Not A Regressor - Chapter 97

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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 97
The Ancient Constellation (8)
“Y-you bastard….”
Park Geon-woo staggered backward, his face drained of color.
-Boom!
Before he could even draw upon his mana.
Kwon O-jin shot forward like lightning, thrusting his spear.
“Ugh!”
Park Geon-woo hastily raised his spear to block the attack.
‘Can I even stop it?’
No matter how much of a three-star gap existed between them, there was no way an awakener who hadn’t even activated their stigma could withstand an attack wielding Exceed.
-Slash!!
“Kgh! Cough!”
The spear blade, wreathed in lightning, easily deflected Park Geon-woo’s weapon and carved a long gash across his chest.
I had intended to pierce straight through his heart.
But at the last moment, Park Geon-woo twisted his body just enough to evade, and the strike fell short.
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue in disappointment.
‘So he does have the skill to back up his nonsense.’
The fact that he could react with such agility without even using his mana meant Park Geon-woo’s actual abilities were genuine.
‘Not that it matters.’
I smiled coldly.
Watching Park Geon-woo bleed profusely from his chest, I felt a grim satisfaction.
I had failed to pierce his heart in one strike, but I had succeeded in inflicting a wound that was nearly fatal.
“Haa, haa!”
Park Geon-woo gasped roughly, clutching at the wound on his chest.
“You fraudulent bastard!!”
His voice trembled with seething hatred.
“The King’s Representative ordered us not to touch the apostles of Vega Star….”
Whoooosh!!!
Park Geon-woo’s stigma blazed ferociously.
“But I cannot forgive you!”
“Hehe~ Hehe~ Do as you please, by all means.”
“Rraaagh!!”
Park Geon-woo’s face twisted like a yaksha’s as he drove forward.
“Ugh!”
The wound on his chest tore open further, blood pouring out even more violently.
“What are you doing? Thought you couldn’t forgive me?”
“Grrr….”
Park Geon-woo bit his lip hard, clutching at the gaping wound.
At this rate, even if we exchanged blows a few more times, the bleeding was too severe—I wouldn’t last much longer before collapsing.
Two options remained.
Flee, or otherwise—
“…Don’t think this is over yet.”
Boom!!
I slammed the spear’s blade against the ground with brutal force.
“Star of the Owl, Noctua!!! Grant this wretched apostle the blessing of the Black Star!!”
I spread both arms wide and cried out as if wailing.
Crack! Crackle-crack!
With a sickening sound of bones warping, my skin across my entire body began to shrivel rapidly.
“Hack! Hack!! Cough!!”
Yellowed, discolored teeth and skin wrinkled like tree bark.
In the blink of an eye, Park Geon-woo’s body—aged by what seemed like decades—erupted with black mana bursting forth.
‘The Constellation of the Owl’s Seat, Noctua.’
The transcendent known as the Black Star.
Lifted my dying body.
“Ah, thank you. Thank you, Noctua.”
I raised my head high, gazing up at the building’s ceiling as I murmured softly.
“Following the will of the Black Star.”
Crackle-crack!!
Black feathers burst through my skin, covering my entire body.
As if I were clad in armor made entirely of black feathers.
Between the feathers densely covering my body, only my black eyes remained visible, fixed on Kwon O-jin.
“I shall tear down the Star of Vega this day in this place.”
Boom!!!!
Park Geon-woo charged forward, kicking off the ground violently.
“Tsk!”
A speed incomparably faster than before.
Kwon O-jin barely deflected the spear point aimed at his throat.
He hastily retreated, creating distance as he watched Park Geon-woo, now covered in black feathers.
‘Did he receive a blessing at the cost of his lifespan?’
No.
Could that even be called a blessing?
‘A curse would be more fitting.’
In any case.
The battle with Park Geon-woo, which I thought had ended, would continue a while longer.
“Yeah. If it had ended there, it would’ve been too boring, right?”
Kwon O-jin laughed and spun the spear he gripped.
The situation had worsened from the start.
Yet strangely, his mind felt at ease.
‘I’ve finally met someone worth fighting. I can’t afford to miss this opportunity.’
Looking back on how I’d grown until now.
I’d achieved explosive growth far more often in moments of crisis than through steady training.
“…You seem to be enjoying yourself.”
“Do I?”
I let out a gleeful laugh.
“What’s so fun about this?”
“No matter how much I train, I never feel this way.”
Like dancing atop a razor’s edge.
Thump-thump.
The thunderous pulse of my heart roaring in my ears, every cell in my body thrumming with exhilarating vitality.
That’s right.
Training alone could never produce this sensation.
Only in real combat where my life hung in the balance.
Could I savor this dizzying ecstasy and rapture.
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“Says the one to talk.”
The same person who’d been spouting nonsense about the myriad forms of existence and the principles of yin and yang.
“But this ends here.”
Click.
Park Geon-woo leveled his spear.
Though he’d become a withered old man blessed by the Constellation.
Yet the stance in which he gripped his spear remained flawless and impeccable.
“Die.”
“I’d rather not.”
-BOOM!!!
The spears collided with a deafening crash.
Using Exceed, Kwon O-jin matched Park Geon-woo’s power and speed—blessed by the Constellation though he was—exchanging blows with perfect equilibrium.
-Clang! Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
The metallic din echoed deafeningly.
Each time the spear tips collided, the shockwave rippled through the entire High-rise Building.
“Hah, hah!”
As the battle dragged on, my breathing grew increasingly ragged.
I furrowed my brow and widened the distance between us.
‘I’m running out of mana.’
I’d been confident that my total mana reserves wouldn’t fall short compared to high-tier Awakeners.
But Exceed and Lightning Flame were devouring so much mana that the seemingly endless reserves of my stigma were finally hitting bottom.
‘This is like pouring water into a bottomless pit.’
Both Exceed and Lightning Flame.
At my current 5-star level, these were techniques I shouldn’t have been able to handle at all.
Because I’m using a technique beyond my current level.
As a result, an astronomical amount of mana was leaking out in real time.
“Huff.”
“Already exhausted?”
Compared to Kwon O-jin, whose breathing was gradually becoming ragged, Park Geon-woo remained perfectly composed.
“You punk, spouting off like you’re something special when you’re only holding on through Noctua’s blessing?”
Spit.
Kwon O-jin spat out the saliva pooling in his mouth.
No matter how much of an 8-star awakener Park Geon-woo was, there was no way his breathing wouldn’t falter after such an intense exchange of attacks.
The fact that he wasn’t tiring was solely because he was receiving Noctua’s blessing.
It couldn’t be called his true power.
“Krhehe! Then why don’t you receive Vega Star’s blessing as well?”
“Our goddess still has some room to spare, so I’m holding back.”
“…You have room to spare?”
Park Geon-woo looked at Kwon O-jin with an expression that asked what nonsense he was spouting.
His form, gasping for breath up to his chin, seemed far removed from the words “having room to spare.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Well, whether it’s bluffing or not…”
Spin. Kwon O-jin turned his body.
“…you’ll have to see for yourself.”
He sprinted at full speed toward the shattered window.
“W-what!”
“Try to follow if you can.”
Raising his middle finger at Park Geon-woo, who desperately reached out, he leaped without hesitation from the 50-story high-rise building.
-Whoooosh!!
A biting wind scraped across his cheek.
A dizzying sensation rippled down his spine as the sight of Guro-dong, where thousands of demonic beasts were clashing, came into view all at once.
“Hup!”
Twang! Twang!!
He fired the wire shooter at the building wall.
Like Tarzan swinging through the jungle on vines.
He flew between buildings using the wire, reducing his speed.
‘Going up is impossible without Riak’s help.’
But going down was simple with the wire shooter.
-Whoosh! Whoosh!!
Navigating swiftly between buildings, I found my target.
‘There.’
Finding the spot where corpses of demonic beasts formed a hill, Kwon O-jin deactivated the wire shooter and landed with a spinning flourish like an acrobat.
“Well then.”
He lifted his head and gazed up at the high-rise building, now impossibly distant.
I never expected Park Geon-woo to give up the chase.
‘Now that he’s used his blessing, he’ll pursue me by any means necessary.’
He’d sacrificed decades of his lifespan—there’s no way he’d simply abandon this.
‘I should prepare something in advance.’
Kwon O-jin surveyed his surroundings, confirming no one was nearby.
Then he climbed atop a hill piled high with the corpses of demonic beasts.
It was time to deploy the trump card he’d only kept in reserve.
‘Will it actually work?’
Theoretically, it’s possible.
The logic checks out. The probability aligns.
But.
‘Can I actually do it?’
That distant, immense power.
Was it right to rashly reach for a force that had already destroyed the world once?
“Ha.”
A soft laugh escaped me.
“When did I start worrying about such things?”
I smirked, my lips curling upward as I opened my palm.
-Whoooosh!
In that instant, black feathers scattered, and Park Geon-woo materialized before me.
“So you had composure to boast, yet all you can do is flee?”
Disappointment tinged his low, gravelly voice.
“If I’d planned to run, I’d have headed toward Lee Woo-hyuk instead, you thick-skulled bastard.”
I burst into cackling laughter, dragging my open palm across the sharp blade of my spear.
Flesh split open, and blood poured forth in torrents.
An Awakener’s blood carries the mana of their stigma.
In my case,
‘Black Heaven.’
Beyond the stigma, other forces dwell within it as well.
-Glug, glug.
Where the blood fell, black clouds of mist spread outward.
Vast enough to engulf the hundreds, thousands of demonic beast corpses scattered about.
Spreading wide.
“Now that I think about it, I forgot to say something.”
“What…?”
“Thank you. For setting up an all-you-can-enjoy buffet.”
Hehehehe.
I shook my shoulders, bursting into laughter.
I’d never used Black Heaven on such a vast scale before.
‘Just as I thought it would work.’
Direct skin-to-skin contact had never been a requirement for absorption.
If I could only spread the dark clouds of Heuk-cheon widely enough.
I believed I could absorb all the constellation stones hidden within the corpses of demonic beasts scattered about in one fell swoop.
━This was his trump card.
“Do you know how to fill a bottomless jar with water?”
“…What are you trying to do?”
Rumble!!
The dark clouds spreading wide burrowed into the corpses of the demonic beasts.
As if the thickly gathered clouds obscured the starlight.
Greedy and ravenous.
Hundreds, thousands of constellation stones were swallowed by the darkness of Heuk-cheon.
“Just shove the whole jar into the puddle.”
The mana that had shown its bottom.
began surging upward with explosive force.
-Ding!
[You have absorbed a constellation stone imbued with the power of the Black Star.]
[Quality bonuses have been applied to the constellation stone.]
[Quest ‘The Sky Demon That Devours Stars ①’ is progressing.]
[Progress: 76.7%]
[Progress: 87.2%]
[Progress: 94.8%]
[Progress: 100%]
Rumble!!!!
Black dark clouds erupted like an explosion through the cracks in my palm, spreading like mist.
[You have completed the quest ‘The Sky Demon That Devours Stars ①’.]
[You randomly acquire one of the ‘Ancient Constellations’ stored within Heuk-cheon.]
[The constellation you acquired is━]
A blue spear emerged from the darkness, glittering like a star.

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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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