Not A Regressor - Chapter 31

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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 31
Under World (4)
-Screeeeeech!!!
Acrid smoke billowed through the corridor.
A horrific shriek shattered against my eardrums.
“KarAaaaaaaaaaa!!”
The Reptilians writhed in agony.
With each convulsion, the silver wire coiled across the passage grew more intricately tangled around them.
-Screech! Screech!
The Reptilians thrashed like they were seizing, extracting their razor-sharp bone spikes to sever the wire. Metal shrieked as their claws scraped against the silver strands.
“Not so easy to cut through, is it?”
I watched the struggling Reptilians and let out a quiet chuckle.
The wire was reinforced with Mana Stone to increase its durability, and I’d poured mana into it generously—there was no way these creatures could snap it.
“KaaaaaaaAAA!!”
The Reptilians seemed to realize the wire wouldn’t break, and they began backing away deeper into the corridor.
Those fortunate enough not to be caught in the wire turned and tried to flee.
Then.
-Kwaaaaaang!!!
“KuRAaaaaaa!”
With a ferocious roar, one of the fleeing Reptilians was hurled forward like a cannonball.
Thud-thud-thud!
The impact sent the intricately tangled wire rippling violently.
“That is….”
I turned my gaze toward the beast that had hurled the Reptilian like a projectile.
A creature more than twice the size of the other Reptilians.
Its body was covered in crimson muscles that gleamed like the armor of a tyrant.
‘A Reptilian Champion, perhaps.’
The Reptilian Champion blocked the path of those trying to escape and snarled menacingly at them.
The Reptilians, their faces twisted in terror, turned back toward me.
“Gurkaaaa!”
At the Champion’s command, the Reptilian swarm converged and began forcing their way through the corridor.
They pushed forward together, using the corpses of the dead Reptilians tangled in the wire like a bus being shoved out of a ditch.
-Screech! Screeeech!
The silver wire shrieked like a living thing, straining taut under the tension.
‘This is getting difficult.’
I clicked my tongue in frustration.
I poured mana into the shooter on my wrist.
Whiiiing!
The wire retracted toward the shooter, shredding the Reptilian corpse into pieces as it withdrew.
“KuRuuuuuuuUU!!”
Did it think this was its chance?
The Reptilian Champion let out a roar as it drew forth a massive tusk bone.
The swarm of Reptilians pushing the corpse rushed up the wall toward us.
[Heh. How pathetic, watching these wretches thrash about.]
Vega scoffed with her arms crossed.
“Tell me about it.”
I nodded and raised my spear.
Crack! Crackle!!
And so began the melee.
My spear swept viciously through the swarm of Reptilians.
-Zzzzzzzzzt!!
“KaraaaaaAAAc!”
Each time I swung the spear wreathed in azure lightning, another Reptilian fell to the ground.
With so many Reptilians already bound by wire and dead, the remaining ones charging forward posed no real threat.
-Thud!
“GuRuAaaaaa!!”
Unable to bear it any longer, the Reptilian Champion stepped forward.
“Too late.”
You should have charged together from the start.
-Thud! Thud!
Each time the Reptilian Champion stomped its feet roughly, heavy vibrations echoed through the corridor.
With the entire swarm already slaughtered, the Reptilian Champion charged forward alone, thrusting its massive tusk bone.
“Huh.”
Clang! Clang!!
I raised my spear to block the tusk bone. Spinning my body, I swung the spear low.
Crack!
The spear, swung at tremendous speed, struck the Reptilian Champion’s knee.
Twist. Its stance crumbled.
“KAaaRacC!!!”
The Reptilian Champion shrieked an unintelligible cry and thrashed about desperately.
Determined to create distance at any cost, it swung its tusk bone wildly and retreated backward.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Twang!
With a loud sound, the wire shot forth.
-Clang!
The Reptilian Champion reacted swiftly, striking the wire’s weight precisely as if batting a ball with a baseball bat.
The wire ricocheted away and embedded itself in the wall of flesh.
“KuRarara!”
The Reptilian Champion, having deflected the wire, stared at me with what seemed like a smug expression.
“You little bastard, trying to split me open.”
A soft chuckle escaped my lips.
I channeled mana into the shooter strapped to my left arm while laughing.
Whiiiiiing!
The wire cord snapped taut, and my body rocketed forward as if executing three-dimensional maneuvering.
I surrendered myself to the momentum of the thrust.
“Hnngh!”
I gripped the spear with my right arm and drove it forward with all my strength, channeling power into it like a lance charge!
Crunch!
“KaaaaaAAAA!!”
My spear, thrust with full force, pierced through the Reptilian Champion’s eye.
The Reptilian Champion shrieked, clutching at the spear embedded in its eye socket.
That was all it took.
“Spear Thunder.”
Crackle crackle crackle!!
“KraaaaaRac!!!”
Azure lightning coursed through the spear, incinerating the Reptilian Champion’s brain.
Thud!
The Reptilian Champion’s massive body collapsed to the ground with a heavy sound.
“Phew.”
I steadied my slightly ragged breathing and withdrew the spear.
[You’ve grown quite accustomed to using Spear Thunder.]
“I’ve been practicing hard for the past three weeks.”
On days without pressing matters, I’d wake before dawn and drill the stigmata of the Lyra Constellation until sunset without pause.
I still couldn’t wield it as naturally as when I’d received the “blessing,” but compared to when I’d first clumsily forced the skill to activate, I’d made tremendous progress.
[Hmm. It’s not a technique that can be mastered so easily just through hard work, mind you.]
Vega shrugged her shoulders as if she’d grown tired of being surprised.
“Well then, shall we collect the spoils?”
Hehehehe!
I set down the spear with a grin spreading across my face.
I drew a knife from my thigh and carved into the Reptilian’s corpse.
‘The size of the stigma stone is… underwhelming.’
After extracting the stigma stone from the Reptilian’s corpse, I clicked my tongue in disappointment.
Just because a monster was of high rank didn’t mean it necessarily possessed a high-quality or large stigma stone.
In extreme cases, even seventh or eighth-rank monsters could yield stigma stones inferior to an Ant Horn.
‘Well, these scraps are worthless anyway.’
After all, the main prize—a basketball-sized stigma stone—was waiting for me.
[An unsettling colored stigma stone.]
The stigma stone extracted from the Reptilian Champion was black, as I’d anticipated.
━A mutant stigma stone.
It was a stigma stone that could only be harvested from mutant monsters, which appeared extremely rarely within Gates.
‘It doesn’t seem like a rare occurrence anymore.’
Having encountered so many variants recently, the black essence stones felt oddly more familiar than the typical blue ones.
“Do you feel that same unpleasant sensation here too?”
I held out the black essence stone to Vega and asked.
She lifted it with both arms, turning it this way and that.
[Faint, but I sense the same energy as before.]
“Hmm.”
I examined the black essence stone with narrowed eyes.
‘There’s definitely some connection between the Black Star’s power and these variants.’
The black slimes I’d encountered in that cavern before hadn’t they also possessed black essence stones?
It made no sense that variant monsters would suddenly spawn in massive numbers from a Gate where an essence artifact infused with Black Star power had been dormant.
‘Then is there an essence artifact imbued with Black Star power buried here too?’
I couldn’t be certain.
Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories only showed the rampaging monsters, nothing more.
[Hmm. This space feels deeply unsettling in many ways.]
Vega narrowed her eyes, surveying the corridor covered in flesh.
“Indeed.”
Still holding the black essence stone, I pondered a moment longer before clicking my tongue and turning away.
I set aside my thoughts about the black essence stone’s true nature.
‘There’s nothing I can learn by dwelling on it now anyway.’
I couldn’t afford to waste time on pointless speculation.
“Let’s move on.”
After collecting essence stones from all the Reptilion corpses scattered throughout the corridor, I continued forward.
A lingering sense of incompleteness remained, like something unfinished.
‘As long as it makes money, nothing else matters.’
Blue or black—what difference did it make?
Actually, variant essence stones sold for higher prices, so the increase in variants was something to welcome.
‘And I can absorb Black Star power too.’
Though I couldn’t say exactly what Black Star power was,
one thing was certain—it provided me with tremendous strength right now.
-Squelch, squelch.
I ventured deeper along the corridor.
Packs of Reptilions attacked several times along the way, but I dispatched them without difficulty.
After walking for roughly thirty minutes,
“Whoa.”
At the corridor’s end,
in the center of a Cavern Chamber covered in crimson flesh, a colossal mass of meat curled into a cocoon-like ball lay motionless.
The flesh giant remained perfectly still, eyes closed as if in deep slumber.
‘Damn, seeing it like this is no joke.’
The size was roughly ten meters, perhaps?
Though it was considerably smaller than what I’d seen in Lee Shin-hyuk’s memories, an absolutely overwhelming aura still radiated from the creature.
━That monster is genuinely absurdly strong.
The instinct struck through my mind.
“Tch.”
I steadied my racing heart and drew in a deep breath.
I raised my left arm toward the flesh giant and aimed the wire shooter.
-Twang! Twang! Twang!!
The wires shot forth with powerful recoil and embedded themselves into the giant’s body.
Drip, drip.
Dark red blood poured from where the wires had pierced, but the flesh giant showed no reaction whatsoever.
‘Lightning Spear.’
Crackle, crackle, crackle!!!
Blue lightning flowed through the wires and engulfed the flesh giant.
As expected.
The flesh giant didn’t even flinch this time either.
“Heh heh, what good is strength if you can’t use it? Huh?”
A smirk spread across my lips.
The flesh giant was certainly oppressive enough to make my knees buckle just by looking at it.
‘But that’s all it is.’
In the end, it was just a sealed idiot that couldn’t move a single finger.
There was no reason to fear it, no matter how massive it was or how suffocating its presence felt.
[So that’s the sealed monster.]
“Yeah. The culprit that devastated Seoul Station in the first regression.”
I nodded and approached the flesh creature, keeping my body loose and mobile.
“But now… as you can see, it’s just a big, defenseless bastard!”
I gazed up at the flesh creature with greedy eyes.
‘To think I can obtain awakening stones so easily like this.’
Lee Shin-hyuk, you bastard.
You’re incredibly useful.
“Alright, let’s finish this quickly.”
I gripped the silver spear and activated my stigma.
“Hiyaaaah!!!”
I closed in and thrust the spear forward.
Squelch!
Flesh tore open and blood sprayed forth.
“Hrah! Haah! Kyaah!”
I unleashed powerful battle cries and continued with a fluid barrage of strikes.
Slashing, piercing, twisting.
With each swing of the spear, blood and flesh flew into the air.
‘This is actually pretty fun.’
How should I describe this feeling? Like pummeling an incredibly realistic punching bag?
No, it’s more like striking one of those arcade punch machines.
“Get down, you lump of flesh!”
As I gleefully battered the helpless mass, stress melted away naturally.
‘Relieving stress and earning money!’
What a magnificent endeavor this is!
‘Thank you, Lee Shin-hyuk!!’
I’m alive because of you, seriously!
“Hahahaha!!”
Just as I was swinging the spear with such enthusiasm.
Creak.
━The mass of flesh opened its eyes.
“Huh?”
My expression hardened instantly.
‘What the hell is this?’
Why did it suddenly open its eyes?
[My child. Did you not say the monster was sealed?]
“Y-yes! Of course!”
I nodded urgently.
“That bastard’s just opening its eyes like that—it can’t move!”
It seemed Lee Shin-hyuk’s seal was the type that restrained only the body while leaving consciousness intact.
‘That’s fine.’
Even if some consciousness remained, it wouldn’t matter━
-GRRRRRRRAAAAAHHH!!
The mass of flesh rose to its feet.
“KAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”
A horrific roar that could only belong at a gathering of some antisocial cult worshipping infernal demons tore through the air.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Four arms erupting from the mass of flesh savagely pounded against the walls.
“What the hell?”
Why is this thing moving?

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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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