HOW TO NTR A NETORI PROTAGNIST

Millions of epochs ago, when gods still walked among mortals and the great evil slumbered beneath the land, the heavens were ruled by the supreme god Aerathav.

Among their ranks, two gods—Thornar, the Patron of Justice, and Liora, the Queen of Holy Light—wanted to prove their worth. They sought to outshine one another in purity and righteousness before Aerathav, embarking on a grand competition.

Their target? Home of dark elves and blaken spirits.

Known as The Forbidden Land, a dark region that had long spilled death and chaos across mortal territories.

Mortals feared it; gods looked down upon it as a blight. Destroying this accursed region was a feat worthy of divine glory.

And so, both gods descended to mortal lands, their power aimed at erasing what they saw as unworthy life.

It wasn't even a battle, more like purification. The creatures of the Forbidden Land didn't stand a chance against gods who wielded powers beyond mortal comprehension. Within mere moments, the land was wiped clean. Not a trace of life remained.

But as their divine egos clashed, another problem arose—who had truly destroyed the Forbidden Land? Both claimed credit, and in their hubris, Thornar and Liora fought.

Their battle was no holy act but a selfish display of vanity and wrath. For three days and three nights, their fight tore the skies apart, scorching the lands below.

Entire civilizations, just beginning to bloom, were obliterated.

Mortal lands grew darker.

The sacred scales of justice, once held aloft by Thornar, blackened as his once-pure power decayed.

This conflict, rooted in pride, brought ruin to those who were supposed to be their charges.

That's when something stirred. Something deep within the Forbidden Land—awakened by their chaos, driven by their arrogance.

And in an instant, Thornar and Liora ceased to exist.

They died. In an instant.

The death of two gods wasn't a slow thing, nor a grand battle.

It was annihilation on a whim.

Mortals later called this the "Forest of Death" because no gods dared to tread here after that.

Aerathav tried to discover what happened, scouring every corner of existence for clues. But no answers came. Of course, Aerathav was supreme and couldn't be concerned with something so futile—he was the Haven of the world.

Nonetheless, fear spread across the other gods.

If two mighty gods could fall so easily, what chance did the rest stand?

It wasn't until epochs later that the truth emerged: the killer wasn't a monster or a vengeful spirit but a mortal.

To be precise, a human emperor.

His name was Erys of Darkaen—a mere human.

But this emperor was unlike anything the gods had ever seen before. Despite mortals lacking magic back then, Erys had learned to wield it, shattering limitations that were supposed to be unbreakable.

He rose beyond humanity, destroying not only gods but the order they had built. History began to remember him by many names:

The Crimson Emperor

The God Killer

The Emperor of Death

Of course, the gods couldn't let that stand. Their humiliation burned brighter than their power. Erys, for all his glory, was captured and executed during a full moon. His body may have died, but his legacy was something no one could erase.

Aerathav, in recognition of his unmatched strength and courage, declared that his possessions would not be seized.

Instead, a labyrinth was made—the place that housed his treasures and the darkest secrets of his life was made eternal, hidden within the Forbidden Land.

All of this is just history now, recorded in fragments, myths, and faded legends. But as I stand here, before the labyrinth's dark and twisted entrance, I know why I came.

This wasn't just some memorial for a mad emperor. It's the home of his life's work. His power. His conquests. And most importantly, it was the place where the protagonist got his power and awakened his feared bloodline.

"That's right—that bastard Alex is descended from the Emperor of Death, the Crimson Emperor."

That's why I'm here. I couldn't just let the plot unfold as it originally did. This was the grave of a mighty figure, and naturally, it won't be easy. But I, who read the original work, am not afraid of any threat.

Anyway, after I fell through the black hole, I landed in pure darkness.

The reason for the pitch-black void wasn't just the absence of light, it was because I couldn't see a damn thing ahead of me, not with every scrap of my mana drained.

To make things worse, I'd broken my leg in the fall, though it wasn't anything serious, maybe just a minor fracture. But when I was lost in thought, I heard the familiar system voice.

[Host is too weak to explore the Labyrinth of Doom. Implanting the Unique-grade Mana Heart is strongly advised. Do you wish to proceed?]

"Damn right I do. It's about damn time—I need to become stronger. Faster."

I gritted my teeth, bracing myself. Despite having read the original work, nothing had prepared me for the mystery of this so-called invincible Mana Heart.

There was no mention of something like this in the original book; nonetheless, I didn't care.

In front of me was the Labyrinth of Doom, mocking me. God knows if it would be more dangerous than I imagined.

I had no choice.

I couldn't just sit here.

A cold laugh escaped my lips. Time to change that.

"Haha! Let's begin…"

[Implantation of Invincible Mana Heart commencing.]

[20%—30%—40%]

It was clear that this wasn't going to be painless—nothing ever was.

My chest constricted, a wave of unbearable heat and pressure flooding my body. Something foreign invaded, thrumming with immense, untamed magic, pulling in raw energy from the environment.

I could feel the storm raging around me. My heart hammered in protest, resisting, but it was futile.

The Mana Heart took hold.

"AHHHHH!"

I fought back the scream as my veins pulsed, each throb of magical energy stretching, straining.

The blue steam rising from my body swirled around me like a twisting water vortex, as though the very air was waking up to my pain.

I thought I was going to lose consciousness, but then—there was a shift.

A surge of power flooded into me in relentless waves.

My heart, no longer just pumping blood, felt alive—swelling, expanding, brimming with unimaginable force.

Every fiber of my being burned.

Changed.

Adapted.

Expanded.

Then the pain... it froze.

My body stopped its spasms; everything suddenly still.

[System Update: Mana Heart successfully implanted. Unique-grade: Invincible Mana Heart achieved.]

I felt it coursing through me. Every inch of me vibrated with immense, unstoppable mana.

Unstoppable.

The Invincible Mana.

These were the two words that escaped my heart. Truly, even though I was weak, I had never felt this strong—never.

Though I could still barely comprehend its full extent.

For a brief moment, everything around me froze. I opened my eyes, the atmosphere violently humming with the newfound power within me.

Energy flowed through my veins, endless and constant—like blood circulating through my body, always replenishing.

"Yeah…"

Then, without warning, the world shattered. An eruption of magic surged from within me, blasting outward like a violent storm.

BOOM.

The entire darkness lit up with the pulse of my mana. I could feel it, every inch of it, rippling outward, breaking the limits of my power.

The Labyrinth of Doom trembled.

[Host has broken through to One-Star Mage level in one fell swoop. Congratulations.]

My chest slammed forward from the impact, the sheer power of it all forcing my heart into overdrive.

I grinned, my teeth flashing through the pain. Finally.

I opened my status screen, eager to assess the magnitude of my transformation.

---

[Name: Magnus Deathclaw]

[One-Star Mage | Level: 45]

[Strength: 47/100]

[Height: 6.4 feet | Weight: 54 kg]

[Magic: Mirror, Cage, Chain]

[Mana: 100/100]

[Mana Heart: Unique-grade – Invincible Mana Heart]

[Overall Status: Happy, Ambitious, Sad]

[Fate: You will die in 20 days.]

[Skills: Mirror Mirage | Chain Thrust | Wooden Prison]

---

"20 days? At least I'm not dying in three days anymore... but to think I'm still gonna die? This world sure doesn't like me."

I was tempted to ask the system about the fate sentence, but chose to ignore it. My focus had to remain on what was right in front of me.

For the first time in a long time, I didn't feel weak. Or pathetic. Hell, not even the shadow of death would scare me now.

I clenched my fist to my chest, feeling the invincibility flooding through me.

"Time to rewrite my fate."

I said as I looked towards the ominous gate that stood before me.

As I reached the gate, my steps faltered. It wasn't just looming, it felt alive, breathing menace with every inch of its blackened surface.

The strange symbols carved into the iron seemed to twist and flicker when I tried to focus, like they were laughing at how little I understood.

"Creepy" would've been generous.

This thing was straight-up unsettling.

On either side, two skulls hung suspended by corroded chains, their eye sockets filled with glowing red gemstones.

They didn't just shine; they stared.

And if you've ever been on the wrong end of someone dissecting every weakness in your soul, you know the kind of staring I mean.

I stood there for a moment, remembering those horror movies I used to watch in my past life.

Always the same routine: a bunch of idiots waltzing toward certain death, ignoring every obvious red flag.

Back then, I used to laugh at how unrealistic it all was.

Now?

Let's just say my past self would've shut up real quick staring at this gate.

But this wasn't about fear. It was about survival. I knew what I had to do.

Unhooking the camel-kidney pouch strapped to my side, I felt its weight shift, the thick slosh of Alex's Crimson Emperor blood inside.

His bloodline was famous, feared, revered. Sadly, the guy didn't know, and wisely, I was able to cut off his life roots.

Now it was nothing more than my key to getting through this nightmare. That fact was almost as satisfying as it was ironic.

Tipping the pouch, I poured the blood into the twin bowls beneath the skulls.

The reaction was immediate.

A low, guttural groan rose up, the kind that clawed at your nerves and made you regret ever being born.

Dust exploded from the hinges as the gate began to creak open, the movement slow and deliberate, like it wanted me to know what I was walking into.

The cool breeze that spilled from inside hit me like a wall: mildew, decay, and something rancid enough to make my stomach churn.

I took a steadying breath and ran through what I knew. This wasn't an unbeatable dungeon.

Not yet.

If I was weaker now, the labyrinth seemed built for that. Anyway, if Alex, who was half-bloodied and weak, could beat this in the original, why couldn't I? Even if I'm not the real protagonist, I'm still the protagonist of my own story.

With overconfidence I took a step at time.

This labyrinth had three floors of hell, but it was survivable if I played my cards right:

The Goblins' Den.

Scale of Will.

The Throne Room.

Not that knowing made the pit in my stomach any smaller, but at the very least, I knew what I was getting into.

As I stepped across the threshold, the gate slammed shut behind me, the sound sharp and final.

"let's see how much worse this gets."

I said, looking ahead into the shadows.

The first thing I felt was the extreme cold creeping in from all directions, my thin body struggling even more as the chill seeped into my bones.

When I looked around, jagged walls stretched endlessly ahead, broken only by countless narrow tunnels and uneven ground.

Every shadow seemed alive, shifting in the flickering, dim light, like the maze itself was breathing. Watching. Waiting.

But it didn't matter. I was about to kill them all.

I could hear low, guttural sounds coming from deep within—the scraping of claws on stone, the wet, disgusting hiss of something hungry.

I cracked my neck and sighed. "Here we go."

The first growl came from my left. Then another, lower and more guttural, answering from deeper inside. They were close now, and there were plenty of them.

I tightened my grip on my rod, resting the tip against the cold stone floor. If anyone asked why I wasn't using a sword or something sharper, the answer was simple: I didn't know swordsmanship. A rod was a better weapon for me, though it was made of wood.

Anyway, I didn't need to see them yet to know what they were—

Filthy green bastards.

More lustful than Alex.

Goblins.

Pestilence on legs.

These weren't the idiotic nuisances most people joked about. They were filth incarnate. Their flesh was mottled, a sickly green, marred by bulbous growths and old scars. Long claws clicked against the stone as they scuttled in the shadows.

Their eyes glowed a venomous yellow, mouths drooling with jagged, crooked teeth, as though carved from broken glass.

Soon, I saw one of them—green and disgusting.

It crawled into view, hunched and sniffing, its nose twitching like it could smell the blood running through my veins. When it spotted me, it grinned wide, those yellow eyes narrowing as it hissed something to the pack behind it.

More poured out.

Dozens. No—more like a thousand. I couldn't count them in the chaos, but they were enough to scare the crap out of even the bravest.

Each one was more mangled than the last, twitching like rabid dogs, hungry for flesh.

They smelled me.

Then they charged, claws outstretched, disgusting hands wielding crude, handmade weapons to kill me, their meal.

But I didn't move.

I poured mana into the rod—the only weapon I had—and it glowed a deep purple. I slammed it into the ground hard enough to make cracks spread through the stone beneath us.

Energy rippled out—cold and jagged—until reflections began to form.

[Mirror Mirage.]

I spoke, and it was the first time I used my mirror magic.

Dozens of versions of me exploded around the chamber, flickering like ghosts, each one mirroring my every movement in perfect sync. But the magic wasn't perfect. All I saw were countless reflections of myself filling the hall—at least a thousand of them.

The pack hesitated, panicked—too dumb to figure it out. They weren't real humans. One goblin lunged at a copy.

The others followed, snarling and howling like rabid animals, rushing to destroy my reflection.

But before they could,

I chanted.

[Chain Thrust.]

It was the second skill I could use. As soon as the goblins attacked, chaos erupted. The reflections shattered into jagged shards, and chains shot out from them, piercing through the heads of the nearest goblins.

Green blood flooded the floor.

One chain caught a goblin mid-swing, punching clean through its chest. Another chain buried itself into a goblin's face, ripping its head apart in one snap.

Blood sprayed wide, dark and thick, painting the walls. Another chain wrapped around another goblin's leg, yanking it clean off with a sickening crunch, leaving it howling on the floor.

The chains kept coming.

One slammed into the ceiling and lashed down like a whip, cleaving three more goblins in half. They didn't just die—they erupted.

Flesh tore apart, chunks of bodies splattering onto the stone floor.

Teeth scattered, disconnected from their owners.

Bone splinters flew like shrapnel, lodging in walls and still-twitching bodies.

I stepped forward slowly, as another chain burst from the reflection nearest me, skewering four of the monsters in one go.

They screamed and writhed as the chains tightened around their ribs until they caved in like crushed cans.

"Grrrr...ahhh."

Some of them hesitated now, their instincts finally warning them they'd stepped into something worse than prey.

I smiled.

"Too late for that."

Despite the doubt creeping in, I knew my magic wasn't weak. I just needed to develop more spells to handle bigger targets. This was progress.

Just as I was busy slaughtering the goblins, a familiar sound echoed in my mind.

---

[Ding!]

[New Task: Purge the Scourge.]

[Classification: C-Level Task.]

[Objective: Slay 10,000 goblins within 3 hours.]

[Reward:

Title: Goblin Slayer

(Grants 20% increased damage to small-scale beast-type enemies and reduces their resistance to magic.)]

Artifact: Ring of Purity

(A relic of Liora, the holy Queen of Purity. Enhances the wielder's soul, debuffs incoming mental magic by 60%, and keeps the mind sharp and calm, even under immense pressure.)]

[Failure Penalty:

Demotion to Intermediate Mage Class.

(All progress lost; return to starting capabilities.)]

---

The system didn't sugarcoat it. The prize was tempting, but the penalty? Soul-crushing. Literally.

I froze for a moment, staring at the pile of goblin corpses around me.

"Ten thousand in three hours? Are you insane? There's not even enough of these vermin around for that!" I spat.

No response. Of course.

I clenched my jaw, wiping the blood off my face with a smear of frustration. Fine. This wasn't my first impossible task, and it sure as hell wouldn't be the last.

"Alright. You want me to turn this place into a green hell? Then sit back and watch me turn this horde into a goddamn masterpiece."

And it was then I realized the full extent of my invincible mana heart, glancing at my mana bar.

[ Mana - 100/100]

It never emptied. No matter how much magic I used, I always felt like I had more mana than before.

At that moment, I decided to plan a massacre.

Magic pulsed around me. A low hum, growing sharper as I reached into the deeper reserves of my cage spell.

At least a thousand cages were now forming. The noise had drawn out all the hiding goblins, too.

I thrust my hand forward, and the cavern shook as a giant cage erupted from the ground, closing off every escape. The walls were wooden in color, but stronger than iron.

"Human...kill...human...kill..."

"Gree...Gree...Greel..."

The goblins panicked, claws scratching at the bars, howls ripping through the air as their weapons clattered to the ground.

But I didn't care.

I snapped my fingers.

The cage began to close.

Metal bars moved slowly, grinding and groaning as they squeezed inward, crushing the goblins. The first one broke with a sickening pop, its ribs splintering so violently that its organs spilled from its chest.

The next three didn't even scream. The sound of their bones cracking under pressure drowned out their cries. Blood sprayed in all directions, coating the stone floor.

By the time the cage had collapsed completely, only a pile of mangled bodies remained, their heads crushed, limbs twisted unnaturally. The stench hit me all at once: blood and rotting meat.

My pulse thundered, mana surging through me like lightning.

But when I looked at the devastation, I knew it wasn't enough. I needed something worse—something that would make them regret ever standing in my way. I took a step forward, and for the first time, the goblin with yellow eyes flinched. Panic spread. Their weapons hit the dirt. Their feet dragged them back as if they had locked eyes with a nightmare that made them seem like children.

[Chaos of Tendrils.]

I spoke.

And...

A purple halo blazed to life behind me. From it, chains swirled like hungry serpents, glowing brighter in the encroaching darkness.

I stood tall, towering over the goblins, my crimson eyes locked on them. Purple tendrils of chains lashed out, surging with mana, crackling in the air—I looked like a monster born from nightmare.

The chains tightened, coiling, ready to strike at anything foolish enough to challenge me.

And then the carnage began...

Chains shot out in all directions, shattering stone and obliterating goblins behind the walls.

One hour later, the area was painted green.

The goblins were gone, their rotting corpses sinking into the ground.

---

[Congratulations to the host for completing the C-level task 'Purge of the Scourge'.]

"Yeah, yeah," I said, wiping green blood off my face.

[Reward:

Title: Goblin Slayer – Grants 20% increased damage to small-scale beast-type enemies and reduces their resistance to magic.]

Sure, it was nice, but I wasn't slaying goblins for a shiny new title. That wasn't my style. Still, it felt good to get that off my chest.

[Reward: Ring of Purity – An artifact once worn by Liora, Queen of Purity. It strengthens the soul, reduces mental magic debuffs by 60%, and enhances mental fortitude against magic that targets the mind and emotions.]

A glow shimmered in front of me—there it was. The Ring of Purity, hovering in midair.

The problem was, there was no mention of it in the original book, and I wasn't sure I could trust it fully.

I grabbed the ring, its cold metal warming under my touch, and slipped it on.

Anyway...

I didn't stop. Kept walking.

I kept walking, through pools of green blood and piles of broken bodies, as the first floor behind me began to fade.

The second floor waited.

The Scale of Will.

( End of the chapter )