Luke stared up at Sir Gilbert, waiting to hear the training results ranking. Despite the changes made to the training regimen, he still insisted on punishing the last five if they remained at the bottom by the end of the week. He hadn't even mentioned what the punishment was going to be. Well, with the training having gotten easier, they should have had more chances of rising in the rankings.
Grace shifted anxiously next to him. He couldn't see why she was so worried, considering she hadn't been in the bottom five even on the third day when she had been absent. The only ones who had anything to worry about were the last five from the first day of training, one of whom was Joshua.
Thinking about that drunkard, he tried to recall if he had ever shown up on any of the days of training. He knew that for the first three days he had been absent, but surely he wouldn't have had a problem doing simple jogs and stretches. Unfortunately, he was drawing a blank, which couldn't be
"The princess will see you now," the servant standing in front of the open door said as he finished adjusting his clothes.Luke took one last good look at himself in the mirror before he said, "I'm coming."Following the servant down the hallway, he considered all the possible locations the princess would use for the meeting. The most obvious one would be the throne room. He had seen it plenty of times in the past whenever the princess required their presence. It was for that reason, he immediately discarded it. That place was meant for public meetings, and while she could still have a private meeting there, it wouldn't feel private if her intentions were what he thought they were.The next obvious choices would be an office or an empty room. He was more inclined to believe it was the latter, considering he had never seen her step foot in an office. The latter also gave her more options to pick from.Finally, they stopped in front of a room he hadn't expe
"Sir Gilbert, what do you think of him?" the princess said as she looked out her window.The knight looked up from where he was kneeling and said, "Luke Hellwalker is a decent and earnest young man. Out of all the heroes, he was one of the rare few who consistently arrived for training without fail every day. Even when the training was difficult, he didn't complain.""Is that so?" She hummed thoughtfully before turning her attention to the other two in the room. "Head maid, head butler, report."The woman spoke first. "He actively helped the maids after training and lunch on the first three days. Afterwards, he didn't spend as much time with them as he was busy with training. All the maids said he was quite polite and charming.""The ones under my care also said the same thing," said the head butler. "They professed that he was everything they expected from a hero and more. They feel reassured to have him on our side.""That's good," she said.
Luke looked on amused as Grace's eyes seemed to sparkle at everything she saw. One moment she would be pointing something out to him, and the next she was running off to check out the next shiny thing to catch her attention. She was like a child in a toy store. Going into the city was doing wonders for her.He also kept an eye out for 'Kayla'. She had been part of the first group to depart from the castle to descend into the city. Apparently, an order for when they would visit the city had been decided by Sir Gilbert, and it was determined by their final scores on the training results ranking.This slight hiccup was an annoyance since it meant he was separate from Grace. He didn't mind 'Kayla' going with a different group as that had been part of the plan.Fortunately, they didn't seem to mind him waiting for her right between the castle and the city. She had been so relieved to see him waiting for her that she clung to him like a koala. Their brief parting had
After they ditched the duo to explore some more, he found himself spiraling into his thoughts. It would explain a lot of things, like why she hadn't been doing as well during training and why she had avoided talking about the place with him. It wasn't because she was traumatized by the place. She was going behind his back and receiving training from the previous Saintess.To think she would do something like this. This wasn't like her at all, but did he really know her at all? He had never paid attention to her in their previous life and had kept ignoring all the weirdness about her in this life because he knew how useful she would be. That, and the fact that he felt he owed her a debt.She had sacrificed herself for him, and he had been unable to fulfill her last request last time. He thought that at least he could keep her from throwing her life meaninglessly away, but perhaps he had been misunderstanding her this whole time.Maybe he was wrong about her. Mayb
The shaky smile on his face stiffened as his eyes widened slightly. Did he hear correctly? Did she just say that she had received her class already? He supposed he shouldn't be surprised since her highest stat was at 18, which was her Mana stat, and his suspicions about her training, but that just made it all the more confusing.Why would she keep her training a secret only to reveal the results to him now? Had she wanted to surprise him? It seemed ridiculous, but he had to remember that they were both currently sixteen and in a foreign land. She might have only felt comfortable speaking up about it now that she had made some progress.Not to mention that raising the Mana stat wasn't that easy. In fact, it was the hardest stat to increase. There were only two ways to increase the Mana stat, and those were to raise the Intelligence stat or to practice magic. The latter was impossible if you didn't already have a decent Mana stat to begin with. It was a catch-22. To rais
"What do you mean she's already got her class?" hissed 'Kayla' the moment Luke revealed to her what Grace had told him.They were currently inside Grace's room after Luke had asked Grace if they could wait for 'Kayla'. She needed time to break away from the group she was with without being too suspicious. He also needed to time their return so no one would know exactly when they had gotten back into the castle. Most of the knights and servants were distracted by the heroes' trip into the city, but there still had to be some that remained to guard or work at the castle.Once 'Kayla' had joined them, he had immediately asked if they could speak in her room. Grace had initially been confused by his request but ultimately allowed it. Now she was currently contemplating Luke's latest request while he and 'Kayla' had their quick conversation in the corner.Pushing 'Kayla's' face away, he said, "You heard me. I was surprised too."She stepped back, muttering to
The blank look Luke got in return was something he had expected. He could have eased her into the conversation, but he had ultimately decided to go for the shock factor. It was better for the most surprising detail to be said first, so everything he told her afterwards wouldn't be as shocking.Then she exploded. "Wh-what? Doesn't that mean we have to fight you? That doesn't make sense. We were summoned together, but the demon king has been around since forever."He allowed her to fret over her new-found knowledge for a few moments before cutting in. "Grace, I know this is a shock, but I'm telling you the truth. What I have to tell you is a long story, but I want you to wait until the end before you ask any questions."After calming down a little, she said, "O-okay."Luke quickly gave her a brief summary of what happened to him in his previous life. Glossing over what he considered were unimportant details, he made sure to emphasize the fate that had befal
"What's wrong?" asked Grace as soon as Luke hid his face in his hands.He sighed. There was no point in hiding it from them. "There's a slight problem."'Kayla' narrowed her eyes as she asked, "What do you mean there's a problem?""There isn't a party feature," he said, deciding it was best to just get it over with."No party feature?" 'Kayla's' face scrunched up in confusion. "Wait. That doesn't make sense. My quest clearly states that you need to recruit your first party member. How can there be no party feature?""I'm just telling you how it is," he said, unamused by her demanding tone.'Kayla' had been pretty daring for some time, despite being his slave. She even dared to be disrespectful and demand things from him when, out of the two of them, he was the only one with authority to order the other around. Perhaps he needed to remind her of her place.Their glaring contest stopped when Grace asked, "Then what are we supposed to do
Hello everyone. I just want to thank all my readers who have been following along so long. Luke's story has ended unless readers are interested in a sequel. Also, there are several things that I want to let you know. I have some news for all of you. In case some of you didn't know, I hd started a new book titled Rise of the Demon King: Caleb Gonzales's Rat Race which can be found here: https://www.meganovel.com/story/Rise-of-the-Demon-King-Caleb-Gonzales-s-Rat-Race_31000555550. It's set in the same world as my current book. It's kind of a prequel to Rise of the Demon King: Luke Hellwalker's Revenge, but you can read it as a parallel or alternate universe if you like. As such, you might see some of the same characters who act differently from what you remember so I hope there's no confusion. For those interested to know more about the new book, here's the synopsis: When Caleb Gonzales woke up in the video game he last played, he expected things to go down like they did in those web
"The clean up is doing well," 'Kayla' said as she stood before Luke, who was sitting on the throne.Instead of responding to her, he gave a nod before looking to the next person. The corners of his mouth twitched as he wanted to frown. The previous demon king's women were staring at him, waiting patiently for him to finish his work. He didn't know what Mildred said to them, but they were all now convinced that they should try to seduce him.[They are strong women, so you shouldn't have any complaints about adding them to your harem.]Luke was unamused by the demon king's words. He knew very well that Luke hadn't been interested in building a harem. It was really bad enough that he had four women to contend with. Speaking of them, the quartet came walking into the throne room, with Grace taking the lead. She was looking well despite having only recovered yesterday."Luke, are you still in your meeting?" she asked as Tracy, Violet, and Ruth kept to her sides.Standing up, Luke said, "It'
Everyone stared in disbelief. How were they supposed to react to this sudden reveal? They had expected it to be a big deal because of the system's threat, but this was way behind anything they could have imagined. Luke distracted himself from the implications to assess everyone's reactions. Chris's mouth had dropped open while Bobby looked ill.Violet, on the other hand, was doing a good job keeping herself together, though it was just barely. Her fists were clenched, with her nails digging into her palm. Theodore was the only odd one out. He was quickly shocked by the information, but he appeared to be the calmest of the bunch. Luke couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing as he returned his attention back to the system.Chris ended up being the first to break the silence. "You can't be serious."[The system assures the user that it is quite serious.][The users should confirm their desire as soon as possible. There are only five open spaces.]The party had barely recovered fr
Luke couldn't believe it. The creator had actually been telling the truth when they said they could go home if they did enough to entertain them. He should be happy, but he was strangely numb about the reward. Perhaps it was because he had become used to the idea that he would never see his family again. That was why hearing the contrary left him with conflicted feelings."We can go home," Chris said in awe.A quick look at his party members was enough to tell Luke how overjoyed they were at the idea. After Luke had told them it was impossible, they had been resigned to never return back to their family and friends. It was why they had so willingly joined his side and turned their backs on the angels. However, a part of them had hoped that Luke was wrong."I wonder how everyone's been doing," Bobby said.Chris wrapped his arms around him and said, "I can't wait to see everyone."Violet had a soft smile, while Theodore only grunted. It should be a happy moment, but Luke was too used to
It couldn't understand what was happening. The creator could feel itself being torn away from its vessel against its will. This couldn't be happening. It was the creator. Everything went exactly as it wanted. There was no way it could lose to a human that had been originally brought into this world as nothing more than a tool. However, despite its efforts, it was being forced out by the sword in its chest.What was it? It couldn't be an ordinary weapon. Even when it was being injured, it had only been because the creator allowed it. Otherwise, the people wouldn't be able to actually harm it. Reaching out towards Luke and the sword again, it felt the sword pulse. Suddenly, the creator found its unable to move. An invisible force was keeping it from moving.The creator couldn't believe it. Such a thing had never happened before. The only possible reason that the creator could think of was that the sword contained a fragment of its power. However, that couldn't be it. The Splinter that h
The creator's eyes rolled upward, and he spotted Takisha standing on its neck. Takisha didn't waste a second to bite her teeth in the creator's throat. She grimaced at the vile taste filling her mouth. Considering this was supposed to be the creator possessing a human, she would have thought the blood would taste delicious. Instead, it was probably the most disgusting blood she had ever tasted.Takisha wasn't even sure it was blood. Dirt tasted better than this. However, she focused on injecting her venom into the creator. A shadow loomed over her as the creator raised a hand to rush her. She didn't immediately run, and her faith was rewarded when vines and thorns wrapped around the creator's hand. Blood spilled from where the thorns pierced its skin.Of course, this wasn't enough to stop it for long. The creator ripped free, but its attention had been successfully redirected to Mildred, who unleased several arrows in its direction before running. It deflected them and rushed to crush
"You idiot," Tracy said as she punched Chris in the face."Ow! What was that for?" Chris demanded as he covered his face with a hand."That's for acting like an idiot," she snapped.Luke, Mildred, and Bobby stared at the bickering duo before Mildred turned to Luke and asked, "Are they...""No," Luke and Bobby immediately said.She glanced back at the duo and said, "Really?""They might act this way, but I assure you that Chris isn't her type," Bobby said as he waved a hand in front of himself. "She's already in a relationship with Luke.""I see," Mildred said. "It seems like I have competition."Bobby choked and Luke froze up as the duo finally stopped fighting and Tracy asked, "Wh
The creator was beginning to grow bored. Luke had disappeared off to who knew where, leaving them to deal with the rabble. None of them stood a chance against them. Of course, Luke being there wouldn't have changed much either, but this was supposed to be a game between them. If he wasn't there, then what was the point?They were debating whether they should cut the game short and simply end things when they heard a familiar voice shout, "Move!"Instantly, the creator raised a clawed hand to catch the arrow that had been shot in their direction. Their eyes spotted a familiar dark elf notching another arrow into her bow. So it looked like Luke had rescued the women that they had knocked out. They could have simply killed them and been done with it, but the creator had ultimately decided not to bother.Who would have expected that Luke would go rescue the
"What's this?" Luke muttered as he stared at the emergency quest.Luke never expected the system itself to give out a quest to defeat the creator. He would have thought it would be on their side since it was created by the system. Perhaps it saw the creator as a threat and wanted them to be dealt with. It sent shivers down his spine to see the quest, and he looked up to see that the others in the room were also reading a message from the system."Did you also receive the same quest as me?" he asked, though he already knew the answer."What's this nonsense?" demanded the succubus. "Defeat the creator? I've never heard such a thing.""There has to be a mistake," the dark elf said as she crossed her arms. "Why would we fight against our creator?"Laurel looked towards Luke and demanded,