The Hero Returns

Act 1

The fog was thick and heavy.

The whitish fog made it difficult to even confirm what’s in front of one’s nose.

Having crossed over to this new world through the gateway along with Luslec, Su-hyeun filled his eyes with magical energy and took another look at their surroundings. His view had gotten a bit brighter this way.

However, the world he saw had nothing.

“A world with only the fog and nothing else, hmm…”

Only plains, hills, mountains, and fog were here.

Never mind humans, he couldn’t see a single trace of anything that lived here. Some kind of animals at least should’ve existed here, but he couldn’t sense even their presence.

It was the same story with the mountains as well. Only tall rock mountains with not a blade of grass or trees on them were there. Not even moss or fungi existed on them.

The place felt quite different from a destroyed world. It was as if it was an artificially created world.

“This place is originally like this,” said Luslec.

“You’ve been here before?”

“Of course. You think I’d bring you to a place I’ve never been to? This place is quite famous among the apostles, actually.”

Step, step—

Luslec walked ahead of Su-hyeun. The latter followed right behind him.

“A top-tier god whose name isn’t known created this world. That god is apparently a bit of a pervert, an eccentric.”

“An eccentric, you say?”

“You can earn the elixir by passing the trial given during every ’round,’ you see. However, no one has passed that trial so far.”

“Wait, isn’t that what predators usually do?”

“It’s similar, but there’s a decisive difference. The god involved here doesn’t forcibly kidnap participants, unlike the predators.”

“Isn’t that, like, splitting hairs?”

“And that’s why the ‘perverted, eccentric’ bit. A god isn’t acting like one, after all.”

Stop—

Luslec who was walking ahead suddenly came to a stop, and unlike his usual self, he spoke in a slightly graver voice, “Not all gods act in a godly way, you know. That applies to humans and predators, too.”

“Huh?”

“I’m just saying. In any case, we’re almost there. Ah, right over there, actually.”

Luslec pointed at a small cave at the foot of a rock mountain in front of them.

The inside of the cave was almost clear of the fog. After Su-hyeun and Luslec entered, they unpacked some of their luggage.

Rumble—

Su-hyeun snapped his fingers to light up an undying fire, which brightly illuminated the interior of the cave. He had been wondering if an animal might have lived in here since it was a cave and all, but there was no trace of such a thing.

Luslec spoke, “I’m the one who made this little cave. I once participated in the trial, you see.”

“To find that elixir?”

“Yes. Back then, I was a very curious guy. Well, I couldn’t find it in the end, but still,” Luslec said as he settled down in front of the fire. He then proceeded to extract dried meat and some plates from the subspace and prepared for a meal right away. Among the things that he brought out was a handful of large bottles.

He quipped next, “For sure, you just can’t have this sort of discussions without some fine booze by your side. Don’t you agree?”

“You seem to like your drinks quite a lot.”

“Would you like some?”

“No, thank you. I don’t like their taste, and I certainly don’t get drunk anyway, so the alcohol will be wasted on me.”

“I guess you have a point there.”

Luslec nodded before picking up the booze bottle. He took several gulps of the booze with a strong smell and began munching on the dried meat.

He quenched his thirst first and continued from where he left off, “You know why the predators prey on the worlds, yes?”

“It’s probably to acquire the qualifications of godhood or to evolve even further by absorbing energy sources like magical energy.”

“Correct. In that case, what is an elixir?”

“Isn’t that a solidified form of energy? Why would you…?” Su-hyeun became puzzled when Luslec asked about something obvious, only for his brows to shoot up. “Could it be that the elixir this time is…?”

“Yup. The energy source that maintains this small world.”

Snap—

Luslec snapped his fingers as if that was the correct answer. “It’s exactly that.”

“Hah…” Su-hyeun chuckled in dismay.

No matter how big an elixir was, it would still be an “elixir.” If it was huge, one could expect it to be around the size of a fist, while a small one would be only about a finger joint length or so.

However…

“If it’s an elixir of this scale, no wonder others would be tempted by it,” he thought.

This “wonder medicine” possessed enough power to maintain a world, even if it’s a small one.

“Wait, what will happen to this place if one acquires that elixir?” Su-hyeun asked.

“It’ll probably disappear, I guess?”

“Then, what about the people here?”

“Surely, the world won’t just go ‘poof!’ in an instant, you know? There should be enough time for everyone to go home before that happens. If not, well, the god of this world will just send everyone back where they came from,” Luslec replied, unconcerned. It didn’t look like he had thought that far ahead yet. “But the real issue at hand is the rules.”

“When you say rules, I’m guessing there is some kind of a mission?”

“Well…”

Luslec suddenly showed the back of his hand.

Su-hyeun stared at it and discovered a magic circle emitting a soft light there. This would be his first time seeing such a design and the patterns engraved within.

“It’s a magic circle of an oath. It has the effect of preventing me from divulging any information related to the mission itself.”

“Meaning, you can’t expose any of the information?”

“Yes. But I can still tell you about the basic stuff, and the magic circle’s effects almost completely disappear once the mission gets going.”

“What are the basic stuff, then?”

Luslec shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Information on the participants of the mission and what to watch out for when you clash with them—stuff like that.”

**

A few days went by.

Su-hyeun came out of the cave after suffering from sheer boredom. There wasn’t anything interesting to look at since the whole world was covered in a thick fog, but it was still better than being inside an enclosed cave.

“Gee whiz, it feels like time is moving really slowly.”

Having woken up from a slumber that lasted a few short hours, Su-hyeun yawned grandly and trudged away from the cave. In his hand was a book he got from Ellid.

He walked for a few minutes and discovered a few flat-top boulders and then settled down on one. With the fog being so heavy, he thought that even he would get lost if he wandered too far away from the cave.

“Well, it’s not so bad to spend some time doing nothing like this.”

But strictly speaking, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t been doing anything until now.

For the past few days, Su-hyeun had been closely studying and researching the contents of the grimoire Ellid had given him.

He thought that his current level was something like, “quite familiar with magic to a degree.” Because he already somewhat possessed a high level of magic-related knowledge, to begin with, and supported by his high magical energy level and magic count, he was able to acclimatize to magic at quite a fast pace.

And as he delved deeper and deeper into magic, he began getting this feeling that pretty soon, he might grab hold of “something,” somehow.

“For sure, it’s somehow related to the system, but just what kind…?” he thought.

He did get to realize this one thing, though: the tower’s system and magic itself were deeply related.

He felt that, as long as he could figure this one out, he might even get to unravel all the secrets of the tower.

Flip—

And so, Su-hyeun continued reading the grimoire.

Half of it hadn’t even come to his attention yet. Whenever he ran into a magic circle, he needed to spend a good few hours on that page trying to analyze its operating principle.

“You only came this far?”

Step, step—

Luslec followed Su-hyeun outside a bit later.

He didn’t appear fully alert as if he had been asleep until now. He yawned lazily before taking a look around his surroundings. “There are a lot more people here compared to a few days ago, aren’t there?”

“Yes. But it seems that they are not minding that right now.”

“Well, I’m sure no one here wishes to fight inside such a heavy fog.”

This dense fog didn’t only affect one’s vision but also paralyzed the rest of one’s other five senses.

If people wanted to fight inside this type of fog, they’d have to concentrate even harder than usual, and such a battle would be more tiring than a normal fight by several times.

That was probably the reason why several people didn’t bother to start a fight even though they were conscious of others’ presence.

No, rather than trying to get in contact to fight, they seemed to be more focused on forming teams.

Su-hyeun expressed his observation, “A few groups of three or four people have sprung up lately.”

“They are forming teams.”

“You said that around 3,000 people will participate in a round, yes?”

“Yes. Three or four folks forming a team is not that surprising at all. There had even been instances where up to 10 people worked together,” Luslec shrugged his shoulders. “Well, as they are all hastily-put-together teams, they’ll just run around confused like a bunch of headless chickens, only to break up in the end.”

“Coming from personal experience, I presume?”

“Of course. Unless your partner is someone you really trust, you might as well not even bother,” Luslec said, turning his head. In the direction where he looked, around the midway point of the rock mountain, was a silhouette of a person sitting all alone while staring at the scenery below.

“Look at him. Someone who thinks they have some skills will always try their luck by themselves alone. You only team up with other people when you don’t feel confident of your own strength.”

“That’s true.”

Certainly, the strong ones were mostly by themselves.

The ones seemingly in a hurry to form teams and groups were mostly people without the qualifications of godhood and those who were frantically struggling to acquire the elixir to break through their limitations.

“Is there a reason why the number of people has increased so suddenly?” Su-hyeun asked. “There weren’t a lot of people only until a few days ago.”

“That just means the start isn’t too far from now.”

“You mean, the next mission?”

“It’s a big event that only happens once every year, after all. Well, most of who have decided to come here after hearing the rumors won’t even get a chance to get their initial investment back, anyway.”

“Is everyone here an apostle like you?”

“No, not everyone,” Luslec replied before pointing at the man in the middle of the rock mountain. The man was also looking back at them, having discovered them by the rocks. “Other than that guy, the rest are just stragglers.”

“In that case, how did the others learn about this place and come here?”

“Half probably fell for that eccentric god’s scheme. There are plenty of ways to attract people here without forcing them to come, after all. I mean, who wouldn’t drool at the idea of acquiring a god-like power if you get lucky enough?”

“As for the other half?”

“Just like Yong-yong in your care, Mister Su-hyeun, quite a few races are capable of traveling to different dimensions, even if they aren’t that common—either they use their superpowers to enter or leave a dimension, or rely on their scientific advancement to interfere in dimensions.”

After listening to Luslec’s explanation, Su-hyeun nodded in understanding.

There was no doubt that countless dimensions existed out there. As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that there were other races capable of traveling through different dimensions and interfere in them besides a red dragon like Miru—and this place was where other such races had gathered.

“I’m guessing there aren’t all that many apostles here. We will get a mighty harsh scolding if we get found out loitering around here, you see.”

“From that god or whatever?”

“Yes. More specifically, the god of this world isn’t exactly a fan of apostles interfering in the mission.”

“In that case, what about the apostle over there?”

“A newbie who doesn’t know anything, I’m guessing. That adorable little junior’s gonna get a proper beating after he returns,” Luslec muttered in a rueful voice, only for his gaze to meet with the other apostle’s in the middle of the rock mountain in the distance.

And right away, Luslec’s brows shot up high. “Huh! How dare a wet-behind-the-ears punk shoot me a damn glare?! Son of a…!”

He glared straight into the fog as if he had entered into a staring contest. Su-hyeun looked at him for a bit and let out a soft groan and closed the grimoire.

Close—

And exactly at that moment…

Shu-wuwu—

Sshwa-aaah—

The thick fog that was obscuring his vision gradually thinned out. Soon after that, a wide-open plain revealed itself, as well as quite a few humans and other humanoid races.

Just the ones caught in Su-hyeun’s immediate visual range were easily past 100.

“More people were here than I thought,” he inwardly said.

Before the fog had receded, he only sensed the presence of around 20 or so people in the vicinity, but now that he got to see the truth, the number was far higher after all.

It seemed that the fog that had been spread around the area even blocked off people’s presences, and the fact that it had receded could only mean…

“It’s about to start, is that it?” he thought.

Su-hyeun looked up at the sky.

The fog that had blanketed the ground was now floating up to become gloomy clouds overhead.