WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over ◈

Chapter 30: Ars Magna

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Kwooooooo-!!!

The training ground froze over as though an ice age had arrived. Lightning flashed between pillars of ice jutting from the floor, while a black figure moved at incredible speed.

“Sir! Wake up!!!”

Smack! Smack!

As soon as I declared the start of the match, I tried to wake the staff member who had been sent flying beside me.

‘They don't seem to have any external injuries thanks to the barrier...’

They must have lost consciousness from the massive shockwave that erupted right as the match began.

I stopped trying to wake them and looked toward the battle.

Booom!! Craaash!!!

...The clash of power was enough to shake a training facility built for Awakened.

Even from this far away, it felt as if my organs were being rattled.

“Holy shit... Is this what a fight between an S-rank and an A-rank Hunter looks like?”

There was a world of difference between vaguely knowing high-rank Hunters were strong and seeing it with my own eyes.

“Hunter Baek Seola can't counterattack at all.”

It was difficult to follow the precise flow of the battle, but Baek Seola was clearly focused entirely on defense.

Hunter Yeon Harim appeared to have the advantage.

It was a fight between a close-combat specialist with extraordinary speed and a mage. This one-sided setup was only natural.

But...

“...No clean hits are landing?”

Baek Seola.

Her unbelievably fast spellcasting was keeping up with Yeon Harim's lightning-wreathed movements.

Yeon Harim wasn't literally moving at the speed of lightning even while using Etherization, but it still made no sense for anyone to keep up with such incredible speed.

“Then... is she predicting her moves?”

Baek Seola must have been predicting Yeon Harim's movements and casting her next spell in advance.

Of course, once Yeon Harim realized her movements were being read, she quickly moved into Baek Seola's blind spot and aimed for an opening.

“Shaaaak!”

The Eclipse model's scales flashed, forming a powerful mana barrier.

Boom!!

The Eclipse model completely protected Baek Seola's blind spot.

‘I made that model to compensate for Baek Seola's weakness in close combat as a mage, so this was expected, but...’

I hadn't expected the match to be this evenly balanced.

Boom!! Craaash!!!

Lightning and ice raged across the battlefield.

The fight steadily approached its climax.

“Chirrrrrr-!!”

Crackle, crackle, crackle!!!

When Chirring, the Keraunos model, let out a cry, Yeon Harim's body gave off even more intense lightning.

“Shaaaak!”

“Shaak!!”

Hummmmm!

The Eclipse model began amplifying its power as it glowed black and white.

Rumbleee!!

The entire building shook from the clash of overwhelming mana.

The tremor was so powerful that the collapsed staff member opened their eyes, only for their face to turn pale at the sight before them.

“W-w-wait, wait!!! The building's going to collapse!!!! Look, the warning lights are on!! The mana level has exceeded the limit!!!”

Exceeded the limit...? That meant the facility couldn't withstand it.

Horrified, I shouted at Yeon Harim and Baek Seola.

“Hunters, stop! Stop it!!!”

Glance.

The two Hunters looked at me, then immediately reined in the power that looked ready to explode at any moment.

‘...That was close.’

Thud.

The staff member beside me slumped down as though all strength had left them, and I approached the two Hunters.

“I didn't think you two would fight that seriously... It's just a sparring match. Don't you think things got a little overheated...?”

The two women smiled at my words.

“Oh my, Yoo Hyun. We were only sparring lightly. We didn't use weapons or any other equipment at all, you know?”

“Of course, Boss. This was a perfectly ordinary sparring match. I wasn't even giving it my all.”

“...Is that so?”

Now that I thought about it, neither of them had any gear equipped... Was sparring normally that intense? Since I wasn't a combat-type Awakened, I really didn't know this side of things.

Anyway... Baek Seola's custom pet demonstration had ended successfully. I think.

She had fought Yeon Harim almost evenly, so Baek Seola must have reached S-rank level too.

* * *

A few days later.

“Pant, pant...”

Squish, squish.

I sat in front of the store computer, kneading Haengbok.

[ VictorKreutz ]: (Link) Look at this, Yoo Hyun! The community is in complete chaos. There are already derivative papers citing your paper!

[ YH1234 ]: Oh... Derivative papers sound interesting.

‘What are they about?’

I'd read the derivative papers at home later. For now, I checked the overseas alchemist community.

- [ General ] Wow...!! Yoo Hyun finally shared the Buffering Array...!!! A new era of magical beast creation has begun, bro!

- [ General ] Finally!! Now I can test new arrays at last!! This is exciting!

- [ General ] Our lab's fucking old man kept hounding us, and now he's suddenly telling us to take two days off? This timing is because of the Buffering Array, right?

“Everyone's happy about it.”

“Pant, pant...”

The alchemist community was buzzing as though a new DLC had been released.

The International Alchemy Association (IAOA)'s technical verification, meanwhile, had concluded in an instant.

An association employee came to the store, reviewed my paper, and personally gave a technical demonstration. There was nothing to criticize, so they immediately approved the official patent registration.

Even at its fastest, approval should have taken several days, but the technical verification process had been completed at an impossibly rapid pace.

Should I call this a benefit of the massive shit China had created?

‘...Public opinion toward magical beasts hasn't been good since the biohazard incident. I guess they had no choice.’

Thanks to Mansu Precision Engineering, Magic Beast Alchemists around the world were all trying to prove magical beasts were safe. They insisted that magical beasts weren't dangerous, but that China was the problem.

My complete Buffering Array would be used as evidence proving the safety of magical beast technology.

“Well, that's not the really important part.”

What really mattered was this.

‘Patent royalties.’

The FRAND principle applied to the Buffering Array, so the royalty rate had been set rather stingily... Even so, an absurd amount of money was expected to land in my bank account.

The Buffering Array would become essential technology that reshaped the magical beast industry.

“Hehehe...”

The corners of my mouth twitched on their own. Unearned income...!

Unable to contain my surging dopamine, I lifted Haengbok into the air.

“I'm rich now! Haengbok!!”

“Pant, pant...!”

From now on, money would barely be a concern in anything I did.

Ding-dong.

I immediately sat back down as though nothing had happened.

“Welcome.”

The visitor was Baek Seola, with the Eclipse model wrapped around her body.

“Boss? Have you seen this?”

She abruptly held out her smartphone screen.

...It showed the Sichuan Magical Beast Industrial Complex, which had been getting utterly wrecked lately.

“...I thought it was being contained, but it's gotten even worse?”

A massive number of Chinese Hunters had been deployed, and they had successfully disinfected more than half of the magical beast industrial complex.

No matter how many magical beasts there were, how could they withstand the sheer numbers of Chinese Hunters? Especially when every magical beast that had appeared was C-rank or lower.

But the situation had entered a new phase.

In the video, a monster made entirely of twisted flesh roared and swung its arm. That single blow sent Hunters flying like autumn leaves.

The impact was so overwhelming that I let out a sound without realizing it, even through the screen.

“...Whoa. That's a high-rank magical beast, isn't it?”

...I'd suspected it, but they really had cultivated high-rank magical beasts.

“So why show me this?”

“Look here. China has officially requested help from magical beast experts.”

The screen showed that they were looking for experts who could effectively subdue the rampaging magical beasts.

“Hmm...? The pay is pretty good.”

Even to me, someone who had been making a lot of money lately, it was a considerable sum.

“Yes. So I was worried you might head to China, Boss...”

“...Me?”

Was there any reason for me to go? I'd have more than enough money from royalties going forward, and I didn't want to travel all the way to dangerous China.

They had caused that situation themselves, so they should solve it themselves.

“I thought you might be able to resolve that situation too, so I wondered whether you might go...”

Honestly, if I went there and saw the rampaging magical beasts in person, I might find a way.

‘No, I could probably resolve it.’

But there was absolutely no benefit in taking that risk.

“There's no reason to go just because they ask me to... I have my own work to do. I need to make pets for Dongbaek and Wolyeong Guild members too... Besides, I've already decided on my next destination.”

Baek Seola was visibly flustered by my bombshell announcement.

“R-really!? Where are you going next? Europe? America?”

There was Ouroboros in America and famous research institutes in Europe, but...

“My next destination is Japan.”

More precisely, Ars Magna, an artificial island designated as Japan's special magic engineering zone.

It was close to Korea and had top-tier infrastructure. It was the cradle of Japanese magic engineering.

It was close and had a great working environment, but more than anything, I loved the terms they had offered.

[ Subject: Proposal for Full Support and Recruitment for Yoo Hyun's Research and Magical Beast Synthesis ]

Hello, Mr. Yoo Hyun.

My name is Asakura Kenji, and I serve as chairman of the Magical Engineering Research Council directly under Japan's Hunter Management Agency.

First, I would like to congratulate you on your historic Triple Crown victory at the recent German Messe Expo, as well as the new horizon you have opened in magical beast synthesis...

(Omitted)

In particular, the impact Yoo Hyun's magical beast had on Hunter Yeon Harim's promotion to S-rank...

...The introduction was fucking long, but the summary was that my achievements were amazing, and they would fully support me if I came to them.

The point worth noting in this email, written in Japan's characteristic style, was the condition for supporting my research.

They had only one condition for me.

‘Create a pet worthy of one of their country's S-rank Hunters.’

China was trying to do for the Sword Princess Cheon Rin what Japan now wanted to do for one of its own S-rank Hunters.

‘Japan must be cornered too.’

Japan had S-rank Gates as well, and not just one. Four of them were open.

...Japan only had two S-rank Hunters, on the other hand.

Even if they used their S-rank Hunters as efficiently as possible, it was difficult to manage the monster populations within the Gates well enough to prevent a Gate Break.

They had somehow endured with two or three S-rank Gates, but a fourth had opened a few months ago. Now they had reached the point where they needed help from other countries' S-rank Hunters.

The Japanese government was working in many ways to solve this problem, and one of those efforts was producing an S-rank pet.

What I was after was the compensation if I succeeded in creating an S-rank pet.

They had offered extraordinary terms. If I succeeded in creating the pet and that led to the successful clearing of an S-rank Gate, I could keep either the infrastructure or the research institute that had supported its production.

They would even maintain every benefit provided at the national level, which meant I could potentially obtain special equipment and materials that money couldn't buy.

Basically, completing one pet-creation request would let me acquire top-tier magical beast production infrastructure.

A research institute where I could use all the infrastructure prepared on Ars Magna, the artificial island that was the cradle of magic engineering.

I couldn't resist that.

* * *

A thin middle-aged man sat on a sofa in a sunlit office.

Asakura Kenji, chairman of the Magical Engineering Research Council directly under Japan's Hunter Management Agency.

“Haah...”

He hadn't been able to stop sighing lately. The S-rank magical beast production project intended to clear S-rank Gates had made no progress at all.

“This is hopeless... Completely hopeless...”

How many months had they been stuck in the same place now...?

Research funds leaked away like water from a bottomless bucket, and the enormous costs of preventing S-rank Gate Breaks were added on top. Japan's financial situation was not good.

Honestly, he had known it. The task of creating an S-rank magical beast, something even China had failed to do, would not be easy.

Even when they used the recently released Buffering Array, the moment they injected the mana needed for S-rank Cultivation, the array was torn apart because it couldn't endure the violent mana.

The paper had said that the Buffering Array could only create magical beasts up to A-rank.

“Tch...”

But if they forced production forward, then in the worst case...

“They could end up like China...”

No, surely it wouldn't get that bad?

Still... It was hopeless.

“Ugh...”

If only Yoo Hyun would publish his Duality paper soon, there might be even the slightest chance...

Duality, the ultimate technology that could create magical beasts beyond their assigned rank, creatures outside the standard specifications.

Asakura Kenji had placed his hopes on it.

“Haah...”

He gave his habitual sigh and sat before his computer to work.

“W-whaaat?!”

Startled in a distinctly Japanese manner, Kenji stared at his inbox in disbelief.

It had come from someone he had never expected.

With trembling hands, he checked the email. Its contents were simple.

Yoo Hyun would join the S-rank magical beast production project.

“Y-Yoo Hyun is coming!?”

The creator of Duality himself?

For their hopeless research situation, this was incredible news.

* * *

A few days later.

The day Yoo Hyun was scheduled to enter Japan.

Asakura Kenji eagerly went to greet Yoo Hyun... and was more than a little flustered.

“I'll make you an S-rank magical beast. In return, give me the best research institute in Ars Magna.”

“...Pardon?”

That sounded as though he could definitely create an S-rank magical beast...?

“I will. That's the promise.”

“Pant, pant...”

“Um... Mr. Yoo Hyun? I haven't said anything yet...?”

They said geniuses were eccentric. Was Yoo Hyun one too?

Still, whatever the case, he was more than happy to have Yoo Hyun join them.

“We're counting on you, Mr. Yoo Hyun...!”

“I look forward to working with you too.”

[ Breaking ] Yoo Hyun, the ‘God of Alchemy,’ chooses Japan as his next destination... Joins artificial island Ars Magna's research team!

[ Exclusive ] “Will the world's first S-rank magical beast be born?” Yoo Hyun and Japan officially announce an S-rank magical beast Cultivation project

[ Comprehensive ] Genius alchemist leaves Korea and joins forces with Japan's cutting-edge infrastructure...!

[ Issue ] Ars Magna, the cutting-edge artificial island floating in Tokyo Bay... Yoo Hyun alone makes it the center of magical beast alchemy worldwide

Footnotes:

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