The Retired Hero is an Extra

'I can freely check the changes now,' mused Jash as he got up from his bed and stood in his usual exercising area.

After the refreshing sleep, his pain was almost gone. He had only suffered the aftereffects of such an excruciating process.

'Don't want to suffer DOMS now,' thought Jash as he started doing a series of calisthenics, then jogged and jumped in place.

"Delayed-onset muscle soreness, commonly referred to as DOMS, is muscle pain that begins after you've finished working out. Hmm. It normally starts a day or two after, though. You won't feel it during or immediately after your workout. That's a different kind."

Recalling that the muscle soreness he had already experienced had a name felt refreshing to Jash, but he didn't want to suffer again.

He carefully felt the changes in his body, both internal and external.

Besides the familiar feeling of mana coursing within him, he had to get accustomed to the changes in his body.

Jash could feel the exaggerated change in his body strength as he needed much less effort to reach the same height or extent.

The next thing he felt was his heart rate not increasing in response to his physical training as it seemed to have improved its blood pumping capacity.

'Even my thought process feels smoother along with my senses,' Jash mused as a small smile graced his lips.

The refreshing feeling of fatigue alleviated as he continued to adjust to the changes the awakening brought him.

It took him a few minutes to get used to his transformed body.

Although he couldn't really use mana for now to avoid raising suspicions from his family, it didn't stop him from sensing it and trying to manipulate it.

A wide grin appeared on his face as he felt the mana move according to his will.

Even if his efforts resulted in negligible results, it was just his first try.

Many would do anything to achieve such success, yet he didn't realize the absurdity of his feat; he just attributed it to his past life.

Finally, he gazed at his toned physique in the mirror, scrutinized his shirtless body, and noted, 'I didn't sweat a single drop.'

Out of curiosity, he touched his muscles, only to find they were tighter than before, yet his skin remained the same.

It couldn't help but make him wonder, 'Why is my skin the same when everything else changed?'

Yet his mind was much more focused on appreciating his looks than his skin. 'Meh. Skin is too microscopic to even be noticed. But damn, do I look handsome?'

For the next two minutes, Jash went into a narcissistic ride to compliment himself.

At least he was happy even if he didn't really get that main character lean muscular 8-pack physique.

Still, his looks were something many men would envy and, at the same time, many women would want to have him.

Too sad for them, he was already booked long in advance by a certain someone, who was busy with her own family.

"Ahem, ahem," Jash coughed to get rid of his awkwardness after realizing his line of thoughts were too dangerous.

"...Anyways, what about elements? I have seen Caera use fire and she has red hair, so it makes sense. Then, do I have darkness because of my dark hair?"

Jash questioned himself as he took hold of a few strands of his glistening hair. Though intrigued by the sight, his mind quickly cycled back to the elements..

"Isn't there some sort of elemental awakening after one awakens, as the final part or something?" Jash mumbled to himself.

He found it too weird that he didn't find any elements or anything related to them in his memory.

Still, he had memories of those fantasy novels from his past life, and one of them went into great detail regarding the elements.

[The elemental awakening occurs after one survives the merging, allowing you to feel your element and turn the mana in your body into that element.

Naturally, most newbies hurt themselves and everyone around them in this step, as no one who felt mana for the first time could just transform the excess mana and turn it into any element.

There's even a risk of losing control, and all the ambient mana could go berserk. Well, that's an extreme case.

However, if it happens, then you're lucky if you get off easy by not learning any element but if not, then your newly built mana channels get injured, ruining your future development.

Of course, if you successfully awaken your element then you would have an easier time learning that element.

In the case you give up, it just means you will have to try and learn every element available just to see which one suits you the most.

Not only would it waste lots of time, and even your proficiency won't be as good as people who learned it in their awakening.]

'Hmm. That's a bit complex and is not even gonna happen...' concluded Jash as he could clearly remember many such novels.

Most just chose to glance over the element thing and mentioned some elemental orb with which one can check their affinity.

Nevertheless, just the thought of finding his element excited Jash as he couldn't help but jump around to curb it.

To distract himself from thinking about unknown matters, he decided to take a shower.

As the cold water poured on his skin, he felt a sharp coldness from it unlike prior times.

"Hiss. What just happened? Why did I feel cold?" Jash muttered in indignation.

"This... Did my skin become sensitive or something?" He quickly thought of a possibility, yet his face darkened.

In a fit of anger from the indignation, Jash voiced his frustrations.

"There's just no way!"

"How will I enjoy my cold showers now?"

"This is so unfair!"

"Damn it! If only I had not awakened!"

"Why did no one tell me!?"

"If only..."

Amidst his grumblings, he even cursed the awakening process and imagined a life without it, forgetting the fact that he would have to face it one day, which might lead to his death and his family's end if he didn't work to change such a negative future.

After accepting his bleak reality with a lost look on his face, he increased the water temperature and took a shower with not-so-cold water.

He maintained his lifeless look till he laid back on the bed, about to sleep. Yet his expression morphed into a sneer as he suddenly remembered something.

"The protagonist's element was light, wasn't it? Truly befitting of a hero, I guess?"

Jash mocked the author, but he knew it wasn't even a surprise as the so-called hero literally lived in the church and got blessed by the goddess in the latter stages.

"What then? Does the main villain have an element of darkness? Maybe even some God or Goddess of Darkness in conflict with the Goddess of Light?"

Jash really felt the author was an idiot for using such a stupid cliched concept, completely forgetting his problem with awakening as he jeered at the novel before falling asleep once again.

It was truly a wonder how he could sleep so carelessly after being awake for less than an hour.