The Regressor Plays the Game Too Well - Chapter 87

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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 87
Episode 87
More than half of the Garn Territory was Mine Field.
In other words, the Rocky Mountains were overflowing everywhere.
Jin-woo consulted a map and ventured deep into one of the mountain ridges.
The mountain range stretched so far that I wondered how much deeper I needed to go.
Well, it had to be this remote for just anyone to find it.
After all, I had never heard of anyone obtaining a Legendary item in the Garn Territory.
Before my regression, Viscount Tailun must have claimed it for himself.
What on earth could be hidden here?
A Legendary item—the kind that noble families pass down through generations as heirlooms.
In fact, most noble families couldn’t even possess such a precious item.
You’d need to be at least a Marquis or Duke to have one.
The fact that Countess Amelia possessed it spoke volumes about how ancient and prestigious her family lineage was.
‘Getting that as a reward is absolutely incredible.’
And the effect itself is incredible too.
You can return to a designated location.
More importantly, you can designate more than just one location.
Up to three places.
That meant I could reduce the risk of constantly traveling back and forth with the Demonic Sword on its weekly cooldown.
Even this alone was worth something.
It should be appearing soon.
It took at least five hours to get here.
At first, I tried surveying from the sky using Teleport, but the fog was too thick, so I had to retreat.
Fog in the sky, of all things.
And it covered a vast area.
‘It was ominous.’
Beautiful scenery, but it interfered with Teleport.
So I had no choice but to come in on foot and search like this.
As a result, five hours had elapsed.
The journey had been arduous, but it was finally drawing to a close.
A massive cave entrance appeared in the distance.
The mouth of the cave was at least thirty meters in diameter.
Anyone could sense that this was no ordinary place.
Yes, this had to be it.
Jin-woo grinned at the sight.
A cave like this was where legends were born.
‘Should I take a look?’
I checked to see if there was a guardian protecting the entrance.
As expected, there wasn’t.
Brewnack was special because of its circumstances.
Ruin was guarding inside, so there were no regular monsters.
This dungeon appears to be a normal one.
What in the world could be here?
Jin-woo chuckled at the thought and headed toward the dungeon entrance.
Then a message appeared.
[You have discovered the Hidden Dungeon ‘Abandoned Dragon’s Nest’!]
[As a first-time discovery reward, experience and drop rates increase threefold upon clearing.]
[Hidden Collector effect increases clearing rewards.]
[Dungeon Hunter effect grants stat acquisition upon clearing.]
[Lone Wolf effect increases rewards when cleared solo.]
*Warning*
-Recommended difficulty: Level 150 or higher, party of 5 or more.
-Level and party size are significantly insufficient.
What did you say?
What exactly did I just read?
Jin-woo blinked in confusion and read the message again.
No, it’s still the same?
This… this doesn’t make sense.
A dragon’s nest?
Why is this appearing already?
I read it again, unable to comprehend.
Why make such a fuss over a dragon’s nest?
Of course there’s reason to make a fuss!
It’s a dragon lair, after all!
A dragon lair—known to contain all manner of treasure.
Dragon raids had occurred in the past, but most failed.
Even successful ones only involved raids on young dragons.
‘And even then, they were dragons without lairs.’
The romance surrounding a dragon lair is immense.
The bounty placed on a dragon lair alone is astronomical.
Of course, who would sell it?
It’s far more profitable to monopolize and sell it yourself—why accept some measly bounty?
Exactly.
A dragon’s nest, no less.
Could it be?
‘Now that I think about it, the ring I received as a reward was called the Guardian Dragon’s Ring.’
Could this be the lair of that guardian dragon?
The fact that it’s abandoned now means…
The dragon is gone, but the lair remains, doesn’t it?
Either the dragon had died of natural causes, or it had abandoned this place and moved elsewhere.
Jin-woo desperately hoped it was the former.
If so, the treasures would still be here, untouched.
In that case, a single Legendary item wouldn’t be the issue.
There could be ten or more of them!
‘Please.’
Jin-woo closed his eyes with that thought.
The Abandoned Dragon’s Nest.
By common sense, the difficulty had to be formidable.
Why?
Abandoned or not, a dragon lair is still a dragon lair.
Would greedy dragons not have stationed guards in their own home?
Of course they would.
But since it’s abandoned, they’d be weaker than in an active lair.
However.
The difficulty would still be extremely high.
Look at it this way.
Doesn’t it require a party of five or more with levels above 150?
If the difficulty is that high, it means it would be quite challenging for me right now.
Of course, I’ve already had that kind of experience before.
‘I cleared Brewnack, after all…’
Jin-woo thought that, but still suspected it wouldn’t be easy.
Should I come back after my second job change?
For a moment, that thought crossed my mind.
But something told me I shouldn’t back down now.
There was no way someone else would come here and take the treasure.
Even I had difficulty finding this place with the map—how could anyone get here without one?
That made no sense.
‘Right, better to regret trying than regret not trying.’
Had I ever deliberated this deeply before?
Trust in my own strength and push forward—that’s all there is to it!
With that resolve, Jin-woo entered the dungeon.
Praying that I could see it through.
* * *
At the moment Jin-woo entered the dungeon.
Lee Yeon was having an exceptionally busy time.
Busy enough to worry the Secretary.
“Developer, shouldn’t you rest while working?”
“Sigh, if I rest, I won’t be able to set up the event schedule, the Saint’s Awakening, or the settings in time.”
Still, there was a reason she couldn’t afford to rest.
None other than Jin-woo was the reason.
It made my teeth grit, but what could I do?
Still, I’d forced myself to plan this event just to land one blow on him.
If things have come to this, then let him suffer public humiliation!
Lee Yeon thought this while giggling and throwing herself into her work with renewed vigor.
Watching her like this, the Secretary tilted her head in confusion.
If she was this busy, she wouldn’t be able to monitor Jin-woo.
She hadn’t checked on him since yesterday, had she?
“Shouldn’t you still be monitoring the Jin-woo user? You even obtained a map to the Abandoned Dragon’s Nest?”
At the Secretary’s words, Lee Yeon’s teeth ground together audibly.
Honestly, what was the point of extorting that map from Viscount Tailun back then?
I wish we’d never obtained it.
But what could I do about something already acquired?
It was better to just accept that it was already in the past.
Lee Yeon spoke with that thought in mind.
“No, since it’s already a thing of the past anyway, it’s no different from the Jin-woo user obtaining it.”
“If he goes there now and gets it, wouldn’t the second job change become too easy?”
“Huh? Well, I suppose so, but a dungeon that requires a party of five at level 150 or higher just to barely clear it… and he’d do it alone?”
“Wouldn’t the Jin-woo user naturally succeed, given his track record?”
Hearing the Secretary’s point, Lee Yeon had to admit she was right.
Lee Yeon calculated briefly in her head, then shook her head.
“I’m going to assume he clears it immediately anyway.”
“Hmm, so you’ve given up?”
“Yeah. He’s already an overpowered user! The second job change will be a breeze for him. But winning the event tournament? That’s absolutely impossible! Do you know how hard I’m working?! That absolutely cannot happen!”
Lee Yeon said this while giggling.
She was saying there was no need to monitor Jin-woo anymore.
“Still, won’t the boss be strong?”
“Hmm, the boss is certainly powerful, that’s true.”
“Unless he obtains some strange skill somewhere else, I really hope he dies just once here. I really do.”
“You really wish for that?”
“Yeah, well, I’ve set up an alarm to go off if the Jin-woo user dies anyway, so there’s no need to watch. Since his control skills won’t improve anyway, I’ll just watch and laugh during the tournament!”
Lee Yeon worked while laughing excitedly like this.
She really seemed to be counting down the days until that moment.
To the point of abandoning monitoring immediately.
Though in truth, she couldn’t watch because she was too busy.
Still, it was quite unexpected that she wasn’t watching Jin-woo.
The Secretary nodded as well.
Where would a sudden, dramatic improvement in control skills come from?
Besides, they both knew well what was inside the Abandoned Dragon’s Nest.
* * *
Jin-woo was considerably bewildered after entering the dungeon.
He couldn’t comprehend what was happening at all.
Why, you ask?
Because it was too difficult?
No, that wasn’t it.
‘What, what is this so easy?’
It was quite the opposite.
It was far too easy.
Absurdly, impossibly easy.
No, objectively speaking, it was quite difficult.
Even a party of five or more at the recommended level of 150 or higher would have struggled considerably.
Yet Jin-woo watched the humanoid golem rushing toward him.
A grotesquely shaped golem with a sleek frame and long, powerful arms that struck with considerable ferocity.
If it was a Dragon Rare monster, then it was indeed a golem.
Jin-woo observed the thin, elongated arms attacking him.
‘Huh.’
Was its power weak?
No, it was the opposite.
It was powerful.
Look at this.
When he dodged the creature’s fist, it struck the wall, and an entire section of it crumbled to dust.
Not only that, but the surrounding walls were covered in countless cracks.
Crash! Crackle crackle crackle.
Just how much force was packed into that frail-looking fist?
Power so tremendous it defied imagination.
Yet Jin-woo evaded it with such ease, his expression bewildered as he watched.
‘This is insane, really.’
When he first faced Rock Lizardman, he’d only thought his control had become considerably smoother.
But that wasn’t it.
He could now utilize his body’s strength not at 100%, but at 120%, even 150%.
For example, previously when throwing a punch, he’d only used the power of his fist, but now it felt like he was channeling his entire body’s musculature into each strike.
Naturally, the latter was far more powerful.
Every movement was like this.
It felt as though every muscle in his body eagerly assisted his intentions.
‘What is this sensation?’
Even now, watching the creature charge at him, he thought its movements were painfully slow.
It wasn’t that his dynamic vision had improved.
Simply because he could move faster than the creature’s movements allowed.
That’s why it appeared sluggish.
Jin-woo watched the creature’s fist approach inches from his face and smoothly twisted his body to evade.
First the legs, then the thighs, the waist, the chest, and finally the shoulders and neck.
I twisted every muscle in my body, turning my entire frame to evade the fist that flew inches from my face.
But that wasn’t all.
Using the rotational force, I brought my blade down hard against the creature’s arm.
The sword descended with the full power of my spinning body.
The Demon Sword Gram severed the creature’s arm with terrifying speed.
Slice—crack. Thud.
I stared at the severed limb with a bewildered expression.
In the Pantheon, dismemberment typically requires a single strike dealing over 20% of the target’s health, or depleting that much of their vitality beforehand.
Or you need to reduce their health by that amount.
Yet here I was, without buffs, without Berserk mode, without borrowing the power of any skill—using only my raw stats to sever the creature’s arm.
How was this even possible?
After accomplishing the impossible, I burst into hearty laughter.
“Ahahaha!”
Screech, screech screech.
Seeing the golem charge at me again as I laughed so boldly, I moved once more and wielded my blade.
I easily parried its attack and, using the force of the block, spun around again to sever its neck.
This time, with Berserk activated.
Then.
Slice. Thud.
Watching the head fall so anticlimactically, I spoke.
“I’m pretty incredible, aren’t I?”

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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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