In a fantasy world where a person's occupation is largely reflected in their status, Ryuuto McClain is reincarnated with the most ordinary class of all: villager. Born into a poor farming family, his childhood friends are anything but ordinary. Cordelia Olston possesses the rare and powerful class of hero, while Moses has the class of sage. However, at the age of fifteen, Ryuuto is killed by Moses, who was secretly jealous of his friendship with Cordelia.

Before dying, Ryuuto encounters a red dragon and makes a promise to meet again. This is not the end for him, as he had selected a special reincarnation benefit skill called Return from Death, which allows him to restart his new life from the beginning if he dies early. Armed with the knowledge from his first life, where he used a skill called Wisdom to absorb vast amounts of information, Ryuuto undergoes a second reincarnation. He selects different skills this time, including the effort cheat and an indomitable will, determined to change the course of events and protect Cordelia while remaining a villager.

Immediately after his second birth, Ryuuto begins secretly training. He uses his vast knowledge from his previous life to expand his magical power from infancy, and by age six, his MP has grown to over ten thousand. He also studies under a legendary warrior known as the Orc-Killer, mastering a skill called Steel Body Art that increases his basic status values. All of this is done unbeknownst to his family and friends.

The story’s first major conflict arises when Cordelia receives an oracle as a hero and must defend their village from an army of goblins. Ryuuto, knowing from his past life that a red dragon would eventually appear and wipe out the goblins, cannot stand by and watch Cordelia get wounded. He steps in and crushes the goblins with his bare fists, revealing his immense strength. The red dragon arrives, bewildered by Ryuuto’s power. Ryuuto reads the dragon’s mind, reminding him of the promise made in his previous life.

Following this, Ryuuto travels with the red dragon to the dragon village and gains an audience with the Dragon King. The Dragon King explains that history has gone awry because Ryuuto, a mere villager, saved the hero. Cordelia, who has failed to fully awaken as a hero, will likely be defeated in a future battle against an evil dragon. Ryuuto declares he will become a dragon killer stronger than Cordelia and receives the Dragon King’s blessing, granting him the same status growth as a dragon.

Ryuuto begins leveling up in an underground labyrinth with a slave girl named Lilith. He uses ingenuity to clear the labyrinth’s trials and eventually faces the final ordeal: a battle against dragon zombies, which includes Lilith’s foster parent, the Earthen Dragon. After a difficult fight, Ryuuto succeeds in defeating it. Meanwhile, Cordelia, while on an expedition with a group of knights, encounters the evil dragon Amanta. The knights are destroyed, and Cordelia is on the verge of defeat when Ryuuto, who has grown incredibly strong, appears and rescues her. When Amanta questions his identity, Ryuuto insists he is just a villager.

Ryuuto then provokes the evil dragon Amanta into a one-on-one battle. Despite Amanta using multiple magical eyes as trump cards, Ryuuto destroys him with his full force. After this reunion with Cordelia, Ryuuto continues his journey with Lilith. They stop at a port town to have Lilith’s slave markings removed, but learn the procedure costs a significant sum of money and that Lilith will die if the markings are not removed within a month. To earn the money and level up, they gather rare fruits and defeat a powerful Water Horse Mutant. Through these efforts, including fulfilling a request for a mysterious professor, Ryuuto earns enough gold to secure Lilith’s freedom. As the story progresses, Ryuuto’s reputation as an unbelievably strong villager begins to spread, attracting the attention of powerful figures from across the land.