The Hero Returns

[God Title: Combat]

* A God Title given only to the one born with the fate of constant battles or the one who must fight and win to protect what he cares about

* All Stats: +5 when entering combat situations

* Maintains the most optimum physical condition when entering combat situations

* Additional rise in Stats corresponding to the exhaustion of stamina

The God of Combat—now that was a completely unexpected God Title.

Su-hyeun had been hearing the term "Hero" for so long and so many times by now that he was rather sick of it, but not even once before in his entire life did he think that he actually enjoyed fighting.

Since that was the case, he never imagined that he would end up with such a God Title, but now...

"Wait. A God Title isn't something that I come up with, right?" Su-hyeun thought.

Indeed, a God Title wasn't something he would get to choose, but someone else—the entire world even—had chosen for him. Also, maybe the fate you were born with could be a deciding factor in choosing that title.

If so, it made some sense. Su-hyeun had been constantly fighting until now, after all.

When it came to the matters of "combat," he was confident of not losing to even Ares, who was supposed to be the God of War and Destruction.

Honestly speaking, though, the title itself wasn't really important to him. Indeed, the truly important thing for him was the effects accompanying the God Title.

"Five-point increase in all of the stats?"

That effect immediately caught his attention out of everything else. It wasn't just one or two points but five points. Enhancements of stats to such a degree would be no less significant than acquiring a completely new and better physical ability.

Not only that, it wasn't just one stat like Strength or Agility that had been improved but all of the stats. What a blatantly cheat ability this was.

As for the other effect, the one about him entering the most optimum physical state when entering a battle? He wasn't sure what that could mean. He figured that he would need to be in a real fight to find out.

Finally...

"This part about my stats rising in relation to stamina exhaustion...That sounds like a Berserker skill or something pretty close to it."

Fundamentally, the God Title of "God of Combat" focused all of its boosts on physical abilities. Su-hyeun was feeling very much satisfied here. No, wait—this was well above and beyond his expectations.

"Hero and Combat, hmm," Zeus listened to Su-hyeun's God Titles and slowly nodded. "I have to say, they are rather good titles, and they suit you well."

"You think so?" Su-hyeun replied, only to stare at Zeus's face for a long while without saying anything else.

The latter asked with an expression of someone who was portraying innocence, "Is there something else you'd like to say?"

"Don't you have something important to tell me?"

There was no doubt in Su-hyeun's mind that Zeus was connected to the Tower somehow.

Su-hyeun sounded so sure just now, forcing a troubled expression to appear on Zeus's face. He glanced to his side, only to discover that Hades was making a deeply mischievous smirk.

"Hmm…I'll be outside for a bit."

"But brother—"

"Aren't you two going to talk about 'that' topic, which is something you can't even tell me, your own brother, about? I don't know what you Five Godly Sages are cooking up, but at the very least, I can tell that you have great expectations of this punk, as well as Hercules."

Shu-wuwu...

Black smokes oozed out all around Hades. That energy seemed rather similar to the Death Aura Su-hyeun possessed, but its density was far greater.

The black smoke soon seemingly erased the lower half of Hades. He gradually vanished along with the black smoke, and eventually, only his head remained. That was when he opened his mouth to say something else, "I shall speak to you later, little brother."

Zeus remained quiet as he watched Hades disappear and then let out a long and heavy groan.

Surprisingly, it seemed that Zeus was not a very good liar. Then again, he would have never been in a position where he had to lie. He was an existence who could always afford to be upfront and honest about everything. As such, there wouldn't be a need for him to lie, and in those times where he simply had to, he was very bad at it.

"Benefactor, there are only a few things I can tell you at this stage."

"Is it because of that restriction thing the Administrators talk about?"

"Honestly speaking, it was us who placed that restriction. As for us, it's not a restriction but far closer to a pledge, a promise, among ourselves," said Zeus.

He then settled down comfortably on the spot. From the looks of things, the story he was about to unpack would be a long one.

"What I can tell you without holding back is the information related to the 201st floor."

"But I can already get that kind of info from the Administrator."

"You'd need to spend your hard-earned points for that, though. Getting it from me is totally free, isn't it? Besides, this info? Let me tell you, it's incredibly expensive."

When Su-hyeun heard this, something about this exchange sounded way too familiar. Without a doubt, the blond-haired old man before him was Zeus, so why did he sound like—

"An Administrator?"

"Well, they are our representatives, after all. It's obvious that we come across as rather similar to one another."

Representatives? Meaning, they were Apostles.

However, this revelation was not an earth-shattering one to him since Su-hyeun had already suspected that the Administrators could very well be Apostles of some other gods.

What Zeus said just now simply reaffirmed Su-hyeun's thoughts.

"In that case, the one who created the Tower and the Tower's system..."

"It was indeed us who created the system, yes," said Zeus.

Just as an "I knew it" expression floated upon Su-hyeun's face, a completely unexpected answer was said to him next.

"However, it was not us who created the Tower."

"It was not? Then, who—?"

"Unfortunately, that's a difficult subject to answer. I'm sorry." Rather than lie, Zeus chose to shut his mouth and bow his head.

Su-hyeun thought that it would be useless to continue pressing for more answers. An individual like Zeus with a straightforward, old-fashioned, and honest personality would never divulge information if he determined it was not something to be shared.

So, Su-hyeun decided to not rack his brain over another way to dig out information and asked about something else, "Since your group has created the system, you must know about the existence of the dungeons, yes?"

"Yes, of course."

"In that case, is there a way to eliminate them altogether?"

Su-hyeun had two goals.

One was to kill Fafnir. He had already experienced his world being destroyed by Fafnir, so he wanted to prevent that history from repeating itself.

And finally, the other goal he would try to achieve after killing that Predator was to ultimately eliminate all types of dungeons. Indeed, it was to completely wipe out all dungeons from existence.

After he asked his question, Su-hyeun's heart began pounding faster than ever before.

If he was lucky here, then...

And so, when a brief moment that felt like an eternity passed them by, Zeus made his reply, "I do not know."

"Oh..."

It wasn't "I can't tell you," but "I don't know."

It felt like his expectations that had ballooned up to a huge size suddenly got deflated with a hole in the side.

This development was not surprising. There was no way things would be resolved this conveniently, after all. Su-hyeun didn't expect everything to be resolved simply because he met and spoke to Zeus, so he was able to swallow this disappointment to some extent.

He asked again, "In that case, do you know the reason why dungeons are generated in the first place?"

"Benefactor, I believe you're already aware of the connection between the Predators and the dungeons you speak of."

"Yes, of course. Hard not to be aware of it, actually."

Fafnir was a monster that popped out of a dungeon. And it was a Predator, too. So, he could easily guess that dungeons and Predators were connected somehow.

"A dungeon is a type of system set by the Predators to devour a world much more easily. They use dungeons to lead many different worlds to their doom and then appear at the last moment to prey on those dying worlds."

"Sounds like they are a viral infection."

"Yes, quite similar. Dungeons that increase in numbers in this fashion operate to achieve the ultimate goal, that is, to satisfy the desire of the existence responsible for creating this dungeon system in the first place."

"The existence responsible for creating the dungeon system?"

"Yes. The one who detests the universe, and as such, his ultimate aim is to destroy the universe. One of the Three Destroyers, Shiva."

The Three Destroyers—the ranking given to the top-tier Predators that existed just below the rung of the One Overlord.

And so, the existence responsible for the dungeon creation had been finally brought up, prompting Su-hyeun's whole body to tense up without him even realizing it.

He asked, "Your group, the Five Godly Sages, do you perceive these dungeons as a threat?"

"Yes, of course. They are a threat. Individually, they may not amount to much, but their overall numbers are rapidly approaching that threat level even as we speak. At this rate, it won't be long before dungeons completely overtake the entire universe."

"In that case, can't we just kill that Shiva?"

By killing the one who created the dungeons, it could be possible to destroy the dungeon system itself.

It was an obvious guess since Zeus did mention that these dungeons were created out of Shiva's desire, his will, of wanting to destroy the universe.

"Well, locating where he's hiding is a big quandary, but more than that…" Zeus trailed off. It seemed that there was more than one problem to consider here. "Even if he's found, he's not someone we can easily kill, either."

"Even with the combined might of the Five Godly Sages?"

"Shiva might be one of the Three Destroyers, but in all honesty, he should be considered as a 'Primordial God.' Just like how the universe was born, the universe will one day be destroyed. And Shiva as an existence is destined to lead the universe to that destruction."

"Wait, he's not a Predator but a god?"

"Initially, he was a god. Although, that's no longer the case now."

Was that a similar situation to Hercules?

It became easier to understand when looking at it from the angle of how a god became a slave to a specific emotion or to his desire and fell from their godhood to end up as a monster.

Even then, it was still surprising. The Three Destroyers were the highest tier of Predators, excluding the One Overlord, so, to think that Shiva, one of the Three Destroyers, was originally a god...

"He's a Primordial God, born to destroy a universe. And to defeat such an existence, one or two of the Five Godly Sages will simply not be enough."

"Hah-ah..." Su-hyeun let out a long groan.

So, in conclusion, there was no good way of stopping the dungeons. With this revelation, his worries became more serious.

"His explanation implies that the destruction of the universe has already commenced, doesn't it?" he thought.

Now the problem no longer involved only Su-hyeun's world. No, this problem was far, far graver and larger in scale than he ever imagined.

He was starting to get a migraine from these unbelievable things being told to him.

"Please, do not be too concerned. We are also doing our best to come up with a suitable solution regarding that quandary, and we have already established a defensive measure of our own to counter that threat."

"That defensive measure, are you referring to our system?"

Zeus became silent once more. He pondered something for a little while before nodding slowly, "Yes, that was definitely a part of our purpose."

"In other words, there is something else besides…"

"Yes. Unfortunately, that's all I can reveal to you at this stage. My apologies."

"No, this much is already enough, if I'm being honest. If I hear more, I think my head will split in half."

The dungeons, the Tower, and the accompanying system—to awakeners, those three things served as chains that tightly bound them together. The sudden appearance of dungeons and the Tower of Trials and then the appearance of the awakeners who became stronger through the system's powers all happened so close to one another that it might very well be called "simultaneous."

As such, it was not hard to hear theories of how the dungeons' appearance prompted the Tower to appear, too. Of course, quite a few people questioned that order of things.

Was it really the case of the system appearing because dungeons showed up? Or were the dungeons the result of the system?

The truth was, it was the former.

Dungeons, which were created through Shiva, made their presence known first, and to defend against that, the system was created as the defense mechanism.

"Ah, and one more thing," Su-hyeun abruptly recalled what Hades said earlier. "Lord Hades brought up this topic earlier, didn't he? That the Five Godly Sages have great expectations of Hercules and me. May I ask, what do you expect from us exactly?"

"I heard that it's 'transformation.'"

"Transformation? What kind are we talking about here?"

"Unfortunately, even I'm not sure of it. I wasn't the one who saw that future. My Insight is even worse than Apollo's."

"You are not sure?"

What an absurd story this was—they were expecting great things from him, but they didn't know what to expect?

However, it didn't look like Zeus was lying here, either.

"Please don't be too concerned. At the very least, you won't come to harm, benefactor. Also, it should happen not too long from now."

"Meaning, you want me to find out for myself."

"No, what I'm saying is that there's no need to go out of your way to investigate because you'll find out soon enough. However, if you still wish to learn more, then I advise you to seek out Master Subhuti."

"Master Subhuti?"

"Yes. He's one of the Five Godly Sages. He's the first human to ascend to godhood and also the person who taught Sage Arts to both the Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven and the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal."

"He taught my older brothers?"

Su-hyeun knew that a human taught both Sun Wukong and the Bull Demon King the Sage Arts. However, he had no idea that such a person would be one of the Five Godly Sages.

Zeus continued, "He's also responsible for thinking up the system. His Insight is the greatest among the ranks of the Five Godly Sages."

And so, Su-hyeun now had to add one more name to the list of people—or gods in this case—that he needed to meet.

Thankfully, he already had points of contact, which happened to be Sun Wukong and the Bull Demon King. Through these two, maybe Su-hyeun would get to speak to Master Subhuti sooner or later.

"It seems that our conversation will have to come to an end here," Zeus suddenly said and raised his head while Su-hyeun was submerged in his thoughts. "Athena, what's the matter?"

Almost at the same time, a crest shaped like a shield materialized near the ceiling. The square shield featured the image of a monster with a snake's head.

"Father Zeus, head god of Olympus, I bring you unfortunate news," said a low-pitched and genderless voice that came from that shield crest.

"Poseidon has fallen in battle, father."