The Hero Returns

The God Title...

Quite literally, it was a "title," a name, of a god.

"I don't know anything about it."

Su-hyeun understood what it was supposed to be, but he didn't think he had heard of one before.

No Administrators responsible for giving out trials—and rather obviously, no awakeners out there—bothered to mention anything about this God Title to him.

He asked for an explanation, "Is it somehow related to one's titles?"

"To be more specific, it should be thought of a higher concept of the 'titles.'"

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you know about the titles?" Su-hyeun seized this opportunity and quickly asked about that one thing he was dying to know.

A "title" was a special mechanism that existed within the system that granted special powers to the awakeners. This was a separate type of power from, say, "items." It directly interfered with one's physical body and soul, and not even the race of dragons, referred to as the progenitor of magic, could create something like this.

Also, it would be impossible to know about the system in such detail without being an actual awakener—excluding someone like Zeus who was currently standing before Su-hyeun, of course.

"Besides the name they were given at birth, countless gods also acquire new and different 'names' as they live their lives," Zeus replied, but what he said was completely unrelated to Su-hyeun's question. "Ares is the God of War and Destruction. As for Apollo, he's the God of Fire and Prophecies. My older brother, Hades, is the God of Death and Hell, while Hephaestus is referred to as the God of Blacksmithing. As for me, I'm the God of Light and Thunder, as well as the God of the Sky and Daylight."

All those "titles" were the symbols that represented the respective gods that even Su-hyeun was aware of.

"The second names that symbolize me are the God Titles. The God Title is not what I call myself but what others call me by."

"What others call you by, hmm..."

"Please step inside the well. You shall be able to find out what your God Titles are once you're inside."

Su-hyeun didn't say anything and slowly approached the well.

When he took another look at his own reflection in the well, he found that the experience was like looking at a pristine mirror. Before he entered, though, he turned his head and looked over at Zeus one last time. And when he did...

"Have a good trip," Zeus waved his hand nonchalantly.

He probably knew. He was the top god of this realm—someone deeply connected to the system—so he would have definitely known what Su-hyeun was dying to know.

"Maybe he doesn't intend to tell me?" Su-hyeun thought.

And here he was, thinking that just by having an audience with Zeus, he would get to learn so many new pieces of information. Maybe there was some kind of a restriction, an agreement even, which prevented Zeus from speaking, like how it was with the Administrators.

Su-hyeun reverted his gaze to the well.

He had no way of telling how deep it was, and without actually stepping inside, he would not be able to figure out anything.

"My God Title..."

Su-hyeun slowly leaned forward.

It was true that he was getting curious to find out just what kind of god he was.

Splash—

* * *

The well was quite deep.

He couldn't tell how deep he had sunk so far. He was slowly losing consciousness that he couldn't tell how many minutes, hours, or even days he had been down here.

"Is this...me?"

The flowing water inside the well was truly pristine; it acted like a transparent window that soon began displaying "footage" of certain nature.

The footage was of him engaging in combat. Su-hyeun could tell it was his own figure.

"That's Igolas, the boss from the green-colored dungeon that appeared in Anyang."

He was watching an event that happened quite a long time ago when a dungeon outbreak occurred mid-air, and monsters literally rained down from there.

He was able to stop that outbreak, and it was the moment that the name Kim Su-hyeun first became known throughout the world.

Shwaaaah—

The water flow became rougher, and the footage changed as well. The next to be shown was Su-hyeun fighting against a certain man inside a sprawling city.

"Hwang Jun-peong."

It wasn't all that hard to recall that man's name. In all honesty, though, it was his true identity rather than his name that remained etched in Su-hyeun's memories—he was the guild master of the Dump Guild.

This footage was of the fight he had against the world's top superstar awakener who also happened to be a psycho serial killer.

"A hero. Yes, a hero..."

That voice belonged to Zhu In, who happened to be nearby.

Su-hyeun pretended that he didn't hear what he said because, back then, he was definitely not a fan of that term. Never mind not being a fan, he hated it with all his guts because of the burden he felt from that single word.

Shwa-aaaah—

The footage changed once more.

This time, it was a scene of a tearful woman. She was holding a rather sizeable bundle close to her chest, whispering softly toward a spot with no one in it.

"Thank you so much..."

Shwa-aaaah—

The footage changed even faster than before.

Several scenes began appearing all around him now. Most of the faces reflected in the screens in the water were completely foreign to him, but all these people, whom he had never met before, were all thanking him.

They said they were alive, thanks to him.

They were truly grateful.

"Please...help..."

A familiar voice, and a familiar face, appeared alongside a familiar setting among all the footage being shown. It was a scene where Hak-joon was squeezing his eyes shut.

"Please help us...Someone, anyone...please..."

His plea seemed to be contagious as the same words started to be uttered in countless other footage of people asking Su-hyeun for help. Then, they were also saying they were grateful.

Shwaaaaaah—

The water flow became harsher once more, but there was no other footage being played. However, it was not that there was nothing more to show, but the direction of the water flow had changed.

Instead of scenes of the past, letters began floating in front of Su-hyeun's eyes.

They were his God Titles.

* * *

A few days had passed by.

To the gods, such a period would be nothing more than a blink. To these gods who had been existing for tens of thousands of years at their youngest and hundreds of millions of years at their oldest, a couple of days was really not a long time at all.

"It's still not over yet?"

However, Hades was unable to patiently wait and came to visit the well in the Palace.

As the God of Hell, he rarely, if ever, paid a visit to Olympus because he was unable to use most of his strength outside of Hell.

Zeus replied, "It seems that matters have been slightly delayed, brother. By the way, what brings you here?"

"Well, I became quite curious about what the God Title of that punk will be, so I'm here to find out. How long has it been?"

"Around three days so far."

"That's longer than I thought. I figured he'd need only one day."

"That simply indicates that he has many 'tales' related to his God Title."

The "tales" were the traces of a god's life so far; they were clues that helped determine one's God Title.

The more tales you had, the more traces would appear inside the well. As a consequence, you would need a long time before finally earning your own God Title.

Hades asked, "What do you think his God Title will be?"

"How should I know that?"

"Don't make me laugh, little brother. I'm well aware of the fact that you've been watching over him for a long time. Besides, he hasn't been a god for long. He was still a human being not too long ago." Hades narrowed his eyes and glared at Zeus, "You bastard...no, you and your cohorts...just what are you scheming?"

His glare became so much sharper. The aura leaking out from his body began dyeing the surroundings jet-black. He wasn't trying to be intimidating, however. This phenomenon was simply a by-product of his aura that leaked out due to his fluctuating emotions.

Hades was bringing this topic up only after agonizing a great deal over it. He was aware of how Zeus often vacated his seat to deal with some matters not related to Olympus.

Of course, Zeus wasn't scared of Hades. This wasn't Hell but Olympus, Zeus's backyard, after all. Not only that but these two were siblings, after all. They were family.

"Please, you do not need to be worried. Everything will work out, brother."

"Is there a problem with Olympus, then?"

When Hades asked that, Zeus shook his head, "There is no problem with abandoning a land like this one and moving on. We can always find another place to call home, and that will be the end."

"In that case," Hades changed the subject, "What about Yggdrasil?"

A heavy silence descended in the chamber after that question.

Zeus would always act like this—despite having lived for hundreds of millions of years, he was still unable to lie. Instead of lying to answer a difficult question, he would simply change the subject or choose to remain silent.

It was the same story this time.

Hades pressed on, "Why aren't you saying anything even now?"

"My apologies."

"Are you seriously thinking of not saying anything until the end?!"

"I've already made a pledge with the other Five Godly Sages."

Hades flinched at that.

The Five Godly Sages? That was the group of the strongest, mightiest five gods that included Zeus.

Since he was Zeus's sibling, Hades, of course, knew all about the existences of the gods included in that group. They were each strong enough to be called the main gods of their respective realms.

Since it was a pledge among them, even if Hades wanted to know more, he was not in the position to press for more answers.

Zeus could only apologize, "I'm sorry, brother."

"It's fine."

Bubble, bobble...

With excellent timing, bubbles began floating upon the well's surface.

"Looks like it's finally done, anyway."

* * *

Puh-haaaak—!

Su-hyeun desperately pushed his head past the surface of the well's water.

His breathing was harsh and labored. He ended up ingesting too much water, and more importantly, his chest was all clogged up.

This was so weird.

Without a doubt, he had never run out of breath after becoming a god, whether he was swimming underwater or floating in outer space. The whole concept of needing to breathe had become a bit "unnecessary" to him at this stage.

Huff, wheeze—

Su-hyeun climbed out of the well while huffing and wheezing breathlessly. He urgently reached out and propped himself up against the stone walls on the edges of the well.

Rather amazingly, though, all the water soaking him top to bottom instantly dissipated soon as he was completely outside the well.

"What just happened to me?" That question popped up in his mind, but he didn't need long before recalling everything that happened to him inside the well, "The God Title."

He stepped inside the well to acquire his God Title, and sure enough, he did acquire his titles. He also remembered watching quite a long tale through various footage.

"You worked hard, benefactor."

"Is it over?"

Waiting on the side, Zeus and Hades welcomed Su-hyeun back.

Su-hyeun nodded and asked them, "May I ask how long I took?"

"About 103 hours in human time scale."

"One hundred and three hours...?"

Su-hyeun could more or less sense that quite some time had passed by, but he was still surprised to learn that it had been longer than he anticipated. One hundred and three hours were well over three days.

But something didn't seem right here. Since he had been stuck underwater for that long, it would make some sense for him to be exhausted right now, but he was actually feeling even stronger than ever before—filled to the brim with energy.

"Have you confirmed your God Title?"

"Ah, that. Yes."

"How many did you acquire?"

Zeus's question prompted Hades to glance at his brother. Not even asking about what the God Title was but wanting to find out how many there were instead?

Su-hyeun replied right away, "There were two."

"Two...God Titles...?" Hades asked, stunned.

Plenty among the ranks of the gods would fail to acquire their God Titles. Also, it went without saying that there were only a few who managed to acquire more than two God Titles.

In Olympus, the god with the most number of God Titles was Zeus—the God of Light, Thunder, Sky, and Daylight. He was an existence in possession of four God Titles. Besides him, only half of the 12 gods who had their names recorded in the halls of the Palace of Olympus possessed two or more God Titles.

"Someone who hasn't even been a god for a few years already possesses two?" Hades pondered.

Originally, Hades wasn't curious about what Su-hyeun's God Title would be. What he wanted to find out was whether the latter would actually acquire a God Title or not in the first place.

But to learn that he had acquired two?

Zeus asked, "What are they?"

"The first one was 'Hero,'" Su-hyeun recalled the letters that floated before him inside the water. No, wait—there was no real need to remember anything.

He didn't know about how it was like with other gods, but there was this thing called the system that existed for Su-hyeun.

[God Title: Hero]

* A God Title given only to the one who is either already referred to as a hero or is destined to become one

* Grants additional 40% damage to the target recognized as an enemy

* Grants additional 40% resistance to the magical and physical attacks made by the target recognized as an enemy

* Increases the duration of "Immortality" by 100%

* Improves the effects of "Immortality" by 50%

* Increases the recovery rate of magical energy, prana, and stamina by 20%

* ?? (Unconfirmed)

Hero, was it?

It was the same term as his previous title, but when he thought about it for a second, the God Title was supposed to be the higher concept of the titles, so it wouldn't be so strange for the same term to show up.

He didn't really like this new God Title, but he was no longer the same person who felt displeased by the term Hero anymore. Besides, whatever the case might have been, the accompanying effects were truly top-notch, so that was great.

"Even after excluding that unconfirmed option, the new effects are so much better than my old title," Su-hyeun thought.

From the additional damage and defense against opponents he recognized as enemies to the improvement to the Immortality skill and the rate of his energy recovery—more than anything else, all these improvements would prove to be a great advantage for him during a prolonged battle. Simply by acquiring this God Title, he could now fight even longer by as much as 1.5 times.

However, what stunned Su-hyeun the most was his second God Title, "And the second one is "Combat.'"