Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

[Mutant No. 17]

[Mutant No. 26]

[Mutant No. 31]

The Asura Guild had been conducting numerous experiments until now. While there had been many failures, there had been just as many successes. The results of these efforts were the enhanced humans—the dragonkin.

Manu Kijal, despite hastily fleeing, could not hide his confusion as he ran. It’s impossible!How could this happen?

The dragonkin army that the Asura Guild had painstakingly crafted was now crumbling. Though the dragonkin still held the advantage in numbers, somehow things were not going as they should.

Why? I just don’t get it! This simply wasn’t right.

“Hahaha! Is that all you got?!” one of the attackers bellowed.

Why aren’t they dying? Manu wondered.

He wasn’t sure what these monsters were, but they refused to die—even when their limbs were torn off, their forms ripped in two, or their heads crushed whole! These summoned creatures, numbering no more than a few dozen, simply refused to be defeated. It’s impossible!This man’s army… They seem immortal!Where in the world did they even come from?

That was not the only issue, however.

“Arise.”

That goddamnednecromancer!That skill is far too powerful!

Manu had never imagined such a thing was possible. At first, he had thought Liu was the real threat, but he now seemed insignificant compared to this young man.

“Arise.”

At the command of this necromancer—or whatever he was—spirits billowing dark steam rose from the bodies of the dragonkin. The sight was bone-chilling.

“Aaagh! How is this happening?!”

If this was a dream, it was the worst nightmare imaginable. The enemy could not be killed, and Manu’s own forces would become the young man’s minions the moment they fell. The enemy had the power to multiply! It was the most unfair and unprincipled battle he’d ever seen. This isn’t good! Not good at all!At this rate, we’re bound to lose!

There was only one thing left to do now. Manu was resourceful, and his mind raced to find a solution to this dilemma. Time to turn the tables!

It was an unchanging law of mana: no true immortal army could exist. If those creatures were overwhelmed with force and had no chance to resurrect, they would not return.

Siddharth needs to get involved in person!But that’s precisely what they want, no doubt. Manu, ever the strategist, quickly deduced the enemy’s plan. That irritating necromancer is disrupting the battlefield, and soon Siddharth will be forced to intervene.Liu is probably here to confront him when he arrives!

Perhaps this was all part of a ruse engineered by China to pave the way for an invasion of India. Liu Zhigang of China or Siddharth Bachchan of India—people constantly debated who was stronger. In the United States Federal Bureau of Hunters’ ranking system, Siddharth was placed lower than Liu, but Manu knew the truth about the guild master and understood how insignificant that ranking was.

Ha!Liu Zhigang of China, is it?The people have been lied to!Siddharth has surpassed the limits of the human race!

Manu’s eyes were alight with an eerie, ghostly energy as he put his plan together, his mind working at full speed. Perhaps it was the arrival of a foreign power or something else entirely, but he no longer felt the caution he had once held toward Siddharth. In its place was an all-consuming, blind loyalty. Siddharth… is the apostle of the gods!

Manu stopped before a rift that rippled unnervingly. He called out to the pair of dragonkin guarding it, “Go, bring Siddharth! China has invaded our country!”

“Our master is occupied. Were you not instructed to handle trivial matters yourself?” responded one of the creatures, his eyes gleaming sharply.

Manu flinched, feeling the weight of the dragonkin’s words. He recalled the gravity of the situation, however, and shouted again, “Goddamn it! It’s Liu Zhigang! He’s back! If Siddharth does not get involved, Liu will take Imphal right from under our noses!”

“Liu… Zhigang?” The dragonkin’s face flickered with faint memories of his human life. He frowned. “Wait here. We will report to our master.”

“There is no time! I will meet him myself and explain!” Manu cried, desperate.

“Ha! Who do you think you are?” The dragonkin sneered at the man as he tried to force his way into the gate. “If you go inside now, you won’t come out alive. He is very hungry at the moment, you see.”

Manu felt a chill crawl up his spine. He realized, with a sinking heart, that this was not an empty threat. “H-hungry? What do you mean? Surely he has enough food?”

“Food? Heh.”

“You mean sacrifices?”

Manu’s eyes flickered with unease as he looked toward the gate the creatures were guarding. “What in the world are you monsters doing in—”

Before he could finish, a massive sword plunged into the ground at his feet.

“Don’t you dare disrespect this sacred place!” one of the dragonkin snarled.

Manu’s breath caught in his throat.

“Tsk. Be patient. One of my men has already gone to wake the master.”

Manu stared at the crack beneath him and sank to his knees, his strength draining away. However, as he pondered the words spoken to him, an odd apprehension settled over him.

“Wake” him? For some reason, it did not sound like Siddharth had merely been asleep.

***

Siddharth opened his eyes. “Liu… Zhigang?”

“Yes. That’s what we have been told.”

The guild master’s eyes curved gleefully at the report delivered by one of the dragonkin. He seemed unfazed, even unconcerned, by the fact that humanity’s greatest army had infiltrated his territory. In fact, it didn’t seem to matter to him at all.

“I’ve missed that name,” Siddharth murmured, his dark eyes growing pensively.

He mulled over memories from a past life that no longer existed, contemplating the name. Liu, the seven-star hunter,was once a companion of mine. “Hehe. He was truly a powerful one. Not even I would have survived fighting Kamish without him. But the current Liu is… different.”

Siddharth had regained his memories ever since accepting the power of the Outer Universes. He still remembered the day the two lives collided in his mind.

The battle with Kamish had been savage, and he had earned his title as a National Level Hunter afterward. But ten years later, an overwhelming end had come to Earth. It had shown him despair far deeper than anything Kamish could have caused.

And then… What happened? he had pondered. Did the world end after all?

He could not quite recall. Communications had broken down, and no news had traveled thereafter. He had heard that a hunter named Sung Jinwoo from South Korea had fought valiantly, but that man, like the others, was only human and would eventually fall.

All that remained in Siddharth’s mind from the end was being locked in battle with dragons who tore through the sky. But at some point, his memories ceased. When he awoke again, peace had settled over the world.

Ah.

The moment those memories returned to him, he was shaken by the truth they implied. None of that violence had ever truly happened, as time had looped back upon itself. Dozens of years had passed, and just like before, gates had opened on Earth again. It was chilling to think that the magic beasts were back.

So that’s it…

Then he understood. In this confusing repetition of history, he had once again awakened as an S-rank hunter, fully aware of the fate given to him. He was the sole hunter in the world who held all the memories of his past life and was granted a second chance to live anew.

I am the only person who can save Earth.

He had been chosen to be the savior of the world.

Siddharth had clenched his fists, which now contained the power of the Outer Universes, and grinned wickedly.

He was no different from the man he had been in his previous life. In the past he had taken power from the apostles of deities called Rulers to fight the Monarchs. In this life, he’d received power from an apostle of the gods of the Outer Universes. The source of his power had shifted slightly, but he was once again strong enough to be a National Level Hunter. This was fate, and he had a duty to fulfill.

Nothing has changed.I must simply carry on fighting.

He might have paused to ask who he was fighting for this time, but in his heart, it was clear: he fought to protect the weak, helpless humans who inhabited Earth.

Siddharth was proud of his efforts in his past life to safeguard humanity. But I failed back then.No matter how hard I tried, so many lives were lost. Regret and bitterness weighed heavily on him as he looked back.

Oddly, however, a blue glow of madness filled his eyes. This time, he vowed, I will not fail. That was why he had been granted this second chance—to correct his past mistakes and forge a better future.

I will enhance humanity!

And so his project to empower the entire human race had begun.

No matter how much I try to protect them, the weaklings will die.In order to save these poor humans who lack even the smallest trace of mana, I must make them stronger!

As it turned out, Siddharth already knew exactly how this could be done. The power of the Rulers had once been forcibly injected into his body, and now he could do the same for others.

I can infuse human bodies with power!

Of course, this process would cause a certain amount of strain on the body. Not everyone would be able to bear it, and if they failed, they would not survive. Even he had struggled initially and had needed time to adjust to the might of the Rulers.

However, humanity was resilient. If he made them adapt gradually, success was inevitable. Some lives would be lost along the way, but history had proven that for the greater good, sacrifices had to be made.

Under Siddharth’s careful planning, countless experiments were conducted. Fortune was on his side. In hindsight, he understood that it hadn’t been mere luck, but the guidance of the great Itarim.

Ah!I didn’t know there was a path here to the Grave of the Dragons!

One day, as he wandered the rift between dimensions following the Itarim’s guidance, a new dimension appeared before him. It was there that he found the abandoned dragon eggs.

That day, he thanked the great Itarim from the bottom of his heart. Then without hesitation, he injected the dragon blood extracted from those eggs into his body. He absorbed it to the very limit he could endure, and then even more.

In order to save this world,I must become much stronger than my past self!

[Mutant No. 1]

Siddharth Bachchan had willingly set aside his humanity. He emerged from the gate, a pair of blue dragon-like wings unfurling behind him.

Before him, countless dragonkin had fallen to their knees in submission. He had smiled broadly, a look of deep satisfaction in his eyes.

“Onward, men!”

His previous life had ended in failure, but he remembered the terrifying beings he had faced in those agonizing memories. Now he had built his own dragonkin army, fashioned after the Army of Antares, the King of Dragons. He would not fail again.

With resolve burning in their eyes, the dragonkin legion soared into the sky.

Pix612, Catherine Stewart, Jiwon Yu, Hannah Shin's Thoughts

Localization Credits

Kiwi Vine

Translator Gom

Editor Heather Powers

Linguist Sara Liddell

Head Linguist Hannah Shin

Kakao Entertainment

Head of Language Quality Letitia Wells

Head of Localization Jaewon Lee

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