The Hero Returns

Act 6

'Since Su-hyeun's back, I can start breathing a bit easier now.'

Lee Ju-ho realized the difference one's absence could make. Su-hyeun's absence caused a huge gap, and Lee Ju-ho was relieved that he was back.

Su-hyeun's absence was certainly felt. It had caused a lot of difficulties for everyone. The idiom "you don't know what you have until it's gone" proved to be true.

If Su-hyeun was around, he would have formed a raid team and they would be on their way to reclaim Gangwon Province by now.

"No, it's not yet too late. The people living there have been evacuated pretty early. If we form that raid party now…," Lee Ju-ho muttered to himself.

Lee Ju-ho calculated the awakener manpower that should become available soon and nodded his head.

"We will be able to reclaim Gangwon Province in less than a week," he concluded.

Lee Ju-ho felt at ease with the recent developments.

Su-hyeun should have reached where Hak-joon and Thomas were by now. After all, he had the greatest means of transportation, aptly named Miru, at his disposal.

A call from them should come in less than a few hours after they finished wiping out the horde of monsters in that location.

Rrr—

As Lee Ju-ho was contemplating, his smartphone suddenly began ringing loudly.

'No way! Already?'

He was astonished that Su-hyeun was already with Hak-joon and Thomas, and that they were done destroying monsters. He hurriedly checked on his phone and was disappointed to find it wasn't the call he was waiting for. He answered it nevertheless.

"Hello, I'm here."

—What on earth is going on out there?

The call was actually from Bak Yun-gyu.

Lee Ju-ho was confused by Bak Yun-gyu's remarks, so he clarified, "What do you mean?"

—A typhoon has been generated in Gangwon Province!

A typhoon?

Summer had already passed. October had just begun, which meant it was currently in the middle of autumn. Indeed, it was a strange turn of events as it wasn't a typhoon season anymore.

From Lee Ju-ho's perspective, a typhoon should not be generated over the land.

"A typhoon? Summer's already over. I don't understand."

—That typhoon is consuming the monsters, too.

"Excuse me?"

What was said next proved to be even more surprising.

That strange typhoon had 'consumed' the monsters?

No matter how powerful of a natural disaster a typhoon was, it wiping out monsters simply didn't make any sense. He immediately called Su-hyeun who had just returned 20 minutes ago.

'No way…' Lee Ju-ho couldn't believe it.

The Palm Leaf Sword was Kim Dae-ho's greatest masterpiece. It was created after combining the mythical fan called the Palm Leaf Fan and Balmung. Moreover, Su-hyeun was currently using it as his weapon.

Even the world's greatest awakener, Su-hyeun, couldn't control the Palm Leaf Sword properly and got injured in the process. And as far as Lee Ju-ho could remember, the Palm Leaf Fan was a weapon capable of controlling typhoons.

"That guy, just how…"

Lee Ju-ho tilted his head and chuckled. He thought about Su-hyeun and his recent actions: returning from the trial and cleaning up Gangwon Province, a great source of their distress.

"How far is he planning to climb up, anyway?" Lee Ju-ho wondered.

* * *

Rumble! Rumble!

Slam! Crack!

Lightning bolts crashed down throughout Gangwon Province.

Black clouds covered the sky and produced these bolts. The monsters that survived the typhoon were eliminated one by one.

As expected, the energy needed when commanding both the Palm Leaf and the Somersault cloud was far too great. The breathing technique somehow helped to decrease the magical energy consumption, but it was still rather taxing even for Su-hyeun.

'It would be so much better if I can wield them properly soon…'

Sun Wukong freely controlled the Somersault cloud. He summoned lightning bolts and rode on the clouds, flying everywhere. Even then, he had no issues using it. Thanks to his near-infinite energy reserve.

'If my magical energy grade increases further, the toll on me should decrease by a bit. But…'

The important part was that the difference in proficiency between them was too big. Still, Su-hyeun did feel that compared to the first time, using the Somersault cloud was now easier.

[The trait 'Necromancer' is activating.]

[By spending 'Death Aura', you can see or command the dead.]

As for the last remaining superior-level monster from an indigo dungeon, the 'Chief Gatekeeper', Su-hyeun used his summons to defeat it.

The giant monster with a bulging stomach was covered in flames and wielded a chain connected to a massive iron ball. It was almost 20 meters tall and appeared as the senior creature in indigo dungeons.

Although it was a humanoid-type monster, the Chief Gatekeeper's intelligence was actually worse than regular monsters. Despite that inadequacy, its defense skills, strength, and techniques at using the chain ensured that even a team consisting of average S-rank awakeners would have a hard time dealing with one.

Kaboom!

Ki-aah!

For sure, even the Ouroboros was writhing in pain after getting struck by the superior monster's chain. The undead snake creature might be larger, but that meant nothing in the face of the destructive power contained in that iron ball.

Splat!

In the end, however, the Chief Gatekeeper could not withstand the combined assault from the Ouroboros, Prince Nezha, and the other summoned creatures.

In all honesty, though, the God of War, Nezha, would have been enough to fight the Chief Gatekeeper.

'The God of War has grown noticeably stronger with the improved application rate.'

The God of War, Prince Nezha, was easily the strongest summon Su-hyeun currently possessed. And as such, the number of summons Su-hyeun could possess had to be decreased in order to command the former heavenly world's god. Even then, he didn't feel disadvantaged at all.

The proficiency of the trait 'Necromancer' increased in time, and the levels of both 'Soul Accumulation' and 'Dead Summoning' were continuously increasing as well.

[Soul Accumulation has been utilized.]

[The soul of 'Chief Gatekeeper' has been stored.]

[You are setting the target for Dead Summoning.]

[You can now summon the 'Chief Gatekeeper'.]

Out of all the monsters defeated today, Su-hyeun designated only the Chief Gatekeeper as his summon. That's because the number of souls he could store had decreased while commanding the God of War, Prince Nezha.

'Is this my first time acquiring a senior monster from an indigo-colored dungeon?' Su-hyeun thought.

Unfortunately, the Lich King could not be designated as one of his summons. The 'Dead Summoning' could only be activated if Su-hyeun possessed the target's soul. However, the 'Soul Accumulation' skill didn't work on the Lich King to begin with. That's probably because the Lich King's soul was already under someone else's control.

'What I need to improve at the moment are the proficiencies for the Somersault cloud and the Palm Leaf Sword, the Necromancer trait, the Soul Accumulation, and the Dead Summoning. Oh, and finally…'

Su-hyeun listed all the skills he needed to improve as soon as possible.

'…improving the proficiency for the Sage Arts.'

Increasing the magical energy's grade and reserve would be too difficult for now. Aside from the issue of time, acquiring rewards and purchasing the relevant elixirs through accumulated achievement points required hard work.

However, the matter of proficiency was a different story.

The issue of a skill's proficiency could only be solved through improving one's understanding on that skill, continuous practice, and enough time utilizing it.

It was the same thing with the Sage Arts as well.

The Bull Demon King previously said that the Sage Arts was a discipline akin to studying, but the system recognized it as a skill instead. This meant that as long as Su-hyeun had enough time on his hands, it would be possible to train in the Sage Arts and improve one's proficiency.

And then a thought occurred to him, 'I have bought myself three years of time…'

Su-hyeun was toying with the small hourglass inside his pocket.

He had a feeling that these three years would get quite busy for him. In that case, he wouldn't notice it going by.

* * *

The wide-scale dungeon generation incident that took place throughout the world needed at least one full month for things to settle down.

The awakeners focused on raiding the dungeons, effectively shutting them one by one, and the unattended monsters that emerged from those dungeons were eventually taken care of as well.

In South Korea, the dungeons located in the countryside were raided first. This afforded the country a recovery period after Su-hyeun's unbelievable feat managed to reclaim Gangwon Province.

"Well, a weight has been lifted off my shoulders," Lee Ju-ho remarked as he slumped over the chair with a pale complexion. He was sleep deprived for the past several days.

Su-hyeun came to visit Lee Ju-ho. It had been a while since he last visited. After finding Lee Ju-ho in such a sorry state, Su-hyeun gave him a piece of candy. "Thank you for all your hard work. You must have been really busy, Bro."

Lee Ju-ho took the candy, unwrapped it, and then put it in his mouth. The sweetness of the candy roused him.

"Matters like this are invariably issues of manpower distribution, you see. Sending manpower in one location causes a gap to open up somewhere else."

"When was the last time you had some sleep?"

"Right… I haven't slept for the past seven days, I think. But when you came back, I managed to nap. My body is okay, perfectly fine, but my mind is struggling to keep up," Lee Ju-ho admitted as he put another candy in his mouth. "By the way, did you pass the 100th floor without any problems?"

"I did, although I couldn't return in the middle because there was no save point."

"Well, as long as you came back before it's too late, it's all good."

Lee Ju-ho's eyes were half-closed by now. It was already a miracle that he could chat with Su-hyeun in his current state. That's how exhausted he was.

"Get some rest first, Bro."

"Yeah, I will. Thanks."

When Su-hyeun got up to leave, Lee Ju-ho's eyes slowly shut. He mumbled some words and eventually fell asleep.

Su-hyeun didn't bother to say goodbye to Lee Ju-ho. He left the office and headed to the Jongro Tower's lobby.

The TV screens in the lobby were dominated by the news reports of the current crisis.

—Hundreds of people have lost their lives during the 15-day dungeon outbreak. Thankfully, the Awakener Association responded quickly, preventing further loss of lives and damages on infrastructures. But even then, the scale of the destruction this time around is…

Su-hyeun stood still and watched the news broadcast for a while.

'It's already the First Outbreak.'

The First Outbreak was an incident where humans started to fear the dungeons. It was previously seen as nothing more than some treasure troves of natural resources.

'Should I consider this incident fortunate to end only on this scale?' Su-hyeun wondered.

Some people might find all the news being reported as a horrible and unfortunate.

From those who lost their homes after the dungeons showed up, to the number of parents and siblings who lost their loved ones, indeed, all these scenes painted a heartbreaking situation. However, the First Outbreak Su-hyeun remembered from his previous life was actually far more horrifying than this one. For one, that incident was responsible to decreasing the world's population by 10%.

Despite knowing that, Su-hyeun could not see the level of damage this time around as fortunate at all.

Step.

"Not everything has changed," he uttered.

Su-hyeun was working towards changing the future he knew. The influence he had on the world had certainly succeeded in shaping the future.

'It needs to change further.'

Clench.

Su-hyeun clenched his fist. As he walked away, the light in his eyes gleamed brightly.

"I'll get started right away," he promised.

* * *

Su-hyeun was heading to Gangwon Province.

The province was still designated as a restricted area. The monsters not only caused destruction in this place, but they also filled it with their filth. The typhoon that Su-hyeun had created effectively destroyed the monsters, and their remains were scattered everywhere.

To make matters worse, quite a few of the monsters were highly venomous. If an ordinary person carelessly stumbled in here, they might get poisoned by the toxins coming from the dead monsters.

Gya-ong.

Su-hyeun soon arrived at the Daegwallyeong Ranch located in Gangwon Province and immediately pulled out the Broken Sandglass.

"So it's good for three years, isn't it?"

Su-hyeun regulated his breathing for a moment.

He had already prepared enough food. Inside the subspace pouch he had purchased in an auction house a while ago were food and drinks that should last him for three years. Some potions had also been prepared and carefully stored in there in case he got injured.

"Hopefully, this will be enough."

Three years was a long period, and it would most likely be a lonely one, too, since he would be on his own. He should be able to return by flipping the hourglass around, but Su-hyeun had no plans on doing that.

Because if he couldn't even endure this much, then he would be unable to prevent himself from being miserable at worse events in the future.

Shwa-ah-ah—

He flipped the hourglass upside down on his palm, and the sand began to settle.

The sound of falling sand seemed especially loud for an hourglass not bigger than his finger.

[The Broken Sandglass has been activated.]

[Remaining usable period: 2 years and 364 days…]

Then, all the sand in the hourglass settled to the bottom.