HERO'S QUEST: WORLD'S END.
That's the name of the novel I read.
It was a book I got referred to after reading another, which was probably my favourite.
I won't lie.
The story was attention-gripping from the very start.
I don't know why, but I just liked it even when it had the lowest rating I had ever seen.
2.1.
People literally bad-mouthed the book, and though it was free, the comments made it seem as though the author owed them some sort of debt for wasting their time.
But I still read it.
The story itself was at first a cliche of a commoner getting admitted into the academy with his childhood friend. But the story began to unfold in ways more twisted than any other novel I had ever read. Those who looked like allies at first became major enemies, one of which being his own childhood friend, and this was the most shocking of all, as he himself had to kill her to stop her from what she was about to do.
Hm.
Maybe that's why the story had such a low rating.
Perhaps it's because people never expected such turnouts, and what makes it more frustrating, I think, is probably the fact that the people who eventually changed sides were in fact heroines in the first volume.
The novel probably had more villainesses and villains than it had heroes and heroines.
Well, that was the case for the first volumes, but things began to change even more from the second volume, after the tournament, where the first attack happened.
According to the author, the world of Hero's Quest was a small one. Well, it's more like the only part of the world that is still inhabitable are these parts.
Apparently, after the last battle between the gods and the demons, the world was destroyed. Every single place was annihilated, and all that was left was this small part, which barely stands as a continent but is still inhabited by other races. The other parts of the world were poisoned, and the mana there is abnormal, so staying there for too long can lead to mana pool combustion, a situation where the mana core is overloaded and can no longer filter mana, leading to the accumulation of unfiltered mana in the mana pool. This unfiltered mana clogs the mana valves, which will in fact lead to mana pool combustion if the victim ever tries to circulate mana at that point.
Now what makes this world doomed to end no matter what happens is that the corruption is spreading. Even this small surviving part of the world can only survive for so long before becoming corrupted and inhabitable.
That's why all races are at war.
They are trying to get to the safer parts of the planet before the corruption reaches their part. The humans have two empires, though these empires aren't really as big as they sound. They should more or less be regarded as kingdoms with many territories, but that's what they are.
However, the human empires are at the very center of the continent, and surrounding them are three more races. Namely, the vampires, who are in fact getting more desperate by the day as the corruption keeps closing in. Then there are the Gyrods, who are even more dangerous and volatile than the vampires, likewise victims of desperation due to the approaching corruption. The last, but not the least, are the elves. No one really knows what's going on with them, as even in the novel they were only mentioned a couple of times. They are likewise at the outskirts of the continent, closer, in fact, to the corruption than anyone else, but no one knows what they are planning as their borders remain closed and they refuse to interact.
Well, given I have read the novel to a considerable length, I know exactly what those bastards are hiding, and that's exactly what I planned to use to my advantage when I find Renay. Well...
...That's what I planned.
But I don't know at this point.
I don't know what to believe anymore.
I don't even know what I am feeling, I'm just messed up inside.
"Sighs."
I shed a breath, then wore the uniform.
At this point I have no reason to be here.
I don't even see a reason to live given how this world will inevitably end.
Maybe I should just... leave.
Yeah.
That's the thing the elves hid.
They are not in this world.
There is a way to leave this world, but that way is in the elven empire.