The Hero Returns

* * *

Snooore—, Puuuh—

Su-hyeun arrived at the workshop, but rather than the usual sounds of constant hammering, he was greeted by the sounds of loud snoring instead.

It seemed that Kim Dae-ho had fallen asleep straight away after completing the weapon. The blacksmith suddenly called on the phone a few hours ago and said that he might be asleep, so Su-hyeun should just unlock the door and let himself in. There was a good chance that he ended up pulling an all-nighter to finish the sword.

"I'm coming in."

Creak—

Su-hyeun opened the gate, crossed the yard, and reached the front door in no time. He already knew the security code, so he was able to open the door with ease, thereby letting out that loud snoring.

Tap, tap—

Clunk—

Just as Su-hyeun entered Kim Dae-ho's residence…

"Uh-mm, you here?"

An inarticulate voice came from the inside. Kim Dae-ho, who was dozing off on a couch opposite the front door, had woken up from the sound of Su-hyeun's entrance.

"Did I wake you up?"

"Nah, it's about time to get up, anyway."

Yaaawn—

While replying as such, Kim Dae-ho roughly scratched his unkempt and oily hair. Anyone could tell that he wasn't fully awake yet.

"How long have you been asleep for, uncle?" Su-hyeun asked as he poured water from a kettle resting in front of the couch into a cup and handed it over.

"What time is it?"

"About four in the afternoon."

"I dozed off after giving you a call, so I guess it's been two hours? Argh, I feel like I'm dying here."

Kim Dae-ho loosened his neck muscles while complaining in a hoarse voice and then hurriedly gulped down the cup of water Su-hyeun handed over.

The latter took a look at the blacksmith's oily and dirty hair before asking in an unsure voice, "You haven't washed your hair for a few days?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Please don't tell me that you skipped sleeping as well?"

"…"

For some people, silence indicated their acknowledgment, and Kim Dae-ho was one of those people. Su-hyeun was able to figure out from Kim Dae-ho's silence that, as he feared, the blacksmith didn't even sleep a wink.

All for the sake of modifying Balmung, too.

"Argh, so what if I didn't? I thought I shouldn't stop in the middle, you see."

"Even then, you should have taken regular breaks, uncle."

"I was planning to, okay? Well, until I started the job, that was."

"Until?"

"Instead of me explaining it, let's go take a look. Argh, I'm still too damn sleepy."

Even though he kept saying he was fine, his actual inner thoughts still ended up leaking out of his mouth while he rubbed his face clean with a wet wipe. Seeing all that fatigue still visible on Kim Dae-ho's face, Su-hyeun tried to persuade the older man to go back to bed, but none of his recommendations got through in the end.

Kim Dae-ho led Su-hyeun to one of the rooms found in this large residence. The room was not frequented by human traffic during normal times, even the cleaning lady was not allowed to go in there.

But that was only because the room was actually Kim Dae-ho's storage for the kind of equipment that could be called his own private collection.

Clack—

"Of all the equipment I crafted in my career, those that I consider the best are currently in your hands, as well as that guy named Gordon Rohan. Balmung was the greatest sword I've ever created." While unlocking several padlocks overlapping each other, Kim Dae-ho continued to explain. "However, this new thing is on another scale."

"How so?"

"The issue isn't with the weapon's durability or its hardness, or even its sharpness. Honestly, I'm the one who made it, yet even I can't tell for sure."

That statement sounded "weak," which was uncharacteristic for Kim Dae-ho.

Su-hyeun was greatly surprised by that. He never expected to hear Kim Dae-ho willingly admit that he didn't know for sure.

Clunk—

Creaaaak—

The final padlock was unlatched, and the tightly sealed door creaked open. The spacious room that was about 10 square meters in size was practically empty with not much furniture to speak of.

"Uncle's still as fastidious as ever," Su-hyeun mused inwardly.

The things found inside the room were swords, spears, axes, and armors—basically, battle equipment. There was only a handful of them in total, which made the room look desolate and empty.

However, every single one of those pieces of equipment could be called Kim Dae-ho's masterpiece, something you couldn't even buy with all the money in the world.

To paraphrase Kim Dae-ho's own words, one should think of them as items waiting for their fated masters.

"Over here."

Kim Dae-ho was pointing at a certain sword hanging inside a display cabinet in the center of the room. But Su-hyeun had already been staring at that very same weapon since he stepped inside the room. Well, it looked remarkably similar to his own Balmung, to begin with.

But…

"How about it? It feels different, right?"

As soon as Su-hyeun gripped the sword tightly, Kim Dae-ho quickly asked without a trace of drowsiness in his expression. On the contrary, the blacksmith's face was filled with so much vitality now.

Not knowing what to say, Su-hyeun simply stood there while holding the sword.

"You know, I was really surprised while I was modifying that sword. I've handled not only elemental stones but also lots of other ores and jewels containing all sorts of innate attributes in my life, but let me tell you, this is my first time witnessing something like this. I was initially planning to assimilate that jewel's effects to the sword since I made the weapon out of adamantium and the highest grade Ether stone, but as I worked on it, it became the other way around."

The two main materials that formed Balmung were adamantium and the highest grade Ether stone.

These two materials increased the sword's hardness, durability, the blade's innate magical energy conductivity, and even its cutting force to the absolute maximum.

What Kim Dae-ho initially planned to do was to refine and modify the jewel extracted from the Palm Leaf Fan to match Balmung to preserve the unique natures of the two base materials.

However, after spending one full day examining the jewel, he had no choice but to amend his plan completely—that was, to refine and modify the sword called Balmung to match the jewel instead.

"There's no change to its durability or hardness. The only true difference is that the jewel's ability has been engraved into the blade itself. Honestly, I've never seen any material like that before in my whole life."

"What exactly happened?"

"It's not that the jewel caused winds to blow, it attracted them instead."

"Attracted…the winds?"

As Su-hyeun asked that, he finally realized the truth about the vague difference he had been sensing ever since he gripped the sword in his hand.

Swiiiish—

It was true.

Even as he stood there unmoving with the sword in his hand, he could sense some sort of faint movements of air in the room converging toward the weapon.

Kim Dae-ho continued, "It's like the air, the winds, are following the jewel around. As for the hardness of the thing? Of course, I've confirmed it. And there's no need to even mention it, too. It couldn't be shattered no matter what. I don't know anything about this magical energy or whatever, but well, even I couldn't guess the total energy reserve contained in that jewel."

"It's that amazing?"

"That's right. I got so damn excited while modifying the sword that I could barely contain myself. I was looking forward to the kind of thing it would turn out to be in the end, and that's why I forgot to sleep and all that stuff. This sword…It's undoubtedly my greatest achievement."

Kim Dae-ho's standards were arguably higher than anyone out there.

Here was a man who would unhesitatingly call a piece of equipment "junk" and chuck it aside for storage when other people would gladly pay millions for the very same article. Su-hyeun had never seen him praise any equipment like this before.

Maybe it was because Su-hyeun had never crafted a sword before, so he just couldn't come to grips with what Kim Dae-ho had said. Other than thinking that the modified Balmung felt a bit lighter than before, it just…

"…Uh? Uncle, did you also reduce the sword's weight somehow?"

Finally realizing that something else was different, Su-hyeun quickly asked Kim Dae-ho, and the latter replied with a deep smirk. "It's not just the sword, is it?"

"…I guess so."

For the first time after sensing that something was off, Su-hyeun belatedly confirmed the effects of the sword.

The difference was very small as he was standing still, which was why it took him a long time to notice. However, with every passing second, he couldn't help but recognize the changes his body was experiencing.

[Name: Kim Su-hyeun]

[…]

[Agility: 99(98+1)]

[…]

When he checked the status window, just in case, he discovered the change in his own stat.

The agility of 99.

Although by only one point, his agility still rose merely because he was holding the sword. That "+1" most likely indicated the temporary rise in his stat brought on by the sword's effect.

"A sword that not only lightens the wielder's body but also influences the stat to this extent?" he thought.

It certainly was a surprising thing, but Su-hyeun wasn't that shocked. Not because he found it not all that exceptional, however. The thing was, he was now feeling very confident about there being much more to the sword than what's been displayed so far.

Squeeze—

Su-hyeun's hand gripped the sword's hilt even harder. He wanted to take a swing with this weapon so badly and could barely contain himself.

"I'm really grateful, uncle."

"No need for that. It's me who's grateful. Where would I find another person like you who can consistently bring me stuff like that jewel?"

Five days.

Kim Dae-ho didn't sleep a wink, didn't get to eat or drink properly during those days, and merely devoted himself to hammering away at the sword. Even then, he seemed to be really pleased with himself. And it was all because of the happiness and satisfaction he felt in the knowledge that his own two hands handled a truly excellent material.

"Okay, then. Hurry up and go away now. I better go and finish my nap or something in the meantime," he released an enormous yawn just then.

"I will, uncle. Thank you for your hard work." While saying his thanks, Su-hyeun hurriedly took out the scabbard that was also hanging inside the display cabinet and sheathed the sword in it before turning around to leave. "After I get to use it, I'll give you a call and tell you what it felt like."

* * *

On the basement floor of the Awakener Authority's building, located in the district of Yongsan, Seoul.

Su-hyeun called Bak Yun-gyu and asked to borrow this place. For the first time in a long while, their timing matched, and his call got through, which saved Su-hyeun from going afar to find a dungeon with a suitable level.

"Originally, our awakeners use this space to train themselves. It should have everything you need," said Bak Yun-gyu while introducing that empty space to Su-hyeun.

The place was three, maybe four times bigger than an average athletics field but utterly devoid of anything. The training area was designed to withstand an awakener's training regime by having reinforcement "skills" embedded in its various spots.

"You said that you wanted to use a dungeon created out of an illusion?" Bak Yun-gyu continued.

"Ah, yes. Make it the highest difficulty one, please."

"If you want the highest difficulty, then…Currently, our limit is blue. If you're looking for something higher, then you have to travel to America."

"No, that should be enough."

Nowadays, one could experience a dungeon without risking one's life by using an "augmented reality" dungeon created through an illusion-type magic circle manufactured by a joint operation run by Johnny Brad and the Gordon Company.

Thanks to that, the percentage of awakeners dying inside dungeons improved greatly. Also, the training offered here was as close to reality as possible, which also greatly improved the overall skill levels of the awakeners.

Su-hyeun was planning to use this very magic circle. It was a bit too much of a task to find an unoccupied blue-colored dungeon right now, after all.

"Once the magic circle activates, magical energy will seep into your body. Don't resist it. If you wish to escape, clench both of your fists tightly and then count to three in your mind," Bak Yun-gyu explained.

"Okay, got it."

"I'll set the difficulty to the highest available. It should be set as a blue-colored dungeon that's almost on the level of an indigo one."

Tap, tap, tap—

Bak Yun-gyu tapped several times on a panel of buttons located to the side of the training area as he said that. He must have been setting the difficulty of the dungeon about to be generated through the magic circle.

Jiii-iiing—

Soon afterward, a blue-colored magic circle floated up in the center of the training area where Su-hyeun was standing.

"The illusion magic is unique in that it changes depending on not just the user but also the target's mind, isn't it?" he thought to himself.

There were several different types of magic out there.

The most "basic" ones were, of course, attack and defense magic. The one that was a bit more complicated than those were recovery- and buff-type magic. And then, the one known to be the most complicated of the lot was the illusion-type magic.

Every type of magic had its own unique points. As far as Su-hyeun knew, only the illusion-type magic would see its result changed depending on the target the magic was meant for in the first place.

"What I want is…"

The moment the illusion was cast on him, Su-hyeun directly interfered with the magic with his mind.

"An even stronger monster."

He closed his eyes and imagined "it" inside his head. He thought about that one monster that was stronger and bigger than any of the others he knew of, an opponent that would be most ideal to test out his new sword.

Shu-wuwuwu—

After Su-hyeun's will interfered with the magic circle, its color gradually began changing.

The previously azure hue slowly darkened. Bak Yun-gyu, watching on from the distance, was able to witness this change quite clearly, unlike Su-hyeun who was caught inside the illusion.

"Indigo…?"

The magic circle's color was changing to an indigo hue.