Chapter 486
Chapter 486
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 486
Chapter Title: Breakthrough of Limits
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His very existence felt one step deeper and more solid.
Like an ancient tree that had weathered fierce storms.
Etched into his soul were eons of time, and in his eyes resided the profound serenity of one who had transcended the boundary between life and death.
At the same time, a presence as vast as a mountain range materialized once more before Park Chan-woo.
He was the Master of Stamina.
No longer a mere judge overseeing trials.
The Master of Stamina's voice reached Park Chan-woo's soul with a gentle resonance, unlike before.
His words were true.
As the price of regression, Park Chan-woo's most fundamental life force had been held in pawn.
A profound admiration laced the Master of Stamina's will.
He gazed at Park Chan-woo not as a mere challenger, but as a teacher who had imparted a new truth.
Park Chan-woo wore a puzzled expression at the declaration.
The Master of Stamina's colossal form began to bow slowly before Park Chan-woo.
It was akin to a solemn rite where an old-era god passed the throne to the new-era deity.
From the Master of Stamina's chest rose a dazzling seal of light, like a heart from crimson earth—the Stigmata of Stamina.
The stigmata floated gently toward Park Chan-woo.
And the moment it touched his chest.
Kwaaaaaaaa!
The source of life exploded within Park Chan-woo's body.
The innate wall of limitations binding him shattered to pieces.
It was the moment the cursed shackle of pure stat '1' finally broke free.
Moreover, his true growth, suppressed until now, finally began.
His body was being reborn.
Every cell screamed as it deconstructed, then reconstructed with incomparable solidity.
His bones hardened beyond diamond, his muscles toughened like dragon tendons, and rivers of lava-like life force coursed through his veins.
The frail flesh turned steel-solid.
The parched wellspring of life became an endless river enveloping his form.
This was fundamentally different from the 'Nirvana' achieved in the rift before.
That enlightenment had been of the mind.
A journey inward to harmonize his precarious divinity with the wills of countless beings woven within, forging them into one.
Park Chan-woo had shaped his soul into a microcosm, refining his divine 'rank' therein.
But this moment's change was purely of the flesh.
Not the abstract soul, but the primal vessel standing upon this world.
That vessel was growing incomparably vast and sturdy.
Like a fragile glass cup once sufficient for a god's soul transforming into an iron chalice that could bear its full weight and more.
Mind and body. Divinity and life force.
The moment these two axes achieved perfect balance and unity.
'This... is transcendence.'
Park Chan-woo realized it.
This was true transcendence.
Ordinary beings perfect the body first, with mind and soul following.
Crafting a sturdy vessel before gradually filling it.
But Park Chan-woo was the opposite.
His soul, his divinity, already dwarfed any in the Abyss, yet its vessel was perpetually on the verge of breaking.
Now, with Stamina transcended, the shattered vessel mended itself, regaining perfect stability.
'If I transcend all stats like this...'
His heart pounded fiercely.
Then, he could fully embody and wield his divinity without restraint or backlash.
It meant entering a true divine realm beyond compare.
Moreover, 'Stamina' was no mere life force number.
Life itself.
The sum of all experiences and time from birth to death—the energy of existence.
Park Chan-woo truly pondered his 'life' for the first time.
Across countless regressions, he had always been trapped in the 'process'.
But atop the Infinite Stairway, he first realized how great a blessing it was to age toward 'completion'.
That realization allowed him to witness this miracle of rebirth now.
As he slowly opened his eyes amid lingering afterglow, the Master of Stamina's will before him trembled with awe.
The Master of Stamina's voice carried deeper reverence than ever.
He analyzed the scene unfolding before him with every sense and faculty.
The process of Park Chan-woo's body reconstruction.
Far beyond mere reinforcement or regeneration.
Like a desiccated river swollen by billions of tributaries merging into a vast ocean—a flood of life.
The Master of Stamina understood.
Park Chan-woo's being was not one life.
Countless severed, failed lives.
All those fragmented tales now wove together under the grand realization of 'life's cycle' into one epic of incomparable depth and breadth.
Immortals transcended time eternally, but their lives stagnated.
No more change, no more growth.
Park Chan-woo differed.
He repeated finite mortal lives endlessly, linking those fragments into rebirth with near-eternal depth.
Not stagnant eternity, but a ceaselessly cycling, growing 'living eternity'.
For the first time in eons, the Master of Stamina beheld a form of 'life' surpassing his own.
Hwaaaaa—
Finally, the light enveloping Park Chan-woo's body faded.
He felt the new power overflowing from his form.
For the first time in ages, he opened his Status Window.
And.
"...!!!"
He gasped in shock.
One number stood out blatantly wrong.
'...Pure Stamina at 500?'
What was this?
His gaze burned into the '500' within the parentheses like a brand.
A value beyond imagination.
As regression's price, all his pure stats had been chained to '1'.
Now, that chain not only broke but exploded like a burst dam.
As if sensing his confusion, the Master of Stamina's will resounded again.
Even with the explanation, Park Chan-woo's confusion lingered.
The Master of Stamina added,
Only then did Park Chan-woo grasp it roughly.
Strictly speaking, his pure stats hadn't always been 1.
Inheriting Transcendent Lil's Magic Power, he had vaguely learned to raise pure Magic Power.
A tiny value, but proof of an exception to the 'weakest' curse.
But 500 was another dimension.
It surpassed equipment bonuses thus far.
Far beyond Level 100.
Probably.
'My experience differs in quantity from other Awakeners.'
Thus, his Level was calculated differently.
Stats that never rose despite levels now surged at once.
Plus, perhaps the experiences from regressed days compounded.
'Will other stats transcend like this?'
His heart pounded again.
If so.
Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Magic Power.
The day all shackles broke, unleashing true potential.
What would he become?
Shivers ran through him at the mere thought.
As if responding to his anticipation, a new presence emerged where the Master of Stamina withdrew.
Rumble!
The earth quaked, the heavens trembled.
God's Tower, second of five wills.
The Master of Strength had finally descended before him.