‘Hmm….’
Leaving the sight of Baroden’s death behind him, Yugeon looked down at the heavy sword in his hand.
When he had unleashed One Sword to Annihilate Heaven, a sense of omnipotence had filled his entire body, as though he could cut the world itself apart with a single sword.
But now that the Skill had ended, his entire body felt heavy.
Was it the sheer contrast?
Even simply holding the sword felt far too heavy.
‘The difference is brutal.’
Looking at his stats, his physical body had returned to what it had been when he was an ordinary person.
He was in perfectly healthy condition, but it was still the body he had possessed before Awakening.
Naturally, that made the contrast feel even more severe.
SLIDE.
CRACK!
CLATTER.
“Ah….”
Yugeon stared at the shattered sword.
He had tried to put it back into its sheath, only for it to break into pieces.
‘It couldn’t withstand One Sword to Annihilate Heaven.’
WHOOSH.
With a regretful expression, he tossed away the sword’s hilt.
He remembered buying that sword after finally making up his mind to spend the money on it.
TAP.
‘February 3rd, 2040…. I really did regress.’
Yugeon took the phone from his pocket, checked the date, and nodded.
Just as he had suspected, he had returned to the past.
‘How…?’
No.
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.]
‘Was it because of this?’
Godslaying.
Had killing the god on the 100th floor of the Tower caused his regression?
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.’
Yugeon let out a deep sigh and turned around when he sensed people behind him.
“?”
Countless people came into view.
Hundreds of those who had been fleeing were now staring at him.
“W-Who… are you…?”
“How did you kill a Fragment of the Abyss in one blow…?”
“Isn’t he a Great Star?”
“Why would a Great Star enter Area 1?”
“How would I know…?”
The people hesitated as they stared at Yugeon and began murmuring among themselves.
And understandably so.
To defeat Baroden, they would need an SSS-Rank Awakened.
In other words, one of the ten level-100 Great Stars.
‘They all want Baroden’s corpse.’
Only moments ago, they had been fleeing because they did not want to die.
Now, greed had begun gleaming in their eyes.
‘Well, it makes sense that they’d covet Baroden’s corpse.’
Its materials were the sort one could normally only obtain in Area 9, on Floors 81 through 90.
How could they not desire them?
‘At this point, most Awakened haven’t even reached Area 6 yet.’
Aside from the Great Stars who had reached Level 100 and a small number of other high-level Awakened.
As Yugeon recalled, most Awakened were stuck on Floor 45 of Area 5, the notorious bottleneck.
‘The monsters become drastically stronger every time you enter a new Area.’
Because of that, ordinary Awakened could rarely make it past Floor 45.
Even Korea had been unable to clear Floor 45 because it did not have a Great Star.
For Awakened like them, Baroden’s corpse was an irresistible prize.
“Raise your hand if Baroden killed one of your comrades or guild members.”
RUSTLE.
At Yugeon’s question, the people tilted their heads before slowly beginning to raise their hands one by one.
They did not know why he was asking them to do so, but they could hardly ignore the words of someone powerful enough to kill Baroden with a single strike.
“Those of you with your hands raised get priority. Dismantle Baroden’s corpse and take everything except the Mana Stone.”
“?!!”
“!!”
The Awakened’s eyes widened at his words.
Even if this man claimed Baroden’s entire corpse for himself, no one would have had any right to object.
Not a single Awakened there had actually damaged Baroden.
They had all been fleeing from it.
And yet he was telling them to divide it among themselves?!
“Nothing on Baroden goes to waste. So take every last byproduct, no matter how small. And make sure you remember this.”
“?”
“?”
“You won’t notice anything immediately, but Baroden is a corrupted being. If you use materials taken from something like that without treating them first, you’ll be consumed by Madness. So make sure you ask a Priest to Purify the materials before using them. If you have a Purification Skill yourself, it’ll only work once the Skill reaches Level 5 or higher. Don’t forget that.”
Yugeon stepped slightly aside.
The people immediately swarmed Baroden’s corpse and began driving their swords into it.
“Thank you!”
“Thank you!! I’ll never forget this kindness!”
“I don’t know who you are… but thank you so much.”
The Awakened repeatedly bowed their heads toward Yugeon.
An hour passed.
By then, Baroden’s enormous corpse had disappeared without a trace.
‘That took longer than I expected.’
Even though it was already dead, the Awakened here were still low-level, so dismantling Baroden’s corpse had taken them quite some time.
The only reason they had managed to finish within an hour was because more than a hundred people had joined in.
“Um… Great Star? This….”
The highest-level Awakened among those who had been dismantling the corpse held out a Mana Stone to Yugeon.
【Baroden’s Mana Stone】
Grade: Legendary
Type: Mana Stone
The Mana Stone of a Fragment of the Abyss that wanders the Tower.
It contains tremendous energy, and a pulse like a beating heart can be felt from within.
“Thanks.”
Yugeon nodded and placed the Mana Stone into his bag.
Then he immediately turned away.
While the Awakened had been dismantling the corpse, he had spent the time organizing his thoughts about what he needed to do from now on.
‘I’ve returned forty years into the past.’
And he knew exactly what would happen forty years from now.
He had also learned the hidden truth.
Humanity and civilization.
Even the conditions required to make a wish through the Holy Grail.
‘So this time….’
He would stop the destruction of the world at all costs.
Area 1, Floor 2.
A dark drainage tunnel.
SPLASH. SPLASH.
There was not a single speck of light in the space, only a foul stench filling the air.
Yugeon continued forward while looking at his status window.
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Constitution: 10
Feat: 2
Inner Arts: 0
Senses: 10
Technique: 10
Will: MAX
【Special Notes】
Will is MAX due to 【No-Mind】.
‘Zero Inner Arts….’
How long had it been since he had seen his Inner Arts at zero?
He had Awakened at a relatively young age and learned martial arts.
The moment every Awakened underwent Awakening, they obtained one Unique Ability of their own.
Afterward, they could acquire new abilities through Skill Books.
Abilities obtained in that manner were called Additional Abilities.
There were many kinds of powers, including the Aura used by Knights and the magic wielded by Mages.
But back then, martial arts had been both the cheapest option and the one best suited to him.
‘That was because martial arts didn’t receive any power amplification.’
Because of that, martial arts had been the least popular form of power, and their Skill Books had also been the cheapest.
But for Yugeon, who had had no money at the time, they had been the most suitable choice.
STEP. STEP.
Yugeon continued walking while checking the condition of his body, then unfolded a map and determined his position.
‘There’s a Mythic-Grade item I can obtain here.’
It was an item Russian Awakened would discover roughly fourteen years later.
SQUEAK.
SKREEE!
SLASH.
Yugeon cut down the sewer rats that charged at him and continued forward.
He had no Inner Arts.
He had no martial arts.
Even his body was no stronger than an ordinary person’s.
‘But I didn’t lose my memories.’
DING—!
[Accumulated growth has been reflected in your stats.]
Strength +1
Agility +1
Senses +1
‘My stats are rising steadily.’
Yugeon gave a faint smile as he watched his stats increase once again.
Stats did not rise simply because one’s level increased.
The more one trained.
The more one fought.
The more one used their body and honed their senses.
Once the growth accumulated through that process surpassed a certain threshold, it would be reflected in their stats.
Of course, stats did not determine everything.
Did having lower stats and a lower level mean one would inevitably lose and die?
No.
Even if an Awakened was Level 10 and a monster was Level 20, an actual battle could unfold very differently.
‘Stats are merely numbers the System assigns to quantify your abilities.’
In truth, Yugeon had never thought very highly of those numbers.
After all, in the world before his regression, quite a few people had lost their lives because of them.
‘Even when they were perfectly capable of hunting something, they’d see that their numbers were lower….’
Or that the opponent’s level was higher than theirs.
Many people became frightened before even putting up a proper fight and died pointless deaths.
‘Of course, if the gap is too wide, there’s nothing you can do.’
If the level difference was enormous and someone recklessly charged in shouting, ‘They’re just numbers!’ they would go straight to the afterlife.
‘I think I’m almost there….’
Floor 2 was tangled together like a maze.
“Here it is.”
A three-way junction where sewage drained away.
Yugeon reached his destination and took Baroden’s Mana Stone from his bag.
‘The way they discovered this place was pretty ridiculous too.’
A group of Russian Awakened had entered this place together to train new recruits who had just joined their guild.
It had been darker than they expected, so the Awakened in charge of their training had taken out an S-Grade Mana Stone.
‘They activated it and used it like a flashlight while moving around.’
More precisely, the Awakened instructor could see without a flashlight, but the new recruits had apparently been struggling to see ahead.
‘And then, the moment they reached this three-way junction….’
HMMMM.
GRRRRRRIND!
“They said it reacted to the activated Mana Stone, and a hidden space appeared just like this.”
The blocked wall rose upward, revealing a new area.
Yugeon deactivated the Mana Stone and entered the newly revealed space.
“What a musty smell….”
Thick dust filled the space, so old that there was no telling how long it had been accumulating.
But Yugeon could not take his eyes off the item resting in the corner.