The Hero Returns

* * *

Crack, split, craaaack—

Visible cracks appeared on the dome-shaped barrier.

It didn't take long for one crack to become many. The white cracks rapidly multiplied before the rays of a bright light spread outside the barrier altogether.

SHATTER—!

RUMBLE, KA-BOOM—!

The moment the barrier shattered to bits, a deafening thunderclap exploded outside. The noise not only filled up the underground space but also rocked the ground above. For a moment there, the ground rumbled ominously, causing the terrain to shake.

Fortunately, the artificial earthquake ended very quickly, all thanks to Su-hyeun quickly withdrawing his power.

"Fuu-wuu..." Su-hyeun sighed at length as he landed softly back in the center of the magic circle. One slip up from him, and the impact force could've spread out to the surface.

"That was way too close for comfort."

For a split second there, it felt like the inside of his head blanked out.

Su-hyeun recalled the gigantic Thunder Dragon that Zeus had manifested, and using his own powers, he tried to recreate it.

He was still unsure of the underlying principle of how to create that dragon. It was kind of similar to how he couldn't explain the principle of acquiring the qualification of godhood and materializing the power associated with it.

He had acquired the Godhood of Sky and was currently wearing the Thunder Glove, which contained the Godhood of Thunder.

When he combined those two powers, he was able to imitate Zeus's power to some degree, allowing him to recreate the Thunder Dragon.

The destructive power of this Thunder Dragon was even greater than Su-hyeun had anticipated.

"To think that it exceeded the regenerative rate of the magic circle..."

The magic circle was built on the principle of sucking out Su-hyeun's energy to recover itself whenever impact forces landed on the barrier.

The most impact would not be able to shatter the barrier. When its durability did decrease from impact forces, it would recover right away. So, unless Su-hyeun keeled over from exhaustion, no impact force should leak outside the barrier.

Of course, the only way to shatter it was an overwhelming destructive power that exceeded the barrier's regenerative rate.

At the very least, Su-hyeun didn't possess a technique powerful enough for that—until now.

Still...

"This is great," Su-hyeun smiled.

He was very much satisfied right now.

Sure, he did get a bit flustered after the barrier shattered, but regardless of what, the power of this new technique being so ridiculous could only be great news for him.

The magical energy consumption was just as ridiculous. Still, this attack would serve as a perfect hidden trump card against a strong opponent in the future.

Su-hyeun now found himself with a new task for the time being.

"Learning to control the Thunder Dragon takes priority."

The Thunder Dragon was on another realm compared to his other techniques.

It was created by combining the god-tier item Thunder Glove, his godhood, prana, and finally, magical energy. At this point, it was basically a new life form created and controlled by Su-hyeun's will.

Not only restricting its power output but even controlling its direction would not be an easy task. It should take some effort on his part if he wanted to create a Thunder Dragon as big as the one Zeus had created or control it freely without any restrictions.

"But before all that..."

Now that he was finished confirming his newly acquired power, he needed to move on to the next topic.

He hurriedly left the underground space, utterly unaware that he had caused the whole of the Jongno Tower to shake unsteadily. As a result, the building's inhabitants were panicking.

* * *

"Okay, so, you're saying this is the hammer of Hephaestus?" Kim Dae-ho asked with a disbelieving face while staring at the hammer that Su-hyeun brought along.

Su-hyeun made a troubled face before smiling awkwardly. Honestly, even he thought that it all sounded rather implausible despite him being the one who said it.

"Yes, it's true, uncle."

"Dammit, man. Say something that makes sense, will ya?"

"No, I'm being serious."

"Oh, so you met a god that only shows up in some ancient myths, won a wager, and then got your hands on this hammer? Huh. You punk, who in their right mind will believe such a tale?"

Indeed, this story sounded too absurd to be believable.

Obviously, Kim Da-ho didn't believe Su-hyeun's story at all. He was not an awakener, but even other awakeners would still have found the events Su-hyeun had gone through rather hard to believe.

"Uncle, just grab it first. You'll see."

"Really now...You and your stubborn streak."

Kim Dae-ho just couldn't keep saying no, so he reached out and grabbed the hammer's handle. Only then did he stop talking.

Su-hyeun wordlessly stared at Kim Dae-ho, who was frozen solid like an app experiencing a processing error.

And so, a few minutes of silence later...

"T—this," Kim Dae-ho slowly opened his lips, "It's the real deal?"

Unlike before, the disbelief in his voice was significantly less.

In response, Su-hyeun nodded without hesitation. If the question was about whether this hammer really belonged to Hephaestus or not, then, of course, it was the genuine article.

Kim Dae-ho could only chuckle softly and let his admiration show, "With this, I can't not believe you, now can I?"

"So, you believe me now?" Su-hyeun smirked softly.

Hephaestus's hammer was made of adamantium. Although it didn't have a hidden option of imbuing special magic or extra sturdiness to the bits of steel it hit, another effect—something even more decisive—was at work. It granted Hephaestus's memories and experiences to any blacksmith who wielded this hammer.

Su-hyeun, too, had experienced this effect, which wasn't surprising since he had held the hammer several times already.

"Although, when I had it in my grip, the things I saw were blurry like a veil of fog," he thought.

Hephaestus was the God of Blacksmithing. His hammer, therefore, wouldn't grant any noticeable effect to the ones who didn't think of themselves as blacksmiths.

It also meant that this item would display the greatest effect when wielded by Kim Dae-ho, a man whose pride of being a blacksmith was stronger than anyone else out there.

"What is it that you want to be made?" Kim Dae-ho's eyes were dangerously gleaming now.

To him, this hammer of Hephaestus would be the greatest, most valuable treasure without equal in the entire world.

A hammer permeating with the power of God of Blacksmithing?

Kim Dae-ho was the world's best blacksmith, and as such, he had nothing left to learn. A blacksmith better than him didn't exist in this world, and it would be impossible for him to learn something from someone else in the first place.

However, the story would greatly change with Hephaestus's hammer. To Kim Dae-ho, this hammer was the greatest teacher imaginable.

Through this hammer, he would step even closer to the realm of the God of Blacksmithing.

"Just, you know, please keep doing what you've been doing until now."

"What I've been doing until now, you say?"

"Yes. Uncle, you've already been crafting things that I wanted, haven't you? From the armor I'm wearing to this sword and everything else, too."

As long as Hephaestus had access to the right materials, he was good enough to create god-tier items on the level of Zeus's Thunder Glove.

And now, Kim Dae-ho was wielding Hephaestus's hammer. Even if the level of his crafted items would not exactly match what the God of Blacksmithing produced, they should still be quite close.

Without a doubt, items crafted by Kim Dae-ho should prove to be a great deal of help to Su-hyeun from now on.

"I see. In that case," Kim Dae-ho closed his eyes for a moment, his hand still gripping the hammer. It seemed that he was absorbing the memories permeating the hammer.

Then, his eyes shot open without warning, "Give me your sword and armor."

"My sword and armor? Why?"

"I didn't make them correctly," Kim Dae-ho said something no one expected him to say. "Adamantium wasn't supposed to be handled that way."

* * *

Su-hyeun handed over his sword and armor to Kim Dae-ho and then left the workshop.

The latter's mood was too serious for them to catch up on what happened during Su-hyeun's absence. After receiving the sword and the armor, Kim Dae-ho said, "Come back in 10 days," and shut himself up in the workshop right away.

Su-hyeun somehow ended up losing his sword and armor, but it didn't really matter to him.

"Well, I still have Kali's Armor, plus he did give me a pretty good sword as a sub, anyway."

Kim Dae-ho's workshop was home to lots of excellent equipment. Although they didn't contain adamantium, several pieces of his equipment were still amazing enough to drive the whole world into a frenzy if they were ever put up for sale.

He picked up the best sword among his creations and gave it to Su-hyeun while saying, "Please return it after using it for a little while."

Of course, even a sword this good was merely okay to Su-hyeun. Compared to his own sword with the Palm Leaf residing within, all the other swords might as well be common kitchen knives sold in supermarkets.

Not to mention, Su-hyeun's skills weren't so subpar that he had to rely on a good sword all the time.

And so, after he emerged from the workshop...

Vrrr—

Su-hyeun's phone began ringing. Lee Ju-ho was calling him.

It hadn't even been a day yet—only a few hours—but he was getting in touch already.

"Hello? Have you found something already?" Su-hyeun asked.

"Ah, no. We're still looking. Where are you, though?"

"I'm on my way out after chatting to Uncle Kim."

"Well, you sure went somewhere far, didn't you? You should hurry back here, though. Someone's looking for you."

"Looking for me? Who is it?"

"That foreigner little brother of yours. The one you were hanging around with the last time."

Su-hyeun's brows shot up. There could be only one "foreigner little brother" of Su-hyeun that Lee Ju-ho knew of.

"And why is that guy over there?"

Since "he" had been introduced as a "little brother," Su-hyeun couldn't refer to him with a more polite term.

Lee Ju-ho was someone with quick wits. Even so, he pretended to be falling for this line of excuse and expertly changed the subject, "How should I know? Besides all that. What did you do down in the underground training area?"

"Sorry?"

"The whole of Jongno Tower was shaking around earlier, you know. Everyone panicked back then, wondering if a dungeon suddenly opened up in the basement or something. Fortunately, it ended pretty quickly."

"Oh."

"What do you mean, 'oh'? In any case, hurry back here."

Lee Ju-ho ended the call there.

Su-hyeun groaned while sensing a sudden wave of mental fatigue rushing in. He was thinking of taking a bit of downtime, but now it felt like a rather troublesome matter had landed on his lap.

"I better take care of this quickly and get some rest."

Su-hyeun stepped forward, and when he did, the road before his eyes began "folding."

[Earth Shrink Technique]

Step—

Every step he took equated to hundreds of steps.

The scenery changed several times, and eventually, the Jongno Tower came into view. He took another step, and the door to the chairman's office appeared next.

He reached out and lightly knocked on the door.

Knock, knock—

"Who is it?"

"It's me, bro. I'm coming in."

Clunk—

Su-hyeun opened the door and stepped inside the office.

Tumble, crash—!

"Heok?! Haaahk?" Clearly stunned, Lee Ju-ho tried to push the chair back to stand, only to ungainly tumble on his butt. His heart was pounding as if he saw a scary phantom or some such, so he hurriedly patted his chest to calm himself down. "W—what the heck? Didn't you say you just finished speaking to Uncle Kim?"

"Yes, I was. I came from there directly."

"Wait, were you pulling a fast one on me? If not, did you, like, use teleportation or something to go poof and appear here? You shocked me, dude."

"I was worried about you getting a heart attack, so I didn't enter the office straight away, but it seems it was a useless worry in the end."

Lee Ju-ho stood back up right away, indicating that falling on his butt didn't hurt him much.

As for Luslec, he could not say anything at this sudden commotion and had to quietly observe the situation from the side. When he met Su-hyeun's gaze, he grinned brightly and waved his hand, "It's been a while!"

"For now, let's talk elsewhere," Su-hyeun gestured at Luslec, telling the latter to follow him. If possible, he didn't want the conversation they were about to have in front of other people.

Fortunately, Luslec seemed to understand Su-hyeun's intention and followed him without any complaints. They headed to the rooftop of the Jongno Tower.

Creak, thunk—

Su-hyeun locked the roof access door behind them. Now that they were alone, he turned around to face Luslec, who was still smiling, and asked, "Why did you come here this time?"

"I wanted to see you. Didn't I mention this already? I'm your biggest fan."

"Didn't you promise not to come to this side if you can help it? And if you must come, then you said you'd contact me first, too."

"Honestly, I wanted to see you, so I just hopped back here. The food I ate the last time I was here was top-tier stuff, and well, I was thinking of going on a short sightseeing tour, too."

"Are those really your reasons?"

Su-hyeun's eyes were filled with bluish light.

Luslec's smile was finally erased after he noticed those eyes. He avoided looking into those eyes and turned his head in another direction, "Are you going to use Insight? That's cheating, you know?"

"Although I can't read what's in your mind, I can still figure out whether you're lying or not, at least. I don't need Insight to figure that out this time."

"Aha, is that so?" Luslec asked back, his head still turned away. It seemed that he was definitely not a fan of the idea of his intentions being read by Su-hyeun's Insight.

Su-hyeun understood that sentiment all too well, but he still had to do this. Unlike how Luslec knew so much about him, he knew almost nothing about Luslec at this stage.

"Actually, it's good that you're here like this. There's something I've been curious about for a while now, you see."

"You were curious about something?"

"The god supporting you, among the Five Godly Sages, who is it?" Su-hyeun's Insight became stronger as the blue light in his eyes swirled. "Just who ordered you to keep an eye on me?"