WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over ◈
Chapter 1: EX Rank
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It was an age when a small number of people Awakened, became Hunters, and raided Gates.
Not long ago, I joined those few when I Awakened, but my ability was utterly pathetic.
【 Magic Beast Alchemist 》E Rank 】
"...Ah, E Rank."
An alchemist... and one who created magical beasts, at that. It was a niche field.
Magical beasts were magical life forms made using monster materials.
Put simply, a Magic Beast Alchemist was what people called a chimera alchemist.
"Ha..."
I didn't make equipment or produce drugs for enhancement or treatment... Magical beast alchemy was considered the least commercially useful field in Hunter society.
"I'm screwed..."
As if getting E Rank in an Awakening, where people joked that even C Rank could change your life, wasn't bad enough, I had received the most useless ability possible.
Still, perhaps Hunter society had grown stagnant, because the situation was taking a strange turn.
[General] Cheon Rin, the Continental Sword Princess, Announces Final Withdrawal from SS-Rank Gate Raid...! "I Felt the Limits of Humanity"
[Issue] Japanese Solo Ranker Asagiri Ren Laments, "I've Hit a Wall"... What Will Be Rankers' Next Means of Improving Their Specs?
[Breaking] "Even S-Rank Gate Raids Have Hit a Wall"... Has Rankers' Explosive Growth Worldwide Ended, Ushering in a Period of Stagnation?
[Breaking] U.S. Hunter Analysis Community: "Are Magical Beast Pets the Key to the Next Generation of Spec Growth?"
[Feature] Is China Seeking to Monopolize the Magical Beast Pet Market? Begins a Mass Offensive with Magic Beast Alchemists
[Stock Market] "The Pet Meta Is Finally Here!" Magical Beast Pet Stocks Hit the Daily Limit for Five Consecutive Days
【 Korean Hunter Gallery 】
[Free] Is That Crazy Chinese Sword Princess Giving Up on SS Rank?
Posted by: HungeTeoi123
Even the world's strongest damage dealer lineup can't handle SS Rank?
Asagiri Ren was whining about hitting a growth wall too.
Have Hunters really reached the limit of their spec growth now?
[Comments]
Anon (110.70): Rumor has it that even with Cheon Rin, they were still massively short on damage output for a five-person SS-Rank Gate.
└ HungeTeoi123 (OP): Holy shit... If an SS-Rank Gate breaches, it'll be a disaster on a whole other level;;;
└ Anon (39.7): But if even an S-Rank Gate hasn't been cleared, what kind of insane move is it to throw themselves at an SS-Rank Gate?
└└ Anon (211.235): Since the SS-Rank Gate is in Beijing, maybe the Chinese government wants it cleared as soon as possible...?
Ten years had passed since Gates appeared and people began Awakening... Most first-generation Hunters and Rankers were finding it difficult to grow any further.
It wasn't impossible, but as their levels rose, their growth rate had become absurdly slow, like an old RPG.
So it wasn't strange that everyone had started looking for new ways to improve their specs beyond equipment and enhancement drugs.
Anyway, I benefited from this trend and got a job at a newly established magical beast research institute.
[Based on the test results you submitted and Yoo Hyun's trait, the newly established Magical Beast Research Team has expressed great interest in you.]
I had sent out resumes thinking I'd try being a porter or something...
Then I got hired by the Magical Beast Research Team out of nowhere.
"This actually worked...?"
* * *
Half a year passed after I joined the research institute.
I had majored in something completely unrelated to biotechnology, so I was a little worried...
But the Magic Beast Alchemist trait naturally improved my intuition for alchemy and provided basic guidelines, allowing even an outsider like me to adapt to the work easily.
Most of the researchers had the same trait as me, even if their ranks differed, so we could communicate without any trouble. That also helped me settle in.
On my way to work at the Magical Biotechnology Research Institute.
Whirr-
The automatic doors opened, and the moment I stepped inside, I sensed something was wrong.
'What is it...? Did another cultivation experiment fail? No... That can't be it. We're still far from the deadline, aren't we?'
Sensing the grim mood, I quietly approached the team leader and asked.
"Team Leader, the mood seems bad today. What's going on? Did the KKO model we were cultivating last time cause trouble again?"
"Ha... That's not it, Hyun..."
The team leader, who always brightened the team's mood by firing off unfunny dad jokes no matter how exhausting the research got, looked completely devastated.
I had a feeling this was anything but ordinary.
"Then don't tell me... A combat magical beast went berserk and wrecked another cage... Or... Gasp... Did one escape from the institute?"
"Ha... It'd be better if a magical beast had wrecked the institute and escaped. We could just catch it again. That's not it, Hyun... You saw the government regulations on the news this morning, right? Because of that, the investor finally pulled out... Maybe because it's election season, but they started their bullshit again! Again!! Magical life forms are always the easiest target. Those bastards..."
"What...? Just a few weeks ago, they were saying the government would support magical beast pets because they'd be essential for improving the next generation of Hunters' abilities..."
I blinked at the team leader's words.
The Great Cataclysm ten years ago gave birth to Gates, bringing the powers and knowledge of another world into the modern world.
Naturally, the early days of the Gates were marked by immense chaos. Monsters invaded cities, and criminals with superhuman strength appeared...
Yet humanity quickly rebuilt after the great turmoil, creating a civilization more advanced than before because of the Gates.
Magical biotechnology, in particular, was the study of creating creatures from the corpses of Gate monsters. Since it involved the ethical issue of bringing life into existence, it had always been a controversial field.
People hadn't made much of an issue of it while they were busy stabilizing the Gate crisis. But now that society had settled down and life was becoming easier, the ethical problems surrounding magical beast pets had finally risen to the surface.
Korea was especially sensitive to ethical issues like this... With election season approaching, it had finally exploded.
'No, when I think about it, maybe it was only a matter of time...'
After working in the field myself, I knew magical beasts were basically biological robots that followed their programming. But to outsiders, creating chimeras meant challenging the domain of the gods.
'...Though it really is creating life.'
There was no excuse for it. Even if they had no souls, they still carried out the functions of life.
And because they were made from materials taken from Gate monsters, humanity's enemies, there were plenty of reasons modern society might find them deeply unpleasant.
Anyway, the company dissolved overnight, and I became unemployed in an instant.
Of course, the team leader and the other higher-ranked researchers were quickly recruited by research institutes overseas.
Other countries still viewed the pet industry as a viable way to get ahead of their competitors.
[Team Leader]: Hey, Hyun, come over to Japan too. I'll make a spot for you.
[Me]: Thank you for the offer, Team Leader. I was thinking of opening a pet shop while I have the chance.
'...Let's look on the bright side. I'm free now, so I'll try doing what I've wanted to do.'
I'd use this chance to open a shop of my own, something I'd wanted to try for a while.
* * *
Another half year passed.
Using the money I'd saved and a loan, I opened a small magical beast pet shop in Gaepo-dong, Gangnam-gu.
How had a salaried worker like me opened a shop somewhere with land as expensive as Gangnam-gu?
Unfortunately, this neighborhood had a history of multiple A-Rank Gates opening here, so land prices had fallen quite a bit.
'It's still fucking expensive, though...'
The rent was brutal, but I chose this location anyway.
Magical beast pets seemed like the sort of thing wealthy people would keep as a hobby.
The statistics backed it up too, so choosing this spot had been an entirely rational decision.
But contrary to my expectations, the shop was dead.
The cages were full of small magical beasts, but I didn't have a single customer.
Jingle-
"Uncle, I came to look around again today. Can I?"
A girl energetically entered the shop around six in the evening.
She was one of my regular visitors.
She didn't help sales at all, though.
"I'm not an uncle... How old are you again, Jia?"
"I'm a senior in high school this year."
Come to think of it, from a high school student's perspective... I really was an uncle.
"Business bad again today?"
"Well, what can I do when that opened next door?"
Someone must have had the same idea as me, because a magical beast pet shop on an entirely different scale had opened right beside mine.
With a flashy branded store like that there, why would anyone bother coming to a little hole-in-the-wall shop like mine?
"Still, Jellykko is only here."
"Pant, pant..."
Jia spoke while looking at the slime creature inside the cage.
A slime dog covered in distinctive spots.
"Jellykko's cute. Is no one going to buy it? Hasn't it already been two months?"
"...Domestically made magical life forms have short lifespans because of the regulations, you know... It's practically an old grandpa now, so no one will take it."
"I see..."
Jellykko, the slime dog I designed and created using the know-how I'd accumulated after opening the shop.
I hadn't set out to make this kind of creature from the beginning.
- "What do you mean it has teeth? What if my child gets hurt walking past it? Will you take responsibility?"
- "What? You use a low-grade mana core as its nucleus? A chimera made from a monster's mana core and monster materials...! Isn't that just a monster!? What? It's not a combat pet? No, absolutely not! Will you take responsibility if we get complaints!?"
Responsibility, responsibility. That was all anyone ever said.
Korea's regulations on magical life forms were especially strict, so the materials I could use as the owner of a civilian magical life form pet shop were extremely limited.
Naturally, they were right. This technology could cause tremendous damage if it was misused.
So I had to make harmless creatures weak enough for even children to subdue and incapable of any kind of attack...
In the end, slime-like materials were all I could use.
Since the magical beasts used nuclei made by processing lowest-grade mana cores, their lifespans were very short too.
Sadly, that Jellykko had at most one month left to live.
Jellykko's designed lifespan, using the lowest-grade mana core, was four months.
It had been three months since I brought it into this world, so it could be considered elderly.
It had become noticeably less active lately, so it would probably stop functioning soon.
"Pant, pant..."
I took it out of its cage.
"Uncle?"
"It won't sell anyway, so I'm just going to take it home."
Even if it was too much to hope that it would meet a good owner and live a happy life, as its creator, I should at least let it spend the rest of its days freely.
...Even if Jellykko had no soul.
I brought Jellykko home.
* * *
"Pant, pant..."
Haengbok, who had been born spotted because of my immature crafting skills.
Jia gave it that name. She said I couldn't name it Spotty.
Jellykko should have been born in a solid color, but my mistake left its body covered in large and small spots. Because of that, customers never chose it, saying it looked dirty.
"Pant, pant..."
"Sigh... All right. Let's get along."
For a month, I took it on plenty of walks. I didn't know whether its sense of taste had been properly implemented, but I fed it fairly expensive kibble and treats.
I'd played with it enough and shown it enough affection, at least in my own way.
Then, one month later.
That day finally came. Haengbok reached four months old, the limit of its designed biological activity.
"Pant... Pant..."
Its breathing was quiet and uneven. It was like a flashlight flickering with dead batteries inside.
"You probably won't make it through today... I'm sorry. I wasn't capable enough..."
I rubbed Haengbok's back as its breathing grew fainter.
I'd made this Jelly Dog to make a living, in the end...
But the kind of pet I'd wanted to make was something more like a companion in life... a companion for a person's whole life.
Not a life that faded away this meaninglessly.
"Pant... Pant..."
With Haengbok refusing to leave my side, I fell asleep beside it.
That night.
A voice came from beyond a mist-filled trail.
[Where do you think you're going, you stupid dog! This isn't a walking path!]
[Pant, pant...!]
[What...? What are you talking about? There's a Jelly Dog here? Huh...!!! What the hell...!! It's real!!]
'...What?'
A black, bipedal Jellykko was walking a blue Jellykko on a leash. The black one could even speak human language.
The abnormal sight made me realize at once that this was a dream.
'...Ah, this is a dog dream.'
Had Haengbok's biological activity shutting down hit me harder than I thought?
Was the black one some kind of grim reaper for Jellykko?
'...What a weird dream.'
[Dream? Well, you're not wrong. This is the boundary. More importantly, human, are you this Jelly Dog's owner?]
The jelly grim reaper pointed at Haengbok, which had appeared without me noticing.
"Pant, pant..."
With the dulled awareness unique to dreams, I didn't find anything strange about it and answered the voice.
'...I'm the one who made that dog.'
[Ho... Is that so? You created a Jelly Dog, so you must have some talent. I'll ask because you've caught my interest. Will you continue creating beings like this?]
...
I couldn't immediately answer the grim reaper's question.
'No, forget it... I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm not capable enough, and I can't take responsibility, so I don't know what I'm even doing by creating magical life forms...'
A failing shop. Magical beasts that would be disposed of because they couldn't find owners.
'Looking back, it was the worst... The only comfort is that they don't have souls.'
[Hm? They have souls. That's why we came. And this Jelly Dog is grateful to you. You must have been a good owner.]
"Pant, pant..."
...What?
Before I could grasp what that meant, the blue Jellykko circled me and sniffed around.
[Pant, pant....]
[It seems this blue, stupid dog has taken a liking to you. You're very lucky. It says it'll intervene, even at a cost to causality.]
'What does that mean?'
[There is no time, human. This is my gift, so accept it. It will awaken your talent. I will return to collect this Jelly Dog's soul later.]
The black Jellykko took out a gray lump of biological matter from somewhere and threw it at me.
At that moment,
Ding-!
【 You have acquired Evolution Lord’s Biological Database #001. 】
[You have acquired a large volume of experimental data.]
[Your trait's rank is increasing!]
[Your trait's rank is increasing!]
[Your trait's rank is increasing!]
[Your trait's rank is increasing!]
[Your trait's rank is increasing!]
......
【 Magic Beast Alchemist 》 E → EX Rank 】
[Some functions have been locked due to excessive changes in causality.]
* * *
Chirp, chirp...
I opened my eyes in bed, covered in cold sweat.
"Wow... That was seriously a crazy dog dream. Huh...?"
Once I came to my senses, I felt something licking my face.
Lick, lick-
When I turned my head, the spotted slime dog was licking my face.
"Pant, pant..."
"Huh... Haengbok?"
Its mana core should have reached the end of its lifespan, and its biological activity should have stopped...?
What was more, Haengbok's activity, which had been like a candle about to go out, didn't look much different from when it was first born.
...Could it be?
I desperately tried to recall the fading details of the dream.
The black jelly grim reaper and the blue Jellykko.
And the system message that came at the end.
If that dream was real, the beings I saw in it had to be transcendent entities.
"No... Don't tell me... the God of Jelly Dogs really came by?"
Thinking it was impossible, I opened my status window.
【 Magic Beast Alchemist 》 E...... 】
"...Right, it's still E Rank-"
【 Magic Beast Alchemist 》 EX Rank 】
"Wh-what...?"
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the information window.
What was the highest rank for a Hunter trait again...?
Footnotes:
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