Following that, everything was taken care of in a moment. Everyone’s goal was to subjugate the Field Dungeon, Wyvern’s Nest. Since I tamed the dungeon’s boss, Dark Wing Lotte, their goal had been accomplished.

However, the Flame Drake, a raid boss, had suddenly appeared. Although no one had expected it, most of the ability users had joined the drake subjugation to protect their country and honor.

They couldn’t damage the drake much, but I was very impressed by the fact that so many rankers joined forces in such a dangerous situation. If someone asked me if I would risk my life for my country’s honor…I would undoubtedly say no.

In any case, with the drake dead, Wyvern’s Nest would become peaceful. Twenty four ability users had died. An equal number of people got injured, but, with a few S ranked healers and Ludia, they would easily recover.

Immediately after the drake died, its corpse strangely disappeared. All ability users became flustered and felt empty, but America’s Guardian was the most frustrated. It was the corpse of the strongest monster ever known on Earth! Since they had lost it in vain, how couldn’t they be angry!? I’d rather not describe the faces of the Guardian members who came running to the site immediately.

If I had to truthfully discuss sharing the corpse, Team Revival had the highest share. America did not have a say in it.

In truth, looking at American ability users’ selflessness and their treatment toward other countries’ ability users, I thought the American government would be like them. However, apparently all higher ups thought the same way. In any case, they would have to give worthy rewards to the ability users who had risked their lives for America. The ability users gathered at the Antelope Canyon were too powerful and too many in number for them to pretend to be blind.

Seeing the situation settle, I sent my party members a message.

[We can split it based on our contribution later.]

[Ah, Shin can have my share as the guild application fee!]

I replied, perplexed, [There is no fee though.]

[M-Me too. What’s Shin is mine, and what’s mine is Shin’s anyways.]

[No, that’s not right either. What’s yours is yours, and what’s mine is mine.]

[Mm…Son, do I have to give you my share for the guild application fee too? Plus, how come you didn’t say anything to me after getting a mansion!?]

I sighed. [Like I said, there is no application fee. Also, if I told you, you would have gone mad from jealousy, Father.]

[Whatever! Shin isn’t the type to take advantage of us, so we should be happy with the rewards! This dress is amazing!]

Walker grunted. [Hmm…I feel bad taking 5,000,000 gold when I didn’t do anything. Since I couldn’t injure the drake at all, you can take my reward. If I accept it, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.]

Sumire chirped, [Me too. I like this shield a lot…Hwawoo-nim, or rather, Shin-nim and unni was too amazing! You were really like mythological heroes!]

[I could say the same about you, Sumire! When did you get a god’s true name!?]

Leaving everyone to talk happily in the party communication channel, I opened my inventory. Then, I grinned with satisfaction.

Within it was the complete corpse of the Flame Drake.

I had put it in my inventory when I had gone to retrieve my spear. With Divine Speed, it was a piece of cake! If I left it alone, America would do anything in their power to obtain it, and there was no reason for me to let that happen!

However, I had to show proper respect to the selfless rankers who died while fighting the Flame Drake. If I deemed that America treated them unjustly, I planned to reward their families even if I had to use up all my gold. That said, seeing how America had invited them so openly, I probably wouldn’t need to worry about it.

For my reward, I chose Rage of Vulcan. I didn’t need 5,000,000 gold or the Elixir. I considered choosing the Volcanic Lance, but I already had Crimson Gluttony Spear. As such, I decided to let my father have the Volcanic Lance. In any case, I chose what looked like the best item.

I had hoped that it was an accessory, but it turned out that Rage of Vulcan was an Epic grade sword. Apparently, the Spirit of the Collector didn’t work properly this time. Disappointed, I disregarded its excellent effects and special skill and just fed it to Gluttony Spear.

[Crimson Gluttony Spear absorbed Rage of Vulcan. Growth: 96%]

Eh!? Since it was at 87 percent before, it had gone up by 9 percent! It increased my spear’s growth more than the Demon Army Commander’s weapon had, even though they were both Epic grade…! With this, it wouldn’t be long until Crimson Gluttony Spear’s growth would reach 100%! Thinking about it made my heart beat quickly. It was already incredibly strong, so how much stronger would it be when it evolved? It had eaten many weapons already, and I was highly anticipating its upgrade.

Once I chose my reward, stored the drake’s corpse, and took care of all the ability users’ recovery and evacuation, I had the strong desire to go home. Walker, my father, and Sumire had already returned. Only Ye-Eun, Ludia, Hwaya and I remained. Although we considered going back using Return, I decided to see Pepper before we left.

I grabbed him by his collar immediately.

“You bastard, I almost died because you gave me a dysfunctional grenade!”

He sputtered, “Whoa, it’s not my fault! It was fine when the grenade was outside, but because the inside of its body had high mana resistance, I couldn’t detonate it with my mana alone!”

“You should have said that earlier, you bastard!” I snapped.

“I didn’t know you’d drill a hole in its neck and put the grenade in it! Uaaak, the sky is shaking, T.K.!”

After shaking Pepper for about five minutes to vent, I let him go and said farewell. Although I had strangled him just a moment ago, Pepper seemed reluctant to part with me.

“You, Miss Mastiford, the dagger girl, and the priestess girl were all awesome. It’s a shame that I have to let you guys go.”

I smiled. “We’ll meet again one day.”

“Hahaha! If a monster as horrible as this one appears in America, you’ll be the first one I look for, T.K.! Do a good job then, too!”

I rolled my eyes. “Why are you only thinking of making me work? You better prepare a hefty reward.”

“I’m sure the government will take care of that! Just like this time! Hahaha!”

Seeing Pepper’s happy smile, I smiled bitterly. It was impossible to dislike a guy like him.

That said, there weren’t only pleasant farewells. When I was cleaning the room I stayed in, I heard a knock on the door. I thoughtlessly invited them to enter, and a girl entered along with six men in suits.

It was Ciara Kenex.

“Can you hear it, Hero-nim?”

With her eyes closed, she raised her hand and pointed outside the window.

“Everyone is praising Hero-nim. They are touched by your accomplishment of defeating such a large monster practically alone.”

I shrugged. “It wasn’t just me. It would have been impossible without everyone’s help.”

She stated persistently, “That is precisely the reason why Hero-nim must lead them. This is the best opportunity!”

I thought she’d bring it up again. With a sigh, I turned to face her, and continued, “I’m going to say this without a shred of falsehood. I was genuinely impressed by the ability users’ attitudes. They risked their lives for their country and that should be respected.”

“Hero-nim…!” she said in delight.

“But even without them, we would have defeated the drake,” I said concisely.

“They lost their lives in vain. They died for nothing! They should have shone elsewhere. Not by fighting an SS+ rank beast like the drake, but by fighting monsters that B or A ranked ability users couldn’t fight. They should have protected people that way. They shouldn’t have thrown away their lives here!”

“But without them, who would have defeated the drake!?”

“Don’t kid. If you knew something like this would happen…you should have known…You should have known that they wouldn’t have been able to even scratch the drake.”

The moment the words left my mouth, a thought suddenly crossed my mind. If that was true, then…this child…

I paused before saying, “…You knew, right? That the drake would appear. You said it yourself, that you knew when monsters would appear. You called me here at this time for this reason, right?”

“…”

My eyes narrowed. “And you knew. You knew that my companions and I would have been able to defeat the drake by ourselves.”

“I…”

Even though she couldn’t see, she turned away as if to dodge my gaze. I couldn’t help my voice from rising in anger.

“Did you stay quiet because you wanted to see other ability users praising me? You let them die for something like that? To let other rankers know of my strength? Twenty four S rankers died because of it. Twenty four precious lives disappeared!” I snarled at the end.

She plaintively explained, “But their abilities will be retrieved by me, and I can allocate them to the next appropriate people! Although they died, as a result, Hero-nim obtained absolute authority among the Awakened. This was a great outcome!”

For a moment, my head became blank. I couldn’t think of anything. It almost felt like I received a mental attack.

If I raised my hand and lightly punched her, she would undoubtedly die. With the rage boiling inside me, it would be especially hard for me to control my strength. When I raised my hand, the men in suits moved to protect her. I put it back down and glared at them, and they froze in place.

Trying to control my anger, I continued, “You should have told everyone the truth. You should have evacuated all ability users, and let my party members and I take care of the drake.”

Ciara replied, “Hero-nim, in that case, your accomplishment wouldn’t have been properly evaluated! The reaction would be entirely different than what it is currently! In fact, people might have called it a scam!”

I screamed, “Not being properly evaluated or being thought of as a scam is fine! In fact, we should have called other SS rankers and fought the drake together! That should have been the original function of your ability!”

“Hero-nim!”

I felt something in my head being severed.

“Screw off. Right now, all of you…SCREW OFF!”

[You have obtained the passive skill, Overwhelm. This skill appears with an extremely low chance among people with high magic and charm stats. Just by possessing this skill, you decrease the stats of all opponents by percentages, regardless of whether they are stronger or weaker than you. At level 1, it decreases all opponents’ stats by 5%. In addition, the chance of your opponent failing to activate a skill increases by 5%.]

I didn’t hear a response, and the door closed silently. I slammed my fist down on the table, and it instantly turned into dust.

I couldn’t face the approaching despair with numbers. I felt it in the Luka continent. Absolute strength. An absolute strength was needed, one that would not kneel in face of fear. Although numbers were important, it wasn’t enough against an enemy like the Demon Lord.

It would be different from the wars as Earth’s history would show.

Military strength would decrease the longer the fight went on. It was also our most critical weakness. Why? Because monsters and dungeons were appearing even now, and there wasn’t an end in sight! If people died, could we replace them? No, humans weren’t objects or weapons!

This wasn’t something like a war. It was an infinite competition for survival!

And what we needed weren’t numbers of people, being consumed endlessly and heading to destruction. Instead, we needed a select few with immortal strength, and a Hero who would stand tall against all odds and defeat all enemies!

I had no plan of saying that only I could do it. I had no plan of saying that anyone with the strength should do it. In fact, if someone forced me to fulfill the role, I would reject it with great displeasure. If someone like Brightman said he’d fulfill the role, I wouldn’t even believe him.

However, we needed to become stronger to protect the place we could stand.

Before we all descend to a bottomless pit with nowhere to stand.