Chapter 1: The Middle-Aged Adventurer, Reven, Is Kicked Out of His Party and Becomes an Unemployed Man of No Fixed Abode

A solemn atmosphere hung over the legendary guild, “Bravely Ignite”—more commonly known as the Hero’s Party.

The thirteen warriors, conquerors of the legendary labyrinth “The Legend,” were gathered together in the conference room.

The first to speak was the leader, Alex, who informed one of the party members, Reven Avengeyan, of his fate.

“Reven. As of today, you’re out of this party.”

“…Wh-Why…?”

Reven, who for some reason was covered in blood and stuck to a cross with seaweed, replied in disbelief.

“Take a look at yourself. That’s your answer.”

“…Wh-I was just chopped up by a man with scissors a minute ago…”

Incidentally, it seems he actually just fell down right before coming here and ended up like this.

As he said that, a group of crudely designed monsters with indescribable faces approached him, knuckle-walking on all fours. They began to surround him with candles.

“And your weird pets have to go, too.”

“…Wh-I don’t know who these things are…? Somebody help me!”

Ignoring Reven’s anguished cries, the monsters began shoving tomatoes into his mouth, hooting with joy.

“Guaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The damage from the sheer tomato ratio was enough to make Reven spit blood.

Alex just watched with a deadpan expression before speaking.

“Do you really think that’s funny?”

“No, it’s not.”

At that, Alex sighed and laid it out for Reven.

“I’ll be blunt. You’re useless.”

“Wh-What did you say…?”

Those words struck Reven like a bolt of lightning.

That was to be expected, of course, as a gorilla-like monster was currently injecting lightning into his ass.

“Th-That can’t be right! I know I’m not the strongest one in this party! But I’ve supported this group for three years, and I can say for a fact that everyone else is…”

“That’s ’cause you’re too damn weak, you useless bastard!” shouted Kozah, one of the party’s barbarians, cutting Reven’s excuse short.

“Oh my, what are you saying, Takashi♡? You mustn’t use such rough language, you naughty boy♡.”

“Huh? What’s with this guy all of a sudden?! Gross! Stay away from me!!”

Kozah was completely weirded out by Reven’s sudden personality switch, but just then, the monsters appeared silently behind him.

GRAB!

Kozah was pinned by the monsters.

“Uho-uho-uho-uho-uho-uho!!”

“Ngh! It’s Reven’s pets! Dammit, do you have any idea who I…”

“Uho! (Do it!)”

“You got it! Ultimate move! Internal Organ Cannon!”

THWACK!

The spot where the blow landed exploded outward.

“Uhoho-gaah!”

“Wha—?! You hit your own guuuuuuuuuuuy?!”

The gorilla-like creature, having been punched squarely in the stomach, coughed up blood and collapsed.

“What happened?! Unfamiliar monster! Who did this to you?!”

“Uho…”

The monster weakly pointed at Reven.

Realizing this, Reven acted.

“Destroy the evidence!”

KABOOM!

Reven’s attack blew the monster to smithereens.

“Kozah…”

“!?”

“Have you… have you fallen so low that you would harm a complete stranger… so desperate to kick me out of this party that you’d declare, ‘I killed this guy because you wouldn’t leave’?”

“I never said that!!”

Reven shed tears at Kozah’s inhumanity and glared daggers at him.

“Hiroshi… So I was just a game to you…”

“Huh? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

Kozah couldn’t comprehend a single word Reven was saying.

Then again, anyone who could would have a problem.

“You’re awful… To think you had another man while you had me…”

“You’re disgusting! What, did you finally lose your mind?”

Kozah tried to act nonchalant, but inwardly, he was terrified of Reven, a man who stood over two meters tall with a physique of rippling muscle and dragon bone.

Seeing Kozah’s fear, Reven, still crying, pulled out a kitchen knife and charged at him.

“I can’t take it anymore! I’ll kill you, and then I’ll kill myself!”

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! What do you think you’re doing?! Is this some kind of misplaced resentment?!”

Naturally, Kozah panicked at the sight of the knife.

But Reven didn’t stop.

“Don’t make a scene! A man like you deserves to die! Noriaki!”

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

“Time to die!”

However, Reven’s rampage was stopped by a certain individual.

The one who sealed his movement was the party leader, Alex.

“Time Stop.”

As the Hero, he was a master of all forms of magic, and he used it to halt the berserk Reven.

Frozen in place, Reven briefly considered not stopping, but in the end, he didn’t stop.

“What the… that actually kinda hurt…”

After being hit by the Time Stop magic, he began bleeding profusely from all over his body.

“Huh? Time Stop is supposed to halt movement… Why is this happening?”

Reven shot a smirk at the bewildered Alex and started walking toward the exit.

“What’s with that look… Alex…!?”

“Huh? No, no, you should be stopped. You just got hit with time-stopping magic.”

But he did not stop.

“I get it. For you all to move forward, I have to leave this party. So long as you don’t stop, I’ll be there waiting for you!”

He shouted this, then collapsed on the spot.

“So… don’t you ever stop.”

Just before losing consciousness, he used his index finger to write a message on the floor: “From a young age I read books and longed to be a man of power, I postured on the plains like a tiger ambushing its prey, I was branded as incompetent, and I was kicked out of the party. One day I’ll make them all cry uncle. Though my body is still that of a wanderer, when the time comes, I thought to myself that I would settle the score just like that Yellow Nest. – Reven Avengeyan.” With that, he died.

“Uho.”

However, a passing monster grabbed his soul, shoved it back into his body, and revived him.

Then, it picked up his body and threw it into a nearby garbage dump.

~◆The Man Named Reven Avengeyan◇~

To sum up the life of the man named Reven Avengeyan in one word, it was “chaos.”

When he was one year old, he was pickled in some nearby culture fluid.

This caused him to lose his mind.

He was under the delusion that he had been harvested by a farmer during the wild vegetable season, and it was then that he resolved to become an adventurer to gain power.

He figured that if he became a popular adventurer, he could earn tons of money.

That was a lie. In reality, he just wanted to build a super-popular harem.

And so, at the age of thirty-five, he arrived in the adventurer city of Zagig.

There, he joined the party of Alex, who at the time was a rookie adventurer and one of the chosen Heroes.

Reven saw potential in the young Alex and joined his party.

At first, they rejected him, calling him “creepy,” but because they were short on manpower, they let him join as a baggage carrier.

However, with his near-immortal body and his ferocious fighting style with two swords, he was stronger than anyone else in the party.

Despite this, he was called useless every single day, yet he devoted himself to the party for three years, and together, they reached the deepest part of the notoriously difficult labyrinth, “The Legend.”

Having achieved this great feat, they were supposed to be honored by kings from all over the world that day.

But instead, on this day, he was kicked out of the party. He had accomplished something incredible, only to be cast aside by the very comrades he trusted. His money was gone, confiscated as “party assets.” His equipment had been stripped from him by the monsters, leaving him naked in a garbage dump.

(What am I gonna do now…?)

The despair gave way to a surge of pure hatred.

(Dammit… I hate them…)

Burning with a desire for revenge, he rose, stark naked, from the garbage and looked around.

“Uhoooo… Uhohohoooooo…”

The gorilla-like monsters were terrified of the suddenly risen Reven.

They were the ones who had revived him.

“Alright, that settles it.”

He muttered one line, then continued.

“Looks like they’re what’s for dinner tonight.”

With that, he plucked a memory of finding his former comrades somewhat attractive from his head, drizzled some dressing on it, and ate it.

It was disgusting.

His stomach full from eating his memories of them, he stood up.

“First, I need to find a place to train and build up my power… for my revenge against them.”

With that, he began to walk away.

The energy of his ever-growing hatred for them had manifested in his body as the karmic fires of vengeance, awakening the skill [Revenge].

This is the beginning of the story of the man named Reven Avengeyan.