Reincarnated Hero System

Mount Halburn

International Lands

March 17th

Year 1056

A day after arriving in Oradiff, Evan and Leoniel made a quick trip to the quarantined area surrounding Mount Halburn, the volcanic mountain that had erupted 52 years ago, its explosion tearing open a breach into the dimensional realm, or as Nemain called it, ‘Silo’, where an ADM had been housed.

The mountain was the highest point in the Halburn range, its massive peak dark and silent, with no smoke rising and no glow of molten rock visible, making it clear that this giant had long since gone dormant after its last violent outburst.

Deep beneath its surface, however, were chambers of hardened magma, cooled into jagged black stone, along with pockets of trapped gases and long tunnels carved by old flows of lava that had once burned through the mountain’s core.

Not far from the volcanic peak, carved into one of the surrounding mountains, was a massive hole with jagged edges that matched the rough elevation of the terrain, and over it was a semi-translucent green barrier that blocked any entry into it.

Evan looked at the barrier and appraised it, his hands sliding into his pockets as he spoke, “That’s definitely the Elven Emperor’s power.”

Leoniel glanced at it, then back at Evan. “How do we get in without breaking it open completely?”

“Right through the front door,” Evan replied, already walking away.

Left behind, Leoniel blinked in confusion, then looked around before raising his hands slightly. “What door?”

Evan didn’t respond and simply continued forward, closing the distance to the massive hole in the mountain, its edges uneven and rugged, as though something had torn it open from within.

It wasn’t part of the volcanic mountain itself but rather one of the surrounding peaks in the Halburn range, so there were no rivers of lava or blazing heat spilling out, only cold stone and the faint scent of minerals lingering in the air.

Evan stopped in front of the flat barrier, its green surface stretching across the opening, then raised his hand and pressed it against it.

A faint crimson glow spread across his hand as destruction law energy gathered, and he pushed a finger through the barrier at about waist height, then drew it upward, a bit to the right, and then brought it down to the ground.

He pulled out his finger and pushed the centre of the area he had traced, and the barrier cracked and flickered as the section he outlined broke apart like shattered glass, the fragments dissolving into particles of light.

Turning back to Leoniel, Evan answered the man’s earlier question while pointing at the opening. “That door.”

With that, he stepped through the opening, and Leoniel sighed as he shook his head before following after him.

“The Elven Emperor would sense his barrier breaking, wouldn’t he?”

“Yeah, he will. But he’s probably on the Alpha Continent with Kolvar now, and by the time he gets here, we’ll be done.”

Evan came to a stop after answering, looking around the vast interior space as he added, “This shouldn’t take long.”

Leoniel stepped in fully and was met with the sight of an artificial cavern, its walls lined entirely with metal plating, and when he looked down, he realized far more of the mountain had been hollowed out than he had expected.

The cavern extended for over a kilometre in visible length, and as he scanned the walls and floor, Evan moved straight toward the centre, ducking beneath sections of dusty scaffolding pipes as he approached a cluster of broken chains lying across the ground.

Each link in the chains measured about a metre in width, and there were close to a hundred of them scattered around, making it clear that whatever had been bound there had been enormous in size.

Evan infused magic power into his hand and, upon reaching the centre, slammed his palm against the ground.

The energy flowed into the surface beneath him, and a low rumble echoed as lines of light extended from his hand in branching paths.

Leoniel watched in silence as the golden lines spread across the ground, gradually outlining what appeared to be a massive magic circle.

When he noticed that the magic circle had more than seven rings surrounding its inner structure, he called out.

“Evan.”

“Yeah?” Evan replied, still crouched as he continued channelling power into the ground.

“What kind of magic exists above Tier 6?”

“Well, Tier 7, 8, 9, and 10, as far as I know.”

“Is that so?” Leoniel muttered, watching as the eighth ring completed itself around the circle, and only then did the rumbling cease, leaving behind a low hum as the magic circle now brimmed with energy.

Evan rose to his feet, looked around, then shook his head.

“I can make no sense of this.”

“And here I was expecting you to suddenly launch into an explanation of what the circle does,” Leoniel said, a hint of amusement in his tone, and Evan responded with a light chuckle.

“I don’t know everything, you know?”

After speaking, Evan turned his head slightly toward his left shoulder. “Kayla, if you please.”

The space around that spot distorted, and the figure of a golden-furred cat appeared as the light bending around it faded away.

Kayla opened her eyes, leapt down to the ground, and walked across the cavern, scanning her surroundings before looking up at Evan.

[This is just the spell that kept it dormant and maintains this Silo, but it’s degraded and damaged.]

“External influence?” Evan asked.

[Yes, but not artificial.]

Kayla moved toward the edge of the magic circle, tapping her paws against a cracked section before tracing the fracture lines inward toward the centre.

Evan walked up to her position, with Leoniel a step behind, both of them tracking the fracture lines with their eyes.

[The final damage that broke it was the floor crumbling. There’s no piece of the World Formation in this region, so the only explanation is tectonic plate movement from the volcanic eruption.]

Kayla leapt back onto Evan’s shoulder, then delivered her conclusion.

[This ADM’s release was not artificial. It was simply a series of naturally occurring coincidences.]

Evan exhaled at that, his relief clear as day, and noticing this, Leoniel asked, “You were thinking this might have been released on purpose?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because someone might have been trying to draw you out of hiding, force the then ‘Baron’ Franco to reveal his Sovereign Level Power.”

Evan turned and began walking back toward the opening in the barrier, and as he moved, the magic he had poured into the circle was reabsorbed into his body through his legs.

Leoniel followed, a faint frown on his face as he spoke. “And how could they have known about my power before I revealed it? I’m not one to brag, but my power concealment is impeccable even by unconventional standards.”

Evan stopped suddenly and turned around, forcing Leoniel, who was right behind him, to halt as well.

“By some unconventional standards, not all.”

He turned back and continued walking as he went on. “The ‘Fourth Finger’ of the Demonic Hand has a pair of glasses with the effect of the ‘Perfect Appraisal’ skill. It’s even better than my ‘Full Appraisal’.

It can read more of your existential records than your Status Board is programmed to show, bypassing both conventional and unconventional concealment standards.”

Evan didn’t continue after that, but Leoniel understood the reason for bringing up Cellica’s glasses.

‘The Demonic Hand has known about my power even before I stepped into the spotlight, is it?’

That thought stuck with Leoniel long after he and Evan left the Halburn Mountains and returned to Oradiff.

He only set that line of thought aside when Evan came along and asked for a tour of Oradiff, saying he wanted to see the city’s sights.

It was late evening, closing time for daytime businesses and opening hours for night-time ones, so their walk along the city’s edges had them seen by quite a few workers heading home, as well as adventurers making their way out for drinks at pubs.

They went through the various districts of Oradiff, passing from residential areas lined with modest homes to commercial areas filled with shops and factories, slowly shutting down.

At every district, Evan always stopped for a bit, his Appraisal skill active as his eyes moved across buildings, roads, and people before he resumed walking and continued the tour normally.

Each time he finished observing the city, he returned to actually taking in the sights, asking serious questions about the city, its infrastructure, and most importantly, its development, his interest growing the more he saw.

“I’m most certainly curious about how you got rid of the ‘slums’ because I’ve seen more advanced civilisations and even they had places that could be considered ‘slums’ relative to their level of civilisation.”

“Haha, can I say that’s a trade secret?”

“Oh, come on. You can’t be serious.”

Leoniel only chuckled as he and Evan made their way over to the next section of the city wall, the soldiers stationed there saluting Leoniel as he approached, and after he acknowledged them with a nod, he suddenly sensed a skill activation.

He turned back to see Evan staring at one of the barrier stones embedded along the city walls, each one part of the system that reinforced the walls with magic in the event of monster stampedes.

‘That’s working perfectly. Seems like nothing has been done, so I can safely rule out a monster stampede, can’t I?’

“What are you looking for?”

Leoniel’s question pulled Evan out of his observation mode, and he switched off Appraisal, turning to Leoniel with a smile as his mouth opened, ready to give a playful response.

But when he noticed the look in Leoniel’s eyes, any thought of joking left him, and he asked instead, “What answer do you want? The bad answer, or the worse one?”

“I’ll take both.”

“Nuh-uh. You only get one,” Evan replied, turning his gaze away as he continued before Leoniel could speak.

“I’m checking to see if the Demonic Hand has planted anything in your lands, as they did with Lacertilia, where they installed Nodes for the World Isolation Barrier, which kicked all non-monster category existences Level 400 and above out of the barrier in exchange for trapping everyone below Level 400 inside to be slaughtered by the monsters breaking out of the dungeon.”

Evan’s response made Leoniel frown briefly, then the man sighed, running his palm down his face before muttering, “As I thought…”

“As you thought?” Evan asked, turning to look at Leoniel.

“I spoke with them, the other Nobles of the Beta Continent you spoke with in Tarse, and Princess Sharon, too. I realised you revealed far less to them than you did to me, and it made me consider two possibilities.”

Lowering his hand from his face, Leoniel looked directly at Evan and continued, “Either you want to bring me onto your side because of my Sovereign Level power, or I was connected to whatever plan of the Demonic Hand you intend to stop next.”

“…”

Evan gave no response to Leoniel, and the man stepped forward, his gaze narrowing while he began to speak, “Answer me this, Evan Eris.

No deflections, no half-truths, and no answers that leave room for wrong assumptions.”

He stopped just under a metre away from Evan, the rustling night wind passing through the leaves of the trees filling the air as he finally asked his question.

“What is the Demonic Hand’s next target?”

Evan didn’t answer immediately.

The silence between them stretched for nearly a minute, and when it became clear that Leoniel wasn’t going to back down, Evan finally gave in.

He took his right hand out of his pocket and said, “The Demonic Hand’s next target isn’t just a What.”

His hand rose slowly as he went on, “It’s also a Who.”

Evan pointed with his raised hand, and Leoniel followed the direction of that point… to his own chest.

His eyes widened, realisation and surprise appearing in them as he lifted his gaze from Evan’s finger to Evan himself and asked in a quiet voice, “…me?”

“What I said earlier was the bad answer,” Evan replied. “As for the worse one…”

His words trailed for a moment, a soft breath leaving his lips before he continued, “The Demonic Hand’s next target isn’t ‘Marquis Leoniel Franco of Isolon’.”

Leoniel’s expression turned strange, and he was about to question Evan’s meaning when Evan continued, his next words sending a chill through Leoniel’s body.

“Their target is ‘Leoniel, Great Basilisk of Isolonian Legend’.”

Evan’s lips curved slightly, a faint wry smile on his face as he finished.

“So, yes, you are the Demonic Hand’s next target. You are the core of the Stone Festival.”