Reincarnated Hero System

Evan’s eyes opened to a cloudless, starless, darkened sky above.

His body felt as heavy as lead, and pain signals rushed to his brain from different parts of his limbs.

Tilting his head slightly to the side, he realised he was hanging from a tree. One of his legs was caught on a thick branch above, while the other dangled below, tangled in vines and smaller branches.

“…hahhh…”

He sighed, not because he was stuck in a tree. That was the least of his concerns.

The real issue was that he couldn’t feel his left forearm.

That usually meant one of three things. Either the arm was paralysed, the nerves were completely severed due to a break, or it had been sliced off entirely.

Shifting his gaze to his left side, Evan found his answer.

‘Scenario 2, huh?”

His left elbow joint was bent in the opposite direction.

Sighing once more, Evan forced his right hand up, ignoring the shard of metal piercing his lower arm and stuck it into his inventory.

He pulled out a small first aid box, opened it, and retrieved a syringe. After removing the cap, he plunged it into his left shoulder and waited until he lost all feeling in the rest of his left arm.

After temporarily killing his pain receptors, Evan then proceeded to use his right hand to grab his left forearm and twist the elbow back into place.

Then, he activated his skills.

“Mesarthim: GREEN. Paladin.”

His whole body was wrapped in the green flames of life, though the focus was on his left arm. The Paladin skill’s limited healing dealt with the minor injuries, while Mesarthim took care of the more severe damage.

While this happened, Evan stayed hanging in the tree, quietly waiting for his wounds to mend.

He lifted his eyes to the dark, crimson-tinted sky, an exhausted sigh escaping his lips.

Even while hanging from the tree, he could feel the pull of gravity that was stronger than that of any Prime World he had visited since arriving in the past. The ambient energy concentration surpassed all of them as well.

There was also the scent of scorched earth rising from below and faint traces of negativity filling the air.

Sighing for the fourth time, Evan muttered to himself.

“This is definitely the Infernal Dimension…”

Once again, he had no definitive proof, but he was fairly certain.

‘Reddish sky, half-dead trees all around, burnt soil, and the overwhelming negativity in the air. This place just screams ‘Infernal Dimension’.’

Evan thought back to the last moments before his memory cut off—before waking up here, tangled in this tree.

The explosion that had erupted in those few short seconds.

‘What the hell was that? A star going supernova? But there was no star nearby to begin with…’

Evan had no idea that a singularity like himself had been created somewhere out in the universe. And even if he did, he wouldn’t have cared.

His immediate condition took priority.

‘I’m very much alive, which is…surprising.

I don’t recall having enough time to cast Spell Number 4. VIOLET also hasn’t activated either. Even GREEN’s Last Stand didn’t activate.

So I can conclude that despite that crazy explosion, I somehow didn’t die, or even come close to the brink of death.’

As he pondered the strange circumstances of his survival, Evan reviewed his memories, and it didn’t take him long to discover how he had survived.

Within those last moments before everything went black, Evan’s body had been pulled by two distinct forces.

The first:

‘Arthur. I saw him do something with his forearm guard… Stellar Guard, he called it? He must have been trying to use the shield on me.’

As for the second…

This one made Evan frown.

‘I was pulled through space right before I blacked out. Right before that explosion, which should have killed me by all rights, reached me.’

Evan now remembered the familiar pull of the laws of space and time that had gripped him just before losing consciousness.

It was like what he had felt when he was sent back in time. The force had been weaker than Eon Sunder Regressio’s, but still strong enough to pull him out of a space where even universal laws were breaking down.

‘I doubt I was the only one who got pulled.’

To confirm this, Evan activated a skill.

‘Track Down.’

At once, the markers he had placed on each of the five in his group lit up in his mind, showing their general directions.

‘Everyone’s alive. That’s good. But this also confirms we’re not the only survivors. Artemisia and Beatrix were far away from Arthur and me, yet they still ended up in this place, wherever this is.

It’s safe to assume a lot of other people on the ship got pulled through space as well, though…’

He glanced at his still-healing arm and sighed for the nth time.

‘They’re probably injured as well.’

Normally, the first step here would be to regroup, but that would have to wait until he was fully recovered.

Now, one might wonder why Evan, who had thousands of potions in his inventory, was using his magic power on Mesarthim instead of saving it, especially in an unknown environment.

It wasn’t because the damage was beyond what vitality potions could handle, but because Mesarthim had far greater speed and efficiency compared to the potions.

He waited until Mesarthim had finished mending his bones and reconnecting the nerves before deactivating the skill. Then, lifting his right hand, he brought out a few potions from his inventory to treat the remaining flesh damage.

Using his teeth, Evan yanked out the piece of metal embedded in his right arm, tossed it aside, and sprinkled a potion over the wound while sipping another.

The painkiller’s effect faded, and sensation returned to his left arm.

‘That hurts…’

It really did. It hurt like hell.

Evan pushed himself up, jumped down from the tree and landed on his feet, only to fall to his knees a second later.

And so began Evan’s struggle to adapt to the increased gravity. Considering his wounds had only just finished healing, his adjustment was even slower than it should have been.

It took nearly a full minute before his body acclimated enough for him to stand again and scan the area around him.

The first thing that caught his attention was the massive trail torn through the trees ahead, clearly the path his body had carved as it crashed through them before finally coming to stop in the one he’d woken up in.

‘So I didn’t fall in from the sky…’

The trajectory didn’t match that of a straight fall.

Evan traced the line of wrecked trees, glancing down at his scorched clothes and peeling off the half-burnt, torn mask on his face.

He continued along the ruined trail for over a hundred metres, moving slowly while using his energy to resist the strong gravity. He staggered more than once, misjudging how much power was needed each time, until he finally reached the spot where the destruction became total.

Everything in that stretch had been either burned to ash or flattened. The ground was scorched black, and the space itself was visibly distorted.

At the centre lay a massive crater, easily 500 metres wide at first glance, making the place resemble the aftermath of a powerful bomb blast.

‘I got blasted through space then.’

Evan came to this conclusion as he continued his slow gravitational adaptation walk, covering another 500 metres before stopping at a natural clearing.

It wasn’t large, about 20 metres wide, but that was more than enough. He didn’t need an open field anyway.

He cut down the lone tree in the centre, leaving behind a flat stump, then took a seat on it and began pulling items out of his inventory.

A table. A chair. Packaged meat. Pasta. Spices. Some vegetables.

Right now, Evan just wanted to eat. He’d eat, get some sleep, and only then start thinking about his current situation.

As he began chopping vegetables, his thoughts drifted to the days he used to watch Eliza cook back at home, and a wistful sigh left his lips.

‘Fuck…this is why I usually try not be alone.’

Being alone always brought back memories of those he’d left behind in the future, and with them, his many worries for how they fared.

He shook his head, brushing the thoughts aside, then went back to dicing onions and tomatoes.

Opening his inventory again to retrieve a bowl, he froze for a moment before sighing in exasperation.

Clearing his throat, he spoke aloud.

“So, two possibilities. Either you’re natives of this planet, which I have no idea where in space it even is, or you’re cultivators who got shipwrecked on the way from Denerth, like I was.

Whichever it is, I don’t have any hostility toward you, so how about you tone down yours?”

He set the bowl down on the table and began rinsing a handful of green peas in it while continuing to speak.

“If you’re cultivators, then I’m guessing you’re just as tired, and probably just as banged up as I was. So instead of speaking with swords, how about we use words?

I’m almost done with dinner anyway, so you might as well come join in. I’m sure you’ve got your own supplies, and if there’s anything you want to cook, I’ve got a stove.”

With that, Evan pulled out a tabletop stove, checked the magic stone powering it, then set it down with another irritated sigh.

“You’re making me feel like I’m talking to myself out here like some crazy guy.”

He followed up by retrieving a frying pan and a bottle of oil, pouring the oil into the pan. Just as he capped the bottle, his brow lifted, and he muttered,

“And now there’s more of you…”

Sure enough, the number of presences in the trees had increased by three.

Evan could tell they weren’t monsters. His energy detection field, which they likely hadn’t noticed, told him they were sentient humanoids.

The oil began to sizzle in the pan, and the sound of approaching footsteps reached his ears. Pulling out a spatula, Evan raised his gaze and met the sight of seven men and women in cultivator robes, all pointing weapons in his direction, hostility practically pouring off them.

The one who looked to be their leader stepped forward and spoke.

“Leave all your supplies here, and you’ll walk away with your life.”

At this, he stared at him for a second before shaking his head.

“The first time was a request. This time, it’s a warning.”

Tone down your fucking hostility, or I’ll roast you all from limb to limb.”

Evan’s voice stayed as casual as ever, even while threatening—no, warning them. He slipped the oil bottle back into his inventory, and his relaxed demeanour only seemed to rile up the cultivators around him.

“You arrogant piece of—!”

“To hell with this kid!”

Their anger and frustration over being stranded in this unknown place, losing all their supplies and provisions, and the growing envy toward Evan, who clearly had plenty, boiled over, causing them to snap and charge at him.

But before any of them could get close enough for their blades to reach, Evan exhaled.

In the next instant, there was a bright flash of light, followed by a loud chink as the entire area around him was sealed beneath layer upon layer of ice.

The seven cultivators surrounding Evan were now frozen solid, encased in thick layers of ice like sculpted statues, completely immobilised as frostbite began creeping into their limbs.

“I really like my appearance, you know?”

Evan spoke casually, his tone light as if he were chatting with acquaintances, knowing fully well they could hear him even while frozen.

“I like looking young. But sometimes, it pisses me off since people equate ‘youth’ with ‘weakness’.

You probably looked at me and thought, ‘Just some lone teenager, probably a spoiled young master. How strong could he really be?'”

As he talked, he coated his meat in spices and dropped the pieces into the frying pan with a soft sizzle.

“True, I’m a teenager. But about how strong I am? Well… you fucked around, and now it’s time to find out.”

With those words, the ice around their bodies instantly evaporated, and before they could even think, prismatic flames engulfed them, eliciting agonised screams as the flames consumed flesh and bone alike.

“I did say I’d roast you from limb to limb, didn’t I?”

Evan kept frying his meat while the cultivators burned and screamed, their flailing bodies crashing into nearby trees and sparking a small forest fire.

Unbothered, he cast a basic wind spell to blow the stench of charred flesh away from his cooking spot, adjusting the heat beneath the pan to get the perfect sear on the meat.

By the time he was done, the cultivators had become corpses, and Evan casually turned his attention to his boiling pasta like he hadn’t just roasted seven people alive.

As for the spreading fire, he simply froze the area with ice magic to keep it from going any further.

Minutes passed in silence, then another presence entered his range.

“Hello there.”

Without even looking, Evan lifted the pot of pasta off the stove and spoke to the newcomer.

“Are you going to join me for dinner, or join them in the afterlife?”

For a moment, silence reigned. Then, a response came.

“…I’ll join you for dinner.”

“That’s good to hear.”