Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 169

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

Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (169)

The Cycle of Circulation

[〈Star of the Heavenly River〉 – Origin Artifact / Regeneration]

[A brilliant star capable of regenerating origins. Warm energy forms star clouds. As long as the light doesn’t fade, it will create endless miracles.]

[Your mana reacts with the 〈Star of the Heavenly River〉!]

[You gain deeper insight into this artifact’s properties!]

Lee Si-hyeok floated through the space and grasped the sparkling star in his hand.

Then the repeated regeneration and collapse stopped, leaving only destruction behind.

Rumble.

The pitch-black space shattered piece by piece. Soon the original appearance of the demon lair was revealed again.

Voices could be heard from outside.

“Huh? All the monsters here have disappeared!”

After putting the 〈Star of the Heavenly River〉 into his subspace and going outside, he saw his companions looking bewildered at the empty demon lair.

“What happened?”

“Well, you see! Suddenly demon spirits came rushing in, so Lady Lumibra was blocking them for us. But then they suddenly disappeared in the blink of an eye!”

“It’s true. They vanished without a trace.”

“Hmm.”

Probably the small universe that maintained the demon lair.

In other words, the ‘core’ had completely disappeared when Lee Si-hyeok retrieved the 〈Star of the Heavenly River〉, and as a result, all the monsters had vanished as well.

When he briefly explained, Kim Jin-seok let out an exclamation.

“Gasp. To think it could end so easily like this…”

Honestly, breaking through the demon spirits so simply was already unrealistic, but to even eliminate the cause?

Even seeing it with his own eyes, it was hard to believe.

However, Lee Si-hyeok, who had accomplished this feat, remained calm.

“It seems everything is finished now. Let’s get out quickly. Let’s also take those who fainted earlier.”

“…”

Kim Jin-seok’s expression became dazed once again.

* * *

As soon as they returned to the Awakener Association headquarters, they handed over the rescued hunters to Aurelie del Lumiere.

Even though the headquarters was on the verge of collapse, fortunately emergency facilities existed, and they were able to regain consciousness before long.

“Thank you. Thank you! If you hadn’t saved us, who knows what would have happened…!”

“Sob! It’s an honor! To be rescued by Lee Si-hyeok himself!”

Listening to their stories, they were all victims of Jeolmongoe.

They had been brainwashed and worked as slaves for half their lives, or kidnapped along with their planes, or had no choice but to cooperate because their families were held hostage.

Tragic stories.

Fortunately, Aurelie del Lumiere, who heard their stories, became angry and said she would rescue their captured families instead.

Since she was taking action personally, despite her appearance, she seemed to possess tremendous power. From the first time he saw her, the mana he felt from her was extraordinary.

“I’ll be back quickly. You can stay alone, right, student?”

“Yes. Kim Jin-seok is here too.”

“Right. I’m too angry to stand it. Let’s go, everyone!”

With that, Aurelie del Lumiere formed a team and departed.

Suddenly, all those who had invited him were away and he was left alone, but Lee Si-hyeok didn’t mind.

After asking Kim Jin-seok to prepare food for several days, he immediately went down to the underground ruins. It was to challenge the test that had blocked him before.

Problem 27.

In front of it, he summoned Lumibra.

She looked around and let out an exclamation of admiration.

“Ooh…”

“What do you think?”

“You’re definitely right, child. I can strongly feel the Great Creator’s mana. There are many similarities to his working methods too.”

Lee Si-hyeok doesn’t know the Great Creator’s mana.

He hadn’t had the chance to feel it.

However, Lumibra, who was born from his hands, seemed to feel that energy intensely.

“It makes my nose tingle. Where on earth did the Great Creator go, leaving us behind?”

“…”

“Anyway. You’re going to challenge this test, child?”

“Yes. I’m thinking of trying again.”

“The difficulty… won’t be easy. Do you have a method in mind?”

Lee Si-hyeok nodded.

In his briefly visible eyes, there wasn’t a trace of hesitation.

“Good.”

Lumibra smiled warmly and disappeared into subspace without saying more. She had quietly withdrawn so as not to interfere with the test.

‘Let’s do this. I’ve almost found the answer.’

Lee Si-hyeok sat cross-legged.

[Problem 27]

[Present a method to destroy space.]

Destroy space.

When he first saw this problem, he struggled from interpreting the word ‘destruction’ itself.

Destruction has various meanings.

Simply blowing something up is destruction, and cutting with a sword could also be called destruction in a way. Furthermore, the black substance ‘ether’ that Lee Si-hyeok had discovered also possessed the pure nature of destruction.

‘But those aren’t the answer. Having come to problem 27, they wouldn’t want such simple solutions. And ether is too limited a method.’

They wouldn’t have set a method requiring specific materials as the answer.

Then, rather than just focusing on the word destruction, he needed to look at the entire context.

Namely, the point that he must destroy ‘space’.

Lee Si-hyeok’s thinking began to accelerate. His stiff brain loosened like stretching and continued his thoughts at an even faster pace.

‘The concept of space mentioned here probably refers to Origin Artifacts. I reasoned this far last time too.’

However, there was one thing added since then.

The small universe of the demon lair discovered a few hours ago.

The phenomenon of that pitch-black space constantly collapsing.

Hadn’t he witnessed that?

The massive mana released by the Gate Break caused endless collapse throughout the demon lair, and the 〈Star of the Heavenly River〉 that came out with it rebuilt everything again, creating infinite repetition.

‘The cycle of circulation.’

That would be the destruction, or rather collapse, that the problem was asking about.

But…

Lee Si-hyeok doesn’t know how that collapse process occurs. To use an analogy, he knows it starts from A and results in F, but doesn’t know the processes B, C, D in between.

This was because the circulation was repeating at too fast a speed.

“Whew.”

Lee Si-hyeok, who exhaled a short breath, took out the 〈Star of the Heavenly River〉 from his subspace. His hot breath formed light vapor.

The 〈Star of the Heavenly River〉 was the artifact responsible for regeneration in the cycle of circulation.

That meant, even if he didn’t know the principle of collapse, as long as this artifact was in his hands, he could fully understand the regeneration process.

He gently closed his eyes once, then opened them and placed his hand on the circular 〈Star of the Heavenly River〉.

Along with a warm sensation, brilliance dazzled his eyes.

[Special Skill, 『Origin Forging』 activates.]

[Star of the Heavenly River. Endless regeneration. Infinite vitality.]

[Dismantling the origin of the star clouds. Understanding properties and principles at faster speed.]

Countless pieces of information flooded into his mind like a tidal wave.

He gritted his teeth and swallowed the splitting headache that felt like his skull would crack.

The origin of the artifact was being broken down and transmitted piece by piece.

‘…It starts with refining its own mana. Then it goes through stabilization within the star’s interior, detects surrounding life signals, and calculates the necessity of regeneration…’

He could taste blood in his mouth.

‘If it determines regeneration is needed, that’s when the work begins. Even then, it doesn’t pour out refined mana directly but splits it minutely. Extremely minutely, then discharges it outward… So at this point, is the mana still closer to a mass of information rather than energy?’

New inspirations arose within the flood of information.

‘…I see. It doesn’t heal directly, but stuffs in information to induce self-restoration. Like coding computer data. After that, it just needs to prevent excessive regeneration and it’s done. This way the circulation continues indefinitely.’

Lee Si-hyeok stopped thinking. He hadn’t given up.

He reversed the thought process that had reached its conclusion at the end of the information. Retracing his steps, he returned to the starting point one step at a time.

He was calculating in reverse.

If you flip regeneration backwards, it becomes collapse.

If you flip recovery backwards, it becomes destruction.

Then if he reverse-calculated the mysteries of the regeneration artifact 〈Star of the Heavenly River〉, he should be able to learn the method of collapse as well.

For example, if regeneration was plus, then collapse would be minus.

He would reverse-calculate that method to find the answer to the problem.

“…”

It was a more arduous process than before.

His closed eyes rolled around, and he nearly swayed and fell backwards. Each time, Lee Si-hyeok endured by pinching his thigh.

‘I can do this. I have to do this.’

He spread his other hand that wasn’t pinching and condensed mana.

Simply explaining theory was far from the approach of seeking problem resolution.

Only when you show that it can be realized does it reach persuasion.

The size of the condensed mana gradually grew larger.

He carved it into the shape of a round sphere, then moved the mana that filled the interior outward to make the shell even more solid.

This would leave the inside of the sphere completely empty.

Lee Si-hyeok thinly forged mana and injected it in thread form into that space. Like designing mana circuits in an artifact, he delicately adjusted the positioning.

Twist three times, then overlap twice.

Weave four times, then layer seven times.

After reverse-tracking the inspiration gained from regeneration’s mysteries to work out the proper circuit arrangement.

He briefly took his attention off the sphere rippling in his hand and began contemplating his own ‘inner self.’

“…”

Hot. Warm.

Mana starting from his heart emitted such heat as it raced through his entire body.

This was the nature of his own mana that Lee Si-hyeok had grasped.

Regeneration harbors heat. Hot things gather to become energy, and when energy collects, it creates something new.

Then what about destruction?

It would be cold. It cools down hotly concentrated objects to shatter them. The human body is basically hot, but if you freeze it then apply force, it breaks miserably.

That was the principle of regeneration and destruction.

Lee Si-hyeok held his breath and stopped the movement of mana racing through his left arm. He had blocked the blood pathway running from shoulder to wrist.

Then he could feel the hot mana cooling down in real time. No matter how fundamentally hot its basic nature was, if it stayed in one place, that heat had no choice but to cool.

Gulp.

Tension enveloped his entire body. A task where his left arm could necrotize if attempted wrongly. He had to move his mana delicately, very precisely.

“Whew…”

At the same time as exhaling the breath he’d been holding.

He discharged the mana remaining in his left arm directly through his palm.

The mana trickling out was sucked into the sphere he had created earlier. The interior of the sphere, which had only been filled with mana circuits, swelled magnificently.

Crackling sparks.

Light gradually began to swirl around the colorless sphere.

“…”

However, unlike 〈Star of the Heavenly River〉, it harbored a deep red light. A deep coldness could be felt from the nebula. That chill seemed to reach even his skin.

‘Success, perhaps.’

When Lee Si-hyeok confirmed this sight and released the force he’d been applying to his arm, mana flowed down from his shoulder. The blocked flow of mana was released, bringing life back to his arm once again.

He set down the completed artifact for a moment and stretched his arm.

A stiff, hardened feeling.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem to have necrotized.

‘If I’d been even a little later, it would have been really dangerous.’

It was the moment he let out a sigh of relief and gazed down intently at the artifact emitting cold air.

—Flash.

[You have crafted a new artifact.]

[Perfect success!]

[〈Remnant of Optimism〉 reveals itself to the world.]

[You have passed problem 27 at a phenomenal level!]

[Accordingly, you can skip ahead to problem 49!]

“…!”

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