The Hero Returns

Act 1

Swahhh—

The rain fell for a while.

Su-hyeun kept staring at the drop of water on his palm. Rather amazingly, this drop didn’t mix with the other raindrops and dissolve; it simply continued to circle around within his hand instead.

The falling rain soaked him to the bones, and it felt like his whole body might sag to the floor.

Su-hyeun cupped his hand to get more rainwater, and then, along with “A God’s Tear,” drank them all.

[You have acquired a stat point.]

A single stat point…

Although it was just one point, it was still extremely important to Su-hyeun.

With that single stat point, he would get to earn new godhood.

“I had no idea I’d earn one in this way, though.”

He couldn’t help but feel strange.

All the falling raindrops looked so slow to his eyes. It had been a long time since he just stood around getting showered by rain.

Only when one was young would they enjoy the rain on their skins; people would normally avoid getting wet.

The rain that continued to fall the whole night only came to a stop the following morning. That was also when Hercules emerged from his house.

He spoke up, “My apologies. I made you both wait for a long time.”

“No, it’s alright.”

“No need to apologize, fella. We’re staying under your roof, after all.”

Both Su-hyeun and the Bull Demon King quickly waved their hands to say it was all fine.

Hercules had barely managed to calm down Megara and his kids and watched them fall asleep before stepping outside. He leaned his back against the wall like the others and sat down. He was at least two and a half meters tall, so his sitting height almost matched Su-hyeun’s height as the latter stood on his feet, and they had no problem matching their eye levels.

“Thank you for stopping me. I’ve…lost my mind for a little while back then.”

“Are you feeling alright now?”

“Right now, I can’t say that I am. In all honesty, my thoughts haven’t changed at all. I’m still too weak to protect my family. I’m even weaker than you.”

“But that was—”

“You don’t have to feel sorry for me. If you wanted to kill me, surely, there must’ve been a simpler way, am I correct? I know that you worked hard to defeat me without killing me. That’s why I am truly grateful.”

Hercules got down to his knees as he said that.

That was his way of showing his gratitude. Su-hyeun did feel burdened by this display but didn’t try to make Hercules stand back up. To the demigod, this must have been the best and most complete way to say thanks out of all the things he could do, so Su-hyeun didn’t stop him.

Hercules finally raised himself back up, his complexion a lot more haggard than before. “Thanks to you, I was able to stop, and the voice that came from inside my head is not there anymore.”

“A voice? What voice are you talking about?”

“I’m not sure. It could’ve been my inner self, or it could be an external force’s interference. I don’t know. If it’s possible, I’d like it to be the latter, but…honestly, I’m not confident of that.”

Su-hyeun began having a lot of questions regarding the revelation that some kind of voice was involved in Hercules’s sudden transformation.

“Is that a part of the process to become a predator?” he thought to himself.

A predator was a monster that failed to become a god. However, Hercules was already a god-like existence. Most likely, his obsession with wanting to protect his family took a hold of him in a similar way to how one’s desire behaved.

As for him hearing some kind of voice…

For now, Su-hyeun had no way of finding out whether that was a symptom unique only to Hercules or it was one of the byproducts in the process of becoming a monster called the predator.

“What about Miss Megara?”

“She’s scared. A lot.”

“Scared of what, though?”

“Of the current situation. Let me be honest here. I don’t have any confidence in whether or not I’ll change again.”

That must have been the reason why Megara shed her tears.

She cried at the possibility of her children falling into danger at any moment and at the fact that Hercules was the reason for the danger in the first place.

Su-hyeun asked, “What are you going to do?”

“I won’t be able to rely on you forever, so I’m planning to give it my all.”

“Is Miss Megara thinking the same as well?”

“I’ve told her that she should leave whenever she feels it’s the right thing to do. Our kids, Hale and Palaemon, are in danger, after all. But when I told her that, she said we should work through my problem together so that I won’t change again,” Hercules said while smiling softly.

Not much energy was behind that smile, but it was still a relief to see that he at least could smile a little.

Su-hyeun felt deeply relieved that Megara chose to remain by Hercules’s side and that she found the courage to do so.

“I promise you, I won’t change. Never. If that voice shows up again, I’m just gonna curse the living hell out of it.”

* * *

The succeeding events were not that different from what had transpired before Hercules’s episode.

Except for stopping the Giants that showed up every now and then, Su-hyeun spent his free time with the Bull Demon King in Hercules’s house.

Hercules seemed to be cautious about everything somehow. He was probably wary about changing back into that monster again.

However, as long as he remained wary, he would surely not revert back to that state anymore.

[Remaining time: 1 hour, 35 minutes…]

Not much time remained now.

After defeating a whole bunch of Giants and Gigantes that had appeared, Su-hyeun headed back to Hercules’s residence.

It had been a month. He ended up staying here for a fairly long time.

He didn’t feel rueful about the upcoming goodbyes, however. It would be a lie to say he hadn’t grown close to Hercules’s family, but that’s how all trials were like. Therefore, Su-hyeun decided to treat this trial just like any other where he was simply passing through.

If he coldly analyzed his reason even further, then he also hadn’t grown as close to them as he did to the Bull Demon King, Sun Wukong, and the Roc Demon King from the 60th floor.

Besides, there was something else that caused many dilemmas in Su-hyeun’s mind right now.

[Name: Kim Su-hyeun]

[Magic count: 93] [Magic level: 9]

[Strength: 100] [Agility: 99]

[Stamina: 99] [Reflex: 99]

[Death Aura: 70]

[Skill: Leap * advanced]

[Skill: Transfiguration * advanced]

[Skill: Godhood – Flame * advanced]

….

[Fatigue: 0]

[Additional point: 1]

There weren’t any notable changes to Su-hyeun’s stat window.

None of his stats that had reached 99 showed signs of improvement. The same thing also applied to his “magic count.”

The only real change was to the section of “Flame,” which was currently being treated as a skill and was indicated to have acquired godhood, as well as the last line that showed “additional point.”

“Now where should I invest that point?”

That was Su-hyeun’s biggest dilemma right now.

A single stat point that could be invested in anything, where would it be most appropriate to spend that point on?

He had already excluded his “Reflex” stat because he had already reached the 100-point mark for that stat back when he was Kim Sung-in.

Maybe because he hadn’t learned the Sage Arts back then, he had no clue that reaching that milestone was the same as acquiring godhood, but without a doubt, he did acquire the sensory perception that was on another dimension.

There was definitely some merit in investing that point in the Reflex stat. However…

“With enough time, I know I can get back to the Reflex stat from back then through my own abilities.”

The crux of the matter involving the Reflex stat was with his sensory perception, and his senses hadn’t reached the point that Kim Sung-in had reached in the past.

Of course, his overall combat capability was a separate matter. Kim Sung-in mastered more skills than Su-hyeun had, his Reflex stat had reached the 100-point mark, and even his magic count was higher.

However, the current Su-hyeun enjoyed the godhood of strength, as well as the divine Flame. Not to forget, he had the Somersault cloud and the Palm Leaf, and he was currently mastering the Sage Arts as well.

It was safe to assume that he had already leapfrogged past Kim Sung-in at this stage.

“Ultimately, it’s down to either agility or stamina…”

His dilemma was only getting worse.

In the end, he failed to put a full stop to his dilemma this time around. Su-hyeun, sitting on the front yard’s rocking chair, slowly shook his head and got back on his feet.

He didn’t have a reason to decide right away, anyway, so he figured that it wouldn’t be so bad to take a little more time to decide on things.

“I guess about one hour remains?”

He had basically cleared the trial already, judging from how things currently were. It was most likely that the trial of the 102nd floor was to stop Hercules’s transformation into a predator.

“That hint about Hercules being the issue is probably no longer relevant now.”

If it wasn’t for that hint, would Su-hyeun have failed to notice the minute changes to Hercules’s personality?

No, that was unlikely, but there was a chance that he might have paid a little less attention.

Creak—

“Looks like you’ll be leaving soon.”

The Bull Demon King pushed open the front door and emerged from the house. Then, he placed a folding chair he brought outside next to Su-hyeun’s rocking chair and settled down on it.

Su-hyeun nodded and sunk his body deeply back in the rocking chair before looking up at the blue sky above. “Yes, only a little bit of time remains.”

“Which means this is yet another farewell.”

“Farewell,” that word made a corner of Su-hyeun’s heart hurt a little.

He felt a rush of frustration. He knew that it couldn’t be helped, but a small part of him thought that it wouldn’t be so bad to spend a little more time with him like this.

“It would be wonderful if all of us can be together the next time we meet,” said the Bull Demon King.

A smirk made its way to Su-hyeun’s lips right then. That feeling of frustration didn’t last for long.

The moment he heard the Bull Demon King, all thoughts of rueful longing simply melted away like snowflakes. To his ears, that sounded pretty much similar to what the Bull Demon King said in the past, the one about them definitely going to meet again.

“When you say something like that, it feels as if it would definitely come true…” Su-hyeun spoke while turning his head to the side, only to freeze up right there. “Big brother.”

The Bull Demon King, who was sitting next to him only a second ago, had vanished. Only the small chair he had brought outside remained on the spot.

Over one hour still remained, though?

“He already left?”

Then again, the Bull Demon King had often been bringing up his worries over the other brothers for the past few days. It wasn’t all that strange to see him leave a little early.

A dragged-out and tedious farewell would only hurt more in the end, after all.

Still, they did promise to meet again before parting ways. Su-hyeun figured this was a pretty decisive and cool farewell whatever the case may be, so he raised his head.

Hale and Palaemon energetically ran out of the house, and Su-hyeun played with them for a little while. Before long, Hercules came outside to stand next to him.

“Are you leaving as well?” the demigod asked after checking out Su-hyeun’s expression. Hercules didn’t seem all that surprised. Maybe he began thinking about the possibility a little while ago.

Su-hyeun nodded and replied, “Yes. It looks like I must.”

“Thank you for everything.”

“No, not at all. What are you going to do from now on?”

“Regarding what?”

“Everything.”

Although Su-hyeun did beat around the bush a little, there could be only one thing he was asking about.

Uranus.

Indeed, he was asking the demigod how he was planning to deal with that monster who used to be a god from the generation before Zeus and somehow ended up becoming a predator.

“I still don’t know what Olympus is planning to do through me, but for now, I’m thinking of taking it one step at a time.”

“One step at a time, you say?”

“Hmm…Your big brother told me that I need to learn to relax and breathe a bit more. He taught me this thing called breathing technique or something, which has been helping me with relaxing my mind lately.”

“The breathing technique, huh?”

“Right. Thanks to him, I stopped being so impatient, too.”

Sure enough, Hercules’s complexion while saying those things seemed a lot brighter than the first time Su-hyeun ran into him.

The Bull Demon King had personally taught Hercules the breathing technique, though?

Su-hyeun was well aware of the effectiveness of that technique. Once upon a time, he too was impatient in his heart, but through the breathing technique and the Bull Demon King’s guidance, he was able to turn things around.

The same thing applied now.

It seemed that the Bull Demon King couldn’t forsake Hercules, someone he had been living with under the same roof for a little while.

“That does sound like the big brother, doesn’t it?”

What a relief that was. Hercules’s state was similar to the past version of Su-hyeun. No, more correctly, the demigod closely resembled Kim Sung-in—always impatient and always under the sheer pressure of needing to achieve something. He lived his life while constantly being under the tremendous burden of needing to carry all those lead-like baggage that was ruthlessly bearing down on his shoulders.

The current Su-hyeun had gotten rid of a lot of that baggage. The same thing should also apply to Hercules.

From this point onward, he should take his time step by step; moving forward while gradually ridding himself of that baggage would do the trick.

“In that case, I shall get going as well.”

Su-hyeun got up from the chair. Not much time remained now.

“Are you leaving right away?”

“Yes. Please tell Miss Megara and the children.”

“How about you say farewell directly to—?” Hercules’s eyes opened wider as he watched Su-hyeun’s figure gradually fade out.

The latter waved his hand and said, “Let’s meet again in the future.”

Before he completely vanished from the world, Su-hyeun abruptly recalled the myth related to Hercules. He wasn’t all that knowledgeable about the Greek myths, so he didn’t know much about the tales involving Hercules’s life.

However, he was still sure that the “Hercules” he knew was the hero among heroes who achieved a great victory in the gods’ war against the Giants.

“And I believe you’ll achieve the same feat here, too,” Su-hyeun inwardly cheered on Hercules—a man who most resembled himself and someone more human than any other despite being born as a half-god.

And right at that moment…

[Remaining time: 00:00:00]

[You have passed the 102nd floor’s trial.]

[You have acquired 30,000,000 achievement points.]

[You are now receiving the grace of the god Hercules.]

[Your “Strength” has risen by 1.]

[Will you transfer to the next floor?]