Chapter 1: 1

The sky was blue, and the smell of the rich, earthy soil was carried by a seasonal breeze . 1

The sight still came to him when he closed his eyes .

As it could never be seen again, it was much more precious .

“The past is the past . ”

He looked up only to see the black sky . Instead of the smell of soil, the smell of blood was everywhere . Was it a seasonal smell? No, there was only a repetitive, freezing winter that made the world nearly uninhabitable .

[Name: Kim Sung-in] [Another name: Hero] 2

[Spell counts: 97] [Spell grade: 9]

Sung-in went through his Ability Record in his mind, which was initially not a lot, but now it had become comprehensive . Among those statuses, he checked his one specific status .

[Fatigue level: 88]

“I knew it,” he murmured as he checked his fatigue level on the bottom . “That’s why my body feels so heavy . ”

The fatigue level showed a numerical representation of his current fitness state, with 0 meaning the best physiological condition and 100 meaning the opposite . 88 was quite high . No wonder his body felt as heavy as soaked cotton . Normal people couldn’t even move their bodies in such a state .

Sung-in sighed as he looked around him . All he could see was the corpses of monsters, piles of them from a distance . That was his masterpiece .

Thump, thump .

He heard footsteps in the distance, and one set sounded particularly familiar .

“You guys are so fast . ” He was being sarcastic .

They must have noticed the fight, but they were still so late . He realized it was their strategy to get rid of him once and for all . That meant all those monsters had just been decoys .

This is the end . He thought this would be the last, but it was not as bad as he thought .

The reason was obvious . There was no more reason to resist .

“Now…” Sung-in stood up from the pile of dead monsters . “It is time to die . ”

* * *

The Hero .

That was another name for Sung-in . The title was from his ability, which increased his physical and magical damage by 20% and reduced the damage he would receive .

However, that was not just another name for Sung-in .

“Spell power of 9 grade? Was there such a magical awakener?”

“For a guy like you, it may be . ”

“It might be possible . No, it has to be possible . ”

“Do you think he may be able to restore our world?”

He’d heard those kinds of words many times .

At the time, he didn’t know what they meant . No, he knew what they meant but wasn’t able to understand .

They demanded a lot of things from him .

They said, “Sung-in, you are our hope . ” “You know what a hero is? The person who can save the world . You should consider yourself a hero . You understand what Mommy means, right?” That was his mother .

He was a good son, and at one point, he did consider himself a hero .

“You are the hero . ”

“Please, please, save this world . ”

“Mr . Kim, you are the only one now . ”

Hero, hero, hero… That almost drove him crazy . Stop calling me that . Are you not getting tired of the word?

It had been about 40 years ago when the monsters first appeared . Many magical awakeners like him had become heroes as they fought the monsters . The monsters had been too many and indeed so strong that even those heroes with magical powers struggled . People needed a stronger hero, and Sung-in had been one of them .

“Hero, my ass . ”

He plunged to the ground and looked up, but only the dark, murky sky came to his sight . His vision was slowly getting blurry .

Fafnir . An ancient hero, a dragon that was killed by Sigurd .

But Fafnir was a nickname for a giant with a dragon head, who had killed so many human heroes . The war was becoming advantageous for the monsters . Even Sung-in had to fight the giant for three years straight, although he had been the one who frequently retreated . Fafnir was not to be defeated easily by any human .

[Though you are my enemy, I admire your power], Fafnir said .

That isn’t really surprising . For a monster like Fafnir, anything he did was not that surprising anymore . He was almost like a demigod; being able to speak a human language was nothing compared to his other powers .

“Bull…sh*t…” Sung-in mouthed . “Do you also think I’m a hero?”

[You are indeed a hero . You deserved that title, even if it is from others], Fafnir said .

A hero created by others . He sounded like he knew everything . Obviously, he knew about Sung-in, as he must have spied on him ever since they first fought .

But that wasn’t like him . That wasn’t like a monster .

[You are the last one . ]

The last . That was self-explanatory; everyone had been killed .

For the past year, there had been no one other than Sung-in . He had been fighting alone for all that time . And here was the outcome: let’s fight until one of us dies .

Fafnir had destroyed the whole world . Sung-in may as well pay the worth of his name .

“I’ll die with Fafnir and kill as many monsters as I can . What’s the point of dwelling on this destroyed world with no one else around?”

However…

“This is what I’ve got . ” Sung-in laughed at his own poor condition .

Fafnir was much more powerful than he had thought . He was also without any weak points . He still had billions of his monsters, and Sung-in was all alone . Even worse, Fafnir didn’t seem to move until Sung-in moved first .

Even if his fatigue level was 0, it would still be a struggle to win .

Fafnir finally opened his enormous mouth .

[By eating your flesh, I will be devouring this world . ]

A story of a hero who killed an evil monster and saved the world . That kind of happy ending was far from being realistic .

“So, basically, you mean I won’t be a hero . ”

Crash—