The Hero Returns

"No wonder why…" Su-hyeun muttered.

Pitapat, pitapat—

Su-hyeun closed his eyes and felt the sound more clearly. He couldn't feel anything other than the heartbeats. It didn't make sense with Su-hyeun's incredible senses. But still, he could hear the sound. That meant this heart was huge, and the heartbeat was absurdly loud.

As Su-hyeun knew, there were only a few monsters with a heart that size. And, among them, there was only one monster that lived under the ground or near the sea or a river.

Rumble, rumble—

The ground began to shake. No. It wasn't the ground that was shaking. It was something under the ground.

<<It's the Titan Turtle!>>

The Titan Turtle began to move. Su-hyeun opened his eyes wide but stood up with a calm face. The tremor, sounding like an earthquake, grew louder.

Grrr, Grrr—

Miru bared his teeth and roared. The Titan Turtle had such a menacing presence. In fact, the Titan Turtle was more dangerous than any monster Miru had ever met.

"Hey, Miru," Su-hyeun called.

Purr—

At Su-hyeun's call, Miru began to fly up, carrying Su-hyeun on its back. Soon, the ground that Su-hyeun and Miru had stood upon shook apart. Debris flew into the air.

Rumble, rumble—

Crack, crack—

The ground turned upside down, and the trees that grew on it fell down. Su-hyeun was convinced, watching what was happening.

<<I guess the reason why the monsters stopped attacking us is because we entered the territory of the Titan Turtle.>>

The Titan Turtle was one of the gigantic monsters. Moreover, before Fafnir had appeared, the Titan Turtle had been eating everything that it could see. It was the same for the other monsters. After Fafnir, the head of the monster army, disappeared, the Titan Turtle ate other monsters as food. So, it was natural that the other monsters didn't go close to the Titan Turtle, which was now the top predator in the food chain.

Grrr, Grrr—

Miru began to roar louder. At first, Su-hyeun though Miru was frightened by the Titan Turtle. But his reaction was a little off for that.

"Why, Miru? What's going on?" Su-hyeun asked.

Grrr, Grrrng—

It wasn't a fear reaction; it was close to excitement instead. A giant shell started to appear. Miru reacted without rhyme or reason at the grey turtle.

<<Does he want to fight? No. I don't think so.>>

Su-hyeun knew that Miru didn't like fighting much. In terms of personality, Miru was very similar to Su-hyeun. Unless it was a necessary fight, Miru didn't like to fight against strong opponents for no reason.

<<Then, maybe…>>

Su-hyeun looked down at the Titan Turtle, which was sticking its head out from its shell.

<< Does it have the Cintamani?>>

Miru was a descendant of the Dragon King. He didn't like it yet, but he was. If the Cintamani was closely related to the dragons, it explained why Miru reacted like this.

<<I guess the Titan Turtle has been keeping the Cintamani,>> Su-hyeun thought.

The Titan Turtle was one of the monsters that survived the war and still stayed in this world. But, for some reason, it had remained in the forest and hadn't moved. The Titan Turtle, Su-hyeun knew, was a monster that ate anything it could find, without rest. There must be a reason that the monster's appetite was suppressed for so long.

There were two options. First, there might be something suppressing its appetite. Or second, Fafnir's influence might still exist. And in either case, it was very likely that it had the Cintamani.

<<All the more reason to hunt this thing.>>

Su-hyeun had no intention of avoiding the fight against the Titan Turtle from the beginning. So, he thought it was a good thing if the Titan Turtle had the Cintamani. The trial would go more smoothly.

Su-hyeun flew up high into the sky, riding Miru and closely observed the Titan Turtle. Its huge shell was dozens of times bigger than the World Cup stadium. It almost looked like an island. In terms of size, this monster was comparable to Ouroboros. But that didn't mean that Titan Turtle was as dangerous as Ouroboros.

<<The purpose of this trial is to kill the Titan Turtle.>>

On the other hand, the Ouroboros of the 30th-floor's trial was just the background of the trial. It wasn't a monster that he had to kill that time.

Su-hyeun calmly muttered as he reflected the Titan Turtle with his sword, Balmung, "I guess today we're playing for keeps."

<hr />

There were two ways for awakeners to attack dungeons. The first was to enter the dungeon with overwhelming power. People usually gathered as many other awakeners as possible. That usually happened when there was no detailed information about the dungeon or when there wasn't much time before the dungeon outbreak. And, most of the time, Su-hyeun had to attack dungeons that way. Because he always had to raid the highest difficulty newly appeared dungeons. He couldn't go into dungeons with much information.

And the second way was to prepare for the attack with plenty of information. That was much easier than the first option. Even with fewer people involved, people could know the weaknesses and patterns of the monsters. People usually used that method when they attacked low-grade dungeons. Monsters that appeared in those dungeons were pretty obvious, so there was already a lot of information about them.

That was the biggest difference between Su-hyeun's past life and his current one. Unlike his past life, Su-hyeun had most of the information about monsters ahead of time. And that was a greater weapon than any sword, right at the moment.

Slash, slash—

Scratch, scratch—

Thin scratch marks were carved onto the back of the Titan Turtle.

Swish, swish—

Roooaaar—!

The Titan Turtle stuck its head out, revealing its teeth to Su-hyeun. It was the reaction that Su-hyeun had expected.

[Leap.]

Su-hyeun quickly jumped up and increased the distance between himself and the Titan Turtle. Soon after that, he snapped his fingers.

Boom, boom, boom—!

Kyaaaak—!

The Flame skill exploded along the sword scratched in the turtle's shell. The Titan Turtle stuck its head out and screamed in pain. The huge body of the turtle trembled for a moment. At the same time, Su-hyeun flew over the shell of the Titan Turtle again.

Scratch, scratch—!

A sharp blade began to cut the shell of the Titan Turtle again. Since it was too hard, he couldn't cut deeply even with magic in his sword. But this was enough. He didn't plan to cut through it all at once, anyway.

<<I think it's almost ready,>> thought Su-hyeun.

The Titan Turtle was a monster known for having the most durable defensive power in existence. It was pretty agile compared to its size, but it wasn't so agile that Su-hyeun couldn't avoid it. The attack pattern was also very simple. Su-hyeun's strategy was simple; slow but steady. The moment Su-hyeun broke the Titan Turtle's shell, the actual attack would start.

<<Right…now…>>

Su-hyeun stood on the shell and stabbed his sword into the half-cracked shell.

Stab—

The sword penetrated the weakened back skin. Su-hyeun began to inject his magic into the sword.

[The Wave Sword - Explosion Style.]

Rumble, rumble—

Balmung began to tremble. The sword shook as if it would explode soon. It spread magic through the crack lines on the shell of Titan Turtle.

Boom, boom, boom—!

Soon after, the sound of a massive explosion came from inside the thick shell. The powerful magic began to trigger a series of explosions through the cracks in the shell.

Crack, crack—

The hard shell started to crack more. In one moment, Su-hyeun, who had been cracking the shell of the Titan Turtle for several hours, started his final work.

"Hey, Miru!" Su-hyeun said when he jumped up from the cracked shell of Titan Turtle, "Give it one big shot!"

[High Breath.]

Miru had been saving his power so far. High Breath was the most powerful attack skill that Miru could use.

Whoosh—!

Miru shot a huge white flame over the cracked shell of the Titan Turtle. Su-hyeun, who was moving away from the turtle, was surprised and had to use the Leap skill quickly one more time.

<<What the?>> Su-hyeun thought.

Roar—!

The Titan Turtle screamed. It meant the heat from the High Breath penetrated through the shell and reached to the skin of it.

<<What strong power he has!>> Su-hyeun wondered.

Su-hyeun had told Miru to save some energy. But his High Breath was more powerful than Su-hyeun had expected. It was a completely different level from the High Breath Miru had been using before.

<<What happened?>>

Miru hadn't grown much after a certain point. Of course, he was helpful enough so far. The maximum number of breaths he could use had increased, and the power of his High Breath became much stronger. High Breath was comparable to other high attacking skills. But what Miru did right then was something Su-hyeun never expected.

Rumble—

Soon, Su-hyeun could see the shell swept by the High Breath. The place he had cracked wasn't broken, yet.

<<Wow, the shell of the Titan Turtle has a strong immunity to magic.>>

Even with this level of breath attack, the back shell didn't come off. The crack became worse, but Miru's Breath wasn't enough to destroy the shell of the Titan Turtle. It wasn't because his power was too weak.

<<The Titan Turtle is undoubtedly a natural enemy of dragons.>>

It would be the worst opponent for dragons, who relied on magic and breath skills rather than physical ability or attacks.

<<Anyway…>> Su-hyeun thought, <<I'll think about it later. I'm in battle now and its armor is almost off. >>

The thick shell that surrounded Titan Turtle was almost broken. It would be the same as a soldier who lost his spear and armor jumped into battle naked.

<<I can cut it out,>> Su-hyeun thought.

Su-hyeun had enough strength and magic power. Until now, his attacks were just relying on the cutting force of Balmung alone.

<<The Titan Turtle has lost its shell—>>

Su-hyeun flew up onto the back shell of the turtle again.

Swish, swish—

Slash—

And, at the same time, his sword cut a wide gash into the back of the Titan Turtle.

Roar—! Roar—!

<<—so it's nothing but a big turtle.>>

Ironically, the only weakness of the Titan Turtle was connected to its greatest strength. Titan Turtle was the monster with the strongest defensive power. In other words, it only had defensive power. Without its shell, it was just a matter of time before Su-hyeun won.

Rumble, rumble—

Su-hyeun injected a lot of magic in his sword once more.

Whoosh, whoosh—

[Flame.]

[The Wave Sword - Explosion Style.]

[Immortality.]

Although it would only work for a short moment, he used the Immortality skill to maximize his physical and magic ability. Balmung, the sword made of adamantium, began to make a cracking sound, as if it would shatter soon. That meant there was a lot of magic gathered in the sword.

Grrr—

The Titan Turtle put its half-stuck out head back into the shell, as if it felt something was coming. It had a strong instinct for survival. It retracted its head so quick that Su-hyeun couldn't aim for it.

"But now, I can break your shell."

Su-hyeun's eyes were fixed on the cracked shell of the Titan Turtle.

[Leap.]

Swish, swish—

Su-hyeun flew into the air, leaving an afterimage behind him. And, at the moment when he stepped onto the shell—

Craaack—!

—Su-hyeun's sword finally broke the back shell of the Titan Turtle.

Splatter—!

And he cut off the Titan Turtle's head, cowering inside the shell.