The Master of Beasts - Chapter 24: The Sky-reaching Kun and Short Tales

Reincarnated into the muddy guts of a cursed swamp as a tsetse fly, former office worker and master-level cynic Buzz Windbreaker quickly discovers that survival is both absurd and magnificent. The air is thick with poison, the predators are many-limbed and spell-woven, and the prey? Just as desperate as he is.Yet with every drop of blood he drains from beast, beastkin, or unlucky mortal, Buzz unlocks fragments of an ancient arcane lattice that spirals beneath the skin of the world itself—a system of runes, incantation spirals, and primordial energy flows forgotten by even the highborn mages.His evolution isn't just physical: it is architectural. Each new form is built like a spell—symmetrical, efficient, cruel. Wings shimmer with sigil arrays. Proboscises become siphons of mana and memory. Legs are sharpened to runic blades. Jokes sting. Death stings harder.Soon, Buzz isn't just hunting. He is ascending.

We have all heard the legends of great wizards, but do we know how those stories begin? Ardan Egobar, a young man living in a remote corner of the New Monarchy Empire, does not. He doesn't realize that this story is about him. Not yet...In a world where steam locomotives chug along iron rails, where massive airships hover in the skies, where in the cities you might encounter orcs in suits involved in organized crimes, dwarves with cigars controlling major banks, or elves strutting down fashionable boulevards, where humans have built vast nations on the brink of a world war, almost anything seems possible.Maybe, in such a world, even an ordinary young man, the last of the mountain hunters, might one day become the greatest wizard in history.

He wants indoor plumbing. They think he’s conquering the world.Arthur was a genius engineer on Earth, capable of optimizing global logistics and automating entire factories. But he lacked one thing: common sense. Now, reincarnated as Arthur von Pendelton, the six-year-old son of a powerful Duke in a medieval fantasy world, he faces his greatest challenge yet: Drafts.Armed with the T.E.C.H. Interface (Trans-Epochal Construction Heuristic), Arthur can analyze magic like code and build modern technology from scratch. His goals are simple: Double-glazed windows, hot showers, and a toaster that doesn't burn the bread.But there is a problem. The people of this world don't understand engineering.He builds a high-pressure boiler for a bath; his father thinks it’s a “Dragon-Breath Siege Weapon.”He creates a hydroponic garden; the local church declares him the God of Harvest.He ignores a Princess's flirting to analyze the thread count of her dress; she thinks he is playing “hard to get.”Follow Arthur as he accidentally industrializes a kingdom, terrifies his enemies with home appliances, and remains completely oblivious to the fact that he is becoming the most powerful man in history.All he wanted was a warm bath.

I became a staff officer of an empire whose defeat was certain.The only way to escape from the empire with an 8-year mandatory service was through dishonorable discharge.But then…“You can be glad, Lieutenant. Thanks to your accurate instinct, our military could prevent damage in advance.”The more I struggled to be discharged, the higher my performance evaluation became.