To survive in a forest of giants, you must know the giants. I reviewed the five pillars of the coming age, the "Monsters" of Rise of the Five Heroes. My future... if I had one, would be spent in their shadow.
1. Max Walton.
The System Holder. Reincarnated from Earth with a wish-granted [Magic Swordsman System]. A-rank Potential, Lightning Element. Born into a prestigious sword family but with the "wrong" energy type (Mana), making him an outcast. His cheat system will guide him, granting quests and rewards, allowing him to brute-force the hybrid path by age twelve. He embodies guided opportunity.
2. Eve Snowfall.
The Natural Sovereign. Princess of the Northern Kingdom. SSS-rank Potential from birth, with an innate affinity for Ice so profound her class will evolve into the legendary [Ice Empress]. A lone queen who needs no court. She is sheer, unbending power personified.
3. Alan Lionheart.
The Genetic Anomaly. Scion of the Holy Empire's mightiest Duke. SSS-rank Potential. The unprecedented freak born with both Mana and Aura affinities, a dual-core engine of destruction from the moment he took his first breath. His class is a mystery even in the novel. He is overwhelming privilege and latent, unexplored depth.
4. Light.
The Chosen Sacrifice. A commoner boy with C-rank Potential, plucked from obscurity at age five and blessed by the Goddess of Light. His Potential forcibly elevated to SSS-rank. His class: [Hero]. He is a weapon forged by the church, a living symbol of hope and impending war. His power is borrowed divinity, with all the weight and expectation that brings.
5. Will Pendragon.
The Legacy Incarnate. Third Prince of the Red Dragon Empire. SS-rank Potential. Blessed with the [Dragon Knight] class and the Crimson Flame element of his draconic ancestors—a fire that burns evil with double potency. His power is his birthright, his pride, and his burden. He is the weight of history and bloodline.
These were the five suns around which the fate of the world would turn. Each a universe of advantage: Systems, Bloodlines, Divine Blessings, Unique Classes, Limitless Potential.
And then there was me.
Roy White.
The Statistical Footnote.
Illegitimate son of a minor, commoner-born Baron.
C-rank Potential (The ceiling).
Support Magician class (The pacifist).
Plant element (The "weak" nurturing type).
Assets: One old house. A few remaining gold coins. A knife and a cheap sword.
A pitiful side character, destined to die screaming in an early battle to demonstrate the threat level.
The contrast wasn't just stark; it was a cosmic joke.
But as I sat in my silent cottage, the after-image of a failed mana root still tingling in my leg, I realized the joke had a second layer.
Those five? They were bound by the story. Their paths, while majestic, were predetermined. The System would guide Max. Eve's power was linear and overwhelming. Alan's duality was a given. Light's destiny was written by gods. Will's legacy was a track laid centuries ago.
They were passengers on a luxury train, destined for glory.
I was in the mud, off the rails, with no map.
But I had something they didn't. I had the certainty of their stories and the desperation to break my own. I had an Appraisal trait that let me see the rules, and a mind willing to ask: "What if the rules are wrong?"
They were building palaces on the foundations laid by gods and ancestors.
I was a rat, gnawing at the foundation itself, trying to find a crack I could slip through. My tool wasn't a system or a bloodline, but heresy. The dangerous, untested idea of a Mana Root System. A path not of consolidation, but of distribution. Not of claiming a destined power, but of growing one from the worthless seeds I'd been given.
They were monsters.
I was a moth.
But even a moth, if it flies at the right moment, can change the course of a giant by causing it to flinch.
My goal was no longer to become a monster like them.
My goal was to become the variable they never saw coming.