The Hero Returns

Pure-white tongues of flame completely filled the cave and shot out in a straight line. The insane heat began scorching the bodies of the monster worms busy rushing toward Su-hyeun.

This Breath was far, far larger than it was in the past. And, since this was a cave in a straight-line layout with both sides blocked off, the attack's effect became even more pronounced.

Crak, Craaack

The corpses of the monster worms collapsed and fell to the ground, white flames still consuming them.

Boom, thud-

"Nice work."

Su-hyeun rubbed Miru's head, poking out next to him. The dragon's head, which used to be small enough to fit in his palm, had now grown so big that he couldn't wrap both of his arms around it.

Gya-ong, gya-ong-

Even the dragon's voice seemed to have gotten just a bit thicker, too.

Su-hyeun took a good look at Miru, emerging outside for the first time in a long while. Now its size was larger than an average man's, and seemed to be about the same as a tiger's. Miru rubbed its head happily against Su-hyeun's face.

"H-hey, think about how big you've gotten already. Your drool's getting on my face, too. Uh, uh?"

While pushing away Miru, busy licking his cheek, with one hand, he used his other hand to rub the dragon's head. It seemed really excited to come outside after such a long time.

Seeing the dragon's reaction, Su-hyeun did feel a bit guilty about not calling it outside often, but he knew he couldn't do that because other people might mistake Miru for a monster due to its new, enlarged size.

<< Still, it's a lot smaller than expected. >>

It had been more than a year since Miru hatched.

According to the self-proclaimed divine beast expert Song Hyeong-gi, most regular dragon species would reach maturity in around one year. That information was also in the book Malcolm, the magician Su-hyeun met on the 30th floor's trial, had.

But….

<< Is Miru's growth rate slower because it's a red dragon? According to what Mister Hyeong-gi said, Miru was asleep for half a year because of its growth period…. >>

Sure, it's true that Miru had grown a whole lot bigger than it was a half a year ago, but it was also true that his dragon was so much smaller than the blue dragon accompanying Song Hyeong-gi.

Of course, that didn't mean Su-hyeun felt unsatisfied by Miru's growth. He looked toward the cave that bore the brunt of the dragon's Breath.

<< No matter what, its destructive power is pretty exceptional. >>

It really had been a long time since Miru came outside. Only fifteen days had passed since the dragon ended its growth period and woke up from its slumber.

He never planned to reveal Miru to the world during the Ranking Wars, so this would be his first time earnestly checking out the dragon's full capability.

<< Just how much did he grow… >>

While rubbing Miru's head, Su-hyeun spoke up.

"Alright, then. Let's head to the end."

Gya-ong-!

***

At the same time, in the other blue-colored dungeon.

"Pant, pant, paaant-"

"I, I thought I was going to die for sure."

The awakeners from the Authority were all slumped on the ground after their intense battle only moments before. Hundreds upon hundreds of insect-type monsters suddenly rushed at them. These critters were the predators ruling this massive forest.

"Anyone poisoned?"

"Over here. I think I got bitten earlier."

Kang Seung-cheol distributed antidotes to his subordinates suffering from bite wounds. These antidotes were taken from the Tower of Trials after paying a hefty price, but they proved to be very useful in these types of dungeons.

"At times like this, I wish we had some kind of healer-type awakener on the team."

"But, that's because of how rare they are. And that's also why it's common to see B-Rank healers getting paid as much as an A-Rank while working for a guild, isn't it?"

Bak Yun-gyu's muttering was answered by Lee Ju-ho approaching him from the side. The former nodded his head before shifting his gaze away.

"Still, we've been fortunate. Without Mister Thomas's help, the losses on our side would've been even greater."

Lee Ju-ho looked over to the distance where still-energetic Thomas was busy teasing Hak-joon.

Once they entered a real combat situation, Thomas's previous child-like demeanor completely disappeared. He was doing his best to protect the group and fight against the monsters like Su-hyeun's request had asked him to.

<< The darkened world, was it? >>

The skill Thomas possessed, the Dark World.

That skill could be utilized in multiple ways.

For instance, just like the black cloud Thomas had created—it acted like a barrier and performed the most important role in protecting the group from the insect-type monsters.

<< A skill where it's possible to attack and defend at the same time—acting like a spear and shield simultaneously. And he's got boundless magical energy reserve and combat instincts that allow him to freely wield this skill. >>

Without a doubt, Thomas was an awakener with overabundant talent. Speaking honestly, only Su-hyeun and Gordon Rohan seemed to be stronger than him during the Ranking Wars.

<< If Thomas wasn't here…. >>

The insect-type monsters were varied in appearance, but the vast majority of them were all venomous. The A-Rank awakeners could fight the monsters while protecting themselves, but anyone lower in rank would've found it difficult to guarantee their own safety.

<< Over a half of the group might have died in this one battle alone. >>

For sure, the blue-colored dungeon's difficulty was on another realm altogether compared to other dungeons he had experienced so far. He now understood why Su-hyeun said that Hahoetal Guild alone could never successfully attack one.

"I wonder if Su-hyeun is doing alright by himself?"

Lee Ju-ho got worried about Su-hyeun being all alone and muttered softly.

But then, Thomas and his good hearing picked up on it and, while hanging on Hak-joon's shoulders, he asked in a loud voice. "Is something wrong with Su-hyeun?"

"Mm?" Mystified by the fact that his soft muttering was heard so far away, Lee Ju-ho asked back in a surprised voice.

Thomas couldn't speak any Korean and the only thing he understood from what Lee Ju-ho said must've been the name 'Su-hyeun'.

"No, it's just that I'm a little worried about Su-hyeun, that's all. Still, he should be alright. I mean, he's not going to find himself in trouble, anyway."

Lee Ju-ho hurriedly repeated himself in English for Thomas. He added a bit more, thinking that maybe the latter might end up worrying about his friend in the other dungeon.

But contrary to Lee Ju-ho's fears, Thomas wasn't asking just for fun.

"We're also okay, right?" Thomas sounded quite confused about something as he climbed down from Hak-joon's shoulders. "So, why worry about Su-hyeun?"

"….Mm?"

"No way Su-hyeun will get hurt by these little thingies, right?"

***

[Breath.]

RUUUMBLE-

Miru's Breath swept past the monster worms rushing in from the other side.

The searing heat from the pure-white Breath scorched the monsters' bodies and shriveled them up. At the same time, Su-hyeun, under Miru's buffs, was dashing in the opposite direction, swinging his sword.

Shu-aahk, shu-aaahk-

Fwoosh-

The head of a monster worm was lobbed off and it crashed to the ground. Due to their massive size, it wasn't easy to kill these creatures, but, thankfully, cutting off the heads ended them pretty effectively.

Thud, boom-

Clack-

Having finished dealing with another wave of the monster worms, Su-hyeun shook off the green blood sticking to his sword and put it back in the scabbard.

"This place is so damn big," muttered Su-hyeun as he stared at the underground dungeon. It was shaped like a complicated maze.

He had been wandering around in this place for over a day now without sleeping or taking breaks. It was all thanks to Miru's buffs as well as the recovery effect.

On top of this, he didn't expend a lot of his magical energy, but instead relied mostly on his physical prowess to fight, which meant he didn't need to waste time recovering his spent magical reserves, either.

Advancing forward, then advancing some more; Su-hyeun's raiding method very heavily leaned toward speed above all else.

<< Still, we're almost at the end, aren't we? >>

He had found out the location of the boss about half a day ago. But he kept wandering around the underground cave, thinking of eliminating every monster found within the dungeon first. All the while he was spreading out his magical energy wide so that the damn monsters would come searching for him by themselves.

This continued for a day. He managed to kill the majority of the giant monster worms inhabiting the desert by now.

"Hey, Miru."

Gya-ong?

"Can you still fight?"

Gya-ong-!

Su-hyeun's question was met with an energetic reply from Miru. It had already fired Breath five times during the course of the day, yet the dragon seemed to be overflowing with energy.

That just went to show how much it had grown. Not only that, Miru's buffs and recovery-type skills also displayed a noticeable improvement from before, too.

Teock-

Su-hyeun climbed on Miru's back.

Although it wasn't as big as the blue dragon accompanying Song Hyeong-gi, Miru was still large enough for a person to ride on its back.

"Okay, let's go."

Flap-

Miru unfurled its wings.

He rode on the back of the red dragon and flew back in the opposite direction. They could see the corpses of the monster worms they had killed, scattered here and there as they flew back the way they had come.

And so they flew until they reached a crossroad and, after traveling even further down one of the forks…

Gu-wuwuwu-

Su-hyeun could feel the presence of countless monster worms as the underground cave trembled faintly.

<< That's a lot. >>

Su-hyeun knew where the boss room was, but they chose to go past it. All for the purpose of eliminating the other monster worms spread throughout the cave.

But, as it turned out, uncountable monster worms inhabited the boss room. There were so many in there that all the monsters he had run into so far didn't even compare in number.

It was rather obvious why they were all cooped up in here, though.

To protect the boss—their mother, as it were.

Flap-

As they neared the entrance to the boss room, Su-hyeun touched Miru's neck and made it stop flying. Keeping the massive passageway in between them, he took a good look at the boss room's interior.

Snap-

Rumble-

He snapped his fingers to create a small flame inside so he could get a better view, and the fire brightly illuminated the boss room, shaped like a gigantic dome.

And then…

Wriggle, wriggle-

Kii-ruk, kii-rururuk-

….Figures of monster worms wriggling away completely filled the interior of the dome, and, in the middle of them all was an even bigger, absolutely massive worm.

Gya-oh-oh-ohk-

Miru let out a bizarre little howl at the sight. Although Su-hyeun couldn't understand what was being said, he thought he could understand the sentiment behind it, at least. It wouldn't be strange for a normal person to start retching the moment they saw this spectacle, after all.

To think that he was now facing against hundreds, thousands of monster worms and their 'mother'. Just watching them wriggle around sent shivers through his entire body.

"Hey, Miru."

Gya-ong-

"To start off, hit them with a big one."

While saying that, Su-hyeun leaped off of Miru's back.

Gya-rurururu-

Right afterward, a massive amount of magical energy began gathering in Miru's maw. Now, normally, it would fire that out immediately, but this time, the dragon kept its mouth closed, its cheeks visibly ballooning.

The density and the amount of magical energy gathering up felt rather ominous. So ominous, in fact, that Su-hyeun dashing forward while ignoring the Breath had to come to a hasty stop right away.

<< Things might get dangerous if I get swept up in that. >>

So, he waited for Miru's Breath first.

A short while later.

RUUUUMBLE-

[High Breath.]

A Breath of ginormous proportions that the previous Breaths couldn't even compare to rumbled out of Miru's maw.

FWOOOSH-!

Kiii-aaaah-!

The bright light emitted from the pure-white Breath completely filled up the huge boss room. Su-hyeun stumbled back from the searing heat, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

<< What an incredible power….? >>

Sure, he did tell Miru to hit them with a big one, but he never expected it to be this big!

He already knew that Miru's Breath had become even stronger than before, and the number of times it could be used had increased, as well.

But this was on a whole other level.

Kkiiii-aaaaah-!

Monster worms screamed loudly as their bodies were set alight with white flames. Out of hundreds in the boss room, about half were burnt to death.

"Whew-wee." Su-hyeun couldn't hide how impressed he was. He whistled. "Now that's incredible. Seriously."

Gya-ong-!

Miru cried out while sweating, as if it was tired now. It sounded like it was asking for praise. In times like this, his Miru did feel like a little kid.

"You did well. You really did."

Su-hyeun rubbed Miru's head as the dragon descended to the ground. It had displayed a result more than satisfactory enough just now. If he was being absolutely honest, then this exceeded his expectations greatly.

"Now, take a break, my boy. Because, from now on…."

Su-hyeun unsheathed Balmung from its scabbard and began walking towards the boss worm still screaming from Miru's Breath attack.

"….I'll be wrapping everything up."

Clack-

Su-hyeun pointed Balmung forward.

The boss room was located in the deepest part of the dungeon.

He had already scouted out where the exit was. So, there was no more reason to be frugal with either his magical energy or stamina.

Su-hyeun stared at the boss monster, several times thicker than the remaining worm monsters, and muttered, "This is just about perfect for testing 'it' out."

There was one skill he couldn't utilize until he acquired Balmung, because the restrictions on it were too demanding to use it freely.

Buzz, buzzzzz-

His magical energy gathering on Balmung gradually amplified and the blade began shaking, as if it'd shatter at any second.

Su-hyeun stared at his blade as it did that, and quietly murmured.

"The Wave Sword, Explosion Style."