Injuries...

Li only then noticed how light and comfortable his body felt. The injuries all over him from detonating his Authority—and the heavy, painful feeling that came with them—seemed to have vanished completely...

I’m really healed...

My injuries...

He pulled his clothes aside and looked at the places where he’d been cut by the sword and the like. Every wound had disappeared. He’d been restored to perfect condition.

He really had recovered completely. It was unbelievable—his injuries were all gone. Li was stunned. Potions like that did exist, and he could even make them himself, but this went beyond healing. It was as if time had been rewound in his body, restoring him completely to the best condition he’d been in back then.

This was something a potion could never do. No—maybe it was simply something he couldn’t do yet. This was...

“Looks like you understand. You’re an alchemist too, so you can probably figure out what I did to you.”

“You used my body as a vessel and forcibly remade it... This wasn’t the potion’s doing. The potion was just an aid. You used some special method to completely remake my body, didn’t you?”

“Hahaha! Without this pool of stuff, I couldn’t have done it either. Kid, you should thank me. Otherwise, you’d have been a cripple for the rest of your life. This is the first time I’ve seen someone detonate their own Authority. Third in Rank, Seventh in Tier, Sequence Number One, Authority: Sloth... Hahaha... Of all the Authorities in the Third Rank, the Seventh Tier’s is the strongest, but it’s also the hardest to control. You couldn’t control that power at all, could you?”

The old man had hit the mark, and Li saw no reason to hide it. He simply nodded.

“Who are you, really? How do you know all this? You’re the first person who’s ever seen through what my Authority is.”

“A person? I’m not human.”

“Then what are you?”

“What am I... By human standards, I’m just a ghost bound to this place, still lingering in this world. If I don’t accomplish my goal, I’ll never be able to leave. So now that you’ve come here, I can finally fulfill it. Though I wasn’t human even when I was alive. Still, this works out rather well. In the end, all I can do is pass my entire legacy on to you. And it’s fortunate that you’re an alchemist too.”

“You weren’t human? What race are you, sir?”

The Yalatika Continent was home to countless races, and humans were only one of them. Aside from those in the top three Ranks, the other races got along well with one another. Of course... there was one race that got along with no one in this world: the beings known as Outsiders. They wielded Authorities, but often gained them by attacking Apostles of Authority and devouring their power.

“Don’t worry about that right now, kid. Just remember this: you’re about to inherit my entire legacy! That’s all you need to understand. I don’t care whether you’re a good person or a bad one. The fact that you fell into the Abyss of the Underworld and survived means you’re qualified to receive my power.”

“Tch.”

What was this supposed to be? Had he just hit the jackpot? But now he’d become his seventeen-year-old self again, returned to the way he’d been back then.

His younger self...

A boy...

“Then what about my...”

Li lowered his head and pulled open his pants. No... it wasn’t as if he needed to take them off. After shrinking, they didn’t fit him at all anymore...

He glanced down at his little buddy.

“Aaaah!!!”