I moved forward without hesitation.
A tremendous number of monsters filled my sight, swarming towards me, but I paid them no heed.
As the monsters approached closer, the black knight at my right reacted.
He smoothly drew his dark greatsword and launched a massive sword strike.
Swoosh! Crack!
The monsters where the slash passed were obliterated without a trace.
Above the knight’s head, a small status window floated.
[Serene, black knight] [Graduate] [Rank: S]
Following suit, the mage on my left side started chanting a series of spells softly.
Soon, countless magic circles appeared above the monster horde, causing a series of explosions.
Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom!
[Hong Hyun-ah, Ruby Tower Master] [Graduate] [Rank: S]
Thanks to the efforts of these two S-rank characters, the path was cleared.
And I continued on my way.
There were relentless attackers who still refused to give up and were coming at us from all sides, yet they were all repelled and annihilated before they could even get close.
There was a priestess walking right behind me.
It was all thanks to the powerful protective shield she maintained.
[Lee Seo, Saintess] [Graduate] [Rank: S]
In addition to this, if you look at the other party members, they were all plastered with S ranks as well.
In a sense, it was all natural for the monster horde before us to give way before our power.
As the pesky flies were swept away, the ruined temple came into my view.
I kicked open the half-destroyed main gate and walked inside.
In the center of the temple, there was an altar, and on it lay a gem emitting a sinister red light.
I carelessly picked it up and tossed it over my shoulder, and a woman suddenly emerged from the shadows to catch it with utmost grace.
Sharp fangs were protruding from the corners of her mouth.
[Carmilla, Last Vampire] [Graduate] [Rank: A]
Flash!
The gem that Carmilla caught emitted an explosive radiance.
It gradually shrank in size and turned into a red mist before it was completely absorbed by her.
Having absorbed the power of the gem, Carmilla opened her eyes.
[Carmilla, Vampire Queen] [Graduate] [Rank: S]
I nodded in approval as I witnessed the scene.
This makes the 1,000th one.
—MMORPG Academy <Dragon Slayer Academy>—
In this game, players grow through numerous incidents and accidents during their time at the academy.
After graduation, they are tasked with subduing various boss monsters, including dragons, on the front lines.
In this game, my role was that of a “support”.
Why, among the many classes, did I choose to be a support?
It was because this role was closely linked to my favorite content in the game.
“Hero Cultivation”.
I would take a first-year newbie NPC, freshly enrolled in the academy, and develop them into the strongest graduates and then into S-rank heroes.
And the support class was the best fit for this task.
Though It was a bit difficult in the beginning.
It is not easy for the player himself to become S-rank, let alone elevate an NPC to S-rank.
However, I poured everything I had into it and eventually succeeded in raising one, then two NPCs to S-rank.
As the number of heroes under my command grew, so did my expertise and the pace of my work.
At some point, other players began referring to me as the “S-rank Hero Factory”.
At the same time, my own power also grew stronger.
My class remained that of a support, but as I became interested in and delved into the classes of the heroes I was raising, I unexpectedly became an expert in all kinds of fields.
And so,
[Carmilla] who just achieved S-rank was my 1,000th hero.
.
A thousand S-rank heroes under my command.
The skills I learned while nurturing them numbered in the thousands.
Number one in the integrated rankings.
The strongest support.
That was me.
But even someone like me had some worries…
There’s a lack of content.
I had frequented the academy hundreds of times and nurtured a thousand heroes.
Among them were knights, warriors, mages, shamans, priests, explorers, alchemists, blacksmiths, merchants, and even farmers, coachmen, and fishermen.
All kinds of professions were included.
Having raised all of them to S-rank, I found that there was nothing left.
To be more prcise, all that was left were ordinary friends who were duplicates of the heroes I had already raised.
Should I raise the duplicates too? There are already many duplicates. But isn’t that better than doing nothing?
While I was seriously thinking about this, a note-shaped icon flashed in the corner of my vision.
This basically meant that an important notification had appeared.
[You have accomplished a great feat that no one else has before.]
[1,000 S-rank Graduates!]
[You can now undertake a special quest.]
▷Prevent the world’s destruction.
▷Difficulty: EX-rank
!!Caution!! This is a Reincarnation Quest!!
[Accept/Decline]
This is…
I had some experience in clearing S-rank quests several times before.
Even for me, who was ranked first, they were not easy tasks.
Therefore, the level above that, the EX-rank, would surely be even more difficult.
Moreover, it was a “Reincarnation Quest”.
A quest that temporarily resets almost all of a player’s stats, equipment, and skills to their initial state.
Naturally, it’s a level higher in difficulty than a regular quest that players could undertake with their full strength.
How absurdly difficult would the quest be if the “reincarnation” condition was added to the EX-rank difficulty?
But to me, that didn’t matter.
So, S wasn’t the highest rank after all.
The important revelation I just had was that above the S-rank, there exists the even higher EX-rank.
If EX-rank quests exist, then EX-rank items and skills must also exist.
And,
EX-rank heroes too.
My desire to collect them was ignited.
I just found the key to raising even stronger heroes.
To give up because the difficulty seems too high?
That would be akin to denying myself.
I chose the [Accept] option without hesitation, and then,
[The quest begins.]
I entered the world of the game.
***
I found myself in the heart of a forest, with trees lined up densely on all sides.
This was a common sight at <Dragon Slayer Academy>.
The issue, however, was the intense sense of unease I immediately felt.
For instance, I felt a gentle breeze blowing from somewhere, yet the way it tousled my hair and even the faint smell of grass carried by the wind…
This situation I was in right now felt neither like a game nor like a dream.
If my guess was right…
Could this be it?
The setting where “I became a character of the game” that you only see in novels.
I guess I have now become the protagonist of such a novel.
Perhaps this was due to the EX-level difficulty.
It would be a lie to say I wasn’t disconcerted.
But what could I do? It was the quest I had chosen.
And even if I had known this would happen, I would have certainly accepted the quest.
The opportunity to nurture an EX-rank hero held that much significance for me.
I quickly accepted the situation and moved forward.
“Status window.”
[Kim Ho]
▷ Skills
(None)
▷ Traits
(None)
▷ Equipment
Casual Clothes (F)
▷ Inventory
5 silvers
A streamlined status window greeted me.
Everything I used to have was essentially gone.
The diverse S-rank skills and traits, the legendary equipment that covered my body, and even the thousand S-rank heroes I had amassed were now nonexistent.
It was as if I had just created a new character from scratch.
While it seemed that, as a support class, I was left with nothing but a tough road ahead,
I shouldn’t be disappointed just yet.
[Reincarnation Quest Perks will be awarded.]
Even though it was termed ‘reincarnation’, they wouldn’t just throw me into an EX-level quest butt naked.
Instead of a complete reset, players are given a few “weapons” as a minimal cushion; these are the reincarnation perks.
These perks are determined by adding up existing the player’s skills, traits, equipment, and achievements.
And since there is nothing I haven’t done in this game, a seasoned player like me was awarded some valuable perks.
[You have acquired the ‘Copy-Skill’]
[You have acquired ‘Copy-Trait’]
[You have acquired ‘Amplification (F)’]
[You have acquired ‘Monarch (F)’]
[Copy], [Amplification], and [Monarch].
These were skills I enjoyed using because they were powerful and highly effective.
The decline of my rank to F, which is a measure of growth, was somewhat painful, but it was an expected turn of events for a reincarnation quest.
After all, I could always raise my rank again.
[Kim Ho]
▷Skills
Copy-Skill [0/1]
Amplification (F)
▷Traits
Copy-Trait [0/1]
Monarch (F)
▷Equipment
Casual Clothes (F)
▷Inventory
5 silvers
As soon as I finished checking my status, a message popped up as if it had been waiting for me.
[Tutorial I]
▷Objective: Survive for 10 minutes.
▷Reward: Dragon Slayer Academy New Student Kit
[Time Remaining 9:56]
Without giving me a moment to catch my breath, the tutorial quest was thrust upon me.
The goal was to “stay on the run” for 10 minutes.
Usually, the tutorial would involve surviving 10 minutes on a beginners’ training ground among the lowest-tier monsters, like goblins or trolls.
However, my current location was in the middle of an unknown forest.
Boom! Thud!
As soon as I thought of that, heavy footsteps rang out.
The sound of trees cracking and breaking added to the commotion.
Soon, a large monster emerged, tearing through the underbrush.
“An ogre already?”
“Grrrrr…”
The rank of an ogre is between C and D.
This was excessively high for a tutorial.
The creature was holding a club as big as a human body in one hand.
As soon as our eyes met, it swung the club at me without hesitation.
I quickly moved to the side, and the club, with a chilling whoosh, embedded itself in the ground.
Boom!
I ducked to avoid the club as it was swung horizontally.
As a C-D rank monster, the ogre was so strong and agile that I couldn’t be compared to it in terms of physical abilities.
Still, the ogre’s movements were monotonous, so if I could anticipate its moves well, I should be able to dodge them.
I’d like to take it down if possible.
After all, defeating something you’re not supposed to usually yields greater rewards.
But the disparity in physical abilities seemed too vast to overcome…
Should I at least give it try then?
[Copy-Trait]
For a solo support struggling to learn proper attack techniques, this was like a ray of hope.
It was a technique that literally copied the abilities of the opponent.
The skill [Copy-Skill] replicated opponents’ skills.
While [Copy-Trait] copied their traits.
However, there were some restrictions.
I had to witness the opponent’s skill or trait in action and correctly identify its name and rank.
That was why I had been dodging the ogre’s attacks until now.
From what I could estimate, this creature possessed C-rank traits.
[Activate ‘Copy-Trait’]
[Registering the target’s Trait ‘Super Strength (C)’ in the slot.]
▷Copy-Trait[1/1]
1. Super Strength (C)
A surge of power flooded through my body.
The ogre must have sensed the change in my body as it grew confused.
But that lasted only for a moment, and it resumed swinging its club wildly.
I deftly dodged its attacks while closing in.
Thump!
I landed a punch deep into its abdomen.
Once again, I deftly twisted my body, and the club whooshed past me, missing by a mere paper’s width.
Then, I drove another deep punch into the ogre’s abdomen.
After repeating this several times, I clicked my tongue softly.
“Tsk.”
The strikes felt solid in my hand, yet they failed to inflict any serious damage.
Ad when I checked the remaining time,
[Tutorial I]
▷Objective: Survive for 10 minutes.
[Time Left 06:03]
It was already nearly halfway through.
With enough time, I would have pummeled it all day to defeat it, but unfortunately, the tutorial was about to end soon.
And then, at that moment,
“ROOOOAAAAAAR!”
The ogre’s face became pale, and it trembled as if it was scared of something.
Then it hastily turned its back to me and fled the scene.
The ogre was not the kind of monster to flee after taking just a couple of punches.
So why did it react like that? Just as I wondered for the reason,
“GUOOOOOOO—!”
A deafening roar erupted overhead.
As soon as I raised my head to look upward, a huge flying object whooshed past.
“GRAWRAWRAWRA—!”
The roar sounded again.
This time, I could clearly see the identity of the flying object.
It was the strongest creature in the <Dragon Slayer Academy> game and an S-rank boss monster,
The dragon.
And not just one, but two of them.
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