"I now have a System!"
The mages' mouths were completely sealed as they watched the creature the size of a thumb just wiggling and almost dancing on the ground while carrying the Geiger counter that was probably 5 times its size. There were a lot of things already weird about this, but perhaps the weirdest thing about it was the fact that…
"It's… it's talking!"
Once again, the people in front of Lucian were staring at him with wide eyes. The tone of their voices, however, was completely different from the workers.
The workers were afraid and freaked out with Lucian; the mages, on the other hand, had a certain somberness and frustration in their voices. The look in their eyes was not that of fear at all, but of pity.
"Tch…" The Mage Leader clicked his tongue, only staring at Lucian for a few more seconds before looking away,
"...Another creature defiled by the scums of this Earth. It is enough that they turned what was once a land full of life into a Wasteland, they even corrupt its creatures. Stein, put it out of its misery, make it painless and as quick as possible."
"Hm," one of the mages, Stein, approached Lucian while summoning a ball of fire, "May you be reborn into our lands and—"
"I said kill it quick!" But before Stein could actually finish his words, their leader suddenly hit him on the back of the head, "Do you think burning to death is quick!? You're going to torture the poor thing! Why are you even using fire!?"
"Because…" Stein stuttered, "...I'm a fire mage?"
"By the spirits, you fucking—just help the others salvage, I'll do it," the Mage Leader tried his best to calm down and pushed Stein away before approaching Lucian himself. Unsheathing his sword before sliding his finger on the blade while whispering something — and as he did so, the blade started to emit a yellow glow.
And as soon as he got within reach of Lucian, Lucian finally stopped celebrating about the Geiger counter and turned his attention to the Mage Leader.
"May you be reborn into our lands and live the rest of your life one with natu—"
"Nah."
The Mage Leader's eyes turned wide as he suddenly found Lucian right in front of his face; his hair stretched to the side along with his blades. And without even allowing the Mage Leader to react to anything else, he just casually swung both the blades across his forehead; slicing it with no resistance at all.
"...Rudwig?" Stein had already turned around when it happened, but he caught sight of something before he walked away; prompting him to once again look at their leader. And as he saw him drop to the ground with his brain leaking out, he just very subtly took a step back while assessing the situation — he did not need to, however, as the culprit was right in front of the Mage Leader's feet,
"What… sort of creature…Brothers!"
Stein then decided to waste no time at all as he summoned a ball of fire with both of his hands, throwing them toward Lucian without any hesitation at all before running toward his comrades. As for Lucian, he quickly slithered back; not only to avoid the fireballs, but to get the Geiger counter before pointing it right at the flames which swallowed up the Mage Leader's body entirely as well as the surrounding area around him.
"0.14!" Lucian's eyes turned wide before carefully placing the Geiger counter back on the ground and then rushing toward the blazing fire.
"F—" He did not, however, expect it to hurt. This was, perhaps, the very first time he was actually experiencing pain ever since he arrived in this new world — but it didn't really matter. After a few seconds, Lucian just let out a small but very deep breath and just started extending his hair to cover more of the fire… absorbing the very essence of it.
Whether or not the fire was radioactive, or if magic itself was — it did not really matter for now at all; the only thing the Lucian cared for was that he could absorb it.
"What… what the…?"
The mages who rushed to meet Stein could not help but just stare at the little creature. Lucian truly was probably just as small as a thumb — and yet when he extended his hair, it reached all the ends of the blazing flames, 4 meters in radius.
And it looked… incredibly ominous.
"It's… It's a kaiju."
"We do not use that word here!"
"Are you seriously going to argue about that!? It just killed Rudwig! Wh—"
No one needed to scold anyone at all, as they all stopped arguing with each other as soon as they saw the flames fading away fast.
"It's… absorbing the flames…?" One of the mages took a step back as soon as he saw that, and with a loud gulp escaping his lips… he just quickly ran away.
"What the—why are you—!?"
Everyone then watched as he tripped to the ground; not because he hit a stone or anything, but because his legs were sliced off from the ankles; the blade of the Scorpion Assassin, embedded on the ground next to his feet.
"Oh no, no, no…"
They all then very slowly turned their heads back to Lucian, only to see him waving the other blade. And although he was small, they all could clearly see the wide smile very slowly crawling on his tiny little face,
"Now that I know your fancy magic is radioactive…
…we are going to have some fun."
***
"General! I think you need to take a look at this! The Chief of Waste Operations sent something to us!"
"I think we already have enough on our hands, put it in the archive. Or send it to a sub-division, or another country entirely."
"N…No. The Chief himself directly sent the data to us, as in, he is here in the building as we speak — I think it's very important you take a look at it."
"Hm?"
A few kilometers away from the toilet where Lucian was flushed into, an old woman with slightly short hair that barely reached her jaw was looking in front of a large monitor; her eyes, perhaps reflecting the map of the entire city she was in.
She already had wrinkles on her face, but it was obvious that she was more than beautiful and wise when she was younger due to the way she carried her age with confidence.
Her eyes that has been looking at the map for hours, however, finally strayed away from the screen as she glanced at the person who approached her. She stared at the flash drive she was holding for a few seconds before looking away.
"General?"
"Give it to IT and tell them to show it on the screen," the General once again looked at the screen; not even bothering about anything else as she waited for the image to change. And after what seemed like an entire minute of noise coming from the other staff that was in the monitoring hall, the image on the giant screen changed.
And as soon as it did so, everyone who was working in the Monitoring Hall stopped what they were doing and looked at the screen — how could they not, when there was a number value at the upper middle of the screen that showed a rating?
"3.2…?"
Everyone then spent a couple of seconds trying to figure out what they were supposed to look at as all they were seeing was a couple of debris and rubble.
"Wait… look! There's… there's some sort of rat!"
And as soon as one of the people pointed at the middle of the screen, even the General squinted her eyes to see properly.
"Zoom it in," she ordered. And as soon as she did so, the image zoomed in…
…showing Lucian dead smack on the center of the screen.
"What… is that?" Someone whispered, "Is that the thing that's emitting a 3.2…?"
"Look, its face looks like a human! It looks like a child!"
"...Doesn't it kinda look like the Deputy Assistant of—"
"Are there any more images?" Everyone quickly shut their mouths as the General raised her voice and spoke to the tech.
"Y…yes."
"!!!" The screen panned to the next image, only for everyone to see a headless corpse. No one really said anything anymore as they all just breathed loudly.
"Next," the General ordered.
"!!!" And once again, everyone gasped as another corpse that was almost completely squashed by a helicopter and a large boulder presented itself to them.
"Next…"
"Mages!?" And as soon as the next image was shown, everyone let out a loud gasp which filled the entire hall.
"Is this their doing!? Those damned evil witches!"
"Silence!" The General slammed her fist on the table; her lips slightly quivering in anger as she saw the person wearing robes on the screen, "Next image!"
"!!!"
"It's that thing again!"
And this time, it was Lucian's face again, but much closer and much defined.
"Is it… is it actually taking a selfie?" Someone whispered.
"No…" The General's angered breaths quickly turned somber; turning heavier as she leaned forward and placed her palms on her table; her eyes, slightly turning wider by the second, "It's…
…It's checking its own Radiation Level."
Everyone turned to look at the General as soon as she said that — no one really believed what she said, or they were refusing to.
"Are there more images?" The General asked.
"Yes."
"Next."
And soon, they saw an image of a fire; a burning corpse of a mage.
"Next."
They then saw an image of an Earth Spear, but nothing else. What followed was a ball of water summoned by a mage…
…and then, there was an image of all the mages all piled on top of each other, clearly all dead.
"There's… one image left, General."
"Show it."
And once again, it was an image of Lucian measuring himself. And on the upper middle part of the image was a value that showed —
3.205.
"Where…" The General quickly let out a very long and deep breath,
"...Where is the Chief of Waste Operations?"
"D… downstairs."
"Tell him to meet me…
…Now!"