The Hero Returns

The storm-like period had come and gone.

In hindsight, the start of it all could be called rather heart-warming.

It started with the Bull Demon King, Sun Wukong, and the Roc Demon King. Then, Su-hyeun hopped over to their side to drink with them, yet he ended up meeting Master Subhuti and then even Buddha himself. The Bull Demon King finally ascended, and Su-hyeun even traveled to the Hell of Scorching Heat governed by King Yama.

Then, he met Britra, helped the dragon achieve its eternal respite, and finally, he made the dragon's heart his own.

And then...

"Brahma, huh?"

Plop—

Su-hyeun, now back on Earth, threw himself on a bed for the first time in what felt like ages.

His own home had been left unattended for far too long, and it was now covered in thick layers of dust. He was somewhat intimidated by the prospect of going back there, so he went to a hotel instead.

The hotel was quite tall, and one could supposedly see the night skyline of Seoul in the distance. This view helped drive the point home that he was finally back.

"The Primordial God..."

Abruptly, he began wondering if his life had drifted to somewhere too far away—to the vast universe out there.

The stars twinkling in the distant skies already seemed so indescribably far away to him. But a Primordial God? It was an existence capable of creating realms like those and governing them. That was what a Primordial God was.

He recalled Zeus, Buddha, Master Subhuti, as well as the Predators Uranus and Osiris.

He had to wonder if his senses had become numb or something after meeting and getting tangled up with all those incredible gods.

"That has to be it. Otherwise, there's no way I can be this unmoved."

"Restoring the crumbled system should be nothing to someone like Brahma. After all, he's a deity who has been continuously recreating the universes that Shiva destroyed.

Su-hyeun's impression during that rather jaw-dropping explanation was just one thing: "Ah, I see."

It was far too flat of an impression, alright, so much so that even he was left deeply spooked after realizing it.

But that state didn't last for long since he also realized that he couldn't do many things right now.

"Just how am I supposed to find someone like that now?"

According to Buddha, Brahma had vanished without a trace a very long time ago.

The Primordial God's role was to create the universe and then stick around until it had a chance to settle down.

Afterward, the universe would no longer be under Brahma's control. If the reborn universe were destroyed by Shiva once more, then Brahma would create another universe.

"I don't know anymore."

Other than fight, there was nothing else Su-hyeun could do right now.

For the sake of restoring the system that would break down after Master Subhuti's death, Brahma must be found, but that was not something Su-hyeun could do.

"At least Zeus is supposedly out there searching for him, so..."

For the time being, Su-hyeun chose to stop thinking about that matter. What he should focus on now—his goal—was something else.

"Osiris."

Defeating that creature, one of the Three Destroyers, was the top priority for him at the moment.

Of course, even that goal was vastly unreachable for him right now. After all, Osiris possessed enough strength to fight against Master Subhuti, Buddha, and King Yama at the same time.

"Even though he couldn't win and had to retreat."

While he thought about this and that, the morning sun gradually rose over the horizon.

It was late autumn, and the night was getting longer.

He glanced at a watch and saw that it was around six in the morning. He headed to the shower.

Shwa-Aaah...

For the first time in a while, he stood under as much warm water as he would like and washed away all the dirt caking him.

He then wore regular clothing and headed to the hotel's parking lot. After starting the car, he drove over to Kim Dae-ho's workshop.

Clang—!

The sound of hammering remained the same even now, it seemed.

It was seven o'clock in the morning. As it turned out, Kim Dae-ho was already up and running at very early hours.

"This uncle...he doesn't sleep much, does he?"

Kim Dae-ho slept for only around three hours each day. Usually, he would go to bed around two o'clock before waking up at five. One had to wonder how he could stick to such a schedule when he had to push his body so much every single day. According to Su-hyeun's memories, the older man repeated the same routine even to his last day.

Knock, knock—

"Uncle."

Clang—!

"Come in!" Kim Dae-ho replied without stopping his hammering.

His voice was still deep and loud enough to reverberate. The hour was still early enough for other people to be asleep, but raising a ruckus around here was not a problem anymore.

Creak—

Su-hyeun scanned the surroundings for a moment while stepping inside Kim Dae-ho's workshop.

The suburb of Nonhyeon was famous even within Seoul as a suburb with expensive real estate.

The neighbors lodged various complaints regarding the constant noise of Kim Dae-ho's hammering every morning for a while there. Eventually, however, Kim Dae-ho used his wealth to solve all of their dissatisfaction.

"I told him to use his earnings to buy something good to eat or something, but this..."

All the unoccupied houses in the neighborhood now belonged to Kim Dae-ho. To resolve the complaints, he simply paid extra over the market price to purchase all the houses in the near vicinity.

Even a shabby weapon he crafted fetched tens, no, hundreds of thousands of dollars. The ones judged as slightly better products even managed to change hands for millions, too.

Kim Dae-ho's earnings easily outperformed what an average corporation could make. As such, the world had begun speculating that Kim Dae-ho had already managed to accrue as much wealth as Geneva Ricklas.

"You've arrived."

Clang—!

Kim Dae-ho asked while not even looking at Su-hyeun.

The latter quietly replied, "Yes," then sat down somewhere behind the old blacksmith. Kim Dae-ho was still in the middle of his work, after all.

"Doesn't look like he slept at all last night," Su-hyeun quietly observed.

Su-hyeun had received a text that said he should come this morning to get his things.

Therefore, he assumed that his equipment had been completed, but it seemed that the work was still at the final stage.

While waiting for Kim Dae-ho to finish, Su-hyeun switched on his phone to read the news.

When he did, various articles regarding Kim Dae-ho began showing up one after another.

"Kim Dae-ho, the master craftsman, suddenly announces suspension of equipment crafting until the end of November..."

"Creation of brand-new equipment? Residents near Nonhyeon: I heard hammering sounds coming from Master Craftsman Kim Dae-ho's workshop."

"The reason why Kim Dae-ho suspended equipment manufacturing..."

From the look of things, he must've put aside all the recent orders he received to craft Su-hyeun's equipment.

Countless awakeners wanted to get their hands on Kim Dae-ho's creations, so the older man's announcement of suspension understandably became a big issue.

Su-hyeun searched through a portal site regarding Kim Dae-ho's news, then put his smartphone away. He silently shifted his gaze over to Kim Dae-ho's back. That back that had bent forward quite a bit didn't seem to enjoy many days off for it to straighten up a bit.

Hiss...

The super-heated blade was plunged into the water in the basin, causing vapors to engulf the place instantly.

Just how hot was the blade for it to do that?

Kim Dae-ho left the blade inside the basin, then wiped his sweat away with a towel resting nearby, "Did I keep you waiting for long?"

"No, not really."

In reality, Su-hyeun had been waiting for about one hour. He had been told that the job would take quite some time, but even so, he didn't wait in the living room.

He didn't find the temperature within the workshop hot, to begin with.

He raised his hand and lightly waved it around in the interior of the workshop that his eyes could see. When he did...

"Huh?"

All the heat seemingly cooking the workshop's interior vanished instantly, replaced by a cool breeze that brushed past Kim Dae-ho.

"Wait, did you do that?"

"Uncle, if you keep this up, you'll end up collapsing from heatstroke, you know."

"Huh. Well, I'll be," Kim Dae-ho's amazed eyes landed on Su-hyeun.

The latter could have gotten rid of the heat a lot earlier, but he chose not to do that. He didn't want to break Kim Dae-ho's concentration, after all.

The old blacksmith theorized that one's body needed to be warmed up at least a little bit to improve one's concentration.

"Did you eat instant meals again, uncle?" Su-hyeun asked while checking out the pile of empty convenience store lunch boxes to the side.

Kim Dae-ho proceeded to stuff the trash into a refuse bag while making his reply, "I like how they taste, that's why."

"You think I don't know that you're simply trying to have a quick meal? Uncle, please, you must at least try to maintain a healthy eating habit." Su-hyeun nagged Kim Dae-ho for some time, although he hadn't seen him in a long while.

He wondered if he had left Kim Dae-ho unattended for too long, even though he was the one who made the older man move to the city so that the latter could be looked after better. Kim Dae-ho had not looked after his health for far too long.

"It's fine, kid. I know my body the best. Stop making noise and go upstairs already," Kim Dae-ho replied while placing the blade into the Palm Leaf's scabbard hanging on the nearby wall. He then began walking away.

Su-hyeun could only sigh deeply at Kim Dae-ho's stubborn refusal to listen to his advice, then followed the older man. There was a storage containing Kim Dae-ho's finished equipment found at the rear of the workshop.

Kim Dae-ho stood before the storage entrance, then gazed near the wall. When he did, the passcode panel went up, and soon after that, he mouthed the password to undo the storage's locks.

Creak, thud—

Finally, Kim Dae-ho pressed his palm on the panel, prompting the storage door to open with a heavy creak.

"This is seriously cumbersome. Those fools in the association or whatever it is called ended up raising all sorts of hullabaloo. They made the opening process just too complicated for me now," Kim Dae-ho grumbled as he strode inside the storage.

The storage, constructed out of fairly tough, sturdy alloy, was a treasure trove renowned not just Nonhyeon but also throughout the world.

Stealing Kim Dae-ho's equipment found inside this storage would've earned you enough wealth to set you up for life, so the fame was well deserved in the end.

Step, step—

The storage was rather spacious.

Su-hyeun took a moment and studied the pieces of equipment stored in here—swords, gloves, sets of armor, spears, bows, and so on.

Excluding a small selection of accessories, most of what was stored here were either weapons or armor sets. Then again, Kim Dae-ho enjoyed hammering metal, so he skewed toward making larger-sized equipment most of the time.

And what caught Su-hyeun's eye the most was none other than his armor entrusted to Kim Dae-ho earlier.

"The Armor of Hades."

Clack—

Kim Dae-ho picked up the Armor of Hades, its metal bits issuing weighty clacks.

Its outer appearance had changed only a little bit. In the past, the armor's simple patterns resembled that of a turtle's shell, but it seemed just a bit flashier now.

"It's the same story for the sword, too."

The sword's hilt didn't seem any different from the past, but the blade's surface, which he got a brief glimpse of earlier, had a distinct bluish tinge to it.

"Why don't you put them on first?" Kim Dae-ho handed over the armor and the sword while addressing Su-hyeun.

Didn't he say that he had been handling adamantium incorrectly? Since Kim Dae-ho said that, there had to be some changes made to the equipment, for sure.

Su-hyeun put on the armor, then gripped the sword's hilt.

Sha-ah—

The moment he did, he sensed an incredible sharpness being transmitted from his hand.

Until the armor's performance could be tested, it would be difficult to estimate anything, but it was possible to tell to some degree the sharpness of a sword by gripping it in his hand.

"This sword...it's incredibly sharp."

"Nah, that's just a bonus," Kim Dae-ho spoke with his characteristically confident face. "The thing is, adamantium was never just another 'tough' metal, and that's about it."

"If not, what then?"

"Its magical energy conductivity is far, far superior to any other metal out there. People know that when you pour in the same level of magical energy, the adamantium blade will generally output at least one and half times better than other metals."

Even Su-hyeun knew that much.

"But that's when it's not refined properly."

"Wait, uncle, are you saying that all adamantium equipment made so far has been refined incorrectly?"

"Basically, yeah. The tempering process for this metal should be done only once at the very last moment. That'll be enough. Before reaching that part, though, one has to chill it constantly and shape it in that state."

This must've been the technique Kim Dae-ho acquired through Hephaestus's hammer.

"The sword's hardness and cutting power have gotten even better than before. Its magical energy conductivity should've more than doubled, too. Above all else..." Kim Dae-ho's voice grew more and more excited as he explained the sword. "With this improvement, the jewel embedded in the blade will be able to bring out almost its full power."

"I'm sorry?"

Bringing out its full power?

That could only mean that Su-hyeun had not utilized the full extent of the Palm Leaf's power until now.

Kim Dae-ho spoke after checking out Su-hyeun's confused face, "Well, the adamantium blade of earlier couldn't deal with the power contained in the jewel, you see. So the jewel deliberately suppressed its powers to protect the blade. But now, there's no more reason to do that."

After listening to that explanation, Su-hyeun looked at the gleaming surface of the sword in a new light.

The bluish surface reflected his face. To think that the Palm Leaf was deliberately holding its power back to protect the blade. Not even the Bull Demon King mentioned anything like that before.

"Even adamantium can't withstand it?"

The metal adamantium was known as the divine metal and acknowledged even by Hephaestus as the strongest, toughest metal out there.

Even if the blade had been incorrectly refined, learning that the weapon was still unable to withstand the Palm Leaf's power made his heart pound for some reason.

And what Kim Dae-ho said next lit the fire in Su-hyeun's heart, "Why don't you go ahead and try it? It'll blow your mind, kid."