The Hero Returns

* * *

The beaches of Santa Monica in the middle of summer were gathering spots for countless people.

Even though the sun was steadily setting below the horizon to welcome the cool evening, people were still swimming around. Strangers chatted with one another, mingled, and shared a beer or two as well.

Su-hyeun put on a mask to cover half of his face. He figured that nothing good would come about by raising a commotion in the public space by showing his face.

"I was boating over...over that side. But after losing my consciousness, I'm not sure where I—"

"No, this is already enough," Su-hyeun replied as such and then released Ben Lloyd's soul from under the control of his Necromancer trait. "I'll definitely avenge you. I pray that you find your peace."

Suh-wuwuwu—

After Su-hyeun said that, Ben Lloyd's soul scattered away. Su-hyeun had forcibly caused the soul, which was wandering around the world of the living due to its resentment and lingering attachments, to be purified and sent to the afterlife.

"Well, it's still better than ending up as a malicious ghost," Su-hyeun thought.

Most souls that remained on Earth due to their lingering regrets and resentment eventually turned into malicious spirits.

Ben Lloyd was in the same boat. Even though his soul still retained the outward silhouette of a person, it was only a matter of time before he became corrupted and changed into a lump of impure aura.

That was why Su-hyeun used the power of his trait to forcibly purify and send Ben Lloyd's soul to the afterlife. Besides, he had already acquired all the info from the victim.

"Well, then," Su-hyeun used his Insight to scan the far-off distance and then slowly stepped forward. "Time to take a good look at the faces of these punks."

[Earth Shrink Technique]

Step—

Shu-wuwuwu—

The scenery around him changed with every step he took. He eventually arrived at was a cliff of a mountain range located pretty far away from the beach.

Splash—, shwa-aaah...

Waves were crashing into the precariously tall cliff face, breaking apart into a countless smaller spray of water.

"Man, this is boring."

"Hey, just when is this thing supposed to open up?"

"Dunno."

"Haven't you heard anything at all?"

"You think I know all the details? But what I did hear was that, as long as this thing works out for us, everything will revert to how it was five years ago."

"Yeah, back then was the best time for us. Lots of work and wasn't too busy, either. But uh, this isn't gonna get too dangerous for us, right?"

"Dude, weren't the monsters inside this dungeon friendly toward us? So what could possibly get dangerous for us? You also went inside before, didn't you? Those things are on our side."

Su-hyeun heard a few mutterings. He walked up closer and eavesdropped on the conversation. From what he heard, there seemed to be around 10 or so awakeners present.

Several of them were shooting the breeze out of boredom, while a few others were playing games on their phones. They didn't seem to have anything particular to do around here. Beyond them, Su-hyeun spotted the "white" dungeon just as Ben Lloyd had described.

And finally...

"It's that thing," Su-hyeun thought.

A huge stele was standing tall next to the dungeon entrance, and on its surface was a truly detailed image that looked almost like a photograph. It depicted a creature that totally resembled Fafnir from Su-hyeun's memories.

"That's not a regular stone stele, that's for sure."

Indeed, that was no ordinary large slab of something with some drawing carved on it.

Some type of unique aura was flowing within it. He was not sure what kind of aura it was, but the mere fact that an aura was flowing within it signified this stele had a definitive purpose.

It was not built to attract tourists, at the very least. Its outer appearance wasn't enough to show its intended purpose.

Su-hyeun eavesdropped for a bit more before revealing himself in front of the awakeners, "Hey, you guys. Let me ask you something."

"Huh?!"

"Who the hell is this?!"

"Where did he come from?"

When Su-hyeun revealed himself, the awakeners tasked with guarding the dungeon began standing up one by one. The atmosphere instantly became ugly.

Su-hyeun glanced at all sorts of weapons they had in their hands and muttered nonchalantly, "I'm approaching you all peacefully, saying I just want to ask you something, yet the first thing you do is pulling out your weapons?"

It kind of felt like he had run into a bunch of street thugs while walking on a street.

His lips distorted to let out a chuckle at this fresh, alien feeling, something he hadn't felt in a long, long while. His mask hid his smiling lips to some degree, but it couldn't hide his smiling eyes.

"Hey, you, does this look like a peaceful atmosphere to you?"

"What a crazy bastard."

"Wait, isn't he a regular civilian?"

"No way. How can someone without powers come this far?"

The 10 awakeners quickly surrounded Su-hyeun in a circle. They didn't get into a formation or even positioned themselves. It seemed that they were either underestimating Su-hyeun's capabilities or were too trusting of their numbers advantage.

But that wasn't all that surprising.

"Four A-Ranks, five B-Ranks, and then," Su-hyeun's gaze shifted over to the youngest man out of the group, currently standing right in front of him, "He's an S-Rank, it seems."

From the concentration of magical energy to its flow and even the air this S-Rank gave off felt qualitatively different from the others here.

It wasn't as if Su-hyeun knew everything about every S-Rank in existence, but seeing how this man's face looked a bit familiar. He must have run into this young S-Rank at least once in his past life.

"He's covering his face, so I guess he's a cat burglar or something?" This S-Rank, whose name Su-hyeun didn't recall, began mocking him. "Is he Asian? Not sure how you ended up here, but whatever, just consider yourself really unlucky today."

Step, step...

He walked up to Su-hyeun.

Outwardly, this S-Rank seemed unguarded, but in truth, he was already prepared.

The shadow beneath his feet was wavering around, probably due to some kind of skill he had activated. This skill then bound Su-hyeun's shadow, restricting his body.

"Don't you agree, boys?"

He called out, prompting the other nine awakeners to say something as if they were pre-programmed machines.

"Of course!"

"Don't know whether he's an idiot or just naive, but huh, he's completely helpless now!"

"What a dumbass."

"He's caught in the Shadow Chokehold now, so it's already over."

Su-hyeun received ridicule and mocking laughter. He could only sigh softly at their reactions. It was here that he felt his own warm breath on his skin due to the mask. So, he raised his hand toward the mask to pull it down.

"Huh?!" The young S-Rank awakener became incredibly flustered when he saw Su-hyeun move without any issues.

But his skill was still active?

And then, the moment Su-hyeun pulled down the mask obscuring half of his face...

The awakeners all made the exact expressions after seeing his face.

"Su—Su, S—S—Su—"

"Su-hyeun Kim?!"

"As I thought, this shadow..."

Shuruk, shu-rururu...

Su-hyeun asked while staring at the shadow on the ground, "It's yours, isn't it?"

"Huh?"

A new shadow extended from Su-hyeun and got connected with the shadows of the 10 awakeners, and the moment they realized this...

Fwhoosh—!

Crunch, cruuuuuch—!

"Kkeuaaaaaaah—!"

"Aaahk, aaaaahk!"

His shadow bound their shadows tightly and then proceeded to break the arms and legs of all 10 awakeners in unnatural directions.

They screamed tragically while flailing about with their now mollusk-like limbs and then began collapsing to the ground after being unable to stand straight. The name dominating their minds was instantly wiped out, and they continued to thrash about in the kind of pain that they had never experienced before in their whole lives.

Only one among them managed to hold onto his wits.

"Now I remember. You're the Shadow Artist, Edward Rockwell."

Even if the number of S-Rank awakeners increased over time, most of them would still go on to become globally renowned superstars.

Su-hyeun had heard most of their names back in his previous life, and he even encountered about half of them, too. Although they had never met each other face to face before, Edward Rockwell was still famous for reaching the S-Rank very quickly despite being a late starter.

"I heard that you're quite a human trash, but even then, I didn't expect our first encounter to be in a place like this one."

"U—urgh, kkeuh..."

"Are you trying to connect your limbs back together with your shadow?" Su-hyeun asked while glancing at the wriggling shadows creeping along on the ground. "In that case, I wonder. Can you reconnect your head, too?"

Shudder...!

Deathly goose bumps broke out all over Rockwell after he mistakenly thought that his throat got crushed just now.

He couldn't move his arms, so he used only his eyeballs to look lower, but quite obviously, his head was still attached to his torso. Still, with this, he instinctively understood something.

Su-hyeun could easily rip his head off whenever he wanted if he felt like it.

"Just... how...?"

Rockwell was trying to ask how Su-hyeun copied his skill like this, but the latter's reply was fairly simple.

"It wasn't even all that special, anyway."

To someone like the Grand Wizard Arwen, magic spells to control shadows were no more difficult to cast than moving around his own limbs. Compared to the shadow magic Arwen used to perform, Edward Rockwell's skill was only on the level of a crude child's play.

But Su-hyeun didn't feel the need to explain this fact in detail today. Honestly, he even thought that chatting briefly for a few seconds like this was already a waste of his valuable time.

"That's enough of your questions, so..."

Grab—

Su-hyeun placed his hand on top of Rockwell's head. "Give me the name of the one at the top of your little group. What's your reason for being here? And what's the purpose for that thing over there?"

Giii-iiing—

Rockwell's eyes were clouded by a blackish hue. He hesitated slightly before slowly opening his mouth.

"The one...at the top...is...Johnny...Brad..."

"Who?" Su-hyeun asked back in surprise at the mention of that unexpected name.

It wasn't because he hadn't heard of that name before. No, it was because everyone on this planet should know that name.

"...Johnny...Brad..."

"Crazy son of a..."

"Guard the...dungeon...Purpose...spreading dungeons...revive...fortunes of...awakeners..."

It seemed that he didn't know anything else besides the name. Either that was everything he was told, or the information itself had been hidden deeply from Rockwell. It was hard to tell which was which.

But Su-hyeun did learn something new.

"Johnny Brad is connected to this matter."

That man was the world's top awakener of illusion-type skills. He didn't possess any skills related to combat and therefore never personally raided a dungeon before. However, even then, he still earned his S-Rank qualification through his illusion skill alone.

In other words, he was a powerful superhuman.

Not to mention...

"He's in a cooperative relationship with the Gordon Company, too."

Su-hyeun hurriedly called Gordon Rohan on the phone. He felt that, at the very least, he needed to warn the American to be wary of Johnny Brad.

But then...

"The person you're calling is unable to come to the phone. Please leave your messages after the—"

"Dammit."

Rather than waiting and trying again later, he decided to send a text message instead.

Su-hyeun didn't know whether Gordon Rohan was in the Tower or was taking care of his company business right now. However, seeing that he didn't answer the phone, it would be difficult to get in touch with him for the foreseeable future.

After sending the text, Su-hyeun turned his attention elsewhere.

"And now, the issue is figuring out what this thing is supposed to do..."

He walked up to the stele.

Unlike how this large slab with a detailed image of Fafnir carved on its surface looked on the outside, it was permeated with a special aura.

It was an aura that was neither magical energy, Death Aura, nor even prana.

But that didn't mean he had never encountered this type of aura before. He was sure of it after walking up to it and placing his hand on its surface.

"It's made from the World Tree."

The gigantic tree formed the worlds; indeed, this stele was created by shaving down a piece of World Tree. The weird aura flowing within it was because of its origin.

He figured out what it was made from, but the issue wasn't with that.

Figuring out its purpose was the important part.

Just touching it like this wasn't enough to find out what this stele's true purpose was. It wasn't as if there was a magic circle inscribed on it. It wasn't even acting as a medium that maintained the colorless dungeon either.

After Su-hyeun got close and studied the stele, he did uncover something new, but it wasn't about the purpose of this large object.

"There's more than one, huh?" He muttered after tracing the World Tree's aura flowing out from the stele.

The aura had split into countless many strands, and when he followed them, he picked up the presence of several hundred, no, thousands, of identical steles.