The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 18

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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 18
18.
The landing point from his glide was well past the middle of the Grassland.
Ju Do-gyeom touched down and glanced back once.
The hill where he’d started faded into a dim line beyond the horizon.
He’d covered a distance that would have taken days on foot in a single bound.
‘Well, that alone was worth a billion.’
The math was simple.
Days of time saved.
Hundreds of Trash Mobs he would have encountered in that span.
The Trash Mobs of the Garden of Eden were notorious for dropping paltry experience and meager rewards.
The entire Dungeon existed for one thing alone: Adam’s Apple.
In other words, wasted time and wasted stamina.
Having skipped half of that entirely, there was no thriftier way to spend his resources.
‘Good. Let’s move.’
The moment Ju Do-gyeom took his first step forward—
Rustle!
The nearby brush trembled, and something burst out.
A person.
No.
The form of a person.
A human figure made entirely of ashen stone.
Each time its joints moved, the grinding sound of stone echoed faintly.
And around its neck, a jet-black serpent hung like a noose.
The snake’s head flicked its tongue toward Ju Do-gyeom.
The true body was that serpent.
The stone form was merely a puppet the snake operated.
And so it was named—
‘Serpent Doll.’
A snake’s puppet. A snake’s stone.
Finding the name apt, Ju Do-gyeom drew the Great Axe from his inventory and swung it lightly.
Bang!
Lightly, he’d meant.
Genuinely.
But the result was anything but light.
The Serpent Doll’s entire body shattered, stone shards scattering in all directions, and the brush caught in the shockwave split open like a fan.
For an axe with such a keen edge, its crushing power exceeded even that of a sledgehammer.
‘Now that’s a weapon.’
Indeed—a far cry from the bargain-basement goods he’d once found in a low-tier Dungeon. The performance of a true artisan’s handmade piece, purchased from a luxury market for hundreds of millions.
The weight and substance suggested excellent durability as well.
It was almost troubling how good it was.
‘…Whether I should feel proud of myself or not.’
Madness. This trait.
Meanwhile—
Beyond the split brush, a dozen shadows emerged from the Grassland, walking toward him.
All Serpent Dolls.
Stone figures, each with a serpent coiled about its neck, creaking and clicking as they approached.
Ju Do-gyeom considered for a moment.
Fight them?
‘No point.’
As he’d said: no experience, no rewards.
Not even Mana Stones worth harvesting—trash of the lowest order.
There was only one answer.
Ju Do-gyeom pushed off the ground and bolted forward.
Straight ahead.
Before the creatures could raise their arms, he leaped lightly over their heads.
『You have acquired the skill: Ten Thousand Li Pursuing Wind Body Method (1-Star).』
Ten Thousand Li Pursuing Wind Body Method—
A movement technique that lets one chase the wind and run ten thousand li.
It lacked the explosive acceleration of something like Instant Flash.
But he could maintain that rapid pace for a long time—a very long time.
Long-distance travel. Escape.
And when it came to bypassing pointless fights entirely, no martial art served better.
The grassland flowed beneath his feet like a river.
Serpent Dolls creaked and gave chase behind him, but within moments they became mere specks and vanished.
* * *
The rewards from monsters in this dungeon were paltry, yet the Garden of Eden itself was rated remarkably high—C-rank.
The vast expanse combined with Serpent Dolls far more durable and troublesome than crude zombies, numbering in the hundreds, made it formidable.
For a Hunter with ability scores comparable to Ju Do-gyeom, the dungeon was essentially impossible to clear.
Yet Ju Do-gyeom was traversing it as if on a leisurely stroll.
Those blocking the path, he shattered with a single swing of his Great Axe.
Those swarming in groups, he leapt over.
『Skill, Ten Thousand Li Pursuing Wind Body Method (2-star) promoted.』
His proficiency climbed steadily.
Even with the same ability scores, the difference lay in the mastery one possessed—a natural result.
In the midst of it all.
Ju Do-gyeom suddenly became aware of a sensation in his hands.
‘…The axe fits my grip.’
It was subtle.
In his past life, Ju Do-gyeom had favored the sword.
Called a God of War, there was no weapon he could not wield, yet the sword had always been what felt most natural.
It was the sword that had severed the breath of the Demon King of Annihilation.
But now.
This crude axe fit his hand perfectly.
So perfectly he felt no desire to grip a sword instead.
As he pondered this, a dozen Serpent Dolls appeared before him.
Too weary to dodge them, he swung the Great Axe.
The weakness of a massive weapon was its weight and difficulty in close-quarters application.
The strength was its devastating power and broad range at a distance.
This time, he felt the effect acutely.
Crash—!
A dozen Serpent Dolls crumbled beneath a single arc of his axe.
Immediately after.
『Skill, Heavenly Power Breaking Method (4-star) promoted.』
『Skill, Heavenly Power Breaking Method (5-star) promoted.』
‘…What?’
The messages rang out in succession, and Ju Do-gyeom’s brow twitched as he ran.
He had reason to be startled.
A skill’s proficiency had risen twice simultaneously.
Skill proficiency was harder to raise than raw ability scores—harder, even, the further one progressed.
Yet two ranks at once?
It wasn’t impossible.
There were instances when a user’s talent aligned perfectly with a tool or related skill, causing proficiency to grow at an alarming rate.
Both the future Ju Do-gyeom and his allies had experienced this several times.
The issue was precisely this.
‘The axe is…my talent?’
To reiterate: in his past life, he had favored the sword.
His talent with it was genuinely superior.
His current class was even Universal Chef.
Yet the axe.
This massive weapon, which his madness had chosen and his heart had drawn toward, supposedly matched his hand.
The feeling was strange.
‘Is this also the influence of the Heavenly Murderous Constellation…?’
But that thought was brief.
‘Well, it’s possible.’
Ju Do-gyeom chose not to dwell on it deeply.
If it was strong in his grasp, that was enough.
It wasn’t his nature to attach meaning to weapons.
As stated, he had used the sword most in his past life precisely because his talent was greatest with the sword.
After his return, if he possessed greater talent with the Breaking Method, then he need only pursue that path when the situation allowed.
How long had he been running?
Beyond the horizon, it finally came into view.
An apple tree.
* * *
Ju Do-gyeom slowed his pace the moment the tree entered his field of vision.
Then, concealing his presence with the Scattered Flower Shadow, he climbed onto a large boulder on a nearby hillock and crouched low.
There was no need to rush.
This was where the real highlight of the Dungeon began.
From atop the boulder, the apple tree looked peaceful beyond measure.
A picturesque tree, bearing a single plump fruit.
It seemed simple—just run there, pluck the fruit, and be done.
‘But it isn’t.’
The moment you cross a certain distance threshold to the tree, the Dungeon’s true mechanic activates.
‘Paradise Illusion.’
Why else would this place be called the Garden of Eden?
It reveals paradise to any intruder.
Precisely the paradise they most desperately want to see.
And those whose hearts are snared by that paradise can never leave that place again.
‘Serpent Dolls.’
Those stone figures he’d destroyed and leaped over on his way here.
That was their true nature.
Bodies ensnared by paradise turn to stone.
And in the hollow of the neck, a serpent takes its seat.
Once you understood this, the slow, creaking gait of those things seemed utterly different.
In any case.
A mechanic designed to bore into the mind itself.
The old Ju Do-gyeom would have laughed and walked straight into its jaws.
But not now.
‘Madness.’
His mind now harbored an unwelcome guest he himself didn’t fully understand.
How the Paradise Illusion would intertwine with that Madness, no one could say.
To charge forward relying only on the Mental Fortitude Ring would be foolish.
Confidence must rest on solid ground.
Without it, what you call confidence is merely arrogance.
Ju Do-gyeom was confident by nature, but he was no man given to arrogance.
‘So I’ll close the distance. As much as possible.’
The method was already prepared.
Ju Do-gyeom checked one corner of the system window, where the remaining duration of his blessing was displayed.
‘Ten minutes left.’
He’d spent two hours and fifty minutes traveling, so the Heavenly Wings had precisely that much remaining as well.
The Paradise Illusion activates when your feet touch the ground in that zone.
Then.
‘I’ll simply pass through the sky.’
Skip most of the mechanic zone through the air, land directly before the tree.
Minimize exposure to the illusion to its absolute limit.
Ju Do-gyeom steadied his breathing.
One.
Two.
He pushed off the boulder and launched himself skyward.
Whoooosh—!
Wings of light unfurled at his back, blazing with their final strength.
* * *
The glide was flawless.
His landing point was so close he could nearly touch the tree if he fell forward.
The wings of light faded as their time expired, and Ju Do-gyeom’s feet contacted the ground.
At the same moment.
The world transformed.
……
The green grassland vanished.
In its place stood a city street.
A familiar street.
The Unified Asia Fortress City as it had been, before its collapse.
The glow of evening lamps.
People moving through the streets.
The smell of cooking rice drifting from somewhere.
And.
“Ju Do-gyeom—! What are you doing, you bastard? Get over here!”
A voice called out.
He recognized it without even turning his head.
‘Xavier.’
A Spanish man built like a bear, waving a drink glass in front of a street stall.
The shield-bearer who had guarded his flank in life.
Beside him, a bespectacled man shaking his head as if to say it was too much noise—that was Li Wei.
Sitting with skewers in her mouth, languid and dark-skinned, the sniper was Anisha.
They had said then that they would survive the next battle and share another night like this.
Faces he had not seen again in all the time since—and they were all there, whole and present.
Smiling.
Alive.
But that wasn’t all.
“Ju Do-gyeom—! You’ll miss the soup if you’re late!”
In the middle of the stall.
A woman holding up a glass high, waving her hand back and forth.
‘……Vivienne.’
Vivienne Ashcroft.
The grand mage who had burned her own life to send him back to this age stood there, her body whole and intact, laughing.
And.
‘…….’
Between them stood two people who should not have been there.
His mother.
And his father.
Two people who had left this world before the fortress city was even built, standing naturally among his comrades, their eyes fixed upon him.
They called his name.
“Do-gyeom.”
“Ju Do-gyeom. Our son.”
It was a landscape that made no sense.
Those two and his comrades had never even existed in the same era.
Paradise cares nothing for historical accuracy.
It simply crams everything one wishes to see onto a single canvas.
‘……How clumsy.’
That was what he thought.
How crude it was.
How poorly executed.
And therefore, how bearable.
Ju Do-gyeom stood motionless, taking in the sight of them all.
One by one.
One by one.
Not a single one forgotten.
He received them, etched them into memory, held them fast.
And then he ran.
Straight ahead.
Cutting directly through them all as they beckoned.
It was fake.
All of it was fake.
It had been easier than he expected.
‘Thank God.’
In that moment, he had truly felt grateful.
Something ran down his cheek.
Ju Do-gyeom wiped it away with the back of his hand even as he ran.
Moisture.
Tears.
‘…The influence of Madness, then.’
Ju Do-gyeom reached that conclusion.
He saw no reason to think otherwise.
Behind him, the paradise was collapsing.
The tender voices stretched and warped.
Then twisted into something inhuman—shrieks that crashed against his back.
“Shriiiiiek—!”
“Ahhhhhhhhh—!”
“Ju Do-gyeommmmmm—!”
The true nature of paradise—its hunger for the prey it could not hold.
Ju Do-gyeom did not turn around.
His fists clenched without his knowing.
* * *
Then, at some point.
The screaming stopped.
The world returned to the Grassland.
As if to announce that the illusion was nothing more than illusion.
Everything vanished like vapor.
Before his eyes stood a single massive apple tree.
He understood.
The Mechanic had been cleared.
‘Now I just have to find Adam’s Apple and pluck it….’
That’s all.
Then return to Earth.
Ju Do-gyeom was taking that final step toward the tree when it came.
『You are the first Challenger.』
A system message arrived without warning.

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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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