I had been thinking about something for a while, and I realized it was possible during my fights against the Wendigo. Basically, I could stay in the air using Ruyue’s power.

Of course, it would be best if Ruyue could fly, but she was a wolf. She did not have wings, so she could not fly. Even so, I wanted to freely move in the sky. Talaria’s duration was too short, so I needed a more consistent and long-lasting method.

I came up with the idea of infusing Ruyue into my boots. With my proficiency in Spirit Aura and affinity with Ruyue, I could freeze anything my boots touched. It might only seem useful when I attacked with my feet, but there was another purpose. With it, I would be able to walk on air. Using Spirit Aura, I would freeze a portion of the air below my feet, creating a temporary step out of ice. Once I stepped off, I would take away the elemental power and the temporary step would disappear. That way, I wouldn’t use much mana, and once I got used to it, I would be able to stay in midair for a long time. I considered making a hoverboard out of ice and controlling it with Ruyue’s power, but I gave up since that would consume too much mana.

At first, I wasn’t sure if it would work well, but there was no problem when I tested it. With Spirit Aura, I could accurately create circular steps where my feet touched. By leaping off of them and retrieving the mana from the steps I already created, the ice would lose the power to maintain itself and disappear. It was quite simple and convenient, and it felt really good. I could fly in the sky without any restraints! Though, in order to not waste mana, I couldn’t walk, only jump to cover more distance.

In any case, thanks to this, I could freely go wild at the Wyvern’s Nest.

“Th…Thunder Knight is…”

“He’s walking on air. Is that his ability, too?”

“Look under his feet. He’s stepping on something. It’s hard to see because it’s dark out, but it shines when you expose it to light.”

I once again kicked off an ice step when I spotted a wyvern flying through the sky. It also saw me and flew toward me while breathing fire. I quickly created another step and jumped.

[Guaaaa!]

The wyvern cut off its fire and looked up. Then, it started breathing fire again while I charged towards it. Although I roused Ruyue’s power and created a barrier using her freezing energy, I couldn’t completely block the wyvern’s flames. I could feel my armor getting hot. If I was in the dungeon, I could probably see my HP falling.

Without paying the minor damage much attention, I punched my fist into its mouth.

[Kuhak!]

The wyvern made a strange cry and tried to spit out my fist, but I wrapped my other arm around its neck and concentrated my mana in my fist.

“Peika!”

[Thunder Bomb!]

[Kuaaaaa!]

The lightning explosion caused the wyvern’s flames to cease. My armor had gotten hot enough to sizzle eggs on it but with Ruyue’s help, it cooled down. Meanwhile, I pushed my fist deeper into its mouth.

“Die! Tempest!’

[Thunder Bomb!]

I had mixed Tempest and Thunder Bomb together. The mana whirlpool from my upgraded Tempest took in the Thunder Bomb and transformed into a violent lightning storm. Immediately afterwards, the wyvern’s head exploded into pieces. Hah, what was this incredibly refreshing feeling…?

[You have created the skill, ‘Thunder Tempest’! By adding a strong lightning force to the whirlpool created by Peruta Circuit, you can deliver a deadly blow to your target! Unlike Elemental Tempest, which strengthened the whirlpool with nearby elementals, Thunder Tempest is powered by lightning elemental power and focuses its destructive force to a small area. By using at least 5% of your mana, it deals a powerful lightning attribute explosion damage to your target. By adding more mana, you can increase its destructive force. As the skill’s creator, the skill level is adjusted to mid-rank level 2.]

[You have created a skill! Thunder Tempest is a variation of Elemental Tempest. While it’s more suited for one-on-one battles, it maintains an overwhelming destructive force. This skill showcases its creator’s high level of attainment in Peruta Circuit and elemental magic, and it also contains a destructive force that no one can ignore. You have obtained 1 skill point as reward. Current skill points: 3]

I knew it! I had really created a new skill. I didn’t know mixing Tempest and Thunder Bomb would create such a powerful skill. Wait, I could probably use this with a spear too! My excitement grew from this unexpected result.

“Alright, let’s continue.”

I grinned. If I could relieve my frustration, I didn’t care what came my way. As I was now, I felt like I could destroy everything.

“Get over here, you damned lizards!!”

[You have used Provoke! Nearby enemies’ hostility has become fixed onto you!]

My shout rang out through the entire canyon and even caused other people to react.

“Eh? Is the Thunder Knight French?” one asked.

Another ability user refuted him, “What are you talking about? He just spoke in German.”

“Don’t lie, that was Japanese.”

Well, as long as I have the choker on, I would get discovered anyway. You guys can think however you want!

I grinned as I stood on the ice step. After creating whirlpools mixed with lightning on both hands, I slammed them together. The wyverns were getting closer. Tomorrow, I would have an enjoyable wyvern meat party.

I spent the rest of the night hunting wyverns, completely absorbed, until 6 A.M. In the end, I managed to hunt almost seventy by myself. When I landed after killing the last one, people began to murmur.

“He wasn’t that strong when he was in Britain.”

“He was strong, but not as strong as them.”

“But now…”

“He’s an SS ranker.”

On the other hand, there were some who came to talk to me directly. One was a Caucasian man, who seemed to be part of America’s Guardian. He was wearing armor engraved with Guardian’s emblem.

“I’m America’s S ranker, John Smith.”

“John Smith?” I asked.

He smiled wryly. “It’s my real name.”

That was the fake name I wanted! How unfortunate. I wanted to be called John Smith instead of something strange like T.K. I was now quite envious of him. John Smith pointed at the wyvern I just shot down and asked, “If you’d like, we can collect the wyverns you hunted for you. Of course, we won’t do anything else.”

I asked curiously, “Why? That seems too good of an offer.”

I had planned on letting Hwaya collect them later as she could give her usual extradimensional storage excuse, but I tilted my head at the unexpected offer.

“It is the least we can do. You came to America from a foreign country and reduced the number of wyverns greatly in a single night. Taking care of the monster corpses should be the least we can do to thank you for your work.”

“Ah…I see.”

Now that I thought about it, it made sense. In any case, I was happy that there was less work for me to do. Collecting all seventy dead wyverns would have been tedious, but since they should be able to monitor the entire canyon, they should be able to do it faster.

“Hm, then you guys can have ten of them.”

“No, we didn’t make the offer to get any benefits.”

I shrugged. “It’s fine. It’ll be to thank you for your work. Will ten be enough?”

“It’s more than enough. Wyverns are rare monsters, so we hunt however many we can. If you’d like to sell the other sixty, we’ll pay a generous amount for them.”

For the record, he said each wyvern was worth over 2.3 million dollars. In Korean won, that was 2.5 billion won. Geez, they were worth a billion won more than the melting tunas! Wait, didn’t that mean I had just made over 180 billion won? No matter how much money I made, I never used it, so I didn’t realize just how much it was. For a moment, I thought, Was giving ten away too much? I should have asked for the price first! However, as a ranker, it was unsightly to ask for them back.

I asked while trying to calm myself, “Then I’ll sell twenty of them for now.”

“Understood. We can talk about the details in the afternoon after getting some rest. Of course, we’ll collect all the wyvern corpses until then.”

“Sure.”

I returned to the lodging. Even though I had cleansed myself of the wyverns’ blood and flesh with Ruyue’s power, it was impossible for me to be completely spotless. The Guardian employee at the lobby became startled when he saw me and led me to the shower room. As expected of a place for rankers, there were private shower rooms for everyone. I could finally take my mask off.

“Whew…”

Even though I had relieved my stress using the wyverns, I was reminded of what happened last night under the hot shower water. Ciara was shocked while Hwaya looked at me with worry. Ludia wasn’t in a state to talk about Heroes and Ye-Eun was concerned about me, but Hwaya was different.

She had considered Ciara’s offer realistically and asked if I was okay with refusing her. She knew how dangerous being a Hero was, and thought it was better for the world and for my safety to accept her offer.

“Organization, huh…”

It would be a lie if I claimed that I had never considered it. It would be a lie if I said I never saw myself in the shoes of other continents’ Heroes, who fought against their worlds’ enemies as their worlds’ cores.

It was irritating and uncomfortable in that it was an unavoidable future, but it was also something exciting, cool, and mystical. To be honest, this was something that every boy dreamed of: becoming a man fighting with the world’s fate on the line. It was quite cliché. Plus, it wasn’t that I didn’t like being safer. I wasn’t that stupid.

I didn’t want to die. I was worried about my family, friends, Ludia who was relying on me, and…Loretta, who would be hurt if I was gone.

There were many things I had to protect, and many people I loved and loved me back.

That was why I was even more afraid.

I was afraid that I’d use countless numbers of people just because the world’s fate was on the line. That many people would die to protect me. I was afraid of the blood that would flow under the name of Hero.

I was afraid. It was disgusting and scary.

As such…

I vowed to myself, “I have to get strong.”

I had to get stronger. Strong enough to crush everything with my own strength.

I remembered the Luka continent.

In face of the world’s ruin, I remembered the people who joined hands with the demons to save themselves.

In face of the world’s ruin, I remembered the emperor, who sacrificed his life for those who had not enjoyed their life to their fullest.

If the Hero didn’t die, such things wouldn’t have happened. Traitors wouldn’t have had to join hands with the demons to save themselves, and the emperor could have put his life on the line for the future, not the present. However, the Hero died, and the world fell. My friend despaired and her parents died a horrible death.

As such, I made a promise that I, Earth’s Hero, would not die. I was not allowed to. But, to not die, I had to get stronger, so strong that I didn’t have to create meaningless deaths for my own survival.

I turned off the shower head and wiped my body with a towel as I pondered. I thought about a way to solve this problem.

As usual, I couldn’t come up with anything.