361 – Regression (9)

“I, I’m flying! A person’s flying!”

“Whoaaa!!!”

“Wait, wait! Don’t get too close! The swamp is poisonous!”

“Poison? What… *cough!*”

“Ah! Seriously!!! Boongboong, help!”

Other players and goblins cheered, watching me float and fly. They told me not to fight and just wait, so things would probably be okay for a while. Choi Jiwon’s there too… so there shouldn’t be any separate accidents. And from what I remember, the goblin shaman has about a week left before his natural death.

“Man, I still can’t get a grip on reality.”

“Is he really… a regressor?”

“What’s going on? Can someone explain? I’m not really up to date with the culture these days…”

“Hey, mister. I think we just got really lucky. Looks like that guy over there took care of everything by himself.”

Unlike the people behind me who were talking like I was some kind of monster,

“…Tss.”

I was so deeply focused that my body was trembling.

First off, the absolute amount of mana I had was lacking. It wasn’t like before where I could freely receive the ‘Hero’ trait from a large number of people, and I was only managing to keep myself afloat by forcefully, forcefully manipulating my meager mana. Compared to before, when I could fly beyond the clouds, just barely hovering in the air now was enough to show the difference.

And that wasn’t all. The poisonous swamps scattered everywhere were a problem too. It’s true I became unbelievably stronger after regressing, but if I take damage, I still regress. The moment that poison touches my alveoli, I’d clearly regress, so I had to keep the ‘mana filter’ Jiwon taught me activated the whole time.

On top of that, I had to also scatter mana around to detect what would happen when I got far enough away, so the difficulty naturally shot up. I was straining my mind as much as I did when I was focusing to drop down to the tutorial level. (The fact that overdoing it could cause internal injuries was also a big factor.)

Of course, it wasn’t at an ‘impossible’ level, so I was somehow continuing to fly, but I was slowly reaching my limit. The moment my concentration breaks, I’ll fall into that bubbling poisonous swamp.

“Kkueung…”

The mana output is becoming unstable. Honestly speaking, I don’t think I’ve ever pushed my mana this far. According to what other people have said, using mana down to the last drop could make you vomit blood and pass out… I need to finish this before that happens.

“Huh?”

Such worries were pointless, as something shimmered in the distance of my view. The color of the seemingly endless poison swamp was gradually fading, replaced by a blue sea and, beyond it… land.

Mountains. Cities. Signs of civilization. It was too far away to identify clearly, but it was a trace of another world. Maybe it was just a manifestation, like the underground of the island, and there wouldn’t be any intelligent life. But that was enough. There was so much to learn just from observing the traces of where those people lived.

It’s impossible to reach it now with my magic running out, but if I become more accustomed to floating and flying like this, someday, I’ll reach that place…!

“?!”

Was my reaction slow because I was immersed in a hopeful future? Or was it that my sharpened senses had dulled as I approached my limit?

A beat late, but not too late. I managed to stop in mid-air. Closing my eyes, I spread my sensory perception, and I felt it even more clearly.

A barrier blocking my path.

“…It’s blocked.”

There were many cases of ‘invisible barriers’ in other levels. The tower itself existed under a specific rule, in a specific world, only allowing passage upon satisfying specific conditions, so I never felt any unease.

So if it were normal, it would have been natural to accept it with a simple, ‘Ah, it’s blocked.’ It was always like that. A natural phenomenon.

But.

“…”

I unleashed my magic power, trying my best to remember this feeling I was experiencing.

Because it was, somehow, familiar.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment you first entered Floor 0.]

*

“FUCK!!!”

“Status window!!!”

“Eww!!! Goblins!!! Emergency!!!”

While everyone else was having their usual meltdown, I was focusing, replaying the sensation I’d felt a moment ago.

That barrier…

‘It was familiar.’

Yeah, familiar was the right word. The aura of that shield, I’d felt it somewhere before. An Archangel? It was similar, but no. A Celestial Demon? An Elder? No, that wasn’t it either. It wasn’t the feeling I got from any enemy I’d faced before. Definitely somewhere… it felt like I’d felt it very recently…

“Ah.”

I realized it. Where I’d felt that sensation, and why it was familiar.

The fundamental aura emanating from that barrier…

“Regression…”

It was similar to the dizziness I experienced when I regressed, just amplified considerably.

Actually, I already knew. This power of regression I had wasn’t granted to me because I was so great, or so exceptional. It was something the system, the status window, had given me, and there must be an entity who gave me that status window. Probably, very likely, the god who made this tower.

So it was fair to say that the source of this power was from god, and since that god probably made this tower as well, it’s not really surprising that the feeling of the power was similar. In fact, it made perfect sense.

“…”

It was like someone saying, ‘Your family and all the humans you love are going to die.’ While that might not be wrong, it really ticked me off, and realizing that this regression was also power given by a god made me feel just as bad. No, no. Let’s think productively.

Is using power similar to regression on a barrier only something in the tutorial? Or is it the same in other floors? Since I wield the power of regression, maybe I can use that to break through it? Aside from turning back time, might there be another way to travel between the levels of the tower? I don’t know, but I think I’ve figured out everything I needed to from the tutorial.

“Let’s regress.”

I rapidly unleashed my inner mana. It was truly time to leave the tutorial.

“Ms. Choi Ji-won. Please listen to me from now on.”

“C-could you, like, back away a bit?”

The sudden chatter from Boongboongi startled Choi Jiwon, and I quickly explained the situation.

“Hello! You are gloriously wasting your life… KRaaaK!!!”

“Wh-what the hell!”

“The tutorial fairy is dead!!!”

“Jiwon, say you did it. We have a plan.”

“…Everyone calm down! I subdued it!”

I also tacked on the title ‘Subdued the Tutorial Fairy’ to Choi Jiwon, as an extra.

“Um, what’s your name, by any chance?”

“…You don’t need to know.”

“Ah, okay…”

And I also spread the rumor that ‘there’s a mysterious person here’ while I was at it.

“GUoooH!!!”

“Haaat!”

After easily taking down the Minotaur and saying goodbye to the Goblin Shaman, I passed through the portal with a relieved feeling. Ah, come to think of it, this wasn’t the end, was it?

“I will now measure the sins you have committed…”

“But I didn’t do anything… I just followed along…”

“W-well, I did say ‘fuck’… does that count as a sin? Honestly, isn’t it normal to curse a little in an extreme situation…”

“…Get out.”

Afterward, I passed through a fake courthouse guarded by the high-handed angel ‘Jeziel’ (Angel Jeziel was strangely avoiding my gaze.)

-You have entered the 1st floor.

I was able to return to the first floor, now so familiar. I manipulated my mental image to create a warm waterbed, and gently eased my body onto it. By this point, it was fair to say I’d cleared the tutorial as planned. It was a bit of a shame I hadn’t found the hidden piece, but at least I’d obtained the crucial clue: “a power similar to regression dominates the tower.”

But this was just the beginning. There was no time to lie around satisfied.

“…This bed is nice, I have to admit.”

Well…not ‘no’ time, just a little bit.

“Now…”

From now on, I needed to act with absolute composure. My goals were twofold. Firstly, to gain an appropriate level of fame without revealing that I was a returnee, and something I could use in case of emergency. And secondly, to clear the tower quickly, in a way that I found personally satisfying.

Initially, when planning, I had assumed Jiwon would be in a position to help, but she couldn’t be of much assistance right now because her memories hadn’t returned. Still, it’s not like I couldn’t clear the second and third floors just because Choi Jiwon wasn’t around. The real problem was something else entirely.

One issue that had been bothering me since I returned to the past – in the tutorial, and even now – was a choice. It was a choice of such great significance, and perhaps irreversible, that I had to consider it carefully.

As you know, I successfully defeated the city lord on the second floor, and encountered the archangel in charge of that floor. The meeting itself went smoothly, and afterwards, I received a ring from them.

Yes, that ring I was planning to use. The ring that could erase characteristics. The ring that would guarantee I wouldn’t regress even if I died of old age.

It was an item I absolutely wanted to obtain if I could.

“…But to get it, I need to meet the archangel again.”

That was the dilemma.

Was it the right time, in my current state, to meet the archangel?