I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Blocking Shin-hwa’s path on the right were two blue Madillos.

Scrunch. Scrunch.

As soon as they saw Shin-hwa, an uninvited guest, they puffed up their armor-like scales and took a defensive stance.

‘Using Burst Fist Stage 5 is almost a full-power battle for me. I have to end this quickly.’

Time was not on Shin-hwa’s side.

From the start, it was ironic that a D-rank Awakened was trying to fight a quasi-S-rank monster.

A normal D-rank Awakened wouldn’t even be able to scratch a Madillo, let alone penetrate its scales.

‘I should see it as a collaboration between me and my future knowledge.’

The conclusion was simple.

He had the knowledge to unleash far beyond 100% of his power, exceeding 200% or 300%.

That was the driving force that allowed him to fight, ignoring the overwhelming difference in rank.

“Haaap!”

Shin-hwa shouted and leaped into the air.

The modified legs had a powerful thrust to jump out anytime, anywhere.

Whoosh!

Seeing Shin-hwa soaring into the air, the two Madillos prepared to spit poison.

Their poison was highly toxic and strongly acidic, making it a one-way ticket to the afterlife upon exposure.

‘Due to their thick neck muscles, their flexibility is poor, so the trajectory of the poison is predictable.’

Shin-hwa didn’t panic and immediately dropped.

“Queeeet!”

“Quieet!”

Soon, he saw the brownish-green liquid flying towards him.

It was poison.

“Heut-cha!”

Shin-hwa twisted his body with all his might, easily avoiding the poison spray.

It flew in the expected path.

Thanks to that, he was able to nullify their attacks by slightly adjusting the position of his shoulders and feet.

Instead.

Woo woong!

Burst Fist Stage 5, with Shin-hwa falling from the apex with a rough roar, struck the Madillo’s glabella [the smooth area between the eyebrows].

Kwa-rrrreung!

The moment of impact.

The world shook, and a thunderous roar like lightning echoed above.

Fist of Lightning, True Fist.

A fist that gathers the essence of power at one point and shatters everything!

The chain reaction occurred in a flash.

The energy of lightning contained in the True Fist weakened the physical defense that had been firmly protecting the Madillo’s glabella.

It was the fist that completely shattered one point, breaking through the gap in the rapidly declining defense.

Kwaduk!

“Keueo!”

The Madillo felt its entire facial structure collapsing in a single blow.

It scattered into hundreds of pieces, like tofu easily crushed by a fist.

“No matter how hard your body is, if your head is broken, there’s no surviving.”

Shin-hwa climbed onto the head of the Madillo, who was staggering with its eyes rolled back.

Monsters classified as F-rank or E-rank usually die when they are thought to be dead.

However, as the rank goes up, monsters ‘struggle’ until their lives are completely extinguished.

So, you should never be careless unless you confirm that the spark of life has completely gone out.

Teo-up!

Soon, Shin-hwa, who had climbed on top of its head, transformed his right arm into a long sword shape.

And accurately targeted the path that leads diagonally from the top of the Madillo’s head to below the jaw.

Puk!

He stretched out his right hand with all his might.

The outer skin, which would never be penetrated by a normal blue Madillo, was easily pierced by this attack.

The outer skin, softened by Burst Fist Stage 5, True Fist, had ridiculously low resistance.

“Keuheck!”

It stuck out its tongue and died instantly.

“Euaoooo!”

Perhaps shocked by the death of its companion, the remaining Madillo couldn’t contain its boiling anger and rammed into Shin-hwa.

Koo-oong!

Even before the collision, Shin-hwa’s body had been transformed into a hard state through the Steel Enhancement talent.

Of course, Steel Enhancement was not a panacea [a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases].

It can protect the body, but it does not absorb all the impact.

Koo-oong! Too-oong! Koong! Koong!

“Keuek, that’s brutal.”

Shin-hwa flew for a while and rolled awkwardly on the ground four or five times.

It was exactly like a statue made of steel flying and rolling on the floor with a metallic sound.

Seureureuk.

Soon, Shin-hwa regained his balance and released the Steel Enhancement state.

It’s a very useful ability, but it’s a talent that consumes a lot of magic power, so you can’t use it for long.

‘I thought I had increased my magic storage with desperate modification, but as expected, overpowering isn’t easy.’

Shin-hwa thought, checking the total amount of magic power that had already fallen below half in a short battle.

However, one thing became clear.

If he deliberately unleashed his power with the intention of exerting maximum firepower, he could somehow handle up to S-rank.

Especially if he knew the weak points of the opponent like just now, he seemed to be able to aim for a higher rank.

“Keuek! Puk! Puk!”

The Madillo, who was full of heat, kicked the ground with its hind feet and prepared to charge again.

It was not a pleasant thing for an Awakened with toughness to collide head-on with it.

From the perspective of instantaneous speed and pressure alone, it has an impact equivalent to colliding with a 15-ton truck.

It’s because they are Awakened that they can withstand it, but if they were ordinary people, it would not be strange for them to explode like balloons on the spot.

“Still, I feel like my body is loosening up because I’m fighting a decent guy like you. I guess I have a fighting spirit?”

Shin-hwa raised the circulation of magic power again and finished preparing to fight the remaining one.

And.

“Guaaaack!”

“Let’s go!”

A brutal S-rank monster and a D-rank Awakened collided in the center of the path.

It was a chaotic brawl where gusts of wind raged from all sides, and thunderous roars and flashes of lightning flashed.

* * *

At that time.

“Shin-hwa oppa! No, Shin-hwa-ssi [term of address, Mr. Shin-hwa]! A baby Madillo came out, so this time, you can directly… Huh?”

Jin Bo-mi, who was busy fighting the dark Madillo, naturally called Shin-hwa, who was behind her.

The dark Madillo has the power of A to S rank, but the baby Madillo is about C rank.

It was a perfect test subject to test Shin-hwa for the first time.

But no one was there.

“Shin-hwa-ssi?”

Shin-hwa was nowhere to be seen.

At that moment, Jin Bo-mi wondered if Shin-hwa had been attacked by a Madillo she had missed during the battle.

Of course, she wouldn’t have made a mistake, but she was flustered because Shin-hwa was not visible.

But.

Kwa-rrrreung! Kureureureung!

Instead of Shin-hwa’s invisible figure, a loud roar erupted from the right route.

Because the path was divided into left and right, there was a blind spot, so she couldn’t see it, but she could clearly sense that it was a battlefield.

“Unnie [term of address, older sister]! Oppa [term of address, older brother]! Just a moment! I can’t see Kang Shin-hwa-ssi!”

“What?”

Paat!

As soon as she finished speaking, Jin Bo-mi hurriedly moved towards the right route.

Right then.

“Aaaah!”

A scream erupted from Jin Bo-mi, who witnessed the scene.

She had imagined Shin-hwa being caught up in the monster’s attack or being in danger.

It was a complete miscalculation.

“Kueo-uck!”

Just as she was about to turn the corner and go inside.

The blue Madillo from inside the right route was spitting out thick saliva and flying towards this way.

“Agassi [term of address, young lady]!”

Jung-hoon grabbed her suit around the back of her neck and barely pulled her away, though the rescue looked a bit clumsy.

And.

Koo-oong!

“Keueoo-weck.”

The Madillo that flew from inside revealed its white eyes, stuck out its tongue, and fainted on the spot.

It was a perfect fainting that occurred without the survival instinct to want to live being activated.

“Hoo. My fist is tingling, this.”

Shin-hwa appeared next.

His right hand was steaming with heat.

“What, what happened?”

“Were there any that slipped past?”

Seo Ye-hee and Yoon Tae-ho arrived next.

This dungeon had been conquered dozens of times. They knew all the patterns related to the appearance of monsters.

So, if Shin-hwa had stayed in his place, there would have been no unfortunate events.

That means!

Shin-hwa alone conquered the right route.

Shin-hwa blew air on the smoke with his breath.

“Hoo, hoo.”

He took several deep breaths to soothe his heart, which was overloaded by the explosive magic circulation.

And after a while.

He continued to speak to everyone in a calm voice.

“Didn’t you hear me earlier? I said I was going in to earn my keep because it was too boring to watch.”

“Boring… so you fought two A+ rank blue Madillos alone?”

Jin Bo-mi asked back.

Instead of answering, Shin-hwa pointed to two directions with his eyes.

He specified the location of the blue Madillo inside the right route and the one right in front of them.

And.

“Let’s make sure they’re dead.”

He grabbed the head of the blue Madillo, who was still breathing.

Puk!

He used his right hand, which he had made into a hook shape, to slam it straight down on the crown of its head.

And as he roughly shook the hook that had dug inside from side to side.

“Keureureureuk.”

The blue Madillo died as it was.

There was no room for it to breathe because its brain had been pulverized.

“No, how can you take down two blue Madillos alone in an instant without even having a chance to check…”

“If this happens, our plan of the four of us catching the dark Madillo becomes a bit awkward?”

Jin Bo-mi and Seo Ye-hee took turns speaking with surprised expressions.

Jung-hoon was still carefully examining Shin-hwa’s glowing fist, and Yoon Tae-ho was checking the condition of the fallen Madillo.

There was no doubt that the two were dead.

“It’s like using future knowledge now. It’s not a cure-all.”

Shin-hwa still stroked his tingling hand and soothed his heart, which was throbbing intensely from time to time.

It seemed impossible to use the attack pattern of using Burst Fist Stage 5 frequently yet.

“Can you use martial arts?”

Seo Ye-hee, who has a good eye, asked Shin-hwa.

The wounds on the Madillo’s glabella were clear, and the fist marks were clearly left on the abdomen of the one that flew this way.

“I have some talent.”

Shin-hwa nodded.

It is difficult to use martial arts that utilize smooth linked movements like Mook-cheol in his previous life.

However, it was possible to use martial arts that contained only the core essence in a crude way.

Shin-hwa prefers efficiency-oriented attacks rather than flashy performances, so there was more of that.

“Is he really D-rank?”

Jung-hoon couldn’t help but ask.

There is a reason for the rank classification.

Just as 1 cannot be a higher number than 2, D-rank cannot be higher than C-rank.

It is rare for a rank difference to be overcome due to compatibility, but this is extremely rare.

However, Shin-hwa has never matched his rank from the moment he first met him until now.

Shin-hwa himself didn’t care much about the gap between his actual rank and his skills.

“No matter how I think about it, Shin-hwa-ssi’s skills don’t make any sense at all. I hope you can tell me honestly so that I can know your true skills. This is a sincere request.”

Jung-hoon’s thoughts were the same as Seo Ye-hee, Yoon Tae-ho, and Jin Bo-mi’s thoughts.

The speculation has gone on long enough.

Now, they wanted to hear the story of Kang Shin-hwa, his true power and state, directly from his mouth.