool. For once, at least one law of accounting remained intact. Behind him, Sylvia walked over to the granite block and traced one finger around the needle-thin opening. There was almost no fracture halo. No heat damage. No wasted mana embedded in the surrounding stone. She looked back at Lucian.

"Your output hasn't changed."

"No."

"But your loss rate is practically zero." Lucian nodded. Sylvia stared through the impossibly clean hole once more.

"... That may actually be more frightening." Lucian looked over at the pile of stone dust in the corner and dusted off his fingertips, satisfied. His personal combat power had reached eighteen million nine hundred thousand. That number officially put him on par with old Boris back home — a veteran scout who'd survived hundreds of life-or-death battles. Ting. The dungeon hall began to fade.

The entire inverted architecture of Vael-Kharas dissolved into ribbons of golden light, wrapping gently around Lucian and Sylvia, carrying them out of the relic's dimension. The sensation of shifting gravity hit once more. When Lucian opened his eyes again, damp, soft grass covered the ground beneath his feet, deep in the forest outside Oakhaven.

Warm morning sunlight filtered through the oak canopy, birdsong drifted through the air, and the cool forest breeze completely swept away the suffocating smell of ozone from the dungeon. The spatial rift behind them sealed shut without a sound, vanishing from the cliff face as if it had never existed. Lucian stretched, taking a long, deep breath of the fresh air of the surface world. The Tax Bureau didn't know. His parents didn't know. Three hundred thousand gold's worth of books sat safely tucked in his ring.

He smiled, thoroughly pleased with himself.

"A flawless business trip." Coo... coo... A rapid flutter of wings sounded overhead. From the clear blue sky, a magic carrier pigeon, its feathers snow-white, a bronze tube sealed with House Vance's gold wax strapped to its leg, dove down and landed squarely on Lucian's shoulder. The bird released a scroll of vellum wrapped in gold silk, stamped with Sword Emperor Regulus's personal seal. Lucian unwrapped the scroll and opened the letter. His father's exuberant, gilded handwriting jumped straight off the page.

My beloved son! I have news that will shake the entire continent, and I couldn't wait another moment to tell you...