Not A Regressor-Chapter 355: Three Part Vacation (1)

Kwon Oh-Jin slowly took a deep breath in and focused on his heart. He pictured a dark sky and greedy black clouds swallowing up the starlight.

Black Heaven.

Black clouds burst out violently from his every pore.

Rumble!

A storm raged, tearing apart the training room’s walls and floor. Multiple layers of mana barriers protected the room, but the clouds greedily devoured it as if it had found the perfect prey.

In the past, the Black Heaven had only absorbed mana directly from another person’s Stigma and lacked any real physical force. Ever since his tenth enlightenment, the black clouds themselves manifested real destructive power.

That’s how the Heavenly Demon reduced Niflheim to ruins.

The Black Heaven clouds didn’t possess overwhelming power on their own. Of course, the Heavenly Demon was a different story when he could release waves of it like a black tsunami. For now, Kwon Oh-Jin couldn’t pull off anything like that.

But the Black Heaven clouds' raw, destructive power isn’t what makes this skill insane.

The training room’s layered barriers shattered one by one. The Black Heaven clouds weren’t just destructive. They consumed protective barriers and other defenses made from mana. In game terms, the Black Heaven could do true damage.

It was absurdly effective against powerful enemies, particularly those with immense mana reserves like high-ranking Awakeners, who weren’t just physically strong. Their strength ultimately came from their Stigma’s mana.

Hopefully, it’ll never happen, but... this would be even more effective if I ever have to fight a Black Star Celestial.

After all, Celestials practically embodied a Stigma’s mana.

Rumble!

Kwon Oh-Jin reached out toward the rampaging black clouds as if taming a wild beast.

“That’s enough.”

Rumble.

The clouds froze in mid-rage. Then, they slowly drew toward him as if a leash had been snapped into place.

The black clouds have definitely gotten easier to handle than when I first underwent the tenth enlightenment.

The Black Heaven itself hadn’t grown weaker or calmer.

The Stigma of Lyra has grown stronger.

A streak of starlight shone brilliantly amid the dark sky. As the Weaver’s light intensified, Kwon Oh-Jin found himself increasingly able to control the Black Heaven clouds.

“Is it because of Vega?”

Ever since he opened up to her in the Sanctum and became her lover, the Stigma of Lyra had quickly grown stronger.

But does being in a relationship with a Celestial really strengthen a Stigma?

It didn’t really make sense. If a Celestial were a tree, then a Stigma would be like its seed. Just because a seed was near a grown tree didn’t mean it would flourish faster.

Even Vega said that a Celestial can’t directly influence an Awakener’s growth.

He didn’t know the exact reason. Either way, the Stigma of Lyra was growing stronger at a fast pace.

“Alright, then lastly...”

Kwon Oh-Jin focused on the black clouds gathered above his palm. The Stigma of Lyra, engraved over his heart, glowed as mana flowed into the clouds. Normally, the Black Heaven clouds would react like ants swarming over spilled soda and devour the mana. This time, the opposite occurred. The Stigma of Lyra absorbed the Black Heaven clouds.

Crackle!

From that, a jet black lightning emerged, burning with darkness.

“Ugh...”

Creating this black lightning without using Open Heaven consumed a ridiculous amount of mana and mental strength.

“It’s worth it.”

Kwon Oh-Jin unleashed the black lightning toward the training room wall. It sounded like thunder as the lightning streaked forward.

Boom!

The lightning pierced through the layers of mana barriers even faster than the Black Heaven clouds earlier and blew apart the wall. If the black clouds had consumed the mana in the barriers, this lightning simply ripped it apart. Naturally, it boasted speed and destructive power on a completely different level.

“Haa, haa.”

Even though he had only fired one shot, Kwon Oh-Jin’s once-brimming mana reserves were nearly depleted.

He dropped to the floor and gasped for air. “Whew. I’m definitely gonna need more practice with this one.”

He couldn’t use the black lightning, created by fusing the Stigma of Lyra with the Black Heaven, freely or reliably just yet.

“Hmm... and this doesn’t show up as a skill either.”

He opened his status window for the first time in a while to check his skill list, but no new skill had been registered for the black lightning fusion.

Did I make something outside the system’s rules?

Since he had no idea how the system actually worked, or even its basic principles, he had no way to know for sure.

Well, I guess I’ll just call it Black Lightning.

Awakeners didn’t have to register something as a skill before they could use it. For the sake of clarity, he decided to call this skill Black Lightning.

Bzzt! Crackle!

Being able to use Black Lightning was an encouraging breakthrough,

Up until now, I could only use it when I activated Open Heaven.

If he could start pulling off techniques like this without relying on Open Heaven, then maybe someday he wouldn’t need Open Heaven at all.

“Not that it’ll be easy.”

With a bitter smile, he withdrew the black clouds into him.

Just thinking about the Black Heaven made him sigh deeply. “Haaa.”

I don’t even know what memory I lost this time.

He had used Open Heaven to stop the Heavenly Demon’s Black Heaven, but he didn’t know what price he had paid for it. Open Heaven erased memories so completely that he couldn’t even realize it in the first place.

“Hopefully, it was some useless memory.”

Like the face of that bastard orphanage director.

Kwon Oh-Jin chuckled bitterly as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

He said this with a sliver of hope, but deep down, he already knew the truth. Just like before, he felt almost certain that a cherished memory had vanished.

Well... at least it doesn’t seem to affect my current life or relationships.

He didn’t sense any memory gaps when he spoke with Song Ha-Eun, Isabella, and Vega. Nor did he feel like he was missing something. Still, knowing that he had lost something and not even being able to tell what it was gnawed at him like a slow, but patient parasite.

That bitter train of thought instantly disappeared when a sweet voice tickled his ear.

“Wow, seriously, you just went and trashed the whole place, huh?” Song Ha-Eun stepped into the wrecked training room, clicking her tongue. “Didn’t we call in the Association guys to put up extra-strong barriers so this place wouldn’t get destroyed? And you went and turned it into a rag like this?”

“It just kinda happened.”

“Kinda happened, my ass. What if Bella makes you pay for this?”

The training room was inside the building that Isabella had gifted Kwon Oh-Jin after remodeling it. Technically, he owned the place, but he couldn’t argue if Isabella demanded compensation since she had paid for over ninety percent of the actual costs.

“Maybe if I beg hard enough, she’ll forgive me?”

“Knowing her, she’ll probably say you have to pay with your body.”

“Well, if it comes to that...”

I’ll have to make myself hard... Wait, what? No, what am I even saying?

“Anyway, let’s go eat.”

“Okay.”

The two returned home together.

They told Isabella, who was busy preparing dinner, about the wrecked training room.

She said, “Oh my, then how about I take the repair costs from your body, Mr. Oh-Jin?”

Her eyes sparkled like she just had the best idea in the world.

Song Ha-Eun let out a long sigh and glanced at Kwon Oh-Jin. “See? Told you she’d say that.”

Under Isabella’s heated gaze, Kwon Oh-Jin swallowed hard.

Perched above his head, Vega snapped her fingers and made an offer. “If you’re having trouble finding a proper training spot, why not come to my Sanctum?”

Kwon Oh-Jin shook his head with a troubled look. “No. Using the Black Heaven inside the Sanctum feels wrong.”

Lately, his training focused mainly on techniques that fused the Black Heaven with the Stigma of Lyra. This made the offer hard to accept.

“Ugh. Back in the Demonic District, I could smash things to my heart’s content.”

Now that he had grown much stronger, a training room inside a small building felt cramped and limiting.

“Don’t worry,” Isabella said. “I’m already preparing a place in Sangam where you can train as much as you like.”

“Sangam?”

“I heard it used to be a stadium.”

No way.

She wasn’t talking about the Seoul World Cup Stadium, was she?

You’re telling me you’re gonna turn that into my personal training facility?

After the first rift, the sports industry had collapsed. That place basically became abandoned. Still, it was insanely large.

“How much money do you even have...?”

Even with the global fame Kwon Oh-Jin had gained after returning from the Demonic District, he couldn’t begin to imagine such wealth. A popular top star’s earnings still couldn’t compare to a business owner's fortune. It made sense that Isabella could pull off something like this.

“This is all for you, Mr. Oh-Jin,” she sweetly said and slipped her arm around his.

Even as she smiled, he couldn’t help but worry that she was going too far.

“Ah, but it looks like the construction will take about three more days to finish.”

“Yeah?”

Since he had wrecked the training room, he planned on training alone on some nearby hill for the time being.

“Then, let’s go on vacation until the construction is done!” Song Ha-Eun suggested with sparkling eyes.

“Vacation?”

“Yeah. We never really got to rest after coming back from the Demonic District.”

“Well, that’s true, but...”

Kwon Oh-Jin couldn’t exactly relax and enjoy a vacation when the Heavenly Demon could make a move at any time.

“Hey.” Song Ha-Eun grabbed both of his cheeks and stretched them out.

“Mmffmmff.”

“You need to take a break. Your face is half its usual size, and you’re holed up in the training room every day. What are you gonna do if you burn out and the Heavenly Demon attacks then?”

She had a point. Ever since returning to Earth, he hadn’t once taken a proper break.

“Why don’t you get some real rest, at least until the construction is done?” Vega chimed in too.

He really had no excuse to refuse. “Fine, fine. Where are we going for this vacation?”

“Ah, about that...” Song Ha-Eun glanced toward Isabella.

Isabella smiled sweetly and gently caressed the back of his neck.

“We talked it over, and well...” Isabella trailed off as the mood suddenly turned chilling. “We think it’ll be a good idea to split.”

“Split what?”

“You, Mr. Oh-Jin!”

Me...?