The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 28

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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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Chapter 28
28.
Bargash knew it well enough.
That the humans called them pigs, or worse.
It didn’t bother him.
He thought of them as nothing like the livestock his kind kept.
In fact, he preferred to see it the other way around.
Humans were no different from the beasts his people herded.
They fattened themselves up on their own, grew bloated, and eventually made themselves into food.
Though admittedly, they were rather finicky about it.
That’s what made him laugh.
But not all orcs were like Bargash.
Among them were those who felt burning rage at the humans who looked down on them.
Among the captains present here.
“Shrieeek! Human, you disrespected us!”
“Shrieeeeek! I’ll kill you without honor, human. Shriek!”
Drog of the Broken Horn Tribe.
Murtar of the Iron Teeth Tribe was the prime example.
They hurled the meat they’d been eating, seized their Glaives, and lunged to their feet toward Kim Han-yul.
Kim Han-yul didn’t blink an eye.
Instead, she smiled thinly and reached out her hand.
“Mark Two.”
She summoned her pride and joy.
A colossal machine appeared in the great hall, wreathed in azure light.
The two captains’ charge faltered the moment they saw Mark Two.
In that opening, Mark Two’s machine gun barrage erupted.
The two wide-eyed captains raised their Glaives, deflecting the bullets.
“Shriek!”
“What are you doing! Shriek!”
The orc captains who’d been watching with interest rolled across the floor.
After one burst of fire came to an end.
Seeing Mark Two enter its cooling period, the orc captains’ eyes gleamed.
“Shriek! Destroy the machine!”
“Shrieeek!”
Now not just two, but all the wounded orc captains charged at Mark Two together.
Drog and Murtar, their bodies riddled with bullet holes from bearing the brunt of the fire and still alive, rushed forward with them.
Kim Han-yul clicked her tongue and canceled the summoning, falling back to put distance between them.
She summoned a Four-Wheeled Motorbike and drew her Pistol in a single fluid motion.
‘Once the recharge is done, I’ll call Mark Two back in…’
Her battle tactics formed naturally in her mind.
But then, they vanished.
‘…Do I even need to?’
Ju Do-gyeom stood motionless where Mark Two had been.
Toward him—
Or more precisely, toward her as she retreated, the captains charged.
‘Once the team leader swings that Great Axe, they’ll all be toast.’
An idle thought.
She was lowering her gun when—
“A fine training method, Kim Han-yul.”
“…?”
The orc captains swept past Ju Do-gyeom’s side, heedless of him.
“Shriek! Get out of the way, human!”
Only a couple of the orc captains whose bodies had been cleaved by his Great Axe had bothered to swing their weapons at him.
The remaining six captains closed the distance in one breath.
Kim Han-yul didn’t hesitate.
She spun the motorbike and gunned the accelerator.
Vroom-vroooom!
“Shrieeek!”
“Kill her!”
“Damned human bitch! Shriek!”
Kim Han-yul on the motorbike tore down the inner corridor, but the captains pursued without hesitation.
‘It’s a bit of a disadvantage in an enclosed space.’
But Kim Han-yul would handle it well.
If anything, this would become experience, spurring her to grow even stronger.
Thinking as much, Ju Do-gyeom stepped over the two captain corpses he’d made and pressed forward.
In the chaos.
Bargash, who hadn’t moved an inch from his seated throne while draining a fresh bottle of wine, let out a short snort and spoke.
“Tch! Aren’t you going to help? If that human woman gets caught by the captains, there won’t be anything pleasant to see.”
“I trust my team.”
Ju Do-gyeom spoke matter-of-factly, leveling his Great Axe at him.
His eyes were clouded as if by drifting mist.
Bargash, seeing him, let out a shallow murmur of admiration.
“Hoo…… You can’t see ahead, it seems. Yet still…….”
It was just before the words ended.
Ju Do-gyeom’s massive axe, the distance now closed, came crashing down upon his head.
‘……!!’
Bargash grabbed his Glaive in a rush and desperately moved to block.
Or rather, he tried to block.
Instead, he hurled the Glaive away and rolled his body aside.
Screee—!
With a sickening slash, the prized Glaive split cleanly in half and fell to the ground.
Beneath eyes dimmed to black, Ju Do-gyeom, wreathed in a haze of crimson light, spoke.
“Good instincts. Then again, a Great Warrior ought to manage at least this much.”
His voice was low.
As he listened, Bargash picked up the new Glaive that had fallen to the ground, his mind flooding with questions.
‘What was that just now?’
He had felt the absolute certainty that if he blocked, he would surely die.
And Ju Do-gyeom’s axe, wrapped in no Aura, had sliced through his Glaive like paper.
He couldn’t collide with that blow.
Ju Do-gyeom charged at Bargash again with that understanding between them.
『Skill Flash Combat Stance promoted to 4 Stars.』
The distance closed at tremendous speed.
The axe, already raised, came down once more.
Bargash dodged him by the narrowest margin.
In that moment of thought, Ju Do-gyeom’s foot swept against his ankle.
Thud—!
He tried to plant himself and hold fast to the ground.
『Skill Heavyfoot Propulsion Technique promoted to 2 Stars.』
Ju Do-gyeom’s kick was heavier than expected.
Heavy enough to shatter the balance of an Orc Great Warrior who prided himself on strength and stamina alone.
Bargash gritted his teeth and tumbled across the ground.
For a body of Great Warrior caliber, it was humiliating, yet no other path presented itself.
No.
Already in his mind.
‘I cannot win.’
Ju Do-gyeom had begun to look like a monster.
A being he could never defeat in combat.
He carried nothing like an enormous Aura pouring out of a merely human frame, nor the kind of exceptional speed or remarkable strength that should be present—so why?
He couldn’t know.
But precisely because he couldn’t understand it.
‘This one is stronger than me.’
Bargash was an Orc Great Warrior.
He did not think it shameful to die fighting a stronger foe.
But he had no wish to die emptily, without laying a hand on his opponent.
‘Even if I am to die, then on a proper battlefield…….’
On a true field of battle.
Like a true warrior.
He didn’t want to die rolling on the ground, helpless and accomplished nothing.
‘A way…….’
As he searched for one, his eyes fell once more upon Ju Do-gyeom’s mist-shrouded gaze.
‘He can’t see.’
Then what was he fighting with?
Ju Do-gyeom searched his memory.
Another orc Great Warrior with one eye missing—Gromgar of the Red Fang Tribe.
He fought with a skill that lived up to his name.
Well enough that even Bargash couldn’t promise victory.
But how, despite the visual handicap?
‘Sound.’
His ears.
The memory struck Ju Do-gyeom like lightning—he sidestepped the falling Great Axe by a hair’s breadth and hurled his body sideways.
Through the window where sheets of rain poured down without hesitation.
Crash—!
Glass shattered as he plummeted through the air, landing hard on the broad outer terrace that stretched across the fortress’s mid-level.
Whoosh—!
The sound of relentless rain.
At the window of what had been the orcish feasting hall mere moments ago, Ju Do-gyeom stood looking down at him with dark eyes.
Bargash, who had seized a Glaive on his way down, breathed roughly and laughed.
“Hah…… hah…… khhh…….”
He’d never thought rain could feel so good—the rain that had troubled him for so long, weighing his whole body down with its unpleasant heaviness, now felt almost pleasant.
Bargash called out.
“Shriek-! I acknowledge it! Human! You are strong! One day, on a battlefield hotter than this, let us meet again……!”
As Bargash spoke, his eyes flew wide.
And with good reason.
Ju Do-gyeom, who had been standing at the window of the top floor, was falling.
Not with Bargash’s clumsy crash, but bouncing cleanly off the fortress wall once, landing atop the outer terrace.
Whoosh—!
Through the downpour of rain.
Bargash asked, unable to believe it.
“You…… weren’t hearing by sound…… were you?”
“…….”
Ju Do-gyeom said nothing, aiming the tip of his Great Axe at him.
His eyes shut, unmoving.
Bargash, just to be sure, threw the Glaive he was holding.
Whine—! Bang—!
Just beside Ju Do-gyeom’s head, angled to the side.
The Glaive, which had grazed past his ear, embedded itself in the fortress wall with a deafening crash.
Elation surged in Bargash’s eyes.
‘His reaction slowed!’
If this were the original Ju Do-gyeom, Bargash couldn’t imagine he’d have escaped without a wound.
‘Exactly—he’s fighting by sound.’
Then in this downpour of heavy rain.
How much his combat power had fallen was not hard to guess.
Bargash, still smiling, cooled his heated muscles and spoke.
“I am Bargash, Great Warrior of the Gray Skin Tribe. Human. What is your name?”
“……You’re loud.”
“……What?”
“You became an orc Great Warrior and fled tail between your legs, yet you strut about with pride—it sounds like nothing but the braying of beasts.”
“……!!”
The whites of Bargash’s eyes reddened.
Anger surged to the very top of his head at Ju Do-gyeom’s provocation.
He roared.
“Shriek-! To exploit an opponent’s weakness and fight is not dishonor but the way of a true warrior! I offered you respect and another chance……!”
“I said you’re loud. Pig.”
Bang—!
Without answering in words, Bargash charged straight forward.
By now, most of his green skin had been dyed red.
Berserk.
One of the racial traits of orckind, where rage itself becomes strength.
A punch from an orc Great Warrior in this state could punch holes through thick fortress walls.
Even without the Glaive, flattening a human body into a mere pool of blood would be trivial.
Bargash’s fist, then.
“Rooooaaaah-!”
With a roar that split the air, it shot forward like a cannon.
Boom-!
Through the chaos, the sound of the atmosphere itself rupturing.
And that fist, advancing thus.
Passed directly in front of Ju Do-gyeom’s body.
Tore through his robe and collar as it struck empty air.
Bargash’s eyes went wide.
“……!!”
Crack-!
At the same moment, the Great Axe—which had curved inward—traced a beautiful crescent arc and passed beneath Bargash’s throat.
‘How did he evade it?’
Bargash, shock plastered across his face, was just beginning to move his thick tusked lips when—
“Scream like that, baring your fangs, and even in this rain you stand out clear as day, Great Warrior.”
Ju Do-gyeom whispered softly.
At the same time.
‘An absolute……warrior……indeed…….’
In that final moment, Bargash’s head fell away, a faint smile lingering unbidden at the corner of his mouth.
Thud-!
The two eyes that had blazed with fury held, for an instant, a light of wonder and admiration—then went dark entirely.
Ju Do-gyeom did not see it.
But he felt it, surely enough.
Though it changed nothing, of course.
Still, one thing was certain.
‘It’s finished.’
As if to confirm it.
『Objective achieved. Orc Great Warrior defeated 1/1.』
『Dungeon cleared.』
『Rule effects nullified.』
『Lost senses restored.』
『User Ju Do-gyeom has demonstrated exceptional play in the Dungeon: Marquis’s Fortress, now occupied.』
『Boss Monster defeated solo while senses were suppressed.』
『Party composition: 2 players. Reward bonus increased 50%.』
『Individual Contribution Rate calculated at 81%.』
『Overwhelming.』
『Clear reward Mana Stones significantly increased.』
『Two of your current Ability Stats will increase substantially at random.』
『Strength Rank elevated D- => D』
『Agility Rank elevated D- => D』
That’s it?
It couldn’t be.
He was tilting his head when—
『The gap between your level and this Dungeon is considerable.』
『Legendary.』
『Additional rewards granted.』
『Two of your current Ability Stats will increase substantially at random.』
『Strength Rank elevated D => D+』
『Endurance Rank elevated D+ => C-』
『Luck effect triggered.』
『Magical item Berserk Ring awarded to top contributor.』
Ju Do-gyeom’s eyes gleamed with light.
‘I’m getting all of this at once?’
And more than that.
‘Endurance reached C-rank.’
His first C-rank Ability Stat.
That carries weight.
Most Skills meet a wall when entering 6-star territory.
Ability Stats are the same—a barrier emerges just before entering C-rank.
For Ju Do-gyeom especially, the significance of this first C-rank stat being Endurance could not be overlooked.
If that’s the case…….
‘I can pull that off.’
Certainly.
Beyond overwhelming—the legendary-grade evaluation fitting a B-Rank Dungeon came with staggering rewards.
As Ju Do-gyeom nodded in satisfaction,
the downpour stopped as if it had never been.
Into the city interior that had hung dark and heavy moments before, a faint but unmistakable sunlight began to pour down from the clearing sky.
Messages came in succession.
『Return to Earth? Y/N』
“Not yet.”
Ju Do-gyeom shook his head.

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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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