WeTried Translations

Translator: ZEROSUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Regression is Too Much

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Chapter 272

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The regressor proves himself (12)

Let's organize the situation.

"We have three real combat assets."

Me. Choi Ji-won. And the dark mage.

The dark mage was strong. He was the boss of a Floor, designed to be fought by five players, which meant he carried the fighting strength of five ordinary players, maybe more. Ji-won and I were still stronger, but that made him a solid ally.

Set the three other players aside. They were decently strong, sure, but not strong enough to get anywhere near that dragon. Same went for the warriors.

"We don't have any means of sealing it, so... the goal, obviously, is to kill the dragon."

The goal was to kill the dragon. And along the way, collect the rewards, and confirm what the dark mage's actions had actually produced.

The player in me wanted to kill the dragon and get the rewards. The human in me wanted to confirm the result of what the dark mage had done. Killing the dragon would satisfy both of those, so if it was possible, it was the outcome worth chasing.

"Wait, wait."

The Italian player cut me off.

"So what are we supposed to do, then? You never mentioned that part. I get that we're not much help."

"...Securing the safety of the warrior village would be good. Their help is indispensable."

"Hmm."

He stroked his chin and traded a look with the other players watching.

"I don't know if I should say this, but we'd like a guaranteed share too."

"An achievement will probably clear from this. Isn't that enough?"

"If it does, thanks. But what if it doesn't?"

"Then I'll make sure you're compensated separately."

"Fine."

I couldn't just call them greedy. Joining this insane plan cost them plenty in opportunity, and if Ji-won and I died fighting the dragon, the three of them would be left to face the dark mage alone. Agreeing to this at all was already a gamble. This was the Tower, after all. Lives were on the line.

"So, back to the plan."

What were the ways to kill a dragon? Depending on the story, sometimes there's a single reverse scale, the one weak spot that kills it if you strike it, but whether this dragon had anything like that was a total unknown.

"The usual weak point for a dragon would be the heart, but..."

This dragon had no reason left to cast magic. Without mana, going after the heart buried somewhere inside that massive body wasn't realistic. Which meant.

"We aim for the head."

The head was the weak point common to every living thing, so aiming there was clearly the smartest move. No argument there.

"For starters, I've got the best access."

The Ice Dragon wore a cold aura. So did I. I even had Chill Affinity, an A-grade trait, so it was obvious I was best suited to stand against its power.

"I'll use the trait I've got here. The Hero trait."

What I was about to do wasn't much different from the Tutorial.

"Dark mage. Don't you have some skill that can summon living creatures?"

"No. What I can summon is limited to demon body parts and the dead. And I'll tell you now, mind-affecting attacks won't work on the dragon. It's already insane."

"Hmm."

A little disappointing, but fine.

"Captain. Let's head back to the village for a bit. That work for you?"

"What are you planning?!"

"I need help."

As you know, the Hero trait grows my own strength the more people recognize that I'm protecting them. The more people, the stronger I get.

"How big is the village's population?"

"Roughly around 200!"

"...There are 50 warriors, right?"

"We staked our lives on every expedition! Thanks to that idiot over there tricking us!"

"You keep calling me an idiot..."

"Whatever. Counting the warriors too, that's 250?"

"That's right!"

250, huh.

That was a decent number, sure, but I still felt it wasn't quite enough. 250. In the Tutorial I'd even mobilized a whole horde of goblins, so this felt a bit lacking.

If the Hero trait's boost happened to let me trigger Heart of Eternal Winter, that would be ideal, but even if it didn't, I still had to try. This far in, I'd use everything I had.

"The dark mage we thought was evil was actually being controlled by a wicked dragon!"

"Woooaaahh!!!"

"We have to kill the dragon! Kill the dragon, and everything goes back to normal! I will protect all of you from that wicked dragon!"

"C-Captain! Is that true?"

"...It's true!"

"Woooaaahh!!!"

Riling up the villagers was easy. Between Mysterious Aura and Curiosity, stirring up ordinary people was nothing for me.

"..."

"..."

Ji-won and the other players were giving me somewhat unimpressed looks, sure... but doing what I could do beat not doing it, didn't it?

-Hero [C]
-In a moment of crisis people think of you. You become stronger when you fight to protect someone.

[The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!]
[The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!]
[The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!]
[The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!]
[The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!]
[The effect of the Hero trait has been activated!]

I stacked the Hero trait's activation like that, something I hadn't done in a long time.

"W-wow..."

"No way..."

White smoke started pouring off my body, and a strange light began to swirl around me.

You know how in online games you can buy an aura effect with real money? That was exactly what I looked like. The white light shimmering around me was honestly quite beautiful.

"Jun-ho, are you okay?"

"...Not sure."

It wasn't just my appearance that changed. My mana was boiling too.

This wasn't even about Heart of Eternal Winter. My whole existence had just gotten bloated. My mana had swelled right along with my physical stats, so it basically balanced out to nothing extra.

Which meant... my body had gotten strong enough to actually wield this massive power. I could use it, sure, but I doubted I could control it as freely as I'd hoped.

"How does it feel?"

"The sheer mana and presence are stronger than when I use Heart of Lightning Flash."

"Stronger?"

"But there's the swordsmanship issue too... and your trait. If we fought, I think I'd win."

"Hmm."

By Ji-won's assessment, "just going by raw power, you're stronger than me using Heart of Lightning Flash." But she figured she'd still win in an actual fight. Pretty much matched what I'd thought myself.

"Preparations are complete."

By the time we'd finished our checks, the dark mage had wrapped up his own preparations too. The villagers had started evacuating as well, and the players leading that evacuation nodded at us.

"Let's go."

The dragon looked down at us from the mountain. Our eyes met.

The battle... had already begun.

Let me say it again, the plan is simple.

Cut off the dragon's head.

But like these goals always go, the simpler it sounds, the harder it is to actually pull off. Belling the cat sounds easy enough on paper too.

So after that comes the part that matters: how. How do we cut off the dragon's head? How?

Just closing the distance was already a problem. Look at those huge arms. That long tail, too. Even throwing a single snowball wasn't easy to get close enough for. I could manage something with Flash Step on my own, but Ji-won didn't have a reliable way to close in.

Which was where the dark mage came in.

"%$!$#!$##"

He gripped his staff with both hands and chanted that same ominous incantation. As if answering his call, a red hand rose up out of the ground.

"..."

The dragon's gaze turned toward the dark mage. It had clearly felt the spell too, but even sensing it, the dragon didn't react at all.

"You sure about this?"

"Probably."

The spot where the red hand rose up was right beneath Ji-won's and my feet.

The red hand was slow. But its raw strength was worth respecting.

Anyone sharp enough would've caught on. We were about to use this hand as a kind of catapult.

We took our footing on top of the red hand and crouched as low as we could to soften the impact.

"Now!"

Shwaaaak!

The red hand hurled us straight at the dragon with everything it had! Wind screamed past my ears, and it was hard to even keep my eyes open, so I had to wrap them in mana just to see! The feeling was bizarre! Like riding some amusement park ride! Like free falling!

"---!!!!!"

The reclining dragon reared its massive body up, opened its jaws wide, and let out a terrifying roar. So this was dragon fear. Even with my ears protected by mana, my entire body still rang from the sound. It felt like the vibration was hitting my lungs directly.

But it was already too late. The distance between us and the dragon was down to around 100 meters now. Close enough to close in properly.

"Careful. Its attacks will come faster than they look. The size creates an optical illusion."

"Okay."

Ji-won broke off to the right. I cut left. The dragon looked torn over which of us to target.

"---!!!!"

The dragon roared again. This time a wave of cold energy blasted out in every direction along with it.

"Manageable."

Maybe it was because I handled the same kind of energy myself. It felt bearable. And I trusted that Ji-won, with Sword and Soul as One, would hold up too.

"First... the armpit."

My target was the dragon's armpit. When facing a tough enemy, the standard approach is to hit the weak points first, and joints tend to be the weakest spots on most bodies. If I cut through the muscle at its armpit, I could remove one of its attack options.

Still, I wasn't letting my guard down. It could counterattack at any moment. Every strike needed everything I had, full commitment, full effort.

I poured the essence of Flash Step into my footwork. Compressed the mana, compressed it again, compressed it once more, and packed it entirely into the sword.

Power surged through my body. Time felt like it was slowing down from the sheer focus. Peak condition. No, better than peak. I was at my absolute best.

What I pictured was a single strike splitting the world in two.

"Hoop!"

I closed in on the dragon at a speed I'd never once experienced before, a speed I couldn't even have imagined.

"Wh, whoa?"

"Jun-ho?!"

And that was the problem. It was a speed I hadn't imagined myself either.

My body arrived half a beat faster than I'd intended, not ready to cut. I tried to stop myself in a hurry, but with Flash Step's essence woven into my movement, I couldn't even slow down.

"Ah."

Crack!

In the end, what met the dragon's hard scales wasn't the sharp edge of my sword, but my forehead.

[You have taken damage.]

[Returning to the moment of first entry on Floor 27.]

"Jun-ho, why do you look like that?"

"Uh, um..."

For now, catching the dragon wasn't even the problem.

I needed to start by getting used to the Hero trait's power.

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