Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Ethan's left hand began to burn when he touched the monster's head. Thanks to that, he would lose in less than three seconds, but he needed to do that only for a single moment. Using all his mana and attacking as fast as he could, Ethan cast three Ice Spears.

Firing at point-blank range made the beast suffer a lot of damage, even more so considering the elemental properties of Ethan's attack. That being said, Ethan wasn't a mage, and his attack didn't kill the beast. It made the golem step backward several meters, and it froze half of its head.

"Your head is too big," Ethan smirked. "Let's decrease its size."

Clenching his teeth, Ethan swung his sword, and this time, without much resistance, his bastard sword cut half of the monster's head. At the same time, he saw a weird stone breaking inside the monster's head, and the core was gone.

Congratulations! You completed the first stage of the VR simulator!

You received 40.000 coins!

Calculating your score…

Time + 650 points

Solo fight + 1000 points…

Congratulations! You scored 1650 points.

Do you wish to proceed to the next stage? Y/N

Super Awesome Hero – 2600 points

Beautiful Princess – 2400 points.

Put your name here – 1650 points.

Weirdly enough, Ethan entered the rank again. Given how low his score was, it was kind of unexpected that he could enter the ranking. Although a lot of people used the simulators, they didn't try to reach the high stages of the free mode.

"I guess even those two can't defeat a monster like this instantly… no, they probably didn't try seriously, and this is the result of their only run."

Ethan could tell that those two could finish the first stage even faster than him. Hence, it was only obvious that they weren't using the simulator that often. In any case, putting such a thing aside, Ethan decided to leave that name as it was. It was better than trying another joke and involuntarily messing with other troublesome individuals.

Given how much the difficulty had increased between the ninth and tenth stages, Ethan concluded that he would be able to pass the eleventh stage. However, since it was noon, he decided to take a break and have lunch with his parents while he thought about some things.

"For some reason, Omni Hero wasn't activated when I touched the golem… even though I can suffer small wounds while receiving experience and coins. I can't really understand the logic… I guess I need to find the person who created the simulators. Although not activating that power is convenient for me, that kind of thing also affects other skills like synthesizing."

Synthesize was the best weapon for Ethan in order not to force him to use his Omni Hero's power. Still, if he could only use it in serious situations like that on Meizibio, then it was too restrictive. The problem was, does someone as amazing as the simulator's creator has any reason to receive someone like the current Ethan? The answer was no. Besides, if his instincts were right, such a person would be heavily guarded and probably would be kept in a place where only a certain number of people could talk with them.

"Look, thoughtful doesn't really suit you, Ethan," Hannah said. "What is the matter? Is some girl in your mind?"

"It depends. If the creator of the simulator is a woman, then yes, a girl is in my mind," Ethan said replied. "Do you know the person who created it?"

Much to his surprise, Hannah was at home, even though she previously mentioned that she only had Sundays as her day off. It looked like her diplomatic work wasn't being that intense as of late. It was pretty good to have lunch with the whole family.

"Yes, she is a woman," Hannah replied. "Although I don't know her, apparently, she is Russian, and she is also a summoned hero with unbelievable illusionary powers."

"Russian, huh," Ethan rubbed his chin. "Considering the relationship our countries had in the last decades, I couldn't imagine them sharing that kind of technology with us."

Ethan had already imagined that the creator was one skilled mage in the art of illusions. Still, Ethan didn't imagine it had been a summoned hero. He thought it had been someone from another world since the cooperation between Earth and other planets had increased while he was away.

"About that, apparently, she only agreed to build that kind of machine to the government if they agreed to sell to all countries of the world with reasonable prices," Hannah explained. "Given how good she was at using illusions, the government couldn't say no to her. There are a few rumors that, at first, they didn't agree to her demands and tried to lock her in some sort of facility. However, she disappeared from that facility after a few minutes and reappeared at home as if nothing had happened."

"That is kind of amazing," Ethan nodded, a bit surprised.

"The previous Russian president became unpopular thanks to such actions, and now the current one seems to have a good relationship with her and with the world thanks to her demands," Hannah explained. "What? Are you thinking of buying a custom-made simulator?"

"That is exactly what I was thinking," Ethan said.

"You should give up," Hannah said. "The price of a single one is insane, and the cost to maintain it isn't something to laugh at. I heard that the cheapest ones cost around one hundred million dollars, and the cost to keep such an object working per month is around ten million."

Although those were some insane prices, Ethan only frowned. After facing death many times, money wasn't really something that surprised him or made him feel interested. It was only a means to an end, but since he was short on those means, he wasn't able to get what he wanted.

"I promised you that I would teach you some magic, didn't I?" Hannah asked. "That being said, your mana has increased and became stronger. That is a sign that you have been learning some spells. I didn't think the school would be able to teach a muscle-head like spells you so fast."

"Instead of that, now that I think about it," Ethan said. "You said that you used a special type of magic, but I didn't see you doing anything special on Meizibio."

"That is because you asked me to offer you support," Hannah explained. "My real skills cost a lot of mana, so I didn't use it. If you ask me nicely, I will teach you."

"It is that easy?" Ethan asked.

"No, according to the history of Nuvian's world, only a few individuals could use it," Hannah said. "But since you are a hero, you probably can learn it."

"What kind of magic are we talking about?" Ethan asked.

"Word magic," Hannah replied.