The Hero Returns

Chapter 347: Chapter 347

Act 7

[Death Aura has risen by one.]

How many times did it appear so far? Su-hyeun abruptly thought that to himself. He had been focusing nonstop all this time and couldn't properly count how many messages had popped up before his eyes so far.

The rate of Death Aura absorption was gradually slowing down. Only after his whole body had become soaked in sweat did he stop and take a good look around him.

"Is it finally over?"

Not much Death Aura remained in the surrounding terrain.

Most of it had been absorbed into Su-hyeun's body, and the remaining task was for him to refine this power and make it his own.

Plop—

Fuu-woo—

Su-hyeun plopped down on the ground, utterly exhausted. He couldn't win against his curiosity, however, and immediately checked his status out.

[Death Aura: 84]

[Fatigue: 78]

Two specific parts within his lengthy stat window caught his eye. The first was the Death Aura stat that had seen an abrupt increase. The second part was the level of his fatigue.

The figure of 78 meant that it would be difficult for him to fight properly.

"Makes sense, I did receive a massive amount of energy abruptly, after all…"

It would be even stranger if he didn't feel tired at all.

Thankfully, though, the magical energy inside him was quickly circulating throughout his body and breathing vitality into him.

While sensing the vitality slowly filling him back up, he scanned his vicinity one more time.

"Looks like the nearby areas have been taken care of…"

Almost all Death Aura found within the radius of several dozen kilometers had vanished. There was a good reason why his Death Aura stat had risen up by several points.

"Feels like it had been only a few minutes, but…"

But he could easily tell just from looking that his hunch was incorrect. It was impossible to absorb and digest the aura found in such a huge area in only a few minutes, after all.

"Are you finished?"

Grrr, growl—

Ellid and Miru descended from the air. Su-hyeun looked up at them and asked, "How long have I been doing this?"

"Around three hours, maybe?"

"Three hours, is it…?"

That wasn't really short but also not really a long-enough period. He was too focused and wasn't aware of the time flow.

"In any case, thanks to you, I have gathered some useful data for my research," said Ellid with a pleased face.

Data for his research? Su-hyeun stared with a puzzled expression, prompting Ellid to guffaw and answer. "You'll find out soon enough!"

Of course, he didn't bother to provide a proper answer.

* * *

Su-hyeun and Miru returned to the village with Ellid.

As Su-hyeun was deeply fatigued, the first thing he did was to rest inside the unoccupied house he asked the villagers to find for him.

His fatigue level was quite high, so he figured he would need at least two hours of rest to get back to his usual self.

He took a short nap, but after waking up, he sensed that the outside of the house had become somewhat noisy.

He yawned grandly and raised his torso off the bed. The first thing he did was to check his fatigue level.

[Fatigue: 21]

He wasn't completely refreshed yet, but this much was more than enough for him to move. The remaining fatigue should gradually go away as he moved his body more and more.

Su-hyeun got up from the temporary bed and stepped outside the door made out of a wooden board. That's when he noticed the gathered villagers over yonder, all of them gripping onto things like sickles, swords, and spears.

He asked, "What happened?"

"Over there. Monsters are…"

"Over there, you say?"

Only then did Su-hyeun turn his head in the direction the villagers were pointing at.

He witnessed a horde of monsters by the outer edge of the village trying to rush in while making no sounds or giving off any noticeable presence.

The wall had blocked their path and made it impossible for them to get any closer, but they still didn't give up and were currently attacking the invisible wall with their sharp beaks, claws, and pincers.

"Does the wall even block out the sounds and presences, too?" he inwardly asked.

Su-hyeun had to acknowledge the effects of the wall Ellid had set up once more.

The wall must have been set up this way to prevent the Death Aura from pervading into the village.

"Even if that's the case…Maybe he didn't want the villagers to feel trapped in here, but making the wall this transparent was probably not the best decision."

Unlike the villagers, Su-hyeun didn't see this situation as all that serious. While scratching his head, he strode toward the wall.

"It's no wonder why all these monsters have rushed here."

Su-hyeun closed his eyes and began drawing something in front of him. It was a circle, and soon, complicated lines filled its inside.

While drawing the most complex magic circle he had ever attempted so far, Su-hyeun recalled what Ellid had told him earlier.

"Magic is basically unleashing of energy through your will."

Su-hyeun didn't feel all that concerned with getting rid of these monsters before his eyes, so he decided to experiment on a couple of things using this opportunity.

Whoosh—

He extended his fist forward and struck the center of the magic circle that appeared before his face.

"Depending on your application, you can freely modify the method of that unleashing of energy."

[Earthquake—Tremor]

Kwaaaa-booom—!

Buzz, bzzzzzzzzz—

Crack, craaaaaack—!

Humongous vibration spread out in the direction Su-hyeun had extended his fist.

The vibration went through the wall unobstructed and began tearing apart the figures of the monsters outside. That was the result of his "punch" being added to the magical impact force.

"Well, it's not so bad."

Su-hyeun clenched and unfurled his fist a couple of times while observing it closely.

Although it was still hard to focus the power of the vibration, for the time being, he was certain of things getting much better with a just little more practice.

The villagers stared at the remains of the monsters collapsed on the ground, expressions of relief washing over their faces.

Ellid had already introduced Su-hyeun to the villagers, assuring them the latter was his acquaintance who so happened to be an excellent magician on top of being a swordsman. They were no longer afraid of Su-hyeun after listening to all those explanations.

"T—thank you, sir magician."

"Thank you so much."

The villagers walked up to Su-hyeun and expressed their gratitude.

He quickly accepted their thanks and asked them, "Do you know where Sir Ellid has gone off to?"

"He said that he was going somewhere for a short while, so…"

"Do you know where? And when did he leave?"

"He didn't say where, but he did leave as soon as you two returned to the village."

"Right afterward, huh?"

He had been wondering why Ellid hadn't shown up yet despite the village falling into a bit of commotion.

"Is it because he acquired some data for his research?" he thought.

That's what Ellid had said after observing Su-hyeun for a bit—acquiring data for his research.

He was a dragon but, at the same time, an excellent wizard as well. As far as magic was concerned, Su-hyeun could confidently say that out of every magician he had met in his entire life, Ellid was the absolute best of the lot.

To put it another way, he was a genius. To Ellid, magic was as easy and natural as breathing air.

"What did he exactly discover, I wonder…?"

Su-hyeun sighed grandly. Realistically speaking, locating Ellid who had disappeared to somewhere would be nearly impossible.

Rather than searching for Ellid's whereabouts in this wide world, it would be a far smarter use of one's time to simply wait for him to come home, instead.

"Arise."

Gu-gugugu—

Su-hyeun summoned Prince Nezha.

Was this because the Death Aura stat had been enhanced so much? Prince Nezha's application rate had shot up greatly compared to before, and his current appearance could easily pass off as a normal person rather than an undead.

"Protect the village for a while. I want to go somewhere for a little while."

Kneel—

Prince Nezha knelt before Su-hyeun to signal his reply like a highly trained warrior.

Su-hyeun was taken aback a little, but he quickly realized that this was Prince Nezha's original personality.

This was the attitude of a subordinate respectfully answering his master.

Su-hyeun left Prince Nezha behind and turned around to leave.

"Since it's like this, I might as well go somewhere and train by myself."

Ellid had already taught Su-hyeun countless magic-related theories and magic circles.

And now, it was up to Su-hyeun to train and master them all.

Acquiring magic and the more-than-enough amount of Death Aura practically found everywhere, Su-hyeun began thinking that this entire floor was actually a massive stage prepared just for him.

* * *

Crunch, craaaackle—

Buzz, whirrrr, whoosh—

The surrounding air was vibrating.

The ground repeatedly went through the cycle of destruction and restoration. Su-hyeun had extended both of his hands out and was trying to use two different magic spells at the same time.

"This is harder than I thought."

The difficulty of using two spells at once was on another level compared to using only one.

Theoretically, all he had to do was to think of two things in parallel. So far, he somehow managed to activate two different magic spells at the same time.

However, doing anything more than that was not something his current level of concentration could do anything about.

"Is it the issue of my lack of training or some other problem…?"

It was true that Ellid hadn't taught him anything about this part yet. The dragon said that several years of training were necessary before he could learn about double-casting.

Of course, he had to retract that statement after Su-hyeun learned magic at a far faster rate than he thought, but even then, he would still have a hard time believing that anyone sane would attempt to pull off double-casting on their second day of magic training.

"Instead of casting individual spells, linking them to the skill system before using them is far more efficient."

And through this event, he got to clearly confirm this one truth.

"In the end, even magic isn't all that different from the skills."

Up until now, Su-hyeun never had a chance to learn magic in a systematic and organized manner. Not only was there no one to teach him the fundamentals of magic casting in an easy-to-understand manner but most awakeners didn't willingly step forward to master magic either.

After all, magic itself wasn't easy to learn, and awakeners already had access to a far more convenient ability system called "skill."

Meaning, they had no real reason to go out of their way to learn magic.

Even Su-hyeun would've given up on this idea due to his lack of time if it weren't for him already being familiar with imparting his will to something via his mastery over the Somersault cloud and the Palm Leaf.

This concept of bringing one's will to reality through magical energy…

The "skill" in the end was a similar type of medium to the magic circles, one that acted as an assistant to bring one's will to reality.

At first, Su-hyeun was curious about what the base theory behind the skill was, but now that he had a chance to learn magic, it felt like he was getting a much better understanding of the whole thing.

"Which means…"

Su-hyeun extended his hand forward. "Ice Spear."

[You have used "Ice Spear."]

Crack, chwa-rararah—

A long and transparent spear of ice materialized above Su-hyeun's hand. He wordlessly spun it around in his grip.

A system message unmistakably had popped up just now.

"Repeat the same magic circle many times over, and when combining them into one single magic circle…"

Chwa-rak, chwa-rararahk—

Countless ice spears were generated in the sky that the surrounding air froze up instantly.

And when all the spears were fully generated…

[Skill: "Spear Shower" has been acquired.]

[Spear Shower]

* Magic Level: —

* LV: 1

* Proficiency: 0%

* Creates countless Ice Spears. The hardness and the rate of generation will improve depending on your proficiency.

A new skill had been created.

How mysterious this was.

Su-hyeun did feel that it might be possible, but even he didn't expect to succeed this easily.

In other words, both of them stemmed from the same starting point.

"The fact that a magic spell can change into a skill…Does that mean I can also recreate all the skills in existence that I know of?"

Goosebumps broke out on his skin when a hypothesis popped up in his head.

What if such a thing was really possible…?

"No, wait. It's not what-ifs anymore."

Scribble, jot—

Su-hyeun began drawing more magic circles on the ground.

He scribbled all kinds of magic circles taught by Ellid. Su-hyeun carefully studied them—the magic circles and the magic spells themselves and then their connection to the ones that had been converted into skills—scanning from top to bottom in order to analyze the principles behind these magic circles.

If he could understand the make-up of a magic circle that reproduced the exact effects of skill, then it would not be impossible for him to acquire various other skills that he got to witness or confirmed their effects personally.

And to make such a thing a definite possibility, he simply had to learn more about magic from Ellid.

"Just where did he go off to, though…?"

Whoosh—

Su-hyeun raised his head up after abruptly picking up a presence in the distance.

That's how he discovered "something" in the darkened skies above where not a speck of cloud could be seen.

"…Sir Ellid?"

That "something" was the figure of Ellid without his wings unfurled falling headlong to the ground.