The Hero Returns

Su-hyeun was currently looking at a world that existed but no longer really existed—a realm where not just its planets but even the universe itself had been erased.

"This place still sours my mood whenever I come here," said a voice that came from behind him.

The Administrator had arrived in this world as well. This particular Administrator was an old man with plenty of moles and liver spots on his face. He lightly patted his bent back with one hand and used the other to rub his blurry eyes.

Su-hyeun asked the Administrator, "Just what is up with this place?"

For sure, this world was just too strange to behold.

"Can't you tell? It's a realm that has ceased to exist."

"Not destroyed but ceased to exist?"

"That's right. No longer existing. Originally, this place here was a truly wonderful world to live in. There were no wars, no famines, droughts, nothing. You wouldn't have found another realm as great to live in as this one," the old man continued, but to Su-hyeun's ears, what the Administrator said didn't sound like some simple explanation anymore.

"Elder, did you used to live in this realm?"

If that wasn't it, the Administrator wouldn't have made such a face or spoke in such a tone.

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The old man nodded slowly. "Also correct. I used to live here. My child passed on pretty early, but I still lived with two of my grandkids," he chuckled affably. However, the emotions in his voice and his expression were at odds with one another. The old Administrator was swimming in sadness and the reminiscence of the past. "But then, everything just disappeared in one moment."

"What happened?"

"There can be only one existence capable of doing this."

Only one existence, he said. From that clue, Su-hyeun could vaguely guess the identity of an existence capable of completely erasing a world to this degree. "The One Overlord."

"The One Overlord."

Su-hyeun and the old man spoke at the same time.

The latter's brows rose as if he was taken aback. He stared at Su-hyeun and asked, "Could it be that your Insight works on me, too?"

"Haven't you been deliberately avoiding looking into my eyes?"

"Yes, I have. In that case, how much do you actually know? Did you run into that monstrosity before?"

"No, never."

"Ah, that makes sense. If you did, then there's no way you'd be standing here alive."

The One Overlord—the top existence of all the Predators out there—was a creature whose story Su-hyeun first heard about from Luslec. He then learned about Fafnir being ranked among the One Hundred Evils and heard that it had reached the ranks of the Ten Great Evils not too long ago.

After learning about all of these facts, he began thinking about one thing: just how much stronger were the Three Destroyers ranked above the Ten Great Evils?

Also, what about the One Overlord?

He tried to imagine it, but he couldn't really picture anything. Never mind the Three Destroyers, Su-hyeun hadn't even fought against a Predator in the Ten Great Evils tier yet, after all.

However, now that he had taken a look at this place, he could vaguely start imagining it. "Honestly speaking, I won't be able to fight against a creature capable of doing this."

Quite literally, this creature wiped this vast realm out of existence—the creature completely erased this world. It went beyond the simple concept of erasing a planet and completely erased the entire universe out of existence, too.

Just how much power would one require to pull off an act this ridiculous?

Su-hyeun shook his head. He might have ascended to proper godhood now, but even then, this whole thing exceeded his own imagination.

"I sincerely hope I don't run into this creature any time soon," he thought.

Unfortunately, though, he was getting an ominous foreboding for some reason. Wanting to get rid of this bad feeling, Su-hyeun decided to change the topic of the discussion. "I need a little bit of time for myself."

"If you require a break, you can always come back later."

"No, I don't need too long of a break. Around one hour will do."

"Is it to check out your newly acquired qualification of godhood?"

"Yes."

"Makes sense since that godhood of death isn't all that easy to acquire, to begin with."

"Death," that was the name of the qualification of godhood Su-hyeun had newly acquired and also the authority he had gained.

Unlike the other stats he started off with, the Death Aura stat was something he acquired during a trial.

Sure enough, he earned a new qualification of godhood the moment this stat reached triple digits. The Necromancer trait was then affected by the change since it was related to the Death Aura stat.

Su-hyeun wanted to use this opportunity to confirm the changes.

"In that case, allow me to create a suitable stage for you."

Shu-wu...

When the old Administrator said that, the surrounding scenery began changing. The previously dark surroundings twisted and altered, and before long, the solid ground was created beneath Su-hyeun's feet. It was the same story for the sky.

Although this whole thing was nothing more than some "images" inside a walled-off area, a blue sky and bright light now filled the space. Also, a fairly large grassy plain spread out before their eyes now.

This terrain and the sky above weren't the results of some illusion, either.

"Is this a type of summoning technique?" he wondered.

This space actually existed. In other words, this space had been transferred in its entirety from somewhere else.

"Is this not a pretty good stage for you? You can ask me if you need more."

"No, this should be enough."

It didn't really matter, anyway.

He didn't need a bit of space, to begin with. In all honesty, it would've been also fine to not create a stage like this at all since he was simply thinking of checking out the skills and trying them out at least once, after all.

"Well, I'll be off, then. I won't spy or anything like that, so take care of everything in one hour."

"Thank you for your consideration."

"Well, then. Later."

The old man left those parting words and disappeared like a mirage.

Su-hyeun checked and confirmed that indeed, the old man wasn't spying from anywhere, just as he promised. That was the same story for the other Administrators as well.

While progressing through the last floor's trial, he learned that seemingly all of the Administrators were watching the proceedings of the trials in progress.

Of course, with the number of awakeners being what it was, not all trials would be in progress simultaneously. However, there was no doubting that the Administrators held a special interest in Su-hyeun's progress.

"Well, it doesn't matter now since no one's looking..."

Su-hyeun activated his Necromancer trait first.

[The trait "Necromancer" has been activated.]

[By using "Death Aura," you can see or command the dead.]

The messages popped up, and to accompany them, Death Aura oozed out all around Su-hyeun's vicinity. Then, many shadows began revealing themselves.

"Arise."

Shu-wuwuwu—

Ku-gugugu—

That word had basically become the activation chant to summon his creatures.

The moment that word left his mouth, his numerous summons finally revealed themselves around him.

However, he didn't summon Gluttony, just in case; it was simply colossal, so there was a chance of inadvertently breaking this enclosed space if he summoned it.

Clack—

Kneel—

With Prince Nezha clad in armor in the front of the pack, all of the summoned creatures knelt before Su-hyeun.

Their level of intelligence had risen a bit recently. On top of this, they all seemed to have been trained by Prince Nezha or some such because they acted in a restrained and composed manner.

Even from Su-hyeun's perspective, various monsters forming rank and file were a sight to behold. Sure, their number was only at a few dozens, but thanks to their huge build, he would have believed it if someone said there were hundreds of them here.

"I was thinking of getting rid of those summons that just took up space for no good reason, but now, there's no need for that."

[Soul Accumulation]

* You can now accumulate a targeted individual's soul. The number of souls you may accumulate will depend on your proficiency and the soul's grade.

* Proficiency: 0.00

* LV: 10

* The number that can be stored: ∞

[Dead Summoning]

* Summon a body without a soul. The designated body will not decompose and will be stored away. The number that can be stored will rise with your proficiency.

* Proficiency: 0.00

* LV: 10

* The number that can be stored: ∞

The alteration to these two skills was the first thing that happened. The actual number of summoned creatures he could possess denoted by the storage limitations of both "Soul Accumulation" and "Dead Summoning" had changed.

"Soul Accumulation" stored away the target's soul, while "Dead Summoning" stored away its physical body. By having those two, Su-hyeun was given the command over the creature he had felled.

But now, the storage limitation had been completely removed, which meant that he could now command almost an infinite number of summons.

"Of course, it's not really infinite, but still."

Even if he now wielded the godhood of death, Su-hyeun's Death Aura reserve wasn't infinite; a clear limitation to his energy reserve existed, so the number of summons he could command was limited as well.

As an example, even the original owner of the Necromancer trait, Roy, or even the boy's father, couldn't command an infinite number of summons.

Still, with this, something became a certainty now.

"I can command Predators as my summons." Su-hyeun's eyes were sparkling brightly at the thought.

Up until now, Su-hyeun tried to use both the Soul Accumulation and Dead Summoning to command the Predators as his summons, after he hunted them down, of course. However, every time he tried, he failed.

The reason for that was straightforward enough: to actually store away the physical bodies and souls of Predators, he simply required far too many slots in his storage.

Now, with the storage limitation becoming meaningless, he should be able to freely store and summon the souls and flesh of the Predators.

"This...is a far greater harvest than I imagined."

This wasn't some simple increase in the Death Aura stat.

Commanding Predators as his actual summons? There wouldn't be any more confidence-inspiring summons than them, in all honesty.

"Does this mean I do not need to feed Gluttony with the remains of Predators? Well, that's kind of disappointing in a way, but—"

Wriggle—

Just as he began thinking that, something within Su-hyeun's shadow began wriggling around, which drew his attention.

After he activated the Necromancer trait, the summons had appeared near the vicinity of his shadow. However, one creature hadn't been summoned yet.

"...Gluttony?"

Gluttony was directly communicating with Su-hyeun.

It said it wanted to come outside, too.

It said it wanted to show him something, too.

Now that was a completely different behavior from the past. After all, Gluttony was a "Prey" that failed to become a Predator, and not only that, even as a summoned creature, it wasn't all that bright, either.

As such, Gluttony didn't really say anything else to him unless it was to fulfill its hunger.

"But if I let you out now..."

Su-hyeun explained the reason why Gluttony couldn't come outside for now; he said that due to the small space here, the creature could not be summoned.

Even then, the communication from Gluttony remained the same.

A stubborn streak?

Such a thing would be next to impossible to happen in the relationship between the summoned and the summoner, and at this response, Su-hyeun realized that something must've had changed.

"Hold on a minute. It's not just Gluttony now, is it?"

The intelligence level of all the summons continued to improve the more his proficiency with the Necromancer trait, as well as the Death Aura stat, increased, especially more so with Prince Nezha. He could independently make decisions and act according to his will without Su-hyeun's direct communication now. It might be because he used to be the "smartest" of all the summons before his death.

Of course, all of Nezha's decisions were based on his loyalty to Su-hyeun, so he always thought it would also be the same with Gluttony. However, this was slightly different now.

"Maybe it evolved?"

No, it seemed to be a change far greater than that.

Shu-wuwu—

Su-hyeun stored away his other summons first and then spoke to the largest shadow currently in his possession, "Come out, then."

The moment he gave his permission...

Fwhooooosh—!

Gluttony's writhing shadow that had been contained by Su-hyeun's shadow suddenly filled up the entire plain. The mountainous figure of this creature was finally revealing itself.

Up to here was the same development as before, but then...

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"What's this?" Su-hyeun ended up smiling faintly when Gluttony began revealing its true form. "So, that's what it was, huh?"

The shadow that completely filled up the ground was rapidly coalescing into one location, and it coalesced in such a way that it became a relatively smaller figure of a male humanoid around two meters tall.

[The evolution of the summon, Gluttony, has concluded.]

[Gluttony's Stat Window will be generated.]

[Gluttony's grade will change to "Predator."]