Not A Regressor - Chapter 118

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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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I Am Not a Regressor Chapter 118
Where the Dragon Sleeps (1)
[Huff!]
Vega’s golden eyes widened as she watched Ha-eun burst through the door.
“So you’ve been acting all refined and dignified this whole time, and now this? ‘Your Majesty’?”
[T-that’s not what this is!]
“Not what it is? I heard it loud and clear!”
[B-but, you see….]
Vega’s golden irises wandered aimlessly through the air.
[Y-you see, my child grew up without parents, just as you said. He pretends to be fine on the surface, but he must be starving for a mother’s love!]
“So you forced that perverted roleplay on Kwon O-jin?”
[P-perverted?! How dare you!]
Their argument was in full swing when—
“…How long have you been listening, sister?”
Kwon O-jin asked her with a slightly stiffened expression.
‘This is bad if she heard from the beginning.’
I had said so much about first loops and how the future had changed.
“Huh? I started listening when Vega said something about watching over you from beside me the whole time.”
“Ah, so you heard from that point on.”
Then she wouldn’t have heard the talk about regression.
“The atmosphere seemed pretty serious, so I deliberately didn’t come in.”
Zing.
Ha-eun crossed her arms and shot Vega a sidelong glance.
“I never imagined you’d ask to be called ‘Your Majesty’ in that situation.”
[C-cough! Now that I think about it, I don’t have much time left to manifest today.]
Vega let out a hollow cough and twirled her long silver hair between her fingertips.
For the record, she had only been manifested for less than ten minutes.
[I shall take my leave now!]
She fled into the pendant like a coward.
“…Anyway.”
Ha-eun uncrossed her arms and approached Kwon O-jin.
“So, uh, what was that about, Kwon O-jin?”
“Hm?”
“You’re not actually starving for maternal love like Vega said, right?”
“Of course not.”
Kwon O-jin let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
How could I starve for something I’d never experienced?
‘It doesn’t matter anyway.’
Parents. Family.
I had never once felt I needed them.
There was something far more precious than that.
“By the way, where have you been?”
“Oh, nowhere special. Just did some light training.”
I answered while avoiding Ha-eun’s gaze.
My expression darkened as I turned my head away.
“I heard you’ve made some progress lately, but it’s not working out?”
“Hmm… sigh. It feels like it should work, but it doesn’t.”
Ha-eun let out a deep sigh and scratched her head.
“It’s like the finish line is right in front of me, but I run out of stamina before I can cross it. Anyway, it’s just frustrating.”
As I thought.
It was a mana deficiency issue.
‘I should start crafting an elixir soon.’
If I used the 8-star constellation stone I’d received from Lee Woo-hyuk before, I could alleviate the mana shortage she was currently experiencing to a considerable degree.
“Just wait. I’ll give you a gift later.”
“A gift? What’s with the sudden gift?”
“Let’s keep that a surprise for when the time comes.”
“Ugh, what is it?”
Ha-eun frowned sharply and pinched my cheek.
“Now I’m dying of curiosity, you bastard.”
“That’s exactly why I’m doing this.”
“You serious?”
“Just wait. I’ll give you something really good.”
I turned away with a grin spreading across my face.
“I’ll be in the Storage Room for a bit.”
“Got it. I should take a shower.”
Ha-eun fanned herself with her sweat-soaked shirt.
Every time the shirt fluttered, my gaze was drawn to the glimpses of her pristine skin and the curve of her cleavage.
“You’re going to bore a hole through me, you bastard.”
“It’s not like it’ll wear out.”
“True. Your chest is a bit too big to wear out anyway.”
Well, well.
“Hehe. If you really want to see, want to come in with me?”
Ha-eun grinned and gestured toward the shower room.
“I’ll pass.”
If I actually went in, she’d get flustered and blush, even though she was the one who suggested it.
Of course, I wanted to see that reaction too.
‘But I need to make the elixir first.’
Imagining her delighted expression when she received the elixir made my heart flutter with anticipation.
* * *
Crafting an elixir didn’t require much preparation.
I filled a water bottle with distilled water, submerged a mana stone inside it, and used the Aquarius constellation mark to dissolve the mana contained within the stone into the distilled water. That was all there was to it.
‘Of course, I couldn’t dissolve it 100%.’
From what I’d heard, successfully extracting even 10% of the mana was considered a success.
“Depending on one’s proficiency in handling mana, you can extract up to 20 to 30%, supposedly.”
Kwon O-jin skimmed through the information available online, letting out a thoughtful hum.
“Let me give it a try.”
I activated the Aquarius constellation mark and channeled my mana into the distilled water inside the bottle.
A blue luminescence seeped into the mana stone suspended in the distilled water.
-Whirrrrrrr!!
The mana contained within the stone gradually began dissolving into the distilled water.
-Ding!
[You have successfully dissolved the mana contained within the mana stone.]
[Due to your remarkable mana control ability, there is no loss of mana!]
“Huh?”
No loss of mana?
“That can’t be.”
I stifled a hollow laugh and checked the amount of mana dissolved in the distilled water.
‘There’s no loss at all.’
Even 10% extraction counted as success.
I’d heard that even the most skilled practitioners could only extract 20 to 30% of the mana.
“What is this….”
I couldn’t believe it, even having done it myself.
No loss whatsoever?
And on the very first attempt?
“….”
Vega’s words from when I first learned Exceed suddenly surfaced in my mind.
-It’s as if you were born to dominate all constellation marks.
Even the Constellation known as Polaris had been astounded by this talent.
That talent, which touched upon the realm of the incomprehensible, had manifested once more.
‘Talent, they call it.’
Could this really be explained
by such a simple word as ‘talent’?
“…Is it because of the Black Heaven?”
I couldn’t tell.
I’d never handled mana before awakening the Black Heaven in the first place.
‘Well, regardless.’
The elixir I’d intended to give Ha-eun as a gift was complete.
With performance several times better than I’d initially expected.
-Click.
“What are you doing here?”
Just as Ha-eun emerged from the shower, she opened the door and stepped inside.
Her damp hair and the faint blush on her cheeks were utterly endearing.
“Here, drink this, noona.”
I held out a water bottle containing the extracted Constellation Stone.
A soft, luminous blue light shimmered within the bottle.
“What is this?”
“Didn’t I say I’d give you a gift earlier?”
“This is that gift?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.”
Ha-eun’s eyes sparkled as she accepted the water bottle.
“What kind of drink is this? I’ve never seen anything glow like this before.”
“It’s an elixir.”
“Huh? An elixir? You mean the kind that increases mana…?”
Her eyes widened in shock.
“Wait, wait—an elixir? You’re saying this is an elixir?!”
She opened her mouth in disbelief.
“This is incredibly expensive! Right?”
“It is.”
In truth, price-wise it would be similar to the Dragon’s Eye I’d gifted her before.
‘That was when the mana retention rate was only 10%.’
The elixir I created boasted a mana retention rate of 100%.
At this level, it was the kind of item you couldn’t obtain even if you tried to buy it with money.
An elixir that increased mana reserves was something every Awakener desired.
“Where… where did you get this?”
“When I helped the Valhalla Guild before, I received some high-grade Constellation Stones as compensation. I asked an Aquarius Awakener I know to make it for me.”
I gave a vague explanation.
“Then you should be the one drinking this…”
“You know as well as I do that the efficiency drops when someone with a lot of mana drinks an elixir.”
At my current level, even if I drank an entire truckload of elixir, it wouldn’t make a difference worth mentioning.
“But still…”
Ha-eun, looking flustered, gripped the water bottle with both hands.
“This is… this is too precious.”
No matter how precious it was, could it ever be more precious than her?
“Didn’t I say before that everything your brother has is yours?”
“…That’s…”
Noona was always like this.
She’d normally boast so much, but when moments like this came around, she didn’t know what to do with herself.
Though I had to admit, that flustered expression was rather cute.
“Anyway, it doesn’t mean much to me, so you drink it. Besides, you’ve been struggling with mana deficiency lately, haven’t you?”
“….”
Ha-eun’s eyes trembled slightly.
If Kwon O-jin had known that she was struggling due to a shortage of mana.
“Then you made this… on purpose for me?”
“Then who else would I burn expensive mana stones for?”
“Ah! Ahhh!”
Clutching the spirit elixir tightly with both arms.
She stomped her feet and let out incomprehensible sounds of joy.
“I, I really can’t accept this!”
Her expression was so full of vitality that it contradicted her words.
“Then… are you, are you really going to drink it?”
“Go ahead and drink it.”
Kwon O-jin himself was curious about how effective a spirit elixir with a preservation rate of 100 percent would be.
“…gulp.”
Ha-eun carefully opened the mouth of the bottle and swallowed the softly glowing blue spirit elixir.
-Whoooosh!
Red flames rippled around her body.
“━Ah.”
Then slowly began to seep into her body.
“This is….”
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
“How is it? Is it working?”
“It’s not just working. What, what is this? Is it always like this?”
Ha-eun gasped as she felt mana flooding throughout her entire body.
She had heard about the effects of spirit elixirs before, but this was on an entirely different level from what she had heard.
‘My mana has doubled… no, maybe even tripled.’
Part of it was because her mana reserves were originally low.
But beyond that, the mana contained within the elixir was immense.
“…wait a moment.”
Click.
Ha-eun removed her blindfold.
“Hush.”
She slowly inhaled and focused her mind.
A thick vein bulged at the corner of her left eye as her dragon eyes gleamed with a fierce light.
-Whoooosh!!!
Red flames surged and erupted outward.
Ha-eun slowly extended her hand forward.
Flames gathered above her open palm.
‘Right here.’
Compress the flames.
The flames that had been surging as if to consume everything around her began to compress into a small sphere within her palm.
“Haah, haah.”
Her breathing grew ragged.
Cold sweat trickled down her forehead, falling in droplets.
Normally, she would have failed here due to mana depletion.
‘But now!’
Ha-eun’s eyes gleamed with intensity.
—Whoooooosh!!!
An even more violent torrent of flames erupted, condensing the sphere of fire resting upon her palm.
The continuously compressed flames transformed into a crimson orb that no longer even resembled flame.
“Ah.”
A radiant smile bloomed across Ha-eun’s lips.
A thrilling sensation rippled down her spine.
━Dragon Orb.
A crystallized manifestation of flame created through Dragon’s Eye.
“Is this… a newly mastered technique?”
An exclamation escaped Kwon O-jin’s lips.
The Dragon Orb she had created was merely the size of a five-hundred-won coin.
‘Insane.’
Just witnessing the immense power contained within it was enough to raise goosebumps across one’s skin.
‘Getting hit by that means death.’
This was no exaggeration or overstatement.
The moment that Dragon Orb made contact, one would literally ‘cease to exist’.
“Finally….”
Ha-eun’s eyes glistened with tears.
“Finally I did it! I finally did it!!”
A cry filled with jubilation.
Having broken through the barrier that had blocked her path, she bounced with unbridled excitement.
“Congratulations, sister.”
“O-jin!!”
Ha-eun, having deactivated the Dragon Orb, suddenly pulled Kwon O-jin into a tight embrace.
“I did it! I actually did it!”
“Heh heh. I saw it.”
“Yes!!! Really! Really!!”
In her overwhelming excitement, she planted a series of kisses on Kwon O-jin’s cheeks.
“Oh my precious little brother!!! What can your sister do for you?”
“That’s enough.”
I hadn’t given her the elixir expecting anything in return.
“Enough, my foot!”
Ha-eun, her eyes wild with euphoria, gripped Kwon O-jin’s shoulders firmly.
“First, take it off!”
What are you suddenly talking about?
“And spread it!”
Spread what, you crazy sister?

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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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