The Lowest-Ranked Hero Has Returned

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 68: Interlude - Fire

It felt as if oil had been poured into a blazing fire, and my body was burning up.

"Ugh...!"

The energy of the elixir I swallowed surged through my body, as if it would burst through every meridian.

It’s like a small stream suddenly being hit by a flood.

The rapidly increasing power shakes my consciousness.

'Focus.'

I controlled the raging power and slowly guided it toward the Stigma.

'There’s more than I expected.'

It felt like I had just taken two or three times the usual amount of Stigma-boosting potions.

The power filled the Stigma to the brim, threatening to overflow.

This amount of energy could easily go out of control, but I’ve always been ahead of my companions in one area: power control.

‘Controlling this much power isn’t hard for me.’

I had no problem controlling the infinite power surge when I was in the Avatar state.

Even though the elixir's effect was beyond my expectations, it wasn’t enough to cause a power rampage.

‘Good. Now, if I just store this power inside the Stigma...’

Just as I thought I would be able to absorb the elixir’s energy without any issues—

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the primordial flame reacted violently and flared up.

“Argh! Ugh!”

A terrible pain, as if I had been thrown into a fiery pit, spread throughout my body.

'What is this? Why is this happening?'

The primordial flame, which only reacted to my 'death,' was now responding to the elixir.

Ssszzz!

Before I could even make sense of it, the primordial flame spread through my entire body along my meridians.

It was as if I had activated 'Ignition.' Ashy smoke started pouring out from my pores.

"Ugh... Ah..."

My head burns.

My body is on fire.

I can’t breathe.

It feels like each cell is burning away, and my very soul might turn to ash.

It’s just hot.

Hot. Hot. Hot.

And then—

Crack!

The sound of my bones twisting.

Like a child kneading clay, my muscles repeatedly contracted and expanded.

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“...!!!”

The torrent of unbearable pain pierced through my mind like a lightning strike.

I barely managed to stifle the scream that was rising up and waited for the ‘Blessing of Revival’ to activate.

But—

'What’s happening?'

Even though my bones were twisting and my muscles and meridians were in chaos, the Blessing of Revival didn’t activate.

'Did the Blessing of Revival... disappear?'

No.

That couldn’t be.

If the blessing could disappear so easily, I wouldn’t have wandered for thousands of years chasing death in my past life.

'If it hasn’t disappeared...'

Then what was happening to my body wasn’t related to 'death.'

Once I realized that, amidst the unbearable pain, I felt something new—a sensation I had never experienced before.

'What is this...?'

Crack! Crack!

The sensation of my twisted bones aligning in new ways.

The sensation of hair, teeth, and nails regrowing after being pulled out.

The sensation of torn and mangled skin regenerating anew.

For someone like me, who had gone through countless ‘revivals,’ this should have been as familiar as breathing.

‘But something’s different.’

It’s not the same as usual.

Instead of my burnt body returning to its original form, it was transforming into something new.

'It’s like...'

I was being reborn.

Like I was being recreated.

A new body was being born.

“Hah…”

I let out a low breath.

Ssszzz. Ssszzz.

The ashy smoke that had been pouring from my pores gradually subsided.

“…Is it over?”

I took a deep breath and looked around.

"Ugh. What’s that awful smell?"

A terrible stench was coming from the gray smoke filling the room.

Creak.

I opened the window to let the smoke out.

The outside air seeped in through the open window.

"Heh."

Even though I wasn’t strengthening my body with magic, I could smell the soup being cooked hundreds of meters away in the student cafeteria.

It wasn’t just my sense of smell.

The feel of the air on my skin, the sound of insects chirping in the distance, and the view of the academy all seemed sharper, as if I had switched from an old filter to a new one.

"This is…"

I rushed to the bathroom and checked my reflection in the mirror.

My height had slightly increased, and my shoulders had broadened.

My muscles were perfectly sculpted, as if by a divine hand, and my skin glowed flawlessly, like that of a newborn child.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

“……”

I’ve heard about this before.

Heroes with an overwhelming amount of mana have their bodies reconstructed to handle it.

'It happened to Yuren and Sophia in my past life too.'

Of course, just having a lot of mana doesn’t cause a body reconstruction.

You need to reach a certain level of mastery over that power for your body to transform.

“…But this elixir shouldn’t have that kind of effect.”

I couldn’t deny that this was the best elixir I’d ever taken, even including my past life.

But for someone like me, whose mana barely reached half of the cadet average, the elixir shouldn't have provided enough power to trigger a ‘body reconstruction.’

'Should I check how much my magic has increased?'

I roused the power sleeping within my Stigma.

My mana had increased by about sixfold compared to before I took the elixir.

I used to have about half the average mana of a cadet, so now it had tripled.

'With this much power... I’m just slightly below Professor Lucas.’

I still had less than half of Yuren’s mana, so I was far from his level.

‘Even though my mana has increased dramatically…’

It still wasn’t enough to cause a body reconstruction.

“If it wasn’t the mana, then something else must have triggered the body reconstruction….”

It wasn’t hard to guess what that something else was.

I focused my mind on my left chest and summoned the power of the Primordial Flame.

Until now, it had only responded when I experienced 'death,' but now I could feel the Primordial Flame gradually stirring at my will.

"Heh."

A dry laugh slipped from my lips.

'Who would have thought I'd be able to wield the power of the Primordial Flame like this?'

It was still only a fraction of the full power the Primordial Flame possessed.

But being able to control even a part of it was a tremendous change.

'Does that mean the reason I couldn't control the Primordial Flame before was because of my body?'

If I were to liken the body to a vessel, it meant that my body had been inadequate to handle the enormous power of the Primordial Flame until now.

'So, this time, did it go ahead and completely reshape my body?'

Into a furnace capable of containing the Primordial Flame.

"Phew."

My mind was cluttered, probably because too many unexpected changes had occurred at once. I took a deep breath to calm my excitement.

'So, to summarize the current situation.'

My pure mana capacity had increased about sixfold.

Though still a small portion, I could now control the power of the Primordial Flame at will.

And my body itself had been strengthened as if it were infused with mana.

“…Just how much stronger did I become from taking a single elixir?”

Honestly, even I couldn't gauge the explosive growth I'd undergone.

'Does this mean... I've already surpassed my level from my previous life?'

Ten years spent graduating from the academy as a bottom-rank student and toiling as a low-level mercenary.

Another ten years spent forming a party with comrades like Yuren and Berald, eventually becoming the 'Last Hero' and fighting the Demon God in a final battle.

And yet, the growth that took over 20 years in my past life had been surpassed in less than three months since I returned.

"No, maybe it's too soon to say I've surpassed it."

Setting aside the Primordial Flame for a moment, in terms of pure magical capacity, it was clear that I now had more mana than I did in my previous life.

'In my previous life, I bled and sweat to acquire all sorts of elixirs and artifacts to increase my mana.'

But since I returned, my mana increased automatically just by clicking my fingers four times a day, and one lucky elixir had pushed me beyond the level of my previous life.

If my past self had heard this, he'd probably have foamed at the mouth and thrown a tantrum.

'But that's only considering pure mana.'

In my past life, I had many weapons to compensate for my lack of mana.

For example, a cursed sword that granted great power in exchange for blood.

For example, a forbidden grimoire containing magic that required sacrificing one's life to use.

For example, a cursed armor that slowly ate away at the wearer's body each time it was used.

[PR/N: Guts?]

Those powerful weapons had made me one of the final five heroes and earned me the title of the 'Undying Ghost,' but I had not yet obtained them in this life.

"Considering all that... I'm probably on par with my past self right now."

Of course, this comparison excluded the 'Primordial Flame,' which was a force beyond normal limits.

"Heh… Should I be happy about this or feel empty?"

No matter how I looked at it, surpassing the strength I'd fought so hard to attain over 20 years in just three months left me feeling both satisfied and hollow at the same time.

It was like someone who'd saved diligently for decades to buy a house suddenly winning the lottery and getting it in one go. That’s probably how it feels.

Sure, I wasn't resentful, but there was still a bittersweet feeling I couldn't shake.

"If there's one downside, it's that I can't use the 'Stigma Amplifier' anymore."

Clicking my tongue, I glanced at the glass bottle filled with blue liquid sitting on the table.

The Stigma Amplifier was a potion that forced the Stigma to go berserk, providing a temporary surge of mana.

But since my body had been reconstructed, the stability of my Stigma had increased so much that the current amplifier wouldn't be able to trigger a berserk state.

'I could probably force it by gathering stronger ingredients to make a more potent version…'

But for now, I decided to put that plan on hold.

After all, I had a new skill called 'Ignition' that was just as good as the Stigma Amplifier.

"Now then… I've accumulated enough magic."

It was time to move on to the 'next step.'

'Let's see… Which of the weapons I used in my previous life would be the easiest to obtain?'

I needed something not far from the academy and within my current strength to acquire without much difficulty.

It didn't take long for me to decide.

"The cursed sword, Veskal."

A grin crept across my face as I recalled the sword sealed deep in the ruins, starved for blood.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]