WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈

Chapter 108: Cracked Mana Stone (2)

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I took the cracked mana stone out of my inventory. Peace gave a small, wary growl, as though sensing something. Peep also stared at it with round eyes.

Its eyes were always round, though.

“A mana stone...?”

Yoohyun said, narrowing his brow slightly. Maybe something unpleasant that I couldn't feel was leaking out of the cracked mana stone and making him uneasy, just like Peace.

“It belonged to the bastard you made a contract with.”

“...What?”

His previously uncomfortable expression twisted at once. He looked surprised and angry. Judging by the way his teeth ground together, it was the latter.

“Why does Hyung have that? Did you run into someone capable of making an L-Class curse contract... Damn it!”

“Whether you could call it running into them or not. Calm down and listen first.”

“That fucking Seong Hyeonje couldn't even protect you properly...!”

He growled as though he might storm into Sesung Guild at any moment, but he didn't actually rush out. Instead, he turned to me with eyes full of worry and unease.

“Was it really just your leg that got hurt? Tell me honestly, Hyung.”

Yoohyun grabbed my wrist. He pressed me for answers, asking whether I had been hit with a curse or some other skill, but I told him I was fine.

My body really had only been hurt in the leg.

I soothed my little brother as I told him what had happened. I left out the sudden kidnapping and explained only that I had repelled MKC and Sudam's attack, freed Seong Hyeonje from his contract, and then a dragonkin had appeared.

“The master of the Cursed Poison Dragon King used a mental skill and took me away, but the system creator showed up and saved me. Touching me was apparently some kind of rule violation, so they killed that lizard bastard's master and gave me the mana stone.”

It was true that I had been saved. I continued while facing Yoohyun's still-stiff expression.

“It was almost dangerous for a bit, but thanks to that, we got rid of the lizard bastard. It worked out well, so loosen up a little.”

“Almost dangerous?”

“It wasn't even my actual body, and the system side came right away. They care about this a lot, you know?”

I should probably make Waterdrop and Newbie keep quiet when I saw them, just in case.

“Everything already ended without a problem. More importantly, you knew our world wouldn't last much longer too, right?”

“...I'd heard roughly.”

“You must have heard that someone near the top among S-Class Hunters could find a way out too.”

“I heard it, but it didn't concern me, so I don't remember well.”

What a joke. I knew every detail of his grades. There was no way someone as smart as him had forgotten something that important.

“What do you mean, you don't remember? Even if you weren't sure, why not at least pretend to cooperate like Seong Hyeonje instead of refusing outright?”

Yoohyun looked at me a little sulkily.

“If I were going to accept that, I wouldn't have distanced myself from Hyung in the first place. There would've been no reason to.”

“Still, if you were alone, you could've been safe.”

Back then too, if he hadn't looked after me. My teeth clenched without me realizing. My stomach hurt a little.

“...Even aside from Hyung, he was an unpleasant bastard. I wouldn't have kept working with him.”

“He talked too much and was stupid too. He definitely wasn't someone worth staying around.”

I continued lightly.

“Still, because of him, we learned how to save the world. Well, not save it completely. They said if we manage the dungeons properly and hold out, we'll be safe for about a hundred years.”

“A hundred years?”

“Yeah. The dungeon difficulty will keep rising, so it won't be easy to endure. But if we can hold out for around five years, we'll get a hundred years of peace. Who knows what'll happen after that, but will I even be alive by then?”

Yoohyun would be alive, though, and he might even be able to leave this world.

All I had to do was prepare the ground so he could.

Well, maybe the people of our world would manage to endure again a hundred years from now. By then, they would have accumulated experience and information too.

“That guy spoke as if there was little hope, but we only have to hold out?”

“Yeah. I'm sure of it. The lizard bastard who was an obstacle has been dealt with, and the system creators said they'd help, so it won't be that difficult. More than anything, we have mounts. We can raise monsters well, and Myeongu will make weapons. We'll find people suited for special skills too. You heard about Seok Hayan, right? Once her team's research results come out, it'll help a lot with managing the dungeons.”

Even to me, my voice sounded light and cheerful.

“We only have to suffer for five more years. Then we can relax. What should we do? Is there anything you want to do?”

The eyes that had stayed hard the entire time finally softened.

“Um, what about you, Hyung?”

“Me? Well.”

A white tree and a white bird came to mind.

“Maybe travel. I've never really gone anywhere except on school trips.”

“That sounds nice too.”

I looked at my little brother's smiling face.

For now, I should think only about what was here. There was a lot to do. It kept piling up.

“Give your spirit a name. You still haven't, right?”

The fire lizard circled around Yoohyun's shoulder. It was still a young spirit, but it was the purest flame born from an egg. That lizard bastard's master had been a shaman from a world without a system, so he knew quite a bit about spirits too.

The hatching conditions had been good, and they were compatible enough to form a contract immediately. If it could step outside the framework of the system, it would likely grow much stronger, much faster than before my regression.

“Don't just pick one carelessly. Put some thought into it, and ask what it wants too.”

“Do I have to go that far?”

“Hey, do you know how precious it is? It'll be a huge help in the future, so raise it well.”

“I'm already feeding it well. It ate billions of won worth of equipment in one go while I looked away in the equipment storage room.”

...It must have swallowed a few pieces of high-grade equipment. High-grade mana stones would have been better than items. What a dangerous fire lizard.

Then my phone received a text. It was from Seok Simyeong.

[Please tell the Guildmaster to answer his phone.]

“Team Leader Seok says you should answer your phone.”

There hadn't even been a vibration. Had he turned it off completely? Yoohyun took out his phone with an annoyed look and answered. From what I could gather, complaints had come in because he had swept away the A-Class dungeon building and the area around it. He had caused all that chaos and then simply left, so people were naturally talking.

“Go over there for a bit.”

“It's fine.”

“Don't make unnecessary enemies when we're working toward peace five years from now. We'll need a lot of people's strength, so try to get along when you can. It isn't that hard to show your face once.”

He still looked entirely unwilling, but he stood up.

Seeing him like this, I wondered if Yoohyun, like Riette, had been better suited to working alone. If I hadn't existed, maybe he would have done that.

I really had held him back in a lot of ways.

After Yoohyun left, I put Peace and Peep down on the sofa and stood. The two of them toddled after me as I headed for the bathroom. When I shut the door to keep them out, dissatisfied whines and chirps came from outside.

“Wait just a moment.”

I scolded them lightly, then stood before the sink. I took out the cracked mana stone, then another mana stone from my inventory.

It was the SS-Class mana stone that had come from the dragonkin.

The master of the cursed poison dragons, Diarma, had combined mana stones to create new cursed poison dragons. I knew the method because I had seen his skills.

Though I didn't know whether I could use it.

‘The foundation isn't bad.’

Dragon Slayer and Perfect Caregiver. If I thought only of their traits, outside the skill effects the system told me about, they were suitable for raising dragon species.

‘The suppressive power to contain a cursed poison dragon species mana stone. The power to make it grow. And lastly, combining them... I should be able to do that with the teacher skill.’

It was a skill that could connect two different things.

Since I had all three, it was fair to say I had the aptitude.

Perhaps Diarma's mana stone could fill in what I lacked. Just as Diarma had received help from a teacher of his own kind when he was young.

‘The dragonkin mana stone will be at the center.’

The dragon species born from it would have abilities based on the average of the mana stones, adjusted by the shaman's ability. So it would make no difference which one was primary, but I didn't want to combine them with Diarma's as the focus.

It was only a dead mana stone now, but the bastard who had touched my little brother could at least be useful as material.

The closer the mana stone was embedded to the heart, the better the effect. I unbuttoned my shirt and took out a short knife. The body reflected in the mirror was smooth, without a single scar. After my regression, I had been able to use potions and receive healing skills as much as I wanted.

But the wound I was about to make couldn't be healed.

Diarma had been covered in scars despite being that rank too.

I lightly pierced the skin above my beating heart with the tip of the knife. When I held the cracked mana stone against the wound, it absorbed my blood, opened the wound wider, and settled inside.

It didn't hurt much.

Perhaps Peace had smelled the blood, because I heard claws scratching at the door.

“I'm okay, Peace.”

So far, it was going smoothly. Recalling Diarma's memories, I moved my mana. After consuming several mana potions, I pressed the white mana stone over the black, gaping wound.

The black mana stone swallowed the white mana stone as though wrapping around it.

Then the wound closed, leaving only a small scar.

I let out a soft breath.

For now, it had succeeded.

I still didn't know what kind of dragon species would be born. Then I took a glass bottle out of my inventory. The red mana stone inside rattled softly.

“Hello, Blackie.”

If the new dragon was born safely, I'd let Blackie out soon too.

Rumble.

As soon as I finished cleaning up and opened the bathroom door, Peace pressed close to me. Peep, with its low stats, apparently hadn't smelled the blood and looked confused.

“I said I'm fine. It's nothing. You too, Peep. Come here.”

I picked them both up and returned to the living room sofa.

I had told Yoohyun that holding out wouldn't be that hard, but of course that wasn't true. Around fifty S-Class Hunters wouldn't be nearly enough.

What mattered was quality, not numbers.

Still, it was fortunate that I had the ability to raise Hunters. On top of that, I had gained some knowledge now too.

So there was plenty of possibility, but...

‘Why did those unfilial bastards only tell me to gather fifty people instead of raising them?’

Puzzled, I opened my status window. At some point, the minor words like arrows and “Fighting!” had disappeared again. I checked Final Grace among my skills.

[Final Grace (L): When a target of keyword influence dies, the target’s skills and abilities are transferred at double efficiency.

Duration: 7 days

※ Cannot be stacked]

Double efficiency, and then doubled again because it was a cursed poison dragon species.

I touched the scar beneath my clothes.

It was still not a method I wanted to use. But I needed at least one final measure.

A means to protect my little brother, and to go looking for him.

“Since I'll be busier from tomorrow on, should we get plenty of rest today?”

Holding Peace and Peep close, I sprawled out on the sofa.

* * *

The next day, I still couldn't return to the rearing facility until evening. I had to spend the entire day dealing with the aftermath of MKC and Sudam.

Two S-Class Hunters had conspired to murder another S-Class Hunter.

Naturally, it wasn't an ordinary matter. It had not reached the public yet, but it was an incident that would have filled the nine o'clock news for days. Thanks to that, Song Taewon looked exhausted despite being an S-Class Hunter. There seemed to be nothing he could do about mental fatigue.

Seong Hyeonje's interview had ended yesterday, so today it was my turn. Excluding the matter of Seong Hyeonje's contract and the Filial Piety Addicts, I gave an explanation similar to what I had told Yoohyun yesterday. In Riette's case, it was handled as her having been hired by MKC, then withdrawing after learning the truth.

“Sudam will likely take the majority of the charges as the main instigator.”

Song Taewon spoke with a sigh mixed into his voice.

“MKC still has powerful backing, so it will take a hit, but it likely won't collapse.”

“They sure live comfortably. Is the Sesung Guildmaster planning to let this go too?”

At the mention of Seong Hyeonje, Song Taewon's expression darkened further. He seemed to have been put through quite a lot.

“How could that be? They will likely wage a quiet war for some time. Sesung was already needling MKC over Han Yujin's kidnapping, and now it has caught something much bigger...”

His sigh was heavy enough to sink the ground. Watching Song Taewon, I casually brought up the next point.

“The Association is probably in favor of letting it go too, right?”

“Yes. They do not welcome the balance between the major guilds being upset. They want them to keep competing.”

“Even so, they're willing to turn a blind eye to outright crimes. As a Hunter, I can't help losing trust in the Association.”

“...As for that, I have nothing to offer except an apology.”

His low voice was bitter as though it burned.

Leaving the Association as it was would clearly be disadvantageous in many ways. At a time when Hunters needed to grow stronger and join forces, it would only hold them back.

‘If Seong Hyeonje before my regression chose the path of blocking the dungeons and holding out, then maybe he was the one who killed Song Taewon.’

It would have been a waste to lose an S-Class Hunter, but destroying the Association, having Haeyeon take over Korea, and creating a Hunter-centered society would have been more advantageous.

He could have explained the circumstances and tried to persuade him. Had it not worked? Or had there been another reason?

“Honestly, the fact that the Association President is a non-Awakened doesn't inspire confidence either. I think it would be reassuring if Director Song Taewon were the Association President instead.”

At my half-joking words, a crease formed between Song Taewon's brows. Without answering, he moved on to a detailed discussion of compensation.

His reaction felt distinctly cold. I had a feeling bringing him in would not be easy.

* * *

And when I returned home, Myeongu was collapsed on the living room floor.

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