The Regressor Can Make Them All

Chapter 202

Capturing one of Puppeteer’s Single Numbers to prove the performance of the finger...

Faced with such an outrageous standard, Se-Hoon fell into deep thought.

It's a ridiculous condition, but... it's not that bad.

He had already decided to kill the Dream Demon during the summer vacation, so he needed to evaluate his skills before starting the plan anyway. And considering Wurgen’s training methods, Wurgen would leave him completely alone until just before death, allowing him to fight to his limits naturally—it would be the perfect opportunity.

If I fail, I'll lose a part of my soul to him... but that's better than dying while fighting a Single Number later on.

And if he succeeded in subduing the Single Number, it would be easier to use Wurgen for his own benefit in the future. Having weighed the pros and cons, Se-Hoon decided to gain more information.

“Am I allowed to use other equipment besides the finger?”

Finding Se-Hoon's reaction much calmer than expected, Wurgen looked at him peculiarly.

“If I restricted you from using other equipment, it would be too much for you to handle. Use whatever you want, but the fingers must be the main focus.”

“You mean I have to deliver the final blow with the finger.”

“Correct. And you cannot receive any help from Ryu Eun-Ha. It will be too easy if she intervenes.”

“That’s... true.”

Even among other S-rank heroes, there was a significant gap in skill with Eun-Ha. And since Eun-Ha had good compatibility against automatons, that was especially the case. She would be able to subdue a Single Number relatively easily.

How should I face a Single Number alone...

For himself, however, an up-front battle was obviously the worst choice. Wurgen also likely preferred that he subdued it using the power of Boundaries from the finger.

Musing over the best method, Se-Hoon only finished organizing his thoughts after a long while.

“Understood. Since it's your body, it should be able to take down at least that to be satisfactory.”

“...”

Wurgen narrowed his eye, thinking Se-Hoon accepted the condition too readily. He had planned to force Se-Hoon regardless of what he said, but it had gone so smoothly that it felt strange.

He’s a hard one to figure out...

He felt a bit uneasy, but it was fine since he wouldn't lose anything regardless of whether Se-Hoon succeeded or failed.

With the deal concluded, Wurgen restored the Se-Hoon’s view.

“I can prepare the location for you, so let me know if you have a particular preference. And...” Pausing, Wurgen flicked his gaze to the side before continuing, “...did you put something in those swords?”

“Pardon?”

Confused by Wurgen's sudden question, Se-Hoon turned to face where he was looking.

Crunch! Crunch!

There, Eun-Ha was munching on the sword Se-Hoon had forged for her. At some point, she had stacked a pile of mass-produced weapons on the desk next to her, devouring one with each bite of a Stellar Night Sword.

What the...

Bewildered by the bizarre scene he had never seen before, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

Is she... treating them like side dishes?

At that realization, it dawned on him why Eun-Ha’s reaction earlier had been subtle.

It was too salty for her.

While the swords tasted good, they were too heavy to eat alone. So, she had taken out the mass-produced weapons she had prepared in advance to happily eat them with his equipment.

“Ah.”

Meeting Se-Hoon’s eyes, Eun-Ha, with her cheeks puffed out due to chewing weapons, froze and an awkward silence flowed between them.

Swallowing the leftover fragments in her mouth, she broke the silence with a lightly embarrassed expression by saying, “I—I’m sorry. I just thought it would taste better this way...”

“No, no. You should eat them how you want to. It’ll serve as useful information when I prepare the meals I’ll be making you in the future.”

Since he hadn't fully grasped her taste preferences yet, it was beneficial to gather as much information as possible.

Slightly relieved, Eun-Ha nodded with an awkward smile.

“Understood. Then, next time, I’ll inform you first... By the way, what is that on your left hand?”

Noticing Wurgen’s eye on the back of Se-Hoon’s hand, Eun-Ha’s expression turned serious. Looking between the two, Se-Hoon realized he had made a mistake.

And at that moment, Wurgen's teasing voice echoed around them. “I came to see how skilled he is in forging... but I happened to witness something even more valuable.”

“...”

Seeing Eun-Ha's expression grow colder than usual, Se-Hoon quickly covered the eye with his right hand.

“He and I need to work on forging something, so why don’t you finish your meal outside and then come back?”

“...Okay.”

Though reluctant, Eun-Ha took her meal and headed to the lounge in the hallway right outside the forge.

Phew... I thought they were going to cause another ruckus.

Sighing in relief, Se-Hoon removed his left hand, revealing Wurgen’s fascinated eye which was intently fixed on the door Eun-Ha had left through.

“It's the first time I've seen her show such emotions... is it because of your weapons?”

“That seems to be the case.”

“Hmm... I guess there really is something about you.”

After a while, Wurgen turned his attention back to Se-Hoon.

“Hurry up and start forging my finger now.”

“Okay.”

Heeding Wurgen’s request, Se-Hoon pulled out the Nimbus Steel from his void pocket.

The ingot, which seemed like a carved-out portion of the night sky, fascinated Wurgen.

“I’m amazed every time I see it. Extracting such pure darkness mana should have been no easy task.”

“I just happen to know someone who had the right tool for it.”

Woong!

Gathering Midnight Abyss in his left hand, Se-Hoon coated the Nimbus Steel thinly with it. By doing so, he could prevent the Nimbus Steel from collapsing upon itself and scattering during the forging process.

Moving to the next step, Se-Hoon focused, given the highly sensitive nature of the material, and began creating Shadow Threads with his right hand.

Sss-

One by one, the long Shadow Threads connected to the shining points on the Nimbus Steel’s surface, which formed the constellations that Se-Hoon had projected onto its surface when he was with Lea. When all of the Shadow Threads were connected, he heightened his right hand’s sensitivity even more and began to move slowly.

Woong-

Like constellations moving in the sky throughout the night, the constellations on the Nimbus Steel began to shift positions in response to his touch. It created a mystical sight that deepened Wurgen's interest.

Projecting celestial bodies onto it and then manipulating them to enhance the equipment’s properties... quite clever, indeed.

Normally, Nimbus Steel was a type of ore that only specialized in strengthening the mana infused in it, based on the mana’s attributes and properties. Simply put, it was like turning a candle flame into a raging wildfire, static electricity into an endless thunderstorm, or a droplet of water into a tsunami.

The increase was so significant that merely using Nimbus Steel as a forging material would relatively easily lead to Legendary equipment. However, there was one drawback.

Now it’s no longer possible for low-rank heroes to use.

The greater the power the piece of equipment contained, the greater the strength required to control it. Nimbus Steel-forged equipment, especially, was so powerful that even A-rank heroes often struggled to handle them.

Therefore, Se-Hoon decided to slightly sacrifice the output, only enhancing the properties of the weapon, rather than forge something too difficult for him to control.

Oh? This approach still requires proper usage of the properties though, making it only slightly less challenging for low-rank heroes.... I guess he’s confident in his ability.

Se-Hoon definitely wasn’t strong enough to be considered an S-rank, but he didn’t seem to be too far behind. Regardless, it was an arrogant choice, but it made Wurgen curious about the outcome, so he watched the next step with anticipation.

Woong!

Done arranging the constellations into a specific shape, the Nimbus Steel began to turn even darker and emit an eerie aura. The ingot was now filled with darkness mana, and seething with soul, making it the ideal material for forging equipment related to necromancy.

“This should do for the setup... Mr. Wurgen, do you mind infusing some of your power into this?”

At Se-Hoon's request, Wurgen squinted.

“Didn’t you say you would only use a portion of this material?”

“Huh? Oh, I did. But—”

“So why do you need me to infuse my power into the entire material? You're planning to use the leftover materials yourself, aren't you?”

Tsk.

Caught, Se-Hoon clicked his tongue internally to avoid being read by Wurgen. He then put a smile on his face and tried to explain.

“No, no. I’m not asking you to fully infuse it with your power; you only need to do it until I say it’s enough. I apologize for not explaining properly.”

“You must think I'm an idiot if you’re giving such a poor excuse. You’re going to have to pay for it. I’m going to take more of your soul for a quadruplet if the finger turns out to be subpar.”

Following that chilling warning, Wurgen’s eye smoothly transitioned from Se-Hoon’s left hand to the surface of the Nimbus Steel.

Woong!

Now on the Nimbus Steel, Wurgen closed his eye and began infusing it with the power of Boundaries, which made the stars floating on its surface turn into numerous eyes, large and small. Then, just as its internal structure began to warp due to the incoming power, Se-Hoon gave Wurgen the signal.

“That’s enough!”

With no delay, Wurgen instantly retracted his power, closing the eyes on the Nimbus Steel’s surface. All that was left were marks that made it look as if it were asleep.

Hmm. This seems well supported.

Previously, the Nimbus Steel gave a blurry, almost ethereal feel, but now it felt solidly consolidated from the inside. Wurgen’s power had become the strong pillar that prevented it from collapsing.

If I made a single mistake during the process, the unique properties of the Nimbus Steel would have completely disappeared....

Checking it over once more, Se-Hoon then used the Edict of the Eternal Nocturne to immediately invoke the boundary's power.

Whoosh!

Drawing a line along the surface of the Nimbus Steel with his index finger, one-third of the ingot was cleanly separated. He then split the fragment again into two pieces, each about the size of two fingers, and held one in each hand.

“I need to send this fragment to the Netherworld. Can you help me ensure it doesn’t disintegrate?”

“...”

Wurgen's eye stared at Se-Hoon. He had planned to criticize Se-Hoon if there was any clumsiness, but the process was going way more smoothly than he had expected.

“Mr. Wurgen?”

“...Fine, just don’t rush me.”

Moving his eye over to the fragment in Se-Hoon's left hand, Wurgen closed it, and it crossed the boundary and disappeared into the Netherworld.

“Whew...”

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Se-Hoon activated Bond Imprint with his right hand.

[Bond Imprint ‘Compression Stone’ has been activated.]

Woong-

He felt a strange sensation in his right hand. The fragment of the Nimbus Steel, which felt study before, now felt soft. It felt like he could crush it with barely any force, indicating Jake’s Fatestone, the Compression Stone, had fully taken effect.

Se-Hoon called out to Wurgen.

“Mr. Wurgen, can you still hear me?”

“Speak.”

“When I give the signal, could you project the fragment in the Netherworld to the coordinates of the fragment in my right hand?”

“...Project it? Not return it?”

While returning the fragment to the surface world and projecting the fragment from the underground to the surface world seemed similar, they were completely different.

The former simply meant bringing it back entirely, whereas the latter meant creating a new state from its Netherworld counterpart. Essentially, the latter brought back a pseudo-instance of the fragment, leaving the original in the Netherworld.

“Yes. It must be projected. The coordinates must also not be wrong.”

“I see that you intend to overlap the two fragments... but do you know what will happen if you do that?”

“There will probably be a large collision, and one side will become completely unusable.”

Se-Hoon then looked down at the fragment in his right hand.

“Unless you reinforce it with the power of Boundaries, of course.”

“...”

“You understand what I’m saying, right? It’s your own power, after all.”

A moment of silence passed, and soon, it was broken by Wurgen’s maniacal laughter echoing all around him.

“Kahahaha! Ahahahahah!”

His laughter was so loud and hearty that it was hard to believe it came from the usually cold and composed Wurgen. And it continued for a long while. Then, Wurgen returned to his usual cold voice.

“I should have just retracted my power from you... and it seems not doing so was a bigger mistake than I thought.”

“Are you angry?”

“No... I’m just contemplating whether to kill you to clean up this mess.”

A wave of killing intent was unleashed. Even just contemplating whether to kill Se-Hoon had released an overwhelming murderous aura.

However, it was brief. The killing intent vanished as soon as it arrived.

“But I guess it’ll be more interesting to see how far you can go. I’m all ready; just give me the signal.”

“...Understood.”

Taking a deep breath, Se-Hoon calmed himself and refocused, looking down at his right hand.

And when all of his senses were sharpened to their fullest—

“Now!”

Swish-

The projection of the fragment in the Netherworld and the one he had overlapped at the same coordinates.

Crack!

Catching the moment it happened, Se-Hoon concentrated all of his strength and mana into his right hand and then squeezed the overlapping fragments with all of his might. It caused the two fragments, which should have repelled each other, to forcibly compress into one.

And it caused a terrifying backlash within Se-Hoon’s grip.

Crunch! Squish!

Blood spurted out from between his fingers, the result of the bones and muscles in his hand being crushed. Even with the Bond Imprint activated by Jake’s Fatestone, it was this severe; without it, his right hand would have been torn apart long ago.

A little more...!

The two fragments had yet to perfectly mesh together. Covering his clenched right hand with his left, Se-Hoon summoned every ounce of strength he had, clenching his teeth so hard they felt like they might crack.

Blood dripped from his nose and mouth from the exertion, and his vision began to blur. But despite his best efforts, the pieces still wouldn’t mesh together, causing his eyes to twist in frustration.

Bam!

The door to the forging room burst open and Eun-Ha hurriedly rushed in.

“How can I be of assistance?” she asked urgently.

Taking her offer, Se-Hoon’s mind raced to calculate the best course of action.

“When I give the signal, release as much heat as you can with both hands. Don’t worry about burning my hands.”

Eun-Ha hesitated at his extreme request but only for a moment. She nodded with determination, her eyes shining.

“Understood.”

Fwoosh!

Her hair and eyes promptly turned crimson, and the heat concentrated in her hands, creating an intense sound. Now that she was ready, Se-Hoon released his left hand and desperately shouted his request.

“Hold on!”

Eun-Ha’s hands swiftly wrapped around Se-Hoon’s loosening right hand, releasing an intense burst of heat.

Ignoring the pain coming from his hand, he summoned the last of his strength and squeezed the fragments with everything he had left.

Clack-

Then, with the sound of something clicking together, everything disappeared.

Fwoosh!

The heat from Eun-Ha's hands and the pressure from Se-Hoon's grip disappeared without a trace.

This is...

Surprised by the sudden change in the form of the Nimbus Steel, Eun-Ha looked on with wide eyes, while Se-Hoon focused on the sensation in his right hand.

It was as if the object in his hand was there yet not, alive yet dead—an ambiguous sensation that made him subtly smile.

He slowly opened his damaged right hand.

Whirr-

Ascending into the air, a black fragment hovered above his hand. It was the size of a finger, bearing Se-Hoon’s fingerprints in a messy state, and the power emanating from it was unusual.

I need to do the finishing touches...

However, given the state of his right hand, it would take some time. Tired, he rested for the final step.

“Since you’ve shown me something so impressive, I’ll handle the final touches.”

Crrrack!

At the sudden voice, the black fragment compressed, its shape refining. Simultaneously, small inscriptions were etching themselves one by one on the surface.

What emerged then, when everything stilled, was a black finger bone densely engraved with spells, just as he had envisioned it. Se-Hoon looked on with astonished eyes.

[Equipment ‘Eternal Nocturne’s Phalanx’ has been completed!

An extraordinary object created by a master blacksmith borrowing the power of a Perfect One! This object bears the very fundamental nature of contradiction, being created at the boundary of life and death. Its mysteries will never be understood by anyone other than a Perfect One.

The tier evaluation for ‘Eternal Nocturne’s Planax’ is ‘Legendary’.]

For the first time after regressing, he had succeeded in forging Legendary-tier equipment.