The Hero Returns

Chapter 369: Chapter 369

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Whoosh, Fwhoooosh—

Stab! Pa-babababak—

Ruuuumble, ka-booooom—!

The underground space had turned into a pandemonium.

The open space big enough to be mistaken for a World Cup venue was littered with various traces of spears being impaled before being pulled out, while many parts of it were clearly scorched and destroyed by the shockwaves from various skills.

Around the third-hour mark, Su-hyeun announced something else.

"You can use your skills as well," he said while still keeping his eyes closed.

His movements didn't look fast. It even felt like one could touch him simply by extending their hands.

Yet none could reach him.

The 100 or so B-rank and higher awakeners, who became noticeably worked up at that point, began pouring out their skills indiscriminately at his prompting.

Some people focused on throwing their spears since all they had to do was strike him down. Some others resorted to activating hex-type skills to restrict Su-hyeun's movements or even create jagged stones underfoot.

Despite all of their attempts, Su-hyeun didn't falter once. Not a single skill or spear managed to even get close to him.

And around the sixth-hour mark…

"Swords or spears, it's fine to use anything you want," he announced once more while still keeping his eyes closed.

To interpret that in the simplest terms, one should "resort to whatever means necessary" to land a single hit on him.

Su-hyeun didn't open his eyes and didn't even rely on his magical energy. Not only that, but also there was only so much room he could maneuver around despite how wide this underground space was. He wasn't even fighting back.

Their job wasn't to bring him down but to merely reach him. It would be fine just to tap him with the tip of their hands even.

Those awakeners confident of their close-quarter combat capabilities immediately welcomed this change in the rules. Soon afterward, dozens of awakeners rushed toward Su-hyeun.

And the result was…

"How absurd," helplessly muttered Bak Yun-gyu as he watched this scene from some distance away.

To be honest, he had been doubting "it" all along.

It was only natural for one's senses to become even sharper after one closes their eyes. However, one would need an incredible level of focus to maintain that.

Not to forget, it was also natural for a person's overall perception to be heavily reliant on their sight. A person wouldn't feel confident of not colliding into something despite walking on a familiar path if they couldn't see.

If a spear was flying in from behind, even Bak Yun-gyu would be able to figure that out without looking.

However, he still wouldn't be able to guess how fast that spear was flying or what trajectory it was flying at. As such, he would have to make a move early and get somewhere as far as possible to dodge the spear.

If it were only up to there, then he would have no problem understanding it.

However, Su-hyeun was different. He only used the absolute minimum movement and the most optimal timing to dodge, and his judgment made it seem like he could actually see into the future.

It was all so blinding to behold, really.

Not counterattacking would've made dodging all that harder, yet Su-hyeun continued to simply dodge all the spears by smoothly gliding around.

Bak Yun-gyu checked the current time with the watch on his left wrist.

It said 9:00 p.m.—not too long remained until midnight.

"From here on, only three more hours remain."

The duration Su-hyeun requested for at the beginning was "half a day"—to be more precise, until midnight today.

With every passing second, Su-hyeun's movements had been getting slicker and smoother, so much so that Bak Yun-gyu couldn't help but wonder if it was realistic for anyone to enhance their senses this quickly.

Was it talent?

If so, then although it seemed unfair, Bak Yun-gyu had no choice but to acknowledge it.

He put the spear and sword in his hands on the floor.

Not too long ago, it felt like he might be able to reach Su-hyeun. Even though the latter had his eyes closed, he didn't use any magic and didn't even fight back…

Not just one but 100 or so awakeners were also present, and since they were given such a long duration, Bak Yun-gyu thought that they might be able to reach Su-hyeun.

"No. We'll never reach him," he conceded inwardly.

In the past nine hours, he believed that he could potentially reach his target soon enough and felt disappointed by all those close brushes.

But now, he became certain of this one thing—all those "close brushes" that seemed so agonizingly close, despite what Bak Yun-gyu saw as them getting closer to reaching Su-hyeun, were actually what the latter was aiming for in the first place.

And also…

"The reason why I could get closer wasn't because of my own abilities."

Neither He nor anyone else would ever be able to close down the remaining gap between them and Su-hyeun because that's the gap Su-hyeun wanted in the first place.

Bak Yun-gyu became certain of this point, and both of his arms went slack as he stood still in his spot, not even thinking of moving another inch.

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Strength and stamina.

Agility and reflex.

These two stats affected each other. The higher one's strength, the higher one's stamina must be to support it, while the high agility needed good reflex to shine properly.

This was the reason why the very first stat Su-hyeun chose to raise with the god's tear was stamina. And unlike the other stats, he didn't need a lot of time to get fully acclimatized with the reflex stat.

"This is it."

From a certain point in time, his head and body reacted first.

This ability of his allowed him to dodge the spears flying in at a much faster speed with a much slower movement. It allowed him to utilize his own amazing speed in the most optimum way possible.

While effortlessly evading incoming spears, blades, and various other skills, Su-hyeun took a glance at his wristwatch. The second hand ticked slowly until it finally reached twelve midnight.

And right at that moment…

Woo-wuuuuung—

Whoosh—!

Su-hyeun rapidly unsheathed his sword and lightly swung it around, sending a storm of heavy winds all around him. Not only the incoming short spears but also the awakeners trying to close in on him were all flung away by the winds.

"Thank you all for your hard work."

Shu-ka-ahk—

While thanking them, Su-hyeun sheathed his sword.

Unlike him who had barely broken some sweat, all the awakeners were completely soaked in their own sweat from head to toe.

A few among them had been struck by stray skills or short spears and were currently suffering from minor injuries.

"T-thank you for your hard work, sir!"

"Thank you, sir!"

Their replies came a beat later.

Su-hyeun shook hands with everyone present and exited from the underground space.

Bak Yun-gyu walked up to him and said, "Thank you very much for today."

"Why the sudden gratitude, if I may ask?"

"I believe you've been a great help to their education process today. Without a doubt, being able to cross swords with the world's best awakener like this will help them out greatly in the future."

Su-hyeun smiled faintly at what Bak Yun-gyu said and continued walking toward his parked car. "Please don't forget to send me the bill after you guys eat out later. You helped me out a lot today, so I'll make sure to repay you later."

"Are you leaving right away?"

"Yes. I have another appointment, you see."

"At this hour?"

Su-hyeun nodded and climbed into his car before turning on the ignition. When the engine roared noisily into life, he immediately stepped on the accelerator.

The destination he headed off to in that manner was Kim Dae-ho's workshop. Since the hour was so late, the whole suburb should've been whisper-quiet, but Su-hyeun's hearing still caught the sounds of hammering coming from the workshop rather clearly.

"Uncle, it's me!"

"Come on in!" Kim Dae-ho replied without stopping his hammering.

Su-hyeun opened the door and headed straight to the workshop. When he went down the stairs connected to the basement, the hammering sounds became even louder than before.

"You came?"

"My bad for coming at this hour, Uncle."

"Didn't you come because you knew I wouldn't be asleep at this hour, anyway? It's fine. You showing up now is a hundred times better than showing up in the morning."

Claaang, clang—!

Kim Dae-ho replied to Su-hyeun's greeting without even looking back. He was too focused on his crafting, and as such, his replies seemed a little half-hearted, but neither man cared in the least.

Soon enough, Kim Dae-ho shoved the piece of equipment he'd been hammering inside the burning furnace to prepare it for the tempering process. He then took the warmed-up towel on the side to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

Su-hyeun saw all those wrinkles on Kim Dae-ho's face and let out a long sigh. "Even then, I beg of you to differentiate night from day if possible, please. This isn't healthy for your body, you know."

"Don't worry. I'm eating a lot of what's supposed to be good for my body. Besides, humans are supposed to be nocturnal, anyway."

"Are you talking about that, again?"

"How many bums who don't go to work and don't do anything in the first place actually sleep early and wake up on time in the mornings? I'm telling you, those dang schools and commuting to work are the only reason why we humans get up early in the mornings. Besides—"

"You know your health better than anyone?"

"So you already know," Kim Dae-ho cackled hoarsely.

Su-hyeun pushed forward cooled coffee he had prepared before coming here. "Please have some before it gets lukewarm. Even iced coffee will start boiling in this place in no time."

"Okay, so what business brings you here?"

"Do I only show up here if I have a business with you?"

"It's written all over your face, you punk. You have a different look about you depending on whether or not you have a business with me."

"I-is that so?"

"I told you, you should just go ahead and ask if you have a request. Don't hesitate like this. You're so easy to read when you're struggling to figure out when and how you should ask me," Kim Dae-ho quickly said what was on his mind before gulping down the coffee Su-hyeun had brought along. Even he knew that taking his time to drink his coffee would result in it getting lukewarm from the workshop's temperature, just like what Su-hyeun said earlier.

Su-hyeun smiled sheepishly before taking out the marble he got from Luslec from the subspace. "Here. Can you possibly turn this into either a ring or a bracelet?"

"Is this a gemstone?"

"I'm not sure. It's supposed to be a communication tool, and I thought leaving it inside the subspace all the time seems like a waste, you see."

"Okay. Let me take a look first."

Kim Dae-ho received the marble from Su-hyeun. The old man narrowed his eyes and closely studied the small object from this and that angle.

He studied the marble for around five minutes or so before nodding his head theatrically. "I don't think it'll be a problem."

"How long will it take?"

"Why? Is it urgent?"

"If possible, the sooner the better, please."

"Then wait for around two to three hours. It's too big for a ring, so I'm thinking that a necklace will suffice."

"Thank you."

"You can go upstairs and get some rest. Get some sleep while you're at it."

"No, I'm fine. I prefer the atmosphere in this place, actually."

"Busy saying something you don't even mean," Kim Dae-ho replied with a pout, but the corners of his lips were subtly curling up. He must've been happy to hear that the atmosphere in his workshop, the one he treasured the most, was good even if the one saying it didn't really mean it.

He got right back to work.

Su-hyeun silently studied the workshop in the meantime. Quite a few items had filled it up while he wasn't here, it seemed.

"The Blood Knife? He's already crafted it? It sure is too good of a weapon to gather dust in this place," he thought.

Su-hyeun even recognized several among the equipment on display.

Many of Kim Dae-ho's creations would go on to become renowned masterpieces throughout the world after getting the "numbers treatment," similar to how it was with Geneva's creations. Some of them became so famous that even Su-hyeun clearly remembered those pieces of equipment even now.

For instance, the "Blood Knife" was one of the masterpieces that Kim Dae-ho crafted in the latter part of his career. This item absorbed an opponent's blood to replenish the user's magical energy.

"Is this because he came to live in Seoul? If not, is it because he got to handle far better materials a lot sooner than before, and that's why uncle's skills have improved even faster…?"

Su-hyeun studied each piece of equipment on display in the workshop and spotted several that took a bit of his fancy.

"If you like what you see, you can take them with you. They are basically ownerless products at this point in time, after all."

"Excuse me? Ah, no. I'm all right."

"If you're feeling sorry about me, don't sweat it and just take them. Only by meeting good owners will the good items prove their true worth, and there isn't anyone in this world who can bring out their true worth better than you, no?"

"Well, you aren't wrong there, but…"

Even though he said that, there wasn't anything he desperately wanted to take with him because whether it was a set of armor or a weapon, he determined that none of them were better than the ones he was currently using.

And so, while he was perusing through the displayed equipment and waiting, Kim Dae-ho suddenly spoke up, "Argh, you're being too noisy, you punk!"

Now that was out of the blue.

Su-hyeun had been doing his best to be silent to not interfere with Kim Dae-ho's work, so he ended up asking back, confused, "But, Uncle, I didn't say anything."

"Huh? What's this? You were over there?"

Kim Dae-ho made a puzzled face when he turned his head to look at Su-hyeun.

He confirmed that the latter was some distance away from him and dug his ear canal, perplexed. "Huh. Did I hear it wrong, then?"

"No, wait. I think you heard right, Uncle," Su-hyeun groaned with a slightly stiff face before saying something else. "Isn't it about time that you show yourself?"

Buzz—

The moment he said that, the marble resting next to Kim Dae-ho began vibrating without warning.