To be honest, I didn't like part 2 that much. I don't like how we kept changing settings, world-building again, new characters, new plots, and world problem-solving. It's kinda overwhelming me. Especially these creepy *ss new characters who want Cale to leave his world and live in theirs without thinking he has a home and family to return to. I hate how Cale barely spends his day with everyone anymore because he is too busy.

Furthermore, the dead should just stay dead. As much as I like the dead characters, them coming back to life and getting a second chance is just not doing it for me. I cried a lot for the angst, about Kim Rok Soo's past, and all that emotion felt wasted, to be honest. Anyway, this is just my feelings so it's only natural you guys won't understand.

The MC, Cale Henituse (former Kim Rok Soo), is a very complex character, despite the first impression we get from him. While he appears selfish or manipulative, he is more than that once we see his interactions with his friends and the children. While it is a typical isekai novel with the usual MC becoming OP after stealing certain stuff from other characters (although, I don't think he stole anything if it doesn't belong to them in the first place), I focused more on his emotions, character development and relationships with the characters instead since I find his interactions more interesting.

He's respectful to those who deserves respect like an old man who owns an inn, an exiled princess from another continent, and even a whole race who just genuinely wants to help people. And if he sees someone worth punishing, he'll deliver the punishment 10-fold like the first minor antagonist he meets.

While he's manipulative, he does it for the benefit of his friends and the people although he masks it as him being selfish and tr*shy. Basically, his mouth says one thing but his actions says another. But it's mostly because of what happened to him in his former life.

There are many occasions when he sacrificed his own safety and almost his own life just to protect or save someone. And though he says he's tr*sh, it's not because he's Cale Henituse but because of his past life.

For character development, he went from thinking about his own survival and keeping people at arms length (he's a tsundere with a tragic life) to crying over being alone all over again (because of a trial that forced him to face his fears) to accepting that he's not entirely alone and he can rely on people to not endanger themselves to sacrifice their life for him. He finally accepts that it's not his fault when someone died to save him.

Yes, he has survivor's guilt.

What I like about his respectful personality:

During a naval battle that he went in as a commander (I won't spoil why he's so amazing as a leader. It has something to do with his past life), they won the battle in a one-sided manner because they were prepared for the army to come while their enemies didn't expect such a violent welcome.

After the battle, he told the army to gather all the dead enemies floating in the sea to create a proper burial for them. It's because he knows that in most wars, there are still people who are forced to fight in a war they're not supposed to be in. Some are innocent but are forced to sacrifice their lives. But because this is war, there is no mercy in battle.

What I like about his vengeful side:

He caught two men in separate accounts and had them tortured. One for information and because that man harmed his people and the other man because of revenge for torturing Raon.

So no. He's not completely nice or cruel. He's simply a human who wants to protect the innocent while portraying himself as tr*sh.

One good thing that I love about this novel is aside from the Found Family trope, is the author's and MC's respect towards women. It may seem small to other readers, but it's also one of the reasons why I keep reading this novel. It's not a secret that most authors treat women as NPCs or love interests or even poorly written antagonists. Reading about these incredibly strong women is amazing. And they're not just a few! Usually, novels do have strong independent women but they're often few and sometimes only one of them appears in those novels.

Cale himself respects them and believes that they're stronger than him. This is a nice change from those novels focused on making the men stronger and leaving the women weaker. Or you know, when authors love adding women in a harem.

As for the children, I've seen some comments or thoughts about Cale using the children. While it does appear like that, he's actually pretty scared for and of them most of the time. While the kids do fight (since they're incredibly strong and can flatten a mountain or kill an entire army), it's usually for minor roles like in wars except for Raon who is a dragon. They go in, do some damage, and then leave. And they do it with adults with them, so yes, they're completely safe.

Usually, all the kids are there as support and leave the bigger fights to the adults (except for Raon who is told by Cale to be invisible for his own safety).

There was this one instance when Raon was asleep because of a trial and they were in the midst of battle. Lock couldn't use his abilities so Cale simply entrusted him with Raon and went to the front by himself to serve as a shield and commander. If that is not selfless and caring for Raon and Lock, who he sees as a kid as well, (who are both more powerful and dangerous than him), then I don't know what is.

At first, I thought Choi Han is a simple and gullible character. But after finding out about Cale's secret, he reacted more mature than I expected. He didn't lashed out and instead wanted to protect Cale since despite Cale's denial, Choi Han sees the man as someone worth protecting, especially since Cale is the most self-sacrificing person he's ever met.

To those who are complaining that Cale is OP, let me tell you that the antagonist is way scarier. He's too powerful and has a whole freaking army devoted to him and his goals. He's not afraid of sacrificing his own people (except for the strong ones) and he's not entirely sane (once you know his background, it does make sense why he's not completely right in the head).

When he first appeared, I felt scared for everyone. He's very intimidating and powerful, maybe more than most of Cale's strong allies. It took a whole first book just to find out how to defeat this guy.

And while Cale is smart, the antagonist is just as smart. Power and intelligence combined together made him the best and worst enemy for the protagonists of the story.

after the first big bad of part 1 died the series should have ended, I felt like the continues power scale increase just felt like it was tacked on to continue the series

PS: Calebab will forever be iconic.

For example, I would love it if the author goes into more detail regarding the previous mythical power holders or Cale's own world. Maybe through like a side chapter of a POV from an ancient power holder, or a past story by Haben-gramps, maybe a random quote for a few chapters developing a perception regarding how the ancient world looked, etc. Do you get the point? (I have not completed the novel yet but I assume the author does write regarding these points in later chapters to tie up loose points and provide an overall conclusion.)

The author of the novel wants to portrait Cale as some sort of tragic hero at least from perspective of other characters it feels like that. I agree he has done a lot and went through a lot, but why has Cale never explained anything regarding the fact that he is never in true pain when using power? Whenever he uses him power he coughs up blood which is as he said isn't harmful to his body, but he has never explained it to others why? Maybe he's some kind of masochist who likes it when someone pities him?

Another fact is his adverse reaction to pain, why is he like that? There's no suitable explanation, you would expect him to be at least a little tolerant to pain, but nope he acts like a princess that have never experienced anything. Which clearly clashes with the fact about his past life's hardship. And he is too brave.... no I won't say he is brave but he is certainly c*cky yes he is that. Or else how can he have the guts to curse a god? No I'm not offended or anything I'm an atheist, , I'm just annoyed how much foolish can one be to try and provoke a being (G.O.D) that can probably swat him away like a fly.

Ah other characters have this characteristics in them too and that's annoying. Their care for Cale even disgusts me somewhat sometimes, too much of anything is not good.... or so I have heard

Actually as Kim Rok Soo, there was an apocalypse and monsters appeared all over the world. Rok soo survived in a destroyed world filled with monsters for nearly two decades and when he transmigrated into 'The Birth of a Hero' he was actually a team leader of a team of a guild that fought against monsters. So he won't really react like a normal office worker but like a team leader who fought against monsters for half his life when he makes strategies for war. He won't be sick and nauseous seeing blood and corpse being chopped when he has seen an unranked monster killing more than half the population of Busan. And that was the weakest unranked monster. Also about the little details like, in the beginning about the attack at Lock's village where there was a difference from the story cale read and mention about 'seed', I had really forgotten about that but the author connects and explains that at four hundred or so chapters.