I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over - Chapter 66

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

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

Chapter 66: A Colossal Being

──────

Day 3 of the British battlefield.

The coast remained covered in dark clouds, while countless Merfolk continued crawling out of the water.

No one even knew how many waves they had faced by now.

“Chit, chit...”

An especially long spine was pulled from the giant hedgehog.

Pop.

The smoothly extracted spine was nocked onto a bowstring made of mana.

Then, using the same sensation used to compress power into a sword, mana was focused into the arrow.

Vwoooom!

The spine arrow gradually began turning red as more mana flowed into it.

Even after receiving an immense amount of mana, it remained still.

More than had ever been put into a sword... as though squeezing the very limits... even more mana was poured in.

Mana was infused into the arrow with enough force to shatter the spine itself.

Then, at the moment that an enormous amount of mana compressed into the tiny medium of an arrow...

Crackle!

Mana began to spark.

Cheon Sanha’s gaze sharpened.

“Whew...”

Cheon Sanha aimed at the target.

Before them was a mass of Merfolk.

Cheon Sanha’s archery was not yet at the level of a professional archer, so they still lacked proficiency. But that was not a serious problem on this battlefield.

After all...

Everything Cheon Sanha saw was a target.

The moment they released the bowstring, a red meteor tore through the battlefield.

Fweeeeee!

The compressed mana within the flying spine arrow broke past its critical point, showing signs that it would shake space itself.

Hummmmmm!

The space around the arrow rippled, creating the tension of something about to burst forth at any moment.

In Cheon Sanha’s accelerated senses, mana slowly bloomed around the arrow like a flower.

Like space itself was cracking...

Like a sign of the overwhelming destruction it would bring...!

Crack!

Booooom!

Hundreds of Merfolk exploded to death in a single strike.

“Ha... Kahahaha!”

The destructive power always exceeded their expectations. Every nerve in their body stood on edge as a thrilling shudder swept through them.

Cheon Sanha stared at his bow and muttered,

“...Turns out I like bows?”

Why was this so fun?

Cheon Sanha had felt it at Ars Magna and on the previous battlefield too, but this was insanely fun.

The targets were living creatures, but they were enemies of humanity as well. There would be no repercussions, so they could fire without restraint.

The satisfying impact kept their hands moving.

Fweee!

Fweeeeee!

“Damn it, little bro! What the hell did you do to me?! My body’s heating up!”

Cheon Sanha continued firing his bow.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

The hedgehog let out small cries as Cheon Sanha kept pulling out its spines.

“Chit, chit...”

* * *

The battlefield after the Merfolk wave ended.

Merfolk corpses and the stench of fish filled the area. Everyone cheered at their overwhelming victory.

Their dopamine surged at the thought of the spoils left behind by the Merfolk and Britain’s rewards.

“Waaaaah!”

“Fucking yessss!”

Hunters from all over the world had gathered here to offer support. Since no Inherited Merfolk appeared in each wave, they had been able to repel the enemy relatively easily.

From the Hunters’ perspective, Britain offered massive rewards simply for participating. There could not be a better gold mine.

Among the groups in the undefeated Third Battlefield, one had delivered especially remarkable results...

The Cheonseong Guild members approached Cheon Sanha with wide eyes.

“Wow... Guild Master, what happened to you? You just keep getting better as time goes on. I seriously thought a nuke had dropped today!”

“To be honest, when you suddenly said you were picking up a bow, I thought you’d finally lost your mind...”

“Is this the Yoo Hyun magic everyone talks about? Ah... I want a custom pet too. Those mass-produced magical beasts from big corporations aren’t bad, but after seeing Yoo Hyun’s pets, mine look like junk...”

“I know, right? His custom pets are on another level. Think he might take reservations...?”

Cheon Sanha had displayed power beyond that of an S-rank Hunter.

Cheon Sanha’s bombardment had struck the clustered Merfolk with pinpoint accuracy, inflicting tremendous losses on their forces.

Most of the craters scattered across the battlefield were Cheon Sanha’s handiwork.

“This is something... Even I can’t believe I did it.”

“Chit, chit...”

Cheon Sanha petted the giant hedgehog beside him.

“It was all thanks to Haniki.”

“Chit, chit...”

The elite Cheonseong Guild members each commented as they looked at Haniki, the Echidna model.

“A magical beast that supplies arrows. That’s amazing.”

“Its name is Haniki? Sounds like a name that would keep shooting up and crashing down...”

“...Ahem. Guild Master, do you think I could reserve a magical beast from Yoo Hyun too?”

A reservation? Unfortunately, that would be difficult even for me.

A genius like little bro made magical beasts according to his own standards.

Just then, a group cautiously approached.

It was the skinhead who had picked a fight with them several days ago. They approached Cheon Sanha with a deferential air and bowed their head.

“Um... I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. I’ve watched all your performances so far... So, may I ask which faction you belong to? If it’s all right, we’d like you to take us in as well...”

“A faction? What are you talking about?”

It was not difficult to draw information out of the skinhead. Unlike before, he was quite obedient.

After Cheon Sanha guided the conversation a little, the skinhead spilled everything and even started complaining.

“Of course, we thought we’d be the strongest because that’s what they told us! But once we got to the battlefield, there were far more factions doing better than us!”

“Hm...”

Cheon Sanha roughly understood.

‘A Transcendent’s faction...? The world has been acting strange lately, so I thought there had to be something behind it.’

Gates had always hinted at an invasion from beyond Earth.

‘So if what this guy says is true, this battlefield is full of Hunters belonging to the factions of those Transcendents.’

Everyone really was too strong.

It felt as if the average rank had risen by one or two levels overall, if not more.

Some even displayed movements worthy of S-rank or higher.

This must be the power of a Transcendent faction’s support.

But Cheon Sanha soon tilted his head.

“...Then why does little bro’s pet seem even more broken?”

“Chit, chit...”

Was little bro receiving support from a Transcendent faction too...?

Just as that question came to mind...

Kwoooaaar!

The sea suddenly surged upward, and a colossal shadow fell across the shore.

“W-What? What’s happening all of a sudden?!”

“Fuck! It’s a tsunami!”

“No, the tsunami isn’t the problem! Th-That thing...!”

When the figure beyond the sudden tidal wave revealed itself, everyone on the battlefield was overcome by shock and terror at the sight of a being beyond common sense.

It was even larger than the Colossal Merfolk that had appeared before.

“Th-This is insane...”

“Is that a Merfolk too...?”

“Do we have to fight th-”

Whoooosh!

The enormous wave it created swept across the shore, carrying countless Hunters away helplessly.

Cheon Sanha and the Cheonseong Guild’s position was on relatively high ground, so they did not suffer much damage from the tidal wave...

But it happened to lock eyes with Cheon Sanha and stretched out an arm toward Cheon Sanha.

“...Everyone, fall back!”

Cheon Sanha shouted at the Guild members frozen with fear and fired arrow after arrow at the approaching arm.

Booom! Booom!

Booooom!

The consecutive explosions shook the earth, but the giant monster’s arm continued charging toward Cheon Sanha without even a tremor.

As a massive shadow fell over them, Cheon Sanha lowered the hand holding their bow and murmured quietly,

“Ha, fuck... Sorry, little bro. I guess I can’t get you that artifact. And I’m really sorry, Haniki. You’re not even a week old yet...”

“Chit, chit...”

That day, countless Hunters died or went missing on the battlefield.

* * *

Ars Magna

Hermes Research Institute

“Haengbok... I want to make aquatic magical beasts...”

“Pant, pant...”

I wanted to make a Sea Serpent.

I wanted to make a Kraken!

But before that, there was something I had to do. I needed to make S-rank magical beasts for Yeon Harim and Baek Seola.

I called Yeon Harim first.

I intended to use the S-rank facilities here to make her a new magical beast.

But before that, another customer I had contacted beforehand came to the institute.

A mint-haired girl approached from afar with a mint Jellykko.

I spread both arms wide for my precious graduate student.

“Luise!”

“Yoo Hyun!”

Patter, patter, patter!

Whoosh!

She ran toward me at full speed and threw herself into my arms. I hugged her back.

“You’ve waited a long time, right?”

“Pant, pant...”

“Mhm... It wasn’t that long...”

“Pant, pant, pant...”

For some reason, her face was red. She seemed quite excited about the magical-beast research life she would spend with me.

For reference, I had called Luise to make a new magical beast for Yeon Harim. She was also a specialist in creating spirit entity magical beasts.

Of course, my magical-beast crafting skills were better, but her creativity helped me immensely.

I had established a foundation in Japan and Korea to some extent, so I had been thinking it was about time to call Luise over.

Luise hesitantly opened her mouth, her face red.

“Um, Yoo Hyun... Then when are we having the ceremony?”

“What ceremony?”

“You told me... that once you got settled, you’d definitely come get me. That you didn’t want anyone else to take me. Wouldn’t it be better to hold the ceremony soon...?”

I had said that.

Did she want a welcoming ceremony?

She was telling me to bring her in quickly before another faction took her.

That made sense. She was practically part of the institute now, so a welcoming ceremony was appropriate.

‘I should have Researcher A, Asagiri, prepare it.’

But I should ask this first.

“Now that you mention it, did someone try to recruit you?”

“Hm...? Recruit me? Ah... There was someone. They came to ask me to make spirit magical beasts for their faction. They said that with the help of some World Tree, I could make something incredible beyond anything imaginable right now.”

The World Tree?

Oh... Another new keyword.

“I see. Let’s head into the institute first.”

* * *

After unpacking in her assigned room, Luise immediately showed off the magical beasts she had newly invented.

“What do you think, Yoo Hyun? These are household-helper spirit entity magical beasts that I made!”

Luise had finally completed Spirit Core technology. Using it, she had created a variety of spirit entity magical beasts, one of which was this household-helper magical beast.

The spirit entity magical beasts moved their short arms and legs to wipe the floor with cloths.

Since they floated through the air, even dust in high places was not a problem.

“Weeet... cloooth...”

“Goo... od...”

“Why do they sound like that?”

Why did all the spirit-type magical beasts made by our side have cries like that?

“I don’t know either! When I applied the techniques you taught me, they turned out like that!”

Luise replied brightly.

‘Well, their cries aren’t important.’

What mattered was that she had finally become my graduate student.

Even if I left Ars Magna now, I would have nothing to worry about with Luise as the deputy director.

Not long after that, Yeon Harim visited the institute with Chirring, her Keraunos model.

“Yoo Hyun, I’m here!”

“Chirrr...”

There was one problem, though...

“...Yoo Hyun, who is that woman?”

“Yoo Hyun... who’s that woman this time?”

The two women reacted in exactly the same way toward each other.

“Ah, have you two never met before?”

Well, only Baek Seola had come to Germany to meet me before.

I introduced them to each other.

“Hm... So she’s just a guest?”

“Then she’s just a fellow researcher?”

The atmosphere became strange, so I took Yeon Harim to the reception room.

“It’s been a while since we met in person, Hunter Yeon Harim.”

“It has... We should have seen each other more often...”

After talking for a bit, we returned to the main subject of making her magical beast.

“I’m going to make you a new magical beast. Have you had any inconveniences lately?”

“Well...? I don’t think I’ve felt particularly inconvenienced by anything...?”

I looked at the newly added entries in her Customer Window.

‘Normally, I would have made a spirit entity magical beast with another attribute for Etherization, but with those Talents...’

[ Talent 》 Extraordinary Throwing Ability, Exceptional Mana Control, Exceptional Dynamic Visual Acuity, Exceptional Obsession Ability, Excellent Spatial Perception. ]

Extraordinary throwing ability...?

Hm... Hunter Yeon Harim mainly used a sword, but it would be a waste not to use that throwing ability, wouldn’t it?

Close combat was good, but having a ranged attack option would not be bad either.

‘Would a one-shot finishing move with destructive power surpassing Cheon Sanha’s arrows be good?’

Not bad... It had a certain romantic appeal and seemed practical in actual combat too.

More than anything...

I wanted to see it!

The greatest firepower ever!

Perhaps because Cheon Sanha’s firepower had raised my standards, my heart kept leaning toward even more destructive power.

I cautiously made my suggestion.

“Would you perhaps, Hunter Yeon Harim... like to become a living railgun?”

“...Pardon?”