The Hero Returns

Chapter 233: Chapter 233

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Grrr, grrrr—

Kii-ah, kiii-aaah—

It was really noisy in there.

Frowning deeply, Su-hyeun covered his ear with one hand. The loud growls and screeches that belonged to various monsters would obviously not sound good to anyone.

Gya-ong—!

Miru let out an irritated growl as if the noise was getting on its nerves as well.

Su-hyeun and his dragon were currently in the middle of a horde of monsters. The reason for that was pretty simple.

"All kinds of countless monsters" was this dungeon's theme.

Inside that place that resembled a cavern located deep underground, monsters maintained some sort of an ecosystem where they devoured each other.

It was fairly similar to Earth's ecosystem in a certain way. Plant-type monsters were devoured by the insect types, while the latter group would get eaten by other types of monsters.

And a monster bigger and stronger than them would devour them all.

Eat or be eaten—it was that kind of a dungeon.

However, Su-hyeun's appearance pushed them into acting as one group. They must devour the living human—that was the hostility innate in every monster.

"So many of them have shown up, alright."

[Provocation]

He went to the center of the dungeon and began attracting the monsters toward him to save time, even if only by a little.

"There aren't any monsters that we missed, right?"

Gya-ong—

Su-hyeun asked Miru as it flew back after it took a look around their surroundings. The dragon shook its head in response. He smirked and then studied a particular monster that had pushed its heads above the other monsters below.

Kiii-aaaah—!

This monster had nine heads. It was a Hydra, a creature that showed up only within legends. It was also the boss of the blue-colored dungeon and lorded over the others as the top dog of the food chain.

It wasn't that big all in all. Of course, it was still the biggest monster around, but as a boss of a blue-colored dungeon, it was certainly on the smaller side of the scale.

The real problem with this creature isn't its size but its toxins.

The venom from that creature's fangs and blood was far more lethal than any other poison known to man. It was so strong that, as a matter of fact, merely getting sprayed with its blood during battle was enough to melt down a person's entire body. Plus, its regeneration capability was more outstanding than any monster Su-hyeun knew.

Excluding that, this monster's characteristics are a bit lacking overall as a boss of a blue-colored dungeon, but…

That no longer mattered.

Maybe not right now, but something of a Hydra's level could certainly morph into a very promising summoned monster in the future.

Su-hyeun extended his hand forward. Right after he did that, Death Aura began leaking out from his fingertips.

[Trait "Necromancer" has been activated.]

[By using "Death Aura," you can see or command the dead.]

Su-hyeun's eyes turned pitch-black when his trait was activated. The monsters that were seemingly ready to pounce on him at any second shrunk back instantly for a moment.

He stared at them and murmured softly, "Arise."

The moment he said that…

["Dead Summoning" has been used.]

["Ouroboros" is being summoned.]

["Ouroboros's offspring" is being summoned.]

["Cerberus" is being summoned.]

["Death Knight" is…]

….

Gu-gugugugu—

Crack, crack—

Khiii-aaaah—!

The first thing to happen was the rearing from beneath the ground of a massive snake's head made out of nothing but bones.

All the monsters that surrounded Su-hyeun got swept up in an instant by the Ouroboros's entrance. The gigantic snake opened its bony maw wide and swallowed up the monsters in one go. Dozens upon dozens of monsters lost their lives in the blink of an eye.

That wasn't all.

Although just a snakelet, the Ouroboros's offspring that made its appearance next was still at least 1.5 times bigger than the Hydra. Then, around 20 other undead also showed up, which included the Cerberus, reputedly the gatekeeper of the underworld.

The overall number was fairly small. However, the forceful aura that each of them exuded simply overwhelmed the monsters before Su-hyeun.

Especially when it came to the Ouroboros, the number of hostile monsters meant nothing in front of the creature.

"Sweep them all away," Su-hyeun ordered.

All at once, around 20 creatures summoned by Su-hyeun made their move.

Miru did as well.

The red dragon had grown so much that using Breath many times didn't quickly tire it out anymore. The moment Su-hyeun gave his order, Miru flew up high in the air and began pouring out Breath into the middle of the monster horde.

Meanwhile, Su-hyeun stared at the Hydra. The monster's initial triumphant air lasted only for a brief moment, and then, it looked somewhat scared.

Step—

He began to walk slowly toward the nine-headed monster.

His steps gradually became faster. After taking a few more steps in that manner, Su-hyeun's figure simply vanished from the spot.

Kii-aaaah—!

Fwhooooosh—

The Hydra opened all of its nine mouths and spat out its venom.

The toxin was strong enough to instantly melt his body just from touching it. As Su-hyeun wasn't visible anymore, the monster decided to melt down the ground around it and put up a wall of green fog next.

"I guess you guys are also scared of dying, then."

The Hydra's heads hurriedly spun to look behind it where the voice came from.

Rumble—

Slice—

A blade enveloped in the divine Flame sliced off all of the Hydra's nine heads in one swing.

Originally, cutting one head off would mean two other heads would regenerate. However, the dark blue-colored flames scorched the necks of the Hydra, so it couldn't regenerate all of its lost heads. The monster eventually lifelessly crashed to the ground.

Thud, boom—

Su-hyeun stared at the sliced heads of the Hydra before dusting off the venom from his body.

"Well, that stung more than I thought."

After taking care of his surroundings, he extended his hand toward the Hydra's corpse. He had one last thing to do now.

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[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: 12%

LV: 4

The number that can be stored: 80

The number currently stored: 21

</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 your proficiency.

Depending on your proficiency, the target's body can be summoned in a more intact state.

Proficiency: 48%

LV: 2

The number that can be stored: 30

Application rate: 45%

</ul>

Su-hyeun confirmed his proficiency in his two skills and saw some improvement in the past 15 days.

Soul Accumulation's possible number of souls that could be stored had increased to match the improvement in his proficiency. As for the Dead Summoning skill…

The application rate's improvement is just too low.

The "application rate" represents the percentage of how much of the dead creature's original abilities would be brought back after it had been summoned. In other words, the application rate of 100% meant that the summoned creature would retain all of its powers and abilities when it was still alive.

It would be great if I can raise this one up to 100%, but…

But he might need a long, long time to get there. More importantly, though…

Is five minutes my limit for summoning and maintaining everyone at the same time?

The number of summons wasn't that many, but the Ouroboros alone possessed a massive physique. Plus, its soul's superiority alone was far greater than all the other monsters added together.

I've gathered enough monsters to summon now.

For his current ability, this group of summons was already beyond adequate and already downright overabundant.

As an example, summoning them for around five minutes was enough to completely sweep away a blue-colored dungeon. More than anything else, the Ouroboros's corpse proved to be the biggest help of them all.

"Okay, Miru. Let's get out of here."

They confirmed that no more monsters remained in the dungeon. As they had no other reason to get hung up over this particular raid, he was thinking of going back to South Korea as soon as possible.

But then…

Gya-ah-oh-ong—

Miru's voice sounded off somehow as it replied to him.

"Miru?"

Su-hyeun quickly looked back in surprise at the dragon walking behind him. Miru was sweating profusely from its entire body. At the same time, it made a pained expression and began coughing and wheezing as if something was stuck in its throat.

"What's the matter?"

Feeling worried, he quickly rushed to Miru's side. The dragon began retching for a while before finally spitting something out.

Ptooi—

Tumble, roll—

It was a small red marble that was slightly smaller than an adult's fist.

Is that a Cintamani?

He knew that Miru had swallowed up the Cintamani in the past, but this particular red marble it just spat out was far smaller than the one he remembered.

What exactly is going on here?

While feeling somewhat bewildered, Su-hyeun reached down to pick up the red marble, but right at that moment…

Plop—

Miru collapsed on the spot.

Act 7

Snore, snoooore—

Miru was currently snoring away. It was curled up into a ball and wouldn't wake up no matter what Su-hyeun tried.

This wasn't the first time something like this happened. A similar thing happened back when Miru suddenly began experiencing the so-called growing pains stage.

Su-hyeun didn't know much about dragons. What he knew about them all came from some books that he read, and that's it.

However, he did know of a specialist on the subject, at least.

Slam—!

"Where is it?!"

A man kicked Su-hyeun's front door down and barged inside without any warning.

Song Hyeong-gi looked around, discovered Miru, and entered the apartment while hurriedly taking off his shoes. Su-hyeun stared at these exaggerated actions in dismay as he sat on his living room couch.

"Why are you breaking someone's door down?!"

"You said it's sick!"

Although that reply lacked the "who," it was rather obvious who Song Hyeong-gi meant just now. Su-hyeun nodded his head and looked at Miru currently snoozing away in the middle of the living room. "Well, I think it's sick, but I'm not sure."

"What do you mean, you're not sure?"

"Honestly speaking, I really don't know. Miru just kind of collapsed and didn't want to wake up. So, I can't tell whether it's genuinely sick somewhere, or it's simply going through another growing pains thing like the last time."

"So, it's not really sick?"

"We don't know that yet."

"But you still called me regardless? By lying about the dragon being sick and all? You son of a… actually, you did well."

Song Hyeong-gi lightly patted Su-hyeun's shoulder.

He was a firm subscriber of a certain opinion. If it's for the sake of any divine beast accompanying him, stop at absolutely nothing to make sure for real.

Therefore, he quite liked that Su-hyeun was worried about Miru being potentially sick and decided to lie to him to get him to come over as soon as possible.

Song Hyeong-gi began taking a good look at Miru up close. The red dragon continued to snore away, not even aware of the guest's presence.

"Its complexion looks fine, so is its breathing."

"Are you saying Miru's not sick?"

"Honestly, even I don't know much about red dragons. What I do know for sure is that your Miru did go through the growing pains stage and grew in size instantly like my own Yong. This looks really, really similar to that, but…"

"A dragon can go through that stage twice?"

"Well, my Yong went through it only once. Most other dragons are like that, too."

"Does that mean you're just as clueless as I am, Mister Song Hyeong-gi?"

"How dare you look down on me?! It's a bit weird, but for some reason, I get to experience a lot more trials related to divine beasts compared to other people. One of them happened to be related to dragons. So, it's not like I can't think up of a possibility or two."

"Can you tell me about them?"

Song Hyeong-gi lightly brushed Miru's head as he answered Su-hyeun's question. "Dragons experience two transformations throughout their lives. The first one is the growing pains stage that we talked about earlier. Now, normally, a dragon will go through this transformation about one year after their hatching."

Su-hyeun knew that much already.

Not to forget, Miru had gone through this stage already. However, it didn't grow much bigger than its size before, which was unlike other dragons.

"As for the second one… I can't be sure about this one. It kind of lines up with the symptoms that I know of, but it's just too early for that, you see."

"How early are we talking about here?"

"About a thousand years or so. In any case, when a dragon's age reaches a thousand years…" Song Hyeong-gi paused and looked at the slumbering Miru. "It goes through the awakening period, you see."