The Hero Returns

"Select."

[The command has been entered.]

[Please choose your reward.]

A long list of rewards appeared as soon as Su-hyeun spoke those words. Very much similar to a website, various items were listed from top to bottom.

The ordinary stores used achievement points as their exchange currency, but these were different.

[Stored accomplishment points: 70.]

<<Are the excess accomplishment points used as currency?>>

Although he had heard of some selected stores using a different method, he had not encountered any in his past life.

Su-hyeun looked through the list of rewards.

It might have been hard to stumble upon this chance again in the future. He had to be careful with his choice.

<<It's not bad.>>

There were many items worth purchasing using his accomplishment points.

There were skills, equipment, and consumer goods. Unfortunately, the skills that Su-hyeun was unable to learn yet were not available for purchase.

Skills with a low requirement for magic level required fewer accomplishment points. Su-hyeun could have bought a few skills, but he quickly turned them away.

<<The number of skills is not important.>>

Su-hyeun turned to the equipment and consumer goods. Unfortunately, none of the skills he could learn right now were better than Flame. On the contrary, there were a lot more useful items under the equipment category, some of which were of similar standards to what he had used in his past life.

"It's better than I thought."

As it was tough gauging the difficulty on the 10th floor, it was the same for the rewards.

Su-hyeun swiped down the rewards list. The items got more expensive as he went down the list, but it also meant that those were much more valuable.

<<The quantity isn't important.>>

Similarly to skills, he thought the same way about equipment.

Instead of carrying several pieces of equipment on him, owning just one an outstanding weapon or set of armor would be more efficient.

Su-hyeun went to the last item on the equipment and consumer goods category. The most expensive was 65 points.

<<Is this the end?>>

He felt that something was lacking.

It was the armor category. Named the Heavenly God's Armor, the item had the effect of changing its form according to the user's wishes. It also served as an extra lifeline, with resistance to various attributes like fire, electric, poison, and more. It was great.

In truth, it was a piece of equipment that wouldn't normally be obtained on the 10th floor.

But...

[Others.]

Su-hyeun's eyes turned to the last remaining category. It wasn't skills, equipment, or consumer goods, but "others."

All other random items were gathered here. Su-hyeun did not pay special attention to it at first, but he had decided to take a look at it; it didn't matter if it was lacking.

"Let's just take a look."

He selected the category, and various items appeared before him. Indeed, there was a wide variety.

From musical instruments to water tanks and fashion items, some would make one wonder why they were on sale. It was quite a spectacle. There were some useful items amongst them, but they would be a waste of the points.

"All that for nothing."

However, the last item on the list caught Su-hyeun's eyes.

[Unidentifiable God's Egg]

[An unidentifiable egg. Not sure what will be hatched.]

An item worth 70 points.

But why is this even called an item? It was evident that something would be hatched, but there was no way to tell what it would be.

"God's Egg."

It was the item's name that caught Su-hyeun's eyes.

"This is it."

He was confident that he would somehow be able to get the other items.

No matter how valuable the equipment was, Su-hyeun knew how to obtain the hero level weapons, like Balmung, that he had used in his past life.

But it was different for God's Egg.

In fact, if an awakener was lucky enough to get this egg, the hatched item could elevate the awakener's rank. It was one of the few items that Su-hyeun knew of but did not know how to obtain.

"Although the unidentifiable explanation is quite worrying…."

But it seemed that there was no other better option.

"I've decided."

[You have used 70 accomplishment points.]

[You have purchased the "Unidentifiable God's Egg."]

As soon as he made the transaction, an egg with the size of a fist appeared before him. It was a white egg without any patterns. Su-hyeun accepted it carefully with both hands.

"It's smaller than I thought…."

Su-hyeun had thought it would be around the size of his body since it was called God's Egg. As it was his first time seeing the Unidentifiable God's Egg, he didn't know if it was normal.

"Anyway, with this, my job on the 10th floor is done…."

It was time to head back.

Most of the poison had been neutralized. It wouldn't be a problem for him to move about. Su-hyeun stood up and reached his hands out.

And with all his strength, he grasped the air and opened the door.

Rip—!

The door back to reality opened. Su-hyeun's expression calmed down as he stepped out.

"With this... Did I meet the minimum standards that I had planned out?"

He had cleared the 10th floor. It was the minimum standard that Su-hyeun had in mind initially.

That was what he had been working hard towards. However, the results were beyond his expectations.

"Although it took longer than expected…"

Step—

He grinned slightly as he passed the door.

"I've gotten a lot stronger than I had planned."

The standard was no different from when he cleared the eighth floor and obtained the Flame skill.

"I can't delay any further."

Act 9

Time flowed differently in the Tower of Trials and reality. Although it was dawn on the 10th floor, in reality, it was just 2 PM.

Su-hyeun headed to the nearest bank. He inserted his card and verified his bank balance. A total of 1,210,000 Korean won was all that Su-hyeun had.

He had saved all the allowance that Shin Su-yeong sent him every month. The fact of the matter was he had no use for the money. His only expenses were the occasional gifts for Shin Su-yeong, so he had saved quite a lot.

Whirl—

He withdrew all the money at once.

Su-hyeun took the money and headed to Seoul by bus. He had to rely on his memories to find his way from Seoul Station. Su-hyeun finally found the place he was looking for, which was located in a reasonably large area.

The Awakeners Accreditation Authority.

It was a state-run institute that evaluated the awakeners' ranks, but wasn't just that; the institute also monitored the foreign awakeners' movements and managed the local awakeners.

"It has been a while."

The awakeners who got stronger every singe time they ascended the tower would sometimes increase their skills and request reassessments. Therefore, an average awakener would visit the institution three to four times in his life.

But of course, it was different for Su-hyeun.

There was no reason for him to be elevated in the first place. Su-hyeun was previously a local awakener, but he wasn't a normal awakener.

He started heading in. He took his time, reminiscing about old times, as he had been living all the while as Su-hyeun.

"What brings you here?"

A staff member greeted Su-hyeun brightly as he stepped into the lobby.

"I came to be evaluated."

"Is this your first time as an awakener?" The female staff member, who appeared to be in her mid-20s, smiled and spoke calmly. She must have been one of those people in Korea who had seen many awakeners in her life.

"It has been a while."

"It might take a while according to procedures. Please follow me."

Guided by the staff, Su-hyeun went through several procedures to verify his identity and headed to the first floor. Several chairs were placed in the middle of a spacious room, and many people were standing. As soon as Su-hyeun saw the five people sitting on the chairs, he realized that they were awakeners like him.

"Oh?"

Su-hyeun recognized one of their faces.

"Choi Hak-joon?"

He was the awakener he had chanced upon at the Tower of Trials not too long ago. It seemed that Choi Hak-joon had also come to be evaluated as an awakener.

"Please wait for 30 minutes until the ranking evaluation is prepared. You will be called accordingly."

The woman who guided Su-hyeun quickly left after she finished speaking. Soon, everyone in the room looked towards Su-hyeun.

"Oh?"

Unlike the other awakeners, Hak-joon narrowed his eyes and waved his hands as he seemed to have recognized Su-hyeun, but he soon tilted and scratched his head as if he was afraid that he recalled the wrong person. True, it would not be easy to recognize Su-hyeun right away after only one encounter.

"It has been a while."

Since he had time, Su-hyeun approached Hak-joon. Actually, he was also curious as to what kind of person he actually was.

Hak-joon asked, delighted that his memory did not fail him, "Indeed, we have met before, right?"

"We did have a small encounter once on the second floor."

"Ah, I remember it now."

Hak-joon clapped his hands and laughed while looking at Su-hyeun. It seemed that Su-hyeun's first impression was too intense to be forgotten.

"Are you here to be re-evaluated again?"

It seemed that Hak-joon had been evaluated once before.

Su-hyeun shook his head.

"No, it's not a re-evaluation."

"So it's your first time?"

"Yes."

"Hasn't a year passed since we last met?"

Usually, after a person has awakened, they were evaluated within a month because it was the first time that they are magically awakened. After that, one would usually get re-evaluated every time their magic level increased. It was the only reason why awakeners were evaluated. One had to be ranked in order to enter the dungeons, and then one could earn some big bucks there.

In this regard, it was rare to see someone doing their evaluation a year after awakening.

"If you're unsure about the rank evaluation for awakeners..."

"I'm fully aware."

"So, you're not here for the money?"

There had been occasional instances, too, when those who awakened but did not care about the money did not receive rank evaluations. They were usually rich enough to decide not to work as an awakener.

"My objective..."

Truthfully speaking, it wasn't for the money at all — it was because that was the minimum requirement to work as an awakener.

But...

"It's not my purpose, but I sort of need it."

He did not intend to let Shin Su-yeong suffer forever.