The Hero Returns

“Yes,” Su-hyeun answered.

“On your own?” Jordan asked again as if what he said was ridiculous.

He made sure that Su-hyeun was greatly skilled. Jordan did not know about MacRebur, but he knew Chloe. Su-hyeun had caught her very easily. He could be considered one of the strongest awakeners in the world. However, his enemy was the Dump Guild, which might have been the strongest in the world. Su-hyeun had said that he would deal with them by himself.

“Well, it will take time...” Su-hyeun shrugged as if it was not a big deal. “I’ll surely do it.”

“You’re confident.”

“Confidence is irrelevant. It is not my decision to make.”

“Then why?”

“The Dump Guild must disappear.”

It almost seemed like a delusion. It did not look like Su-hyeun was after any particular benefit. He was just trying to get rid of the Dump Guild because they were evil to society.

“You are like a hero.”

“Yes.” Su-hyeun smiled and nodded. “That was what everybody said so.”

Speechless, Jordan tilted his head as if he had no idea what Su-hyeun just said. At that time, Miru and Hak-Joon found Su-hyeun and came to him.

Grrrrrr!

“Su-hyeun!”

Miru growled as if Su-hyeun wasn’t told to put him back somewhere else. Hak-Joon also quibbled over why Su-hyeun had left him alone. Su-hyeun avoided their eyes in embarrassment, feeling especially sorry for Hak-Joon.

“I really couldn’t help it,” Su-hyeun said, “That guy suddenly went out, and I thought I might miss him...”

“Tell me the truth. You knew all about this, didn’t you?”

“Well. I did but...”

“Why did you do that? I was going to go crazy! I could not understand a thing they were saying! I followed you because I believed you. How could you do that to me?”

“That is... I am sorry...”

Hak-Joon pointed out Su-hyeun’s fault argumentatively. Su-hyeun drew cold sweat and stepped back, feeling sorry for Hak-Joon. MacRebur had started to move quicker than he had expected, so he did not get the chance to tell Hak-Joon back then.

“This is another surprise,” Jordan thought.

Su-hyeun had cut off MacRebur’s head and tortured Chloe. Given that, Jordan thought Su-hyeun was a very cold-hearted person. Even so, Su-hyeun was embarrassed and soothed his younger friend and looked back to Jordan. That looked different than what Jordan thought.

Su-hyeun said, “Oh, you asked me if I am doing that alone. But no, I am not alone.”

Su-hyeun pointed to Hak-Joon who was still upset.

“Just one more?” Jordan asked.

“No. There are more.”

“Who else...?”

Jordan thought for a moment and remembered how Su-hyeun came here.

“Are they...?”

***

Song Hyeong-gi was the awakener who dealt with the divine beasts. He was very interested in this dungeon. This green-colored dungeon was the largest dungeon to ever exist. A rumor had spread that it was highly possible that divine beast would appear in there. Thus, he voluntarily participated in the raid this time. He usually did not have much interest in the dungeon before, but the raid somehow flowed in a strange direction.

“Why...are...you...here...”

Crunch!

Ji-yeon stamped down the head of the murmuring man, causing it to burst. Song Hyeong-gi couldn’t take his eyes off the cruel sight.

He stroked the wounded dragon and asked, “Why are you here?”

At his question, Ji-yeon looked down at the dead body on the ground and answered, “If someone helps you, shouldn’t you thank them first? You almost died because of this guy.”

Song Hyeong-gi crumpled his face. If he took the bull by the horns, this situation would never have happened. He was instead ambushed by the S-Ranker awakener like him. Of course, it was true that Ji-yeon helped him to escape the crisis. The problem was she should not have been here in the first place.

“Did you sneak in?”

“Are you arguing now?”

“...We don’t work well together.”

“If I were not here, all these divine beasts would probably die.”

At the straightforward word of Ji-yeon, Song Hyeong-gi could not say anything. People betrayed one another suddenly as there was a raid from an unexpected group. It was quite a dangerous situation, and it would have been more dangerous if Ji-yeon did not help immediately.

“Well... I guess I have to say thanks.”

“That... didn’t sound like appreciation to me. Even so, I didn’t do that to hear thanks.”

Despite what she said, it seemed like she was quite satisfied with what he said. He was a man of great self-respect who rarely showed his appreciation towards others.

“But do you know these people? You killed them in cold blood,” he asked.

Ji-yeon violently attacked the awakeners who were involved in the raid. That was closer to resentment than a regular fight. As he expected, Ji-yeon nodded at his question.

“I do know them.”

“Who are they?”

“Members of the Dump Guild.”

At Ji-yeon’s answer, he asked again as if he did not expect to hear that name, “Dump Guild? Aren’t they usually stealthier than this?”

“They are... so far.”

“So far...?”

That meant they would not be sneaking around anymore. It looked like Ji-yeon knew something about the Dump Guild.

“What do these guys want?”

“To show off their strength, money, violence. Something like that.”

“What’s your relationship with Dump Guild?”

“Would I consider Dump Guild a mortal enemy? Well, to be more precise, I hold a one-sided grudge against them.”

“Hmm...”

Song Hyeong-gi looked Ji-yeon in a curious gaze. He had met her once before, but she looked different than back then. She had no expression on her face before, but today he could see the anger and bitterness on her face.

“I prefer this look than before. She more looks like a human now,” he thought.

She looked like a wooden doll last time, which reminded him of someone much to his displeasure. Despite this, he found out her good side in an unexpected place.

“So, what are you going to do now?” he asked again.

“I plan to exterminate the Dump Guild,” Ji-yeon looked straight to his eyes and asked, “Will you help me?”

“...That was unexpected.”

He could not believe that she asked for his help. She must have been that desperate. Song Hyeong-gi thought for a while and nodded.

“Well. Alright. They hurt my kids. I will make them pay off. Also, I owe you one.”

It was not a bad offer for him anyway. He already thought about getting his revenge when they had attacked him. Moreover, he could not stand owing to anybody, so he didn’t want to reject her request. For Ji-yeon, it was a good thing if the S-Rank awakener, Song Hyeong-gi, would help her.

“Well, let’s finish this dungeon first.”

They were in the green-colored dungeon. It was a huge dungeon, so he had expected that it would take a while to finish it. But the situation was different now.

“Let’s go straight.”

There were two S-Rank awakeners. The green dungeon was no longer much of a challenge.

***

“...Damn. It’s hard.”

They had been battling for several days. Jordan mumbled his impression of the blue dungeon. The number of monsters, as well as the overall level, was much higher than the green dungeon. The middle-boss level monsters appeared occasionally, and they were about to same with the final boss of the green dungeon.

“How are you tired already? You were so confident before you came to the dungeon.”

Grrr...

Su-hyeun said so while coming to his side, Miru nodded as if he was right. Jordan thought they were mean but there was nothing he could say. All he could do was frown. It was true that he was overconfident about his ability and underestimated the blue-colored dungeon, but...

“I am sure that I can finish it,” Jordan said.

The level didn’t go beyond his anticipation. There were a lot of monsters, but he could get rid of them. There was no particular variable other than the fact that they could not go outside.

“Well, of course, it was all possible thanks to Su-hyeun,” Jordan thought.

It was obvious that he could not finish this dungeon by himself. If Su-hyeun wasn’t here, there would be a big snag in their raid.

“Looks like he’s our savior.”

If it wasn’t for Su-hyeun in the first place, he probably would have died. Additionally, he helped to finish the dungeon attack and stopped the dungeon outbreak.

“If Su-hyeun was not here...”

Unimaginably bad things were more likely to happen.

“It’s too early to let your guard down,” Su-hyeun said.

“I was not off guard...”

“Yes, you were. You are still overconfident about your ability. Or is this about your pride?”

In response to Su-hyeun’s question, Jordan shut his mouth tight. Which was the right answer? From some point of the time, he had been overconfident about his skills and underestimated the dungeons. It was the same now. Either way, he had been not saying anything that made him looked like lacking in confidence.

“... I admit,” Jordan walked slowly and nodded. “I was proud of myself, to be honest. Yes, I forgot the sense of crisis.”

Jordan began to look at him objectively.

“I’ve never felt that this was hard or difficult since I started growing stronger and attacking dungeons. The trials of the Tower were the difficult ones, but dungeons were always easy.”

“Maybe that was why,” Jordan thought.

From a certain moment, he started to consider dungeons as just a tool for entertainment, money, or fame.

“After I became S-Rank,” Jordan said, “it was worse. I felt like the whole world was mine. There was nothing I couldn’t do. Everybody looked at me like I was some legend... so I started to think that about myself as well.”

It was not just Jordan’s case. Most of the high-rank awakeners had that way of thinking.

“I need to reflect on this.”

Jordan easily accepted Su-hyeun’s comment. Su-hyeun looked at Jordan in surprise.

“It wouldn’t have been easy to admit,” Su-hyeun thought.

It was not just a recent tendency that considered dungeons as a problem, not just social resources. Awakeners who had abilities were insensitive to the danger of the dungeons. Only normal people without power sensed the crisis. Su-hyeun thought this was a big problem. If the high-rank awakeners had paid more attention, the previous Earth would not be destroyed in vain.

“...I am glad you know now,” Su-hyeun turned his head in embarrassment and hurried to walk.

Grrrrrr—

After walking for a few more hours, they could see the innermost cliffs of the forest nearby. Miru, who was sitting on Su-hyeun’s head, started to cry threateningly. It was a sign that something was there.

“Is it a monster?”

Miru had been warning them first when the monster appeared. Jordan thought this might’ve been the same. He was amazed that this small dragon could notice the monster way before than S-Rank himself.

“Yes. Monster... but...” Su-hyeun looked around and narrowed his eyes. “It looks like the final one.”

“Final one? You mean the final boss?” Hak-Joon asked nervously.

Su-hyeun nodded and raised his hand. The raid team following behind him stopped.

“What is going on?” One man from the team asked.

“This is the final boss,” Su-hyeun said.

He picked up a fist-sized rock from the ground. And...

Whirl!

Swish!

He bent his body like a bow and threw the rock as hard as he could to the right side.

Kyaaaa!

An odd cry came from far away. They were not sure how far the monster was from them, but it looked like Su-hyeun’s rock hit it.

“Right side?”

“It’s on the right!”

The raid team thought the monster was coming from the right. Only a few people noticed that wasn’t the case.

“Not on the right side...”

“It’s everywhere.”

Hak-Joon received Jordan’s word. Some of the A-Rank awakeners also noticed that. They nodded and held their breath. They were surrounded.