The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 13

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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 13
13.
A corner table on the second floor of the Large Cafe.
Ju Do-gyeom and Kim Han-yul sat across from each other.
Ju Do-gyeom, having taken a sip of the iced Americano he’d ordered without much thought, spoke first.
“We seem to know each other well enough, so let’s cut to the point. Kim Han-yul. I’d like to recruit you to my party.”
Kim Han-yul, a faint smile playing across her lips, sipped her coffee before responding.
“Your name is Ju Do-gyeom, and your face is… well, not bad, I suppose.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It means I don’t know you at all, despite what you’re suggesting. Frankly, you won’t even tell me your age.”
“Does age matter in a dungeon? I think demonstrating skill is enough.”
“You… or rather, you. Do people often tell you that you lack social skills?”
Ju Do-gyeom calmly took another sip of his iced Americano.
Honestly, it wasn’t unfamiliar criticism.
Before his regression, plenty of people had leveled similar remarks at him.
He hadn’t minded then.
In a world hurtling toward destruction, social grace was hardly a priority.
Now was no different.
“The fact that you’re not answering tells me you already know. Ah, what a situation.”
Kim Han-yul drank more of her Americano.
Her brow remained deeply furrowed.
Yet her beauty was undeniable.
Naturally, it drew the eyes of men around her.
Ju Do-gyeom remained silent, waiting for Kim Han-yul’s response.
He’d said what needed saying; the choice was hers.
Kim Han-yul set down her cup and crossed her arms, contemplating deeply.
About ten minutes passed.
Kim Han-yul’s lips parted, breaking the long silence.
“Look.”
“Go on.”
“Your skill—I understand it. Monstrous, or rather, I mean… yes. You’re definitely excellent.”
“…”
“Don’t misunderstand. That’s a compliment, at least.”
“…”
“Could you maybe crack a smile or something?”
“I’ll try.”
“Honestly. Well, that’s just your nature, I suppose. I won’t drag this out further—let me get to the point. I’m declining. I won’t be joining your party.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
Ju Do-gyeom rose from his seat.
Kim Han-yul stared after him in bewilderment.
‘Ridiculous. He came to recruit me and gives up this easily?’
Someone like that—she had no further business with him.
Actually, this worked out better.
Just as she turned her head sharply toward the window to make that disengagement clear—
Ju Do-gyeom’s voice came again.
“…What are you doing, Kim Han-yul?”
“What?”
“…”
Ju Do-gyeom gazed silently at the cuff of his long-sleeved shirt.
Kim Han-yul followed his gaze.
Her face flushed crimson in an instant.
Because there, clearly gripping his sleeve, were her own index and thumb.
“Th—this? Why is my hand here? Ahaha…!”
Kim Han-yul burst into laughter and quickly released her fingers.
Then she spoke again.
“Don’t get the wrong idea. This wasn’t something I thought about or did on purpose. I mean, how do I put this? Unconscious? Yeah, so… my body just acted on its own…”
“I see…”
“Oh, you understand!?”
“Of course. Seems you’ve got a touch of madness in your mind too.”
That was strange, though.
After all, there was no such information in the future he’d experienced.
Regardless.
As someone who’d lived through it, a natural pang of regret settled behind his eyes.
Kim Han-yul, watching him, felt her mood darken without quite meaning to.
‘Should I call him out on it?’
She was still turning it over in her mind.
“That’s all then.”
Ju Do-gyeom’s words were clipped, and he turned to leave.
Kim Han-yul called out.
“Wait!”
“……?”
“I—I have something to say too, okay?”
“Something to say?”
“Yeah. You c-could listen, couldn’t you?”
“Hmm…….”
Ju Do-gyeom let out a short sound and settled back into his seat.
“Sigh…….”
Watching him, Kim Han-yul exhaled softly, almost without meaning to.
The flush on her face didn’t fade easily.
She needed a moment to compose herself.
Thirty seconds…… Sixty seconds…….
‘This won’t do.’
Kim Han-yul drained the coffee still sitting in her cup in one gulp.
“Ahhh……!”
Ju Do-gyeom tilted his head.
It wasn’t even carbonated.
“That hits the spot. Ah, I feel better now.”
Either way, she didn’t seem to be joking.
The crimson flush that had suffused her face had indeed faded away.
She continued.
“So let me tell you my side of things. Do-gyeom. Actually, I want to make you a counter-proposal instead.”
“You mean you want me to join your party?”
“That’s right.”
“I refuse. That’s all.”
Ju Do-gyeom rose from his seat abruptly.
“W-wait just a minute!”
“What now…….”
“You’re not even going to hear me out?”
“I have no intention of accepting any proposal, so wouldn’t we both be wasting time if I don’t leave?”
“Well, I mean, that’s a fair point, but…….”
Why? What is this?
Kim Han-yul was making a name for herself as a Super Rookie.
Naturally, she’d received scouting offers from numerous guilds and parties, but she’d never actually gone with any of them.
If she was honest, it was because she had a rather willful streak.
But talking to Ju Do-gyeom, she kept finding herself drawn in.
Against her own will.
“That’s all then.”
The third time now.
Ju Do-gyeom turned his back once more with the same words.
Kim Han-yul spoke urgently.
“If you join my party, I promise I’ll do right by you. Of course, I’m just one person, so you might think it’s not much, but I’ll source whatever equipment you want within reason, and you’ll get to choose the third member yourself. This is a genuinely exceptional offer.”
“Not interes——”
Even as he shook his head and began to repeat the same refusal, ready to truly leave this time, a sudden spark flashed through Ju Do-gyeom’s mind.
“Let me put it differently. I know how to make your Manifestation develop by leaps and bounds.”
“……What?”
“Join my party, and I’ll tell you. Exclusively.”
In truth, this wasn’t Ju Do-gyeom’s strength.
Coaxing and persuading others—there were plenty of people far better at that than him.
But now that he was alone, he had to do things like this himself.
‘Unfamiliar as it is…….’
seemed likely to work.
That thought appeared to be roughly correct.
“I can tell there’s something there, but…….”
Kim Han-yul had crossed her arms and twisted her legs without noticing.
Her tone was sullen, but her eyes brimmed with curiosity.
“You. How much do you actually know about my Manifestation that you’re going on about it like that?”
Ju Do-gyeom, having read Kim Han-yul’s feelings, answered matter-of-factly.
“I know considerably more than you do now.”
Because he had seen Kim Han-yul from the future.
Ju Do-gyeom’s eyes remained calm and composed.
A sigh escaped from Kim Han-yul’s lips at the sight of him.
“Ha…….”
The conflict in her eyes rippled like waves.
Ju Do-gyeom continued.
“I have a proposal. Kim Han-yul. Come explore a Dungeon with me. After that, if you’re unsatisfied with the results I show you, we each go our separate ways. But if you’re pleased with what I deliver, you become a member of my Party.”
“One Dungeon? You’re saying my Manifestation can leap forward dramatically in just one Dungeon?”
Ju Do-gyeom answered by nodding his head.
Then he asked with his eyes.
‘What will you do?’
If she pushed back even here, he’d turn away without a second thought.
The talent of Kim Han-yul as she was now was a shame to waste, but other Party members could fill her role well enough.
In the silence.
Tap, tap.
Kim Han-yul, wearing black leather shoes, tapped her left foot against her right foot a few times.
Finally, she relaxed her legs and opened her mouth.
“……All right. Let’s go check it out, then.”
Her arms remained crossed nonetheless.
Doubt filled her eyes.
To be honest, that was how she felt.
‘Nothing to lose anyway.’
She’d just verify it.
Whether this enigmatic man, Ju Do-gyeom, was simply a pathological liar, or genuinely the real thing.
‘If he’s the real thing…….’
Then that was surrender.
She’d have to accept it.
She had no intention of stubbornly insisting otherwise.
Ju Do-gyeom extended his hand toward Kim Han-yul, whose eyes had grown distant.
Without a word, Kim Han-yul uncrossed her arms and extended her right hand.
The two hands clasped together.
Ju Do-gyeom spoke.
“Party invite.”
At the same moment, a message sounded in Kim Han-yul’s mind.
『User Ju Do-gyeom invites you to join his Party. Do you accept? Y/N』
“I accept.”
Immediately after.
Ju Do-gyeom declared.
“Dungeon entry. Destination designated: Broken Military Factory.”
The two vanished from the Large Cafe.
* * *
The Broken Military Factory.
Like the Zombie Burst, it was one of the Dungeons with entry restrictions for Hunters.
The limit was Overall Ability Stats of C or lower.
It meant a reasonable difficulty, but in truth, from Ju Do-gyeom’s perspective, it was a Dungeon with nothing to gain and no interest to him.
‘But for Kim Han-yul, it’s different.’
In ordinary Class Skills, the most important factor was naturally the various Ability Stats and the influence of support skills.
However, Manifestation was somewhat different.
Mana Ability Stats and auxiliary traits, as well as skill support, were important.
But imagination and self-conviction were equally influential.
For example, it was like this.
One of the representative objects Kim Han-yul could currently manifest: a motorcycle.
Within a dungeon, few transportation methods rival the motorcycle in both utility and speed, though it does have its shortcomings.
That’s because the Kim Han-yul of the future rode nothing less than an Anti-Gravity Flying Motorcycle.
And that was hardly all.
She’d mounted a plasma gatling gun on that very motorcycle and unleashed unlimited bombardment upon the ground below.
The gap between that and her present state—a mere two-wheeled motorcycle and a single pistol—was staggering.
The disparity stemmed partly from differences in Mana and auxiliary traits and skills, as he’d said before.
But it also came down to her imagination, still underdeveloped, and her lack of self-conviction.
Ju Do-gyeom believed that at this stage, there was no better place than the Broken Military Factory dungeon to cultivate both of these things in her.
For reference, it wasn’t a mechanized dungeon in the manner of twenty-first-century Earth.
Rather, it was structured according to more magical principles.
The monsters that actually wandered it were half-ruined Golems.
Right after they entered.
Kim Han-yul glanced around and spoke.
“The Broken Military Factory… wasn’t defeating the Boss Monster the clear condition? Just the two of us might struggle….”
Her gaze fixed on Ju Do-gyeom, who held the Great Hammer, before she could finish.
Her head bowed of its own accord.
The image of the warrior who’d reduced that colossal corpse giant to pulp with a single swing of his hammer rose unbidden in her mind.
“What was I even worried about?”
Kim Han-yul let out a soft laugh and wordlessly began to follow Ju Do-gyeom, who’d already started forward.
‘He’s talented, sure. But I have no idea how he’s so confident he can grow my Manifestation….’
She was curious to see what would happen.
If he failed, she’d get a good laugh out of it.
‘Come to think of it, there’s nothing to lose.’
A smile played at her lips.
* * *
A moment later.
Ju Do-gyeom’s Great Hammer shattered the first broken Golem they encountered in a single blow.
Kim Han-yul’s eyes widened slightly.
“What? It doesn’t look like you hit the core. How’d you take it down in one shot?”
The defining trait of a Golem was that its core had to be destroyed.
Otherwise, it would continue moving even in a damaged state.
Yet with a single swing of Ju Do-gyeom’s hammer, the Golem had stopped moving entirely.
There was something different about it—not quite complete destruction, but something else.
Startled, Kim Han-yul pressed him.
“What? How’d you do that?”
Now that she thought about it, she’d felt something similar when they’d killed the undead in the Zombie Burst.
Ju Do-gyeom answered flatly.
“It’s one of my abilities. Works on machines too, apparently.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve confirmed it works. There won’t be the same situation next time.”
It was a somewhat evasive answer.
But Kim Han-yul understood what he meant.
‘He’s not obligated to tell me.’
She accepted it.
Honestly, she would have done the same in his position.
And right on cue.
A second broken Golem appeared.
Ju Do-gyeom, as he’d just promised, methodically dismantled it—severing its limbs and tearing its head clean off.
It was functionally moving, but barely alive.
Setting it before Kim Han-yul, he spoke.
“What do you see?”
“What do you mean ‘see’? A half-wrecked Golem?”
“Not in that sense. As a target for your Manifestation.”
“That’s nonsense. How would I use Manifestation on a Golem—”
Kim Han-yul’s words died in her throat.
The intensity in Ju Do-gyeom’s eyes was speaking for him.
This could be done.
“…Really? You really think it’s possible?”
“You know as well as I do. The crucial parts of your Manifestation are imagination and self-conviction. Believe in it. Believe that you can manifest a Golem like this. Study its structure carefully. That’s how your conviction will grow stronger.”
“…Okay.”
Just as the flustered Kim Han-yul reached for another word—
Ju Do-gyeom’s Great Hammer shattered the mangled Golem completely.
It was the same as before.
He’d struck a spot other than the core, yet the broken Golem stopped moving nonetheless.
“But why? You told me to look at the structure.”
“I got the gist of it. Once I’ve decided, we move on. I didn’t come here to Manifestation something as pathetic as a broken hunk of junk.”
“What? If you’re not going to Manifestate this, then what exactly are you—”
Again.
Kim Han-yul’s words died in her throat.
Her eyes widened.
The Broken Military Factory Dungeon.
There was only one thing in this place worthy of being called “unbroken”—only one.
“Don’t tell me you’re… going after the Boss Monster…?”
“Yeah.”
Ju Do-gyeom answered curtly, nodding his head.
From the set of his shoulders as he moved forward, she felt something—an iron certainty radiating from him.
Kim Han-yul swallowed hard without thinking.
She’d never even entertained the thought, never dared imagine it… but—
‘He’s going to Manifestate the Dungeon’s Boss Monster as an ally?’
How was she supposed to stay calm?
She’d followed him into this Dungeon half as a dare—show me if you can do it—and now her heart was hammering in her chest.
Like it might burst.

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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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