The Regressed EX-Class Martial God Decided to Become a Thousand-Star Hunter - Chapter 56

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 56
56.
Ju Do-gyeom was startled for two reasons.
‘…… There were still hidden pieces left.’
Battle Royale Rule.
He’d never heard the name before, but the effect was simple enough to grasp.
Like the Zombie Burst Dungeon, any Hunter who died within the Mana Erosion Zone would drop all items from their inventory.
A vicious rule.
One designed to make humans despise one another.
Ju Do-gyeom let out a hollow laugh.
‘Truth is, it’s not just that either.’
Once you reached A-Rank Dungeons, sentient races other than humans began to appear.
In fact, when dungeons followed this Battle Royale Rule, many human Hunters actively avoided them.
Humans simply didn’t have the advantage when competing against such varied and capable species.
But Ju Do-gyeom thought differently.
‘Avoidance won’t stop the calamity.’
As he’d said before—the Age of Calamity.
It wasn’t just monsters and disasters that attacked humanity.
Composing himself, Ju Do-gyeom looked around.
Either way, he’d gained an unexpected reward from all this.
A tremendous amount of items—the kind you’d describe as pouring down.
Among them were several magical artifacts that looked quite valuable at a glance.
And that was the second reason he was startled.
‘Kim Han-ryul’s side is already wrapping up.’
The system had announced it.
Five sentient beings had died within the Mana Erosion Zone, triggering a new rule.
But Ju Do-gyeom had killed only four Hunters.
Before Young Lak-ryong’s corpse.
‘The Hunter who looked like a healer.’
And Emil, Amy, and Yoris—all killed here.
That’s only four. One is missing.
Could Kim Han-ryul have lost instead?
Ju Do-gyeom dismissed that thought entirely.
Sure, she complained and grumbled constantly, but Kim Han-ryul was the kind of powerhouse whose name was known even at the Asian Unified Fortress—someone you wouldn’t hesitate to call humanity’s strongest combatant.
A mere single Rank difference?
‘She’d turn it around and still have room to spare.’
Moreover, in recent times she’d been pushing herself relentlessly to accelerate her growth, so he had even more confidence.
‘Still…… just to be safe, maybe I should go check on her.’
The items could be recovered later anyway.
After settling his thoughts,
he picked up a stray Purification Flower and was just about to put it in his mouth before moving forward
when a message appeared: ‘Unique Skill Limit Maintenance has stopped functioning.’
His eyes went unfocused immediately.
Strength drained from his legs.
Ju Do-gyeom grimaced and gripped his uncontrollably bent knees with his arms, then pushed himself back up
when a silhouette emerged from the darkness of the barren forest.
“No need to push yourself moving around.”
Kim Han-ryul approached, her voice steady.
“I’m done too, team leader.”
She was drenched in wounds from head to toe.
She traced a V-shape with her fingers and thrust it forward with a grin.
“Wasn’t anything special, though? Aha-ha!”
He wished she’d at least mind her blood-soaked condition while speaking.
Though that’s what he thought, Ju Do-gyeom didn’t voice it aloud—instead, he smiled slightly and sat down comfortably where he was.
“Well done, Kim Han-ryul. I had faith…… in you.”
After the tension released,
his voice dropped to barely a murmur.
Kim Han-ryul spoke.
“Get some rest. I’ll handle the item recovery.”
“…… Fine. Just ten minutes.”
Yes, that should suffice.
Ju Do-gyeom closed his eyes.
* * *
When he opened them again.
Ju Do-gyeom found himself indoors.
‘Inside a bunker?’
He threw off the blanket and stepped outside to find a forest landscape bathed in blue light and thick with undergrowth.
The Rest Area.
On one side of it, Kim Han-ryul sat nursing a drink by a campfire.
Spotting Ju Do-gyeom, she spoke.
“Hey there, sickly-cute team leader! You’re up?”
“…What on earth is that ridiculous nickname?”
“What do you mean what? It’s exactly what it sounds like. Sickly, and cute… or maybe not cute?”
“Hah……”
Ju Do-gyeom sighed and shook his head.
“Ahahaha!”
Kim Han-ryul laughed.
Ju Do-gyeom smiled faintly and sat down beside her. “How did you move me?”
“Worked hard?”
“…There must have been a lot of monsters.”
“Oh, that? I handled them all with my new weapon.”
“New weapon?”
Kim Han-ryul snapped her fingers.
Light coalesced in the forest, and something massive materialized.
Its overall form wasn’t much different from the boss monster of the broken military factory, the N.MK-II.
But in addition to the gatling guns mounted on both arms, there were two more pods slung across the shoulders — one clearly a flamethrower with a gas canister attached, and the other a heavy-duty cannon of sorts.
That wasn’t all.
The N.MK-II’s exterior, which had originally gleamed a dull gray, was now snow-white.
Just like the armor worn by the White Knight, Yoris.
Ju Do-gyeom asked.
“Both armaments and exterior have been upgraded.”
“Right? I figured you’d catch it, boss. The weapons — I was just thinking about stronger firepower, and they sort of added themselves naturally. As for the exterior, I got a new skill.”
Ju Do-gyeom murmured softly.
“…Synthesis Manifestation.”
A skill that combined manifested objects with real-world items.
One might wonder if a Manifestation Wizard, capable of summoning most things, would even need it — but it proved genuinely invaluable.
You could reinforce magical items, Magical Tools, and more by layering them onto the manifested object for additional enhancement.
Kim Han-ryul asked, looking startled.
“How did you know that? Can you actually see status windows or something?”
“Surely you didn’t doubt it?”
“Wait — it was real?”
Ju Do-gyeom chuckled and replied.
“I was lying.”
“Hey!”
Kim Han-ryul bolted to her feet and shouted, then let out an exasperated scoff.
“Figures I called it. What kind of skill lets you peek at someone else’s status window anyway?”
“Who knows. Maybe somewhere we haven’t been.”
“Hmph……”
She snorted again and took a sip of her drink.
Then she continued.
“Anyway, as a separate matter — I ate that White Knight Armor whole, so call it even, yeah?”
Ju Do-gyeom chuckled once more.
“Fair enough.”
To be honest, it was already half-ruined; the repair costs alone would have been astronomical.
As far as that went, there wasn’t really a problem.
The real problem was that the White Knight’s armor was stolen goods.
And not just any stolen goods — his signature piece.
Leaving it outside would invite serious trouble.
Under the circumstances, the best option was to consume it through Kim Han-ryul’s Synthesis Manifestation, just as they were doing now.

Synthesis Manifestation absorbs the original abilities of magical tools as they are, whether the object is broken or anything else.
Because of that, even if Ju Do-gyeom hadn’t intended it, he would likely have made Kim Han-ryul perform the same act.
‘Still, it’s rather satisfying.’
A Manifestation Wizard.
There are several skills that justify the job rank of S+.
His eyes turn once more toward the upgraded N.MK-II, its white armor gleaming.
‘Steadily…….’
Kim Han-ryul drawing ever closer to the Manifestation Wizard he remembered.
Outside of that, there must be countless minor improvements as well.
“Impressive, isn’t it? I named it N.MK-II.”
“N.MK-II?”
“It stands for New Mark Two.”
Kim Han-ryul laughed with satisfaction, straightening his shoulders.
Ju Do-gyeom nodded.
“A bit lacking, perhaps, but not bad. Far better than that flame-spewing nonsense from before.”
“Ugh, so immature. Ugh…….”
“Quiet.”
Ju Do-gyeom waved his hand dismissively and was about to ask his next question.
But Kim Han-ryul was faster.
“About two days have passed. Of course it’s just an estimate, so it’s not certain, but it should be pretty accurate. And I’ve stored the items in my inventory for now, and I manifested a Steel Cart to carry what wouldn’t fit.”
There was no need to ask who had done the carrying.
“New Mark Two must have had a rough time of it.”
“A magnificent creature. If I make two more copies with the Gem of Duplication, the monsters here won’t scare me anymore.”
Considering how long they’d been in the Mana Erosion Zone, it was literally a leap in progress.
Ju Do-gyeom smiled contentedly and rose to his feet.
“Then, shall we go check the items?”
“Of course!”
Kim Han-ryul, his expression brimming with enthusiasm, led Ju Do-gyeom forward.
* * *
The items spilling out from the Steel Cart bore the impressive mark of an A-rank party like the Yoris Party.
“There are six Small Recovery Potions alone, three Medium Recovery Potions, Mana Potions as well, and they had two Party Emergency Return Scrolls on them.”
As Kim Han-ryul finished speaking, he naturally tucked one of the Party Emergency Return Scrolls into his pocket.
Ju Do-gyeom laughed.
“You can take both.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Yahoo—!”
Kim Han-ryul cried out with delight, cradling both scrolls to his chest.
“Sob, sob…… I’ve missed them. My children.”
“……That’s hardly the case, is it?”
“You don’t understand my heart at all, team leader. Really…….”
It was Ju Do-gyeom himself who wanted to sigh.
Ju Do-gyeom’s gaze, shaking his head, turned to what came next.
‘Three Mana Potions as well. And the Eternal Preservation Food Boxes, plus the Blessing Elixir…….’
The Eternal Preservation Food Box was a kind of refrigerator.
But literally, one that could preserve things eternally.
In some ways, it might be called an upgraded version of a refrigerator itself.
The only problem was its modest size.
Even so, it was far from meaningless.
He opened one to check its contents and found it brimming with emergency rations.
Ju Do-gyeom made his assessment.
‘Just this alone should sustain a three-person party for a full month without trouble.’
And there were two such Eternal Preservation Food Boxes.
Once the food ran out, they could simply replenish it.
What mattered was having two boxes.
And then another jackpot surfaced.
“This is…… a Mana Stone Pouch.”
“Ah, that. A dead mage dropped it.”
A Mana Stone Pouch.
As the name suggested, it was a pouch for holding Mana Stones.
It was significant.
Each Mana Stone took up one inventory slot.
But the Mana Stone Pouch occupied just one slot and could hold about a hundred stones.
It was classified as a magical tool, and naturally, the price was steep.
“On the way back, I’ll be able to sweep up more Mana Stones.”
That wasn’t all—there were several other minor magical items as well.
Awkward for two people to use, but if sold, they’d fetch a decent sum.
The broken half of the Wooden Magic Staff that Emil had used, Anton’s Tracking Monocle, and things like that.
“While the team leader was resting, I roughed out some calculations on a calculator… we’re easily looking at over ten billion won, dropping the last couple of digits?”
“Seems about right.”
Kim Han-ryul laughed as he spoke.
“This is incredible! We’re actually rich now?”
“…….”
“What, why?”
“I was wondering if you’d ever get tired of it. You said you didn’t have much desire for money.”
“Still, it’s nice to have. It can be used for something.”
Kim Han-ryul chuckled softly.
Ju Do-gyeom regarded him quietly for a moment, then divided the items into two piles.
“Huh? What’s that? Our individual shares or something?”
“No. We’ll settle accounts when we return to Earth. The left side here is what we’ll abandon.”
“What a waste!”
“Can’t be helped.”
After this Young Lak-ryong hunt, his inventory had expanded considerably, but the same was true for the Yoris Party.
There were even several items that took up space.
To bring everything, they’d have to load it onto the Steel Cart again, which would be too conspicuous.
‘From here on, some visibility is unavoidable, I suppose.’
But excess was never good.
Kim Han-ryul gazed at the abandoned items with visible reluctance.
“Let go of the attachment. Just the items on the right easily surpass that hundred billion you mentioned.”
“Still… even those could fetch ten billion if sold……”
“Dead weight.”
“You’re ruthless.”
“Hmm…….”
Ju Do-gyeom let out a groan and ignored Kim Han-ryul’s words.
Then he began eagerly throwing items into his inventory.
The inventory space, expanded fivefold by the Initial Expansion, was roomy enough to accommodate a mountain of items, and just looking at it lifted his spirits.
Kim Han-ryul followed suit, organizing his own inventory with the items.
After gathering everything,
Ju Do-gyeom looked out at the profusion of green trees in the forest—now most of them dead—and spoke.
“Let’s head back.”
His physical condition wasn’t optimal, but he could move well enough, and he’d obtained everything this place had to offer.
There was no reason to delay the return any longer.
* * *
The Erosion Plains.
Cody, one of Marcus’s team members who had been hunting the surrounding monsters and rapidly collecting Mana Stones as usual, spoke.
“Team leader, I think we should start pulling back soon?”
The Mana Erosion Zone had crept closer.
For those unaware of the Purification Flower’s existence, it was a terrifying barrier.
That barrier had now grown impossibly narrow.
Now they had to move inward and find the portal to escape.
Marcus nodded.
“Right.”
They wouldn’t be able to enter again for another month.
The time needed for the Mana Erosion, which had come flooding in like the tide, to recede again and for the dungeon to be purified.
‘If only we could conquer all the way to the inner sanctum… but that’s impossible.’
The narrowed plains region.
The naturally increased Erosion Monsters were howling beyond the barrier.
As if they wanted to burst out and rampage at any moment.
‘……A chill ran down my spine.’
Marcus shook his head.
He reasoned that clinging to the impossible was foolishness.
So he opened his mouth instead.
“Everyone, move deeper in…….”
That was when it happened.
Something strange caught his eye.
From within the Mana Erosion Zone, drawing steadily closer.
A man and woman were speeding toward them on a motorcycle.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————