Reincarnated Hero System

Chapter 1308: Anomalous Beauty [GSL Bonus 2]

"The Northern Forest?"

’But that’s impossible. I shouldn’t be able to enter the Northern Forest. I mean, I’m a Race Kin—ugh.’

Evan stopped mid-thought, groaning lightly as his migraine suddenly intensified.

"Right, Prisma’s memories got mixed up with my own memories. Come on, Evan, you don’t have a Race Ruler Authority anymore. Nothing is stopping you from entering the Northern Forest."

He casually reminded himself of that fact and took a few steps forward, trying to sense any sign of life.

Not human, elf, beastkin, or dwarf life, but spirit life.

If this was the Northern Forest he believed it to be, then wind and ice spirits would definitely be present.

More importantly, the Great Wind Spirit Sylph should be here.

’But even if she is, I can’t sense her unless she chooses to reveal herself. If I use enough magic power to expand my Detection Field, I’ll only worsen the damage to my energy circuits.’

"RHS open," Evan commanded, and with a small flash of light, a diaphanous board glitched into existence in his field of view.

However, unlike usual, all the text on the screen was completely garbled, from basic functions like date and time, to the menus leading to system archives, settings, and other utilities.

Everything was unreadable, a sight that made Evan frown deeply.

"Did I take soul damage or something?"

He looked down at his hands, now almost fully healed, and lightly shook his head.

"But I don’t feel any of the symptoms of soul damage, and my regeneration isn’t slow. It’s actually faster than usual, so I definitely can’t be soul damaged.

In that case, then the system itself took damage?"

That somehow made sense, considering he’d been caught in a cosmic energy explosion.

"Of all times for the system to bug out... just when Artemisia happens to not be around."

Evan sighed heavily after speaking, lightly shaking his head before deciding to open his status board, hoping he wouldn’t be met with a glitching screen filled with garbled text.

However, while the diaphanous board that appeared in his field of view after issuing the command wasn’t glitching or covered in unreadable text, the contents weren’t what Evan wanted to see.

[Status Board Temporarily Available.]

[Currently Recompiling Existential Records.]

[Please wait...]

"..."

Evan stared at the three lines of text in silence for several seconds, without a single word leaving his mouth.

’Counting my previous incarnation as Prisma, I’ve existed for over 5 thousand years, and I’ve never seen any system display a message like this before.’

As if it wasn’t enough for the Reincarnated Hero System to be bugging out, his status board also appeared to have gone on temporary leave as well.

Evan pressed his fingers against his temple, as if trying to suppress the headache that was gradually worsening, before dismissing the notifications.

’Let’s just go back. I’ll check all this later.’

He chose not to dwell on it for now and instead turned around, heading back toward the cave where he’d awakened. He passed by the stalactites and stalagmites that naturally hadn’t shifted an inch, but he soon realised he couldn’t find the pathway leading back to the door of that mysterious library he’d come out of.

’Guess my gut feeling was right.’

With a small amount of ambient magic power, he activated Track Down, and soon sensed the signal of the random weapon he’d dropped coming from his right.

When he looked in that direction, however, all he saw were rocky walls faintly covered in frost. He walked up to the wall and tried to touch it, but instead of meeting a solid surface, his hand passed through it as if it wasn’t even there.

’An illusion. One that disrupts more than just vision.’

He stepped through the illusory wall and once again saw the double doors he’d been looking for.

"Right, this place is a dungeon space. I suppose that’s to be expected," he said as he re-entered the mysterious library.

Moving back up the hallway, he passed the blanket that had been draped over him while he was unconscious, picked it up, and folded it while navigating through the sea of books toward the far door.

He pushed it open lightly and peeked inside, and his eyes were met by another sea of books. It was a large, expansive circular hall, with shelves towering dozens of meters high, books filling every shelf, stacked beside and on top of them, and scattered across the floor.

This time, however, there was something else besides the books. Someone else.

Hovering in the centre of those thousands upon thousands of books was a woman whose eyes were glued to a book with a blank cover, her fingers rapidly turning the pages while her pupils moved across line after line at an unnatural speed.

Evan stepped into the hall, closing the door behind him, and at the sound of it shutting, her fingers paused, and she turned her attention toward him.

"Oh, you’re awake."

Her magnetic voice echoed in Evan’s ears, and he suddenly felt a strange pull in his chest. His heart thudded suddenly, and for a fleeting moment, he thought he was looking at Eliza.

Then he blinked, and the illusion broke.

’That’s NOT Liz... That’s someone else.’

The woman before him was terrifyingly beautiful, almost unnaturally so. Her long white hair cascaded downward like silk, crimson jewelled eyes that sat perfectly on her face staring at him, and a faint, unreadable smile on her face.

But at the same time, it didn’t seem like she was truly smiling at him.

Her presence bloomed like flowers within his chest, soft and dizzying. Everything about her matched his preferences too perfectly.

His thoughts swirled, and his heartbeat slowed as he took a staggering step forward.

Then a sudden jolt of clarity pierced his mind, and the haze in his eyes vanished.

"!"

[Adaptive Evolution has activated.]

[Charm Resistance has evolved into Charm Pseudo-Immunity.]

[Mental Resistance has increased immensely.]

[Mental Resistance is increasing exponentially.]

Evan’s eyes narrowed instantly.

The illusion was gone, and what remained was the unsettling truth that the woman before him was most definitely NOT normal.

He raised his gaze back toward her just as she placed a bookmark on the page she’d been reading and closed the book with a light sound.

Everything he’d failed to register as abnormal before came rushing back, the fogged state of his mind, the strange pressure in his chest, the way his thoughts had become disordered in her presence, and how, for a moment, he’d thought he was looking at Eliza.

The woman had an anomalous beauty that could make a man fall with just a glance, paired with a shapely body that could make one’s heart thump wildly, but none of that held Evan’s attention in this moment.

His focus was on the unmistakable signature energy radiating from her body.

’She’s a demon.’

A demon in a dungeon filled with thousands upon thousands of books.

A demon whose mere presence had just triggered his Adaptive Evolution, forcing his Charm Resistance to rise to the level of Pseudo-Immunity just to resist her influence.

Evan had met literal succubi before, but even they hadn’t been able to make him lose himself even for a second.

His scrambled memories slowly fell into place, the pieces connecting as he came to a realisation.

He knew who she was.

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, she was the embodiment of pure, ravenous desire.

Before Evan was the Deadly Sin of Lust.