380.
Dobella.
The only city covered in greenery in Elehem, a land where most of the territory is desert.
Despite having conditions that should make it the most developed city within Elehem, Dobella was one of the most underdeveloped regions of this country.
This was due to Dobella’s geographical location.
No matter how lush the vegetation was, if that vegetation belonged to the Forest of Monsters, it wasn’t a blessing but a curse.
The forest with its endless vitality constantly suffered from monster attacks.
If these monster attacks were not stopped, it wasn’t just Dobella, but the entire nation itself could fall into crisis.
The central government of Elehem continued to provide financial aid in order to keep Dobella as a defensive line.
However, the support from the central government was only just that much.
The Elehem royal family didn’t care even if the entire nation fell into ruin.
From their perspective, Dobella was nothing more than a nuisance, and all they provided was minimal financial aid to keep it standing.
No further management was done.
Naturally, Dobella became a place where mercenaries frequently passed through.
The life of mercenaries who faced battles where lives were at stake, battling monsters, was heavily driven by the pursuit of quick riches.
Due to those mercenaries, the naturally neglected city’s public order fell.
Even among the chaos of Elehem, Dobella’s situation could be considered even more severe.
Amidst all this, outside of Dobella’s Castle Wall.
Wjiijjjj! Kung-!
A giant tree fell.
Guooooowwwr!
“Oh, an Ogre?!”
The cries of horror from the mercenaries rose as a pack of upper-class monsters, Ogres, appeared.
The monster at the top of the food chain in the Forest of Monsters was the Troll.
Even though the Troll was undoubtedly fearsome, with practiced mercenaries, they could easily be exterminated.
But the Ogre was a fundamentally different beast from the Troll.
Its skin was so tough that it couldn’t be pierced by ordinary steel swords, and its strength was so formidable that it could effortlessly throw massive boulders.
With overwhelming durability and strength, it was a nightmare for average mercenaries.
The appearance of these monsters, which were not originally found in the Forest of Monsters, led many mercenaries to panic and retreat.
Tuduk.
“So everyone boasts about their strength until they see something that makes them run.”
Among the mercenaries fleeing, a sighing girl stepped toward the Ogres.
Unlike the battle-hardened mercenaries, this beautiful girl drew her sword gracefully.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted from her body.
Whack!
A single charge from the Ogre was split in two by a fiery aura, aimed at the girl, Martina.
Goom!
The Ogre that was split in half crashed to the ground, dead.
“OOOOH!”
The mercenaries watching could only mutter in awe.
At that moment, a golden flash appeared.
Kwagagagack!
The golden-haired girl, who moved at an incredible speed between the Ogres, landed on the ground and spun around.
“WOOOOOO!”
The cheers of the mercenaries grew louder.
But these shouts of joy from the mercenaries did not last long.
“Both of you are quite remarkable.”
A girl holding the rapier, Celia, grinned as she approached the Ogres.
She casually combed back her hair and tightened her grip on the rapier.
Chap!
“Let me finish it, shall I?”
Whoosh!
High-temperature flames swirled around Celia, incomparable to the ones around Martina.
The appearance of one of the strongest second-year students in the Department of Knights at Lumeran made the mercenaries shriek with cries of despair.
“Celia-sama!”
“Please don’t step in!”
“Aaaah! She’s a calamity that’ll turn everything into ashes!”
Seeing these fussing mercenaries, Celia’s face tightened.
“There’s no need for you, Celia-sempai, to step in. Martina, the same goes for you.”
Gooooh!
Golden aura wrapped around Aina’s body.
“Here… I’m more than enough all by myself.”
Whoomp!
Aina dug her feet into the ground, bending her knees and rushing toward the Ogres at an invisible speed.
As Aina’s sword flickered, the heads of the Ogres flew off.
“Ugh, the bloodline of the Sword Saint really is different.”
“At such a young age, she cuts off Ogre heads like tofu.”
“More terrifying than Monsters.”
Watching the murmuring mercenaries, Celia narrowed her eyes.
Aina had become a dreaded figure among the mercenaries in just one day.
That wasn’t simply because she eliminated monsters with overwhelming strength.
Zerdinger’s flames were much better suited for handling multiple enemies.
Judging by the number of monsters eliminated, Celia’s side was superior.
Still, the reason Aina became an object of fear was because of the killing intent she constantly exuded from her body.
She didn’t care about getting bl**d on her.
Even among Hero Candidates, for a young girl to seem like a butcher by cutting down monsters with bloodied clothes was unsettling.
In an instant, Aina exterminated the entire Ogre group, cleaning and sheathing her sword.
Thud… Thud…
Celia sighed seeing Aina, covered in bl**d, approaching.
The mercenaries instinctively avoided making eye contact with such an Aina.
“Aina, you’re a bit too hasty.”
“…”
“Why are you doing this? You’re the best among the first-years.”
“I don’t value anything until I receive recognition from Seonbae (Senior) Leo.”
Celia knew that for some reason, Aina was obsessively focused on gaining Leo’s approval.
‘I need to consult with Leo.’
Just as Celia sighed,
“Miss! Thank you so much!”
A man who appeared to be the leader of the mercenaries approached with a bright smile.
“Thanks to the ladies, our mercenary group will earn a month’s worth of pay in just one day.”
“Ah, yes.”
Celia had come to Dobella with her mentees, Martina and Aina, to explore the Forest of Monsters.
She had found a relatively good mercenary group that had been operating in Dobella for a long time and had made an agreement with them.
Since they had been operating in Dobella for a long time, they had their own system and were well-versed in the geography of the Forest of Monsters, which aided the exploration.
The payment was in monster corpses.
The mercenaries of Dobella received payment using the carcasses of the monsters they slaughtered as evidence.
The reason the mercenaries screamed when Celia stepped forward was also due to it.
Celia’s flames incinerated the monsters entirely, leaving no corpse.
Simply guiding the path with the heroic candidates who wielded overwhelming strength was profitable enough, so the mercenary group warmly welcomed the three of them.
“Is this the first time you’ve seen Ogres?”
“Yes! In the five years I’ve been a mercenary in Dobella! This is the first time I’ve seen Ogres!”
‘Sure enough, something abnormal is happening.’
Just as Celia narrowed her eyes,
Kuguuguuguuguugong!
The earth began to rumble.
“What, what is it?”
“A large number of monsters are moving.”
Celia, who sharpened her senses, said.
“This one’s going to be lucrative!”
The guild master grinned widely.
“Maybe not.”
“Eh?”
As the master looked puzzled,
Whoosh!
“Hey, Celia.”
“Hmph. Celia?”
Bushes parted, and Abad and Duran appeared.
Behind them were their mentees, Fritz and Habidden, and another mercenary group.
“Ah! Celia-sempai, you were here?”
In the sky above, Shasha, a 1st year student from the Department of Summoning, appeared on a giant eagle-type high-class familiar.
Next to her stood Warden Tyden, arms crossed.
Abad and Duran, like Celia, had hired mercenaries and were searching for a good location to exterminate the monster group when they found that Celia was there too.
Celia pouted.
Unlike herself who dealt in flames, the other classmates could fight and still leave behind evidence from the monster carcasses.
“Another opportunity to make money.”
Celia said coolly to the guild master.
At this, the guild master put on a serious look.
“It’s Celia-sama’s turn to step in!”
“Eh?”
“Mercenary rules. No matter who joins in the hunt, the one who finds the prey first is entitled to all the spoils. Even if we help, we wouldn’t get even a penny. And if we avoid the fight, we’ll just get bad reputations.”
“So?”
“If we can’t have it, we burn it!”
“…”
In the end, it was a declaration that it’s better to let them work hard for nothing than to let others benefit.
Celia sighed and tightened her grip on her sword.
“Burn everything!”
Celia shook her head hearing the shout from behind.
That evening.
Celia sat at a tavern in the center of Dobella.
In front of her sat Abad, Duran, and Warden Tyden, whom she had met earlier in the Forest of Monsters.
“So?”
With his arms crossed, Duran gave a slanted look.
“Why have you gathered us, Warden Tyden?”
The organization of this meeting was none other than Warden Tyden himself.
“I felt the need for an exchange of information.”
“Hmph. That’s unusual. What’s up with you asking for cooperation?”
“This training mission isn’t about competition.”
Abad grinned and said:
“Feeling the need for cooperation means that you’ve noticed something unusual?”
At Celia’s question, Warden Tyden took out a dark red pearl from his pocket.
Looking at it, Abad stroked his chin.
“A Golem’s core.”
“I saw a Golem wandering around the Forest of Monsters today and took care of it. The item I retrieved from it. Can you, Abad LeWalyn, tell what era this item comes from?”
With that, Abad extended his hand towards the magical core.
In the meantime, Warden Tyden turned to Celia and Duran and spoke:
“I spent the whole day patrolling the airspace above the Forest of Monsters with my mentee.”
Unlike Warden Tyden, Celia had hired a separate mercenary group and acted independently with Shasha.
When Celia heard this, she tilted her head in curiosity.
“Isn’t it hard to fly into the Forest of Monsters due to irregular air currents? I thought Butter gave up because it was too troublesome.”
“A magician and a Spirit Master are fundamentally different. If a wind mage controls the atmosphere around them, a Spirit Master can dominate the surrounding atmosphere.”
“Alright, so what’s your point?”
“I immediately noticed an abnormal occurrence after patrolling the sky above the Forest of Monsters. Monsters that do not exist in the Forest of Monsters appeared in large numbers. You should know about this, right?”
“Right.”
“And each of these monsters showed characteristics specific to the southern continent.”
Even among Ogres, northern and southern Ogres have different traits.
“Are you talking about the Hero’s World of the southern continent?”
Celia tilted her head in confusion as Warden Tyden narrowed his eyes.
“It’s more than that.”
“Then what?”
“The monsters that appeared all had characteristics from different eras.”
Monsters are intelligent beings.
Some monsters possess high intelligence.
They have their own cultures, and their armaments reveal their cultures.
Thus, the armaments of monsters vary slightly by era.
The appearance of monsters with different and varied traits means only one thing:
“Are you saying there might be more than one Hero Dungeon?”
As Duran spoke, Warden Tyden nodded, and at that moment:
“I’ve figured out which era this Golem’s core belongs to.”
Just then, Abad said with a look of confusion.
“Which era is it?”
“When I decoded the basic incantation that constitutes the core, it seems this belongs to an era before the Era of Heroes.”
“Wait…?”
At Abad’s words, everyone’s eyes widened in shock.
“Is it an item from the Era of Catastrophe?”
Celia asked hastily.
“It’s an item from the Era of Catastrophe, that’s true. But I wouldn’t stake my claim that it’s from the era 5000 years ago.”
“What…?”
“The incantation driving the core’s magic is from 3000 years ago. I’ve never seen or heard of something like this. While I’ll need to investigate further, this could be a revolutionary discovery that will rock the magical academic world.”
Whoosh!
A bright light shone as the girl collapsed onto her seat.
In the heart of Dragonia.
The girl quickly glanced around to get her bearings.
Then she noticed the words “Mission Failed” right in front of her and chuckled helplessly.
“…This place.”
The girl, Rodia, nodded as she got up.
She fully understood where she was.
From childhood.
It must have been the very first page of her Hero Record.
The day she first confirmed the infinite possibilities of the Hero Record.
Rodia extended her hand toward the undivided, complete form of the Hero Record.
A page of the great King of Wisdom, Lissinas, was open.
Rodia’s all-time favorite hero tale of Lissinas.
A page she had attempted to conquer numerous times.
But a page she had never managed to conquer.
Rodia knew the reason.
Just due to one person, the subtitle.
“Lord Kyle. Perhaps only he can conquer this world?”
![[TS] The Protagonist is Conquered](https://i3.wp.com/novelhitam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/1743806812-5548-TS-The-Protagonist-is-Conquered.png?resize=85,105 "[TS] The Protagonist is Conquered")
