The Hero Returns

Act 1

"Yes, I've collected enough points," replied Su-hyeun with a grin on his face.

[Current achievement points: 127,544,500]

That number seemed hard to believe even though it was clearly visible for him to see.

Until now, no item in the store needed these many points to buy. Besides, he always used up his points before amassing them like this, and he believed that the act of saving up points was too adventurous and idiotic in the first place.

However, acquiring the qualification of godhood had become far more important than any other to Su-hyeun right now, and as such, he definitely required that "God's Tear."

"I already know what you want, so I'll give it to you as soon as you pay the required points," said the administrator.

"Here you go."

Su-hyeun immediately extended his hand.

Soon, the administrator reached out as well, and Su-hyeun suddenly felt like a man who had been saving up a lot of money to buy a house only to spend it all in one go.

Their extended hands touched one another.

And right at that moment...

[You have spent 100,000,000 achievement points.]

[You have acquired the God's Tear.]

A small drop of water slowly fell from above Su-hyeun's head. He hurriedly cupped his hands and caught the drop. It was the same God's Tear as the one he got as a reward for passing the trial on the 102nd floor.

"No need to ponder what to do with it this time," he thought.

Back then, he was in a serious dilemma, wondering which stat to increase first—stamina or agility.

However, with his stamina already improved, there was no need to ponder his choice anymore.

Gulp—

[You have acquired a single stat point.]

After he swallowed up the "tear" he caught with his hands, the familiar message popped up in his head.

And right after that...

[You have spent the single free stat point.]

[Agility has risen by 1.]

[Your physical body has taken a step beyond the realm of man.]

[You have acquired the qualification of godhood.]

More messages rose up one after the other.

All of them were good messages to hear, too.

When he acquired the godhood related to stamina, he felt like vitality was endlessly surging out of his body. It was as if no matter how much he moved, he would never, ever get tired.

On the other hand, improving agility made him feel like wings had grown out of his back.

This feeling of being able to run to the other side of the world simply by moving his feet ever so slightly...

This sensation of his body being too light to be controlled caused a disharmonious feeling to wash over him, and he ended up freezing up on the spot like a stone statue.

The administrator muttered, "You're as rash as I've heard, aren't you?"

"Is it okay for me to run around for a little while?"

"Don't go too far, though. You might get lost."

"That sounds like what a father might say to his child, you know," Su-hyeun quipped before patting Miru's head, who had arrived in this world along with him. "Okay, I'll be back soon."

Gya-ong—

Miru raised up one of its wings and waved as if to say, "take care." It seemed that the dragon had seen and copied how Su-hyeun bade goodbyes.

He smiled faintly after finding Miru funny and cute at the same time. Then, he turned around and began dashing away.

Bang—

Fwhooooosh—!

The scenery in Su-hyeun's view suddenly changed in an instant.

He was shocked by this change and quickly came to a stop. Sure, he had deliberately run at full speed, but even then, he didn't anticipate himself to move this fast and this far away.

"Why the heck am I this fast?"

He did expect his body to have become lighter, but as it turned out, he was actually about 50% quicker than he expected.

Maybe that was why it felt like his body and mind were doing their own things right now. Unlike the stamina stat that simply improved the body's durability and sturdiness, agility proved to be the hardest stat to properly control.

"Let's change it up. Faster, by about 50%."

Tap, tap—

Wanting to rediscover the feeling of his feet moving again, Su-hyeun began lightly tapping the ground below him. He then bounced up and down several times on the spot, but even the sensation of jumping felt completely different from before.

Maybe he really did grow a pair of wings?

Or could it be that his body had really become lighter?

He quickly discarded those notions, however. Su-hyeun sharped his senses and began running once more, at his top speed, to boot.

Pa-aaaaaht—

Whoosh, fwhoooooosh—

The scenery slipped past him in a fragmented and blurred state.

When he focused harder and became more used to it, the fragmented scenery gradually reconstructed itself, and his vision slowly restored back to how it was.

"For sure, my body feels so much lighter than before."

It was certainly a big advantage for his body to become lighter and much faster than before because it now meant that, while accurately landing his own attacks, he would be able to dodge the enemy's counter-attacks much more easily.

If he could get used to his new state, then he thought that the battle against the predator in the previous trial wouldn't be all that difficult anymore if they had to fight one more time.

Ta-dak—

Su-hyeun went around the perimeter of the large village once and returned to where the administrator and Miru were.

It took him a total of one minute or so to do that.

This place might not have been a major city, but even then, that time was still simply too short for someone to run around a considerably large village like this one.

The administrator asked, "Do you like it, then?"

"It's not bad."

"And so, you now have two more to go."

"Two more, you say?" Su-hyeun asked while sounding puzzled.

The meaning behind the number two that the administrator brought up should be roughly the same as what Su-hyeun was thinking about.

But then…

"Not one but two?" he thought.

Strength, agility, stamina, reflex...

Su-hyeun had a gut feeling that once all four stats reached the three-digit mark, something about him would change.

And for the first time ever, an administrator mentioned something related to that topic. As the administrators were deeply connected to the tower, as well as the system itself, they must've had some in-depth knowledge on the matter.

Su-hyeun asked, "Could it be that you're also including the magic level?"

"Why would you leave that one out?"

"Well, magical energy is a separate thing from one's physical body, after all."

"Races like dragons learn magic from the moment they are born, so why do you think humans are any different? All humans possess some amount of magical energy, with the difference being some have more of it than the others. Why do you think it's a separate thing in that case?"

He wasn't wrong there.

The modern world, with its advanced science, had already finished analyzing this power called magical energy and had also discovered that this energy source permeated all life forms and Mother Nature itself in varying amounts.

However, Su-hyeun still didn't see magical energy as physical ability. It wasn't just him, though, but everyone else as well.

"Which means there are two stats left," he inwardly guessed.

The magic count of 100 points—honestly speaking, he hadn't given that numerical value much thought before.

He simply thought that he would get there sooner or later.

The magic count of 100 was basically the same thing as the magic level of 10.

The first digits of both the count and level maintained the same number, so in reality, the changes to this stat's number of digits held a completely different meaning to all the other stats.

[Name: Kim Su-hyeun]

[Magic count: 96] [Magic level: 9]

[Strength: 101] [Agility: 100]

[Stamina: 100] [Reflex: 99]

[Death Aura: 99]

[Skill: Leap * advanced]

[Skill: Transfiguration * advanced]

[Skill: Qualification of godhood – Flame * advanced]

....

[Fatigue: 3]

Su-hyeun confirmed his stats that had significantly changed.

During the trial, his magic count climbed up by a few points, while it climbed by one more just now. Another point went up during the process of learning magic as well.

As for Death Aura, the stat that remained stuck at 98 had broken through to reach 99. Only one more point remained until it reached the 100-point mark.

"Well, that sure is a lot of change, alright."

Three of his stats had already reached the three-digit mark.

On top of that, excluding the magic count, both the reflex and Death Aura stat were literally at the threshold of reaching the triple digits as well.

"Will you be challenging the trial right away? You don't look all that tired, after all."

"No, I'll go back home for a little while."

"Do what you want. I'll be here waiting for your return."

The administrator replied like that and then rested a thin, long stick on his shoulder. He turned around and began trudging away to a distance.

That large hat that was woven out of straws, the long stick, and even the sickle in his hand...

Anyone who would look at the administrator would think that he seemed like an average farmer.

Rippp—

Su-hyeun immediately opened the doorway.

It had been a month since he returned home.

* * *

The very first person he contacted after his return was Lee Ju-ho to learn about what happened during his absence and to ask if there were matters that required his attention.

"There's none. No, really," was Lee Ju-ho's reply.

"You mean, there's nothing at all?"

"Yup. There really isn't anything. It's actually mystifying, really."

They were currently in the Jongno Tower.

Su-hyeun paid a visit to the office of the Korean Awakener Association Chairman, Lee Ju-ho. Once he got there, he took a closer look at the map displayed on the wall.

For sure, the number of "spots" had declined.

He had completely swept aside all the dungeons about a month ago, so quite a few new ones should've regenerated by now.

But now…

"They've declined a lot, for sure," said Su-hyeun.

"Right. After you left, the number of dungeon appearances decreased noticeably," Lee Ju-ho continued while also staring at the map on the wall. "Fifteen red colors, six orange colors, and two yellows. Not a single green color. Some are even saying the past month or so has been like we're back in 2016."

Back then, in 2016, the value of a dungeon couldn't even be described in words. That was when the value of Ether stones had been firmly set in stone and the number of dungeons also happened to be at its lowest figure.

Su-hyeun murmured seriously, "Still, it's too small."

"You're right, it is too small. At first, I thought it was some kind of an after-effect of you sweeping aside all the dungeons in around one day, but then, other countries are experiencing the same situation."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah. I've already contacted Gordon Rohan about it. Not just America on the other side of the globe but the whole planet is also going through the same thing. And thanks to that, the Ether stone prices are going through the roof as we speak."

The existing pile of Ether stones was not only a valuable source of energy but also a form of cash like gold that was accepted throughout the world.

When the rate of dungeon generation went up, the price would come down gradually, but when the number of dungeons declined, the price would inversely go up.

And for the past month, the dungeon generation rate had gone down so much that it was as if the dungeons would stop appearing altogether.

Lee Ju-ho asked, "I can't figure out what's going on here. How does it look to you, though?"

"…It's not all bad, I guess."

"But that's not what your expression says."

"Well, I can't just blindly welcome any unknown changes, after all, especially when the dungeon generation rate had been rising rapidly not too long ago, too..."

"You think so?" asked Lee Ju-ho, making a slightly uneasy face.

Su-hyeun wasn't wrong there. Was it really alright to simply welcome the sudden decrease in the number of dungeons? Such a change could be for the better, yes, but there was a chance of it going the other way as well.

"Is it only a vague worry? No, wait. To simply call it that, he..." Lee Ju-ho quietly observed Su-hyeun's expression closely.

"He looks far too worried about that."

There hadn't been all that many times when Su-hyeun was this concerned in the past.

For instance, he wasn't worried in the slightest, just somewhat annoyed, when the Awakener Authority tried to do something underhanded not too long ago.

It was the same story when the Lich King made its appearance. Back then, Su-hyeun did look pressed for time but not really concerned. That's probably because he was confident of solving the matter somehow.

But now, the vibe he gave off seemed a little different.

Su-hyeun spoke up, "In any case, I'll go and meet up with Thomas and Hak-joon. It's been too long since I hung out with the two of them."

"Uh? Ah, right. Go ahead first, then. I'll join you guys later in the evening."

"Okay."

Clack—

Su-hyeun bade goodbye to Lee Ju-ho and exited from the chairman's office.

Right after that, the awakeners associated with the association that came to speak to Lee Ju-ho discovered Su-hyeun and immediately bowed their heads to greet him. However, he couldn't properly respond to them because his mind had been completely occupied by something else by then.

"It can't be. Already…?" Su-hyeun chewed his lips from his worries.

From Su-hyeun's memories, this phenomenon where dungeons suddenly declined in numbers was a type of sign for an event that would take place a few years from now.

"But it's trying to appear so soon?"

And that event in question was...

"That Fafnir..."

The very first, and also the last, appearance of the purple-colored dungeon.