The person whom the world revolves around.
The person who defeats all of his opponents, and ultimately gets the beautiful girl.
The sole existence all villains fear.
That is the protagonist.
What about me?
As a failed author who had only one success throughout his whole career, I had reincarnated into my late novel.
"This is it"
I thought, as I tightly clenched my fist.
Did I just get reincarnated in my own novel?
Is this where I reincarnate in a novel and become the protagonist?
No.
Sadly it's not that kind of novel, as I reincarnated as a mob.
The world doesn't revolve around me.
The girls don't come flocking towards me.
The cheat items don't come to me.
"Phew"
I let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank god I'm not the protagonist"
I joyfully shouted as tears streamed down my cheeks.
Wait, are you curious as to why I don't want to be the protagonist?
I did forget to mention the most important thing when I was describing a protagonist.
That is...
They are calamity magnets.
I just died. If I learned something from that, it's that it really isn't a pleasant experience.
If possible let me live a long stable life.
Thank you, whoever reincarnated me.
I would later come to regret these words...
Read The Author's POV Chapter 1 - Prologue online for free - NovelFull
'Efforts never betray you'
A quote that has been widely respected and repeatedly preached across the world.
Some people widely regard this quote as a personal mantra to follow throughout their life, while others simply scoff over the quote as if it were a mere joke.
I mean why put effort when you have a super-rich dad that provides you with all that you need?
Big house?
'Hello, daddy can you buy me a house?'
New car?
'Daddy~ There's this new car that I really love and was wondering if...'
There's also those that live in luxury because they are simply lucky, like the ones that win a lottery
I mean how much effort does it take for someone to win a lottery?
'Congratulations you have won 200 million'
How does 'efforts never betray you' apply here?
Of course, setting those examples aside, there were many cases in which the quote proved to be correct.
For example, have you seen the movie...hmmm what was it called.
Ah! right the 'Pursuit of happyness'
It was your perfect example of 'Efforts never betray'.
It was a touching story about a homeless dad living in the street with his son, and later because of his pure love and dedication for his son, he managed to succeed and became a millionaire. Very touching.
But what about me? What have I got to say about 'Efforts never betray'?
It was utter bullshit. Period.
'Efforts never betray?' I could only simply scoff at such a ridiculous notion. I mean sure if you put in some effort you would definitely achieve better results than your regular mob out there, but was that really all to it? Was this the key to success?
No. It simply wasn't
The key ingredient to success was 'Talent'
No matter how much effort you put into something, you would never be able to surpass the unsurmountable mountain known as talent.
I mean look at football for example. Many people trained just as hard as Messi or Ronaldo, but in the end, they don't even come close to their level. No matter how much they trained, no matter how much blood sweat, and tears they put in, they would never be able to even touch their ankles.
What kind of Bullshit was that?
Getting back on topic. Why did I have such a grudge against the quote 'Efforts never betray'?
Simple. It was because I was one of those idiots that wholeheartedly believed in the quote.
You see, my parents died when I was 14. Some bastard got drunk and ran them over. I couldn't remember how many times I had cried myself to sleep because of the accident.
My parents didn't have siblings, and both my grandparents, maternal and paternal, had already left the world, making me an orphan.
Luckily, they had enough money in their bank account to last me until school finished, and thus I studied as my if life depended on it. I mean it literally was.
I would study hours and hours on end, just so that I could enroll at the prestigious University A and later find myself a suitable job for myself.
But hold on. How could I possibly afford to go to university? I mean university usually costs a hell of a lot of money.
A bank loan? Would they loan to someone that had no parents and no assets? Well, I tried but in the end, I got rejected by the government.
But there was a way. A scholarship.
If I managed to secure myself a scholarship I could attend university without paying a single cent.
Luckily University A, the only university near me, offered a scholarship program that was perfect for me. One of my teachers heard that they only offer one scholarship a year for people in the school I attended. But that was enough for me. If I studied hard enough and achieved a high enough score, there was definitely a chance.
And so I studied, studied so hard that all the friends I had made over the years became estranged. But I was fine with it. As long as I could attend university I could make all the friends that I wanted...was what I thought at that time. But looking back at it now, I could only laugh at how naive I was back then.
Thanks to all the effort I put in I managed to get on the top 1% percentile in the national exams, but in the end, the scholarship I so wanted never came.
Funnily enough, I only found out later that the one who got the scholarship was actually lower ranked than me. Apparently, his father was a highly influential person and helped him secure the scholarship for him.
That scholarship should've been mine! All the sleepless nights and lonely days that I had spent became worthless!
What's even more frustrating was the fact that the father could totally afford to send his son to university without a scholarship.
Since you could afford it, why not give it to someone who actually needed it?
I wanted to apply to other universities for scholarships, but they were all outside of my city, and I couldn't afford to move.
At that point, having exhausted all my family's savings, I was dirt poor.
I could barely feed myself through part-time jobs. How could I possibly study in another city where the rent was levels beyond what I could afford.
And thus left with no choice, I dropped all my studies and continued attending part-time jobs.
I slowly sank into depression and found an escape route in food, manga, and web novels
As I gained weight and found myself putting on more pounds with each passing day, it became increasingly harder for me to continue going to part-time jobs as I would always run out of breath after standing for over 10 minutes.
Fortunately, I found myself a new hobby. Writing web novels. At first, I took it as a hobby to pass time, but later as more and more people started reading my novel, a fire that had long been extinguished ignited inside of me, prompting me to continue writing.
And I succeeded
My first novel was a hit, and money started coming in.
...
[Descent of the Hero]
Description : Sypher an orphan boy from a poor village hopes of one day becoming a hero and embarks on a tough journey to fight against all odds and become a hero.
Rating : 4.7 (513 reviews)
Views : 5.5M Words : 1.3M
...
Sure it was your typical story of Hero vs Demon king, but what could I say? As long as I liked it, and it made money it'll do, right?
At least that's what I thought at first, but as time progressed and as my second and third novels came out, I found myself slowly and slowly losing interest.
It was not because I hated writing, no, it was simply because of what I was made to write. Because I was catering to my readers, I slowly started straying away from what I liked writing.
I started writing things that I did not like. For example, people loved fan service, but it was really uncomfortable from a writer's point of view. Especially for a virgin like myself. Fortunately, I had the internet to help me, but it was stuff like this that made my passion for writing decrease. I mean who would want to write about putting some cucumber in their mouth? Certainly not me.
And though I did exactly as my readers asked, apart from the first novel I never found my novels making it in the ranks.
And here I was today staring blankly at my laptop
click click click click click
The monotonous sound of my keyboard typing echoed inside of my room.
The same boring pattern repeated like any other day.
Wake up
Type
Eat
Type
Repeat
Finishing my last sentence, I pressed the save button at the top right of my screen and clicked [Send]
Sigh
Letting out a long sigh, I dazedly look at my ceiling. How long will I have to continue to do this?
Bitterly shaking my head, I look at my novels comment section
...
Goodguy85 : Ugh Author-san I feel like your writing is becoming worse and worse...
-- Weeboo : Replying to Goodguy85, I totally agree with you. This novel had so much potential but I feel like lately the story started derailing.
-- TruckDriver : I totally agree with you man. There are too many plot holes and Deux Machina. It's getting ridiculous.
Boywonder : ~Thanks for the new chapter!
TwilightStar : Dropped
BoobMonster : hey hey hey, where the ecchi scenes?
Roosterboy65 : Dude is married to mary sue.
...
BAM!
"Fuck! What do you mean my writing is getting worse!"
Slamming the table with my fist, I raged at my computer.
"I'm tired of this shit!"
Closing the laptop down, I forcefully tried to calm myself. Getting angry was not good for my blood pressure.
I actually quite liked my new novel. This novel was the fruition of my frustration and desire to try something new so that I could ignite the last remaining embers inside of my heart.
It was your typical weak to strong story, but unlike my previous novels, this one was set in a modern futuristic setting.
The story's background starts in 1980 where the 'Great Cataclysm' occurred. A three-stage disaster that hit the earth causing the world to drastically change
The first phase of the 'Great Cataclysm' - Shift in tectonic plates all over Earth, moving countries from where they were previously, resulting in tsunamis and earthquakes, killing millions in the process. The sudden shift in tectonic plates caused the world map to permanently change, with there only being one landmass surrounded by water.
The second phase of the 'Great Cataclysm' - Huge portals started appearing where unknown species which were later identified as demons and other races, started emerging. At first, they were docile, but as soon as they deemed humanity weak they started rampaging all over the place.
But with great disasters come opportunities. As portals appeared, humanity managed to gain access to mana. A special force that lingered throughout the atmosphere and originated from other worlds. It would allow humans to do things they could've only dreamt of doing in the past like summoning fireballs or cutting through metal.
Lastly, the third phase of the 'Great Cataclysm' - This happens near the ending of the novel, and it was when the Demon world forces started a full-scale invasion of earth.
Ten years after the Second cataclysm, three factions ruled the world. The demon faction, the Human faction, and the Fantasia faction which was compromised of Orcs, elves, and Dwarves.
The Fantasia faction was sort of an alliance between the elves, dwarves, and the orcs. And that was because they were practically forced into one.
Demons were the manifestation of 'greed'. They were created with the sole goal of devouring planets. They would first start by entering a planet, then as time progresses they would reproduce like crazy, and slowly once they gained enough strength they would devour the planet.
The Elves, orcs, and dwarves were all refugees and survivors from the demons, who had already conquered their home planet.
At first, when the elves, orcs, and dwarves arrived on earth, they chose to observe. They wanted to see if the humans were worthy enough to join their alliance to fight against the demons. At first, they were very excited with the prospect of gaining a potential ally, but as time passed their excitement turned into disappointment, which later became into disgust.
For the prideful elves, the selfish acts and schemes which they witnessed during humanity's dark moments made all thoughts of collaboration vanish, only to be replaced with utter disdain.
For the orcs, humanity's weak and frail body left them utterly disappointed and thus deemed them unnecessary.
And for the Dwarves, humanity's primitive technology made them seem like brainless monkeys who roamed around flaunting their power and intelligence with no substantial backing.
In the end, the demon faction and the Fantasia faction each claimed 3/8 of the earth, while humans only claimed 2/8 of the earth, making them a minority group.
Initially, the story starts with the protagonist enrolling in the 'Lock', a specialized school that was established by the effort of all humanity, to raise warriors to defend the borders against the attacks from both factions.
He was your typical MC with a tragic past
- Parents died due to war at the hands of demons
- Vengeance against Demons
...and so on
It was what you would expect from an MC.
It was my masterpiece. At least that's what I thought, but looking through the comment section I couldn't help but rage.
I mean how would you feel if what you feel is your masterpiece gets insulted?
Terrible right?
Letting out a long breath, I try to once again calm myself.
Lately, I've been having anger issues. The simplest thing could get me mad, which just goes to show how bad my anger issues were.
But it couldn't be helped. With how shitty my life was, I was bound to develop a twisted personality.
"Guh..Aaah!"
Just when I was about to close my laptop, a sudden pain struck me in my chest, more precisely my heart.
Clenching my chest, I kneeled on the floor. With heavy pants, I forced my way to my desk.
"I need my medicine..."
Because of my poor living conditions, I took a lot of medicine. There was one for my blood pressure, one for my asthma, and another for my depression.
and right now I was looking for my blood pressure medicine.
Because of my sudden outburst, my blood pressure must have increased, causing this reaction.
So as long as I could take my medicine...
"Gaahh!"
Falling to my knees my vision become blurry
It was starting to get increasingly harder to breathe.
"Ahhh, is this how my shitty life ends..."
Those were the last words that escaped from my mouth before I found the whole world become black
...
Chirp chirp chirp
Awaking me from my slumber was the peaceful sound of birds chirping
I could faintly feel the warm gentle sunshine envelop my whole body, causing my lethargic self to feel more energetic.
Opening my eyes, I found myself inside a one-bedroom apartment.
Rubbing my eyes to make sure I was still not sleeping I blinked a couple of times and once more looked at my strange surroundings.
'Aren't I supposed to be...dead?'
...was what I thought at first, but seeing that I was still breathing and seeing just fine, I thought that perhaps someone had rescued me moments before I died, and right now I was in a hospital.
But with each passing second, I realized that this was not the case.
Why?
Simple...it was because a large screen appeared right in front of me startling the living daylights out of me.
Status=
Name : Ren Dover
Rank : G
Strength : G
Agility : G
Stamina : G-
Intelligence : G
Mana capacity : G
Luck : E
Charm : G-
-- Profession : [Swordsmanship lvl.1]
A multitude of questions emerged in my mind as I blankly stared at the floating screen in front of me.
Ren Dover?
Who was that?
As far as I remember my name was...hmm?
What was my name?
Sitting up on the bed, a blank look appeared on my face as I dazedly looked towards the window on my left.
Jet black hair
Pale white skin
Blue ocean-like eyes
What was reflected on the surface of the window was not my face, rather it was a completely unknown face.
It had rather attractive features, but it wasn't a face that would make people scream 'He's so handsome!'
Eyes aside, it was a pretty average face. One that you would forget after not seeing for a couple of days.
Moving onto the body, this new body was rather skinny, it had some definition but it could definitely do with a bit more muscle.
But this was definitely not my body...I was supposed to be fat. Yet, looking at the reflection in the mirror I coudln't deny that it was me who was controlling the body as each time I touched my face, the reflection on the window also showed the youth reflected in the mirror touching his face.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I looked at my now skinny legs which I had not seen since my high school days, and stood up.
"guh..."
Stumbling a couple of steps, I felt a wave of pain wash over my head as I started experiencing a massive migraine followed by a severe case of vertigo.
Pain..pain..excruciating pain that I had never felt before engulfed my entire being as I leaned my hand on the wall as a means to support my body.
"Huff..huff.."
For what may have seemed to be hours, passed by in seconds, and the pain slowly subsided leaving me huffing and panting on the ground heavily gulping for air.
It was only after 10 minutes that I finally managed to stand back up.
Glancing around the room, a simply decorated room laid before me. The room was furnished with the basic necessities that comprised of a clean white bed, an old wooden spacious desk, a tall wardrobe, and a small bathroom.
As I looked around, on top of the desk, I saw a strange tablet-looking object.
Being desperate for answers, I immediately walked over to the desk where the table-like object was, in hopes of figuring out what was going on.
As I was walking, a strange sensation tickled my brain, as I felt a sense of discontinuity between my movements.
At first, I thought it may have perhaps been due to me suddenly becoming skinny, but actually, more than me not being used to moving due to my body transformation, it was more like I was not used to this body at all.
It almost felt as if there was a lag in my movements. But as I gradually moved more, the time lag slowly disappeared.
I don't know what it was, but maybe it was because my soul still didn't get used to this new body?
Well setting that aside, there was one important thing that I had to confirm. I had a hunch about what had happened, but I needed to confirm it, and what better way than through the tablet on the desk.
Arriving before the tablet I carefully tapped the screen, and then...
-Wham!
Holographic information one after another starts appearing before me, startling me.
Calming myself down I looked at the information that was projected before me.
User ID : Ren Dover
Age : 16
Picture : (Holographic image of myself)
Program : Hero program Year 1
School Rank : 1750/2055
Potential : D rank
Profession : Swordsman
"I see"
Looking at the information in a daze, I let out a bitter laugh
"It seems that I reincarnated into my own novel, and as a random character that had nothing to do with the story to boot"
Not the protagonist, but a completely unknown mob.
I, the author should obviously know every character in the novel, but who in the world was Ren Dover?
I never created such a character.
But looking at how things were, I should probably not consider this world a novel anymore, as I was literally breathing and moving inside of what seemed to be the plot of my novel.
If you were wondering as to why I am remaining so calm in this situation, it's simple really.
I hated my previous life
During my last breath, I had realized that I really did not care if I died.
During my last moments, the only thing I thought was 'It's a pity I died like this'
I don't know when, but at some point, I already had given up on life. But oddly enough, it seemed that I got myself a second chance in life and as a character of my own unfinished novel to boot. Though it's a real bummer I wasn't reincarnated as the protagonist.
Actually, that was a total lie
Who in the world wants to be the protagonist?
Me?
ha? Are you crazy?
Why in the world would I want to be some justice-driven fool who attracts danger wherever he goes? I just got a new life, why in the world would I throw it away like that. I ain't stupid.
Although I am jealous of his would-be harem. I mean I did make them beauties, but who cares! I stayed a virgin for my whole 32 years of life, so it's not gonna hurt if I remained a virgin for a little bit longer.
Setting my virginity aside, this world has magic and skills!
There's no way I was going to spend my time flirting with girls when I could spend the time practicing magic! I could already visualize myself casting huge fireballs. Just the thought makes me grin.
I mean how could I not be excited? I came from a world where magic doesn't exist, and now that I have access to it, I will definitely learn it!
"But wait..."
Considering how they put my potential as D rank, it would mean they evaluated my talent to be low or medium at best.
There's no way I was going to survive the third cataclysm with this low level of talent
Placing my hand on my chin I immediately started to plan my future
"Although my talent is low compared to the others inside of the lock, if we take into account that a D rank talent is extremely sought after in other academies, I could probably live comfortably once I graduate from the lock..."
"But, if I were to take the [seed of limit] I could permanently remove my limit...but that would affect the protagonist..."
"Actually considering the fact that his talent has already been graded as SSS, it shouldn't really be a problem if I take it right?"
Hmmm, I just realized it now, but didn't I create a total cheat character?
Setting the [Seed of limit] aside, I gave him the highest possible talent and also gave him the best equipment. Isn't this a little bit too unfair?
Now that I was in the novel, I could kind of see what the readers were saying about the protagonist being a bit too overpowered.
"Hmmm, yup I need to rebalance the protagonist"
Definitely not an excuse that I made up so that I could get some of the equipment for myself...
Putting my shoes on and taking the keys to my room, which were left at the entrance of the apartment, I left the room
"Even if the protagonist doesn't take the [seed of limit] he would be able to exceed his limit thanks to other cheat items I've given him, so I guess it's fine if I take it"
From the very first moment I was reincarnated, I had decided, I will live how I want to.
Screw 'Efforts never betray'
Only a cheat like me who knows future events and where the cheat items were, could become successful.
...
Setting my foot outside of the lock, I felt a nice gentle breeze pass by me.
"Fuuu...how refreshing!"
Stretching my arms, I headed towards the train station.
The academy should be starting in a week so I have to find any means possible to increase my stats during that one week. I believe at this point the MC was already rank E borderline D, which was leagues above a rank G like me. So I've got to use this week well in hopes of catching up with the protagonist a little bit.
Right now, my first priority was getting the [Seed of limit]. By removing my limiter not only will I be able to reach greater heights, but I'll also be able to train faster. That was because the closer one gets to their limit the slower their training becomes. Hence why the higher your potential was, the greater your training speed was.
In order for me to find the [Seed of limit, I must head towards the Clayton Ridge in the outskirt of Ashton city, the city that I was currently in, which was also known as the capital of humanity.
After the first cataclysm, the world map completely changed. Before earth was a huge body of water with separate continents spread across it, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania. But after the cataclysm, all continents merged into one creating one large continent.
Then the second cataclysm occurred, and the territory which humanity occupied became smaller and smaller until the power balance finally stabilized at a ratio of 3/8 demons, 3/8 fantasia, and 2/8 humanity.
Currently, humanity occupied the east side of the newfound continent, right where Asia used to be. New infrastructures and cities were built, and among all the cities that were built, five cities stood out from the rest. Conviction city, Dromeda city, Lewington city, Park city, and lastly Ashton city, the current human capital.
Now, why were these cities so important? It's because they were humanity's last safeguard.
Each city safeguards the borders of the human territory from potential invasions and threats coming from demons and other races.
Conviction city stood at the very north of the human border, and safeguards humanity against the potential threat coming from the orcs, who were a war-driven species. Brutus the current leader of the orcs was especially fearsome, as he was regarded as the 'one-man general' in the battled field. His fearsome display of strength may come as a shock to many people as they each become flabbergasted at his cruel and fearsome strength.
Dromeda city safeguards the western area which was right at the edge of the demon territory and the elven territory. fortunately, the elves, unlike the orcs, were not a war-oriented race, hence the only source of worry were the demons. But even if the elves don't participate in the war, the demon's fearsome strength was leaving Dromeda on their wit's end.
Lewington city safeguarded the southern area of the human territory and protects against demons coming from the south. Like Dromeda, they were constantly harassed by demons, but unlike there, it was in a far more dire situation compared to Dromeda.
Dromeda borders with the elven territory, and as a result, the demons were forced to split their forces to protect themselves from potential ambushes from the elves, easing the burden they face when fighting against the demons.
In Lewington however, the situation was much much worse. There were no elves, no orcs, and no dwarfs. There was no other faction nearby that would cause the demons to split their forces. Therefore when demons invade, Lewington city faces the full grunt of the demons, causing large amounts of resources to be wasted every year.
Park City on the other hand was located on the east side and compared to the previous cities it had one noticeable difference, and that was the fact that it directly faced the sea. That was...it had to fend off against sea creatures.
After the second cataclysm due to the sudden burst in mana coming from the otherworlds, animals started going into a frenzy. At first, it seemed like they had completely lost their minds, but later after a few days, changes started happing. The most noticeable difference would be their insane growth in height and extreme bloodthirst. What could've been your cute little puppy an hour ago, turned into a demonic beast that would eat you whole in just a couple of minutes. Luckily, it seemed that they did not gain any intelligence, hence they were not necessarily a threat as long as they were left alone.
Lastly, there was Ashton city, the center of humanity. The last barrier that protects humanity against any outside threats. The most secure location available and the area where the Lock resided. The ultimate training academy that was known to mankind, created for the sole purpose of creating ultimate heroes who will lead the charge to reclaim Earth.
The lock was a huge facility that spammed over kilometers and boasted top-end training facilities. It had over 20,000 dorm rooms, 800 training facilities, 1,000 classrooms, and 2,000 highly trained professionals and teachers to tend to the students catering.
There were many privileges in being a student from the Lock, and one of them was the fact that you could gain access to all public transportations for free like how I was doing right now.
"Here's my card"
Passing my student card to the lady in the ticket office, I checked the map of the station
"Oh? you are a student from the lock?"
Glancing at my card in surprise, the ticket lady sat upright and carefully looked at me.
"Yes"
"Where to?"
"Station 24 near the Clayton ridge please"
Glancing up and down, the ticket lady suddenly smiled at me and handed me my student card as well as a ticket.
"I see, have a safe trip!"
"Thank you"
Like that, I boarded the air train to the Clayton ridge
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What made air trains so special was the fact that they levitated in the air, and produced almost no sound throughout the whole journey making them a convenient means of transportation.
Thanks to its smooth aerodynamic design, air trains produced low drag, which in turn allowed them to conserve energy and reach speeds of up to 600km/h.
As I looked at the interior of the train, I couldn't help but be impressed.
Maybe it was because I got special treatment, but the area I was designated to had a private desk and a snack bar for me to freely use.
Lazily stretching my back, I comfortably sat down in my designated seat and looked outside the window.
Perhaps it was because it was still summer but, even though it was almost 9.p.m the sunlight still brightly lit the surroundings.
The station which was moderately packed was a scene that you would've only been able to see if you were inside of a movie.
Rows of platforms stood next to each other, and every couple of minutes you could see air trains departing, and new ones taking over the empty spaces left by them. The air trains, which were levitating from the ground were connected to long metal wires that stretched all the way to the horizon and with their constantly producing magnetic field, allowed air trains to swiftly move unobstructed.
- We will be departing soon, please be seated
-Clank!
A beautiful voice entered my ears, and the doors automatically shut. Suddenly underneath me, I felt a strange pushing sensation, similar to when a plane was taking off, and gradually the air train floated in the air.
A couple of seconds after levitating in the air, the train gradually picked up its speed and left the station.
- Next stop, Station 15 Colington park
Staring at the constantly changing scenery before me, I sank into deep thought.
Right now I was on my way towards the Clayton ridge to collect the [Seed of limit, but if I want to remotely come close to the protagonist's level, then I must also get my hands on a sword art.
A sword art, or more specifically a martial manual, were manuals that were developed since the beginning of the second cataclysm and consisted of martial techniques that had existed since ancient times. With the addition of mana, ancient martial techniques which were long forgotten were restructured and remodeled to take into account the mana that lingered in the atmosphere, and shockingly enough the techniques that were once deemed as useless transformed into some of the most powerful moves that could be performed by a human.
Since the discovery of the adaptability that martial techniques had regarding the control and use of mana, martial manuals suddenly became extremely coveted and as a result, they slowly started disappearing from the public view due to government and powerful individuals intervention.
The government primarily did it to prevent the manuals from landing in the wrong hands, but with regards to the powerful individuals, it was more of a power move to monopolize the manuals to themselves.
Martial manuals were separated into five grades, 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars, and finally 5 stars, with 1 star being the lowest grade and 5 stars being the highest grade possible.
Each grade was determined by how powerful the art became upon mastery, and the difference between each grade was fairly substantial, just like the difference between a person's rank.
When choosing a manual, the most important thing was not the grade but whether the manual was compatible with you.
If you had a talent for swordsmanship but practiced a spear-related manual, chances were that regardless of how high the grade of the manual was, you would never be able to fully unleash the full potential of the manual.
Looking at my status, I couldn't help but turn my attention towards my profession section [Swordsmanship lvl.1]
Status=
Name : Ren Dover
Rank : G
Strength : G
Agility : G
Stamina : G-
Intelligence : G
Mana Capacity : G
Luck : E
Charm : G-
-- Profession : [Swordsmanship lvl.1]
I don't know whether this was a coincidence or not, but the protagonist also has a talent for swordsmanship. Which in hindsight was advantageous for me as I know every cheat skill he gets for his swordsmanship profession.
In particular, a certain sword art catches my interest.
The [Keiki style] swords art.
When I was coming up with different sword arts to give to the protagonist, I came up with three different styles. The [Keiki style, the [Levisha style, and the [Gravar style, which were all 5-star manuals.
The [Keiki style, the one that interests me the most, was a sword's art that required an inhuman level of speed when drawing a sword.
In the setting I created, it was a sword art that Grandmaster Toshimoto Keiki created. He was a Japanese sword practitioner who later became famous for his unrivaled strength. He was also one of the first humans to awaken mana during the second phase of the cataclysm.
As Grandmaster Keiki was already a respected swordsman even before the second cataclysm, when mana made its way into the world, once he awakened, his human restraint was severed, resulting in the creation of the [Keiki style]. An incredibly powerful sword art where the user would draw the sword from the scabbard so quick that by the time the opponent feels danger he/she was already dead. It was a one-draw one kill type of style.
Because it was a one-draw one kill type of style, its flaw was fairly obvious. That was...you no longer hold the advantage over the opponent once they successfully defended the first attack.
The second style was the [Levisha style]. Grandmaster Levisha who also awakened at the same time as Grandmaster Keiki created his own unique sword art.
Unlike the [Keiki style, the [Levisha style] operated differently. That was...it was a much more beautiful sword art. When writing the novel I remembered describing it as a sword's art that would mesmerize anyone who caught sight of the art. Though it was an extremely beautiful sword art, you should by no means underestimate it, as it was just as deadly as it was beautiful.
Probably the most balanced swords art out of the three, but in terms of offense it was not as good as both the [Keiki style] and the [Gravar style] who specialized in offense
Lastly the [Gravar style]. The most infamous swords art of the two. To call it a sword art was, by all means, a compliment. No fancy swing, no fancy move, It relied just purely on raw physical strength that overwhelmed every opponent that came across it. It was a series of random swings with no foundation behind them, but at the same time because of the user's enormous strength, it allowed them to easily overwhelm the opponent.
Why was it infamous? simple, because anyone who practiced the swords art would find themselves suffering unbearable pain. In order for one to train the [Gravar style, the requirement was to reforge the human body by restructuring the flesh and bones within the human body to better suit the art style. It was a gruesome and painful procedure that could mentally break down anyone who tried practicing it.
Although there was a high chance of a mental breakdown, if you managed to practice the [Gravar style] successfully, you were basically guaranteed inhuman strength that would make anyone fear you.
Going back as to why I was interested in the [Keiki style] with respect to the other two arts. There were actually two main reasons.
One was that personally, my favorite art out of the three was the [Keiki style]. I mean why wouldn't it be? Imagine facing hundreds of opponents, when suddenly all their heads fall off with you looking like you hadn't done anything. Wasn't that totally badass?
Secondly, I couldn't possibly take the [Levisha style] as it belonged to the protagonist. I couldn't be changing the scenario too much, or else my dream of a peaceful life would go to waste. Also, the [Gravar style] was far too brutal for me to even bother learning it. I am by no means a masochist.
At first, when writing the novel I wanted the protagonist to practice the [Keiki style, but the more I wrote the more I figured it did not match his character, and thus I discarded the [Keiki style]
Fortunately, by some sort of twist of fate, I am now inside my own novel and could now wash away my regrets and practice the [Keiki style]. Moreover, I don't have to worry about the repercussions of learning the sword's art, as me learning it won't affect the plotline of the novel.
I decided to learn the [Keiki style] right after I collecting the [Seed of limit]. Thankfully, the location of where the sword art was located was not that far off from the Clayton ridge, and so by the end of the week, I should be able to have both the [seed of limit] and the [Keiki style].
- Next stop, Station 24 Clayton ridge
Waking me up from my deep thoughts, was a beautiful voice coming from the train speaker.
Taking a glimpse outside the window, I could see huge mountains in the distance.
As the tectonic plates shifted, it caused continents to clash against each other resulting in huge mountains and ridges suddenly appear across the world.
The current Clayton ridge was the result and aftermath of Japan hitting the east side of china causing the ground to be elevated and creating a chain of mountains.
Standing below the huge majestic mountains and admiring the sight, I couldn't help but sigh
"This really isn't a novel anymore..."
It all still feels unreal to me. As the creator of the novel, I always have this feeling of incredulity. It all feels fake. The buildings, the people, the map, everything was just as I had written in the novel. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Sometimes I wonder if this was all fruit of my imagination, and I was in a coma somewhere dreaming of this. But...
Breathing the fresh air, and smelling the sharp, sweet, and refreshing smell coming from the pine trees before me, I could almost be certain that everything before me was real.
With renewed vigor, I start my climb up the mountain.
...
"Huff...Huff..."
The terrain was rougher than I expected, making it hard for me to collect my breath as I move up the mountain. I have to stop a couple of times to check my bearing, as there was no path for me to directly follow.
Three hours had already passed since my journey up the mountains, and although my breathing was a bit rough, I wasn't that tired. Well...considering the fact that I had ready condensed mana inside of my body, It really shouldn't come as a surprise that I managed to last this long.
Keep in mind that if a normal human with no mana concentration in their body were to climb this mountain, they would by no means reach the same point as me. Then again, I really shouldn't compare myself with normal humans, since anyone in the academy would last much longer than me.
Right now I was making my way towards the third highest peak, where a small cave containing the [Seed of limit] resided.
Because I only spent a couple of sentences describing where to find the [seed of limit, I don't know the exact location of the cave. I only know that it's on the third highest peak of the Clayton ridge.
Knowing that looking for the cave was almost like looking for a needle in a haystack, I've already mentally prepared myself for a long arduous search. Hopefully, I won't waste too much time, else I might be spending days here, which I simply couldn't afford to do.
Just as I had arrived below the third highest peak I squinted my eyes. I could already see the sun trying to hide itself behind the mountains reducing my visibility considerably.
Clenching my fist I decided to do one last struggle and climb my way towards the third peak.
This was a really reckless decision on my part as I would be directly climbing the mountain, unlike before where I just hiked.
Moreover, because the sun was setting and my range of visibility was decreasing by the minute it made it even harder for me to climb up the mountain as a slight slip could cost me my life.
Climbing the mountain at this time was totally reckless, but it's not like the protagonist was waiting for me to catch up to him, and thus I steeled my mind and slowly climbed up the mountain.
Feeling the cold rock in between my hand, I increased the grip of my hands and carefully moved up the mountain. If I don't manage to find the cave soon, I would probably be forced to camp somewhere on top of the mountain, which wasn't exactly ideal.
Halfway up the mountain, and 2 hours into my climb, I could already feel my hands becoming numb from the constant climbing. The sun, which had set long ago only left endless darkness making it impossible for me to see more than a couple of meters ahead of me.
As the nights progressed the cold kicked in, further adding to the difficulty of the climb. It was already hard to climb before, but now things got even harder. Not to mention that my whole body started aching like crazy.
Gritting my teeth I endured the stinging pain coming from my arms and continued my way up.
Inserting my feet into a narrow gap, I pause and looked up.
Although it was dark I could still see a couple of meters ahead of me. Squinting my eyes, I saw a small protruding rock coming from the top left of my view. Remembering a similar description from my novel, my eyes lit up and I forced my body to climb up near the rock.
Placing my hand on top of the rock and applying some pressure, I was able to confirm that this was the right place as a small gap appeared behind the rock.
Applying a little bit more pressure, I move the rock further to the side allowing me to see what's right behind the rock.
"Bingo!"
Smiling widely, I used all my strength and pushed the rock outwards causing it to fall down, opening a small gap for which a single person could enter.
-Bang!
After 10 seconds of free fall, a large sound could be heard from below the mountain sending shivers down my spine.
"Had that been me, I would've likely turned into an omelet if anything else..."
Turning my attention back to the cave, I slowly pushed my body inside the small gap. As I entered the small hole, I crawled my way forward for a couple of meters until a wide opening appeared before me.
Increasing my pace, I enter the cave.
As soon as I entered the cave I felt all the energy drain out of my body, causing me to weakly slump on the ground. I was exhausted, both physically and mentally. From the moment I entered the Clayton ridge to the moment I reached the cave, all I did was non-stop physical work.
I hiked non-stop for 3-4 hours and then climbed three quarters up the third peak. If it wasn't for the fact that I had already awakened by the time I reincarnated into the novel, I would've already been exhausted halfway through the hike.
Let me be clear. I was also extremely lucky throughout the journey. That was, I did not encounter a single animal. Since most animals who were exposed to mana turned berserk, I expected some kind of encounter against one of such animals in the mountain, but fortunately for me, I had come prepared as I brought a low-grade beast repellant that warded away any beast below G-rank.
Thus thanks to the repellant I encountered zero beasts which in turn helped me preserve some of my energy, allowing me to find this place faster.
Leaning against the wall of the cave, I slowly regained some of my energy. Glancing around, all I could see was a huge cave that I couldn't see the end of.
Smiling to myself I got up and moved towards the depth of the cave
"It's about time I upgrade myself..."
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"Haaah..."
Letting out a long breath I dazedly stared at the scenery presented before me.
"I expected something out of the norm, but this..."
'Overwhelmed' would be the perfect word to describe the sensation I was feeling at the moment.
A huge towering tree stood in front of me. Its large roots deeply penetrated the hard rock, almost as if it was made of clay, and its lush green leaves made one wonder if there really was no sunlight here.
Right on the top of the tree was a pale red fruit that looked extremely succulent. It resembled a peach, but contrarily to a regular peach, it had a yellow glow enveloping it making it clear that it wasn't just your regular peach that you could get from the supermarket.
Taking a deep breath I looked directly at the fruit that contained the [Seed of limit] with burning desire.
'This is it...once I get my hands on the fruit, my future will change entirely.'
I thought as my eyes couldn't detach themselves from the pale red fruit that sat on top of the tree.
I will no longer be some good-for-nothing author who lazes around his house, raging at his own readers.
No
Instead of writing other's stories, I will be writing my own, and...
Glancing at the fruit above me, I raise my hand and slowly clench it
"It all starts from that fruit"
...
Getting the fruit wasn't actually that hard.
In the first place, it was supposed to be an accidental find by the protagonist for when he explored the Clayton ridge during his elective. Moreover, if I don't remember incorrectly, I don't think the protagonist even got his hands on the fruit, as by the time he came the only thing he found was the [Seed of limit].
I kind of feel guilty for saying this, but...
When I was writing this part of the novel, I totally forgot to add a trial.
You know...like the obstacle the protagonist needed to overcome in order to boost his own power.
If this was a typical novel, there should've been a guardian protecting the fruit, or at least some sort of defensive mechanism that made it hard for the protagonist to easily claim the fruit, but...I just couldn't bring myself to write one, as this would've been considered in a certain sense a small upgrade for the protagonist.
The main purpose was to speed up the protagonist's training by removing his limiter, thus I didn't really add any trial. This lazy me did it so that I could finish the novel faster, as at that point I was already bored of the novel.
But now that I am holding the fruit in my hands, I realized how complacent and stupid I was.
I mean, this was a total cheat item!
No wonder the readers started getting mad at me...
I was totally over-gearing the protagonist. Moreover, the [Seed of limit] was essentially a guaranteed ticket to stardom, as it severed the restraint a human would have on their capabilities.
Actually...that may not necessarily be true.
Although the [Seed of limit] could be considered a cheat item, it wasn't necessarily that overpowered.
Although it removed one's limit, it did not mean that it improved one's talent.
In actuality, a person's talent remains the same, and apart from the fact that one would have no limit and their training speed increased, the [Seed of limit] did not help in regards to actual talent.
For example, if a person who has no talent in regards to fighting suddenly takes the seed of limit, they will not suddenly turn into some sort of god of war. No, if such an item were to actually exist, I might as well just drop the novel and be done with my day.
I mean, who would bother reading a novel where the protagonist doesn't overcome any hurdles and just bulldozes his way to the top?
Fortunately, I wasn't dumb enough to create such an item.
With the [Seed of limit] one could only remove their rank cap, but other than just faster-training speed the [Seed of limit] didn't do much. Moreover, even if a talentless person took the [Seed of limit] they could at most train their stats to be absurdly strong, but if they were to face someone just as strong as they were then they would instantly be defeated.
Still, imagine if the seed landed in the hands of a talented individual that wasn't the main protagonist...Just the thought sends me shivers.
Forcefully pushing down my feelings of guilt, I carefully observed the fruit.
Its pale red color added with its holy-like glow that was enveloping it, made it seem like I was holding a fruit straight out from heaven.
Swallowing the saliva that was stuck inside of my throat, I gently open my mouth and took a small bite out of the fruit.
Instantly an overwhelming sweetness enveloped my taste buds, making them dance with joy. The juices coming from the fruit overflowed inside of my mouth, and the succulent taste coming from the fruit made me momentarily forget everything around me.
Shortly after gulping the first bite of the fruit, I could feel my body changing. My eyes became sharper, my head became clearer and my muscles became more explosive.
I could feel myself slowly becoming stronger
Glancing at my status, I noticed my stats changing with every passing second and as I felt and saw myself change, a wave of euphoria washed over me, prompting me to greedily eat the fruit before me.
The more I ate the more I felt every fiber of my body becoming sturdier and stronger.
Status=
Name : Ren Dover
Rank : G
Strength : G
Agility : G
Stamina : G
Intelligence : G
Mana capacity : G
Luck : E
Charm : G-
-- Profession : [Swordsmanship lvl.1]
"Haa..."
Using my shirt to wipe away the juices that lingered around my mouth, I took a good look at my status window.
As I looked at my status window I couldn't help but look at my charm stats...
Why wasn't my charm increasing?
I know that I wasn't particularly handsome but, I mean all stats except for Luck which was already quite high increased a notch or two. Why couldn't you just spare a couple of points on my charm?
Was I destined to be a virgin?
-Slap!
Slapping my cheeks to forcefully clear my dark thoughts away, I stared at my hands
A small brown seed nestled in between my hands.
"Is this the [Seed of limit]?"
Now that I paid close attention to it, I really couldn't determine the difference between this seed and any other seed that could've been both from a supermarket.
It was neither too big nor too small, just about the size of a coin and if it weren't for the fact that it came from the holy like fruit, I would've in no way have been able to tell this was the [Seed of limit].
I mean it looked so normal that I wouldn't be surprised if someone would just laugh at me if I were to tell them this was a cheat item.
But of course, since I am the author, I know that this normal-looking seed is in fact the key to my future.
I did mention this before, but the protagonist never actually ate the fruit. Why? Because he never had a chance in the first place...
In the original plot, the protagonist and his classmates would go on an elective in the Clayton ridge.
During the excursion, the first to find this place wasn't the protagonist, but the protagonist's rival. Once the rival found the tree containing the fruit, he immediately ate the fruit and discarded the normal-looking seed, which was later found by the protagonist who by sheer luck managed to discover its effect and ate it.
Yes, I know. I was currently fully reflecting on myself. The more time I spend in this world the more I realize how depressing my writing was...
Now that I think about it, since I ate the fruit I kind of prevented the rival from upgrading himself.
...this wasn't good.
The rival was vital to the plot. He was one of the reasons why the protagonist managed to become so strong. Me indirectly affecting his growth is also indirectly affecting the protagonist's growth
Mhmm...I guess I'll make it up to them later
Since I've already done the deed, I couldn't really turn back time and undo what I did. Instead of worrying about it now, I'll just do what I was best at...and that was leaving problems for later.
I mean I'll just owe them one later.
Taking a deep breath, I carefully scrutinized the seed in my hand and slowly placed the seed at the top of my tongue.
-Gulp!
Swallowing the seed, I sat down on the ground and waited for the [Seed of limit] to kick in. Then...
1 minute passed
2 minute passed
5 minutes passed
10 minutes passed, and still, nothing happened.
Just when I was about to think that something was wrong, an overflowing amount of energy came crashing down my body.
It felt as if a dam had burst, making my veins and body withstand the grunt of the water coming escaping out of the dam.
'Excruciating' would have been the best word to describe how I was feeling, as I felt an indescribable pain wash over my body. The pain was so intense that no words nor screams escaped from my mouth. It felt as if all my bones and veins shattered at once.
The last thing I saw before I passed out was the humongous tree inside of the cave slowly withering away.
"Haa...I really am reckless"
...
I don't know how much time had passed since I passed out, but that didn't really matter at the moment.
My body ached all over making it hard for me to stand. Collecting myself, I slowly reached out for my bag's front pocket from which I took out a small rectangular tablet.
Tapping on the screen a 3D holographic image of myself popped up.
I was still not used to the holographic thing and all, hence whenever the holographic data pops up in front of me, I flinch every time.
Swiping right, I unlocked the tablet and checked the date.
Time : 06 : 47 Date : 07/09/2055
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Closing the tablet I sighed in relief. Only three hours had passed since I passed out. Fortunately for me I did not pass out for days.
If on the unfortunate occasion that I did not manage to wake up prior to the opening of the academy, I would've been in big trouble.
Normally I wouldn't have cared about skipping classes as I don't want to repeat what I've been through back in high school, but since I designed the lock I already know how strict the instructors were. Especially to those who were not highly ranked, like me. They were merely treated us like dispensable people who will later die on the frontlines. Hence if you get on the bad side of some professors, it'd be best if you pack up, as you will probably never be able to graduate from there.
This was the last thing I wanted, as there were so many things I needed to accomplish in the 'Lock' before I could safely go outside of the human territory.
Firstly I needed to participate in a couple of events that will happen inside of the lock.
But wouldn't participation affect the plotline? Of course, it would, but because I don't know whether my reincarnation has had any effect on the plot of the story, I will need to personally check myself and see if the storyline was still the same as what I wrote.
So far everything seemed to be the same, but if by chance my reincarnation has had a butterfly effect on the story it could create disastrous consequences. So... taking this into consideration I decided to step in and help in the case that something deviates from the plotline.
Secondly, as the lock was the foremost academy in developing heroes in the entire humanity, it would be a total loss for me to miss it. I mean If I want to become strong enough to survive the third cataclysm, I should definitely not miss the chance that was presented to me. With their state-of-the-art facilities, it would take no time for me to become strong enough to live comfortably on my own.
But before I do that, I must first get my hands on the sword art so that I don't get kicked out on my first year due to my lack of talent.
Just like any regular academy if you don't pass the year you get held back a year. Thus if I don't get my hands on the [Keiki style, even with my limits broken thanks to the [Seed of limit, I would by no means be guaranteed to pass the first year. It's not like I could become super strong immediately. Without effort and time, I couldn't catch up to the protagonist and his companions.
Checking my status I noticed that after having consumed the [Seed of limit] my stats did not increase. Well, I'd be surprised if it did, as the [Seed of limit] was an item primarily focused on breaking the level cap of a user, unlike the fruit that focused on increasing the stats.
But the fact that I am no longer bound by the laws of this world, I could freely train as much as I want to without worrying about reaching a bottleneck.
...
It actually took me longer than expected to get out of the cave. Precisely 2 hours after I woke up I managed to safely get out of the cave. It wasn't because I couldn't find the exit, no that part was actually easy, but it was the fact that my body refused to listen to me. I could somehow move my arms but it was extremely stiff.
For a solid hour, I had to slowly tense my muscles starting from my fingers down to my toes. This was because all my muscles refused to listen to me. It felt as if the body which I had just gotten used to became foreign again, almost like when I just reincarnated in this body.
"Haa...finally some fresh air"
Taking a deep breath outside I felt my body slowly relax, helping me regain some of my energy.
The air outside was incomparably different compared to the air inside of the cave, which was extremely stuffy.
Staring towards the east with my improved vision, I could catch a glimpse of the huge megacity on the horizon. The tall skyscrapers and the ever-moving sky trains that operated non-stop made the city look extremely lively.
"Beautiful..."
Was the only word that I could mutter as I stared at Ashton city.
It's truly fascinating how despite humanity's situation they managed to unite and build such a beautiful city. And now this beautiful city that I was staring at was my new home.
"Alright!"
With renowned vigor, I immediately head down the mountains.
It's about time I collected the [Keiki style]
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If nothing had changed then the sword art should be located a couple of kilometers behind the Clayton ridge.
It took me 5 hours to hike all the way down the mountain, and a further 10 hours to reach the approximate area of where the sword art was located.
A large forest that spammed over several kilometers appeared before my view, and as I reached the entrance of the forest, without even thinking twice I chose to enter.
Although I was exhausted from constantly moving all day, I decided to grit my teeth and continue my journey.
Some might say I was too impatient with regards to how I was neglecting my body in search of cheat items, but I beg to differ. Not only was I reincarnated inside a world where the weak were prey to the strong, but in the near future, if one was not strong enough, only death awaited them.
If I want to be strong enough in hopes to overcome the certain death flags that awaited me, my only option was to increase my strength as much as possible.
Every minute that I saved was a minute I could use to train myself.
Despite being dark outside my vision was fairly unaffected, partly due to my improved body condition which was all due to the miraculous fruit I had previously eaten. The only problem was the fact that I was in the middle of a forest. So even if my visibility was clear it was still hard to make out what was in front of me.
"If I don't remember wrong there should be a river nearby"
My current goal as of now was to look out for a river that directly flowed from the highest peak of the Clayton ridge.
'For thy that seek the way of the sword follow the road flowing through the highest peak'
When the protagonist was clearing a dungeon he stumbled across three ancient scrolls that were neatly laid next to each other, and the content of one of the scrolls had those precise words inscribed on them.
At first, the protagonist didn't understand the meaning of the words in the scroll, but eventually with the aid of one of his companions he managed to figure out the meaning of those words. Sadly by the time he had figured out what the contents of the scroll were about, it was already too late as the protagonist had already learned the [Levisha style] sword art.
But this was perfectly fine with me as I really liked the [Keiki style]
In simple terms, the scroll was telling the protagonist to follow the river coming from the highest peak of the Clayton ridge. The word 'road' accompanied by 'flowed' referred to a river and 'highest peak' referred to the highest mountain within the human territory which was in the Clayton ridge.
And right now I was looking for that exact river.
It didn't take long for me to find the river, but by the time I found it I was really exhausted. I think I've been at it for more than 18 hours at this point. No matter how much I wanted to continue, my body would just refuse to listen to me, and thus l was left with no choice but to camp near the river.
These past two days could probably add up to the total amount of exercise I've done in the last decade of my life. Never before had I done this much physical activity, even if I had condensed mana and my body could keep up, I don't think the same could be said for my mental state...as I felt my thought process diminish with every passing second I continued moving.
The first thing I did once I arrived at the river was to immediately refill my water bottle. I have been drinking moderately to save water, but it was a needless worry.
Title : Compressed water bottle
Rank : (G)
Description : Water bottle with the ability to store up to 50 liters of water without affecting the weight
I mean, this water bottle could store up to 50 liters of water.
Wasn't that totally awesome?
Before leaving for the Clayton ridge, I picked up this little baby at the train station, and I couldn't say I was dissatisfied with it.
Not only could it hold up to 50 liters of water, but thanks to its advanced technology it could also reduce the weight of the contents by a factor of 10, meaning that a filled water bottle would only weigh 5kg.
Well, that last feature was a must as...I mean what was the point of carrying a bottle that could hold up to 50 liters of water when you couldn't even hold it?
The thing that most shocked me about the water bottle wasn't its amazing technology, no it was actually its price.
It only cost me 20 U.
The U was the currency that was used in this world and it stood for Union, which was the current association overlooking humanity, besides the central government that was an alliance between the biggest nations from before the second cataclysm began.
The union was currently the foremost organization in the human domain, which only the central government could control.
Even the biggest guilds operating do not dare challenge the authority of the union as it would spell permanent doom if they clashed against them. The union has the highest number of S-ranked heroes at its disposal making it a behemoth that stood at the peak of humanity.
What makes the Union especially fearsome was not the fact that they had the most amount of S-ranked Heroes at their disposal.
No
It was their leaders.
The 'seven heads of the Union'
Each with the power that far surpasses S rank, breaking through to the legendary SS rank.
Currently, there only exist 15 SS rank Heroes in the human domain, and out of all of them, 7 are part of the Union, making the Union the main powerhouse in the human domain.
Each head was a single-digit ranker in the Hero ranking, which depicts the strongest members of humanity.
The Hero system was a system created by the central government and ranks an individual based on their achievements and strength.
This was a system that was created with the purpose of motivating individuals to become stronger, as not only does this bring glory to their name, but appropriate monetary compensation was given every year to top-ranking Heroes.
Since the second cataclysm, humanity has been split into two factions Heroes, and villains.
Where the villains were individuals that were categorized based on the crimes they had committed.
The central government has placed a bounty on the head of each villain, and the reward increases as the rank of the villain increases.
But to truly be characterized as a villain, an individual must sign a pact with a demon. That was a pledge to devote their lives to the demons, in which the demon in return grants them part of their power.
As demons were currently in a standoff against multiple races, in order to weaken their opponents they resorted to methods that created internal strife, and by giving power to individuals who were willing to follow their command for the sake of power, they successfully managed to continuously weaken their enemies.
This formula which has worked for eons allowed demons to propel themselves into becoming a dominant race across the universe.
Facing the constant pressure from the demons both externally and internally, only an organization such as the Union could barely keep the power balance among humanity in check.
Currently, I had 250 U with me, but if I needed more money I could just ask my parents.
Forgot to say this but when I was reincarnated in this world I found out that I had a mother a father and a little sister who was only two years old. More importantly, apparently, my father was the guild master of a medium-small sized guild called 'Galxicus'.
Because I have no recollection of ever including this guild in my novel, it could only mean two things. It was either too insignificant to the plotline, or that my reincarnation has had a butterfly effect on the story and thus created Galxicus. I honestly prefer the first option as the second option would mean that some events will deviate from the story which brings an element of uncertainty to the story that I know.
Letting out a sigh I take out a small cube from my bag. I then proceeded to press a small button on top of the cube and threw it on the ground.
-Sham!
Immediately the cube enlarged into a large blue tent that was around the size of one room.
Watching the cube automatically unfold before my eyes I couldn't help but let out a gasp of amazement.
Title : Compressed tent
Rank : (G)
Description : Using the skin of a Blood curling bat, a 2 meters squared tent can be erected with a single press of a button.
It's so cool.
If I had this stuff back in the world I lived in I would totally go camping. I mean I could literally set up the tent in seconds without going through the trouble of actually setting the tent.
Looking inside the tent I couldn't help but nod in satisfaction. It was empty but it was really spacious. It could totally fit in more than five people, and more if we were to really push it. Moreover, since it was made from the skin of a blood-curling bat a G-ranked beast, it was far more durable than normal plastic and some could say it was comparable to some metals in terms of durability, making it an extremely good tent.
Taking out my sleeping equipment, I comfortably lay inside the tent and closed my eyes. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep within a couple of seconds of me laying down.
The next day after packing up my stuff and eating breakfast in the form of an energy bar, I continued my journey towards the 5-star martial manual by walking alongside the river.
The good news was that I knew what I was looking for as I proceeded forwards. The bad news, on the other hand, was that I had no idea how long I needed to walk before finding what I was looking for.
I could only lament at myself for being lazy. When I was writing the traveling scenes I completely left out the important information such as how long the protagonist walked or sometimes I even skipped that all together and just made the protagonist arrive at the destination by omitting his journey.
Thus even if there was a cheat item I really want to get, I wouldn't even know where to look as my lazy self did not write where the place was. I only wrote the general area. But that was also useless because some areas were so big that it would take me years to explore. Moreover, I also excluded the dangers lurking around the area, making the chances of finding the cheat item even slimmer.
You couldn't really blame me though. I mean who'd expects themselves to suddenly be thrown inside of their own novel? Plus, I skipped the traveling scenes because they were simply too boring.
Stopping myself I stared at a strange rock before me. The rock was oddly shaped and its outline resembled that of a samurai that held a sword on top of its head. I say resembled, but it was currently covered under moss and vines, making so that if one did not look carefully they would've never been able to spot this.
Of course, I knew why it looked that way, as it wasn't actually a rock but a statue in memory of grandmaster Keiki.
As time passed the statue slowly deteriorated making it look like an oddly shaped rock to anyone who would pass by.
Sitting down I lay a small cloth and sat on it.
"And now we just wait"
What I was waiting for was for the sun to set, as only when the sun sets would I know exactly where to go. The statue was made by Grandmaster Keiki back when he was still alive and was designed so that every sunset would point where his tomb remained.
From this point on I was strictly following what I wrote about how to find the tomb of grandmaster Keiki.
In the first place the protagonist never actually bothered coming here, as he didn't choose the [Keiki style] but the [Levisha style, making this the first time anyone actually came here.
It didn't take long for the sun to finally start to set, and precisely when the sun moved right above the statue that a golden line emerged from the tip of the sword. Looking at where the line went, I could approximately determine that it was pointing northwest towards what seemed to be a large but inconspicuous tree far off in the distance.
"Bingo!"
Smiling widely I immediately took a mental note of the tree and made a run for it.
It takes approximately 150 to 200 seconds for the sun to set. That means that I only had that little amount of time to run from the statue to the tree or at least close to the tree which was at least a kilometer away from where I was.
If I didn't make it close to the tree by the time the sun sets, I would easily lose sight of the tree as apart from being slightly larger than any other tree, it looked exactly the same as any other tree in the area.
If not for the statue directly pointing at the three, I would've never been able to know where to go.
"Huff, Huff, Huff"
Arriving with heavy breathes I slumped down in front of the tree.
I was totally exhausted. I sprinted at full speed in a rough terrain until I made it in front of the tree.
By the time I had arrived the sun had already set, but I didn't care as I had already reached my objective
"Now what should I do?"
Even though I was the author I was totally clueless in regards to what I should do next as I had never written a scene where the protagonist went to grandmaster Keiki's tomb. I didn't even know if there were any traps or trials inside of the tomb.
The only thing I knew was that the tomb was somewhere near this tree in front of me.
Carefully looking around the tree, I notice a root that stuck out from the ground. Placing my hands on it I noticed that it was fairly loose compared to the other roots that were firmly etched on the ground.
Without a second thought, I immediately pulled the root with all my power
-Snap!
With a loud sound, the root directly ripped off from the ground, revealing a small hole that could fit a single person.
Throwing the root to the side, I immediately made my way inside of the small hole.
The first thing I noticed when I entered the hole was the everything above the tree was hollow, and a single rope dangled from the top of the tree.
-Gulp
Following my line of sight, I involuntarily gulped as I noticed the rope that was dangling from the top of the tree going all the way down inside of a pitch-black bottomless hole in the middle of the ground.
Looking down the hole I couldn't help but feel cold sweat drip from my back, as it truly did look like there was no end to the hole.
Gathering up my courage I held tightly onto the rope and slowly made my descent down the hole.
1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 5 hours, by the time my hands were numb, I had lost count of how long I had been going down the rope.
My arms and my core at this point were starting to burn from the pain of continuously going down the rope, and before I knew it, my mental state was also degrading.
Still, regardless of how much I was suffering I endured the pain and continued making my way down the hole.
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"Gasp...Gasp...Gasp"
With bloodshot eyes, I continued going down the rope.
I don't know how long I had been down here, but I presume at least two days had passed since I started going down.
My hands which were riddled with blisters started bleeding all over the rope leaving behind a red trail during my descent. My muscles spasmed every minute making me almost lose grip of the rope on a couple of occasions.
It felt as if I had gone back to the past where I would monotonously be typing on the keyboard with no sense of purpose.
I just kept going and going and going, until my sense of time and reason left my body. Even the pain slowly subsided making it seem as if I was a robot.
Sadly like any other powered object, robots tend to run out of batteries. And that's precisely what happened to me.
My vision grew blurry and my hands slowly lost grip of the rope.
...
It seems like I have died again huh?
Oddly enough it didn't feel the same as my first death, where I only felt endless coldness and loneliness.
This time a warm sensation enveloped my body making me feel extremely comfortable. It felt as if I was back in my mother's womb under the constant nourishment and protection of my mother. It didn't feel bad...
-Dong! -Dong! -Dong!
Suddenly I heard the loud sound of a bell tolling, causing my mind to spin and my eyes to shoot wide open.
"What just happened!"
Abruptly sitting up straight, I found my body drenched in sweat. Touching my body in a daze I noticed I was on top of a small bed with the bedsheets damp from my sweat. Looking at my hands I couldn't see any trace of the previous gruesome scene from when I was climbing down the rope.
Glancing around, I finally took notice of my surroundings. I was inside a small room with what seemed to be a Japanese tatami-style floor. The room was rather empty, and aside from a small tea table and a large ancient clock that constantly tolled in the corner of the room, there was no other furniture.
"You up kid?"
"Huh?"
Snapping my head to the right, where the voice was coming from, a middle-aged man sat next to the tea table preparing some tea. His carefree movements and his calm demeanor when preparing the tea, blended with the tranquil surroundings.
The aroma coming from the tea filled the entire room prompting me to momentarily relax. But not for long as I immediately jumped out of the bed and warily look at the stranger before me.
Jet black hair, deep black eyes, and a stern but yet kind-looking face.
"Relax kid, I'm not gonna do anything to you"
"Who are you?"
I warily asked without letting my guard down.
If not for the fact that I was sure that he was not there when I was previously checking the room, I wouldn't have been as wary as I was now.
A master
He was definitely a master beyond my level.
Only someone who was leagues above my level could suddenly appear out of thin air without me noticing.
Smacking his fist in his hand, as if he was reminded of something the stern-looking middle-aged man looked at me and spoke "Ah! that's right! I haven't introduced myself yet have I?" Lightly smiling, he extended his right hand towards my direction "A pleasure to meet you kid my name is Toshimoto Keiki"
Instantly my pupils dilated, and my mouth went slack.
"Bu-t but b-ut how? Aren't you already dead!"
My speech stuttered and my body trembled as I looked at the man before me in shock.
"Hey, kid don't be like that."
Laughing bitterly at my reaction, Grandmaster Keiki calmly put down the teapot and blew on the teacup in his hand.
"fuuu...Yes technically I could be considered to be dead but...someone intruded my home waking up the remnant soul I left behind when I passed away"
"R-remnant soul!"
Once an expert reached a certain rank, they could learn an ancient Chinese technique known as {Soul division}. Its main purpose was to split a soul and attach it to an object, allowing a person to for a short moment of time interact with the initiator of the technique. To better summarize the technique, it was basically a live recording that you could interact with.
It had no attack power, and apart from inheriting the memories of the initiator, had no other feature.
Knowing this, I managed to put the two and two together and managed to recompose myself.
"Cough...Sorry about that"
Amused by my odd behavior Grandmaster Keiki laughed out loud and said "Hahahaha no worries no worries, I had expected this kind of reaction to happen once someone found my resting place."
"Ren"
"Scuse me?"
Confused. Grandmaster Keiki raised his eyebrow and looked at me who was reaching for his hand.
"My name is Ren. Ren Dover"
"Ah! that's right! How rude of me, I still had not asked for your name...a pleasure to meet you, Ren!"
Gripping my hand, we both looked at each other and shook our hands.
"Please sit down"
Gesturing for me to sit down next to the tea table, Grandmaster Keiki took the porcelain teapot and dumped the contents that were in it.
"Green or black?"
"ehmm...let's go with green"
Smiling lightly, Grandmaster Keiki added the tea leaves to the brewing vessel and slowly poured hot water inside of the vessel to let the leaves soak and steep in the pot.
As he was watching the water slowly darkening, Grandmaster Keiki let out a sad sigh and a nostalgic looked appeared on his face.
"You know I was once young and foolish like you...back in my time, I lived in a country known as Japan. It was one of the most beautiful places in the world. It had tall and beautiful mountains, pink-dyed springs which were due to the sakura blossoming, wonderful food, and mesmerizing star-filled skies...some even went as far as calling it paradise on earth"
Seeing Grandmaster Keiki reminisce about his past, I immediately sat up straight and paid close attention to what he was saying.
More than me wanting to know more about his past, which I already knew, I paid my full-hearted attention to him because of my respect for him.
Though he may have been a fictional character that I had created, that was then and this was now.
He was no longer a fictional character, and this world was no longer a novel. This was real...and the man before me was Grandmaster Keiki, a legendary warrior that sacrificed his life for the safety of millions.
Looking up at the room's ceiling as he was reminiscing his past, Grandmaster Keiki let out a sad and tragic smile.
"Prior to the disaster, I had a beautiful wife and daughter. Back then I worked as a Kendo instructor and although I did not earn much, I was happy. It was a simple but yet fulfilling life"
"But...then it hit us out of nowhere. Massive earthquakes engulfed Japan creating tsunamis everywhere. It was total chaos as people were killed and homes were lost. The world that we once knew started to crumble. Fortunately at the time when this was happening my wife and daughter were traveling on a plane with me outside of Japan, and thus we were relatively unaffected by the catastrophe, but..."
Suddenly Grandmaster Keiki clenched the teacup he was holding tightly, as his face burned with pure rage.
"Then the second calamity happened!"
Taking a huge breath he tried to calm himself down before continuing his speech.
"Huge black creatures with bat-like wings and sharp horns emerged from the mysterious gates that appeared all over the world. At first, they didn't do anything, they just stood in the air and calmly observed us like some kind of mice inside of a lab. To this day I still remember their arrogant eyes and creepy smiles that took pleasure in our despair"
With his hands trembling, Grandmaster Keiki looked directly at me.
Though he was supposed to be a remnant consciousness I could still vividly see the sadness and anguish hidden deep within his eyes, as crystalline tears flowed down his wrinkly face.
"As soon as they deemed us weak"
His teacup which was already shaking shook ever more fiercely and his expression which was previously still stoic completely crumbled as more tears started streaming down his face.
"Th-ey t-hey t-ook my wife and daughter from me..."
With his body trembling, Grandmaster Keiki, no, Toshimoto Keiki both a father and husband let the tears stream down his face as he mourned for the death of his loved ones.
Watching the frail-looking man break down in front of me, I chose to remain silent and patiently waited for him to calm down. A slight tinge of pain hit my chest, as a part of me felt responsible for this man's tragedy.
Wiping his eyes, Grandmaster Keiki stood up and calmly walked towards me.
"Sorry you had to see that"
"No, I understand"
I shook my head and got up as well
Staring at each other eye to eye for a couple of seconds, grandmaster Keiki suddenly smiled and patted my shoulder
"Good, it seems that my luck isn't too bad."
Walking past me, he slid the shoji (Japanese style door) and walked outside the room as he gestured me to follow along
"Follow me."
As soon as I left the room I was left flabbergasted. An inexplicably beautiful garden stood before me. I felt a sudden loss of breath as I stood there blankly, mesmerized by the scene.
-Tak! -Tak! -Tak!
Lush green plants vibrantly covered the surroundings of the garden and in the middle of it appeared a large transparent pond where koi fish of multiple different sizes freely swam in it. Birds freely roamed and chirped around the cloudless blue sky, and occasionally you would hear the repetitive yet relaxing sound of the bamboo fountain planted in the garden.
The more I walked around the garden the more I was left mesmerized by the surroundings.
Approaching the pond, I could see different colored koi fish which ranged from red and white slightly peeking the surface of the water almost as if they were aware of our presence.
In the middle of the pond stood a small island connected by a small wooden bridge.
Walking across the bridge, once again my breath was taken away.
A miniature stylized landscaped through which rocks, water features, and moss was neatly composed and surrounded by gravel which was raked to resemble ripples in water, appeared in my line of sight.
"A zen garden."
"It's nice isn't it?"
Sitting comfortably near the zen garden, grandmaster Keiki waved his hand urging me to sit down next to him.
"It truly is..." I replied as I sat down on the ground beside him.
Silence enveloped us as we both calmly stared at the zen garden before us. It was strange but yet relaxing at the same time.
"You know I was really surprised when I first saw you..."
The first to disrupt the silence was grandmaster Keiki, who with a smile plastered on his face continued to look at the garden before him.
"Ever since my death, no one had ever been to this place, and rightfully so, as I made sure to hide this place from the prying eyes of those greedy bastards..."
"Of course, even if they did find this place out of pure luck, I made sure they wouldn't be able to enter. I'm sure you know that the rope was a test right?"
With a smile on his face Grandmaster Keiki glanced at me, which made me recall the traumatizing experience I had gone through before.
'Of course, I know! I'm still being haunted by the rope to this day!' I cursed inwardly as I smiled and nodded.
"Yes I remember"
"Kukuku, you're so easy to read kid."
Laughing out loud, grandmaster Keiki continued "You see I put that rope there as a test to determine if someone was worthy of waking up my soul. If you had climbed down but quit after an hour you would've never been able to find this place. Even if you spent a day going down the rope you would've never been able to come here. Once you are able to firmly go down the rope for two days without falling only then will you have the right to have an audience with me"
Looking at Grandmaster Keiki I could faintly see a trace of admiration in his eyes as he looked at me.
"4 days 3 hours 22 minutes, and 41 seconds. That's how long you've been going down the rope. Even as a remnant soul I was shocked by your sheer determination"
I kept smiling, but my eyelid couldn't help but twitch at his statement 'Of course I kept going down, it's not like I wanted to die after just being reincarnated!'
"Even if you kept going because you wanted to live on, that still counts as determination. Moreover, you were never gonna die in the first place as it was just an illusion"
Seemingly having read my thoughts again Grandmaster Keiki lightly chuckled, causing me to smile in embarrassment
"Getting back on the topic, the reason why I created the rope test was to determine if someone is worthy enough to inherit my sword art. Someone with no determination can never hope of inheriting my [Keiki style]."
"The [Keiku style] is a sword art that focuses on monotonous but perfect slashes. If someone cannot practice the same monotonous motion like swinging the sword in the same direction for more than half a day straight, they are not worthy!"
Standing up Grandmaster Keiki walked across the bridge and stopped before a tree.
Placing his hand on the sheath of his katana he took a deep breath.
Soon after, his figure slowly blended with the surrounding scenery making it seem as if he was one with nature.
-Rustle
Out of nowhere a small gust of wind passed by causing a couple of leaves to fall from the tree.
The leaves which were blown away by the wind slowly descended near where Grandmaster Keiki was.
-Click!
All I heard was a clicking sound before all the leaves around Grandmaster Keiki split into eight identical pieces causing my jaw to drop into an 'O' shape.
-Click!
With another click, the katana that seemed to have never left the scabbard returned to its original position.
"The [Keiki style] is the art of perfection. When you manage to repeat the same motion every time with no margin of error, that is when you will have finally mastered the [Keiki style]"
Closing my eyes I tried to keep my composure.
My heart was beating like crazy, and my blood boiled. 'That was insane! Holy shit! How in the world did he even manage to cut those leaves so perfectly without even moving! I want to do that too!"
Looking at Ren's sparkling eyes, Grandmaster Keiki let out a chuckle.
"Do you wish to learn?"
Disrupting me from my thoughts was Grandmaster Keiki's stern voice.
"Yes!"
Without a second thought, I nodded my head enthusiastically.
I was waiting for this moment!
"Very well"
Seemingly having made his decision, Grandmaster Keiki peacefully smiled.
Slowly he walked up to me and tapped my forehead
Immediately I felt my mind turn blank as a flood of information rushed into my mind.
Watching me getting overwhelmed by the information Grandmaster Keiki smiled as his body slowly became more and more transparent.
By the time I managed to sort out all of the information inside of my brain Grandmaster Keiki was already almost fully transparent.
Startled I immediately got on my knees and paid my respects
"Thank you! Thank you! I will make sure to carry on your art and spread your name across the world!"
Grandmaster Keiki let out another smile, as he mumbled something inaudible before he disappeared and scattered into light fragments.
Nodding resolutely I stood up. Though his last words may have been inaudible I could already tell what he wanted to say.
"Keep low until you're strong enough..."
Letting out a deep breath, I took one last look at the surroundings and engraved the scenery inside of my head.
Paying one last respect, I quickly walked towards where the exit was.
"I know"
Staring at the door to the classroom, I sighed
[A25]
The letter "A" stood for the floor level which went from A to E, and the number "25" referred to the classroom number
There was a reason for my sigh.
I knew this class
Of course, I knew this classroom. This was the classroom where the protagonist and the other main characters stayed for half of the novel. Many schemes and plots from jealous rivals and competitors happened in this class.
Regardless of how much I didn't want to be involved with the main cast, now that I found myself in this class I would most likely be swept regardless of my will.
"Yo, you going in or not?"
Waking me up from my thoughts was a rough feminine voice
Slowly turning my head I momentarily fell into a daze.
Beautiful would have been an understatement in this case. Standing right before me, was a young girl with short brown hair. She had crystal blue eyes, a small but not too small nose, and a well-proportioned face. Her white skin that did not have any gaps accompanied by her beautiful doll-like appearance made anyone who looked at her lose themselves in her beauty. She had a well-developed body, where everything that should've developed, was developed and her elegant yet slightly arrogant demeanor added more to her charm.
Currently, her cherry red lips were parted in an annoyed pout as she stared at me in annoyance
"Move it!"
Seeing that I was dumbly staring at her, she shoved me to the side in annoyance and entered the classroom.
Letting out a bitter smile, I shook my head.
"That's Emma for you"
One of the main heroines of the novel. Emma Roshfield, daughter of Ashton city's mayor who was also the Vice-director of the union, and S rank warrior. One of the most powerful people in the human domain right now.
When I was designing her character, I made her into a 'tomboyish' style character. She was sometimes rude and impatient, but oftentimes she was kind, making her one of my reader's favorite characters.
For real though, I did expect her to be beautiful but the moment I laid eyes on her I was stunned by her otherworldly beauty. Not even in my previous world did I ever see someone so beautiful
Watching her figure enter the classroom, I couldn't help but express my admiration for her. Even famous actresses that I saw on TV would feel ashamed if they stood next to each other.
It took me a couple of seconds to collect myself before bitterly smiling.
What was wrong with me?
A 32-year-old man getting mesmerized by a 16-year-old kid?
I'm starting to sympathize with all the isekai protagonists out there who experience the same thing.
Since I was reincarnated into a younger body, which was still in its teens, I couldn't help but feel something when looking at the extremely beautiful Emma.
I think the biggest misconception that readers have regarding isekai protagonists was how they assumed that just because they were mentally old that they should no longer have any desires.
You have to take note that older people are not some sages who have no sexual desires, in fact, the only reason their sexual desires decreased overtime was because of their aging bodies. It had nothing to do with their mentality.
So put yourself in my shoes who was reincarnated into a body raging with hormones.
My reaction was totally understandable.
Still, this doesn't mean I was actually in love with Emma. I was just stunned by how beautiful she was.
I mean for one she's 16 so that in itself was a no-go for me, and secondly, she's one of the main protagonists who later falls in love with the protagonist, why would she be attracted to someone like me who has no redeeming quality?
"huuu"
After collecting my breath, I slowly opened the door and entered the classroom.
Looking at the classroom I couldn't help but notice how spotless it was as it almost looked like it was sparkling.
The classroom was split into two descending rows, and each row had a retractable seat that one could sit on.
"Where should I sit?"
As I looked around the classroom for a place to sit, my attention was instantly drawn towards two individuals.
Haughtily sitting on the last row on the right was a blonde youth with clear green eyes and a dignified face. His slightly long hair gently rested on top of his broad shoulders, and his perfectly masculine jawline seemed as if it was chiseled by a sculptor.
From time to time you could see girls secretly taking peeks at his handsome face as they shyly blushed and turned their heads away whenever their eyes met.
Jin Horton
The protagonist's rival.
Descendant of the Horton family that currently owned a majority stake of the second-largest guild in the human domain 'Starlight guild'.
'You could definitely tell he was one of those typical arrogant young master type characters'
I thought as I looked at him from the corner of my eye. His condescending attitude that made people feel like they were below him could be vividly seen by the way he looked down on almost everyone in the class.
Born with a silver spoon, and provided with whatever he desired, it was almost inevitable for his character to become like that.
But don't get me wrong, although he had the vibe of a villain, he was actually part of the 'goods guys'.
It was only after I made some adjustments to his character that he started becoming a fan favorite.
He may be a villain now but later as the story progresses and his character goes through a series of hurdles, he starts to mature and slowly becomes more bearable to stay with.
Just as he attracted most of the girl's attention, seated in front of him was a slender beauty that matched Emma's looks and attracted the majority of the boy's gazes. Her sleek black hair, which was randomly restricted by a small hairpin, gathered at her waist. her exquisite small face that was devoid of any makeup, displayed an image of natural beauty and innocence that made anyone that was near her have an urge to protect her.
Ignoring everyone that was trying to talk to her, the young girl focused on her book. She had a cold and aloof air around her that made her extremely hard to approach.
Amanda Stern
Daughter of Edward Stern. Guildmaster of 'Demon hunter' guild, the current number 1 guild in the human domain.
Like Jin, she was also born with a silver spoon, but unlike him, she did not become haughty. In fact, she was quite the opposite of Jin, well-mannered, intelligent, and oftentimes kind. Whenever the protagonist would get in trouble she would always find ways to help him.
If I had to point out a flaw about her though, it would be the fact that she was cold. Very cold.
Born in such a prestigious family she had no choice but to learn and suffer all the schemes that were directed at her family. Oftentimes she would be targeted by other guilds or organizations so that they could use her as leverage.
As she was constantly exposed to such schemes and ploys, she was left with no choice but to mature earlier than normal people, thus giving rise to her cold character.
Seeing how aloof she was, I shook my head and looked for a seat.
Glancing around a couple of seconds, I decided to sit down on the second row on the left. As far as way from the main characters as possible.
There was no way I was going to interact with them.
I'm just gonna sit here like a proper mob and pretend to be air.
Why?
Simple. The main characters were literal calamity magnets!
Whatever could go wrong will go wrong if you were with them. Like hell am I going to bother getting close to them! I'm here to live not to die.
Well, even if I did try to interact with them in the most likely scenario I would most likely be ignored.
Currently, it was 7:30 A.M and class began at 8:00
Seeing that I had 30 minutes to spare before class started, I rested my head on my arms and closed my eyes.
I had actually arrived at the academy an hour ago.
By the time I had come back from the Clayton ridge, it was already 6:45 A.M. and as I couldn't skip class I took a quick shower, put on my new uniform, and hurriedly made my way towards class.
I was honestly exhausted.
I did not sleep for almost 24 hours, and to be honest, I don't even know if I could even manage to keep my eyes open during class.
Fortunately, today was orientation day so they shouldn't be talking much, which sits well with me.
"Attention!"
As I was soundly sleeping on the desk, a loud voice echoed across the classroom waking me up.
When I opened my eyes, the instructor stood behind the podium as she looked at the class.
"Today is your first day, so there won't be anything special planned, but I sure hope you haven't slacked off during the short interval where you were accepted here. How do you expect to graduate from this place if you can't be diligent?"
-Bam!
Slapping her hand on the table a small shockwave spread across the classroom. Apart from Emma, Jin, Amanda, and a couple of other students, everyone in the classroom was pushed back, I included.
"There will be no slacking off in my classroom!"
Scanning the whole classroom, her eyes briefly paused on Emma, Jin, and Amanda, and the few others that managed to withstand her shockwave. If one looked closely you could see traces of satisfaction on her face as she looked at them.
Placing both hands on the podium she looked at the classroom
"Now, let's start with the self-introductions. I'm Donna Longbern, your personal instructor for this year and possibly future years."
That name, I knew it.
Of course, I knew it. She was one of the characters which I spent the most time designing. She looked exactly how I imagined.
'The calamity witch, Donna Longbern'
I muttered as I tried to suppress my raging heartbeat.
Her black hair gently cascaded along her shoulders stopping right above her raised butt that reminded one of a fully ripe peach. Her tempting figure that could cause any man to go insane, drew the ire of every boy in the class causing their hearts to boil.
But what truly stood out the most about her, was not her figure, but her beautiful violet eyes that made one lose themselves if they looked at them for too long.
Ever since young, she practiced an extremely rare enchantress art, which caused her to become extremely seductive to the opposite gender, as well as demons.
What made her especially fearsome was that she could completely tip the scale of a battlefield by turning allies against each other.
Currently, she was only 28 which was quite young considering that now the people lived for up to 200 years of age, more than double than before, prior to the Cataclysm.
Every one of her movements was extremely alluring, and if she wanted to she could turn any man in the classroom a puppet of her will. Even now as she stood in front of the podium her every movement attracted the gaze of every male in the classroom. Even Jin wasn't an exception as his face became red.
What about me?
I popped a boner.
Fortunately for me, I hid it well and no one could see it, or else I would've died of humiliation.
Couldn't help it. She was literally the incarnation of my sexual desires.
Of course, I wouldn't be as stupid as to hit on her. Not only was she strong, but she was actually an S rank member of the union, and ranked 156th on the Hero ranking.
Moreover, she had her fair share of suitors. Hitting on her was like asking to be killed.
"I'm sure I don't have to say more as most of you may already know about me"
Donna calmly spoke as she looked around the classroom.
She seemed to have gotten used to the boy's reactions, as she feigned ignorance to their reddening faces.
"As it is your first day I won't take too much of your time. I can already see some people who look exhausted in the classroom. Perhaps they did not sleep enough because they were too excited or they trained all night, so I'll make this first session short."
An angel
She was an angel sent by the heaves.
I had sinned. How could I have possibly had such devious thoughts about such an angel?
She could even tell how exhausted I was and was trying to be considerate of me and the others.
Amitabha
I am one with the sky
"Alright first things first, let's take attendance"
Taking out a small tablet, she quickly called out names
"Rank 1750, Ren Dover"
Hearing my name I enthusiastically raised my hand and said
"Present!"
Nodding she continued
"Rank 1232, Troy Morrison"
"Present!"
"Rank 845, Julius Halfwing"
"Present!"
"..."
"..."
She was totally reading in Ascending order, wasn't she...
As she read the names on the list, I couldn't help but notice the rank getting smaller each time a new name was called. And it just so happens that I was the first person she called, suggesting that I was the weakest person in the class.
I should've realized before. Letting out a sigh, I slumped on the table and quietly waited for her to finish reading out the names.
"Rank 15, Emma Roshfield"
"Present"
"Rank 12, Timmothy Bartman"
"Present"
"Rank 8, Amanda Stern"
"Present"
"Rank 5, Han yufei"
"Present"
"Rank 3, Jin Horton"
"Present"
"Rank 2, Melissa Hall"
"Present"
"Rank 1, Kevin Voss"
"..."
"Rank 1, Kevin Voss"
Raising her brow, Donna looked around the classroom and asked once again
"Is Rank 1 Kevin Voss in the classroom?"
Absolute silence. Not even a pin could be heard.
Everyone looked around, but they all shook their head.
Looking at her tablet, Donna frowned. Just as she was about to cross Kevin's name off the list, the door to the classroom slowly opened.
Soon a figure walked out, and instantly the whole room's attention was on him.
Short black hair, deep red eyes, muscular jawline, and well-built body. His entire presence and aura were like that of a newly forged sword straight from the furnace, with keen and sharp edges that threatened to cut anything that obstructed its path. His looks, which rivaled that of Jin Horton, who could've been regarded as one of the most handsome individuals in the whole academy, instantly drew the attention of most of the girls in the class.
"Pardon for my tardiness. I had a slight accident before coming here, hence I was not able to make it in time"
Taking a small bow, his eyes never drifted away from Donna's eyes.
Taking a quick look at Kevin, Donna couldn't help but be stunned at his indifferent attitude towards her, who practiced an extremely potent 4-star seductive art.
"Interesting"
Letting out a small grin, she nodded
"Very well find a spot and sit down"
"Thank you"
Nodding his head, Kevin made his way towards the first row on the right side of the classroom and sat down.
"Huuu"
Letting out a long sigh, I bitterly shook my head
That's the protagonist for you
Whatever he does, no one would find fault against him as he was both handsome and capable.
The world just wasn't fair.
If I had been the one who had arrived late, I would've probably been burned alive by now.
As a mob, you just don't get the same privileges the protagonist gets.
Report chapter
Arriving in front of a large room, Donna who stood in front of everyone turned on the lights and said "There's a wide selection of weapons here, so feel free to choose what you deem to be the best fit for you"
A large room appeared before everyone, and the diversity of weapons present here left me speechless. From nunchucks to broadswords. All sorts of weapons that were neatly laid out according to their size were being displayed before us.
I was honestly impressed.
There were so many of them that I couldn't even tell what some of the weapons were.
"I'd be very careful if I were you. If you damage any weapon present, you better be ready to pay up to 500,000 U."
Staring at the excited expression of the students in the class, Donna immediately poured cold water on them as she pointed out the price of each weapon. Some students couldn't help but flinch as they started looking at the weapons like they were some sort of divine artifact.
"I advise using a weapon that is suitable for you so that you don't risk damaging the weapon. Experimenting is good, but that is only if you can afford it"
Looking at the 200 or so students before her, Donna cheerfully smiled and continued "Before taking a weapon, swipe your student card so that you can register your name on the database. After that take your weapon and meet me in the main practice area"
Having finished what she wanted to say, Donna turned around and left.
As soon as her figure wasn't visible anymore, everyone started talking excitedly. Especially the boys.
"Wow, that was the 'Calamity witch'?"
"She's so hot!"
"Oh my god I think I've fallen in love"
"Pfff. You wish, someone like her would never like a loser like you!"
"Wanna fight!"
Scenes like these happened everywhere as the students had already formed their own clique.
I as the lowest-ranked member am obviously excluded from them.
And to be honest, it was exactly what I wished for, as I don't want to spend my time licking someone's ass.
In the lock, the hierarchical system ruled the academy.
Just like the relationship of a peasant and a noble. Only those who were ranked higher had the right to be treated as nobles. Low-rankers like me were merely people who would later become cannon fodder when fighting on the frontlines.
Such was my life now, as the lowest rank in the class.
Contrary to me who was all alone. The main characters were surrounded by a crowd of people.
Kevin, Jin, Amanda, Emma, and Mellissa all had people swarming around them.
Apart from Kevin, the rest were already used to such situations and thus were able to remain indifferent towards the waves of flattery coming from every person's mouth.
But for Kevin, who was not used to such a situation, found himself completely helpless. His previous demeanor, which caused one to respect him completely crumbled as he struggled to get away from the mob.
He wore a stiff smile the whole time, and he tried his best to not come off overly rude as he politely tried to talk to everyone.
"Right now he's probably thinking of a way to get his weapon and escape as fast as possible"
I laughed as I shook my head.
Such was the life of those who wish to stand out.
Ignoring the helpless Kevin, I turned my attention towards the sword section in the armory.
As I already know what I want, I quickly swiped my card and took a slim and elegant Katana.
The leather grip comfortably sat on my hands and the cold metal blade directly reflected the lights from the room.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
"Perfect"
Lightly swinging the katana a couple of times I nodded in satisfaction.
Its weight was neither too heavy nor too light, and added with its durable blade which was made of an extremely tough alloy made the katana a perfect fit for my sword art.
Taking the sword with me, I quickly walked out of the room.
Since I got everything I wanted, I made my way towards the training ground.
...
A large expansive ground appeared before me as I arrived in the training area.
The whole training facility was around the size of two football fields.
On the top right of the training ground was a shooting range that was split into five different distances which ranged from 100m all the way to 500m.
On the bottom right of the training ground, there were more than a dozen practice dummies that were perfect for close combat practice.
The training dummies were made of Forlum, an extremely tough metal that could even withstand the impact of an A-rank demon.
With its extremely durable body made of Forlum, students could train against the dummies without worrying about breaking them.
The middle area of the training facility was free for all, meaning that it did not have anything.
This was just mainly used to practice moves or footsteps.
Basically, it was an area that everyone could use to practice whatever technique they wanted to practice.
At the top left, there was a large gym fully equipped with top-of-the-line equipment, moreover, and most importantly, they had a gravity room that went all the way up to 10g.
With the gravity room, one could train and tamper their body with the aid of the room that could increase the gravitational force bearing down on a person.
Lastly, at the bottom left of the training ground a large swimming pool that was fifty meters long appeared before my sight.
The swimming pool was one of the most frequented places as it was extremely useful for condition training, as it helped muscles recover faster from fatigue due to the special medical ingredients that were added in the water.
"Alright, as I told you before since it's your first day you don't need to force yourself. I'll be here to supervise you all."
Gathering's everyone attention Donna happily smiled as she looked at the training ground.
"Now go and train! Time waits for no one"
Instantly everyone moved.
Some directly went to the dummies, while others towards the shooting range.
I curiously looked around and found Kevin, Jin, and Melissa heading for the training dummies, while Emma directly went towards the gravity room.
On the other hand, Amanda made her way towards the shooting range.
As I mentioned before Kevin's specialty was the sword.
Although he still did not practice the [Levisha style, his talent for the sword was still unrivaled. If I were to estimate his strength at the moment, I would say even if fifty versions of the current me were to attack him now he would be able to walk unscathed.
Jin on the other hand did not use a sword but instead used daggers.
He was what you called an assassin-type. He was extremely fast and agile and with his unrivaled speed could cut a person twenty times in a matter of seconds.
Melissa the second-ranked in the class used a spear.
She was also incredibly beautiful. Enough to rival both Emma and Amanda, but she was also a lot smarter than them.
She had an elegant and beautiful porcelain face that perfectly accompanied her creamy brown hair that gently fell behind her back. Most eye-catching were her exquisite cheeks and rosy moist lips that could tempt any man who saw them. A pair of pure glassy eyes hid underneath thin-framed glasses that put further emphasis on her eyes, enhancing her beauty. Her swan-like slender neck, under which her delicate sexy clavicle and full front that was lightly exposed, only further added to her charm as her delicate waist and creamy white legs added the finishing touches to her peerless appearance
At the tender age of 12, she was awarded the Humanity treaty award, the most notable award for those who achieve outstanding breakthroughs that propel humanity to the next level. Similar to the noble prize back in my world.
The reason why she won the award was because she was able to prove the molecular decomposition theorem that stumped a lot of famous scientists all over the world.
Her discovery was a major scientific achievement that shook the whole scientific community.
With the molecular decomposition theorem, diseases such as cancer that plagued the world were no longer an issue as this theorem directly tackled the crux of the problem!
The only reason she ranked second and not first in the academy ranking was simply because she was not very strong. Having spent most of her time researching, she did not have much time to improve her skills, and thus why during the admission test her physical score was only slightly above average.
But don't get me wrong, that in itself was an achievement, as my score was on the lower side of average.
Emma on the other hand uses a shortsword, and her fighting style was extremely fierce and aggressive.
Her fighting style reminded one of a berserker as she would leave no breathing room for the opponent when she attacked.
Honestly...she was probably the one I would least want to fight out of the lot as it would be extremely troublesome for my [keiki style].
Lastly Amanda. She was an archer, a really good one at that.
Out of the whole classroom, she was probably the only one who could accurately hit a target positioned 500-meter in the distance.
A prodigy that could only be seen every couple of hundred years, was what every professor said about her as they looked at her archery.
Those were the main characters
As for me?
Well, I'm just gonna practice in the middle area.
Since the [Keiki style] was a lost art, even if I practice it, no one would probably notice it.
Moreover, the way to practice the [Keiki style] would make one think they were crazy.
Closing my eyes I maximized my concentration.
Shing! Shing!
In one smooth movement, I took the katana from the scabbard hacked forward and placed the katana back into the scabbard.
"5 seconds"
Shaking my head, I repeated the same motion again.
The first movement of the [Keiki style] : Quick flash
A one-dimensional slash that could only hit forward with an overwhelming speed that could not be seen by the naked eye.
The [Keiki style] only had 5 movements, but each movement was crucial.
Each movement was like a piece of a 5 piece puzzle that would later combine and create the true [Keiki style]
For example, right now the first movement was only a single one-dimensional slash forward, while on the other hand, the second movement was a horizontal slash.
If the two movements were to be combined together, the range of movement when attacking an enemy would drastically increase.
Each movement was designed to add synergy to the other.
Once one mastered the [Keiki style, they would be able to attack wherever they wanted at an unrivaled speed.
You could say that the reason why the [Keiki style] was split into five forms was because one needed to learn the foundation before practicing the true art.
That was the true method of learning the [Keiki style]
-Shing! -Shing!
Without taking a break I continued repeating the same movement over and over again.
"According to the memories Master gave me, I can achieve the minor realm of mastery after doing the same movement over 100,000 times"
When learning a sword art there were ways to determine the level of mastery.
There was the minor realm of mastery, the great realm of mastery, the essence realm of mastery, and lastly the perfected realm of mastery.
Each realm signified a percentage of understanding of the whole sword art.
The minor realm of mastery required a 25% understanding of the sword art.
The great realm of mastery required a 50% understanding, the essence realm required a 75% understanding, and lastly the perfected realm.
The pinnacle of art mastery, with a 100% understanding of the sword art.
Currently, my aim was to get all five movements up to the minor realms, before later improving them.
...
A relatively handsome man stood at the edge of the training ground. He had dirt blond hair and carried a noble air around him that reminded people of a high-ranking aristocrat.
Turning his head, he looked at the beautiful woman standing next him and asked.
"What do you think of this batch?"
Staring at the distance, the beautiful woman who was in fact Donna Longbern, looked around and pointed towards a few individuals.
"There are a lot of promising youths, especially in this batch, but the ones that stand out the most to me are Kevin, Jin, Amanda, Emma, Melissa, and Han yufei."
Looking at where Donna pointed, the handsome man thoughtfully nodded.
"Well it isn't surprising considering their lineage"
Glancing at the man beside her, Donna scoffed
"I agree, their lineage is indeed impressive, but that's not what makes them great. The blood sweat and tears they put into their training are what make them this good. Just because they were born with successful parents doesn't mean they will also be successful. Unless you put in the work, no matter how talented you are, you won't ever be strong"
Slightly smiling the man responded.
"Well, I wonder about that. Speaking of which, is there anyone you have your eye on?"
Without hesitation, Donna responded
"Kevin Voss"
Slightly surprised by her quick response, the handsome man seemed to have recollected something and a trace of coldness appeared in his eyes before it quickly disappeared as if nothing happened.
"You mean the kid who set an unprecedented record and firmly took first place in the entrance exam? I'm rather curious about him too. Someone with seemingly no powerful backer managed to come this far. That's rather odd isn't it?"
He dropped subtle hints as he spoke, which made Donna secretly sneer at his attitude.
"I was one of the supervisors during the test and was quite impressed by his swordplay. It was elegant and yet had no wasteful movements. I can confidently say that soon enough there will be another S class in our ranks."
Looking at Donna who didn't even bother hiding her displeasure, the man just smiled and he casually said.
"Oh? for the calamity witch herself to speak so highly of him, it must mean that he really is a talent to look out for"
Glaring at the man beside her, she threadedly spoke.
"Gilbert. Call me that one more time and I'll kill you. Just because your father is powerful doesn't mean I won't do anything to you."
"Hey, hey, I was just joking. You don't have to take it so seriously"
Raising his hands in resignation, Gilbert slightly smiled.
"Hmph"
Turning her head away, Donna continued watching the training ground.
Standing beside her, Gilbert's smile quickly disappeared as he stared at Kevin in the distance. Thereafter his attention quickly shifted towards the middle of the training ground where he saw a lone youth practicing with a katana.
"Pffff, who the hell is he?"
Without even bothering to hide his ridicule, Gilbert laughed as he pointed at the student who was practicing with the katana.
Staring in the direction where Gilber pointed, Donna quickly frowned as she stared at the boy.
Taking out her tablet, she quickly scrolled down until a picture resembling the features of the youth appeared.
"Rank 1750, Ren Dover. Age 16, son of the guild master of Galxicus, a mid-ranged guild operating in Ashton city. Talent assessment D"
Seemingly having understood, he shook his head and gloatingly looked at Donna
"What did I tell you? Only those with a proper bloodline can hope to achieve something. People like him who are born with mediocre parents can never hope to stand at the top with elites like us"
Even though Donna wanted to refute, she couldn't. Looking at Ren who was constantly unsheathing and sheathing the sword, she shook her head in disappointment.
What kind of training was that?
At least swing your sword instead of just Unsheathing and sheathing the sword.
Report chapter
I kind of expected this but...
I'm currently being ridiculed by half of the class.
As I was practicing the first movement of the [Keiki style, I couldn't help but notice that some of my classmates were openly pointing their fingers in my direction as they ridiculed me.
Hello? I'm fine with you talking smack about me, but at least do it behind my back where I can't hear nor see you.
As I tried my best to concentrate, ignoring the ridiculing looks, I couldn't help but notice a tall man with dirt blond hair standing beside Donna.
Instantly cold sweat appeared on my back.
'Gilbert von Dexteroi'
One of the first antagonists that the protagonist encounters.
His father, 'Thundergod, Maximus von Dexteroi, was one of the only SS rank warriors in the human domain and was currently ranked third in the Hero ranking', moreover he was also one of the seven heads of the union!
With such a background, Gilbert could basically do whatever he wanted.
This was already shown by how he managed to become an assistant tutor in the academy at the tender age of 22.
What especially stood out about Gilbert, was not his father's background. No, although his background was indeed terrifying, it wasn't what people paid attention to when interacting with him. What stood out about him was the fact that he was a bloodline supremacist.
He believed that only those who had special bloodlines were allowed to stand at the peak.
To him, Kevin was an eyesore.
Kevin's parents were just regular people with at most a D rank talent.
Once they were killed by a demon, he was sent to an orphanage from which he lived there for 5 years.
He then later disappeared and reappeared as a prodigy that would make any guild drool at his talent.
How could he let Kevin who had a dirty bloodline take the spotlight?
He was a firm believer that only those who inherited a strong bloodline were destined to reach the peak.
He viewed the world like an aristocrat.
He firmly believed that commoners had no place in this world, and only nobles could rule the world.
So as soon as he heard about Kevin, his first reaction was to remove such cancer that was hiding within the academy.
Actually, Gilbert wasn't like this in the past.
But whenever Gilbert looked at Kevin, deeply hidden feelings that he tried to forget resurfaced in his mind, making him despise Kevin with all his might.
In actuality, his hatred stemmed from a trauma that occurred to him in the past.
Back when he first arrived in the lock, he was confident, kind, and well-mannered.
However one day a transfer student came into class.
Unlike Gilbert who was the son of the Thundergod Maximus, he was just a regular student with no notable background.
At first, Gilbert didn't think too much about him, but slowly the transfer student climbed up the ranks.
Startled Gilbert started to pay more and more attention to the transfer student.
Seeing his stunning growth he was extremely excited.
'Finally, someone who is worthy to compete with me'
He thought, as he trained and studied more than before.
Slowly the two started competing in almost every subject, and a friendship slowly blossomed between them.
At first, Gilbert always came out on top, but as time passed the gap gradually became smaller and smaller, until the transfer student started winning all their competitions.
Shocked by his progress, Gilbert studied and trained even harder.
But...
The results were the same.
The gap kept growing bigger and bigger, and a seed of inferiority started to plant inside of his heart.
'How can I the son of the thunder god lose to him who had nothing since birth?'
Every day he would ask himself the same thing, as he tried his best to bridge the gap between them.
At first, it went from wanting to get higher scores than him, to later wanting to be not too far from his score.
Gilbert's expectation of himself slowly started becoming lower and lower.
All along he kept his feelings hidden inside of him as he continued being friends with the transfer student.
Then one day during an excursion a high-ranked demon attacked.
Everyone ran for their lives, Gilbert included.
During the chaos, no one noticed one person staying behind.
The transfer student.
Without a second thought, he chose to fight the demon and buy as much time as possible for his classmates to escape.
As Gilbert ran, he quickly noticed his friend's absence.
When he turned around all he saw was his friend desperately fending off the demon.
Without a second thought, he tried to help, but he was held back by a teacher and forced to abandon his best friend and rival.
When the reinforcements arrived it was already too late.
His best friend and rival had died protecting everyone.
As soon as he heard the news the first thing he felt was a sense of relief.
But soon after, as soon as he realized how he felt at his friend's death, deep regret and anguish overcame him.
How could he feel relief when his best friend died while saving him and everyone in the class?
Although he felt inferior to him, he was like a brother to him. He looked up to him. He cherished him deeply. He was the first true friend he had ever made.
He locked himself inside of his room for a month.
He started eating less and less, and would always refuse to come out.
The situation got so bad that his father was forced to rush back to his son.
'Everything is up to fate, no matter how talented one is, only the chosen ones get to live on'
Those were the words his father coldly told to him as he lectured his son.
As his father's words echoed in his ears, Gilbert slowly looked back at his past.
His friend was way more talented than him.
But in the end, the one that survived was him.
In the end, the winner was the one who lived in the end.
Slowly weird and twisted ideas started sprouting inside of his mind, almost like a germinating seed.
'No matter how talented one is, if they are not destined for greatness, they will never reach the top.'
'That's right. So what if he was talented. I am the one who lived in the end'
'You cannot help but blame your poor birth for your death. You who was not born by a chosen one cannot hope to strive to reach the peak'
Soon his thoughts twisted more and more until he became a bloodline supremacist.
Although it may have seemed like he was trying to delude himself and find a way to escape reality, in actuality this was all planned by the demons beforehand.
His so-called 'best friend' was actually a mole planted by the demons beforehand.
Everything till now was a careful scheme done by the demons who were trying to turn Gilbert into their pawn.
They first infiltrated his emotions through the use of his 'best friend'.
Once his 'best friend' died in a tragic accident, and Gilbert's emotions were unstable, the demons planned to make him digest a demon seed which essentially corroded a person's mind and turned them into a puppet.
Such was their plan, but unfortunately for them, their scheme ended up being exposed by Gilbert's father who ended all their years of planning.
But...the damage was already done as since then Gilbert became a bloodline supremacist.
Looking at him from the distance I couldn't help but pity him.
But that doesn't mean I want to talk to him.
Hell no!
He's probably the person I fear the most in the lock.
The reason why I fear him is not because he's some secret boss that is super strong.
No.
At most he's a medium-level boss, as he is not even that strong.
The truly frightening thing about him is the fact that he is a chain villain!
What is a chain villain?
Chain villains are probably the scariest villains you could possibly create.
They are those villains that only bring more trouble as you defeat them.
Let me make an example.
Let's take a Chinese cultivation novel.
Imagine this guy tries to rob you, and you kill him.
That's it, right?
No!
Turns out he is a low-level disciple from a prestigious sect.
His senior brother enraged by his death hunts you down.
What do you do?
You defeat him.
What's next?
The senior brother's senior brother will hunt you next!
This will go on until the situation gets so bad that an elder comes looking for you.
Soon you have a fight against the elder and left with no other option, you defeat him.
This will go on until, in the end, you kill the sect leader and remove the whole sect.
In the end, because you killed some random person who tried to harm you, you ended up fighting a whole sect!
That's what a chain villain was!
The most fearsome of all villains in novels.
And that's exactly what Gilbert was.
And what's especially fearsome about him, is that the prestigious sect we are talking about is the union.
The goddam union!
You want to fight against them? The strongest organization in the human domain?
Be my guest, but I'm out.
I'm not suicidal.
In the novel, Gilbert first uses lackeys to torment the MC. When things don't work out, he tries different methods. Such as employing assassins, or using poison.
Slowly Kevin finds himself fighting against Gilbert, and as soon as he defeats him, he finds himself in a whole world of trouble as Gilbert's relatives who work in the union also start targeting him.
Slowly Kevin finds himself fighting higher and more executive members in the union until he has to go toe to toe against Thunder god Maximus.
At one point things got so bad that he had to leave the human domain so that he could build up strength and take his revenge.
Shaking my head, I slowly walk further away from Gilbert.
In the end, I spent 2 hours practicing the same movement over and over again.
"Attention, please! I have observed each and every one of you today. I am pleased by most of you, of course, not everyone pleased me, as some of you wasted your precious time playing around or were just randomly swinging without aim. I expect better next time"
Donna spoke as she briefly glanced at me.
And thus, the first training session ended.
...
"Hey, why don't you teach me your moves?"
"I don't understand. Why do you keep repeating the same thing over and over again? Are you seeking attention or something?"
On the way to the dorm, I was harassed by a group of boys who struck up a conversation.
I kept ignoring them, but it seemed that it only piqued their interest more.
It was only after I ignored them for five minutes straight, that they left me alone. Actually, the main reason why they stopped was because the main characters just passed by.
Kevin, Jin, Amanda, Emma, and Melissa.
If it weren't for the fact that Jin was glaring holes at the back of Kevin's head, this could've been a scene straight out of a painting.
two incredibly handsome boys walking alongside three earthshaking beauties while smiling and chatting amongst each other.
Even I didn't expect them to be so handsome and beautiful.
As they passed, everyone's sight would turn on them, and people would make way for them.
Since I didn't want to stand out I copied everyone else and moved to the side.
As soon as they left, the corridor regained its usual liveliness and I arrived in front of my room.
Click!
Swiping my card, the door automatically opened for me.
Taking off my shoes, I took a quick shower and then went to bed.
I had not slept for the past 24 hours and thus was completely exhausted.
As soon as my body touched the bed, I passed out.
...
"Hey, hey guys did you notice how everyone made way for us? It was like a big shot was walking"
Cheerfully said Emma, as she looked at the people in front of her.
Smiling Kevin nodded
"Yes, I saw. I really didn't expect people to do that"
Sneering, Jin looked at Kevin.
"Hmph, of course, you didn't expect that. The only reason they made way for us is because I was present"
Hearing Jin's reply, Melissa shook her head and moved two steps away from Jin.
She hated interacting with stupid people.
Amanda on the other hand was used to Jin's behavior hence she didn't react. As both of them came from the first and second-ranked guild respectively, they both had interacted with each other on multiple occasions, hence why she was used to his behavior.
Actually more than didn't react, it was more like she didn't care.
As for Emma?
She found his response funny, as she tried to hold back her laugh.
Smiling wryly Kevin tried to change the topic.
"Right guys, did you notice the guy in the middle who was practicing the katana?"
"...Katana? Oh, that weird guy who was unsheathing and sheathing the katana repeatedly?"
Instantly Emma went beside Kevin as she excitedly started talking.
Just like Amanda, Emma did not become an arrogant young master like Jin. She was rather bossy, but most of the time she was cheerful, and always liked to compete.
Hence whenever she saw Kevin her competitive spirit would burn, promoting her to interact with him more.
"Uh, yeah, him..."
Taken aback by Emma's excitement, Kevin awkwardly nodded.
"What was his name?"
Tilting her head, Emma looked around.
Amanda was reading her book, so she didn't respond, while Melissa didn't seem to care.
Kevin also didn't know his name, so he helplessly shrugged his shoulders
"Forget about that loser, and let's head to the cafeteria. I'm starving."
Said Jin, as he picked up the pace.
"Hey wait up!"
Shouted Emma, as she ran to catch up to Jin.
Shaking his head helplessly, Kevin also increased his pace as he made his way towards the cafeteria.
The only reason why he asked about the Katana boy, was because his instincts told him he was not as simple as he looked.
"Forget it, I'm probably imaging things."
Like that, Ren managed to avoid a troublesome situation where he would get noticed by the protagonist.
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-Ding -Dong!
"Coming!"
Hurriedly putting on my pants, I made my way towards the door.
Opening the door, a man with a blue jacket held onto a large package.
"Rank 1750, Ren Dover, package delivery."
Handing over the large package, the man held out his tablet and I swiftly signed it.
-Clack!
Closing the door, I curiously pulled the tape off the box.
The first thing I saw was a white letter that was neatly nested on top of the other items.
Opening the letter I quickly went through the contents
Hi Ren!
How is school? Have you made any friends yet? When are you coming back home?
Come visit us often, your little sister is waiting for you.
By the way, I sent some things that you might need.
Kiss, Kiss your one and only beautiful mother.
P.S
Daddy also misses you, so work hard! [heart emoji[Heart emoji[Heart emoji]
Ah.
Yes, I in fact did reincarnate to overly protective parents.
During the time I was in Clayton ridge, I would occasionally receive texts from them, and whenever I texted back, the response would always come within seconds.
Most of the time they would just randomly text me the weirdest thing or nag about how I should train more so that I would one day take over the guild.
I can't say I hated this feeling though.
As my family left me early in my previous life, I had long lost familial warmth. Now that I have it back, I don't want to part ways with it.
Opening the box, I quickly separated things into two piles.
Useless and Useful.
Although I have only known my family for a week, I can already tell from what I've seen so far that they've definitely sent junk.
And I was exactly right.
The first thing I pulled was a large shirt that said 'Mama's boy' on it.
Like hell, I'm wearing this!
Throwing the shirt at the useless pile, I quickly checked the rest of the content.
There were many things packed inside, from bags to clothes and other useful things that could be of use to me later on.
Slowly I separated the useful and useless stuff, that my mom sent.
"Phew... That should be it"
Wiping off the sweat that had accumulated on my forehead, I stood up and lazily stretched my arms.
"Huh"
Just as I was about to leave, I caught a glimpse of something inside the box from the corner of my eye.
"A book?"
Looking at the last thing inside of the box, I couldn't help but be confused. It was a red book with no cover or illustration on the front.
From what I've observed so far, whomever Ren Dover was before I took over, was definitely not a book lover.
In fact, it seemed that he hated reading, as my new mother seemed to have been really surprised when I asked her for some books.
She wanted to send me a congratulatory gift for managing to enroll in the lock, and as I don't necessarily know them that well I only asked them for a couple of books as a gift.
Flipping through the book, I was left speechless as there was nothing written in the book. It was completely blank.
"Perhaps it's a diary"
I thought as I threw the book into the useless pile.
Makes more sense now.
Glancing around the room, I checked the time. It was around six in the afternoon.
-Gurgle.
"I guess I'll head to the canteen first, and then I'll go to the gym after that"
Seeing how my stomach was growling in hunger, I decided to go to the canteen to eat some food before heading to the gym.
Packing up my bag, I took the keys and swiftly left the room.
-Click.
With a click, the door closed, and I left for the canteen.
As I left, inside of the room, engravings started to appear on an inconspicuous red book that sat on top of a pile of junk in the corner of the room.
'The luminescent swordsman'
...
I gotta say, the food in the canteen was amazing.
I only spent 15 U and I got a meal that would've made it into the Michelin list back in my world.
It was that good.
After indulging myself a bit more, I quickly made my way towards the training ground.
As I arrived at the training grounds, I couldn't help but once again be impressed by the facility. Even though I had already been here today, because I was too tired, I didn't really have a good look at the facility.
"Just how much did they spend on this?"
I couldn't even fathom how much money was poured into creating this facility. The amount of money needed to create such an environment would be well over a couple of billion U.
The gravity room itself cost around 50 million U, and here they have a whopping 5 of them.
In hindsight, it is sort of understandable as to why they would invest so much in this facility. Although they were teenagers, they were all future pillars that would help protect humanity from the demon invasion. Why wouldn't humanity invest in them?
If they wanted to maximize their speed of progress, such a facility was needed.
It was around 19:00 and the facility was mostly empty.
But just because the facility was empty, it didn't mean that it was always going to be like this.
In the future, there will be lots more people using the training facility. It was just because today was the first day that barely anyone was present in the facility. Most of them were hanging out with their new buddies they made today or were just too tired to train.
Because of my relatively low ranking, not a lot of people wanted to associate with me, hence why I have nothing better to do than just train.
Well, I couldn't complain, as I liked being by myself.
-Clang! -Clang! -Clang!
As I was stretching, In the corner of the room I could hear the sound of metal clashing against metal.
Without even needing to look I knew who it was
"Kevin"
Like all protagonists, he was a training fanatic and trained more than 8 hours a day.
Just seeing his work ethic, made me speechless. How in the world am I gonna catch up to him when he's constantly training every day.
Letting out a sigh I took out my katana and started practicing.
Swish! Swish!
...
Walking along the corridor Donna checked the time on her tablet.
She just got off a meeting and was quite tired. Thinking back at the meeting that she had just attended, Donna couldn't help but slightly curse at those old foxes for continuously wasting her time with those pointless meetings.
Most of the meeting time was wasted in discussions regarding the budget allocation and which subject should have their budget increased and which one should have it lowered.
After one hour of pointless arguing, Donna couldn't take it anymore and excused herself.
As she was walking, she briefly glanced at the window which directly faced the training ground.
The first thing that caught her sight was the figure of a handsome boy gracefully sparring against one of the training dolls.
It was truly a mesmerizing sight.
Even Donna got lost in the sight for a couple of seconds before snapping out of it.
"How interesting"
She couldn't explain why, but whenever she saw that boy's swordplay she would occasionally get mesmerized.
Since the first time she laid eyes on him, she started paying close attention to him. She could tell from a glance that he was going to make it big in the future.
Swiping the card that led to the training facility, she entered.
It was only after she entered the training facility that she noticed another student practicing his swings.
At first, she was delighted.
As a teacher who doesn't like it when their student works hard?
But as she saw his weird movements, she was reminded of the boy she saw at the training session today.
"He's still wasting time doing that nonsense?"
Shaking her head, she moved to where Kevin was.
"I have to say, whenever I see your swordsmanship I can't help but get mesmerized by it"
Startled, Kevin stopped what he was doing and looked at the enchanting figure that was gracefully walking towards his direction.
"Miss Donna? Why are you here?"
"Why can't I be here?"
Tilting her head sideways, she teasingly looked at Kevin who was sweating all over.
"You know, it's good that you're practicing against the dolls, but you should stop that for now."
"Sorry?"
Looking at Donna in confusion, Kevin lowered his sword.
"From what I observed your body can't keep up with your brain."
Taking out her tablet, she quickly swiped up and a holographic image of the dummy appeared before her.
"When you were sparring, I observed, that your body has a hard time following where your eyes look. Here have a look at this."
Using her tablet she quickly tapped on the practice dummy before her, instantly several red spots appeared on the holographic image, with numbers hovering above them.
"These dummies not only are extremely durable but they also have state-of-the-art technology installed in them. They can measure the amount of strength you exert, how fast your blows are, and how accurate they are. Truly an amazing piece of engineering!"
Pointing directly at the numbers above the red dots, Donna looked at Kevin.
"You see this? This number tells you how accurate your blows are. Right now your highest number is 85%. Although the 15% you missed may be as small as a millimeter, it could dictate whether you kill your enemy or not."
Swiping to the right, a small detailed table appeared in front of Kevin. Several numbers were displayed before him revealing how much power he used when he attacked the dummy, and how consistent he was every time.
"Using state-of-the-art eye-tracking software, we can directly predict where you will hit. Not only does it take your line of sight into consideration, but it also reads your body language such as which direction your body is facing, the angle at which you are swinging and many other considerable factors that can accurately determine where you will hit. The numbers that are currently displayed measure the level of accuracy your hits have when taking into account all those factors previously mentioned"
Staring at the table for a while, Kevin let out a long breath and looked at Donna.
"Than what should I do?"
"What should you do? It's actually not that difficult of a problem"
Pointing at the Gravity room on the other side of the training facility she said
"I recommend you tamper your body inside of the gravity room so that your body can keep up with your brain."
"Understood!"
Wiping off the sweat that had accumulated on his body, he thanked Donna for her advice and quickly made his way towards the gravity room.
Seeing how determined Kevin was, Donna couldn't help but let out a satisfied smile.
"Now it's the problem child's turn"
Turning her head, her sight quickly drifted towards the boy who was mindlessly sheathing and unsheathing his katana.
"Hey, you!"
Seeing how he was mindlessly doing the same thing, Donna couldn't take it anymore and made her way towards him.
"?"
Tilting his head sideways, the young boy looked in the direction of where the voice came.
Immediately his whole body froze, as beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Looking at him, Donna actually found the scene rather funny.
Glancing at the boy up and down, Donna scrutinized the boy before her. Jet black hair, crystal blue eyes, and well-defined features. His body was on the skinnier side, but he was definitely not ugly.
Well, as she looked at him, she couldn't help but recall Jin and Kevin which made her bitterly smile.
There was simply no comparison.
"Tell me what you're doing?"
"Miss Donna, I am practicing"
"You call that practicing?"
Sighing, she looked at the boy and said in an annoyed tone
"Look, mindlessly sheathing and unsheathing the sword like that is utterly stupid. What can you hope to achieve by doing that?"
Scratching his head embarrassedly, the boy's eyes shifted to the side as he spoke in a barely audible voice.
"You see, whenever I try to pull out my katana it would always get stuck inside my scabbard, and it happens quite often so..."
As Donna was a superhuman blessed with mana, it wasn't hard for her to make out what the boy was saying. But when she heard what he said, she wished she hadn't.
Sword stuck inside of the scabbard?
How can you make such a stupid mistake?
No. In the first place, how can someone who can't even pull out a katana from the scabbard be able to enroll in the lock?
Millions of questions emerged in her mind as she speechlessly looked at the boy before her.
"Haaa. Just get a better scabbard or change sword. Stop wasting your time like this okay?"
"Okay"
Feeling like she would get a massive headache if she stayed any longer, she turned around and left.
Just as she was about to leave the facility, she took a quick peek behind her.
She was left speechless once again.
"Is he deaf or something?"
The same boy she just talked to was doing the same thing again! It was like her advice never entered his ears!
"Fine suit yourself, if that's how you want to play I'm fine with it"
It's not like it was her duty to personally supervise him. He was already 16 years old, his life was his responsibility. She had already taken her time off work to give him advice, but he decided to ignore it. Her job was to guide students, and if those students ignored her guidance it was up to them not her.
As she left, she directly put Ren on her blacklist.
Report chapter
Staring at Donna's departing figure, I bitterly smiled.
"I probably got blacklisted"
As the author of the novel, I knew Donna's personality the best. Her likes and dislikes, I knew them all.
For example, although she tries to hide it, she loves sweets. Especially ice cream, with hazelnut being her favorite flavor.
She also hates a lot of things, such as annoying men, typically the ones that look at her with lustful eyes, and lazy or stubborn people.
I had already noticed Donna by the time she was talking to Kevin, but in order not to gather any attention on myself, I feigned ignorance and pretended to be surprised by her sudden appearance.
"She probably thinks I'm a stubborn student who doesn't listen to advice"
I pretended to be flustered and made her impression of me as low as possible. The excuse I used about my sword being stuck in the scabbard was a lie, but it was the best way to make her think I was incompetent.
Although she's not the type of person that would snitch, if someone were to find out that I was practicing the 5-star module [Keiki style, I would definitely attract a lot of unnecessary attention.
Simply put, I don't want that.
The more attention I get, the more the likelihood of me and the main characters interacting.
Moreover, if people were to find out I was practicing a 5-star module my safety would be in jeopardy as a 5-star module was something that was highly coveted.
Thinking thus far I decided that since I was reborn as a mob I may as well use the only privilege given to a mob and live a nice and peaceful life. I'll become strong enough to defend my family from the third cataclysm, and patiently wait for the protagonist to solve everything. Then I will find myself a stable job and get myself a wife.
Such was my plan.
Don't get me wrong, I also thought about using my advantage as an author to help myself reach the peak.
But I can't afford to do that. If I were to somehow or accidentally change the course of the story, then the ending of the story might change too.
Wait...
Hold on.
It seemed like I forgot something extremely crucial
I just remembered...I didn't write an ending to the story
I died before I could even finish the novel
"Oh no no no..."
Pacing around the training ground, I frantically started thinking of solutions.
This is a big problem.
I stopped writing right before the MC would clash against the Demon king. The plan was, MC fights boss, MC wins by hair breath, MC becomes a hero.
Simple right?
Well, now we have a problem and a huge one at that. Because I was too caught up with the [Seed of limit] and the [Keiki style] I completely forgot about the inconclusive ending!
Glancing at Kevin who was now training in the gravity room, I let out a long sigh.
"I guess I have no choice then"
It seems that I will have to discard my previous plan.
It seems that I will have to become as strong as the MC, or at least close to his level. Of course if possible I will try not to interact with him and the main characters, at least not until the story is near the end. But if in case the MC does not defeat the last boss, only then will I step in and help him.
'This is really troublesome.'
Thinking thus far, using a towel I wiped the sweat accumulated on my forehead.
Thinking about all of this has made me lose my motivation to train.
"I guess I'll just take a shower and go think of solutions"
This was truly annoying.
Arriving in my room, I quickly hopped on the shower.
Class starts at 8:00 am, so after I finished washing I hopped on the bed and started thinking about my future course of action.
First things first, I obviously needed to get stronger.
But how was I supposed to do that?
I can't be too greedy and steal too much from the protagonist, as that would directly change the flow of the story. Moreover, I already feel guilty about taking the [Seed of limit, I can't be taking more than I should be taking.
Since I can't take any cheat items, I must go a different path.
"But what would that path be..."
Stroking my chin, many ideas came into my mind.
"Perhaps I could go hunting for beasts in the outskirts of Ashton city."
Shaking my head, I quickly discard the thought. It was simply too dangerous as I have never battled before, it would be a suicidal idea to go fight against beasts.
"A way to help me increase my training speed without exposing myself to dangerous situations"
"Ah!"
How come I didn't think about it before.
I was so engrossed in acquiring cheat items that I completely forgot the fact that there was a much simpler solution.
Stocks.
Since I am the author of the novel, all the future events that would take place in the near future were already in my head.
If I could utilize my advantage carefully I could quickly rack in some cash, which would help supplement my training.
There were a lot of steroid-like potions available on the market. If I managed to earn enough money for myself through stocks, I could supplement my training by consuming those potions. For example, if I were to consume a [Stamina recovery potion] coupled with a [Muscle recovery potion] I could train double the normal amount without the risk of being injured. That would definitely help me catch up with the rest.
[Strength enhancement potion, [Mana enhancement potion, [Agility enhancement potion, [Stamina recovery potion, [Muscle recovery potion] all sorts of incredible potions were available in the market.
How could I have not thought about it before?
Not even a second-generation young master could afford to do this kind of training, as the price of each potion was simply too expensive. A low-quality [Strength enhancement potion] went for 20,000U on the market which goes to show how expensive this type of training was. But if I were to utilize my knowledge correctly, making a couple of millions shouldn't pose a problem. Heck if it weren't for the fact that I didn't want to risk a market crash, I could've easily made billions.
In any case, I don't really need to make that much as I secretly know of a way to purchase high-quality potions below the market value. Moreover, the source was quite close too. If not for the fact that I didn't want to interact with that person I would've already purchased a couple of potions.
Ahhh it feels so good to be omniscient.
Alright since I know what to do, I quickly went to grab a pen.
I need to write down all the events that will happen in the future before I forget.
"Where did I leave the diary?"
Looking left and right, I looked around the room for the diary that my mom left behind.
"Should be in the useless pile over here"
Looking through a big pile of items in the corner of the room, I quickly found the red book and picked it up.
"!"
-Thud
My mind momentarily blanked as the book slipped from my hand.
Regaining myself, I hurriedly picked up the book and looked at the cover where three words were deeply engraved on the leather front of the book.
'The luminescent swordman'
With trembling hands, I slowly opened the diary.
Restlessly flipping page after page of the book, I look through the contents of the book in a state of bewilderment.
"H-how is this p-possible..."
Only 10 pages were filled while the subsequent pages were all empty.
But...
"Huuu...That was tough"
Exiting the gravity room Kevin took a deep breath. He was fairly exhausted as he had just used the gravity room at 2g of gravity. Because it was his first time trying the gravity room he only decided to go set the gravity room at 2g.
Thanks to the advice he had gotten from Donna today, it felt as if a new road had opened up to him.
Although it was only his first time training in the gravity room, he already felt some results. When swinging the sword he could feel his swings becoming faster and more precise as he practiced against the dummies.
"Good"
Satisfied, Kevin looked at his watch. It was about 9:00 pm, which meant that the canteen would close soon. Thus he quickly changed...
From the 10th page onwards words started appearing inside of the book filling the remaining pages. What's even weirder was the fact that the words inside of the book looked handwritten, as they had a unique cursive style to them.
Although the words were shocking...what really troubled me was not how words were magically appearing inside of the book but the title of the cover.
'The luminescent swordman'
That was the title of the novel that I created and now reincarnated in.
As I held the diary in my hands, I couldn't help but shiver. From pages, one to ten everything was exactly as I had written in the novel. It starts with Kevin taking the entrance exams and shocking everyone with his talent to where he is now training in the gravity room.
As I stared at the diary in my hands, a sudden thought struck me.
"Can I change it?"
Instantly I took out a pencil and tried erasing the last few words 'Thus he quickly changed and made his way towa...'
"!"
It worked!
I could actually erase the contents of the book!
"Huh?"
5 seconds after I had erased the words, the words which I had erased magically reappeared again.
Seeing the words reappearing in front of me, I tried erasing another section of the book.
The result was the same. Exactly five seconds after the words were erased from the book they would reappear as if nothing happened.
After trying the same thing a couple of times, frowning, I fell into deep thought. It seems like I could erase the words inside of the book but exactly five seconds after erasing those words they would magically reappear again making it seem as if nothing had happened. Then a thought suddenly struck me.
If I could erase them...then could I perhaps change them too?
"Hmmm, let's try something simple first"
Using the end of the pencil I quickly rub out '2g' and replaced it with '4g'.
"Let's see if anything happens."
1 second
2 seconds
3 seconds
4 seconds
Exactly 5 seconds after I changed the words, the book magically glowed.
Suddenly like a vacuum, I felt most of the energy within my body get drained by the book.
"Ugh! What's going on?"
Caught off-guard my legs slacked and I fell on one knee. As I breathed roughly I glanced at the book in my hands.
"Hu, Hu, Hu, Damm it!"
Exiting the gravity room Kevin slumped on the floor. He was extremely exhausted as he just used the gravity room at 4g of gravity. He had severely overestimated his own capabilities and directly put the gravity room setting to 4g thinking that he was good enough for it.
Exactly 30 minutes after he entered the gravity room he called it quits and left the room. It was too much for him at the moment.
As he laid on the floor exhausted, he smiled.
Thanks to the advice he had gotten from Donna today, it felt as if a new road had opened up to him.
Although he was completely worn out, he could feel his body slowly changing. He could already feel the benefits of tampering with his body inside of the gravity room.
"Good"
Satisfied, Kevin looked at his watch. It was about 9:00 pm, which meant that the canteen would close soon. Thus he quickly changed and made his way towards the cafeteria. He had previously heard that the cafeteria closed at...
"Oh my god!"
The book changed!
I could actually change what was written inside of the book!
This was a heaven-defying opportunity for me. With this, I could know exactly what the MC was doing and secretly help him when he's in trouble without the need of me showing up.
Although this book was indeed a cheat item, I couldn't help but frown the more I looked at it.
First off, there were definitely limitations on how I could use the book. This could be seen by how almost all of my mana was depleted by changing '2g' into '4g' which means that as of right now the changes I can make are severely limited.
Second off, this whole book is sketchy. Although the book was inside of the box that my parents in this world sent me, I was sure that they weren't the ones who put the book there.
This raises some questions. Who put the book in there and what's their purpose? Was it perhaps the person that reincarnated me? Or was it someone else?
"Mhmm, this is really vexing"
Whoever it was that reincarnated me definitely had a motive in doing so. I don't know what they want from me, but I sure hope it's not something that would require me to fight a god or anything like that.
Right?
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Let's not do that okay?
Please...
Well since I can't think of a reason as to why I was summoned here, I might as well play with the book a bit more.
Report chapter
Over the course of the next few days, I managed to get a good grasp of the book.
After experimenting with the book on every occasion I could get, I managed to decipher the main uses of the book.
First off, whenever I wanted to change something inside of the book, mana would be consumed.
Depending on what I changed, a different amount of mana was consumed to supplement the change I made.
For example, let's take the gravity room example.
I changed the gravity room setting from 2g to 4g. At that time approximately three-quarters of my mana was consumed by the book.
On the same day, after taking a cheap 50 U potion to replenish my mana, I tried again, but this time I changed the gravity setting from 4g to 3g.
The result was that half of my mana was consumed.
Thanks to this I was able to figure out that the change made in the book is proportional to mana consumption. Meaning that the bigger the change I made in the book the more mana I consumed.
To verify this I tried putting '6g', which I regret doing now, as I nearly passed out from having all the mana within my body get sucked out.
When I managed to regain some strength I found that my mana was completely drained. When I glanced at the book to see what changes it brought, I couldn't help but break out into cold sweat. Apparently, the MC broke one of his legs as a result of my meddling.
Quickly replenishing my mana using another cheap potion, I immediately reverted it back to 2g which I found to be the most optimal gravity setting for the MC.
The next thing I tried was 15g. I wanted to see what would happen if the change was well beyond my capabilities.
The result was that, exactly 5 seconds after I made a change, my change quickly reverted back to '2g' almost as if it never happened.
The next thing I found out about the book was that it was 10 minutes ahead of my current timeline. Meaning that it tells me the happenings of 10 minutes in the future.
Moreover, I found out that when the events that were in the book coincided with my timeline, I could no longer add any more changes to the book.
For example, 'Kevin exits the training room'.
When those words appear in the book, it actually means that Kevin will exit the training room 10 minutes from now.
So when Kevin actually exits the training room in real-time, I could no longer make any changes in the book. From this, I could infer that the book cannot change the past, but only change a possible future.
I was actually quite lucky that I had used potions to replenish my mana as I would've been in deep shit if the MC had injured himself on the first day.
The last thing I found out was that the book only gives me Kevin's perspective. This means that the book is actually kind of useless to me as I am not Kevin.
I wasn't particularly saddened by this fact as I could use this book to determine whether I could help Kevin without needing to expose myself.
...
Today marked the fourth day of me starting classes, and today is my first non-practical lesson since I had arrived here.
Since people usually come to the lock to develop their abilities, most of the lessons were based on real combat and body training, therefore making theoretical lessons quite rare.
'Molecular Anatomy'
This was the name of the theoretical lecture. An incredibly complex class that looks through the body of monsters and beasts.
Professor Theodore Rombhouse, a renowned researcher with lots of awards to his name, was the professor in charge of this class. He and his team were responsible for singlehandedly finding out the mystery as to why beasts went beserk after mana invaded the atmosphere.
Professor Rombhouse was a plump middle-aged man with curly white hair and a calm disposition. If it weren't for the fact that his eyes were currently transfixed on the huge creature laying on the table in front of the class, people would've easily mistaken him for your nice neighborhood uncle.
"As we can see, the wingspan of the berzerk pigeonette is around 1.8 meters, drastically different from their predecessor the pigeon which tended to be at around 70 cm in length. That is almost a 2.6 times increase in length!"
Excitedly yelled the professor as he caressed the gigantic creature on the table. You could hear from his voice that he was incredibly engrossed by the creature in front of him.
"After long conclusive research, we have managed to source out the reason for the pigeon's drastic growth. As all of you know, my team was responsible for finding out as to why beasts go berserk at the presence of mana."
Finally taking his eyes off the huge creature, Professor Rombhouse took a good look at the class and asked.
"Now can anyone tell me why humans manage to retain their sanity while animals can't?"
As this was common knowledge a lot of hands were raised. Since I wanted to blend in I also raised my hand without thinking much.
"You on the left"
"..."
He's looking at me, isn't he? Just to make sure I looked behind me to see if anyone had their hands up. Don't want to end up in one of those awkward situations where someone waves at you but it turns out they were actually waving at the person behind you.
"No don't look behind you, I'm talking to you dimwit!"
"Me?"
"Jesus Christ! Yes, you!"
This bastard! Is that how you talk to your own creator!
Ambithaba this poor monk shall be benevolent for once.
Pretending to fall into deep thought, I looked at the professor before I started speaking. Of course, I pretend to be nervous at first so that I didn't stand out. If I acted confidently it would make the professor automatically assume I knew my stuff, which would result in him asking me more questions in the future which I didn't want.
"Ah, uhm. Compared to us humans..uhm...animals don't have a cortex as developed as ours. As mana stimulates our neurological system, it inadvertently needs us to ...uhm...to process the mana in our body to redirect it to the correct areas in the body so that it doesn't accumulate in a specific area of the body. Because we are wired differently from beasts we have the capability to think and react to situations, which beasts are incapable of. Therefore when presented with an invading force a.k.a mana, because of their low intellect beasts are incapable of reacting to the situation causing the mana inside of their body to slowly accumulate inside of them, specifically their brain, slowly turning them berserk. This process is known as mana poisoning"
"Impressive answ..."
Impressed by my answer Professor Rombhouse was about to applaud when he noticed that I still didn't finish talking.
"There are two solutions to solving this problem. One is to wait for nature to take its course and let the beasts slowly evolve allowing them to process mana, or second to directly use external aid to stimulate the mana within beasts. Simply put, since they can't use their own brain to stimulate their mana why not use others?"
"For example, if we used a normal circulation technique like the [Three-star constellation] technique and directly stimulate where the mana is concentrated in a way that it stimulated the nervous system of the bea..."
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
"Huh?"
As I was talking I heard a loud shout and felt two large hands holding me down.
"REPEAT WHAT YOU JUST SAID!"
"Hu-h w-what's going on?"
I flusteredly replied as I found Professor Rombhouses's face sticking in front of me. We were so close that his nose was inches away from my face.
Glancing around I noticed everyone staring at me in shock, even Melissa the smarted student in class glanced at me for a few seconds.
What happened?
I'm sure I only recited normal information. Everyone should know this stuff...
"REPEAT WHAT YOU JUST SAID!"
Shouted Professor Rombhouse at the top of his lungs. I could even feel some of his spit splashing on my face.
Just as I was about to protest I noticed his frenzied eyes staring down on me, and decided against doing so.
"Compared to us huma..."
"NO! NOT THAT PART!"
flinching and taking a step back, I confusedly stare at the professor.
You want me to repeat myself and yet when I do you still shout at me, are you mentally okay?
Noticing my expression, and seeing everyone staring at him. Professor Rombhouse calmed down and took two steps back.
"Cough cough sorry for that."
"No, no, no problem"
I said as I waved my hands.
"Dear student could you repeat the last part of what you said, about the two processes that can cure beasts of mana poisoning."
Frowning I looked at the Professor skeptically. Did I miss something?
"There are two solutions in curing mana poisoning. One is to let nature take its course through evolution, and the other is through external aid."
"What do you mean by external aid?"
Interrupting me once again, Professor Rombhouse looked at me with sparkling eyes.
Taking two steps back I warily look at the professor.
"Sir I'm into females"
"Huh?"
"...!"
After a couple of seconds, you could hear Professor Rombhouse enraged roar resounding in the classroom as he understood what I said.
"I'm in no mood for your silly jokes, repeat what you had just said before!!"
-Ding! -Dong! -Ding! -Dong!
"It seems that it's the end of the lesson, thank you for your time professor, and goodbye"
Without letting him react on time, as soon as I heard the bell I got my bag and left in a flash.
That dude was seriously too creepy.
First, he kept asking me elementary knowledge stuff, and secondly, he kept shouting for no reason at all.
Just what did I do wrong?
...
Click!
As I closed the door of my room I immediately grabbed the mysterious book and opened it.
I needed to find out why the professor caused an outburst like that on his first day of class.
As Kevin left Professor Rombhouse's class he was left into deep thought
If what that weird student said was true, then a groundbreaking discovery had just been made. If his solution could really resolve mana poisoning, then it could drastically reduce the stress humanity was facing. Take Park city for example. Every year they are constantly attacked by sea creatures who have gone berserk.
What if they could resolve the mana poisoning inside of the beasts?
Wouldn't that help increase humanity's manpower in fighting against the demons?
Because of his hatred towards demons, Kevin couldn't help but be excited by the prospect of humanity taking one step forward in the war against the demons.
As Kevin was walking towards his dorm he could faintly hear Professor Rombhouse's hysterical shouts asking for the name of that mysterious student.
Oddly enough most of the students didn't even know who he was. If it weren't for the fact that the second-lowest in the class pointed out his name, none of the people in the class would've known about him.
"Ren Dover"
"..."
What have I done!
How did I make such a stupid mistake!
Because I wanted to perfectly play the role of a mob, I completely neglected the fact that some of the information I knew may not have not yet been discovered.
I was truly careless.
I was actually pretty sure that what I had said was already known by most of the people present. In the novel, although I don't remember it word for word, I remember them knowing this sort of information at the begging of the novel.
Yes, I was indeed careless. My theory behind the slip-up was that because I had never mentioned when and who discovered the mana poison treatment in the novel, I may have prematurely exposed this solution.
Essentially I forwarded the theory a tiny bit before the original creator of the theory could present it.
In short, I garnered attention towards myself and possibly pissed someone off.
Without a second thought, I took my pencil out and erased "if it weren't for the fact that the second-lowest in the class pointed out his name" in the book, and replaced it with "None of the people in the class knew his name"
-Voom!
Instantly all my mana was sucked out of my body causing me to go limp on my bed.
Taking a look at the changes I let out a satisfied smile.
As Kevin was walking towards his dorm he could faintly hear Professor Rombhouse's hysterical shouts asking for the name of that mysterious student.
Oddly enough most of the students don't even know who he is. None of the people in the class knew his name, making him really mysterious.
Whoever he was, he was either lucky or he was hiding quite deeply.
Though what I did was not gonna change anything since professor Rombhouse could just look at the register to figure out who I was, I still did it since it could buy me a day of peace.
...This should serve as a good lesson for me.
Just because I wrote the novel didn't mean I knew everything regarding this world.
You only realized once you found yourself inside of a novel how many things the novel missed when compared to reality.
For example, back when I was looking for the [Keiki style, if not for the fact that I had a general idea of where to find it, I wouldn't have ever found the place. What I had written in the novel did not even come close to how it was in reality.
It's all the little details that were beyond my control...
Letting out a sigh of relief, I looked at the new passage of the book.
In all fairness, I didn't really have to do this because people saw my face, but at least I wouldn't find Professor Rombhouse annoying me anytime soon.
Fortunately, I only mentioned two solutions and excluded the third, which was the sure way to eliminate mana poisoning.
The second method could have been considered groundbreaking as of right now, but it really wasn't that efficient as it was way faster to kill than to cure.
Yes, it was possible to cure them and then train them to fight back, but that would be a long-term solution as it would simply take too much time.
All in all, even if I do explain how to do the second option, it wouldn't really attract too much attention to me.
Strenght rules over the brain in this era after all.
With my low potential, the higher-ups would only lightly glimpse at me and then go back to what they were doing.
Though I do think I may have pissed someone off...primarily the person who first came up with the hypothesis.
I'm sure whoever it was that put forward the theory was already at their late stage of experimentation.
I just hope this doesn't come back and bite me...
Closing the book down, I looked at the white ceiling and let out a long exhausted sigh.
"How troublesome..."
The next day, although I tried to be as low-key as possible, people would occasionally steal glances in my direction.
Right now we were in the middle of engineering class and I was actually trying to focus. The constant occasional glances were starting to get on my nerves. It was felt as if I was the main attraction inside of a zoo exhibit.
Although this class was not particularly popular I found it rather fascinating. The concepts they were talking about were far more advanced than back in my previous world.
But it was specifically because of this that I was so interested; Hence why I was especially annoyed by the constant stares from the people in my class.
I can't focus if you people keep staring at me!
"Using an angled mirror we split the two laser beams into two separate beams. This then forms an object beam and a reflected beam. Heading in different directions, both are reflected off of other angled mirrors, and using an F48 board and a g450 processor we can process the beams so that the software can detect human movements and as these two beams merge together a holographic image is created."
Well, it definitely was an interesting course but that didn't mean I could understand it. In fact, I only managed to grasp 1% of the contents of the course.
Like what the hell was an F48 board or a g450 processor?
I'll just stay and pretend that I understood everything that the professor said. It was a non-compulsory course anyways, therefore, I didn't really need to come here.
Still, even though I did not understand anything, just the fact that they were exploring holographic technology aroused my interest. Such technology did not exist back in my world, as the best they could come up with were touch screen phones.
The technology back in my world was not advanced enough to come up with pure holographic devices.
-Ding! -Dong!
"Oh my, it seems like the class has ended. I'll see you next time"
Packing up her stuff, the engineering professor smiled and left the class.
Not much was known about the engineering professor apart from the fact that she was apparently quite strong.
Although she was no longer in her younger days, she had a complexion as fair as an unpolished jade with beauty, elegance, and grace that could only be achieved over years of maturity. Her silky brown hair that was tied in a braided ponytail calmly rested on her right shoulder. Her expression which always seemed to be smiling carried a hidden charm within that caused everyone to feel a motherly warmth from her.
Even though I was the author of the book, many characters that I have met during my stay here were people that had never shown up in my story such as this professor.
Having stayed here for about a week, I found this professor the most pleasing out of all the ones I've encountered so far. She was kind and didn't show preferential treatment towards certain students, unlike other professors who blatantly showed favoritism towards ones that were talented or had a huge backing.
Most professors were 'geniuses' that have once studied here or had several achievements under their belts. They all had their own pride and thus only actually paid attention to the top students whilst ignoring the mediocre ones.
Although they didn't say it straight to our faces, the teacher's expression could tell it all. 'Why should I bother teaching you? Are you worthy?'
Even if we were not considered as outstanding as Kevin and the others, just the fact that we managed to enroll into the lock meant that they were capable individuals.
Take the previous owner of this body as an example. Although he was one of the lowest-ranked in the class if he were to go into any other academy he could've been considered as a medium-high talent since D-rank talents were still hard to come by these days due to the constantly decreasing population.
The world was just not fair.
Leaving the engineering class I calmly went back to my room to get changed. The next class was 'tactical cooperation' a new course that utilizes virtual technology to train students. I was actually quite pumped for this class since virtual reality was something you could've only been able to find in movies and novels.
Taking off my celestial blue uniform that indicated that I was in my first year, I took out a dark blue skin-tight suit and put it on.
Uniforms were separated into three different colors, celestial blue, dark green, and blood red. the celestial blue was only worn by first years, the dark green by second years, and the blood-red uniform by third years. It was arranged as such so that this way guilds who came to observe/scout students would be able to differentiate between first and third years. With third years being their primary target as they were only a year away from graduating.
As I struggled to put on the skin-tight suit I could only curse at the people who designed this suit.
Comfortable was the last possible word that came into my mind as I tried putting on the skin-tight suit. Let's not mention the fact that it took me around 5 minutes to put on the suit, but as the name suggests the suit was 'skin-tight' meaning that I could feel all my muscles getting tightly compressed by the suit.
Wearing the suit made my movements become extremely stiff. Because it was so stiff it looked like I was walking like a robot, moreover, Looking at my appearance in the mirror I wished I could find a place to bury myself.
So embarrassing.
Thankfully, the distance between my dorm and the 'tactical cooperation' class was close, saving me from the embarrassment of being seen in the suit.
The campus which covered an area of five kilometers squared was divided into 8 sections, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H.
The lecture zone was located in the A section, and that area was where the lecture halls were located. It was located on the top left side of the campus and comprised of three oval-shaped buildings that were each the same size. The reason why there were three buildings was that the first year, second year, and third years were separated.
The B section was a no-student area and it's where the professor's offices were located. If you needed to ask questions or meet the professor after class you would have to go towards the B section. It was located right next to the A section and consisted of one large compound with a tall glass-pyramid like building in the middle of the compound.
The C section was where the labs and researching facilities were located. In order for someone to access the lab, they needed to be supervised by a professor in case something went wrong. Because of the dangers, the facility posed, the C section was located far away from the other sections and was enclosed in military-grade defenses.
The D section was where I was currently headed and it was where the virtual reality room was located. It was a room filled with capsules that each student could use to enter the virtual world. It was located underground and was a few kilometers away from the dorms, which were located in the E section.
In the E section, dorms were separated into five different buildings with each building bigger than the other. The furthest building and also the shabbiest looking one was the 'golden rat' building. It was the cheapest dorm on the campus and was where people that couldn't afford to pay for facilities stayed.
Right next to the 'golden rat' building was the 'horned sheep' building and it was where I was currently staying. The conditions were a bit better than the 'golden rat' building, but it was still nothing compared to the next three buildings, 'Manticore', 'Hydra' and 'Leviathan' buildings.
Starting from the 'Manticore' building, each person had their own personal training facility installed inside of their room followed by a personal designated butler that catered to all their needs.
The 'Hydra' building, like the 'Manticore' building, provided personal training facilities as well as a butler. However the training facilities were much more advanced, and they also provided students with personalized meals and diet plans. The meals were all cooked by professional chefs, and the ingredients provided by them were all made from rare herbs and monsters.
Lastly, there was the 'Leviathan' building. The only building that could be accessed with money. This was where the 'elites' resided. No matter how rich you were, unless you proved that you were a one-of-a-kind talent you would never be able to step in here. This building was created in the hopes of nurturing future talents that could fight and fend off against the demons who are rampaging all over the world. Heavy emphasis was put on the creation of this building, as it was where the future pillars of humanity would be nurtured. Whatever you wanted, it was there. Training facilities, high-end food, butlers, swimming pool, VR rooms, highly secured research facilities, if you felt like something was missing all you needed to do was just ask and it would be built the next day.
The G section is where the training facility was located and it was inside of a large squared architectural building. It was approximately 2 minutes away from section A, and 5 minutes away from the E section. Because it was a public training facility one needed to book a spot in advance in order to use the facility.
Lastly the H section, the area that contained the library as well as the 'cube'. The 'cube' was a forbidden area where only the highest-ranked individuals could enter. The reason why it was considered a forbidden area was that it was where all the secret training manuals were stored, as well as godly medicine and herbs. Manuals that were comparable to the [Keiki style] were also stored inside of the facility further clarifying how important that area was.
Arriving inside of the VR room, I noticed almost everyone walking in a robot-like manner causing me to lightly chuckle.
Obviously, not everyone was like this, as some were leisurely walking in their tight-skin suit indicating that this was probably not their first time using VR.
Because we were wearing tight-skin suits, the boys and girls were separated into different rooms, which is a bit of a letdown as I wouldn't have minded seeing Amanda and the others in that outfit.
Actually on second thought scratch that. Since I was the author of the novel, I knew the personalities of the main characters the best, and thus I knew that if I were to catch a glimpse of them with that suit on, my days would be numbered.
"Alright, everyone please look over here"
Similarly wearing a tight-skinned outfit the professor came into the room, gathering the attention of everyone present.
Standing tall, with tidy black hair and a sharp look was the professor responsible for this class. He currently had a gentle smile on his face as he took out a small tablet and took the register.
Looking at his calm gentle demeanor that made it look like he was the nicest person on earth, I secretly sneered.
'I know who you truly are...'
The professor who was in charge of the VR class was called Alfonse Thibaut and was actually a major character for the first arc of the story.
In short, he could be what was regarded as a mini-boss.
Although he was not a ranked villain, he could be considered a difficult opponent for the current protagonist.
The demon he signed a pact with was from the shadow tribe, which was a sub-branch of the greed clan which was one of the seven main clans of the demon clans.
The demons were split into seven clans, each according to the 7 heavenly sins known to mankind, pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth.
Each clan was commanded by a demon duke which was as powerful if not more powerful than the top executives in the human domain, or equivalently SS ranks.
Above them was the Demon King, who at the moment could eradicate the whole of humanity with the swipe of his hand. However, due to his enormous power, he was currently being restricted by various powers preventing him from entering the human domain.
That was of course until the third calamity hits, which was when the true war between humanity and the demons would start.
I was actually quite thankful for the fact that I was the lowest-ranked in the class since it meant that minimal attention was placed on me. Apart from the occasional bullying, I was living quite a comfortable life, unlike Kevin who was constantly under the watch of both the jealous classmates and villains who are wary of his overwhelming talent.
"Since everyone is present, I will start the capsules and you can enter when I say so"
Seeing that everyone was present, Professor Thibaut smiled and went towards his desk where a large monitor was present.
Typing a few commands on the screen, he called out the names of each student separately.
"Ren Dover, please make way to capsule 55"
Hearing my name being called, I contained my excitement and made my way towards my designated capsule.
Ignoring the snickering coming from certain classmates, which whispered words such as 'bumpkin' or other rude remarks, I excitedly approached my capsule.
I could finally enter the virtual world which I could only see in novels and movies.
Entering the capsule and adjusting the helmet on my head, I patiently waited for the professor's instructions.
"Student Dover is everything okay?"
"Yes"
"Okay, the virtual simulation will start in 3..2...1..."
-Tak
The last thing I heard was the sound of a key being pressed before everything went dark.
Report chapter
-Shua!
[Processing student information...]
[Retina scan...check]
[Fingerprint scan...check]
[Genetic data test...check]
[Loading time...57%...87%...94%...]
[User information loaded]
[Rank 1750, Ren Dover, confirm access Y/N]
The helmet's display gradually illuminated, revealing rows upon rows of information. Taking a minute to adjust my mind to the sudden changes, I looked through the information and pressed Y. After confirming, abruptly, a lively jingle that felt oddly familiar began playing, echoing through my ears.
The fact that there were a lot of procedures placed when entering the virtual cabin wasn't strange. With current technology, pretending to be someone else was as easy as turning on your phone. With just some custom-made masks someone could easily make themselves look like someone else.
Fortunately, it wasn't that difficult to distinguish a villain as villains undergo several genetic modifications when making a pact with a demon. This phenomenon occurred due to the fact that the human body cannot fully adapt to the power given to them by the demons.
Imagine an empty balloon.
Now imagine yourself filling it with air. Gradually as time passes the balloon will turn round and float.
That's how the human body usually worked when their mana increased.
Now imagine the same empty balloon, but this time instead of filling it with air we fill it with water.
In contrast to the air balloon, the water balloon instead of becoming perfectly round will droop down due to the density of the water, causing its shape to change.
Now take this example into consideration and apply it to humans, where water was the energy that came from the demons.
Because of how dense the energy coming from the demons was, the weaker villain's bodies tended to undergo drastic changes in order to withstand the newly found power that entered their body.
Due to these drastic changes, a simple retina, fingerprint, and gene test could verify if one was a villain or not.
Of course, this only worked for relatively weaker villains. For stronger villains, this sort of test was useless as their bodies could contain the power given to them by the devils they made a pact with, like professor Thibaut. Fortunately, this wasn't necessarily a problem as the stronger villains didn't bother disguising themselves.
However, even though strong villains tended to avoid disguising themselves, these sorts of tests were still a necessary precaution against villains. The consequences of not checking whether someone was an imposter could potentially be disastrous. Imagine what would happen if a villain was to make its way inside of the VR capsule. He/She could potentially put all the students at risk of brain trauma if not even death.
If a villain were to suddenly gain access to the virtual equipment main control system, he/she could suddenly discharge all of the electrical power inside of the capsules, essentially turning everyone inside of the capsule brain dead.
This sort of accident occurred several times in the past, resulting in strict checks and procedures getting installed by the company creating the capsule as a result of the backlash they received from the public.
Well, what about professor Thibaut? Technically he could override the system and kill everyone present, right? Actually, he couldn't, especially since his job was extremely important.
The reason why I was not necessarily worried about him was because his primary role in the lock was to turn potential heroes into villains. He was what was called a 'manager' or an 'agent'. His main responsibility was to turn students into villains by exploiting the emotions and resentment they had towards certain individuals or the academy.
Moreover, it wasn't that easy to override the system and discharge high amounts of electricity towards the capsules. Especially if this was happening inside of the lock, where several highly ranked heroes resided. They could easily sense the abnormal accumulation of electricity making it almost impossible for this plan to work.
Plus, Professor Thibaut simply couldn't afford to perform such a high-risk maneuver to kill an individual as turning students into villains was his main priority.
If not for the fact that professor Thibaut got direct orders from the demon he made a pact with to get rid of Kevin, he would've never tried fighting him, as it wasn't his responsibility.
Just as it was not my responsibility to get rid of him. If I suddenly got rid of the mini-boss, Kevin would never go through any hardship, creating a liability for when he faced the Demon King.
Gradually the world around me started to change, and a blinding light caused me to cover my eyes.
Blinking for a couple of seconds, and recovering my bearing I found myself inside of a white room.
Looking around the room, I could see a couple of students from my class similarly checking their surroundings.
After approximately five minutes, and seeing that no one else showed up, I made my way towards the other classmates.
There were a total of five people excluding myself in the waiting room.
Seeing that I was making my way towards them, some students went to greet me directly.
"Rank 834 William K. Johnson, a pleasure to meet you"
The first person to greet me was a rather short-statured browned hair teen, with a somewhat lively disposition.
"Rank 623 Rosaline Tluve"
"Rank 739 Edward Smith, greetings."
"Rank 956 Park Jinho, nice to meet you"
Following William, a red-haired pretty girl who stood proudly like a regal peacock greeted me. She had an indifferent air around her that made it seem like nothing interested her. Her tone was cold, giving the impression that she detested everything around her. She like me was an extra and thus I knew nothing about her, making me assume that her cold attitude came from some sort of past trauma. Most probably faced a similar to Amanda, who like her was cold.
After Rosaline, a black-haired youth with square-shaped glasses and neatly combed hair greeted me in a serious tone. Judging from his disposition and the way he talked, I made a mental note to myself to not interact with him in the near future. Not very fond of such straight-laced individuals.
Lastly, Park Jinho, who seemed to be of Asian descent, most probably Korean, greeted me with a modest attitude. He seemed somewhat wary of me, not sure why...
Turning my head to the last person, who ignored my presence since the beginning, I tried to greet him but I was promptly ignored.
With a fairly tall stature and a muscular upper body that did not lose out to any professional bodybuilder back in my world, was Arnold Kane. he carried an intimidating aura around him that reminded people of a wild gorilla that would attack anyone at the smallest sign of provocation. His hair was cut in a buzzcut and his eyes were tightly knit together in a frown.
Shaking my head, I presented myself to the rest.
There was no need for me to actually greet him as I already knew who he was, but as to not come off as too disrespectful I made sure to at least greet him. Had I skipped over him, I might've been the target of his bullying, which I really did not want to have any part of.
'Rank 75, Arnold Kane'
One of Jin's three main lackeys. who will later be known as 'Iron Mountain Arnold' due to his iron-like defense that could ward off several attacks from several individuals at a time.
He was what you called a 'Strong to the weak, and weak to the strong' type of person. A typical bully. His arrogance probably originated from the fact that he was Jin's lackey. To which I can only secretly express my disgust. You are actually proud of being someone else's dog?
"Pleasure to meet you, everyone, I'm Rank 1750 Ren Dover"
"..."
It took a couple of seconds for the rest to process what I had said before losing all interest in me.
Shrugging at their reaction, I could only sympathize with them as I understood where they were coming from. I mean, 800 ranks lower than the second-lowest in the group was quite the difference.
This was a society where power ruled over everything else. If you were not that powerful you were looked down on by everyone. Well, this mainly applied to the lock where individuals were still young and prideful. Once they entered the real world and actually fought against demons, only then will they realize how immature they were.
"Trash"
The first to speak up was, of course, Arnold, who looked at me with disgust.
Secretly shaking my head, I couldn't help but lament to myself for making this world full of arrogant characters.
Couldn't be helped, it was what the readers wanted...
Fuck you, readers.
Your pleasure was my suffering.
Well whatever, I'll just stay quiet for now and wait for the professor's instruction.
Fortunately, after I told them about my rank, no one approached me, helping me avoid unnecessary conversations.
[Ehm..ehm...Group 7 can you guys hear me?]
Disrupting the awkward atmosphere that developed due to my rank reveal, professor Thibuat voice resounded across the room.
[If you can hear me say 'Check']
"Check"
"Check"
"Check"
"Check"
"Check"
"Check"
[1..2..3..4..5..6, great look's like everyone is present. Okay, listen carefully as I will now explain the rules. Pay close attention because I will only say them once.]
[Since this is most likely the first time some of you have entered the virtual world, today's class will be on the lighter side]
[The people around you right now will be the group that you will work with for today's class.]
[Before you say anything, your group is balanced according to the computer and for the most part, each group will be evenly matched. Although there are some exceptions, which I really can't do anything about]
'Don't look at me like that! he was referring to Kevin and the others!'
Noticing the glares coming in my direction, I couldn't help but silently grumble to myself.
The professor was obviously talking about the top-ranked individuals who could most likely take on a team by themselves.
There wasn't actually that much of a difference in power between me and Park Jinho, the second-lowest in the group. Well, that was if you were comparing me from before I took over because right now my fighting strength was leagues above what it was a week ago.
The only reason they glared at me like that was probably because they wanted an outlet to unleash their grievances against
'Immature bastards'
[You will each be dropped into a remote terrain which will be randomly generated by the computer.]
[Your goal for today is to survive 1 hour]
[There are extra points awarded for those who manage to complete certain hidden tasks]
[This will count as a pass as long as you manage to survive for 1 hour, extra points will be awarded for each teammate that survives alongside you]
[I will give you 2 minutes to let you discuss your plans with your group.]
[Best of luck!]
[Oh~ Before I leave I forgot to mention. The last group will automatically fail this class]
-Click!
Somehow the glares towards my direction became stronger.
How the professors haven't realized that professor Thibaut was a villain was beyond me. He was obviously trying to sow discord among the groups to create grudges with each other, with the lower-ranked individuals being his primary targets.
The 'fail this class' thing is a total lie, as he had no power in regards to deciding who to pass or who to fail on the first day.
This was just an excuse he made to create a situation where a grudge could be created by making the stronger guys target the weaker individuals.
This was one of his typical strategies that made certain individuals suffer so that he could weaken their state of mind, and later on, take advantage of their weakness to turn them into villains.
If not for the fact that there were a lot of heroes present in the lock, professor Thibaut would've used more extreme measures to turn someone into a villain.
"You"
Pointing towards my direction, Arnold's deep voice resounded across the white room.
"Yes?"
"Make sure you survive, else..."
Placing his hand on my shoulder, Arnold exerted an incredible amount of pressure making me almost kneel on the floor.
-Thud!
"Ugh..."
After confirming his strength, I kneeled down as he intended and let out a fake groan.
"Understand?"
Seeing me kneeling in front of him, Arnold let out a satisfied smile and turned towards the rest who immediately nodded at him.
"Good"
While pretending to struggle to get up, I fell into deep thought.
From the exchange I just had with Arnold, I could approximately gauge my strength.
I could pretty much confirm I was still weaker than Arnold, but not by a large margin. If I had to make a rough estimate about my ranking, it should be around the three hundred's.
Fortunately, because this was a virtual world, I didn't really suffer much from the exchange I had with Arnold. But don't get me wrong. Just because I didn't suffer much didn't mean I wasn't angry.
In fact, I was furious. How dare you gorilla-like bastard use me to exert dominance over the rest?
If not for the fact that I didn't want to start shit with you and your gang, I wouldn't have kneeled down and humiliated myself like that.
I'm not like those braindead protagonists who scream 'I will only kneel to god and my parents, no one else shall make me kneel!'
I will kneel when I need to. But be ready to face the consequences of making me kneel.
Staring at his proud and arrogant face which acted as if everything was beneath him, I secretly swore to myself to make him pay ten times for what he had done to me.
'I take my grudges very deeply'
[Alright! the simulation is ready]
[I will start the simulation in 3...2...1]
-Shua!
Soon after the professor initiated the simulation, my surroundings started to change.
Thick lush trees started appearing from beneath my feet followed by soft and crumbly soil that caused my feet to slowly sink.
My visibility slowly started getting blocked by the towering trees that started sprouting from the ground at an incredible speed.
Extending my hand forward to touch a tree, I was immensely surprised by the realistic sensation that spread through my fingers. Running my hand along the tree trunk it felt like I was touching the lines and wrinkles of an old man's face. It had an uneven surface where I could feel the flaky nature of the dark exterior, that crumbled and peeled, with a crackling sound at the slightest pressure exerted by my fingers.
It almost felt like I was touching the real thing.
It didn't feel like I was touching a bunch of codes, but an actual tree.
"How intriguing..."
[Rank 1750 Ren Dover - Team points: 6]
As I was busy being mesmerized by how realistic the trees were, a notification popped up in front of me.
Seeing the notification, I quickly swiped left to discard it and fell into deep thought.
The game was simple.
Each student had one point, and every time a teammate died the team would lose a team point.
The teams that reached 0 points would then be automatically eliminated and hence lose the game.
The only way to gain points was through completing the hidden tasks available on the map.
At the end of the test, there will be a ranking list that ranks the teams in accordance with their performance.
Taking a good look at my surroundings, my teammates were nowhere in sight.
In fact, although the professor never mentioned this to us when briefing us on the rules, I already knew that everyone was going to be separated from each other.
Well, I was the one who created the scenario in the first place.
The main goal of this test was to survive for 1 hour.
Although it sounded easy, it was in fact not. If it were that easy what sort of test would this be?
The lack of information provided by the professor was intentional because this essentially meant that there was only 1 rule.
And that was to 'survive'
Each person was directly given a weapon, which was automatically given to them depending on the weapon that they had registered on the first day of the academy.
In my case, a sleek black katana rested on the side of my hips.
-Shua! -Shua!
Swinging it a couple of times to adjust myself to the weight of the sword, I nodded in satisfaction.
It feels identical to the katana provided to us by the academy.
Sheathing the katana back into the scabbard, I warily glanced towards my surroundings.
When telling us the rules, the professor never mentioned anything apart from the fact that you must survive, and the more teammates survive with you at the end of the test, the more points your team had.
He purposely left out the details in regards to killing, and because of this, the students automatically assumed that killing was allowed.
Which was his true purpose.
As I said before, Professor Thibaut's goal was to further divide the line between the 'competent' and 'incompetent' students. This was so that he could exploit the feeble mentality of those who were being oppressed.
In doing so he could easily lure students into making a pact with a demon, turning them into villains.
His goal was to turn this test into a hunting party for the strong.
If lucky, professor Thibaut could fabricate a couple of scenarios where some talented individuals built a grudge against each other.
One such example was building a grudge against an incredibly talented student, like Kevin
If someone ranked in the hundred's challenged Kevin and lost miserably, their pride would cause them to build a grudge against Kevin, not because he was strong, but because of his background.
Of course, some would choose to give up right away, but certain prideful and arrogant individuals would of course not accept their defeat and seek revenge at every possible opportunity they could get.
As time slowly passes and they slowly realize the gap between themselves and Kevin's overwhelming talent, they fall into depravity and despair at their inability to take revenge against Kevin.
Once they reached this point, professor Thibaut would finally make his move by offering them power.
Enticed by the offer a make a pact would be made, and a new villain was born.
In short, this test was full of ulterior motives.
Walking forwards, I was trying to get a grasp of my current location.
Although a map wasn't provided to us, because I was technically a cheat, and thus knew the general features of the surroundings, I could roughly gauge my current location.
"Since I am surrounded by trees...I should be on the east side of the map"
"Hmm, if I'm not wrong Kevin and Jin spawned on the north side on top of the mountains, while Emma is on the south side where the desert is located...Melissa and Amanda should both be on the west side near the ocean, thus meaning that no important figure is in my area"
Trying to get a good grasp of the main character's locations, I started to formulate a plan regarding my next course of action.
The reason why I was trying to get a grasp of the main characters was not because I was obsessed with them, no, rather it's because all the events that will happen will be centered on them.
I could only predict what happened to them, but not what will happen to me, as I have never written anything outside of the scope of the main characters.
If I managed to get a good grasp on what the protagonists were up to, I could make a rough estimate on the timing of the events, and how to avoid them.
"My goal is to survive for 1 hour, while it does sound easy, excluding the high-ranking students, strong simulations of beasts will be roaming the map preventing me from staying in a single place for too long..."
This was another thing that the professor didn't mention.
Although most people could roughly guess that some sort of creature would be hunting them in the test, they would've never expected that the creature that was hunting them could perceive their location through their acute sense of smell, resulting in many students dying without knowing what had hit them.
This was made so that students wouldn't only focus on hiding, but actually try to develop survival skills for situations where they were being hunted by an unknown entity.
"The protagonist will spend the first 20 minutes trying to get a good grasp of his surroundings before making his way towards the middle of the map, where he eventually reunites with the others."
"He'll have a slight conflict with Jin, but they then decide to work together when they encounter a beast."
"The best way to survive is thus to make my way towards the center where a large group will be gathering, but..."
Shaking my head I quickly discard the thought.
Although people were definitely going to gather at the center, that's where the strong gathered.
If someone of my rank were to go there, the only options I had were to either directly get killed by one of them or get used as cannon fodder.
This only left me with two options.
Somehow reuniting with my group, or complete a hidden task so that even if I die I will have one point.
I'll discard the first option. Just the thought of interacting with Arnold pisses me off. Moreover just because I know what will happen, doesn't mean I know where the others were.
Arnold will most likely make his way towards the center, and if I follow him there, he won't kill me, but he'll definitely find ways to make things hard for me.
As for the rest?
I don't even have the slightest idea of where they could be.
Thus this leaves me with only one choice.
Complete the hidden task.
In general, there were five hidden tasks placed on the map. One in the north, south, east, west, and center of the map.
Each task differed from the other, in the sense that the goal of each task was different, moreover, the difficulty of the task should be something that a rank 1750 like me couldn't hope to be able to accomplish.
Well, that is if I was really rank 1750.
Knowing that I wasn't just your regular rank 1750, I decided to head to where the hidden task was.
Well, where I thought it was.
In fact, I actually don't have a clue as to where the hidden task was located..
Since none of the main characters have ever stepped foot on the east side, where I currently was, I knew nothing about this place. Apart from the fact that this was a forest-type terrain and that there was a hidden task hidden somewhere around this area, I really had no clue with regards to anything else.
I could only harden myself and aimlessly walk to where I thought the hidden task was located.
Fortunately, I had a general idea of where the hidden tasks could be located, allowing me to have some sort of goal.
[Teammate William K. Johnson has died - Team points: 5]
As I was making my way towards where I estimated the hidden task was located, I saw a notification once again emerge on the corner of my view, prompting me to bitterly shake my head.
And here you were ignoring me because of my rank...
If things go this way, I don't really see our team having more than 2-3 points which would put us in the middle ranks.
Which by all means is not a bad score, but for someone like Arnold, this could be considered a humiliating score, which will result in more troublesome situations where I would have to interact with him.
And to be honest, I really don't want to involve myself with him anymore.
The only reason why I didn't lash out against him last time was because of the annoying things that could come as a consequence of my actions. Moreover, if he really wanted to, he could use some of his influence to directly affect my parent's guild.
But if that were to happen...
Let's just say I knew many ways to get rid of some stray dogs that didn't know their place. Though, at the expense of some dire consequence that I don't want to go through.
Let's just hope he's not stupid enough to push me there...
Unless I decide to expose myself and show an overwhelming talent that rivals that of the main characters, I will have to stay low regardless of what hatred or grudge I built up.
[Teammate Park Jinho has died - Team points: 4]
Well, at least it seems that for now I no longer was going to be his main target.
I better get going before someone else reached the hidden task before I did.
-Rustle! -Rustle!
Suddenly, as I was jogging towards where I thought the hidden task was, the bushes near me rustled before suddenly a large shadow emerged from behind them, heading towards my direction.
Touching the handle of my blade, I readied my stance.
Slowly the features of the shadow became clearer, prompting me to become even tenser.
A tall individual whose body was on the muscular side walked up to me. He had short black hair, and he had a disposition similar to that of a knight.
Spotting me, he walked up to me and scanned me up and down.
"Rank 636 Patrick W. Fullham"
As soon as he introduced himself, a small window appeared in front of me with holographic information regarding the individual in front of me.
Extending my left hand, while keeping my right hand on the sheat of my katana, I smiled and introduced myself.
"Rank 1750 Ren Dover"
Similar to me, a small window appeared in front of him. Seeing the content of the window, Patrick raised his brow before suddenly sneering.
"You came at a perfect time!"
"What do you mean?"
Pointing towards the depth of the forest, Patrick tried to hide his sneer as he looked at me.
"As I was wandering around the forest, I stumbled across the hidden task, and you came at just the right time"
"Wow! You actually found the hidden task?!"
Taken aback by my excited expression, Patrick took a couple of seconds to recollect himself before his sneer finally returned to his face
He turned around and walked towards the direction he previously pointed at, ignoring me who had a visibly excited face.
"Where are we going?"
"Where else?"
"Wait, you're actually doing the hidden task with me?"
"Count yourself lucky, I needed an extra helper to complete this task, and since I couldn't find anybody else apart from you, I will generously share the reward with you"
"Oh my god! Thank you so much!"
As I followed Patrick in the direction he pointed at, I couldn't help but secretly laugh at his ignorance.
He actually left his back wide open for me to attack at any time. He was either really dumb or overconfident in his abilities.
Since my rank was so low, he probably thought I posed no threat to him whatsoever, thus making him lower his guard against me. But little did he know, that although I was rank 1750, I could end him in one move.
'He probably wants to use me as cannon fodder to help him solve the hidden task'
As I laughed at his ignorance, slowly the trees around me started to disperse, until, the view of a small lake came into my sight.
Stopping right before the lake, Patrik smiled and took a deep breath.
"Here we are"
Although this was all simulated through a computer, I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the scene before me.
Crystalline clear water that neatly reflected the incoming rays of light coming from the sun, and vibrant green vegetation, surrounded the calm lake. Animals could be seen peacefully sharing their surroundings with the other animals as they each slowly drank the crystal clear water from the lake.
"Oh! you're here Patrick!"
Snapping me out of my revere was a high pitch male voice coming from the right.
"Oh Lucas, you're here. I got the perfect man for the job"
Waving towards the direction from where the voice was coming from, a boy that looked to be about 14 years of age showed up. His curly hair was a mixture of brown and blonde color and accompanied by his green emerald-like eyes, made him resemble an elf.
He looked rather lively and seemed to get along with Patrick quite well.
"Oh! is that him?"
Noticing my presence, the young boy scanned my body up and down and cheerfully smiled.
Extending his hand, he smiled.
"Rank 429, Lucas Thyme"
Soon a screen appeared before me.
Extending my hand to shake his hand, I smiled and presented myself.
"Pleasure to meet you, rank 1750, Ren Dover"
-Clap! -Clap! -Clap!
"Ohhh, I have never seen someone as lowly ranked as you!"
After shaking my hand, Lucas excitedly clapped his hands and looked at Patrick.
"Patrick you're absolutely right! He is indeed the perfect man for the job!"
"Hahaha, I was quite fortunate"
Tilting my head, I looked at Lucas and Patrick who were both happily conversing with one another.
"Excuse me? But you guys keep saying that I'm the perfect man for the job...but what exactly am I supposed to do?"
"Oh? Patrick didn't tell you?"
Tilting his head, Lucas alternatively looked at me and Patrick for a couple of seconds, before seemingly having realized something. Soon a wide smile appeared on his face.
"Oh, I see, okay then I will explain it to you"
Pointing towards the center of the lake, Lucas looked at me.
"You see over there?"
Looking in the direction where he pointed, I squinted my eyes so that I could get a clear look at what he was pointing at.
After a couple of seconds, I could make out what seemed to be a small lilypad with a red flower neatly nested on top of it.
Because it was so small, if it weren't for the fact that Lucas pointed it out for me, I probably would've never been able to notice it.
"Yes I see it"
"Okay, so in short we need the flower on top of that lilypad in order to get the extra points"
I already kind of get the gist of the situation.
If this was how I suspected things were, at the center of the lake there was a large monster guarding the flower. Because Patrick and Lucas's strength was not too different, they decided to get someone who was weaker than them and force them to become bait, while reaping the rewards for themselves.
On the off-chance that I survived the ordeal, they'd later kill me to keep the reward for themselves.
"You see there's a large monster inside of the lake, and so we needed someone who could help us be bait so that we can freely get the flower."
So predictable.
So very predictable. Was this why third-rate villains always died first?
Smiling Lucas looked up towards my face, while Patrick went behind me. Noticing the situation, I lightly sighed and said.
"...Can I say no?"
"Why would you say no?"
Tilting his head in confusion, Lucas looked at me once again.
"Shouldn't dogs eat whatever their owners are feeding them?"
There it is!
His true personality finally showed up.
There was no way Lucas was some random brat that acted like a child.
He was definitely a two-faced scheming bastard that would resort to any trick to get what he wanted.
I'm fairly certain Patrick was being fooled by him as well.
In the first place, you can only get 1 point from completing a hidden task.
How could you share 1 point?
Thus, the mastermind behind this whole thing was fairly obvious. If I'm not wrong, once Lucas gets rid of me, his next target would be Patrick.
By backstabbing him when he least expects it, he could earn the extra point without needing to lift a finger throughout the whole ordeal.
Truly a scheming bastard.
At least I know who to target first.
"Okay...not like I can fight you guys anyways"
"Hmph, good choice"
-Clap! -Clap! -Clap!
"Yay! Now we can get the extra points!"
Bitterly smiling I nodded my head, to which Patrick sneered and Lucas smiled and clapped.
"Okay let's go!"
Excitedly rushing forward towards the lake, Lucas prepared to directly jump into the lake.
"Stop! before we start I need a few things, even though I am bait, I want to increase the chance of me surviving even if it's a little bit"
Stopping himself from jumping in the lake after hearing my shout, Lucas contemplated for a few seconds before nodding his head.
"Hmm, I guess a good owner needs to reward their pet for their obedience, okay tell me what is it that you need"
"Ah nothing much.."
-Clack!
"huh?"
-Clink!
Thud!
Thud!
"GAaaaaaaaahhhH!"
"guuuuuuUUUU!!"
Two dreadful screams resounded across the forest, scaring the nearby animals away.
"3 seconds huh"
Staring at the katana in my hand which was dripping with blood, I shook my head in disappointment.
Although I was only about halfway towards reaching the minor realm of mastery, in the week I stayed in the academy I diligently trained my sword for 4-5 hours a day.
I managed to reduce the time taken for me to sheath and unsheath the sword from the scabbard, but, It seems like I was still very far from reaching the point where the sword become invisible.
Looking beneath me, the bodies of Lucas and Patrick who were both still alive squirmed on the floor. Both their legs had gone missing.
Although the pain reduction in the VR world was reduced to 50%, the pain of losing both limbs was still something that no one would find pleasant.
The reason why they were like this was simple, they let their guard down.
Although yes, I technically was indeed stronger than both of them, that was only on an individual level. If I was to face them both at the same time, the chances of me winning was only at around 40%.
I took advantage of their arrogance and chose the most appropriate moment to strike, which happened to be when they turned their backs on me and felt like they had me in the palm of their hand.
Why cut off their legs and not kill them?
Well, that was simple really.
I myself was in need of some good bait.
Since you want to take advantage of me, I'll make sure you pay the appropriate price.
Like I said before.
I take my grudges deeply.
"Well, look who decided to do me a favor?"
Looking down at both Patrick and Lucas whose faces were grimacing in pain due to the loss of their limbs, I smiled.
"Kuhk..I'll kill you!"
"How dare...kuha..dog...do this to me?"
"It's not my fault you guys were stupid enough to actually leave your back exposed to me. This happens every time, whenever someone hears my rank they automatically think I'm garbage. "
The rank given to students was determined through measuring potential, stats, and academic achievement, in this case, through the entrance exam.
Students tend to forget, but in the beginning, ranks were pretty much useless. Initially, for most of the students who enrolled in the academy, although they had different ranks, the gap in strength between the bottom-ranked students and the middle-ranked students was about the same.
Well, that was at least for anything above 300. For ranks between one and three hundred, the strength gap between each rank was quite significant.
In the story, it was only after the first half of the year had passed that ranks become a more accurate estimation of someone's strength.
In this case, Lucas and Patrick misjudged my strength because of my rank, and thus were both easily taken down by me.
"Cow..kh..ard"
"Oh? Sorry did you say something?"
Leaning my ear next to Lucas's mouth, I imitated Lucas's childish accent.
"Bastard!!!!!"
Provoked by my taunt, Lucas tried to bite my ear, but I swiftly leaned my body back and avoided his teeth.
Shaking my head as I looked at them, I stared at the lake before me.
"You know, from the moment I saw Patrick I knew he was an idiot"
"Khuuuuak!!...I'll fucking kill you"
"I mean, did you seriously think you could share the hidden task?"
"!"
Looking at Patrick's surprised face, I raised my eyebrow.
"You actually didn't know you couldn't share the reward? Tsk, tsk, tsk, no wonder you're an idiot"
"What are you..cough!..talking about? Lucas sai..d that you could!"
Smiling widely, I looked at Lucas.
"Is that so?"
"Don't listen to him Patrick! He's merel..kuk!.. trying to get to your mind"
"Pffff...Are you even listening to yourself? Why would I need to get to his mind when he's already disabled? Moreover, why would you even trust someone who is not even in your group?"
Looking at Lucas who had gone pale, Patrick clenched his teeth and stared at Lucas with hatred.
"Is what he said true!"
"N-nnno"
"DID YOU LIE TO ME!!??? ANSWER ME!!!"
Clenching his teeth, Lucas's previous cheerful demeanor vanished completely, as he stared at Patrick like he was looking at a bug.
"So what if I lied to you? A do..kh..g only needs to f..follow orders and not a..khu..questions!"
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
Using his hands to drag his big body forwards, Patrick tried to force himself onto Lucas.
-Clap!
"Alright show's over, I haven't got too much time to deal with you guys, so please just be good"
Clapping my hands once, I grab the back of both Lucas's and Patrick's shirts, before dragging their legless body towards the lake.
"kaahkk...Reale..ase me!"
"Let go of...kh..me!
Ignoring their protests, I stopped right before the lake and looked at them.
"Make sure you create as much of a scene as possible"
"Wai...t...guuuuuuaaaaaaa"
"Noooooooo"
-Splash!
-Splash!
"I'll k...sphh...ill you!"
"Bas...sphh..ard"
Since they both had missing limbs, the only thing they could do to stay afloat was to use their arms by constantly hitting the water.
There was a reason why I only decided to cut their legs.
A good bait needs to create enough commotion to attract the prey.
And sure enough, a minute after I threw both Lucas and Patrick into the lake, a large shadow appeared beneath them.
"Well that's my cue"
-Splash!
Diving into the water, I swam towards the flower which rested in the middle of the lake.
As long as they both act as good baits, retrieving the flower shouldn't be a problem.
And it was indeed just like I had predicted.
While the lake guardian was busy enjoying its 'delicious food', I safely swam towards where the flower was located and easily brought it back to shore.
"It's kind of nice that things went just like I predicted"
Looking at the red flower on the palm of my hand, I secretly rejoiced once again at the fact that I wasn't reincarnated as the protagonist.
If Kevin were to have been the one who went to retrieve the flower, nine times out of ten the lake guardian would've spotted him and made things harder for him.
Fortunately, such a thing won't happen to an extra like me.
"Let's get the extra point before anyone else has a chance to steal it from me"
Squeezing the flower in my hand, the flower instantly turned into light particles that floated above my head.
[Rank 1750 Rend Dover 1 point (Lake trial): Team points: 5]
Alright!
Now even if I were to die, Arnold wouldn't give me crap for dragging the team down.
[Teammate Arnold Kane has died - Team points: 4]
"..."
"pffff"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
Talk about a punchline.
Just when I managed to get an extra point, that bastard goes and gets himself killed.
Where was that high and mighty attitude from before?
"Make sure you survive, else..."
What a clown.
He got what he deserved.
...I hope he doesn't start stuff with me for taking over his spotlight.
Checking my watch to see how much time has passed, I nodded in satisfaction.
"Alright, I have completed my task, so all I need to do now is survive for 23 more minutes before I can go back to my dorm and relax."
Report chapter
[Teammate Park Jinho has died - Team points: 4]
"Trash"
"khhhkk...plea..se"
-Crack!
Swiping away the notification, Arnold clenched his hand and the sound of a neck-breaking spread across the surroundings.
-Thud!
"Useless garbage"
Throwing away the lifeless body, which soon turned into light particles, Arnold's mood couldn't be any gloomier.
"What happened?"
Sitting comfortably on top of a large rock a pale black-haired youth with yellow pupils spoke to Arnold with an amused smile.
"None of your business!"
Irritated by the youth's presence, Arnold grumbled and walked away.
"Hey don't be so mean! Just because we are on top of a mountain and Jin isn't here doesn't mean you can ignore me like that!"
Jumping off the rock, the black-haired youth happily followed Arnold, further irritating him.
If Ren was here he would've immediately been able to recognize the identity of the man following Arnold. There was only one man in the whole academy who had yellow pupils.
Rank 18 Troy Derekz
A borderline psychopathic student who in the middle stages of the novel becomes an infamous villain.
He like Arnold was one of the three lackeys that followed Jin, but unlike Arnold who voluntarily chose to be his lackey, he had no choice but to become one.
In reality, his father was a direct subordinate of Jin's father. Knowing that his son was approximately the same age as his boss's son, Troy's father—William Derekz, forced Troy to get along with Jin even though he absolutely despised the man.
Born with a golden spoon without needing to be forced to prostrate towards someone just because of their father's influence, or having a happy family that isn't on the verge of a breakdown because of an abusive father who only thinks about work. Jin had everything.
He had what Troy didn't. Money, influence, power, and most of all a loving family.
Consumed by his jealousy and hatred towards Jin, Troy got approached by Professor Thibaut and was tempted into forming a contract with a demon.
The Demon clans were split into 7 clans, each according to the 7 heavenly sins.
This may seem like some cliche story writing, but for Ren, who at the time was thinking of different ways to approach the concept of demons and villains, the 7 heavenly sins sounded like the most well-matched concept he could come up with. It was the perfect scenario that helped him portray the relationship between villains and demons.
A villain was someone who made a pact with a demon when their desire overcome their rationality.
For example, if you found yourself in despair towards a person who was far more talented than you, an emotion called 'Jelousy' would begin sprouting inside of you. Or when you see a really beautiful girl you want to make yours, what you experience is both 'greed and lust'.
Once you experience such emotion, it either subsides over a period of time or becomes stronger as the distance between you and the said 'target' increases.
And in this case, as your desire/negative emotion increases, the demon clan that is most compatible with you makes their appearance in the form of an agent and tempts you into making a deal with you in exchange for power.
Jealousy(Envy), hatred(Wrath), possessiveness(Greed), obsession(Lust), all negative emotions fall into the 7 heavenly sins.
Once a person experiences such emotions and lets it takes over their rationality, only then will the demon tribe with the respective compatibility step in and present you with a deal.
In Troy's case, who was in his own right incredibly talented, falls into an immense state of jealousy clouding all his judgments, resulting in the demon clan of 'envy' to personally make a move.
Because of Troy's immense talent, the 'envy' clan directly approached him instead of contacting him through a clan sub-branch.
A sub-branch, also known as a collection of minor tribes, was a collective of demons whose bloodline was more diluted compared to the main clans.
A demon's rank was determined by their bloodline purity—ranked from, King, Prince/Princess, Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and lastly Baron.
The higher the title, the stronger they were. with the Demon King being the strongest.
The consequence of having a more diluted bloodline resulted in the contractee being given a lower amount of power as compared to a cantractee who had made a pact with a pure-blooded demon.
Hence why Troy who signed a pact with a pure-blooded demon of the clan of 'envy' becomes an extremely tricky opponent to face in the middle of the story.
The reason why sub-branches existed was because a demon could only make one pact per human. Unless the human died or became stronger than the demon they made a pact with, the contract will never break.
Because of the limited number of pure-blooded demons, only a select amount of humans could make a pact with them. Only the best, and most talented humans could make a contract with them.
If the human was not very talented, then the sub-branch would step in and offer them a contract.
It has to be noted that a demon could never break a contract once it was made, as their soul was directly linked to the contract.
If they forcefully tried to break the contract, they may be at risk of having their soul pulverized.
In the end, only someone of Troy's level of talent could tempt one of the main clans to make a move.
"Stop following me"
"Oh come on! Why do you want to get rid of me so badly?"
"You know why!"
"I told you many times already, it's not my fault she likes me better!"
-Crack!
Suddenly, Arnold stopped and the ground beneath his feet started cracking. Below his feet, countless minute crevices started extending from where he stood.
With blue veins bulging out from the top of his head, Arnold turned around and glared in Troy's direction, who was leisurely walking behind him and coldly said
"Just because you are ranked higher than me, doesn't mean I won't hesitate to attack you here!"
"Oh, chill out man! I was only stating the truth!"
Raising his hands in a sign of surrender, Troy took a couple of steps back.
"Hmph!"
Clenching his teeth, Arnold turned around and ignored Troy.
"It's not my fault I was born this handsome"
"I'll Ki—khhh"
-Roar!
Suddenly just as Arnold was about to lash out against Troy due to his stupid remarks, a large shadow emerged from behind a couple of rocks and pounced him.
Raising his shield, which was his main weapon, Arnold barely managed to take the full grunt of the attack not before being pushed back five steps.
"Guukhh!"
A split second after he managed to stabilize his body, Arnold stared at the ferocious creature whose features started becoming discernable.
Orange fur, muscular upper body, fangs that extended from its mouth to the upper end of its arms, and blood-red eyes. A beast that resembled the long-extinct 'saber-tooth tiger'
"fuuuuu, didn't expect the famous D-ranked 'Metal-fanged Smilodon' to make its presence here today...this test sure is harder than I expected"
Reading his stance, Arnold raised his shield and roared.
"Huuuu!!!"
Provoked by Arnold's spirit, the metal-fanged Smilodon similarly roared and dashed towards him.
-Roar!
-Klang!
The sound of a collision could be heard from the distance, as a flock of birds escaped from the nearby trees.
As soon as the dust settled three large claw marks appeared on Arnold's shield. However, if one looked carefully, Arnold remained rooted in the same spot he was before the clash.
"Gaaaah!"
-Bam!
As the Metal-fanged Smilodon tried to assault Arnold once again, Arnold dipped his body and shoulder tackled the incoming beast.
"Graah!"
Being tackled by Arnold, the Metal-fanged Smilodon lost its previous momentum and felt its body being raised a couple of centimeters in the air.
-Boom!
Taking advantage of the opening, Arnold swung his shield, in a punching motion, towards the beast's stomach sending it flying towards a nearby tree.
-Thud!
Back first, the Metal-fanged Smilodon wailed in pain as its back crashed against a nearby tree.
"huu..huu.huuu"
With heavy breaths, Arnold stared in the direction where he sent the beast flying.
-Roar!
Before Arnold had the chance to rest, he saw the Metal-fanged smilodon appear from the side of his view.
-Klang!
Skilfully switching the shield to his left hand, Arnold felt a tremendous momentum being transmitted to his body sending him staggering backward a couple of meters.
-Klang!
"Grruuu!"
Before Arnold could have a chance to catch his breath, the beast relentlessly attacked him from every direction.
"Basta..khh..rd help me d.ammit!"
Turning his head towards where Troy was leisurely standing, Arnold cursed as he kept on withstanding the continuous onslaught of attacks coming from the beast.
"Oh? So you can't hold it any longer?"
-Klang!
-Klang!
-Klang!
"Qui..khh... I might ac..khaa..tually huff...huff.. die!"
"Say please?"
"QUICK!"
"Ah fine jeezzz"
Extending his right hand forwards, a bow suddenly appeared in Troy's hand.
Pulling the string back, a translucent blue arrow suddenly materialized on the bow.
"Let's make this quick"
Licking his lips, Troy closed his left eye and aimed at the Tiger's head.
Just as he was about to release the bowstring, suddenly a notification appeared in Arnold's view, completely stunning him.
[Your teammate Rank 1750 Rank Dover succeeded in completing the hidden task (Lake trial), awarded 1 point. Team points: 5]
That one split moment of time where Arnold was stunned was enough for the beast to seize the opportunity and break through his defense.
"Wha..khuu!"
"AAAGHHH!"
[You have died]
[Rank 75 Arnold Kane has died, team points: 4]
Those were the last words Arnold saw before his view suddenly became dark.
-Swooosh!
-Splat!
-Roooar!
Soon after Arnold died and his body turned into light particles, a blue arrow dug its way into the tired beast's eye.
-Swoosh!
-Swoosh!
-Thump!
Before the beast could recover, two more arrows quickly dug their way towards where the first arrow hit, killing the beast completely.
"Fuuu.."
Seeing the beast turn into light particles, Troy bitterly laughed.
"Oops!"
...
"How are you guys holding up?"
Standing on top of a large boulder, Kevin looked behind him where a small group of people had gathered.
"Could've been better"
-Thud!
Grumbling, Emma jumped off from the top of a tree.
"We should be safe for now so let's get moving"
Walking ahead of Kevin, Emma turned her attention to Amanda who was a few meters ahead, quietly observing the area.
"What are you doing?"
"...Observing"
"Observing what?"
"Everything"
Letting out a sigh, Emma walked up to Amanda whose face was expressionless, and hooked her arm around her fair slender neck
"What am I gonna do with you?"
Startled by Emma's sudden action, Amanda looked at Emma in confusion.
Finally, after noticing Emma's cheeky grin, Amanda realized she was messing with her and tried to free herself from Emma's arm.
"Let go"
"hehe, let's see how strong the almighty Amanda is"
Gripping even harder, Emma laughed as she enjoyed seeing Amanda's expressionless face slowly turn red due to what seemed to be either oxygen deprivation or anger.
While Emma was busy annoying Amanda, some of the male students around them couldn't help but fix their sight on them.
"Seen enough?"
Leaning against a tree, Jin glared at the students who were mesmerized by the two girls playing around. He seemed to be in an especially bad mood today.
Flinching, the students who were busy admiring the girls, looked at Jin in fear. Overwhelmed by his glare they hurriedly backed off.
Kevin, who saw this scene from afar, couldn't help but lightly grin as he walked up to Jin.
"Still salty about your loss?"
"Tch...you were just lucky"
Clicking his tongue, Jin clenched his fists and looked away.
Previously, Kevin and Jin were fighting to get the extra point from the hidden task.
Their hidden task consisted of finding a certain flower that was located in the mountain region they had spawned.
Because the task relied on pure luck, once he lost, Jin couldn't help but feel his mood plummet to the ground.
If Kevin had managed to win based on his skills then Jin wouldn't have made a big deal out of it, but since this win purely came from luck, Jin felt as if he was robbed.
Unfortunately, rules were rules, and no matter how salty he was, he could do nothing about it.
"Ehm...excuse me"
A slightly timid voice disrupted their conversation, prompting Kevin to turn around.
Following his line of sight, a small timid young girl with adorably large eyes looked at both Kevin and Jin with a red face.
Holding the edge of her shirt, her eyes drifted left and right as she struggled to find the right words to say.
Looking at the adorable girl in front of him, Kevin couldn't help but chuckle.
"Yes?"
"Ehm..ehm..."
"Quick say what you need to say!"
"Eeek!"
Jin, who wasn't as patient as Kevin, immediately raised his voice causing the young girl to lightly flinch.
"Ohi, what was that for?"
"Hmph"
Slightly glaring towards Jin's direction, Kevin looked back at the young girl and spoke in a kind tone.
"How can I help you?"
In a voice that was almost inaudible, the young girl looked at Kevin and said.
"Ehm...I am in your team"
"...Eh?"
Freezing for a split second, Kevin's smile momentarily faltered as he tried his best to remember the faces of his team members.
Previously when Kevin spawned in the waiting room, everyone kept their distance from him. Several factors may have caused his team members to avoid him. Most likely, due to their inflated ego, they couldn't help but become jealous of him who displayed an astonishing level of talent despite coming from a poor background. Of course, this may not be the only reason as to why they ignored him, but Kevin wasn't too keen to find out.
He was simply used to being alone.
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"pfff, you can't even remember the faces of your own teammates?"
Smirking, Jin mockingly looked at Kevin.
"Oh? so you're telling me that you remember the face of all your teammates?"
Raising his brow, Kevin turned around and skeptically looked at Jin.
"..."
Turning around, Jin pretended to have not heard Kevin and walked away.
Dumbfounded, Kevin helplessly looked in Emma and Amanda's direction, only to be left even more speechless.
Swiftly moving around the trees, Emma was currently being chased by Amanda whose face remained expressionless.
-Swish!
-Swish!
-Swish
Taking out her bow. At an inhuman speed, Amanda's fingers danced between the bow and the quiver. Soon, three arrows flew in Emma's direction at a speed that couldn't be seen by the naked eye.
-Thud! -Thud! -Thud!
"Stop! Stop! Stop! I give up!"
Taking cover behind a tree, Emma raised her hands in defeat as she fearfully looked at the arrows that were imbued on the tree she was hiding. Each arrow perfectly penetrated the hard outer shell of the tree. Looking closely, the tip of each arrow was only a few centimeters from Emma's face, sending cold shivers down her spine. If it weren't for the fact that Amanda restrained herself, Emma might've actually died.
Shaking his head, Kevin turned his attention back to the young girl, not before letting out a long sigh. He was starting to doubt whether grouping with them was the right thing to do.
'Maybe if Melissa was here things wouldn't have been as bad...'
Thought Kevin for a moment before shaking his head.
Knowing Melissa's personality, things might've actually turned out for the worse.
Sighing once again, and ignoring the commotion that Amanda and Emma were causing, Kevin squinted his eyes and took a good look at the girl before him.
She was a beautiful, light-skinned young girl with a petite yet curvaceous frame and below-average height. She had long, slightly curly black hair that reached all the way to her back. Her large crystal eyes were slightly covered by short square bangs. She had plump rosy cheeks which accompanied by her short figure made one want to tightly squeeze them.
"Did you come to me to ask me to protect you?"
"N-no!"
Quickly shaking her head, the young girl timidly pointed towards another group of people in the distance.
"They sa-id that they know where the hidden task was..."
"...oh?"
Taking one good look at the members in the distance, Kevin was reminded of the people he had previously seen in the waiting room.
Although he did not remember the young girl, he did remember two out of the four individuals gathered.
They were the most arrogant and prideful of the bunch, so of course, he knew about them.
If he didn't remember wrong, they should've been ranked around the hundreds and were extremely prideful of their ranking. They were so proud and arrogant that they thought that they could fight Kevin on equal terms.
Like they all say...
Powerful people often grew confident, and confident people were often conceited.
Power gets in the head of everyone. Kevin was no better, but because he had a clear goal, he managed to suppress his inner desires.
Shaking his head, he walked towards them
Although he had no interest in interacting with them, since they knew where the location of the hidden task was, it was only natural that his interest was piqued.
"...Oh, by the way what's your name?"
"Ehm.."
Timidly looking down, the young girl avoided Kevin's eyes and swiped her hand right.
Soon a screen appeared in front of Kevin.
User ID : Ava leafz
Age : 16
Picture : (Holographic image)
Program : Hero program Year 1
School Rank : 1078/2055
Potential : Unranked
Profession : Monster tamer
"..Ava? Monster tamer?"
Touching his chin, Kevin looked at the information that was presented in front of him.
Looking at the shy young girl once again, Kevin couldn't help but be slightly moved.
If one asked Kevin which profession he thought was the strongest in the world, Kevin would without a doubt say the monster tamer class.
Usually, most people would regard things such as swordsmanship, or fancy professions that were flashy and pleasing to the eye as the strongest professions.
However, Kevin begged to differ.
In his opinion, the most fearsome out of all the professions was the monster tamer profession.
Each person was born with a certain level of talent.
This level was a set limit that could never be changed no matter what someone did.
...well that was unless you were Ren or Kevin who were both cheats.
If your talent was ranked D, then the best you could achieve throughout your whole life was becoming a D-rank hero.
Once you reached your talent limit, no matter how much extra time you spent training, you would never be able to improve.
Kevin was all too familiar with the despair that stemmed from knowing their talent was too low.
Originally, Kevin's talent was terrible. It was so bad that throughout his whole childhood he was bullied for it. While everyone around him showed incredible talent that made them stand above their peers, Kevin was born with a mediocre E-rank talent. The worst possible talent that anyone could get.
At the time, his parents who also had low talents blamed themselves for his poor aptitude.
Fortunately, Kevin's mentality was strong and he was never saddened by his low level of talent.
Well, that was until that fateful 'day' arrived...
It was the day that demons managed to infiltrate his hometown, and killed everyone without remorse.
Because his hometown was far away from any major city, no rescue came until dawn, five hours after the massacre began.
His parents had sacrificed their lives in order to hide him from the demons...
'Even though we couldn't give you a good talent, sacrificing ourselves to let you live should be enough to atone for letting you be born with a low talent that made you suffer throughout your whole childhood'
With the most beautiful smile on their faces, those were the last words his parents had said to him before closing the trapdoor that led to the basement and disappearing from his life forever...
To this day, he had still not gotten over that day as it still haunts him in his dreams, like a plague that never ceases to attack the immune system. It was almost like a seed had been implanted inside of him, slowly eroding his state of mind. Kevin couldn't remember how many times he had woken up because of the nightmares, only to find his bedsheets soaked in his sweat.
If not for a strange system suddenly appearing before him when he was in his most dire state, he would've never been able to survive, grow strong enough to rank first in the school ranking, and let alone enroll in the lock.
He owed everything to the system.
Thanks to the system he managed to completely change himself, his body, his talent, his mentality.
Everything about him changed.
He went from an E-ranked talent to an SSS-rank talent over the course of a few months due to some strange elixir the system provided him.
But, what determined talent?
Talent was a measure of natural aptitude.
In this case, talent was assed in regards to the profession one had.
A profession, like talent caps, was something that could not be chosen nor changed.
Around the time of the second cataclysm and humans were able to access mana, strange status windows similar to the ones that appear in games appeared in front of everyone.
From then, the age of the 'awakened' happened. Slowly people started familiarizing themselves with mana through which they gained access to supernatural powers. Powers that enabled them to do things that they could've never have hoped to achieve in the past.
If someone paid closely to their status window they would notice that, right below their status, there was a small section called profession.
That was your natural talent.
If your status window showed 'Spearmanship' then it meant that your aptitude towards spearmanship was amplified naturally by the status window.
Meaning that if a person talented in spear arts trained in sword arts, their comprehension would be nowhere near as fast as their spear arts comprehension which was amplified by the status window.
Of course, everyone had different levels of talent in regards to their natural talent. Meaning that even if someone was talented in spear arts, their talent cap was still there. So if your talent cap was D-rank, then in your lifetime you could only be a D-rank Hero who specialized in spear arts.
In the case of Ava, the reason why Kevin believed her talent was the best, was because she did not have a talent cap.
Monster tamers don't have a level cap because they don't need to have one.
What mattered was the monsters, not the tamer themselves.
Yes, a certain amount of control was required by the tamer to control the beasts, but even then, what mattered most was the monsters.
A monster tamer could tame an unlimited number of beasts regardless of their potential. Making monster tamers some of the scariest opponents to face.
Unfortunately, in modern society monster tamers weren't highly regarded. This was simply due to how difficult it was for them to tame a monster, as a lot of complicated steps were required. Moreover, the financial burden one would incur just to raise a monster could even cause some of the wealthiest people in the world to feel the sting.
Especially if an S-rank pet was raised. They fed on monster cores.
By the time they were fully grown, their daily food consumption alone could sustain a whole city for years.
It was just inefficient.
But to Kevin, this didn't matter because...
He had the system!
With the system, gaining monster cores or manuals wasn't hard. All he had to do was complete a quest and he could easily earn some low-ranked cores.
If his talent had been monster tamer instead of swordsmanship, he could've raised an army of S-ranked monsters with which he could have used to fight against the demon king.
"We're here..."
Stopping in front of four people from his group, Kevin ignored their looks of disdain and lightly smiled at them.
"So where's the hidden task?"
...
"four more minutes"
Checking the time that was left, I quickly dashed away from the place I was hiding.
Right now my plan was, find a safe spot, rest for 3 minutes, and continue to the next spot.
This was the strategy that Kevin had used when he was doing this trial, and it worked.
By continuously changing my location, it made it harder for the 'hunter' to find my exact location.
Although the 'hunter' tracked through scent, it didn't mean that it will only focus its attention on me.
No, It will obviously go for the easiest prey.
With around 90 students inside the map, accompanied by the limited number of 'hunters' present in the map, the hunters who were programmed through the computer system will only go for what the computer deems to be the easiest target to hunt.
If it was presented with two choices, prey A and prey B, the hunter will go towards the easiest target to hunt by default. If prey A who was constantly changing location was harder to hunt compared to prey B, who was hiding in the same spot without moving, then it will undoubtedly go for prey B.
Therefore. for the past 19 minutes or so, I have been constantly changing my location.
The 'hunters' were not something I could take on.
Each 'hunter' was a precise replica of famous beasts that could be found after the second cataclysm.
Each beast present ranged from Rank G to Rank D, which only a handful of students could fight or escape from.
A G rank student like me cannot possibly hope to defeat a D ranked beast with my current strength. Although the sword art I practiced was extremely strong, at the end of the day my rank was only G. Moreover, considering the fact that I had only been practicing the art for about a week, asking me to fight the beast was like asking me to kill myself.
There was no way I could last longer than a couple of seconds against a D rank beast.
The only option I had from the start was this one.
Roaming confidently without being scared of encountering dangerous beasts was only a thing the protagonists could do.
I was not on that level yet.
Though I had always said that I didn't want to interact with the protagonists, it didn't mean that I didn't aspire to be like them.
I do long for a peaceful life, but could you really achieve that without power? In a world where power reigns above all else?
I wonder when I changed?
I wasn't like this before.
I used to think everything was troublesome and had no goal to strive for.
I remember everything being bleak. Everything apart from my computer and the comments I got from my readers were things that I found boring and troublesome.
Maybe I really was just waiting to die and rid myself of that boring life.
...And once I thought my life reached the end, I found myself inside my own novel.
Since then my world had suddenly gone bright.
I had a family, access to magic which was only something I saw in movies, and a goal to strive for.
And who would've ever imagined being inside of a real virtual machine?
Right...I had already decided once I discovered that I still hadn't finished the novel that I will try my best to be as strong as the protagonist or at least close to his level.
Smiling to myself, I looked at the azure clear sky and the softly rustling trees.
"Life is good..."
-Ding!
A sweet melodious jingle ranged through my ears as I was about to move to my next location. Suddenly my body froze and blue text appeared in my vision.
[Time left 00:00:00 - Congratulations on finishing the test. you will soon each be logged out from the capsule]
"Ah..time's finally up"
Although I technically did not do any physical training, the mental exhaustion stemming from constantly being alert and taking note of every little detail surrounding me, was a first for me who had never been through such an experience in my life.
It really drained a lot out of me.
It felt as if I had trained intensively for five hours straight without any pause.
Slowly the trees, the sky, the animals, everything around me started to disintegrate turning the whole world white.
Squinting my eyes, I could see the remaining students who had survived, far away in the white world.
Surprisingly there were only about eight students near my area. Meaning that this could either mean either one of these three things:
- a. Most of the students in my zone died
- b. Most of the students in my zone went to other areas
- c. Not a lot of students spawned in my area
I believe the correct answer was in between the first and second options since most of the students probably didn't know a lot about the scenario.
Actually, now that I take a good look at the whole white world, including my area, there were not many students left.
Although the map was huge, and I couldn't clearly see how many people remained alive, with no obstacles obstructing my vision I could make a general deduction of how difficult the test was, basing on how many students had survived till the end.
I estimated that a good 60% of the 90 students who were originally in the simulation had perished.
With most of the students being at the center of the map, excluding some outliers who remained in their original area, I could more or less make an approximate deduction on how many students survived
The number of students that remained, although small, didn't surprise me as this number was within my estimation. It was approximately the same amount as I had written in the novel.
[Ehm..ehm..can you guys hear me?]
Suddenly, professor Thibaut's voice rang in my ears, prompting me to listen carefully.
[Alright, I want to say a few things first before I let you out of the capsules]
[First, congratulation to you all for surviving this test. This test was specifically designed to test your adaptability in foreign environments, and how well you can survive in the wild.]
...It's true.
Although this bastard was using this test as a means to create disorder between some of the students, the test was still very good.
Although he did change some things here and there so that he could create some conflict between the students, the test was indeed a good way to help students adapt to foreign environments. Actually in my opinion this test was better as he made this test a bit more useful for real life, as you might someday be hunted by humans too.
No, it would be more accurate to say that being hunted by fellow humans, such as villains, would be the most likely scenario.
By 'indirectly' allowing students to kill each other, it raised the difficulty to another level. Because not only did you have to watch out for beasts, but you also had to look out against fellow classmates.
This little 'detail', made the training for me much more efficient.
well, that didn't mean the professor was a good guy.
I was just taking advantage of his schemes to further improve myself.
[Though a lot of you have either survived by pure luck or through some sort of scheme, at the end of the day what really matters is not how you won, but if you won. So for those of you who made it till the end, I congratule you. Considering how difficult this test was, having survived in this simulation is accomplishment to be proud about. Puff up your chest and exit the capsule with your head held high]
[Enough with that, next up...once you exit the capsule on the top of the classroom you can find a large monitor where the group rankings will be displayed]
[Though no extra merits will be awarded this time as it's still your first week, you can still brag to your friends about getting first in your class]
...I feel like a lot of students would actually brag about this.
Considering how in this world most of the people were proud and arrogant, for the next week or so I would expect the top 5 group member's egos to shoot through the roof.
[Okay, I think I've said enough. I will dismiss you from your cabin one by one so don't panic if your view suddenly gets dark]
[Once again, congratulations to those of you that survived]
Soon professor Thibuat's voice disappeared and gradually students started turning into streaks of light particles that disappeared from the virtual world.
As I was watching the whole process in which students slowly disappeared from the virtual world, I could finally relax my mind
Next up, I started to ponder on what to do after I exited the class.
Hmm...but what should I do after this?
I don't think I have it in me to train any further.
Maybe I could go to the swimming pool and do some resistance training?
Yeah, I think that's the best course of action.
[Logout Y/N]
As I was pondering about what my next course of action would be, a logout bottom appeared before me.
Without needing to think any further, I pressed it.
-Swaa!
My vision suddenly turned dark, and my consciousness slipped.
-Phhhhhhh
Slowly the lid of the capsule I was in opened up releasing white steam in the process.
Using the edge of the capsule as support, I slowly got out of the capsule.
"Man that was seriously tiring...Hm?"
As soon as I emerged from my capsule I felt a couple of stares coming from my left and right side.
Turning my head left, I could see two individuals glaring in my direction with pure hatred.
...Can't really blame them.
I did cut off their legs and used them as bait to get extra points.
Waving at them, which further increased the intensity of their glares, I turned my head towards the other direction where a mixture of emotions could be seen from certain individuals.
Park Jinho, William, Rose, and Edward all had weird expressions plastered on their face.
It was a mixture of 'shock', 'joy', 'pity' and 'thankfulness'
..wait pity?
Why were they pitying me?
Then I felt it.
Arnold, who was a few capsules away from where I was, glared evem more fiercely than Lucas and Patrick did towards me.
Turning my head left and right to make sure he was actually glaring at me, I was left dumbfounded.
...Eh? Why is he glaring in my direction?
Is he angry that I stole his spotlight?
That can't be right...right?
He can't be that petty, right?
-Clap!
"Cough...cough...May I have your attention please!"
Fortunately, at the perfect timing, professor Thibaut showed up gathering everyone's attention towards himself, including Arnold's.
Can't believe I was saying this, but I owed him one.
"Alright, once again congratulations for those who have passed the test"
"I'll make it short since we are short on time, If you look up above, you can see your team's respective rank."
Pointing towards a large monitor placed at the center of the classroom, a large table was displayed on the screen showing us the team's respective rankings.
Team Rank=
Group 15
Points: 8
Result: No casualties 2 Hidden task
--
Group 9
Points: 7
Result: No casualties 1 Hidden task
--
Group 4
Points: 7
Result: No casualties 1 Hidden task
--
Group 5
Points: 6
Result: No casualties
--
Group 1
Points: 5
Result: 1 casualty
--
Group 7
Points: 4
Result: 3 casualties 1 hidden task
--
Group 10
Points: 3
Result: 3 casualties
--
Group 13
Points: 3
Result: 3 casualties
--
Group 11
Points: 2
Result: 4 casualties
--
Group 8
Points: 1
Result: 5 casualties
--
Group 2
Points: 1
Result: 5 casualties
--
Group 14
Points: 0
Result: Party wipe
--
Group 3
Points: 0
Result: Party wipe
--
Group 6
Points: 0
Result: Party wipe
--
Group 12
Points: 0
Result: Party wipe
--
"6th overall huh?"
That's a rank or two higher than I had expected.
But as I expected, the main characters had all gotten the top spots.
Group 15 who ranked first, was Kevin's group.
His teammates not only managed to survive, but they also managed to complete two hidden tasks.
Emma's team placed second, with her completing one of the hidden tasks. On the other hand Amanda placed third, and surprisingly Melissa who teamed up with Jin ended up fourth.
The reason for their low ranking was simple. Because of Kevin, Jin couldn't get the extra point and Melissa who wasn't as strong as she was smart was left helpless when trying to get the extra task.
In the end, all their teammates managed to survive, but no extra points were awarded to their team.
The fifth place, group 1, was Troy's group which although had not completed any hidden tasks, had 2 fewer casualties compared to our team.
"Out of the 15 groups here, four were wiped out. This result is much better than last year where in contrast only had four groups surviving"
"I know some of you are shaking thinking you will be expelled from the course, but I was lying about that. I wanted to put some pressure on you so that you would've taken the test seriously. So you're all safe"
Hearing this part of the speech, the students who had their team wiped let out a visible sigh of relief.
'Must've been stressful thinking that they had already failed a course on their first week.'
I thought as I sympathetically looked at them.
"Alright, it seems that we are out of time so you may all leave"
Checking his watch, Professor Thibaut smiled and dismissed us.
Immediately I dashed towards my dorm,
I didn't want to stay here any longer. Especially knowing that three individuals were looking for ways to make things harder for me.
I do have to say though.
Moving with this tight-skinned suit was extremely challenging.
If not for the fact that Arnold was distracted talking to Jin, and Lucas and Patrick were still glaring at each other, I wouldn't have been able to leave as easily as I had.
-Click!
Entering my room, I slumped onto the clean mattress and enjoyed the momentary moment of peace.
What a troublesome day.
Not only was I exhausted, but I also created three enemies.
"It seems like I need to get stronger faster."
At the end of the day, it all comes down to strength.
Although with an increase in strength I was more likely to be exposed to danger and thus increase the chances where I'm placed in situations where I have to interact with the main characters. I can't just sit by and passively wait for my strength to increase.
Not only that, but if I was to one day support my parent's guild or possibly help the protagonist fight against the demon king, I needed to immediately think of ways to increase my strength.
Fortunately, I had already come up with a rough plan.
That is, with the knowledge I have, as the author of the novel. I can take advantage of future events to make some money through stocks.
Since my parents from this world weren't filthy rich, the only way I could make money was through the use of stocks.
Unlike Jin, Amanda, or Melissa whose parents can provide them with the best training facilities and potions. I, a mob that wasn't supposed to appear in the story have the only option of using my knowledge to make money to increase my strength.
In a sense, this was my cheat ability.
With money, I could essentially catapult my strength to reach new heights.
In order to increase my stats, I could resort to cosuming potions, and if I wanted to increase my strength even further I could even go as far as purchasing artifacts.
Artifacts were objects that could be found inside of dungeons or could be created by master blacksmiths and were essentially weapons that had special effects imbued into them.
They ranged from the simplest objects such as a coffee mug to weapons and cars.
Like most things the better the grade the more expensive they were.
Fortunately for me, I knew a place where I could get good artifacts for a cheap price.
Thinking of all the money I would need to use to purchase potions and artifacts, I could feel my head throbbing.
Letting out a sigh and taking out a small book from my bottom drawer. I quickly went through the contents.
The book I was holding had details on all the future events that would happen in the future.
Starting from when Kevin entered the academy to when he was about to face the demon king.
Since I was the author of the novel, I could confidently say that I did not miss anything when writing the future events.
From minor to major events, this book should have everything. Unless something deviated from the story which I had written, I should be able to use this book as a reference for things that will happen in the future.
"Now what should I use..."
Flipping through the pages, I quickly stopped at a certain event.
C.B.. Pharmaceuticals crash.
C.B pharmaceuticals stock crash.
Matching the timing and potential payoff that I could make from exploiting this information, I decisively started making preparations.
First things first, opening my watch I checked my bank account.
Student: Ren Dover
Age: 16
Balance: 9.897 U
Withdraw Deposit
"Hmm...a little bit under 10,000 U"
Should be about enough, but...
Pondering for a little bit, I sighed and organized my thoughts.
A month after the academy had officially started, Thobias Church, head researcher of C.B pharmaceuticals was found dead in his high-security apartment complex.
All the news agencies and big guilds were shocked by the news and immediately reported it to the media and their respective guild members.
The news spread fast, reaching all major figures' ears in the span of minutes.
It was the first high-profile assassination that had occurred in decades, with many starting to fear for their lives as a result of this accident.
[Thobias Church, a forefront name in the potion-making industry is found dead in his home with one slit on the throat.]
[Forensic evidence indicated that he was assassinated by rank 37, Silent creeper, of the villain list.]
[This can be inferred from the clean slit on Mr. Church's throat, which is a signature assassination method adopted by rank 37, Silent creeper]
[Later when investigators were investigating the scene, another stunning revelation was discovered.]
[The recipe for the [Body enhancing potion] was found missing.]
This revelation shocked the pharmaceutical industry.
Potion recipes were an alchemist's biggest secret.
Each potion, such as the [Body enhancing potion] had various variations to them.
The variations occurred depending on the alchemist who was making the potion.
Some, being far more effective than the ones available on the market, while others performing far worse than the ones available on the market.
The better-performing ones would be sold to distinguished buyers, while the worse performing ones will be either discarded or illegally traded in the black market.
In the case of Thobias Church, because he was a highly acclaimed alchemist, his [Body enhancement potion] which only he knew the recipe of, was considered to be the best in the market.
As C.B pharmaceuticals head researcher, he had every right to decide who to sell and who not to sell the potion to.
In this case, his [Body enhancement potion] were each sold to the high-ranking guilds who needed it for when they needed to perform a raid.
With him gone, suddenly a gap in the [Body enhancement potion] market appeared.
The result of Thobias Church's death had a bigger impact than what people had predicted.
Especially on C.B pharmaceuticals the number one pharmaceutical company in the human domain.
two hours after Thobias Church's death was announced, C.B pharmaceuticals stock plummeted by 17%, falling from 123.71 U to 102.68 U
Later that evening, 5 hours after the first plummet, C.B stock further plummeted by a further 43% reaching 58.53 U.
Due to investors dumping the stock to try to mitigate their losses, the stock further fell until it stabilized at 21.65 U.
A staggering 82% stock decline.
The result of such decline almost caused C.B pharmaceuticals to file for bankruptcy. If not for the fact that they had a lot of liquid assets available to them due to the nature of their business, they would've most likely have crumbled.
In the wake of C.B historical downfall, W.V pharmaceuticals the second-best pharmaceutical company behind C.B finds its stock increasing dramatically.
For a solid week, it found its stock constantly increasing, rising from 58.93 U at the beginning of the week, to 111.45 U by the end of the week.
A dramatic 89.12% rise.
In short, I could use this incident which will happen in about three weeks' time to make it rich.
I will both short C.B, and buy W.V stock. Meaning that I will bet on both C.B stock falling, and bet on W.V stock increasing.
Thanks to the information I have, as a cheat, I should be able to make a good amount of cash.
Actually, with my limited funding of approximately 10 000 U, although I would be able to make quite a bit of money, it would still not be enough to pay for the things I needed.
In short, what I needed was a quick way to make some quick cash so that I could invest as much money as possible in this event.
The more money I get before the event happens, the better.
Pondering for a while, I came up with three options to solve my short-term money problem.
- a. Sign up for a mercenary job
- b. Get a job
- c. Go to a dungeon
The first two options were a no-go.
First, being a mercenary.
With my current strength and rank, I would at best be a miscellaneous mercenary.
To put it bluntly, a mercenary who took care of the tasks that most mercenaries wouldn't want to take. Like looking for a missing pet, or taking care of some small beasts that had infiltrated the city.
The income was quite poor, and the effort in proportion to the income paid was not worth it.
The second option, 'get a job' was also undesirable, as I was still a student and thus couldn't work full time.
Moreover, I was only looking for a short-term job which makes finding a job that pays a substantial amount impossible to find.
At least not with my current set of skills.
That leaves me with one last option.
Entering a dungeon.
A dungeon was essentially a pocket dimension that led to a small section of the demon world.
As the demons invaded the world, cracks appeared all over the world as a result of the instability created by the sudden influx of mana.
This resulted in mini pocket dimensions that led to the demon world being created.
Because of the instability of the crack, depending on the rank of the dungeon only those below a certain level can enter.
for example, a B rank dungeon can only be accessible for those who are B or lower rank. If an A rank were to enter the dungeon it would immediately break and injure the person who had entered.
The same went for the monsters that could be found inside.
Therefore, dungeons were excellent places to train.
Moreover, since the demon world was riddled with wars, artifacts from ancient wars could be found if someone was lucky enough.
However, the most attractive resource that could be found inside of a dungeon were not artifacts but monster cores.
A 'core' was a condensed source of energy, which revolutionized the world of today.
By implementing cores and replacing them as a source of energy, humanity was able to get rid of unclean energy.
Not only were cores much more efficient than any other sources of energy, but they also didn't produce any greenhouse gases.
This shocking discovery sent the world into a frenzy, as not only did they not produce pollution, but later it was shown that just a single G-rank core could power a whole city for 10 minutes.
We are talking about a city with a population of millions inside!
The amount of energy a single core contained was staggering.
Cores aside, the bodies of the demons and monsters inside of the dungeon could also be sold for a substantial price, which meant that dungeons were essentially gold mines for those who were looking to make some quick cash.
Using monster corpses, humanity's study on biology improved by leaps and bounds.
Incurable diseases became something of the past, and slowly biology divided into a new branch called 'alchemy', where they specialized in the creation of potions.
Dungeons certainly presented people with many opportunities to change their life, but that comes along with a great price. Death.
The mortality rate of dungeons was extremely high, as no one could predict what could happen once you entered inside.
Therefore, the central government put a strict restriction on dungeons and only allowed those who had a registered license to enter.
But of course, that didn't impede some unscrupulous dealers to take advantage of the government restricting dungeons to create an illegal dungeon business.
Which was exactly where I was planning to go.
If you're wondering why I was not using my knowledge to find a dungeon that has not been discovered yet, it's because it actually doesn't exist.
Well, at least not for any dungeon below D-rank.
In my novel, Kevin only entered dungeons in the later half of his first year. And his stats were around C to D rank which meant that D-rank dungeons weren't that useful for him.
Me on the other hand, who was only G could only enter at best an F ranked dungeon.
Checking out my stats, I was more or less pleased with my week's progress.
Status=
Name : Ren Dover
Rank : G
Strength : F -
Agility : F -
Stamina : F -
Intelligence : G
Mana capacity : G
Luck : E
Charm : G
-- Profession : [Swordsmanship lvl.1]
Although it may not seem like much, suddenly raising half of my stats to F- was a considerable achievement.
Raising stats could be considered the most gruesome task possible.
There were only three methods to raise your stats
1. Consume potions
2. Train diligently
3. Consume some natural treasure (e.g. fruit that had the seed of limit inside)...
In short, for someone like me who could only train diligently, raising my stats without external help could be considered a huge accomplishment.
Looking more confident than ever, I made a rough note of tomorrow's plan and headed to the swimming pool.
"It's time to train"
Heading towards the training center, I packed my swimming suit and left my dorm.
As I was heading towards the swimming pool, I started to think about the main storyline.
The novel essentially began with Kevin preparing himself to enroll in the lock.
Kevin's rise to fame was essentially your typical banal protagonist story, where his parents died in the past and he goes on this long harsh journey to avenge them.
Through a series of events, he was granted a cheat item and through that he became peerless.
...I was starting to get a better understanding of why my readers started hating my novel.
Apart from the main concepts, such as the general layout of the world, and the key ideas behind how the demons and villains operate. You could say everything else was rather cliche, as almost all other novels out there share a similar plotline to my story.
The story so far goes like this...
One day as Kevin was exploring an undisclosed dungeon, he was suddenly met with an accident and almost dies.
Trapped in the dungeon for weeks, with his body full of injuries, he barely stays alive by rationing the remaining food he brought with him before entering the dungeon.
Just as he was about to die, a miraculous encounter that changed his life appeared.
He was granted a 'system'
A more advanced interface than the current status window that everyone had available.
A status window, which every human in the world had, be it young or old, was a sort of game interface that showed a user's stats. It first appeared as soon as the demons invaded the world, and the source of origin was still unknown to this day, but what was known about the status window was that it allowed the user to see their own stats as well as that of artifacts.
The system, on the other hand, was a more advanced version of a status window.
Not only did it grant the user the ability to check their status, but it also granted quests and tasks which upon completion will award the user with status points and other fantastic rewards.
With this system, Kevin found himself shedding of his old timid self and truly started rising like a phoenix.
A year after he was granted the system he enrolls into the lock and proceeds to stun the examiners with his overwhelming talent and charisma, leading him into becoming the top student of the year officially starting the academy arc.
The academy arc starts with Kevin getting to know the other protagonists, Jin, Melissa, Amanda, and Emma, slowly building a rival-friend relationship.
Then the first minor event of the academy arc, the VR segments starts, and it was where Kevin managed to successfully complete two hidden tasks, once again shocking everyone including his teachers.
After the VR segment, the first major event of the academy arc officially begins.
During his elective, Kevin gets in conflict with a senior student, which starts a long series of conflicts with the senior years.
You could already imagine how the conflict began.
"You first year don't get cocky because your year performed better than our year in the VR test. We can still wipe the floor with scrubs like you"
Seriously, how bad of a writer was I?
It was only after experiencing my story from a first-person perspective that I began to realize how bad of a writer I was.
Not only did I overuse generic cliche-like scenarios, but even future events become easily predictable.
Well, in short, this event gets so blown out of proportion that it soon becomes a full-blown conflict between juniors and seniors where even if you weren't a part of the conflict you would somehow be dragged into it.
What's sad about this event was that I would most probably be dragged into it too.
Therefore I already needed to come up with countermeasures to this event, so that I didn't expose myself.
The life of a mob was truly hard...
--
Author's note :
Dumping : Selling of large amounts of stock at market price at the time of selling
Liquid : It's a measure taken by businesses to determine a firm's ability to turn assets into cash (Meet short-term obligations).
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Late night, Friday.
"hmm...I never would've predicted finding myself in such a place only a week after reincarnating into this world"
The black market.
The place that resembled the demon world the most in the human domain.
A world separate from where laws and morals exist, and the only place where Villains and Heroes could co-exist.
That was where I was currently at.
Taking the air train all the way to the outer edge of Ashon city, I quickly dropped off on the second last stop and headed towards an obscure location.
Making sure the mask I was wearing was tightly secured, I found myself in front of a large metal door.
When entering the black market, wearing a mask was compulsory so that each guest could keep their identity hidden.
On the off-chance that government agents managed to infiltrate the black market, they wouldn't be able to track you down.
-Bam! -Bam! -Bam!
Knocking on the door three times, I patiently waited.
-Klang!
Shortly after, two burly individuals wearing neat suits emerged from behind the door and scanned my body a couple of times. Feeling their gaze on me, my back started to drench in a cold sweat.
'Their individual rank is definitely C or higher'
I thought as I felt the immense pressure oozing out from their body.
Turning his head towards the individual to the left, the burly individual on the right nodded and spoke with a deep voice.
"What might you be here for?"
"I heard from a passing bird that you were looking for volunteers"
"We are indeed looking for a volunteer, which job are you looking to volunteer for?"
"I heard that you guys needed someone to paint your walls"
"We only have four paints, blue, black, pink and white. Which one do you think would be the most adequate for our walls?"
"Although I may have not seen what you needed to paint, I believe blue would look best in anything."
Turning their faces to face each other, the two burly individuals nodded to each other and signaled for me to enter.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I followed the two of them along a dark and narrow passage.
There were two ways for an individual to enter the black market.
One was through a recommendation letter given by a higher-up in the black market, or two by knowing the secret code.
The secret code was split into three different segments. Where each new segment was a continuation of the previous one.
In my case, the first segment was "What might you be here for?" for which the word "volunteer" was used to gain access to the next segment. This pattern repeats three times until the guards could confirm the authenticity of the guest who was trying to come in.
In this way, the chances of inspectors infiltrating into the black market diminished by a large margin.
Actually, this wasn't really necessary as inspectors were not actually against the idea of a black market.
Just as things have their disadvantages they also had their advantages.
Being the central hub for both Heroes and Villains, vital information could be gathered from information brokers which could, in turn, help government agents pry into some of the villain's plans.
Information brokers were essentially individuals or an organization which specialized in sharing information for a price.
Depending on the type of information, the higher the price for the information.
Fortunately in my case, as I was the author, I basically knew most of the things the information brokers knew.
If I wanted to, I could disclose some important information and make some serious cash, but that would probably be a stupid idea as it could lead to me getting attention and also potentially changing the plotline of the story.
...and with the information that I knew, I was easily able to gain access to the black market, since I was the one who created the password.
But I do have to say.
This experience was extremely nerve-wracking.
If this had not been the only method I could have used to gain access to dungeons, I would've never have come here.
Actually, finding a dungeon wasn't the only reason why I headed to the black market.
There was another reason.
I was in urgent need of a broker.
Do you think I would stupidly short C.B. and buy a bunch of W.V. stock without hiding my identity?
Once Thobias dies a month from now, the prime suspect would be the one guy who days before his death bets on C.B's crash and W.V's rise.
Tell me if that's not suspicious?
Although Silent creeper was officially identified as the killer, the main culprit could be someone else, as at the end of the day silent creeper could've just been hired to do the job.
The man behind the attack was the true mastermind behind this, not Silent creeper, and the police already knew this.
Stupidly investing in C.B and W.V. could result in my own demise.
Hence why I needed a broker.
A broker was an intermediary who would anonymously deal with my investments without asking any questions regarding who I was and why I was doing this.
Since the black market was filled with both villains and heroes, the brokers were used to situations like mine.
Which was exactly what I wanted since I didn't want to gather unnecessary attention towards myself.
Fortunately for me, as I once again boast about the fact that I was the author of the novel, know the right person for the job.
"We're here"
-Klang!
Opening a similarly large metal door to the one at the entrance, the two burly men stepped aside and allowed me to get a clear view of what was behind the door.
How should I describe this?
It was a completely different scene than what someone would've expected when hearing the word 'black market'
When you imaged how a black market would be, you would instantly think of words like 'filthy', 'dangerous', 'dirty', or anything that was synonymous with 'unpleasant'.
However, expectations and reality often do mix up, and this black market looked exactly like a night market.
Vendors who were selling their goods in their respective stalls were neatly lined up in rows that I could see no end of.
If not for the fact that all the customers were wearing masks to hide their identities, someone could've easily mistaken this as your regular night market.
A huge opening appeared on the ceiling allowing the moonlight to penetrate the market, enveloping the market with a sense of tranquility.
The lights from the lamps brightly illuminated to roads, allowing for a clearer view of the goods in the market.
It was probably the best-looking black market you could find out there.
Actually, I designed the black market to be like this since I wanted to spice things up a bit.
But even then, this was incredible.
"I guess words weren't enough to describe this place..."
Walking along the road and passing by the numerous stalls, I could see a wide variety of products being sold.
From potions to artifacts, all sorts of products that I urgently needed were being displayed right before me.
It took me a great deal of willpower to stop myself from purchasing any of them.
Right now I had a goal to accomplish.
Making my way towards a secluded spot in the black market, I quickly went towards a rather inconspicuous-looking wooden bench and sat down.
Sitting there with my head down, I patiently waited for five minutes.
Precisely after five minutes had passed, a black hooded individual sat next to me, to which I nodded my head without turning it.
"How may we the {Lost Reapers} be of service to you?"
"I need a broker"
"What type?"
"codename smallSnake"
"..."
There was a slight pause in our conversation after I directly mentioned the name of the broker that I wanted.
Although the hood covered the features of the individual who I was talking to, I could vaguely feel that underneath the hood his brows were tightly knit in a frown.
It wasn't because I requested a big individual, but rather, an almost unknown one.
Because there were so many employees working in {Lost Reapers} it was hard to keep track of who was who.
Smallsnake was what you called a 'hidden treasure'
Someone that was capable yet unknown.
Well, that was until now...
It was very understandable for the hooded figure to have trouble remembering who smallsnake was.
He was an unknown character until the later half of the novel.
In the novel, codename smallsnake interacts with Kevin a couple of times before forming some sort of business relationship with him.
From there, Kevin was able to quickly see how capable of an individual 'codename smallsnake' was.
Not only was he great at hiding his traces when carrying a transaction, but he also had many connections with certain suppliers that could provide smallsnake with quality ingredients such as luxotin, an incredibly rare flower that grows in the depth of the elven territory, for below market prices.
His connection later proved to be extremely useful to Kevin who was in dire need of certain rare ingredients.
"Are you sure about your request?"
"Certain"
Surprised by my firm response, the hooded figure let out a small sigh and stood up.
"codename smallsnake shall be here shortly. May we hope our services satisfy your need"
"Thank you"
And just like that, the hooded figure disappeared just as fast as he had appeared.
Twenty minutes after the hooded figure departed, I heard light footsteps approaching my location.
Sitting down next to me like the hooded figure had previously done, a lanky-looking youth that had his features hidden beneath a white mask sat next to me.
"codename smallsnake at your service, how may a help you"
Contrary to his appearance, smallsnake's voice was quite deep, which slightly surprised me, but not for long, as I managed to quickly regain my composure.
"I want you to be my broker"
"My commission is 5% on all profits, and my payment is 10% of the investment."
Without skipping a beat, smallsnake told me his terms.
"Also, depending on how much you wish to invest, the terms of the deal may change"
"Okay"
Taking out my hand I extended it to him gesturing to him that I had agreed with his terms.
My straightforwardness caused smallsnake to be slightly taken back.
He had originally expected the person before him to complain and grumble at the unreasonable demands.
But contrary to his expectations he agreed immediately. Moreover, he seemed rather confident in his abilities, like he was sure that he would be able to carry out his request.
Smallsnake was a capable individual.
In fact, he could've been considered a top-class broker.
However because his demands were so high, he had never had a customer before.
When he first joined the {Lost Reapers} he had expected requests to flood in nonstop and that he would constantly be busy with demands. But contrary to his expectations, two months after entering the {Lost Reapers} he still had not served a single customer.
Not only that, all the customers that he managed to talk to always grumbled about his insanely high rates or preferred to go towards more senior colleagues who were more reputable than himself.
This resulted in his talent being stagnant and hidden until Kevin finally found him.
Well, I guess I was the one who found him this time.
In order for me not to mess too much with the storyline, I'll build a solid relationship with smallsnake and make him interact with Kevin when the time was right.
Staring at the figure before him whose features were covered by a mask, smallsnake fell into deep thought.
This could potentially be his big break.
If he were to successfully complete this deal and show off his capabilities, he could finally attract more customers to him.
Although his rates were high, there was a specific reason for this.
His connections and skills were top-notch!
Not only was he capable of making it almost impossible for inspectors or individuals to trace his movements, but his connections were also some of the best in the world.
If not for the fact that he was currently being hunted by certain individuals, he would've never have come to work for {Lost Reapers}.
In the end, after hesitating a little bit, smallsnake finally stretched his hand out and firmly shook mine.
Feeling the large hand which marked the first deal he had ever agreed on, smallsnake decided there and then that he will do his absolute best to accomplish whatever his first customer desired.
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"Everything is starting to make sense now..."
Hearing Ren's investment plan, smallsnake's face couldn't help but scrunch up in frustration.
It was nothing short of idiotic.
He was also beginning to doubt the reason as to why he was chosen.
At first, he thought it may have been because he had somehow heard about his outstanding talent, but now he was starting to believe it was because no other broker wanted to work with him!
Shorting C.B pharmaceuticals, a behemoth in the pharmaceutical industry, and investing in W.V stock?
From a sane person's point of view, this was an investment that had no basis to back up its claim.
With C.B.'s current performance, the stock was expected to rise even further.
Moreover, with his connections, he could tell beforehand if something was going on within the company.
But there were no signs of abnormality within C.B., suggesting that this was an investment that had no foundation behind it.
What was even more confusing was the fact that he needed to employ the service of a black market broker for this kind of deal.
Black market brokers were hired when one wanted to hide their identity from the prying eyes of the world when making an investment.
This was usually done so that the client could avoid government agents' pursuit.
But that was only applicable to criminals.
'Is he perhaps going to kill someone important?'
Smallsnake thought as he stared at his employer up and down.
He firmly doubted it.
Judging from his demeanor and strength, he was in no way a rich second-generation kid, plus he roughly estimated that his contractor's strength was around G-F rank.
There was simply no way he could kill anyone important enough to warner a stock fluctuation. Not with his meager amount of strength.
'Was he perhaps trying to hide his identity because he's too embarrassed to publicly go through with his own deal?'
Smallsnake thought as he bitterly shook his head.
From what he could tell, this was probably the most plausible hypothesis he could come up with.
I mean, no matter how smallsnake looked at it, his client was neither some bigshot nor someone strong enough to assassinate an important figure.
What irked him the most about this deal was how confident his employer was. His demeanor was like that of someone who was sure to make money out of this nonsensical deal.
Was he delusional?
No matter how smallsnake looked at it, this deal was simply stupid.
Yet, deep within his heart, maybe just maybe, he hoped for his client to be right.
'Well, who knows, maybe he'll really be right...'
Smallsnake thought as he couldn't help but lightly chuckle at the almost impossible scenario.
Rather than just question, it was better to just perform as the client wished.
Sometimes you just might be in for a surprise.
Moreover, the main policies employed by all {Lost Reapers} employees were:
- Never ask questions about client identity
- Never ask questions about client action
Therefore, even if he wanted to convince his client against doing such investment, he couldn't as it was {Lost Reapers} policy to not question the client's decision.
Letting out a sigh underneath his mask, smallsnake quickly went through his terms and signed it.
At least he was getting paid for his work.
It was just a bummer to see his first client lose so much money.
Seeing smallsnake's subtle actions, I couldn't help but laugh.
Although he was wearing a mask, his expressions could be read like an open book.
Just the way he flinched when he heard about the deal, and how his shoulders dropped at the realization that he was dealing with a stupid client was so easy to read.
'I'll let him be for now, he'll eventually thank me later.'
I thought to myself as I enjoyed watching his crestfallen expression.
"So how much are you planning on investing?"
"hmm...for now I have about 10,000 U I can invest, but I'm planning on investing at least five times that. So around 50,000 U? Maybe less? Who knows, around that range though."
"..."
Smallsnake was already starting to shed tears beneath his mask.
What kind of small-time investment was this?
10,000 U? 50,000U?
With this, smallsnake could confirm that he wasn't some second-generation rich kid that loved throwing away money.
With such a meager amount, even if you somehow predicted correctly, the amount you would make would at most be in the triple digits.
What was the point of commissioning him if you were only planning on investing so little?
Reminding himself of the {Lost Reapers} rules, smallsnake resigned himself to the harsh reality.
"Ok-ay, so do you have the money with you now?"
"No, I only have about 10,000 U with me"
"Okay, so when will you invest?"
"Hmm...once I make enough I guess"
"Pardon?"
"Once I make more money"
"..."
From this point on, smallsnake was able to deduce one thing about the identity of his employer.
He was a villain.
A black-hearted villain that loved to make hard-working employees like him suffer.
Seeing smallsnake's drooping figure, I barely managed to hold back my laughter.
I may have gone a bit overboard, but I really enjoyed teasing him.
Weakly walking towards his chair, smallsnake sat down while holding his head in despair.
"H-ow a-re you plann-ing on mak-ing the mone-y?"
He weakly said as he tried his best to regain his composure.
"Oh, I'm gonna go to a dungeon and...huh?"
-Klang!
Falling down from his chair, smallsnake could vividly see his life flash before his eyes.
"What have I done to deserve this..."
Turning my body around, I could barely keep my laughter in check.
My whole body started shaking uncontrollably as a consequence of me trying to hold back my laughter.
This was probably the funniest reaction I had ever seen in my life!
It took a solid hour for smallsnake to regain his composure, but his current demeanor was a far cry from when I had just met him.
He resembled a black company employee who had resigned himself to his fate.
Staring at his lifeless expression, I slightly smiled.
Although smallsnake was very competent, the main reason that propelled me into contacting him was not his outstanding set of skills, but rather his devotion to the job.
He was the type of person that took every job seriously.
Therefore, no matter how absurd the request was, once accepted, he would always try to accomplish it the best way he possibly could.
Moreover, he was someone that could keep his mouth shut.
Even if he was tied down to a chair and endlessly tortured, his mouth would never waver.
That was how reliable of a person he was.
"Alright, let's not dwell on the specifics of the deal. You just have to trust me"
Staring at me for a couple of seconds, smallsnake sighed and finally came to terms with my absurd financial plan.
"Fine, I'm in no position to talk anyways..."
"Actually, I still need your help"
Warily glancing at me, smallsnake switched back into his business demeanor.
"What other service do you require from me."
"I need a monster corpse broker"
"Haaa...so I guess you weren't joking when you mentioned the word dungeon previously"
Nodding my head, I continued explaining my plan.
"Don't worry, I'll probably be safe. Moreover, I'm only going to go to an F rank dungeon which shouldn't be too difficult. What I need your help with is with handling the corpses which I will bring back from the dungeon"
Nodding his head smallsnake took out a piece of paper, and started scribbling on it.
"F-rank dungeon...hmm, the current market rate is around 1,000 U per normal monster corpse, and 5,000 U for boss monsters."
"If you consider the conditions at which the corpse is presented the payment can increase..."
"Moreover, if by some crazy chance you managed to acquire an F rank monster core, you can very easily sell that for 100,000 U depending on its size."
Turning his head towards where I was standing, smallsnake mind quickly raced as he slowly formulated a plan for me. "From what you've told me, you wanted to at least invest 50,000U."
"Considering that you have 10,000 of the 50,000 U you are planning to invest, you would approximately need 40,000 U"
"If you want to earn that much in an F rank dungeon then you must either kill 40 F-rank monsters, 8 bosses, or find an F rank core, which would leave plenty left to spare."
Furrowing his brows underneath his mask, smallsnake handed me the paper in which he had calculated the possible things I needed to do in order to raise 40,000U.
"This is a simple layout of the things you need to do to raise that much money."
"Moreover, that is if we are excluding dungeon entrance fees, commissions, and the cost of paying for your equipment"
Staring deeply at me, smallsnake asked
"Are you sure about this?"
Grinning, I sat in front of him and said
"If I wasn't sure about this I wouldn't have come here"
"..."
"..."
After staring at me for a solid minute, smallsnake nodded his head and stood up.
"I don't know where your confidence comes from, but since you're my first and only client I will help you the best that I possibly can"
"Couldn't ask for more."
Similarly standing up, I shook his hand.
"Alright, I guess we have a deal"
...
Soon after parting ways with smallsnake, I made my way towards the black market stalls.
Now that I had some time for myself, I could take a proper look at the things available for sale in the black market.
Taking out a small black card that smallsnake gave me after we finalized our deal, I quickly went towards the entrance of the black market where a large metal door stood. Quickly taking out 8000 U from my pocket, I headed in the direction of where the door was.
Besides the large metal door, stood a neat black stall that had a relatively long queue.
Arriving at the stall I patiently waited in line for approximately fifteen minutes before a sales employee quickly went to greet me at the register.
Taking the black card out, I handed the card plus 8,000 U to the employee.
The black card I was currently holding was an exclusive card that could only be used in the black market and was the main payment method used when purchasing things on the black market.
What the employee was doing was converting the cash I gave to him into a cryptocurrency specifically made only for the black market.
Although transactions through cash were generally safe, it was not very efficient when dealing with transactions that dealt with large figures.
By creating a cryptocurrency, the black market was able to swiftly deal with several problems at the same time.
One, since crypto was untraceable, it ensured safe transactions.
Two and most importantly, allowed the black market to act as an intermediary during the transactions.
People tended to forget this when entering the black market. But this place was flooded with villains.
Villains were essentially scums of society that held no regard for rules or morality.
If there was no one to keep them in check, they could've probably forced someone to make a deal or even worse given them fake money.
Therefore, with the black card system, it became much easier to trade and check if there was any fraud taking place in the transaction.
Because they were using the black market cryptocurrency, fake money could not be used as the black market currency was only available here.
This way, when doing transactions here, people didn't need to be wary of potential scams.
And if by any chance someone was indeed trying to commit a scam, the black market forces would swiftly deal with them.
"How much would you like to recharge?"
"8,000 U please"
"Alright, please wait a moment"
Placing my money inside of a black box, the sales employee pressed a button and patiently waited a couple of seconds.
-Ding!
After the black box ringed, signaling that it was done with whatever it was doing, the employee took my card and placed it on top of the box.
"Okay everything is ready, please enjoy yourself"
Handing me my card back, the sales employee smiled and started serving the next client.
Taking my card, I quickly went to look at the never-ending rows of stalls.
"It's time to go shopping!"
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Seeing the numerous people going to and fro between each stall, I couldn't help but feel my heart race at the extensive number of goods that shone brightly under the street lights.
Each one looked more tempting than the other.
Going through each stall one by one, I made a mental note of the things that seemed interesting.
This way, once I went through the majority of the stalls, I could decide which thing I needed to buy and which thing I didn't.
Since I was planning on venturing inside of a dungeon, I require several things.
Arriving at a stall, I went forward and picked up a slim necklace that had a purple stone imbued in it.
--
Name : Necklace of tranquility
Type : Artifact
Rank : G
Use : Allows wearer to have better sleep.
Description : Artifact created by an unknown blacksmith.
--
With the aid of the status window, I could see the detail of each artifact I touched, making it easier for me to look for what I wanted.
Looking at the necklace in my hand, I thought
'This could indeed be useful, as sleeping inside of a dungeon can be challenging'
Dungeons were essentially portals that connected earth to the demon world.
Their harsh environment means that only monsters or strong individuals could survive inside of them.
With its harsh conditions, one needs, alongside good equipment, to be in their best possible shape.
If one lacked sleep, then it became much harder for them to continue venturing inside of the dungeon as a sleep-deprived person's reaction time becomes slower.
Thus, this necklace could definitely be of good use inside of dungeons.
"Excuse me"
"Yes, how may I help you?"
Calling out the stall owner, who wore a black hood to hide his features.
I pointed at the necklace in my hand and asked
"How much is this?"
Carefully inspecting the necklace in my hands, the stall owner paused for a second before saying
"That necklace? 3000 U"
Placing the necklace down, I went to the next stall.
Sleeping was for the weak.
Slower reaction time? Heh, I say to hell with that!
3000 U?
My word.
Talk about daylight robbery.
Although the effect was good, there's no way a G rank artifact was worth that much!
Trying my best to forget about this accident, I ventured deeper into the market.
As I was walking, I remembered the number of certain stalls that had some interesting items up for sale.
Because of my limited budget, I needed to be careful when buying stuff.
Right now, more than anything else, I needed a sword.
Because for obvious reasons I couldn't bring the school's katana with me. I had no choice but to look for a new sword.
Moreover, I also needed to buy some sort of dimensional storage that could help me store the corpses of the monsters that I killed.
If not, how was I supposed to bring back the corpses of all the monsters I killed?
Unlike the MC who has a system that comes with an enormous storage space, I didn't have such privilege.
Fortunately for me, the black market was filled with such items.
Plus, if I was lucky enough, I might get some good deals.
Well, not so much for dimensional storages as their price was fairly inflexible.
The bigger the storage provided the more expensive the artifact would become.
And since I was short on money, I probably couldn't afford to buy myself a high-end storage device.
In fact, even purchasing a low-end one was challenging for me with my current budget.
If I couldn't purchase one, I would have to literally walk back to the entrance of the dungeon and drop the monster bodies in front of the gate.
That would be total hell.
Plus, since I would most likely not be the only one entering the dungeon, I risked the possibility of getting my spoils stolen.
In short, dimensional storage was a must.
Arriving before a weapon stall that I had previously passed by, I quietly looked through their sword section.
Various swords were neatly displayed in the stall, allowing me to get a clearer view of how they looked like.
Each sword and weapon had a different brand imprinted on the sheath or body of the weapon. This was because different weapons were forged by different blacksmiths. The weapons created by famous blacksmiths could be considered the blacksmith's brand, and branded goods… were naturally expensive. The price was also not something normal people could afford, especially for someone as poor as me.
...But I still decided to test my luck. Maybe, just maybe I could find a sword that perfectly fit my style and didn't cost much.
"Excuse me"
Calling out the shop owner, I pointed at a slim sword that looked both robust and light at the same time.
Although it wasn't a katana, the [Keiki style] wasn't a sword art that could only explicitly be practiced by a katana.
All it required was a slim and firm sword that could move at incredible speeds without breaking.
"Sure"
Nodding his head, the stall owner went to the back and picked up the sword.
Handing it to me, I quietly admired the sword.
A slim straight blade with black aesthetic patterns deeply etched on the main body of the blade, quietly rested on the palm of my hands.
It had no guard, and unlike the katana which lightly curves, this sword was straight.
Carefully tracing my fingers along the edge of the blade, I could feel incredible sharpness coming from the sword that made it seem like it could cut anything.
-ku!
Twitching my brows for a second, I quietly looked down at my finger which was now bleeding.
'This is a fine sword'
I thought, as I grabbed a napkin and wiped my finger.
Even after healing my wound with some light ointment, I could still feel a stinging sensation coming from the finger that got cut.
This sword was incredibly good.
Well compared to the academy's katana this was not as good, but that was simply because better materials were used when forging the weapon.
However, although the academy's weapons were good, they were in fact not artifacts.
They were specifically made for training, and therefore the academy deemed it unnecessary for the training equipment to be artifacts.
With regular weapons, the school could more or less keep the students in check, but as artifacts contained certain powers, the risk of injury during a duel would drastically increase.
Therefore, aside from their exceptional firmness and low density, the academy weapons did not have any special effects.
Although they were indeed top-of-the-line swords, they would still lose out against a similarly durable artifact.
Also, since the academy's weapons weren't artifacts, their stats were unknown.
--
Name : Silver edge
Type : Artifact
Rank : F
Use : An extremely sharp sword that can easily cut through the toughest metal.
Description : Artifact that was found inside of the demon world, and is a sword that had previously been used to slain several demons.
--
Surprisingly, the sword was not made by a famous blacksmith but was actually found inside of a dungeon.
Looking at its clean body, I instantly knew that this was a refurbished sword.
"May I try it?"
Turning my head towards the shop owner, I saw him shake his head at my question.
Well fair enough.
I was careless as well.
I asked without thinking, if by accident someone recognized the sword art I was using, a massive headache would be coming my way.
"Does it have a scabbard"
Feeling the blade in my hand, even though I couldn't try it, I could feel the sword being really compatible with the [Keiki style]
Not only was it light, but it was also extremely durable.
"Yes"
Nodding, the shop owner went to the back and took a black rectangular scabbard.
Placing the sword inside of the scabbard I nodded satisfactorily.
Because the sword did not have a guard, the sword neatly fitted the scabbard making it look like I had a long black stick.
It sort of looked futuristic.
'Low-key, just the way I like it'
"How much is this?"
"5,999 U"
"..."
Looking at the sword that rested on the side of my hip, I hesitated for a second before handing him my black card.
"Thank you for your purchase"
"Yeah, yeah"
Leaving the store with a new sword and 6,000 U down, I couldn't help but grumble at the price.
I just used 75% of my budget on a sword.
This means that I only had 2,001 U left within my card.
Now I had to be especially careful about what I purchased next, as my budget has become even more constricted.
Stopping for a moment, I thought for a while and decided to go to a stall which I had previously passed.
The stall I was going to was a stall that only sold dimensional storage-type tools, which was essential for me alongside my sword.
The selling of Dimensional storage-type tools was actually illegal.
That was because, when dimensional storages were first introduced a lot of copycats tried to imitate their technology.
This resulted in disastrous events where out of nowhere the tool would break, due to their poor quality, and as a result of this, a lot of people got injured or even died.
It had to be noted that dimensional storages dealt with the laws of space and time, meaning that the consequences of them breaking was disastrous.
At a certain point, it became so bad that the central government illegalized the production of dimensional storages and only allowed certain licensed individuals to produce them.
Because of this, the prices for dimensional storage inflated and became much higher than their production cost.
But fortunately for me as I was in the black market, the prices were far lower than for what I could get them outside.
It didn't take long for me to arrive at my destination.
Looking at the stall that sold things like storage rings, storage bags, storage pouch, etc..., I first looked at the prices.
Since prices were based on the storage space dimension, with only 2,000 U remaining, I could only afford 25 cubic meters worth of space.
Storage dimensions started at 5 cubic meters for 300U and increased a further 300U for every additional 5 cubic meters added.
In my case, since I wanted to purchase a 25 cubic meter storage device, the total price was around 1,500U.
It came out at a total of 1,800U though, as I decided to purchase the storage device in the form of a bracelet.
--
Name : Storage bracelet (25 cubic meters)
Type : Artifact
Rank : G
Use : A device that stores items inside of dimensional space.
Description : Common artifact which was crafted by a low-rank blacksmith.
--
Since storage devices have many forms, such as bags, pouches, rings and etc... the smaller the medium was the more expensive the price was.
In my case, since I choose to go with a bracelet instead of a bag, I paid an extra 300U totaling the price at 1800U
Looking at the black leather bracelet that rested on my wrist, I nodded satisfactorily.
If one didn't look carefully they would think this was just a regular bracelet.
It was best to disguise dimensional storages as it could potentially be a target for thieves or people looking to make easy cash by robbing someone.
Since no one knew what went inside of dungeons, as there were no cameras, nobody could verify if someone had been robbed or killed inside of a dungeon.
Dungeons were basically 'lawless' zones, where be it human or monster, they could all be your enemy.
It was always best to keep a low profile.
Since I only had 200 U left on my card, I decided to spend the rest of my money on some potions such as the [stamina recovery potion] and [Mana recovery potion].
Then when I felt like I had enough potions I proceeded to spend the rest of my money on some ointments which I would need in case of flesh wounds.
Because they were relatively low-quality potions, I managed to buy everything I needed with my 200 U remaining.
Satisfied with what I got, I decided to head towards {Dungeon seekers}.
The place where I could get access to dungeons. An organisation that was worth over a trillion U, and was one of the main forces operating in the black market.
It could be said that the main reason people entered the black market was not because of the illegal goods and services that were being sold, but because of {Dungeon seekers}.
Because guilds tend to monopolize dungeons, not allowing external parties into them, people who seek to become stronger or strike it rich and were not part of a guild have no choice but to come here.
Since {Dungeon seekers} allowed access to anyone, whether they were heroes or villains, people from all over the world came here.
Moreover, the entrance fee and commission proposed by {Dungeon seekers} were not outrageous, which in turn made this place even more popular amongst the general population.
It could be said that without {Dungeon seekers} the black market wouldn't have been as popular as it was now.
Report chapter
Arriving in front of another metal door that seemed more secure and robust than the one that led to the black market, I knocked once.
-Bam!
On the right side of the door, a small compartment opened up to which I placed my black card.
-Voom!
As soon as I placed my card, green light emerged from the bottom of the compartment enveloping my card.
-Diiii
A couple of seconds after the green light disappeared, I heard the sound of a ring coming from the compartment indicating to me that the scan was complete.
Taking my card back, the metal door started rumbling before slowly opening up.
-Vam!
Entering the building, I was instantly stunned.
A luxuriously decorated hall, where at the front stood a stunning reception counter made of a mixture of wood and marble. Various receptionists tended the guest from behind the counter, and a faint citrusy smell lingered in the air.
Because Kevin had never been here in the novel, it was also my first time knowing how this place looked like.
Words couldn't even come close to describe how a place actually looked like in real life, as things such as the smell, the sounds, and the atmosphere always tended to be hard to conceptualize in words. You could get a general idea of how a place looked like, but it would never be the same as in real life. Every time I came to a new place, I became speechless on how different the place was compared to what I had written.
In this case, even though I had no idea how this place would look like, I was still momentarily overwhelmed by this place's grandeur.
It resembled a palace created for the king of an empire.
Clean white marble floor, silky red carpets, gold-coated lamps, neatly sculpted desks, this place had everything.
This was what true luxury looked like.
Arriving at the front desk of the reception, I went towards a clerk on the right side of the reception desk.
"Welcome to {Dungeon seekers} how may we help you?"
"I'm looking to enter a dungeon"
Smiling at my reply, the receptionist took a small tablet out and presented it to me.
"These are all the available dungeons that we have at the moment"
Scrolling through the tablet I could see a large list of dungeons.
Each dungeon had a red and green circle around them, indicating whether they were available or not.
Each dungeon had a limit on how many people could enter, and if the limit was not respected the dungeon would destabilize resulting in a potential desync.
A desync was essentially a phenomenon where a dungeon would lose its connection with the demon world.
Once a dungeon lost its connection to the demon world, it essentially became a void dungeon. Which was a dungeon that led to nowhere.
Since {Dungeon seekers} knew this, they made sure that the limit was never broken by always leaving one slot open.
"We currently have three operating G rank dungeons, 6 F-rank dungeons, 18 D-rank dungeons, 11 C-rank dungeons, 13 B-rank dungeons, and lastly 4 A-rank dungeons"
Seeing the endless amount of dungeons available, I was left speechless
The number of dungeons they were hiding was enough to make people wonder how the government still hasn't done anything.
Actually considering their wealth and influence, even if the central government wanted to do something I doubt they'd be able to hurt {Dunegone seekers}. That was unless they wanted to start a full-blown war, which no one desired.
Taking the tablet, I quickly went through the list for F-rank dungeons.
- F-rank : [Kurus barracks]
Description; Directly spawns contractor inside of demon army barracks.
Price; 15% of contractor loot Entrance fee of 500 U
--
- F-rank : [Blood sea]
Description; Directly spawns contractor in an oceanic environment filled with bloodthirsty sea creatures.
Price; 15% of contractor loot Entrance fee of 500 U
--
- F-rank : [Red Desolation]
Description; Directly spawns contractors in desert-like terrain that is scarce in water and food sources.
Price; 11% of contractor loot Entrance fee of 500 U
--
- F-rank : [Miasma mountains]
Description; Directly spawns contractor on top of the high mountain range covered with highly toxic miasma.
Price; 8% of contractor loot Entrance fee of 500 U
--
- F-rank : [Forest of greed]
Description; Directly spawns contractors inside a forest that tempts preys by creating illusions of their innermost desire.
Price; 17% of contractor loot Entrance fee of 500 U
--
- F-rank : [Earth's wrath]
Description; Directly spawns contractor near a volcanic area, where temperatures can reach as high as 100 degrees celsius.
Price; 13% of contractor loot Entrance fee of 500 U
--
Hmm...what should I choose
Seeing the list of F-ranked dungeons, I monetarily paused to think about which one to choose out of all of them.
[Blood sea] was out of the question as I didn't bring any waterproof equipment with me.
[Miasma mountains] was simply too dangerous, and I didn't have poison resistance potions with me.
[Forest of greed] had a 17% clause, where I would have to pay 17% of all profits gained from the dungeon. That was a tad bit too high for my standards.
So that was also out of the question.
This leaves me with [Earth's wrath, [Red desolation, and [Kurus Barracs]
Looking alternatively at the three options before me, after contemplating for a while I decided to go with [Red desolation].
It had the lowest contractor clause of 11% and the food and water shortage should pose no problem to me who has just bought a dimensional bracelet.
"I will go with [Red desolation]"
"Very well, here's a contract you will need to sign before we can finalize our deal"
Handing me a three-page long contract, I patiently looked through the contents.
In short.
Before entering a dungeon they will check the equipment that I will bring inside so that no misunderstandings can arise when I exit the dungeon and report my gains.
When exiting a dungeon the staff will do a strict check on the items and things I will bring out so that no false reports were made when paying the contractor clause.
A 500 U entrance fee was to be paid upfront, accompanied by a 1000 U deposit.
The maximum time a person could stay inside of a dungeon was 30 days.
If the person did not come out by the designated time, a specialized squad will directly enter the dungeon and forcefully drag you out.
Lastly, the contractor could, in case of emergencies, call for a support team that will come as soon as possible to aid them if they were in any danger.
The result of calling a support team resulted in the loss of the deposit.
Seeing the content, I nodded satisfactorily and signed it.
There was nothing that I was particularly against.
They were rules that tried to be as fair as possible.
"Thank you very much"
Smiling, the receptionist took the paper and we finalized the payment.
"Please follow me"
After I paid a total of 1500 U, deposit entrance fee, I was escorted to a large waiting room.
[Guest 5077684 -- Gate 756]
Looking at the piece of paper that I had received once I completed the payment, I neatly folded it and placed it in my pocket.
This was my dungeon ticket, better not lose it.
Inside the room, there were several individuals, who just like me, were waiting to enter the dungeon.
Several waiters were walking and serving food and drinks to the people present inside of the waiting room.
Glancing around for a couple of seconds, I went towards a secluded area that had fewer people and sat down.
If I said I wasn't nervous, I'd be lying.
So far, my first week in this world has been smooth sailing.
Aside from a few ups and downs here and there in the academy, everything that I wanted to achieve I achieved.
The [Keiki style] the [Seed of limit, even the VR test was successful as I managed to complete the extra task.
Everything that I wanted to accomplish was completed flawlessly.
But that meant nothing.
'Don't let the achievements get to your head.'
I repeatedly told myself, as I was just about to enter the dungeon.
My small achievements shouldn't be something that I should take to heart.
I shouldn't become arrogant. Just because everything was going my way didn't mean that everything else was going to be smooth-sailing.
Facing the dungeon, which I had never been to before, I should never let my guard down.
No matter how well things were going for me, a slight mistake could cost me my life.
Arrogance was the best recipe for failure.
As I was self-reflecting, I tried adjusting my mindset.
When going inside of a dungeon, where there was a high mortality rate, one must not go in there thinking that everything would be alright and no danger would befall them.
That was not called confidence, it was called stupidity.
In the face of potential danger, one must humble themselves and make sure to give it their all so that one doesn't get caught off-guard.
"Guest 5077684 please step forward"
Hearing my number, I stood up and went towards the person who called for my name.
Wearing a nice black butler outfit, like most of the male employees working here, the man led me towards a large door.
-Di! Di! Di! Di! Di! Di!
-Shaaaa!
Just before we entered the door, the employee pressed 6 keycodes on the lock of the door and then proceeded to scan his eye.
-Klang!
After a brief pause, the door opened by itself allowing me to see what was behind it.
"!!"
I was instantly left speechless.
I was so overwhelmed by the scenery before me that no word escaped from my mouth.
An enormous hall, that extended so far that I couldn't even catch sight of the other side, was before me.
Keep in mind that my stats, compared to before were much better, which meant my vision drastically improved alongside my stat improvement, and yet I still couldn't see the ending of this place.
That was just how enormous this place was!
Moreover, that wasn't what left me flabbergasted.
It was the fact that in the hall there were warp gates everywhere!
A warp gate was a teleportation device that allowed a person to teleport to a given coordinate.
It was similar to a dungeon gate, but unlike dungeon gates, where the location was fixed, a warp gate coordinates could be changed.
Walking around, and seeing the towering warp gates that were as tall as a house, I felt like an ant.
Besides the gates, there were white-clothed individuals with masks that covered their whole faces. Their masks reminded me of the 'Black Panther' back in my previous world. But compared to his black mask theirs was white.
After walking for 10 minutes, I was finally able to see my designated gate.
Gate - 756
"Oh hey, Edward!"
Standing in front of the gate, a blonde middle-aged man who had a cigarette in his mouth waved towards the person escorting me.
His long hair which was tied in a ponytail, and his short untrimmed beard made him look like an unemployed adult who was in the middle of his mid-life crisis.
"Yes"
Giving a simple nod to the middle-aged man, the man who escorted me here, Edward, turned around and prepared to leave.
"As quiet as usual huh?"
Seeing Edward leave with no response, the middle-aged man gave up and looked at me.
"So you're the one who wants to enter the dungeon?"
"Yes"
"Sigh, just when I thought I had the day off"
-pchhhh
Throwing the cigarette on the ground, the middle-aged man stepped on it.
"Alright, follow me"
Walking with his hands in his pockets, the middle-aged man grumbled as he walked towards the gate.
"Timothy1, Timothy 2, I've got a guest here, so open the gate"
"..."
"..."
"Ah fine!"
Taking out a card from his pocket, the middle-aged man handed it to the two people in white clothes who were blocking the gate.
Taking out a small box, one of the white guards swiped the card, and when the box flashed green he stepped to the side.
"Bye Timothy1, Timorth2, don't miss me too much while I'm gone"
Waving at two white guards, the middle-aged man stepped into the gate and beckoned me to follow.
Stepping on the gate, the middle-aged man took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it up.
Looking at me who was confused, the middle-aged man spoke with a grin.
"Don't worry they're always like this. They're just shy"
"uh, sure"
'I'm pretty sure they were not shy. They just didn't want to talk to you.'
I retorted in my head without showing it on my face.
Soon, as the warp gate lit up, I felt my body slowly lift up from the ground. Then I saw my body turn into particles and shortly after I started losing all my senses.
It first started with my vision, then my hearing, and slowly all my remaining senses.
-Vam!
-Blaaargh!
As soon as I regained my senses, I felt my stomach churning and before I knew it I was on the ground barfing.
Fortunately, I didn't puke on my mask as I slightly tilted it upwards to allow the barf to escape from my mouth.
"First timer huh?"
Looking at me, who was on the ground barfing, the middle-aged man shook his head amusingly.
It took me a total of five minutes before I was finally able to stop my body from barfing.
I felt like crap.
After having vomited so much, I could barely stand up.
"Sit down for a bit"
Leaning against a nearby rock, the middle-aged man held a new cigarette between his fingers and exhaled smoke in the air.
It was only after I heard his voice that I managed to get a clear look at my surroundings.
A vast plain field filled with oak trees was before my sight and if one looked ahead, towering mountains that penetrated the clouds could be seen.
The air felt extremely fresh and it reminded me of the time when I was in Clayton ridge.
Looking around, I could see a massive warp gate behind me. Five white-clothed individuals patrolled around it.
I wonder how they managed to hide such a huge thing...
"You're probably wondering how we can hide the gate from the government's sight"
Taken aback, I looked at the middle-aged man.
How did he know?
Blankly staring at the sky where the clouds were slowly darkening, showing signs of rain, the middle-aged man spoke.
"There's a barrier that covers a 5km radius of everything here."
"The barrier prevents the energy coming out from the dungeon from being leaked, and it also blocks electromagnetic waves preventing any radio communications or detection devices from finding this place."
Listening to him, I silently nodded.
This was a smart choice.
If the government were to find about this dungeon, they would swiftly take it over.
No matter how strong the black market was, they wouldn't be able to fight against both the government and the union.
Since dungeons, monsters, and demons fell under the union's jurisdiction, if an unclaimed gate was discovered, the union would do anything within its power to claim it. And since the black market was not as strong as the union, they could only resort to hiding dungeons that they found.
But I was curious.
Couldn't the union just send spies and find the location of the dungeon?
"ku ku, your expression is so easy to read kid."
"It's not so easy for spies to find the location of the dungeons."
"In the first place, the reason why we use warp gates is so that they can't find where the dungeon is. Moreover, with the barrier, which prevents any communication to the external world, it's almost impossible for them to find this place"
That does make sense, but a barrier alone was not enough to prevent the union from discovering this place.
Actually, before that, was my expression that easy to read? It was fine if only Grandmaster Keiki could read my thoughts...but now another person, whom I just met, could easily read what I wanted to say―was my face that easy to read?
Moreover, I was currently wearing a mask. Apart from my eyes, everything else was covered. Does that mean he could read my expression solely based on me eyes?
I need to make a mental note to myself to start practicing my poker face...
Looking at my surroundings, I thought for a bit before saying out loud.
"If it were me, I would just look at the surrounding geology and narrow it down to possible locations"
With the technology of this world, it wouldn't be too hard to narrow places down according to the details of the surroundings.
"Huhu, you're a smart one eh?"
Laughing at my comment, the middle-aged man stood up.
"That's true. But, since we are strong, both the union and the government won't really spend that much effort in finding the dungeons we secured."
Suddenly the middle-aged man's eyes narrowed, as he spat the next words coldly.
"That is unless they want to start a war with us..."
Standing up, I followed the middle-aged man.
"By the way sir, how should I call you?"
As we were walking, I couldn't help ask him for his name.
Although he may look completely unrefined and crude, when he spat those last words, my heart shivered for a split second.
"Me?"
Puffing the cigarette in his mouth, the middle-aged man smirked.
"Just call me Thomas"
"Okay, Mr. Thomas"
"Do it without the honorifics, please. It makes it sound cheesy"
"uh, okay"
After walking alongside Thomas, and chatting with him for a bit, I suddenly felt a tremendous energy coming from the distance.
"You feel it?"
"Yeah"
"That's the accumulated energy of all the monsters inside of the dungeon..."
Staring ahead at the source of where the energy was coming from, I couldn't help but feel slightly nervous.
Looking at me, Thomas grinned as he said
"Nervous?"
"I'd be lying if I said no..."
"Don't worry too much, although it is indeed scary for a first-timer like you, you'll get used to it eventually. "
Slightly pausing, he looked at the gate which was becoming clearer by the minute, and lightly said.
"Moreover, wait till you see an S-ranked gate"
"An S-ranked gate huh..."
If the energy coming out from an F-rank gate was this much, I wonder how much energy would come out from an S-rank gate...
Just the thought sent shivers down my spine.
"Yo Timothy 8, Timothy 9"
Greeting two individuals clad in white masks and armor, Thomas handed them a card.
"..."
"..."
Ignoring Thomas, the two guards took the card and scanned it.
After making sure everything was alright, both guards stepped to the side and made way for him and me.
Taking a step forward, I could feel the tremendous energy bursting out from the gate.
"I guess this is where we part ways kid"
Momentarily startled by Thomas's voice, as I was too engrossed on the enormous gate before me, I could see Thomas standing beside the guards.
"Thank you for everything Thomas"
"Haha, Don't worry about it. Just doing my job. Take care of yourself kid"
Nodding my head I turned around and faced the dungeon.
"Huuu..."
Taking a deep breath, I took my first step into a dungeon.
...
As soon as I felt my eyes regain their usual clarity, I felt a blast of hot air engulf my body.
The dry environment instantly caused my lips to tight up, prompting me to repeatedly lick them to keep them moist.
The ground beneath me was full of cracks, and signs of skirmishes could be seen everywhere in the surroundings. Evidently showing that battles had occurred in this place.
At the very end of my sight, I could see sand dunes made up of red and black sand cover the landscape.
"Just like its description, there really is no source of water nor food here"
It was a completely desolate place.
The surrounding vegetation was all withered, and there were no signs of animal or living creatures on sight.
Aside from monsters, who don't need to eat or drink, the only other living beings were the small insects that hid beneath the cracked earth.
Staring at the light red skies that enveloped the surrounding area, I felt like it created a stronger sense of dread in this desolate world.
Taking a moment so that I could adjust to the harsh environment, I sat down and quickly checked on my equipment.
Carefully placing my hand on my hips where my newly acquired sword rested, I made a recount of the things that I brought.
"Let's see... the sword is here, food is inside my newly acquired bracelet and should last me for about a week"
"There also shouldn't be any problems regarding potions as some cheap [Stamina recovery] are carefully stored in my bracelet"
"What else...hmm, I think that's it"
Seeing that I didn't have anything missing, I stood up and decided to venture deeper into the dungeon.
"Alright, to my very first dungeon!"
...
-Keuka!
Stopping in front of a dead tree, I paused and stared at my opponent.
Just like any novel with dungeons in them, my very first opponent was a goblin.
Yes, a globin.
Do you even need me to describe its features?
I mean it was a fucking goblin.
-Khuek!
...and it sounded like a goblin too!
Tapping on the handle of my newly acquired sword, a white streak appeared before the goblin.
-Click!
-Khuuuuaak!
Before the goblin could even have enough time to react, a red dot appeared on top of its forehead which resulted in the goblin lifelessly slumping on the ground.
'How sharp'
I thought as I admired my new sword.
It felt exactly how someone would feel when cutting a block of butter. Smooth with little to no resistance.
Puu!
Arriving before the goblin, I quickly spat on its body.
Soon after spitting on its body, I kicked its body to the side, while also making sure I cursed at it.
"Fucking goblin"
In short, I was totally abusing the dead goblin.
But there was a good reason for my unreasonable actions.
I didn't have any grudges against goblins or anything like that per se, it was just that I had to do so that I could trigger a certain event.
...and
-Khuek!
-Khuek!
-Khuek!
Yup.
A horde of about 20 or more goblins were madly running with blood-red eyes towards my direction.
Although dungeons have been with human society for 10 years, not a lot was known about the monsters residing in them.
For example, out of all the monsters known to mankind, the number of monsters for which we knew detailed information about could be counted with one hand.
Because monsters were not used to the earth's atmosphere, bringing live samples back to earth was an extremely difficult and arduous task that simply wasn't worth the cost.
Because of how hard it was to get access to live samples of monsters, it became very hard for researchers to find out more about dungeon monsters.
The research was extremely crucial in aiding humanity in getting a better understanding of the monsters which resided in the demon world.
Researchers have predicted that one day there might be the possibility of the demon world suddenly attacking earth.
If we didn't put a lot of effort into finding more about the monsters that resided in the demon world, it might be too late when the time that monsters can enter earth arrives.
Professor Theodore Rombhouse, the one who questioned me last time, was a leading figure in the research of monsters and beasts.
Not only was he a fanatic in analyzing a beast's behavior and weakness, but he also loved to analyze and dissect monsters so that he could find out more about them.
Monsters were weird creatures.
They not only behaved irrationally but sometimes when certain conditions were met they could trigger an unexpected event.
Such as what was currently happening right now with the goblins.
Because of my action of spitting and abusing the goblin, I managed to trigger a goblin horde.
Actually, this was a little joke I put in the novel, but on several occasions, similar unexpected actions could cause certain monsters to do something you would least expect.
In the case of goblins, because they always tended to be the first monsters the protagonists faced when entering a dungeon, I decided to add this feature so that I could bring justice to them.
In actuality, I added it because I needed to meet a certain word count, and I couldn't come up with anything.
That aside, goblins were basically the most useless monsters out there.
For those who wanted to become stronger, goblins were considered training dummies, and for villains and demons, they were considered cannon fodder.
They truly were the most abused species in all novels.
In the story, Kevin alongside another party enter the academy's dungeon.
At first, the other group wanted to make things difficult for Kevin's party, but because he was too strong they could only silently endure.
They later took out their grievances on a nearby goblin, which triggered their hidden feature where all goblins within a 100-meter radius turned berserk and attacked anything on site.
Since goblins were so weak and easily died when entering the earth's atmosphere, it was very hard to get proper information on them.
And on the off-chance that they managed to retrieve a live sample, this unique ability of theirs would've never been discovered as who would just spit kick and abuse a goblin for research purposes?
Moreover, even if some deranged scientist did the following if there were no other goblins around their special feature was essentially useless.
...right now though, I couldn't help but pat my back for adding such a feature.
-Khuek!
-Khuek!
-Khuek!
With this method not only did I not need to find the goblins who were spread across the terrain, but I could also save a lot of time and train efficiently.
Tapping the handle of my sword, I prepared myself for a long and challenging battle.
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"Huff...Huff...Huff"
Kneeling on one leg, whilst supporting myself with my sword, which was stabbed on the ground, I gasped for breath.
-Click!
-Kueeeekk!
Before I could even have enough time to catch my breath, a goblin tried to sneak up from behind me, but fortunately, I was still alert and dealt with it in one swift movement.
'And here I was telling myself to keep my arrogance in check.."
Holding the left side of my stomach, I felt my whole body become dizzy. I overexerted myself.
Looking at my surroundings, the area around me was littered with corpses.
My previously clean clothes were now drenched in green blood.
For the past hour, I had been fighting against more than 20 goblins.
At first, I thought that dealing with 20 goblins wouldn't really pose a problem with my current abilities, but I had severely overestimated my capabilities and underestimated the goblin's abilities.
Just because goblins were supposed to be weak, didn't mean they were actually weak.
Yeah sure, maybe in a 1-on-1 they were easy, but not when more than 20 of them were coming at me at the same time.
It also had to be noted that my rank was still G.
I was inside of an F ranked dungeon, meaning that every monster I was fighting had higher stats than me!
If it weren't for the fact that I practiced the [keiki style, I would've never been able to make it this far.
Although stats were important, they weren't everything.
It had to be said, stats were only a mild representation of one's ability.
If someone with high stats were to fight a highly skilled warrior that had lower stats, but far better battle awareness, then the highly skilled warrior could still win.
It was like in games when fighting a boss.
The boss always had better stats than the main character, but he/she could nevertheless still beat the boss.
As long as you adopt the right strategy, you could win regardless of your stats. Well...given that the disparity in stats was not that different. If the stats of the boss was a lot higher than your game character, then you might as well kiss your game goodbye.
On the off-chance that the boss was stronger, but the difference in stats between boss and character wasn't that big, then you could do several things to beat it.
Like for example, if you hit a monster on their weak spot.
By hitting their weak spot, the monsters will sustain far more damage as compared to a regular strike.
In goblin's cases, their weak spot was was located right on their forehead, just in between their brows.
Because my sword's art was extremely fast, I was able to swiftly deal with the goblins with one quick stab.
It may sound easy, but it really wasn't.
I had to fully concentrate each time, as a slight miss could cause me to lose my rhythm.
Moreover, because there were so many of them coming at me at the same time, I had to kite them for one hour before I could finally kill them all.
It was only after that I dealt with all the goblins, that I felt pathetic for telling myself how I shouldn't become arrogant and always humble myself in the face of danger.
Had there been one or two more goblins, I really might've died.
Mhhh...maybe not died, but I would've at least gotten severely injured.
Well if we look at this on a positive note, I was almost halfway towards reaching my goal of collecting 50,000 U.
Because the [Keiki style] primarily focused on dealing a singular swift movement at unimaginable speeds, the corpses around me were all in pristine conditions, meaning that I could sell them for more money.
Tapping on my bracelet once, I grabbed a goblin and placed it on top of my bracelet.
-Sham!
Right after placing the goblin on top of my bracelet, it disappeared.
"Great stuff"
Like this, for the next 10 minutes, I placed all the goblins that I killed inside of the bracelet.
"Phewww, 21 goblins huh"
If each goblin went for 1,000 U, right now I had accumulated a total of 21,000 U.
Well, that was if we exclude the 11% clause which would be around 2310 U.
Wiping off the sweat that had accumulated on my forehead, I tapped my bracelet twice and a water bottle suddenly appeared in front of me.
"Dimensional storages sure are handy heh..."
By tapping the bracelet once, I could put anything inside of the bracelet as long as it didn't exceed the storage capacity.
By tapping twice I could retrieve whatever I stored inside of the bracelet, as long as I thought of what I wanted.
Truly convenient.
Taking the water bottle, I took big gulps.
All that exercise had made me extremely thirsty.
After drinking the water, I took out a [Stamina recovery potion] and drank it.
Soon after finishing the [Stamina recovery potion, I felt a rush of energy enter my body, making my previous fatigued expression turn much better.
I used three [Stamina recovery potions] during my fight with the goblins, yet even with that, I was completely drained by the end of the fight.
Standing up, I decided to stop looking for goblins for a while.
Since I didn't think I was ready to face another goblin horde and hunting a single goblin at a time was just a waste of time, I decided to directly look for boss monsters.
If goblins and monsters of similar strength were considered weak opponents, boss monsters, which were a lot stronger than regular monsters in dungeons, were considered formidable opponents for those who were of the same rank.
Not only did they have much more health, but each of them also had the strength that almost neared the next rank.
If you were in a G rank dungeon, a boss monster's strength would be at around G almost nearing F- rank. Making them extremely tough opponents to face.
...Wait, why deal with a boss monster that were stronger than a horde of goblins?
It was simple really.
When fighting against the horde of goblins, I had to repeatedly aim for their weak spots while kiting, moreover, because I was being attacked by all sides, I barely had enough time to breathe.
It was like doing HIIT cardio for 1 hour straight.
With boss monsters, although they were stronger, I could have more room to breathe.
Depending on the boss monster I was going to face, chances were that fighting against them was going to be easier than fighting against a horde of goblins.
Boss monsters were all different.
Some were slow, some were extremely fast, some were tanky, some were super strong, there were many different types of boss monsters, and depending on which one I was going to face the difficulty was going to vary.
For example, if I were to face a really strong boss that had limited mobility, against my sword's art it wouldn't pose as much of a challenge as I could just overwhelm it with my speed. However, if I were to face a similarly fast boss monster then things would become troublesome.
The difficulty of a boss monster depended on how well I could counter its flaws.
Each F rank dungeon had around 25 bosses, and although I didn't know the exact location of each boss monster, with my knowledge as the author of this novel, I could more or less get a basic idea of where they were.
Although each dungeon was different, they followed a specific set of rules which I had set up.
Though looking back at it now, I think I may have overcomplicated them a bit...
A dungeon followed a law of conservation of energy.
Once a dungeon was created, its energy capacity was permanent. Meaning that if the balance within the dungeon were to be increased, the dungeon would break and destabilize.
so as long as the dungeon capacity remained greater or equal to the external energies inside of the dungeon (monsters humans), then the dungeon will function without a problem.
Moreover, the monster's energy was always constant, so the only thing that could cause a dungeon to break was if the external energy increased to the point that the overall energy exceeded the dungeon energy capacity.
To make things easier to understand, let's assume a dungeon was a half-filled balloon, where the air inside of it represented the total number of monster energy inside of a dungeon.
Once a human entered a dungeon, the amount of air inside of the balloon increased proportionally to the human's strength. The stronger the human was the more air was filled inside of the balloon.
if suddenly too many humans entered the dungeon, or too much air was blown into the balloon, then the balloon will pop, and in the case of dungeons, they would break and desync.
That was the first and most basic rule of a dungeon.
The second rule was that, once a monster was slain, the dungeon will replenish its energy by 'spawning' another monster with equivalent strength.
Since a dungeon was located in the demon world, the monsters which were 'respawned' in the dungeon were just monsters that were found in the nearby region.
'Respawning' was the process in which a monster was replaced by another inside of a dungeon.
Dungeons were a source of nourishment for monsters, and once a monster inside of the dungeon was killed, a monster would automatically be drawn by the dungeon to fill its spot.
However, a dungeon could only draw a monster that fit the 'missing energy capacity'
If the monster was stronger than the monster killed, then the dungeon would automatically reject its existence and prevent it from entering.
A dungeon could only be considered cleared when the dungeon could no longer 'spawn' monsters, as all the ones in the vicinity had died.
Yeah sure, you could technically clear a dungeon by just exceeding its dungeon capacity and causing it to desync, but that would be stupid.
Not only will the hunters inside of the dungeon find themselves stuck in the demon world, due to the desync, but you would also lose a source of income as the monsters inside of a dungeon went for a lot of money due to their tough bodies.
Moreover, dungeons were only dangerous for those that entered, for the most part, they were harmless.
Why would anyone want to clear them?
Lastly, in the third rule, the number of boss monsters present inside of a dungeon differed depending on the rank of a dungeon.
Where the higher the dungeon rank the lower the number of boss monsters present in the dungeon.
Moreover, each boss covered a certain area inside of the dungeon and each split the dungeon evenly.
This meant that all I had to do right now was find a boss monster, and from there, using a map, I would be able to locate where the other bosses were.
...or at least get a general idea.
Walking forwards, I could see the towering sand dunes before me.
'There should be a boss monster in this area..'
Staring at the sand dunes, I was almost certain a boss monster was going to be there.
Not only was the terrain here different compared to the other areas of the dungeon, but as I looked around I could see goblins and other monsters staying away from this place.
Thus I took a brief moment to prepare myself before making my way towards the desert-like terrain.
As I walked up the dune I felt a sudden wave of heat wash over my face, prompting me to take out a towel and cover my face with it, leaving a slight opening for my eyes.
As I was walking forward, I could feel my feet slowly sinking into the stand, making it harder for me to move forward.
-Kuuuak!
Moreover, with the occasional monsters popping from beneath the sand, my journey towards the boss became extremely arduous.
-Click!
Swiftly taking out my sword, in one smooth movement, I stabbed towards the monster that was trying to attack me.
-Clank!
"Huh?"
Surprisingly for the first time today, I couldn't kill a monster with one strike.
-Screeech!
Letting out a large screech, presumingly due to the pain of being hit, the monster which resembled a worm tried to assault me.
Lowering my body, I twisted my body and elbowed the worm sending it flying in the air.
-Shlup!
Diving deep beneath the sand, silence returned to my surroundings.
Looking beneath, to my feet, I closed my eyes and felt the ground below me.
"huuuu..."
Letting out a long breath, I concentrated on feeling any vibration coming from beneath me.
"There you are.."
-Shaa!
Appearing from behind my back, I stabbed my sword behind me, right in between my armpit.
-Screeeeeeech!
Hearing the loud screech and feeling my sword become heavier, I turned around, and like a skewer, the worm hanged from my sword as it penetrated deep into its mouth.
-Thump!
Slashing my sword down, the worm fell on the sand.
Staring at the corpse of the creature I just killed, I thought
'It seems like its weakness is the mouth...'
Author note*
Sorry, this chap is a bit of an info dump. ;(
Hopefully, it doesn't ruin the experience for you. I am learning as I continue writing and I will make sure not to do this again.
I will probably revise this chapter in the near future and I'll try to make it not as tedious to read.
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Using my sword to turn over the body of the monster that I just killed, I speculated that it was some sort of sandworm variant.
Everything from the top and bottom resembled a worm, however, its mouth once opened resembled a four-petal flower. But unlike flowers, it was anything but pretty.
If one looked closely, once the worm-like monster opened its mouth, chainsaw-like teeth sharply protruding from the edges of its mouth would meet your sight.
Its exterior which was as hard as titanium had some sort of mucus-like substance excreted from its body.
-Tshh!
Using my finger to pick up some of the mucus, I felt a stinging sensation on my finger prompting my brows to involuntarily frown.
'Could this mucus be the reason why they can travel in the sand like a fish swims in the ocean?'
Examining the mucus up close, I took a look at the area where the worm was, and from there I could instantly understand how the worm was able to move freely in the sand.
The mucus that the sandworm-like creature excreted had some sort of acidic property which slowly eroded the sand around it, enabling it to move freely in the sand.
'Fascinating...'
Wiping the mucus on my finger with the sand, I placed the corpse into my bracelet.
Taking my phone out, I opened the monster encyclopedia and quickly scrolled down the list.
After scrolling for a bit, I finally found a monster that matched the description of the monster I killed.
Name : Sand sprout
Rank: F-D rank
Description : Monster that is typically found in desert regions, and is around the size of an adult arm. If caught off guard, with its razor-sharp teeth the sand sprout can easily tear off the limbs of its prey, rendering them immobile. Has extremely durable skin that is as tough as titanium, and excretes a strong acid measuring at around a ph of 1.
Weakness : Mouth, the only area that is not protected by its tough outer exterior.
Location : [Everlasting sunset, [Dunes of sorrow[Lord's wrath,...
"ph 1?"
Raising my brow, I looked at my finger, which previously touched the mucus-like substance.
Fortunately, apart from my finger being slightly red, there seemed to be no abnormalities.
'It looks like consuming the [Seed of limit] helped my body become stronger...considering that an acid of ph1 is nothing to me anymore...'
Putting my phone back in my pocket, I continued venturing deeper into the dungeon in hopes of finding the boss of this area.
During the journey, for every monster that I killed and knew nothing about, I would look through the monster encyclopedia app on my phone in hopes of finding more about them.
-Screeech!
-Phfttttt
Without even looking at what attacked me, I stabbed my sword to the right and once I felt my sword become heavier, I tapped my bracelet.
"38..."
So far, the most dominant monster present in this desert-like place was the sand sprout, and since I have fought about a dozen of them, I could more or less predict their movement now.
First, if you paid close attention, right before they attacked, you could feel a slight vibration beneath your feet. With this slight vibration, I could approximately determine when they were going to attack.
Moreover from what I observed, they never attacked the front, which meant that they would only attack my right, left, or back.
Knowing this, whenever I feel a slight vibration coming from beneath the sand, I could reduce my scope of concentration and react faster.
Secondly and most importantly, for some odd reason whenever they attacked they would always let out a loud screech.
Because of this, judging the precise position of where they are going to attack was easy.
However, even though they were extremely fast, even if they did screech before they attacked, due to their tremendous speed not everyone could react in time, falling victim to their ambush.
But once you knew their pattern, they were essentially the easiest monster to deal with.
"huh, what's that?"
Squinting my eyes, a couple of kilometers from my location I could see a couple of silhouettes that looked like humans.
They seemed to be in some sort of mess, as they were all not moving.
"Party wipe?"
It wasn't that uncommon for parties to be wiped inside of a dungeon, as a lot of things can go wrong in one.
"Should I help..."
To be honest, I didn't have any obligation to help as everyone was on their own inside of a dungeon...but from the looks of it the party has at least 5 people, so what could cause them to be in this situation?
Let's calmly think this through...
Could they possibly be trying to arouse a passerby's pity, and then suddenly attack them when they let their guard down in hopes of stealing their loot?
Hmm...Probably not.
First off, considering where we were, chances of finding anyone nearby was extremely low so this sort of scheme wouldn't work here.
Even if it was like that, I didn't think they could beat me...
Slap!
Slapping myself hard on the cheek, I continued staring at the people in the distance.
I almost reverted back to my arrogant self.
There were five people in total, furthermore, since they were in an F rank dungeon, they were all most likely either F rank Heroes or Villains.
Although I was confident in my strength, I shouldn't be confident to the point where I could defeat five F-ranks without coming back unscathed.
The more I observed the more I was sure that they weren't trying to rob people, as they genuinely looked like they were in distress.
Now the real question was whether I should help them...
If I did help them then it would mean that some of my supplies would be cut short as I would have to share some of it with them, but that aside there's one thing that's been bugging me since the beginning...
Why haven't they called for help yet?
Although from a distance it looked like they were all dead, if one looked closely, they were all breathing.
Moreover, some of them were even moving, albeit lightly.
I was sure they would've had no problems sending a distress signal and wait for help.
But why weren't they?
This situation was very odd.
Part of me wanted to just leave and ignore them, but my instincts were telling me that if I were to leave right now, I may come to regret it later on...
"Ah...screw it!"
lightly sighing, I jumped down the sand dune I was on and slid my way towards where the party was.
"Screw it, even if it's a trap I'll just escape"
Although I had my suspicions, it was better to be safe than sorry...
More than me wanting to help them, it was more about figuring out what had happened.
There was simply no way a party of five F ranks could be reduced to this state in an F rank dungeon.
Even the boss monster would have a tough time against five F ranks.
As I edged closer to their location, there were evident signs that a battle had taken place. Typically the sand in the desert was shaped in little waves, however, here the sand was all over the place as craters could be seen everywhere.
Judging from the state of the surroundings, a big fight had taken place. However, oddly enough, there were no monster carcasses around the area.
Normally when fighting against a monster, you would see signs of blood everywhere or some sort of sign that a fight against a monster had taken place.
But as I observed closely, apart from some red blood, presumingly coming from the party members, there wasn't anything that suggested that they were fighting against a monster.
The more I thought about it, the odder the situation was...
Actually, now that I thought about it, why were they still alive?
Normally, once you fought against a monster, there were only two endings.
Either you die or they die.
Nothing else.
But here, although the party was injured, they were still alive.
Did this mean that they weren't fighting monsters but another group?
But even then, why leave them alive?
Something strange was definitely happening here, and if I wasn't careful enough I could get implicated in this as well...
Arriving before the group, I noticed all of them staring in my direction with blank eyes, but even though they seemed to be able to sense me, they didn't seem to be able to speak nor process what was happening.
No, rather than the fact that they didn't seem to be able to think, it was more like they were too dehydrated to think. This further added to the numerous questions that had piled up in my mind.
How long had they been like this?
To be dehydrated to the point of not being able to speak, how many days have passed since they had been attacked?
The more I looked at this situation, the more questions emerged in my mind.
Arriving before the party, I quickly headed to the individual that was nearest to me.
Wearing a massive armor that resembled a rhinoceros, I tried to flip his body which was facing sideways.
Gripping the massive plates of metal on his forearm, I tensed my quads and tried to flip his body over. Feeling the enormous weight of the armor, I silently cursed at the fact that I had chosen to help him first. Not only did it resemble a rhinoceros but it also weighted like one!
Judging from how much I was struggling, I presumed the armor was at least a hundred kilograms.
-Clank!
Finally, after struggling for a bit, I managed to flip his body upwards.
Kneeling down on one leg, I quickly lifted his helmet off his face to get a better look at him.
"Dry lips, void, and dilated eyes...the situation is much more dire than I originally thought."
Checking his conditions, everything pointed to the fact that he was extremely dehydrated.
Not only was his skin extremely dry, but his muscles constantly twitched, showing how serious the situation was.
Seeing that I didn't have much time, I quickly tapped my bracelet twice and a water bottle appeared before me.
Placing the water bottle in his mouth, I slowly watched as he struggled to open his mouth.
Although it seemed like he knew that a water bottle was placed in front of him, because he was too dehydrated, his brain had already started shutting down.
Seeing this, I tilted the water bottle and let the water fall into his mouth.
"Gulp..gulp...gulp..."
Initially, as the water fell into his mouth, he took slow gulps, but as time passed the light gulps slowly turned into big gulps, and slowly but surely, his eyes which had lost clarity returned to their normal state as he frantically drank the water.
Watching him greedily drink the water, I let out a wry smile and turned to the others.
Looking at them, they seemed to be in similar conditions to the guy who I had just helped.
Because I only had one water bottle, I could only wait for him to finish before helping the others.
Fortunately, because the water bottle could store up to 50 liters of water, I didn't have to worry about running out of water.
"Kh..th-a-nnngg"
"Shh..eat this while I'll help the others"
Regaining some of his strength, the guy who I had just helped tried to speak, but I immediately shushed him and gave him some jerky to eat.
Although I wanted to know exactly what had happened, he was still in a bad state.
Right now the main priority was helping the others, I could find time to talk to him once everyone else was fine.
Taking the water bottle from him, I went to the next person and a similar scene repeated before me.
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"Thank you"
Sitting next to each other, the party members which were on the verge of death moments before, were now happily munching on some jerky.
I was honestly quite shocked by how fast they recovered. Considering the state they were in when I found them, their recovery speed could be described as 'godly'. I mean, it only took them a little bit over 10 minutes before they were able to sit up straight and comfortably eat and drink the food that I gave them.
Then I realized, I was no longer back on earth.
Though I have reincarnated in this place for about 3 weeks, I was still not accustomed to this world's common sense, and rightfully so.
I mean, how can I adjust to this world's common sense after only having been here for three weeks?
It's not like I can rewire my brain to accept the fact that people could heal immediately when back in my previous world, in which I lived for 32 years, serious cases of dehydration would leave a person hospitalized for weeks.
I was now genuinely curious whether all the people who got reincarnated felt the same way I did.
Well leaving that aside, it seems like I was running low on supplies.
In terms of water, I still had quite a lot as my water bottle could hold up to 50 liters of water, but I was running quite low in terms of food.
I had only bought a couple of kilograms of food supplies, thinking that it would last me about a week, and rightfully so, as who would've been able to predict such a situation?
Moreover, since I was planning on staying here for at most 3 days, I didn't feel the need to bring more than a week's worth of food.
What makes matters worse is the fact that the monsters present in this dungeon couldn't be eaten.
Generally, monsters could be eaten but that depended on which monsters.
Some of the monsters which were found in some dungeons could be eaten, and when eaten could boost up a person's stats, however, that was only for a small minority of monsters, as most of them are inedible due to their meat being poisonous.
...and unfortunately for me, all the monsters in this dungeon were inedible.
"Guess I have no choice..."
Taking out a small black box from my bracelet, a slid the cover up and a small red bottom presented itself before me.
Right above the button, there was a small screen that showed fluctuating wavelengths, indicating the signal strength.
This black box, also known as the 'Safe box', was a device that is given to every member before they entered a dungeon.
By pressing the button, the black box would send a distress signal to the nearest dungeon guardian.
Once the dungeon guardian received the distress signal, they would report it to the dungeon operators, which would then swiftly send a rescue team to come to their aid.
The consequence of pressing the button was of course a loss in the deposit, but seeing how mentally exhausted the party was, I could only sacrifice my deposit.
When I was saving them, I did look for their safe boxes, but they were either damaged or malfunctioning.
...Probably from the fight they just had.
In the end, I was left with no choice but to use mine. At most I could just ask them to refund me since I was not using it for myself...
Taking one last look at the members who although physically looked okay but were anything but fine mentally, I decisively pressed the button.
-Click
-Ding! -Ding! -Ding!
As soon as I pressed the button, the black box started emitting rhythmic sounds that spread across the surroundings.
"Huh? strange..."
Initially, after pressing the button, everything seemed normal as the black box kept constantly beeping.
But it was only after seeing the weird looks the party was giving me that I noticed something strange.
Frowning, I took a look at the black box in my hand, and to my surprise the small screen that showed the wavelengths was flat.
Taken aback, I tapped on the back of the black box multiple times, as I wondered whether it was malfunctioning.
"It's no use"
Shaking his head, the first member whom I saved, the one who wore the bulky rhino-like armor spoke up.
"It was also like this for us"
Turning my attention towards them, I couldn't help but frown.
"Then why didn't you tell me beforehand?"
So in the end, the real reason why their safe boxes didn't work wasn't because they were damaged?
Smiling bitterly, the bulky member couldn't help but scratch the back of his head as he said "We still had a bit of hope that maybe the batch of safe boxes we received were malfunctioning and that maybe yours would work...but it seems like this is not the case"
Looking at the other members, who seemed to have lost all hope, my frown deepened.
"I see...there's this one thing that has been bothering me for a while, but what exactly happened to you guys? --Huh?"
As I was asking them about what had happened, which was my goal since rescuing them, I noticed them flinch in horror as soon as I posed the question.
Soon after, their body went rigid, and their eyes became hollow.
Startled, I stood up and looked around me.
"Hey! Hey!"
After making sure there wasn't anyone around, I went in front of them and tried to wave my hand in front of their faces but it was to no avail. Their complexion turned deathly pale as their teeth soon started chattering.
Soon, as if they were in a trance, they each simultaneously looked at the sky and started speaking nonsense.
"Please...no...I don't wan-..."
"No..no..Ah..AHHHHHH"
"Death...demon..."
"Lucy...I will be late for di..nner...wait for..papa"
"Lord..savior"
Although they were all speaking nonsense, one word specifically caught my attention.
"Demon.."
Turning my attention towards the person that said those words, a brunette young girl with two pigtails and clothing that were proof of her mage status, started spasming on the ground.
Soon after she started spasming, all the other party members showed a similar reaction as bubbles started coming out of their mouths.
"Oy, what's going on here?"
Startled, I immediately moved towards them and tried slapping their faces a couple of times to get a reaction from them...but it proved ineffective, as their pupils quickly disappeared alongside their pulse.
"Dead...dead...dead...fuck!"
Swearing out loud, I dropped on the sand and dazedly stared at the red horizon.
It wasn't their death that shocked me the most, but it was how they died and the last words that the girl said before dying.
"Demon..."
There was only one type of curse that could cause someone to die just moments after they recovered...
'Mindbreaker'
An especially vicious curse planted by demons.
It now became apparent that this was the work of a demon, as they were the only species that were capable of implanting this type of curse inside of a human.
Moreover, I believe that the only reason they were still alive was not because the demon let them go...no, it was because the demon wanted to torture them by making them suffer from dehydration and starvation.
"Sick fucker! Ahhhh!"
-Pa!
Punching the sand with all my force, fine granules of sand started falling from the area I had punched leaving behind a small crater.
Glaring at my surroundings, I swore to make whoever was responsible for this pay dearly!
Although it may perhaps be due to the shock of me witnessing people dying in front of me for the first time in my life, my emotions were in a state of disarray.
I could hardly think clearly, as the images of the party dying kept repeating in my mind over and over again.
The little details that I had missed prior to their deaths started replaying in my mind, such as the expressions they had before they died, and the last words they were struggling to say prior to their death.
'And here I was hating protagonists in novels who sympathized with deaths...'
Bitterly laughing, I thought back to the time that I used to leave hate comments on novels where the protagonist sympathized with the deaths of unrelated people.
It was only after experiencing this for the first time that I realized how bang on the authors were when depicting the raw emotions one felt when death occurred before them.
It was only now that I started realizing how cruel and fragile life was.
Since reincarnation in this world, I had mentally prepared myself for these kinds of situations, but...it is only after having experienced this first hand that I realized how daunting it is to see someone die before you.
After collecting myself, I took their identifications and buried their bodies underneath the sand.
Taking one last look at the burial site, I turned around and left the area.
After seeing their death, my first instinct was to get the hell out of this dungeon. For someone to be able to get rid of a F ranked party like that, they must be strong...
However, in the end, I decided against doing so.
If someone was really targeting everyone in this dungeon, the entrance of the dungeon was probably the most dangerous place to be.
In the end, I wasn't really sure whether my decision was a good one or a bad one, but I just knew...I knew that turning back was a really bad idea.
...
-Clank!
-Screeeeech!
"Haaah!"
A loud screech followed by a loud shout resounded across the surroundings as the silhouette of a small human could be seen fighting against a gigantic creature that looked to be the size of a small building.
The loud shout and screech were soon drowned by the sound of metal clashing against a hard surface as the small figure slashed towards the enormous creature.
"Huff...huff...huff"
Wiping the sweat that had accumulated on my forehead, I stared at the enormous worm that was before me. Its features which looked like an enlarged version of a sand sprout became even more apparent as its figure emerged from the sand. The enormous razor-sharp teeth, which layered on the top of its four petal-shaped mouths bore down on me as its massive body dove towards my direction each time it attacked.
It's been precisely twenty minutes since encountering this creature, and because of its sneaky attacking method where it would continuously dive in the sand as soon as it attacked, and added with its enormous body, I was left totally helpless against it.
Previously, when I fought against sand sprouts, I would always target their mouth which was their weak point. However, because the boss monster was an enlarged version of the sand sprout, even though I wanted to attack its mouth the option was no longer feasible as my sword was like a small toothpick compared to the sheer size of the monster.
"Fuuuuu..."
Letting out a long breath, my right hand which was gripping on my sword that was sheathed in its scabbard suddenly clenched, and as I unsheathed it, a beautiful arc appeared in the air as I suddenly jumped backward.
-Schreech!
Without even bothering to hide its presence, the large worm arrogantly appeared from beneath me. Its large mouths which were riddled with sharp razor-like teeth opened widely as its enormous frame slowly appeared from beneath the sand.
-Clank!
-Crank!
Initially, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of my sword clashing against the hard surface of the worm causing me to lightly frown in annoyance, but my annoyance soon turned into delight as a small cracking noise could be heard from the hard surface of the worm as fine miniature threads that spread like cobwebs started appearing on the tough surface of the worm.
"Finally...my hard work has paid off!"
Delighted, I started attacking more fiercely.
10 minutes prior to now, I realized that if I were to continue to pointlessly attack the worm I would only find myself become food for the monster as I would eventually run out of stamina. Therefore, seeing that my current method was not working, I started devising a strategy.
Due to the sheer size of the monster, attacking its mouth was no longer an option. But, just as much of an advantage its size was, it also had a critical flaw.
Its speed...
It was incomparable to actual sand sprouts who shot like bullets from beneath the sand.
Not only were they faster, but they were also much harder to detect as their small size allowed them to reduce the number of vibrations they could create when moving underneath the sand.
Taking advantage of its reduced speed, I started attacking the same place continuously, in the hope of finally cracking its seemingly impenetrable exterior.
Finally, after 10 minutes of continuously attacking the same spot, a small crack appeared on the surface of the worm causing me to rejoice.
"Now it's time for the roles to reverse..."
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Having already cracked the outer shell of the worm, the rest of the fight was fairly easy.
Since I still had a couple of [Stamina recovery] potions, I did not have to worry about running low on stamina as I fought against the boss monster. Thus, I vigorously hacked away at the weakened surface of the monster whenever it appeared from beneath the sand.
ten minutes after the first crack, the cracks that were only as small as thin spider threads started enlargening revealing the worm's soft inner layer.
twenty minutes after the cracks expanded, the tough outer shell finally couldn't withstand the attacks and broke, fully revealing the pulsating inner layer of the worm.
Finally, thirty minutes after the outer shell was broken, I rested on top of the carcass of the now-dead worm. Slowly catching my breath and looking at my clothes which were now riddled with holes, I bitterly smiled as I lamented at the fact that I had brought no spares.
My sword which was firmly imbued on the body of the worm was covered in green blood, and if it weren't for the fact that I was too exhausted to move, I would've already removed the sword as the blood was highly acidic.
Fortunately, being an artifact, the sword could withstand the acid, giving me enough time to recover before finally retrieving it.
-Shuaa!
Removing the sword from the corpse, green blood sprayed everywhere and some of it even got on my clothes further ruining them.
At this point, I couldn't even be bothered caring about my ruined clothes as I was facing a bigger issue.
"How do I store this...?"
Alternatively looking at the massive corpse and my bracelet, my brows knit.
If I was fortunate enough, then maybe I could store the corpse but...looking at the contents of my bracelet I couldn't help but cursed inwardly as half of my storage space was already filled with corpses.
It simply did not have enough space to fit this monster.
What bugged me off even more was the fact that this sort of issue could've easily been resolved if the safe box still worked.
Although I wouldn't need to pay a deposit, a small commission would've been needed to pay if I were to have called for help in regards to collecting the monster corpse.
But now that the signal was gone...
I swear I will kill this goddam demon!
There was no doubt that the corpse of this boss monster could've fetched me a hefty sum, but now that I didn't have enough space and I couldn't call for support, I was only left with two options.
One, dump some of the monsters inside of my bracelet to make space for this monster, or two, only take the most important parts of the monster and discard the body.
Typically, the skinning and material collection would be left to the dungeon management as untrained hands could result in the monster's corpse becoming damaged and thus reducing the overall monetary compensation given.
At the end of the raid, the corpse would directly be given to the dungeon management which would process it in front of you. During the corpse dismantling in the off-change that a monster core was found, the dungeon management would immediately propose an offer to you.
Typically, not all monsters had monster cores as only a small percentage of monsters had them, but on the rare occasion that a monster core was found, you had basically hit the jackpot as each monster core went for a really high price.
Looking back and forth between my bracelet and the gigantic body before me, I contemplated for a bit before sighing and making my way towards the monster.
-Sha!
Using my sword, I directly hacked the worm's massive body, resulting in more blood splattering all over me.
At this point, I doubt I'll be able to return with clothes on...
As I hacked the monster's massive body I slowly collected its teeth, organs, and other useful parts that could be traded for money.
I decided to just discard the monster and collect the most important parts of the worm. Though, I do feel pity for the fact that I didn't have enough space. Since the worm's outer shell could've easily have fetched me a good sum of money due to its durability.
In any case, If I were to place this monster inside of my bracelet I would no longer have any more space in my bracelet.
Though the monster was huge, it would at most be worth, in monetary terms, about the same as ten regular monsters which took less space, so I might as well just take the important parts.
Pity that I lost some money, but hey...like they all say 'You can't have it all'
After thirty minutes of constant hacking, I managed to collect all the important bits. I did look for the core but sadly the monster didn't have one.
As I didn't have my hopes up, I wasn't disappointed.
Who knows maybe one of the many monsters in my bracelet had a core, though I doubted this.
Satisfied with what I had, I turned around and continued my journey across the desert.
During the journey, I started noticing strange things happening in my surroundings.
Stopping, my feet slowly sank in the sand, using my hand in a similar fashion to a military salute, I squinted my eyes to get a better view of what was happening ahead.
"Woah, sandstorm..."
Before me was a massive wall-like front that was approximately five thousand feet in height. The wall-like front expanded all the way towards where my sight couldn't see and was quickly picking up its speed.
-Whizz!
The whistling sound of the glaring wind could be heard as the sand in my surroundings started to get swept by the massive wall-like front, entering the turbulent and suffocating cloud of sand.
Looking at the massive storm cloud that was quickly approaching me, I was left with no choice but two make two decisions, run away or keep going forward?
"Don't really have a choice do I?"
Bitterly smiling, I discarded the possibility of me running away as the sand storm was approaching at speeds that I couldn't keep up with.
Left with no other choice but to continue walking forwards, I tightly tied my make-shift hijab and headed towards the sand storm.
Soon the storm enveloped me, rending everything in front of me impossible to see.
Inside the sand storm, the further I walked the more I could feel the wind picking up its speed as granules of fine sand started hitting my eyes, obstructing my vision.
It started to get so bad that I couldn't keep my eyes open due to the constant stinging sensation in my eyes.
'I wished I had a pair of glasses'
I thought as I kept walking forwards with my eyes closed.
Honestly, I did not prepare enough.
Because I was in too much of a haste, I did not properly plan out my trip inside the dungeon, resulting in me making too many newbie mistakes that shouldn't have happened. Things such as forgetting to bring a spare set of clothes or bringing extra food rations in the rare chance I was stranded, were things that every person who went to the dungeon did.
I think that the fact that this was my first time entering a dungeon and the fact that I was still not accustomed to this world's common sense contributed to me making so many mistakes.
There was just too much of a difference between writing a novel and actually being in one.
In the novel, I could just make Kevin have everything with just a thought. Things such as a spare set of clothes and extra food were never a concern for him as I would always make it so that he was always prepared. Moreover, whenever the protagonist would prepare to enter a dungeon I would just simply write 'packed up his stuff' which was not specific enough.
That in itself was one of the reasons for my negligence as I tended to depend on the novel too much.
Things that should've been common sense like clothes and at least a month's worth of food completely flew over my head, resulting in me facing the current situation.
Ah...
It was fine to use the novel as a reference, but I shouldn't rely on it too much.
I needed to start thinking things thoroughly before going into dangerous situations.
-Whizzzz!
"Ughh..."
The further I walked into the storm the stronger the wind became.
My make-shift hijab was swept away by the strong gales, exposing my face to the sand which was traveling at extreme speeds, causing my face to become numb due to the pain.
Using my hands to protect my face, I slowly but steadily walked further into the storm.
My current goal was to reach the eye of the storm as it was the safest place to be inside of the storm. The reason why the eye was so calm was that the strong surface winds that converge towards the center never reach it due to a force called the Coriolis force.
-Whizzzz!
-Whizzzz!
-Whizzzz!
Two hours into the storm, although everything looked the same, my ears picked up the extreme sound of winds ruthlessly glaring in a certain location.
Hearing the ruthless sound of the wind, I knew that I was at the edge of the eye where the scariest, nastiest, gnarliest part of the storm was located. The eyewall. The area around the eye formed an unbroken wall that obstructed anything that tried to pass it.
Fortunately, I was prepared for this.
"Fuuuuu..."
Arriving at the edge of the eye, I let out a long breath and calmed my mind.
Slowly a white glow emanated from my body as I touched the handle of my sword.
Soon the glaring sound of the wind disappeared, my mind became as calm as a lake, and everything around me turned tranquil, making me fall in some sort of a trance.
The first movement of the [Keiki style] : Quick flash
-Shua!
At the speed that the naked eye couldn't see, a small gap appeared on the surface of the eye.
Without skipping a beat, I immediately jumped inside the small gap.
-Whizzzz!
-Whizzzz!
-Whizzzz!
"Huff...huff"
Lying face down on top of warm sand, I breathed heavily as I felt the area around me calm down. I was finally able to catch a breather.
Though I was in the eye of the storm, the strong sound of the wind never disappeared.
Dusting the sand that covered me, I took a good look at my surroundings.
The first thing that I noticed was a large circular wind wall that was dyed yellow due to the sand. It expanded all the way around me, inside of a circular region that had a radius of a couple of kilometers. Looking up I could see the cloudless blue sky that I had not seen since entering the storm.
"This is crazy..."
This was a sight I would've never been able to see back in my previous world.
Ever since reincarnating in this world, I have experienced something new each day.
Sitting on the sand I let out an exhausted yawn. Apart from the glaring sound coming from the eyewall, everything around was peaceful, allowing me to finally catch my breath
"...Hm?"
Just as I was about to take a quick nap, In the distance, at the center of the eye, I noticed a large black castle-like structure.
"What's this?"
I had never heard of such a thing appearing inside of the novel...
What was going on?
Slowly walking towards the black infrastructure, I warily glanced at my surroundings, but it was to no avail as everything around me was quiet.
Arriving in front of the large black castle, I warily placed my hand in front of its large wooden door that was at least five meters in height
-Creak!
Slowly the door opened.
Instantly, a thick scent of iron invaded my nostrils. Opening the door further, and revealing what was behind it, I froze in shock.
Thick black pillars that reached all the way to the ceilings appeared all over the massive hall, supporting the building. On the pillars, brightly lit torches were attached, illuminating the surroundings revealing a scene that never in my life would I ever had wanted to see...
A pool of blood covered the entire floor of the castle as limbs and corpses could be seen sprawled all over the floor. The corpses each had their eyes wide open, and their expression was that of pure terror.
A shudder ran down my spine as this gruesome scene slowly imprinted itself inside of my mind.
Slowly I lifted my head and then I saw it...
Haughtily sitting on top of a dark throne made of skulls, a dark-skinned humanoid creature with devilish horns protruding from the top of its forehead appeared in my sight causing my blood to turn cold. With one of its legs resting on the armchair of the throne and an arm supporting one of its cheeks, the creature had its eyes closed. It had a muscular human body with two bat-like wings attached to its back. From behind its tailbone, a long black tail wiggled around the air.
Sensing something, the humanoid creature slowly opened its eyes revealing two deep red eyes that exuded boundless bloodlust.
Staring at me who was frozen solid in place, the humanoid-like creature eerily smiled as it looked down on me.
"Ku Ku Ku, what have we got here?"
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It felt as if time had frozen. My mind blanked. My blood froze. My breathing quickened. My pupils dilated.
...I thought I was prepared.
Since reincarnation inside of my novel, I knew that one day I would encounter a demon.
I was ready...I thought
But looking at the creature haughtily sitting on the throne, hallucinations of death repeatedly replayed in my mind.
'I have to run!'
...I repeated again and again in my mind.
I knew that...yet my legs refused to listen to me
Ba...dump! Ba...dump!
The hall was silent, and only the sound of my heartbeat repeatedly pulsing could be heard.
Sweat started dripping down from my body, soaking all my clothes. With a shivering hand, I tightly clenched on my clothes, right where my heart was.
What's this...?
...Am I scared?
'There's no way I can fight against that!'
...was what my mind repeatedly told itself as my eyes transfixed themselves onto the demonic creature that was amusingly looking down on me from the throne. With its blood-red eyes, the demon looked down at me as it smiled widely.
"It seems like a little mouse has sneaked inside my abode"
Licking its lips, the demon eyes carefully looked at me up and down, almost as if a delicious snack had presented itself before it.
-Crack! -Crack! -Crack!
Using its thumb, the demon slowly cracked every one of its fingers on its right hand.
"huuuuu..."
Letting out a long breath I forcefully tried to calm myself down.
'This is all an illusion!'
What I was experiencing was the innate fear a prey faced when meeting a predator.
If I thought about it rationally, although my opponent was strong, it wasn't to the point that I would have to despair.
Yes...
The demon's stats couldn't be above F rank, else the dungeon would've already desynced.
The fear I was experiencing was all in my mind.
I didn't have to fear what was before me.
...was what I repeatedly tried to tell myself, yet I still couldn't stop my body from trembling.
The feeling I was experiencing was similar to the moments before I took my final exams.
I knew I could do it, as I had prepared rigorously for it...but even if I was prepared, it didn't stop me from being scared.
"How cute..."
Amusingly looking down on me, the Demon leaned forward as its red eyes carefully looked at me.
Instantly, it felt as if all my secrets had been laid bare for the demon to look at. It felt as if nothing could be hidden from its two prying blood-red eyes.
"G rank..."
-tap! -tap! -tap!
Shaking its head disappointedly the Demon began tapping on the armrest of the throne as it started pondering.
Finally, after a couple of seconds, the Demon shook its head in disappointment.
"Too bad, too bad..."
Seemingly having come up with a decision, the demon's demeanor completely changed from its leisurely self from before.
Instantly, thick bloodlust exuded from its body, suffocating me.
"Let me introduce myself..."
-Fwap!
Standing up, the demon's large bat-like wings expanded from its back casting a large shadow over me.
Taking one step forward, smiling from ear to ear, the demon elegantly bowed.
"I am—baron of everblood!"
...
Inside of a large spacious luxurious corridor, a middle-aged man leisurely walked. His hair which was tied in a ponytail, accompanied by his unkempt beard and sunglasses made him look out of place.
Walking along the corridor, the people that were next to him stepped to the side to let him walk. Despite his looks, he was treated as if he was a VIP.
-Ding!
Suddenly, the middle-aged man felt a small vibration from his pocket followed by a light ring.
-Ding!
-Ding!
-Ding!
"...Hm?"
Just as he was about to ignore it thinking that it was nothing important, his pocket started vibrating again, repeatedly.
Finally, noticing that something wasn't right, the middle-aged man took out a small black box from his pocket.
Looking at the contents on the black box, the middle-aged man's brows knit together in a frown.
"This may be more troublesome than I thought"
Sighing, the middle-aged man disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared in front of a gate with the number 756 imprinted on the side.
"Stop right there"
As soon as he appeared, two white-clad individuals obstructed his path.
"Timothy 1, Timothy 2...I don't have time for this today"
Yes, the middle-aged man was in fact, Thomas. Taking out the small box from his pocket, Thomas showed it to the guards.
Seeing the box, the two guards immediately moved to the side and allowed Thomas to enter the portal.
Seeing the two guards move, Thomas disappeared once again and reappeared inside of the portal.
"Let's just hope it's nothing serious..."
Those were the last words the two guards heard before Thomas disappeared from their sight.
...
"B-baron o-f everblood!"
As soon as the demon introduced itself, like when you replaced a rusty gear, everything started to click into place.
Baron of everblood, an elder of the vanity tribe, sub-branch of the demon clan of pride, and a baron-ranked demon.
An existence that only appears right before the third cataclysm in the later half of the novel.
'W-hy was he here?'
A Baron-ranked demon was not something a G rank like me could face.
The demons were ranked from, King, Prince/Princess, Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and lastly Baron.
A Demon prince and Demon princess had a power level equivalent to around SSS, in terms of human power level. Following Prince/Princess ranked demons, were Duke-ranked demons whose power level was around SS, the same as the strongest humans alive. After Duke-ranked demons were Marquis-ranked demons at a power level of around S followed by Earl-ranked demons at A, Viscount at B, and Baron at C.
Those were the approximate power levels of the demons.
Currently, humanity could only fend off at most against Duke-ranked demons. If a Prince/Princess ranked demon showed up, humanity would stand no chance as each rank increase was a substantial increase in power.
Fortunately, the Dwarves, Elves, and Orcs were keeping the Prince/Princess ranked demons in check.
If not for them, humanity would've long gone extinct.
Knowing the power levels of the demons, it came as a great shock to know that I was currently in front of a baron-ranked demon.
Keep in mind that a Baron-ranked demon was four ranks higher than me!
'No wonder I felt so much pressure...'
I thought as everything started to make sense.
But wait...
If it's a Baron-ranked demon, why didn't the dungeon desync?
Frowning, a sudden thought occurred to me, causing my pupils to dilate as I silently muttered
"Dungeon overload..."
"...Hm?"
Stopping, the demon looked at me in surprise
"How did you know that?"
Looking up, I could see the demon looking at me in both shock and surprise.
...as expected.
The demon was actually trying to cause a dungeon overload.
A dungeon overload was similar to a dungeon desync in that it involved a dungeon becoming oversaturated with energy. However, contrary to when dungeons desync, where the dungeon just loses connection to the demon world. In a dungeon overload, all the monsters inside of the dungeon get transported into the human world.
Imagine tens of thousands of monsters suddenly appearing out of nowhere. The consequences alone would be disastrous...Fortunately, this was not a problem for now
There was a reason why humanity had still not gone extinct. It was simply because the time wasn't ripe yet.
Because of how unstable Earth was, the Demon King was still unable to ascend into the world. Further added with the fact that the Demon King was currently being held back by various forces, the looming threat coming from the Demon King was still small.
The Demon King, one of the ultimate overlords of the universe, grew stronger the more planets it ate. Through its numerous exploits in which it conquered and ate planets, the Demon King grew into being one of the strongest creatures in the whole universe. It had gotten to the point that almost every race in the universe was forced to join hands in order to stop the Demon King.
At the moment, the Demon King was only one planet away from becoming the strongest being in the universe. Once it consumed one more planet, no being would be able to stop the Demon King. The world would be at the Demon King's mercy. Knowing this, many forces have joined together in a last-ditch attempt to stop him from conquering its next target. Planet Earth.
Apart from the Demon King's ascension, there was another factor that prevented the demons from fully engaging against humanity.
That was, apart from demons, the demon army was still unable to adapt to the human atmosphere.
Because of the low mana density in the atmosphere, due to earth only have been exposed to mana recently, monsters couldn't survive on earth.
This was why dungeon overloads weren't considered a threat.
However, before the third cataclysm, when the earth's mana density reached a certain point, the event that marked the beginning of the third cataclysm happened...Suddenly, as the people on Earth were going about their own day, dungeon overloads started occurring in almost every dungeon around the globe.
...but differently from normal dungeon overloads where the monsters inside of it would die immediately upon entering the human world, the monsters that came out from the dungeons were able to adapt to earth's atmosphere and survive. Soon the earth was overturned into an apocalyptic world where law and order ceased to exist and only your own survival was what mattered.
Who you thought were your friends suddenly backstabbed you just to ensure their own survival
...That was the beginning of the third cataclysm
-Fwap!
Flapping its enormous bat-like wings, the demon instantly appeared before me.
Because I was lost in thought, by the time I noticed the Demon moving it was already too late...
Placing its sharp finger on my neck, the Demons blood-red eyes looked at me intensely.
"I asked you a question"
-Gulp!
Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, I stared at those two blood-red eyes.
-Click!
Soon a white glow emanated from my body, followed by a clicking sound.
-Tud!
Suddenly a black finger flew in the air before landing on the cold pavement of the castle.
As soon as the finger flew in the air, I immediately retreated a couple of steps as the Demon took a couple of seconds to realize what had happened.
"Khh...what?"
Bewildered, the Demon looked at its hand that was missing a finger. Soon after, the finger that was on the floor disintegrated into nothing and a new one appeared on the Demon.
...as expected
This wasn't the demon's real body
Had this been a real Baron-ranked demon, I would've already been dead by now.
The fact that I could cut off its finger, albeit because I caught the demon off guard, was a clear sign that this was not its main body.
Had it been its real body, instead of a finger landing on the cold hard floor, it would've been my head.
"You actually dared to hurt this baron?"
Absentmindedly looking at his now replaced finger, the demon directed an immense pressure on me.
"gh..."
Feeling the massive pressure, my knees bent a little.
"You actually dared to injure me?"
Walking slowly towards my direction, the pressure that was exerted over me kept increasing by the second. Slowly, my knees bent more and more. I couldn't move. I was stuck. I could only helplessly watch as the demon slowly walked in my direction. With every step it took, I felt death getting closer and closer to me.
Sweat started dripping from the side of my face, as my body further bent downwards.
Arriving before me, the Demon slowly lifted my chin up with its sharp finger.
"For what you've done...I will make sure that you pay dearly"
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Tracing his finger along my cheek, a large gash opened up as blood slowly dripped down on the cold floor.
...
Arriving in front of a large gate, Thomas spotted a group of people surrounding an individual donning a black butler outfit. He had neatly combed hair, wore black-framed glasses, and had a serious disposition.
"Edward, brief me on the situation"
Briefly glancing at Thomas, Edward took out a tablet and started briefing everyone on the situation.
"Reporting, ten individuals have gone past time limit."
"We tried contacting them through the safe-box but there was no response. Noticing that something was strange, we tried contacting other individuals whose time limit was still not due, and we also got no response from them"
Pausing slightly, Edward flipped through the reports on the tablet and showed them to everyone.
"...we sent two F ranked dungeon guardians to check what was going on, but they too went missing"
"Currently we are prepared to send in group [Alpha-79354] into the dungeon."
Frowning, Thomas looked at the gate. Noticing that nothing was out of the ordinary he decided to check its energy level.
"Let me check the gate"
Placing his hand on the gate, Thomas suddenly felt a strange fluctuation. Then...
-Vuam!
The gate slowly turned black and demonic energy spread across the surrounding, causing the greenery within a ten-meter radius of the gate to wither.
Taking off his sunglasses, Thomas's expression darkened.
"...Shit!"
"Quickly change this to code black!"
Hurriedly shouting orders, Thomas disappeared from where he was standing.
"...Ah, goddammit! this is more serious than I had expected"
Quickly teleporting back into the black market, Thomas quickly pressed the emergency button causing the whole facility to turn red as alarms started ringing
-Daaaang!
-Daaaang!
-Daaaang!
Taking out his phone he quickly dialed a number
-Ring! -Ring! -Ring!
"...Hello?"
From the other side of the phone, a cold emotionless voice entered Thomas's ears.
"Boss we have a situation"
"...Explain"
"Dungeon gate 756, Code black, possible dungeon desync"
Pausing slightly, the cold voice said
"...I understand, you will be granted full authority regarding this matter"
-Tak!
Right after saying that, the person on the other side of the phone hung up, leaving Thomas standing there speechlessly.
"Goddamit! Why do I always have to do the dirty work!"
Cursing out loud and stomping his feet in anger, Thomas quickly dialed another number.
-Ring! -Ring! -Ring!
"Yes?"
Shortly after dialing the number, a male voice entered Thomas's ears. Hearing the voice, Thomas quickly shouted orders.
"Call in all alpha units with a rank F or below"
"...sorry?"
"Do it now! it's an order!"
"Y-yes!"
Suddenly being ordered by Thomas the person on the other side of the phone was left momentarily confused, but as soon as he noticed the urgency in Thomas's voice he immediately did as he was instructed.
-Tak!
Hanging up the phone, Thomas looked around. The whole facility was in a state of lockdown, and the whole place was dyed red as alarms constantly rang through the surroundings.
Pinching the middle of his brows, Thomas sighed.
"...I seriously hope the situation is not as dire as I think it is"
...
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Deep gashes started appearing all over my body as the Demon traced his finger around my body. It felt as if I was being cut by a cold metal knife.
I wanted to move, but I couldn't. It felt as if a massive boulder was weighing down on me, preventing me from moving.
Although the Baron of Everblood was not using his main body, the presence exerted by him wasn't something I could handle.
Baron of Everblood had killed countless experts throughout his whole life. He rose from being e regular demon to against all odds becoming a Baron ranked demon.
Countless sacrifices were made in his journey to the top―He had shed lots of blood throughout his journey to the top. He had also backstabbed demons whom he had once called friends just to be able to reach the point that he was now...
Just now, all that the baron of Everblood needed to do was release the killing intent that he had acquired through countless killings, to completely paralyze me.
Knowing this, I needed to buy myself time to adapt to the killing intent―it's just that it was much easier being said than done...It felt like a looming threat that was similar to a longsword that hung in my heart, ready to pierce it and kill me at a moment's notice causing my body to paralyze in fear.
Very soon, as I felt death coming closer to me, an idea came into my mind as I started speaking
"Aren't you curious as to why I know what you're doing?"
Halting, Baron of Everblood stopped tracing his finger on my body and looked at me
"...Speak"
"huuu, the only reason you haven't killed me yet is because you want to know how I knew you were trying to create a dungeon overload right?..khk"
Tracing his sharp black finger on my neck, a red line appeared. Blood slowly dripped down from the cut, falling onto the cold ground.
"...Get to the point"
"kh...not only do I know that you're trying to create a dungeon overload, but I also know that this isn't the only dungeon you're planning to overload"
Altough I knew that spilling what I knew was stupid, I had no choice. It was either this or death.
I had to buy time...
At least enough to figure out how to get out of this situation.
Moreover, me revealing what I knew to Baron of Everblood wasn't actually that significant of a matter.
Hierarchy mattered to the demons.
With the fact that he was Baron ranked demon, I knew that he didn't actually hold that much authority.
Even if I escaped from this ordeal, chances were that even if he reported what I told him to the higher-ranked demons, unless he brought proof, his findings would most likely get dismissed.
...Thus it didn't matter if I spilled what I knew. There was a high chance that the case would not go anywhere.
Moreover, what mattered to me the most was my life...As long as I bought time, I could definitely figure something out.
"!"
-Thud!
Suddenly, as soon as I finished speaking, the pressure that enveloped me magnified. My legs, which couldn't withstand the pressure finally gave out, and I knelt on the cold hard ground.
Gripping me from the neck, Baron of Everblood lifted my body up. My face was only a few centimeters away from his face.
We were so close that I could feel his breath on my face. The demon's breath was like hot steam. It slowly burned the skin on my face―turning it red. Facing Baron of Everblood's hot breath, my face winced in pain. Turning my head to the side, I tried my best to avoid his mouth...It hurt.
"...Speak!"
Gripping on my neck even harder, Baron of Everblood fiercely stared at me.
"...I know that you're planning in advance for when the mana in the atmosphere becomes dense enough for the monsters to be able to withstand human's atmosphere..Khuu"
Feeling the grip on my neck become tighter, I took advantage of the small gap that was created by the Baron of Everblood as he was distracted by my statement to free myself from his grip.
Staring at his now empty hand, Baron of Everblood stared in my direction. His already blood red-eyes turned a shade darker as he spat out his next words in pure fury.
"...Oh? It seems like someone has not suffered enough"
"Huff...huff..."
Holding onto my neck, I heavily gulped for air and glared at Baron of Everblood.
-Click!
"...huh?"
A thick black arm flew into the air as Baron of Everblood stood there rooted in his spot stupefied.
He couldn't react in time...
Slowly standing up, I sheathed my sword back into my scabbard.
"...damm this!"
Just that move alone used most of my mana...I needed to think of something quick.
...
Dungeon seekers, mission control room
Inside of a large enclosed room, twenty large tables, all with several computer displays, were filled with people tirelessly working together as they exchanged data. A large screen was at the front of the room, displaying rows upon rows of data for the entire team inside of the room.
On the side, on the walls, there was a multitude of clocks – displaying everything from the current time to the time every entrant has been inside of a dungeon. This was so that they could monitor if someone stayed inside of the dungeon more than the designated time.
On one of the large tables, with his hands leaning on the table, an individual who had a headset and microphone on his head looked to his right as he reported.
"reporting Alpha units have entered dungeon 756 [Red desolation]"
Thomas, who had his arms crossed, looked at the monitor in front of him where multiple camera views could be seen.
"Ask for a status report"
"Roger!"
...
Inside of a desolate world where a deep red sky enveloped the environment. Only the sound of the wind rustling through twisted, shrubby trees, could be heard.
Suddenly, the silence was disrupted as white-clad individuals materialized in the desolate world.
-Voom! -Voom! -Voom!
-Alpha teams, do a status report
"Alpha unit 70154, Check"
"Alpha unit 62584, Check"
"Alpha unit 75894, Check"
"Alpha unit 48334, Check"
"..."
"..."
-All teams confirmed―Alpha mission operation captain turn on your camera and report what you are seeing.
-Click!
Turning on the camera that rested above his peck, a white-clad individual with a golden ring on his arm spoke "Camera activated, taking measurements―trying to gain contact with dungeon guardians who had entered previously"
-khhhhh
Hearing a continuous static sound coming from his receiver, the captain shook his head.
"Unresponsive"
-Okay, order all Alpha teams to proceed forward
"Alpha teams, move!"
Marching forward in an organized pattern all the white-clad individuals followed the captain deep into the dungeon.
...
-shua!
Pfffff
A white line materialized in front of the Baron of Everblood and black blood slowly fell on the floor. Gripping my sword tightly, I applied more pressure on the handle of my sword that stabbed his body. In the heart.
"...you think this can actually hurt me?"
Grabbing the sword that stabbed his body, Baron of Everblood cruelly smiled as he slowly pulled the sword out from his body.
'Tch...you immortal bastard'
Seeing his nonchalant behavior as if a sword stabbing his body was nothing, my heart sank.
-Pam!
Before I even had enough time to retrieve my sword back, I felt a massive force on my stomach forcing me to bend over in pain.
Baaarf!
The force was so strong that my taste buds were engulfed in a bitter and sour taste as green liquid splurted from my mouth.
"kaaahhh..."
-Clank!
"To think you actually thought you had a chance against me"
Throwing my sword to the side, I could hear the sound of metal hitting the ground. Each time I heard the sound of my sword clattering on the ground parts of my heart shattered along with it.
...Without the sword I was nothing. My only chance at fighting back was gone.
Looking at the Baron of Everblood who was slowly approaching me with a wide grin plastered on his face, seemingly relishing my expression of despair...finally fear overtook me.
"Let me teach you what happens when you piss off a demon"
...
"...What's this?"
-Alp―khhh st―s rep...t
Not bothered in the slightest by the fact that the radio signal was getting disrupted, all of the alpha teams members stood rooted where they were as their eyes transfixed themselves on the horizon.
In their view, a massive wall of sand slowly approached them. It felt as if an avalanche was approaching them in a form of formless mass.
Soon it enveloped them.
Inside the storm, extremely high winds lifted the sand particles into the air, unleashing a turbulent, suffocating cloud that reduced the visibility of everyone inside of it to almost nothing in a matter of seconds.
-khhhhhhh
Apart from the raging sound of the wind, only the static sound of the radio could be heard.
...
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Staring at my arm which was bent at a weird angle, I screamed in pain. It felt as if a wave of electricity has coursed through my body. Excruciating.
"Now, now, we are only just beginning, don't disappear on me already"
Grinning evilly, Baron of Everblood licked his lips as he looked down on my body which was sprawled on the ground.
Staring at his expression that seemed to take enormous pleasure at my suffering, I hatefully glared in his direction.
Previously, when I was attacking him, I wasn't just blindly attacking him. I knew since the beginning that his body was immortal. That was because his body was actually fake. It was merely a part of his real body that could endlessly regenerate. Had he not done that, then he would've never been able to enter an F rank dungeon.
When I was attacking him, I was looking for his weakness, the core.
Everything in the world had a weakness. Even the strongest being in the world had a weakness, the demon king wasn't an exception. This was just the law of the world. Unless you were a god, no perfect being existed.
Because this wasn't Baron of Everblood's main body, his main weakness was a core that was used to operate his body. I knew exactly what his weakness was, yet I faced a new problem, I didn't know where it was.
I tried stabbing his body in multiple places, but it was to no avail as it always regenerated within seconds.
...and now that my sword was out of my reach, I lost all hope in defeating Baron of Everblood.
"What shall we break next"
..Hm?
Suddenly, as I was in the midst of despair, like a shining ray of hope. I saw a small cut on the demon's arm.
Previously when I had cut the demon's arm off, I watched him regrow it in an instant, but looking at it now it seems like it had not fully healed as a small scar remained.
-Crack
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Before I could rejoice, I felt the bones in my leg getting crushed causing me to scream in pain.
Relishing my pained expression, Baron of Everblood laughed loudly.
"Hahahaha, scream more!"
-Crack!
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
Alone in an empty castle, a demon laughed, whilst a human screamed in pain as the demon broke his legs. But unbeknown to the Demon, with each scream the human slowly approaching a shiny metal sword that laid on the floor.
...
"Alpha team respond, Alpha team!"
-Khhhhhhh
Staring at the screen that had turned black, Thomas quickly picked up the radio and tried to communicate with the Alpha team members but it was to no avail as all he heard was the static sound of the radio.
-Bam!
"Shit!"
Slamming his fist on the table, Thomas's hands rested on the table as he frantically thought of solutions. Time was tight, he needed to quickly think of solutions. The more time passed, the bigger the likelihood of the alpha team being in danger increased.
If he could've he would've already dived into the dungeon himself, but because he was too strong he couldn't, less he wanted to risk killing everyone that was within the dungeon...
Pacing around the room as he frantically called different numbers, Thomas suddenly heard an excited shout next to him.
"Sir, we're getting a signal!"
Quickly arriving next to the individual who had shouted, Thomas quickly took the radio from his hands and spoke.
"Alpha team do you copy―Alpha team do you copy?"
-Alpha team responding, we've found a survivor preparing first aid.
...
Inside of a dark enclosed space, a demon sat crossed-legged as a frown appeared on his face.
"...mh? is this it?"
Through the vision of his clone, Baron of Everblood stared at the lifeless corpse on the floor. He shook his head in disappointment.
It seemed like his new toy no longer worked.
-Shing!
"...huh?"
Just as he was about to end it, Baron of Everblood suddenly lost control of his clone's body as it slowly started disintegrating on the ground.
Looking to his right, his clone's arm, he could see a sword stabbing straight into it, exactly where the core was located.
Blankly staring at the now disappearing arm, Baron of Everblood looked up and saw the bloodthirsty expression of the young human who he was about to kill.
"Wait for me..."
-Vuaa!
Those were the last words he heard before he felt his connection with the puppet disappear.
...
As black ambers filled the air, the demon's body disappeared from my view.
-Clank!
Dropping the sword in my hand, I felt all my remaining energy drain from my body. Soon my body started twitching on the ground, and blood started dropping in the ground.
"Ah...is this how I die?"
...Hm?
What's this?
Touching my cheeks I could feel drops of water falling down from the corner of my eyes. Slowly tears started staining my face
...Was I crying?
Why was I crying?
I had already died once, why was I crying over such an insignificant matter?
'I am such a pussy'
how could a grown man like me cry? Pathetic.
Looking around, I could only lay on the floor pathetically as the floor became dyed in red. Slowly as the pool of blood around me expanded, vague recollections of my past life started resurfacing.
At first, my life was great...I had a warm family that loved me soo much. I was happy then. Too bad you only realize how much you cherished something until you no longer had it...
Since then my life had never been the same. I worked hard. I truly did.
...But all I got in return was a pathetic life where I would lifelessly be typing at my keyboard away. Every day was a struggle. My weight, my health, my job, my mental health―I was suffering so much.
Then...I was suddenly transported into my own novel.
A new beginning. A new start. I thought that maybe, just maybe I could use this chance to re-do my life. I did everything I could so that I could at least be happy. Was asking for a bit of happiness too much?
...I don't want to die.
My vision slowly became darker and darker...
My body slowly turned cold, and I could feel my breath become thinner by the second.
Slowly as my vision started to disappear I could faintly hear the sound of rushed footsteps coming my way.
...was my mind playing tricks on me?
Well, it didn't matter as my brain slowly lost its ability to think.
"...We've found..survivor...prep...aid"
Those were the last words I heard before I was enveloped in darkness.
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"Report everything that happened since we lost connection to you guys"
Neatly standing in a line, white-clad individuals stood with their backs straight and with their hands behind their back.
In front of them, Thomas stood there looking at them solemnly.
Stepping up, a white-clad individual with a golden ring on his arm spoke.
"Reporting to Vice-Director, during the sandstorm some sort of radio frequency disruptor was installed preventing us from communicating with the outside world."
"We also couldn't communicate with each other, and because of the low visibility I ordered them to stay within one meter radius of the closest person next to them"
Nodding his head, Thomas took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one of them. Placing the cigarette in his mouth, he exhaled a cloud of smoke as he listened to the report.
Puff!
"As demonic energy was detected before entering the gate, using the energy detector we managed to locate the source of the demonic energy"
Pausing slightly, the captain looked around at his team members and said "the eye of the storm..."
"...Hm? The eye? Are you sure?"
"Affirmative"
Frowning, Thomas pinched the middle of his brows and contemplated.
'If the source of the demonic energy was within the sandstorm, then it can be confirmed that this was an artificially created sandstorm...but why create a sandstorm?'
Suddenly, as he was contemplating, a thought struck him, causing him to quickly focus his attention back on the alpha team captain.
"Did you enter the eye storm?"
Shaking his head, the captain spoke "Negative, by the time we arrived at the edge of the storm everything had already started dying down"
"..huh?"
Surprised by this information, Thomas's frown deepened.
"When everything died down, we managed to catch a glimpse of a black castle not far from where we stood"
Interrupting once again, Thomas thought of something as he asked
"...A black castle? Describe me its features"
"Here sir"
Taking out a tablet, the captain handed it over to Thomas who scrolled through the photos. Soon his face revealed a trace of astonishment
"This is the work of a Baron or higher ranked demon!"
"Pardon?"
Confused, the captain tilted his head.
How could a Baron-ranked demon or higher be able to enter an F rank dungeon?
"Here take a look at this"
Pointing at the castle in the picture, Thomas pinched his fingers and zoomed in. Soon the features of the castle became clearer revealing what seemed to be a small beacon.
"This!"
Nodding his head, Thomas's face darkened, and gravely said "Yes, it's a mana compressor"
A mana compressor was a device used by the demons to compress all the mana inside of a dungeon. In doing so, they could create a small bomb with a power equivalent to five atomic bombs. The force released by the bomb was so strong that it would cause the pocket dimension to crumble, resulting in monsters suddenly appearing in the human world. A dungeon overload.
Fortunately, monsters couldn't adapt to Earth's thin atmosphere. Else the consequences would've been disastrous.
Moreover, a mana compressor could only be utilized by Baron-ranked demons or above. That was because only Baron-ranked demons or above could withstand the power of the mana compressor without going insane.
Once a demon reached a noble rank, not only did they become stronger, but their mental fortitude increased by many folds. A mana compressor concentrated all the mana that was directed to it into a ball of thick dense energy. But in order for it to do so, it needed someone to direct mana into it.
This required an absurd amount of mental strength as one needed to direct all the mana in the atmosphere into a specific point. That's where a Demon came in. The Demon would send a clone of their body in the dungeon and through the connection they had with their clone they would direct the mana towards the mana compressor which would slowly condense all the mana that was directed to it. Only Baron-ranked demons or above could do so.
"I can't believe they were scheming such a thing from underneath our noses"
Staring at the tablet for a bit, Thomas looked at the captain and asked
"...Fortunately it seems like the mana compressor has stopped working. Did you find anything else?"
Nodding his head, the captain responded
"Affirmative. We have found a survivor"
"...Ah yes how could I forget that!"
He vaguely remembered hearing something about a survivor, but at the time he was too focused on making sure everyone was alright that it slipped through his mind.
Scrolling down the tablet in his hands, his finger directly paused on a photo.
Though when he had previously met him a mask covered his face, Thomas was instantly able to identify the person in the picture.
"It's him?"
...
Slowly opening my eyes, I blankly stared at the unfamiliar ceiling for a moment, then slowly I turned my head to the side. As my head cleared, a strong pungent smell of alcohol invaded my nostrils. The room was silent and apart from my heavy breathing, only the beeping sound coming from the electrocardiogram in the corner of the room could be heard.
A throbbing pain hit my head as I looked at my body which was covered in bandages. Aside from the bandages, long metal wires that connected to the electrocardiogram were attached to my body.
I tried to get up. But once I tried to move my upper body, it was instantly engulfed in pain, refusing to listen to me. Slowly, my body sank onto the large white mattress.
Laughing bitterly I could only lay there pathetically, hoping for the pain to disappear. Staring at the ceiling, illuminated with white fluorescent light, a myriad of questions emerged in my head.
How long have I been here? Where am I? What happened? Shutting my eyes, I tried to remember what had transpired prior to waking up in this unfamiliar environment.
-Clank!
But before I could reminisce, the door of the room opened, and a doctor wearing a blue short-sleeved scrub top with a white coat and similar blue colored pants entered the room.
Behind the doctor, a rough blonde individual sat on a chair with his legs crossed and a newspaper in his hand.
"Mr Thomas?"
"...hm?"
-Rustle!
Noticing something, Thomas, who had previously accompanied me to the gate, put away the newspaper in his hands and entered the room.
He looked the same as when I first met him, but differently from last time he was currently wearing a brown suit which was full of wrinkles.
"How are you feeling?"
"…Alright, I guess?"
"That's a relief"
Sitting down next to my bed, Thomas loosened his necktie and took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.
"Do you mind?"
Shaking my head, I turned my head around and looked outside the window.
It was currently nighttime in Ashton city, and the city lights brightly lit the area around the hospital.
"Puff...Ah, just what I needed"
Puffing a cloud of smoke, Thomas leisurely leaned back and also looked at the brightly lit night.
"You did good kid"
"Hm?"
"Because of you, we managed to stop a possible dungeon desync, which would've resulted in a serious loss for us"
Pausing slightly, Thomas deeply looked at the star-filled night "...so after a brief discussion with the higher-ups a decision was made..."
Once again pausing, Thomas turned his attention towards me and couldn't help but let out a dry laugh as he spoke "Well...they decided to grant you a skill"
"A skill?"
Opening my eyes wide, I immediately shook my hands and refused.
"I haven-t nearly don-e enough to receive a skill!"
I was so shocked that I started stuttering as I couldn't help but be surprised by how generous they were.
My bewildered reaction was understandable as in this world if someone were to ask you what the most sought-after thing was, most wouldn't even think twice before answering 'skill'.
Even though monster parts, martial manuals, weapon manuals, cores were all things that held tremendous value, in the eyes of people their worth was far lower than skills.
Unlike martial arts, weapon arts, or anything that required some sort of mastery, skills could be learned instantly.
Typically a person would spend years learning a technique before they could proudly say that they had mastered it.
However, with skills all you needed to do was learn it and all the information would instantly be transferred in your brain. There was no need to train the skill, as once you learned it you were capable of instantly using it.
It was a total cheat.
In a matter of seconds, you could do things that would generally require someone years of training to master.
I mean who wouldn't want them?
Skills could be found inside of dungeons, and just like cores, you could get them from monsters.
However, the drop rate compared to cores, which was already quite low, was even slimmer, resulting in skills being extremely rare.
And thus once the first skill was discovered, similarly to cores, a huge uproar ensued as everyone started coveting them.
I mean who wouldn't want to become stronger without putting that much effort?
From that point on, whenever a skill was found, huge auctions would be established. A single skill could go up for at least a couple million U in the auctions.
"Hahaha, is helping us not lose a dungeon that earns us millions of U each day not something worth a skill? Plus we aren't really going to give you a high-ranking skill, just an F-ranked one."
"eh...I guess you do have a point, but an F-ranked skilled is still a skill..."
"Ah just don't fuss over such trivial thing"
'How can an F-ranked skill be considered a trivial thing?'
I thought to myself, as I once again realized how rich and powerful the black market was.
To call an F-rank skill a trivial thing just goes to show how powerful of an organization they were.
Although F-ranked skills were on the lower end of the spectrum, they were still worth a huge amount of money.
Seeing how they didn't think much about an F-ranked skill, I couldn't help but wonder how many skills they had with them...could they possibly be in possession of S-ranked skills?
If so, then I had really underestimated how influential the black market was...
Even as the author of the novel, I didn't know much regarding the black market as I never dwelled too deep on them in the story.
They were merely a convenient organization that the protagonist used to facilitate his growth.
I just knew the general layout of the organization, the identity of some of the higher-ups of the organization, but other than some other trivial information the black market was shrouded in a veil of mystery.
But it seems like they were a far bigger organization than I had made them out to be...especially if they were in possession of multiple S-ranked skills...which were far harder to find.
There were only 18 S rank dungeons known to mankind.
Which was a dramatic difference compared to F-rank dungeons which numbered over tens of thousands.
As the supply was lower, the number of skills that could be acquired was also lower. Moreover, S-rank dungeons were far harder than lower-ranked ones, making S-rank skills that much harder to acquire.
one S-ranked skill could pretty much allow someone to buy a small city. That's how expensive they were.
But it has to be said that, although S rank skills were indeed much stronger than lower-ranked skills, that didn't mean that low ranking skills were useless.
In fact, lower-ranked skills, depending on the person, could turn out to be far more useful than an S-ranked skill.
Take an assassin for example. If they were given the option to choose between D-rank skill [Shadow cloak, a skill that enables the user to hide under a shadow, or S-ranked skill [Tyrant's wrath] which was a mass AOE skill, they would obviously prefer the D-ranked skill which was better suited for their profession.
At the end of the day, it all came down to how compatible you were with the skill.
"Alright, you better rest now."
Standing up, and straightening his wrinkly suit, Thomas flicked the cigarette in his hand and lightly stomped on it with his foot.
"Once you recover, I'll guide you to where you can collect your skill"
Finished with what he wanted to say, Thomas turned around and left the room.
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