The Hero Returns

Chapter 179: Chapter 179

Act 2

At a casual glance, the spear looked rather ordinary. But, compared to the two Su-hyeun threw earlier, it looked different.

Where the previous two had cracks akin to the lines on a turtle’s shell running in their shafts, so that they could split apart and fall like raindrops, this one was smooth and straight like a line.

<< Was I mistaken? >>

Chernov wondered if he should blame his over sensitivity on not getting a good enough look. He soon took his gaze away from Su-hyeun’s spear and issued another command to the raiding party, “From now on, all of you will get to the distance of at least three kilometers away from that stone monkey thing! Hurry up!”

“Excuse me?”

“You want us to run away?”

“Stop making noise and be quick about it! Explanations later.”

The raiding party hesitated slightly at the Russian S-Rank’s order, but soon began distancing themselves. And, like that, the only two people remaining in the spot were Su-hyeun and Chernov, all alone.

Su-hyeun observed the Roc-key in the distance looking back at the two humans with its stony eyes.

Chernov gulped nervously.

<< That thing must’ve spotted us by now, so why…. >>

It had already been several minutes since the giant Roc-key had discovered the humans’ presence. Yet the monster was quietly, patiently waiting. That sight sent an even bigger wave of chills down the Russian’s back.

<< That monster is different from the others. >>

The majority of monsters were uncontrollably aggressive. They always attacked as soon as they spotted humans, and, at times, even attacked their fellow monsters as well.

A calm monster like that? He couldn’t even imagine it.

The air it gave off wasn’t that of a monster, but maybe the god of all apes.

Gulp-

Chernov gulped back his dry saliva at the sense of presence the Roc-key gave off, which felt much larger than what his eyes were seeing.

“There’s no need to get nervous like that. I’d like you to focus on hitting it properly just one time please,” said Su-hyeun as he stepped forward while carrying a sword in one hand while the spear in the other. “I’ll take care of the rest afterward.”

“…Understood.”

Chernov sucked in his breath and pulled out his bow. He nocked three arrows. As magical energies of differing attributes permeated the individual arrows, he narrowed his eyes to slits.

Then, he slowly took aim. Those three arrows were basically all he had done during this raid.

<< Patience. >>

The tautly-stretched bow was now pointed in the Roc-key’s direction.

Step-

Meanwhile, Su-hyeun left Chernov behind and walked over to the giant stone monkey.

The Roc-key’s gaze lowered to the ground. The figure of the stone monster as it stared at the approaching Su-hyeun looked slow and dull-witted to match its huge physique.

But…

“Hey, you piece of rock.”

Su-hyeun was well aware of the thing’s true nature.

“Hurry up and come at me already.”

Keu-geuk, creeeak-

When Su-hyeun beckoned at it with his finger, the Roc-key slowly began rising up. Its bent knees and back straightened. The stone monster stood fully upright to reveal its full height, well over ten meters.

And then…

Gu-uh-uhhhhhk-!

BOOM-!

With a roar, the Roc-key leaped up high into the air.

Swooooosh-

KWA-BOOOOM-!

The jumping Roc-key landed back on the ground. It was thinking of using the momentum from its fall to crush Su-hyeun with its two hard feet in one go.

Unfortunately, it was all in vain.

Pahk, pa-pahk-

Swiiiish-

Su-hyeun easily dodged the attack and he leaped up several times in a row.

His movements with the ‘Leap’ skill were truly agile. But the Roc-key was just as agile as he was.

Thud-

Swiiiing-

The Roc-key climbed up using the surrounding trees and its tail viciously whipped toward Su-hyeun.

CRACK-!

He swung his sword powerfully while twisting his back. The sword and the stone monster’s tail clashed loudly. The appendage and the weapon bounced away in opposite directions.

A crimson light exploded out from the Roc-key’s eyes as it let out yet another roar.

Gu-uh-uhhhhhk-!

Boom, bang-

Crack-!

Su-hyeun followed suit and stood on the tree’s branch and, soon afterward, a flurry of attacks and defenses unfolded. The punches of the Roc-key shattered the giant trees like pieces of toothpicks, while the ground was deeply gouged out.

Su-hyeun’s ability to defend against such heavy punches with just his sword was indeed remarkable, but Chernov was feeling even more spooked after seeing what the Roc-key could do.

<< That… is the boss of a blue-colored dungeon? >>

To think that such a big physique could be so agile in its movements, too.

Not only that, the monster even climbed and darted around these humongous trees and engaged in an aerial dog fight, too. If such a monster managed to dig in among the raiding party, then even if the awakeners maintained a defensive formation, a dozen-plus would’ve lost their lives in one breath.

<< It’s not easy to aim at all. >>

Cold sweat trickled down Chernov as he aimed the sharp arrow tips at the Roc-key.

What would happen if this one shot missed, and the Roc-key turned its attention on him, instead? Just imagining it sent chills down his back. Moreover, if he made a mistake and the arrows ended up flying toward Su-hyeun, that would be even worse.

<< No. I will hit my target. I must. >>

Chernov’s arrows now pointed above the tall trees, where there was nothing but air. His view widened and he took in everything in his surroundings. And then, the moment he let go of the tautly-stretched string…

Paaaang-

Whoooosh-!

Three arrows powerfully pierced the air and flew forward.

Stab, staaab-!

Giii-aaaahk-!

The Roc-key jumped in the way at the perfect moment—two arrows pierced the monster’s legs, while the last one stabbed the thick branch the creature stepped on.

After arrows struck both of its legs, the Roc-key momentarily lost its balance, before it spun its head towards the Russian S-Rank.

Shudder-

Chernov met the Roc-key’s crimson glare and felt another round of chills run down his spine.

But, in that brief window of opportunity….

Pah-shuk, shu-shushushu-

Su-hyeun rose above the Roc-key’s head and got into a position to throw the spear.

“Now this is perfect.”

His back bent greatly, and magical energy began gathering at the end of the spear.

[Wave Spear- Explosion Style.]

Kwa, kwaaaaah-!

A massive amount of magical energy gathered on the spear’s tip, amplified several times over, and began spinning viciously.

Right after that, the spear left his hand. Instead of splitting apart like the regular Dragon Slaying Spear, the magical energy gathered in the spear tip spun even more powerfully as it concentrated on a single point.

Chernov managed to catch the moment when the spear left Su-hyeun’s hand.

FLASH-

And then, in an instant, everything before his eyes was bathed in white light. The Russian reflexively shielded his eyes with his hand. The blinding flash of light was one thing, but he simply couldn’t see anything at all.

<< Just what the hell is… >>

A short while later, his vision was finally restored and….

Boom-

<< …Uh? >>

What Chernov’s eyes saw next was the sight of the Roc-key crashing to the ground with a huge hole in its chest.

* * *

Step, step-

Su-hyeun picked up the spear resting beneath the corpse of the Roc-key.

The tip of the weapon was completely shredded. It seemed that the weapon was unable to withstand the level of magical energy the ‘Explosion Style’ skill contained.

<< Looks like two hits will be its limit. >>

There was a clear limit to how much the spear’s durability could endure with this much destructive power extracted from it.

A regular spear couldn’t endure the ‘Explosion Style’ skill’s explosive power at all. Even Balmung wouldn’t be able to withstand the skill if it wasn’t for the combination of adamantium and the highest-grade Ether stones.

<< Still, the power alone is nothing to scoff at. >>

The Dragon Slaying Spear, the one-time throwing weapon that Su-hyeun had frequently relied on for a long time. Not only was it possible to attack a huge area when the spear split apart into tens of thousands of fragments, but it was also capable of displaying a great destructive power even with a small amount of magical energy used.

But, from a certain point, Su-hyeun began thinking that it was a waste.

<< For sure, it’s a bit of a waste to use a Dragon Slaying Spear on a single target. >>

That was the crux of the issue he’d been thinking about for a while now. Nothing was better than this spear when facing off against multiple enemies, but there was a sense of wasting the weapon when using it against a single entity like a boss monster,

It was the same story when fighting against a large enemy like this Roc-key. The power would fall short since the spear had to split into tens of thousands of fragments.

Bosses boasted fundamentally incredible regenerative abilities more often than not. So, it was more important to land one powerful hit rather than consecutive hits like with the Dragon Slaying Spear.

That’s why he asked Kim Dae-ho for a favor. To craft a spear that wouldn’t get shredded apart even when he used the ‘Explosion Style’ skill.

And, having witnessed the thing’s firepower, Su-hyeun became certain of what to do next.

<< I need adamantium. >>

‘Adamantium’. The hardest and most durable metal in the world, plus possessing the unique trait of constantly wanting to return to its original form. Because of those qualities, it took a long time to refine, but no other metal suited the ‘Explosion Style’ skill as perfectly as adamantium did.

He had confirmed the destructive power. Compared to a Dragon Slaying Spear being used against a single enemy, a sturdy spear with the ‘Explosion Style’ skill applied to it produced a much greater destructive power.

This should be more effective when hunting Fafnir down.

Chernov spoke first. “Thank you for your hard work. Are you injured anywhere…?”

“No, I’m fine. Besides all that, looks like there’s our exit.”

Su-hyeun pointed at the cliff face that the Roc-key had been obscuring until now. A small cave with a blue-colored haze spread all over its interior was indeed the exit of this dungeon.

<< Adamantium. Adamantium, is it… >>

Su-hyeun had a bit of a dilemma, before shifting his gaze back to the path he walked on in this dungeon and thought to himself.

<< All of these, I wonder how much they’ll be. >>

From the Ether stones about to be extracted from a blue-colored dungeon to the commission he’d receive by resolving this particular request…

For the first time ever, Su-hyeun was getting interested in money.

* * *

The mayor of Moscow, David Sobyanin, hurriedly paid Su-hyeun the commission fee. There was no problem in paying right now, since he had taken the amount from the budget under the assumption that the request would be successful.

Of course, he was still shocked by how unexpectedly quick the raid was. But, the raid had definitely been completed, at least according to the testimonies of the raiding party that accompanied Su-hyeun.

“I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t get to see with my own eyes, mister mayor. Actually, he wasn’t even planning to move quickly in the beginning, sir.”

One and a half days. That was how long it took to raid this blue-colored dungeon. Not only that, Su-hyeun moved around without using any magical energy during the first day. The reason why he sought out a blue-colored dungeon in the first place was to experiment with his newly-acquired strength stat and his spears.

If it weren’t for that reason, he’d have further decreased the first day to only a half-day, instead.

After confirming that his commission had been deposited, Su-hyeun climbed aboard his private jet and flew back to South Korea.

And immediately headed to Gangnam district.

* * *

The Ether stone auction house situated near the Gangnam Station:

The auction house had grown in scale in recent times, allowing them to auction not just Ether stones but even various items with Ether stones mixed in them, as well.

“S-section chief!”

The section chief of this very auction house, Lee Kyeong-jong, grimaced at his subordinate’s unsightly behavior as he ran straight into the office. Even if the matter at hand was urgent, to think that he’d barge in without even knocking once. More than anything, the customers outside were getting a full view of them right now.

“Customers are looking at us. Stop making a ruckus and come inside.”

“Sir, it’s not me who should be coming in, but you should be coming out right now, sir.”

“What’s going on?”

“Kim Su-hyeun has arrived, sir. To do a transaction with us, sir.”

Push-

That was enough to prompt Lee Kyeong-jong to shove back his chair, shoot up to his feet like his subordinate and cry out in an urgent voice, “Let’s go! Hurry!”

With his subordinate leading the way, Lee Kyeong-jong urgently rushed toward the reception room. He was half-running out of the urgency in his heart, and could only barely tidy up his clothing before sucking in a deep breath.

He hadn’t felt this tense ever since jumping into the Ether stone auction business.

<< He’s a big customer. Never mind the money, this is a chance to advertise the name of our auction house throughout the world. >>

Lee Kyeong-jong calmed his harried breathing and knocked on the door.

Knock, knock-

“Please pardon my intrusion.”

Creak-

Lee Kyeong-jong cautiously opened the door and entered the reception room, and his eyes caught the face of Su-hyeun, currently sitting near a table with a cup of coffee resting on it.

“It’s been a while,” said Su-hyeun.

“B-back then….”

Lee Kyeong-jong’s face brightened instantly. He had been deeply tense until now, but, well, he could definitely recall that face. That awakener who showed up with a large quantity of Ether stones long ago—he was none other than Kim Su-hyeun.

“I’m still very shocked, sir. Who would’ve known that the customer back then was you, Mister Kim Su-hyeun….”

“Didn’t I write my name on the contract documents, though?”

“Hahah, you’re such a huge name nowadays, sir. I couldn’t help but wonder if you just happen to share the same name,” Lee Kyeong-jong said with a soft smile as he cautiously observed Su-hyeun’s moods.

He had dealt with many types of people in the course of his work. Unless it was someone with a completely emotionless face, Lee Kyeong-jong wouldn’t find it hard to figure out just who he was currently dealing with.

In his estimation, Su-hyeun wasn’t the type to enjoy beating around the bush.

“Sir, what brings you to our establishment today? Is it perhaps to entrust us again with the auctioning of your Ether stones?”

Su-hyeun nodded at Lee Kyeong-jong’s question.

“Yes, there is that, but also….” He certainly had an overwhelming amount of Ether stones with him, but the main reason was something else. “There’s an item I’d like you to find for me.”