Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Part 1

‘Hmm...’

Leaving behind the sight of Baroden dying, Yugeon looked down at his heavy sword.

When he used One Sword of Heavenly Destruction, a sense of omnipotence, as though he could cut the world apart with a single sword, had dominated his entire body.

But once the skill ended, his whole body felt heavy.

Could it be called a reverse sense of disparity?

Even simply holding the sword felt far too heavy.

‘The reverse disparity is severe.’

Looking at his stats, his body was the same as it had been when he was an ordinary person.

He was in perfectly healthy condition, but it was the state his body had been in before awakening.

Because of that, the reverse disparity would naturally feel even more severe.

Swoosh.

Crack!

Clatter.

“Ah...”

Yugeon stared at the shattered sword.

He had tried to put the sword back into its sheath, only for it to fall apart into pieces.

‘It can’t withstand One Sword of Heavenly Destruction.’

Whoosh.

With a regretful expression, he tossed away the sword hilt.

He remembered buying that sword after making a major decision to spend the money.

Tap.

‘February 3, 2040... I really did regress.’

Yugeon took the phone out of his pocket, checked the date, and nodded.

Just as he had expected, he had regressed into the past.

‘How...?’

No, why?

Why?

Why had he regressed?

［You have achieved Godslaying with the body of a mortal.］

［With the body of a mortal, you have achieved the Martial God’s Divine Sword Unity.］

‘Is it because of this?’

Godslaying.

Had he regressed because he killed the god on the hundredth floor of the tower?

He had not even activated the Holy Grail...

‘More importantly, what happened to the god?’

If he had regressed, then what about the god?

Was it still dead?

Or had the god regressed as well?

‘I can’t know for now.’

Swoosh.

Yugeon let out a deep sigh and turned around at the presence he sensed behind him.

“?”

What he saw was a large crowd of people.

Hundreds of people who had been fleeing were staring at him.

“Y-You... who are you...?”

“How did you defeat a Fragment of the Abyss in a single blow...”

“Isn’t he one of the Colossi?”

“Why would a Colossus come into Area 1?”

“How would I know...”

The people hesitated as they stared at Yugeon and began murmuring among themselves.

And that was only natural, because defeating Baroden required an SSS-rank Awakened.

In other words, one of the ten Colossi who had reached level 100 would have to come.

‘They all want Baroden’s corpse.’

The same people who had been fleeing for their lives moments ago.

Now had greed filling their eyes.

‘Well, I can’t blame them for coveting Baroden’s corpse.’

It contained materials one would normally only be able to obtain in Area 9, from floors 81 through 90. How could they not desire it?

‘At this point in time, most Awakened haven’t even reached Area 6 yet.’

Aside from the Colossi who had reached level 100 and a handful of other high-level Awakened.

He remembered that most Awakened had been stuck on the notorious forty-fifth floor of Area 5.

‘Every time the area changes, the monsters become drastically stronger.’

Because of that, ordinary Awakened could not make it past the forty-fifth floor.

Even in Korea, there had been no Colossus, so they had been unable to get past the forty-fifth floor.

To Awakened like them, Baroden’s corpse was an irresistible prize.

“Raise your hand if a comrade or guild member of yours was killed by Baroden.”

Swoosh.

At Yugeon’s question, the people tilted their heads and began raising their hands one by one.

They did not know why he was telling them to raise their hands, but they could not ignore the words of someone strong enough to kill Baroden in a single strike.

“Starting with the people who just raised their hands, dismantle Baroden’s corpse and take everything except the mana stone.”

“?!!”

“!!”

The Awakened widened their eyes at his words.

Even if that person monopolized Baroden’s corpse, no one would have been able to complain.

In truth, not a single Awakened had even managed to damage Baroden, and all of them had been doing nothing but fleeing.

Yet he was telling them to divide it among themselves?!

“Nothing from Baroden should be discarded. So take every last by-product, no matter how small. And make sure you remember this.”

“?”

“?”

“It won’t be obvious right now, but Baroden is a corrupted being. If you use materials from something like that immediately, you’ll be swept away by madness. So make sure you ask a Priest to purify them before using any of the by-products. If you possess a purification skill yourself, it will only work once the skill has reached level 5 or higher. Make sure you remember that.”

Swoosh.

When Yugeon stepped aside slightly.

The people rushed forward in a swarm and began driving their swords into Baroden’s corpse.

“Thank you!”

“Thank you!! We will never forget this kindness!”

“I don’t know who you are... but thank you so much.”

The Awakened repeatedly bowed their heads toward Yugeon.

And after an hour had passed.

The enormous corpse of Baroden had disappeared completely.

‘That took longer than I thought.’

Even though it was already dead, the Awakened were still low-level, so dismantling Baroden’s corpse took quite a long time.

Even this had only been finished within an hour because more than a hundred people had worked on it together.

“Um... Lord Colossus? This...”

Swoosh.

The highest-level Awakened among those who had been dismantling the corpse held out the mana stone to Yugeon.

【Baroden’s Mana Stone】

Rank: Legendary

Type: Mana Stone

The mana stone of a Fragment of the Abyss that wanders the tower.

It contains an enormous amount of energy, and a pulse can be felt from it like a beating heart.

“Thanks.”

Yugeon nodded and put the mana stone into his bag.

Then he immediately turned around.

While the Awakened had been dismantling the corpse, he had organized his future plans in his head.

‘I returned to forty years ago.’

And he knew very well what would happen forty years in the future.

He had also learned the hidden truth.

Humanity and civilization.

Even the conditions for making a wish through the Holy Grail.

‘So this time...’

He would stop the destruction of the world no matter what.

____________

Area 1, Second Floor, Dark Drainage Pipe.

Splash. Splash.

A place without even a speck of light, filled only with a foul stench.

Yugeon moved forward while looking at his status window.

Strength: 10

Agility: 10

Stamina: 10

Feat: 2

Internal Energy: 0

Senses: 10

Technique: 10

Will: MAX

【Special Notes】

Will MAX due to 【No-Mind】.

Consumed Feats recover after 24 hours.

‘My internal energy is at 0...’

How long had it been since he had seen his internal energy at 0?

He had awakened at a relatively young age and learned martial arts.

The moment every Awakened awakened, they each received one unique innate ability of their own.

Afterward, they could add new abilities through skill books.

Abilities obtained that way were called secondary abilities.

The aura used by knights, the magic used by mages, and so on.

There were many different kinds of power, but at the time, martial arts had suited him best and had also been the cheapest.

‘That makes sense. Martial arts were a power that didn’t receive any damage correction.’

Because of that, martial arts had been the least popular, and their skill books had also been the cheapest.

But for him, who had no money at the time, they had been the most suitable choice.

Step. Step.

While walking and checking the condition of his body, Yugeon unfolded a map and determined his location.

‘There’s a Mythic-rank item to obtain here.’

It was an item Russian Awakened would discover approximately fourteen years later.

Squeak.

Screech.

Slash.

Yugeon cut down the sewer rats charging at him and continued forward.

He had no internal energy, no martial arts, and even his body was that of an ordinary person.

‘But I haven’t lost my memories.’

Ding-!

[Accumulated growth has been reflected in your attributes.]

Strength　　　+1

Agility　　　+1

Senses　　　+1

‘My stats are steadily increasing.’

Watching his stats rise once again, Yugeon gave a faint smile.

Stats did not increase merely because one’s level rose.

The more one trained.

The more one fought.

The more one used the body and honed the senses.

Once the growth accumulated through that process exceeded a certain threshold, it was reflected in one’s attributes.

Of course, stats did not decide everything.

Did having lower stats and a lower level mean you would lose and die?

No.

Even if an Awakened was level 10 and a monster was level 20.

A real battle could unfold differently.

‘Stats are merely values quantified by the system.’

In truth, Yugeon did not think very highly of those numbers.

That was because, in the world before his regression, those numbers had caused quite a number of people to lose their lives.

‘Even though they were fully capable of hunting something, simply because their own numbers were lower...’

Or simply because their opponent’s level was higher than their own.

There had been countless cases where people became frightened before even putting up a proper fight and died pointlessly.

‘Of course, if the gap is too large, there’s no helping it.’

If the difference in level was extreme, recklessly charging in while shouting, ‘Those are just numbers!’ would send you straight to the afterlife.

____________

‘I think I’m almost there...’

The second floor was intricately tangled like a maze.

“Here it is.”

A three-way intersection where sewage drained down into the ground.

Swoosh.

Having reached his destination, Yugeon took Baroden’s mana stone out of his bag.

‘The way this place was discovered was ridiculous too.’

Russian Awakened had entered this place together to train new recruits who had joined their guild.

And because it was darker than they had expected, the Awakened in charge of the training took out an S-rank mana stone.

‘They activated it and used it like a flashlight to illuminate the surroundings while moving.’

To be precise, the Awakened instructor could see even without a flashlight, but the new recruits had apparently struggled to see ahead.

‘Then, the moment they arrived at this three-way intersection...’

Hummm.

Rrrrrumble!

“They said it reacted to the activated mana stone, and a hidden space appeared just like this.”

Swoosh.

As the sealed wall rose upward and revealed a new area.

Yugeon deactivated the mana stone and entered the space.

“A musty smell...”

And a thick layer of dust whose age was impossible to estimate.

But Yugeon could not take his eyes off the item lying in the corner.