2 – Living with the Demon King – 1

A world where the tutorial had ended.

The hero left alone, the Demon King, and the fairy fell silent, reading each other’s expressions.

It was the Demon King who broke the brief silence.

“What happened to the Earth heroes’ tutorial?”

“They said it already restarted, excluding only him…”

“Can’t you send him even now?”

“You know that is impossible, right?”

“Ah, seriously.”

The Demon King lamented, pressing her hand to her forehead.

However, at this moment, the one who was most discouraged of all was Gi-jun.

“Regression… was real?”

“I told you it is real.”

“Then why am I here?”

“That is…”

The Demon King was briefly at a loss for words at that sorrowful voice, but she soon stamped her foot and turned her temper on him instead.

“Complain to your unique skill about that. Just what kind of skill is it that resists the authority of a god, even though it’s only a unique grade?!”

“It is not unique. Since it just succeeded in resisting, it grew to the legendary grade.”

“Congratulations on that! Though you won’t be able to regress!”

“What do we do now, Hero?”

The fairy cut into the conversation of the two who were raising their voices.

The ‘Hero’ the fairy referred to was, of course, the Demon King, not Gi-jun.

That moth bastard had never called him so affectionately.

The angry Demon King glanced at the despairing Gi-jun with a troubled look, thought for a moment, and spoke.

“How about… waiting here until the other heroes’ tutorial ends?”

“Most of this channel has already been closed, and all that remains is a one-kilometer radius around the Demon King’s Castle.”

“Still, there is food to eat and a place to wash, right?”

“Hero, do you know what that means?”

The fairy spoke in disbelief.

The Demon King nodded calmly and replied.

“I will manage it. Since there was an issue on their side as well, they will probably approve it.”

“They might approve it, but that means you are going to waste years of your time, who knows how long, for just one person! It is much simpler and easier to just kill him off and treat it as a malicious bug!”

A mind-boggling conversation ensued, leaving one wondering who on earth was the fairy and who was the Demon King.

Just as Gi-jun was debating whether now was the time to channel fifteen years of resentment and smash that moth with his sub-weapon, a mace, the Demon King hit the fairy first.

“Ouch!”

“If we kill him now, he won’t even be able to enter the main game. We cannot sacrifice the most outstanding talent among Earth’s heroes just because he got caught in a bug.”

“It has nothing to do with you. You were just the tutorial boss NPC!”

“Moth, I’m sorry, but shut up.”

“…Fine, do as you please then. I don’t care anymore!”

At the same time the fairy vanished from the spot, a system message reading [Channel Closure Process Suspended] popped up in the corner of Gi-jun’s vision.

It seemed she had done her job properly, even as she left cursing.

“Now then…”

According to the fairy, all other parts constituting the world had fallen away, leaving only the Demon King and the hero in a closed world with a mere one-kilometer radius.

The Demon King looked back at her newly acquired roommate, the hero Gi-jun, and opened her mouth with a troubled expression.

“Your head must be a mess because you don’t know what’s going on, right? I will explain everything from the beginning.”

“I would appreciate that, Senior.”

Although Gi-jun had regarded the Demon King as his mortal enemy until just an hour ago, he was no fool and knew that she was on his side now.

At the very least, she was a presence far more trustworthy than the fairy.

If all of this was an elaborately crafted hallucination, it was better to just live and die lost in it.

“Senior, is it?”

At Gi-jun’s words, which were completely drained of hostility, the Demon King chuckled and nodded.

“Among Earthlings, Koreans are particularly quick-witted. That’s right, I was actually a hero too. Summoned to another world before you guys… Ah, of course not here, but another world. Back then, I was dragged straight into the main game without even a tutorial.”

The story the Demon King followed with was not short, but summarized, it went like this.

In this universe, there existed quite a few civilizations other than Earth.

And there existed another world where the heroes representing such civilizations were dragged to fight.

“Why do they make us fight?”

“Well, I wonder why. I don’t know that either. Isn’t it just for the amusement of the transcendent beings up there?”

Initially, it had proceeded without anything like a tutorial, but after criticisms arose that dragging a civilization that did not even know the existence of mana straight into the main game was not only harsh but also boring, a ‘tutorial’ modeled after the other world was finally created.

“Mana… I was very surprised when I first awakened magic power.”

“For me, it is more fascinating how you didn’t know about the energy that constitutes all things, the fundamental power that strengthens existence.”

“Earth was the bad civilization…”

Heroes from civilizations that did not know the existence of mana and where war was not common, like Earth, would first enter the tutorial to adapt to the other world, and then participate in the main game after completing ‘simple missions.’

A hero who died during the tutorial would be resurrected when participating in the main game.

Because Earth’s tutorial results were so disastrous, the Demon King had personally proposed to the higher-ups to allow them to take the tutorial again.

And the result of that was the regression of all the heroes.

“Strictly speaking, it is not a regression. It’s true that we wound back the heroes’ time, but the space where the tutorial takes place is different. Though everything else would have been adjusted to be the same, that side’s Demon King probably looks different from me. The gender might be different too.”

“But by the time the heroes realize that, it’ll already…”

“Yes, the tutorial will have ended. Once they enter the main game, it won’t really matter whether it was actually a regression or not.”

Watching the Demon King chuckle and finish her explanation, the hero realized that one important explanation was missing.

That was none other than the matter of the Demon King herself.

Why was she, who had participated as a hero in the other world in the past, playing the role of the tutorial’s Demon King now?

However, as the Demon King had mentioned, Gi-jun was exceptionally quick-witted, and he kept his mouth shut, vaguely guessing the reason she had not spoken of.

Did she notice his consideration? The Demon King narrowed her eyes, smiled, and clapped her hands to change the atmosphere.

“Well, it seems the explanation of your situation is finished. Let’s think about what to do from now on.”

“Finished? I still haven’t heard why I couldn’t regress.”

“I don’t know that either. I told you to complain to your skill.”

“No…”

The unique skill Gi-jun had possessed since he was dragged to the other world… no, the tutorial, [Unfailing Body Clock], was a dutiful son that had saved his life several times, just as expected of a unique skill.

How many crises had he overcome thanks to this skill, which allowed him to resist all kinds of debuffs affecting his mind and body!

Of course, because it also caused him to resist buffs cast by others, it had forced him to struggle like hell with only a handful of self-buffing skills…

Yet it stabbed him in the back at the final moment like this!

“Still, it’s a relief. When you are dragged into the main game, your level and skill levels are all reset, but your titles and grades aren’t. Starting the main game with a single legendary skill alone makes it an S-rank start for you. Kyaah—!”

“Kyaah—! And what kind of skills do you think the regressed heroes are acquiring by now?”

“Even if I don’t know for sure, wouldn’t a hero who brings back a legendary skill be rare?”

That was true.

Gi-jun unconsciously agreed with the Demon King’s words.

Skill grades increased in the order of Common, Uncommon, Rare, Unique, and Legendary; the grade above that was only assumed to exist, and because no one had ever obtained it, there was no way to know its name yet.

And even Gi-jun, a powerhouse worthy of the title of the last hero in name and reality, possessed only a single unique skill and exactly three rare skills at the time he entered the final battlefield.

Given that his only unique skill was one he was born with, the difficulty of obtaining high-grade skills could easily be surmised.

“Since the difficulty of obtaining them rises sharply from Unique onward… even so, wouldn’t average kids just end up bringing back a few more Rare ones? Lucky and talented kids might get a few Unique ones, and if they’re lucky, they might even reach Legendary.”

“Don’t say another word, I’m about to die of envy…”

Gi-jun scanned his surroundings with an expression that wondered if there might be any skills left here that he could obtain, but come to think of it, this world had long since disappeared, except for the one-kilometer radius.

Beyond a certain boundary, it was dyed black as if painted with ink, and he could tell just by looking that approaching it would lead to disaster.

“Alright, I’ve organized my thoughts. On how you can grow as much as possible here.”

At that moment, the Demon King clapped her hands again, drawing Gi-jun’s attention.

As he stared blankly at the Demon King, she seemed to grow a little embarrassed and scratched her cheek as she spoke.

“As I said earlier, when the tutorial ends and you enter the main game, the only things you can take with you are titles, race grade, stat grade, skill grade, and three items obtained in the tutorial. So in the tutorial, rather than training blindly in many skills, it is more efficient to focus on nurturing important skills and aim to upgrade their grades.”

Just as the Demon King was continuing to say that she would train him herself, Gi-jun asked a question.

“What are race grade and stat grade?”

“Ah, that’s not very important to you yet. Except for mutants, humans start with both race grade and stats at Common.”

So that meant once the tutorial ended, he would have to compete with those who were born Uncommon or higher…?

As Gi-jun held onto his fading consciousness, the Demon King continued speaking.

“Hey, let’s look at your status window first. For now, I’ve already thought about having you throw away your shield and pick up a weapon, but I need to look at your status window to figure out the rest.”

Not showing one’s status window to others was common sense that any hero knew, but at this point, there was no reason to hold back against the Demon King.

Gi-jun quietly opened his status window, recalling the “S-Status window!” era when all the heroes had accumulated dark history together, thinking the status window would only open if they shouted loudly in the past.

[Gi-jun]

[Title — The Last Hero (Legendary)]

[Human Lv.96]

[Strength — 88]

[Dexterity — 95]

[Endurance — 99]

[Magic Power — 79]

[Charm — 50]

[Gi-jun]

[Title — The Last Hero (Legendary)]

[Human Lv.96]

[Strength — 88]

[Dexterity — 95]

[Endurance — 99]

[Magic Power — 79]

[Charm — 50]

“Oh. Now that I see it, you got ‘The Last Hero.’ This is a really rare and good title.”

“What’s the use, I can’t even activate it.”

The Demon King, who had first admired the title, scanned his status and clapped her hands.

“Your Magic Power is so low, yet your Endurance is 99. How have you survived until now?”

“Because my skills were optimized for survival.”

“Your Dexterity is also on the higher side… these two will have their grades rise soon, won’t they? Consider yourself lucky. Right now, Earth’s heroes have had their stats reset, so they will struggle to death just to raise their stat grades. In this aspect alone, you will definitely be ahead of the regressors.”

“The heroes probably don’t even know that stats have grades.”

Gi-jun suddenly began to feel pity not only for himself but also for all the Earth heroes who had started their second playthrough.

He hoped they were all enjoying a cozy and comfortable second life, at least for now.

Because once the tutorial ended, they would have to face those other thug bastards whose stat grades were on another level…

“Now, open your skill window.”

“It’s a bit embarrassing…”

Unlike when he opened the status window, Gi-jun hesitated as he opened the skill window.

[Skills/Spells]

[Common]

[Shield Mastery Lv99, Cooking Lv77, Butchery Lv85]

[Uncommon]

[Dual Blunt Weapon Mastery Lv72, Strong Taunt Lv99, Returning Throw Lv87]

[Rare]

[Persistent Regeneration Lv94, Metallization Lv88, Enjoying Without Tiring Lv65]

[Legendary]

[Unfailing Body Clock Lv–]

[Skills/Spells]

[Common]

[Shield Mastery Lv99, Cooking Lv77, Butchery Lv85]

[Uncommon]

[Dual Blunt Weapon Mastery Lv72, Strong Taunt Lv99, Returning Throw Lv87]

[Rare]

[Persistent Regeneration Lv94, Metallization Lv88, Enjoying Without Tiring Lv65]

[Legendary]

[Unfailing Body Clock Lv–]

The skill window had changed considerably compared to before entering the final battlefield.

First, his Common-grade Shield Mastery had finally hit max level, and the same went for his Uncommon-grade Strong Taunt.

His Rare-grade skills had also grown rapidly while he was desperately holding out against the Demon King, to the point where he wondered if he might have had a chance of winning had they been at these levels before the fight.

The most surprising of all was, of course, the skill he was born with, [Unfailing Body Clock].

Seeing the skill, which had originally been Unique grade, sitting proudly at Legendary grade brought back a flood of emotions, but thinking that this was the reason he couldn’t regress made his feelings complicated again…

“Wow, how do you have so few skills?”

The Demon King marvelled in a different sense than when she had looked at his status window.

Gi-jun spoke with a sheepish look.

“Because I was unlucky.”

“Did you perhaps yield to others even when you had the chance to obtain skills?”

Skills could be obtained through training, quest rewards, hidden elements, and so on; obtaining them through training was the hardest, while finding hidden elements yielded the highest expected grade.

Gi-jun recalled the time he had yielded a Unique skill he discovered to a comrade in the past, and quietly turned his head away to avoid the Demon King’s gaze.

“…They were skills that didn’t suit me.”

“Wow, I had my suspicions, but as expected! Look at this pushover bastard. He’s the one who should have regressed and lived only for himself now!”

The Demon King, who read Gi-jun’s track record just by looking at his skill window, beat her chest in frustration.

Even if he wanted to obtain new skills, it was impossible in this closed world, so now he had no choice but to nurture what he already had, or train from scratch as if banging his head on the bare ground to obtain skills.

But as she beat her chest, the Demon King suddenly discovered a strange element in his skill window.

“What is this Dual Blunt Weapon Mastery?”

“It was originally Common-grade Blunt Weapon Mastery. Since damage output was lacking when holding only a shield and holding the front line, I picked up a sub-weapon and it appeared.”

All the Uncommon-grade skills he possessed had grown from Common-grade.

Taunt to Strong Taunt.

Throw to Returning Throw.

…And Blunt Weapon Mastery to Dual Blunt Weapon Mastery.

“So why did the grade rise? And to Dual Blunt Weapon Mastery, at that.”

“That was a truly Copernican paradigm shift. As I swung the blunt weapon, I also felt like hitting with the shield, and things like that.”

“…So it grew into Dual Blunt Weapon Mastery because you swung the shield and the blunt weapon together? Even though Shield Mastery is still Common?”

“Yeah…”

That was why he was embarrassed about his skill window.

Because it revealed his past mistakes at a glance.

“I didn’t even need to make you learn a new weapon technique…”

“Stop.”

“You already know, don’t you?”

“Could we please stop here, Senior?”

“Hero Gi-jun.”

The Demon King placed her hand on the hero’s shoulder with a gentle smile.

And she spoke.

“A blunt weapon suits you better than a shield.”