The Hero Returns - Chapter 145

Act 7

Two blue-colored dungeons had appeared in Korea. Bak Yun-gyu went right out to find them as soon as he got the report.

He saw a small dungeon that appeared deep in Seorak Mountain. It was discovered a few days before. There was still some time left until the outbreak. But the problem was there weren’t enough human resources.

<<Blue-colored dungeon…>>

Bak Yun-gyu looked to one side There was another dungeon on the other side of the viaduct. And that dungeon was also blue. Moreover, the second dungeon was slightly larger than the first.

<<Two dungeons appeared in a similar area at the same time…>>

Such things were called twin dungeons. They were dungeons that appeared at the same time and the same place. Those dungeons usually cause an outbreak at almost the same time. Typically, low-level dungeons appeared as twin dungeons. But this time, they were blue-colored ones.

“…This is so sudden,” Bak Yun-gyu muttered.

Even the outbreak from a green-colored dungeon had far-reaching power. It could easily destroy a small city or two. Indeed, one small town had been damaged because of a dungeon not too long ago. After that incident, people started to talk about eschatology. That was just a green-colored dungeon. Bak Yun-gyu even couldn’t imagine what would happen if two blue-colored dungeons had an outbreak at the same time. Perhaps even the whole province might be a mess.

“Leader!” A big man named Kang Seung-cheol crossed the viaduct and approached Bak Yun-gyu.

Bak Yun-gyu, who was looking at the dungeon, turned his head and asked, “How is it?”

“It’s expected that it will outbreak in 15 days to a month.”

At Kang Seung-cheol’s answer, Bak Yun-gyu made a ridiculous expression. “Why’s the error range so big?”

“We don’t have much data about blue-colored dungeons. That’s the best we can do.”

“It drives me nuts.”

<<A month maybe… But 15 days is too short to prepare.>>

They always had to assume the worst. If the outbreak would occur in 15 days, they should start attacking in ten days, at the latest.

<<I hope Mr. Su-hyeun will come back to Korea soon.>>

Right not, there weren’t enough S-Rank awakeners left in Korea. Not just Kim Su-hyeun and Song Hyeong-gi but also Choi Hak-joon, who became S-Rank only recently, went to San Francisco to participate in the Ranking Wars.

“Go bring Mr. Su-hyeun back as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir!”

Kang Seung-cheol also knew the seriousness of this case and started to move straight away. Bak Yun-gyu stayed where he was, in case of an emergency.

<<If those dungeons cause an outbreak…>>

He held tight the handle of the sword that he wore at his waist. His eyes gleamed.

<<I must stop it.>>

***

In the end, Su-hyeun took a rest in the private plane, not at the hotel. It took almost half a day to get back to Korea, so they couldn’t stay in San Francisco any longer. One thing had changed. There was one more person in his party.

“Wow…”

Thomas wandered around the private jet, eyes shining. Thomas never saw the plane flying above the sky. Thomas was a high-rank awakener, but riding a plane that operated so high above the ground, at such fast speed, was something exciting to him.

“It looks like he never knew something like this existed.” Hak-joon, who was just about to sleep, lifted his eye mask and looked at Thomas.

Su-hyeun replied, lying on his chair, “You were the same.”

“W-was I?”

“Yes.”

“…”

Hak-joon felt embarrassed. He scratched his cheek and put his eye mask back. Thomas, who had been looking around the plane for a whole hour, soon got tired and sat in a chair and started reading a book.

They finally arrived after a half-day trip. It was the middle of the day in Korea. Su-hyeun woke up from a deep sleep. He let out a long yawn and got off the plane.

“Will you go right away?”

Hak-joon had heard about the blue-colored dungeons, too. So, he asked, a little nervously. He had joined the raid of a blue-colored dungeon before. So, he knew well the level of difficulty involved. And, this time, there was not just one. This time, twin dungeons had appeared.

“I have to stop somewhere first,” Su-hyeun said.

“Where?”

“Sorry. I can’t take you. There’s an ill-tempered man.”

“Oh. Are you…?” Hak-joon asked in surprise.

There was only one person that Su-hyeun called an ill-tempered man. He was going the blacksmith named Kim Dae-ho, whose praises Su-hyeun had been singing.

“He said he’s done.”

“Really?”

“What is this about?” Lee Ju-ho asked.

“Oh. You didn’t hear?”

Su-hyeun explained to Lee Ju-ho about what he had ordered from Kim Dae-ho. After the explanation, Lee Ju-ho’s eyes widened in surprise.

“R-real adamantium?”

“Yes. Real adamantium.”

“Didn’t you say your sword was made out of the highest-grade Ether stones?”

“Yes, it was.”

“what the ....…” The curse came out like exclamation.

His sword was made of the highest-grade Ether stones, and now adamantium, called the best metal in the world, was added. If those two were combined, that would almost be a national treasure.

<<No. That might just be the best weapon in history.>>

Adel’s gauntlets, which made of a little bit of adamantium, were called one of the most powerful items in Europe. Adding such adamantium onto the highest-grade Ether stones was unprecedented.

“So, are you going to bring a sword?” Lee Ju-ho asked.

“Yes. Also, I want to say hello to Mr. Dae-ho.”

“Then, do you want to take a day off and move tomorrow? You came right from the Ranking Wars,” Lee Ju-ho said.

“Yes. That is fine with me…” Su-hyeun looked at Hak-joon.

Unlike Su-hyeun, Hak-joon seemed pretty tired. It looked like his fatigue didn’t go away with a bit of sleep on the private plane.

<<Well. I guess I am a little tired, too.>>

Su-hyeun recovered from physical fatigue, but his mental fatigue hadn’t been relieved yet. The blue-colored dungeons wouldn’t cause an outbreak in a day. According to Bak Yun-gyu, it looked like they still had at least ten days.

“Then let’s meet at the bottom of Seorak Mountain about lunchtime. Hey, Hak-joon, I think you should go to visit Yun-seon. You haven’t seen her in a while.”

“What about me? What about me?” Thomas asked.

“Thomas, you’re going to go with Mr. Ju-ho. I’m sorry that I can’t take you. See you tomorrow.”

“Let’s meet Su-hyeun tomorrow again, Thomas. Okay?”

“Whew…”

Thomas lowered his head down as if he felt bad, but he didn’t complain. Eventually, Thomas went with Lee Ju-ho. Su-hyeun got his car that he had parked nearby. Soon, he headed to Yangpyeong.

***

There was no sound at Kim Dae-ho’s villa in Yangpyeong. It was weird. Kim Dae-ho always struck the metals, except when he slept.

“Mister. I’m here,” Su-hyeun said, knocking on the door.

“Come in.”

A voice came from a distance. Kim Dae-ho didn’t strike iron at the moment, but he was still awake. Su-hyeun walked into the house, not the workshop. That was where Kim Dae-ho’s voice had come from.

“Hey, Su-hyeun. How are you?”

When Su-hyeun went into the open porch, he could see Kim Dae-ho. He was lying on the sofa in the living room and waved his hand. Su-hyeun looked around the messy room. Kim Dae-ho looked a little tired.

Su-hyeun asked, “What happened? Why is your house so messy? And what happened to you?”

“I didn’t sleep for three days.”

“What?”

“I said, I didn’t sleep for three days.”

Su-hyeun widened his eyes. “I heard. But why didn’t you sleep?”

“I haven’t been sleeping because I made your sword.”

“I told you, it’s not urgent. You didn’t have to do that. You should take care of yourself first…”

“I’m fine. I did it just because I was having fun. I was getting closer to completion, so I couldn’t stop.”

Su-hyeun understood. He knew how much Kim Dae-ho liked making weapons. He hadn’t been sleeping because he was having fun making his sword.

“Where’s the sword?”

“I hung it up there,” Kim Dae-ho said, pointing to one of the weapons hanging on the wall.

Dozens of weapons hung on the wall like rubbish, but actually, they were Kim Dae-ho’s masterpieces. Each one of them would cost hundreds of millions of won. And, among them, the one that stood out was Su-hyeun’s sword. It looked rather ordinary. The scabbard and handle looked the same as before.

“You said that sword’s name is Balmung, right? I didn’t know because I’m ignorant. But I did some research. It was the sword from some mythical story, right?”

“Yes. That’s right,” Su-hyeun answered, taking the sword down from the wall.

“You have no sense in making a name. Why didn’t you give it a new name? Huh?”

It looked like Kim Dae-ho didn’t like the name of the sword. Su-hyeun didn’t answer his complaints. He drew the sword out slowly. The sword came out about a handspan. It reflected Su-hyeun’s face.

<<Balmung.>>

The blade had a pale gold color that could only be seen when he looked closely. This was Balmung. Su-hyeun’s heart thumped. The feeling was completely different from Gram. Balmung was the sword that he used for most of his life. When he held this sword again, he got a different feeling.

<<Now, I can use that skill.>>

There was a skill that he had been saving because of the limitations of the weapon. Su-hyeun smiled again when he thought about how he could use that skill again.

Click—

Su-hyeun put the sword back in the scabbard.

“I bet you’re itching to use it soon,” Kim Dae-ho, lying on the sofa, said as if he understood.

“Not really.”

“I can tell from your face. Hey, it’s not a shameful thing or something. You don’t have to lie…”

“Hey, old man!” Suddenly, a loud voice came from outside.

“We came to get our gear, old man!”

“Those bastards came again!” Kim Dae-ho crumpled his face.

Su-hyeun turned his head and looked at the direction where the voice came. “Who are they?”

“Never mind. You just stay here. I’ll come back after I kick them out.” Kim Dae-ho got up from his seat with annoyance and walked out of the room.

Su-hyeun looked at Kim Dae-ho’s back.

<<Wait. Was it about these days?>>

Kim Dae-ho kept a low profile, although he had great skill. So, some guilds had come and bothered him to get his weapons. It happened because he started to sell his arms one by one to buy the materials he needed to work. Some of the guilds found out who had made them and forced Kim Dae-ho to make weapons for them. And, Su-hyeun remembered that this had happened about this time in his previous life.

<<I should go out and check,>> Su-hyeun thought.

Su-hyeun knew why Kim Dae-ho had asked to stay here. He must have thought he would cause inconvenience for Su-hyeun. Also, he probably wanted Su-hyeun to keep out of trouble. But there was one thing Kim Dae-ho didn’t think about.

<<I haven’t paid you back for everything that I’ve received, mister.>>

Su-hyeun began to follow Kim Dae-ho, quietly.