Half an hour earlier.
The moment Sean killed the final two dark wizards, the familiar system notification rang inside his head simultaneously.
[Congratulations to the host for completing your first kill.]
[Reward: Three spell extraction opportunities from defeated opponents.]
[Guaranteed at least one advanced spell.]
[Would you like to extract rewards immediately?]
Sean's eyes flickered briefly.
"No."
He answered internally without hesitation.
Then, as though nothing had happened, he calmly looked toward Willow.
"Well then, Willow."
"I'll leave the rest to you."
The moment he finished speaking, Sean turned and practically vanished into the darkness.
He returned to the Three Broomsticks Inn almost at full speed.
Originally, Sean planned to begin the extraction immediately.
But after thinking about it carefully, he decided to shower first.
Luck mattered.
And Sean firmly believed clean people had better luck.
Half an hour later, after bathing and changing into fresh clothes, Sean lay comfortably across the hotel bed.
Only then did he whisper softly:
"System. Extract rewards."
[Beginning extraction.]
[First target: Eve Fern.]
The moment the system finished speaking, more than a dozen floating cards suddenly appeared in front of Sean.
The cards glowed in different colours.
Sean immediately understood the ranking system.
White cards represented beginner-level magic.
Purple cards represented intermediate-level magic.
And golden cards…
Those were advanced spells.
The moment the cards appeared, Sean could even see the names printed on their surfaces before the selection process began.
And among them—
—there was actually a golden card.
Sean's eyes instantly lit up.
"Not bad."
"There's some really good stuff here."
He rubbed his hands excitedly.
"Looks like Eve wasn't completely useless after all."
Just as Sean finished speaking, all the cards suddenly gathered together before rapidly shuffling themselves.
A moment later, every card flipped over simultaneously, hiding their contents.
Only the backs remained visible now.
Sean inhaled deeply.
Then, with trembling fingers, he tapped the card directly in the middle.
The chosen card slowly flipped over.
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining the beginner spell: Summoning Charm.]
Sean's heart sank instantly.
"…That's it?"
He stared blankly.
Then suddenly—
[Detected: Host already possesses the Summoning Charm.]
[Beginning fusion and upgrade process.]
[Upgrade successful.]
[Summoning Charm upgraded to: Marked Summons.]
Sean froze.
[Marked Summons — Intermediate Spell.]
[The user may place a magical mark upon an object in advance.]
[When needed, the marked object may instantly appear in the host's hand regardless of distance.]
[Warning: Living creatures cannot be marked.]
[Next upgrade requires three additional Summoning Charms.]
Sean stared silently at the notifications.
Several seconds later, he slowly exhaled.
"…Is the system trying to encourage murder now?"
Shaking his head helplessly, Sean quickly grabbed the alarm clock beside the bed.
Purple light flashed across his fingertips.
The next second, a faint magical mark appeared beneath the clock.
A silver "X."
The first letter of Sean's name.
After marking it, Sean casually tossed the alarm clock toward the opposite side of the room.
The clock landed over three metres away.
Sean stretched out one hand calmly.
"Accio."
WHOOSH.
The alarm clock instantly appeared in his palm.
Sean blinked.
"…That's significantly more useful than I expected."
At the very least, he would never lose things again.
Grinning happily, Sean tossed the alarm clock aside and looked back toward the floating system interface.
[Second extraction target: Kito Noah.]
A fresh set of cards appeared before him.
This time, Sean observed carefully.
Five white cards.
Three purple cards.
One golden card.
Nine total.
And unlike the previous set, these cards weren't limited to spells.
Some contained magical knowledge instead.
Sean's eyes instantly locked onto the golden card.
"Advanced Knowledge of Spatial Magic."
Sean immediately rubbed his hands together nervously.
"Merlin protect me."
"Amitabha."
"Please don't screw me over this time."
Without daring to hesitate too long, Sean immediately selected one of the outer cards.
The moment it flipped over—
Sean nearly screamed.
"…Damn it!"
White card.
Again.
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining: Beginner Knowledge of Spatial Magic.]
[Beginning knowledge transfer.]
The next second, an enormous flood of information exploded directly into Sean's brain.
Space compression.
Coordinate theory.
Magical anchor structures.
Spatial overlap calculations.
Sean instantly felt as though his skull was being split apart.
Next door, Willow—who had only just begun drifting toward sleep—suddenly sat upright in alarm.
"Aya?"
She frowned slightly.
"Sounds like a girl's name."
Then she sighed sympathetically.
"…Poor guy. Must've gotten dumped."
After a long time, Sean finally collapsed flat against the bed completely drenched in sweat.
His eyes looked hollow.
"…Can my luck seriously be this awful?"
He stared blankly at the ceiling.
"So I'm really only getting the guaranteed reward?"
Then Sean suddenly sat up again.
"Forget it."
"At least the final guaranteed gold card should be worth it."
After reassuring himself, Sean selected the final extraction.
[Third extraction target: North Isaac.]
Nine cards appeared once more.
But this time, Sean ignored every single other card immediately.
His eyes focused entirely on the golden one.
After all…
…this was guaranteed now.
Sure enough, moments later, all the remaining cards shattered apart automatically until only the final golden card remained floating before him.
The moment Sean saw its title…
…the light completely vanished from his eyes.
Because the card had an extremely familiar name.
"Azkaban One-Way Ticket."
Sean instantly felt life become meaningless.
Just as he began silently questioning the universe, the golden card slowly flipped itself over automatically.
"…Seriously?"
Sean looked utterly numb.
"I already hit the guaranteed reward and you're still making me manually select it?"
"Can't you just hand it over directly?"
"Why insult me emotionally first?"
The system remained silent for several seconds.
Then—
—a notification suddenly appeared.
[System has accepted the host's suggestion.]
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining the advanced dark spell: Crucio.]
The moment the words appeared—
—the room around Sean suddenly exploded with colourful magical fireworks.
Tiny sparkling lights burst across the air as though the system itself was celebrating his reward enthusiastically.
Sean stared at the screen in horror.
"…I don't want it!"
He sat bolt upright on the bed.
"Take it back!"
"TAKE IT BACK!"
"This isn't what I wanted!"
Unfortunately, the system remained extremely pleased with itself.
Next door, Willow lay quietly in bed listening to the miserable scream echo faintly through the walls.
For some reason, her chest suddenly tightened slightly.
"…He really loved that girl."
Her expression became strangely sympathetic.
"He sounds heartbroken…"
Then Willow frowned slightly.
For some reason…
…the voice sounded vaguely familiar.
But no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't remember where she had heard it before.
That night, Sean didn't sleep at all.
Two lines of silent tears soaked into his pillow.
.....
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