The Hero Returns

Su-hyeun held Miru’s belly and pulled him down. Miru laughed contently and burped loudly.

“Mi… Miru?”

Purr?

“It’s not food. Be good and spit it out.”

Purr…

“What? No? Spit it out!”

Su-hyeun tickled Miru’s belly for a while and asked him to spit out the stone. Miru, who was usually amenable, closed his mouth tight and kept shaking his head.

“Phew…”

Su-hyeun could not force him to spit it out. His threats did not work. He started to have a headache. He just sighed out and sat down on the ground.

Purr, purr…

Miru flew to Su-hyeun’s head and patted it with his forepaw. It looked like Miru did not realize Su-hyeun sighed because of him. Su-hyeun felt like his headache getting worse.

“Geez. What should I say to Mr. Dae-ho?” Su-hyeun mumbled.

He got up and sighed deeply. He never sighed this deep in his life. Suddenly, he recalled Miru’s species and the feature of the blue stone.

“Hmm… The stone with natural properties and the dragon…,” Su-hyeun thought.

They were a strangely well-suited combination. Miru was likely greedy for stone not only out of curiosity.

“I guess I have to keep watching him.”

Su-hyeun put Miru back on his head. He turned his body and started to walk. He decided to think of the blue stone as the gift for Miru for working hard for him.

***

Soon after, Su-hyeun joined the party again. They cleaned up all remaining monsters in the vicinity and found a way out of the dungeon. The cleanup party would’ve started collecting the Ether stone that scattered throughout the dungeon later.

“Looking by the size, I think it will take about a month to finish digging all the stones,” Jordan said.

He stood in front of the exit under the cliff and looked back the way they came from. It was a huge dungeon. He thought about the numbers of the monsters and the size of the dungeon. He could not even imagine how much Ether stone was hidden here. Perhaps the highest-grade Ether stone would come out.

“You can put the Medical Guild’s share on me.”

As if he had forgotten, Su-hyeun told Jordan about the contract of distribution of Ether stone. Jordan looked aghast when he heard that and started to laugh.

“Ha-ha-ha! You are an outstanding person.”

“I did not want it first, but I don’t like the fact that they tried to f*ck me around.”

“Yeah, Robert’s very greedy.”

Jordan laughed. It looked like he knew Robert, the guild master of the Medical Guild, well. Jordan made people go out from the lower rank awakeners by following the manual. It was for just in case any possible dangerous situations occurred.

“You are probably the one who made the biggest achievement in this attack,” Jordan said.

“Of course,” Su-hyeun replied.

Su-hyeun was the one who had killed the boss of the dungeon, killed the most monsters, and protected the team from Chloe’s betrayal. Su-hyeun nodded without even thinking of humility. Jordan smiled at Su-hyeun’s dignified appearance.

“I will yield my contribution to you, too.”

“…You will?”

“You don’t have to make such a face. If not for you, I would’ve been dead already. If it’s like my mind, I just want to give you all the contributions of Maximum Guild. However, that is beyond my control,” Jordan shrugged and continued to say, “In fact, I have more than enough money already.”

Su-hyeun who already had the biggest reward from Druid felt a little sorry for him. But what Jordan said was true. If Su-hyeun was not there, everybody probably all died already. So, it was cheap for the price of one S-Rank awakener’s life.

“I don’t need more money, either,” Su-hyeun said.

“Don’t say that…”

“Would you rather do another favor for me, then?”

“Favor?”

Jordan made a puzzled look at Su-hyeun’s word. What could be a better favor than yielding the Ether stone from the blue-colored dungeon? Soon, Su-hyeun’s mouth opened, and Jordan started to smile.

“That shouldn’t be a request,” Jordan nodded gladly. “I was going to do it anyway.”

Act 4

The raid of the blue-colored dungeon was over. After the raid, people started to collect Ether stone as scheduled. They graded the contribution according to the video recording, and various media requested for interviews. The world was surprised by the sensational news. The famous S-Rank awakener Chloe and Star Guild were actually pawns of the Dump Guild.

“Now, the Dump Guild got exposed on the surface,” Hak-Joon said while watching the news on the TV.

After the raid of the blue dungeon, Hak-Joon had been sleeping all day long. Upon waking up, the world was abuzz. Hak-Joon was watching one of the Korean news channels that dealt with the terrorist attacks of the Dump Guild in various countries, including Korea and the United States.

“The news about the Dump Guild always existed, secretly,” Su-hyeun said.

“The loudest uproar was because of you, wasn’t it? You told me the Dump Guild was the gnashing of teeth at you.”

“Well. I did not come out of the Tower. There was nothing they could do. Besides, Korea was not their jurisdiction from the beginning.”

“But it looks like crazy things went on in Korea as well. Although, the Ripper Guild worked fast and stopped it.”

The Dump Guild did not just only attack Korean and the United States. China, the United Kingdom, and France were attacked by them as well. They were all famous countries for their awakeners. It looked like the Dump Guild had planned to show their name by this chance.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

Su-hyeun shook his head at Hak-Joon’s question.

“I gave the information, but it was the Ripper Guild that moved.”

“Same, same. How did you know anyway?”

“I’ve been keeping an eye on the Dump Guild. Plus, the Ripper Guild helped me.”

At Su-hyeun’s indecisively answer, Hak-Joon lounged on the sofa and fixed his gaze on the TV screen. Soon, the news about the Dump Guild was over. Hak-Joon turned his eyes to Su-hyeun again.

“Hey, Su-hyeun. Where are you going?”

Su-hyeun was putting on his shoes at the door without a word.

“I’ll be outside for a minute,” Su-hyeun said.

“…What?”

“I will be back soon.”

Creak!

Su-hyeun opened the door and went out.

“I guess I will only get in the way,” Hak-Joon thought.

Hak-Joon just scratched his head in embarrassment. If Su-hyeun needed him, he probably would’ve taken him, but he didn’t. It meant that Su-hyeun did not need him or he would just get in his way. Thus, Hak-Joon could not ask Su-hyeun to take him along.

“I feel small,” Hak-Joon thought.

During the raid of the blue-colored dungeon, Hak-Joon realized he wasn’t as capable as he thought. He had seen Jordan, Chloe, and Su-hyeun and felt so small compared to those S-Rank awakeners. Of course, there weren’t many chances to meet so many S-Rank awakeners like that. Even so, he could not help but feel even smaller.

“One day, I will take rank with them…”

Hak-Joon clenched his fist tights.

***

“I wonder if he might’ve learned something.”

Su-hyeun came out from the accommodations that Medical Guild had prepared and kept looking back. At heart, Su-hyeun felt a little sorry for Hak-Joon for leaving him alone. Hak-Joon must have been depressed by now.

“Well, that was what I hoped though.”

They had gone to the world’s first blue dungeon. It was surely a bigger scale than anywhere else. There were not many known cases of many S-Rank awakeners gathering like this time. Jordan, Chloe, MacRebur, and Su-hyeun were all S-Rank awakeners.

That wasn’t all. The A-Rank awakeners from the Medical, Maximum, and Star Guilds were very talented. They were similar levels with Hak-Joon. It was important for someone to experience the bigger world to test their own limits. Su-hyeun wanted Hak-Joon to experience it. Sometimes, helplessness became a good motivation.

“I will be glad if he learned something from this experience,” Su-hyeun thought.

Tramp, tramp!

Su-hyeun took a taxi on the road.

Ring, ring, ring!

At that time, the phone started to ring. It was an unknown number. He picked up the phone. The caller was an unexpected person.

“Mr. Hyeong-gi. What’s up?”

The caller was Song Hyeong-gi. He was a Korean S-Rank awakener who taught how to raise Miru to Su-hyeun.

“Hi. How is Miru? Is he still cute?”

“…Did you call me to ask that?”

“No, no. I am in the US too. I am with Park Ji-Yeon and I am so annoyed now. We really don’t fit together”.

Su-hyeun could guess why they were together. He remembered Song Hyeong-gi was the original raid member for the green dungeon in Korea.

“It’s an unexpected help,” Su-hyeun thought.

Two unexpected people joined now. They were Jordan and Song Hyeong-gi. Su-hyeun felt safer with them around.

“So, what should we do now? Park Ji-Yeon asked me to ask you.”

“You know what to do,” Su-hyeun said. Their job was simple. “Break everything up.”

“That…”

Song Hyeong-gi opened his mouth with a grin.

“…I can do that.”

Song Hyeong-gi hung up. It looked like he called to hear this. He must have been very pleased by the simplicity of his job.

Screech!

The taxi ran fast and arrived at the destination. Su-hyeun paid the fare and got off the taxi. He arrived at the tallest building in the neighborhood near the beach in California, about 3 stories high. Jordan told him that this building was used by a company that worked with bottled water.

“He said this is the company building…,” Su-hyeun thought.

Tramp, tramp!

Su-hyeun passed the building entrance and walked through the lobby. Su-hyeun was wearing shabby casual clothes and did not bring a bag or anything. Some security guards looked at him strangely before one of them approached Su-hyeun.

“Have you scheduled an appointment in advance?”

Su-hyeun looked back at the security guard. He stared at him for a while and opened his mouth.

“If you are not related… Step back.”

Whoosh, whoosh!

The Flame skill floated around Su-hyeun, allowing the heat to spread. The security guard was frightened and stepped back.

“A-awakener?”

“He is an awakener!”

When Su-hyeun suddenly activated his skill, the guards freaked out. The whole lobby suddenly became fussy. Su-hyeun quickly looked around when their eyes were focused on him. He felt that somebody was secretly watching him.

“I have come to the right place,” he thought.

He slightly doubted the information he got from Chloe and MacRebur, but it looked like it was true.

“If you are related at least a little bit, don’t even think about running away. I’ll just run after you.”

“What the hell do you want? Are you a terrorist?” one guard screamed out loud.

It was at that moment that they heard an explosive sound

One flame exploded in the air and gave off sparks.

“The extermination of the Dump Guild.”

That was why Su-hyeun came to America.

“That is my purpose…”

Boom, boom, boom!

“And this is the start of that.”

An eye for an eye, a terror for a terror. The war between the Dump Guild and Su-hyeun began.