Powerless Boy is reborn as Lustful Elf

Alex couldn't believe what he was seeing.

He stared at the translucent system screen hovering in front of him, blinking several times to be sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. One by one, glowing notifications pulsed softly, as if basking in their own importance. The sheer volume of rewards he'd just received, from what the system had labeled a side quest, was absurd.

Primordial Key.

Ashborne Blade.

And 50xp

All that, for defeating a single beast?

He exhaled slowly, still kneeling in the moonlit compound where the battle had just taken place. His arms were heavy. His mana was nearly drained. Sweat clung to his skin. Yet despite all that, he felt more… awake than ever.

The system had changed. He didn't know how to explain it, but something about its behavior had shifted. The way it had handed out rewards, how it had scaled the difficulty of that dog, it was as if the system itself had suddenly become aware of something. A new urgency. A desire.

No… a need.

It needed him to get stronger. Quickly. Overwhelmingly. Unreasonably.

Alex had no idea why.

But he had the distinct feeling that the system was no longer just passively reacting to events, it was now pushing him forward, almost forcefully, as if time was running out and his growth needed to accelerate.

With a deep breath, he slowly stood up. The battle was over. But the quest wasn't quite done yet.

His eyes settled on the Primordial Key now lying in his hand. It was unlike anything he'd seen before. It wasn't shaped like a normal key, no jagged bronze teeth or ornate golden crest. This one was long, thin, and perfectly smooth, like a shard of carved crystal. A faint blue hue pulsed through it, slow and steady, like a heartbeat. Just holding it made the air around his fingers hum softly with mana.

Alex turned to the small, unassuming building ahead of him. It looked simple, barely taller than a barn shed. But if his intuition, and the map from the system, were right, then this was what the key was meant for.

He stepped forward, found the keyhole tucked beneath the arch of the doorframe, and slid the Primordial Key into place.

A soft click echoed through the air.

Then the door creaked open.

Alex stepped inside, and immediately froze.

He had expected a small chamber. A tool shed. Maybe even a hidden room with a relic on a pedestal. What he found instead was a long, spiraling staircase leading down into the earth. The walls were made of smooth stone, carved expertly, and faint glowing sigils lit the way in cold blue light.

"A catacomb?" he muttered under his breath, baffled.

He descended cautiously, every step echoing faintly. The air grew cooler the deeper he went. The scent of ancient dust and aged stone filled his nostrils, mingled with something else… something faintly metallic, like old blood.

As he moved further down, the path opened into a vast chamber, circular, domed, and impossibly large. The ceiling rose so high above that he could barely make it out through the bluish gloom.

And at the far end of the chamber stood a giant ivory statue.

Alex stared in awe. The thing was immense, easily twice the size of a house, carved from some luminous white stone that shimmered faintly in the mana light. The sculpture was a dragon, wings furled, head bowed slightly as if sleeping, its claws resting protectively over a large wooden chest beneath it. The chest was marked clearly with a crude red "X".

"This is it," Alex breathed. "The mark from the map."

The chest. That had to be it. That was what he came for. If the system had led him here, then it must contain the Fallen Root, or at the very least, a fragment of it.

But then a troubling thought occurred to him.

He narrowed his eyes and took a cautious step forward, examining the statue closely.

The longer he looked at it, the less convinced he was that it was a statue. There was something too lifelike about the dragon's expression. Too much tension in its limbs. Too much coiled readiness in its wings.

"Wait…"

It was guarding the chest.

Alex's stomach sank.

There was no way the system would make the final piece of the quest this easy. Not after that fight with the behemoth dog. And certainly not if this was tied to something as dangerous as the Fallen Root.

He was going to have to fight it.

Or… at least, he would have to. One day.

But not today.

He stared up at the ivory beast again and slowly took a step back. Even without it moving, even without a single roar or warning growl, Alex could feel it in his bones. The pressure. The danger.

This wasn't a challenge he could overcome in his current state. Trying to fight it now would be suicide.

So, instead, he did what he knew was wise.

He turned around.

"Not yet," he said aloud to the slumbering dragon. "But I'll be back."

The journey back home was uneventful, though Alex found himself deep in thought as he walked beneath the starlit canopy of the elven district. Crickets chirped. A soft wind rustled through the leaves. But his mind kept returning to that glowing chamber beneath the compound, to the giant sleeping dragon and the chest it protected.

So much was changing.

And fast.

By the time he reached the outer edge of his home, the moon was high in the sky. The gate creaked slightly as he stepped through, into the familiar stone-paved compound that surrounded his house.

There, standing near the gate with a satchel slung over her shoulder, was Inolda.

She looked up as soon as he entered.

Her eyes scanned him once, quick and practiced. She didn't smile. She rarely did. But her expression softened the tiniest bit when she saw he was whole.

"You good now?" she asked, already sounding halfway out the door.

Alex nodded. "Yeah. I'm alright."

He stepped toward her and gave her a small, casual peck on the forehead as he passed, nothing romantic, more like teasing affection. Inolda wrinkled her nose and gave him an exaggerated scowl.

"Tch."

Alex just laughed, the tension of the day slightly rolling off his shoulders like dust in the wind.

He pushed the door open and stepped inside the house, still chuckling.