The Regressed Martial God Monopolizes Everything - Chapter 22

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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 22. Clues (3)
At the appointed hour, the Hanul Guild’s raid party, including Jeong Hyun-soo, entered through the Gate.
Flash!
As the brilliant veil that had shrouded their vision lifted, medieval European fortifications materialized before them.
[You have entered Koeln Gorge, the fortress of Count Durrait, guardian of the Akirana Kingdom’s border.]
[Protect the gorge from the Ogre Kingdom’s invasion of the homeland!]
It was a Mission-type Gate that issued objectives.
‘A Defense Game?’
Just as there were conventional conquest-type Gates like the Palbongsan Gate he’d entered before, there were also Gates that issued mission-based Defense Games like this one.
Defending a fortress against the Greenskin clan was, in a sense, a clichéd element of fantasy worldbuilding.
And there were two ways to clear it.
One was to faithfully execute the standard strategy and complete the Defense Game.
‘The other was to repel the invading forces in reverse.’
Naturally, the reward for the latter approach was far superior.
Jeong Hyun-soo knew this from firsthand experience.
“You worthless bastards! What are you doing standing around like idiots?!”
Toward the raid party led by Jeong Hyun-soo came a brown-haired Westerner clad in Leather Armor.
A distinctive stench wafted forward—a pungent mixture of unwashed filth and blood.
The man, reeking of a battlefield ground deep into weariness by prolonged warfare, kicked aside a wooden chair beside him as he spoke.
“Why aren’t you climbing the walls this instant? Even in a crisis, there’s a limit! What in the name of—why would headquarters send raw recruits like this down here?”
“What can you do? Central command is too busy squabbling over their own territories to care about this place. Listen, recruits! You lot go over there! I don’t ask for much—just hold your position! One moment!”
Another man, his tone more yielding than the sharp-tongued brown-haired one, suddenly tilted his head.
“Wait—are you perhaps mages?”
The commander directed the question at Im Hyun-min.
“…Yes, we are.”
The commander’s expression brightened at once.
“By the gods! There is mercy left in this world! And the rest of your company?”
“All trained battle mages.”
A cheer erupted from those around them.
“Mages! We’re saved!”
“We’re grateful to have you, mages!”
It was the moment when the Gate’s unique property manifested.
This strange, anomalous quality lay in how the Gate absorbed and reflected the perception of those who entered it, calibrated to their abilities.
It was a moment when the standing mages commanded was laid bare.
Especially in group combat like this, few forces could match the destructive power unleashed by mages hurling area-effect spells.
“Please come this way. I am James, a knight in service to Count Durrait. Haha! His Excellency the Border Count would be most pleased to hear of this. Blessed Nueqela! We are in your debt!”
It was just as the delighted knight James was about to guide them forward.
“Ah.”
Im Hyun-min, the raid leader, paused mid-step.
“Hmm? Is there some difficulty, sir?”
“Nothing to call a problem, really—but I should clarify. Among those here, this person.”
His finger pointed to Jeong Hyun-soo.
“This one is not a mage.”
“Ah, I could tell at a glance. Surely he’s an escort knight, here to protect the mage unit?”
“Something like that.”
James regarded Jeong Hyun-soo carefully.
“A considerable force emanates from him. He is plainly no ordinary asset. If he were to unleash his full strength on the battlefield, it would be most welcome. Even Nueqela might look kindly upon it, I should think. What is your assessment, my friend?”
[Knight James of Count Durrait requests that you take a lead role on the front lines.]
[Do you accept?]
A transparent ploy, nothing more.
By the System’s terms, a handsome reward seemed to await, but Jeong Hyun-soo, already resolved to repel the invading army through his own methods, had no intention of binding himself with such shackles.
“Refused.”
James’s expression turned sour.
“Hmph! A man with no knight’s honor, it seems. So you’ll languish in the rear, protecting the mages?”
“The mage unit is critical to our forces. If close combat becomes necessary, a knight’s protection would be needed.”
“My knightly code recognizes no rear guard!”
Even as James’s voice dripped with reproach and the Hanul mages exchanged knowing glances, Jeong Hyun-soo betrayed no reaction whatsoever.
‘Akirana Kingdom… I’ve definitely read records of it in the 5th Floor Library.’
The tome describing the Orc Warlord he was now pursuing was none other than the Chronicles of Akirana Kingdom.
And Akirana Kingdom is a fallen world. The 5th Floor Library holds fragments of the apocalypse of worlds the Tower itself has destroyed.
Though I wouldn’t call it the most crucial record—rather, it was treated as a crude Easter egg, with clues scattered beforehand and traps laid to keep Hunters from talking nonsense afterward.
‘And whoever picks it up owns it.’
This is a ruined world.
And the battlefield deployed there would inevitably arrive at one outcome.
‘Defeat.’
That’s why the Tower created Gates and scattered them across the world. I’d heard that most Gates work this way.
To gather fragments of a dead world, reshape them to their liking, and place them on the testing ground.
I don’t know what purpose this serves,
but Jeong Hyun-soo, knowing the predetermined ending, was well aware of just how extraordinary the rewards were for defying that very ending.
Ignoring the sharp gazes around him, Jeong Hyun-soo followed James.
“This is it. This area originally belonged to the mages.”
“…originally?”
“They couldn’t withstand the Mana Overload from endless combat.”
The atmosphere grew reverent.
The Hanul mages observed a moment of silence, as if honoring those who had fallen while fulfilling their duties as mages until their final breath.
Of course, only Jeong Hyun-soo stood vacant-eyed, staring across to the other side.
Ji Min-jeong looked at him and asked.
“Why’d you want to come here anyway?”
“Personal Quest.”
A response that left her with nothing to say. Standing there without even sparing a glance in Ji Min-jeong’s direction, Jeong Hyun-soo struck her as strangely different—his usual self seemed to have vanished entirely.
The desperate, often absurd antics he’d once performed to grab her attention whenever he stood before her had evaporated, leaving only an endless cynicism in their wake.
The same age as her, crawling on the floor in his cradle, yet now writing Hunter history with every move.
That scene from his debut, when he’d crushed and killed Ling Wei-hao—it remained vividly etched in her mind.
Because she’d clashed hands with him directly and felt his true strength, Ji Min-jeong found it harder to believe how far he’d come.
“How did you get so strong all of a sudden?”
“Luck. And I focused purely on getting stronger, abandoning everything else that didn’t matter.”
“…you don’t have to lie to me, you know.”
“Fine, I won’t.”
Why did his speech sound so stiff, as if he were twice her age?
Ji Min-jeong fixed him with a discontented stare.
“They’re coming. Get ready.”
“…what?”
“Like proper Greenskins, they’ll start with goblins and other foot soldiers as meat shields, drawing us into a war of attrition. There’s no need to waste your mental focus and mana on spells against them.”
“…?”
“From what I can tell, you’ve got decent concentration and instincts—might be a good time to practice precision targeting.”
Just then, Ji Min-jeong furrowed her brow at what he was saying.
Boom-boom! Boom-boom! Boom-boom!
The sound of a drum—grand yet ominous—thundered out.
“Damn those ogres. Here they come again. All hands! Battle stations!”
The commanders climbed onto the ramparts.
“Recruits! Over here! Follow me. I am Rohan, knight of His Excellency Durrait, the Border Earl!”
Under Knight Rohan’s guidance, the raid party entered the designated defense sector.
The stench was overwhelming.
Corpses piled high upon the ramparts, and below them lay even more.
Endless combat had left corpses rotting in ever-growing heaps, filling the air with reek.
“…so many of them.”
The soldiers’ faces held no hope whatsoever—only dead eyes gripping spears.
“Soldiers of Durrait! Heroes defending the kingdom! Hear me! If we fall today, your families will bear the full weight of the price. Remember that alone. Will you watch your wives and sisters violated by those ogres? Will you see your children trampled and torn apart? Endure it for their sake. Defend them. Defend them even in death. As our fathers did! As our elder brothers have!”
With a knight’s voice amplified by mana, came the commander’s order.
“Archers! Draw!
At the same moment, Im Hyun-min of the Hanul Guild activated the Eagle Eye technique.
Simultaneously, he analyzed the forces rushing toward them from the opposite side.
“Goblins are charging the front. Magic unit, deploy the Mana Mines we brought instead of casting spells—boost the morale of these soldiers.”
To Jeong Hyun-soo’s ear, it was sound judgment.
If they did nothing and twiddled their thumbs, the battlefield would grow chaotic; instead, without wasting direct effort, they’d make an impact by deploying Mana Mines—the corporation’s capital—to create momentum.
Ratatatat!
Goblins poured down from beyond the mountain range like a river swollen by flood, and in moments they’d swarmed to the base of the wall.
It was at the point when the goblins clustered together, creating a bottleneck.
Boom! Bang! Kaboom!
Mana Mines erupted in quick succession.
A pillar of flame shot up from the ground like molten lava erupting from the earth’s depths, swallowing the goblins in an instant.
Crackle-crack!
Nor was that all—the moment the embers touched a goblin, they ignited again, consuming everything in their path.
Whoosh! Crackling-whoosh!
The inferno spread. As the tide of goblins was driven back, all of them engulfed in flame, screams of agony echoed from every corner, and above that chorus of death rose a roar of triumph.
“Waaaaa!”
The overwhelming firepower displayed by the mage kindled a spark in the soldiers’ eyes for the first time—a glimmer of hope.
No honeyed words from the knights, no stirring speech for morale could match the raw, tangible strength that the mage’s support had forged.
“Die, you wretched goblins!”
From their advantageous position atop the walls, the soldiers thrust their spears through the burning goblins as they clawed upward.
Swords flashed. Shields came down in crushing blows.
The Mana Mines and the chain-fire they carried created a momentum that tilted the battle overwhelmingly in their favor.
If things continued this way, clearing the wave would be almost effortless.
Boom! Boom-boom!
The Hanul Guild mages, positioned behind the line, lobbed simple explosive spells at the goblin archers in the distance,
and the siege was proceeding without a single worry about incoming arrows—when
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
the forest on the far side began to move.
The woods themselves seemed to heave and sway as an enormous hand reached out from within.
Crack!
The hand seized a goblin from the rear ranks.
Shriek! Shriek-shriek!
As the goblin thrashed wildly, another massive green creature beside it wrenched the upper body away.
Splurt!
The torso and legs separated, entrails spilled forth, and green blood cascaded like a waterfall.
The creatures that had stuffed the torn goblin into their mouths and chewed it bore massive weapons across their shoulders—weapons that dwarfed any forged for human hands—and began their march toward the wall.
“Ogres…!”
Each one a monster whose individual strength rivaled that of a knight.
The sight of these ogres advancing as a unified force froze every defender in place.
To be continued ▶
The Sole Heir: A Regression Warrior’s Chronicle
Author
Cheon Ya
Publishers
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Inquiries: [email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260515012
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law and may not be reprinted or reproduced without permission.
Violation may result in criminal or civil liability.
※ Pentagram is always seeking submissions from writers.

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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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