The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 61

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 61. Midterm Evaluation (6)
Sizzzzzzle!
The sound of flesh charring away.
Gray ash poured from every pore of my body, rising as smoke into the air.
“Hah.”
I exhaled a shallow breath and gripped my sword.
Ash mixed with my exhaled breath.
My body burned hot, as if molten oil coursed through my veins instead of blood.
Ignition.
The primordial flame burned through my body at my will, slowly replenishing the mana that had been draining away.
“Grrrrr.”
The crocodile beast that had been advancing toward Yuren glared at me with wary eyes.
I exhaled a breath mixed with ash and smirked wickedly.
“What’s wrong? I told you it’s not over yet.”
I flicked the tip of my sword toward the beast in provocation.
“Grrrrr!”
The provocation had worked.
The crocodile beast that had been glaring at me crouched low and planted all four limbs firmly on the ground.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
Like a massive lizard, the crocodile beast charged forward on all fours.
As the multi-ton beast surged forward at full speed, a heavy thunderous boom erupted and pale dust scattered wildly.
“Roooaaaar!”
The crocodile beast that had closed the distance let out a savage roar and spun its body.
Its tail, covered in scales so hard they could deflect even a mana-infused blade, whipped through the air like a whip.
Boom!
The tail swung at supersonic speed.
The tail, concentrating several tons of weight into a single point, contained devastating power capable of toppling an entire building.
Even a hero confident in their strength would never dare attempt to meet such a blow head-on.
“Your strength is impressive, I’ll give you that.”
Instead, I stepped forward.
I threw myself toward the tail tearing through the air, closing the distance with a powerful stride.
I planted my feet firmly and raised my sword high.
Whoooosh!
Flames erupted, wrapping around the blade.
I brought the raised sword down in a vertical arc.
Solar Sword Form 2, Crescent Moon Slash.
The blade engulfed in flames collided with the beast’s tail, backed by several tons of force.
Crash!
A deafening explosion of sound.
My blade, which had never even pierced the creature’s eyelid before, now carved through the scales and bit deep into the beast’s tail.
“Kraaaaaaagh!”
The crocodile beast thrashed its half-severed tail violently, unleashing a anguished shriek of agony.
Had the flames dancing along my blade transferred to it?
The fire writhed greedily, coiling around the gaping wound.
“Krrrrgh! Krrgh!”
The beast tried desperately to extinguish the flames by grinding its burning tail against the earth, but the fire consuming its tail was no ordinary blaze.
From the distant past—the primordial flame said to have once incinerated the Tree of Creation.
The mythic fire, imbued with divine power, burned through the beast’s flesh regardless of whether its tail scraped the ground or burrowed deep into the earth.
“Kraaaaaaagh!”
In the end, the crocodile beast severed its own tail with its razor-sharp claws.
The beast’s tail—a weapon formidable in its own right—rolled pathetically across the ground.
“Krrrrgh… Krrgh.”
After amputating its own burning tail,
the crocodile beast turned its head toward me, breathing in ragged, labored gasps.
The creature stumbled backward, retreating step by step.
In its four pairs of eyes burned confusion and disbelief, shadowed by profound terror.
Of course.
No matter how ferocious a beast might be, it could not help but feel fear after witnessing a human who resurrects unscathed even after death, and flames that refuse to extinguish unless one tears away one’s own flesh.
“Krrrrrrrrgh!”
The beast, which had been glancing toward Yuren with conflicted eyes, suddenly spun around and bolted.
“What, you cause all that chaos and then just run away?”
I let out a hollow laugh as I watched the fleeing beast.
Even with its tail severed, it still possessed more than enough strength to continue fighting, yet here it was, abandoning the battle so readily.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Drawing a deep breath laden with ash, I kicked off the ground in pursuit of the fleeing beast.
Of course, I was hardly in pristine condition myself.
Both my arms, which had gripped the sword, were already tattered and torn, and the blade I’d used to sever the beast’s tail lay shattered on the ground.
By any reasonable measure, these were wounds that should have ended the fight.
“Heh.”
I grinned wickedly and kicked off again.
Trailing gray ash in my wake, I sprinted forward, leaped onto the beast’s back, and locked both legs firmly around its neck.
“Kraaaaaaagh!”
The beast thrashed desperately, trying to dislodge me from its neck.
Its razor-sharp dorsal scales and claws tore into my body.
But.
“Bloom.”
The more wounds I received, the thicker the ashen smoke billowed forth.
Let my body be crushed.
Let me be pulverized entirely.
Shattered, collapsed, obliterated—it matters not.
Relentlessly seizing the enemy’s lifeline and dragging it out.
That was the fighting style that allowed me—a nameless hero with nothing to my name in my past life—to earn the title “Undying Ghost” and claim a place among the Last Five Heroes.
“Hnngh!”
I drove my clenched fist downward toward the beast’s eyes.
My knuckles pierced deep through the eyelids, gouging into the eye itself.
“Kraaaaaaagh!”
The beast thrashed wildly.
I twisted my lips into a cruel smile as I poured mana into my fist.
“Berald Martial Arts.”
Mountain Breaker.
Craaaaaack!
Blood erupted with a sickening burst.
Flames blazed up, engulfing the crushed eye socket.
“Kraaaaaaagh! Krrrrgh! Kaaaaagh!”
The beast thrashed desperately to extinguish the roaring flames, but this time the fire had caught not on its tail, but on its head.
“Why don’t you try severing that head of yours?”
I let out a low chuckle, shrugged my shoulders, and kicked off from the beast’s back to launch myself into the air.
“Krrrrgh… krrgh…”
After thrashing about for some time, the beast let out a strangled whimper and collapsed.
“Phew.”
Once I confirmed the beast’s life had completely extinguished, I exhaled deeply and sank to the ground.
Hisssss. Shhhhh. Wheeeeeeze.
Had the duration of “Ignition” run out?
With a deflating sound, the ashen smoke that had been swirling around my body dissipated.
I stared down at the corpse of the beast, its head half-charred, and let out a hollow laugh.
“…So this is the power of primordial flame.”
I’d felt it even during my clash with Ashtaroth, but it was such a broken power that laughter spilled out unbidden.
‘Though the price is equally steep.’
My body felt heavy as waterlogged cotton.
Barely clinging to consciousness that threatened to slip away at any moment, I staggered to my feet.
“Ugh. I’m really dying here.”
Honestly, standing on two legs was already a struggle.
“Still, I should report this to the Academy at least.”
Right now, I didn’t even have enough mana left to activate the Hero Watch.
“Sigh. Reporting and all that—I need to rest first.”
Swallowing hard, I staggered toward the rock where Yuren lay.
“Krrrrrrr.”
“Krrr, kheung!”
“Kheung, keng!”
Once again, the cries of beasts echoed through the air.
A pack of wolf beasts emerged sluggishly from the dense thicket.
“This is insane….”
I muttered a quiet curse, turning to survey the pack of wolf beasts encircling me.
At a glance, there were easily more than ten of them.
The number of eyes varied between three and five, but aside from that variation, their overall appearance was remarkably similar.
“…Damn it.”
Once again, these were beasts without the marking that identified them as test specimens.
‘They’re the same species as the wolf beast I caught at the beginning.’
There were variants like the single-horned ones, certainly.
But most beasts, before being transformed by the Demon God’s power, inherit the instincts of their original species unchanged.
In other words.
A beast mutated from a wolf retains the wolf’s instinct to ‘hunt in packs.’
‘Did they catch the scent of their own kind and follow it here?’
After an eight-eyed beast, now a pack of more than ten wolf beasts.
“…Is this really the Midterm Evaluation Exam Site, for crying out loud?”
Where on earth were these beasts pouring out from without end?
And not even the beasts prepared for the test—these were ones that had leaked in from outside.
“Tch.”
I swallowed hard and drew a sword from Yuren’s waist to replace the one I’d shattered during the previous engagement.
The blade, which I’d wielded without effort before, now felt as heavy as if I were lifting tens of kilograms of metal.
“Hah… Damn it all.”
No matter how exhausted and drained I was, I couldn’t afford to show weakness before these beasts.
“Come on, you bastards.”
I flicked my sword toward the pack of wolf beasts surrounding me.
“Grrrrgh!”
“Krraaagh!”
Dozens of wolf beasts charged at me in unison.
And then.
Piiiiing.
A crystalline sound, like plucking a stringed instrument.
Dozens of silver threads shot from all directions, coiling around the bodies of the charging wolf beasts.
Like insects caught in a spider’s web, the wolf beasts thrashed and writhed, bound by the delicate silver strands.
Snap.
Craaaaaack!
With a finger snap, the bodies of the wolf beasts bound by the silver threads were torn to shreds.
“Sorry for the delay.”
Tap, tap.
With the sound of footsteps, a black-haired woman in a dark suit approached.
A beauty whose appearance was so striking that admiration escaped unbidden, marked by a scar running across her left eye.
It was Professor Elisha Baldwin.
“It’s too late to say it was just bad timing, isn’t it, Professor? The coincidence seems a bit too convenient.”
I turned to face Elisha and spoke in a low, measured tone.
Elisha shrugged her shoulders and answered with a composed expression.
“So you’ve already figured out I was watching from the shadows.”
“It was more of an educated guess than certainty.”
When a beast from outside the Test Site appeared, the professors wouldn’t simply stand idle.
“Hmm… but then why didn’t you ask for help?”
“Because it was only a guess, after all.”
I had suspected the professors would intervene, but I had no way of knowing exactly where they were or what they were doing.
“Especially not that they’d be watching from a distance while the Candidate fought.”
“I apologize for that part.”
Elisha continued speaking in an even tone.
“Initially, I planned to intervene at the right moment… but I never expected Dale to kill the beast alone.”
And not just any beast—an eighth-tier one that would challenge even most professors.
“A Candidate with a blessing that resurrects even in death, wielding an unknown power, while also being skilled in swordsmanship, martial arts, and magic….”
Elisha’s sharp eyes swept over me.
“What exactly are you?”
“Wouldn’t you know if you checked the Candidate roster?”
“The Candidate roster, you say.”
Elisha approached with a faint smirk playing at her lips.
She drew close enough that our noses nearly touched, then gently wrapped an arm around my neck.
“I think a more thorough investigation is necessary.”
“…Didn’t you already conduct one before?”
“That’s why I said ‘additional’ investigation.”
Her warm breath tickled my lips.
Elisha slowly tilted her head.
I pushed her away and shook my head.
“If an investigation is necessary, I’d prefer a different method.”
“Hmm. Is there something you dislike? I’m quite confident in my appearance, you know.”
“No, it’s not that kind of issue.”
How could I explain this?
If word of another kiss here reached our saintly lady, I’d be finished.
“So it’s not about appearance—meaning you find me beautiful, Dale?”
“Ah, yes. Well, you are quite beautiful.”
“Hehe, I see. So that’s how it is….”
Elisha nodded with a satisfied expression.
“If kissing bothers you, what about exchanging bodily fluids another way?”
“What method would that be?”
“For example… yes.”
Elisha glanced meaningfully down at my lower body with a suggestive smile.
“Downward, you say?”
“Pardon?”
What in the world is this person talking about?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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