Sword of the Philosopher Chapter 2

Apparently, I seem to have been reincarnated. A few days had already pa.s.sed when I had noticed this. I couldn’t move my body as I wanted to and at that time thought ‘Oh I see! My body is that of a baby.’ and slowly became aware of myself.

Starting from that point, it took me a couple of months to understand my circ.u.mstances. Based on what I have heard and understood while staying in this cradle of mine, the level of civilization here seemed to be similar to the middle ages of the world in my previous life. The only difference was the existence of magic being present in this world. I was able to say that because above my cradle, despite having no electricity, there was a single light bulb lighting up the room. It was releasing a white light and was always lit up

Judging the mansion like place I’m living in right now, I can pretty much say that my family is fairly well established. ‘This is certainly like a dream’ is what I would like to say but… I was only thinking that way for a just a moment.

At first I couldn’t make out the words of what I was hearing being that it was a different language but I kept on hearing words that sounded awfully familiar. When I was able to finally grasp that the words I was hearing was my full name I thought to myself ‘This is nuts!’ because I was reincarnated into the world of “Elder’s Sword”. More importantly my enthusiasm quickly vanished when I heard that my name was “Luon Medin” and became surprised.

I kept asking myself the reason why I was reincarnated into this game’s world but… even if I take a hundred steps back¹ there would be nothing I can do. Consequently, why was I reincarnated as the story character though…? Isn’t it usually supposed to be the Heroes that you get reincarnated into?

At this rate, sooner or later my fate of dying while doing a weird scream would definitely happen. Pondering continuously on how I would be able to avoid this predicament, I instantly pulled out Luon’s profile out of my head.

The details regarding supporting characters from the game weren’t spoken much but the person called “Luon” is from a family of n.o.bles. When the Demon Lord started his invasion, the borders had already collapsed affecting the lives of many families including his. They were forced to live a life of hards.h.i.+ps; it was that kind of setting. Actually regarding the story, in truth after Luon dies, he would be giving out a key to a retreat. What was stored in the retreat were items and funds that were collected to someday restore his household. It meant that once the Heroes get this key, they would have access to the retreat.

In other words, if Luon dies, the Heroes would obtain additional items and money. If you think about it, this was similar to a monster dropping gold and items after they die. So as to call it, Luon is actually a person that tried his best to one day revive his household. For that reason if you compare him with the Heroes, his status in the game shouldn’t pale in comparison but… on top of producing that shamefully strange scream at his death, he was also one that always gave out bad advice. Carrying these thoughts while seeing these seemingly happy parents would sooner or later have eyes filled with sorrow… At that time I considered it, that I remember this game’s story very well. The goal of the game is still attainable even if you follow the free-scenario. Practically speaking, this world or rather the stage of the game where the story would start would not be here but rather occur in a continent called “Shelda” where the Demon King’s influence will slowly reach out. And so, together with the Demon King’s five trusted Generals and their army of monsters, they would conquer the entire continent and rule over it. The very goal of the Heroes is to stop this. When the Heroes first encountered Luon he was only a mere adventurer, and when the village was attacked he was there in that period and he was defeated by the Demon Clan². In other words, if he were to ‘play the role of defeating the Demon King then would his fate of dying would most likely vanish’ is what I would like to say but… I definitely do not want to do that. Well in reality, I’m not really sure if this world would follow the game’s scenario but the fact that Luon becoming an adventurer is already set in stone so… There are no reasons in hesitating not to choose that option. It would be good if I leave it alone according to the game but it would already be game-over once the Demon King has conquered the continent. I’ll be welcoming the worst of the consequences as this is no longer a game and as one would expect, I would really want to avoid that. I know how the story would play out but I wonder what problems would occur if I involve myself too much. I’m not really sure if everything would go well either. At any rate, rather than a Hero, I’m only what you call the story character. It would be a different story if I was reincarnated into this world with cheat like abilities but such a thing is highly unlikely already in this situation. Oh well, whatever, first of all I’ll just do what I can in this place and see how the rest will play out. Embracing that train of thought I decided to instead focus on what was before me and continue spending my days happily.

Before long the Demon King finally started his invasion. Marching his army of demons and monsters, he was able to cause mayhem and bringing the continent to enter into a political strife. Following after those events was the fall of my parents. At this point of time, I had already become 5 years old. Naturally as a child I was powerless while we were forced out of our home and continue to live as normal citizens. Even so, my parents frantically worked jobs in order to raise me well. Seeing the figures of my parents doing that, I swore in my heart that I would one day return the favor to them. And now for the time being I have decided to start my training in order to not die. Having a body of a five year old was hard as I was only able to do so little but since I was able to read I decided to learn magic instead and regularly went to the library to learn and gather knowledge. In addition, for me to be able to handle the sword I needed to go out to that place so I began to prepare in order to become an adventurer.

Despite this world coming from a game, everything here is already a reality for me so things like “status” and the like are of course not be here. That’s also one of the reasons for my anxiety in becoming stronger. I was able to somehow learn magic through self-study and I can also feel that I’m finally getting better in handling the sword. For the time being, the general idea of a level up like feeling seems to be there. And so, that kind of living continued for another five years… My parents finally became more familiar living as members of the general populace, however the possibility of being attacked by the Demon Clan had always lingered in everyone’s heart making everybody live in fear every day.

And so that time finally came. The Demon King’s influence finally reached our town and the activities of monsters were increasing. They didn’t arrive and attack our town but it instead occupied the nearby ruins and caves that were normally occupied by children as playgrounds. This then caused great anxiety to the townspeople. At such a time, a monster suppression party was made and despite being a child I was one of the members chosen to partic.i.p.ate. In this town I was known to be able to handle and fight with a sword while being 10 years old; my abilities were regarded rather high. It was already a given that my parents would worry but I feel that it was important for me to pile up experience, thus is the reason for my partic.i.p.ation in this suppression.
After choosing from the two destinations, we decided to visit the ruins first. I prepared myself as I held my sword tightly and marched on to the place where the monsters were located. At our arrival the enemies were somehow ‘game-like’ as I would like to say. At the dungeon, the first ones that came out were rather weak monsters.

“Ho~.”

Locating the weakest… having a blue color and an appearance similar to that of a dog, definitely as the name suggest it “Blue Wolf” was defeated by me with a single slash of my sword. Near me were the figures of the other mercenaries defeating “Gray Rabbits”.

“Ohh, not bad eh!”

The hired mercenaries for the suppression all raised their voices in praise. The fact that a child was actively partic.i.p.ating and performing well made them energetic. Surprisingly I also raised my voice in response to them. Thereafter I was already fighting and slas.h.i.+ng my sword in all directions while actively looking around. So as it was established in the game, the first ones to come out were the weakest monsters. It seems like only weak monsters will appear on places where the Demon King’s influence was small. So does it mean that despite monsters appearing, the influence here is ‘still not that strong’ that kind of thing?

For now, one way or another, my abilities as an individual seem to have leveled up. I think it was better for me to actively join a party rather than learning magic by myself to be able to use it.

Though as expected, instead of being able to clear the ruins in a single day, we would instead be ending up needing to fight for a few more days. However inside the ruins I realized one thing, even though I have been treating myself so far as just a “Story Character”, the feeling of leveling up was somehow growing and getting better. Fight after fight, I can feel myself getting stronger little by little. I can understand other people getting better by piling up experience but, practically speaking the quality of how I grow is rather high if you were to compare it another person.

Could this possibly mean that this is because I’m a story character or is it maybe Luon himself had great enough of a talent from the very start? However it would be great if I could take advantage of this to avoid my death. Rather, I think I will be needing to devote myself even more. So after reaching that conclusion of mine, we were able to clear the monsters inside the ruins after several days. At this point, I was already confident that I can enter combat alone, so rather than just swinging my sword, I decided that I should be fighting to gain more experience.