I Returned as a God - Chapter 26

 

[Translator – DualDarkElu]

 

Chapter 26 – Personal Circumstances (2)

Kim Yoo-han pulled back as he deflected the mist with his blade.

The scattered mist spread out in all directions.

As a portion of the mist still lingered, Kim Yoo-han realized it was aiming for Ahn Joo-hye.

Kim Yoo-han ran and swung his sword at the mist that was heading towards Ahn Joo-hye.

The remaining sleeve fell to the floor.

The mist targeted Ahn Joo-hye several times, but Kim Yoo-han swiftly intercept it with his sword each time it tried.

The man who saw Kim Yoo-han asked a question.

“I ask, who are you?”

“Do you know the god Soter?”

The 2 men one-sidedly asked what they wanted.

Kim Yoo-han’s blade was pointed towards the mist.

The mist hovered for a bit, then surrounded the worn out Kim Yoo-han and Ahn Joo-hye.

“I’ve never heard of them.”

Kim Yoo-han sheathed his sword at the sound of the voice coming from beyond the mist.

A light sigh could be heard coming from under the mask.

He had heard rumors that there was a god who had been breaking the rules recently and started investigating, but it seems he had gotten the wrong person.

Kim Yoo-han, who had been releasing killing intent until just now, muttered like he was disappointed.

As soon as Kim Yoo-han turned his back, the mist shaped itself into a scythe and headed towards Ahn Joo-hye and Kim Yoo-han.

Kim Yoo-han turned around and blocked the mist with his blade.

“I have no business with you.”

“I’m the one who decides that. I ask once more, who are you?”

Kim Yoo-han, irritated, struck the scythe-shaped mist away.

Kim Yoo-han, who noticed the mist back away, brushed the dust off his sleeves.

“How many people have you consumed?”

“What are you talking about?”

Kim Yoo-han’s figure disappeared.

The mist pulled back and covered Kim Yoo-han all at once.

“Wait…!”

The black mist swallowed Kim Yoo-han in an instant and clumped together.

Ahn Joo-hye, who saw the sphere of mist, shakily stood up.

It was, without a doubt, Kim Yoo-han.

But that wasn’t important right now.

If Kim Yoo-han hadn’t helped her, she wouldn’t be alive right now.

“Just why…”

The black mist had told Ahn Joo-hye that the reason she was weak was because her god was weak.

But was that really the case?

Was it the price for not getting picked by a named or famous god?

The mist that surrounded Kim Yoo-han became thicker.

Rather than a mist, it looked closer to a black sphere.

It looked similar to the lump she had seen in the dungeon.

Wielding her dagger, Ahn Joo-hye stabbed it with all her might.

It seemed like the dagger was about to go in, but it soon bounced off.

“Damn it! What is this?!”

Ahn Joo-hye swung her dagger relentlessly.

A part of the mist formed into a sharp edge and flew towards Ahn Joo-hye’s chest.

‘I’m going to die!’

In the short moment that she blinked, something flashed before her eyes.

Kim Yoo-han quickly dashed out of the black sphere, which had been cleanly cut in half, and swiftly protected Ahn Joo-hye.

Kim Yoo-han pulled something out of his clothes and threw it. The ball-shaped flames detonated, causing a huge explosion.

The firepower was similar to that of a grenade.

The smoke from the explosion spread out in all directions.

A siren could be heard from outside the broken window.

Kim Yoo-han grabbed Ahn Joo-hye’s hand and jumped out the window.

The mist backed off as soon as it saw the incoming ambulances.

Kim Yoo-han, who had come down, reached his hand towards the sitting Ahn Joo-hye.

“I’m good.”

Ahn Joo-hye only had minor injuries.

Avoiding all the ambulances and fire trucks, Kim Yoo-han ran into an alley.

Ahn Joo-hye followed behind Kim Yoo-han.

Keeping up with Kim Yoo-han’s speed wasn’t an easy task.

Upon arriving at a place with fewer people, Ahn Joo-hye mustered up her courage and asked Kim Yoo-han a question.

Kim Yoo-han didn’t exactly stop for her, but that wasn’t very important.

“What exactly are you?”

“…”

“You’re like this… Kang Han-kyul is like this, what the hell are you guys?”

Kim Yoo-han reacted at the mention of Kang Han-kyul.

Kang Han-kyul.

It was his first time hearing that name back then, but it sounded strangely familiar.

Battling against a corrupted queen ant felt familiar too.

‘And that attack and magic power.’

It may have been faint, but he got the same feeling from Kang Han-kyul as he did from Soter.

However, It was still too early to come to a conclusion… But he did agree that he was a unique person.

Kim Yoo-han crossed his arms and walked towards Ahn Joo-hye.

Ahn Joo-hye felt an unidentifiable sense of intimidation.

Kim Yoo-han’s voice sank in the heavy atmosphere.

“That day. I saw you put something in the monster.”

It seemed he had no intent to hide his identity anymore.

Ahn Joo-hye bit her lip.

“Are you going to tell the guild?”

“Why would I do such a troublesome thing?”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I’m not going to do anything. Nor do I have any intent to.”

Ahn Joo-hye made a bewildered face.

“Don’t mess with those things ever again.”

Kim Yoo-han gave her a warning.

For the past month, he had been investigating the Aria guild for personal reasons.

He had heard the rumor about the god fairly recently.

 

 

[Translator – DualDarkElu]

 

All the hunters who had gotten their hands on corrupted fragments had all sorts of circumstances.

Someone had intentionally reached out to these hunters.

From getting large sums of money to being recruited to a big guild, there were all sorts of offers made in exchange for inserting those fragments into monsters.

They mostly consisted of hunters who were stuck in the same rank for a long time like Ahn Joo-hye, or those who had extreme distrust towards their gods.

It was not like he didn’t understand how Ahn Joo-hye felt, but he felt that their way of going about things was wrong.

“Then what do you want me to do?”

Ahn Joo-hye relaxed her body.

‘Don’t mess with that? As if any sane person wouldn’t know that.’

Choi Soo-hyun, who had awakened a year earlier than Ahn Joo-hye, had become an S-rank hunter.

But not only that, Choi Soo-hyun had started off not as a D-rank, but a C-rank hunter. And it only took a year for Choi Soo-hyun to reach B-rank.

And it had just been proven that even the most pathetic-looking hunter in their dungeon raid, Kim Yoo-han, was stronger than her.

She wondered what the problem was with her.

“Do you think I’m doing stuff like this because I want to?! Even though I started first, everyone is pushing ahead of me! Even the people who made light of me are above me, so what do you want from me?!”

It was a rage-like rant.

She didn’t trust her god.

There were even times when she cursed her god like the unknown black mist said.

Of all the people, why choose her?

There was never any reply.

“You’re pathetic”

“What?”

“What does the god you’re under exist for?”

Ahn Joo-hye had no reply to Kim Yoo-han’s words.

She had not once properly thought about her god in all her years of being a hunter.

She felt shocked, as if a hammer had just hit her head.

What kind of god was Ahn Joo-hye’s god? Ahn Joo-hye didn’t know since she had never once tried to understand them. She had only ever cursed at them.

Kim Yoo-han spoke to the now-silent Ahn Joo-hye.

“Have you talked to your god before?”

“What do you mean? A god is a god. There’s no way someone could talk with a god. Something like that is impossible.”

“And have you tried?”

Ahn Joo-hye had no reply to his words.

“I don’t know. I don’t think anything will change from me doing that.”

Kim Yoo-han did not reply for a while.

“Don’t give up.”

Kim Yoo-han felt that Ahn Joo-hye had potential.

It’s just that she didn’t know she had it.

If she had no potential, instead of trying to fight, she would’ve chosen to run away while Kim Yoo-han was trapped.

He at least wanted to give credit to her courage for running in without hesitation in that situation.

Kim Yoo-han turned around.

Seeing his back, she felt rushed.

“Who exactly are you? The name Kim Yoo-han, it’s a pseudonym, right? At least tell me your real name.”

“ …”

“I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

Ahn Joo-hye wanted to know.

Being a D-rank hunter for 1 year is good, 2 years wasn’t bad either. She comforted herself like this.

As the years passed, everyone forgot about the existence of the youngest awakener, Ahn Joo-hye.

At some point, everyone just passed her off as a D-rank with slightly more experience.

Kim Yoo-han put up his mask.

A deep voice could be heard from beneath the mask.

“Yoo Ji-han.”

Ji-han cleanly said his name.

Kim Yoo-han was indeed a pseudonym.

He could no longer use it as soon as it was revealed, but he felt that not telling her in this situation would be rude.

Yoo Ji-han jumped over a wall and left the area.

Instead of following him, Ahn Joo-hye quietly watched in silence.

She felt a spark of hope.

Hot sunlight poured through the window.

The air conditioner was running in the classroom.

It felt as though the inside and the outside of the window were different worlds.

I was standing in front of the platform.

Sitting on the desk was Yoo Ji-han.

It was a single teacher and student in a classroom that could fit over 30 students.

Even so, the student couldn’t even see the teacher’s face.

[Hmm… Where was I at again?]

“The story about the 3rd floor. You were saying something about a train.”

[Before that.]

After finishing the conversation with Choi Soo-hyun, upon arriving at my house, I immediately challenged the 3rd floor of the tower of trials.

As it had been almost a month since I had last entered, I couldn’t predict what the inside of the tower would be like.

There was a one-week time difference with Yoo Ji-han.

To be precise, it was a difference of one week plus 3 days, so about 10 days.

After clearing the 3rd floor, I was once again moved to ‘the area between floors’.

Last time it was a gym, but now it was a classroom.

At first I thought it would be affected by my memories, but after listening to Yoo Ji-han’s story for a bit, it seemed more probable that the layout for the in-between floors was based on Yoo Ji-han’s memories.

This classroom seemed to be similar to the classroom Yoo Ji-han used during his first year of middle school.

There was a slight time difference between our meetings.

For example, if Yoo Ji-han were to challenge the 3rd floor, I could meet Yoo Ji-han after clearing the 3rd floor.

I had no idea how this structure worked, but thanks to it, I could give Yoo Ji-han information about the floor he was about to challenge ahead of time.

Contrary to my worries that he might’ve died, Yoo Ji-han had cleared the 2nd floor alone and returned alive. He still had the weapon I swiped from Choi Soo-hyun.

Honestly, rather than Yoo Ji-han, I was more concerned about the sword on his hip.

I looked at Yoo Ji-han’s merit points.

[Yoo Ji-han]

Merit points: 40,390

Yoo Ji-han’s merit points had skyrocketed, and it was probably due to clearing the party-exclusive 2nd floor alone.

‘ …While a certain someone only gets administrator privileges for clearing the tower.’

[You have quite a few merit points, huh?]