ALL NOVEL C2
“…Thank you for your hard work this semester. Let’s meet again in good health next semester.”
The last lecture of the semester had ended. The professor closed the book and left the classroom.
Students gathered in small groups and headed out, but I remained sitting in my seat, staring vacantly.
My classmate, Ki-tae, approached with a mischievous grin.
“Hey.”
“Hyung, you’ve got a lot on your mind, huh?”
“Drinking yesterday was a mistake. I told you to drink in moderation.”
Ki-tae nudged me in the ribs with his elbow. What’s with the sudden poking?
I pushed him away lightly with my right hand.
“I really do have something to think about.”
“So, you’re not coming to the end-of-semester gathering?”
“I want to be alone. Please leave me alone.”
Ki-tae shook his head.
“Man, you’re really strange today. I’ll head out first. If you change your mind, just message me.”
I waved him off indifferently.
End-of-semester gathering? Drinking?
I couldn’t focus on any of it right now.
‘I’m the reincarnation of a Demon King…’
The death of the “Demon King” had felt as real as if it happened right before my eyes.
Along with the intense light that covered my retinas, my mind was filled with the memories of my past life—the memories of the Demon King, Deimos, and the knowledge and experiences he had accumulated.
It was like inserting a backup of data into an empty computer hard drive.
‘Except the pain… I almost thought my head would explode from it.’
I pressed my scalp with my right hand. It felt so hot I was worried it might be burned.
The aftermath of absorbing so much information at once.
Even now, the knowledge of my past life swirled in my mind.
But…
“Phew.”
I took a deep breath and tried to calm my mind.
The past life was the past life.
Right now, I was living as me, Jeon Min-cheol.
The fog that had clouded my mind cleared up instantly. After stabilizing my wavering self, the first thought that came to mind was doubt.
‘This is strange. When my clone died, my soul should have returned to the original body…’
I absentmindedly touched my chin.
In my past life, as a powerful being, I needed an immense amount of energy to enter a lower dimension.
Restraint.
The rule granted to those who awakened spiritual energy and built their soul’s rank.
In my previous life, to avoid this restraint, I had placed my soul in a clone and descended to Earth. The power of the clone was much weaker than the original body, but if the clone died, the soul would remain mostly intact.
When I died at the hands of the hero, my soul should have returned to the main body, deep within Pandemonium.
‘But I’ve reincarnated.’
I clenched and unclenched my fist.
There was no doubt.
This body was a perfect human.
And there was something even stranger.
‘The hero didn’t die.’
The hero who delivered the final blow to me in my past life was still alive.
He had sustained some injuries, but he wasn’t dead.
Yet, the textbooks say that the hero died alongside the Demon King.
Thinking about it, there were more than just a few inconsistencies.
‘I don’t know. Thinking about it only gives me a headache.’
I decided to stop thinking about it.
It wouldn’t help to dwell on it, and it was a waste of time.
Quickly clearing my mind, I looked at my body.
‘This body is so weak.’
In the eyes of a demon, this body was pitifully weak.
It would fall apart with a single touch, and I couldn’t even beat a low-level demon.
That wasn’t the only problem.
‘My body is weak, and I don’t even know how to feel mana.’
Demons are born with the ability to sense mana and use it naturally as they breathe and gather energy.
Dark mana.
The source of the force that makes up dimensions, dark energy that contrasts with light.
Demons instinctively handle mana as easily as they control their limbs.
On the other hand, most humans cannot sense mana.
‘Only a very few humans can feel mana.’
Mana is a mental power.
On Earth, being a lower dimension, very few people are spiritually awakened enough to sense or control mana.
I had never been able to feel mana in my current life.
‘But now it’s different.’
Deimos.
The experiences and knowledge from my past life were imprinted in my soul.
I took a deep breath and focused.
My current body couldn’t feel mana, but the mastery achieved by my past self was embedded in my soul.
As I concentrated, mana, which I had never felt before, became clearly tangible in my hands.
[You have sensed mana. The conditions are met.]
[Awakening begins. Connecting to the Akashic Records.]
[The Akashic Records are searching for a skill suitable for the awakened soul.]
[Awakened soul, Jeon Min-cheol, has been granted the “Player” trait.]
[The Status System has been activated.]
Wait, what?
Did I just awaken?
The summer of my 23rd year.
I had awakened while simultaneously inheriting the memories of my past life.
—
I looked at myself in the mirror.
A somewhat awkward expression stared back at me.
It didn’t feel real.
I hadn’t even fully processed my past life yet, and now, suddenly, I had awakened.
‘Is awakening really this easy?’
Awakened ones.
People who can feel mana connect to the Akashic Records and are granted their respective “traits.”
Only 1% of the world’s population are awakened.
Among the various traits, it is said that more than half of those who receive traits related to combat become “Hunters” who hunt monsters. Many people desire to become awakened. I, however, easily grasped that fortune.
[Player Jeon Min-cheol can now access the Status window.]
[The Status window is a unique ability granted to you.]
[Shout “Status window” right now to check your traits.]
The Akashic Records urged me to check my traits quickly. Fine. I’ll check it.
“Status window.”
I followed the instructions and spoke the words aloud.
**Name:** Jeon Min-cheol
**Level:** 1
**Race:** Human
**Class:** None
**Stats**
Strength: 7
Agility: 6
Endurance: 6
Health: 7
Mana: 1
**Traits**
[Player]
The karma you have accumulated is so deep that it can twist the very rules of the world. Hunt monsters and earn points to change your own rules.
**Skills**
[1/1]
[Eye of Truth]
Class: None
Grade: S
Restrictions: Player Trait
View the information of any target, living or non-living, by accessing the Akashic Records.
The most noticeable thing was the trait.
“Player trait?”
By hunting monsters, I can earn points and increase my stats, enhancing whatever I choose.
I quickly realized the potential of this trait.
‘This is amazing!’
Just by hunting monsters, I get stronger. This is the kind of convenience I could never enjoy as a demon in my past life.
With a human body, there are limits to how strong I can become.
No matter how strong my traits may be,
it’s very difficult to surpass the limitations of the human race.
‘But I’m different.’
Player Trait.
By leveling up, I can strengthen my physical body and surpass the limitations of being human.
The power to change the rules of the world.
Although it’s limited to me, it’s enough.
My heart began to race.
The instincts of my past life, Deimos, surged within me.
‘I can get stronger.’
In my previous life, the only goal was to get stronger.
Thanks to the gift of the Akashic Records, I now had a way to break through my limits and grow stronger.
‘Hunting monsters increases stats… It really feels like a game.’
I chuckled.
Humans are weaker than demons.
Even an adult man can’t beat a demon that’s just past infancy.
Hunters might be different, but even top-tier Hunters can’t compete with high-ranking demons.
But my abilities are different.
Rule alteration.
By leveling up, I can amass enough power to transcend the human race.
I slowly reviewed my status window.
‘My mana is much lower than other stats.’
It seems that the reason I could feel mana was because of this.
In reality, my body had very little mana.
What I felt was the level of a newborn demon.
‘Heh, raising my mana is easy.’
In my past life, I was one of the four peaks of Pandemonium.
I had more than enough knowledge to increase my mana.
The limits of my body? [Player Trait] will help me overcome that.
I searched through Deimos’ knowledge.
‘As expected… I need to learn martial arts.’
Martial arts.
When I was dispatched to another dimension due to a past contract, I learned the art of mana manipulation from humans in the Martial World.
Was it called the Demon Cult?
Those humans were strange.
They inhaled natural mana and accumulated it inside their bodies, like demons or angels.
Martial arts were on par with how demons and angels handled mana.
In fact, it even surpassed them in some ways.
In my past life, I spent a long time there, learning and researching various martial arts.
As a result, I was able to improve and develop these martial arts into a technique superior to the demon magic arts.
‘It was because of martial arts that I could reach the peak of the Demon Arena.’
In hindsight,
maybe the answer was already decided from the beginning.
‘Today’s a good day to practice Seongcheonjoegong.’
Seongcheonjoegong is a breathing technique that draws the energy of countless stars into the spiritual world.
It was the breathwork that helped Deimos rise to the peak of the demons.
However, there are several conditions to practice Seongcheonjoegong.
One of them is time.
[PM 4:20]
Friday afternoon.
The sun was beginning to set, casting long shadows.
During the hour when the sun is closest to Earth, it blocks out the energy of the stars in the sky.
Seongcheonjoegong can only be practiced at night, when all the stars are visible.
‘I have plenty of time to prepare.’
To master Seongcheonjoegong perfectly,
I moved toward a place I had already identified.