The Paladin in the Abyss - Chapter 9 - 5: Battle in the Mines

“Failed writer. Failed hunter. Failed at life.”Aiden Jus had heard it all before. At twenty-eight, he was a walking reminder of what happened when you failed your mana awakening and spent thirteen years chasing a dream that would never come true. No powers. No future. Just a cramped flat in the UK and a lifetime of rejection letters from publishers who never bothered to read past the first page.But the day Aiden decided to give up on writing—the day he was ready to finally accept a soul-crushing desk job at an editing firm—everything changed.*[You have been chosen by Nabu, God of Literacy and Scribes]**[Skill Acquired: Narrative Embodiment (Divine-Rank)]*The ancient Mesopotamian deity offered Aiden something unprecedented: the power to physically enter any story he writes and gain real abilities from the fictional worlds he creates.*[You have mastered Celestial Blade Art - Skill permanently acquired]**[You have learned Tier-9 Spell: Void Severance - Spell permanently acquired]*Every sword technique mastered, every spell learned, every power gained inside his stories becomes permanently his in the real world. But so does every death trap, overpowered villain, and narrative cruelty he carelessly wrote in moments of frustration.Suddenly, Aiden isn't just a failed writer anymore. While other awakened humans rely on mana cores and dungeon raids, Aiden's strength comes from the worlds born from his imagination—a power that operates outside the traditional hunter system entirely.As rival gods compete for powerful human contractors and ancient ruins promise unimaginable treasures, Aiden must survive the deadly fictional universes he created while building his reputation in a society that once dismissed him as worthless.**From the typewriter to the battlefield, Aiden Jus will prove that the pen truly is mightier than the sword—as long as you're willing to live through every word you write.**

When he returned to the World of Martial Arts, the game was filled with blood and battles! Chen Kaixin had chased after the footsteps of the one emperor, two empresses, three princes, seven dukes, and thirteen aces for three years, but during the eve of the Sword Among Us tournament in Mount Hua, he was ambushed by evil bastards, and was killed so much that his level dropped to that of a newbie. He completely lost the chance to join the ranks of the powerful players in the game! In great disappointment, Kaixin quit the game and got drunk so that he could forget his sadness, but during that stormy night, Chen Kaixin found that he had actually dreamed for a total of three years, because when he woke up again, he woke up to three years ago, when he was still a student.

- Description from Novelupdates

When Lu Huang woke up as Lidia—the villainess of a cringe-worthy romance novel—she was determined not to let the story play out like the dumpster fire it was written to be. Nope. Dying at the hands of the Alpha King after being falsely accused, publicly humiliated, and manipulated into madness? Yeah, that’s not on her to-do list.Armed with a sharp tongue that could flay egos, the street smarts of a broke college grad, and the petty audacity of someone with nothing left to lose, Lidia decides she was ripping up the script. Holier-than-thou saintesses? Screw ’em. Self-righteous alphas? They can eat dirt. If this world insists on casting her as the villain, she’s going to own it—on her terms.One chaotic scheme at a time, Lidia’s ready to rewrite her fate—and if she has to break a few rules (and maybe some noses) to do it, so be it. Villainesses don’t play nice, and Lidia is just getting started.

The person who was locked away inside the thorn-covered tower was not a princess, but a witch who employed the powers of darkness.

A brave young hero came searching for the tower in order to kill the witch.

– Light would force the darkness to recede, and grant it eternal rest

The witch wished.

That things would end with, ‘and the hero lived happily ever after killing the witch,’ like in the fairy tales.

And so, she had devised everything to happen in accordance to her wishes.

But the boy, who had grown up in but no time at all, would make the unfamiliar face of man’s from time to time.

“You want me to kill you? ……Do you really think I’ll let you go?”

Reality was very different from the fairy tales.

“The people don’t know of the precious treasure locked away in the tower.

I won’t let anyone else have this god given treasure, this crown of god surrounded by thorns that no one else could recognize.”

The hero gave the witch a slow and deep kiss.

“I am the true victor, and no one else.”