Is this Hero for Real?

[Act 10] Holy Sword for Beginners

“This is quite the honor.”

It may have been a common mass-produced item back in my breath-taking, smoke-polluted, beautiful home planet Earth, but in this fantasy world, it looked like it was regarded as a rare collection.

…How embarrassing.

After quickly looking around my surroundings, I grabbed the backpack like a thief and threw it at the translucent glass.

Poof!

[A certain god encourages you to take everything you want.]

“Wait, outsider god. I took that because it’s my backpack. Just what are you thinking of me…?”

[A certain god calls you a cold-blooded outsider.]

“How so?”

[A certain god points out that you slaughtered adorable baby orcs.]

“I really do sound like an evil outsider if you put it like that, but you see, those green baby pigs were going to turn into adults that grow humans as livestock.”

I finished looking around while I went back and forth with the outsider god.

‘Hm? There were quite a few weapons here.’

Swords, axes, arrows, armor, shields, blunt weapons, crossbows, staves…

Even from a glance, there were more weapons than feminine jewels or clothes. It seemed apparent what the owner of the room preferred.

While checking out each one, I found a book hidden under the pillow of the bed.

I felt a little nostalgic.

“I also liked to read on my bed…”

Although I usually prefer my digital smartphone.

I wanted to go back to that peaceful life soon.

It was a strange book without a title on the cover.

Flip.

As I thoughtlessly opened the book…

“Oh, damn.”

[A certain god opens their eyes wide.]

“It’s a comic book.”

I thought children’s books were well drawn, but the artist’s passion and thoughts were thoroughly expressed in the one for adults.

I saw they highly valued the harmony between shadow and light as well as the basics of art.

But still…

[A certain god advises it’s not a necessary book for an outsider.]

“Thank you so much for the nerve-wracking advice.”

After thoroughly reading the comic book to the last page, I put it back under the pillow.

“I should get going.”

Feeling a sense of guilt that I looked through a stranger’s secret, I decided to sneak out.

Still, I didn’t take anything other than my backpack. The only other thing I’d put my hands on was the comic book, and I’d put that back in its place.

[A certain god complains you’re being too hasty.]

“That’s a good thing.”

Barely escaping at the last minute as they did in movies was too dangerous.

It was the main character’s special privilege to gamble with their only life in a fantasy!

I didn’t want to be like them.

[A certain god hopes that you look at the book in your backpack.]

“I’ll show you later.”

I escaped to the translucent entrance the relic Guardian had opened up.

Poof.

And I shut it right away so that the owner of the room wouldn’t follow.

***

He’d lost everything.

Money, weapons, slaves, food, potions…

After getting robbed of everything except for the clothes on his back, Oh Hanwoo realized…

“I let my guard down.”

Nothing else besides that came to mind.

The betrayal of a bully who envied his talent and girls…

He was a stereotypical villain.

He should have been wary of that as the main character, but he was too naive in trusting strangers.

“But next time…”

From then on, he would never let his guard down or trust anybody!

He didn’t give up, either.

[Vengeance]

>The stronger your target of vengeance is, the stronger you become as well.

>The more people seek vengeance against you, the stronger you become!

He acquired a Blessing after losing everything.

Oh Hanwoo looked full of hopes and dreams.

“It’s a Blessing I can only get after losing everything. So it’s a power that’s only given to a main character that was betrayed by his colleagues.”

He may have looked like a lunatic talking to himself in an empty forest, but that was absolutely not the case.

[A certain Immature god of dice is impressed by your mental strength.]

[A certain evil god is certain you are his perfect suitor.]

[A certain male god cackles.]

[A certain god…]

There were quite a few gods watching over Oh Hanwoo.

There were enough gods to make Hero Choi Kangmin, obsessed with their attention, pass out if he saw those messages.

“If this wasn’t the beginning of the story, this would be hard to acquire even if you knew how to get it…”

It didn’t affect him much for the moment because he didn’t have anything.

Sera, Luca, Kana…

It hurt him that he was robbed of the girl slaves he felt shared both his body and soul with, but it wasn’t like he’d lost the female main character, like the Saintess or Princess.

And so Oh Hanwoo stayed positive.

“Someone I want to take vengeance on…”

It wasn’t the piece of garbage that jeered while staying behind the muscular savage slave.

The Demon King!

He was going to target the boss with a super high level.

[A certain evil god looks at you extremely bewildered.]

[A certain evil god advises you to not pull petty tricks from your sleeve.]

“Is that how it is?”

It seemed he couldn’t seek vengeance on the Demon King when he’d never met him before.

Then what about Prince Alsus?

He’d met the Prince with a Blessed life before.

“…That’s a reach.”

But he couldn’t find the heart for vengeance that time, either.

That’s because there was no ‘genuity’, for he knew what would happen to him if he harmed a prince of a nation.

[Vengeance]

Was there any way to get stronger by choosing a temporary target of vengeance?

Since he couldn’t control the way someone felt about him…

“Oh!”

He automatically thought of a target.

Choi Kangmin.

As soon as he thought of the boy who was pretending to be the main character ‘again’ like he did in school, Oh Hanwoo felt his heart beat harder.

This was a fantasy world.

It was a ‘fair’ society where people’s values depended on levels instead of a handsome face that was given to you since birth.

Choi Kangmin’s face was the only reason he could be a main character on Earth!

‘The main character of this world is me!’

It was closer to jealousy than vengeance, but that was a minor issue for Oh Hanwoo. He believed Choi Kangmin was the reason he couldn’t succeed.

Flare!

“…Looks like this dude’s level is pretty high.”

Oh Hanwoo felt his vengeance grow as he felt the vigor flow all over his body.

[A certain evil god is very pleased watching over you.]

[A certain immature god of dice asks where you’re going.]

“The forest.”

He’d be nothing but a laughing stock if he went back to the city like that. Getting past level 1 was his most urgent task.

Jiggle~

He saw a slime peacefully going around the forest.

Even though it saw him, it didn’t look at all scared or ready to attack.

It just felt like a beginner’s exp blob.

“Sorry, but I’m gonna need to sacrifice you for world peace.”

Jiggle…?

Woosh!

Oh Hanwoo’s flame burned the slime in an instant.

[Vengeance]

[Magic]

Strengthened by his Blessings, the flame was stronger than ever.

And… level up!

“This is easy.”

It seemed the exp from hunting the gnoll had been pretty significant.

Compared to the gnoll, slimes were easy prey.

He didn’t know why people didn’t hunt them.

“It’s illegal to hunt slimes that are useful to humanity, but I don’t have another choice until I’m able to take down a gnoll by myself.”

It’s the pieces of garbage that stole his colleagues away and Yoo Bora’s fault!

—Was how Oh Hanwoo made himself feel better as he went on slime hunting after checking there were no witnesses.

Jiggle?!

Jiggle~?!

And so Oh Hanwoo reached level 3 in less than a day.

Unable to find any gnolls thanks to the Heroes taking all of the good hunting grounds, he kept hunting slimes.

…Until he got Cursed.

[Name] Oh Hanwoo

[Level] 3

[Blessings] Hero F, Special F, Mercenary F, Magic C, Vengeance F

[Curses] See-through F, Hunting F

[Dividend] 4.63

* * *

* * *

There was no reason for the mercenaries, who wanted to be stronger, to leave the slimes alone just because they were beneficial, right?

Well, there was indeed a reason if it was still well-abided by them.

[Hunting]

>As a frequent poacher, all of the prey you hunt gets stronger!

>The chances of the traps made by you failing greatly increase.

That was just the beginning.

The innocent slimes started to get their vengeance against Oh Hanwoo.

Jiggle!

Jiggle!

“Kirk-?!”

The retired Hero fell backwards at the round slime’s body slam.

[Hunt]

Regular slimes were weak, but slimes strengthened by the Curse were strong.

It showed off an especially high endurance against Oh Hanwoo.

Pow!

Jiggle? Jiggle!

The slimes that’d easily died in one flame before he was Cursed began to endure it and counterattack.

“Kirrk?!”

[A certain evil god looks for his missing belly button.]

*t/n: korean idiom that if you laugh too hard your belly button falls off.

[A certain immature god of dice rolls on the floor.]

[A certain god of wind breaks out into laughter.]

[A certain god…]

A mere level 1 slime was making a fool of the level 3 human.

J-jiggle…

“Huff, puff…!”

He still managed to hunt them, but he had no choice but to run away if more than two of them attacked at the same time.

It almost felt like gnolls were easier!

Because of how awful the power of the Curse was, Oh Hanwoo gave up the slime hunt.

[hunt]

“Damnit! All this trouble because of Aria! She should have told me in advance there was such a Curse!”

The boy, blaming his ex-colleague who’d told him slime hunting was illegal, luckily found a gnoll.

[Magic]

“# $#?”

Flare!

Stronger through practice on the slimes, Oh Hanwoo’s flame hit bulls-eye on the gnoll.

Bzz…

The grey gnoll burned down before it even had a chance to attack and became the ex-Hero’s grand exp.

“Nice!”

[Hunt]

Because it had a higher level than Oh Hanwoo, the gnoll wasn’t a ‘prey’ and was much easier than the strengthened slime.

Oh Hanwoo switched his target from slimes to gnolls and bravely went deep into the depths of the forest to find them.

Naturally, he got lost.

The good news?

[A certain god of wind shows you the right path with a strong wind.]

[A certain evil god lets you know there is a village nearby.]

[A certain immature god of dice orders popcorn.]

[A certain god…]

“Thank you!”

Oh Hanwoo found the village with active help from the gods.

But he could only stop at the entrance of the village.

“Why are those guys…?”

The faces he wanted to reunite with were leaving the village with Princess Ethena.

And especially among them…

“Choi Kangmin?”

“Oh Hanwoo?”

Like fate(?), the two boys that were each claiming themselves to be the main character ran into each other.

[A certain evil god is relieved you weren’t too late.]

[A certain Immature god of dice shares their popcorn.]

***

“Hey, you stupid pig! What the hell did you send me there for?!”

“Kekek?! C-calm down first…!”

“You were trying to get me hung for contempt of a noble, weren’t you? I’ll kill you only 10 times if you answer honestly!”

“10 times?!”

“You’re going to revive, anyways.”

Back in the city, the first thing I did was run to the exit and choke the guardian, who was calmly waving his hands.

“It… it was a misunderstanding!”

“What misunderstanding?”

“That’s the second training ground the humans made after this place was taken by us. I decided it was the most fitting for you, a Her— kirk?!”

“That was really dangerous, then!”

That must have been why my backpack was next to the beginner’s holy sword.

The savage fairies must have picked up my backpack in the forest and sold it to the noble lady.

What if I’d run into the Evil goddess’s pawn, the Saintess?

Chills ran down my back.

“Hm… but I found something I’d lost thanks to you.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“So I’ll only kill you five times.”

“Is there an option to not kill me at all?!”

“Of course.”

‘From now on, I think I should be careful of the outsider god’s help, too.’

They’d said the exit was safe!

That would have been true if I was an ordinary Hero, but I was getting chased by the evil goddess after almost getting murdered.

I’d teleported to an incredibly dangerous spot, not a safe one.

I was truly lucky that time.

Now, then…

“Oiiink?!”

“One.”

‘Time for a new beginning after I cut the throat of this pig that almost killed me!’

Poof!

The second entrance, the guardian, who quickly revived five times, was strictly normal.

Had it been about five days?

I didn’t have time perception because I didn’t need sleep, but it felt like it would take about that long to hunt alone in the plains, visit the City of Orcs, annihilate 300,000 pigs, and come back.

The remaining problem was…

“$#@ thank you. #$ $.”

“&$^ thank you. @#$ %$ $%#.”

“This $ help will &%^ *&...”

I didn’t know what they were saying, but it was better to part ways fast before those people that followed me sneakily tried to get help for the rest of their lives.

What about money?

I had brought quite some gold and gems, so I wasn’t worried about that.

“Have a good save!”

*t/n: mc meant to say have a good life

As soon as I arrived at a safe city, I waved goodbye to the people I’d rescued.

“Huh? okay! I’ll be good! =!”

“I will live #[email protected], Hero!”

“Hoho! $#! I’ll live no matter what!”

Nice!

That time, I was able to communicate smoothly.

I was a bit sad to feel that I was becoming more and more like a fantasy native, but it was better than at the beginning when I couldn't talk at all.

Was the demon still in the inn?

“You’re finally here.”

“Oh! You didn’t run off?”

Demon Kogmos had shut himself inside the luxurious inn.

“I was going to leave yesterday because you were so late.”

“And then?”

“I missed my chance because a human I can’t run into no matter what entered the city.”

“Who is it? The Saintess?”

“Nevermind my hiding spot, if that horrific female visited the city, I’d already be dead.’

It sounded like the Saintess had an outstanding demon radar.

“Then who is it?”

“The first heir to the country we’re in right now, Prince Alsus of the Swordmastar Knight Kingdom.”

“I see.”

I didn’t know what he was saying!

“Oh! And I don’t know the exact reason, but the ladies told me the Prince was looking for you.”

“Me?”

“Guess he’s going to give you a medal for hunting all those orcs.”

“Really?”

A medal for killing some pigs? What a leisurely prince.

“Are you going to see him? For your information, don’t mention anything about me. I’d get exposed as a demon immediately.”

“Why?”

“Prince Alsus is a holy knight who received a Blessing from the Saintess.”

“I see!”

I had another person to avoid at all costs.