Survival Guide for the Otherworldly Hero

[The full story has been revised, with 40,000 additional words, rewritten scenes, retold events, and reworked character arcs. I take no responsibility for content on sites that pirate the novel.]

Blurb 1:

I thought that when you died, that was it. But when I opened my eyes again, I was in another world.

“You really are beautiful,” remarked a skull he happened to pick up by the roadside.

Scott scoffed and shoved the skull back into the ground. He still had the same face as before, so didn't he know perfectly well how ordinary he looked?

But he never expected to hear the same thing everywhere he went

“If you'd been born a few years earlier, the dragon wouldn't have stolen the princess.”

“Only a god could be so beautiful. You must be a good person!”

The more powerful the creature, the more beautiful Scott seemed to look in its eyes.

Unable to take it anymore, Scott threw on a black robe and joined a bunch of liches. Surely a pile of bones wouldn't have any sense of beauty?

“By the God of Death, what exquisite bones!” The snow-white skeletons burst into a hymn of praise at his arrival.

Blurb 2:

“Hasn't there been a story about a hero circulating across the continent lately?”

The person before him answered cautiously, “The hero? The hero... isn't that you?”

Scott looked at the staff in his hand and fell silent. Who ever heard of a hero who was a necromancer?

“Are we not a hero's party?” protested the three skulls on his staff.

“I'm a knight of the royal palace,” said the largest one, calm and restrained.

“I'm a distinguished mage who commands every element,” said the middle one, with an air of arrogance.

“Me? I'm a priest!” said the smallest, its bones gleaming with holy golden light.

“And you are the greatest hero in the prophecy,” they said in unison.

Scott: This continent might as well be destroyed. There's no saving it.

[The protagonist is a hero in the truest sense. There is no romance from start to finish.]

Reader's guide: 1. My take on an otherworldly adventure, with leveling elements such as academies, competitions, and different races.

2. Please don't apply real-world logic to the rules of this fantasy world~

3. Important supporting characters in this novel also have no romance!

4. The plot has been significantly revised. If you've read a pirated copy, don't ask why the plot doesn't match. Let's spare each other the frustration.

5. [Sword first, magic later], [some events in the blurb happen much later]. The story focuses on adventure rather than combat, so please be patient.

[A law firm has been authorized to pursue legal action. If you don't want legal trouble, pirates should know better.]

↓, ↓, ↓

When he woke up one morning, Iris felt as if the sky had fallen in.

First, a string of hit points appeared above every creature's head, even his little pet of three hundred years.

No big deal. Think of it as an extra decoration.

Then, for no apparent reason, he found himself in a different body and had to join a group of people in coarse robes to chase a wild chicken at the village entrance.

That's no big deal either. I'll treat it as a valuable trial on the path to becoming a mage.

Finally, there was the last line on his personal status screen.

[Ding! Welcome to Oracle Continent Online! Maximum affinity for white magic detected. Class automatically locked: Priest. Current class cannot be changed!]

That's no big deal either... like hell it is!

Iris, the steadfast supporter of black magic who thought white magic users were all softies: ...

Priests are frail and weak in attack.

In the eyes of most full-dive gamers, they're little more than feeble healers and buff bots.

Until one day, a human priest carrying his blessing staff stormed alone into the dungeon that had held players up the longest: Tower of Destruction.

The vicious dragon swiped at him with a claw. The priest's shield buckled under the strain and was forced to slim down by a single millimeter.

Dragon: ???

Priest, kindly: “Finished? Then it's my turn.”

Dragon: !!!

“I just wanted to beat a game, that's all.”

“I don't know why the final boss wasn't in the Tower of Destruction.”

“Maybe... he suddenly went and changed classes?”

↓↓ I Wanted to Be a Sword Cultivator So Badly That I Put All My Talent Points into Forging ↓↓

On the sword-testing platform, a white-robed female cultivator with an otherworldly air stands with her hands behind her back, gazing calmly into the distance.

“More than anything, I want to spend my life wandering the world with a sword and become a proud, unyielding sword cultivator.”

“But I only managed to become half a sword cultivator.”

“Uh... a sword?” her junior brother asks, peeking out.

“Very well. Find someone else to make the weapon you commissioned from me.”

“Senior Sister, you're the best sword cultivator in the world! Anyone who disagrees can answer to me!”

*

Because a sword cultivator's biggest expense is their beloved sword, Rong Xu decides to cut out the middleman and make and train with her own swords.

But she accidentally put her talent points in the wrong place.

She forged an unparalleled divine sword, but couldn't even lift it.

No matter. Her divine sword can move by itself. It's a divine sword, after all. Isn't it perfectly normal for it to walk on its own?

The walking divine sword challenged every sword cultivator in the world, going undefeated in all 521 matches and snatching the title of world's strongest sword cultivator right out from under them.

Her dream of becoming the world's greatest swordsmith took a huge detour and somehow came true anyway?

Sword cultivators cultivate the sword.

Rong Xu figures she probably doesn't need to worry too much about the order of things?

Pairing: World's Greatest Swordsmith × World's Greatest Divine Sword

Core theme: Only through hard work can you live better