The Hero Returns

Instead of answering Lee Ju-ho's question, Su-hyeun looked at his face for a while.

The heated surrounding and tense atmosphere around Lee Ju-ho was suffocating enough, and it was Lee Ju-ho who was unilaterally frustrated.

He knew that the atmosphere was somewhat different, but he did not know that Lee Ju-ho would be fearful of it.

It wasn't just the level of magic concentration; the skills Su-hyeun had were also of a different class from his.

<<It would not be surprising if he said he wanted to kill me.>>

Su-hyeun spoke as he looked at Lee Ju-ho's face, which was struck with fear.

"Yes, that's right."

There was no need for Su-hyeun to come up with more excuses or to beat about the bush.

As Lee Ju-ho had seen his original self, there would not be any use to try to deny it. On top of that, it wasn't his name that Su-hyeun had wanted to hide.

Lee Ju-ho's eyes widened at Su-hyeun's answer. It seemed that he was still quite surprised even after hearing the truth from him.

Su-hyeun pressed hard between his brows.

<<This turned out to be quite troublesome.>>

He had not expected Lee Ju-ho to return to the dungeon. Su-hyeun let out a deep sigh and spoke while dangling his sword in his hand.

"I'll ask you again. Why did you return?"

"Well, that…" Lee Ju-ho spoke after a moment of contemplation. There was only one thing that he could answer. "Because I was ashamed."

"Ashamed?"

"Yes."

"About what?"

"That I abandoned you and ran away myself."

"Was it solely because of that?"

"It wasn't all because of that…"

How should he explain himself? Conscience? Or embarrassment? It seemed better to say that his feet didn't allow him to go too far.

<<Does he mean that he returned completely unaware of anything?>> Su-hyeun originally thought that Lee Ju-ho probably sensed that he had hidden his actual skills and came back to check.

Su-hyeun nodded his head while looking at Lee Ju-ho, who was scratching his head dully.

"Well, forget it."

"What?"

"What else can I do now? I'm sorry to have lied to you."

"Ah, it's alright. Either way, the rest of us were able to survive thanks to you…"

There were definitely a lot of strange things in the dungeon. It had a weird format different from the normal dungeons, and the difficulty level on the outside was vastly different from the level on the inside.

If it weren't for Su-hyeun, it would have been impossible for them to clear the trial, and no one would have survived the trap that Kim Ye-eun had set up. In other words, they were able to survive because of Su-hyeun.

"Mister Su-hyeun is our benefactor."

Su-hyeun felt slightly relieved after hearing Lee Ju-ho's words.

It didn't seem like Lee Ju-ho would rashly spread the news about him either. He didn't seem to be that kind of person.

<<Although it was something that I had not expected, I don't lose out much either.>>

Lee Ju-ho was a veteran who had been working as an awakener for an extended period. It would be even easier to get more accurate and various news from Lee Ju-ho directly instead of searching through Abyss Online.

As said before, although it was true he had owed him a favor, their relationship in the future wouldn't be bad.

"Don't feel burdened by it. I'm not trying to erase the debt; I'm only doing what I should have done before," Su-hyeun said and flopped onto the floor.

He would, of course, be exhausted after clearing out hundreds of monsters single-handedly. On top of that, Su-hyeun's Flame skill was one that would use up high amounts of magic concentration at high speeds.

As the supply of magic got cut off from his body, the flames around started to die down.

Lee Ju-ho watched, fascinated, as the fire around him died down and flopped next to Su-hyeun.

"It's quite an interesting skill."

"It's the type that devours magic."

"What level of magic is required for this skill?"

"Although it's a level 4 magic skill…" Su-hyeun's words trailed off. It's too obvious and thus unnecessary for him to continue the sentence.

"What in the world…"

Lee Ju-ho, too, was a B-rank awakener, with level 4 magic. Lee Ju-ho's primary skill, Swift, was also one of the level 4 magic skills. It was a reasonably useful skill that boosted the overall speed on skills, magic usage, and physical stamina.

But compared to Su-hyeun's Flame, Swift was nowhere near as helpful.

"Awesome. Although you must have heard it countless times… It's for real."

Kim Su-hyeun. He had heard of this name countless times.

A unique awakener who had cleared the level 10 trials of each floor while climbing the Tower of Trials.

A divinity that had been breaking records on each floor.

There were many divided opinions on how strong he had become after a year of awakening.

It was also because he had never shown his face before. There was nothing else made known to the public besides his name.

<<I didn't know he would be this strong.??

It had just been a year since his awakening.

Regardless of how fast he had grown, Lee Ju-ho thought that Su-hyeun would be just at his level.

But goodness. Su-hyeun was already a few levels well above him.

"As expected, it's a secret, right?"

"What?"

"About you being the actual famous, mysterious Kim Su-hyeun. You don't have any plans on revealing this, right?"

He was quick-witted. He knew that he didn't have to go around telling others about Su-hyeun. And even knew that Su-hyeun had hoped for the same.

"Yes, that's right."

"I'll keep the secret then. I must never have you coming after me if I were to rashly spread the news about you." Lee Ju-ho spoke jokingly about it, but he was also being sincere.

He wasn't confident about shouldering the consequences in the event that he did go around spreading the news about Su-hyeun.

Su-hyeun did not respond to Lee Ju-ho's words. Although he didn't have any thoughts on killing him, he would feel better to have thought of it that way.

"Let's talk later and take a rest for now."

"Was it very exhausting?"

"Although it's exhausting…" Su-hyeun looked in the direction of the door where the horde of monsters had come from.

"All of this hasn't ended yet, has it?"

* * *

Su-hyeun used Flame and focused on refilling his mana that was nearly emptied.

Although he could simply rest up and recover his stamina, concentration was needed to restore his mana. Su-hyeun and Lee Ju-ho, who had both been silent for the past hour, started moving again. After entering the wide-opened door, an elongated cave appeared. It seemed to a dungeon made up of huge caves.

"As expected, the others don't seem to be returning."

Lee Ju-ho glanced back a few times behind him.

Lee Ju-ho put up a disappointed look, as he had thought that maybe his friend Kim Ba-reun would have returned.

Well, he couldn't be blamed since Kim Ba-reun didn't understand his actions.

Though he understood them objectively, he was slightly hurt emotionally.

"Isn't it weirder if you don't know how to value your own life?"

"Well, that's true…"

He had never thought that he would hear this. He had even hesitated to climb the Tower of Trials before as he had valued his own life then. Lee Ju-ho felt and put on an embarrassed look.

Su-hyeun peeked slightly at Lee Ju-ho. <<Certainly… He's too good of a person to die in a place like this.>>

Su-hyeun had been talking to Lee Ju-ho for a while now.

Amongst the topics was one about Lee Ju-ho, who hadn't been climbing the Tower of Trials for quite some time. Many didn't climb the Tower of Trials as they valued their own lives more. No, more accurately, it was most of the awakeners.

How many awakeners had failed to pass the trials while aiming for levels higher than their actual capability?

In fact, up until now, the awakeners' causes of death were mostly from the Tower of Trials. It was a given to value their own lives more, but Lee Ju-ho even valued others' lives as much as his own.

It wasn't common to find such a person like him in this stark and shriveled world. Thoughts like, "As long as it isn't me," or "It's just me by myself" were more prevalent in this world, but having a person like Lee Ju-ho was not bad at all.

"Tsk. Anyway, why did Kim Ye-eun betray us? I didn't expect that she would pull a suicide stint on us."

"She didn't pull a suicide stint."

"Then what?"

"She pulled a team kill on us."

Lee Ju-ho was horrified by Su-hyeun's blunt response.

Up until now, Lee Ju-ho had thought that Kim Ye-eun's action was that they should all have perished together. But to think that she had the intent of killing them?

"Do you know about Dump Guild?"

"Dump Guild?"

He seemed to be unaware.

Su-hyeun continued on.

"It is a guild made up with homicidal maniacs. Not just homicidal maniacs, but there are also others with conflicting interests gathered there."

"There is such a guild?"

"You would not be aware since they are not widely known." Su-hyeun, who was speaking as he walked, suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"In fact, we can say that those who have known about them have all died."

"Wait, what?" Lee Ju-ho's face went white as paper.

That was even more horrifying than what he said before. That those who knew about the existence of the Dump Guild had died.

In other words, he wouldn't know what would happen to him.

"S-so why are you telling me this?" Lee Ju-ho asked Su-hyeun, who continued walking again. He would have preferred to not have known about this at all.

Su-hyeun replied to Lee Ju-ho, who gave a massive reaction with a huge grin. "Aren't you an adventurer who isn't afraid of death?"

"No, but even so, why is there a need to kill when we've survived?"

"Did I say that I killed them? Perhaps Dump Guild would send someone to do it."

"Didn't I say that earlier!" Lee Ju-ho tore his hair out, screaming. He seemed to be quite frightened at Dump Guild's name.

<<Just what would Dump Guild think of this dungeon attack…>>

Technically, Kim Ye-eun wasn't a member of the Dump Guild.

To join Dump Guild, there was a special mission that potential candidates had to clear. It was a concept similar to the trials.

And Kim Ye-eun was right in the middle of clearing it. In other words, she wasn't an official member of Dump Guild yet.

Perhaps, Dump Guild might have considered this as a failed mission. They could also be afraid that their guild's existence would be exposed to the public.

<<It would be better if it was the latter.>>

He felt apologetic to Lee Ju-ho.

Because of this, Lee Ju-ho would be more interested in the Dump Guild as well.

But…

<<I can't let them continue growing their guild either.>>

Dump Guild. It was the worst criminal syndicate guild, and in the future, a group of murderers who were even more dangerous than monsters.

Punishing them was one of Su-hyeun's goals. It wasn't easy digging the Dump Guild out as they were intentionally hiding from the public.

In that case, he needed something that would make them surface.

Su-hyeun wanted this to be the starting point.

"Stop it and come quickly," Su-hyeun said, looking back at Lee Ju-ho, who still had his head hung down.

"Shouldn't we see the end of this?"