The Hero Returns

Act 1

Boooom—!

Su-hyeun's figure exploded forward like a loaded spring.

Countless snakes pounced on him. He was carrying a sword and a spear in each of his hands.

[Dragon-slaying spear.]

Wuuuung—

The spear gripped in Su-hyeun's hand vibrated noisily. He stopped dashing forward for a moment, stood still, and powerfully threw the spear towards the target in his front.

Swiiiiiish—

Puh-pupupupupuhk—!

The dragon-slaying spear split into thousands of pieces and swept away the snakes blocking his path. However, that was still not enough.

There were simply far too many snakes for the dragon-slaying spear to effectively reduce their numbers. The path opened up for only the briefest moment before closing back up.

<<One more time.>>

Su-hyeun extended his hand towards the empty air. It happened the moment he grasped one of the two remaining dragon-slaying spears stored in the subspace.

His vision rocked greatly and an abnormality occurred to his sense of balance. Up and down got mixed up, and his innards tumbled so much that it felt like he'd throw up at any second.

It was poison.

"Dammit…."

Grit—

Su-hyeun clenched his teeth.

He released the dragon-slaying spear gripped in his hand. Instead, he swung the sword held in his other hand in a huge arc and spun his entire body around.

Paaaaahk—!

Snakes soundlessly pouncing on him got cut into pieces and fell on the floor.

Right afterwards, he raised his foot up and stomped hard. The head of a snake sneaking closer on the floor was crushed to bits. In the meantime, his dizzy vision regained its focus little by little and his surroundings grew brighter.

Shiiiiii, hiiissss—

Innumerable snakes completely filled up Su-hyeun's vision. Never mind his front and back, every direction was utterly filled up by them. Not only that, but poison was also rapidly spreading inside his body with every passing second.

<<Doesn't look like I can take my time anymore.>>

Even if these things were small, each and every single one of these b*stards was Ouroboros's clones. He shouldn't take the poison these things carried lightly.

The strength of the poison itself might have been weak due to the small bodies of each clone, but now that it had begun spreading, things would only get more disadvantageous for him as time went on.

<<I don't have the time to detoxify myself, either.>>

He needed to reach Ouroboros's heart as quickly as possible.

Sliiiiice—

His sword laden with magical energy stretched forward, and the path opened up momentarily. However, snakes quickly filled it back up. Su-hyeun wrapped his entire body with the divine Flame and began dashing forward towards his target.

Sliiiiice—!

Every time he swung the sword, dozens upon dozens of snakes were cut in half.

Perhaps his complete disregard for defense while running forward was to blame here, as several snakes managed to bite and cling onto Su-hyeun.

It couldn't be helped, though — this was a race against time from here onward. As the poison had already begun spreading inside him, he decided to not to sweat about getting bitten a few times more.

He cut, then cut down some more. And then, forced his way forward.

[Fatigue: 68.]

"Pant, pant…."

Was it because poison had spread throughout his body?

As he hadn't been holding back with his magical energy reserve while fighting, his fatigue level rose up quite high in no time at all. His health must've fallen quite a lot as well because he kept panting heavily with every step.

Still, his reward was that the distance had closed up considerably.

While repeatedly swinging the sword, he confirmed his fatigue level, only for his eyes to gleam just then.

<<Now.>>

[Fatigue: 70.]

[Trait Hero-Immortality is activating.]

[Vitality and stamina will recover rapidly. Abnormal status conditions will partially recover.]

[Overall stats will increase slightly.]

His previously-dizzy head grew clearer and energy returned to his body.

It was not just his stamina, but also his magic energy reserve that was filled right back up, perhaps even more so than before. It was because the Hero-class skill that activated only during the moments of crisis, Immortality, had been activated.

Slaaaash—!

His powerfully-swung swords cut down countless snakes blocking his path. Su-hyeun stepped on the torn pieces of the fallen snake torsos and leaped forward once more.

There didn't seem to be an end no matter how many he cut down. Especially more so near the heart — so many snakes had bunched up together with the organ as their center that there was hardly any room to stand.

Su-hyeun extended his hand to the empty air once more. He grasped the two remaining dragon-slaying spears inside the subspace.

He held both spears in one hand pulled them out. This would be really his final attack.

Creeeeeeaaaaak—

As he ran forward, his arm was jerked back greatly.

His strength had doubled from his normal state due to the effects of the Immortality skill. Even his magic energy's quality had risen up far higher than before, which meant the same thing had happened to the amplification factor, as well.

The dragon-slaying spears vibrated harshly as if they would shatter at any second when he poured his magical energy into them.

While gripping both spears with one hand, he restricted his own strength to make sure that the magic energy wouldn't explode out of his control. He only had one shot. So, he patiently held back and held back some more. He didn't hastily throw the spears and continued to store his power.

Kyaaaaahk—!

And, moments before a snake's wide-open maw was about to swallow Su-hyeun's head whole—

Flash!

Su-hyeun's arm shot forward and at the same time, a blue light flashed and blinded the entire area.

Kwa-kwakwakwa—

Splaaaaash—

All the snakes blocking Su-hyeun's path dissipated in an instant. The spears had shattered into small pieces and scattered, ripping and tearing apart the bodies of every creature before him in the process. And now, an empty path that used to be filled up with nothing but snakes revealed itself.

Su-hyeun rushed forward on this path. It didn't take him long to reach the small heart.

Ba-dump, ba-dump.

This small watermelon-sized heart was supplying Ouroboros's entire body with energy.

Swiiiish—

Claaang—

Su-hyeun's sword slammed down on the heart.

Claaaang, pang—!

However, the blade simply bounced away.

The sword vibrated harshly and blood seeped out from the torn webbings of his hands. A slight crack formed on the heart's surface, but it was not sliced open.

<<Now that's hard.>>

Ouroboros's heart was somewhat different in composition than regular living creatures' organs. From the get-go, the gigantic snake monster didn't possess any internal organs, and just a small energy source was enough to power this massive body. This small heart was precisely that power source capable of moving a body dozens of meters wide and several kilometers long.

Ruuumble—

The surrounding space rumbled and quaked, and a loud screech could be heard coming from the outside. Ouroboros was howling in pain from the impact force felt on its heart.

<<It's working.>>

Su-hyeun swung his sword again.

Claaang—

Su-hyeun repeatedly swung his sword down.

However, the membrane enveloping the heart wasn't easy to break; this was the last defensive measure Ouroboros had put up to protect its heart.

Even then, it still began developing cracks little by little from Su-hyeun's sword reinforced by his Immortality skill.

His sole problem was that he didn't have a lot of time left.

Hiiiiiss—!

Paaaahk—!

Su-hyeun spun around and swung his sword towards the snakes already pouncing on him from behind. Although he managed to clear the path once, there were still countless snakes to be found within Ouroboros's body.

From the very start, it was an impossibility to cut down all these snakes.

<<I need a little more time….>>

Gya-ong—!

Miru revealed its figure just above Su-hyeun's head. His dragon had never come outside without his permission before. That was down to his strict education, but at least right now, he was really happy to see Miru acting independently like this.

"Miru!"

Ruuumble—

"I'll leave it to you for a little while."

[Breath.]

Crimson flames burst out from Miru's mouth.

Bodies of the snakes pouncing on them from all sides began melting down. Miru might not have been able to fire its Breath many times, but this attack still possessed far higher destructive power than any other skill.

He decided to leave the rear to Miru.

Su-hyeun began swinging his sword down on the heart again.

Clang, claaang—!

Craaack—

The membrane surrounding the heart broke away little by little.

He was running out of time. As Immortality was a cheat-like skill, its duration wasn't all that long.

[Breath.]

Another Breath was fired out from Miru's mouth just then.

That was already the second one. The number of Breaths Miru could fire was limited to only two.

However…

Gya-ohk, gya-ooong—

Rumble—

Miru squeezed out every ounce of magical energy it still had for one last time. And then, just as a snake fell from above and tried to bite Su-hyeun's head, for the first time ever, a third Breath was fired out from Miru's mouth.

Kwa-ruuuuumble—

With Su-hyeun in the center, all the snakes pouncing on him were swept away by Miru's Breath once more and disappeared into thin air.

A third Breath.

He was so proud of Miru pushing itself beyond its limits to extract more power like this. The dragon's body slumped and fell to the ground as if it no longer had any energy left to even flap its wings.

And now, it was his turn to answer the dragon's hard work.

Su-hyeun raised his sword up, spun it around, and reverse-gripped it. While holding it with both of his hands, he thrust the weapon down right in the middle of the heart.

Su-hyeun's sword stabbed deeply into the center of the heart.

Kyyaaaaaaahh—!

Kha-aaahk, kaaaahk—!

Screams of snakes reverberated from all directions. Snakes crazily pouncing on Su-hyeun suddenly began writhing around and cried out in pain.

This was none other than Ouroboros's scream.

Buzz, bzzzz—

Ziiiiing—

The sword stabbing into the heart began vibrating. An incredible power oozing out from the pulsing organ began gathering on the tip of the sword. And through the weapon, Ouroboros's power was being sucked right into Su-hyeun's hands. More specifically, he was sucking it in.

***

"Ouroboros's heart is actually a crystallized form of energy that the creature had gathered for its entire lifetime. Meaning, it's basically the purest form of concentrated energy."

Advice from the gatekeeper.

The "much bigger" reward that could be earned during the 30th floor's trial.

"Destroying an Ouroboros's heart basically means the same thing as killing the snake monster itself. Although it'll be impossible for you to hunt down an Ouroboros with your current skill level, entering its innards to destroy its heart should still be within your reach."

"Is the killing of the Ouroboros this trial's ultimate objective?"

"Nope. The killing of the Ouroboros has nothing to do with the trial. No, the monster is simply a part of the trial's setting, that's all. That thing is not the trial's goal but merely a calamity that exists outside the trials of the tower."

"If that's the case, why…"

"I told you already, didn't I? It's just an additional reward that you can earn during the 30th floor, that's all."

The reward the gatekeeper was talking about was something else.

"You should devour that thing's heart. That is, if you can."

The gatekeeper's eyes back then seemed to be asking, "Can you really pull that off, I wonder?"

***

Wuduk, wududuk—

Veins began bulging on Su-hyeun's hands still gripping the sword tightly.

His face became hideous as blood vessels began bursting open one by one. It felt like the power was overflowing throughout his entire body, so much so that it'd start exploding at any second now.

The problem lied with him attempting to absorb this massive energy without any preparation, but also with Ouroboros's magical energy suddenly showing an adverse reaction inside Su-Hyeun's body, as well.

<<Should I be happy with this much and call it a day?>>

Su-hyeun's brain quickly kicked into the next gear.

He wondered if he should give up here, but this felt like too much of a wasted opportunity, so he instead began thinking about some other ways to make it work. Right then, a sudden flash of inspiration brushed past his mind.

<<Ouroboros's trait.>>

While gripping the sword with one hand, Su-hyeun bent down and placed his free hand on the floor. More specifically, on the body of Ouroboros.

[You're using the transfiguration skill with Ouroboros as your target.]

[You're absorbing a portion of your target's trait.]

[Trait: Third Eye has been acquired.]