The Hero Returns

Act 1

Strength of 97.

Although there was only a seven-point difference, Su-hyeun could feel his actual strength was several times greater.

The real-world changes felt from each one-point stat increase became more pronounced as the score got higher. Also, this was his first time experiencing a strength stat of 97.

<< My previous record for strength was 96, wasn't it? >>

Back then, he didn't place too much of an importance on stats besides his magical powers. He invested all the achievement points he could in increasing his reserve of magical energy, as well as in purchasing items and information on every tenth floor.

So then, he only ever got a strength stat of 96. He used to think that that stat value was perfectly serviceable. Rather, he believed that it was more than enough.

Unfortunately…

<< My magic level and count are rising up quickly enough even now. >>

Maybe, a bit too quickly, even. He easily figured out the reason why that was the case, too.

<< It's the difference in proficiency. >>

Individuals had different levels of talents in regards to magic.

Someone blessed with high sensitivity toward magical energy could raise their magic level and count really quickly, while others could only develop at a snail's pace. Su-hyeun was the former. As a matter of fact, his talent in it was more than enough to say it was overflowing.

On top of that, he even personally experienced what the ninth level of magical power was like, too. It was obvious that his magic sensitivity was far higher than in his previous life.

But, what about his stats?

<< My strength won't improve by itself. I won't get faster automatically, and my stamina won't increase without me doing anything. >>

In the end, he had no choice but to put his effort into enhancing his stats. It was a different strategy than in his past life, and his current stats were the result of this line of thinking.

And so…

The moment he stepped inside the dungeon, an ape monster pounced on him from above with its deadly fangs fully bared—only for Su-hyeun's fist to fly in and strike it clean across the jaw.

SMACK-!

A nice, refreshing sound exploded out.

The ape's head caved in. Its skull was smashed in while its body flew away. A monster more than four meters tall and probably weighing a ton was actually defying gravity to fly several meters through the air. From a punch without a single drop of magical energy in it, no less.

BOOM-!

The carnivorous ape crashed back to earth along with its shattered head.

The spectacle that transpired in the blink of an eye brought about a stunned silence from the raiding party following behind Su-hyeun, all of their jaws hitting the floor as they stared at the South Korean.

Some among them weren't simply shocked, though, as they were blessed with very quick, discerning senses, too.

<< I didn't sense any magical power from him. >>

<< Did I make a mistake? >>

<< He didn't even use his sword… >>

Among them all, though, Chernov's shock was incomparable to everyone else's.

<< Just a single punch?! >>

That fist didn't contain any magical energy whatsoever. It was a simple punch, nothing more. He didn't know if Su-hyeun was a renowned martial artist or what, but regardless, the man had killed a monster from a blue-colored dungeon without resorting to any magical power.

<< N-no, I must've made a mistake. >>

Indeed, he had probably failed to sense the magical energy because it all happened too quickly.

Besides, Su-hyeun had entered the dungeon before everyone else, so he could've used his magical energy in that brief window of time.

Things made more sense when he thought of it that way. Even then, what happened was still incredible to behold.

<< What a stunning magical energy control that is. >>

Chernov assumed Su-hyeun's punch was just an example of unbelievably efficient magical energy consumption. It made more sense than the alternative.

"Looks like there are quite a few monsters even around this entrance area," said Su-hyeun while raising his head.

Their surroundings were filled with massive trees easily more than a hundred meters tall. They were the kinds of trees you couldn't see in the real world.

Screech, howl-

Ape creatures could be spied darting between the gigantic trees. Their figures were obscured by the huge, expansive trunks, but the carnivorous apes were still as big as an average-sized elephant.

"Even the beginning isn't easy, it seems," said Chernov as he pulled out his bow.

Belatedly, the other awakeners in the raiding party yanked their weapons out one by one and readied their skills.

Su-hyeun watched them get ready and opened his mouth. "Don't spread out. Only advance while maintaining a defensive formation, please. Mister Chernov, stay in the rear-most position and snipe the apes up in the trees, please."

The English-speaking interpreter quickly translated what Su-hyeun said to the rest.

He ordered them to maintain a defensive formation. Since Su-hyeun was the leader of the raiding party, there was no problem with him issuing commands, but his plan puzzled them somewhat.

<< Does he want us to respond in a passive manner? >>

<< How come? >>

<< He wants Mister Chernov's arrows to be the main method of attack? From this distance?? >>

No matter how hard they thought about it, he was asking for an impossibility. Even then, they couldn't start the raid by going against their leader's orders. The raiding party consisted of pretty skilled awakeners, so they followed his commands and quickly formed a defensive formation.

And then…

"Perfect." Su-hyeun confirmed that they had followed his orders, and made his move. "Well, then. Everyone, do your best to survive, okay?"

"Eh? Uh, uh??"

"H-hey??"

[Leap.]

Su-hyeun leaped upwards.

All by himself.

After giving them the order to survive by themselves, he must've thought that it would be sufficient enough because he then immediately charged away.

At the same time….

"Come out."

Gya-ooong-!

Miru emerged into the open air after ripping space apart. The red dragon let out a loud howl as it let Su-hyeun climb on its back.

Swoooosh-

Miru moved at lightning speed. The dungeon zoomed past as they charged at a carnivorous ape right in front of them, the monster using its tail wrapped around a tree branch to secure its footing.

And then-

Squeeze-

Su-hyeun swung his fist powerfully.

Ka-boom-!

Miru's movement speed was added on top of the punch's already tremendous power. The carnivorous ape's head was instantly smashed into bloody bits and pieces.

The untouched body, which sharply contrasted the head crushed like a block of tofu, fell to the ground, lifeless.

It was exactly the same as before.

<< …I couldn't sense his magical energy. >>

Chernov, notching an arrow in order to provide assistance to Su-hyeun, became certain of it.

<< That… was just a punch. >>

Swiiiish-

While riding on Miru, Su-hyeun continued to punch the carnivorous apes.

The battle was pretty one-sided.

He found no need to allocate his magical energy or stamina—movement was taken care of by riding on Miru's back, and he hadn't used one iota of magical energy so far to attack.

Screech, screeeech-!

Occasionally, carnivorous apes attacked the raiding party maintaining the defensive formation. The awakeners were lulled into thinking that the apes couldn't have been much of a threat after witnessing Su-hyeun massacring them, so their formation threatened to break in an instant.

The deadliness of these apes' claws exceeded their expectations, and the power behind the attacks was considerably higher than expected as well, perhaps owing to the monsters' large physique.

Pow-!

An arrow Chernov fired left a huge hole in the middle of an ape's forehead.

Thud-

"Everyone, be careful."

"Y-yes, sir!"

Chernov's 'recommendation' was met by a united reply from the raiding party.

They almost lost someone by underestimating their enemies. If it weren't for Chernov's help, the formation would've broken down beyond recovery.

<< These monsters are definitely not weak. >>

Chernov stared at the dead carnivorous ape with a hole in its head.

<< This… is a blue-colored dungeon. >>

Bastards of such ferocity were appearing not as bosses but regular monsters. There were so many of them already, and they even knew how to sneak attack, as well.

Eventually, Chernov's gaze shifted over to Su-hyeun, still flying around massacring the carnivorous apes.

<< And that… is Kim Su-hyeun. >>

Sure, he had fought the South Korean before, but this round of shock was on another dimension compared to the last time.

Back then, he just thought Su-hyeun was amazing. But he didn't get this sense of unfathomable mysteriousness like right now. How could he kill these monsters without using any magical energy whatsoever?

<< Gordon Rohan must be gnashing his teeth, isn't he… >>

The interview Gordon Rohan did, the one where he said he'd definitely defeat Su-hyeun, had already become the stuff of legend. Countless people were looking forward to a rematch with bated breath. Not to forget, both men were now tied to the same guild, as well. The whole world was deeply invested in the narrative of their rivalry.

But Chernov could only shake his head after imagining the two men's potential rematch.

<< It's over already. >>

The last Ranking Wars ended in Su-hyeun's victory. Outwardly, it was a close match, but the end result would be different during the next Ranking Wars.

With an even bigger margin.

* * *

A day had passed since they entered the blue-colored dungeon.

Su-hyeun blew off the head of the mid-boss 'mother' ape, and lightly shook his tired wrists.

<< This is problematic. >>

A strength stat of 97.

No doubt that was a marvelous numerical value. Not only that, but his strength stat would also rise further in the future, as well.

That stat value allowed him to kill monsters with his bare hands. It was even possible to hunt the 'mother' ape that appeared as a mid-boss without spending any magical energy.

But a glaring problem reared its head not too long afterward.

<< My stamina can't keep up. >>

Despite how amazing his strength was, his body found it hard to withstand such a high stat for long.

This was a somewhat different reaction from using magical energy. While one's magical power was supported by the magic count, one's strength needed to be supported by stamina, as it turned out.

It was the same story for 'agility'. No matter how quick you were, it'd mean very little if your reflexes couldn't back you up.

Every stat was closely linked to another stat.

<< Do I need to raise my stamina next? >>

He was initially planning to increase the highest-efficiency stat, strength, first then move onto agility next. But now it seemed that he needed to raise his stamina stat to at least above 90 next time to solve this issue.

Su-hyeun's current stamina was 83, the lowest out of all of his stats.

<< Still… >>

He stared at the huge corpse of the 'mother' ape collapsed on the ground and muttered to no one in particular. "This isn't so bad."

Result-wise, his experiment was a success.

At this rate, he couldn't wait to see the results waiting for him once he reached the three-digit mark.

Meanwhile, the raiding party following behind Su-hyeun was looking at him as if he was an even bigger monster than these carnivorous apes.

<< Could he actually be the final boss? >>

<< Since he's not using any magical energy, maybe he's not even human…. >>

<< Why isn't he using his skills? Wait, maybe he can't? >>

At first, he relied only on his fists, but, after a certain point, he unsheathed his sword. After that, he proceeded to cut down every monster in the forest in a simple, maybe even single-minded, manner.

Even during this part of the raid, never mind his various skills, Su-hyeun still chose not to rely on his magical energy even once.

At this point, every member of the raiding party became convinced of this one thing.

<< His base stats are on a different realm from us. >>

From his strength to agility, as well as his reflexes. He had no real reason to rely on his magical powers or skills here. Just relying on his base stats alone were enough to do the job.

After hunting the mid-boss 'mother' ape, Su-hyeun began advancing with the raiding party once more. It was around then that Chernov decided to walk over to his side and ask something.

"Are you deliberately fighting this way?"

This was that one question the Russian didn't dare to ask lest it came across in a rude way. But he just couldn't suppress his curiosity and had to utilize his less-than-stellar English skills to ask it.

Su-hyeun replied. "I'm trying to get the hang of something new, actually."

"Hang of… something new?"

"My stats suddenly rose by a great deal recently, you see. That's why I thought it would be a good idea to get used to my current body before I challenge the next trial."

"Are you saying that this is just your adjustment period?"

"Well, you could put it that way, sure," Su-hyeun answered, then began scanning his surroundings before continuing, "Looks like they're really pissed off about their mother's death."

"Excuse me?"

"Looks like they've all showed up at once."

At Su-hyeun's words, Chernov hurriedly activated one of his skills.

[Thousand Mile Eye.]

His eyes turned blue before sweeping their surroundings. That allowed him to see hundreds of carnivorous apes rushing in from every direction.

<< T-this… >>

The incoming horde was inconceivably greater in numbers than the pockets of apes they had encountered up to this point.

Chernov looked behind him and loudly shouted, "Get in the defensive formation! Hurry up!!"

The raiding party moved quickly to comply with his order. And, a short while later, carnivorous apes screeching and howling in rage rushed in from below and above the tall trees.

Screech, kiiiiiieek-!

Kkiiii-eeeehk-!

The rage of the offspring that had lost their mother could be felt in their howls.

Su-hyeun took a sweeping glance at them and muttered, "Well, I've just about gotten the hang of it, so…"

He counted the number of ape monsters and pondered for a brief moment, before making up his mind. "Let's finish this quickly and get out of here."

Split-

The third eye opened up in his forehead, and Su-hyeun's magical power began to wake from its quiet slumber.

[Predator.]

[Flame.]

[Indomitable Body.]

RUUUUMBLE-