UH CH 12 (Patreon)

“Let me get straight to the point. You don’t have to come to the training center starting tomorrow.”

My consciousness abruptly returned to me and yet I felt like I was swimming, floundering helplessly in a dark ocean without end.

My head was heavy, my mind was confused.

“Cain?” The voice of the manager reached me, clearly worried but I could not focus on her.

I..

I died…?

Or did I?

“Cain!?”

Someone's hand touched my shoulder, causing me to jolt awake and back away immediately.

I reached for my rifle only to realize that I had no weapon in hand.

Fuck!

The Necromancer…

“Cain! What is happening!?”

I stopped. My surroundings finally registered in my eyes and my mind and when reality finally hit me, I doubled down over and heaved.

I died.

I definitely died.

I could remember everything.

The feeling of burning my own blood. My body is reaching its limits and breaking down from the inside.

It was painful. Oh so painful. And yet I felt nothing.

Was it an illusion? A dream?

This theory was quickly filtered out as blue screens started appearing in front of me.

I was about to read them when someone shook my shoulder, bringing me out of my trance.

“Come with me to the infirmary!”

I recognized this voice. It was the manager.

Yeah. I was in her office.

Why here?

Did I really go back in time?

How was it even possible?

So many questions rushed in my already hazy mind.

“I…”

The last thing I saw as my consciousness blurred was the worried eyes of my manager.

Heh, just this sight made fainting worth it.
***

“....will be alright.”

“Are you sure?”

“Do not worry. Manager. It seems like he had a short panic attack. From the test results, his body is also quite overworked. But outside of that everything is green.”

“Thank you. I will leave now. When he wakes up, just give him those medications. It should help him regulate his stress level. Of course, I believe a change in lifestyle would be more useful.”

I listened quietly to the discussion. They should already know that I was awake. There was no way those two would not notice the change in my breathing rhythm.

When I finally opened my eyes again, I found myself alone with the Manager. She looked quite disheveled unlike her usual calm and stoic self.

“You look like you went through a storm.”

The manager adjusted her glasses, “Whose fault do you think it is?”

She released a sigh as she sat next to me.

“Sorry. I didn’t expect to faint.” Exchanging small banter with her helped me calm down a little.

“You don't have to apologize for something like that.”

She sighed once again.

“Cain… It seems like you have been overdoing your training despite all my warnings.”

“...”

“Nothing to say?”

“What can I say?” I gave a bitter smile. “I know I should rest. But how can I rest when I am so far behind? Helen and Jason are already challenging D rank dungeons. Meanwhile I am about to get fired because I produced no results.”

She winced a little, “So you do remember that.” She gave me an apologetic look.

“Cain. I have personally trained you for years and I have seen all of your struggles. When it comes to combat you are definitely a true prodigy.”

“I am not a prodigy.” I stopped her. I did not need to listen to what I already knew.

A prodigy? Don't make me laugh. I hated these terms with passion.

I trained like mad everyday from morning until night.

Studied different domains to increase the potency of my Maker class.

I even lived alone in the forest for a few months to level up my Ranger class.

I might not have been the most hardworking person in the world. I was not so arrogant that I would believe I worked harder than everyone else.

Still…

While people said that hard work always paid back.

My reality was that after all this hard work, I could only be compared to a F rank Hunter.

Of course, relatively speaking, it was very impressive. After all, this meant that my skills and combat awareness were high enough to bridge the gap between ranks.

But this also highlighted the cold hard reality.

In this world, stats were supreme.

Hard work might not betray. But there were clear limits to such.

The manager clamped her mouth shut. I hated the look of pity she was throwing at me but at this moment her pity was something I needed and something I planned to use with no remorse.

“Manager.”

If I really went back in time.

If I was truly given a second chance at life.

What should I do?

Knowing what I did.

How should I act?

“I will not fight your decision to fire me. But…”

I could cower and hide.

I could ignore him and flee.

“I need your help.”

Indeed. Flight or ignorance were the wisest decisions, in the current situation.

But….

I was not a wise man.

“I wish to have access to the Monster library up to D and possibly C rank.”

I was a Fool.

“Why?” The manager was looking at me like I was crazy. I understood why. After all, information from D ranks onwards were not easily shared.

While some information was common knowledge, there were always many secrets worth more than gold and diamonds.

Those data were slowly collected over the years after many sacrifices.

It was definitely not an easy request.

This was why I understood her. But how could she understand me?

I was nothing more foolish man who aspired to become a hunter and who decided to strive for revenge.

Whether it was a prophetic dream or I really went back in time did not matter.

To accomplish my goal, I needed more information.

Enough information about how to kill something that was already dead.

Seeing her hesitation, I placed my hand on hers and gave her the best puppy eyes I could.

“Pretty please.”

The look of disgust on her face was surely nothing but an illusion.

“One. Never do that again. This stopped working after I found you in bed with your first girlfriend.”

I gave her a sheepish grin and she facepalmed. She had been more than a teacher to me for years. She was my caretaker and the second closest thing to a mother for me.

This was why, even after she fired me last time, I could not bring myself to hate her. After all, I knew how much she fought for me despite my situation.

I waited in silence, knowing that anything I said now would change nothing.

In the end, after what felt like a few hot minutes, she finally nodded and gave me her badge.

“I will postpone the official decision about firing you to tomorrow. For now, rest two or three more hours then you can visit the library.”

She took out her badge and placed it in my hands.

“Don’t do anything crazy, okay?”

I smiled at her, giving what I thought was an angelic smile.

“I promise nothing. I am very reckless, you know?”

She chuckled, most likely thinking I was joking.

I wonder what her expression would be if she knew I wanted to hunt a necromancer.

Laughing alongside her, I glanced at the notification in the corner of my eyes.

[Bloodline, Ouroboros, Awakened.]

[Unique Class: Time Sovereign, unlocked.]

Things were definitely taking an interesting turn.