Chapter 2: 1

CHAPTER 01: REINCARNATED AS THE WIELDER OF EXCEPTIONAL POWER

 

Worlds of swords and magic were his favorite.

Ever since childhood, the games he played were all of the fantasy genre. Even the novels he read were no different.

He was confident that he could pull off a few all-nighters if the story were about a fantasy world he enjoyed.

 

────Shiina Ren was that kind of man.

 

Naturally, he didn’t dedicate his entire time to playing games.

His usual time was spent as a fourth-year student attending a university and he had recently been busy working towards finding a job. In addition, he worked hard in his part-time job four days a week to make the best of his gaming time.

That was the case with Ren, who had left three days of the weekend free for a highly anticipated new game.

 

As soon as the date turned to Friday, he downloaded the game and continued playing it for around two days almost without any sleep until finally, on the evening of the day when he finished it, he shouted with delight in front of the TV.

“I reached the endingggggg!”

The game that Ren had just completed was a role-playing game.

It wasn’t as if he was competing with anyone, but to him, who was still in an excited state due to playing the game continuously without even taking a proper nap, it felt good to post a part of the ending screen on social media.

His manners as a gamer made him extra careful as to not post any spoilers.

“I think I might be the first one to clear this game.”

As if replying to his monologue, a message appeared on the screen right after the end credits finished rolling.

「SYSTEM: Congratulations on clearing the game. Do you want to save your clear time to the server? Yes/No」

Saying “Obviously!” Ren pressed 「Yes」 without skipping a beat. Shortly after that, a new system message popped up.

The sentence displayed on it both verified his assumption and made his heart leap with excitement.

「SYSTEM: As a reward for being on the top of the rankings, you have acquired a special DLC. Do you want to start downloading? Yes/No」

“A special DLC…… That goes without saying!”

When he pressed 「Yes」 again, a progress bar appeared on the corner of the screen showing 1%…… 2%……

He didn’t know what was inside that special DLC, but the message did say it was the reward for getting the top rank. That meant it was something no one else would be able to acquire.

There was no way his gamer self wouldn’t be thrilled by that. He also felt a sense of superiority.

“……Let’s calm down a bit.”

Ren leaned back on the sofa to calm his increasing heartbeat.

Since he had nothing to do while waiting for the download to finish, he picked up his smartphone and opened the official site of the game he just cleared.

 

【The Legend of the Seven Heroes】

According to the developers, it was going to be a fantasy RPG with a total of three parts.

The story was set in a world several years after seven people, also known as the seven heroes, subjugated the demon lord, and it focused on the growth of their descendants as they overcame various hardships. On top of having a huge amount of sub-stories, it also had an academy setting, and the players could even get into romantic relations with heroines of their liking, making it the most trending game in the world today.

 

The protagonist of that story was a country bumpkin boy with commoner parents.

During his childhood, he had awakened to a hidden power that leads him to attend the empire’s most prestigious academy located in the capital.

There, he meets with six other boys and girls that are called the descendants of the seven heroes, and the story progresses as they work towards stopping those who are plotting the resurrection of the demon lord. But in part Ⅰ’s ending, it was revealed that the protagonist was the descendant of the last of the seven heroes whose bloodline was thought to have ceased to exist────

 

The game Ren had just cleared was part Ⅱ, the sequel.

“Part Ⅱ was great as well.”

Unlike part Ⅰ which focused on the academy life and the main character’s growth, the story’s biggest uproar occurred in the sequel.

「────What a joke. I can’t believe the descendants of the heroes can’t even stop me, who is all alone.」

Ren remembered the words of the boy who had made him involuntarily put the controller down while playing part Ⅱ.

That boy was the classmate of the heroes and had first appeared as a friend character. But he killed the girl who was known as the saintess, and even took the life of the headmaster of the academy, who was considered to be the world’s strongest magician.

「You should understand this by now. You all are no match for me even if you put your lives on the line.」

He easily defeated the heroes, who were questioning his violent actions, and disappeared into thin air leaving behind those words.

Various commotions started occurring in the imperial capital after that.

He appeared in the middle of those commotions, said things with hidden implications, and even fought the heroes.

However, the game ended without revealing his true objective nor his relationship with those plotting the resurrection of the demon lord.

In the end, the emperor ordered the subjugation of that friend character, leaving the rest of the story for part Ⅲ.

 

────Even recalling that was enough to raise Ren’s excitement.

Since he wasn’t able to calm himself down, He stopped using his smartphone and picked the controller back up.

The special DLC was still downloading so he went back to the title screen to refresh his mind.

“……I don’t have anything better to do, so guess I’ll just look for hidden skills while it downloads.”

What he referred to was one of the elements that made replaying the game worth it. From the second playthrough onwards, it was possible to change the names of the main character’s skills to Japanese, as well as to create original skills by fusing up to three existing skills.

However, there were measures in place to make sure the game balance wasn’t disturbed. In particular, it was forbidden to use the names and effects of unique skills, something only special characters possessed.

Instead, hidden skills were one of the elements that could be enjoyed by combining certain skills.

 

……After that, Ren spent a few dozen minutes looking for hidden skills.

However, he didn’t obtain any results even after trying out tens, or even hundreds of combinations.

Hidden skills were designed in a way that the class name would automatically fill up if the right skills were fused, so it wouldn’t have been difficult to know if he had entered a valid combination.

“Aah, it’s no use. Nothing’s working.”

Finally giving up, he reached out to his smartphone to search for others who had also cleared the game.

But instead, he found a few interesting posts.

 

> There’s no way he isn’t part Ⅲ’s boss.

> He’s the mastermind. He’s also behind those plotting the demon lord’s resurrection (I think).

> He felt like the black ranger at the end there. Honestly, it was cool.

 

Ren found people that had watched part Ⅱ’s ending.

Some of them were gamers he had chatted with on social media. Thinking it would be okay if it were them, he sent them a message.

“Did any of you find any hidden skills? ────Oh”

He got a reply in less than a minute.

Unfortunately, none of them seemed to have found any. Ren was a bit disappointed, but at the same time, however, he renewed his resolve to find one.

After applying a few eyedrops and pulling himself together, he could see the number 99% on the screen.

“Ah, about time.”

As soon as he muttered that, the download reached 100%.

Download Finished! Ren thought this message would stay on the screen for a few seconds, but it instantly disappeared, making him feel dejected.

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He had been looking forward to the special DLC but since he couldn’t find any changes, he sighed deeply thinking it was a bug and went back to his search for hidden skills.

 

Eventually────

After a dozen more minutes, he accidentally discovered a hidden skill.

“Summon Magic Sword?”

Feeling surprised, Ren slowly tilted his head and muttered.

It was a result of fusing Swordsman, Black Magic, and Summoner.

That combination consisted of frequently used skills, so he was sure he had tried it out a few times before.

The reason he entered the same combination again was simply due to a mistake.

It wasn’t rare for that to happen while trying out hundreds of combinations. But that was all there was to it.

 

However, Ren relaxed and felt genuinely happy for having found a hidden skill. He pressed the button to select that skill, but a system message popped up.

「SYSTEM: Summon Magic Sword is a unique skill and cannot be used in normal mode.」

Thud! Ren smashed his head against the desk.

Are you kidding me?! is what he wanted to shout, but he realized something and looked back at the screen.

“Cannot be used in normal mode……? What does that even mean……?”

Thinking back, it was his first time seeing such a message.

Usually, every time a unique skill was chosen, all it said was that it cannot be selected.

Ren felt curious and tried to change the difficulty level of the game, but it showed the same message.

He thought it was a bit strange and looked at the description of the Summon Magic Sword skill.

“────It is possible to summon a magic sword. The abilities of the magic sword can be increased by increasing the proficiency level of this skill using magic stones. Furthermore, the types of magic swords can be increased if special conditions are met.”

Magic stones were the stones found inside the bodies of monsters in the game. Although they had a variety of uses, players mostly just converted them into money.

Then again, he didn’t remember any character using such a skill.

Ren frowned for a while but noticed some words floating on the corner of the screen.

 

「SYSTEM: Do you wish to start an extraordinary story with the skill Summon Magic Sword? Yes/No」

 

At first, Ren wondered what it was, but then he remembered the special DLC he had downloaded and chose 「Yes」.

“……Huh?”

Right after he pressed the button, his vision got enveloped by a pure white flash of light and his consciousness began to fade.

As soon as he laid down on the sofa, his consciousness completely cut off.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

When he came to, he found himself being bathed in hot water.

Ren tried to open his eyes and take a look at his surroundings, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t open them. Not only that, even his body didn’t move as he wanted it to.

“Young Master seems healthy. Don’t you think so too, Madam?”

He could hear the voice of an old lady.

“Yes, I’m glad. It’s a relief to know that he will grow up healthy.”

The next voice he heard was that of a young woman. However this time, it contained a hint of tiredness.

(What’s going on here?)

Ren raised a confused voice in his mind and tried to focus on his senses other than sight.

The sensations he felt were too real to be called a dream. However, his mind couldn’t catch up with the fact that he turned into a baby from his previous adult self.

Then, even if he knew it was absurd, a thought occurred to him.

(The special DLC……and the extraordinary story……)

He couldn’t help but think about it due to his current situation, which couldn’t be dismissed as a mere dream.

(Did I reincarnate?)

Since he was quite knowledgeable about fantasy stories, that was the first thought that came to his mind, but whether he could accept it or not was a different thing.

However, it was as if all of his senses, except his sight, were trying to convey that what he was thinking wasn’t unfounded and it was in fact, a reality.

(……I see.)

Now this is something. This really is a special DLC and an extraordinary story.

Ren muttered in his mind while pretending to be calm.

But then, even though it was too late, he was filled with a sense of shame.

If he was really a baby right now, then that would mean he was currently stark naked and was having a baby’s first bath or something similar.

However, all he could do about it was to flail his arms and legs.

(I want to know more about my current situation, but……)

He was surprised at how calm he was being in this absurd situation. But that might be due to the fact that an unrealistic situation was taking place and he had resigned himself because he couldn’t move his body the way he wanted it to.

(I want to know my name at least.)

With that thought in mind, Ren flailed his limbs as to pray.

As if his prayers were answered, the old lady asked the young woman, “Madam. About Young Master’s name……”

“Of course, it’s decided.”

“That’s wonderful…… Madam, it’s fine now so please try holding Young Master and call him by his name.”

Ren felt his body being covered with a soft cloth and realized that he was being lifted up.

But soon after that, he could feel warmth enveloping him, so he thought that the young woman was embracing him and he waited for his name to be called.

“This child is────”

Ren had given up trying to comprehend his current situation for the time being and was looking forward to knowing which character he had reincarnated as.

If the message were to be believed, he had started an extraordinary story with the hidden skill, so there was no doubt it would be someone important in the Legend of the Seven Heroes.

 

“Ren. He will be called Ren Ashton.”

 

Ren was dumbfounded the moment he heard the name.

「────What a joke. I can’t believe the descendants of the heroes can’t even stop me, who is all alone.」

The boy had an overwhelming strength enough to defeat the heroes all by himself, a mysterious charm, and somewhat androgynous yet dignified looks.

Besides that, he also acted as the protagonist’s friend and was the person responsible for the uproar in The Legend of the Seven Heroes Ⅱ.

 

────That was Ren Ashton.

In The Legend of the Seven Heroes, he was regarded as someone who possessed exceptional power and seemed to know the crux of the story.

Not only was he the character that shocked a lot of players, but he was also someone whom Ren felt close to and admired because their names had the same reading.

He also remembered thinking about what kind of life he would have lived if he was Ren.

(On top of it being so sudden, the one I reincarnated as is such a dangerous character? What the hell am I supposed to do now────?!) 

He had never thought those words would actually come true and was bewildered, with his mind not being able to catch up with the situation he was currently in.

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