The Awakening Of The Useless Skill [Infinite Regeneration]

—How much time had passed since then?

Drip, drip.

The faint sound of dripping water gently vibrated against my eardrums.

(Sound…? But I thought I was dead…)

Confused and unable to understand the situation, I slowly opened my eyes.

“Grrrrrrrr!”

“…………Huh?”

Immediately afterward, Black Fang filled my vision, saliva dripping from its mouth as it let out a ferocious growl.

“U-UWAAAAAAAAAAH!”

I hurriedly scrambled to my feet and desperately fled the boss room, nearly stumbling in my panic.

Dungeon bosses generally didn’t pursue adventurers beyond their boss rooms.

After safely reaching the passageway, I let out a relieved sigh and placed my right hand against my chest.

“…………Huh?”

Only then did I finally notice something.

My right arm, which I should have lost, had been completely restored.

“How!? I’m sure I lost it when Necro Demon attacked me…!”

Had everything been a dream?

No, that couldn’t possibly be true.

I could still vividly remember the pain I’d experienced back then.

“But if that’s the case, what on earth is going on…?”

I desperately searched through my memories, trying to piece everything together.

Why was I still alive, and why had my right arm been restored?

There had to be something that could explain it…

That was when I remembered.

Just before I died, I had heard several system notifications.

That’s right, if I recalled correctly—

‘Death of the target confirmed.’

‘All conditions have been fulfilled.’

‘Unique Skill [Infinite Regeneration] is evolving.’

‘Soul regeneration commencing.’

—Those were the messages the system had announced.

Given the circumstances, I hadn’t had the luxury of thinking about what they meant, but looking back now, several of those phrases were extremely intriguing.

“Unique Skill [Infinite Regeneration] is evolving… That’s what it said, right?”

I had heard that some unique skills only revealed their true effects after certain conditions were fulfilled.

Perhaps that was the clue I needed.

With that thought in mind, I decided to check my status.

And what I found there was absolutely shocking.

“Wha…!”

My eyes widened dramatically as I read the description.

“Revival through soul regeneration after death… In other words, resurrection from death—that was the true power of [Infinite Regeneration]!?”

It was such an extraordinary ability that I felt embarrassed for having always dismissed it as a useless skill.

Then again, I supposed it was understandable that I’d made that mistake.

“Judging from what happened, the condition for awakening was my own death… No wonder I never discovered it before.”

Besides, after carefully reading the final part of the description, I realized the skill wasn’t quite as flawless as the word “infinite” might suggest.

If I were killed again during the vulnerable period following my revival, I would probably die for good that time.

“In this case, when Necro Demon dealt the finishing blow, I happened to get knocked outside the trap room, which saved me from any follow-up attacks… I guess that’s what happened.”

After reaching that conclusion, my body trembled involuntarily.

My survival had been nothing short of a miracle, and without that stroke of luck, I undoubtedly would have died.

“That’s right! Where is Necro Demon now…?”

I suddenly raised my head and looked toward the trap room at the far end of the passage.

However, Necro Demon was nowhere to be seen.

Nevertheless, the entrance that had prevented our escape remained tightly sealed by the same sturdy door.

From those observations, I could make a reasonable guess about what had happened.

“Just as Alto suspected, this must be a trap room designed to imprison and eliminate anyone attempting to clear it. Once Alto and the others teleported away and I died, Necro Demon no longer had a purpose and disappeared… But immediately afterward, I revived, causing the entrance to seal itself again. I’m making a few assumptions, but I think I’ve got the general idea right.”

However, if my theory was correct… it only made the situation even more hopeless for me.

After all, understanding how the trap worked didn’t mean I could escape from it.

“As long as the trap remains active, Necro Demon will probably appear again if I try to leave. But I don’t have anywhere near enough strength to fight that thing…”

Necro Demon was level 1000, while I was only level 31.

The difference was overwhelming, far beyond anything that could be overcome through luck or coincidence.

And I couldn’t expect another miracle where I happened to be knocked outside the trap room. If I fought it again, I would almost certainly die for good.

I was completely cornered.

There was no better way to describe my situation.

“Isn’t there anything else I can do…?”

After finally managing to come back to life, there was no way I was going to give up here.

Besides—

“If I can’t escape from this place, I’ll never be able to take revenge on those bastards.”

—Even now, my endlessly surging desire for revenge refused to let me resign myself to my fate.

I had to find some way to overcome my current predicament, no matter what.

But no matter how many times I considered my options, I simply couldn’t imagine defeating Necro Demon with my current strength.

If there was anything I could do, it would be to level up here, but…

I turned around and looked at Black Fang, which was still glaring at me from inside the boss room.

“…Yeah, that’s probably asking too much.”

The idea I’d come up with was to repeatedly defeat the boss whenever it respawned, gradually increasing my level.

Unfortunately, Black Fang was only level 30.

No matter how many times I defeated it, there was a limit to how much experience I could earn.

At best, I would probably only manage to reach somewhere around level 40 or 50.

Even so, I had no other options left.

Knowing full well how reckless it was—and, more than anything, wanting to distract myself from the miserable reality of my situation—I gripped my dagger tightly and returned to the boss room.

Along the way, I allocated all 15 of my remaining SP (Status Points) to Attack.

“GRRRAAAAAAAH!”

“—Haaah!”

I dodged Black Fang’s opening attack and immediately launched a counterattack.

As though venting all my pent-up frustration, I unleashed a relentless barrage of strikes.

As a result, just one minute after the battle began…

I successfully defeated Black Fang.

—And then, I encountered something utterly unbelievable.

‘Dungeon boss defeated.’

‘Dungeon clear reward: Acquired 10 SP (Status Points).’

“…………Huh?”

For a moment, I couldn’t comprehend what I’d just heard.

“Wait, hold on… Did it seriously just say I received a dungeon clear reward?”

Wondering whether I’d misheard the notification, I checked my status.

And there—

The number 10 was clearly displayed in the SP field.

“—How is this possible!?”

Each person could receive a reward from a particular dungeon only once.

That was an absolute rule governing dungeons, and no exceptions had ever been confirmed.

And yet—I had just received a second dungeon clear reward.

This was an event significant enough to overturn everything the world knew about dungeons.

“But why would something like that happen…?”

I couldn’t understand it.

After all, it made no sense.

Even the renowned scholars who had spent years researching dungeons had said so.

They believed dungeons recorded information about the souls of those who cleared them, preventing those individuals from receiving the same rewards again—

“Recording… souls as information…?”

I hurriedly checked the description of [Infinite Regeneration].

And sure enough, the words “through soul regeneration” were clearly written there.

“Could that really be it?”

[Infinite Regeneration].

Its ability wasn’t merely to bring me back from the dead and restore my body.

By regenerating my very soul, it resurrected me as an entirely new existence—that was the true essence of this skill.

If my theory was correct, a sudden surge of hope filled my heart.

“There’s a limit to how much I can level up through experience points… But if I can receive dungeon clear rewards infinitely, then there’s no limit to my growth.”

As long as I continued defeating the boss, I could continue growing stronger without end.

—Of course, there was one enormous drawback to this method.

“…Phew.”

Imagining the suffering that awaited me, I took a single deep breath.

In a sense, accepting death here might be many times easier than what I was about to do.

Even so, I simply couldn’t abandon the desire for revenge that continued burning endlessly within me.

That was why it took me less than a minute to steel my resolve.

“To receive another reward, I need to regenerate my soul. And there’s only one way to make that happen… I have to die.”

Gripping my dagger tightly with both hands, I suppressed my trembling through sheer hatred, allowing my desire for revenge to overpower my fear.

And then—

“————Haaah!”

At last, I plunged the dagger deep, deep into my own heart.

‘Soul regeneration commencing.’

—And so began my days of growth through unimaginable suffering.