The Regressor Gets Stronger (5)
The Regressor Gets Stronger (5)
I'm not saying the [40] Difficulty mannequin was weak. It just couldn't measure up to the swordsmanship I'd honed with my clones and had checked by Choi Ji-won — but its technique was impressive enough. If I hadn't had Cold Mana, I probably would've won only after repeating a few regressions. Winning at all and winning without a scratch are two completely different things.
But I won easily. How? Because Cold Mana is broken. No further explanation needed.
"H-he came out."
"Are you all right?"
"..."
After brushing off the people trying to talk to me, I sat back down on the iron chair and went back to my act. Honestly, I didn't think it would be this easy. I'd been mentally prepared for a minimum [60] Difficulty opponent. The biggest factor was that the glasses woman and the other players got completely spooked by Cold Mana.
"S-should we clear it too...?"
"How should we split the score...?"
In the end, when I kept ignoring everyone, the other players split up the scores among themselves and got on the elevator. I just sat quietly in my chair, radiating Cold Mana, and waited.
Since I'd taken care of the [40] difficulty, the other players cleared the floor without any major damage.
- All tests have been passed. Rewards will be granted upon returning to Floor 1.
- Floor 12 has been cleared.
As soon as the blue portal appeared in the center of the space, I quickly stepped into it. The thought of finally returning to reality made my heart pound.
"Oh, these are the rewards?"
When I returned to Floor 1, I found three boxes neatly wrapped in one corner of the room.
- Custom Item Box (B~D)
- Experience Elixir (Mid-grade)
- Book of Possibilities (Unique)
The Experience Elixir was completely useless to me, and the Custom Item Box produced a D-rank item called a 'Recovery Talisman.'
- Recovery Talisman (D)
- A talisman gifted to warriors by the shamans of a now-extinct tribe. Effective for restoring depleted vigor.
"...The system thinks I need this?"
I hadn't expected much from the first test's reward, especially since it was only [5] Difficulty... but I didn't think it would be this useless. In the end, it seemed the 'Book of Possibilities' was the only thing worth taking.
I returned to my studio apartment with only the 'Book of Possibilities.' Choi Ji-won, who was reading a book in a chair, sensed my presence and looked up.
"Jun-ho, you're ba... are you okay?"
But as soon as she saw me, Choi Ji-won sprang into action. In a flash, she was in front of me, placing a hand on my forehead before urgently pulling an elixir out of a drawer and shoving it toward me.
"Drink."
"...All of a sudden? I'm perfectly fine."
"Just drink it."
"Ah, fine..."
Under her insistence, I reluctantly drank the elixir. My head felt clearer, I guess. Or maybe my body felt lighter. Whatever the case, a tremendously refreshing sensation gently spread through my whole body.
"Are you a bit better now?"
"...Was I in that bad of a state?"
"Yeah. Really bad. Your lips were blue, your face was pale. And your body temperature was almost non-existent."
Placing her hand on my forehead again, Choi Ji-won let out a sigh of relief. According to her, I'd practically looked like a living corpse.
"...I was that far gone?"
Choi Ji-won wouldn't exaggerate, so my condition must have been that serious. It seems getting the Recovery Talisman from the Custom Item Box wasn't just a coincidence.
"How did you end up in that state?"
"Well..."
I slowly explained the events of Floor 12 to her. Her current memories had only been updated once since we'd agreed to funnel the rewards to me, because she didn't want her memories updated too frequently.
"As it turned out, when that glasses woman saw my Cold Mana, she got scared and stopped lying."
"Hmm, wasn't I right? There's no need to kill or threaten anyone. Why fight when you can solve things peacefully?"
"You're right. Ji-won, you're right about everything."
After I finished my lengthy explanation, covering everything from my mana training to how I cleared Floor 12, Choi Ji-won nodded.
"So... you've gotten a proper handle on that 'Cold Mana' of yours now?"
"Exactly."
"What did I tell you, Jun-ho? I said so, right? You can do it."
Choi Ji-won smiled, shrugging her shoulders. But then she suddenly averted her gaze.
"But... isn't 'Cold Mana' a bit of a weird name?"
"..."
"Well, if you're fine with it, I don't care... but wouldn't something simpler like Cold Energy be better?"
Cold Mana — no, this power that had just been renamed to Cold Energy — was something Choi Ji-won found amazing. It could affect not just living creatures but also inanimate objects, and it had been confirmed to work even on fairly strong players.
"Still, it seems like the reason you ended up looking half-dead was also because of that Cold Energy..."
If I had to guess at the problem, it was probably that I used Cold Energy for too long, too slowly, and too continuously. Even though I have Cold Resistance and drank an elixir... it's a power capable of inflicting a fairly severe debuff on high-ranking players. It would be stranger if there was no backlash.
"For now... unless you intend to regress, let's aim to use that power as little as possible. We do have elixirs, but we need to conserve them as much as we can."
"Got it."
It was strange that I hadn't regressed even after ending up looking like a corpse, but to be honest, the phrase 'regresses upon taking damage' was quite ambiguous anyway. The scope of 'damage' was limitless depending on how you interpreted it.
Still, I've learned one thing. My past self, who was so cautious about catching a cold because it might trigger a regression — I was way overreacting.
This regression ability seems to be extremely lenient when determining 'damage' unless it's a direct external wound, like drawing blood. I can stop worrying that I might get sick in old age and be trapped in an infinite regression loop.
On the other hand, thinking about this in reverse reveals a potential weakness: I'm completely exposed to things like paralytic poison or sleeping drugs. It seems I won't regress unless it's a direct physical injury.
Anyway, we wrapped up discussing Floor 12 incident and decided to run experiments with Choi Ji-won in the future to measure Cold Energy's power.
- Book of Possibilities (Unique)
- Quantifies and displays the user's potential.
Finally, I took out the Book of Possibilities I'd received as a reward. This book would show my potential — whether continuing sword training was the right path, what I needed to do to properly control Cold Energy, and the extent of my talent.
I don't know exactly how this 'Book of Possibilities' quantifies things or what it displays. But it will definitely help. An inexplicable sense of anticipation bubbled up inside me.
"Here goes."
With trembling hands, I carefully opened the 'Book of Possibilities.'
- Cannot be used by a human whose Status Window function is not active.
- This book is an item for climbers. Please use it for its proper purpose.
"...Well, fuck me."
The result was... a dud.
**
After awakening to the method of controlling Cold Energy, I repeated several regressions. I still haven't figured out how to use this power without side effects... but I can handle it much more safely and skillfully now.
- All tests have been passed. Rewards will be granted upon returning to Floor 1.
- Floor 12 has been cleared.
Now that the glasses woman had stopped lying, clearing Floor 12 was no longer a trial for me. Even the most difficult [40] Difficulty mannequin could be easily dispatched with Cold Energy, so how could there be a problem? While looping through regressions, I collected all the rewards I'd been eyeing.
[10] Custom Item Box (A- ~ C+)
[15] Teleportation Scroll
[25] Appraisal Scroll
[30] Elixir of Choice (Unique)
After obtaining every single reward I'd missed out on, I realized they weren't as useful as I'd thought.
The Teleportation Scroll was pretty handy, but it was a single-use item. For the Elixir of Choice, I chose the Strength attribute and drank it. (I wanted to choose the Mana attribute, but I was afraid my heart might suddenly stop.) Ah, the Custom Item Box yielded a consumable, unexpectedly.
- Uwhang Cheongsim Pill (C+)
- A pill that clears and purifies the mind. Contains various spiritual medicines and is traded at a high price.
It was deeply irritating that a so-called 'Custom Item Box' would dump the lowest listed grade on me, just like pulling in a mobile game, but it was undeniable that a useful item had come out. My worries were mainly focused on my mental state rather than my physical body, and this pill would surely be a great help.
Lastly, the Appraisal Scroll... I hadn't used it yet. It definitely felt like I could use it for something useful somewhere... but either I'd forgotten its purpose or there was never a specific use to begin with, because I couldn't find one. If I hold onto it, I'll probably find some use for it eventually.
In any case, after obtaining and reflecting on all the rewards, the only thing left was to finish Floor 12. Training my mana no longer gave results even with repeated regressions, and I'd completed every experiment I wanted to try. It was finally time to climb to Floor 13.
The trait persists even after regression, and since the last thing I needed to claim were the items, I decided to finish Floor 12 by taking the route in order — [5] - [10] - [25] — to get the largest variety of items.
To describe it by name instead of numbers, I planned to carry over the Recovery Talisman, the Uwhang Cheongsim Pill, and the Appraisal Scroll. This was the optimal plan I could think of.
But before fully concluding Floor 12, there was one thing I had to do at this very moment.
"You're going to challenge the [70] Difficulty...?"
"Yeah."
I wanted to test my own limits.