Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Congratulations! The skill Meditation has leveled up!

Congratulations! For leveling up a skill you learned by yourself, you obtained one hundred coins.

Although Ethan learned those skills relatively fast, only Meditation could level up at an acceptable pace. Still, considering his standards, spending one hour to level up a single skill was a bit too much.

"If I remember correctly, the same day I learned Meditation, I reached level twenty with it," Ethan said while scratching his chin. "I guess it can't be helped. The path here will be even harder than it was in that world since I don't intend to steal the power of others… for now. Maybe Hannah can teach me a few spells. No… come to think of it, I really need to recover my vigor. Getting that tired after running around the garden for ten minutes was really pathetic."

It was time to train his body. Although Ethan was pretty sure that he would have the chance to recover some of his powers at school, he didn't want to wait for it. So, he grabbed his old sneakers and left his room after putting them on.

"I'm going for a walk," Ethan said while he grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator. "I will return before lunch."

"Oh no... the slacker Ethan was brainwashed in the other world and became hard-working," Hannah said while putting both hands on her cheeks and faking some surprise. "What are we going to do?"

"Shut it," Ethan said, and then he recalled something. "Otherwise, I will tell your husband the magazines you had during your puberty."

"You wouldn't dare..." Hannah said and then corrected herself. "I mean, I never had such a thing."

His parents, sister, and Nuvian still were in the living room, showing complicated expressions when Ethan appeared and then left despite acting like usual. They couldn't help but be left astonished when Ethan said and then declared that. In the past, Ethan hated exercising with passion, and now two hours after his return, he decided to jog around the neighborhood.

"It looks like this is more serious than we thought," Hannah crossed her hands and put them in front of her mouth. "Ethan became a maniac for exercises even without father's help… it looked like he tasted hell in the other world."

"Don't joke about such a thing, Hannah," Evelyn said, a bit angry.

"Sorry," Hannah forced a smile. "What are you going to do, dad? This isn't exactly what you always wanted from us? You should join him."

"… Exercising is a good way to clear one's mind," Michael closed his eyes and crossed his arms. "Ethan needs some time alone to return to being the person he once was. Just like you, he needs to deactivate his 'soldier's mode'."

"For some reason, I feel that he will have a hard time with that," Hannah sighed after approaching the window, looking to the sides and not finding Ethan.

Congratulations! You learned the skill, Dash!

Effects: Passively increases the speed while running or jogging by five percent per level.

Cost: 0.2 stamina per second.

Lv 01 – 0/100

Congratulations! For learning a new ability without help, you received one thousand coins.

Ethan already was pretty away from his home when he received that notification. He had to put quite a lot of effort into receiving that notification. To think that he, who defeated the whole demon army relying on his physical strength alone, could have such a weak body was… disheartening, to say the least.

To make things worse, after a few minutes of running at such low speed, his stamina was empty, and Dash only improved up a bit. He will have to empty his stamina more than four times to make it level up. Fortunately, soon after he stopped to rest, his stamina was recovered by one point.

"Good, my power as a hero is weak, but it is working," Ethan nodded to himself in satisfaction. "Health and mana should also recover one per minute in the beginning. That being said, I can't imagine them being used anytime soon. Unless…"

Hannah's image appeared inside Ethan's head again. Ethan's father also knew a few martial arts, so his attacks would definitely hurt him and further increase the speed of the training. However, Ethan wanted to do that in a place where no one could see them. Back in that world, many people tried to manipulate him by obtaining information about him. Now on Earth, Ethan had to be even more careful. Although he didn't know many other heroes, he was pretty sure that his power as a hero was an anomaly among them.

"Now that I think about it, it might be a good idea to use this power on the people who managed to implement the use of mana in our daily lives," Ethan rubbed his chin. "Still, I wonder if I will find someone who deserves that kind of punishment. That kind of knowledge will be useful to me, but still…"

Maybe with the knowledge humans obtained recently, Ethan would be able to get rid of at least control his power as a hero. Either way, as long that curse doesn't affect the people he loves and innocents, he would feel satisfied.

"Ah, now that I think about it, there is another skill I can learn," Ethan said and then smiled. "How could I have forgotten about that."

Congratulations! You learned the skill Rest!

Effects: Passively increases the speed of your recovery when you lay still by five percent per level.

Lv 01 – 0/100

Congratulations! For learning a new ability without help, you received one thousand coins.

The effects weren't powerful yet, but it was the perfect skill for lazy people. The problem was Ethan could only activate the skill while his health, mana, or stamina wasn't completely full. So, it wasn't like the skill would level up non-stop while he slept. Rest also had another perk; it could be used alongside Meditation.

"Not that I used mana that much until now," Ethan shrugged. "In any case, my class is rewarding me for putting effort into learning new skills without cheating, so perhaps I should try a little more seriously how to learn magic. I guess it will feel pretty natural if I ask Hannah to just do some demonstrations… that woman didn't say we were forbidden from using our powers, after all. Not that I would obey such a rule."

After resting for a few minutes, Ethan was back to normal. Another perk of his hero class, once his health, mana, and stamina are full, he feels completely fine. Regardless, since Rest worked during the whole time he waited, the skill was already at the halfway point to leveling up. It certainly was an essential skill that wouldn't be very useful during a combat, but it was very useful.

That morning, Ethan did nothing but train his skills. However, after returning home to have lunch, he also spent the whole afternoon. Trying to recover his powers as much as possible in the nearest park. Meanwhile, a certain black-haired woman watched him during the whole time.

"Aren't you a hard worker despite being so arrogant?" Natalia said while watching Ethan from the shadows and smiling. "The time is fast approaching, so you have to hurry up."