Genius Regressor Makes Mythic Items

Chapter 54. Dragonkin (1)

TL: xLordFifth
ED/PR: The reader

The sudden reaction of the constellations caught him off guard. Shimun scanned the item information once again.

[Degraded Serum]

Grade: F

Serum that has changed over eons.

Still, it’s the information window of a very common, unimpressive F-class material item. However, now that he has witnessed the constellations’ reactions, one aspect appeared new to Shimun’s eyes.

“Eons?”

Eons typically signify an infinite amount of time. To still be in the form of serum after enduring such a vast period?

“Does this mean it was something incredibly significant before undergoing eons?”

Ordinarily, blood would leave no trace and completely disappear over such a vast period, wouldn’t it? Moreover, “The bottle is quite unique as well.”

Resembling that of a snake. The glass bottle, carved like the scales of a reptile, was a form even Shimun, who had handled countless materials in his previous life, had never seen before.

And his question was answered:

-That’s because it’s an item of dragonkind.

Advised by the Philosopher’s Stone, situated at the very center of his chest.

“An item of dragonkind?”

-Yeah. Whether it’s a glass bottle or whatever, dragonkind engrave their items regarded as precious in such a way. Personally, I think it’s tacky though.

“I see.”

Shimun nods slowly while gazing at the scale-engraved glass bottle.

“Why would they give an item of dragonkind as a reward?”

And that too, a mere F-class item. Certainly, according to the Philosopher’s Stone, the serum inside the glass bottle was very precious. Precisely, ‘it was precious.’

“Wait.”

As that thought struck him, Shimun hastily opened his inventory to take out another item.

[Dragon Blood]

Grade: C

Blood of a low-tier dragon.

Acts as poison to species other than dragonkind.

The smooth glass bottle of [Dragon Blood] of a higher grade than the F-class [Degraded Serum].

‘This too was obtained from an arena connected to Marnel, wasn’t it?’

The first special arena and his first encounter with Marnel at the [Fervent Nightmare Mine].

Back then, even the Galaxy Arena organizers didn’t anticipate the clear direction, acquiring dragon blood along with a mithril bar.

And he had carefully kept both the dragon blood and mithril bar in his inventory, intending to use them for crafting later on. The gaze of Shimun narrows upon viewing both items.

‘There’s something here.’

The Galaxy Arena is a place that fairly ensures rewards are given. That the Galaxy Arena gave items related to dragonkind as rewards consecutively. There was a high possibility that this was signaling something.

‘But what could it be?’

With his chin rested on his hand, he pondered for a long time but couldn’t come up with anything no matter how hard he thought.

“Agh! My head hurts. Let’s have a drink for now.”

Screaming in frustration and ruffling his hair, Shimun staggered weakly towards the bar.

-No, oppa, alcohol is not a good idea.

“I know. It’s just stuffy, and I wanted something refreshing.”

Muttering under his breath, Shimun opened the refrigerator door. The drink section was filled with a variety of carbonated drinks, including dairy products.

‘Those guys. They weren’t just wasting money after all.’

His two younger siblings who knew all too well that he liked the sharp fizz of carbonated drinks. Feeling grateful for his younger siblings’ thoughtful care, Kim Shimun was about to grab a drink when a moment caught his attention.

“Huh?”

His gaze fixed on a carton of milk on the shelf above. There, a common sight on any milk carton: [Expiration Date 02.29 22:30].

“Why didn’t I think of this before?”

A spontaneous smile curved Kim Shimun’s lips.

“Philosopher’s Stone.”

– Hm?

“Let’s try to create something. Like this.”

Kim Shimun immediately shared his newfound idea with the Philosopher’s Stone.

– Oh? Oppa, you’ve come up with a pretty clever thought, haven’t you?

“What do you think? Is it possible?”

– If equivalent exchange can be established, there’s nothing we can’t do…

Unlike Kim Shimun’s expectation of an enthusiastic consent, the Philosopher’s Stone’s voice trailed off intriguingly.

– You might not know, but objects that manipulate time aren’t that numerous.

“Figures.”

The power to influence time. Naturally, objects imbued with such power were rare.

– Especially, reversing time is the most challenging. Even more so, being against the eons? It requires an incredibly steep price. You know what I’m talking about, right?

“Ah.”

Kim Shimun sighed and nodded slowly.

‘She’s referring to when I returned.’

The price for his regression was none other than the Philosopher’s Stone itself. Precisely, the mythic-grade elixir, the [Elixir] that serves as the main power source for the Philosopher’s Stone.

However, ‘It’s impossible to make the Elixir right now.’

The Elixir that even his past self could only create through a series of fortunate coincidences. Initially, the ingredients themselves could only be sourced from official arenas.

Knowing this, the recipe alone wasn’t enough to produce it at this point.

Did the Philosopher’s Stone read Kim Shimun’s mind?

– Don’t worry. We don’t need the Elixir for this.

The Philosopher’s Stone offered words of relief.

– There are two ways, but the best is to receive it from the person who possesses it.

“Receive?”

A totally unexpected answer to what Kim Shimun presumed would be practice.

– Yes. One of the beings who’s been closely watching you happens to have just the thing.

With those words, Kim Shimun’s gaze naturally lifted to the ceiling.

– Right? Zeus.

Following the Philosopher’s Stone’s query.

[A Constellation Zeus silently looks down at you.]

A message popped up, then.

[Constellation Zeus shakes his head ‘I don’t have the Hourglass of Chronos.’]

A disappointing message appeared.

– What?! He doesn’t have it?

[Constellation Black Goat screams, ‘Damn rogue, how can you not have it!’]

[Constellation Odin squints, ‘Don’t tell me you lost it or it was stolen?’]

[Constellation Zeus firmly draws a line, ‘I’m under no obligation to tell you.’]

As if it was such a surprise for one item to be missing. After the Philosopher’s Stone, the Constellations collectively expressed their shock. Kim Shimun, relatively untroubled, shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s a pity, but it can’t be helped.”

– No, it has to be helped! How can that be!

“It’s not here. Do you think a Constellation would lie about such a thing?”

– But… that it’s not there? How could it…

The Philosopher’s Stone rambled on. Kim Shimun calmly soothed the Philosopher’s Stone.

“We still have two options, right?”

“It makes sense. If I create it myself, it’ll be fine. But oppa, do you know what shape the Hourglass of Chronos is?”

“No, I have no idea.”

“Right? As you know, the better you understand the structure of the object, the less you have to pay to create it.”

“So, I just need to create it like I’ve been doing all along, right?”

“That’s true, but the Hourglass of Chronos is a different story.”

The Philosopher’s Stone sighed heavily before continuing, “To create that, you’d need at least 500,000 achievement points.”

“What?!”

Kim Shimun’s eyes widened in shocked disbelief.

“How can it be 500,000 instead of 50,000?”

The idea that creating it once would require 500,000 achievement points was unbelievable.

And that’s just the minimum?

“It can’t be helped. The Hourglass of Chronos affects even the gods’ time.”

‘The gods’ time?’

Just hearing it made it clear how significant an item it was. Yet Kim Shimun’s eyes were now calmer.

“But what we want to rewind is this serum, right?”

“That’s true.”

“Then can’t we just create it on a reduced level?”

After all, the mythological items that Kim Shimun had been creating were already a nerfed version of their original selves. It couldn’t be much different for the Hourglass of Chronos.

“But the cost is too high. The fundamental mechanism of touching time itself demands a great toll.”

“How about creating just a part of it then?”

“A part?”

“Yeah. We are not going to use it as a weapon, right? Maybe just a grain or two of sand from the hourglass would be enough?”

Right after Kim Shimun finished speaking, [The constellation Zeus chuckles.]

[The constellations Odin and the Heavenly Demon stare at you with dumbfounded faces.]

[The constellation Black Goat laughs hysterically.]

A series of reactions from the constellations unfolded.

‘What’s going on? Why are they reacting like this all of a sudden?’

Perhaps having read Kim Shimun’s mind, “Really… To think of creating it in such a way…”

“Umm… Was it such a weird thought?”

-“No, it’s brilliant. It’s just so out of the box that they’re reacting like that.”

The Philosopher’s Stone answered in a resigned voice.

Following that

– “Alright. Creating it by the grain would indeed reduce the cost. And since it’s for the serum, even a grain should have some effect.”

Once the calculations were completed, the Philosopher’s Stone provided an answer.

Without hesitation, Kim Shimun raised his hand.

[Your Alchemy Energy is insufficient for the required creation.]

[To establish the necessary equivalent exchange with the Philosopher’s Stone, 5,000 achievement points are required..]

[Will you accept? (Yes / No)]

‘5,000, huh. That’s pretty hefty.’

Even segmented to the size of grains, it demanded 5,000. But comparing it to the 500,000 points, Kim Shimun chose ‘Yes’ without hesitation.

Whoosh.

The energy to fulfill the lacking equivalent gathered from Kim Shimun’s body into his fingertips. At the moment he flicked his finger.

What seemed like exceedingly fine golden particles, reminiscent of powdered flour, landed in Kim Shimun’s hand.

[The Sand of Chronos]

Grade: Mythological

The core sand from the Hourglass of Chronos, belonging to the now dead god of time. It can be used but, for some reason, its power is continuously dissipating. Not even a handful, barely visible amount of sand.

Perhaps because it was created as sand alone, not as an hourglass?

-“Oppa! You need to use it quickly before it disappears!”

The Sand of Chronos was losing its power in real-time. Kim Shimun hurriedly opened the altered serum’s cap and poured in the Sand of Chronos. Then, with a strange sound, the transformed serum began to vibrate.

The once murky color started clearing up, and the form, once coagulated into a solid, began to boil like water, turning into a liquid.

[Spectating Constellations simultaneously let out sighs of amazement.]

A quiet message window popped up.

With it, the changes in the serum gradually settled down, and Shimun checked the serum’s information.

[Blood of Tiamat]

Grade: Mythical

The blood of the dragon god Tiamat.

It has returned to its original form through incomplete time reversal, but will soon return to its original state.

-Time limit: 59 seconds.

“Incredible!”

The astonishment was spontaneous. Not only was the insignificant serum actually the blood of a dragon god.

“59 seconds?!”

Now it would be more accurate to say 57 seconds. Was it because of Chronos’s sand, which was losing power in real-time?

The altered serum that was saved with so much effort. No, even the Blood of Tiamat had a time limit.

‘What do I do?’

He had managed to revert it, but he never imagined there would be a time limit. Especially for an item like blood; where was he supposed to use it at once?

Then.

Swish.

The deep crimson blood inside the bottle sloshed and then, “Oh no!”

Began to flow out of the opening. Shimun hurriedly reached out to catch it.

Splat.

The Blood of Tiamat, behaving somewhat like a slime, clumped together tautly. The part that seemed to be the head stretched out, looking around as if searching for something, then stopped dead upon sighting Shimun.

And then.

Swish.

It suddenly stretched out and burrowed into Shimun’s chest.

“This can’t be!”

Shimun hurriedly felt his chest, but he could not feel any wetness or the resilient texture.

Soon.

Boom!

“Ugh!”

Shimun was hit with an immense pain and heat that ravaged his entire body.

[‘The Blood of Tiamat’ begins assimilation.]

A single message appeared before his eyes.

“Argh!”

But struck by the unbearable pain and heat, Shimun could hardly let out a proper groan and fell to the floor, sweating profusely.

‘It’s so hot…!’

It felt as though all the blood in his body was boiling at a high temperature.

Especially the Philosopher’s Stone at the very center of his chest pulsed non-stop, like an engine about to burst.

How much time had passed?

[The trait ‘Stigma’ reacts to ‘The Blood of Tiamat’.]

[As the conditions are not met, the ‘Stigma’ trait is deactivated.]

[‘The Blood of Tiamat’ seeks a different direction.]

A message rose before Shimun’s eyes, clouded with pain.

-Damn it! That sudden attack scared me. It’s just like Tiamat to be so bloody fierce! Hey! Come here!

With the edgy voice of the Philosopher’s Stone. Shimun’s vision went dark.