A Regressor's Bucket List Chapter 126

“Hey.”

“……!”

The being that had suddenly appeared in the training hall and spoken to me was none other than Tom Hardist.

For a moment, I couldn't help but be on guard.

“…What are you so surprised about? It’s not like I’m going to eat you.”

If it had been an Exorcist official instead of Tom, it wouldn't have been strange for this already tangled mess to become irreversible.

Fortunately, the worst-case scenario did not unfold.

Hoo-

“Why now, all of a sudden? You haven’t said a word.”

When I asked with a sigh, he picked a fight, uncharacteristically, as if he had prepared for it.

“…It seems you have a hobby of eating strange things. I didn’t know you were planning to eat that stone.”

“……”

“Did it taste good?”

“…Shut up. I have a headache as it is.”

Even with my throbbing head, something about the situation felt off.

He, who had disappeared during my conversation with Louis, had stealthily reappeared and was picking a fight in a way that wasn't like him.

The nuance was slightly different from the Tom I knew.

Besides, since he had been silent all this time, it was unlikely he would have spoken to me for no reason…

“…I checked with the people here.”

“……”

“To see if what you said about the Beastkin was true.”

As expected, there was a main point.

“…It was true. There’s no exact data compilation, so I can’t be sure about the 95%, but I confirmed that it wasn’t a lie you made up.”

“……”

“I don’t know how things ended up like this, but…”

With an expression somewhere between frustration and embarrassment, he continued.

“Of course, I still don’t know what a guy like you, who isn't even a Beastkin, is plotting by doing such a thing. So I don’t completely trust you either.”

“……”

“But… for now, I will cooperate. With that useful-looking plan of yours.”

Psik-

I thought I had already gotten my answer when he followed me out of the Darkest Dungeon, but it seemed to be a separate matter from his perspective.

His silence ever since leaving the dungeon was likely because he had been mulling it over.

Well, it was an understandable reaction.

The fact that all Beastkin were treated as slaves must have been shocking to him, to a degree that couldn't be expressed with the simple word ‘shocking’.

Since understanding with one’s head and accepting with one’s heart are two different things, it seemed he needed time to reconcile that disparity.

For Tom, who had always been a lone wolf, to have investigated by asking strangers questions himself, it must have been a truly serious deliberation.

…Well.

Whether his method was truly questioning or interrogation disguised as questioning, I didn't know.

That wasn't the important part.

What mattered was the result: he had decided to join me.

“Alright.”

“……”

“…I get it, so just go for now. The Beastkin, the Resurrection, it’ll all be for nothing if this doesn’t work out anyway. I have enough on my plate without that.”

Of course, it was a good thing that he had heard my true intentions.

But my current predicament was too much of a headache to be happy right now.

I needed to focus all my attention on figuring out where and how to start sorting this out to safely escape this den of evil(?).

From how to explain the destruction of this Enhancement Magic, to how to convince Louis.

There were plenty of other things to explain besides that, so my conversation with Tom had to be postponed.

Besides, Louis hadn't given me much time in the first place.

But despite my telling him to leave, he approached me, cluelessly asking questions.

“…You have a headache? Were you training your head?”

“……”

“Hmm… This looks like a floor enhanced by magic, but I’ve never seen a training method that involves breaking it with one’s head.”

Wait a minute.

“You truly are a freak… you are. I prided myself on having done almost every kind of training, but even I have never tried such a bizarre method.”

Suddenly, a few ideas from his words flashed through my mind.

‘…A freak?’

A suitable excuse to cover up the destruction of the Enhancement Magic.

And following that, a rough story to somehow handle the current situation.

‘…Could this be it?’

I couldn't make a perfect excuse, but I thought I could come up with a framework to gloss things over and get out of here for the time being.

I needed to confirm a few more things to be certain, but if my guess was right, it should be possible.

I looked up at Tom.

“…What’s with that look?”

And I asked.

“Can you do this?”

Psik-

“What do you take me for? Anything you can do with your body is a piece of cake for me.”

It seemed I needed to amend my words slightly.

“Move aside. I will show you what a true headbutt is.”

Tom wasn't an uninvited guest.

*Siiik-*

He was a most welcome one.

* * *

“……”

Louis couldn't understand.

It was the training hall he had used just fine until yesterday.

It hadn't been repaired once in decades.

He knew because he had personally repaired the strengthening Magic Circle the last time it broke and had even checked it himself.

He had painstakingly crafted it so that even if a 2-star Hero struck it with all their might, it wouldn't be completely destroyed.

And yet, it was broken.

“Sorry.”

“…What in the world do you do to make a whole training hall collapse?”

And not just a part of it, but every last pillar.

The whole thing had been blown away.

“Oops. I think your question is pointed in the wrong direction.”

U-jin, who had raised both hands as if to proclaim his innocence, turned his head towards the back.

Leaning against the door with a somewhat displeased expression was Tom Hardist.

“Did you not provoke me first? The Beastkin are not a race so meek as to let mockery slide.”

“……”

“See, he confessed. The culprit.”

At U-jin’s added remark, Tom snorted.

“Hmph, the training hall was pathetically weak in the first place. To think it would break after a few headbutts.”

“……”

From Louis’s perspective, there was a lot he wanted to say.

He had cast a strengthening Magic Circle so hard that if most people slammed their heads on the floor, their skulls would have been crushed.

He wanted to ask just how thick a skull one must have to break it with their head.

Kwang-

But as Tom slammed the door shut and left, Louis could only swallow his pent-up anger.

Ujeok-

“……”

The office door breaking along with it was just a bonus.

Shrug-

“I’ll apologize on his behalf for that one.”

“…Don’t. I don’t think an apology would sound like an apology.”

Letting out a sigh at his unbearable frustration, Louis briefly closed and opened his eyes, then asked U-jin.

“So.”

“……”

“What happened?”

This was the main topic.

The sudden news of the training hall’s collapse had almost made him lose his mind for a moment.

But the story U-jin had burst into his office with wasn't about the training hall, but that he ‘seemed to have figured something out about the Source Stone.’

At Louis’s question, U-jin took something out of his pocket instead of answering.

“Is that…”

It was the Gold Cube.

Dalkak-

…The one containing Quark, at that.

“Why are you opening th…”

“Just watch.”

Louis, who had been looking at U-jin opening the Cube with practiced ease with an uncomprehending gaze, soon found himself doubting his own eyes.

Saaaaat-

“……!”

The reason was simple.

As U-jin took Quark out of the Cube and placed it on his palm, Quark began to vibrate faintly and extend its own flesh.

‘This is…’

There was no need to ask what it was.

As the head of the group that used Quark the most, Louis had already conducted numerous experiments and studies.

It was impossible for Quark’s size to grow in such a manner under any circumstances.

…Except when it was attached to the Source Stone.

“I asked your subordinate just in case and tried it.”

“……”

“It worked. The self-regeneration of Quark you mentioned.”

In truth, when U-jin first mentioned it, Louis had a fleeting thought.

If U-jin had really swallowed the Source Stone of Quark, and if he was now conversing with him without any abnormalities, it was because he had truly ‘digested’ the Source Stone in some way.

If so, perhaps he could use its abilities as they were.

But.

That was literally a passing fantasy, and he had never expected to see it right before his eyes.

“How is it?”

“…It is certainly… astonishing. I truly never imagined its self-regeneration could be controlled at will.”

“Its self-regeneration?”

U-jin’s meaningful question.

Louis tilted his head at the incomprehensible question.

But suddenly, another thought occurred to Louis.

No, to be more precise, it was closer to another ‘fantasy’.

This too was a train of thought that could not be reached by common sense, something that was neither logical nor sensible.

‘…Perhaps.’

…There had been many attempts to study the Source Stone of Quark until now, but not much had been revealed compared to the effort.

The reason was simple.

While it was possible to make all sorts of hypotheses about the Source Stone, the process of actually verifying them was arduous to the point of being nigh impossible.

Approaching the Source Stone in the first place was a life-threatening endeavor, and even if one risked their life to participate, direct contact was out of the question.

Therefore, most methods involved experimenting from a distance, using other mediums behind several mana-shielding barriers.

Even those limited experiments were only possible at the very end, after the Saintess had excavated the previous Source Stone and time had passed, when the Source Stone had almost lost its self-regenerative power.

Therefore.

Besides the ability to continuously generate Quark, not much else was known about the Source Stone’s other properties or abilities.

It was something that couldn't be uncovered no matter how hard one tried.

But.

‘…….’

If this was the case, the story was different.

Researching the Source Stone and researching a human who could handle the Source Stone were on completely different levels.

No.

There was no need for separate research.

Just as he had seen, if U-jin could truly manifest the other powers of the Source Stone in the same way, then U-jin’s own exploration of his powers was already a perfect research process in itself, with nothing more to add or subtract.

In other words, it meant they might be able to find out about Quark’s hidden abilities or properties, and even the fundamental reason why Quark absorbs the Demonic Nature of demons.

They could go beyond simply relying on Quark to use its power more actively, or even understand its principles to create objects with the same properties.

Of course, this was still an absurd fantasy that existed only in Louis’s head.

Psik-

“I think we’re having a similar thought right now.”

Then, from U-jin’s words as he raised the corner of his mouth, Louis could realize.

That U-jin, too, was having the same fantasy.

And.

“…Let’s make a deal, Louis.”

That it wasn't just a fantasy, but something that could actually be achieved.