Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 142

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (142)

 

Where is the End

 

Lee Si-hyeok continued his thoughts with a joyful heart.

 

‘Now, first.’

 

There were two options available.

 

Having returned to his lodging, he took out a notebook and began writing with scratching sounds.

 

[1. Remove all the ether accumulated inside the body.]

 

The first was literally to completely erase all the ether that Blackie had devoured.

 

Like removing a malignant tumor from the body, it meant cutting out the cause itself.

 

Currently, it was the simplest method and also the most certain solution.

 

At Lee Si-hyeok’s current level, he could easily accomplish something like that.

 

‘However…’

 

There was one problem.

 

Ultimately, extracting ether from the body meant that the substance’s inherent properties would inevitably be damaged.

 

Just because you swallow food with your mouth, does it come out in the same form when expelled?

 

No. It’s already expelled in a decomposed and digested form after passing through the stomach and various organs.

 

The same would apply in this case.

 

The ether that had already entered Blackie’s stomach would have undergone countless changes inside, and even if he pulled it out, the probability of it still being pure ‘ether’ was low.

 

In other words, it would be in a transformed or damaged state.

 

“Hmm.”

 

That was quite regrettable.

 

Ether was a pure and exquisite element that didn’t fall short compared to any other substance.

 

The 『Luminous Extinction』 born from the 〈Soul-Pursuing Harpoon〉 also possessed quite powerful properties, but even that couldn’t compare to ether.

 

That violent destructive power he had witnessed in the Magical Engineering Academy’s underground laboratory. It was enough to make even the seemingly invincible 《Clear Mirror Still Water》 struggle to endure.

 

Lee Si-hyeok, who had been spinning his pen while lost in thought, finally crossed out option 1 with bold strokes.

 

Thick horizontal lines completely erased the option.

 

Instead, shortly after, he added a new item below it.

 

[2. Expand the space inside Blackie’s stomach.]

 

One might wonder what this meant.

 

Expanding the stomach space. Was he planning some kind of torture? For a human, it would be equivalent to forcibly stretching the stomach.

 

However, Blackie was somewhat different.

 

Lee Si-hyeok brought up the message he had seen when he first discovered Blackie in 『Subspace』.

 

[〈Unknown Creature〉 – Origin Artifact]

 

[This creature is drawn to mana.]

 

[To check more detailed descriptions, growth of 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』 is required.]

 

The important part was the first message.

 

What came after Unknown Creature… Yes.

 

‘Blackie is an Origin Artifact.’

 

At that time, he couldn’t understand this meaning at all.

 

To Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes, it was clearly a living creature, yet it was being described as an artifact, and an ‘Origin’ one at that.

 

However, after recently realizing what Origin Artifacts were, he came to understand the truth. Origin wasn’t a physical tool, but a concept encompassing space.

 

In other words, there was a vast space hidden inside Blackie’s stomach that Lee Si-hyeok didn’t know about.

 

Vast enough to contain all that ether.

 

‘Of course, seeing how it’s been unconscious all this time, it seems even that reached its limit. That’s probably why it still hasn’t woken up and remains in a dazed state.’

 

Lee Si-hyeok poked Blackie’s plump belly repeatedly. Each time he applied pressure, a soft sensation was transmitted to his fingertips. Despite overeating, it felt more cozy than taut.

 

…Anyway.

 

If he wanted to use pure ether as it was, he just needed to further expand the space inside Blackie’s stomach.

 

That was ultimately the conclusion.

 

Then Blackie would wake up too, and Lee Si-hyeok could conduct various research with ether. Wouldn’t this be killing two birds with one stone?

 

―Thump.

 

Lee Si-hyeok closed his notebook, stretched, and checked his watch.

 

The time was 11 PM.

 

Quite a bit of time had passed while continuing his thoughts. The fact that it was still raining and the sky remained dark probably contributed to not noticing night had fallen.

 

‘That’s enough.’

 

Roughly 8 hours left until tomorrow morning.

 

He would finish all the work before the Snow Flame Empress woke up.

 

* * *

 

He immediately entered 『Subspace』.

 

Since it was important work, he judged it would be better to proceed at Gyeongdo-gak.

 

Crossing the hot spring where the Golem was splashing about frantically and entering the building, Hyeon Eul-cheong and Lumibra, who had been playing Go, looked at him in surprise.

 

They each spoke.

 

“Oh my. What brings you here without notice?”

 

“Oho. You came faster than expected.”

 

However, Lee Si-hyeok only nodded slightly and didn’t give any response. He immediately passed by them and headed to the main laboratory.

 

“…?”

 

“Child?”

 

Click.

 

He locked the laboratory door and drew the curtains.

 

Outside, they came running with clattering sounds and tried to peek inside, but from now on the laboratory was a completely isolated space. It had become a place solely for research where no interference could intervene.

 

Then, after doing that for a while, they apparently gave up, as the sound of Hyeon Eul-cheong’s wheelchair rolling away could be heard.

 

Hearing their murmurs of ‘What is it? What’s going on?’ made him feel a bit sorry, but…

 

‘I need to concentrate right now.’

 

Lee Si-hyeok immediately calmed his gaze and looked at the materials he had laid out in one corner of the laboratory.

 

Unlike other work, this didn’t require many materials.

 

Right now it wasn’t a physical process, but expanding space through resonance with mana. It could be considered similar to when he had recently separated Gyeongdo-gak from subspace.

 

“Carefully, carefully…”

 

He took Blackie out from his chest and gently laid it on the stabilization table.

 

Then Blackie’s body floated up by mana. It naturally flew up into the air, hovering to make work convenient from all directions.

 

Next, he pressed a switch to turn off all the laboratory lights. When he pressed the central control button, all the lights went out at once with a series of clicks.

 

Darkness thus arrived.

 

When he drew the remaining curtains, the laboratory became a complete dark room.

 

‘Normally I wouldn’t know, but… right now this is actually more comfortable.’

 

He approached the stabilization table and sent mana flowing through it.

 

The mana that entered through the table’s fixing device created a faint light. Only then did the appearance of this radius barely become visible.

 

[『Mimicry』 is activated.]

 

[Passive 《Clear Mirror Still Water》 is in effect.]

 

His mind instantly became quiet and tranquility arrived.

 

Even though he had calmed his excitement before, even the faint tension that remained completely disappeared.

 

“…”

 

Lee Si-hyeok gently closed his eyes and reached his hand toward Blackie.

 

At the same time, he activated all four general skills. He amplified mana to conduct, resonate, and control it.

 

The mana flowing through his fingertips finally touched Blackie’s thick belly skin.

 

Woom.

 

Along with a short resonant sound, a slight rejection reaction occurred.

 

No matter how much Blackie loved mana, it would naturally reject mana that tried to forcibly penetrate its body. It was a natural phenomenon.

 

Lee Si-hyeok’s eyebrow twitched once.

 

At first, he tried to squeeze through that gap, but it wasn’t as easy as expected. Now that he looked closely, each strand of fur on the cotton ball-like body was made up of complex mana circuits.

 

It meant the barrier was more solid than expected.

 

‘Then…’

 

Rather than breaking through, he would go around.

 

According to the constantly changing situation, Lee Si-hyeok also modified his plan. Following the revised idea, he carved his mana into a slightly softer form.

 

If it had been shaped like a sharp awl before, now it was in the form of a ‘comb’.

 

[「Mana Control」 is being maximized!]

 

[This skill is developing at tremendous speed!]

 

Heat could be felt from his closed eyes.

 

His hotly heated eyeballs spurred his thoughts.

 

The form he finally changed it into.

 

With the comb he made that way, he gently stroked Blackie’s belly.

 

I’m not trying to harm you, you don’t need to fear me. It was as if he was saying that. It was around the time he repeated the combing three or four times.

 

Wooooong…

 

A soft rumbling sound could be heard from inside its belly.

 

‘Success.’

 

Was it because Blackie had liked Lee Si-hyeok’s mana since before fainting?

 

Blackie opened its barrier faster than expected.

 

Soon after, the mana that entered its belly shed the shape of a comb and changed into the form of a spider web, extending in all directions and beginning to thoroughly search the space inside its belly.

 

Hundreds of branching mana strands explored the vast space.

 

It was when some time had passed.

 

“…”

 

Lee Si-hyeok swallowed his saliva. At the same time, he struggled to suppress the blood that surged up. A faint groan flowed from his tightly closed mouth.

 

‘It’s too, vast.’

 

Just where on earth was the end?

 

The amount of mana Lee Si-hyeok had poured in was by no means small.

 

The mana spring located next to his heart. The mana he had poured out from there for exploration was certainly an enormous amount that shouldn’t be easily exhausted.

 

However…

 

‘…I can’t see the end.’

 

Suddenly, 『Subspace』 came to mind.

 

It had already been several months since he obtained the subspace. During that time, he had built buildings in that pitch-black space and conducted various research.

 

It was the result obtained after countless deliberations. Thinking he had obtained a dream-like space, he fulfilled various fantasies. He obtained mana from the gaps and also gained various scoops.

 

Even so…

 

Still.

 

He didn’t know where the end of the subspace was.

 

It was too vast. It would take far too long to explore everything, and the risk was also great since even the flow of time was different from the outside world.

 

So he hadn’t even dared to try.

 

At this moment, Lee Si-hyeok felt like he was getting a glimpse of that future.

 

He was extending wildly through that seemingly endless space.

 

Just as a computer would lag like crazy due to map loading when trying to explore too vast a map all at once in a game, Lee Si-hyeok’s thinking also began to overload.

 

His brain contracted and squeezed painfully.

 

“…Kugh!”

 

The blood he had been holding back burst out with a gush.

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