WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 105: Master of the Cursed Poison Dragons (2)
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“Hand him over.”
Noah spoke through clenched teeth. Though those far stronger than him still radiated the heat of battle, he did not back down.
The sight of him forcing himself to stand reminded Seong Hyeonje of the moment just after Babar had been defeated. The opponent was entirely different, but the situation was somewhat similar.
Unlike then, however, he felt no killing intent. Of course, he still had no intention of handing over the young man in his arms.
“Sesung Guildmaster.”
Ignoring Noah’s anxious call completely, Seong Hyeonje looked down at unconscious Han Yujin’s face. Suddenly, he thought that face looked young. Wouldn’t he suit being a little older? Around thirty, perhaps.
“Hey, don’t ignore someone else’s little brother.”
Riette, who had been examining the dead dragonkin, said with a frown around one eye.
“Why don’t you teach your own little brother first?”
“What?”
“That he shouldn’t covet what belongs to others.”
“I did teach him to get whatever he wants, by any means necessary.”
Riette sprang to her feet. Her golden eyes smiled sweetly, yet fiercely.
“And I want him too. It seems our darling has quite a few abilities.”
“It can’t be helped if ants swarm a box of candy.”
“Why ants? Say I’m a passing dragon.”
“Shouldn’t we lay him down somewhere first?”
Noah, who had flinched back when his older sister approached, gathered his courage and stepped in again.
“It would be better to finish the raid and leave. It took him several days to wake up last time too, and there are healers outside.”
“Was there a second floor here too? I suppose I should put in some effort for fragile little Honey.”
Riette transformed back into a dragon and gave her tail a long swish. Her speed and destructive power were exceptional, so if she stepped in, the raid would be over quickly.
- Want a ride?
“There are a few things we need to collect. I’ll leave that to you.”
- Hm? Oh, are those guys still alive? Why did you leave them alive?
Riette tilted her head, then remembered the Hunters from MKC and Sudam.
“They made this much of a mess, so they should prove useful later. There are even two S-Class Hunters among them.”
- How thrifty of you.
“Anything useful should be used. From now on...”
Seong Hyeonje stopped speaking and closed his mouth. Something that had vaguely surfaced vanished into whiteness. Feeling an unpleasant sense of disconnect, he looked down at Han Yujin again.
* * *
Dragon corpses, or traces of dragon corpses, lay everywhere I looked. They all varied in size and form, but every one of them was a cursed poison dragon species.
- Grrrk.
A dragon with a long, snake-like body writhed as a spear of black flames pierced it. Then a rather welcome face blocked my path.
Raucitas.
The Cursed Poison Dragon King, larger and stronger-looking than the one I had encountered before my regression, let out a shriek. How many kings were there, anyway? Then again, there had been more than one or two back home too.
“Can’t you do anything except send out pets? What a pathetic owner.”
It couldn’t be helped if his offensive skills mostly involved poison and curses. I took a light breath amid the vile poisonous aura. To me, it was refreshing air.
I spread my wings, leapt over Raucitas, and cut off all three heads at once. A walking disaster that, if it appeared outside the dungeon now, would make people grateful for both the sea and the fact that it was a dragon species incapable of flight, collapsed helplessly.
Thud.
Without any particular feeling about it, I sent Cold Sigh toward the owner pouring out dragons. Then came Shadowless Day, mana enhancement, and fire-element enhancement.
At the bastard trying to dispel the white mist.
Whooosh!
Freezing rain poured down. The hot air turned cool in an instant, only to grow hot again when it could not overcome the black flames leaping up everywhere.
I flew swiftly toward the bastard whose feet had been bound. The Shoes of Hermes’ teleportation was difficult to use. My wings were faster in flight anyway.
“Getting tripped up by an F-Class.”
I smacked him with a beast-transformed hand, and he rolled across the ground. What a satisfying sight.
“Losing one pet after another too.”
Folding my wings, I landed atop his horned head. I easily countered the attack he sent at me with some unknown skill. In a skill-versus-skill fight, I had a far greater advantage.
“And now your memories are about to become a mess too. At this point, shouldn’t you give yourself something like a minus F-Class rating?”
Crackle.
Light scattered as his arm burned away. I used the teacher skill to dig through his memories more easily. It had helped bring me here too, so perhaps it would work. His grade was high, but perhaps because the skill’s effect had increased, I was able to delve in without difficulty.
Deep within his consciousness, memories had piled up like layers of ancient dust. I forcibly pulled out those fragments.
I had suspected it, but other worlds truly existed.
‘So this guy was something like a natural-born S-Class too.’
An ancient dragonkin of poison and curses that had been rejected by one world and nearly driven extinct. A kind of sorcerer capable of taming and fusing dragon species to create new ones.
It was interesting enough, but it was not what I was looking for.
“Think about the Star-Counting Bird.”
Who she was, where she was, and how to find her.
I searched through his memories again. This time, I found information about his skill. It seemed this mental-type skill could only be released if both sides wished to leave. Good to know that he could not escape.
Then again, discarding useless memories.
“I already know that if you can’t stop dungeons from spreading and they consume the world, the world will end.”
There were memories of worlds that had vanished that way. Dungeons kept bursting open, monsters poured out, and when most humans, the world’s intelligent beings, had disappeared. The places where the dungeons had erupted also vanished as if devoured, and the entire world was completely absorbed by something.
“Not every world even has dungeons. There are worlds where monsters just roam around without them?”
There were worlds without systems or Awakened people. Medieval times? Maybe fantasy-style worlds. Worlds where people could use magic and sword aura from the beginning. Once the monsters began growing stronger and became impossible to handle, they too were devoured by something.
In such worlds, the creators of the system, those unfilial bastards, disguised themselves as various gods instead and aided intelligent beings with oracles and gifts based on achievements. In the end, those worlds still fell.
“Were there no successful cases?”
I grew a little uneasy. We could not fail. At the very least, we had to last another hundred years. No, S-Class Hunters might have long lifespans, so we should be safe for two hundred years.
Ignoring his desperate struggles, I searched through his memories again. Useless memories, more memories that were not especially useful, and then Han Yoohyun.
My little brother, older than he was now, wore a chilling expression. My chest turned cold as well. ...It did not seem to be from when he made the contract because of me.
[Why are you asking me about Seong Hyeonje’s whereabouts?]
It seemed to be from after Seong Hyeonje had disappeared. Perhaps because it was a recent memory, the image and voice were clear. He gave me only an icy look, as if there were no need for a lengthy discussion, before Yoohyun’s figure vanished.
I tried to pull out that memory once more, but it had seeped away amid countless fragments. As I stood there blankly for a moment, I seized the dragonkin trying to escape and tore him apart again.
After searching countless memories that held no value to me, I finally caught hold of something unusual.
“The third, deepest spring?”
It was called a spring, but the image that surfaced was completely different. Like an illustration of a black hole, light flowed in an endlessly deep pit instead of water.
Then.
“The fifth, Snowing Tree.”
A massive tree whose size could not even be guessed, and particles drifting like snow. Between the infinitely stretching branches, I saw a bird flying.
It was far too small compared to the tree to make out properly, but it was a white bird that surely had a body larger than most dragons.
The Star-Counting Bird. I had an instinctive feeling that it was her.
“What is the Snowing Tree? Where is it?”
“You said you had no intention of hearing it from my mouth.”
The bastard growled, then suddenly gave a hollow laugh.
“So things became twisted to this extent. Still, one thing is certain. Han Yujin, you are the key.”
“What?”
“It means this world will end if you die.”
What bullshit. More importantly, how did he intend to kill me? He had already been beaten to a pulp. The moment I thought that, part of the space began to shatter.
The figure of the bastard I had been holding by the collar disappeared. The crack in the air grew wider, fragments scattering everywhere.
Exactly half the space.
Beyond the broken half, in another empty space, a gigantic dragon rose. Light scattered beyond its spreading wings. No, stars. The moment I realized that, my vision went dark.
“Diarma, ancient dragonkin of poison and curses.”
I muttered as I backed farther into my own space. The owner who had created countless cursed poison dragons. His complete dragon transformation. His true body, unweakened. The Sprout skill barely managed to read him.
“...He’s definitely stronger than me.”
And that dragon existed now. Not a mental form, but the real thing had shattered space and barged in. My entire body trembled faintly.
“Can you really do this?”
- In exchange, I will have to sleep for a long time. But I will be satisfied with killing you.
“You’re aiming far too low.”
I spoke mockingly, but I could not stop my voice from trailing off. The dragon moved. Just as its claws were about to shatter the space where I stood.
Boing!
A ball bounced. A volleyball. The face drawn on it was deeply furrowed.
Boing! Boing!
- That’s against the rules!
The volleyball, Newbie, shouted.
- You.
- That’s against the rules! I’ll connect you to Waterdrop, my senior!
And then rain began to fall.
Whooosh.
As the fire went out, the poisonous aura scattered, and the air grew heavily damp. A huge figure appeared. The dragon raised its spines and shouted.
- Mermaid Queen!
As he said, she was a mermaid. But she was unlike any mermaid I knew. She possessed beautiful blue scales and transparent fins, yet she was also ferocious.
The most battle-ready form of mermaid in the world, perhaps.
Creak.
The scales spread like wings across her back pressed and collided as they moved. Earrings that chimed clearly swayed, somehow looking familiar. The Mermaid Queen held a long spear, and the dragon roared loudly.
- The imprisoned scum actually comes out!
“Strictly speaking, we are inside Honey’s consciousness. We cannot come out. Never.”
Like a knight setting out to hunt a dragon, she aimed her spear. She turned toward me, and her deep blue eyes, without whites, held a smile.
“Will you permit it, Honey?”
“...Pardon?”
“You are the owner of this place, Honey.”
I looked at her, then at the dragon beyond her. Permit it?
“Is there anyone who wants that bastard’s head more desperately than I do? So please cooperate.”
The instant I finished speaking, the spear tip swept forward. The air swayed heavily, as though submerged underwater.
- Kraaah!
The dragon lunged at the Mermaid Queen. The moment he entered without being able to shatter my space, his size shrank as well. His bleeding body was at most about twice Raucitas’s size.
Even the oppressive force that had been evenly contending with Fear Resistance weakened drastically.
“What happened?”
I asked, turning to the Mermaid Queen. She too had become only slightly larger than a human.
“Even inside consciousness, Honey could be in danger if we fought as we were. I connected myself and adjusted things to a level that would not be dangerous. And you asked for cooperation, didn’t you?”
Right, cooperation. Thank you. Truly.
“Diarma, shall we go again?”
I spread my wings beneath the falling rain. The dragon, who had been wary of the Mermaid Queen, bared his fangs.
- Even weakened, I will not be the same as before!
“That’s even better. You need to have your side ripped open to feel like you really fought.”
Was this not a space where I only needed to avoid instant death? So give everything you had and tear me to pieces.
Lightning struck through the freezing rain.
Within poisonous aura overflowing as if it would melt the world, a violent wind tore through my body. Folding my severed wing, I dropped onto the dragon’s head. Blood ran around the dragon’s eye. Mine, of course. The blood that seeped through its eyelids and scales burst into flames.
Shrieks and the smell of burning flesh.
I drove a spear of poison-laced blood into a gap burned and melted open, then called down lightning once more. The current focused in one spot erupted in a dazzling burst.
After wearing him down and down until nothing remained.
A cracked mana stone rested in my hand. It was not very large. A cloudy black mana stone, a little smaller than my palm.
Patter.
The rain did not stop. It continued to fall. Standing amid the blood being washed away, I looked at the Mermaid Queen.
Then I asked.
“Do you know about the Star-Counting Bird?”
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