After Returning, My Abilities are Infinite
Chapter 47: The Light, In Itself (3)

The Light, In Itself (3)

Before awakening, Zhang Wei had earned his living as a doctor with a mediocre salary and was treated horribly.

Despite everyone’s warnings, he had steadfastly graduated from college and obtained a qualification. Zhang Wei worked long hours, and slowly but surely, progressed his skills each year. He got the impression from others that he was quite skilled.

“Zhang Wei, is that a joke?”

“Yes?”

“The sparkling thing in that body… Can’t you get rid of it now?”

That was, until his awakening.

He was satisfied with his life, but in China, if an awakened person did not undergo the test, they would be severely punished. After putting it off for a long time, Zhang Wei finally took some time off to visit the center.

“Level 3 Awakener. Even if trained, the power level would be inadequate.”

The result was amazing, however. From being a doctor, barely surviving life’s hardships, Zhang Wei had become a recognized hunter who was admired by everyone.

“Can I give you the scouts’ contact information?”

“No. Okay, fine. I have no idea…”

But he was a coward. He did not dare to take on the hideous monsters outright. Zhang Wei would be satisfied as long as he could finish his work at the hospital, save a respectable amount of people, and start his own family with adequate wealth.

He had hoped that unnecessary distractions would not haunt his Life.

“Ahhhhh!”

They did….

“If there was just one more hunter here…”

“Damn. There is so much useless human fodder on the ground, yet no one with a useful awakening.”

“They all fear for their lives, that is why they don’t confront the monsters. With a population of 1.3 billion people, does it make sense that the hunters’ numbers still aren’t higher than those of the US?”

Why didn’t things excite him as they used to before his awakening?

“Doctor, please save my child…,” the emergency patient who had rushed in begged him.

There were whispers of another crack opening. This meant many more patients.

An unrecognizably disfigured woman holding a lump of blood had said so.

The mother’s condition was critical, but the baby’s was far worse. It had stopped breathing.

“……”

‘Zhang Wei, why did you decide to become a doctor?’

‘You hold great potential for a position like guild analyst or a researcher of the mana engineering field. So tell me, why?’

The harsh words, asked by his loved ones, were going through his head. At the same time, he felt his passion, which had led him to become a doctor in the first place, rise back up at the sight of the victims. His heart began pounding against his chest.

“Uhhh…uhhhh…”

Zhang Wei groaned loudly. As the fight against death began, memories of the past started to flash through his mind.

“The impertinent fool. How could one try to make a bead out of fire…?”

Based on his experience as a doctor, he only touched the red orb to draw healing mana for his colleague’s burn injuries.

At the same time, however, Zhang Wei was imprisoned here by an unknown force. He faced an unbearable, excruciating pain which he had never felt before.

“Haaaahhhhhhhhh!”

His skin was ripped from his muscles; the rest of his body started melting. With every breath he took, the heat burned through his organs.

Nevertheless, there was only one reason Zhang Wei was alive.

[You faced a very harsh environment.]

[Life is threatened.]

[Talent ‘Death Rejection (S)’ activated.]

[‘The one who rejects death (S)’ struggles for survival.]

[Talent ‘Excessive Vitality (E)’ evolves to improve chances of survival.]

[‘Excessive Vitality (E)’ → ‘Unwavering resistance (S)’]

[Activating the dormant trait ‘Recovery Assistance (F)’ for better chances of survival.]

[Talent’ Recovery Assistant (F)’ evolving to improve chances of survival.]

A new trait had awakened and was keeping his body alive. Even now, numerous notification windows were popping up in front of him, and new abilities were appearing in quick succession every second.

[Muscles growing through repeated destruction and recovery.]

[Muscles growing through repeated destruction and recovery.]

At the same time, his body was undergoing a drastic and powerful change as time went on.

* * *

“Woo.”

I took in a heavy breath and walked with a humble posture. A means of exploration called the ‘Nature’s Eye’.

‘As soon as I get caught in it, like Zhang Wei, I will get trapped in a prison of flames, and I’ll be dead.’

Zhang Wei had the highest level of recovery ability I had ever seen. Even if he were put in lava completely naked, he would emerge unharmed. But I wasn’t him. My body would melt.

Trash.

Maintaining a low posture, I inched forward, staying close to the wall. Sometimes I saw spirits, beings of pure fire, or yongah soldiers wearing heavy armor. Those were opponents I didn’t want to mess with right now.

It wasn’t that difficult to move forward while implementing the countermeasures.

[‘Information browsing’ is active.]

Taking a glimpse of the map through Akashic Records, I could see that there was not much left to where Zhang Wei was. It was almost within reach. Almost there…

“Creuk?”

I was so close….

Kaga! Rir!

Reacting to the cries behind me, I morphed the nightmare into a dagger. I tensed up when I saw the monster approaching me. It was much stronger than I was.

[Name: Elite Lizardman]

It was different from ordinary Lizardmen. Rather than fighting with claws and teeth, it wielded weapons, and much more skillfully than most humans, because of its high intelligence. In this case, it was a halberd.

Kwakaaa!

“Hu-eup…!”

The dagger met the blade coming towards me. I could feel the impact throughout my entire body. My arms were trembling, and my legs almost gave way. Such a strong monster, who knew how to wield this weapon properly, was a dangerous foe indeed.

“Creuk?”

Left, right.

Even if you knew the direction, it was difficult to dodge. I had to get in close to use my dagger. I wanted to change my nightmare into a shield, but the clever beast was attacking me without pause. Damn it!

I flicked the hand holding the dagger. Mana rose with a lively sound. Along with the flickering blue lights, I could feel the power extruding from all over my body. I now had the strength of an orc for a short time.

It was <Green Body>, one of the Orc’s arcane magic.

The unfortunate thing about the elite Lizardman was that it wasn’t as strong as an Orc, like the normal Lizardmen, but its strength was comparable to that of an Ogre.

It licked its lips and drove me into a narrow space. The spear blade moved like a snake, and I felt like I was facing a skilled spearman rather than a monster.

[Aren’t you dragging it out too long? You will draw the other monsters’ attention, and that would quickly become very dangerous…]

Chaeang!

I could barely hear the traveler because I was fully concentrating on the fight with the Lizardman.

I could win easily against a fighter with moderate skills, but I struggled against monsters with overwhelming strength.

[‘Superior Insight’ activated.]

The monster took a step back, so I used the momentary pause to change the dagger into a spear.

Chae-Ang.

His spear blade collides into my spear blade. There was a difference in muscle strength, but I negated his advantage by twisting my spear slightly.

‘Left.’

I forcibly twisted my ankle and pretended to fall uncontrolled to the side.

His spear shot through the air towards me.

‘Right.’

As I was falling, I changed direction and rolled on the floor.

His spear struck the ground where I would have fallen.

‘Swipe once at the side of his head.’

Booung.

I hit his helmet so hard his head spun to the side. Surprised, he missed his next strike. Another opening!

Fuwook!

The perfectly-timed strike with the nightmare spear pierced the Lizardman’s head. Blood gushed out, and its eyes went out of focus. It was a masterful strike.

Thump.

His heavy body hit the floor.

[Ha ha ha ha ha… ? That was pretty amazing just to watch.]

“I analyzed his movements. Staying on the defense a bit, his attack pattern was easy enough to recognize.”

It was one of my specialties to derive an accurate pattern through several calculations. There had been times when others envied me because they thought I could predict the future.

‘You took too much time for nothing.’

Unfortunately, I had stayed in one place for a long time. This was not good. I immediately tried to lower my profile.

By the way…

Qwaak.

“……?”

I felt something stuck on my wrist.

I looked down and found burning chains wrapped around it.

“Argh.”

Caught.

Something pulled hard on the chains and sent my body flying through the air.

“What puny creature is this?”

There was a booming voice echoing through my head. While in the air, I moved around, struggling to break the chain somehow. However, the more I moved, the more it tightened around my wrist.

Klinggg, Klang

I stabbed it with a dagger, tried to cut it, but to no avail. Fortunately, by unlocking the red orb’s new ability, I was at least immune to fire attacks…

‘Well?’

‘If one is immune to fire attacks, then isn’t it pointless to imprison them in a fire prison?’

‘Then… maybe this would be better.’

As I was being dragged by the chain, instead of struggling, I began to prepare myself. My head started spinning. Dizziness started grabbing hold of me.

Booung-

A strong wind brushed my cheeks.

Various things flew by, and when I closed and opened my eyes again, I was flying towards the middle of a large lava lake.

“……”

A man was struggling in the middle of the glowing red lava. The skin on his face was melted, and I could barely recognize him. Perhaps that man was Zhang Wei.

『When compared to the beauty of nature, everyone is just a handful of dirt』

I immediately increased the mana in my entire body to its limit.

[Enabling ‘Link’.]

[From among the beings who ‘communicated and shared’, select one.]

Without a second thought, I closed my eyes, leaving myself bound in chains, falling towards the lava-filled lake.

‘If you’re immune to flame anyway, there’s no reason not to do it.’

With a plop…

Red lava splashed up, and my body drowned. The clothes melted, and a hot sensation arose. But there was no pain. The new function called ‘Red heart’ was faithfully exercising its service.

『Have you ever seen a lizard walking in a fire?』

[Red Lizard]

[Rating: F]

[The image of an ordinary monster wandering around the ‘Southern Continent’ of the world begins to rise before your mind’s eye.]

There was one fact that I learned from ‘communication and sharing’ training. I could borrow the power of any being, as long as it was alive. Be it a hero who enjoyed the glorious times, a villain whose notoriety was widespread, or a predator-like monster in another world.

The Akashic Records’ potential was unlimited.

The traveler’s words were true. The possibilities of this power, which was capable of accessing unlimited information, were endless. However, if you used the power of a monster, it became taxing as the monster’s body was much different.

It was only more efficient to borrow other human’s skills than to use monsters’ powers, and it was better to borrow magic and mana than either of those.

However, there were times when it was necessary to have greater power than a minor skill or magic. He left his body in lava and slowly opened his eyes.

Zhang Wei groaned and groaned, and the chain still pulled on my wrists. A magnificent voice uttered ‘nature’, and it rang like an echo.

In that, an image popped into my mind.

『Born in fire and playing in lava while growing up』

『In the process, the scales grow harder, and wings started forming』

A new feature of Akashic Records. Under the right circumstances, I could dream up a ‘Story’ to create whatever I wanted.

I had to keep fleshing out the story, to make whatever I wanted to create make sense in its context. Once it made complete sense for what I wanted, then I summoned that thing.

“What are you looking at? You want to resist the pain? Ha ha ha ha ha… In less than a few minutes, you’ll be begging for your Life….”

“Someone cursed me not to talk about meaningless legends.”

“Don’t present strange things to young children by making up things you’ve never seen before.”

“It was there. I truly saw it.”

Several voices overlapped; the voices blended gradually.

“The horns of valor.”

Well.

A subtle change took place in my lava-drowned body.

『Wings spread wide, covering the entire sky』

“A brilliant red scale that appears to be impenetrable by weapon in the world.”

『The eyes shine like jewels, and the horrible flames spewed out of the agar』

Something appeared on my skin, and the color of my eyes changed. Wings and horns didn’t appear yet, but my whole body was overflowing with power.

My muscles weren’t growing. I was breathing as usual, but every time I breathed in, an unknown force flowed into my body.

Almost like my heart had been transformed into something else.

[Already, you can borrow power from different races? You grow fast.]

Exciting.

The beating sound was different than normal. It sounded like it was about to burst out of my chest.

[Akashic Record-‘True Story’ function has been activated.]

As I felt the lava flow, I pulled the chains that held my hand.

[The current situation is similar to the ‘legend’. Accuracy of 90%.]

[Communication and sharing with the ‘Red Lizard’ will be canceled.]

[Finding ‘narrative’ closest matching the current situation.]

[The high-level ‘tale’ related to the current situation is consistent with the story of ‘red lizard’.]

[Very high level.]

[It is impossible to link with that entity entirely.]

[The ‘Part’ of the story that can be linked to is called up.]

[Only ‘One’ of the countless modifiers that the entity has is called up.]

Wow.

With a grating sound, the chains of flame broke off.

[The ‘Courageous’ modifier disappears.]

[The modifier ‘Born in Flames’ disappears.]

[The modifier ‘King of Creatures’ disappears.]

[The modifier ‘The Hero in the Legend’ disappears.]

[Applying a modifier suitable for the user.]

Only

[‘Never back down’.]

Too Duk…

I slowly raised my head as the broken chain fell into the lava.

Several notification windows were fluttering in front of me.

[‘Part of the legend that terrorized the world begins to dwell in your soul.’]

At the bottom, the full modifier had disappeared and had left only one part of the entity’s full name. That one part was still impressive by itself. Much more than any other I could have hoped for.

I looked at the letters and smiled.

<Dragon>