Reincarnated Hero System

“Well, was that enough of a demonstration?”

He paused, then glanced at the remaining embers.

“Oh, and by the way, I was holding back by, like, 50%.”

Beatrix blinked, taken aback by the sheer power of the spell that Evan had just displayed. She exchanged a glance with Artemisia, who remained as unreadable as ever, though there was the slightest narrowing of her eyes in acknowledgement.

Still determined not to let Evan have the last word, Beatrix crossed her arms and spoke.

“Alright, alright, you made your point.”

She wanted to continue speaking after a short pause, but again, she was cut off as a piercing screech filled the air.

Evan’s fiery display had attracted more than just the attention of the two girls, and from above, a massive flying creature swooped down, spewing a torrent of flames directly at him.

The boy only waved his hand and deflected the attack, swatting the flames aside as if they were nothing more than smoke in the breeze.

He prepared to retaliate, flames beginning to swirl around his arm when Beatrix’s urgent shout stopped him in his tracks.

“Wait, Evan! Don’t use flames against that thing! It’s a flame eater!”

Evan paused, a questioning look in his eyes as he glanced back at her.

“A Flame-what now?”

Before Beatrix could explain further, the creature dove at him with jaws wide open, ready to tear into him. It never got close, however, as Artemisia partially activated her Unique Skill and a massive arm construct of lightning slammed into the monster, sending it crashing into the ground with a heavy thud.

Then, Beatrix continued her explanation.

“A flame-eater absorbs fire. If you use flames against it, you’ll only make it stronger.

It’ll just throw your attack back at you. To kill it, you need to use an element it’s weak to, like ice.”

“Ice, huh? Well, I could simply use my Harbinger of Ice skill—”

Evan’s reply stopped mid-sentence, his words faltering as he remembered something crucial. The Harbinger of Ice was a skill he had mimicked from Silverwing.

Using it would require his Mystic Eye of Mimicry to be activated, revealing the symbolic mark in his eyes—something he had yet to disclose to Beatrix and Artemisia.

His expression shifted into a contemplative frown as he fell silent, placing his left hand on his chin and tapping his forehead with his right index finger.

As Evan thought, the flame-eater shook off the blow and rose again, preparing to launch another fiery assault. But before it could attack, Evan raised his hand, summoning Everlasting Chains, which shot out and wrapped around the creature, binding it tightly.

With a casual, almost dismissive gesture, Evan grabbed the monster’s massive jaw in his right hand and slammed its mouth shut with such force that the bones in its elongated snout snapped audibly.

The sheer power of his grip caused the creature’s spine to crack, and its entire body went limp in his grasp.

“Shut up for a second, I’m trying to think.”

Evan muttered, more to himself than the dying beast, while Artemisia and Beatrix exchanged a silent glance, watching in surprise as Evan calmly snapped the monster’s bones, killing it in one swift motion.

Finally finishing with his internal debate, Evan glanced down at the now lifeless creature.

“Oh, it’s dead. Well, it was less than half my level anyway, so no EXP.”

Turning back to the girls as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened, he smiled.

“All right, let’s keep moving. Where’s that cave again?”

“…About 300 metres out.”

Beatrix responded after a short pause and Evan patted his horse, directing it. He released a small surge of magic power, spreading it out around him until he detected a hollow area up ahead.

In less than a minute, they reached their destination and Beatrix pointed at the dark opening at the base of the mountain.

“Right here.”

With a snap of her fingers, soft orbs of light magic floated from her palm, illuminating the way as they stepped inside. The warm, golden light reflected off the damp, uneven walls, casting long shadows and revealing the natural curves and bends of the cavern.

Artemisia’s gaze swept over the walls of the cave, her usual composed expression softening with interest.

“We should explore the cave network a bit more this time.”

Her voice echoed lightly against the stone and Beatrix shrugged and agreed.

“Sure, why not? I can map the place out with my spatial magic. We’ll know exactly where we are, and we won’t get lost.”

She created a small, shimmering three-dimensional model of the caves in her palm, ready to update it as they moved deeper inside.

Both girls turned to Evan and he also shrugged, not particularly bothered by the little extra trip.

The narrow tunnel they initially entered soon opened up into a series of interconnected chambers, the air growing cooler the further in they went.

Stalactites hung from the ceilings like jagged teeth and strange mineral formations glistened under the soft light, making the cave feel almost alive.

At times, the path split into multiple directions, but Beatrix, true to her word, marked each turn with her magic, ensuring they could retrace their steps.

Suddenly, as they wandered through another section of the cave, they stumbled upon something unexpected—a crumbling stone structure hidden within a larger chamber.

At first, it was just a lone pillar, worn smooth by time, but as they moved closer, the cavern widened into a massive underground city, long abandoned.

Ruins of an ancient Aramisian civilization lay before them.

Buildings carved into the stone stretched in every direction, their weathered facades telling stories of a once-thriving society now lost to history.

The remnants of streets and alleyways wound between the structures, leading deeper into the heart of the mountain.

Artemisia’s eyes lit up in a rare display of excitement. Without a word, she quickly pulled out her tablet, her fingers moving across the screen as she began taking notes and sketching rough diagrams of the ruins.

Her natural curiosity took over as she moved ahead of the other two and catalogued every detail, from the inscriptions on the stone walls to the architecture of the crumbling town. This was a treasure trove of history, and her explorer’s spirit had been fully awakened.

Beatrix watched her for a moment with a smile, then turned to Evan.

“Well, it looks like we’re not leaving anytime soon. Might as well see what else is here.”

Clearly, this wasn’t the first time she had seen Artemisia get like this and Evan just silently watched the teenage goddess get down from her horse and begin moving on foot.

The entire city had enchanted crystals embedded into the cavern ceiling, and these natural formations served as the city’s lighting.

But this light didn’t reach inside the buildings so they had to use their magic to create light to see. Beatrix did this with one hand while tracing the stone with her other as if to feel the history embedded in it.

Evan lingered a few steps back, his mind swirled with thoughts.

‘Guess I can use this opportunity.

It’s my greatest asset and I’ve barely used its power since arriving here, can’t have that.’

He glanced in Artemisia’s direction and saw her scribbling on her tablet with a pen as she studied one of the relics they’d discovered.

As he watched her, he realised something about her writing.

‘She’s using that language…’

The same one in which the magic circle for the spell that sent him back in time was written. The same one that marked his eyes when his Mystic Eyes were active.

‘Better now than ever.

I’d rather get it over with now than wait until things spiral out of control and I can’t control the narrative.’

With that decision made, the boy put his hands into his pockets, acting like this was a causal stroll through the park, occasionally whistling an aimless tune.

After about 30 minutes, they left the main town and headed into a small chamber tucked deeper into the cavern, where ancient relics lay scattered across the ground, half-buried in the dust of centuries.

Artemisia’s eyes lit up at the sight of them and she rushed into the chamber.

Beatrix followed her with a warm smile, helping the girl move some things out of the way with her spatial powers. Evan, on the other hand, leaned against one of the stone pillars, watching them with amusement in his eyes.

“Wow, you two look like archaeologists about to make the biggest discovery of the century.”

Artemisia didn’t respond, completely engrossed in jotting down notes in her notebook, while Beatrix shot him a look but said nothing.

Evan wandered over to one of the relics, a small, unimpressive-looking object. He picked it up, turning it over in his hands.

“Ooo, I wonder what kind of ancient powers this thing has.”

He spoke dramatically, holding it up as if it were some sacred artifact and Artemisia gave him a side glance, her voice distracted as she responded.

“Put that down, Evan. You don’t even know what it does.”

He shrugged but didn’t listen, twirling it between his fingers.

“Maybe it’ll reveal some long-buried secrets of the past.”

With a playful flourish, Evan waved the relic in front of his face like a magician performing a trick. A mischievous spark lit up his eyes as a golden symbol appeared in his grey irises.

“Tada! Ancient relic reveals Hero secrets! Who knew?”

His voice was teasing as he looked directly at them and Beatrix turned towards him, her expression moving from mild amusement to shock as her gaze locked onto his eyes.

Her mouth fell open, and she spoke with a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

“Wait… Evan, what’s that in your eyes?”

Artemisia, who had been ignoring him up until now, finally glanced up from her tablet. Her gaze locked onto his eyes, and the tablet slipped from her fingers, forgotten.

As the Daughters of the Supreme god Rulers of Aidos, they were privy to planetary secrets that most were not aware of.

For example, the names of the powers that the Planet’s Five Heroes possessed, which wasn’t common knowledge. The most that Race Lords and even some Aidosian Race Kings knew was that the Heroes had ‘Mystic Eyes’—they didn’t know which Mystic eyes they had.

The recognition hit Artemisia immediately and a mutter escaped her mouth unconsciously in a voice barely above a whisper.

“That symbol…”

She recognized it.

How could she not? It was in a language she was just writing in.

An Aidosian Shorthand Language that allowed one to represent entire words with single letters.

In the future, this language was Ancient and Forgotten, but in this current time, it was far from forgotten.

The letter in Evan’s eyes, was the letter representing Mimicry.

She didn’t doubt it as it was a direct answer to a question she and Beatrix had about Evan—the answer to why he had so many skills.

Artemisia knew that the power of the ‘Second’ of Aidos’ Five Heroes possessed a power relating to ‘Mimicry’ and thinking about Evan’s absurd skill number, she guessed that they must be able to use that power to mimic other people’s skills.

Now, Evan was certainly not the only person in the Universe with these Mystic Eyes, but he was surely the only one who had the ‘Mimicry’ in his eyes written in this shorthand language.

Besides the current ‘Second’ Hero of this time who was somewhere on Aidos, in the other half of the Galaxy.

Evan just laughed, the light from his Mystic Eyes seemingly shining bright enough to cast a glow across his face.

“Surprise! Surprise!”

Beatrix blinked at his casual attitude, her confusion deepening.

“Wait, you’re a hero from Aidos?”

And Evan shrugged, acting nonchalant despite the weight of his revelation.

“Yep. Hero of Aidos.”

Artemisia’s mouth hung open for a second, and she shook her head as she tried to process what she was hearing.

Evan was hiding his Mystic Eye of Mimicry because future Artemisia had obscured his status to prevent her past self from discovering his origins from Aidos. However, since Evan had decided not to ‘do whatever it took to survive’, holding back his power was no longer an option.

His Mystic Eyes were connected to a good portion of said power, including Unique Series Skills of his, like Harbinger of Ice which he had almost used earlier.

As such, he had to reveal the truth at some point, regardless of the past Artemisia finding out. He also wanted to control the narrative of how he revealed it.

“You’re from Aidos? You said you were from Earth-V.”

Considering Evan had not explicitly told Artemisia this, he guessed she must have heard it from Arthur. Then again, it was not a lie.

“Oh, I am.”

“…”