The Hero Returns

Act 1

"All of these are…. really?"

Aile's previously cold-as-ice expression finally displayed signs of agitation. There was no need to even mention Keshunirn after he tripped on the bones.

Howal, entering the dungeon the last, grew utterly pale and hurriedly spoke. "I-I bloody knew this would happen." Perhaps he had sensed the off-kilter atmosphere because he turned around and tried to leave right away.

But then…

"Uh, uh? W-what is going on here?"

Howal's voice as he tried to leave the dungeon through the entrance was trembling violently. He tried to wave his hands and insert his feet into the yellow gate behind them, but there was no reaction whatsoever.

"You can't go through?"

"No, I can't! What the hell is going on here?"

Even the comparatively calm Aile got flustered, and Howal was shouting at the top of his lungs. As for Keshunirn, he stood there wordlessly, his blank expression perhaps the result of him getting greatly shocked.

<<What a mess.>>

The so-called leader Keshunirn was far too frozen to analyze this newly developing situation, and Howal was noticeably getting scared. Only Aile seemed to have maintained her cool out of the three. She was certainly doing her best to calmly analyze the situation.

Her abilities were the best among the group, and she also seemed to be more experienced in attacking dungeons as well. Even if such qualities were discounted, her disposition naturally inclined towards being level-headed. Su-hyeun thought that was a type of talent as well.

<<In any case, it's a miracle that they managed to survive for this long.>>

And here he was, wondering why the difficulty seemed so low. As it turned out, that wasn't the case at all. The companions he was supposed to attack the dungeon with were basically extra luggage, while the dungeon itself was also slightly different from the regular ones.

<<A dungeon with a different entrance and exit, is it…. Been a while since I last saw one.>>

According to Su-hyeun's knowledge, this type of dungeon only appeared much later in his own world. Since the dungeons' entrances and exits weren't the same, events of awakeners who didn't adequately prepare beforehand dying commonly occurred.

It seemed that the stage for the current trial was one such dungeon.

Su-hyeun spat out a long sigh and kicked away the skulls near his foot. "Since we can't go back, let's go in deeper for the time being. I mean, we aren't planning to starve ourselves to death now are we?"

There was nothing to gain by staying in this spot. All Su-hyeun wanted was to hurry up and pass this trial, that was all.

"Isn't it better to be more cautious when making our next move? The difficulty of this dungeon is—" Keshunirm began.

"Never mind the difficulty; there is practically nothing we can do by staying here."

Su-hyeun cut off the words of deeply-scared Keshunirm. His reasoning wasn't functioning properly after being affected by fear.

"What do you mean?" That question came from Aile, who managed to be the most level-headed out of them all.

"There are no monsters in the immediate vicinity. You can tell by there not being any reaction even after we made such a ruckus." The rest of the group nodded their heads after hearing Su-hyeun's words.

For sure, if there were monsters nearby, then they wouldn't have stayed away after hearing all the panic-stricken noises made by the group.

"But, if that's the case, it doesn't explain all these skulls strewn about this place. I think we're currently in a garbage dump that the monsters use," said Su-hyeun.

"Garbage dump?"

"Yes. They could be monsters that enjoy preying on humans, but their jaws aren't developed enough to chew through human bones, like Man-eating Starving Ghosts or Silk Mermen."

The two creature types Su-Hyeun mentioned were monsters often found dwelling in cave-type dungeons that preyed on human beings. There was a good possibility that the monsters didn't like having bones cluttering their territory so they dumped them in a single location like this.

"Also…." Su-hyeun stared at the skulls on the ground and continued on. "These people weren't Awakeners."

"They weren't, you say?" Aile asked.

"Even before the clothing near them began rotting away, their bones started decomposing first. I'm sure the monsters' toxicity had a hand in that, but there's a much higher chance of these remains not belonging to awakeners."

The companions began studying the skulls around them once more at Su-hyeun's explanation. And sure enough, it was as he said.

Awakeners possessed a noticeably different body compared to a regular person, and their decomposition happened differently from regular people as well. As their bodies were far tougher, they also decomposed at a far slower rate.

"You… are right?" Keshunirm noted.

"How did you even notice that?" Aile asked.

"H-h-how is that even relevant? We're all about to get killed, anyway!" Howal screamed.

The individual reactions of the three were quite different. As expected, the one stuck in the worst state of panic was Howal.

<<Well, this guy is completely useless….>>

Thankfully, Keshunirn had regained himself quickly enough. As for Aile, she was consistently the most collected figure out of the lot.

<<Maybe these two won't end up as a burden after all.>>

In this type of trial, the achievement percentage would vary according to the number of survivors and the time spent conquering the dungeon itself.

"If you have calmed down sufficiently enough, let's hurry. Whatever the case may be, we still need to find the exit, don't we?"

When Su-hyeun said that, Aile completely regained her cool and nodded her head.

"Let us. I'll lead from the front," said Aile.

Su-hyeun stood side by side with her and began walking forward. Whether it was Su-hyeun remaining fearless in such a situation or Aile moving along with him, they both seemed to possess great tenacity and determination.

<<Was he originally like that?>>

The "Su-hyeun" Keshunirn remembered — or more correctly Warrick — was never a brave and smart guy. It felt as if his personality had changed a little from a while ago, but now, he came across as someone completely different.

Even Aile didn't hold much of a favorable impression of Warrick. From the get-go, this group came together simply because their goals aligned and not because they enjoyed each other's company or anything like that — one could say they were a motley crew.

However, it seemed that Aile started trusting Su-hyeun somewhat after what happened just now. That haughty and talented woman was doing something rather unexpected.

"What are you doing, man? We better hurry up and go after them."

Keshunirn's expression crumpled greatly at the voice coming from behind him. That gloomy, wispy voice always managed to ruin his mood every time he heard it. To make matters worse, Howal was still trying to hide behind him.

<<Goddammit. Fine, what can I do, really?>>

It was his fault for accepting a guy like this as a part of the group, saying that he had a bit of skill. Eventually, Keshunirn began following after the quietly-walking pair of Su-hyeun and Aile up ahead.

* * *

The dungeon's interior was damp.

Drops of water fell from the ceiling to create streams here and there, while the chilly air tickled their skin.

The dungeon was so quiet that even the water drops could be heard so clearly. Not only that, but the interior was so dark that they couldn't even see an inch in front of their noses.

"Uh, uh-uh?"

Howal tripped and began tottering. As he couldn't see his front, he lost the sense of balance and his steps had become unstable.

"Are you alright?" Su-hyeun asked.

"I-I'm sorry."

Howal's voice was shaky. It was pretty uncommon to see a rank B Awakener tripping over something regardless of how dark it was. In other words, that was how tense they were currently.

"Don't be so tense and take it easy," said Su-hyeun.

"Hiiieek!"

The moment Su-hyeun finished saying his piece, the howling of a monster traveled out from the deeper parts of the cave. It was an eerie, high-pitched screech like that of a ghost.

The deathly-frightened Howal was startled silly and hurriedly backed away, while Keshunirn swallowed his saliva out of sheer nervousness.

"I'm telling you, you don't have to be so tense." Su-hyeun stared at Howal with unimpressed eyes and continued on. "I'll be hunting them down all by myself, anyway."

"….Wha?"

"Don't even think about trying to help out, and stay put so that you won't get in my way."

"Hey, you crazy son of…"

Rumble—

Howal was triggered by Su-hyeun's words, but had to clamp his mouth shut after spotting dozens of flames that suddenly appeared all around them.

He wasn't the only surprised one, however. The rest of the group was also the same.

Kiii-hihihihihi—

The screeches were drawing closer.

Su-hyeun started walking slowly towards the screeches. The other three stood there and simply stared at him.

They had instinctively realized that the dozens of flames appearing around Su-hyeun were created out of the concentration of magical energy one level higher than theirs.

Su-hyeun didn't even care whether the other three were moving or not.

This trial was supposed to be about attacking the dungeon together with those people, but the thing was, it didn't really apply to him.

<<Their number is around twelve… Well, it doesn't matter if there were one or two more, anyway.>>

Su-hyeun observed the monsters gradually entering his visual range. They were bizarre-looking bipedal fish creatures covered in scales. The land-bound monsters with the name of Silk Merman mainly called damp caverns like this one their home. They also appeared rather frequently in the entrances of yellow and green colored dungeons.

<<Looks like this place's difficulty is on the higher side among the yellow-colored dungeons, judging from the appearances of Silk Mermen.>>

Compared to the yellow-colored dungeon Su-hyeun conquered for the first time a year ago, this one's difficulty seemed to be higher. After all, only Lizardcops showed up back then.

"Thankfully, it doesn't seem like I need to use my head."

Su-hyeun smirked deeply. The fact that the dungeon's difficulty was high was actually a welcome piece of news for Su-hyeun.

If the difficulty were lower, he'd have been worried. A lower difficulty would potentially mean that besides attacking the dungeon, there was something else he needed to consider.

However, what the trial asked of him was clearer if the dungeon's difficulty was quite high to begin with. It could very much mean that without any unexpected variables, he'd not really need to get crafty here. He rather welcomed such a straightforward trial like this.

<<It'd be a waste of magical energy if I kill them with Flame.>>

The scales of the Silk Mermen were unexpectedly hard, but their magic resistance was also quite considerable as well.

<<As I thought, cutting them down is the best.>>

Shu-kaaahk—

The moment he sprinted towards the Silk Mermen, Su-hyeun also unsheathed the sword from his waist.

The Silk Mermen's bizarre-looking maws split wide open as they pounced on him. They seemed slow and lumbering initially but when they attacked, they did so with an explosive turn of speed.

Craa-aack—

Sliiiiiice—!

However, it was still too much of an ask to reach Su-hyeun. The moment he drew his sword, the Silk Mermen's maws were sliced clean off.

He didn't need to spend a lot of magical energy either. He only needed just enough to activate the magical blade already present within Gram.

The cleanly-bisected corpses of the Silk Mermen were soon discarded on the ground. However, these monsters lacked the fear of death and continued to pounce on Su-hyeun, not caring at all about the demise of their own kin.

Stomp—!

Su-heyun stepped on the head of a Silk Mermen that dashed in front of him and leaped upwards. Once he reached the ceiling of the cave, he quickly scanned the locations of still-surviving Silk Mermen.

<<One, two…>>

He inwardly counted their numbers as per his habit and finished his preparation.

<<Three.>>

Su-hyeun's figure rapidly dug in and struck them with his sword before leaping back up in the air. And so, after he rapidly scythed past the space and wielded his sword several times like this, the Silk Mermen ceased all of their movements.

Splaaaash—!

Fountains of blood exploded from the necks of the Silk Mermen.

The monsters with half-severed necks stopped moving and collapsed to the ground.

It was then that light leaked out from the dead Silk Mermen and entered into Su-hyeun's chest.

[Warmth has been added to the Divine Beast's Egg.]

[The Divine Beast's Egg has….]

"….Uh?"

That was an unexpected reaction.

Su-hyeun then recalled the egg he had half-forgotten about stored inside his inventory.