The Hero Returns

Su-hyeun was currently sitting inside a tent, wearing a thick padded coat.

There was a hotly-burning stove inside. Despite that, he still didn't take off the coat. He preferred his body to be sufficiently warmed, after all. And he also believed that the cold weather dulled one's body, and slowed one's reflexes, as well.

It was a habit to stay as warm as possible.

<< I'd like to be at ease, but… >>

Su-hyeun took a look at the handful of people also inside the large tent, stealing glances at him.

<< This is really making me uncomfortable. >>

He was sitting in front of a table, while everyone else was standing around awkwardly. It was hard to tell who was the host and who was the guest with things like this.

In the end, Su-hyeun decided to stand up. That action startled the person claiming to be the mayor's secretary, and he quickly walked over to say something.

"Please remain seated. Mister mayor will soon be here, sir."

"Everyone is standing around, and that's kinda making me uneasy, you see."

"There are only two chairs, unfortunately. And this is our job, sir."

"You can bring in extra chairs from outside, plus I'll feel better standing rather than sitting all by myself. So, don't worry about me."

His Russian wasn't very good, but, since the other party used English, communicating didn't pose a problem.

In the end, Su-hyeun waited standing up. It made him a little more comfortable, at least.

<< A blue-colored dungeon in the middle of Moscow, is it… >>

Su-hyeun had been searching for a dungeon with a difficulty higher than green color, and, thanks to Lee Ju-ho, he had found the information he wanted quickly.

Actually, it didn't even qualify as 'information', strictly speaking. Soon after this dungeon appeared in Moscow, the news broke in several countries throughout the world, after all.

One could say that he had gotten lucky, in a way. Of course, that didn't mean he felt happy about it, though.

<< This is already the fifth one. >>

The United States, South Korea, China, Britain, and now, even in Russia.

At this rate, it wouldn't be strange to see several blue-colored dungeons popping up every month in the near future.

<< In a way, isn't this the very first international trip for the Paragon Guild? >>

Su-hyeun, quietly standing around, chuckled to himself. Originally, he'd been thinking of accepting raid requests much further down the line, but somehow he'd found himself on the clock, so to speak, already.

Of course, he still didn't know if the Russians wanted his cooperation. But Su-hyeun was confident that they were definitely in need of his help.

<< Because they don't have anyone else right now. >>

Currently, awakener manpower wasn't exported to other countries in what you'd call a smooth way. Governments wanted to prevent such exportation of their 'awakener resource' to elsewhere and required that the dungeons found within their territories be raided first, instead.

Obviously, you'd need a lot of time if you wanted to clear the tangled mess of bureaucratic red tape.

So, to solve such a problem, it wouldn't be the Authority but the individual guilds stepping up to the plate, instead.

<< And that is precisely what being a mercenary guild is all about. >>

The Authority didn't have any means to discourage a guild wanting to do business that way. If they even tried, then the awakener associations would oppose such an action forcefully.

With this set-up, any Awakener Authorities or guilds now had the pretext to ask for assistance from awakeners of other countries.

"Mister mayor has arrived."

After Su-hyeun had stood around for ten or so minutes, a man in his fifties brushed past the tent's flaps and walked in. It was Moscow's mayor, David Sobyanin.

"Oh, welcome to the city. Nice to meet you, Mister Kim Su-hyeun."

David Sobyanin's English wasn't as good as his secretary's. It didn't mean he couldn't be understood at all, though.

Su-hyeun shook David Sobyanin's offered hand. "I've heard the news."

"Yes, news. It circulates very fast these days."

David Sobyanin immediately understood how and why Su-hyeun had come from this brief exchange.

Reporters broadcasting the news, and various social media sites, formed a rather scary information network. Especially so with the latter—through social media, dozens, hundreds, tens of millions of people got to spread information to all corners of the globe.

In this day and age, information could reach the other side of the planet not in a matter of days, but hours. So, it wasn't that strange for Su-hyeun to hear about the situation in Moscow and show up quickly like this.

"Do you require assistance?"

At Su-hyeun's question, David Sobyanin began weighing his options in his head.

Wouldn't it be better to blow the Korean off, at least once? Would the negotiation be a bit more advantageous for them if he came out and said that they had enough manpower to do this thing?

<< No, wait. I can't gamble on this. >>

Opportunity had come knocking at the perfect time.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that heaven was helping him right now. He shouldn't kick away an opportunity of this magnitude because of some momentary greed.

<< If I got greedy and that resulted in the destruction of Moscow…. >>

No, wait—this might not end up as a Moscow-only problem.

Maybe, even the surrounding cities, too…

If the blue-colored dungeon caused an outbreak, letting monsters run amok throughout the whole of Russian, then forget about hundreds of thousands, countless millions might lose their lives.

<< I shouldn't be worried about money. >>

There was no more need to ponder this anymore. David Sobyanin bowed his head. "Yes, I need your help. Please help us."

He squeezed his eyes shut. The future of Moscow now depended on what Su-hyeun's reply was, and what kind of conditions he put forward.

But then…

<< Why isn't he saying anything? >>

David Sobyanin cracked open his tightly-shut eyes a little and sneaked a glance to his front. And what he saw utterly stunned him.

"We're here to speak as equals. There's no need to lower your head to me," said Su-hyeun.

Meaning, if you lower your head, I'll lower mine, too.

Only then did David Sobyanin raise his head, prompting Su-hyeun to do the same and look straight at the Moscow's mayor.

"Now then. Shall we start from the beginning again?"

* * *

The negotiations didn't last long.

From the get-go, the Russians wouldn't have anything to say even if Su-hyeun demanded the majority of the Ether stones extracted from the dungeon. But even then, he only demanded a small portion of the stones as well as a little bit of money.

Compared to the value attached to the name 'Kim Su-hyeun,' as well as his combat. capabilities, this was basically the same as working for free.

Such conditions, coupled with the amount of Ether stones that could be mined after the dungeon raid, definitely couldn't be seen as a big loss to the Russians.

"R-really… is this okay for you?"

"The raid isn't going to take too long, anyway. Yes, that'll be enough for me," Su-hyeun replied, before standing up from the table.

"Are you going to enter right now?"

"I got enough sleep on the way, I'm in perfect condition to fight. Is there any need to delay the proceedings further?"

"E-even then, the rest of the raiding party isn't…"

"Well, not that I need them, but…."

While muttering, Su-hyeun studied David Sobyanin's reactions.

The mayor seemed to be troubled by this.

It seemed that, if Su-hyeun raided the dungeon all by himself without the presence of a separate raid party, then the amount of money spent on him would inevitably balloon in the end.

From David Sobyanin's viewpoint, he had no choice but to find a way to decrease the money and the share of the Ether stones destined for Su-hyeun's pockets.

The amount of Ether stones found in a dungeon was limited, after all, and having even one more awakener affiliated with the Russian Authority in the raid further ensured that more resources would be secured at the end of the day.

"….Wait. I think a raiding party is indeed necessary," said Su-hyeun.

It didn't matter either way to him. Making money from this raid wasn't his goal from the beginning, after all.

David Sobyanin's complexion brightened after hearing Su-hyeun's reply. But then, he lowered his head right away after realizing that he was being rather shameless even in his own evaluation. "My apologies."

"Tell me when the raiding party is ready, please. It'll be best if they're ready to depart as quickly as possible."

"They'll be ready as soon as possible."

David Sobyanin hurriedly called someone on the phone. He got in touch with the Russian Awakener Authority and summoned the raiding party that their S-Rank awakener was in.

A few hours later.

A raid party consisting of thirty people was hastily organized. This number was way too small for a genuine attempt at clearing a blue-colored dungeon.

"We're finished with our preparations!"

One of the mayor's personal secretaries rushed over to Su-hyeun quietly sitting in a corner loosening himself and spoke.

Su-hyeun scanned the awakeners in the raiding party following behind the secretary. Five A-Ranks, twenty-four B-Ranks, and one S-Rank.

This level of firepower was on par with two average-sized large guilds. But this was nothing more than simply filling the headcount when considering that they were about to raid a blue-colored dungeon.

"Let's get going, then."

Even then, Su-hyeun didn't even hesitate once. He started walking. From the very beginning, it didn't matter if he was alone or not.

* * *

30 people.

The raiding party was nervous because of that hopelessly low number.

A raiding party consisting only of awakeners holding Russian citizenship, and not only that, a hastily-organized one, at that. To make matters worse, each of them was affiliated with different organizations, so they had never coordinated with each other before.

"What the hell. I didn't sign up to get killed, you know."

An awakener working for the authority, Dmitri, grumbled loudly in order to suppress his anxiety as he got ready to enter the dungeon. His eyes took in the sight of the blue-colored dungeon entrance that enveloped the massive tower as well as the hopelessly small number of his fellow raid party members.

"We're not going to die. From the very beginning, our job is nothing more than to fill the headcount, and that's about it."

Someone approached and lightly smacked Dmitri's back before speaking up, causing the Russian awakener to flinch and look behind him.

It was Chernov, Russia's S-Rank awakener as well as the strongest individual in the Russian Awakener Authority.

Dmitri asked. "Do you trust this Kim Su-hyeun?"

"He once solo-raided a blue-colored dungeon."

"Only once, though. You never know what will happen with people around, no? Honestly, this level of combat force is just barely enough to raid a green-colored dungeon, isn't it?"

"You think it was a fluke, then?"

"Well, not necessarily, but…." Dmitri glanced at Su-hyeun's back where he stood in front of the party, ready to enter the dungeon first, before continuing. "But, there's always 'just in case', you know."

Chernov sighed softly after hearing that reply.

Dmitri was a B-Rank awakener affiliated with the Authority. As someone pretty close to reaching A-Rank, his skill set wasn't to be scoffed at. If Chernov had to point out his weakness, then it'd be how he leaned far too much towards the 'risk aversion' side of things.

Of course, you couldn't fault him for that. No one was qualified to demand a selfless sacrifice from him, after all.

Even then…

"I can assure you, we'll never find ourselves in danger." Chernov was utterly confident that the events Dmitri was worried about would never come to pass. "I know this, because I've fought him before. We might both be S-Ranks, but not all S-Ranks are the same, you know?"

He was one of the participants who managed to get to the final round of the Ranking Wars. Obviously, he got to cross weapons with Su-hyeun then, and it was little wonder why he wasn't all that worried right now.

"He defeated over 30 S-Rank awakeners all by himself, so it'll be fine."

Dmitri asked, "Is he really that powerful?"

"Overwhelmingly so."

He didn't hesitate at all before replying.

Dmitri had met Chernov many times before, and every single one of those times, the S-Rank was overflowing with self-confidence. But now, a man like that was wholeheartedly praising someone else.

"….Is that so."

Dmitri had heard a ton of rumors already.

From how he defeated Gordon Rohan and won the Ranking Wars all by himself.

To how he smashed apart the European Union-affiliated awakeners trying to sabotage him, along with help from Gordon Rohan.

And even how he solo raided one of the blue-colored twin dungeons that showed up in South Korea.

<< But rumors are usually exaggerated, to begin with. >>

With anxiety in his heart, Dmitri followed Su-hyeun's steps and headed toward the dungeon's interior. All the while planning to hightail it out of there without even looking back once if a dangerous situation suddenly reared its ugly head.

And so, the moment the raid party stepped into the dungeon…

SMACK-!

The first thing Dmitri saw as soon as he stepped inside was the figure of a giant ape creature flying up and away from a well-placed punch.