The Legendary Regressor Devours the Tower - Chapter 34

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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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Episode 34
At the end of the cave lay a tomb, stark and abandoned.
“Strange-looking thing.”
At the far end, stones were piled high like a mountain.
It was hardly what one would call a proper tomb, yet Leonius’s body lay interred within it.
The proof stood before him: a stele and an altar.
[A criminal whose guilt outrages heaven and earth—pay the price of your sins even in death.]
But the inscription on the stele was unlike any ordinary monument.
Typically, such stones bore the deceased’s basic information alongside concise words honoring their achievements and character, but this stele bore none of that—instead, it branded the dead man a criminal.
Seong Un set the bead he had acquired upon the altar.
Hum—
The bead began to resonate, then crumbled to dust and seeped beneath the altar.
Rumble—
The pile of stones trembled.
Clatter—
Rocks tumbled rapidly down the slope as Seong Un stepped back, watching the phenomenon unfold.
After a moment, light leaked from below, and semi-transparent motes of magical essence coalesced into a human form.
‘Young.’
That was his first impression.
He had expected someone far older, yet the Leonius who emerged from the tomb looked no more than thirty, even being generous with the estimate.
[So you summoned me.]
Leonius opened his eyes slowly and fixed them upon Seong Un.
“Yes.”
Seong Un nodded.
[Hah, how could a wretch like you possibly summon me?]
Interest gleamed in his eyes, but his tone held not a shred of courtesy. A smile tugged at Seong Un’s lips.
“I got lucky.”
[That’s odd. I left behind a robot set to level five hundred, yet here you are. How is that possible?]
“Perhaps it was simply weaker than its level suggested?”
[Pfah! So that’s it—Doctor Trickler couldn’t replicate me perfectly after all.]
Seong Un deliberately refrained from mentioning the deterioration and downgraded level.
“Then hand it over.”
He extended his palm forward.
[Eh? Hand over what?]
Leonius tilted his head, confused.
“It seems you’re not much of a liar, are you?”
[……Ah, am I that obvious?]
“No. I was just fishing.”
One thing was certain about the Tower: it always delivered rewards.
There was no way the Tower would summon Leonius himself without offering something in return.
[You’re a real pain in the ass, aren’t you?]
Realizing he’d been outmaneuvered, Leonius let out a hollow laugh.
“So what exactly are you hiding away like this?”
[Hey, I never said I’d give you anything. What are you already preparing to take?]
“Then should I just leave?”
Seong Un gestured toward the path he’d come from, tilting his head.
[Yes. Go. Get out of here!]
Leonius snapped the words out coldly, exasperation flooding his voice.
“Fine then.”
He seemed keen to play the superior party.
That wouldn’t do.
At first, Seong Un had considered humoring him, but types like this became considerably more troublesome once they grew arrogant.
Seong Un turned without hesitation.
[……Wait!]
Before he’d taken more than a few steps, an urgent voice called from behind.
Seong Un turned his head to respond.
“Yes?”
[You—do you even know what I have?!]
“How would I, when you haven’t told me?”
[Damn it, because you don’t know, you can act so fearless. Listen well. It’s SSS-rank. I don’t know what floor this is, but if your level was permitted here, it can’t be very high, can it?]
“It’s the sixth floor.”
[Damn, I knew the lower levels existed, but only the sixth floor? What a mess!]
Leonius heaved a long sigh before suddenly throwing punches and kicks into the empty air, venting wildly.
‘A madman, as I thought.’
Playing along with him would’ve been a disaster.
“An SSS-rank? I can do without it.”
Seong Un tried to leave the place quickly.
[Hey, damn it! I said wait!]
His profanity was impressively vivid.
Seong Un suppressed his laugh and kept his face expressionless.
“Are you offering it to me?”
[Who said I was offering?]
“If you are, I’ll listen quietly to what you have to say. If not, I’ll be on my way. This cave is about to collapse.”
Seong Un pointed to the ceiling.
The ceiling still trembled as if an earthquake were occurring.
Rocks tumbled down in steady streams, and if he lingered here much longer, he’d lose his life before he could escape.
[Ah… I was trying to put on a show, you know?]
Leonius said this while pointing beneath the tomb he stood before.
“What? There’s something underneath?”
[That’s right. There should be a necklace buried below here. It’s a treasure of the imperial household that I received from His Majesty during my lifetime.]
“A criminal deserving of universal condemnation received an imperial treasure?”
[Ha, even the stele has been defaced with such slander. A criminal deserving universal condemnation? You dare call me a criminal when I orchestrated a coup, seized imperial power by force, yet devoted my entire life to the empire?!]
Leonius’s fury escalated further.
“Well, I’ll hear the full story later.”
Now that he knew the location, Seong Un approached the tomb and began clearing away stones without hesitation.
[Damn it! I’m telling you I’m not a criminal! Hey!]
Ignoring Leonius’s protests, Seong Un cleared away all the stones, and beneath them appeared a single coffin.
It wasn’t even properly interred—it lay abandoned there bare.
‘They just threw the coffin down and covered it with rocks? That’s harsh.’
A slight pang of sympathy stirred within him for Leonius, who continued ranting frantically above.
“I understand. It’s just the tyranny of those who seized imperial power. There must be people somewhere who don’t think of you as a criminal.”
[Huh?]
Perhaps because Seong Un had shown him understanding?
Leonius’s ranting suddenly ceased.
Seong Un met his gaze directly and spoke.
“It’s not easy to stake your life on something. When faced with such circumstances, more than ninety percent of people would choose to preserve their own lives.”
[A foolish and pathetic choice, certainly. History is written by the victors, after all. Look at me—if I hadn’t appeared myself to explain, they would’ve simply dismissed this as the tomb of a criminal. Wouldn’t they?]
A bitter smile crossed Leonius’s lips.
“For the first time, you looked like a normal person.”
[Really want to die?]
“It was the right choice.”
[Huh?]
“You held true to your convictions until the end. Others might call it wrong, but at least I believe it was the right choice.”
[…….]
“Give me the treasure. I promise to reach the very top of the tower.”
Seong Un’s expression grew serious.
Leonius, sensing the weight of his sincerity, matched his tone and asked a question.
[What is it that you want to protect?]
“Nothing.”
His immediate answer made Leonius’s eyes widen.
[Nothing? Not something that was lost, but something you never had to begin with?]
“Yes.”
[…… Then why climb the tower?]
“To survive.”
If he didn’t reach the summit, Earth would be deleted.
When that happened, the existence known as Seong Un would vanish as well.
He had no family, and the only friends he’d had left died before he’d ever entered the tower.
For Seong Un, who possessed nothing, survival alone was what mattered.
[You’re something else. So you’re climbing to the summit just to stay alive?]
“At first, yes. But now I have something I need to repay.”
The Transcendent Species—a colossal beast that had brought Seong Un to his knees on the eightieth floor.
To break the leader commanding such monsters, he would need to become incomparably stronger than he had been in his past life.
[In the old days, he would have thought such a gleam in the eye wasn’t a good sign at all…….]
Leonius watched the fire burning in Seong Un’s gaze—the flames of vengeance—and paused for a moment before speaking again, slowly.
[Now it doesn’t look so bad. Very well. I shall entrust the empire’s treasure to you.]
In that instant, Leonius’s body began to glow, then seeped into the coffin and vanished.
[You have received Leonius’s recognition.]
[Acquisition conditions for Guardian: Zikrothe have been met.]
Leonius’s recognition.
Without it, the treasure could not be taken.
That he had lain in the coffin until now without anyone else disturbing it must have been because no one but Leonius could handle the treasure.
Seong Un pushed open the coffin’s tightly sealed lid.
Inside lay Leonius’s corpse and a single necklace around his neck—a shabby thing, its oxidized copper wires tangled together like rust.
[You have acquired Guardian: Zikrothe (Unstable).]
Seong Un clenched his fist tightly.
Unlike his past life, he had gained an Opportunity on a lower floor.
===
[Guardian: Zikrothe (Unstable)]
-Type: Necklace
-Grade: B
-Special Ability (1): Upon taking damage, activates [Passive: Protection of Zikrothe]
-Special Ability (2): Fragmented Advice [*Warning: Upon equipping, may be somewhat noisy]
===
It wasn’t the SSS-grade that Leonius had boasted about.
The necklace’s grade was merely B.
It was so low a rank it was laughable to even call it an Opportunity.
“So this means it becomes SSS-grade once it’s stabilized.”
The problem was that the knowledge carved into Seong Un’s mind contained no method for stabilization.
‘Hey, can you hear me?’
Still, a method existed.
It was Leonius’s voice, coming through into Seong Un’s mind.
Somehow, despite having vanished, Leonius was speaking to him.
“Is it because of the necklace?”
The moment Seong Un set the necklace down, the voice disappeared as if by magic.
The instant he grasped it again, the voice returned.
Ah, so that was the second special ability.
The warning notation must have been there for this reason.
‘Hey! Are you ignoring me right now?’
In his past life too, Ego Equipment like this had existed.
Without exception they were high-grade equipment, and with a will embedded within, they had proven invaluable once they acknowledged their owner.
But Seong Un had never handled Ego Equipment before, so the method of communication felt entirely unfamiliar to him.
“I can hear you.”
‘Then why are you so slow to respond? Want to die?’
“It’s fascinating.”
He never thought you’d leave your consciousness not just in a robot, but in a necklace too.
‘No choice. How exactly are you planning to restore this to SSS-grade?’
“Then you should have said it that way from the start. Why did you lie and call it SSS-grade?”
‘A lie?! Damn it, that’s precisely why I’m helping you!’
Ugh, this is harder to bear than I expected.
Seong Un furrowed his brow and pressed gently at his temples.
Was it because he wasn’t accustomed to communicating with Ego Equipment?
His head throbbed as a headache descended upon him.
“So why is it B-grade then?”
Seong Un continued rubbing his temples as he asked.
‘Ahem, it’s because the goddess’s power was stolen from me.’
“The goddess’s power?”
‘It was taken by those who staged the coup. More precisely, I had to give it to the races who aided them.’
“Then who are these races?”
‘They call themselves Shakro. They must be somewhere in the Tower Floor System, just like us.’
Shakro.
A race that had lurked all the way up on the 55th floor.
I wasn’t sure how they’d managed to help people, but if I eliminated them, I would be able to restore Guardian: Zikrothe to SSS-grade.
‘Shakro.’
From the 30th floor onward, it wasn’t an exaggeration to call it a Racial War.
It was no longer simply a matter of subjugating a hundred monsters like you would ordinary foes and defeating a boss to complete the ascent.
[Climb the Tower and seize victory against elite legions.]
The Tower’s condition.
You had to build sufficient strength through the 29th floor before facing off against the races.
Moreover, unlike the climb up to the 29th floor, from the 30th floor onward, without a specific Return Item, you couldn’t easily return to Earth to regroup.
What was fortunate, however, was that since the conflict was between climbers and races, any damage inflicted by individuals or parties remained intact.
Assuming someone wiped out all but a boss-level race and returned to Earth, the rest could gain the qualification to ascend to the next floor by subjugating that boss.
“Then you yourself, as well as Shakro, must have failed to reach the Tower’s summit.”
They were the defeated.
Having failed to reach the Tower’s summit, their dimension would have been deleted.
‘For someone who only climbed six floors, he’s got a sharp mind.’
Leonius breathed out a short murmur of admiration.
“Now, let’s get out of here. We’re running short on time.”
The intensity of the tremors grew fiercer.
With little time remaining, Seong Un gathered the Opportunity and quickened his pace.
Crack—
The ceiling collapsed at that moment, burying the spot where they’d just been standing beneath a heap of rubble.
‘Run! Run faster! If you die, I’m finished too!’
Leonius cried out urgently.
“I understand, so would you mind keeping quiet?”
Even in the dire situation, Seong Un retraced his steps with composure.
A Legendary Returnee Devours the Tower (Serialized)
Author | Yeon I-yo
Publisher | Kim Ju-hyung
Published by | J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing | Han Jae-hyuk
Address | 401, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Ace Techno Tower 8th)
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Website | www.jayplemedia.com
© Yeon I-yo 2026
※This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder. The contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from our company and the author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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