His consciousness continuously sank. When he finally returned to his own body, it felt as though heavy shackles had been placed upon him. But he had to admit, having his feet planted firmly on the ground felt incredibly good. This was exactly how a human was supposed to feel.
Letting go of the Hero's Sword, all the anomalies vanished. Everyone else seemed to have completely forgotten the scene that had just unfolded, with only Serie blinking at Zenith.
"Obviously, I'm not the Hero either. Let's just leave this thing for whoever actually needs to pull it in the future."
In an era where the stars shined so brightly, there really was no need for a specific, tool-like protagonist to save the world. Having Himmel and the others was more than enough.
Having tested the Hero's Sword in the Village of the Sword, there was nothing left to linger for. The village chief and Frieren made a promise that she would return every fifty years to clear out the monsters, and the party needed to continue their journey to defeat the Demon King.
Zenith looked at his status panel, feeling once again that the Creation Goddess was truly a wonderful person—she was practically a welfare distributor.
This was a mod Zenith had never heard of before, so he kept browsing through the JEI panel. The mod didn't have a lot of content, but the items within it were absolutely absurd and incredibly powerful.
Just how powerful? The endgame weapon in this mod could one-shot everyone Zenith had met so far, with the sole exception of the Creation Goddess.
In fact, as long as the target wasn't a supreme deity of the creation class, this sword could dish out tons of damage.
Of course, as a trade-off, obtaining this thing was exceedingly difficult. The crafting recipe required a World Gem Block from the mod, along with two Rule Ingots.
An ingot named after the concept of "Rules"—just looking at the name told him how overpowered it was. Zenith checked the smelting process for the Rule Ingot and clicked his tongue.
He decided to prioritize making a Non-Euclidean Cube instead. This sword was just eye candy at his current stage. Just the primary material needed to smelt a Rule Ingot—the Hero's Certificate—required defeating a One-Punch Zombie to obtain.
Curious, Zenith checked the stats of this so-called One-Punch Zombie: 500 HP and 100 Armor. It sounded somewhat manageable, but in reality, piercing through 100 points of armor was no easy feat.
What was even more ridiculous was its attack damage: 10,000. That meant it could kill 100 Iron Golems with a single punch.
The other equipment and items in the mod were equally difficult to acquire. All in all, he could only put it off for the future.
Closing the panel, Zenith let out a long breath. As soon as his attention returned to reality, he noticed Serie standing beside him, watching the show with great interest.
"Are those two throwing a tantrum?"
Himmel and Orcini had activated speedrunning mode. The two were shoulder-to-shoulder, their four legs churning like wheels.
"Not exactly. They both just think they can defeat the Demon King, and they both believe they'll be the first to do it."
Normally, Himmel's personality wouldn't lead him to compete so fiercely with Orcini, but the influence of the Seven Curses was truly somewhat unsolvable.
Thanks to Serie's teachings, Orcini's containment of the Seven Curses' aura was near perfect, but that was on the condition that they didn't maintain physical contact for too long.
"This is my first time seeing Himmel act like this."
"It's definitely not a common sight."
"If only we had a spell to record images."
Sensing the meme potential, as Himmel and Orcini pressed their foreheads together, Zenith pulled out a video camera and recorded the scene. The early race-walking records of Himmel the Hero. With this image quality and content, it was obviously going to be highly commemorative.
Watching Zenith pull out the strange device, Frieren seemed to remember something. Her eyes lit up, and she walked straight up to him.
"We made a promise! The next time we met, you'd teach me the second grimoire!"
There did seem to be such an agreement. He had to admit, time really flew by; before he knew it, several months had already passed.
"The Lexica Botania," Zenith said, pulling out a dark green grimoire with gold-trimmed edges. "Read through this one first. In terms of depth and breadth, botanical magic far exceeds the previous Thaumonomicon."
Magic was a mortal's interpretation of nature, as well as their exploration into the realm of the gods. Within the Lexica Botania, aside from documenting a multitude of magical flowers, there were also complex magical theories and magical items related to Zenith's authority of building.
The Astrolabe of the World Shaper.
This item wasn't of much use to Zenith, but to ordinary people, it was enough to be called a great, legendary magic.
Frieren knew a good thing when she saw it. After flipping through just a few pages, her eyes sparkled. "Ten years... no, twenty years. I might just have enough reading material to last me until we defeat the Demon King!"
Serie's faint, eerie gaze swept over them, giving Zenith goosebumps. "Have you finished analyzing the amulet I gave you last time? Come ask me for a grimoire only when you've completely figured it out."
An extremely standardized journey began, playing out exactly like a traditional JRPG. Main quests, side quests, dungeons, taking commissions to save up gold coins, and occasionally even seeing them level up.
Himmel's party was never overwhelmingly strong from the very beginning; rather, they slowly grew throughout their journey.
In reality, Zenith's group and Himmel's group were still two separate parties, merely traveling together out of convenience. Watching Himmel busy himself with various tasks, laughing and bickering every day, was actually quite a healing experience.
Only South Hero maintained a constant level of caution. By staying at Zenith's side, his future-sight regarding himself had essentially been rendered half-useless. The once-clear future was now reduced to a blurry, intermittent shadow.
"Lord Zenith, I have foreseen a battle with the Seven Sages of Destruction in the future. Judging by the terrain, the enemy shouldn't be far off."
"Oh? Those guys are finally here, huh? With our current lineup, who gave them the courage to ambush us halfway?"
Zenith chuckled. In the original work, the Seven Sages of Destruction chose to siege South Hero because the demon prophets foresaw the threat he posed, prompting them to pool their strength and nip the danger in the bud.
But for them to still dare to come under these circumstances? Wasn't that just purely courting death? How brave. Since they were looking to die, Zenith wasn't going to stop them.
"The White Horse—wait, no, the Seven Sages of Destruction—I'll make sure they never return!"
Thinking about it, it made sense. Although South Hero had once foreseen his own death in the battle against the Seven Sages of Destruction, that was all in the past. His current endurance completely blew his past self out of the water. Even without his other teammates, he was confident he could retreat in one piece.
Zenith looked up at the sky. "It's getting late. Let's set up camp and get ready to eat."
Eat! Everyone's eyes instantly lit up. Adventuring usually meant a lack of food and clothing, braving the elements and sleeping rough. But with Zenith around, everything was different.
He spent a few minutes building a long row of matchbox houses, outfitting them with doors, windows, wool beds, and even coffee tables and chairs. Then, he set aside a massive open-air space to serve as a dining area.
Watching Zenith's busy figure, they all felt their taste buds surging wildly. Delicious—it was just too delicious. It was a taste that, once experienced, could never be forgotten.
On the table lay a handwritten menu, its contents sourced from the craftable dishes in the Farmer's Delight and Pam's HarvestCraft mods.
Many of these items couldn't even be found in the restaurants of major cities!
Zenith placed down his culinary workstation blocks one by one, then walked over and asked, "What do you guys want to eat today?"
Orcini was the first to answer. "I want to eat this, Lord Zenith: General Tso's Chicken."
Zenith's mouth twitched. "Then you really have no taste."
Power Stones, reviews, and comments— really helps a lot
Want to read ahead? Get access to 50+ extra chapters on my Patreon:
👉 patreon.com/Aragai_Sama