Not All Heroes From Earth Are Bad

Orban IV.

Emperor of the Holy Empire Gatren and Pope of the Deusis faith.

Although his body was aged, Orban possessed power stronger than any human.

Some say.

That the Pope who served God had somehow become God himself.

That this was not right.

It was well-intentioned advice given with conviction.

It was an open secret that he had earned the opportunity to meet the real God in heaven.

“Hmmmm…”

He was unfamiliar with failure and defeat.

Because it was a world where everything happened with just one word from him.

But the past year had been different.

Today too, Orban seriously contemplated while watching Cardinal Elrond who reported – ‘We have failed’.

Perhaps it was time for this one to go to God’s embrace as well.

Cardinal Elrond was certainly an exceptional man.

Not only was he quick-witted, but he always formulated excellent plans with his extraordinary mind.

He also possessed the drive to quickly put plans into action.

The problem was that he hadn’t heard the word success from his mouth recently.

One or two failures could be attributed to bad luck, but repeated failures were incompetence.

“Was it that guy named Choi Hyun-seok who was the problem this time too?”

“Yes…”

“Oseld Gefen, Byron Hane, Worsten Gesred. In just the past year, three heroes of the Empire have died.”

Heroes.

Those who transcended human limitations, possessing military might equivalent to an army of one.

They were precious beings, usually only two or three per kingdom.

If another kingdom had suffered such losses, it wouldn’t be strange if the foundations of the nation were shaken.

And Cardinal Elrond, who commanded all these operations, would have had his entire family line exterminated to take responsibility.

That’s how significant the death of a hero was.

“Half of the knights who entered the mission are dead or severely injured, and the Red Nightmare escaped?”

“…”

“Moreover, the casualties from the battle at Miradun Great Plains exceeded 20,000… At this point, Your Eminence has destroyed the equivalent of a decent-sized kingdom. Hehehe. Truly remarkable.”

Cardinal Elrond couldn’t bring himself to raise his head.

He too knew how serious this situation was.

‘Damn it…’

Cardinal Elrond’s fist clenched tight.

Honestly, he felt wronged.

Until now, none of his plans had ever been wrong.

There were just too many unexpected variables.

This operation was no different.

Who could have imagined that the Grotesque Eater Hemis would appear on the battlefield after a gap of over 100 years?

That the Red Nightmare Reidrun’s power would be twice as strong as known?

If the Pope hadn’t ordered the death of 8th Division Commander Grat in the first place, Elrond would have continued to use him.

If that had been the case, the situation wouldn’t have deteriorated to this worst-case scenario.

‘Sigh, right. It’s already passed. Just unnecessary assumptions.’

Elrond sighed and shook off his thoughts.

Regretting the past changes nothing.

He himself was the one that is ultimately responsible for everything.

All that remained was the result of failure.

These two things wouldn’t change no matter what was done.

“Lord Elrond.”

Elrond raised his head at the Pope’s call.

“First, pull back the front lines. Fighting on a battlefield where the Grotesque Eater is present will only increase casualties.”

Elrond’s eyes widened at the Pope’s order.

‘Could it be he’s letting me live…?’

Even though he had prepared himself for death this time.

Was he being given another chance?

The Pope wasn’t as benevolent as he appeared on the surface.

Elrond’s pupils shook frantically.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes, yes!”

“And let’s contact the Demon King after a long while. We need to know why the Grotesque Eater came to the battlefield, breaking the treaty.”

“I will prepare right away!”

“You may go then.”

“Yes!”

Elrond bowed his head and withdrew.

‘What a lucky day!’

The Pope neither got angry nor held him accountable.

It must mean he still values him highly.

Cardinal Elrond hurried out of the room to live up to those expectations.

“…”

Watching Elrond’s retreating figure, the Pope flicked his hand.

Then a masked man appeared from behind.

“He knows too much. Accurately grasp and take over all the work that Cardinal Elrond is in charge of.”

“Understood.”

“I’ll give you three days. When the work is done, confiscate Lord Elrond’s property and execute everyone belonging to his family.”

“Yes.”

“There must be no noise. You understand what I mean?”

“Of course.”

A clear answer.

Pope Orban IV smiled as if satisfied.

“I’ll be counting on you.”

The man who had been standing behind the Pope disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared.

***

An eerie laugh echoes.

“Heehee! Heeheehee!”

“Keuheuheu!”

“Heeheeheeheehee!”

“Kuhahahahaha!”

These were the laughs of the hero and his dedicated fairy.

“Hero, hero! Look at this crocodile head! He’s completely lost it, hasn’t he?”

“I know right! This guy is just big in size but a total coward!”

At their feet lay the fallen 8th Division Commander Grat.

From the outside, it might look like a righteous hero had defeated a Demon King’s Army executive, but the reality was slightly different.

Grat had simply collapsed on his own after being tormented by Hemis for three whole days.

All our hero Choi Hyun-seok did was create the situation with his tongue and watch it unfold.

“I wonder how many levels I’ll gain from catching this one?”

“Hmm~ Wouldn’t it be at least 20 levels?”

“That much!?”

Choi Hyun-seok was shocked at the mention of 20 levels.

Currently, Choi Hyun-seok’s level is 639.

It wasn’t such a low level, that he would gain dozens of levels just from defeating one demon.

“I think I gained about 15 levels each when I caught those so-called heroes or whatever before.”

Just a few days ago.

Choi Hyun-seok had killed two heroes of the Holy Empire Gatren.

He gained roughly 24 levels from that, so it was hard to believe he would gain more than 20 levels just from catching Grat.

Rachel wagged her index finger and clicked her tongue.

“Tsk tsk! Hero, look at this crocodile head’s combat power. It’s immeasurable, isn’t it?”

“That’s true.”

The Combat Power meter Choi Hyun-seok possessed could display up to 200,000.

Grat’s combat power was immeasurable.

In other words, it exceeded 200,000.

“He’s much stronger than those so-called heroes!”

“Is that so?”

“That’s not all! This time you’re not just landing the final blow, right? Since we’re hunting him while he’s intact, you’ll get much more experience!”

Choi Hyun-seok frowned at Rachel’s words.

“What are you talking about? He’s going to die soon even if I don’t hit him.”

“Ah~ But he looks fine on the outside. This crocodile head is devastated, but his body is still healthy!”

“Oh… So in the end, all the experience from catching this crocodile will be mine?”

“Don’t you think so?”

It made sense.

Unlike before where he only got experience from the final blow, now he would get all the experience generated from hunting one creature.

If that was the case, the level increase might be even better than expected.

“100% might be pushing it, but even roughly 70% would be amazing, right?”

“Good! Then shall we start eating?”

“Let’s begin right away! Heehee!”

Choi Hyun-seok and Rachel smiled grotesquely.

Swoosh! Thwack! Thud!

Along with sounds that made one’s skin crawl just from hearing them, blood splattered on the faces of the hero and his dedicated fairy.

“Hmm, tougher than I thought. Why won’t he die?”

“Hero, do it properly. Stab here like this, strongly! Strongly!”

“Should I twist the neck completely?”

“That would be good!”

A scene too horrific to watch unfolds.

“Die! Die! Die!”

“Experience! Experience! Experience!”

A sight too embarrassing to even excuse as ‘This is a scene of justice being served on a Demon King’s Army executive!’

But that’s how things are in the world.

While children’s fairy tales might simply say ‘And they defeated the Demon King!’, looking inside, it would be filled with desperate struggles and hot blood.

In that sense, this hero’s implementation of justice might be called ‘A cruel fairy tale for adults.’

“Phew! It’s done.”

A moment later, Choi Hyun-seok straightened his bent back after finishing the job.

He raised his hand to wipe his forehead lightly.

There should have been sweat from the hard labor, but what was on his hands was mostly red blood.

“Good work, hero!”

“Ah, thank you!”

Rachel used magic to create wind to cool off his sweat.

Choi Hyun-seok nodded with a bright smile.

It was such a bright smile that they should have felt sorry for the dismembered corpse at their feet.

“But why isn’t my level increasing? Could he still be alive?”

Just as Choi Hyun-seok raised his blood-stained fist.

The awaited notification was heard.

[Level up!][Level up!][Level up!][Level up!][Level up!][Level up!][Level up!][Level up!][Level up!][Level up!]….

The level-ups kept coming endlessly!

Choi Hyun-seok thrust his fist forward energetically.

“That’s right!”

“Oh! Hero. How much did you increase?”

“Let’s see…”

Choi Hyun-seok immediately opened his status window.

▫Name: Choi Hyun-seok

▫Title: Hero Candidate

▫Level: 671

• Strength: 226
• Agility: 224
• Stamina: 227
• Magic: 236
• Demonic Energy: 257
• Charisma: 88
• Fighting Spirit: 34
• Bonus Points: 32

▫Hero Points: 2200

Level 671.

Bonus Points 32.

In other words, this hunting(?) increased his level by 32.

“Insane! I went up 32 levels!”

“Oi oi! Crocodile head! I believed in you!”

“I need to distribute the points right away!”

Choi Hyun-seok raised the bonus points mainly in Magic Power.

This was because the current demonic energy was too high, making it difficult to utilize Nobilrace.

‘To use Nobilrace comfortably, Magic Power should be higher than demonic energy.’

The final point distribution was as follows:

▫Level: 671

• Strength: 230
• Agility: 227
• Stamina: 230
• Magic: 260
• Demonic Energy: 257
• Charisma: 88
• Fighting Spirit: 34
• Bonus Points: –

He raised Magic Power slightly higher than demonic energy and balanced the remaining points evenly.

While looking at the status window with satisfaction, Choi Hyun-seok suddenly clapped his hands.

“Rachel. I suddenly have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Right now, demonic energy and Magic Power are a bit higher than other stats. Is that okay?”

“It’s not particularly a problem.”

“Really? I thought you said before that I had to distribute everything evenly.”

In the beginning, Choi Hyun-seok tried to all in on Strength.

But after hearing Rachel’s explanation, he started raising all stats evenly.

Now he was worried because Magic Power and demonic energy were a bit higher.

“Tsk tsk tsk!”

Rachel clicked her tongue and wagged her index finger.

He wanted to give her a knock on the head for her blatantly dismissive expression, but he held back since he needed to hear the information first.

Rachel took out red glasses from her chest after a long time, put them on, and began explaining.

“Think about it. In the beginning, you had no base at all, right?”

“That’s right.”

“So you needed to raise everything evenly to meet the minimum specs.”

“I understand.”

When Choi Hyun-seok nodded, Rachel continued her explanation.

“The situation now is different from then. Now that you’ve grown, it’s not bad to focus points in a direction that suits you, hero. But!”

“But?”

“In my opinion, I think it’s better to raise them evenly like now. Your combat style doesn’t particularly need to focus on specific stats.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“Yes. If we had to raise something more, it would be good to increase the proportion of Magic Power. Magic Power will become increasingly important in future battles.”

“Okay. I understand for now. Is the explanation over?”

“Yes!”

Choi Hyun-seok raised his fist and hit Rachel’s head.

“Ow! Why did you hit me!?”

“Just because. You were being annoying.”

“Eek…!”

Rachel, who was trembling with anger, let out a big sigh.

“Hah! I’ll let it slide because today is a good day!”

“Right. Today is a good day.”

“Hero! You should thank the Corps Commander for giving us such a sweet opportunity!”

At Rachel’s words, Choi Hyun-seok raised his arms and shouted in an exaggerated voice.

“Corps Commander! Thank you!”

“Thank you!”

Rachel, who was beside him, also raised her arms and shouted, “Hurrah!”.

“Long live the Corps Commander!”

“Hurrah! Long live!”

“But Rachel, is it okay for a hero to act like this?”

“Who cares? It’s fun, isn’t it?”

“True! Then it’s fine.”

“Hurrah~! If only they’d throw me one macaroon, I could sell my soul!”

Rachel, who had been making a ruckus, suddenly clutched her stomach.

“Hero. Maybe it’s because of the exercise, but aren’t you hungry?”

“A little.”

“Let’s go eat meat! Meat!”

“Sure. I suddenly wonder what crocodile meat tastes like?”

“Try it yourself!”

“You try it first.”

“Never mind. Let’s go find some meat.”

“Okay.”

Just as Choi Hyun-seok and Rachel were about to move to look for meat,

They ran into Abelson nearby.

Choi Hyun-seok hurriedly wiped the blood off his face.

‘Hopefully she didn’t see…’

He had killed Grat and praised the Demon King’s Army Corps Commander.

Since it wasn’t exactly the kind of behavior that would leave a good impression on others, he was worried.

Choi Hyun-seok approached Abelson, trying to act as naturally as possible.

“The weather is nice today. Haha! Where are you headed, Abelson?”

“Just had some business… It’s finished now.”

Fortunately, Abelson seemed normal as usual.

Just as he was breathing a sigh of relief,

Something caught Choi Hyun-seok’s eye.

“What’s that in your hand?”

“Th-this…! Don’t worry about it!”

Abelson shouted while hiding the mace behind her back.

Her face was bright red, looking like someone who had been caught with something they shouldn’t have.

Choi Hyun-seok looked back and forth between Abelson and the mace.

“N-never mind that, hurry up and go eat meat! Quick!”

Abelson shouted while physically pushing Choi Hyun-seok away.

Something seemed odd, but who cares?

“Yes! Let’s go!”

A meal with Abelson is always welcome.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you would like to support me or read advanced chapters, you can do so by unlocking chapters.

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