Chapter 55

Chapter 55

[A Subclass has been added.]

[True Ancestor]

[has been added.]

Another Subclass.

He had expected something like this to happen.

And once again,

a Subclass had appeared.

But Kang Ha-min barely noticed it.

His body had become smaller.

The reflection in the mirror was too shocking.

He had never imagined he would become a child.

It was completely unexpected.

He blankly touched his round, soft cheeks.

Soft.

So children's faces were this soft.

The problem was that this face belonged to him.

Was he going to live like this forever?

No.

Absolutely not!

"M, Ms. Siriel, what happened to me?!"

Kang Ha-min regained his senses and cried out.

Siriel peeked her head from behind him.

"That's because the Blood Stone reconstructed your body."

"Reconstructed my body?"

That sounded far from ordinary.

"Yes. Lord had many physical imperfections from the life you've lived until now."

"The Blood Stone reconstructed your body into one better suited for accepting the nature of this mana!"

Siriel explained proudly.

Meanwhile,

Kang Ha-min felt like his entire worldview was collapsing.

"It's a kind of Age Reversal."

Age Reversal.

Kang Ha-min had heard the term somewhere before.

"By returning to the body of a child, you can rebuild the path of an aging body perfectly from the beginning."

"I wasn't old!"

"And I already underwent Body Reformation!"

"Body Reformation is closer to expelling impurities and waste built up inside the body."

"Age Reversal is different."

Kang Ha-min looked devastated.

Mom.

Your son was already fully grown,

but he became a child again.

He could almost hear his parents crying.

"Still, after about three days, your body's age should return to normal."

Kang Ha-min immediately raised his head.

"...Only three days?"

"Yes."

"This is only part of the Blood Stone reconstructing your body."

"Lord is already connected to me."

"For a short time, your body is simply adjusting to the status of the Vampire Queen."

What?

That was all?

All the tension immediately left Kang Ha-min's body.

He had been worrying about how he would live like this from now on.

Apparently there was no need.

"You scared me for nothing."

Three days.

Then he would return to normal.

In that case,

there was no major problem with staying like this for a while.

After all, he was currently very unemployed.

"No, this is too valuable an opportunity to casually ignore."

There was still something he hadn't expected.

Baek Cheon-myeong's eyes flashed.

Kang Ha-min knew that look very well.

"If your body is growing, there is no better time to train it."

"You can learn the Star-Destroying Sword Flow along the optimal path."

"Wait. Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, I literally just woke up after fainting."

"Three days will pass quickly."

"It would be a waste. Let us begin immediately."

So Baek Cheon-myeong could smile that happily.

Kang Ha-min had no choice but to stare at him and smile bitterly.

Couldn't he at least go easy because Kang Ha-min currently looked like a child?

After being dragged through brutal training by Baek Cheon-myeong,

"This body will go to the Tower."

It was once again time for Baek Cheon-myeong to enter the Tower.

Thanks to that,

Kang Ha-min was finally released.

After Baek Cheon-myeong entered,

Kang Ha-min sat on the ground and caught his breath.

Only then could he properly examine his body again.

My body is growing even during training.

During puberty,

there had been days when he woke up and suddenly felt taller.

It was like that.

No.

It was even faster.

His tiny child's hands had already become those of an older child.

I can't believe I'm experiencing physical growth again.

Life really was unpredictable.

When Kang Ha-min stood up,

his body clearly felt lighter than before.

Part of that was because his body itself was smaller.

But the improvement in his physical ability was also obvious.

It felt as though he had stepped outside the limits of a human body.

Just as an adult gorilla naturally possessed grip strength several times greater than an adult human man,

it felt like the very quality of his muscles had changed.

Should I try running a little?

He felt like he could go anywhere.

Wanting to test it,

Kang Ha-min pushed hard against the ground.

Crack.

The ground fractured.

Explosive force surged upward.

Before he could even control the strength,

his body had already reached maximum acceleration.

BOOOOOOM!

With a single jump,

he flew dozens of meters.

Even Kang Ha-min himself was shocked.

"Holy crap!"

He couldn't hold back the exclamation.

He stretched his legs toward the ground

and kicked off once more.

Then he started running.

A smile unconsciously formed.

Running was fun!

Was this what people called runner's high?

Kang Ha-min had spent his whole life avoiding exercise.

This was the first time in his life he had understood how running could be fun.

The World Tree soon appeared ahead.

He decided to use it as the turning point before heading back.

As he ran,

he also watched Baek Cheon-myeong through one side of his shared vision.

Baek Cheon-myeong walked alone through a desert region.

The Third Floor Realm looked like an apocalypse.

Mechanical Demons endlessly appeared,

and people struggled desperately to survive by avoiding them.

Perhaps because those people were extremely wary of outsiders,

Baek Cheon-myeong hadn't managed to properly speak with them even once.

If this floor was created by a God, then there must be some intention behind it.

But so far,

Kang Ha-min couldn't understand what that intention was.

"Kyaa!"

A sudden scream startled Kang Ha-min.

Pay attention in front of you!

The warning flashed through his mind.

He slammed on the brakes

and twisted his body sideways.

The wind created by his sudden stop swept someone off their feet.

They rolled across the ground.

It was Iziris,

lying in a miserable position with her butt pointing toward the sky.

She was the Empress of the Eonor Empire,

yet this was a posture no one could possibly call imperial.

"Iziris!"

Kang Ha-min quickly ran over.

He helped her upright.

Iziris's eyes were spinning.

"W, who was it?"

"Who dares do this to Iziris, rightful Empress of the Eonor Empire..."

"Sorry! I didn't see you because you're small!"

"S, small? I am not small!"

So she cared about that.

Iziris jumped up

and glared at him.

"You're small too!"

Well.

Right now, he was.

Kang Ha-min smiled awkwardly.

Iziris narrowed her eyes.

"Who are you anyway? I've never seen you before."

Because Kang Ha-min had returned to his childhood appearance,

Iziris didn't recognize him.

That made sense.

Even normally, Kang Ha-min didn't have a very memorable face.

Now that he was younger,

it would be even harder to recognize him.

And suddenly becoming younger wasn't something most people would believe.

"Ah, um... I'm a Returnee who came here recently."

Explaining sounded troublesome.

Kang Ha-min gave a random answer.

Iziris tilted her head,

then quickly lost interest.

"I see."

"If you were an intruder, those monsters would have thrown you out already anyway."

Did she mean Baek Cheon-myeong and Siriel?

Baek Cheon-myeong was climbing the Tower.

Siriel was currently inspecting Nightmare Land.

Thank goodness neither was here.

Kang Ha-min couldn't imagine what would happen to Iziris if they heard that.

"You should be careful too."

"Of everyone I've ever met, I've never seen anyone as vicious as those two."

It really was fortunate they weren't here.

But now Kang Ha-min became curious.

"Besides those two, there's also the owner of this place, right?"

"What do you think of him?"

Sometimes,

people became curious about how others saw them.

Kang Ha-min waited with a strangely excited heart.

Iziris made a vague expression.

"...Hmm."

Why was she taking so long?

This was making him nervous.

"He's just too gentle."

Kang Ha-min blinked.

"I'm worried he'll get scammed somewhere."

A life where a child worried that he would get scammed.

What kind of life was this?

"Still, he's good at heart."

"The others besides me think so too."

A good person at heart.

Hearing that,

Kang Ha-min smiled slightly.

If people understood the kindness he showed them,

that was enough.

"Thanks for telling me."

"Mm. Still, those other two are truly dangerous, so be careful."

"I'll remember that."

After parting from Iziris,

Kang Ha-min walked onward.

Come to think of it,

he only heard occasional reports from Ha Cheol-ryong.

He had never personally visited the Returnee village.

If I go there normally, they might feel uncomfortable.

Being a tenant and suddenly meeting your landlord was stressful.

And right now,

Kang Ha-min looked completely different.

He decided to take a look around the Returnee village.

Soon,

he arrived at the Returnee settlement inside the Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest.

The Returnees were moving around busily.

It seemed they were preparing homes for the newly arrived Returnees.

Kang Ha-min looked around the village.

Uh... hmm?

The scenery was very different from what he expected.

Between massive ancient trees,

black metal structures had been installed.

Silver cables and optical fibers ran along the bark.

Blue glowing sensors.

Lighting devices embedded directly into the trees.

Wooden cabins carved from trees

stood beside buildings made of black alloy.

It was a strangely futuristic city built in the middle of a natural forest.

Kang Ha-min had expected natural wooden houses.

This was completely different.

Is someone with architecture experience directing all this?

It felt like someone's personal tastes were heavily involved.

They also seemed to be actively using energy from the World Tree.

Kang Ha-min could already see it replacing electricity.

It's developing incredibly quickly.

Everyone seemed to be living well.

Then that was fine.

"Woof! Woof!"

Aji's bark echoed.

Kang Ha-min turned.

Aji was scolding a group of Returnees.

"M, Mr. Aji, we're sorry."

"Y, yes, we won't fight."

They were Korean and Chinese Returnees.

Was Aji settling disputes between them?

Kang Ha-min had left the Returnees in Aji's care.

But Aji was even more capable than he had expected.

There was nothing more to inspect.

Kang Ha-min quietly turned away from the Returnee village.

After Kang Ha-min left,

several Chinese Returnees gathered in the darkness.

"Damn it. Why are they making such a fuss because of one little dog?"

"Those Korean Returnees are acting like they own everything."

"Let's take what we want."

They had recently been rescued from Chinese laboratories.

Unlike Qilin,

they hadn't received proper education or discipline.

So they still didn't properly understand what kind of place this was.

"We only need to take down that guy called Ha Cheol-ryong."

"Let's go."

The Chinese Returnees began plotting.

Then,

"Woof."

Aji appeared, sniffing the air.

All the Chinese Returnees turned toward him.

"We've been caught!"

"Kill it!"

The moment they revealed their biological weapons,

CRASH!

one Chinese Returnee was slammed into the ground.

It happened instantly.

The others saw something inside the spreading dust cloud.

A massive shape.

Two blood-red eyes shone viciously from within.

It was something they could never defeat.

"Hik... hiiiik!"

"M, monster!"

The Returnees realized too late that they had made a mistake.

They tried to run.

But they were instantly subdued

and left rolling across the ground.

There was no fighting spirit left in them.

"Woof."

Aji proudly raised his tail

and walked in front of the beaten Returnees.

"Mr. Aji, you dealt with them first."

Ha Cheol-ryong arrived late.

Aji looked at the miserable Returnees with pity.

If they had simply adjusted and lived here,

they could have been happy.

Instead,

they foolishly made an enemy of someone they never should have opposed.

"I apologize. I was late."

Qilin appeared as well.

He looked at the Chinese Returnees

and raised one hand.

Shadows rose from the ground

and swallowed them.

As one of Siriel's thralls,

Qilin could also use shadows.

"This was my mistake."

"How dare they rebel against that person."

"I will educate them thoroughly."

Educate them.

Ha Cheol-ryong quietly looked at the Chinese Returnees.

Soon,

every thought of causing trouble would be removed from them.

That was the price of breaking this world's rules.

Everything is...

for loyalty toward that person.

In a place Kang Ha-min knew nothing about,

the Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest was slowly becoming a place of worship for one man.