Book 1 Chapter 151
151.
[Strategy Reward: Folium]
The list of strategy rewards unfolded before my eyes.
Swoosh-!
Thump! Thud-!
With a bright light, four people appeared in mid-air.
“Wh-wait?”
Lunia’s bewildered cry was heard.
Unlike the general Hero’s World, Hero Dungeons, once cleared, randomly spit out the conquerors in the vicinity.
“Oh my, Lunia-yang is the lucky one.”
Elena smiled faintly, watching Lunia flailing in mid-air.
Unlike Leo, Elena, and Hardin, who landed safely on the ground, Lunia fell straight down.
She tried to use magic in a panic, but there was no time.
Thump-!
Leo opened his arms and embraced such a Lunia.
Lunia’s face turned red as she was unintentionally given a princess carry by Leo.
“Th-thank you.”
“No need to thank me.”
Leo set Lunia down.
The light of the Hero Record faded.
Flap~
However, Luna’s page fluttered down from mid-air and landed on Leo’s palm.
It was not in pristine condition, singed in various places.
The fortunate thing was that it wasn’t in a terrible state like Kyle’s page.
‘Broken things don’t return to normal, huh.’
The light disappeared from Luna’s page.
Then, darkness fell.
Seeing this, Hardin raised his hand and cast a Light spell.
Swoosh-!
The magic brightly illuminated the surroundings.
Amidst this, Lunia asked.
“Did anyone get a strategy reward?”
“I didn’t get anything.”
Hardin shook his head.
Elena said nonchalantly.
“Even if you conquer a Hero Dungeon, there’s no guarantee you’ll get a strategy reward. Especially since we barely influenced the conquest of this world, right?”
Basically, it was natural to get a reward for conquering a Hero’s World, but there were times when no strategy reward was given if the contribution to the conquest was low.
In Lunia, Elena, and Hardin’s case, they didn’t make a significant contribution to this conquest.
So, it was somewhat natural that no strategy reward was given.
“But we even defeated Erebus…”
As Lunia showed a regretful expression, Hardin crossed his arms.
“Erebus’s appearance was probably an anomaly unrelated to the conquest of that world. So, even if we defeated him, it has no bearing on the contribution calculation.”
Hardin said seriously.
“Just meeting the Progenitor and talking with her, and fighting alongside her, is an incredible experience. We even defeated Erebus, even if it was just a fragment. Moreover, we discovered the fact that Tartarus is invading the Hero’s World. This achievement is a great success that cannot be exchanged for anything else.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Nodding her head and looking at Leo, Lunia’s eyes widened.
“Wait. Leo. Isn’t that a Folium you’re holding in your hand?”
Lunia shouted, finally noticing the magic staff Leo was holding.
At that, Elena and Hardin also showed surprised expressions.
Leo looked at the Folium in his hand and said.
“That’s right. Well, it looks like an empty shell.”
As Leo said, the Folium no longer shone.
And no magic power could be felt.
Literally, an empty shell with nothing inside.
“Let me see it?”
Lunia reached out her hand with a curious expression.
Leo handed over the Folium.
“Oh?!”
Then, the Folium turned into dust of light and disappeared.
“Items obtained as strategy rewards cannot be used by others. They are items that only the conqueror can use.”
Elena, who said that, smiled brightly and teasingly said to Hardin.
“The first person in the world to receive a Folium as a strategy reward is a Lumern student, not even a Seirun student. Wouldn’t Seirun be incredibly upset if this fact became known?”
“Ugh!”
At Elena’s words, Lunia showed an exasperated expression.
Hardin stood in front of Leo with a serious face.
“Leo Flobe.”
“Yes.”
“I cannot accept that you, who interpreted the Progenitor’s magic and possess an item symbolizing the Progenitor, are a Lumern student.”
“W-wait a minute, Senior Hardin!”
Lunia, flustered, tried to stop him as Hardin, whose pride as a Seirun student was stronger than her own, spoke coercively.
Elena chuckled.
‘As expected, elves are interesting. They get defensive if you provoke them like this because their way of thinking isn’t flexible…’
“So?”
“Transfer here.”
“…”
Leo looked at Hardin with an incredulous expression.
“No. What kind of trick is this elf playing?”
Elena frowned deeply.
Hardin said, looking at such an Elena.
“Seirun’s uniform is cooler than Lumern’s uniform.”
“Who changes schools for such childish reasons? No, what’s wrong with our school uniform in the first place?”
Elena’s eyes widened.
Ignoring his bickering seniors, Leo looked around.
Lunia, who came to Leo’s side, had a tense expression.
“Where are we?”
It was a darkness with not a speck of light.
Lunia also used Light magic to examine her surroundings.
Then she found something and paused.
“This is…”
It was a statue.
“Lady Luna.”
The first thing she discovered was a statue of Luna.
It wasn’t Luna from her young girlhood, as she had been just moments ago, but ‘The Progenitor of the Nebula’ Luna, whom everyone knew.
Lunia, who had been looking up at the statue that naturally drew exclamations of admiration, searched her surroundings.
And she found another statue far away.
“This is Lord Dweno!”
His lips were stubbornly shut.
His wide-open eyes exuded an overwhelming presence at a glance.
From his hands, countless armaments were born, and those armaments became guides for the great heroes, paving their way.
“They’re statues of the Great Heroes! Seniors! Look here! There are statues of the Great Heroes!”
At Lunia’s cry, Elena and Hardin stopped fighting and approached.
And looking at the statues of Luna and Dweno, they tilted their heads.
Leo realized where this was.
‘It’s the Plaza of Heroes.’
It was a plaza that the residents of Gathron had built to commemorate the achievements of the great heroes before they set off for their final subjugation.
Leo cast Light magic.
Swoosh-!
A massive Light spell brightly illuminated the entire area.
The landscape that had been hidden by darkness was now revealed.
The full view of the great city that had endured the attacks of Erebus and Tartarus during the Age of Calamity was revealed.
“A city?”
“Where in the world is this…?”
“Look! There are statues of Lady Lysinas and Lord Arion over there too!”
Lunia pointed to the remaining Lysinas and Arion with her finger.
“And… huh?”
Lunia’s astonished gasp was heard.
Elena and Hardin’s reactions were no different.
A single statue caught their eyes.
It was a statue of an unfamiliar person.
But for some reason, it stood shoulder to shoulder with the Great Heroes as if it were natural.
‘Who in the world is this person? Why is he with the Great Heroes?’
With that question, a name flashed through the minds of the three people.
Kyle, the Hero of Beginnings.
“Le-Leo! Come here!”
Lunia said urgently, turning her head.
But Leo was standing in front of a stone monument in the middle of the plaza.
Lunia rushed to Leo’s side.
And she gasped when she found the inscription written on the monument.
-Commemorating Lysinas, Kyle, Luna, Arion, and Dweno.
Her eyes trembled at the name Kyle.
“Surely…”
Lunia swallowed dryly.
“Kyle… a real person?”
Rumble-!
At the same time as those words, the entire city began to shake.
“What?”
Lunia wore a bewildered expression.
Leo looked up at the sky.
This was Gathron.
A city that had been buried deep underground a long time ago after being attacked by Tartarus.
‘Why is it collapsing now, after enduring so well?’
He felt the barrier protecting Gathron collapse.
Leo looked at Luna’s page clutched in his hand.
‘Was the Hero Dungeon Gathron itself?’
The power of the Hero Dungeon, which warped space, seemed to have been acting as a substitute for the barrier.
If Leo’s conjecture was true, Luna’s world had been protecting the only remaining trace of Kyle in this world.
Leo gave a bitter laugh and said.
“There’s a warp gate over there!”
Leo shouted, pointing to the warp gate they had used to enter.
At his words, the four people urgently ran towards the warp gate.
Rumble-!
They saw piles of earth falling, illuminated by the Light magic Leo had created.
The three people barely stepped onto the warp gate.
Leo activated the gate.
Flash-!
Crash-! With a bright light, the plaza was seen collapsing.
That was Leo’s last view of Gathron.
***
After exiting Gathron, Leo’s party immediately reported the incident to Lumern and Seirun.
School officials who heard the news arrived in the Galan region.
The discovery of Luna’s Hero Dungeon alone was astonishing.
But on top of that, stories about Tartarus and the Fifth Great Hero.
Too many things were complexly intertwined.
It was literally a situation where it wouldn’t be strange if the world turned upside down.
Originally, Leo might have been busy being called here and there, writing reports.
But Leo was resting immediately in Lumern’s infirmary.
It was Elena’s consideration.
‘Oh my? Are you planning to hold down someone who’s injured and not let them rest?’
Elena was not just the 3rd-year class representative.
She was the daughter of Lumern’s chairman and was currently acting as the interim chairman.
At a single word from Elena, all those who would bother Leo disappeared.
Thanks to that, Leo could relax in a private room in the infirmary.
However, Leo’s physical condition did not improve for over a week.
‘Even if it was just a fragment, he was hit by Erebus’s flames.’
Leo clicked his tongue, looking down at his burn.
The wound inflicted by Erebus’s flames was so powerful that it wouldn’t be strange to call it a curse.
All sorts of healing abilities were useless.
Even the flames suppressed natural healing power.
As a result, healing was slower than imagined.
He even had to remain hospitalized even after the practical training period ended.
About ten days passed in a situation where even visits were refused.
Calian and Elena came to visit him.
“Nice to see you, Leo-kun. How are you feeling?”
Leo shrugged his shoulders, looking at Elena who greeted him with her usual cheerful voice.
“Same as ever.”
“You’re tough.”
Elena smiled faintly and sat next to Leo.
“Haha. Here’s a get-well gift, Leo student.”
Calian placed a luxurious fruit basket in a corner of the hospital room.
Leo asked, watching him.
“By the way, is it okay for me to be in the infirmary like this? There must be a lot of things to take care of, right?”
He was resting leisurely, but this was not a situation where he could afford to rest like this.
“You don’t have to worry about that. In fact, Elena here diligently took care of things in your stead. She even finished all the reports you needed to submit to academia, so you have nothing to do.”
When Calian said with a smile, Leo looked at Elena.
Elena smiled faintly, looking at such a Leo.
“This big sister is quite capable.”
“It’s not like you hastily did it because it was annoying, and now I have to redo it later, right?”
At those words, Elena made a sulky face and tried to punch Leo in the side.
While Leo calmly blocked it, Calian said.
“The reason we came today is to check on your condition. You may not have fully recovered yet, but it seems you need to start attending classes again soon.”
The entire school was already abuzz with the story of Leo conquering Luna’s world.
Of course, stories related to Erebus or Tartarus discovered in Luna’s world were kept confidential.
This was because if related stories spread throughout the world, it would surely cause immense chaos.
“Was the matter regarding Kyle also kept confidential?”
“No. Quite the opposite. We are actively informing the world about Kyle.”
Evidence was found that Kyle, who had been known as a fictional character until now, was a real person.
There was no reason to hide this.
“However, there is something I want to ask you related to him.”
Calian wore a serious expression.
“Leo student. Do you… perhaps have a connection with the Hero of Beginnings?”