The Hero Returns

"But I was told that the dungeon's highest difficulty setting is the blue color?"

The difficulty of the illusory dungeon created by the magic circle was indicated by the magic circle's color. It meant that the illusion Su-hyeun was currently under had the same level of difficulty as an indigo-colored dungeon.

This illusion-type magic circle was constructed under the cooperation of the Gordon Company and Johnny Brad. Bak Yun-gyu was the man responsible for importing it into the country.

As such, he was given an in-depth explanation of the magic circle's operation, as well as the things to look out for by the Gordon Company. Therefore, he was certain that the circle installed in the training area couldn't go higher than the blue color.

"The only indigo-colored dungeon created out of illusion-type magic should be in America and nowhere else," he thought.

He was sure he did not make a mistake about that information, which meant that there was only one other possibility.

"Could it be…? Did Mister Su-hyeun actually interfere with Johnny Brad's illusion magic?"

Johnny Brad was widely acknowledged as the world's best as far as illusion-type skills were concerned. However, there could be no other explanation here other than Su-hyeun personally tampered with a magic circle created by such a man.

* * *

Johnny Brad was the world's best illusion-type magician.

There was no room to doubt his capabilities. Even Su-hyeun, recognized by pretty much everyone as the world's greatest awakener, was thought to be unable to match up to Johnny Brad when it came to the matters of illusion magic.

This wasn't the issue of "who's stronger" but the difference in their specialized fields.

Su-hyeun had no problem accepting this. That was how well constructed the illusion he currently found himself in.

"At least in the matter of illusion magic, he's probably better than the Lich King."

Su-hyeun didn't know much about Johnny Brad, other than this one thing—that he was the world's best awakener when it came to illusion-type skills. And he would also suddenly vanish sometime in the future.

"This is far closer to a trial than a dungeon, isn't it?"

There were two types of trials that Su-hyeun had detected so far.

The first one was tampering with a world that actually existed and establishing a specific goal within it. The second type was somewhat like this one, where you had to solve video game-like missions inside massive-scale illusions.

Johnny Brad's illusion created dungeons, but a closer look into his illusion's mechanics would show that the process seemed far closer to the illusions found within the tower of trials.

The thing was, he wasn't the first person to come up with such a mechanism as far as Su-hyeun could remember.

"If it's like this, I think it'll be possible to do practice runs of not just the dungeons but even trials in the tower."

He was quite familiar with the basic framework of the trials that showed up often in the tower. Su-hyeun inwardly told himself to discuss this idea with Gordon Rohan in the near future and then shifted his gaze away.

Krrrrr—

He caught sight of a giant currently baring its massive fangs at him and drooling away.

Su-hyeun was standing on a cliff, while the giant was standing at the bottom looking up at him.

"The Cyclops."

It was a human-shaped monster with a single large eye on its forehead.

It was a monster that Su-hyeun, in his previous life, chose to hunt right after acquiring ninth-level magical energy. Not only did it possess a body the size of a Titan Turtle, but the club it carried around was also powerful enough to shatter that turtle monster's shell.

"This guy should suffice."

Whoosh—

Ka-boooom—!

Just as Su-hyeun locked gazes with the monster, the Cyclops swung its large club in his direction.

The cliff was completely destroyed and crumbled to the ground below.

The monster's lips contorted into a smile, perhaps thinking that it successfully crushed Su-hyeun's body just now.

Gu-ruk—?

But then, its lone eye began moving around this way and that as a puzzled expression surfaced on the monster's face.

And at that very moment.

Slice—

Tumble—

The end of the club held by the Cyclops was cleanly sliced off.

The monster hurriedly looked at the club in astonishment. That's where the human the Cyclops tried to kill a second ago could be seen standing tall.

"The cutting force is about this much, and…"

Su-hyeun smoothly swung his sword around.

He didn't feel to be in much danger. It might be because this was an illusion, but he was also confident that had it been real, he would still be able to kill this monster without much difficulty.

The reason for that was currently gripped tightly in Su-hyeun's hand.

"Uncle named it Palm Leaf Sword, didn't he?"

After learning that the fan with the green jewel was called the "Palm Leaf Fan," Kim Dae-ho immediately named the new sword as the Palm Leaf Sword.

Apparently, he chose this name because the materials from both Balmung and the Palm Leaf Fan had been combined into one. Honestly speaking, the name change was rather simplistic considering only the "Fan" part had been swapped for "Sword."

"I'm still not sure how I can use this sword, but…"

He did feel relieved by the fact that he had already wielded a power similar to this one in the past.

"It's pretty similar to the Somersault cloud, isn't it?"

The Somersault cloud was the "cloud of the beginning," while the Palm Leaf Fan was the weapon of the Bull Demon King crafted with the jewel containing the "winds of the beginning."

Despite not being the same, these two had some similarities as well.

Shu-wuwuwu—

Winds gathered around the blade.

For some reason, Su-hyeun began thinking that he could control the winds anyway he wanted to.

"I'll cut it down."

Su-hyeun took a powerful swing at the Cyclops with his sword.

He didn't use any magical energy. There was no need for that.

It felt like he could already cut anything down without it.

* * *

A few minutes went by since the dungeon magic circle had activated.

Bak Yun-gyu was constantly looking at his wristwatch during that period. Weirdly, it felt like time was crawling along really slowly right now.

"It's been three minutes."

Now normally, the awakeners affiliated with the Authority and currently being trained directly by him needed at least half a day to escape from the illusion created by the magic circle.

However, Bak Yun-gyu didn't believe that Su-hyeun would need as much time as those people.

"Kim Su-hyeun has already conquered indigo-colored dungeons all by himself. Not to mention, he has reached the 100th floor, too."

The issue was with time. How long would Su-hyeun take to break free from the illusion of the magic circle and emerge outside?

Bak Yun-gyu waited in anticipation.

And after about five minutes went by…

Buzz, buzzzzz—

A change occurred in the indigo-colored magic circle.

"Already?"

This was much sooner than he expected.

The color shifted from indigo to blue, then from blue to green.

Gradually, the coloration approached a reddish hue. This change indicated the weakening of the magic circle's effects.

"I expected him to take at least two hours…"

Bak Yun-gyu was deeply stunned by the fact that Su-hyeun managed to raid the indigo-colored dungeon much faster than expected and couldn't help but take another look at the current time.

He checked several times in disbelief, yet only five minutes or so had passed by.

"Five minutes to raid an indigo-colored dungeon…"

Other than "As expected of him," Bak Yun-gyu couldn't think of anything else to say.

Su-hyeun always managed to exceed his expectations. No, not just his, but even the entire world's on his way of reaching the current heights.

Now was no different either.

As the magic circle's color changed completely to red and slowly dissipated, Bak Yun-gyu began applauding.

Clap, clap, clap—

"As expected of you, what an amazing—"

Drip—

The sound of liquid dripping onto the floor resounded.

Bak Yun-gyu's keen hearing caught that sound clearly. That's why he instantly stopped clapping and shut his mouth.

Soon afterward, the magic circle's color completely vanished, and Su-hyeun's figure revealed itself.

"M—Mister Su-hyeun?!"

"Ah…"

The blood that flowed out from Su-hyeun's body was now pooling on the ground.

He staggered unsteadily before discovering Bak Yun-gyu and then, while barely supporting his body with his sword, asked, "Can I…ask you for a favor?"

"Just what on earth…? N—no, before all that…"

"I trust you, so…I'm going to…sleep for a bit." Su-hyeun, barely keeping himself upright by leaning against the sword with shaking hands, finally lost consciousness at that point.

Plop—

* * *

He didn't need long to take a hold of his faint consciousness and open his eyes again.

The current location was South Korea's top hospital where recovery-type awakeners could be found. It was precisely at this place that Su-hyeun opened his eyes after receiving the medical care of the best physicians and A-Rank-and-higher recovery-type awakeners.

"You're awake?!"

"How are you feeling???"

"The patient has regained consciousness!"

After opening his eyes, Su-hyeun was greeted by a cacophony of urgent voices, which helped him realize that he was currently lying on a hospital bed.

"How long have I been out for?"

Su-hyeun asked the two people he saw first after opening his eyes, Lee Ju-ho and Bak Yun-gyu.

Since Bak Yun-gyu was with him back in the training hall, this made sense, but Lee Ju-ho must have rushed here after receiving the news.

"About one hour? You woke up almost right away after you got transferred here, got your injuries healed, and had some IV fluid injected in you."

"…Is that so?"

"Just what happened back there? Unless you were taking on a trial, you wouldn't have gotten injured that badly, right?" asked Lee Ju-ho as he observed Su-hyeun's expression.

The latter seemed to be a bit out of it at the moment. Lee Ju-ho waved his hand in front of Su-hyeun's face to make sure. "Did he black out again?"

"…No, I'm feeling fine now," Su-hyeun replied before shaking his head. He seemed to have finished organizing his thoughts by then and raised his upper body, only to lie back down on the bed again.

"Just what exactly caused your injuries?" Bak Yun-gyu asked, hoping for an explanation.

The word of Su-hyeun's injuries had already gotten around and reached those with robust information networks by the time he was admitted to the hospital. Reporters that picked up on the scent of a potential story had already published articles filled with nothing but their baseless conjectures.

One wrong move could result in the Authority being blamed for Su-hyeun's injuries. That's why Bak Yun-gyu couldn't help but get deeply anxious from the entire affair.

"Could it be that a defect in the magic circle or—?"

"I'd have broken out of the magic circle by myself if that was the case. It's nothing like that, so you don't have to worry," Su-hyeun replied while quickly waving his hand around. "It's just…I was not good enough, that's all."

"Not good enough, you say?"

"That 'guy' turned out to be far more dangerous than I thought, you see."

Bak Yun-gyu's expression became even more confused at Su-hyeun's reply. "I'm not sure what kind of a monster you ran into inside the simulation, but I was under the impression that all the injuries inflicted by a monster inside the magic circle will disappear as soon as the simulation is over."

"That should be the case. If not, it'd be no different from a regular dungeon, after all."

"In that case, how…?"

"The magic circle wasn't the cause," Su-hyeun replied and then glanced at his own sword resting next to his bed. Bak Yun-gyu had recovered it and brought it here. "It's just that I incorrectly used my powers, that's all."

"Your powers…incorrectly?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you any more than that. And if it's possible, please block the publication of the news reports as well. There's someone who will feel bad after learning about this incident, you see."

If Kim Dae-ho learned about what happened here, he would no doubt feel apologetic toward Su-hyeun. He might even start thinking that he failed to craft the sword properly and caused Su-hyeun's injuries.

Su-hyeun obviously didn't want that.

"There's no need for him to feel that way, after all," he thought.

Despite what happened, a grin appeared on Su-hyeun's face.

Up until now, his preference when it came to weapons had always leaned toward something that boasted better sharpness, sturdier durability, and smoother magical energy conductivity than his previous gear. Su-hyeun's nature of sticking to the basics played a large role in that.

Of course, he hadn't had a change of mind about the basics being important.

However, the story had to change if things were like this. This Palm Leaf Sword was basically a custom-made weapon exclusively for Su-hyeun's use.

"Uncle has created something truly extraordinary here," he inwardly triumphed.

Su-hyeun had been thinking that the biggest gain from the 60th floor's trial was the rise in the level of his magical energy. But he was wrong. In all honesty, both the level and the total reserve of his magical energy would have reached this point sooner or later.

However, knowledge such as the Sage Arts was a different matter altogether. On top of that, he even received presents that he couldn't fully comprehend yet.

The Somersault cloud from Sun Wukong.

And then the Palm Leaf Fan from the Bull Demon King.

These two things had to be some of the greatest presents Su-hyeun had ever received in his life.

"I'll put them to good use, big brothers."

He abruptly remembered the Bull Demon King's message delivered by the administrator.

"We'll meet again, little brother."

Su-hyeun didn't believe they were some simple parting words.

Once one reached the zenith of the Sage Arts, one would apparently see through the truths of the world and even gain the power to predict future events.

The Bull Demon King was infinitely close to becoming an actual god. Therefore, Su-hyeun couldn't help but wonder if the Yogoe had already foreseen the future where they would meet again.

Honestly, Su-hyeun wished for it.

Every time he used either the Somersault cloud or the "Palm Leaf," he thought he could see their faces.