The Hero Returns

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Su-hyeun arrived on the 51st floor's plaza when the trial ended.

He started walking away, evidently quite familiar with the place. Indeed, it wasn't his first time being here, and he immediately sought out the lodging area.

While on his way, he checked out his newly acquired rewards.

[Name: Kim Su-hyeun]

[Magic Count: 87] [Magic Level: 8]

[Strength: 99] [Agility: 93]

[Stamina: 92] [Reflex: 96]

[Death Aura: 35]

[Skill: Leap * advanced]

[Skill: Transfiguration * advanced]

[Skill: Flame * advanced]

….

[Fatigue: 61]

The general rise in all the stats, excluding "strength," was the first noticeable change he could see. Unlike in the previous floors where even raising one stat was a challenge, each of his stat bar strength had increased by one point as his reward for passing the floor this time.

Especially noticeable was his magic count, which had reached 87. That stat was the hardest to raise compared to the others so far.

I feel a bit better already.

Maybe he should thank the rise in his stats because it felt like he now had some leeway in his completely drained magical energy reserve.

Raising strength right now will be too difficult, so…

The stats he needed to pay attention to were "stamina," "agility," and "reflex."

I've also received enough achievement points.

He should face no problems when buying potions and elixirs with what he got.

Well, I'll take my time buying the elixirs, so…

For now, he had something more important than that to consider.

[Soul Accumulation]

<ul>

You can now accumulate a targeted individual's soul. The number of souls you may accumulate will depend on your proficiency and the soul's grade.

Proficiency: 0%

LV: 1

The number that can be stored: 20

</ul>

[Dead Summoning]

<ul>

Summon a body without a soul. The designated body will not decompose and will be stored away. The number that can be stored will rise with proficiency.

Proficiency: 0%

LV: 1

The number that can be stored: 20

</ul>

At a glance, these two skills seemed a bit useless. If someone other than him came to possess them, they surely wouldn't have known where to use these skills.

However, Su-hyeun also possessed the "Necromancer" trait. As such, he could easily decipher the true utility of the two skills.

It's similar to the concept of summoned creatures, isn't it?

First, the bodies and souls of the dead are collected, and then, through the Necromancer trait, these two are combined to command them as the undead.

Simply put, the idea was no different from "creature summoning." He had essentially become an awakener like Song Hyeong-gi who commanded divine beasts.

Could it be that Mister Herrels also possessed this skill?

Su-hyeun thought it was rather strange.

It was quite unlikely that corpses were buried in all corners of the empire's capital city. Also, what was the possibility that a dragon's remains were buried within a forest that he came across by chance?

He did suspect it was not a coincidence, and he knew the true reason: the skills that he acquired as rewards were quite similar to Herrels' own ability.

It was something pretty amazing, then.

Because he got his skills just now, he could summon only 20 accumulated souls and bodies. On the other hand, Herrels could command tens of thousands of the undead. Compared to Su-hyeun, the difference was several thousandfolds.

That helped him gain a renewed appreciation of how proficient Herrels had been with his ability.

Still, they will come in handy for sure.

Not only would he get to command a higher number of individuals as his proficiency got better, but a part of him was also especially delighted that he would be able to designate specific targets.

Unlike Herrels, Su-hyeun got to fight countless monsters all the time. Among them, some were even strong enough to make an average dragon seem like the butt of a joke.

Of course, there was a chance that he wouldn't get to command all 20 undead depending on the types of monsters. According to the explanation about the "Soul Accumulation" skill, the soul's grade determined the final number that could be accumulated.

I should stop here for now.

After arriving at the lodging, Su-hyeun opened the doorway to reality and dragged his tired body outside.

Rip—

I'm just going to take a short break.

<hr />

Su-hyeun's eyes were greeted by the familiar view of his home after stepping past the doorway—his studio apartment with two bedrooms and a living room. He was originally thinking of heading straight to the bedroom and rest, but then…

What's all this noise?

A commotion was coming from the outside.

It wasn't all that close by, though. However, he could still hear what was being said, thanks to the rather loud voices. It sounded like the conversation was related to dungeons. To hear them better, Su-hyeun went outside.

"There's no one inside, right?"

"Yessir! We've confirmed it."

"And the whereabouts of our members?"

"Everyone's here and accounted for, sir. The equipment has already been inspected as well."

"In that case, let's go in right away. We don't have the time!"

The contents of the conversation sounded rather serious.

…And I'm so tired, too.

Su-hyeun let out a long groan.

For the past 10 days or so, he didn't get to sleep properly once. As he didn't know when something might happen, he could only afford to close his eyes for less than an hour per day while sticking right next to Roy at all times.

As the trial was over, he was planning to sleep for the whole day and take a well-deserved break. But it seemed that he wouldn't get to do that for now.

Du-rururuk—

Swoosh—

Su-hyeun opened the window and flung himself outside. The streets were deserted, but a group of people gathered to one side at some distance.

Paht—

Su-hyeun activated "Leap" to step on the air and quickly headed for the direction of the group. The destination he eventually reached was filled with various people busy whispering to each other.

Police officers had lined up inside a park facing the Han River to restrict the traffic. As for the gathered crowd, most of them were either reporters or folks related to the police.

It's a dungeon.

It seemed that a dungeon had appeared near the Han River's public park located on Yeoui island where Su-hyeun's studio apartment was.

It's a green-colored dungeon. It's also pretty big, but… Who's gone inside?

A dungeon of this scale would be quite difficult to raid without an S-Rank present.

I heard that two more S-Ranks appeared after Hak-joon… I wonder if they've gotten the wherewithal to handle this.

As if to match the increase in the number of S-Rank awakeners, the number of dungeon appearances had also gone up. Not only had green-colored dungeons been simultaneously appearing frequently as of late, but even a few blue-colored dungeons had also begun showing up at the same time recently.

"Our support hasn't arrived yet?"

"The Paragon Guild has stated that they don't have any spare manpower at the moment, but that doesn't mean we can call on Gordon Rohan, sir. Mister Jung Yoon-ho is already participating in a raid of another dungeon, while we can't contact Miss Park Ji-yeon at all."

"Well, the Reaper Guild's master rarely comes back from the tower, so there's that. What about Mister Song Hyeong-gi, then?"

"It's the same story."

"…Son of a gun."

"Apparently, Mister Choi Hak-joon has boarded the Paragon Guild's private plane and is on his way from Russia, so I think he'll get here if we wait for a little bit longer, sir."

"Dammit. I know it's been hiding under the river, but how can nobody discovering it for nearly ten days make any sort of sense? The heads of the monitoring division bastards responsible for this district better roll or I'll…"

Tap, tap—

Su-hyeun lightly tapped on the shoulder of the man busy yapping on just then. The latter stopped and spun his head in the former's direction. "Urgh, what is it now?!"

"I think I get the gist of the situation, so is it difficult to start the raid now?"

"Haven't you seen the news lately? Besides all that, how did you even get in here?! This place is currently off-limits to all civil—" The expression on the man's face looking at Su-hyeun in irritation changed rapidly. His eyes went wide, while his jaw nearly hit the ground. "Mister K—Kim Su-hyeun?!"

"I'm sorry, but I didn't have the time to watch the news. And as an awakener, I'm neither a soldier nor a policeman, so…"

"M—my apologies! I've made a stupid mistake…"

The man hurriedly replied while waving his hands around. This sudden commotion caused the surrounding gazes to focus on Su-hyeun next.

"How did you find out?" The man who seemed to be in charge of the scene asked, his voice laced with urgency. "I was under the impression that no one could reach you."

"I just came back from a trial, actually. And also…" Su-hyeun pointed at the nearby studio apartment building and continued on. "That's where I live."

"Ah…!"

To think that the location of the dungeon was right in front of Su-hyeun's home.

The complexion of the man improved considerably. He felt as if a single ray of hope had appeared amid the desperate situation.

"Even at a casual estimate, it looks to me that the raid must be completed within one, maybe two days…" Su-hyeun said as he stared at the greenish light coming from below the bridge going across the Han River.

A dungeon that appeared below the river's surface visible to this degree was an indication that its outbreak was about to happen very soon.

The monitoring division probably failed to spot it.

A group of people dedicated to finding dungeons located in hard-to-spot areas such as this one existed. They were assigned specific districts, and through special devices that used Ether stones, they checked whether a dungeon had been generated or not and reported their findings to both the association and the Awakener Authority.

There could be two reasons why a dungeon such as this had been left alone for so long—either there was not enough combat reserve to attempt a raid or the negligence on the part of the monitoring division caused the dungeon to go undiscovered.

On this occasion, it was the latter case.

"The raiding party hasn't been finalized yet, yes?" Su-hyeun asked.

"Yes. There aren't any S-Rank awakener available at the moment. Also, what with several dungeons showing up near this location recently, it's been a real struggle to find more than 10 high-ranking awakeners above A-Rank."

"Which guild has been tasked with the raid this time?"

"It's our guild. We're called Sohwan Guild, and—"

"Let's hurry and go inside with the minimum required members," said Su-hyeun with a slightly irritated tone, feeling a bit unhappy that his valuable break time had been lost due to this urgent situation. "I'm tired right now, so let's try to wrap this up as soon as possible."

<hr />

The master of the Sohwan Guild, Yi Byeong-hoon, hurriedly gathered the members of his guild standing around nearby. His guild boasted several fairly high-ranking awakeners above B-Rank, but even they had never experienced an event like this one before.

To think, they would be attempting a raid on a green-colored dungeon without joining hands with another guild. Not only that, but the mercenary coming along for the ride was also none other than Kim Su-hyeun.

For Yi Byeong-hoon who got saddled with this dangerous task due to the urgency of the situation, this was an incredible bout of good fortune that exceeded the proverbial rain falling on a dry desert. Also, this event would serve to decorate the very first sentence of the news articles meant to advertise the name of the Sohwan Guild to the wider public.

"The members of the raiding party have been gathered and are ready to head out, Mister Kim Su-hyeun. Four A-Ranks awakeners, plus 20 B-Ranks in total," he spoke.

This was definitely an impressive combat force, but it was still not enough to raid a green-colored dungeon. However, never mind Su-hyeun, even Yi Byeong-hoon paid no attention to that point.

"As for the contract regarding the distribution after the assault on the dungeon—"

"It's fine. I'm sure you will pay me according to the market value. If not, we shall discuss it at a later date," Su-hyeun replied.

He threw the last line out without giving it much thought, but Yi Byeong-hoon still felt a chill run down his spine from it. To him, it sounded like, "If you try to cheat me even by a little, I will completely uproot your entire guild out of existence."

"U—understood. In that case, let's get going right away."

Yi Byeong-hoon quickly said that and then signaled to his fellow guild members on standby at the rear.

Since it has come down to this…

Su-hyeun saw that signal and promptly walked toward the bridge spanning the Han River, where green light seemed to fill the river water below.

Might as well go on a test drive.

<hr />

As soon as they entered the dungeon, they were greeted by the entrance of a humid cave.

They found themselves near a long cavern in the middle of an ocean. It certainly was uncommon to see this sort of dungeon in the ocean, as most dungeons of this type were found in either a forest or on a cliff.

"Don't be too tense," Yi Byeong-hoon said. "The ones with the detection type skills, scan our surroundings."

"Understood, sir."

The awakeners in the raiding party began using their skills to scan their new surroundings as per Yi Byeong-hoon's orders. Even though they hadn't entered the actual dungeon yet, no one knew exactly when and which types of monsters would show up.

Su-hyeun spoke first. "There's nothing to worry about in the ocean."

Almost as soon as he finished talking, the awakeners that were using detection-type skills confirmed this as well.

"There aren't any threats."

"They are all just regular fish. Seeing how we didn't sense anything within the radius of one kilometer, there shouldn't be anything wrong with the ocean."

Yi Byeong-hoon nodded and then followed after Su-hyeun who was walking up ahead to step into the cave's entrance.

"This cave, it's a lot wider than how it looks from the outside. It's also quite dark in here."

Yi Byeong-hoon spoke with some uneasiness in his voice at the eerie atmosphere, but Su-hyeun shook his head as he replied to him.

"This isn't a cave."

"Excuse me? It isn't?"

"It's a monster's corpse."

"Eh? Huh?"

Su-hyeun's reply startled the rest of the raiding party, including Yi Byeong-hoon, and they hurriedly took another look at their surroundings.

Did he really say that this giant thing, which must've been at least several kilometers in length and dozens of meters in width, was not a cave but a monster's corpse?

Unlike the members of the raiding party who were unable to take another step as heavy and grave expressions surfaced on their faces, Su-hyeun continued to walk ahead.

Why is this thing even here?

Several questions floated up on Su-hyeun's mind as he kept walking forward.

This… is a corpse of an Ouroboros.