The Hero Returns

* * *

Something peculiar happened.

A few hours ago, outbreaks occurred. Those outbreaks were not just any regular outbreaks. They happened simultaneously all around the world and were too many that their overall number couldn't even be accurately counted.

The world gave up.

It was simply not possible to raid all those dungeons, they said. Might as well evacuate to a place and try to survive for as long as possible, they said.

However, even doing that proved to be quite difficult. The number of dungeons was far greater than the number of available awakeners, and there was a limit to just how far one could escape.

What waited for them, in the end, was the destruction of the world. That was what everyone thought.

But then...

"This...what kind of situation is this?"

The awakeners who had been mindlessly fighting off the waves of monsters were puzzled at the sudden shift that most of them were now wearing identical expressions of bewilderment.

In the middle of the fight, the monsters suddenly began behaving strangely. Every single one of them was now heading in the same direction. It was as if all of them had been entranced by something. When provoked, they did fight back, but when left alone, the monsters did not attack humans.

It was as if...

"It's like all of them have fallen for the effects of the Provocation skill, isn't it?"

The "Provocation" skill was a skill with a wide range of uses that attracted the attacks of enemies found within the designated area to the caster. Awakeners who mainly possessed the abilities of warriors and tankers used this skill.

However, even they didn't dare use it often because it could get seriously dangerous if they ended up attracting too many monsters.

Even then, practically every single awakener knew about the existence of the Provocation skill, and they knew well how monsters reacted when they had fallen under the skill's effect.

And now...

"It's like someone had cast a spell on them..."

Indeed, these monsters all acted as if they were under the effects of that very skill.

Of course, something like that made next to no sense whatsoever.

"It can't be so damn far away? And to this many monsters, too?!"

The range of Provocation was about 20 meters at its shortest and around 100 meters at the longest.

Although the skill could potentially extend up to one kilometer depending on the rank of one's magical energy or the skill proficiency, it was extremely rare for the range to exceed that.

Not only that but activating Provocation from somewhere so far away that eyes couldn't even see?

"Well, I'll be damned."

"This can't be related to the outbreaks, right?"

"Who knows? Maybe the monsters want to bunch up and combine into one giant or something."

"Stop jinxing it, alright?"

Whatever the case might have been, as long as the monsters weren't attacked, they didn't attack back, either. As if they had really been affected by the Provocation skill.

Not a lot of ballsy awakeners were prepared to attack the monsters, and those few who attacked didn't dare to take on monsters that they couldn't deal with.

More importantly, this event was occurring in every corner of the world.

"Is it Su-hyeun?" Lee Ju-ho muttered softly while taking in the sight of the monster parade. He had been fighting hard all by himself against a couple of monsters until then.

Hak-joon walked up next to him and replied, "That's probably it, I think."

"Yeah, he's the only one capable of doing this."

"Still, just how did he even...?"

"He had been jetting around the world from one end to the other nonstop, didn't he? He must've performed some kind of magic while doing that," Lee Ju-ho replied in a joking tone, but he had no idea that his thoughts were actually on the money.

Jiii-iiiing—

His smartphone tucked away in his pocket suddenly began vibrating. It seemed that it was still possible to call someone at the moment.

Lee Ju-ho answered the call and immediately heard Gordon Rohan's voice.

"Is it the same story on that side?" Rohan asked.

"Wait, what? It's the same over there, too?" Lee Ju-ho asked back in surprise.

He thought this situation was happening only in South Korea, but from the sound of it, the same thing must be happening near Gordon Rohan, who was currently in the United States of America.

"It's not just this side but everywhere."

"You mean, the entire world?!"

"Yeah. I got curious, so I made sure. I took a look through the satellite, and the monsters, they are all moving somewhere like a huge swarm of ants. As for the flight-capable monsters, they are like a swarm of locusts, too."

It sounded as if Gordon Rohan was also deeply stunned by this turn of events.

"It's Kim Su-hyeun."

And since he owned satellites, he could see the unfolding situation from up above.

"A truly massive magic circle has been drawn up. One big enough to cover the entire world, in fact."

"Sorry?" Lee Ju-ho's head blanked out the moment he heard what Gordon Rohan had to say.

A humongous magic circle covering the entire world?

Su-hyeun's strange actions of riding on Miru's back and continuously coming and going without any explanation for the past 15 days...

Only now did the puzzle pieces fall to their places inside Lee Ju-ho's mind.

"He had been trying to construct a magic circle?" he thought.

Magic was not among the usual abilities of awakeners. It was another type of supernatural power that existed within the Tower of Trials, which was even referred to as a field of study.

A magic circle was a medium meant to maximize the effects of magic skill and to increase its effective area.

And Lee Ju-ho recalled that, not too long ago, Su-hyeun sent a small sample of a grimoire to him, saying that it belonged to red dragons.

"You know, this thing called magic? As it turns out, it's a lot more useful than what we bargained for. That's why I'm thinking of learning it, and I heard that I might have a knack for it, too."

Initially, Lee Ju-ho wondered why anyone would want to learn magic.

Instead of going through the trouble of researching and learning magic, one would still get to acquire plenty of skills while climbing the tower.

Lee Ju-ho even thought that it was a complete waste of time. More than anything else, the skills in Su-hyeun's repertoire would never be found lacking even when compared to high-rank magic abilities. They might even be superior.

"Ah, so this was why."

The truth was, there was literally no limitation to how one could utilize magic. Only now did Lee Ju-ho understand why Su-hyeun decided to dip his toes into the study of magic.

"Where is he right now, though?" Hak-joon walked up while listening in on the call. "If all the monsters are in the provoked state, they must be gathering somewhere, right?"

The Provocation skill attracted the enemies' attacks on a single target, that is, the caster of the skill itself, which meant that the location where the monsters were heading was also where Su-hyeun should be.

"It's Everest," Gordon Rohan replied to Hak-joon's question.

"I'm guessing he's thinking of shooting a movie on the highest location in the world or something."

* * *

For the past 15 days, Su-hyeun had been flying around the world. He had drawn a circle that went around the entire planet and then began filling in "images" within this circle.

They were two magic circles with the same layout. He drew one circle each on the Northern and Southern Hemisphere with the planet's rotation in mind. The form of the magic circles was rather simple. It was the same story for their effects—they were meant to simply amplify the effects of different magic spells cast within the range of the magic circles.

He had been thinking about one thing for a long while now—the Provocation skill was seemingly simple yet also easily the most effective one when a very dangerous individual was nearby.

Of course, the skill would only work against monsters weaker than the caster, and its effects would get weaker the greater the distance was. Still, he thought that if he managed to "provoke" every single monster out there, then he would get to fight them off without anyone else dying.

"Even if the skill is a simple one, it's no joke maintaining it when the covered area is so large," Su-hyeun muttered to himself while sensing his magical energy reserve rapidly draining out.

Thankfully, prana and the breathing technique quickly replenished his spent reserve. Without those two factors helping him out, he wouldn't have been able to maintain the Provocation skill for that long.

He probably wouldn't have thought about doing this, though, since even he found this whole plan pure insanity in the first place.

"Still, I might not have a lot of wiggle room for my magical energy."

Despite the two favorable factors, the energy required to maintain Provocation was easily greater than the rate of recovery.

His magic count had broken past the 100th mark, and his reserve seemed near bottomless, but eventually, it would run dry in the end.

Even if he relied on prana to recover his magical energy in an instant, a clear limitation still existed. It meant that, as long as he maintained Provocation during this fight, to him, it would be like fighting with large ankle weights attached to his legs.

Some time had passed by, and he started seeing countless monsters show up by the foot of Everest.

"Wow, there are so many."

It felt like he was staring at a swarm of ants.

Just how many of them were down there? Tens, no, hundreds of thousands?

Or maybe even millions?

Even now, more monsters were still showing up. Mixed in among their ranks were the lowest-tier monsters like Goblins and Kobolds that showed up in red-colored dungeons, as well as boss creatures from blue-colored dungeons.

"Seriously now, there are so freaking many of them." Su-hyeun turned his head behind him and asked, "Don't you agree?"

Grrr...

Clack—

Drooool...

Behind Su-hyeun were Miru, Prince Nezha, and Gluttony.

Gluttony had become as large as a small mountain by now, so it had to hold on to the peak of Everest with its arm just to remain there.

Even if Su-hyeun might run short of his magical energy reserve, he still had his summoned creatures. Aside from the descendant of the red dragons, Miru, Prince Nezha, and Gluttony, many other summoned creatures were also tightly filling up the peak of Mount Everest.

"In times like these, I gotta say, it's too bad that the Death Aura stat couldn't reach the triple-digit mark..."

He was fully aware of the difference between a stat in a two-digit mark and the one that had broken through the triple-digit mark after experiencing it several times already.

A stat that reached the triple-digit mark was the qualification to attain the lowest-grade godhood. Meaning, one would acquire new godhood simply by having a stat reach the triple-digit mark.

Most likely, the Death Aura stat would also transform into a "godhood" the moment it reached the triple-digit mark.

"Well, it can't be helped for now. Miru?" Su-hyeun looked at Miru and said, "Burn them all down with your Breath."

Grrrr...

Miru nodded and then vigorously spread its wings.

Su-hyeun turned his attention over to Prince Nezha next and commanded, "Your role is to deal with all the boss-level monsters. Cut them all down with the Yogoe Slaying Sword."

Clack—!

Nezha went down on one knee before standing back up. He had begun gaining some sort of sentience now, which allowed him to act courteously toward Su-hyeun.

"And you, Gluttony..."

Dribble...

Gluttony stuck its long tongue out and licked its lips.

This guy was in a similar situation to Prince Nezha. It now boasted a similar level of appetite from back when it was still alive most likely due to it gaining some sentience.

And that appetite meant that it would be able to perform even better as Su-hyeun's summon.

"You, just devour everything in your way."

Gwuh-uuuuuuh—!

Vrrrr...

The mountains and the sky rocked from its roar.

Gluttony was easily the strongest summon in Su-hyeun's roster. However, controlling it had been getting a bit harder, too.

The moment he gave his order, or permission, in this case, Gluttony destroyed the mountain's peak and jumped down to the ground below. It then instantly swallowed up a bunch of monsters right before its eyes and chewed them to up satisfy its "gluttony."

"It's getting worse, isn't it?"

Gluttony was originally a "Prey." It used to be an existence stuck in the stage just before completely transforming into a 'Predator" when its desire would be at its absolute worst.

However, it was killed off, and through Su-hyeun's powers, it retained its soul and revived into a new body. By consuming a sufficient enough amount of Death Aura, it regained most of its original appearance and began devouring even more monsters lately.

And not too long ago, it even got to devour a few Predators as well. Maybe that had some kind of an influence? Unlike how it used to be in the beginning, Gluttony's appetite had grown so strong that it became a bit harder to control.

Gu-wuwuwu...

Ka-boooom—!!!

With Gluttony moving its large figure around, it was basically the same thing as wielding a deadly weapon. Not only that but it was also surprisingly nimble, and its physique was stupidly sturdier, rendering fangs, poisons, and horns of the monsters mostly ineffective. No, they were only good for filling up Gluttony's belly instead.

At this point in time, Gluttony was no different from a real Predator.

Kwa-aaaahk—!

Soon afterward, Prince Nezha's Yogoe Beating Mace descended, while his Yogoe Slaying Sword split the land apart. Cogwheels covered in flames, Wind Fire Wheel flew around to rip the monsters apart and set them alight.

Ruuumble...

Meanwhile, Miru's Breath began sweeping the foot of the mountain. After firing one, the red dragon quickly prepared another Breath in its maw.

For now, hundreds of thousands of monsters didn't dare come any closer. The reason for that was simple enough: the summoned creatures were just too dangerous.

Su-hyeun didn't budge from his spot. He figured that he didn't need to move for the time being, and his job was merely to maintain the Provocation skill activated through the magic circle.

"Okay, so, from this point on..." While sensing his Death Aura reserve rapidly draining out, Su-hyeun stared at the hundreds of monsters that began fighting against his summoned creatures. "Why don't we keep fighting for as many days and nights as we can?"