Trash.
An E-rank Awakened who barely entered dungeons as a porter, let alone as a hero.
Since stats were essentially multipliers attached to one’s abilities prior to awakening, he was stronger than an ordinary person, but in many ways, he sorely lacked what was needed to stand against evil alongside the protagonist.
The message I had seen then had clearly specified ‘Clear.’
Meaning I had to clear the entire main story to make a wish.
As the story reached its latter half, the world became so dangerous that simply walking around outside grew perilous.
Leaving aside whether or not I intervened in the story, I definitely needed the strength to protect myself.
‘There’s only one way.’
A method only I, who had completely mastered ‘Hero Name: ZEUS,’ could pull off.
Preempting the fortuitous opportunities.
I thought carefully.
About what opportunities I could obtain with these kinds of stats.
The Hermit’s Leather.
Yongcheonhwa’s ability.
There were other trivial things, but they couldn’t compare to these two, and besides, if I followed the main story, there would be plenty of better things anyway.
Strike while the iron is hot; the very next day, I skipped school and went to Gwanaksan.
The fortuitous opportunity obtained after ‘Yongcheonhwa,’ one of the original protagonist’s heroines, fell into darkness for some reason.
It was in a cave on Gwanaksan.
Since Yongcheonhwa would join the villains’ side, fight, be abandoned by the protagonist, and then be betrayed by the villains to die miserably anyway, I felt no guilt taking her opportunity.
‘Maybe this is better for her, too.’
The process of her obtaining the opportunity had all been shown in the game, and there had been no conditions.
If you went to a certain cave on Gwanaksan, there was a red jewel; you just had to place it against your chest.
Finding the cave was a bit difficult, but I got lodging at the foot of the mountain, set my mind to it, and searched for three days before finally discovering it.
The red jewel.
It was a crystal with a faint red haze spreading from it, like a crimson shimmer.
I placed it against my chest, and the jewel slowly entered my body.
A message appeared, accompanied by a cheerful sound effect.
<< Skill Acquisition >>
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◈ Name
Succession
◈ Grade
000 A
◈ Description
Executes an enemy in a near-death state and permanently absorbs 1% of their stats. (A red jewel is visible on enemies that can be executed.)
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◈ Name
Dragon Heart
◈ Grade
--- A
◈ Description
A Dragon Heart that produces near-infinite mana has settled in your body.
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“I got it! Haha.”
Not one, but two.
And both were A-rank.
They were skills of a rank that no one except the protagonist or those around him could even lay eyes on.
Whether for stats or skills, when the number in front of the grade reached 1,000, the grade rose and the effect grew stronger.
However, ‘Dragon Heart’ seemed to be a skill that couldn’t grow, as it had no number.
The Succession skill was the best.
I had thought it strange how Yongcheonhwa, who hadn’t had much presence, grew stronger in an instant.
Since the game was from the protagonist’s point of view, her skills hadn’t been shown in detail, so I hadn’t known such a skill existed.
‘It’s a cheat skill…! This is worth doing.’
I thought optimistically for a moment, but the problem I had forgotten quickly came to mind.
The last boss, the Demon King.
A cheat monster with such high defense that damage wouldn’t even register.
That was why the protagonist’s role was enormous in Demon King raids.
Because of the protagonist’s main skill, ‘Guardian of the Species.’
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◈ Name
Guardian of the Species
◈ Grade
000 B
◈ Description
Damage received from species different from the owner is reduced by 50%, and damage dealt to species different from the owner is increased by 50%.
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A skill blatantly made for beating monsters to death.
And this skill even grew.
At S-rank, the damage output got pumped up to 100%.
Thanks to this skill, only the protagonist could deal meaningful damage.
Ultimately, what mattered was the protagonist’s growth level.
The concerning part was that the protagonist moved of his own free will.
He was a boy now turning sixteen.
He wasn’t a puppet without blood or tears under a player’s control.
‘Hero Name: ZEUS’ was a game famous for its hardcore difficulty.
The most notorious part was, without a doubt, raising the protagonist.
Every single stat, every single skill was important.
You couldn’t waste time uselessly.
If you wasted time dating girls just because they were swarming around him, he’d die from a lack of strength in the next episode.
Yet if you didn’t manage the affection of surrounding characters, you couldn’t put them in the party.
It was truly a game where you had to do it ‘well.’
‘Can a normal boy—not a player—pull this off?’
Without the controller called ‘me,’ the protagonist might build a harem at the Academy and quit training.
Without the controller called ‘me,’ the protagonist might train a bunch of trash skills and end up as a ruined character.
The conclusion was clear.
I had to support the protagonist from the side so that he grew properly.
Only then could I defeat the final boss, clear the main story, and make a ‘wish.’
Of course, I’d have to train myself for my own survival, too.
‘I’ll have to go to the Academy next year. Fortunately, I’m the same age as the protagonist, so we should be in the same class.’
Just then, an archaic-sounding voice rang out in my head.
[Successor. What is thy name?]
“Wh-what?!”
I looked around and realized no one was there.
Having conquered novels and games of this genre, I somehow had a feeling.
That jewel I had absorbed.
It must be some kind of ego residing in it.
Besides, since the game had shown scenes of Yongcheonhwa talking to someone alone, I had expected this.
“Who are you?”
[I am Dragon Lord Raurakis. The last survivor of the dragon race. If I were to speak of myself, I am the strongest dragon under the long history of the dragon race, from my hatchling days….]
“Wait. This sounds like it’s going to get really long. Is a three-line summary possible?”
[Insolent wretch. My journey cannot be summarized in a mere three lines.]
“Then I won’t listen. Just tell me what you want from me right now.”
[How dare— Hmph, no matter. What I desire is the revival of the dragon race. First, I must be revived myself. You must have been granted the Dragon Heart. The Dragon Heart houses the souls of 32 dragons, including myself. Therefore….]
“No, I told you to just give me the conclusion.”
I thought I heard a crackling sound from somewhere.
A voice carrying more force than before rang out.
[In conclusion, a dragon’s body must be transmuted, and my soul imbued into it. To do that, you must elevate your rank. I shall cast a high-tier spell to transfer my soul by borrowing your body. To withstand the aftershock.]
I didn’t really believe it.
In the story, this Dragon Raurakis had targeted the moment when Yongcheonhwa was mentally devastated after being harshly criticized by the protagonist, dominating her mind and running around committing all kinds of atrocities.
‘Since it’s attached to the Dragon Heart and I can’t throw it away anywhere, maybe I should pretend to believe it for now. I’ll steel my resolve so it can’t steal my body….’
Anyway, there was no better fortune an E-rank Awakened could obtain at this point than this.
It was the opportunity I had chosen.
I had to endure it through sheer force of will.
[You wretch! I can hear everything you’re thinking! And who said I would steal your body? A mere human body… Besides, you’re particularly weak even among humans!]
Raurakis’s greatly angered voice.
Since it didn’t seem to know I was from another world, it appeared thoughts weren’t heard unless one thought them strongly.
“Particularly weak? At this level, I’m at least in the top 10% on Earth.”
Awakened ones appeared at a rate of one in five thousand people.
If you excluded E-rank and F-rank Awakened who had difficulty engaging in combat, that number decreased significantly.
“Anyway, let’s get along, Raurakis-nim. The name is hard, so I’ll just call you Raura-nim.”
[If you continue to behave so insolently, I may retract the power bestowed upon you. You wretch.]
“Gasp. I’m sorry. Then is it okay if I call you Kiss-nim?”
[No… Sigh, just call me Raura-nim.]
This guy couldn’t give up on me anyway.
How could it endure a hopeless wait in a deserted cave, not knowing when anyone would come?
I skipped school again today.
I was anxious about needing to get stronger quickly, and rubbing shoulders with kids at this age felt a bit off.
Sinnoda, the original owner of this body, hadn’t been the type to diligently attend school anyway, so there was no real problem.
I walked through the downtown area.
The streets were quiet since it was morning.
The spring breeze was gentle, making it pleasant to walk.
There was one year left until Academy admission.
To pass the entrance exam and survive in the main story, I needed to build strength.
[Kill the F-rank Awakened weaker than you one by one and steal their strength. There is no time. Hunt down whatever you see.]
Raura’s brutal words.
“I can’t get stronger by killing innocent people.”
I couldn’t agree with such an extreme method.
[How frustrating.]
To use the ‘Succession’ skill, I had to kill monsters or Awakened.
Ordinary people didn’t have a source of mana, so the ‘Succession’ skill didn’t apply to them.
Dungeons were tightly managed by guilds or management agencies, so I couldn’t enter with personal credentials.
Occasionally when they were short of people, they’d recruit outsiders as day laborers, but even then, they used Academy graduates.
Therefore, monsters were impossible.
‘People….’
Setting aside whether I had the ability to kill another Awakened while being E-rank, it was a question of whether I could even do so mentally.
Wasn’t I a modern person who had never even killed a chicken?
If I saw someone writhing in agony, I didn’t think I could finish them off.
Raura spoke in an extremely angry voice, as if frustrated by me.
[Then just kill someone cheap enough that their death wouldn’t matter.]
“Do you think I can find someone like that easily? And how am I supposed to judge who’s cheap enough to die?”
Just then, a siren sounded.
Looking closely, police cars were gathered at the nearby middle school’s athletic field.
Wait.
‘That’s the middle school I go to.’
I slipped into the athletic field and eavesdropped on the police.
With teachers and students who had evacuated the school milling about, no one paid attention to me.
“When is the hero supposed to arrive?”
“They just left. The closest one is ‘Iron Fist,’ but they say it’ll take 20 minutes.”
“Damn it. Didn’t the hostage-taker say he’d kill one every five minutes?!”
A policewoman ran up and reported to a middle-aged officer.
“Confirmed. The hostage-taker is ‘Fire Man.’ A superpowered criminal wanted for arson and murder! His rank is C!”
“Damn it. Isn’t ‘Iron Fist’ C-rank too? This is going to be a protracted hostage negotiation.”
It seemed a hostage situation was unfolding.
It wasn’t my place to intervene.
I quietly slipped away.
As I was about to return to the street, Raura stopped me.
[What are you doing! Isn’t this the kind of chance you humans love most to show off? Go butcher that Fire Man bastard right now!]
“I’m sorry, but I’m E-rank. What am I supposed to do against someone two ranks higher? And there are hostages too, so it’s hopeless.”
[Fear not. I am no fairy who merely chatters by your side. I will Dispel all activation-type magic, so go be a hero.]
‘What did you just say…?’
Dispel.
A high-tier magic that prevents the activation of magic.
Raura could use that while parasitizing someone else’s body?
I’d have to be even more wary of Raura.
She was far more dangerous than I thought.
“But what if he doesn’t use magic and uses skills instead?”
[Foolish child. What you call skills are ultimately just variations of magic. If it’s activation-type, I will block it whether it’s magic or a skill. Now go.]
I took a deep breath.
“Fine. Let’s give it a shot, I guess.”
I took a robe from my bag and threw it over my body.
Of course, it wasn’t an ordinary robe.
It was one of the fortuitous opportunities obtainable at this point.
The Hermit’s Leather.
The acquisition method was donating money to a certain beggar sleeping in the subway and granting his request.
It wasn’t difficult.
<>
I searched on my smartphone and told him.
His son, who had won an Olympic gold medal.
Moved, he rewarded me with the ‘Hermit’s Leather’ that he had used in his youth.
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