Heroic Chronicle of the Reincarnated Demon General

Chapter 8

[You have awakened the Hero skill.]

That notification remained in Luke's field of vision for close to a minute before eventually disappearing, after which his status board automatically opened itself.

|Name- Luke

Race– Human

Gender– Male

Age– 16

Level– 14

Health– F+

Energy– E+

Strength– F+

Agility– F+

Durability– F+

Skills– Hero.

Innate Ability– Mystic Eyes of Truth.|

His eyes moved toward the bottom of the board, where he noticed something new right above the line listing his Mystic Eyes.

When he’d checked his status board after waking up in the morning, the skill category had the word ‘None’ written there. But now, the word ‘Hero’ had taken up its place.

"I actually got the Hero skill," Luke muttered in disbelief, completely ignoring the jump in his stats.

‘How is this possible?’

Luke was confused for several reasons, the first of which was the fact that he'd never heard of a situation in history where more than one Hero existed at the same time.

The widespread belief throughout the world was that only one Hero could exist at any given time, and Judith was already that Hero.

Luke had confirmed this through his Mystic Eyes of Truth, having seen her status board and the Hero skill listed on it, so he knew without a doubt that Judith was the Hero.

How, then, had he also become one?

What exactly had caused him to suddenly awaken the Hero skill?

Recalling the flow of ambient magic power he'd detected moments before the notification appeared, he quickly realised that the two events were undoubtedly related.

Was that strange flow of magic power the world itself recognising him as a Hero? If so, why had it done that now, and what condition had he fulfilled to become one?

He thought back to everything that had happened immediately before the Hero skill's awakening, and his expression turned confused as he remembered his final thought before the sudden awakening.

"I vocalised my intention to kill the Demon King. Is that why?"

Shaking his head, he quickly dismissed the possibility.

‘There’s no way I’m the only person in the world who has vocally expressed a desire to kill the Demon King.

Many other people want the Demon King dead, and there are probably others who hate him even more than I do, but none of them had awakened the Hero skill as a result.

So why did I awaken the skill? What’s different about me?’

Luke continued standing there, attempting to figure out what could have possibly caused him to awaken the Hero skill, when a horrible premonition suddenly crossed his mind.

"Wait, why am I working under the assumption that there are two Heroes? Did something happen to Judith?"

The moment that thought entered his mind, he immediately kicked off the ground and dashed toward Iva's house.

He barged through the entrance without even bothering to close the door behind him, rushing through the rooms until he reached the guest room where he and Judith had spent the previous night.

"Judith!" he shouted as he kicked the door open, looking around warily with magic power gathered around his hands.

However, he found no signs of danger or anything that suggested something had gone wrong, while Judith, who was now awake and sitting on the bed with her hands in her hair, blinked in shock at his sudden entrance.

"Luke? What's wrong?" she asked, slowly releasing the rubber band she'd been about to use to tie her hair.

Seeing that Judith was perfectly fine, Luke heaved a relieved sigh before activating his Mystic Eyes to examine her status board.

|Name- Judith

Race– Human

Gender– Female

Age– 16

Level– 12

Health– F+

Energy– E+

Strength– F+

Agility– F+

Durability– F+

Skills– Hero.|

As always, her stats were completely disproportionate to her level, especially since E-Rank stats normally only started appearing after Level 20. Aside from that, just as Luke had seen every other time he'd checked her status, the Hero skill was still listed there.

‘So there really are two Heroes,’ Luke thought to himself.

"Luke, are you okay?" Judith asked, pushing the blankets off her legs as she attempted to get off the bed.

Luke immediately rushed toward her and stopped her before she could get up.

"Oi, what the hell do you think you're trying to do?"

He grabbed her with both hands with the intention to force her back down onto the bed, but the moment he touched her, a jolt of energy suddenly ran through his body, making him instinctively release her.

Judith also flinched at that moment, clearly having felt something similar, and her eyes widened as she looked up at Luke.

Seeing the expression in her eyes, Luke immediately realised what had happened.

‘Oh, she knows.’

Judith, tilting her head slightly to the side, asked slowly, "Luke, you... you have my skill?"

There had clearly been some kind of resonance between the two Heroes, triggered the moment he'd touched her.

Luke exhaled softly before sitting down on the bed beside her and answering, "Yes. For some reason, I awakened the Hero skill as well."

There was no point in hiding the truth from her.

Upon hearing his answer, Judith looked momentarily surprised, then suddenly, her expression brightened.

"You actually got it!"

She immediately grabbed him and pulled him into a tight hug, exclaiming, "We just talked about this yesterday, and you actually got it!"

Her words reminded Luke of their conversation the previous day, when he'd jokingly said that he might awaken the Hero skill as well.

However, who could have imagined that he'd actually end up awakening it?

‘This situation still makes absolutely no sense to me.’

Even now, a part of Luke’s mind was still occupied with questions about how two Heroes could exist simultaneously.

‘Is there some kind of drawback to this? Is the power of the Hero skill split between the two of us? That would be horrible if that was the case…’

Luke's mind was busy considering every possible explanation, but Judith didn't seem particularly concerned about any of those questions.

She was simply happy that Luke had awakened his skill, and even happier that he'd obtained the same one she possessed.

Pulling back slightly, she smiled and said, "Now there won't be a problem with me taking you along on my heroic journey."

Luke chuckled softly at her words before smiling and muttering, "Heroic journey, huh?"

He thought about the plan he'd devised to develop Judith's power, a plan that relied heavily on the knowledge he possessed from his previous life, including the locations of certain special items, the existence of certain valuables, and the timing of events that were going to happen over the coming decade.

He knew about secret dungeons, the locations of hidden artifacts, and the timing of opportunities that could help someone grow stronger if they knew how to take advantage of them, and he'd been planning to direct all those resources towards Judith.

Now that he'd become a Hero himself, he needed to reconsider and adjust his plans accordingly.