The Rising of the Scythe Hero

I didn't really expect to find anyone alive — but still, I didn't slack off. I kept my Qi Control skill running at full power while wandering around the ruins, hoping to pick up even the tiniest trace of life.

Every so often I had to deal with a few random monsters drifting around aimlessly. With their "brain" — the Undead — gone, the leftovers weren't exactly dangerous.

Pretty obvious stuff, but still: magic sense worked best for spotting things like necro-monsters — more magic than life in those. Qi sense was sharper when it came to actual life, but didn't cover as much area. For now, magic sense was doing more for me, but who knows how that'll go later.

Took me almost an hour to walk the whole village. By the end, I wasn't even hoping to find anyone — just finishing the sweep to say I did. And good thing I did.

On the far side of the village — opposite from where I came in, right at the "edge" (if you can even call it that when there's no real border) — I suddenly picked up two faint sparks of life. Really faint. But there.

Under the wreckage of yet another house, I found an unconscious woman and a man holding her in his arms. She was still alive — barely. Wouldn't stay that way long if I didn't step in.

"Y-you…" The guy looked up at me, dazed, once I cleared the debris blocking their way out. "It's you… You left us behind!"

Didn't take him long to snap out of it and glare at me like he wanted to kill me.

"Yeah, I did. I didn't see much point in dying with you. But that's not what matters right now." I glanced at the woman — probably his wife. "She's dying. You don't want that, do you?"

"W-what? You… you can save her?" His anger vanished instantly, replaced with confusion — and maybe a flicker of hope.

"Yeah. But first, I've got a few questions."

Yeah, I know — total bastard move. But I didn't really care. I was going to help her anyway. I did feel kinda responsible for what happened. Sure, I know no one else could've handled it better than I did — especially not whoever the villagers could've paid to help. I did everything I could. But hey — human emotions suck. And I don't think I'm that heartless.

"Questions? Seriously?! She's dying! She needs help!"

"She'll be fine — if you stop wasting time and just answer what I ask."

"Ghh." He shot me another angry glare — but bit his lip and kept quiet.

"There we go. First question — do you know a guy named Gray? He's gone missing."

"Gray? Yeah, of course I know him. What do you need?"

"His wife said he got mixed up with some shady people before he disappeared. You know anything about that?"

"Me — no. But my neighbor, Alan, might. He and Gray were pretty tight before he vanished."

"That house next door?" I pointed at the building where — in what could only be described as a stupidly lucky coincidence — I was also sensing life. A much stronger presence, too, meaning whoever was there wasn't in any real danger.

"Yeah... But I doubt you'll get anything out of him now."

"We'll see about that."

"Then help her already! You got what you wanted, didn't you?"

"Of course I'll help her. I'd have helped even if you didn't know anything."

"What?"

I didn't answer. Just pulled out a mid-grade healing potion. More than enough for her situation — especially with my passive skills that boosted potion effects when I used them on others. Man, I still wish I had any sort of affinity for support magic. Would make stuff like this way easier.

I gave the guy a potion too — but just a weak one. He'd only taken a few bumps. It'd be enough.

"Thank you… sir," he muttered so quietly I only caught it thanks to the Qi still flowing through my body.

I just grunted and walked toward the house next door — the last life signal in the village. But hey, three survivors after all that chaos? Kinda miraculous.

I cleared the debris and found a man who looked to be in his thirties. He had a massive bump on his head, which probably explained the whole unconscious thing. Aside from that, he looked fine — nothing life-threatening. At least, not yet.

"Hhhuh…?" A few good slaps later, he finally opened his eyes and looked around, dazed.

"A man named Gray went missing. What do you know about him?"

"What?" He shook his head and squinted at me. "Gray? H-heh..." For some reason, he let out a nervous laugh. "Never heard of him."

"Mmm… Guess we'll need to jog your memory a bit."

Without waiting, I stepped on his hand and pressed down.

"I'm in a crap mood — don't make it worse. I know you and Gray were pretty friendly. So answer the question." I pressed a little harder.

"Aggh! Okay, okay! I'll talk!"

"Great. So?"

"Gray, he… got involved with some serious people," the man said, clearly nervous. "Serious enough that I cut ties with him the moment he tried to drag me into it. You don't mess with folks like that. The fact that he hasn't shown up since kinda proves my point."

"That so…" I muttered, thinking. "Names? Who exactly did he get involved with? Where are they? What do they do? Anything you can give me."

"I-I…" He was scared. And I got that. But I needed answers. So…

"Don't make me test which one of us you're more afraid of. Because right now, I'm the one standing in front of you — not them."

"…The guy Gray was dealing with came from the village west of here. Gray started going there a lot before he vanished. He tried to introduce me to the guy — I think his name was Alfred. Always wore a fancy suit. That's all I know. Knowing any more felt… dangerous."

He wasn't lying. Regular people have super basic Qi flow, and they can't control it. Whenever someone lies, it creates little disruptions in their energy — I can sense it, plain as day.

Now, if someone can control their Qi — even unconsciously — or if they're just a natural-born liar… that's trickier. But this guy wasn't one of those.

Just as I wrapped up my questions, Night showed up — leading a small family: a little girl and her parents. Weird thing was… they didn't look like they'd just survived a swarm of undead.

The woman caught my confused look, glanced away for a second, then sighed and explained.

"My paranoid husband built a bunker under the house. He spent years fixing it up like he was prepping for the end of the world. So… yeah. That's how we survived."

I glanced over at the guy scratching the back of his head, looking like even he couldn't decide if he was a genius or an idiot.

Well… sure, why not. Stranger things have happened.

I stood there for a moment, quietly looking over the small group of survivors and piecing things together.

The village to the west… That's the direction I'm heading anyway, right?

If I'm remembering right, that's the place that's supposed to get hit by the corpse poison from the dragon Ren took down.

Now it all makes sense. Shady guy from that village. Gray going there all the time, then coming back as a damn Undead…

The dragon must've already started mutating and poisoning everything around it.

But for Gray to end up that corrupted… was he living near the dragon's corpse? Or inside it?

Weird. Really weird.

But I still had to get that core — no matter what. I'd figure out the rest along the way if I could.

As for the survivors...

"Anyone know if there's a cart left in the village?" I asked, not really talking to anyone in particular.

"Not sure, but… I think I saw one on the way here," said the guy with the doomsday bunker.

"Perfect. Go find it — we'll use it to get you all to the western village. I'll be back in an hour."

"W-wait, Mister Hero! What about…" his wife looked around nervously, like something might jump out at her any second.

"Night will stay with you. She's strong enough to handle the monsters that are still around. I'm just making a quick trip to Melromarc. Can I count on you to watch over them?" I looked at Night.

"Got it," the girl nodded.

Good. That'll do.

I stopped paying attention to the villagers' murmurs and used teleport. A second later, I was standing in front of a now all-too-familiar shop.

"Hey there, Scythe kiddo. You know, your reputation just keeps getting more impressive," Elhart greeted me.

"Hm? What is it this time?" Now I was actually curious.

"Rumor has it you attacked the Church. People are still talking about it…"

"Ah… yeah. That happened," I said with a shrug.

"Huh? So it's true?"

"In part. I needed their help, but they weren't exactly lining up to volunteer. So I had to take… an alternate approach."

"I see…" The old man gave me a look — the kind that said 'I'm not sure if I should be impressed or worried.' "Well, can't be helped, I guess. Our king sure makes some strange decisions…"

"Yup. Anyway, the reason I'm here — how are my orders coming along?"

"Two of them are ready. I had a couple good materials lying around, figured I'd put them to use. But for the rest — if you're after top quality — you'll need to bring in some better stuff."

"I've got plenty of that. Mind showing me what you've made?"

"Of course."

Elhart disappeared into his back room and spent the next five minutes digging around. When he finally came back out, he was holding exactly what I'd been waiting for.

"Here. I'd only ever heard of this kind of weapon in passing, but I think it turned out alright. Go ahead — take a look."

On the counter to my left lay two one-handed scythes with short handles. The idea for them came from a character in a game I used to play as a kid — a scythe-wielding figure who also happened to be the embodiment of Death.

Why did I think I could dual-wield weapons in the first place?

Well… that inspiration came from someone else. Grass — the Hero of Clan Fans from a parallel world. A girl who used fans as her legendary weapon — one in each hand.

Sure, you could nitpick and say that her title literally uses the plural — Fans — while I'm just the Scythe Hero, singular… but hey, rules are made to be bent, right?

"I made them using the last of the best ore I had. It's called Moon Silver. So I figured I'd call them the Moon Scythes. Hope that's alright?" Elhart scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"Fine by me. You made them — your call. And honestly, I care more about how they perform than what they're called."

"Well, they're pretty unusual weapons, so it's hard to say how effective they'll be overall. But in your hands? I'm sure they'll do just fine."

The scythe blades were, fittingly, silver — in line with the material used. The top of each blade curved into a crescent shape. The cutting edge was lighter in color, while the blunt upper side was darker and etched with some kind of markings...

"They've got a few enchantments on them — blood-repelling, sharpness, and weight reduction," he added when he noticed the way I was eyeing them.

"Sigh… Uncle, uncle." I shook my head. "I don't even know if enchantments get copied over. Or if the weapon itself can be copied at all. You really jumped the gun here."

"Well…" He scratched the back of his head again, looking sheepish. "Guess we're about to find out. Good time to test if the enchants carry over too."

Man. He really is a good guy…

What had me more unsure was the weapon sitting to my right.

Back in my old world, I used to watch all sorts of stuff — anime included. And yeah, scythes came up from time to time. They looked cool as hell, and I couldn't help but get curious. So I dug a little deeper.

And that's when my worldview got wrecked — because I found out just how useless scythes are as real weapons.

Sure, in fantasy worlds, a hero can swing one around like it's nothing, even though it's basically a giant murder-stick. But in reality? Scythes are clunky, unbalanced, and a nightmare to use in actual combat.

Lucky for me, this world runs on good old fantasy logic. Stat boosts let you swing around pretty much anything — even a stone club the size of a tree. Not to mention, Legendary Weapons adjust their weight to the wielder automatically.

Still… I couldn't help wanting to cheat a little.

Which brings us to what I was looking at now.

This particular scythe looked way more like a naginata than a farm tool. But that was the whole point — in my old world, that kind of modified scythe was called a battle scythe. If I remembered right, they were originally used by peasants who repurposed regular scythes and mounted the blades like spears.

So I asked Uncle to forge a scythe blade — but attach it in a way that made the whole thing look and handle more like a polearm.

I decided to start with that one.

Carefully reaching out, I slowly began to wrap my fingers around the handle...

That's when I felt… how do I put it… some resistance.

Like I was pushing my hand through water — thick, heavy water. And when I got just a hair's breadth away, it turned to tar.

"Oh, come on," I muttered, staring at the stone inside my Scythe. "Technically, it's still a scythe."

The stone gave off a dim pulse. For some reason, it felt like it was arguing with me.

"Yeah, okay, the blade's positioned a little differently… but it's still a scythe blade! So that makes the whole thing a Scythe!"

Another flash — this one felt less sure of itself.

Dear god, what even is my life right now?

Still, I grabbed the handle and sent out the mental signal to copy — and…

"There we go." I nodded in satisfaction as the notification popped up.

[Weapon copied – Steel Battle Scythe]

Perfect. Time for the next candidate.

"Now this one, you've got no right to complain about. Not only is it a legit scythe — it's two of them. And more is always better, right?"

Another flash. This one really gave off 'eye-roll' energy. Yeah… I might be losing it.

"Dude, are you… okay?" Even Elhart was looking at me weird now.

Not important. What was important...

"Be-au-ti-ful. Just beautiful."

...was that the dual scythes had copied successfully.

[Weapon copied – Twin Scythes of Lunar Silver]

[Skill unlocked – Twin Scythe Mastery (Lv. 1)]

Interesting.

The system gave them a different name than Elhart's, but whatever. The key thing was that dual wielding was a whole separate skill. Which, honestly, I expected.

Also — when held in reverse grip, the scythes reached about up to my shoulders.

"As for this one — the 'Battle Scythe' or whatever," Elhart nodded toward it, "I used the cheapest materials I had, since you didn't seem too sure about it. If you want a better version, like I said — bring me better stuff."

"Yeah. Good job. You really helped me out."

"Ah, don't mention it. Come by anytime."

And with that, we parted ways.

Now I just had to wait for my teleport cooldown… then finally deal with the dragon core — and maybe do a bit of amateur detective work on the side.

These next few days were shaping up to be real interesting.