Chapter 74 - The Regressor Takes a Beating (5)

I'll be honest.

I think I underestimated how hard dodging arrows would be. I admit it.

For starters, I didn't have much combat experience. So I wasn't particularly used to dodging arrows.

What do I mean? Looking back, all my fights had ended in a single exchange. Since even a graze made me regress, I avoided trading blows whenever possible and only picked fights where I could take down my opponent in one go.

The only opponents I'd really fought hand to hand were puny goblins. The mutant goblin, the punk with telekinesis, the Minotaur in the tutorial, and even the city's ruler on Floor 2—all those fights had ended in a single exchange. It sounds a little ridiculous, but I wasn't making proper use of what my body could do.

But perched atop the peak of ignorance, I'd started all this thinking, 'How hard could it be?' And now... I was discovering just how much I sucked.

I could muddle through the first part of the corridor on my physical abilities alone, but the trouble began in the middle.

Front, back, left, right. Even above and below. Arrows came flying from everywhere with next to no warning. Flames erupted from the walls—whether through magic or something else—and obscured my vision.

“Ugh!”

My high-performance body managed to detect where the arrows were coming from in a split second, but my feet got tangled as I moved.

Gravity forced my weight down onto my ankle, and the ligaments bent in a direction they weren't supposed to...

[You have taken damage.]

[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.]

I regressed.

* * *

[You have taken damage.]

[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.]

I regressed again.

* * *

[You have taken damage.]

[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.]

Once again, I regressed.

* * *

“Fuck, fuck, fuck...”

My body wasn't the only problem.

In fact, my attempts to conquer the corridor were going well. With every regression, I was steadily making it farther.

Even when the arrows came in patterns that were incredibly difficult to dodge, I could get through them somehow as long as I knew they were coming. Throwing a shield onto the floor ahead of time, or wearing two layers of leather armor—it wasn't pretty, but those tricks got me through.

“... Are you all right?”

“No.”

The problem was this time I was spending walking through the cave.

If all I'd had to do was keep attempting the corridor, I would have been in relatively decent shape. The problem was the time it took to reach the arrow traps in the first place.

I had to get up in the cave, greet everyone, pick up weapons, walk down the passage, make the necessary preparations and successfully defeat the wolf, then persuade everyone to prepare for the mirror maze and pass through it. Only then could I finally reach the arrow traps.

I didn't have a watch, so I couldn't tell exactly how much time had passed, but it was three hours at the absolute minimum. Every regression meant repeating three hours' worth of actions.

I figured I'd regressed ten times so far, which meant I'd spent thirty hours doing the same things over and over. My mental reserves were being whittled away in real time.

Still, I was holding up for now. I could feel my movements improving, and I was making progress, one step at a time. Clinging to that small sense of satisfaction let me endure the next three hours.

It was okay. I was doing well.

* * *

I'd regressed twenty times.

I felt like I was starting to understand the rules of this trap corridor.

First, stepping on the floor triggered the traps. And any spot I'd already stepped on was safe to step on again.

Also, the farther I went, the more devious the traps became.

At first, the traps only fired arrows, but at some point they started spewing flames too. Just now, one had even fired fine needles. In the dark corridor, there was no way I could dodge them. It was fucking unfair.

Still, I was making progress. I could do this.

* * *

I'd regressed about forty times.

I desperately wanted the Flash Step I'd used on Floor 2.

I could still vividly remember how it had felt when Baron Licht controlled my mana, but I couldn't do it myself. There was this odd, tickling sensation, but nothing happened. If I'd known it would come to this, I would have sat down and properly learned how to use mana.

It would be great if I could just zip through with Flash Step. Then I wouldn't have to deal with this shit.

I seemed to be nearing the end of the middle section now. Just then, the floor had flipped over and skewered me on a sharp spike. It felt so fucking unfair, but I had no one to complain to, so I just screamed like a madman as soon as I regressed.

Kang Chan glared at me with contempt.

* * *

... Seventy? Eighty? I couldn't really remember. Anyway, I'd regressed a lot.

I'd planned to lie on the floor and rest this run, but Ahn Gyeongjun kept pestering me, so I had no choice but to move.

“... Hey.”

“... Me?”

“You try this.”

Maybe it was because I was feeling a little resentful toward him.

Having gone slightly off the rails, I decided to shove Ahn Gyeongjun into the traps.

“...”

The moment Ahn Gyeongjun, now possessed after being exposed to Kang Chan's killing intent, stepped into the corridor, arrows flew at him from every direction.

“...!”

The spirit's reflexes got him through the beginning of the corridor with ease, but as the arrows multiplied and their timing began to stagger, even the possessed Ahn Gyeongjun could only do so much.

“... Hmm.”

Even amid the torrential rain of arrows, he batted some aside and dodged others. But there were shallow cuts all over his body.

“... Poison.”

Coming from a guy who carried wooden spears, that firm declaration sounded pretty credible.

“Not a lethal kind. A paralytic. But it gradually accumulates in the body.”

“...”

Only then did I finally understand the purpose of this trap corridor.

The arrowheads were blunter than I'd expected. A direct hit would injure you, but not kill you.

The bastard who designed these traps probably wanted us to take turns getting through them. We were supposed to switch out before too much poison built up in any one person's body.

“Uh, ugh... It's all tingly...”

As soon as the possession ended, Ahn Gyeongjun began fussing and vigorously massaging his arms.

“... Gyeongjun.”

“... Yes?”

“I'll be counting on you.”

It looked like I could get his help with the latter part of the corridor from now on. This was a huge gain.

* * *

I'd regressed over a hundred times. After that, I stopped counting.

“Heh, hehehe...”

I ran down the corridor with my eyes closed.

By now, I could dodge the traps in the early and middle sections with my eyes shut. I'd spent every three-hour walk through the cave mentally rehearsing, so I could see the arrows' trajectories clearly even with my eyes closed.

Arrows, flames, poisoned needles, spikes, throwing stars, holes that suddenly opened in the floor—all those varied traps were no longer a match for me. The part near the end that spewed countless needles was a real headache... but I'd dumped that job on Ahn Gyeongjun. He spun his spear in a circle to use it as a shield, and even watching it left me in awe.

My footsteps fell steadily, each step full of confidence.

Arrows rained down from every direction, and my body turned smoothly among them.

The barrage was so dense that it was less a collection of points or lines than a solid plane, but in the end, not a single arrow touched me.

It was the result of precisely the right posture, precisely the right movements, and precisely the right distribution of force.

“...”

No more arrows came.

Only then did I smile and take another step.

I didn't hear the familiar mechanical click.

“... Ah.”

The floor had changed color. Instead of the smooth stone of the trap corridor, it was the damp, slippery floor of a cave.

The trap corridor was over.

“... Have I gone and done it now?”

I looked down at my left hand and shook my head.

After countless attempts, I had come to understand my body completely. I'd gotten all the practical experience in evasion I could ever want.

Now, the insurance policy of Regression had gained the spicy addition of phenomenal footwork. If I could just get my hands on attack power like Kang Chan's... I'd be completely invincible.

“Heheh, hehehe...”

Laughing manfully, I spun around to face the rest of the party.

“...”

“What in the...”

“... That's impossible.”

Kang Chan's face was expressionless, but his wavering eyes betrayed his bewilderment. Dok Suhui stared wide-eyed in shock, while Ahn Gyeongjun had clapped a hand over his mouth.

From their perspective, I must have looked like some absurdly overpowered character. I'd dodged countless hidden projectiles pouring in from every direction with light footwork and advanced without fear.

Of course, behind that lay hundreds of hours of effort and the exceptional physical abilities my achievement level had given me... but there was no need to mention any of that.

“All right, now you just need to come across by stepping where I stepped.”

Smiling, I encouraged the rest of the party to join me.

“...”

“...”

But they just stood there, staring at my face.

“... What's wrong?”

“Junho... how are we supposed to remember where you stepped?”

“... Oh.”

[You have taken damage.]

[Regressing to the moment you first entered Floor 3-5.]

* * *

In the end, after the whole farce of slathering the soles of my leather boots with wolf blood to mark my footsteps, all four of us successfully made it through the arrow traps. Ahn Gyeongjun sustained a few injuries while blocking the needles, but none were remotely serious.

We'd cleared the arrow corridor without Kang Chan's punch.

My efforts had finally borne fruit.

“Wow, you're seriously amazing... Look at these needles... There's liquid dripping off them...”

“I-I thought I was watching a movie...”

Dok Suhui and Ahn Gyeongjun kept showering me with praise. They weren't empty compliments, but genuine, heartfelt admiration.

“...”

But for some reason, I wasn't particularly happy.

It left me uneasy.

A Word from the Author (Afterword)

Thank you, as always, for reading.

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