The Hero Returns

The Dark World- Black Forest. It was one of the ten best skills that Su-hyeun knew. This skill was particularly famous for its wide-range effect. There weren't many skills that could cover physical, mental, and magical damages. In particular, the Psychomancy ability of the Dark World skill had the widest range of all the psychological skills.

"Hey, Thomas. Your job is to protect people. When people are upset and try to attack each other, then instill the opposite feeling in them, okay?" Su-hyeun had told him.

"Is that protecting?"

"Yes. Protecting them from fighting each other. But it'll be hard work. There will be a lot of people, and you have to use your skill very widely."

"It's okay! I can do it."

"If you wait for us, we'll finish our work quickly. I believe in you, Thomas."

It was a job that only Thomas could do. Su-hyeun was strong, but he didn't have any mental skills. Even if he had one, he wouldn't be able to handle that many people like Thomas could. Thomas was the only one who could do it in the world. It might be a heavy burden for him.

<<I don't have much time,>> Su-hyeun thought.

Kee-hee, hee-hee-hee, hee-hee—

Su-hyeun broke the ground beneath him and went into the dungeon with Hak-joon. The structure of the dungeon was a vast castle. It was so huge it was hard to even figure out how big it was. Inside, the castle was filled with laughter that they had heard before. There was a lot of anger in the laughter. Just listening to it made them frustrated, and they felt a burning feeling inside.

"This could be dangerous," Hak-joon commented.

"If you think you can't handle it, you can just wait outside," Su-hyeun snapped.

"No, I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about other awakeners. Unless I lose my focus, I'll be fine until then."

Su-hyeun nodded at Hak-joon's answer. In the beginning, he brought Hak-joon because he had thought he would not be much affected by it.

<< Awakeners below B-Rank had a problem.>>

Especially, awakeners who had weak willpower and concentration were easily deceived by the laugh. The tragedy that had happened in Su-hyeun's past life was way worse than what happened in Paris a few days ago.

<<Just as I expected. It's worse inside the dungeon than outside,>> Su-hyeun thought.

An outbreak was a phenomenon that occurred after the boundary between the dungeon and reality gradually faded. What had happened was the emotion inside the dungeon had flowed out during the outbreak.

"What the hell is this laughing?" Hak-joon looked around the huge castle.

In the empty castle, there was no sign of anything except the laughter. He knew it wasn't a typical dungeon, but it was definitely strange that there wasn't a single monster.

"That's what we have to figure out."

Su-hyeun only knew about this dungeon from information from his past life. Therefore, he had no choice but to check the details from now on.

"How?" Hak-joon asked.

"What do you mean how?"

Whoosh, whoosh—

Su-hyeun laughed as he brightened up the dark castle with his Flame skill. "We don't have much time, so we just have to go for it."

"…?"

Act 9

Boom, boom, boom—!

Craaack—!

Gyaong, gyaooong—!

Miru cried with excitement as he saw the burning castle. Hak-joon, riding on Miru's back for the first time, looked around the castle with a scared face.

"Are you really going to break everything?" he asked.

"Yes. But it's more well-built then I thought. It won't break easily." Su-hyeun stroked Miru's head. "Miru, use your Breath."

Gyaong—?

"Break everything. Anything you see."

Gyaong—!

Miru answered with gusto and gathered the Breath in his mouth.

[Breath.]

[Breath.]

[...]

Whoooosh—

Breath from Miru's mouth turned the castle on its head.

Hak-joon was astonished at the sight. "Didn't you say three times was his limit?"

"Well. He's grown up a lot. Also, he got an item called the Cintamani."

"Cintamani? What is that?"

"In short, it's an item that amplifies the power of a dragon. Thanks to that Cintanami, he can use his Breath skill more times, and he can use other skills as well."

"That's so cool." Hak-joon admired Miru's abilities.

The last time Hak-joon saw Su-hyeun's fight was at the Ranking Wars, against Gordon Rohan. They hadn't attacked dungeons together many times, so he didn't have much chance to see Miru's abilities. Now, he finally saw Miru fight as a team beside Su-hyeun. Hak-joon felt proud of Miru. Miru's buff ability and the power of his Breath skill could be considered above even S-Rank awakeners.

Whoosh—

Rumble, ruuumble—

Miru's Breath was blocked by a door and disappeared. It was the door to the top floor of the castle. It seemed to be blocked by a transparent barrier.

<<It blocked Miru's Breath? There must be something important behind this door.>>

"I guess this is it," Su-hyeun said, taking the spear from his back.

Whoosh—

[Dragon Slaying Spear.]

[Flame.]

[Wave Spear- Explosion Style.]

"Be careful not to get hurt," Su-hyeun warned.

Miru put defensive magic on his body as if he were familiar with doing this. Hak-joon also used a skill to protect himself.

Rumble—

The spear left Su-hyeun's hand. He threw it from quite a close distance. The spear shone as it left his hand—

Craaaaack—!

Wham, wham, wham—!

—Dragon Slaying Spear shattered into numerous magical pieces and hit the door.

<<His magical power always surprises me…!>> Hak-joon thought.

He knew that Su-hyeun was a spear user as well, and he had seen his throwing a few times before. But he never saw that a spear with magic could scatter into tens of thousands of pieces like this.

Crack—!

Eventually, the spears broke the door. Louder laughter came from the hole in the doorway.

Kee-hee, Kee hee hee hee hee—!

Ha-ha-ha—

And the laughter wasn't the only thing that came out.

"Found it."

Translucent souls began to pour out of the cracked door. They were debris in the dungeon that created the emotions.

Rumble—

Su-hyeun's sword began to form the magic. Only a sword with magic power could defeat these residues of feelings.

"Cut them all."

Su-hyeun rushed to the souls. Hak-joon who was sitting on Miru's back jumped up high.

Whirl, whirl—

Hak-joon's scabbard began to tremble. He grabbed the handle of his sword and swung wide as he drew it.

[Sword Drawing- Cutting the Full Moon.]

Slash, slash—

Craaack—

The souls flowing out of the door screamed and disappeared under the wide-range attacks. Their screams rang through the whole castle. Su-hyeun and Hak-joon, once they got rid of all the souls, began to move inside of the door.

"...Phew. It's getting hard to hold off." Hak-joon stopped walking and breathed deeply. "I'm sorry, Su-hyeun, but I'll stay here. I don't want to come with you and become a burden."

"Okay. Then stay here and make sure nothing passes this door. I'll leave Miru with you just in case. He'll be helpful."

"Got it."

"Miru, please look after him."

Gyaong—!

Miru replied with a loud cry as if telling Su-hyeun that he could rely on him. Su-hyeun kept moving his step inside of the door, leaving the pair behind.

Stomp, stomp—

The area behind the door was quite wide. When he walked further, a dark hall and a long passage appeared.

<<I guess that door was the entrance to another space.>>

The vestiges of emotion were getting worse as he went inside. The rage-filled souls rushed to Su-hyeun to swallow him. He cut them down one by one and walked deeper in. Su-hyeun could feel the burning anger inside his chest. He raised his magic and made a thin shied around his body. It soothed him.

<<This is terrible.>>

The emotional ups and downs were much worse than he had expected. Su-hyeun walked faster. He really wanted to break this dungeon and stop this horrible feeling quickly.

Kee-hee, hee hee hee—

Ha-ha-ha—

When he passed the long passage, another space filled with laughter appeared. It was another castle. The hallway was a bridge. It connected to the upper part of the castles. Su-hyeun looked down at the new palace that he just reached. The castle was open from the first floor to the top.

The castle that opened in the middle was covered with bloodstains. Bones that looked to be of humans were scattered all over the place, and paintings and decorations hanging on the walls were broken. There must have been some huge fight. This castle was filled with anger.

"You have a lot of rage in you."

Thump, thump—

A voice reached Su-hyeun's ears. The voice and the sound of footsteps came from a higher place. It was coming from the highest place, the tip of the castle.

"Why are you so upset?" the voice asked.

"Well. You made me upset." Su-hyeun raised his head and stared at the owner of the voice.

It was a man wearing a robe. He wasn't wearing a hood to hide his face. He was pretty handsome, with blond hair. He didn't look like a man one would meet in a dungeon like this. He certainly didn't seem like a monster, either.

"Is a spirit the boss of the dungeon?"

But Su-hyeun realized the moment he saw him that the man wasn't a living human; he was a ghost.

"Dungeon? Boss? What are you talking about?"

"Yea, yea. You wouldn't know. You guys do that."

The bosses of the dungeons did not recognize the meaning of dungeons and bosses. Sometimes, when Su-hyeun met bosses of dungeons who could speak human language, he tried to talk with them. But they were unaware of their existence. So, Su-hyeun didn't expect much today, either. Also, Su-hyeun already knew who this blond guy was.

Su-hyeun said, "The first son of the exterminated duke's family. The sword genius who lost his relatives, wife, and daughter overnight because of a false charge against him."

"…!"

"Wrath Gludmoon. The ghost of misery that embraces all the anger of the world in your heart."

A record of him was found in the dungeon while digging for Ether stone in Su-hyeun's past life. That record had revealed the theme of the dungeon, why it was made, and also, who this man was. And Su-hyeun, who already knew the record, sympathized with the man in front of him.

"Who…are you?" the man asked.

"You don't need to know about me. I know what happened to you, and I feel sorry about that. But…" Su-hyeun asked, looking at the numerous bloodstains and bodies on the first floor. "were they really your enemies?"

"You're speaking gibberish."

"Yes. But anyone would say the same thing. Your revenge wasn't justified. But do you know why everyone says the same thing?"

"Shut up…"

"Because it's true. Killing everyone because you hate the world isn't revenge. It's just taking your anger out on someone else."

"I said shut up!"

Screech, screeeech—

With the shouting of Wrath, a high-pitched tone rang in Su-hyeun's ears. Numerous souls were assimilated into Wrath's anger. Su-hyeun didn't bat an eyelid at it. It hurt his ears, but that was it.

"What do you know about me? You don't know anything about me! You don't know anything!"

"Yes, I don't know anything about you. But what I do know is you are an old ghost that died a long time ago. So now," —Su-hyeun lifted his sword— "Go back to where you belong."

At Su-hyeun's words, Wrath held his face with his hands. Then, he started to laugh uncontrollably.

"Sword…sword…"

Schwing—

Wrath drew his sword from the scabbard.

"How dare you talk about the sword in front of me!"