The Rising of the Scythe Hero

I left the weapons Elhart made with him. Who knows — maybe he'll manage to find buyers for them. And if not, I'll just come back for them someday. They'd look nice in a collection. Plus, there's someone who might be a good candidate for copying them… but that all depends on how things go between us.

The rest of the time before the teleport I spent selling off all the leftover junk that hadn't gone into Elhart's materials. Gotta say, I was pretty glad there's no such thing as photo printing in this medieval era. Even with all the rumors flying around about me, nobody actually knew what I looked like — I'd never shown myself to the public.

When I got back to the village, I checked in to make sure the survivors were still alive and hadn't wandered off anywhere. Not that I would've stopped them if they had — if they wanted to try walking out of a destroyed village on their own, that's basically a suicide mission. Call it what it is.

I fed the Reaper Scythe parts of the Leper Undead — bit late on that one — then went around gathering up whatever was left of the monsters and gave it all to the Scythe, too. Thanks to that, I got Poison Resistance Level 3, and a few new scythes… though none of them were worth mentioning. Honestly, thanks to its Special Effect, the Reaper Scythe could easily stay one of my main weapons for a while.

Well — one of them, now.

[Twin Scythes of Lunar Silver 0/50 (D)]

[Skill not mastered. Equipment Bonus: Attack +84]

[Special Effect: Moonlight Edge (active)]

[Proficiency: 0]

The Moonlight Edge seemed to be the result of the "Sharpness" enchantment — for 15 seconds, it made the blades so sharp they could slice straight through stone like it was nothing.

The Steel Battle Scythe didn't have anything flashy going for it — not that I expected it to. It was just an experiment.

Still, Elhart wasn't the type to make junk. Even the test version met a certain standard — it was basic, but solid. Nothing more, nothing less.

Come to think of it… couldn't I technically pass myself off as the Spear Hero now?

"Master is smiling very strangely..."

"Just thought of something fun."

"I see."

With that, everything was done. Time to hit the road.

The villagers had managed to find a cart — and Night, of all people, ended up pulling it herself. Her face looked… conflicted, if anything. Which, for her, was weirdly expressive.

I guess filolials really do like pulling wagons. Still, I couldn't stop thinking about how impractical this was.

Riding on Night's back — or just teleporting — was way more efficient.

The cart only slowed us down, and worse, it couldn't even be teleported. Either it was too big for the system, or there was some "smart filter" that kept it from being selected.

Didn't matter either way — the result was the same.

Once the villagers were loaded into the cart, I took the driver's seat — and we set off.

By the way, that guy who gave me the tip about Gray — Alan — ended up choosing to go his own way. His call. I wasn't about to beg anyone to stick with the group.

Right behind me, practically at my back, I seated the man whose wife I'd healed. The anger in his eyes was long gone, and out of everyone, he felt the most trustworthy. There was also Bunker Guy, of course, but… yeah, didn't quite vibe with him.

I didn't bother asking the guy his name — no point cluttering my brain with extra stuff.

I didn't know exactly which way to go, so I let him guide me now and then, adjusting our direction as needed.

Yeah, I'm just gonna call him The Guy. Solid build, serious face, clearly loves his wife — definitely The Guy.

While we traveled, I spent most of the time generating raw materials for future forging using the system. And while that cooked in the background, I meditated — focusing on improving my understanding of Mana and Qi. Mostly Mana, actually — since I'd already gotten ahead in that department, I figured I'd stop spreading myself thin and focus on one thing at a time.

Thanks to some inner work and deep breathing, I managed to hit Mana Control Lv. 3 by the time we arrived. That meant I could now cast most spells in a shortened form, and learning new ones would go faster too.

I also upgraded the Moon Scythes a little — threw in a few attack and agility bonuses.

Still, I kept wearing my weapon in sickle-form on my belt, just in case someone decided to ID me as the Scythe Hero. Technically, I could now pass as the Spear Hero too… but we'll save that trick for later.

We made it without trouble. Most of the monsters in the area had either turned undead and were wiped out earlier — or were finished off not long ago.

The village — whatever its name was, I never bothered asking — greeted us with the kind of depressing atmosphere you'd expect. But at least there were no obvious signs of a plague, which meant I got here in time.

"You can handle things from here, or do you still need help?"

"We'll manage," The Guy nodded with confidence. "I'll speak to the local lord myself. Thank you, Hero-sama."

"Eh, it's nothing," I said, waving my hand dismissively.

"Thank you, mister Hero!" The bunker guy's daughter suddenly ran up to me and hugged me.

"E-Elis!" her mother instinctively moved toward her daughter, but froze the moment she looked at me.

I… honestly didn't know what to do with my hands.

In the end, I awkwardly patted the girl on the head, then gently turned her around and nudged her back toward her mother.

"Let's… not do that kind of thank-you."

And that was that. I made a quick exit, leaving the villagers to themselves. As I was walking away, I caught something like:

"Did he just… run away from a ten-year-old girl?"

Fools. Heroes don't run away. I simply executed a tactical retreat from a dangerous enemy.

I was feeling kind of weird, honestly. Looking at Night — even though she didn't look much older than that girl — I never felt anything like that. But with an actual kid… it just felt awkward. Kids are scary.

Not wanting to waste time, I headed for the core first. By eavesdropping here and there under Camouflage and asking a few guiding questions, I managed to figure out the general location of the dragon's corpse from the locals.

Though honestly, it was kind of obvious. Even from the village, you could see a small mountain plateau, marked by black scorch marks, craters, and unnaturally broken rock.

That's where we went.

On the way up, it became clear we were headed in the right direction — necro-affected monsters popped up in our path a few times.

They were a fair distance from the village, though. Most likely because the place was closer to a small town by structure — it had walls, a sparse but present guard force at the gates, and even a few patrols I'd run into while inside.

And in general, the local fauna… felt kind of toxic.

Reptiles with poisonous coloring, snakes, even carnivorous plants and frogs… which, by the way, Night seemed to have some real issues with. For me, though, all of it just meant more stat boosts.

"Well, damn…" I muttered as the scene unfolded before us.

Even before we reached the top, the stench of rotting flesh was thick in the air. And once we got there, we saw exactly where it was coming from.

A massive carcass — just starting to decompose. Skin and muscle already peeling away in some places, exposing the insides. A few bones were broken and scattered, chunks of flesh clearly dragged off by the local wildlife.

But the real valuables had already been stripped from the dragon. No claws, no fangs, no heart, nothing. Just meat and bones — and not even all of them.

Even if this dragon were to come back to life, it'd be way weaker than it was in life. And if Ren managed to beat it using just his own powerups… then I should definitely be able to handle it.

Only… there was one very important thing missing from this rotten pile.

There was no core.

"Well, that's just great…"

"Master?"

"Looks like someone got here before us. And I really don't like where this is going."

This wasn't how the future was supposed to play out. Without the core, the dragon shouldn't be able to come back. I clearly remembered that in the original story, Filo was supposed to swallow the dragon's core. But now… it was gone.

That left two options.

First — the canon left something out. Someone might have gotten to the core off-screen and brought it back to the dragon later.

Second — the story had already gone off-script. Now I was dealing with the unknown.

Could be anything, really. From a random animal dragging off the core, to some global cult with Lovecraft-level ambitions.

Brr…

But for now, I pushed those creepy thoughts aside. Should I do something with the dragon remains? Hm… maybe I should try feeding everything I can to the Scythe.

Meat, bones, a few scattered scales I found lying around, a single horn, and a claw I pried off a frog at the base of the mountain… I fed it all to the weapon — and in return, unlocked a few more scythes.

But that still wasn't enough to unlock a full-fledged Dragon-branch Scythe.

My guess? Either I'd need to feed the Scythe an entire dragon, or all of its key parts — core, heart, and brain (probably). Which, obviously, this pile of meat didn't have.

Once I was done "cleaning up" — just to make extra sure this thing wasn't coming back — I figured it was time for a little analysis.

So, we've got Gray — an ordinary village guy who got mixed up with the wrong crowd and ended up dying in a pretty unpleasant way. Then Gray's corpse reanimated, soaked in death energy, and changed so drastically it looked like he'd been at ground zero of whatever caused the corruption. Which would most likely be the core — if that really was the source behind the necro-monsters.

What does that tell me? Either Gray died next to the core, or someone brought his body there afterward. Either way, someone deliberately connected him to the core.

That "someone" could be Alfred — the guy always wearing formal suits, and apparently tied to a gang hanging around near this village.

So, long story short — I need to find Alfred. And then have a very thorough conversation with him. Might even have to… encourage him to talk. But that's fine. I'll manage.

Welp, looks like I'm gonna have to play detective for a bit. Never thought I'd be doing this kind of thing in a fantasy world. Life's got some weird twists, huh?