Reincarnated Hero System

As Zara stood near the ship’s helm, her smartphone vibrated continuously, most likely messages from her subordinates, and when she picked it up to check for urgent updates, several messages from Leoniel caught her attention.

[Was that a dungeon break? I’m sensing thousands of monsters in the east, and their numbers are increasing every second.]

[I can tell you already headed there, but you might want to move faster.]

[This is probably the incident Evan mentioned yesterday. He told me he would need my presence to calm any unrest that might arise.]

When she read that final message, Zara’s eyes narrowed slightly.

It was true that a dungeon break occurring in the archipelago right now could cause many people to feel unsafe, especially those who did not live there and were only visiting as guests on the Voyager.

It was also the reason Zara had not directed all of her forces toward the dungeon break and had instead kept some spread across the other islands, even more widely than usual.

Leoniel’s message stating that this was most likely the event Evan had mentioned days earlier, the same one that had prompted the warning message he sent her on the 28th, made Zara frown.

‘Just what the hell is that guy planning?’

The thought passed through her mind a moment before she sent out orders for the fleet to increase its speed.

She also began to consider putting away her phone and heading straight toward Solen on her own.

With her speed, which was even greater on water than on land, Zara could reach Solen within a few minutes and wipe out the majority of the monsters that had broken free.

She had refrained from doing that earlier because even though she was far stronger than they were, eliminating thousands of monsters would consume her magic power, and she wanted to preserve every bit of it for the true dangers of this dungeon break, in case the situation escalated to the point where the Boss Monsters from the depths would emerge.

Those Level 800 bosses were threats that only she could deal with, and she did not want to spend more energy than necessary before confronting them, especially since Solen’s Underwater Dungeon was not one that had only a single final boss.

But just as she issued the order for the ship to increase speed, a powerful gust of wind suddenly blew from the east, and she turned her gaze toward Solen just in time to sense immense magic power rising into the skies.

All the lighthouses had their lights directed toward the ocean to illuminate the area for the combatants who would be fighting. Even so, it was still night, and all their lights combined could not match the brightness of daylight.

Because of that, even Zara, with her night vision, needed a moment to recognise what the immense magic power, which did not originate from the dungeon, was doing.

A massive wall of wind had appeared over the ocean, stretching high into the sky while encircling the entirety of Solen, which covered thousands of square kilometres.

The surrounding waters were also within its range, including the entrance to the underwater dungeon and even the perimeter Zara’s fleet had planned to establish around the islands.

Some ships had already reached their positions and begun attacking, but they were now trapped inside the wind wall, unable to withdraw if the need arose.

Zara’s ship, which had not entered the area, was now trapped outside, and when she looked upward, she saw the wall rising thousands of meters into the sky, closing together into a massive dome.

The magic power behind the wall felt unfamiliar to Zara, but she had a nagging feeling she had sensed it somewhere recently.

That feeling was confirmed when an emergency call came through her phone, and at the same moment, Varek rushed out from the ship’s bridge, shouting the same report that the Pirate Lord calling her phone was trying to deliver.

“Boss! The wall of wind! It’s Evan Eris! We just received word that he’s on Corsis now, and—!”

Varek paused and instinctively stepped back as Zara’s furious gaze landed on him, but he clenched his fists and forced himself to finish the message.

“…He’s… demanding to see you.”

When she heard that, Leoniel’s message from the previous day immediately surfaced in Zara’s mind.

[Evan’s already planning for something and would come to meet you soon.]

“You’re finally showing your true intentions,” she muttered as she turned her gaze toward the island Corsis, one of the focal points of the perimeter surrounding Solen.

Zara calmly walked across the deck in that direction and then spoke. “Varek, continue heading toward Solen. Establish the perimeter just outside that wind wall.”

“Yes, but…” Varek stepped forward and asked, “What will you do?”

Zara did not respond. She simply looked toward Corsis, sensing the immense presence that had revealed itself at the same moment Varek delivered the message, and without another word, she leapt off the deck and onto the water.

By the time Varek reached the railing while shouting, “Boss,” the only thing he saw was the parted water and the waves thrown up by Zara as she crossed the ocean at a speed that made sound itself seem snail-slow.

◇　◇　◇

It didn’t take Zara more than five minutes to reach Corsis, and as she curved around the island and headed straight for the beach where she sensed Evan’s presence, she was met with a scene that felt almost surreal.

Dozens of monster corpses, shredded as if they’d gone through a grinder, were scattered across the sand, and in the middle of it all, using a massive ice knife to remove scales from some fish-type monsters, sat the young man she had met a few days earlier.

Several of her subordinates, including some Pirate Lords, had him surrounded, their weapons raised in a hostile stance, but he didn’t pay them any mind, continuing to strip the fish of their scales.

Beside him, on an elevated platform made of rocks, lay several deboned fish-type monsters.

The moment she arrived, he finally looked up, his eyes ignoring the Pirate Lords around him and focusing solely on Zara.

“Ah, you’re finally here.”

The Pirate Lords turned and greeted her, but she waved them off and walked straight up to Evan, demanding, “What’s the meaning of this?”

Evan set aside the fish he had been skinning and wiped the scales from his hands with a rag as he replied.

“It’s my Skill. Elemental Shield. I used a wind shield so you could see through it and be aware of the situation beyond the wall.

I could have used the stronger World Isolation Barrier, the same one used during Lacertilia’s dungeon break years ago, but that barrier teleports anyone who doesn’t meet its conditions outside of it, and out here at sea, some of your men would end up in the water, which is a no-no.

So I used the Elemental Shield instead. Consider it a little help on my part to keep the monsters contained long enough for your fleet to reach position so you can bombard them as soon as my barrier goes down.”

“I didn’t ask for your help,” Zara shot back immediately. “I don’t need your help to handle a situation on my island. Your actions have only disrupted the deployment of my emergency protocols.”

Zara’s words were logical, and Evan couldn’t argue against them.

“I understand that. However, I have no choice since the threat to your archipelago is far greater than you’re expecting. If you go in unprepared, things will end badly, and right now, you’re far from ready to handle the threat to this archipelago.”

Tossing the rag he had been holding back into his Inventory, Evan met Zara’s eyes and continued.

“Even with all of your forces combined, you cannot defeat the monster that currently threatens your islands. But I can, and I will, for a price.”

Rising to his feet, Evan pointed directly at Zara, his finger stopping just a few centimetres from touching her chest as he said,

“You. You’re the price I want.”

“This damned kid!”

One of the Pirate Lords immediately snapped, drawing his curved sword, but before he could even move to charge at Evan, a gust of cold wind blew through, and the man’s body was instantly encased in layers of ice several metres thick.

Zara’s expression instantly turned ugly, her fingernails extending into claws as her hand shot toward Evan’s neck while she demanded,

“Free him. NOW!”

She could sense that the Pirate Lord wasn’t dead, only frozen, but even that was intolerable.

Evan, however, had no intention of complying.

“I’ll free him after I finish talking with you, or if only he does not interrupt our conversation again. Clearly, he is the kind that cannot hold his temper, so I doubt he won’t repeat his actions just now, and I’m not inclined to let people who attack me with weapons remain on the surface of this planet.”

He reached out and caught her hand, pushing it aside with immense strength as he continued,

“I’ll say it again. Pirate Queen, Zara Dredgesea, you cannot defeat the monster that threatens your islands.”

Zara attempted to speak, her magic radiating in blue waves across her body, but Evan cut her off, releasing his own power to match hers.

“I’m not saying you lack power. If this were a matter of raw strength, then you and Leoniel working together could eke out a pyrrhic victory at the cost of your Pirate Lords acting as nothing more than meat shields.

The reason you cannot handle this threat isn’t power, it’s compatibility. You don’t meet the requirements to confront it.

I do. I’m offering my services. I’ll save your islands, so I want you to work for me.”