The Hero Returns

Splaaaash—

Slice, slice, sliiiice—

Su-hyeun's sword started cutting up the huge body of the Work Gigant into several pieces. The creature's sturdy hide was penetrated through, its bones were sliced up, and its body was chopped into chunks.

Kiiiiieeehk—!

Parasitic insects living within the Worm Gigant's body all crawled outside. These hundreds of creatures spewed out toxins and pounced on Su-hyeun next.

It was then.

Ruuuumble—!

Boom, ka-boooom—!

With Su-hyeun as the center, a chain of explosions went off all around him. The blue-colored divine Flame burned the toxins away and killed off the insects.

Soon afterward, the Worm Gigant stopped breathing, and just as every single insect was burned to crisp…

[1000 achievement points have been acquired.]

[Warmth has been added to the Divine Beast's Egg.]

[The Divine Beast within the egg is satisfied.]

[The Divine Beast's Egg is beginning to hatch.]

<<I did it!>>

Su-hyeun inwardly cried out in elation.

The past ten days of dungeon crawling was all for the sake of hatching this egg. The percentage of hatching rate went up a little every time he killed a monster and snatched away their "warmth."

The current trial also ended up playing a crucial role in hastening the hatching of the egg.

Monsters flooded out nonstop for almost two hours straight, so from Su-hyeun's perspective, he should raise both of his hands and praise the sun.

And just as he suspected, the boss appearing at the end, the Worm Gigant, played a key role in hatching of this egg.

<<Is it not going to hatch right away?>>

He could sense the Divine Beast's Egg currently stored in his Inventory shake around a little bit.

It seemed that the egg would hatch little by little, indicating that perhaps it wasn't supposed to break out of the shell immediately. However, it didn't feel like the process would take a long time. On top of that, celebrating the successful conclusion to this trial came first.

"Is it all over?" Aile asked.

"Most likely. Although it hasn't been two hours yet…."

Since it was brought up, Su-hyeun decided to check the remaining time.

[Elapsed time: 01:57:54.]

About two minutes still remained.

But, the boss was defeated already, so in reality, the trial was as good as over.

Su-hyeun looked back at Aile. "You worked hard."

"Thank you. You too. I managed to survive thanks to you."

Aile believed that, if Su-hyeun wasn't around, she'd not have lived through this dungeon, so she was thanking him earnestly.

After hearing her words of gratitude, he shifted his gaze over to the bundle of Ether stones put away to the side, plus the mid- and high-grade Ether stones still stuck in the round tower. "All of those should fetch a pretty good price, yes?"

"Pardon? Ah, of course. For both the mid- and high-grade Ether stones, you can supposedly demand any price you desire, so…"

As expected, the Ether stones seemed to be a rare resource in this world, as well. But then again, that'd be pretty obvious considering that the awakeners, already invaluable assets in themselves, had to risk their lives to acquire those stones.

"That's a relief."

"Relief? What do you mean?" Aile formed a puzzled expression after hearing his unexpected words. But she soon thought of something and nodded her head. "Ah, I see. Warrick, I presume you haven't had a chance to personally sell the Ether stones yet? Please be rest assured. If we take all of them out of here and sell them off, we'll have more than enough to pay off my family debt and still have considerable sum remaining."

It was not just a bundle filled with low-ranked Ether stones, but also several mid- and high-grade ones, too. This amount was easily more than enough to completely wipe off the debt accrued by the fallen noble family.

It was unknown how much would be left after the debt had been settled, but still, it should be enough to open up a small shop somewhere.

Su-hyeun smiled after hearing Aile's reply. Fortunately for him, he got the answer he wanted to hear. "Sounds good."

[The trial has been cleared.]

[The exit is opening.]

The time elapsed and Su-hyeun confirmed the exit opening at the foot of the round tower. He then continued on. "That's why I'm relieved."

"….Pardon?"

That's why he was relieved?

What did he mean?

Aile formed a truly confused expression this time. But then, it quickly morphed into one of pure shock as she turned around.

"W-Warrick??"

Su-hyeun, standing right before her eyes only a second ago, was now gone without a trace.

Aile hurriedly searched the underground cavity filled with monster corpses. In the end, though, she failed to find the man who disappeared without saying goodbye, and stood there in a sheer daze.

But then, the bundle of Ether stones resting on the floor caught her eyes.

"It can't be…."

<<All of those should fetch a pretty good price, yes?>>

Aile's eyes grew larger and larger.

Only then did she finally realize what Su-hyeun meant earlier.

<<That's why I'm relieved.>>

Plop—

She plopped down right on the spot.

<<Someone will definitely extend a helping hand.>>

Someone else.

Su-hyeun meant himself when he said those words.

"Ah, ah…."

Drip, drip—

Her tears that didn't flow when her family was ruined, all of her emotions piling up endlessly ever since then, began flooding out all at once.

"Thank… you…."

Not one person offered her a helping hand, but when someone did, it was not her friend nor family, but a near-stranger.

She wanted to say something, anything, to express her gratitude but Su-hyeun was long gone by then.

"Thank you, thank you…."

Aile remained sitting on the ground, staring at the exit and muttering to herself for a long, long time.

Act 3

As expected, the reward for the 21st floor's trial was a fair amount of achievement points but not much else.

Bringing out the Ether stones with him was too difficult. In order to bring those found within the trials, one would need the "Property of Dimension" order form.

Of course, if he really wanted to, he could have brought them out. He could've used the order form to bring out that one particular Ether stone. Indeed, he wouldn't have felt shortchanged if he decided to use the form inside his pocket to bring out the high-grade Ether stone.

<<Sure, it's a bit of a waste to leave a high-grade stone like that behind, but…>>

However, he didn't really need one, and Aile's situation also weighed on his mind, too.

<<Can't be helped, I guess.>>

Su-hyeun roughly scratched his head.

His thoughts were complicated, but he never regretted his actions after making up his mind. Not only was he not the type to be hung up over money, but he figured that it'd also be a good idea to horde some achievement points for a rainy day. Also, there was something else even more important than that to worry about.

<<The Divine Beast's Egg.>>

Su-hyeun's heart fluttered, wondering what might come out from this egg seemingly only a moment away from hatching.

<<Since it's a Divine Beast, it must be….>>

When he reached the 22nd floor's world, Su-hyeun opened the doorway and returned home immediately. Of course, he didn't forget to use the "Property of Dimension" order form to bring out the egg with him.

There it was, a plain egg the size of a man's head. Unlike before, though, a certain warmth could be felt on its surface.

<<It's not going to explode or something like that, right?>>

Su-hyeun had never witnessed the birth of a Divine Beast before, and as a result, a certain worry began settling in his head.

<<Do I need to block it with my own body if it shows signs of exploding….?>>

While thinking about this and that, he waited for the egg to hatch.

If he took it outside and an accident happened, now that would be a huge tragedy. He heard that a Divine Beast recognized the first person it saw after the hatching as its parent, and would follow it right till its dying day.

Which meant that the birth of the Divine Beast had to be done in a place with no one but him. He waited while occasionally touching the surface of the egg, and before he knew it, half a day flew by.

This was rather strange. The egg that showed signs of hatching at any moment still didn't want to crack.

"…What's going on here?"

Su-hyeun frowned as thoughts of "it can't be" invaded his mind.

He pondered this quandary for a little while before placing his hand on the egg and injecting his magical energy a little bit at a time.

When he did…

Crack, craaaack—

Cracks began running on the egg's surface. Soon afterward, a small arm broke through the shell and emerged outside.

Crack! Craaack—!

What revealed itself was a tiny but long red dragon, lazily yawning away.

"A dragon?"

The creature curled its 50 centimeter-long body and quivered ever so slightly.

One might mistake it for a snake, but the pair of arms and small wings on its back undoubtedly proved that this little guy was a dragon. Plus, a snake wouldn't pop out from the so-called "Divine Beast's Egg" anyway.

Rather than a dragon's face, though, its roundish head somewhat vaguely resembled a turtle, instead. Su-hyeun thought that that could be attributed to it being still a young hatchling.

But…

Snore, snore—

The dragon was fast asleep.

It had been jolted a little by the injection of magical energy and quivered around a bit, but returned to sleeping once more.

The reason why the egg didn't shatter even though the hatching had commenced a long time ago was…

"…As I thought, you were asleep."

As he suspected, the creature was in la-la land.

Su-hyeun groaned. He was wondering why there was no response for half a day, but this little guy was sleeping inside the egg.

When he looked back to how he almost died from anticipation in the past several hours, he felt somewhat bitter inside. Not only that, he managed to wake it up but the dragon simply went right back to sleep, too.

Of course, a wonderful thing would remain as wonderful regardless of what happened.

<<This is well beyond my expectation.>>

According to what Su-hyeun knew about the Divine Beasts, dragons were considered to be the top-tier species among them.

This newly-hatched dragon was far closer to the eastern dragon in looks than the western one. He couldn't tell its exact abilities yet, but there was no doubt he got himself a massive jackpot here.

"I'll be in your care from now on…"

Su-hyeun pondered what he should call this baby dragon sleeping before his eyes and eventually spoke its name.

"Miru."

Miru. The pure Korean word for "dragon."

Su-hyeun always found coming up with names a bit of a pain in the neck.

***

Miru only became active after sleeping through the entire day.

Su-hyeun patiently waited until Miru woke up. The baby dragon eventually did, and when its sparkling eyes discovered him, quickly approached its new parent.

Gurung, gurung—

Miru, making happy humming sounds floated towards Su-hyeun, landed on his shoulder, and began rubbing its head on his cheek.

Well, it certainly was acting cute.

"Hey, Miru? What's your specialty?"

"Gurung?"

Miru tilted its head at Su-hyeun's question before resuming rubbing itself against his cheek.

He could only sigh.

<<Yeah, sure, it is cute, but…>>

He didn't go through all that toil on the 21st floor just to raise a pet. In addition, it was a dragon, a top-ranked creature, so there simply had to be some uses for this guy.

Gururung—

Gurung—

Miru wrapped around Su-hyeun's neck. Since it didn't have any fur or scales, he could feel its slick hide against his skin in its full glory.

It sure was cute, indeed.

So cute, but….

"Miru…."

….To think, trying to communicate with a Divine Beast that didn't understand you would prove to be this difficult.

<<I wish I had a translation skill or something.>>

Unfortunately, according to Su-hyeun's knowledge base, no such skill existed, which meant he'd have to gradually discover what Miru's abilities were.

<<Well, it's still young, so I'm being too greedy for expecting something so soon.>>

Abusing the creature, busy demanding to know what it was capable of when it just hatched? Now that was not something a father should do.

Su-hyeun looked at Miru wrapped around his neck and about to fall asleep again and began thinking to himself.

<<Right. I should shower this guy with unconditional love. Love.>>

He also thought about something else as well.

<<The name of the awakener specializing in dealing with Divine Beasts was… Song Hyeong-gi, wasn't it?>>

He was one of the handfuls of S-rank awakeners in South Korea.

It wasn't as if they were acquaintances, and since that man also acted on his own while not being affiliated with any group, Su-hyeun had pretty much given up interacting with him, thinking that running into him would be very difficult.

But now, Su-hyeun changed his mind.

<<If you want to become a better dad, you need to learn more about childcare.>>

He used to worry about how to meet that man, but now, there was no need for that.

Su-hyeun, with Miru still wrapped around his neck, settled in front of his computer and logged into Abyss Online.

[A dragon came out from a Divine Beast's Egg. Mister Song Hyeong-gi, I'll be waiting for your reply.]

The man who was an S-rank Awakener, who also dealt with Divine Beasts - Song Hyeong-gi.

He was a renowned Divine Beast enthusiast.