The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1005

‘Gosh, they’re so freaking annoying. They should’ve stuck to the plan and stayed put when I told them to.’

“Grrrgh...”

As Davey watched the strange phenomena around the rift, which completely suppressed the will of those nearby—far beyond simple hypnosis—he lightly jumped down from Fire Chicken and began walking forward.

Everyone in the surrounding area, except for Awakened individuals who happened to be nearby, had been exposed to hypnosis.

That included not just civilians, but even the U.S. Marines stationed there to control the scene. They stumbled around like zombies, and as soon as they noticed Davey, they began lumbering toward him.

They resembled zombies, but that label wasn’t quite accurate. It was just that their physical control had simply been stripped away by overwhelming mental energy.

It stemmed from the rift radiating massive power.

“Uuuuwahhh...”

As Davey eyed a man stumbling toward him with arms stretched out, he pulled a pure white enchant scroll from inside his coat, cut his hand to draw blood, and scribbled something with it.

A talisman made of strange patterns quickly took shape.

“Begone, you bastard!”

Smack!!

Without hesitation, Davey slapped the talisman onto the man’s forehead. It lit up immediately, surging with intense energy as it sank into the man’s body.

Thud!!

“Guh...”

The man, who had been staggering around like a zombie just moments ago, suddenly lost his strength and collapsed.

“Mind explaining what’s going on here?”

The man blinked in a daze. His eyes then shot wide open as he looked up at him.

“P-Prince Davey.”

“There’s not a single Awakened individual in sight. Don’t tell me they all went inside.”

He had very clearly told them not to go in. There were limits to how much someone could troll.

The man dropped his head in shame.

“That...”

“Haah. So they did go in.”

The man lifted his head in a panic.

“It’s just... Some of the Awakened individuals found out you were at the baseball stadium and got angry. They said they didn’t have time to sit around and wait...”

“I’m pretty sure I told you all that you’d only have to wait about three hours outside.”

“Well, that...”

“Do I look like someone who makes plans just to screw you over?”

“Um.”

“Forget it. We’ll talk about this later. If we waste any more time, we’ll be hauling out bodies by the truckload.”

It was troublesome, but he was left with no other choice.

Davey clicked his tongue in annoyance and cast a barrier around the area.

“Whatever happens here from now on, I’m not going to be held responsible.”

“What?!”

“I told you all not to go in.”

Davey looked at him coldly, shutting him up instantly. Davey then turned away in silence and slowly walked toward the rift.

He could no longer destroy it from the outside—people had already gone in.

“My apologies...”

“Just wait a moment.”

Speaking calmly, Davey pulled out his smartphone and made a call.

It was a direct line to President Drumper.

“President Drumper, this is Davey O’Rowane.”

- Ah! Prince Davey! We heard strange phenomena were observed at the rift...

“Yes. I explicitly told them not to go in, but they did anyway.”

Davey cut in flatly and asked,

“Should I just pull out?”

- W-Wait! If you withdraw now...!

“Then why the hell did you ignore what I said?”

Davey was painfully direct.

“I told you clearly to not go in for three hours. Do you think I said that just to mess with those Awakened fighters?”

He hadn’t anticipated this exact result, but he had expected some kind of trouble once people entered.

The reason Davey had ordered them to wait was so that he could observe the rift in its growth phase, before it could draw in too much power.

“Rifts change when exposed to nearby mana or the powers of Awakened individuals. Especially ones this large—they’re even more sensitive.”

- Please, calm down a bit. If you pull out now...

“That’s why I stationed high-level Awakened individuals—like S-Class heroes—right in front of the rift. I wanted to monitor any changes in order to assess the danger level. If this wasn’t just a normal rift but a spatial wormhole or something, it wouldn’t have been strange for this entire city to be wiped off the map.”

Technically, Neltarid would never just sit back and let something like that happen—but there was no reason to explain all of that.

- If only you had told us ear—

“Why didn’t I tell you earlier? Mr. President, you asked me to investigate this rift.”

And yet, the actual operation completely ignored his input. He began to question why he had to be involved in something like this.

“The deal to support the Sacred Group. Should I just pull out of it?”

- N-No! Please, just give us another chance.

“Consider yourself lucky that I’ve got my own reasons to meet the master of the rift.”

Beep!

After ending the call, Davey looked over at the stunned government official, still staring at him blankly.

“Once the rift is handled, the people around here should snap out of it on their own. Until then, make sure no one gets out. Think you can manage that?”

“Y-Yes!”

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

Crackle!!

Davey then stepped into the rift, after those damn trolls who had gone crawling in.

He hoped they knew that they were lucky. He’d been about to withdraw—until he got the feeling the master of the rift might be that guy.

Zzzt!! Boom!!

The moment he stepped in, the surrounding air began to vibrate.

What greeted him first was a massive forest.

“They’ve probably been in here for about an hour, eh?”

He presumed they had made it in pretty far, judging by the signs of battle in the surroundings.

The monsters certainly weren’t the usual ones.

“Little dokkaebis[1]...”

Davey had hoped he was wrong, but realizing he wasn’t left him with a complicated feeling.

Five S-Class Awakened individuals with thirty A-Class fighters.

Considering how dangerous the rift was, that was a lot of people to take care of.

The number of people reminded him once again of the U.S.’s reputation—that of a hunter superpower that brute-forced things with money.

The farther Davey walked in, the clearer the traces of battle became.

Shattered trees. Fallen little dokkaebis.

Even at their best, little dokkaebis were only on par with red trolls in terms of strength.

If the S-classes went all out, they could easily take them down.

From the looks of it, they must’ve gotten bolder over time, thinking the monsters were weaker than expected, and pushed forward.

But Davey already knew that the rift hadn’t formed because of some measly little dokkaebis, as there was no way their power could’ve amplified the rift to this degree.

This rift was more like a dokkaebi’s maw—once Awakened individuals entered, it fed on their power and grew stronger.

Even now, Davey could feel the space of the rift hungrily reaching for his energy—but before it could even touch him, it flinched and backed off.

“Tch. Put five humans together, and you’re guaranteed to get at least one screw-up.”

Judging by the tracks, it was easy to guess what had happened.

They had entered cautiously, all tensed up. After encountering weak monsters, they gained confidence and started pushing forward more aggressively.

But the increasing numbers of enemies made them subtly feel like something else was going on.

And then, when the real monsters—different from the little dokkaebis—began their assault, they must’ve realized something was wrong and attempted to retreat.

But by then, they were already deep in the maw.

And before they could pull out, they were likely bitten down on.

“Auta...”

The slayers of goblins. A spectral essence with physical strength comparable to a banshee.

Davey assumed that a group of auta must’ve launched an attack on them.

Auta were so strong that even supreme Experts—or in some cases, even Masters—could be caught off guard.

He figured there must’ve been quite a few of them. Surprised by the unexpected assault, the raid party would’ve quickly scattered, probably only leading to further casualties.

Of course, it seemed they had managed to put up a fight.

Davey spotted the corpse of a single auta. As he pressed on, he soon saw a woman trembling against a massive tree trunk.

Her body was covered in injuries, and one leg looked like it had been crushed.

Her expression was full of pain and fear. She was looking at the little dokkaebis surrounding her. The dokkaebis, for their part, snickered and teased her like children playing with a toy.

He wondered if she had been left behind during the retreat.

“Ugh. Uuuugh.”

Dokkaebis were extremely mischievous creatures.

Normally, they weren’t the type to inflict serious harm.

But if the rift master was the guy Davey was thinking of, then it made perfect sense why even these little dokkaebis had turned so vicious.

“Malicious Devil Shiverwock.”

Davey murmured quietly.

“The Dokkaebi King.”

He had no idea why that psycho Dokkaebi King, having previously been sealed in Woochi’s hand, was instead there in the rift.

But one thing was certain—that bastard was the rift’s main contributor.

“Kiii!!!”

The moment one of the little dokkaebis got bored of toying with her and raised its club to kill her, Davey lightly kicked a stone lying on the ground.

Boom!!

The stone shot through the air, creating a sonic boom and smashing into the little dokkaebi’s head, blowing it apart. As it flew off into the distance, Davey slowly walked forward, drawing the attention of all those nearby in an instant.

There were about twenty little dokkaebis.

And though it hadn’t revealed itself, Davey could clearly sense the presence of the arrogant auta specters watching him.

“Y-You are?!”

The terrified Awakened woman with the crushed leg widened her eyes when she spotted Davey.

“The rest. Where are they?”

Startled by his question, she flinched, then replied in a tense voice.

“T-They scattered... They went that way.”

They had strayed from the main path and taken another route, walking straight into Shiverwock’s trap.

“I told you all not to enter, didn’t I?”

“Yes...”

“Did you think I was joking?”

The woman averted her gaze and trembled slightly.

“Whatever. This is going to hurt, so brace yourself.”

Davey forcibly reset her dislocated leg bone with a loud snap.

“Kyaaa!!!”

The pain was far worse than she’d expected. She twisted in panic. If Davey wanted to, he could have easily healed the injury with holy magic. But there was no reason for him to go out of his way to help these humans when they hadn’t even listened to him in the first place.

After setting the bone, Davey cast a simple healing spell and spoke to the woman, who was quietly looking up at him.

“Don’t move. Just wait.”

This wasn’t just some place crawling with monsters—it was a dokkaebi’s domain.

Davey pulled three talismans from inside his robe, slipped them between his fingers, and scattered them into the air.

There was a divine beast that didn’t get along with dokkaebis.

“Come forth.”

[Yellow Dragon]

The crazed, germophobic divine beast began to materialize in the air through his hand.

As the blinding light filled the space, a being covered in golden scales revealed itself. Davey then gave his orders to it.

“Wipe out the dokkaebis only. Touch a human, and you’re dead.”

[Grrr!!!!]

With a deafening roar, the beast soared into the air.

At the same time, the dokkaebis, who had hesitated with fear upon sensing the presence of the yellow dragon, were met with a torrential downpour of golden light.

* * *

“Aaaargh!!!”

The massive dokkaebi let out a bored snort as it watched the Awakened individual squirm in its grasp, held up by the head. It began mocking the fighter—it didn’t speak in any human language, yet its will was conveyed perfectly.

“Pathetic. Humans are clearly weakening with each generation,” it snarled in its esoteric language.

The power humans wielded was somewhat interesting, but compared to the one human who had sealed it away long ago, it was laughably weak.

“Come on. Entertain me.”

The massive dokkaebi spoke to the bloodied, trembling fighters clutching their weapons.

“Humans really are worthless creatures.”

It slowly rose to its feet with a cold sneer.

“As promised, I will consume this world and rule over humanity.”

It murmured quietly to itself.

“Worthless humans... I will repay the grudge dokkaebis have carried for thousands of years.”

The massive brown-skinned dokkaebi ​​Shiverwock’s eyes flashed.

“M-Monster...”

The S-Class Awakened man Dusk, missing an arm, trembled.

“You humans are weak. And now that so much time has passed, there is no way any of you can kill me.”

It declared coldly.

“Unless Woochi himself shows up, that is.”

Boom!!

“Hmm? Did all of the auta get taken out? Well, I can always replace them. Looks like there’s someone out there with at least a bit of skill.”

The Awakened individuals looked at each other. Most of their forces were gathered in that spot, with any others just being a couple of stray A-Class individuals. They couldn't make sense of what it was saying.

But that wasn’t what mattered.

They knew one thing for sure: the creature before them was the very embodiment of immortality and overwhelming power.

They figured even Prince Davey wouldn't be able to beat this thing. It’d surely take an all-out, cross-world raid with all the S-Class Awakened individuals in the world and the full might of Tionis to even have a chance.

Losing interest quickly, Shiverwock let out a chilling laugh.

“Woochi, the one who sealed me, is gone. That means no one can kill or seal me away ever again. I am immortality itself.”

But what Shiverwock didn’t know was that a human that had sensed its presence was already closing on it in the fastest way possible.

1. Korean goblins. ☜