Hyperion11

While others forge legendary weapons. He grinds them up and takes a deep breath to sniff. In his past life, Steven was a multi-time convict, a hopeless addict, and a man whose bad choices finally ended with a gunshot in a dark alley. He thought death would be his sobering wake-up call. Instead, he woke up as Philip Lionheart in an unknown world. A scrawny, severely underpaid servant sweeping the floors of a small magical junkshop of the poorest area of the kingdom. Surrounded by piles of shattered mana cores and rusted magic swords, Philip was worked to the bone for pennies. But everything changed during a routine cleanup, when a cloud of finely powdered mana core dust filled the air. He didn't choke. He didn't die of mana poisoning. He felt the instant, overwhelming rush of pure magical power after sniffing it. Philip quickly discovers a terrifying truth that his soul retains his past life’s absurd tolerance to wild substances. While raw mana dust would blow up a normal mages lungs, Philip can inhale powdered magic weapons to absorb their innate spells, physical buffs, and raw arcana directly into his body. He realizes he can refine these shattered artifacts into custom magical powders that grant temporary, explosive power boosts to paying mages.

He was once an earthly legendary locksmith, but his stage four brain cancer made his death inevitable. He wishes to have a good life in his next. However, he wakes up as Silvester Lerwick with an Open and Close skill and nothing else. He was just a six-year-old child. Lerwicks are the house of the strongest fire mages in the Kingdom of Novaria, and he does not inherit any of that. His family disowned him for being "useless" and exiled him secretly for their own good. He spent years conquering the dungeon and obtaining the skills that he loved. He entered a magic academy and disguised himself as a fragile support scholar without his family background. He wants his freedom from the Lerwicks and to make his wish come true to finally live his life to the fullest. Silvester, a master locksmith in his past life, saw the fundamental blueprint of reality. To him, physical plate armor, defensive wards, and high-tier offensive spells are just sets of pin-tumbler locks waiting to be picked. Will he ever help this cruel world when an ancient evil emerges?