The Hero Returns

The sky was blue, and the smell of the rich, earthy soil was carried by a seasonal breeze.

The sight still came to him when he closed his eyes.

As it could never be seen again, it was much more precious.

"The past is the past."

He looked up only to see the black sky. Instead of the smell of soil, the smell of blood was everywhere. Was it a seasonal smell? No, there was only a repetitive, freezing winter that made the world nearly uninhabitable.

[Name: Kim Sung-in] [Another name: Hero]

[Spell counts: 97] [Spell grade: 9]

Sung-in went through his Ability Record in his mind, which was initially not a lot, but now it had become comprehensive. Among those statuses, he checked his one specific status.

[Fatigue level: 88]

"I knew it," he murmured as he checked his fatigue level on the bottom. "That's why my body feels so heavy."

The fatigue level showed a numerical representation of his current fitness state, with 0 meaning the best physiological condition and 100 meaning the opposite. 88 was quite high. No wonder his body felt as heavy as soaked cotton. Normal people couldn't even move their bodies in such a state.

Sung-in sighed as he looked around him. All he could see was the corpses of monsters, piles of them from a distance. That was his masterpiece.

Thump, thump.

He heard footsteps in the distance, and one set sounded particularly familiar.

"You guys are so fast." He was being sarcastic.

They must have noticed the fight, but they were still so late. He realized it was their strategy to get rid of him once and for all. That meant all those monsters had just been decoys.

This is the end. He thought this would be the last, but it was not as bad as he thought.

The reason was obvious. There was no more reason to resist.

"Now..." Sung-in stood up from the pile of dead monsters. "It is time to die."

* * *

The Hero.

That was another name for Sung-in. The title was from his ability, which increased his physical and magical damage by 20% and reduced the damage he would receive.

However, that was not just another name for Sung-in.

"Spell power of 9 grade? Was there such a magical awakener?"

"For a guy like you, it may be."

"It might be possible. No, it has to be possible."

"Do you think he may be able to restore our world?"

He'd heard those kinds of words many times.

At the time, he didn't know what they meant. No, he knew what they meant but wasn't able to understand.

They demanded a lot of things from him.

They said, "Sung-in, you are our hope." "You know what a hero is? The person who can save the world. You should consider yourself a hero. You understand what Mommy means, right?" That was his mother.

He was a good son, and at one point, he did consider himself a hero.

"You are the hero."

"Please, please, save this world."

"Mr. Kim, you are the only one now."

Hero, hero, hero... That almost drove him crazy. Stop calling me that. Are you not getting tired of the word?

It had been about 40 years ago when the monsters first appeared. Many magical awakeners like him had become heroes as they fought the monsters. The monsters had been too many and indeed so strong that even those heroes with magical powers struggled. People needed a stronger hero, and Sung-in had been one of them.

"Hero, my ass."

He plunged to the ground and looked up, but only the dark, murky sky came to his sight. His vision was slowly getting blurry.

Fafnir. An ancient hero, a dragon that was killed by Sigurd.

But Fafnir was a nickname for a giant with a dragon head, who had killed so many human heroes. The war was becoming advantageous for the monsters. Even Sung-in had to fight the giant for three years straight, although he had been the one who frequently retreated. Fafnir was not to be defeated easily by any human.

[Though you are my enemy, I admire your power], Fafnir said.

That isn't really surprising. For a monster like Fafnir, anything he did was not that surprising anymore. He was almost like a demigod; being able to speak a human language was nothing compared to his other powers.

"Bull...sh*t…" Sung-in mouthed. "Do you also think I'm a hero?"

[You are indeed a hero. You deserved that title, even if it is from others], Fafnir said.

A hero created by others. He sounded like he knew everything. Obviously, he knew about Sung-in, as he must have spied on him ever since they first fought.

But that wasn't like him. That wasn't like a monster.

[You are the last one.]

The last. That was self-explanatory; everyone had been killed.

For the past year, there had been no one other than Sung-in. He had been fighting alone for all that time. And here was the outcome: let's fight until one of us dies.

Fafnir had destroyed the whole world. Sung-in may as well pay the worth of his name.

"I'll die with Fafnir and kill as many monsters as I can. What's the point of dwelling on this destroyed world with no one else around?''

However…

"This is what I've got." Sung-in laughed at his own poor condition.

Fafnir was much more powerful than he had thought. He was also without any weak points. He still had billions of his monsters, and Sung-in was all alone. Even worse, Fafnir didn't seem to move until Sung-in moved first.

Even if his fatigue level was 0, it would still be a struggle to win.

Fafnir finally opened his enormous mouth.

[By eating your flesh, I will be devouring this world.]

A story of a hero who killed an evil monster and saved the world. That kind of happy ending was far from being realistic.

"So, basically, you mean I won't be a hero."

Crash—