Surviving as a Broken Hero

Chapter 1 – Awakening (1)

“Come on. Just give us the money and we can all walk away from this…”

The man before me gestured to my cane.

“…figuratively speaking, that is.”

My jaw clenched at the man’s poor joke. I glanced around the clearing, my gaze drifting between the three people in front of me.

The one trying to take my money was the leader of the party. He was a fighter, dressed in leather armor. His sheathed sword was strapped across his back, while his dagger was sheathed at his waist.

The party’s archer stood not far behind the leader, just off to the side. He had his bow at the ready, prepared to fire an arrow at any moment.

The final member of the party, the tank, sat nearby. The man was watching the exchange in his full plate armor, all while eating the food they had prepared not long ago.

My hand gripped the coin pouch at my waist as I observed the trio.

I knew I didn’t have much of a chance, but…

‘I’ll be damned if I lose six years’ worth of work here.’

To Awakeners like the ones trying to rob me, it may not have been much, but to me, it was everything that I had managed to save since humanity had Merged with the new world.

I took a few steps forward, using my cane for support.

“I thought I was paying you to help me level.”

The man shook his head.

“I think you know it by now, kid, but you’re never going to be an Awakener with that leg of yours.”

“I’ll never know if I don’t try…”

I had heard tales of Awakeners who had gained unique classes or effects from the system. They were said to be able to heal from all manner of injuries. How could I know for sure unless I saw it for myself?

Were not most rumors borne from some fragment of truth?

“Didn’t you become adventurers to help people? Why do this?”

I decided to try appealing to their morals.

Drag, Drag.

I took a few more faltering steps towards the leader.

“We are helping you. You just don’t know it yet.”

The man took a step towards me. My eyes bounced between the party members again.

I had heard of such incidents before, of course, but I had thought that I had taken the proper precautions when I chose my seemingly trustworthy party. They were even members of a guild that had signed up with the Association!

“You know the Association is going to hear about this, right?”

The man shook his head and let out a small chuckle.

“Sorry to tell you this, kid. You’re probably never going to see the Association again.”

Due to the Association’s restrictions on harming party members, they were likely trying to get me to hand over the coin pouch willingly. A diviner might not be able to see events that occurred clearly, but they could pinpoint targets of hostility and intent.

“If you hand it over willingly, we’ll leave you here. Who knows? You might, by some miracle, make it back.”

My grip tightened around the coin pouch. I knew they were right. From the start, fighting back wasn’t an option for me.

‘If I hand it over now, I’ll be back to square one… It‘ll take at least six more years, if not longer, to gather this much again. There has to be something I can do…’

No matter which scenario I ran through in my head, they all ended with me losing. However, there was one thing that I was certain of…

I wasn’t just going to give them the money that I had spent so much time and effort gathering.

Step, Step.

The man got within reach of me.

I reacted, the cane that had aided my balance for so long swinging—just as it had countless times before, all in preparation for a moment like this. My body knew it well, just as if it were an extension of myself. Every knot, every slight deformity in the smooth wood. The way it was slightly heavier towards the top, where that little bump sat.

The heavy wood of the cane swished through the air, aimed at the leader’s head.

I figured the man couldn’t be more than level 5, at most. There was no way he would have been in such an outskirt city if he were at a higher level. Level 5 was the breaking point for unlocking the abilities of one’s class. Before that, Awakeners could hardly be called superhuman.

Even with that knowledge, my physical fitness was below peak level. I knew that I didn’t really stand much of a chance.

Still, I had to try.

My arm jolted and the cane stopped as the man caught it mid-swing.

Thinking only of the coins still at my waist, of the scrounging I had done in back alleys, and the insults I had taken over the past few years… Thinking of my missing friends, of my family that I had yet to find…

I let the cane go and drew the dagger from the man’s waist.

In a moment, before I even realized what I was doing…

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Blood spurted out as the warm liquid splattered my face.

The dagger tore its way down the man’s unarmored thigh as my own leg gave out. Without the support of the cane, I fell.

Thwack!

There was the sound of an arrow leaving a bowstring, followed quickly by a searing pain in my abdomen.

The leader cursed and took a step back, holding his injured leg.

Thump.

I knelt to the ground, dagger still in my grasp as I grimaced in pain from the arrow embedded in my stomach.

“Penalty be damned. You could’ve just gone quietly, kid!”

The leader drew his sword as the armored tank stood, dropping the food he had been eating.

It was too late.

I had always heard of people’s lives flashing before their eyes in life-threatening situations.

…Instead, what flashed through my mind at that moment was the people I would be leaving behind.

There was the ring of steel as the sword was drawn fully.

I briefly tried to stand again, unable to gain my footing without any leverage.

The leader’s sword swung down towards my neck.

Swoosh

My eyes followed the blade.

‘If only I hadn’t run all those years ago…’

—In what I believed were my final moments, I thought of brilliant golden hair, a soft touch, and light laughter. I thought of Rhil, my neighbor and friend over these long years, and how I would never get to see her shining smile again. My thoughts went to the way her face reddened with laughter, of the way she bit her lip when she was nervous.

“Why do you fight against them?”

She had once asked me after a particularly bad run-in with one of the street gangs in the area.

“They’d rather just take your money and leave you be.”

She hadn’t fully understood.

I had struggled and fought every day since the Merge. Against my own body, against those who tried to take advantage of me.

I wouldn’t let people step on me. I wouldn’t run away ever again.

…With that thought in mind, I raised my hands in one last futile effort to ward off the oncoming blade.

As I did so, I felt a pulling sensation from deep within.

Grasping that lifeline, I pulled back.

Something gave.

Everything paused.

[[…System has detected parameters for an ideal host.]]

[[Engaging System]]

[[!!! Warning !!!]]

[[Threat detected.]]

[[Warning! Insufficient Energy to Activate System!]]

[[Utilizing Emergency Measures.]]

* * *

Reaper Scans

[Author – Farlight]

[Proofreader – Harley]

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* * *

‘…What?’

Before I could comprehend what was going on…

In the blink of an eye…

Fire burst from my raised hands.

It was only a flash of flame, a brief moment of intense heat…

But it was enough.

The three of them were hit by the intense heat and launched backwards, out of the clearing.

The heat reached the trees next, igniting them in an instant.

I registered all of this as I was sent flying backward from the recoil of whatever had emerged from me.

Ding!

Crash.

I fell against the trunk of one of the trees at the edge of the clearing.

“Ughhh…”

Slide.

I slid into a sitting position at the base of the tree as heat battered my face.

Before me, on the opposite end of the clearing, the forest was burning.

The smell of smoke was overpowering. The odor of burnt matter and charred meat filled my nostrils.

‘I never thought my first kill would be a human…’

I had placed too much trust in them. I should have known better.

Had I not learned that lesson from the gangs in the city? From the adventurers who cast judgmental glances my way whenever I asked for help? From the barkeeps I had helped with various chores to the shopkeepers who had bought whatever I had managed to dig out of the trash?

Ding!

[[System Awakened]]

As it turned out, killing other people also fulfilled the requirements for Awakening.

A blue window glowed in front of me. My mind felt fuzzy and my abdomen felt cold.

“Ah…”

It was the moment that I had put so much effort into. The one hope I had held onto for the past six years.

[[Congratulations on killing your first enemy!]]

The text appeared in front of me with a congratulatory tone.

I let out a pained chuckle at the words.

My skin grew colder with each shake of my body.

[[Please select your class:

《Fighter》

《Mage》

《Ritualist》]]

Rustle, rustle.

I reached out my hand to touch the cold spot on my abdomen and looked down.

The arrow had been ripped from my body during the tumble through the air and had left a gaping wound in its absence.

A glistening crimson trail trickled down from the wound, covering my hand.

Licking my cracked lips, I felt my heart rise to my throat as I looked over my choices.

Shift, shift.

My eyes drifted over to my right leg, splayed out in front of me.

I tried to move it, though I expected nothing to come of it. The leg had been useless for six years, after all.

Nothing, just like I was accustomed to.

[[Fighter – Rarity: F

Grants superior self-regenerative traits and allows one to reach the peak of physical fighting ability.

Physical buffs to endurance and melee abilities.]

[[Mage – Rarity: F

Allows one to study and utilize all manner of magical abilities.]

Buffs to mana and skill learning speeds.]]

[[Ritualist – Rarity: C

Allows one to make use of complex rituals to customize magic to one’s liking.

Buffs to learning ability and problem-solving abilities.]]

My mind numbed as I looked over my options.

I had held some dim hope for a rare class, but not Ritualist.

‘I need something I can use now… Ritualist won’t be of much help if I’m dead, the same goes for the Mage class…’

I stared at the Fighter description again.

[[Grants superior self-regenerative traits and allows one to reach the peak of physical fighting ability.]]

I licked my cracked lips again.

‘Does that mean it could heal me? Even my leg?’

I cast another glance toward my leg before making my decision.

It was a dim hope, but at the moment it was all I had.

There would be no going back.

“System, select Fighter Class.”

[[Error!]]

[[Syst… A…]]

[[Your class is now Level 0 Fighter]]

Cascading windows appeared before me as I lay there against the tree, blood pooling below me from the wound in my abdomen that I was doing my best to staunch.

“…Haaaa.”

I let out a shaking sigh. The small, cloud-like puffs of vapor faded away in the frigid air towards the raging fire on the opposite end of the clearing.

The fire had picked up and was almost deafening.

‘Level 0? That’s not right…’

Everyone was supposed to start at level 1, with the abilities of their class…

I saw no such window.

“Abilities, Skills, Stats.”

Nothing.

A cold chill overtook me.

Had the System truly glitched?

‘Why me? Why now?’

A sense of despair flooded through me.

It was just my luck that I would get a screwed-up system on top of everything else.

The pain in my abdomen persisted. I didn’t feel any different.

‘That’s it?’

‘Maybe it doesn’t heal new injuries…’

I tried to move my bad leg, the one that had disobeyed my commands for the past six years.

Had I miscalculated?

‘I thought the system was supposed to put me in peak fighting condition once it took effect…’

My leg remained limp, unmoving.

“Shit…”

It was too much to hope for.

My curse was lost in the roar of the fire, the heat growing ever more uncomfortable.

I looked down at the wound in my abdomen and let out a pained huff. I tried to stand, using one hand to push against the tree.

Thud.

Halfway up, I slid back down into a sitting position. It was too difficult. My body wouldn’t listen to me.

I looked back toward the raging fire that continued to creep toward me from the edge of the clearing.

Ding!

{{System Awakened}}

{{Please select… Archetype…}}

A new window appeared: a golden one with broken text.

I looked from the system window to the strange golden window. I had never heard of one like it before.

“Open Archetypes…”

I grimaced as the pain grew worse.

The window expanded.

{{Mind, Spirit, World, Body}}

‘What…?’

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