1 Chapter 1: The Beginning

I look at ten humans before me with all the hatred I can muster. Hah! I cannot even call them human any longer. I can see their bodies start to sport tentacles and many grotesque extra limbs.

I cough a lot of blood and say.

"What did you get from selling your soul?"

A man who accepts the offer from the [King in Yellow] walks forward and laughs mockingly.

"A lot, dear Shadow Overlord. Our Patrons have given us eternal life! Unlimited treasure! And ultimate power that can destroy a country! If only you join us, my friend."

"Puh!"

I spit on his face and said.

"I will never join them. They are the reason why this place was destroyed and you join them."

"And what is the problem with that?"

I look at the woman who accepts the offer from the [All Mother] and sneer at her.

"So Greed. Tch. Kill me already. You won, and we lost. Enjoy your eternal damnation."

"No, my friend. We will enjoy our eternal reward from now on."

The priest of [The Blind Idiot] walks forward and stabs his sword into my chest.

"I shall grant you mercy. Enjoy your last few minutes of life in suffering."

He kicks me away and leaves me alone with my thoughts. I look to the sky, now full of energy that looks like teeth and eyes. I miss the blue sky. Hell, I even miss the green sky. I never thought that I would miss the toxic sky.

You know… this is not bad. It has been a while since I have had this kind of silence. More than half of my life is about fighting and fighting. Even when it is time to rest, it is still filled with the sound of fighting as the people coming with me continue to fight while I rest.

It is never this silence.

However, despite my body screaming to rest and embrace the darkness, I still did not want to give up. I just need a second wind to kill at least one of them. One chance to kill one of them and injure the rest of them.

|Do you want to Start Over?|

I look at the familiar blue panel in front of me and say.

"Is there still any god left in this world?"

The system, the companion that goes along with me for who knows how long. It is the thing that lets humanity fight the incoming monster. The system is the creation of the Gods and Goddess of the world. You know the gods from myth, right? Yeah, they exist in this world.

They are the ones creating the system when the tower appears. They are also the ones giving blessings to certain individuals who they deem worthy of their power. They might sound great, but they are arrogant shit.

If only they did not underestimate the Outer Gods, this would not be happening. Instead of working together, they bicker with each other and try to gather as many worshipers as possible. What makes matters worse is that they are willing to kill other humans who do not want to worship them.

Because of this, many bright rising stars get killed when they reject their offer. While they cannot kill the one rejecting their offer directly, they can send one of their worshippers to kill the one rejecting their offer.

It is a bloodbath.

"Who are you?"

|Hecate|

"Hecate, huh? The Goddess of Magic, Necromancy, and Moon. How many Gods are left in this world?"

|Just me. Everyone is already dead.|

"I see. What a shame."

|Do you want a second chance?|

"What do you mean?"

|Do you want to change history?|

"How? Turning back time?"

|Yup|

I look at the blue panel in front of me with shock.

"How? Chronos or any Time Gods are dead. They are the first ones to be killed by the Outer Gods."

|It might not be my main authority, but I can turn back time. I am the Goddess of Boundary and can open the boundary that will take you to the past.|

"What the catch?"

|Nothing. I only hope you can defeat them before they kill too many Gods and Humans.|

"Heh. I will gladly accept this second chance if you can do that."

|Thank you. Our hope is now in your hand, Shadow Overlord, or rather Jonathan Renaldi. Don't make me regret my sacrifice.|

"Wait! What do you mean by that?!"

My entire vision is now engulfed by white light, and the last thing I see is a beautiful woman smiling sadly at me before her figure disappears into a mote of light. I can feel slight pain in my body, and I feel that my entire body is falling into a bottomless pit.

However, it stops when my vision recovers, and I look at the ceiling of a long-forgotten room. I get up from the ground and look at the mirror. It is me but younger, with no scar and curse from the fight against a horde of monsters and Outer Gods.

I touch my face and feel the smooth skin without any scale from the constant use of cursed items. I take a deep breath and say.

"Status."

==//==

Name: Jonathan Renaldi

Level: 1

Class: None

==

Strength: 5

Endurance: 3

Agility: 3

Magic: 10

==//==

This is the day I awakened my system and the start of getting ready to join the Hunter Association—one of the worst parts of my life. On paper, the Hunter Association of Indonesia is a government-funded guild that will help newbie hunters.

Sadly, it is not as it seems.

This guild is all about profit. More than three years of his life were spent as a miner, butcher, and tanner. I spend my day mining the crystal inside the dungeon, butchering the monster's body, and ensuring the leather from the hunt can be used as armor.

After three years of that, I spent two years of my life as a donkey mule. I carry all the equipment and watch from the side. Then, I spent the last year of my contract, and they finally let me move up to level ten and a class change.

Because of my lack of connection, talent, and money, I cannot join a private guild and can only sign another contract with the association for another three years. I thought it could not be any worse than the first contract, but worse than the first one.

I only get ten percent of the profit from all the goods I hunt, and I need to give the association any equipment I find in the tower.

However, because of my lack of status in this country, I need to go through this problem.

I will not go through this kind of problem this time and focus on getting stronger. I opened up my skills and saw an old skill that accompanied me through thick and thin.

==//==

[Faerie's Eyes] [E-Rank] [Evolvable]

|You get the eyes of the Fairy Race. Because of this, you can notice an enemy's weak point if you look at it long enough.|

==//==

This is the skill that lets me fight alongside Gods. Evolving this skill will take a lot of money because I need a lot of obscure items. At this stage, this skill needs me to fight the enemy for quite a bit before the skill can show me the weak points.

However, there is a trick that lets me use this skill easily. As long as I already know the weak point beforehand from reading or from the information from others, this skill will activate.

With my future knowledge, this skill will be valuable for me. I cannot contain my smile, but it disappears when I see an unfamiliar skill on my skill tab.

==//==

[Hecate's Blessing and Sacrifice] [SSS-Rank]

|Hecate sacrifices her entire being to give you a second chance. Through sacrificing her entire divinity and being, you get a portion of her authority|

{Effect 1: You can quickly grasp any magic you encounter and make them your own if you study and watch them enough}

{Effect 2: You can summon a ghost of the race you killed. Their strength depends on how many of their race you have been killed. A creature without a soul cannot be summoned.}

{Effect 3: (Locked)}

{Effect 4: (Locked)}

{Effect 5: (Locked)}

==//==

I still hate Gods in general, but you are alright in my eyes, Hecate. I will use this skill and new power to conquer all the towers that appear around the world. There are a few things I want to do that my past self cannot do.

However, I need to register myself as a hunter first.