The Hero Returns

Grrrr—

The red dragon's body supported by its four legs was at least several tens of meters tall and easily longer than a regular soccer pitch. As its body was turned away from Su-hyeun, he couldn't see its face properly.

If it wasn't for the familiar aura, he would've mistaken it for a new monster that had appeared.

"Miru?!"

Miru turned its head when Su-hyeun called out.

Its large eyes stared back at him. Miru now looked like an adult, almost to the point that it even came across as slightly unfamiliar to him.

Moreover, its silhouette also seemed recognizable to him somehow.

That look, it's definitely…

Although the image was blurry, he could sort of make out a silhouette of another person—no a dragon—overlapping Miru's current appearance.

The dragon emperor, Ellid.

Miru now looked very similar to the appearance of what could very well be its parent, the one who was referred to as the king of all dragons that he saw through the images recorded in the Cintamani during the 40th floor's trial.

Is this the case of like father, like son? They really do look the same.

Miru's new appearance was definitely different from what Su-hyeun became familiar with.

If the dragon grew up slowly, even slower than he could consciously notice it, then maybe it might have posed no problem to him, but Miru had suddenly shot up in size, and it was as if the familiar silhouette Su-hyeun recognized had been erased off.

Despite his puzzlement, though, he was definitely sure that Miru was the red dragon before his eyes.

Grin—

The corners of Su-hyeun's lips curled upward.

He remembered back when Miru just broke out of its eggshell. It was so small back then and had to stay wrapped around his neck all the time. Its legs were so short that he couldn't even see whether they were there or not.

The little dragon that used to be like that was now big enough to completely fill up his view and block the horde of monsters, as if to say, take a look at how big I've become.

"I'm proud of you, kid."

Su-hyeun reached out toward Miru only to flinch a little. He belatedly realized that the dragon had grown too big for him to pat now.

"Well, then," Su-hyeun began. "Sweep them away."

RUUUMBLE—

The moment he said that, a humongous amount of magical energy began coalescing within Miru's maw. It was so big that even Su-hyeun was taken aback despite knowing that a Breath was underway.

And right away…

RUUUMBLE—!

FLASH—

The Breath Miru fired dyed the entire world in crimson.

* * *

Rumble, hiss—

Crackle, tumble—

Crimson flames had enveloped the surroundings. Su-hyeun felt the scorching heat on his skin as his eyes took in the sight of the monsters' corpses currently being burned to cinders.

"…"

He stood there frozen on the spot for a while.

He couldn't quite recall the last time he was this shocked. That was how incredible Miru's Breath was a few moments ago.

Miru had shrunk back to its original size. Almost in an instant, too, as if its monstrous version earlier was nothing but an illusion.

Gya-ong—

Miru trudged to where Su-hyeun was looking as if it had no more energy left and then raised its head to cry softly.

Although looking very tired, the dragon's expression was one of happiness. Rather than the issue of exhausting all of its energy, it seemed that the cause of its fatigue was due to just forcibly using that massive Breath.

"R—right… You did well."

Unlike his usual self, Su-hyeun was visibly flustered as he patted Miru's head. While doing that, he recalled the Breath he saw only a few moments ago.

The whole world, including the skies and the land, was dyed momentarily in crimson. By the time the original color returned a couple of seconds later, no monsters were left standing on their feet anymore.

It was the same story for the devils.

Since they were devils and not some weak monsters, they didn't die immediately and collapsed in a heap instead, but they didn't seem to be able to be holding on for long.

The five devils were slowly withering away from the undying flames.

That Breath was incomparably mightier than ones from the past not only in terms of its range but also its destructive power.

Maybe it was only for "single use," judging from how Miru reverted back to its old self, but this much was already more than enough for him.

Is this because of the awakening period? Or maybe the Cintamani's effects?

Either way was fine for him, however.

With this, Su-hyeun reaffirmed Miru's potential.

It's not too far off now.

He never got to personally meet Ellid. However, he was still faintly aware of how incredible an existence that red dragon was.

First of all, there was the dragon emperor's magical energy stored within the Cintamani to consider. The concentration of Ellid's magical energy was far denser than anyone Su-hyeun could think of.

Second, it had also fought off Fafnir.

Even though it had to sacrifice its life in the end…

Ellid had achieved something Su-hyeun failed to do. The dragon emperor protected its home world from Fafnir. That fact alone made it meaningless to even discuss what an incredible being Ellid was.

And Miru was the descendant of Ellid the red dragon.

"You know, you're proving to be a real bundle of good fortune."

Gya-ong—?

Miru tilted its head at what Su-hyeun said. But upon realizing that it was a compliment, the dragon broke out into a bright smile.

* * *

"Thank you. Thanks to your help, I could now return to the celestial world."

The angel, Ikaela, shook Su-hyeun's offered hand. A pure white door stood tall before him. It was a gateway to the celestial world where angels were waiting on the other side to receive him.

"Don't mention it."

"I don't have any reward to offer you, but I can still prepare a small parting gift at least."

"A gift, you say?"

"You shall soon see for yourself. Well then, I shall be on my way," Ikaela said.

The angel turned around to head toward the white doorway. It opened up automatically to welcome him.

After the angel stepped beyond the threshold, new messages floated up before Su-hyeun's view.

[You've acquired 1,000,000 achievement points.]

[You've recorded maximum accomplishment rate.]

[You've perfectly cleared the 51st floor's trial.]

[Achievement ranking is being tallied.]

[You've been ranked in the first place.]

[Death Aura has risen by two.]

[You've acquired "Celestial King's Feather."]

Su-hyeun arrived on the 52nd floor. If this was any other time, he would be occupied with taking in his new surroundings, but the first thing he did this time was to confirm the item in his hand.

A small but soft feather was resting on his palm.

The Celestial King's Feather.

It seemed that this little thing was the reward for passing the trial this time.

He thought that there wouldn't be any reward aside from the achievement points this time since he finished the trial too quickly, and it wasn't all that difficult, to begin with. But thankfully, his Death Aura stat increased a little, and there was even an additional reward.

It was Su-hyeun's first time to see an item called the Celestial King's Feather.

Appraisal.

[Celestial King's Feather]

* A wing feather from the king of the angels, the Celestial King

* It can transport you to a location in your memory, where you've previously been to.

* One-time use item

Its effect was pretty simple, but it still made Su-hyeun's eyes sparkle brightly.

It can transport me to a location I've been to before, huh?

As implied, it was basically for teleportation. Moreover, as there was no restriction on the distance, the item would allow him to teleport anywhere he wanted to go and not just a short little hop to somewhere close by.

It, as a single-use item only, was a bit unfortunate, but even then, it was an excellent item that could definitely come in handy in an emergency situation.

If I can use this even in the middle of a fight, then it can be the greatest evacuation and counterattack item in existence, or I can substantially lower the risk in case dungeons open up in two locations that are on the opposite sides of the world.

Depending on how it would be used, the possibilities were endless. He didn't expect much as it was merely the 51st floor's reward, but this one option alone already made it an excellent item.

Well, my Death Aura stat has risen up, too…

Perhaps because the stat was low but the floor was high, Death Aura increased rather easily at the moment.

The most important thing to note was the fact that the Death Aura stat continued to climb higher whenever he hunted down a monster. It seemed that the effects of dying life forms influenced the stat greatly.

Two months should be more than enough.

Su-hyeun started walking away. Although he dearly wanted to challenge the next floor right away, there was something else he needed to do first.

[Achievement points: 21,904,455]

It was now time to purchase the elixirs for stamina, as well as those related to agility.

It looks like I'll be in hell for a couple of days.

Just thinking about drinking all those disgusting elixirs at once was already making him groan helplessly.

Su-hyeun headed to the shopping district.

Act 8

After taking all sorts of elixirs, potions, and medicinal herbs meant to fortify his stamina and lighten his body, Su-hyeun fell unconscious for several days.

That was how terrible those things were. Some medicines mixed in among the batch even contained deadly toxins.

That goddam medicine peddler.

He wasn't the type to do so, yet the first thing he did after waking up was to gnash his teeth and curse the owner of the store that sold him the elixirs.

"This is a slightly dangerous item, and it might hurt you a little bit. However, its effect is truly outstanding."

The store owner had a somewhat vaguely sinister expression as he said that and packed all the medicines in a big bundle.

Even then, Su-hyeun didn't think that the store owner would really defraud him, plus he had pretty high resistance toward most poisons, so he wasn't overly concerned. Which came back to bite him in the butt in the end.

Did he say that this elixir was created by boiling the horn of a Wind Unicorn? I heard that a person will die by ingesting the blood of a unicorn, but hell, the horn is even worse.

Whatever the case might have been, the effects were definitely noticeable.

[Strength: 99] [Agility: 97]

[Stamina: 97] [Reflex: 96]

Both his "agility" and "stamina" had increased significantly. The former rose by four points, while the latter, five.

This was all thanks to him consuming all sorts of elixirs related to those two stats.

In other words…

This is as high as I can raise my stats through elixirs.

His "reflex" stat was different from the others and couldn't be raised through elixirs because it was related to his senses, not his physical body.

I guess there's no reason to rein in my strength anymore.

Su-hyeun's strength stat stayed at 99, but his stamina, which used to be only 92, rose as well.

The difference might have been only seven points, but what he could actually feel was far greater than that. This was because once a stat goes past 90, the relative importance of each point would rise exponentially.

Because of this, he could feel his body experiencing a strain of some sort whenever he unleashed a significant amount of his strength. The amount of unnecessary magical energy spent to support his body had been rather considerable so far.

But from this point onward, that burden should decrease substantially.

Let's aim to get to the 56th floor.

The main matches of the Ranking Wars were about one and a half months away. And he was aiming to climb past five floors during that time.

Although he might pass one or all the floors as quickly as the previous one, that could also not happen depending on the types of trials he would face.

Still, let's go forward as fast as we can.

* * *

Out of all the currently existing events, the Ranking Wars boasted the biggest scale.

This tournament had already surpassed the World Cup and the Olympics in terms of the world's attention drawn to it. As such, it was only obvious that a great deal of manpower would be invested in the Ranking Wars to get everything prepared ahead of time.

"What about the dungeon that appeared in Florida this time? Which guild is scheduled to take it on?"

"The Zinger Guild has been chosen to take it on, sir. They are scheduled to start the raid later today, so it should be wrapped up either tomorrow or the day after."

"And what about Boston?"

"That one, it's being…"

They were currently inside the Dungeon Management Agency.

This agency, which was a part of the American Awakener Authority, was currently trying to get through arguably the busiest period in its history.

Some of the world's greatest awakeners would gather for the Ranking Wars.

And as such, it was unavoidable that there would be a gap in the awakener manpower while the tournament was underway, and inevitably, there would be a shortage of people capable of raiding dungeons.

Because of this, not only the Dungeon Management Agency but also the awakeners throughout the world were working hard to raid the dungeons ahead of time before the Ranking Wars could even start.

Normally, a dungeon needed 15 days to a month before it reached a full-on outbreak.

That time frame had been brought forward as much as possible, and the dungeons were getting raided within three days of their appearance.

This story wasn't unique to the American agency.

The whole world was doing the same.

That was why the months of November and December that led up to the Ranking Wars, which would be held sometime in December, proved to be the busiest period for the awakeners.

"Ugh! I'm already up to my neck in work after more dungeons have shown up lately, so what is up with this damn Ranking Wars and stuff…?"

"But we're getting pretty good overtime pay, so it's all good, right?"

"Well, I guess so, sir. The Gordon Company isn't a bunch of thugs, at least. We're getting a lot of extra pay from their donations, after all."

"If it weren't for that, we should be going on a strike or something. Man, we seriously have been swarmed with work for the past month, haven't we? Hey, man. Wanna get some coffee in our systems first?"

James, the administrator working for the agency, stood up while saying that. The current time had already breached past the wee hours, and his eyelids were growing heavier by the second.

"Aren't you coming?"

"…"

There was no reply.

The junior assistant, the one he had been chatting idly with only a second ago, was already sitting down, with his head tilted to the side.

"What the… You're already asle—"

Whoosh—

Just before he could shake the junior's shoulder, James's head spun to the side. Someone's face suddenly appeared before his eyes.

"From now on, your job will be…"