The Hero Returns

Act 3

Hercules?

Su-hyeun's brows rose when a familiar name was brought up. If it was Hercules, then he had to be the human who inherited a god's blood that appeared in the Greek myths.

But more than that…

"What do you mean by he 'might' be a problem?"

The administrator didn't sound sure.

Su-hyeun could more or less accept that Hercules would appear. After all, he had already run into the Great Sage Heaven's Equal, the one and only Sun Wukong, in a trial, and Hercules was also among all the heroes he met back on the 43rd floor.

However, the issue this time was with how Phaethon had said the hint.

"Are you not sure about the hint itself?" Su-hyeun asked.

"The hint? Ah, well. I guess it's difficult to call this a hint, isn't it?"

"Then what is it?"

"Should I say it's a piece of advice? Honestly, even we don't know for sure. We're simply giving you advice based on several pieces of information, and just like you said, we're not perfectly sure about it."

"…Is it always a hit or miss with you guys?"

"There are way too many variables at play, you see. That's why I didn't ask you for any points, you know."

Su-hyeun could only groan at Phaethon's reply and did a facepalm.

However, the administrator wasn't wrong. A piece of advice was simply that—advice and not an actual hint—and since no points had been spent here, Su-hyeun couldn't even complain anymore.

"But then again, the administrators aren't gods, so…" Su-hyeun thought.

Most of the trials took place in not some made-up worlds but ones that actually existed somewhere. Moreover, the "trial" of each floor was basically a mission handed out by an administrator, or maybe the system itself, that you needed to complete in those worlds.

All you needed to do was to reach a favorable end, but no one had any way of knowing how the future would unfold, which meant that the hints of the administrators were not "hints" per se related to the events that had already taken place. They were more like information necessary to reach the end goal instead.

"Whatever the case may be, Hercules is the problem. Is that what you're saying?"

"No, not yet."

"Not yet?"

"Our reply will be the same as always. You'll see when you get there."

Su-hyeun nodded at Phaethon's reply.

Things had been broadly similar until now.

Hints that made only some vague sense and sounded like a challenge to catch floating clouds would become far clearer once he entered the trial and saw what was going on. Meaning, he wouldn't be able to tell until he experienced it himself.

"Where can I access the store? No matter how much I look, I can tell that you're the only person in this village."

Su-hyeun scanned the world that was seemingly made up of desert and nothing else.

A bluish aura swirled in his eyes as he activated the "Sage's Eye" to look into the distance, but even then, he could only see more of the same desert that seemingly stretched forever.

It was rather likely that nothing remained in this world other than this dust-covered little village.

"The store, you say? You want to use it right away?"

"I've managed to amass a lot of points, actually. I can't think of anything I need right now, but who knows? I might spot something useful."

[Current stored achievement points: 47,544,500]

Not only did he acquire quite a lot of achievement points on the 100th and 101st floors but even the points he obtained from the 60th and 99th remained untouched as well.

In reality, there wasn't anything he particularly wanted in the store, and he ended up saving the points, but now that a new store became accessible, he simply had to check out its contents.

"Sure, you do have some points on you. Maybe you can purchase a few knick-knacks, then."

"A few knick-knacks?"

"Why don't you take a look? Here," said Phaethon as he extended his palm forward.

This was the same method employed by the street merchants found inside the tower when they wanted to show off their wares.

Su-hyeun pressed his palm against Phaethon's. When he did, the list of goods available in the store appeared before his eyes.

[The Golden Goblin's Master Key]

[Balrog's Lost Magic Staff]

[Gabriel's Golden Spear]

[The World Tree's…]

Su-hyeun's eyes darted around faster and faster as he read down the list.

Each item was more than enough to make him go agog. Items that far outstripped those found in the stores below the 100th floor in grade utterly filled up the list.

"The starting price is 10 million points?" he thought to himself.

Even if the item in question was the cheapest and should be treated like junk in terms of this store's line-up, its base price still went past 10 million points.

In the cases of the equipment-type items, some of them even exceeded 30 or 40 million.

Of course, most of the types of equipment on offer were pointless for Su-hyeun.

In terms of armor, most of them boasted performance that was either similar or only slightly better than his Armor of Hades, while it was obvious that he wouldn't find any weapon that matched up to the Palm Leaf Sword.

A handful of consumable items did catch his eyes, but until he could confirm their details properly, he couldn't buy them on a whim.

"That's useful, and that one's also not bad, but I don't really need them right now," he told himself.

It was at that moment that Su-hyeun's eyes that were rapidly scanning the item list spotted a certain name.

[A God's Tear]

That name alone instantly grabbed his attention. Su-hyeun had become especially more mindful of the term "god" lately, hence, his sudden interest.

"One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thou—Wait, hundred million?!"

Su-hyeun's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"One hundred million points?!"

Now that was an absurdly expensive item, that's for sure.

However, how amazing was it to warrant such a price? Su-hyeun checked the item's details right away.

[A God's Tear]

* A single teardrop shed by an unknown god. Although it is small in quantity, the power of a god permeates within it.

* Increases any stat by +1 (Only usable on a stat with less than 100 points).

"…?"

Su-hyeun was dumbfounded after checking out its effect. "What was so special about it that it would cost 100 million points?" he thought.

But after a brief moment of contemplation, he realized that he was very wrong.

"It can increase any stat without any restrictions whatsoever?"

This consumable item might have come across as nothing special in the eyes of the other regular awakeners, but Su-hyeun's thoughts were different from theirs. After all, he was the first awakener to push his "Strength" stat to the 100-point mark and acquired the qualification of godhood called "Strength" in the process.

"This is it."

Su-hyeun was aware of it. No matter how incredible an item was, none of them could compare to the power of godhood.

And unless the items contained the qualifications of godhood similar to the Somersault cloud or the Palm Leaf Sword, he didn't have to agonize about them.

"To reach 100 million, I need 53 million more."

That was indeed a ridiculous amount of points. However, he should be able to amass that sooner or later while climbing the tower one floor at a time. Besides, the number of points being acquired by clearing a trial seemed to have gone up somewhat after the 100th floor.

He quickly scanned through the remainder of the store's list. This item called "A God's Tear" happened to be found almost right at the end of the list.

"Have you made up your mind?"

"Yes, I have."

"Is that so? What will you buy then? As a bonus, let me give you another piece of advice—"

"I'm not buying anything. Not yet, anyway."

"You aren't buying anything?" Phaethon asked back at Su-hyeun's reply; then, the corners of his lips curled up. "Very smart."

He too was fully aware of it.

He knew that out of all the items in the store he displayed, the smartest choice for Su-hyeun would be "A God's Tear."

"Make a ton of points later and buy it no matter what. Doesn't matter how you do it. As long as all of your stats reach triple digits, a brand new world that you weren't aware of before will open up to you."

The administrator seemed to know something. Maybe he also knew something about the system currently applied to Su-hyeun.

A question popped up in Su-hyeun's mind just then.

Were the administrators like this Phaethon before his eyes responsible for establishing this tower? If so, were they also responsible for the system currently applied to the human awakeners?

These questions hadn't been answered yet. But even if he asked, he would not get an answer. Even then, he was certain of one thing—at the very least, Phaethon wasn't lying to him.

"Okay. I'll definitely take those words to heart."

Shu-wuwuwu—

After Su-hyeun made his reply, his figure began to slowly vanish from the spot. Just as his body became transparent and the view before his eyes got hazy, a system message rang in his ears.

[The trial on the 102nd floor will now commence.]

**

What appeared before Su-hyeun's view was a wide-open field.

However, he couldn't see something as common as a tree or a village filled with people who should be cultivating unknown crops visibly growing in this field.

Su-hyeun scanned his surroundings more closely.

"Is there really nothing here?"

His thoughts didn't wander off too far, however, because a new system message arrived shortly.

[Protect the god's bloodline for the next 30 days.]

Su-hyeun could only make a puzzled expression at the 102nd floor's "mission."

Protect the god's bloodline?

"In this place?"

One more time, Su-hyeun scanned the uninhabited wide-open field.

There really wasn't anything there. He waited on the spot while hoping for something, but no other message came his way.

Su-hyeun groaned and activated the Sage's Eye again, which allowed him to look much farther.

"As I thought, there really is noth—"

Fwhoooosh—

Su-hyeun, observing the endlessly-stretching empty fields, quickly shifted his head above. The moment he activated the Sage's Eye, something began flying in his direction.

That something got obscured by the sun in the sky and became a small black dot before descending to the earth below.

SPLIIIIIIT—!

The thing that was descending from the heavens slammed into the ground. Su-hyeun stood still and observed the sight of the ground being torn apart and the soil overturning spectacularly to shoot up in the air.

"The moment it fell, it changed its trajectory," Su-hyeun thought to himself.

What amazing speed! But what was even more surprising was the power on display.

It came from pure physical strength without the aid of an aura or energy. A man with blue hair and a short beard quietly emerged from the overturned earth as he fixed the lion headdress resting on his head.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" he then spoke in a voice that was imposing and dignified sounding.

"It's Hercules," Su-hyeun thought.

Although there were some minor differences in appearance from the 43rd floor's version, his overall vibe or facial features were still the same.

Even the Nemean Lion Headdress adorning his head was the same, despite looking a bit worn-down now.

More importantly, though…

Tumble, tumble—

Bang—

The overturned earth tilted over and collapsed back down to the ground. The crop fields became even more unusable as a result.

It was merely a single strike. Just one downward strike with the club that he held in his hands was already this powerful.

More importantly, at the last moment, Hercules discovered Su-hyeun and urgently withdrew his strength and changed the trajectory of his strike.

If he hadn't done that, the ripples from the overturned earth would have reached where Su-hyeun was currently standing as well.

"You seem to be quite shocked at the moment. My apologies. I thought you were from the race of the Giants, and I may have caused you inconvenience."

"Ah, no. I'm fine. I'm unhurt."

Su-hyeun, admiring Hercules's strength, hurriedly waved his hands around. Even the latter's personality seemed a little different somehow.

"I mean, when I saw him back on the 43rd floor's arena, I thought he had an obstinate, relentless, and aggressive personality," he inwardly recalled.

A stage of various heroes was the theme of the 43rd floor that was created by the administrator. It was a stage where heroes from many different worlds came together to fight and discover who was the strongest among them.

That was also the goal of the trial, and Su-hyeun encountered Hercules during the occasion. They might not have chatted at length after being matched-up in the arena, but at least from Su-hyeun's memories, Hercules wasn't someone this courteous or formal in nature.

"The god's bloodline, was it?"

Upon meeting Hercules, Su-hyeun immediately recalled the latter's birth as told through the popular myth.

"Wasn't he the son of Zeus?"

Hercules was a demigod born between the bona fide god Zeus and a human woman. In that sense, he definitely qualified as the "god's bloodline" as stated.

"But to protect him?"

And that's why Su-hyeun was even more puzzled.

"This dude?"

Su-hyeun stared at Hercules before his eyes and formed a deeply confused expression.

The goal of this trial was to protect Hercules.

But the administrator said that Hercules might be a problem.

Even from the get-go, things were not making sense.