Everyone Else is a Returnee

"…….Huh, wait."

Yu IlHan forgot about the pain from Echjar"s curse and focused on what was happening inside him. Echjar"s enormous mana, the curse he was controlling, as well as the mana of Falling down - numerous different types of mana were clas.h.i.+ng against each other, somewhere within the frenzy, there was an aura that burned in bright white even amidst all of that.

A dragon"s aura - he had felt this early on when he "bathed" in the Giant Bucket. The special kind of flow that changed his mana from the foundation, little by little, could not be forgotten even if he wanted to.

However, right now, it was reacting again at the moment he tried to enhance Transcendent regeneration with the help of Dragonic blood. Yu IlHan predicted that it was due to Echjar"s mana that was being poured into him

[……Dragon? You, you harbor the aura of dragons!]

Echjar also realized that fact. Of course, Yu IlHan couldn"t even respond right now. He was busy just thinking about what kind of method he had to use with that aura to help him survive or going further, to control Echjar"s mana.

However, the conclusion was simple. If dragon"s mana was reacting, then he just needed to make the same environment when it reacted before!

So, what Yu IlHan did, was to summon the Giant Bucket in midair without any hesitation.

[Just what is, an artifact that harbors the essence of dragons…… what!?]
"There we go."

Then, he moved his body very slowly through the blood and sat himself down in the bucket. He even called out Aegis to hold the bucket in midair.

"……IlHan, you."

Echjar"s blood naturally enveloped the Giant Bucket as well, and although it was hard to recognize, it wasn"t like it was hard to realize that Yu IlHan was bathing in Echjar"s blood.

"……"
[……]
[……]

To think he"d start bathing when he could barely move thanks to the curse - seeing a completely unpredictable scene in front of them, both allies and enemies fell into silence. However, like a loner, Yu IlHan didn"t mind the gaze of others and focused on himself and the Bucket.

"I can do it. I can do it……!"

He activated Dragonic blood to forcefully change his own blood to closer to that of a dragon"s, and used that for Transcendent regeneration. While the blood within his body caused a rejection to Echjar"s blood, the Giant Bucket finally started resonating with him!

[Just, what…….!?]

Echjar, who had initially been full of rage at the one that made him fall to a lower existence, questioned what he was doing, rather than continuing to rage.
However, as long as the curse had been activated, he would have a hard time moving, and as he could not cancel the curse as he wished to, and could only watch what Yu IlHan was doing.

"Kkhhhhhh , but this."

While the Giant Bucket and Yu IlHan"s blood were synchronizing, the blood containing Echjar"s curse, rampaged violently, trying to dissolve Yu IlHan to nothing.
It would be the best if the Giant Bucket could encroach on the dragon"s blood as well, but the owner of the blood was still alive! As if to resist the Giant Bucket"s aura, it started to affect the Giant Bucket as well. Reddish black smoke was coming off from various parts of the Giant Bucket.

[Master, even though the Giant Bucket is an artifact, his blood is too strong!]
"Right?"

Yu IlHan was also aware of that threat - his Giant Bucket may become unusable! That was why, he took out whatever 5th cla.s.s magic stones there were in his inventory. - there were four of them. This should be enough!

"If that"s so, I"ll just upgrade the Giant Bucket right here and now!"
[Master"s imagination always exceeds my imagination……]
[Kugh! My curse……. YOU!]

Now that things came to this, he would stop at nothing. This fight was already no longer a fight between Echjar and Yu IlHan, but Yu IlHan against the very concept of dragons.

He smashed down with the 5th cla.s.s magic stones in his hand and made it clash against the Giant Bucket and activated Mana crafting that was at level 99!

Golden mana colored the world. The mana that all the magic stones had emitted were sucked into the bucket, temporarily pus.h.i.+ng Echjar"s blood back as well.

[Th, this……!]
"What the h.e.l.l is IlHan doing?"
[Just what kind of curse resistance allows him such free movement inside such a frightening curse…..?]

Yu IlHan"s body resonated with the Giant Bucket and started glowing as well. He had to maintain Falling Down, resist the dragon"s curse, and even focus on the upgrade process, so his head felt like it would explode, but he endured. Endured and focused his senses to their limits!

[Kuuugh.]

If his conditions were normal, he would have poured more mana in order to drive Yu IlHan into further straits, but as he had to hold his body from collapsing due to the rapid fall in league, he could not do that. It was quite the deadlock.

"Spiera, what can I do for IlHan……?"
[We cannot do anything, Liera. Just prevent Echjar from doing anything else.]

Focusing on the control of his mana for Mana crafting on the Giant Bucket, while fighting against the curse that tried to dissolve his skin, blood vessels, nerves, muscles and even bones, was something that even higher existences would shudder in the thought of it - he had endured through an unknown amount of time while in that state.

[Kugh!?]
"I did it!"

Now, the golden mana that glowed as if to fill the world with light, even dawned on Yu IlHan"s vision as well!
After the flash, an enormous amount of mana was absorbed into the Giant Bucket at once. The magic stones in his hands had long since disappeared, all the mana contained inside them were used in the upgrade of the Giant Bucket.

[Cradle of Miracles was completed.]

A single line of text etched itself onto Yu IlHan"s retina. There was no need to read the follow-up texts - Yu IlHan had a complete understanding of this artifact. The only important thing was that this artifact, born during the most dangerous times of Yu IlHan, was of the G.o.d rank.

"Good."

Yu IlHan acknowledged that it was his fault for trying to win against an enemy so easily. That was why, and precisely because of that.

"This is the final round."

The Cradle of Miracles and Yu IlHan, the resonance between the two became deeper as time went on. Even the Infernal dragon body, that could not show its light until now, partic.i.p.ated in the resonance.

The lump of Echjar"s blood that tried to dissolve the Cradle of Miracles, the Infernal dragon body, and Yu IlHan"s body, clearly halted this time. Immediately after that, a slight tinge of gold emerged from the depths of the reddish black blood of curses.

Ehcjar finally realized what Yu IlHan was doing.

[……? Nonsensical. Don"t tell me you, a mere lower existence, is trying to take over the control of my mana?]
"We won"t know if we don"t try, no……"

Yu IlHan realized that the blood that seeped into his eyes behind the eyeball, had disappeared from his eyes, and that his transcendent regeneration had recovered his eyesight as well.

The battlefield that he had to rely on his other senses to feel finally entered his eyes.

"IlHan!"
[Yu IlHan……truly amazing!]

Liera and Spiera shouted in joy when they saw Yu IlHan"s "revival" after they were at loss what to do from the moment Yu IlHan attacked the dragon. They could also see the gigantic dragon roaring in the air connected to Yu Ilhan via a path of blood.

Although the dragon was still retaining its form as his mana control was tremendous, but the more Yu IlHan held out against the curse, the worse his state became. Really, it was a curse that would not end unless one side died.

"Seeing as you can"t even control your own mana, I think the outcome is obvious!"
[You immediately used my line…]

Disregarding Spiera"s grumbles, Yu IlHan accelerated the resonance between himself and the Cradle of Miracles. As the intervals between the resonances became shorter, the dragon"s blood also thumped in a manner similar to a heartbeat, and reacted to it. Eventually, the moment Yu IlHan had been waiting for, had arrived. The blood full of curses started being purified!

[This, cannot……!?]

Echjar voiced out in shock. No one in his long lifespan had erased his curse from resisting it head on!

No, it wasn"t just that. From the moment the blood was cleansed of the curse, it emitted golden light and resonated with the Cradle of Miracles, and started flowing back to Yu IlHan.
It was a fundamentally different flow compared to when the curse was trying to destroy Yu IlHan"s body. The blood containing lifeforce and mana had regenerated the wounds Yu IlHan had and was transforming his mana!

"See?"

Yu IlHan felt that his internal mana was resonating with Echjar"s blood and was intermixing. It wasn"t that he didn"t feel a sense of resistance or rejection, but as Transcendent regeneration recovered his body, the blood was also being changed to suit him. Echjar voiced out his shock.

[Th, this cannot be. I, the King of Dragons, cannot lose to a puny human! There"s no way I"d fall to being a foothold for a mere human"s growth!]
"I feel like I"ve grasped the path I should walk on in the future. So I"ll say a word of thanks - thanks."

[You have absorbed a portion of the blood and mana of the Dragon of Despair, Echjar, through the Cradle of Miracles. Magic permanently increases by 235. The body has commenced evolving, but the results are minute and does not show on the outside.]

Yu IlHan eventually stood up from the Cradle of Miracles and stored it back into his inventory. His body movements were very light, and was full of vitality.

Right now, who was it that could not move due to the curse? Yu IlHan"s mana was steadily being amplified while he absorbed the golden blood, but Echjar"s blood was being drained without being able to move. Of course, that would also stop the moment his mana is depleted!

[I, the 13th Battalion Commander of the Destruction Demon Army, Lord Echjar…..!]

And that, would be the moment of his death.

"But I won"t let that happen."

It wasn"t that Yu IlHan had a change of heart and decided to join the Destruction Demon Army. It"s just that he could not bear to watch the dragon"s body falling in league anymore. He didn"t even know when he could meet and beat another 7th cla.s.s!

"It should still have a value as a 7th cla.s.s remains. It"s fine. If it"s now, it will be fine…..!"
[YOU, YU ILHAAAAAAAAAAN!]

Echjar roared towards Yu IlHan in rage, as he finally realized that Yu IlHan had only seen him as equipment materials until the very end!

However, Yu IlHan completely ignored his roar, and pushed all the mana that was enhanced by the dragon"s blood into the tip of his Eight-tailed dragon spear and called the flames inside the domain of Falling Down to one place.
Right now, there was no need to bind that gigantic thing with the soulflame chains. He had bound himself up like a present.

[Is that, the power that Yu IlHan had acquired…..?]
"IlHan…….!"

As long as the curse connected the two, Liera and Spiera could not interfere. Spiera, who had her stage stolen mid-way, looked at the scene absentmindedly, and Liera was gripping on to her spear just in case.

However, Liera"s turn would not arrive. With the Eight-tailed dragon spear that raised his attack by 120% against dragonkin, if he could not kill the half-dead dragon, his t.i.tle as a dragon Slayer would cry.

[Stop!]

Shouted Echjar hurriedly. It was a voice that plead for life.

[Do you know what it means to kill me!?]
"I"ve heard that around a billion times from your underlings, so don"t worry."

Once again, he thought of the trajectory that Spiera had drawn. The amazing trajectory that allowed her to inflict a wound on a 7th cla.s.s as a 6th cla.s.s.
He still didn"t have the confidence to recreate that. He thought that those clothes weren"t a fit for him.

"But if it"s something else!"
[Kuoooooooooh!]

He pierced his spear forward with a step forward. Right now, the things he could do were enough to kill the enemy.

Although the things he could imbue into his spear were the sharpness of the sword and the speed of the whip - just those two, there were ten of the same strikes that struck out simultaneously!

[Critical Hit!]

The text that told the fatal strike covered Yu IlHan"s retina. Once, from those ten strikes.
From the moment he gave up on learning the Great Comsos-severing Spear, he ironically gained a hint on the path he could walk.

[The skill, Spear of Untraceable Trajectory, has become level 98!]

[You, shall definitely……!]

Echjar, who was still conscious after his head was bisected, muttered with the last bit of willpower.

[You, sh…….!]

The contents that came afterwards were the same - The Destruction Demon Army shall not let you go, or the other Commanders won"t go down so easily or other things like that! Yu IlHan nodded his head as if to say that it was unnecessary to warn him.

"I"ll take care of everything. Leave everything to me and go on your way."
[I don"t think that"s something you should say to someone you killed……]

Spiera retorted, but Yu IlHan did not react to that. The moment Echjar died, an absurd amount of experience came in thanks to him holding out for so long despite the fact that he should have fallen to a lower existence long ago, and according to that, he had to focus on receiving all of it.

[You have earned experience.]
[You have earned the record of Lv502(539) Echjar.]
[The ability of the t.i.tle, Untouchable, becomes stronger. All abilities will increase by 15% every league the opponent is higher than you.]
[You have become level 299. 6 Strength, 4 Agility, 3 Health, 7 Magic gained.]
[You cannot become level 300 without becoming 5th cla.s.s. All experience earned beforehand will be calculated after you have acquired 5th cla.s.s.]

Well, then!

Yu IlHan calmed down his excited heart and focused on his retina. The path he had walked on until now was already so hard, but what was necessary to become 5th cla.s.s? Come at me! I"ll take you all on! - was his feelings right now.

"……Huh?"

However, when nothing appeared no matter how long he had waited, Yu IlHan suspected that the Akas.h.i.+c Record was broken or something.

"What the h.e.l.l? What is this?"
[What is it, Yu IlHan? Is his curse still remaining?]
"IlHan, are you alright!?"

The angel and the former angel flew over to him in fear. Yu IlHan replied with an awkward voice.

"There"s no guide to earning 5th cla.s.s?"
"Oh, that."

Liera smiled brightly while replying, as if she was worried for nothing.

"Because there is no such thing in the first place."
"Wh, at…….?"

If Erta was here, if Erta, who acquired the dao in explaining things simply thanks to Yu IlHan, was here! - she would have said this.

That from 5th cla.s.s onwards, it was no longer multiple choice.

Author"s notes

Translator"s notes
$4 left! 0 Sponsors now! (though there"s a regular chapter tomorrow) (The queue does not get updated that frequently, the 196 you saw yesterday was actually 96 after the two were posted)