Chapter 332: Chapter 332 (1/2)

Act 1

Swahhh—

The rain fell for a while.

Su-hyeun kept staring at the drop of water on his palm. Rather amazingly, this drop didn’t mix with the other raindrops and dissolve; it simply continued to circle around within his hand instead.

The falling rain soaked him to the bones, and it felt like his whole body might sag to the floor.

Su-hyeun cupped his hand to get more rainwater, and then, along with “A God’s Tear,” drank them all.

[You have acquired a stat point.]

A single stat point…

Although it was just one point, it was still extremely important to Su-hyeun.

With that single stat point, he would get to earn new godhood.

“I had no idea I’d earn one in this way, though.”

He couldn’t help but feel strange.

All the falling raindrops looked so slow to his eyes. It had been a long time since he just stood around getting showered by rain.

Only when one was young would they enjoy the rain on their skins; people would normally avoid getting wet.

The rain that continued to fall the whole night only came to a stop the following morning. That was also when Hercules emerged from his house.

He spoke up, “My apologies. I made you both wait for a long time.”

“No, it’s alright.”

“No need to apologize, fella. We’re staying under your roof, after all.”

Both Su-hyeun and the Bull Demon King quickly waved their hands to say it was all fine.

Hercules had barely managed to calm down Megara and his kids and watched them fall asleep before stepping outside. He leaned his back against the wall like the others and sat down. He was at least two and a half meters tall, so his sitting height almost matched Su-hyeun’s height as the latter stood on his feet, and they had no problem matching their eye levels.

“Thank you for stopping me. I’ve…lost my mind for a little while back then.”

“Are you feeling alright now?”

“Right now, I can’t say that I am. In all honesty, my thoughts haven’t changed at all. I’m still too weak to protect my family. I’m even weaker than you.”

“But that was—”

“You don’t have to feel sorry for me. If you wanted to kill me, surely, there must’ve been a simpler way, am I correct? I know that you worked hard to defeat me without killing me. That’s why I am truly grateful.”

Hercules got down to his knees as he said that.

That was his way of showing his gratitude. Su-hyeun did feel burdened by this display but didn’t try to make Hercules stand back up. To the demigod, this must have been the best and most complete way to say thanks out of all the things he could do, so Su-hyeun didn’t stop him.

Hercules finally raised himself back up, his complexion a lot more haggard than before. “Thanks to you, I was able to stop, and the voice that came from inside my head is not there anymore.”

“A voice? What voice are you talking about?”

“I’m not sure. It could’ve been my inner self, or it could be an external force’s interference. I don’t know. If it’s possible, I’d like it to be the latter, but…honestly, I’m not confident of that.”

Su-hyeun began having a lot of questions regarding the revelation that some kind of voice was involved in Hercules’s sudden transformation.

“Is that a part of the process to become a predator?” he thought to himself.

A predator was a monster that failed to become a god. However, Hercules was already a god-like existence. Most likely, his obsession with wanting to protect his family took a hold of him in a similar way to how one’s desire behaved.

As for him hearing some kind of voice…

For now, Su-hyeun had no way of finding out whether that was a symptom unique only to Hercules or it was one of the byproducts in the process of becoming a monster called the predator.

“What about Miss Megara?”

“She’s scared. A lot.”

“Scared of what, though?”

“Of the current situation. Let me be honest here. I don’t have any confidence in whether or not I’ll change again.”

That must have been the reason why Megara shed her tears.

She cried at the possibility of her children falling into danger at any moment and at the fact that Hercules was the reason for the danger in the first place.

Su-hyeun asked, “What are you going to do?”

“I won’t be able to rely on you forever, so I’m planning to give it my all.”

“Is Miss Megara thinking the same as well?”

“I’ve told her that she should leave whenever she feels it’s the right thing to do. Our kids, Hale and Palaemon, are in danger, after all. But when I told her that, she said we should work through my problem together so that I won’t change again,” Hercules said while smiling softly.

Not much energy was behind that smile, but it was still a relief to see that he at least could smile a little.

Su-hyeun felt deeply relieved that Megara chose to remain by Hercules’s side and that she found the courage to do so.

“I promise you, I won’t change. Never. If that voice shows up again, I’m just gonna curse the living hell out of it.”

* * *

The succeeding events were not that different from what had transpired before Hercules’s episode.

Except for stopping the Giants that showed up every now and then, Su-hyeun spent his free time with the Bull Demon King in Hercules’s house.

Hercules seemed to be cautious about everything somehow. He was probably wary about changing back into that monster again.

However, as long as he remained wary, he would surely not revert back to that state anymore.

[Remaining time: 1 hour, 35 minutes…]

Not much time remained now.

After defeating a whole bunch of Giants and Gigantes that had appeared, Su-hyeun headed back to Hercules’s residence.

It had been a month. He ended up staying here for a fairly long time.

He didn’t feel rueful about the upcoming goodbyes, however. It would be a lie to say he hadn’t grown close to Hercules’s family, but that’s how all trials were like. Therefore, Su-hyeun decided to treat this trial just like any other where he was simply passing through.

If he coldly analyzed his reason even further, then he also hadn’t grown as close to them as he did to the Bull Demon King, Sun Wukong, and the Roc Demon King from the 60th floor.

Besides, there was something else that caused many dilemmas in Su-hyeun’s mind right now.

[Name: Kim Su-hyeun]

[Magic count: 93] [Magic level: 9]

[Strength: 100] [Agility: 99]

[Stamina: 99] [Reflex: 99]

[Death Aura: 70]

[Skill: Leap * advanced]

[Skill: Transfiguration * advanced]

[Skill: Godhood – Flame * advanced]

….

[Fatigue: 0]

[Additional point: 1]

There weren’t any notable changes to Su-hyeun’s stat window.

None of his stats that had reached 99 showed signs of improvement. The same thing also applied to his “magic count.”

The only real change was to the section of “Flame,” which was currently being treated as a skill and was indicated to have acquired godhood, as well as the last line that showed “additional point.”

“Now where should I invest that point?”

That was Su-hyeun’s biggest dilemma right now.