I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 9

Episode 9

Magos was no ordinary monster.

True to his reputation, he would later appear during the Shindorim Station Catastrophe in ten years.

But this was 2020, a decade prior.

Even though he wasn’t fully grown, Magos’s power, as I felt during our initial skirmish, was at least B+ rank.

Normally, even five B-rank Awakened individuals would have difficulty taking him down.

Of course, the possibility of someone dying in the process would be very high.

Since I was hunting alone without any assistance, I fought with all my might from the start.

My goal was to obtain the dimension stones he would drop and the ‘Flower,’ a special item that granted unique talents!

“Do you really think such an insignificant creature can kill Magos?”

Magos’s words, which I wouldn’t have been able to hear before, were now clearly audible.

The language Magos used was that of the Nas Continent.

One of the Nine Lords’ companions was from the Nas Continent, so I had the opportunity to learn their language.

A new world that Awakened individuals would later call the Nas Continent, or the ‘Pan Continent.’

The connection with them would be established in 2025, still five years away.

“Just die quietly, you lizard bastard!”

Paang! Paang!

Dodging Magos’s tail that slashed wildly beside me, I leaped with all my strength onto his back.

Magos closely resembled an alligator. Perhaps an exceptionally agile alligator would be a fitting comparison.

His main attack patterns were biting and tail-whipping, and getting hit by his tail meant instant death.

That seemingly insignificant tail-whip had the force of being crushed by a large truck.

“…Nas language?”

Magos, taken aback, rolled his eyes.

He seemed surprised and bewildered by the sudden linguistic communication.

Ignoring his reaction, I focused on the relatively weaker nape [the back of the neck], a flexible area depending on its use, and bit down with all my might!

Wadeuk!

My mutated teeth, capable of chewing through steel, made tearing through Magos’s hide and sinking my incisors and canines inside not too difficult.

“Kkeuaaaaa!”

Magos shrieked.

Unable to strike me with his short legs, he began to coil his tail tightly.

He was probably planning to stab or push me off with the sharp end of his tail.

‘Paralysis-inducing venomous stinger.’

Using my mana, I released venomous stingers, altered from my venom glands, directly into Magos’s wound.

Creating a hole with my teeth and injecting the venom there was like having a highway for entry.

“Keokeok, keok.”

Magos started making hoarse noises, sensing the paralysis spreading from his neck.

I injected plenty of venom.

Large monsters like this could withstand a weak injection with their inherent resistance.

It was the same principle as increasing the anesthetic dose when anesthetizing large animals.

Paat!

With a time lag, Magos’s tail swept past where my head had been.

It was a predictable attack pattern, so I easily avoided it, and his tail only slashed through empty air.

‘An attack on a vulnerable area that ordinary Awakened individuals couldn’t even attempt, or would fail even if they tried…’

I thought, looking at Magos’s nape.

How much effort did many Awakened individuals put into finding Magos’s weakness during the Shindorim battle in my past life?

Everyone thought that the unprotected belly would be the weakest point, and they tried to infiltrate under him.

The result was being crushed to death.

Awakened individuals were crushed and killed under the pressure and crushing force, as if an apartment building had collapsed.

Even top-ranked Awakened individuals, A-rank and S-rank, died like falling dominoes.

But later, after successfully hunting and researching Magos, everyone learned the truth.

Magos’s greatest weakness was the back of his neck, where multiple nerve bundles and the starting point of mana amplification were located.

The area that seemed untouchable due to the armored hide was actually the weakest point.

‘A one-point focused attack works well against monsters like Magos. Especially lizard and crocodile-type monsters.’

In my past life, I had hunted so many B+ rank monsters like the current Magos that I couldn’t even count them.

For me, the question wasn’t whether I could catch him, but how I would catch him.

If I dragged out the time unnecessarily, KSA [Korean Special Ability association] agents might arrive at the scene and enter the area.

Then they might discover the special space by following my remaining traces. I didn’t want that.

I didn’t want to share my honey pot with others for no reason!

‘Then!’

Taat!

I leaped up again and landed on Magos’s nape once more.

“Keuap! Damn it! Son of a bitch! Eua!”

I was right in his line of sight as he rolled his eyes, but I was the furthest away from any means of attack.

Perhaps that was why Magos shook his body violently from side to side, spewing out enraged screams.

I was fine with that.

Because the more he struggled, the more the paralysis-inducing venom I had injected would spread throughout his body along his blood vessels.

“How about a taste of lizard!”

Woogeok! Woogeok!

Jjieeeek! Jjwaaaaak! Jjwaak!

“Kkeueooo!”

Using my teeth, which were embedded in his nape, I tore out the soft flesh hidden inside the hide with all my might.

Blood splattered everywhere, and naturally, my face was covered in it.

If someone had seen it, they would have imagined a demon, as I mercilessly tore out his flesh.

And then, in the next moment.

Following the torn flesh, I confirmed Magos’s blood vessels and white bones, exposed without any cover.

In the end, even creatures called monsters followed the same skeletal structure as animals.

Just like humans, monsters also have weaknesses.

If you know where those weaknesses are and have the powerful strength to completely crush them…!

Subduing them becomes not so difficult.

Pook!

I thrust my right hand deeply into the blood vessels gushing with blood.

Hoo Woong!

Meanwhile, Magos’s tail flew in, creating a sonic boom, but I easily dodged it by lying flat on my stomach.

It was a blind spot.

If I lay flat, as close as possible to his neck, my hair might get slightly grazed, but I wouldn’t be hit by the tail.

‘Maximum enhancement. Cooling alteration.’

I maximized the enhancement of my hand, which I had thrust into the wound.

The fist I clenched gradually hardened, soon becoming as stiff as if I had attached a steel ball to it.

It would probably give Magos the simultaneous sensation of heaviness and pain, as if a steel skewer had been stuck in his neck.

“Keueooo Eeok! Please! Euaak!”

As expected, Magos screamed.

Could he have imagined it?

That he would be so unilaterally humiliated by a human he had dismissed as an insignificant creature at the start of the battle?

That’s why you should always hear things out until the end, and you have to fight to know.

Giving up before even trying is something only cowards do.

Like So Joong-hyun, who got scared by the recommendation and was just killing time outside the dungeon.

Kkudeuk. Kkudeudeuk.

In the next moment.

The mana emanating from the hardened fist began to change into extreme cold all at once.

This was the talent of ‘Alteration,’ which allowed me to change the properties of mana at will.

There were only a handful of Awakened individuals who could continuously induce body enhancement and attribute alteration in such a short time, like I could now.

Dual Awakened individuals with two talents, and Triple Awakened individuals with three talents, did exist.

But quickly linking them in succession was never easy. It required at least 10 years of skilled practice and training.

“Heo Eeeeop?”

Magos began to freeze from the back of his neck. The cold spreading along the blood vessels seemed to be rapidly engulfing his entire body.

In human terms, it was like being in a state of total anesthesia and cryopreservation.

In effect, the power over his life and death had passed to me. At least, that’s how the situation appeared.

But.

“…….”

Magos kept his mouth firmly shut, seemingly anticipating the next course of action.

‘Flame Outburst.’

Magos’s pattern of burning his entire body with his heart’s life force, transforming into an avatar of fire.

That was the Flame Outburst.

Because it was a pattern that reset the entire state of his body, my work would be in vain if I left it as it was.

‘If I go straight in a diagonal line from this position, I can pierce his heart. I can avoid all the ribs blocking the way.’

At that moment.

Hwareureureuk!

I visually confirmed the beginning of the Flame Outburst, starting from Magos’s tail.

The time it would take for his entire body to be covered in flames was about 5 seconds.

“Hoo!”

With a short breath, I unfolded the fist of my right hand that I had been clenching. And immediately entered into alteration.

The mana lungs explosively spewed out the mana in my body into my right hand like a powerful pump.

The mana in my right hand, which was filled in an instant, quickly exceeded the amount sufficient for alteration.

Shyaaaaaaaa……!

With the blue flash of mana, the alteration of my right arm was completed in an instant.

Immediately after the alteration, it was a protruding reaction seen in the process of the body adapting. It was because the properties of the body had changed.

I called this the ‘rite of passage.’

For this reason, no one was ever around when I tried physical alteration. Because I didn’t know how my body would react.

Even Nicholas wasn’t there.

He observed me from outside the training room made of triple-reinforced glass. As if I were a lab animal.

Pook!

“Kkeueok.”

“I hit it!”

In any case, what was caught in the rite of passage of the right arm alteration was none other than Magos’s heart.

The right arm, which had sharply changed its properties and stretched out like the blade of a longsword, pierced straight through the center of Magos’s pulsating heart.

The focus of Magos’s eyes, which had been shining green, began to blur rapidly.

It was clear that his breath had stopped.

But.

Cheoeop! Cheoeoeop!

Magos’s two front legs, bent in the wrong direction of the joints, grabbed my body.

“Are you trying to die with me?”

Perhaps thinking that he couldn’t die alone before his life was over, Magos tried to grab me at all costs.

Being grabbed wouldn’t have been a problem, but the Flame Outburst was currently in progress, regardless of his death.

Hwareureuk! Hwareureureuk!

The flames of intense heat, like fire on an oil slick, quickly passed my waist and approached my neck where I was.

In this state, even if I won the battle, my life would be in danger.

“Damn lizard XX!”

I spat out curses and began to bite off Magos’s arms that were tightly gripping my waist.

It was similar to the sight of biting into a giant pig’s trotter [a pig’s foot, often cooked and eaten].

Tudook. Took. Took.

Meanwhile, something that fell from the vicinity of Magos’s heart caught my eye.

“Oh……!”

It was three top-quality dimension stones, each worth 900 million won after taxes, and the ‘Steel Flower,’ containing Magos’s unique talent.

A reward beyond what I had imagined was waiting for me before my eyes.