After Regressing, I Gained the Power of the Demonic Dragon - Chapter 54

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 54
From the next day, Sang Hyuk began climbing one floor at a time again.
Beyond continuing his SSS Rating, there was something else to verify.
It was the formless, nameless power of Corruption that remained within Reconstruction.
On the 33rd floor, beasts appeared that regenerated their flesh in an instant whenever wounds opened.
Sang Hyuk let the power of Corruption seep directly into one beast’s wound.
The energy that scattered from his fingertips in moments held firm at the wound site, glowing a deep crimson red.
The speed at which the gaping flesh closed noticeably slowed.
On the 34th floor, he distributed the same power among multiple enemies.
It worked properly on one creature, but as their numbers increased, the power grew dilute.
At the current stage, he had to drive the power directly into each enemy’s wounds individually.
On the 35th floor, he sent the power of Corruption flowing across the ground.
The crimson aura spread along the floor for several paces, but lost strength as quickly as it expanded.
On the 36th floor, he reduced the range over which the power dispersed, keeping it concentrated in one spot.
This time, the crimson aura did not fade away for several seconds.
It wasn’t yet a form worthy of being called Black Art, but what needed refinement next became crystal clear.
As Sang Hyuk repeated his experiments, he didn’t overlook a single Hidden Objective.
Once an experiment ended, he swiftly mopped up the remaining enemies with the powers he already possessed.
[Floor 33 Clear Evaluation: SSS]
[Floor 34 Clear Evaluation: SSS]
[Floor 35 Clear Evaluation: SSS]
[Floor 36 Clear Evaluation: SSS]
[Lv.33 → Lv.37]
[Individual Climb SSS Consecutive Ratings: 32 → 36]
[Hidden Objective Cumulative Completion: 17 → 21]
[Second Untrodden Footstep: 2/10 → 6/10]
The rewards from Hidden Objectives accumulated without fail.
[Hidden Objective Reward Cumulative Summary]
[Exclusive Battlefield Exploration Right Fragment: 1/7 → 5/7]
[Rare Material Selection Right Fragment: 0/5 → 2/5]
[Equipment Option Refinement Right Fragment: 0/5 → 1/5]
[Combat Supply Selection Box Fragment: 2/3 → 3/3]
「The Combat Supply Selection Box has been completed.」
Sang Hyuk didn’t hesitate to use it.
The last time he’d entered the External Palace, he hadn’t prepared recovery potions and had to endure his damaged arm as it was.
Since then he’d begun carrying potions, but as battles grew more intense ahead, he’d need more reserves.
Sang Hyuk chose a bundle that could recover both wounds and mana simultaneously.
「Using the Combat Supply Selection Box.」
[You have selected the Recovery Supply Bundle.]
[Wound Recovery Potion × 3]
[Mana Recovery Potion × 3]
[Current Quantity]
[Wound Recovery Potion: 1 → 4]
[Mana Recovery Potion: 3 → 6]
Sang Hyuk arranged the recovery potions neatly in one corner of his Inventory.
From now on, he intended to maintain this quantity no matter which battlefield he entered.
Over the four days prior, he hadn’t skipped using his Channel League participation voucher each time the individual test ended.
Over those four days, the match format and opponents changed continually, but the results remained the same.
[Official Channel Individual Match Record]
[3 Wins 0 Losses → 7 Wins 0 Losses]
[You have earned personal ranking points and league currency as victory rewards.]
[South Korea Channel League Season Points +20]
South Korea had accumulated more points, but the national season ranking remained at 62nd.
The gap with the nation directly above was that significant.
Still, with each victory, the difference was clearly narrowing.
And on the fifth day.
Sang Hyuk used his newly issued personal challenge voucher to enter the 37th floor.
Whoosh!
As the light cleared, a circular garden revealed itself.
On the east, west, north, and south of the garden stood springs crafted from white stone, one in each direction.
Green light from four springs converged at the center of the garden, enveloping the gathered beasts.
[Layer 37 Solo Trial: Garden of Resurrection]
[Primary Objective]
– Defeat all 30 Resurrection Beasts.
[Hidden Objectives]
– Do not destroy a single Spring of Life.
– Defeat all Resurrection Beasts within 2 minutes.
[Spring of Life: 4/4]
[Resurrection Beast Lv.38: 30 total]
The standard strategy was to destroy the Springs of Life first.
Stopping the beasts’ regeneration made fighting them far easier.
But that approach couldn’t unlock the hidden objectives.
[Beginning trial.]
Growwwwl!
Beasts the size of cattle scratched the ground in unison.
Sang Hyuk sidestepped the first one’s charging claws and drove his fist upward into its jaw.
Crack!
The beast’s jawbone shattered, and its body flipped backward.
At once, green light streamed from the four springs and seeped into the fallen creature.
Crunch.
The broken jawbone knitted back together, returning to its proper place.
The beast rose as though nothing had happened.
Dark crimson aura bloomed at the fingertips of Sang Hyuk’s right hand.
He lunged forward again, tearing the charging beast’s shoulder with a knife-hand strike, then drove the Rot Vein’s power into the wound.
Hisssss!
The edges of the wound blackened.
Green light descended again, but this time the torn flesh did not heal easily.
The corruption’s power was working.
The problem was that he’d need to stop thirty beasts’ regeneration the same way, one by one.
[Time Remaining: 01:43]
Using Annihilation would make defeating the beasts before time ran out simple enough.
But he had no intention of deploying Annihilation just yet.
This run was a perfect opportunity to test the Rot Vein’s power held in Reconstruction during actual combat.
Whether it would complete into a full Black Art this time, he couldn’t know.
Still, he had to push the corruption’s power as far as he could.
Only then would he understand what was lacking.
If time ran short, he could finish with Annihilation.
He’d already succeeded in blocking one beast’s regeneration.
Now came the question: could he spread that power to all thirty beasts simultaneously?
Sang Hyuk weaved between the beasts’ attacks, batting them aside with both arms as he drove toward the garden’s center.
They closed in from all directions, tightening their circle.
In that moment, Sang Hyuk pressed his left hand against the ground.
Thump!
The Heart of the Apocalypse Demon Dragon surged with power.
Sang Hyuk pulled mana from his heart and sent it down his left arm.
Crackle!
Black scales erupted from his fingertips to his shoulder.
In his mind’s eye, Reconstruction from the Black Art Record unfolded.
The formless, rippling Rot Vein within it flowed into Sang Hyuk’s left hand.
On Layer 36, he’d managed to keep the corruption’s power localized in one spot.
Now came the next step: channeling that power through the ground to spread it to all enemies within range.
Sang Hyuk pushed the Rot Vein into the earth beneath the beasts’ feet.
Whoooosh!
Dark crimson tendrils shot forth from beneath his left hand.
Like veins splitting the ground, they spread outward in all directions across the garden’s floor.
Shhhhhhh!!
As the dark crimson tendrils passed beneath the beasts’ feet, black specks erupted across their bodies.
Green light poured endlessly from the springs, yet the wounds no longer healed.
The longer the beasts lingered in the crimson zone, the darker the stains spreading across their bodies grew, and their movements became visibly sluggish.
Sang Hyuk gazed at the dark crimson network now covering the ground.
The power of corruption wove together into a single vein, seeping into enemies within its range.
In that moment, the name of Black Art was inscribed in Reconstruction for the first time.
“You have granted complete form to the nameless power of corruption.”
“You have completed a new Black Art: Rot Vein.”
[Rot Vein]
[Creates a corruption zone with a radius of 15 meters centered on your designated location.]
[Corruption accumulates over time on enemies within the zone.]
[Corruption continuously lowers health, suppresses health and mana recovery, and gradually slows movement.]
[Additional accumulation stops once enemies leave the zone, but already-accumulated corruption persists for 10 seconds.]
[Currently, only one corruption zone can be maintained at a time.]
[Maintaining the zone consumes substantial mana.]
Sang Hyuk’s eyes gleamed.
This was not a power inherited unchanged from his legacy.
It was Sang Hyuk’s first original Black Art—corruption refined from the remnants in his materials and perfected in his own way.
Roooar!
The resurrected beasts charged at Sang Hyuk.
But they did not move with their initial speed.
Sang Hyuk seized the foremost beast’s head and drove it straight into the ground.
Crash!
The two that followed were caught up together and tumbled across the earth.
Sang Hyuk pressed forward without pause, carving through their ranks.
With each punch, bone shattered.
The beasts kicked aside rolled along the ground and tangled with the others.
The spring’s green light continued to pour down, but bodies layered with corruption could no longer mend their wounds.
Bang! Crack-snap!
The final beast’s body crashed into the garden floor.
“You have completed the 37th Floor individual trial.”
[Resurrected Beasts Defeated: 30/30]
[Spring of Life Preserved: 4/4]
[Clear Time: 00:34]
[Clear Rating: SSS]
“Your level has increased.”
[Lv.37 → Lv.38]
“Your consecutive record for Flawless Climb has been updated.”
[Individual Climb SSS Rating: 37 consecutive]
[Hidden Objective Cumulative Completion: 22 times]
[Second Footprints Untaken: 6/10 → 7/10]
“You have obtained a hidden objective reward.”
[Rare Material Selection Shard: 2]
[Rare Material Selection Shard: 2/5 → 4/5]
Once the settlement concluded, Sang Hyuk withdrew the Rot Vein.
The blood-red veins that had spread across the floor dimmed in sequence and vanished.
Even as Spirit Vein Circle: Sprout continued to draw in mana from the surroundings, nearly a third of his current maximum mana had been consumed in mere seconds.
Had he not previously expanded his maximum mana with the Mana Vessel, he might not have had enough reserves to cast other abilities afterward.
He still had enough mana to deploy Rot Vein once more immediately.
But if he created zones of comparable scale consecutively, it would be difficult to employ Decline and Annihilation together.
Its power was unquestionably formidable.
The thirty beasts caught in Rot Vein’s sweep could not heal their wounds, and their movements had become noticeably sluggish.
If he raised his proficiency in the future to reduce consumption, or further increased his maximum mana and mana recovery rate, chaining it with other abilities would become far easier.
Sang Hyuk closed the Black Art Record, its pages now bearing the sharp inscription of the new Black Art.
Before returning to reality, he withdrew the key to the External Palace.
There was one particular being he had decided to show first.
* * *
Whooooosh!
As Sang Hyuk stepped into the External Palace, the Guardian Beast came bounding toward him with a light stride.
It looked up at Sang Hyuk’s face, then asked at once.
[Did you finish it?]
“Yeah. I’ll show you.”
The Guardian Beast’s two-pronged tail stood straight up.
[Hurry.]
Sang Hyuk made his way into the empty space within the First Storage Area.
The Guardian Beast followed close behind, eyes alight with anticipation.
When Sang Hyuk extended his left hand toward the floor, the Black Art Record unfurled.
A crimson glow emanated from the newly inscribed name.
‘Rot Vein.’
Hiss.
The crimson energy spread across the floor like a thin, delicate vein.
Though there was nothing to corrupt, the power dispersed evenly within its designated range without wavering.
At that moment, one wall of the First Storage Area grew bright.
The name of the Black Art that Sang Hyuk had created appeared on the wall in crimson letters.
[A Black Art created by the Heir has been confirmed.]
[Black Art: Rot Vein]
[Adding to the Black Art Record of the External Palace.]
The Guardian Beast’s violet eyes blazed with light.
[You actually pulled it off.]
“I promised I’d show you first.”
[Yeah. You kept your word.]
The creature gazed at the name inscribed on the wall for a long moment.
[It’s impressive.]
Then it wrinkled its nose slightly.
[Though the smell still leaves much to be desired.]
Sang Hyuk let out a quiet laugh.
“I can’t do anything about that.”
A new record had been added to the External Palace, which had previously stored only the legacy left behind by the Apocalypse Dragon.
It was Rot Vein—the first Black Art that Sang Hyuk had completed entirely on his own, inherited from no one.
Sang Hyuk gazed at the name etched upon the wall for a moment.
Until now, he had only inherited the power left behind by the Apocalypse Dragon.
But now, building upon that foundation, he could create Black Arts of his own.
Rot Vein was his first step down that path.
A faint smile played across Sang Hyuk’s lips.
He touched the Guardian Beast’s head once, then returned to reality.
He had used his personal challenge ticket on the thirty-seventh floor, but his Channel League entry ticket remained unused.
Sang Hyuk rested until the Spirit Vein Circle: Sprout had completely replenished its mana consumption.
Once his mana had fully recovered, he opened the entry section for the Eastern Silver Channel.
‘Enter.’
「You are using your Eastern Silver Channel League entry ticket.」
「Drawing the match format and opponent.」
A moment later, the new matchup appeared.
[South Korea Random Team]
VS
[China Fixed Team: Huang He Wu Ren Qu]
[Match Format: 5v5 National Siege Warfare]
[Battlefield: Samlo Fortress]
[Huang He Wu Ren Qu’s Record at Samlo Fortress]
[11 Wins, 2 Losses]
Five players from the same nation would each take command of one of three diverging paths, and victory went to whoever destroyed the enemy fortress’s core first.
Huang He Wu Ren Qu was a fixed team that had fought together on this battlefield thirteen times, claiming victory in eleven of them.
Sang Hyuk’s gaze lingered on the name Huang He Wu Ren Qu.
There was no better opponent than this to debut the Black Art he had created specifically to weaken multiple enemies at once.
‘A perfect match, then.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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