The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Davey used the instrument courtesy of Mute to track down Willow’s remnants. Every time the melody rang out, a current of power became visible and audible to him.

Using that flow as a guide, he located the remnants and sealed their traces inside the remnant crystal Ares had given him.

During the process, Davey learned a few things, like the fact that most of the remnants he had to recover himself were connected directly to Willow’s memories.

Each time he retrieved one, a memory she had never spoken about rushed into him.

Her remnants had also seeped into both inanimate objects and living beings without distinction. Those exposed to the remnants showed different reactions.

There was a case where a savage monster assimilated with a remnant, one tied to one of her happy memories, and became unusually docile. In another case, there was a gentle animal that merged with a remnant of her painful memory and had flown into a frenzy.

So far, he had found only five traces, but they had been located without much difficulty. He had no idea how many remained.

The fifth remnant had seeped into an evil beast king within the territory of Alpha Reinforcements.

The Evil Beast King Granatos. Exposed to one of her sorrowful memories, it had failed to resist and became assimilated. It reacted explosively and immediately began to move erratically, causing significant damage.

The memory fragment it absorbed was of Willow suffering from the clash between the power of the Abyss and Predatory Assimilation.

As the memory that kept calling out to him and begging for his help poured into him and Perserque, she covered her mouth with one hand and fell silent.

“If it's too much, you can go back,” he told her with concern. “I’ll handle it.”

“No... I’ll stay with you, so don't worry about me.” Even though she said that, her voice was choked up.

Although Davey was currently reported as missing, Perserque had told only their family that he and her were personally handling important matters, just in case.

The others would worry, but letting them know the details of the situation wasn’t a good option either.

As Davey stood on Granatos’s corpse and shook off the gloomy feeling, Perserque pointed toward a group of people. “But Davey, what about them?”

He then saw the Alpha Reinforcements knights who were staring blankly at him.

It seemed they had gathered all their forces to stop the berserk evil beast king.

Since things had been quiet for a long time before then, it was understandable that they were tense about the sudden large-scale incident.

“Knight Davey...” Boris Telman, who approached him, spoke up with a worried expression, “When I contacted you for the assembly, I heard that you were missing... but you seem safe.”

“Yes, well, something came up. So, Teacher, what are you doing here?”

Following him, the twin sister elementalists Shayir Renda and Fendyr Renda, who were wearing the knight order's uniform, came up and answered instead, “As you can see, the emergency started because of that evil beast king you killed. You can't imagine how stressed Mr. Boris was!”

“Shayir Renda, stand back.”

“Teacher...”

“I don't wanna hear it.”

She pouted at his words and stepped back with her twin, then whispered quietly to Davey, “It's great that you came. Honestly, I was totally freaking out.”

At the same time, chatter could suddenly be heard from all around the knight order, as if the tension had finally broken.

“Hah! If it was going to end this easily, why’d we go through all that trouble...”

“Damur, shut your mouth.”

Damur, a knight who was always grumbling, slumped down with a gloomy expression.

“Did you come to support us after hearing the news?” Guardian Basara was the first to regain his composure in the bewildering situation.

“No, I came for personal reasons, intending to catch this evil beast king for something.”

“May I ask what the reason is?”

“Well, it's not something related to the knight order, so there’s no need to tell you,” Davey replied with a distant look.

“Fair. Regardless of the cause, this creature was a serious threat to the knight order.”

Noticing his sad expression, Basara grew tense. Davey noticed it and decided to share the reason. “It's nothing much. This creature just ate something important, and I came to get it back.”

“Does that have anything to do with its rampage?”

“Yes.”

Basara fell silent for a moment. After a few seconds, he spoke up, “Are there any other similar situations besides this one?”

“Probably. This one should be the last among the evil beasts, though.”

The remnants were not restricted to Tionis. With Granatos taken care of, he had practically recovered all the remnants in the remote regions.

“By principle, I should tell my superiors about your news, but I’ll pretend I didn’t hear what you just said.”

If the news was reported to the headquarters, it’d surely become bothersome, so Basara intended to let it go at his own discretion.

“I appreciate your consideration.”

“Since you’re here, Davey, why don't you stay for a meal?”

“It's alright. I’m a little busy, and have to leave right away.”

The disappointment was clear on Boris’s face. “If you don't contact us often, you'll lose touch.”

“Haha. I’ll visit again soon,” Davey assured him.

“Make sure you do.” With those words, he stepped back.

Shayir Renda and Fendyr Renda, the amiable twin sisters, both voiced their disappointment.

“Are you leaving already?”

“That's too bad...”

Davey told them, “I’ll come visit soon with some good snacks.”

“Really? We'll be waiting!”

Davey couldn't stay there any longer, as time was running out. He gently drew his finger across the air, and a massive amount of divine power flowed out, causing a rift in space.

“Oh my gosh! I've never seen or even heard of magic like that...”

“I heard the rumors, but...”

Davey heard a few knights whispering from the sidelines, seemingly fascinated by the sight of him opening a dimensional rift so casually.

Afterward, at the moment he was about to nod them goodbye—

“Wait, Davey!”

When Boris called him, he turned back with half of his body already in the rift.

Boris said, “I don't know what happened, but your expression doesn't look very good... I know this is awkward to say, but I hope the best for you.”

Since Boris noticed immediately, it seemed Davey really wasn’t managing his expression at all, unlike usual.

He simply nodded instead of answering, then threw himself into the rift.

“Is it okay to just leave like that?” Perserque asked in a concerned voice.

“There's no time for breaks. Besides, the knight order is probably busy cleaning up after that evil beast king.”

Unlike Anchor Knights, who were permanently stationed at the knight order, Davey was a Roaming Knight, so he knew that the level of support was enough.

He saw the disappointed faces of his colleagues as he left, but he figured he’d just buy them ice cream after the work was done.

At that moment, his mind was entirely occupied with the thought of finding and recovering Willow's remnants as quickly as possible.

Perserque, who was sitting on his shoulder and checking the crystal of Willow's remnant, asked, “Where do we go next?”

He slowly played the special instrument to track the remnants to the next location.

“Tionis is finished. Now we’ll check other dimensions.”

“By other dimensions, you mean...”

“We’ll start with Yurgian.’

* * *

Yurgian was one of the continents Davey had visited while crossing dimensions in the past, and it was also the dimension responsible for a significant amount of the food traded from Earth.

Indeed, the Yurgian continent, where Evanov Ban was, had found itself more in need of food than materials. They had only just begun restoration due to the massive collapse a few years before, and couldn't restore all areas in such a short time.

In the past, he’d crossed using a dimensional key, but it was no longer necessary after gaining the power to tear dimensions.

Davey briefly took a breath while looking around the ruined area that still didn’t seem fully restored. He had just given himself a general direction, so he had no way of knowing where in Yurgian exactly he was.

He began to think he should’ve just gone to his acquaintances on Yurgian and asked for their help.

However, that thought soon vanished completely. He saw someone running while dragging along a massive number of small worms in the distance.

It was Evanov Ban, the guy who was related to Iva, a hero of the Hall.

He was also the boy who Davey first became friends with in Yurgian. He had heard that Evanov had been wandering around alone recently for his personal research, but didn't expect to find him randomly walking around.

“Oh. Huh?!” He stopped in surprise as soon as he saw Davey. “W-what?! Never thought I'd run into you!”

Even though a horde of carnivorous small worms was chasing him from behind, he didn't look particularly rushed.

That was because—

Snap!!

Boom!!

Davey snapped his fingers and sent all of them flying.

“Wow! I always feel this, but you're amazing.” He readjusted the bag that was a little bigger than his upper body and flashed a bright smile. “What are you doing here?”

“Well... While I was investigating an underground facility for research, I accidentally disturbed a nest of small worms.”

“What about the golems I gave you to protect yourself?” Davey asked curiously.

“Oh, those guys? They're probably collecting data somewhere nearby.”

Davey couldn't help but sigh at the man’s reckless behavior of using the twin golems, which he had given him to protect himself, for collecting data.

“If you keep up with what you’re doing, you won't be living for much longer.”

“Hehe, even though it seems like that, I have ways to protect myself.” 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

The surroundings were full of scattered small worm corpses and blood.

The strong stench naturally rose up, causing Evanov to cover his nose with one hand and speak with a nasally voice, “So, shall we go somewhere else to talk? The smell here is too strong.”

“Let's,” Davey agreed.

As they traveled, Evanov told him that he had been staying in the ruined city for over a month.

Davey figured the city probably wouldn't welcome the man's reckless behavior, but that probably didn’t matter much to him. Evanov was that kind of guy.

“Actually, this ruin used to be a large research facility a long time ago. The damage it sustained was too severe, and it wasn’t a priority, so it hasn’t been restored. Nonetheless, you can still see plenty of traces of the past remaining.”

Evanov, who seemed to have remodeled the inside of a broken building to some extent, skillfully heated a kettle and brewed coffee, which he offered to Davey and Perserque. “Are you two here on a trip?”

“No,” Davey denied. “I came to find something.”

“To find something? What are you looking for?” His gaze, full of curiosity, was quite burdensome for the sad and introspective Davey.

However, at the same time, Davey couldn't tell him that he was there to find the remnants of his deceased daughter. Instead, he asked, “More importantly, has anything here suddenly changed its behavior recently?”

Mute's instrument had given them a rough location, but it was quite annoying in that it would only become operational again when he was directly near the target.

So, if there were any clues, finding that first was the best approach.

“Something that suddenly changed its behavior? Are you thinking of a person, a zombie, or a mutant?”

“Are there still zombies?”

“You can sometimes see them in areas that haven't been restored yet.”

Davey thought he had solved that problem a long time ago, but it seemed there were still some remaining.

“Well, it hasn't been that long since we found them. Zombies and mutants were hiding deep underground in this city and are only starting to come out again now.”

Davey couldn’t help but wonder what he should do with the crazy boy Evanov who was wandering around alone in such a dangerous area.

“Any kind of creature is fine,” Davey told him. “I’m looking for something that suddenly changed, a departure from the norm.”

The truth was, Willow's fragments had scattered relatively recently. There was no way Evanov would know about it, even if they had already permeated a creature there.

“But the possibility of it being a human is low. Think mutants, instead.”

“Hmm. The behavior of mutants is inherently unpredictable, so...” Just as he was pondering, he clapped his hands. “Oh! There's a huge underground experimental facility around here.”

“So?”

“I found an incredibly giant mutant down there.”

“You think it’s probably what I'm looking for?”

“Well... The thing is, it was quiet until a few days ago, but it suddenly started running wild. I was a little curious when I heard about it, and if it's as you say, it might be the one you’re looking for.”

Davey stood up from his seat. “Can you show me where it is?”

“Oh! I'll do you one better and bring you there myself! Still, you should finish your coffee first...”

Davey and Perserque looked at each other, then, without a word, both of them gulped down the hot coffee in one chug.

“Looks like we can go now.”

“Let's go.”

After the two spoke at the same time, Evanov nodded with a dumbfounded look.

“Ah... Yes. You two really seem to be in a real hurry.”

* * *

Perserque vaguely asked Davey, “Do you really think that thing changed because of you-know-what, and that's why it's like that?”

“I’m not certain, either. I’ll only know when I check it out myself,” Davey responded. “Honestly, I don’t think it’s the one.”

According to what Evanov explained, the giant mutant in the underground facility had to be the creature they were looking for. However, recalling his past experiences, he also felt that it might not be it. Still, Davey had to check.

“It's this building here. There's a hidden path beneath this university research lab. Don't be surprised, but this place is incredible! The underground facility is so vast and huge that it wraps around the entire university campus, not just this research lab. Amazing, isn’t it?”

To his surprise, the two didn’t even flinch.

He then awkwardly chuckled and continued, “Shall we go in then?”

He skillfully opened a hidden passage past a library at the front of the research lab.

“I had a tough time finding this place, since they hid it so well.” Though Evanov was a very talkative guy, he was definitely no unskilled pushover.

Davey felt massive vitality coming from underground. He’d only know if Willow's remnant had permeated the creature when he faced it directly, but he could already tell that something was definitely awake.

The huge underground research facility was a complete disaster.

Instead of the elevator, which had lost power, Evanov skillfully grabbed the rope he had let down into the empty shaft.

Davey could tell that he’d already been there a couple of times.

“You have to go down here by rope. It's quite a long drop, so be careful.”

Tap. Tap.

“Huh?” He felt something on his shoulder and looked at Davey in surprise. Being quick-witted, he recognized what was coming and turned pale. “N... No way, right? Actually?”

“Down ya go.”

Thud!!

“AAAHHH!!!”

‘Going down with a rope? Oh please.’

Davey snatched Evanov by the scruff of his neck and leaped right down the elevator shaft.

Perserque followed, slowly floating down behind them.

Only Evanov, plummeting at an incredible speed, screamed as if he were about to die.

Thud!!

The two crashed to the bottom with a tremendous sound.

Evanov gasped for breath with tears in his eyes.

“So, where do we go from here?”

“That iron door over there. Cough, cough. Wait a minute, though. That door is really tough, so we need to supply temporary power first to move it.”

Slash!!

When the huge, solid door, which was several meters thick, was sliced diagonally, Evanov shut his mouth, looking utterly speechless.

Davey impatiently said, “Done. Let's go.”

“Well... Looking at you, it feels like all my efforts are just useless,” Evanov muttered with a look of emptiness.