The Hero Returns

Chapter 151

The Hahoetal Guild's awakeners immediately realized that something had gone wrong after they heard Su-hyeun's question. He had entered the dungeon well before them. Judging from his walking pace, he should have been far away from them by now.

But he was still at the dungeon's entrance. Although the entrance did change in some rare instances, it was a near certainty that Su-hyeun had entered the dungeon through the oasis behind them.

So, he was still sticking around the entrance because…

<< He was waiting for us?? >>

But why?

Gwon Jae-hoon studied Su-hyeun's expression. Unlike outside, Su-hyeun's eyes were filled with bitter coldness, so much so that one could claim that they were two different people. Same for the manner of his speech, too.

"It's obviously because we were worried about you, Mister Su-hyeun. Yes, we know you're strong, but it's still too dangerous to raid a blue-colored dungeon all by yourself."

As if he had prepared a script ahead of time, Gwon Jae-hoon replied in a smooth and natural way, kind of like a flowing stream. That prompted Su-hyeun to stare wordlessly at his face, before jumping off the tree.

Tap-

"You followed after me because you were worried, is that it?"

"Yes. Ah, of course, there's nothing for you to worry about. The public will still think that you managed to raid the dungeon alo…."

"You son of a b*tch, you crossed the wrong man."

The sudden outpouring of cuss words caused Gwon Jae-hoon to jump in surprise.

Su-hyeun continued, "Didn't you say you'll sabotage me? You even took your sweet time, waiting for almost an hour before coming in here. You must be thinking that my stamina should've run out by now."

"M-Mister Su-hyeun, what are you even…."

"Hey, pal. There's something on your shoulder."

Gwon Jae-hoon reflexively turned his head at Su-hyeun's words and glanced at his own shoulder. And immediately, he freaked out and hurriedly dusted himself.

"W-what the hell is this?"

Shu-wuwu-

A black-ish something on his shoulder disappeared like smoke.

Gwon Jae-hoon stared at his now-empty shoulder with a grave expression. "The 'Shadow attachment'…."

The skill itself was uncommon, but Gwon Jae-hoon knew his fair share of different skills, as he had encountered quite a few awakeners in his lifetime. One of them happened to have this 'shadow attachment' skill.

This skill allowed the user to eavesdrop and accurately trace the current location of the target through the latter's own shadow. If one's proficiency with the skill had risen high enough, it was even possible to restrict the target's movements for a brief moment, as well.

<< The drawback is that the skill loses its effect once the target becomes aware of the skill itself… But, it'll remain activated indefinitely until the user's magical energy reserve runs out… >>

Gwon Jae-hoon felt a chill run down his back after recalling the abilities of the skill, 'Shadow Attachment'.

This could only mean that Su-hyeun had heard everything, from the beginning.

"So, this wouldn't be your first time, is it? Apparently, it's not just once or twice either, so just how many times, I wonder?"

The words Su-hyeun spat out caused the guild members to flinch—the ones who said those words back then. They couldn't make any excuses now. He already recognized them as enemies.

Sabotage would, of course, be carried out only after they decided to screw their opponent and cause a dungeon outbreak. A slang word existed for it and everything, but, regardless, such an action was very much forbidden within awakener communities.

Su-hyeun addressed them with a cold, low voice. "The dungeon outbreak in India. You all know about it, right?"

How could they not?

The green-colored dungeon's outbreak went down as history's worst-ever disaster that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. The incident was also the main culprit that managed to force the doomsday theories above the surface.

Even Su-hyeun hadn't anticipated such an incident.

He knew that a massive-scale green-colored dungeon would appear in India, but, as far as he remembered, that raid was widely regarded as a success in his past life.

He didn't know the exact reason why. He could only guess that it was somehow related to the Ranking Wars being held earlier than in the previous timeline.

For sure, the Ranking Wars being held sooner caused various S-Ranks from the world's nations to stay in the Tower of Trials for longer than they planned initially. As a consequence, the green-colored dungeon that was successfully raided in the previous timeline went on to cause an outbreak after a void in combat strength was created by their absence.

"You should know the number of people who died then…which means, you should also be aware of how dangerous a blue-colored dungeon can be."

Gulp-

The legs of the Hahoetal Guild's executive officer, Yun Jae-ho, began quaking from sheer anxiety, and, after hearing Su-hyeun's criticism, he forced his limbs to move. Even though he couldn't sense any magical energy, his instincts were shouting at him loud and clear.

<>

Yun Jae-ho stumbled backward, toward the oasis they entered the dungeon through.

Splash-

But, rather than emerging back outside, his ankles just got wet, instead.

<< It's not the exit?? >>

The entrance and the exit were separate in this dungeon?

This wasn't even his first time experiencing such a thing, nor was it uncommon enough to be bizarre, yet he couldn't help but wonder why it had to happen right now. Even worse, their surroundings resembled a wide-open desert. At this rate, he wouldn't even be able to run away.

"It's in the… best interest of the world that you lot disappear, today."

Sah-ahahah-

Su-hyeun's atmosphere changed in an instant.

He didn't even rouse his magical energy, either. No, it was just the shift in the light gleaming in his eyes, plus the third eye in his forehead opening up, yet that was enough to send deathly chills down the backs of the Hahoetal Guild awakeners.

"D-dammit… What can you really do all alone, anyway?!"

"We have numbers on our side! Don't get scared!"

The guild members shouted in Su-hyeun's direction to shake off the fear gripping them. At least, at this moment, the headcount was the only thing they could believe in.

"Kill him-!"

The moment Gwon Jae-hoon issued an order to his fellow guild members…

Paht, papapaht-

A dozen-plus awakeners rushed toward Su-hyeun, and those tasked with providing support quickly distanced themselves.

And right at that moment…

Boom, boom, bang, ka-boom-!

"Ah, aaaaaahhk!!"

Screams rose up from the guild members backing away.

The other awakeners busy rushing forward hurriedly looked back and discovered that the bodies of their fellow guild members in the distance were engulfed in flames. And, unfortunately for the advancing group, that brief moment of distraction proved to be a fatal mistake.

Swiiiiish-

Slice, slice-

In the blink of an eye, several heads rolled off their necks. They hurriedly shifted their gazes back after hearing the sounds of wind blowing by, and yet another head was lobbed off.

Splaaaash-!

Blood rose up like fountains—likewise for the severed heads, too.

But Su-hyeun was nowhere to be seen.

<>

Yun Jae-ho realized that his previously-vague fear had become reality and, instinctively, began searching for the one person who might be able to help him.

Gwon Jae-hoon.

He was also an S-Rank, like Su-hyeun, as well as being the guild master.

<< W-where is the guild master…. >>

But Gwon Jae-hoon was also nowhere to be seen.

Thinking that it couldn't possibly be, Yun Jae-ho hurriedly looked around to his rear, only to discover Gwon Jae-hoon dashing away to a far off distance beyond the sand dunes.

That man, he didn't even bother to look behind him—he was too busy running away.

"That son of a….!"

Stab-!

Yun Jae-ho felt the coldness of metal burying itself in his head and collapsed to the ground, his eyes rolling back in their sockets.

Piii-iiit-

Ta-dak-

Su-hyeun didn't stop there and continued to move. After cutting off the heads of the remaining two awakeners in one swift stroke of his sword, he glared in the direction of Gwon Jae-hoon's flight.

This was a wide, expansive desert. And a game of hide and seek between him and Gwon Jae-hoon was about to commence.

<hr />

"Fck, f**ck!"

Gwon Jae-hoon continued to cuss as he dashed forward at full tilt.

His high agility stat plus a whole raft of skills he had learned and practiced, such as 'Swiftness' and 'Space-folding', were now only good for his escape.

His ego was wounded, but it couldn't be helped. The moment that strange eye opened in Su-hyeun's forehead, Gwon Jae-hoon became sure of this one thing.

<>

He too was an S-Rank awakener. That's how he knew.

The instincts that had allowed him to survive until now were screaming at him. Warning him to run.

The warning bells in his head rang louder and harsher than ever before. Gwon Jae-hoon didn't ignore that warning.

And so, he ran, praying that twenty or so of his fellow guild members could buy him at least a few precious seconds.

"Pant, pant…"

He exhausted at least half of his magical energy reserve and dashed for five minutes straight, before sliding down to the foot of a sand dune that leaned downward, to catch his breath.

Still, it was a relief. No matter how strong Su-hyeun was, he wouldn't be able to catch up to Gwon Jae-hoon's top speed.

<< Who knew it'd be indispensable in moments like this? >>

It was at that moment that the surrounding space returned to being 'flat' once more.

It looked like the world was folding around him. That was the effect of Gwon Jae-hoon's skill, 'Space-folding'.

The 'Space-folding'. That was the sole high-ranking skill in his possession that brought Gwon Jae-hoon to this place.

The skill allowed him to fold the world in his sight and jump a fixed distance of space. Meaning, he could indefinitely spam a 'teleportation' type movement as long as his skill remained active.

Of course, the magical energy consumption was great, but that also increased the distance he could teleport by a great margin, too.

<>

All he had to do was to get outside.

Su-hyeun might have discovered his scheme, but, surely, there must be a way to survive as long as he escaped from the dungeon. He only lost twenty or so guild members so far, anyway.

<< Where's the exit….? >>

Wriggle-

It was then that Gwon Jae-hoon sensed a subtle movement under the sand he was sitting on. As if the ground below was a living, breathing lifeform, it began to wriggle ever so slightly.

"It can't be…"

Sshwa-aaaaah-

The moment the sand was sucked underground…

Pah-aht-

Gwon Jae-hoon hurriedly activated the skill, 'Leap', and jumped up real high into the air.

Split-

Crack-!

A massive maw split open widely and swallowed the sand dune from below. All he could see while in the air was rows of sharp, yellowing fangs.

<< W-what the hell is that thing? >>

A massive hole appeared in the middle of the desert.

Sshwa-aaaah-

Soon afterward, the hole was quickly plugged back up by the cascading sand as if nothing had happened there. The previously-transformed landscape returned to 'normal' in an instant.

<< Was that a monster? >>

The monster's mouth alone was around five meters wide!

Not only that, but it hid beneath the desert's sand and could prey on him at any time. To make matters worse, he couldn't even sense its presence properly despite its huge size.

Tak-

Gwon Jae-hoon landed back on the ground and immediately felt goosebumps break out all over his body. Unlike a few seconds ago, the ground he was standing on, this whole damn desert for that matter, was a den of monsters in his view.

<< Was it just one creature? Or are there many more? >>

He couldn't tell just how many more of those monsters might be out there.

Gwon Jae-hoon calmed his breathing, currently quickened by his panic, and closed his eyes. He was still an experienced S-Rank awakener, after all.

<>

He spread out his magical energy beneath his feet and began searching for the presences below. He was thinking that his priority should be figuring out the identity of the monster and how many more of them were out there.

And he regretted doing so almost instantly.

"T-this crazy son of a…."

Gwon Jae-hoon opened his eyes again, and his paled complexion began scanning his surroundings.

It was still a desolate desert where nothing could be seen. However, not being seen didn't equal to nothing existing in this place, either. No, it was the complete opposite, actually.

As if the idea that monsters should be above the ground had been flipped on its head, all of the monsters were currently hiding under the sand.

<< D-do I need to run away? >>

But, where?

Everywhere he looked was the endless sea of sand, so just where could he make his escape if monsters rushed at him with the sole aim of eating him alive?

It didn't matter where he went, it'd remain the exact same story.

Monsters not visible to the naked eye.

At that moment, Gwon Jae-hoon realized it.

<< This… is the blue-colored dungeon. >>

It was then, the words Su-hyeun said earlier floated up inside his mind.

"The raid on the blue-colored dungeon is impossible with you lot alone. You're so inadequate that it's not even funny."

Back then, he'd thought that those words were spoken just to provoke him. But that wasn't it.

<< He was being serious. >>

Everything Su-hyeun said was true.

"It'll be me alone."

Most likely, even Su-hyeun's boast that he was capable of solo raiding this blue-colored dungeon must be true, as well.

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