I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 40

Episode 40

Shock and Horror.

Throughout the Bazart raid, these were the emotions the four felt simultaneously as they watched Shin-hwa.

Bazart, resembling a bear, was a monster with unimaginable strength.

Being hit by Bazart’s attack, often called a ‘slap,’ meant instant death for most Awakened.

No matter how high-end the suit, it was instantly crushed by Bazart’s immense power.

So, the raid was incredibly difficult, but Shin-hwa dodged those deadly attacks with surprising ease.

Bazart’s attack speed was by no means slow.

Shin-hwa’s response wasn’t about seeing and dodging, but more like his body instinctively knowing and avoiding the attacks.

Thanks to this, Bazart’s slap attack, though clearly executed, seemed almost like an illusion, appearing half a beat to a full beat slower.

That’s how fast Shin-hwa’s reactions were.

Since Shin-hwa was reliably drawing Bazart’s attention at close range, the others’ attacks flowed smoothly.

In particular, Jin Bo-mi could focus on continuously weakening Bazart’s physical defense with her spell.

“Formation, Honmajin.”

Each time Honmajin [a spell that weakens physical defense] was cast, Bazart’s physical defense plummeted.

Being able to continuously reduce an opponent’s defense without limit, as long as it could be maintained, was a high-level spell, but the conditions were quite demanding.

Above all, the caster had to focus solely on the spell without any mental or physical disruption.

Usually, when such a formation is laid on the ground, the monster instinctively targets the caster, making it very dangerous.

“Where are you going? I’m trying to play with you!”

“Koo-ook! Annoying bastard!”

But since Shin-hwa kept stopping Bazart’s movements, everything became much easier.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been just focusing on the monster’s rear.”

Jung-hoon was also comfortable.

Shin-hwa was fixing Bazart’s head, acting as a perfect tank holding aggro [drawing the enemy’s attention].

He was determined to attack from various angles at the rear, collapsing Bazart’s lower body with fierce kicks.

Fixing the boss monster’s head to only look at the tank was crucial for a stable raid.

The problem was that while everyone knew it was important in theory, it was very difficult to put into practice.

Even Jung-hoon, who was in charge of the main tank in the Yanghwa Guild’s executive party of four, excluding Shin-hwa, couldn’t do it easily.

“Was Bazart always this easy?”

“It’s not that he’s easy, but Shin-hwa set the stage to make the raid easy.”

Yoon Tae-ho and Seo Ye-hee also admired Shin-hwa’s skill.

Yoon Tae-ho was continuously freezing Bazart’s legs using his ice magic.

Seo Ye-hee was using a summoned beast that transformed magic power into the form of a wolf, constantly biting at Bazart’s flanks.

Just then.

“I shall bestow divine punishment!”

“What divine punishment are you talking about, you bear bastard who isn’t even a god?”

Zhiing!

Bazart, burning with anger, emitted red light from his eyes and fired lasers directly from them.

“Ah!”

From Shin-hwa’s position, the laser was fired almost point-blank, making it extremely dangerous.

A so-called killing ray that instantly decomposes everything it touches.

They had lost quite a few guild members during previous raids because of that ray.

That was why Seo Ye-hee had stopped raiding Bazart; because that powerful killing ray flew around indiscriminately.

But Shin-hwa easily dodged the ray with minimal movement, just slightly moving his head to the side.

It was already the tenth time.

He naturally dodged all of Bazart’s notoriously difficult killing rays.

Instead.

“Bear, your balance is off, you know?”

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

“Ugh! Keuh-heuk! Kkeuh-eok!”

Taking advantage of the gap when Bazart’s upper body leaned slightly forward to emit the ray, Shin-hwa’s fierce attack continued.

It was such a brutal assault that you could feel the pain just by watching.

Each time Shin-hwa’s fist, full of heat, landed cleanly, chunks of Bazart’s torn and burst flesh flew into the air.

“Master, with this kind of raid, it’s almost like a bus ride, isn’t it?” [meaning it’s easy and comfortable]

“It’s not about pushing through with brute strength and enduring. It’s because he can predict Bazart’s movements, so he can easily dodge and respond with little effort.”

“That’s right. It looks precarious, but he ends up dodging everything. It’s amazing.”

Yoon Tae-ho clicked his tongue in amazement.

He was right.

Even though it looked like Shin-hwa was dodging easily, the timing was so tight that ‘close call’ was an understatement.

‘I can see and feel his movements, but my body’s reaction is still slow. The amount of overload increases as time goes on.’

That was Shin-hwa’s overall assessment.

After fighting Bazart directly, he could clearly realize that soloing an SS-rank monster was impossible at his current level.

What made this raid smooth was the appropriate cooperation and constant debuffs from his teammates.

Shin-hwa calmly assessed his level. Being greedy beyond this point would be recklessness.

He quickly calmed down his fighting spirit, which was full of confidence and could have easily spiraled out of control.

‘I see a clear path to victory.’

Still, it was clean teamwork with the top-level Awakened who were in charge of the main axis of a guild.

Ranks usually don’t lie. They usually have the skills that match the rank, wouldn’t you say?

“Let’s go into the final phase!”

Shin-hwa shouted.

It was time to enter the final stage out of the five stages that had been planned in the pre-raid briefing.

* * *

10 minutes later.

“Damn it, the suit is in tatters.”

I took off Old Man Hwang’s enhanced suit, which had completely lost its durability, and threw it into the corner of the dungeon.

Up to 95% of the raid completion point, it was manageable even though magic power management was precarious.

But in the end, Bazart struggled and rampaged, and the suit was completely ruined while trying to stop it.

2 billion won [~1.5 million USD].

It was literally the price of an expensive house disappearing in an instant, but.

“Someday I’ll get revenge… Keuek.”

The raid ended with a happy ending.

Bazart could no longer withstand the damage that had been steadily accumulated by the teammates’ combined attacks, and his heart stopped.

“Wow! We finally caught Bazart!”

“To be exact, you should see it as adding a spoon to the table that Shin-hwa set up,” Jin Bo-mi’s cheers and Seo Ye-hee’s cold assessment were heard at the same time.

It was also intentional.

Perhaps Bazart will not be easy to raid without me after today.

Because I was playing the role of a master key that could balance the entire raid.

What if you don’t have the sense to perfectly grab aggro and coordinate Bazart’s offensive?

I can say with certainty that a smooth raid like today is absolutely impossible.

‘It’s the most ideal situation.’

I can’t do without my colleagues, but from their point of view, the raid cannot be established at all without me.

Making sure to take the flowers and making sure to secure my share.

That was the goal, and it seemed to have been successful.

Something was rising from near the chest of the dead Bazart.

‘Flower of Transcendence.’

As expected, the flower came out according to the special feature of the first raid.

From the beginning, I knew that the flower would come out, so there was no change in my expression.

“Wow, the flower really came out?”

“What kind of flower is it? This is the first time I’ve seen a dropped flower right in front of me!”

“It really looks like a flower.”

However, not all boss monsters drop flowers in the first raid, so everyone seemed to be amazed.

“I’ll eat it and tell you. Shouldn’t we check the dimension stone before storing his body separately?”

After naturally turning the attention to the dimension stone, I immediately put the flower in my mouth without hesitation.

If the Flower of Steel tasted like sweet chocolate, the Flower of Transcendence tasted like sour lemon.

The taste of each flower is so different, and some terrible ones taste like rotten food waste.

Of course, it’s not an experience I’m talking about because I’ve eaten it. Absolutely not.

The next moment.

‘The effect is being reflected immediately.’

After a brief information analysis through the tongue.

The Flower of Transcendence, which entered the stomach, was shattered into small pieces, and I felt the inherent power spreading throughout my body.

If the Flower of Steel I ate earlier felt like strengthening the body, making the body stronger.

The Flower of Transcendence was completely different.

I felt a coolness and clarity resembling peppermint candy exploding like fireworks in my head, that is, the entire brain.

‘This refreshing feeling. I haven’t felt it in a long time, but it’s really good to feel it again.’

I gladly accepted the flower’s energy without leaving anything behind.

Numerous memories and thoughts were neatly organized and piled up in the memory space.

It also ignited the embers of revival in memories that I almost unintentionally forgot while regressing, making them very clear and distinct again.

‘Increased calculation ability.’

It’s only a small amount compared to after brain modification, but I felt a surge in intelligence.

Even though I combined quite high numbers in my head to perform difficult multiplication calculations, it didn’t feel difficult at all.

Not only that.

‘Concretization of trivial things.’

More changes occurred.

It was a reorganization of the numerous visual information that had been overlooked as trivial.

The clothes, expressions, and appearances of the people I met face-to-face on a one-time basis while coming to the K-1004 dungeon today came to mind clearly.

It was like installing a special memory storage device in my head, a data that would not evaporate.

“Keuek.”

Was that why?

Memories that were quietly buried or about to disappear in the fragments of memory rushed in.

I had a severe headache.

It was the same unpleasant headache as when I quit drinking coffee that I always drank for just one day.

“Shin-hwa, are you okay?”

I only let out a brief groan, but Jin Bo-mi immediately ran over and worried about me.

“I’m okay. It’s the effect of the flower. I just had a bit of a headache for a while.”

“I’m so jealous! It’s my lifelong wish to eat a flower, but it’s not easy.”

If you could eat it easily, the rarity of the flower wouldn’t be so high.

A flower is a means of blooming a talent.

From the perspective of the Awakened, it was of great value because it meant that a single became a dual, and a dual became a triple.

‘Hmm.’

Looking at Jin Bo-mi’s appearance.

I felt that everything visible in her appearance was neatly organized into one data.

Although it was not as accurate a measurement as a machine, a scan of her height or body structure was performed in an instant.

It’s a foretaste effect of brain modification.

Once the brain modification is over, it will be possible to scan the human body like a machine from then on.

Anyway, that’s how I gained another talent.

It’s not a talent that can be used visibly in practice like ‘Steel Enhancement’.

Intelligence has been enhanced to the point where I can be called a prodigy or genius.

‘The world is wide, and there are many flowers to eat. Let’s monopolize them all! Just flapping my mouth won’t allow me to retire early!’

My fighting spirit blazed.

That’s how I became a Pentuple, no, a Hextuple talent Awakened in just one week of regression.

It was a rapid growth!