The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 68

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

Chapter 68. Interlude – The Furnace
My body burned as though oil had been poured into roaring flames.
“Ugh…!”
The elixir’s power coursed down my throat, surging through my meridians with violent intensity.
It was like a gentle stream suddenly flooded by a torrential deluge.
The abruptly swollen mana shook my consciousness.
‘Focus.’
I reined in the savage torrent of mana, guiding it slowly toward my stigma.
‘This is more than I anticipated.’
The mana filling my stigma felt equivalent to activating two or three mana amplifiers simultaneously, sloshing against the boundaries as though ready to overflow.
The sheer volume would normally cause a mana rampage, but ‘mana control’ was the single domain where I surpassed my peers.
‘Controlling this much mana is hardly difficult.’
I had flawlessly managed mana that swelled to near-infinity during my Incarnate state.
No matter how unexpectedly potent the elixir proved, it wouldn’t trigger a mana rampage.
‘Good. If I contain the mana within my stigma like this…’
I believed I could smoothly absorb the elixir’s power as my own.
Whoooosh!
Suddenly, the Primordial Flame erupted with violent intensity.
“Kgh! Hack!”
Excruciating agony—as though I’d plunged into a pit of fire—spread across my entire body.
‘W-what is this?’
The Primordial Flame, which had only ever responded to my death, was inexplicably reacting to the elixir?
Sizzzzzzle!
Before the question could even form.
The Primordial Flame spread through my meridians, engulfing my entire body.
Just as when I used Ignition, grey ash poured from every pore like smoke.
“Ah… ugh.”
My head burned.
My body was consumed by fire.
I couldn’t breathe.
Each cell incinerated, my very soul threatening to crumble into ash.
Nothing but heat.
Heat, heat, heat.
And then.
Crack!
The sound of bones twisting.
My muscles convulsed and expanded throughout my body, kneaded like clay by a careless child.
“…!!!”
A torrent of dizzying pain struck my mind like lightning.
I swallowed the scream threatening to burst forth, waiting for the Blessing of Resurrection to activate.
But.
‘What?’
Even as my entire skeleton twisted and my muscles and meridians tangled together, the Protection of Rebirth wasn’t activating?
‘The Protection of Rebirth… has it disappeared?’
No.
That couldn’t be.
If it were a blessing that could vanish so pathetically, I wouldn’t have wandered for thousands of years chasing death in my previous life.
‘If it hasn’t disappeared.’
Then the transformation happening in my body right now has nothing to do with ‘death’.
The moment I realized that fact, a new sensation I’d never felt before emerged from within the terrible agony.
‘What is this…?’
Crack! Crackle-crack!
The sensation of twisted bones realigning anew.
The sensation of hair, teeth, and nails that had been torn out growing back.
The sensation of skin that had been crushed and torn sprouting fresh.
For someone like me who had repeated countless ‘rebirths’ beyond counting, this should have been a sensation as familiar as breathing.
‘Something’s different.’
It’s not like usual.
My incinerated body wasn’t returning to its original form—it was transforming into something ‘new’.
‘Yes… as if.’
Being born again.
Being remade.
A new body was being born.
“Haah.”
I exhaled a low breath.
Hiss, hisssss.
The ashen smoke pouring from every pore of my body gradually subsided.
“…Is it all over?”
When I looked around and drew in a breath.
“Ugh. What is this rotten stench?”
From the gray smoke filling the room came a stench so foul it twisted my nose.
Creak.
I opened the window to expel the smoke filling the room to the outside.
Outside air seeping through the open window.
“Huh.”
Without even reinforcing my body with mana, I could smell the soup being prepared in the Student Cafeteria hundreds of meters away.
It wasn’t just my sense of smell.
The touch of air on my skin, the sound of insects chirping in my ears, the view of the Academy visible to my eyes.
It all felt incomparably clearer, as if I’d replaced an old filter with a new one.
“This is….”
I hurried into the bathroom and examined my reflection in the mirror.
My height had increased slightly, and my shoulders had broadened.
Every muscle across my entire body was positioned with divine precision, and my skin gleamed with a pristine radiance, as flawless as a newborn’s.
“….”
I’d heard of it before.
Heroes who possessed an excessively abundant amount of mana had their bodies reconstructed into vessels capable of containing that mana.
‘In my past life, even Yuren and Sophia went through the same thing.’
Of course, merely possessing abundant mana alone didn’t cause bodily reconstruction.
The body was only remade after one achieved a realm befitting that mana.
“…This elixir shouldn’t have that level of effect.”
I couldn’t deny it was the finest elixir I’d ever consumed, even accounting for my past life.
But I had possessed mana that only reached about half the Candidate Program average—there was no way this elixir contained enough mana to trigger ‘bodily reconstruction’ in me.
‘I should check how much my mana has increased.’
I awakened the mana sleeping within my stigma.
My mana had increased roughly sixfold compared to before consuming the elixir.
Since my previous mana had been about half the Candidate Program average, it had now increased to roughly three times that baseline.
‘At this level… I’m slightly below Lucas Kane, aren’t I?’
Compared to Yuren, who possessed far more mana than Lucas Kane, my mana quantity still fell short by more than twofold.
‘My mana has increased tremendously.’
Yet it wasn’t abundant enough to trigger ‘bodily reconstruction.’
“Then the bodily reconstruction happened for a different reason, not because of mana….”
It wasn’t difficult to deduce what that other reason might be.
I focused my consciousness on my left chest and awakened the power of the Primordial Flame.
The Primordial Flame, which had shown no reaction unless I experienced ‘death,’ now moved gradually in response to my will.
“Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped between my lips.
‘I never imagined I’d be able to control the Primordial Flame’s power like this.’
It was only an infinitesimal fraction compared to the full power the Primordial Flame possessed.
Yet being able to manipulate the Primordial Flame’s essence according to my will was an extraordinary transformation.
‘Then the reason I couldn’t control the Primordial Flame until now was because of my body?’
If I likened the body to a vessel, then my previous body had been insufficient to contain such a tremendous power as the Primordial Flame.
‘So this time, it completely reconstructed my body itself.’
Into a furnace capable of holding the Primordial Flame.
“Phew.”
My mind felt muddled from all these unexpected changes happening at once.
I took a deep breath and calmed my racing thoughts.
‘So to summarize the current situation.’
My pure mana quantity had increased roughly sixfold.
Though only a fraction, I could now manipulate the Primordial Flame’s power according to my will.
And my body itself had been strengthened as if mana had been poured into it.
“…Just how much stronger did I become from eating a single elixir?”
Honestly, even I couldn’t gauge the full extent of my explosive growth.
‘At this rate… have I already surpassed my previous life’s level?’
Ten years grinding as a bottom-tier mercenary after graduating from the Academy with the lowest marks.
Another ten years meeting comrades like Yuren and Berald, forming a Party, becoming one of the Last Five Heroes, and fighting the Demon God in our final battle.
I had surpassed the growth of my previous life—accumulated over more than twenty years—in less than three months since my regression.
“Well, I’m not sure if I can say I’ve completely surpassed it yet.”
Setting aside the Primordial Flame for now.
In terms of pure mana capacity alone, I had definitely accumulated more than my previous self.
‘In my previous life, I scraped together all sorts of elixirs and artifacts just to increase my mana even slightly.’
After regressing, my mana increases automatically four times a day with just a click, and from a single elixir I happened to obtain, I’ve already surpassed my previous life’s level.
If my previous self had heard this news, he probably would have foamed at the mouth in rage.
‘But that’s only when considering pure mana capacity.’
Back then, I had several powerful weapons to compensate for my insufficient mana.
For instance, a grimoire containing forbidden incantations that could only be used by sacrificing one’s life.
For example, a secret tome containing forbidden magic that could only be used by sacrificing one’s life.
For instance, a cursed armor that consumed my flesh the more I used it, and so on.
I hadn’t yet obtained the powerful weapons that had made me one of the Last Five Heroes and earned me the title of the “Undying Ghost.”
“Considering all that… I’d say I’m roughly on par with my previous self right now.”
Of course, this comparison excluded the “Primordial Flame,” which could be called an irregular power.
“Hah… I’m not sure whether to call this fortunate or hollow.”
Even so, the fact that I’d surpassed the strength I’d painstakingly accumulated over twenty years in my previous life in just three months left me feeling both exhilarated and strangely empty.
It was like watching someone who’d won the lottery and bought a house with a lump sum after someone else had spent decades saving their salary to buy one.
Of course, since I was the lottery winner myself, I couldn’t complain, but the bittersweet feeling was unavoidable.
“If there’s one drawback, it’s that I can no longer use the Stigma Amplifier.”
I turned to look at the blue glass vial carefully placed on the table and clicked my tongue.
The Stigma Amplifier was a potion that intentionally sent a stigma into overdrive, granting massive mana in an instant.
As my body was being reconstructed, the stability of my stigma had increased dramatically, making it impossible to trigger an overdrive with the existing Stigma Amplifier.
‘I could forcibly trigger it by finding stronger materials and creating a more potent version here.’
But I decided to shelve that plan for now.
After all, I’d acquired a new technique called “Ignition” in addition to the Stigma Amplifier.
“Well… now that I’ve accumulated enough mana.”
It was time to move toward the “next step.”
‘Let’s see… among the weapons I used in my previous life, which one would be easiest to obtain?’
A weapon located not far from the Academy, something I could obtain without difficulty with my current strength.
The deliberation didn’t take long.
“The Demonic Sword Beskal.”
Recalling the blade trapped deep within the Ruins, starving for blood, I felt my lips curl into a grin.

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