ALL NOVEL Chapter 1 - Boss Monster Killer
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[You have defeated the Boss Monster of the Trial Hall!]
[As a quest reward, you have been awarded 500 System Points.]
[You have cleared the Trial Hall! You will be transferred to the Cradle waiting room.]
The moment the giant Boss Monster collapsed to the floor, Doyun’s body was transferred to a large wooden room along with the system messages.
It was a vast space more akin to an auditorium than a room, able to accommodate hundreds of people easily.
Doyun tried pulling on the doorknob, but it didn’t budge. It seemed it wasn’t time for it to open yet.
‘A longsword is really the best.’
Doyun clenched and released his hand that had gripped the longsword, savoring the sensation from earlier.
Even on Earth, unable to forget the feel from his previous life, he had enjoyed fencing as a hobby. But of course, it couldn’t match the feeling he experienced after 25 years.
The sensation of slicing through flesh with a keen blade. The cold weight of steel. The elastic resistance of the air against the sword path.
Only now did he truly feel he had returned to his homeland.
‘Let’s see…’
He looked around.
The System had said this was the waiting room of a place called the Cradle.
Doyun was the first to clear the tutorial, thus arriving at the waiting room first.
‘There were about 3 hours left until the end of the Trial Hall.’
He sat on a wooden chair, waiting for those who would soon be transferred while organizing his thoughts.
‘Unlike my previous regression where my mana capacity was maintained, my current body is not Enoch Ruszvolnik’s, but the body of the Earthling Han Doyun.’
During the process of being dimensionally banished by the Demon Lord, his previous body was torn to shreds. Only his soul remained and was transferred to Earth, reborn as a newborn baby.
‘I have no accumulated mana, and my physical abilities are pitiful compared to my previous life. The blessing of regression I received from God is also gone. I am currently weak.’
Fortunately, the talent of this new body reborn on Earth is exceptional. But for now, it is of little significance.
To defeat the Demon Lord, he must develop this body. Build up his strength, stamina, and mana. Grow stronger.
Doyun’s thoughts turned to his comrades from his previous life. If he had their help, efficient growth would be possible, but…
‘With 100 years passed, and an ongoing war against the new Demon Lord, who knows how many guild members are still alive.’
Perhaps, except for the elves, all of them might have died.
“…”
A heavy chain constricted his heart. A sense of loss.
‘…I haven’t regained my composure.’
What was passed down through 17 regressions was not just memories and mana, but also stress.
Doyun’s cause of death in his 12th and 13th regressions was stress-induced heart failure.
Enoch, one of the top three strongest in the alliance at the time, had been brought to his knees by stress. After that, Doyun learned survival methods against stress.
The most important rule: Do not cling excessively to connections from previous lives.
But it wasn’t easy. When Doyun regressed while retaining his memories, his comrades had lost their memories and didn’t recognize him. Their reactions were painful.
However, back then, he could still meet them again and rebuild those connections.
But now, he could no longer see them again.
Having returned to his homeland, that difference felt overwhelmingly vast.
‘…’
Doyun shook his head vigorously.
‘Did I get carried away upon returning to my homeland?’
He scoffed self-derisively at his own pitiful state, then focused again on making plans.
‘If there are any surviving comrades, it would be ideal to receive their help. But in the process of approaching them, I cannot reveal my identity to those around me.’
If news of the hero’s return reached the Demon Lord’s ears, it would become difficult to preserve his life.
‘Assassin’, one of the Demon Lord’s top forces who killed Doyun in his 14th regression. Even if reborn, in his current state, he couldn’t evade that demon’s claws.
‘A dark elf with longevity, and the only one other than me who could stop him. He’s probably still alive…’
To summarize:
‘I need to grow stronger. In that process, receiving help from my previous comrades would be ideal.’
‘But I cannot reveal that I am the hero, at least until I am sufficiently strong.’
After organizing his thoughts, he felt a tinge of helplessness.
It had taken over 100 years, perhaps even 200, of repeated deaths and regressions to defeat the Demon Lord.
But this time, he lacked the blessing of regression. If he could contact God, things might change, but… he still felt helpless.
‘…Still, I have to do it.’
The sole unwavering belief that had carried him through countless pains and deaths:
To save this world.
With that single conviction, he had walked an extremely dark and difficult path. This time was no different.
To save this world he lived in, he would continue moving forward. That was all for Doyun.
“…”
After about three hours, accompanied by a flash of light, many people were transferred in. The participants of the tutorial.
‘Around 300 or so?’
There were faces he had encountered in the tutorial, as well as those he had never seen before. Of course, there were also many faces missing from those he had met earlier.
As he had sensed during the tutorial, not only humans but a diverse mix of races were present. Among them were even races that didn’t exist on Earth or in this dimension. It seemed they weren’t just summoning from Earth.
“Do, Doyun!”
The teammates who had been with Doyun rushed over, their eyes filled with shock and reverence.
A gaze Doyun, the former hero, was all too familiar with – the gaze of those seeking opportunity.
“Ho, how did you do that? You swung your sword so fast it was invisible… How can a human defeat such a vicious monster?!”
“Move aside! Doyun, are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you? I… remember you? I was worried about you until the very end…”
“Doyun, bro! Our team will stick together even after the Trial Hall ends, right? Right? Please, I’ll work really hard!”
They surrounded Doyun, causing a ruckus that almost gave him a headache. It felt like his carefully organized thoughts were being scrambled again.
The surrounding gazes turned towards Doyun. Just as he was about to stop them, sensing this wasn’t a good sign:
Creak-
“What’s with all the ruckus?”
Someone opened the door and entered the auditorium.
+++
“Huff… huff… huff…”
“Hah… hah…!”
Sticky breaths echoed endlessly from all directions.
The morning jog for physical training. Not a single apostle in the Cradle was exempt – they had to run 10 laps around the field before eating breakfast.
“Faster! Faster! Faster! Even faster!”
Annoyingly, the instructors following behind urged them to run faster in rhythm.
If any students failed to complete the 10 laps, they would remain under the instructor’s supervision to finish the remaining laps.
Called ‘apostles’, those seeking to grow stronger through the System’s power and aiming to become heroes. These fledgling apostles from other dimensions would live as students in the Cradle for 8 weeks of training to adapt and grow.
The Cradle, a place of learning for the adaptation and growth of new apostles.
The apostles of the Cradle were people who had been living well in their respective worlds until they were suddenly summoned here. Naturally, there was immense chaos initially.
To address this, the instructors maintained strict discipline, even using violence when necessary.
The first week at the Cradle focused on quelling that chaos and instilling a sense of purpose in the students.
And today, the second week begins.
“Huff! Huff! Huff! Cough!”
“Ugh… Retch!”
The morning jog ended. Everyone was gasping for breath, and those with low stamina immediately vomited.
At a glance, it seemed like excessive abuse of the fledglings, but there would be no lasting aftereffects from overtraining – healers were on standby.
“Fuck… I want to go home…”
Someone murmured with a sobbing voice.
There were reasons why the students were being put through such paces at the Cradle.
“My, my stamina leveled up! Finally out of the damn zero level!”
“Raised my pitiful zero agility level!”
They had to endure this to make their stats rise, even if only slightly.
Around 300 people had run on the field, but only two let out gasps of delight. The rest could only look at them with envious gazes.
The ‘System’, a blessing applied to accelerate the apostles’ growth, provided stat values as a clear indicator of an individual’s strength. However, raising these stats was notoriously difficult.
At least they were beginners with wide open growth potential, so training could raise their stats. But later on, even that would be impossible.
After reaching their potential limit, they would have to use special gimmicks to raise their stats further – an opportunity that only a tiny fraction of apostles could experience.
The highest recorded mana stat among current apostles was level 9, held by someone called the Lion King. That said it all.
‘…But I seem a bit different.’
Unlike the others, Doyun quietly observed the system notification before him.
[Agility stat has increased by 1 level.]
[Vitality stat has increased by 1 level.]
His body felt lighter, and the fatigue that had built up in his leg muscles mostly dissipated.
His heart rate slowed but felt heavier. With each pump, his heart circulated more blood throughout his body than before. He could feel vitality flowing through him.
[Status Window]
Name: Han Doyun
Race: Human / Divine Beast
Affiliation: –
Talent: Genius
Stats
Strength – 5 levels
Agility – 2 levels
Vitality – 7 levels
Endurance – 4 levels
Mana – 0 levels
Innate Traits:
[Trauma (Gluttony Compulsion)]
[Divine Beast]
[The First Ruszvolnik (Războinic)]
[The First Guildmaster]
[Acquired Genius]
Acquired Traits:
[Mana Deficiency]
Skills:
His stats had increased by a total of 2 levels at once.
Of course, it wasn’t always like this for Doyun either. Aside from his vitality increasing by 1 level on the second day, this was the first level-up he had experienced.
Even so, compared to other apostles, his growth rate was ridiculously high. At this point in the first week, only about 1/3 of the Cradle students had experienced stat level-ups.
‘This body has an absurdly outstanding talent.’
According to the instructors, the average stat level for new recruits was 1. If one or two of their stats were at 2-3 levels, they were considered to have been born with great talent.
If a student started with even one stat at level 4, they were essentially guaranteed to be the top of their batch. All guilds would be drooling to recruit such a genius-level talent.
But Doyun’s average stat level was a whopping 3.6. And that was after being severely dragged down by his mana level being fixed at 0 due to the acquired trait [Mana Deficiency].
‘Considering this is the body of an Earthling, these numbers are absolutely impossible.’
He had wondered if, since his soul was Enoch’s, he might have been born with a body from this world. But Doyun’s body was clearly that of an Earthling, evident from his Korean features.
And as he learned upon arriving here, Earthlings were rated extremely poorly among the diverse dimensional apostles gathered at the Cradle. So much so that they were considered only slightly better than goblins from this world.
It wasn’t a coincidence that he was born with a good body. By some providence, he was born with an outstandingly excellent body.
‘It must be because I’m a Divine Beast.’
Doyun checked his status window again.
Race: Human / Divine Beast
Innate Trait: [Divine Beast]
[Divine Beast]
(Countless races repeat the cycle of life and death in this world. Lowly goblins. Intelligent humans. Mystical unicorns. Divine beasts like dragons. And Gods.
There are differences in rank among them. An individual’s rank is determined by the amount of karma spent on their birth.
You were born with a noble, no, a sacred birth. An immense amount of karma was spent in the composition of your body. Your potential will diverge from those of the uncivilized, and all of nature will resonate with your spiritual energy.
All of this is not mere luck, but the result of karma accumulated by your soul through countless cycles of reincarnation. You are a sublime soul deserving of worship from all beings.)
He didn’t fully understand what exactly karma meant, but he could roughly infer the situation.
‘Did my defeat of the Demon Lord in my previous life influence the composition of my new body?’
It seemed likely. He would have to ask God about the details when they made contact in the future.
‘But…’
Innate Traits:
[Trauma (Gluttony Compulsion)]
[Divine Beast]
[The First Ruszvolnik (Războinic)]
[The First Guildmaster]
[Acquired Genius]
Acquired Trait:
[Mana Deficiency]
‘What’s the criteria for innate and acquired traits?’
While he could accept the others, he didn’t understand why [Acquired Genius] was listed under innate traits.
However, since it wasn’t a critical issue, Doyun didn’t dwell on it too much. He could look into it another time.
“If you’ve rested enough, move to the cafeteria! Eating well helps your stats grow better!”
“Those who overdid it during the jog, go to Instructor Laina over there for healing. Only those who really can’t breathe! Overusing healing prevents stat gains.”
Following the instructors’ calls, Doyun closed his status window and headed to the cafeteria.
+++
In one corner of the cafeteria, two instructors and four students were amicably chatting and eating together.
“How could they bring such vicious monsters to a place like a tutorial?!”
“We really came close to dying!”
“Kikikik. The little ones are so scared. More afraid of monsters than instructors?”
“Ah, no, that’s not it…”
“Monsters are scary! And the instructors are terrifying!”
“Uhahaha! Listen to this kid!”
The Titan student joked animatedly, shaking his 2.5m tall frame.
At the Cradle, instructors were generally prohibited from being affiliated with specific guilds. But this was just a nominal rule – all instructors received sponsorships from various guilds.
The Cradle, a place where all sorts of guilds cast covetous eyes in hopes of securing top talents. And the instructors, in an overwhelmingly advantageous position for scouting such talents.
Instructors essentially acted as scouts for the guilds that sponsored them, trying to recruit promising students to their respective guilds.
This gathering was part of such efforts.
By getting friendly with promising students and helping them under the guise of offering guild contracts, they could easily persuade these nervous fledglings fresh to this new world.
‘A vampire and a titan, not a bad start!’
The vampire and titan races were renowned for being well-suited as tanks.
With their innate racial traits, some basic training was enough for them to be immediately deployable. As a result, they were always in high demand by medium and small guilds.
Although two stragglers were tagging along, there was no harm in getting friendly with them too. Maintaining a good reputation would make it easier to discover other promising talents.
The only thing bothering them was that their main target, the vampire Dewshy, was simply eating in silence.
‘Ah, these vampire brats… Their arrogance matches their worth, indeed.’
Of course, they didn’t let their inner thoughts show at all.
We’ve dealt with vampires more than once or twice. This was just their innate racial temperament – he would eventually open up to our experienced guidance. That’s what the instructors thought.
The archery instructor and ranger instructor had skillfully built rapport with the four fledgling students.
“When you b*stards go out into society, you’ll face things way more terrifying than this! If you whine already, how will you make a living? Huh?!”
The archery instructor mocked them in an exaggerated tone, mimicking a nagging old man. The students, except the vampire, burst into laughter.
“But still, leaving the other monsters aside, that 7-meter wart monster! Wasn’t that just too much?”
“Yeah! My legs went numb the moment I saw it!”
“It was three times bigger than me…!”
At the students’ words, the two instructors’ eyes went wide.
“Huh? You guys encountered the boss monster?”
“Ah, so that was the boss monster? It seemed a bit too vicious.”
The two instructors exchanged glances, then quickly shot each other greedy looks.
They survived the encounter with the boss monster without a single casualty?
‘Jackpot!’
‘These guys are real gems!’
They gulped down their saliva greedily, then leaned forward, their meals forgotten, and questioned the students.
“How did you get away from it? That thing’s mobility is no joke, so retreating without a fight is impossible, you know? Did you really fight the boss monster?”
“The tank, right? The main tank must have been Gorgon, and Dewshy, you were the off-tank? Or a DPS? Huh?”
Their aggressiveness made the Titan Gorgon and vampire Dewshy instinctively flinch and pull back.
While Dewshy frowned, the other three chimed in for his share.
“Ah, no! How could we fight such a monster?”
“I, I… couldn’t even block that huge sickle…”
They trembled and spoke in weak voices.
Watching silently, Dewshy finally opened his mouth.
“…That monster was already a corpse when we saw it.”
“…What?”
At those words, the smiles vanished from the instructors’ faces.
“A… corpse?”
“You, you guys, what does that even mean?! Explain in detail! Now!”
When the ranger instructor barked, the four students flinched in surprise.
The instructors, forgetting about maintaining a good relationship with these promising students, interrogated them relentlessly.
After hearing enough explanation, they exchanged glances. Their eyes were filled with shock and elation.
In the 70 years since the System was created and the Cradle opened,
‘There is someone in this Cradle…!’
Only two had ever been produced, active as top talents second only to the generation of great heroes.
‘A boss monster killer!’
In this very batch.