“Nope.” Braun lied through his teeth, while he contemplated using his forbidden skill: Rapid Skill Progression.

“Really?” One of them asked.

“Did he make it?” Another pointed at the bleeding technomancer.

His lie managed to delude a majority of the Rare Class goons, but the Epic Class leader resisted the effect of his skill.

“Of course, he’s an otherworlder,” The Epic Class gun-wielder clicked his tongue, annoyed at his minion’s stupidity.

[Name: Ace Holcomb]

[Class: Marksman (Epic)]

[Skills: Marksmanship (B), Deadly Shot (B), Enchantment Magic (C) …]

[Unique Skills: Gun Creation, Gun Armory]

The guns he produced had a distinct smell, a smell of superpowers. It was a smell that Braun loathed in an instant.

“Who are you guys?” Braun asked, his gun still aimed at Cody Gray, yet everyone seemed to ignore that fact.

“Since you’re an otherworlder…” Ace stepped forward, grasping the rifle with one hand. “It shouldn’t hurt to tell you who we are.”

“We’re the Otherworld Alliance, transmigrators, reincarnators, people who got isekaid just like you.” He pulled back his hood, revealing a Delan face. “I’m Ace Holcomb, born and raised in Dela. You wanna join us?”

“What if I don’t want to join?” Braun asked.

“Then death.” He clicked his rifle, threatening Braun. “Though that’s usually not the case, but you just had to see this…”

“Before that, as a fellow Delan.” Braun raised his hand. “How did you get your superpowers?”

“You’re from Delan too?” Ace was surprised, lowering his gun. “Ha! Finally! Someone from my Earth!”

“Pal, am I glad to meet you.” Ace shook his head. “I suppose you died during that cataclysm?”

“Yep.” Braun once again lied.

“Heh, that really felt like the end of the world. Superpowers, gods, mythical creatures, they all just sprung up from nowhere! When one of them died, they dropped a crystal which gave me superpowers. After that, a tear in space opened, and the next thing I knew, I was here in Arte.” Ace seemed to be a natural-born yapper as he continued to ramble on about his life story.

As he listened on and on, Braun inwardly sighed as he noticed the fire in the distance.

An encounter with a hero, an Otherworld Alliance with a tyrannical recruitment policy, and a conspiracy of unknown proportions. Braun sighed and looked at Cody Gray who was probably scheming his way to escape this situation, and could tell the nanites in his body were working overtime to repair his body.

Sadly for him, Braun was having none of this. He had enough of joining organizations! He was a free spirit, a wandering wind! If he were to ever be tied down to an organization, it would be his own!

This Otherworld Alliance rubbish irritated Braun to no end, and it wasn’t something he was willing to indulge. Fuck them and the mystery behind it, he was supposed to enjoy a normal, fantasy life!

A green flame surged within his eyes as he pressed the trigger.

[Unique Skills Acquired: Augmentation, Skill Augmentation, Class Augmentation]

[Conman (Rare) -> Conman (Rare+)]

[Learning (C) -> Learning (C+), Mimic (C) -> Mimic (C+), Replicate (C) -> Replicate (C+) …]

Cody Gray croaked to his death as a bullet pierced through his head.

Green flames latched onto his body, devouring his essence, and the system that had attached itself onto him.

[Error… Error…]

The green screen glitched, while the goons of the Otherworld Alliance quickly took action.

Magical projectiles flew towards him, many of which he dodged with ease. The green flame rapidly devoured Cody Gray, and soon enough, the system returned to normal.

[Unique Skills Acquired: Hero, Nanite Production, Nanite Control]

His fortune surged uncontrollably, his talent overflowing without end.

[Dodging (F+) -> Dodging (D+) …]

Welp. Braun sighed. There’s no better time to be a hero than now!

Otherworldly nanites were formed from his flesh; matter was created out of energy; his life force was exchanged for creation. The nanites moved to his whim as they gathered around his magnum, entangling with the burning green flame.

Just like the old times, back when he first fought Christopher in Civer Forest.

This time though, Braun was far more broken and had tons of abilities he could use.

His gun quickly became a magical cannon, a mixture of magic and technology, with numerous runes placed on top. Twisting his body around, he pressed the trigger, causing beams of light to shoot out in quick succession.

[Marksmanship (F+) -> Marksmanship (D+) …]

A series of notifications appeared at the bottom of his vision, but he ignored them and continued his attack. Rare Class minions fell one by one, the beams piercing through them with deadly precision.

No matter how fast they may be, the speed of light could outrun the fastest runner. Add in Braun’s transcendental mastery of guns in general, even without the system, and the various magical enchantments he had added, then their deaths were a natural outcome.

Only Ace, the Epic Class Marksman, survived the onslaught of blows as a magical yellow barrier protected him.

“You guys really just had to ruin the mood.” Braun clicked his tongue as he walked forward without fear, his magical cannon the size of a normal pistol still aimed at the Epic Class goon. Beam after beam pushed the goon backward until his back hit a tree.

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“Wait, wait!” Ace shouted, an unnatural fear overwhelming him.

A dark red miasma overflowed from Braun, a malice so vibrant that it seemingly took on a solid form.

[Killing Intent (F+) -> Killing Intent (Z+) …]

“There’s no waiting here, runt. Because I encountered you guys, my destiny is forever polluted by yours. Me and you otherworld cunts would meet again and again in the future, pulled together by destiny, and now that I’m a hero, that’s all the more likely.” The size of the beams gradually thickened, breaking open the magical barrier surrounding the epic class bastard crack by crack.

Ace gritted his teeth, with anger overcoming his fear. “That’s right! If you kill me, you’d forever be an enemy of the Otherworld Alliance, you traitorous bastard who would target fellow Earthlings!”

Hypocrisy at its finest. It was as if he didn’t just threaten to kill Braun moments ago if he didn’t join.

“We’re under the rule of a Transcendent Class being! We have plenty of Legendary and Mythical Class members in our group! Do you really believe that you alone can contest us?” Ace threatened the reborn god.

“…” Braun smiled mockingly. “Yes.”

“…” Ace couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Did you hear me? We have a Transcendent as our leader. Demigods, fucking Demigods, are in our ranks!” Ace screamed. “And you really believe you could defeat us?”

“Of course.” Braun rolled his eyes. “What’s a Transcendent compared to me when I’m the one who caused the cataclysm back on Earth?”

“Pfft, lies-“ Now that Braun mentioned it and he looked a bit closer, the green flames dancing around the young boy seemed a lot similar to the green flames that ravaged his city back then. Not to mention the cosmic green light that covered the cosmos back then before space-time raptured…

“Oh.”

“Oh indeed.” Braun blasted the barrier apart, hitting the epic-class bastard straight in the head. A burnt skull later, and the man fell to the ground, dead.

For a moment, Braun contemplated whether he should absorb the man’s unique skills. While he couldn’t sense the existence of any crystal in the man’s body, just the mere thought of involving himself with anything related to superpowers disgusted the reborn god.

The nanites were fine because he could tell that it was a power born out of technology that had translated into a unique skill upon crossing into this world. As for what kind of past Cody Gray lived through or what universe he came from, Braun didn’t give a damn.

In the end, Braun decided practicality over his pride. He wasn’t some transcendental god right now and was just a mere worm, and the gun superpower, no, the gun unique skill gave him one more option if he ever needed one.

His buffs quickly disappeared and his classes and skills returned to normal. While that happened, he grabbed Ace’s body, bathing it in the flames of zenith.

[Unique Skills Acquired: Gun Creation, Gun Armory]

[Unique Skills: ???, Adapt, Destiny Perception, Evolve, Genius, Gun Armory, Gun Creation, Hero, Nanite Control, Nanite Creation, Prodigy, Rapid Class Progression, Rapid Skill Progression, Transcend]

Just a quick look at the number of unique skills he had made the boy gloat. He was quickly becoming overpowered, much to his dismay. The green flame on his body danced wildly, empowered by his newfound strength and progress.

This was exactly the reason why he didn’t want to grow too fast. His connection with the zenithral force would just grow, and he’d attract more danger like a magnet. Such was the fated curse of his kind.

He quickly deactivated his passive Hero unique skill, which should normally be impossible, but he had zenithral power, he could do anything. A passive unique skill could easily become an active unique skill if he wanted to. He’d much rather progress slower than get fuck over by the whims of destiny as a hero.

Feeling his overflowing talent and overwhelming destiny fade away to normal, genius levels, he breathed a sigh of relief and quickly rushed to his hometown. Nanites surged from his body; this time, they were made from mana rather than his vitality.

[Nanite Engineering (F) -> Nanite Engineering (E) …]

A series of technomancer skills popped into his mind, but he had something more important at hand. The nanites formed into a pair of rocket boots beneath his legs, and he flew into the skies, accompanied by guiding winds.

The burning town soon came into view, with bandits having ravaged the place. They weren’t just ordinary bandits, they were rare class and epic class bandits!

His vision zipped through the area, a feeling of fear overwhelming his heart.

And indeed, his fears were true.

…

A few minutes ago.

“Gyahahaha!” A bandit laughed loudly, slashing his curved blade. A crescent beam slashed through three armored men, killing them in one go.

“A Rare Class bandit!” The leader of the guard troops recognized the bandit’s class and ordered. “Follow protocol!”

Bandits focused on developing their agility and strength and were generally glass cannons. All they needed was one good arrow to the knee and they would be taken care of.

Armored guards wielding giant shields rushed to the front while archers raised their bows from behind. The bandit widened his eyes. Even if they were a Rare Class Bandit, non-magical means still held great danger to his barely supernatural vitality.

“Fool.” A giant fireball appeared out of nowhere, exploding in the middle of the guard troops, catching them off guard.

The bandit hurriedly exploited this opportunity and rushed in. His curved blade was coated in a layer of enchantment magic, and with three swings, he killed all five archers in one go. Their bodies crumpled to the ground, their blood seeping into the edge of his curved sword.

The effects of his Life Leech spell did wonders to his wounds, healing them at an accelerated pace.

“Thanks for that!” he smiled at the cloaked mage, a member of the people who hired their entire bandit group.

The cloaked mage remained silent and didn’t bother to speak, and simply started more fires in their wake.

Even this made the bandit wince at the brutality displayed by the members of that organization. Many of them spread fire or used explosives to ravage the town, killing innocents.

They’re not even gathering blood or anything, so it’s not ritualistic magic. The bandit wiped the blood away from his sword. So are they just mindlessly slaughtering these guys? Even we bandits don’t do that.

As the madness continued outside, Dwobug sneaked through the alleys and led Delmore, Erna, and other people toward his smithy.

Fire exploded from a nearby house, almost hitting Erna, but she bit her tongue and stopped herself from screaming. The Uncommon Class mage of their group helped cover them by using illusion magic, but against the sharp senses of bandits, if they weren’t careful, they would easily get discovered.

Luckily for them, they safely arrived at his smithy amidst flames and smoke. Closing the door behind him, Dwobug swiftly activated all of the runes and protections of his shop and opened the entrance to his underground storage.

“A-Are you sure you’re going to fight them, Dwobug?” Delmore asked, worried. He remained on the surface, with the rest of the non-fighters going underground.

“I may be a blacksmith now, but back in my youth?” Dwobug put on his dwarven armor and stretched out his hand, calling for his trusty hammer and array of weapons to his side. They flew from the walls, with the hammer flying into his grasp and the rest landing in the air around him. “I had been a part of the underground militia, exploring the dangerous caves of the underground dwarven empire!”

“We’ll help too!” The uncommon class mage gripped her staff tightly.

“Yeah!” Their leader, a half-human half-lion demon, a rare class Heavy Knight, brandished their great sword.

Their last member, a half-elf half-merman, an uncommon class bard, nodded to show their agreement.

“Very well.” Dwobug raised his hand, distributing his weapons and armor to them. “Put these on, you’ll need them.”

Delmore watched from the side, clenching his fists. He clicked his tongue over his lack of combat experience, before hurriedly taking out various trinkets from his storage ring.

“Put these on too, they’ll help a lot,” added Delmore.

“Thank you, Dwowbug, Delmore.” The lion human gratefully accepted the gifts.

“One more.” Delmore began to weave complex runes in the air, along with enchantment magic.

The group of four began to glow with various magical lights. Their strength, agility, vitality, mind, and soul were enhanced by many stages, amplifying their power significantly.

Grinning, Dwobug patted Delmore on the back and said, “Much appreciated for the help, my dear friend. Now go! I trust you’ll defend the rest underground.”

Delmore took one last look at his dear friend, unsure if this would be the last time they’d ever meet, before nodding his head and climbing down the ladder. Closing the entrance from above, Dwobug took a deep breath and turned to look at the entrance of his smithy.

There resided the chaos outside. If they just kept themselves safe underground, they would remain safe, but deep in their bones, the blood of heroes flowed.

“Tonight!” Dwobug raised his hammer. “We shall survive and save everyone else!”

“Ay!” The group of three adventurers agreed, raising their arms to the sky.

And so, a night filled with blood commenced.