WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 10: Flamehorn Lion (1)
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After exchanging phone numbers with Yu Myeongu, the future holder of an SS-grade skill, we parted ways. Getting him into the Haeyeon Guild would be another problem, but maybe I could insist to Yoohyun that I sensed something incredible in Yu Myeongu.
When I returned to the Haeyeon Guild, people were already looking at me curiously, as if some rumor had spread.
“Is that the guild leader’s older brother?”
“It’s my first time seeing him! They don’t look much alike.”
“Excuse me, Guild Leader’s brother! Are you really F-grade?”
They sure had a lot to say. Most of them seemed to have come out just to look at me. It was the weekend, so why didn’t they all go home and rest?
“Yes, I’m F-grade. Please move aside so I can pass.”
Out of the way, people. Everyone except those on duty should just go home.
Still, perhaps because I had not caused much trouble yet at this point, nobody looked at me like they wanted to kill me or cursed at me.
I had only started being called trash in earnest half a year later, after I awakened at the Awakening Center.
Right after they announced the Awakening Center would soon open, several people came looking for me. They said they had high expectations for me as the older brother of an S-grade Awakened, and I let them sweet-talk me. Backed by their sponsorship, I proudly entered the Awakening Center on opening day and awakened.
And well, the result was F-grade.
There had been plenty of reporters there, and lots of clickbait posts saying, “The sibling of an S-grade Awakened is S-grade too?!” After that... I got cursed out like crazy, torn apart like crazy, and the bastards who had sponsored me shoved contracts in my face and left me in debt....
The debt was one thing, but I was still bitter about the abuse. Did I ask them to write those articles? They whipped themselves into a frenzy, so why did they curse at me? Curse the garbage reporters instead, damn it.
Thinking about those old, future events nearly brought tears to my eyes, so I hurried my steps. It was so unfair, damn it. If nothing else, I would get revenge on those garbage reporters. If not for that incident, my life would have been at least half as less of a mess.
Especially Kim Seungjun and Park Haesin. Those two bastards were unforgettable. Those sons of bitches took my interview and twisted it just to stir up attention. Just wait.
Grinding my teeth, I entered the elevator. To get into Yoohyun’s place, I had to pass a checkpoint on the tenth floor, go to the portal room, verify my identity again, and then use a designated mini portal. I was going to move into the staff quarters if only because that was such a hassle.
‘So where exactly is my room?’
Yesterday, I had been impressed by the enormous television while watching soccer, then fallen asleep on a couch comfortable enough to rival a bed. The game had been so boring.
Maybe because athletes were physically fit, many awakened at E-grade or above. They had all ended up retiring in droves, and now soccer, basketball, baseball, all of them were left with nothing but mediocre players. Anyone with stats of E-grade or higher was no longer considered an ordinary person and could not compete.
Still, a league for Awakened of C-grade and below was supposed to be created soon. Apparently, those of C-grade and below were unhappy because they earned less than professional athletes.
‘How many rooms does Yoohyun even have?’
He occupied half a floor of the building, so the place was absurdly spacious. I opened one of the nearby doors. It was empty inside.
“Since he lives alone, most of the rooms must be empty. What a waste of space.”
Grumbling, I walked down the corridor. I had never come this way before, but... oh.
An indoor garden surrounded by glass walls appeared before me. No, was it closer to a greenhouse? Trees grew densely, flowers and plants sprouted everywhere as they pleased, and...
Yowl!
“Gah, what was that?!”
As I walked along the glass wall, something like a cat leaped out from the bushes. It had red fur, a foxlike tail, and a single horn on its head. The cat yowled threateningly at me. This glass was sturdy, right?
“You’re tiny, but vicious.”
Maybe this was not a greenhouse but an enclosure. It did not look like an ordinary animal, but what was it?
Just in case, I used Sprout on the cat.
[Class-2 Unicorn Subspecies: Flame-Horned Lion (Juvenile)
Current Stat Grade: C
Potential Stat Grade Upon Growth: A-S
Optimized Initial Skills
Flame Breath (S): Acquired after growth
Flame Sprint (A): Acquired after growth
Enlargement (A): Acquired after growth
Fire Resistance (A): Acquired
※ Cannot grow without the aid of an adult]
“...This cat is a Flame-Horned Lion?”
Unable to hide my surprise, I stared at the yowling cat.
A Class-2 unicorn subspecies, the Flame-Horned Lion. Class-2 was a high classification, and while unicorn subspecies fell short of dragonkind, they were still among the upper-tier magic beasts.
With high stats, great speed, and destructive skills, it was a monster that even an S-class would struggle to fight alone without preparing for its element.
Yoohyun would have found it easy to deal with, since he had fire immunity.
‘Did he catch it to tame it? Had an Awakened with a tamer skill appeared already?’
If it could be tamed, it would make the perfect mount for Yoohyun. No, it would need to be capable of growing too. If it could not grow without an adult’s help, then it was useless.
...Could My Kid Is the Best work on monsters too? Nobody had said it only worked on people.
Let’s see....
[The target has not yet been influenced by the Keyword.]
The same message that had appeared when I used it on Kim Seonghan popped up. It did not say the skill could not be applied. It worked on monsters too!
[When My Kid Is the Best (L) is applied, the time required for a Class-2 Unicorn Subspecies, Flame-Horned Lion, to mature into an adult is 15 days.]
Another message window appeared. I could apply it for three days once a month, so it meant it could become an adult in five months.
‘Even five years later, Yoohyun didn’t have a mount.’
The higher the dungeon rank, the larger the interior became, so having a mount was useful. However, because of Yoohyun’s skills, he could not ride a mount without at least A-grade fire resistance. If he was attacked while traveling and used an offensive skill, he might end up killing an innocent mount.
‘So he caught a lion cub, but apparently failed to raise it.’
Tamer skills could only tame monsters lower than the skill’s grade. A Flame-Horned Lion was S-grade, so it could not be tamed unless it was a cub. But a cub was C-grade, so even a B-grade tamer could probably tame it.
Not that it would grow.
‘It would have been too small to use as a mount. It would be perfect if I raised it.’
Mounts were so precious that even ordinary magic beasts used as mounts were treated like S-grade items. It would be a waste to leave such a well-suited beast alone. A unicorn subspecies was faster than ordinary magic beasts and had offensive power too. It was truly top-tier.
But the Keyword was the problem. Would it understand human speech?
“Hey, kid. Do you understand what people say?”
Yowl! Yowl!
“You don’t understand.”
Grrr.
Still, it was too much of a waste to give up. Could I train it somehow? There were plenty of dogs on animal shows that understood people.
‘I don’t know whether it needs to understand the Keyword, or whether it only needs to hear it and feel something emotionally.’
The Keyword itself could be somewhat flexible. With my old Keyword, “Cheer up,” variations such as “Please cheer up,” “Do cheer up,” and “Cheer up” had all worked. So I thought the meaning only needed to get across, but if it required understanding as I suspected, that would be a problem.
How was I supposed to teach a Flame-Horned Lion about love?
‘Should I use this one to experiment?’
Like Pavlov’s dog, if I said I loved it every time I fed it, it should react. After teaching it that “I love you” meant food, I could starve it for a few days, then say I loved it...
Bang!
At that moment, a sound like a door being smashed open echoed through the place. Nobody else would act like that in the guild leader’s home, so was it Yoohyun?
Perfect timing. I should tell him I wanted to raise the Flame-Horned Lion cub.
“Yoohyun...?”
I stepped into the corridor to call my younger brother, but his expression was alarming. His eyes and mouth were set hard, as if he were angry. What was wrong?
“What is it? What...”
“Give it to me.”
My brother strode toward me and growled. Give him what? Was he talking about the gift card? The amount had been excessive, after all. ...I had spent nearly all of it, though. Could anything be refunded?
“Black Poison Mist Orb.”
“...What?”
“Hand it over. Now.”
Not the gift card? But how did he know I had bought Black Poison Mist Orbs? The Hunter Shopping Mall was supposed to guarantee confidentiality. Did payment alerts go to him through the gift card too?
“Why do you...”
“Give it to me.”
His voice became even fiercer. A dark red light swirled in both his eyes. It wasn’t frightening thanks to my fear resistance, but what was wrong with him?
“No, what exactly...”
“Hyung.”
Let me talk. He kept cutting me off.
He looked ready to grab me by the collar if I resisted any longer, so I had no choice but to take one Black Poison Mist Orb from my inventory. I had planned to solo an F-grade dungeon with these. Did I have to give them all to him?
“The rest too.”
When I took out the remaining two and held them out, Yoohyun’s expression finally eased. Tossing the Black Poison Mist Orbs into his own inventory, he let out a long sigh.
“Why would you think of doing something like this?”
“...What?”
What was he talking about?
“Did you distrust me that much?”
My brother seemed to be talking nonsense. Had he already gotten heatstroke? Him, with all that fire resistance.
“I don’t know what you mean, but if anyone is untrustworthy, it’s me. You’re someone I can trust.”
He was so reliable that I could probably pull in ten billion won just by having him guarantee a loan. Of course, you should never co-sign a loan, even for family.
Yoohyun’s face twisted badly at my words. I said he was trustworthy, so why was he reacting like that? I wished I had a skill that could read what was going through his head.
“Don’t say things like that. Hyung... you were even prepared to throw away your life for me.”
...Pardon? Wasn’t it the other way around? You died, and because of that, I survived and even returned to the past.
“Um... I’m not sure what you mean, but I never...”
“If you ever get taken hostage, don’t think of using poison or anything like that. No matter what happens, I’ll save you, so don’t even think about dying.”
“Uh, okay?”
Poison? Was that what this was about?
Well, he didn’t know that I had poison resistance.
Black Poison Mist Orbs created wide-range poison fog. Without poison resistance, using one would amount to taking us both down... I could see why he misunderstood.
I smiled awkwardly.
“Hey, I have no intention of doing that. Why would I die?”
“Hyung....”
He suddenly pulled me into a tight hug. No, don’t do this. It’s a misunderstanding!
“Thank you.”
“No, that’s...”
“But just the thought is enough, so don’t worry about me. Take care of yourself too.”
...I had never worried about you.
Since Yoohyun was acting like this, I felt too embarrassed to tell him the truth and merely nodded. Explaining why I had a high poison-resistance skill that made Black Poison Mist Orbs harmless was difficult too. An L-grade poison-resistance skill suddenly appeared with a Ta-da! That would be suspicious.
“By the way, Yoohyun, there’s something like a red cat over there.”
I asked as I slipped out of my brother’s arms. Yoohyun looked toward the greenhouse.
“It’s a Flame-Horned Lion cub.”
“A Flame-Horned Lion?”
“Yeah. First time hearing of it, right? We found it in an S-grade dungeon we cleared two months ago. There was a cub, so I caught it to use as a mount, but... it hasn’t grown at all in two months.”
Of course it hadn’t grown. It was a magic beast that could not grow without an adult’s help.
“The tamer who tamed it says it seems to need special conditions to grow. There’s no way to figure out what they are, and it’s useless like this, so I plan to dispose of it.”
“Dispose of it? Put it up for auction or something?”
“No. Kill it. We cannot let it grow in someone else’s hands, just in case. Especially not in the hands of one of the Three Great Guilds.”
His words were cold. Even if it was a monster, wouldn’t he have grown attached after raising it for two months? It was pretty cute too.
“Isn’t that a waste? Couldn’t I raise it instead? Even as a cub, it should be stronger than me. It might come in handy in an emergency.”
“It would be difficult for you to raise it. Its food is not cheap.”
“How much?”
“One C-grade magic stone per meal.”
...Ten million won? Was he insane?
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