Regressor

“Brother! Be careful!”

The young man let out a small sigh.

Despite telling her not to worry until his ears turned into calluses, she still told him to be careful every time he went to fight monsters.

Of course, he didn’t really dislike it.

If he had, the corners of his mouth wouldn’t have turned up.

Shiiik!

With a sharp wind sound, blurry wind blades appeared.

A powerful area attack that could instantly devastate the surroundings.

However, the young man didn’t retreat – rather, he threw himself toward the wind blades.

Clang clang clang!

Every time his sword clashed with the wind blades, sparks flew and sharp metallic sounds rang out.

With each step he took, the number of blades and their speed kept increasing.

Compared to the beginning, they had now nearly doubled, but the young man remained as carefree as if he was just enjoying a gentle breeze.

“For a rampaging elemental, surely this can’t be your full power?”

Whoosh!

Now it was like a storm was sweeping through.

But not a single one could inflict even a scratch on the young man’s body, let alone cut his clothes.

How much time had passed?

The wind’s force began to weaken.

Though it strengthened again when the elemental screamed, it was only temporary.

It didn’t take long for the sharp storm to turn into a gentle breeze.

Woong!

“Where do you think you’re running?”

The young man threw the sword in his hand at the elemental’s back.

While special weapons are needed to harm elementals, even ordinary swords can deliver impact if infused with magic power.

Bang!

The sword wrapped in faint light precisely pierced the elemental’s core.

The young man reached for the item dropped by the elemental, which was scattering like a gust of wind, without even sparing it a glance.

A puzzle piece glowing with green light.

After securing the piece, the young man turned around while managing his expression as if nothing had happened.

“Brother! Are you hurt anywhere?!”

“Not even a scratch. I told you there was no need to worry.”

“How can I not worry when you fight so dangerously?”

“I think you should worry about others rather than me.”

The young man, Han Sang-jin, gave a bitter smile looking at the people lying behind Yu Jia.

Men and women with disheveled hair, torn clothes, and blood flowing from various parts of their bodies.

Perhaps interpreting Han Sang-jin’s smile in some way, the middle-aged man who appeared to be the oldest spoke with a reddened face.

“Sorry we couldn’t be of help.”

“No, you were a huge help. I was only able to catch the boss monster because you all held back the guard monsters. I definitely couldn’t have caught the boss monster alone.”

“Hmm hmm. Thanks for saying so, even if it’s just empty words.”

It was indeed empty words.

If he had wanted to, he could have handled not just the boss monster but also the guard monsters by himself.

However, Han Sang-jin didn’t say this and instead held out his hand to the middle-aged man.

“Ungh. Thank you.”

“It’s nothing.”

Han Sang-jin, who knew what kind of being the middle-aged man would grow into in the future, gave him a friendly smile.

Han Sang-jin treated everyone kindly, not just the middle-aged man.

“You were all helpful. Thank you.”

“Really? This time we really helped, right?”

“Help? We should be glad if we weren’t a hindrance.”

“Oh come on!”

“How dare you glare at your sister? Want me to gouge out those eyes?”

The bickering twin siblings.

These innocent-looking twins would become the Shadow King and Dark Queen who would later control the continent’s intelligence.

No one except himself as a regressor would even imagine that.

‘Right. This is something only I can do.’

A sinister smile spread across Han Sang-jin’s lips.

Regression.

At first he thought it was like a flashback before death, but soon Han Sang-jin realized this was undoubtedly reality.

Unbelievably, he had returned to the past.

‘Was it because of that stone?’

Han Sang-jin shook his head as he recalled the moment before his death.

He didn’t want to think about the future… no, the past anymore.

What mattered was the present.

Though his first life was a failure, his second life would be different.

“Come on, save the fighting for when we get back to the village.”

“Eh? We’re really going to the village?”

“I said we would today, didn’t I?”

“I thought you were just saying that. You’ve been saying let’s go back to the village for days but didn’t pay any attention, and now suddenly you say we’re going back today. Hmm.”

“Don’t want to? Should we stay a few more days then?”

“No!”

After making the girl who had been looking at him suspiciously surrender with a sly response, Han Sang-jin inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

It could have gotten annoying if she had pressed him seriously, but fortunately she backed down easily, probably happy about returning to the village after so long.

‘It’s not like I could explain that hidden achievements are scattered throughout the preliminary stage.’

It would be revealed once the interface system was unlocked upon entering the main stage, but there were various achievements that could only be obtained here.

[Tutorial Master] for catching all four boss monsters, [Lucky Seven] for finding seven hidden pieces, [Wealthy] for gathering over a million gold.

The achievement he was currently attempting was [Survival Master] for staying outdoors without returning to the village for over a week.

‘I worked so hard planning routes to naturally stay outside for a week without raising suspicion.’

He barely managed to meet the conditions by scraping together all his knowledge about secret dungeons, special monsters that could only be encountered under specific conditions, cleverly hidden treasures, and boss monster hunting.

The girl, befitting her future title of Shadow Queen, seemed to notice something was off partway through, but fortunately the continuous appearance of hidden pieces served as appropriate smoke screens. (+)TLN: The raw said it’s “Shadow Queen.” Probably a mistyped from the author? It should be “Dark Queen” instead. I double-checked it and it was really “Shadow Queen”

‘Just endure a bit more.’

Though all four people here would grow into enormous figures in the future, they would all be scattered to different places once the main stage began, so this was his only chance to build relationships for a while.

Now day 11.

The atmosphere had gotten quite heavy due to the forced march over ten days and seven days of sleeping outdoors.

Fortunately he had succeeded in obtaining all the hidden pieces he was aiming for, so for the remaining 4 days they could recover their awkward relationships while casually adventuring around.

“Alright, everyone move out!”

A sinister smile spread across Han Sang-jin’s lips once again.

Saintess, Guardian, Shadow King, Dark Queen.

The sight of these heroes who would shake the continent moving in perfect unison at his command never got old.

Of course they were still just promising rookies, but once he decided to raise them, they would regain their former power and fame faster than before.

“Just imagining what to do after returning to the village brings an endless smile. What will you do first when we get back?”

“I want to drink ice-cold beer that makes my teeth ache.”

“Oh! I was thinking the exact same thing! Shall we have a drink together?”

“I’d love to. Want to join us, Jia?”

“I don’t really like alcohol, but if it’s just one glass…”

“I’ll drink too… Aaah!”

“What age do you think you are, minor. Just drink water.”

Han Sang-jin, who had been laughing at the bickering siblings, suddenly discovered something and raised his fist.

Though it was a sudden hand signal, the party members who had honed their combat senses fighting day and night for a week immediately drew their weapons and watched their surroundings.

“…Is it a monster?”

“No, that’s not it…”

After hesitating briefly, Han Sang-jin carefully scanned the surroundings while adjusting his grip on his sword and began walking forward.

Something lying in the middle of the plain.

It was a set of equipment and a spear.

It wasn’t particularly strange for equipment to be lying on the ground.

When someone dies in the preliminary stage, their corpse turns into light and disappears, leaving behind the items they were carrying.

However, these items were slightly different from ordinary items.

“…This looks really expensive?”

A lance with a blade made of flickering flames.

A full plate mail emanating a soft silver radiance.

A pair of gauntlets that seemed to be part of a set with the full plate mail.

They were clearly no ordinary items at first glance.

When he appraised them just in case, his guess only turned into certainty.

“The armor and gauntlets are rare set items, and this spear is a unique item.”

“We hit the jackpot… or is something strange about this?”

Han Sang-jin nodded.

While items being dropped wasn’t strange, that usually only applied to cheap equipment not worth picking up, not valuable items like these that someone should have taken long ago.

‘Did someone come hunting alone and meet with misfortune? No, someone with equipment of this level couldn’t have fallen to the monsters here. Was someone killed out of grudge? Then they wouldn’t have left the equipment behind.’

The more he thought about it, the more puzzling it became.

“We should probably leave them.”

“Leave such expensive items? Are you crazy?”

“We’re leaving because they’re expensive. Does it seem normal for items like these to be lying here? It feels suspicious just looking at them.”

“Hmm. But it’s such a waste…”

“What do you think, brother?”

“Well…”

Having lived for decades on the continent, Han Sang-jin experiencing all sorts of incidents and hearing countless rumors.

His judgment based on that experience would have been to side with the girl.

Getting involved with items of unclear origin usually doesn’t end well.

However, Han Sang-jin couldn’t bring himself to say no.

‘Why should I give up treasure right in front of my eyes?’

In his past life where living long and safely was his only goal, he wouldn’t have even glanced at such items.

But now he was reborn anew.

He had decided to live a life where he would crush whatever blocked his path, take whatever he wanted without hesitation even if it belonged to others, and obtain everything.

So would it be right to make the same weak choice his past self would have made?

‘Back then I didn’t have power, but now I do. Even if problems arise, I can solve them with force like other strong ones did.’

“We’re taking them.”

“Brother?”

“I know what you’re thinking. But giving up items like these just because of potential possibilities is too inefficient.”

“That depends on what you value. In terms of money, taking them is efficient, but in terms of safety, leaving them is efficient.”

“Safety? Do you think there’s anyone capable of making us unsafe?”

“That’s…”

The girl was at a loss for words.

It was true.

They had changed so much in a week that their current selves could be considered completely different people from their past selves.

Though they hadn’t made exact comparisons, judging by the types of monsters they were hunting, the skill gap between themselves and others was at least five levels.

Four people with five levels higher skill.

And on top of that, Han Sang-jin who even they together couldn’t handle.

“…Haah.”

As the girl sighed and backed down, Han Sang-jin put the items into his space-expanded bag with a satisfied smile.

“Let’s go.”

Though there had been a brief clash of opinions, the party’s overall mood was peaceful.

Getting one unique item and two rare items for free naturally couldn’t lead to a gloomy atmosphere.

Even the girl who had opposed was showing a faint smile.

However, the party’s mood changed once again not long after.

“…What is this?”

Another set of items appeared before the party.