Sigh, sometimes life can hit very hard.

My current life is a slog, I thought as I woke up.

I brushed my teeth, had some breakfast then I went on my way after putting on my equipment.

Did I mention that my armor had plenty of holes in it? Life as a dismantler can break a person.

I kept walking on my way to the guild, noticing the great number of people on the streets. Some of them wore fancy armor and clothing, while others seemed so haggard, their clothes had many patches, and their eyes screamed envy as they looked at the former group of people.

I won’t claim that the world is a fair place, but it has become much worse ever since the system appeared. Too many people brushed it off as some global prank or a new tech teaser, thus they missed out on huge opportunities.

People aren’t born equal, and this bugged me ever since the day I fucked up my class choice.

My pace slowed to a halt as I went closer to a certain building. It was the guild, aka my workplace. I entered and tried to look for a certain face.

I hope the guild leader isn’t going to tell me to dismantle Lizards again, the stench of the last batch still hasn’t disappeared from my gloves!

It didn’t take me long to spot him talking to some pretty ladies in the hall. He motioned for me to come closer as he saw me.

I looked at the ladies and couldn’t shake off the feeling that they screamed trouble, I recognized one of them who was a redhead with pale skin. Stacy Mcmiller, huh? I didn’t expect the daughter of a Duke to want my help. Judging by her body language, she was expecting me to come closer and seemed slightly excited. The other two ladies were plain so I didn’t give them a second thought.

My brain cogs turned so fast as I kept thinking about what would make someone like her want to associate with me. Maybe the guild leader is finally going to treat me like a brother!

“Hey, Jason” Shouted the guild leader “Rejoice! You have an easy commission today!”

“What is this all about Jared!” I tried to keep my face neutral but the disappointment was too much to hide. “Is it by any chance another herd of struthiolizards?”

“No, what I have instead is a great number of gigantic beetles,” Stacy said, motioning to her bag of holding. “I hope you accept this request; the remuneration is good for the effort!”

I am sure that translates to ‘no skilled dismantler accepted my request, or else I wouldn’t even notice you’

“What are you willing to offer?” I said. I was skeptical about remuneration for dismantling insects being good, they’re too easy for someone who dismantled them for a long while.

Those five years were hellish, but I learned a lot thanks to my poverty.

“You could keep about half of whatever useful loot comes out from them!” she said “You also can choose what you want to keep and what to leave for me!”

“But you know about my special circumstances, right?” I said “Sometimes, the loot I extract just vanishes and I can’t control it”

In truth, I knew a bit about it. I could control it to some extent too.

My system was a bit special; it could consume mana-infused objects for points. I could use those points to buy things.

You see, I accepted humiliation and pain for many years just for one reason; to buy an item that would change my life around!

“Just do it, Kid” Jared seemed pissed off “As if she had any other choice than you, no one dismantles insectoids these days!”

“As he said, I’m aware of your little... issue” she seemed a bit hesitant “Oh well, just infuse your mana to this contract to accept, of course, you can read it in case”

I skimmed through the clauses quickly, pretty much everything was standard contract stuff.

Blah blah running away with the loot results in getting marked as a criminal, among other things.

However, I noted the presence of two unusual clauses:

Stacy McMiller has the choice of the first item out of the final loot, Jason Stubbs then can choose his fifty percent share of items.

Jason Stubbs must conceal all details concerning the resulting loot, lest he gets marked as a criminal. And personally chased down by Duke Graham McMiller.

These clauses lead me to think that there may be something special in this pile of dung. I guess that the reason I was chosen is that I wasn’t that reputable, and they can’t go around telling dismantlers that this pile of loot may have something very valuable lest they retaliate, stealing the item if it’s worth more than the remuneration.

I guess they don’t have a dismantler in the family. But that was understandable, it was a very bad class.

Anything killed by a dismantler disintegrates instantly, and no experience is gained. And they can’t even be used as meat shields as their stats get debuffed by seventy percent when in combat.

They’re the only common class able to certainly acquire loot from corpses, so there’s that, I guess.

I quickly agreed to the contract, I don’t care whether there is a Legendary Grade item hidden in one of these corpses or not. The chances of that happening were so slim that I laughed audibly.

“What’s wrong?” Stacy said, “Is there something wrong with the contract?”

I shook my head, nothing is wrong, it’s just that your noble house is delusional for thinking that a pile of large beetles may have something valuable. The universe isn’t so stupid.

I then transferred the corpses of the large beetles from her bag of holding to mine.

I quickly noticed something strange.

[x98 Corpses of Large beetles (modified) acquired]

 

I went to my workplace, a small room in the basement of the guild. Then I took one corpse out of the bag of holding and tried to find out more about it.

“Examine,” I said out loud.

[Corpse of Large beetle (modified)

This is the corpse of a modified version of the regular common monster (Large Beetle). It shares many of its original properties]

 

“Expand information,” I said.

[This action requires 1000 points, Proceed?]

 

My mouth opened so hard that I felt my lower jaw touch the ground. The most expensive information lookup I saw before cost 71 points.

I examined my current points just in case, “Display Current Points” I said

[Current points: 45104 points]

Sigh, regular monster loot gives single-digit points and mana cores give triple-digit points. I only reached this far due to my underhanded methods…

I felt compelled to sate my curiosity, I had to find out if these monsters could give me an opportunity.

“Proceed with information expansion on this corpse,” I said, holding the corpse of the beetle in my left hand, its size was four times the size of my palm. It had swirls and a river-like design on the center of its back.

Suddenly a window showed up

Corpse of Large beetle (modified)

This is the corpse of a modified version of the regular common monster (Large Beetle). It shares many of its original properties, but a mutation occurred due to the extended presence in a place filled with time-space mana. It has a chance to drop a mana core.

 

Mana core rarity	Chance of Drop
Uncommon	~90%
Epic	~10%
Legendary	0.01%

 

Warning

Please note that these mana cores have time-space mana, so consumption by non-compatible hosts may lead to great aggravations

Whoa! This is my chance to gather the fifty thousand points that I need once and for all.

“All right!” I was fired up, excited for the first time in forever to use my mediocre skill “Dismantle”

Suddenly a pale mana core appeared after the disintegration of the corpse of the monster.

[1x Uncommon mana core obtained!]

I repeated this boring task for nearly two hours, the Dismantle skill didn’t use any mana but it made the user feel a bit dizzy. I can’t get used to this after all. It was also the only class skill for the common class dismantler, rendering its future growth extremely narrow.

I acquired nearly ninety mana cores, three of them epic when this appeared:

[1x Legendary mana core obtained!]

 

[Title acquired: Legendary dismantler]

 

Legendary Dismantler

You feel a bit less dizzy when you use the [Dismantle] skill

Fucking shitty class, not even a legendary achievement can give me the good stuff.

“Oh God, who knows how many points using Convert on this mana core would give me!”

I tried to dismantle another corpse when the system notice appeared.

[Initializing conversion of a Legendary mana core]

 

The mana core started losing its glow as if something drained its essence forcefully.

“Hey! What the hell” I screamed “I didn’t tell you to do it, Cancel the conversion!”

[Initializing Cancellation of conversion.]

 

[150000 points acquired.]

 

Didn’t the conversion get canceled? I felt bad about this situation.

[System automaton is facing a dilemma!]

 

[Waiting for manual input from an admin…]

 

I knew that this spelled bad news, but I couldn’t control my greed.

The Epic Class Change Pill costs one hundred thousand points, it should leave fifty thousand for the mana core to at least somewhat be repaired, right?

“Buy a Class Change Pill of the Epic grade!” I said “Quickly!”

Access to System functions: Denied

 

Then the mana core started visibly vibrating.

[Mana core is unstable, detonation in three seconds]

Oh fuck.

[Two]

[One]

I sensed a huge amount of disorientation as I felt my bones being crushed and repaired in real time.

I tried to open my eyes when I felt less disoriented, only to find myself in my old room!

Didn’t I sell the house my parents left me when I was a teenager to join the guild?