Not A Regressor - Chapter 53

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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 53
Transcendence (3)
Boom!
The trampled earth detonates.
My body, propelled by the violent force, shoots forward like a bullet.
“Gack? Again? What kind of—?”
Choi Jong-chul’s face twisted savagely as he raised his arm.
His limb, transformed into a vicious spike, swung toward me.
I angled my spear diagonally, deflecting the spike.
-Clang clang clang clang clang!
Had it been moments ago, deflecting such an attack would have been difficult.
“You’re the one pulling tricks here.”
Now, with Exceed active, I could brush aside attacks of this caliber with ease.
“Go to hell, bastard.”
Crack!
After deflecting the spike,
I dropped low and burrowed into Choi Jong-chul’s guard.
I spread my right palm and pressed it against his solar plexus.
“Thunderburst.”
Crackle crackle crackle crackle crackle!!!!
A torrent of lightning incomparably more massive than before lashed across Choi Jong-chul’s chest.
“Kyieeeeeek!!!”
Choi Jong-chul shrieked horribly and was hurled backward.
I could see his previously unblemished exterior charring black.
An exclamation escaped my lips unbidden.
“Wow.”
This is insane.
In terms of raw firepower alone, it felt even stronger than when I was blessed.
‘Though I can’t maintain this state for long.’
I grimaced as the pain intensified.
Pain I could endure indefinitely, but if I maintained Exceed like this, it was obvious the consequences would extend far beyond mere suffering.
“Let’s finish this quickly.”
Hiss.
I bared my teeth in a savage grin.
“What? Nonsense? You—!”
Choi Jong-chul thrashed and shouted.
“Whether it’s nonsense or not—”
A barrage of spear strikes, too swift for the eye to follow, ensued.
“You’ll find out firsthand.”
A torrent of blue lightning relentlessly drove Choi Jong-chul back without respite.
-Crack! Crunch! Snap!
“Grraaagh! Shrieeeeek!!”
Overwhelming.
Even that trite expression fell short of describing how thoroughly Choi Jong-chul was being toyed with.
In terms of raw ability, I had always been several steps above Choi Jong-chul.
Now that the gap in strength and speed had narrowed, this one-sided outcome was inevitable.
And on top of that.
“The subjugation of the demonic beasts is complete, Kwon O-jin!”
Park Chang-hyun, who had finished dealing with all the awakeners transformed into demonic beasts, joined the fray.
“Don’t you dare interfere!”
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Park Chang-hyun moved in close to the thrashing Choi Jong-chul and blocked his attack with his shield.
-Boom!!
A deafening sound like an artillery shell exploding.
“Ughhhh!!”
The dizzying impact sent his arm holding the shield flying backward.
“Don’t block head-on. Just draw his attention.”
I said as I passed by.
“Ah, yes. Y-yes, understood!”
Park Chang-hyun nodded with a bewildered expression.
He stared down at his tingling arm, his face hardening.
‘He was unilaterally overwhelming a demonic beast with this much power?’
He watched me relentlessly pummeling Choi Jong-chul with disbelief.
From the looks of it, I seemed to be fighting a 2 or 3-star level monster.
‘What… is this?’
Park Chang-hyun’s jaw hung open.
He was a 6-star awakener of Taurus.
When it came to strength, he was a powerhouse who never fell short anywhere.
—Yet a force powerful enough to send even him flying backward.
Right now, an awakener who was merely a 4-star was overwhelming a monster with such power.
“…How?”
Park Chang-hyun’s shoulders trembled faintly.
Even at the lowest estimate, this demonic beast was 7-star level or higher.
A 4-star awakener unilaterally overwhelming a 7-star demonic beast.
‘Even the Seven Stars weren’t capable of this.’
The seven awakeners counted among the world’s strongest.
Even they, who had built legendary achievements incomparable to other awakeners, had never accomplished something so absurd.
‘Kwon O-jin. Just who… are you?’
Honestly, Kwon O-jin overwhelming the transformed Choi Jong-chul felt more monstrous than Choi Jong-chul himself.
“Grrrraaaaahhh!!”
“Phew. This isn’t the time to be lost in thought.”
Park Chang-hyun shook his head and hefted the hammer aloft.
Here, I needed to draw the demon’s attention as Kwon O-jin said and support him.
“Hraaaahhh!”
Crash!
He charged at Choi Jong-chul with a fierce battle cry.
“Kiiiieeeeaaaaahhh!!!”
Choi Jong-chul twisted his body convulsively, flailing his arms wildly.
The black aura coiling around his body erupted outward in a violent surge.
“Don’t? Interfere? With? Me!!!”
The demon’s bloodshot eyes fixed on me.
“That one? I must? I must? I must!!”
He lunged forward with a bestial shriek.
“This curiosity-obsessed bastard’s speech pattern is really getting on my nerves.”
I sidestepped his attack with ease, my brow furrowing.
‘Time’s running short.’
I had little time left to maintain Exceed.
‘One shot.’
I had to finish this with a single attack going forward.
To do that.
“How much longer is it going to take, sis?”
I turned my head to observe the black mirage rising from the City Center.
As long as that mirage remained connected to Choi Jong-chul, killing him in one blow was impossible.
As I stared at the mirage with an anxious expression.
-Whoooooooosh!!!!
A colossal fire dragon erupted from the City Center.
The intense heat wave reached all the way here.
“Hahaha!”
With impeccable timing, I burst out laughing.
“Looks like my sister isn’t exactly a saint either.”
“Kgh? Wh-what? Wh-why?”
Choi Jong-chul’s eyes widened as he spun around.
The power of Black Star that had slumbered in the City Center.
The connection to that power had suddenly been severed.
“No? No? Noooooo!!”
Choi Jong-chul trembled violently, stumbling backward.
The black aura surging from his body began to dissipate gradually.
“Well then.”
Smirk.
I grinned wickedly and gripped the spear tightly.
“Let’s end this already.”
It was time to put a period on this tiresome battle.
-Twang!
I raised my left arm and fired the wire toward Choi Jong-chul.
Three strands of wire entangled around his body.
“Hiss.”
After drawing in a sharp breath.
I poured the stigma’s mana into the wire shooter.
Skreeeeeee!!!
The wire pulled taut with a fierce metallic screech.
Of course, even if Choi Jong-chul’s strength had weakened, it hadn’t diminished enough for him to be dragged up by a wire.
‘Then.’
I would go to him instead.
-Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!!
I kicked off the ground and charged forward.
I surrendered to the force pulling my left arm and added to my momentum.
“No, don’t come! Don’t come here!!”
Choi Jong-chul desperately conjured wings and took flight.
“It’s useless.”
Already ensnared by the wire, he couldn’t escape.
Gripping the silver spear wreathed in raging azure lightning.
“━It’s over, you bastard.”
I shoved the silver spear into Choi Jong-chul’s mouth.
-Crackle-crackle-crackle-crack!!!
“Grrrraaahhhhhhk?!”
The torrent of azure lightning flowing through the spear ravaged his insides.
Like a balloon, Choi Jong-chul’s body swelled grotesquely.
-Boom!
He shattered into fragments and scattered.
[Exceed skill deactivated.]
[《Exceed Lv1》 skill has risen to 《Exceed Lv2》.]
[《Lightning Lv5》 skill has risen to 《Lightning Lv6》.]
“Damn.”
Drip, drip!
In the cascade of blood, Kwon O-jin furrowed his brow.
‘This is unbearably painful.’
Perhaps it was a side effect of entering an overload state.
A sense of helplessness as if my strength had evaporated, coupled with a pain like needles piercing my blood vessels, spread throughout my entire body.
‘Still, I should claim my rewards.’
I had gained a level increase in the 《Lightning》 skill and acquired a new skill called Exceed.
After all, the reason I had targeted Choi Jong-chul in the first place wasn’t for that.
‘Can I absorb it even when it’s been torn to shreds like this?’
It was worth attempting, at least.
I used Black Heaven to absorb the stigma dwelling within the scattered flesh fragments.
Of course, discreetly, so the other Awakeners wouldn’t notice.
—Glurk, glurrrk.
Black clouds spread like a net, touching the mutilated corpse of Choi Jong-chul.
Whoooosh!
I felt a tremendous force flowing into my body as the stigma carved into my left chest blazed with light.
‘Wow, I can absorb it even in this state.’
Lying sprawled on the ground, I absorbed Choi Jong-chul’s stigma.
I felt a colossal power rushing toward me through the black clouds.
—Ding!
[Black Heaven absorbs the power of Black Star dwelling within the sacred relic!]
“Huh?”
Startled by the unexpected message, I opened my eyes wide.
‘A sacred relic, not a stigma?’
It seemed I had absorbed the power of the black sphere that had been absorbed into Choi Jong-chul’s body.
[You have successfully absorbed the power of the sacred relic!]
[The trait ‘Metamorphosis’ dwelling in the sacred relic is added to Black Heaven’s traits!]
What is this Metamorphosis?
Frowning, I opened the description window.
[Metamorphosis: Using the mana of the stigma, you can freely change the form of your own body.]
“Oh, what? That’s incredible.”
An exclamation escaped me naturally.
If I could freely change my body’s form, the applications were truly limitless.
‘Was that how he was transforming into a scythe, an awl, and all sorts of shapes earlier?’
The Aquarius stigma didn’t have the ability to transform the body, so it made sense that this was the sacred relic’s power.
Was that all, then?
It seemed there were also abilities to turn people into demons or control demons.
‘It looks like I’m only absorbing a portion of the sacred relic’s abilities, not all of them.’
Well, still.
Being able to absorb even a limited portion of a sacred relic’s power was no small feat.
If another Awakener had known this fact, they would have been astounded.
“But… what about the stigma then?”
My expression twisted harshly.
What I had wanted wasn’t the power of the sacred relic that Choi Jong-chul possessed, but Choi Jong-chul’s own power.
As I gazed down at the black clouds, consumed by disappointment.
[Black Heaven has absorbed the Aquarius stigma!]
‘That’s it!’
A bright smile spread across Kwon O-jin’s face.
The stigma of Aquarius—undoubtedly the most powerful among all healing-class stigmas.
It was the stigma he’d most desperately wanted to obtain since awakening Heukcheon.
“Let me give it a try.”
His body was already battered and broken, so the timing couldn’t have been better.
Kwon O-jin placed his right hand over his chest and activated the stigma of Aquarius.
-Whirrrrrr!
Blue droplets materialized in the air.
As the azure droplets seeped into his body, the crushing pain that had ravaged his entire frame eased slightly.
‘The effect is still rather modest.’
At best, it was equivalent to an intermediate-grade potion.
‘Still, with consistent training going forward, it’ll definitely become useful.’
There was no need to focus intensively on training the Aquarius stigma.
Thanks to the ‘Myriad Returns to One’ trait within Heukcheon, a portion of the proficiency from the Lyra Constellation stigma would automatically be shared.
“Hm?”
As Kwon O-jin was using the Aquarius stigma to treat his wounds, his brow furrowed.
Whirrrrrr!!! Crackle! Crackle!!
Lightning suddenly began intertwining with the blue droplets seeping into his body.
‘What is this?’
He watched the phenomenon unfold with bewildered eyes.
[A meaningful compatibility relationship has been detected between the designated primary stigma and the currently activated stigma.]
[The stigma of Lyra Constellation and the stigma of Aquarius resonate with one another!]
[You have acquired the composite skill, 《Hydro Affinity Lv MAX》!]
“Huh?”
A composite skill had manifested out of nowhere, simply from using the Aquarius stigma.
‘What?’
With a bewildered expression, he opened the description window.
[《Hydro Affinity Lv MAX》: A skill born from the convergence of the ‘Lightning’ essence of Lyra Constellation and the ‘Water’ essence of Aquarius. Wounds can be healed by absorbing water.]
Wounds could be healed simply by absorbing water?
“Insane.”
Kwon O-jin’s mouth fell open.
If he could heal wounds by absorbing water without any restrictions whatsoever, there was no skill more broken than this.
‘Could I possibly use this on other people?’
With excitement burning in his gaze, he read further down the message window.
[The effects of the ‘Hydro Affinity’ skill apply only to yourself.]
“Ah.”
A sigh of disappointment escaped Kwon O-jin’s lips.
If he could have used this skill on others as well, his worries would have been resolved in one stroke.
“…Tsk.”
He clicked his tongue lightly and closed the message window.
‘There’s no rush.’
After all, I had obtained the Aquarius stigma.
I could develop my lacking abilities as time went on.
‘Once that happens.’
Kwon O-jin clenched his fists firmly.
“O-jin!!!”
Then.
A familiar voice reached me from afar.
-Thud thud thud thud thud!!
Ha-eun, her red hair streaming behind her, rushed over and let out a shriek as she looked down at Kwon O-jin collapsed on the ground.
“Kyaaaa!! My O-jin’s been turned into a rag doll!!!”
“He appears to be fine, actually.”
Though he’s clearly not fine at all.
For now, let’s just say he’s fine.
“Your face!! Who the hell did this to our O-jin’s face!”
“My face isn’t injured.”
“Oh. So you always looked like this?”
“You brat?”
What’s wrong with my face anyway.
“Kyahahaha! Just kidding, you punk!”
Ha-eun burst into cheerful laughter, her shoulders shaking.
She carefully brushed back the hair of the collapsed Kwon O-jin and smiled warmly.
“…Thank goodness. You’re safe.”
Her voice had grown quiet and subdued.
“Really… you’re always running around on your own. Do you have any idea how much your sister worried?”
“….”
Her hand brushing back his hair trembled faintly.
“Sister.”
“Hm?”
“Let me touch your leg for a moment.”
“What the hell, you crazy bastard?”
Grunt.
After pushing myself up, I carefully felt her right leg with my hands.
“Hey!! Kwon O-jin! What, what are you doing all of a sudden?!”
The premium prosthetic felt so smooth it was indistinguishable from a real leg.
‘But it’s still just a prosthetic.’
Kwon O-jin’s eyes gleamed sharply.
‘Didn’t they say that high-ranking awakeners of Aquarius can even regenerate damaged organs and body parts?’
Smirk.
I withdrew my hand from her leg with a faint smile.
Aquarius and all that nonsense—I could think about it later anyway.
‘What matters right now.’
I looked up at Ha-eun, who seemed at a loss for what to do.
“Sister.”
“Huh? What?”
“I’m so damn exhausted I feel like I’m dying.”
Perhaps the tension had finally released now that I’d found Ha-eun.
An overwhelming wave of fatigue crashed down on me all at once.
No joke—I couldn’t last another second.
“I’m sleeping.”
“What? You’re sleeping? Here?”
“Carry me to where the car is.”
I collapsed.
Just like that.
“No! Hey!! Kwon O-jin, you bastard!!”
Her cries grew distant.
“So why did you suddenly touch my leg like thaaaat!!”
A secret.

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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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