WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈

Chapter 11: Flamehorn Lion (2)

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“Does it eat mana stones? That little cat?”

“More precisely, it’ll eat mana stone powder mixed into meat. It won’t eat plain raw meat.”

That little cat had disgustingly expensive tastes. Even one mana stone a day came to three hundred million won a month, three billion six hundred sixty million won a year.

And that was for one meal. Three meals a day would put its annual food costs over ten billion won.

“...Could you lend me some money for its food?”

Even at the fastest, I had to raise it for six months before it reached adulthood. Of course I didn’t have several billion won lying around. Once it was fully grown, though, it would become a mount worth far more than that. You couldn’t buy it even for hundreds of billions. This was an investment.

Yoohyun laughed at that.

“Fine. Don’t worry. It’s not much of a burden for me.”

Ten million won for one meal wasn’t a burden. I envied S-class Awakened.

I had five L-class skills, but they were all support skills, so I couldn’t run the S-class dungeons that were like diamond mines. Shouldn’t a title like Dragon Slayer come with a pair of offensive and defensive skills? Something like Dragon Breath or Dragon Scale.

Was my luck really that terrible?

“Anyone can handle a tamed monster as long as they have its owner’s token. But when its owner has just changed, it can get confused and resist, so be careful. Apparently, that’s more likely if the new owner’s rank is lower.”

Yoohyun spoke as he took a pendant set with a flat blue stone from his inventory.

Come to think of it, what was my actual rank? My stats were F-class, but I had several L-class skills. Maybe I was S-class or above.

Still, even if the system classified you as S-class, if you couldn’t enter an S-class dungeon, your real-world rating ended up A-class or lower. Saintess Emily Spence was a fine example.

Then my real-world rating would be around A-class.

Taking the pendant, the owner’s token, I headed back to the greenhouse. The Flame-Horned Lion was still pressed right up against the glass wall, letting out indignant kyarrr noises.

“Hey, squirt. Your owner’s changed.”

I waved the pendant as I approached the glass. The Flame-Horned Lion tilted its head, looking between Yoohyun and me.

Grrf.

Oh, it had calmed down. It hadn’t shown affection yet, but it had completely stopped charging at me with yapping cries.

“Even if it’s small, it’s still a monster. Don’t go in alone for a while. It should fully recognize you as its owner in about two days.”

Yoohyun unlocked the greenhouse door as he spoke. If it could contain a C-class monster, that couldn’t have been ordinary glass.

“There aren’t any other monsters in the greenhouse besides the horned lion, right?”

“I filled it with plants and animals collected from dungeon ecosystems, but there aren’t any monster-class creatures. Actually, there is one.”

“What is it?”

“A fifth-grade magical beast plant species, Ghilotinne. There aren’t many of them for a fifth-grade species, but their fruit is useful, so I planted a few.”

...Wasn’t that a man-eating tree that grabbed people with its tentacles and dissolved them? Man-eating tree species were relatively weak, but a fifth-grade one should still be around high D-class. As an F-class level one, I’d have trouble dealing with it even in A-class equipment.

“I’ve pruned it, so don’t worry. As long as you trim it regularly, it’s safe.”

Telling me not to worry, Yoohyun opened the greenhouse door. A wave of warm air rushed out. He must have raised the temperature because of the Flame-Horned Lion.

“Come to think of it, wasn’t bringing plants and animals out of dungeons illegal?”

“There aren’t any laws about it yet. Domestic dungeons are considered domestic territory, so it isn’t smuggling. They just told us to make sure nothing spreads into the wild, since it could disrupt the ecosystem.”

So it was before the law had been passed. When had it been banned again? After the Signal Group’s Snowflake Butterfly Incident?

I put on greenhouse slippers and stepped inside. Most of the plants were unfamiliar, but I spotted a few trees and grasses I recognized. That vine was common in E-class dungeons.

Rustle.

The Flame-Horned Lion cub emerged through the grass. Now that it had stopped throwing tantrums, it was genuinely adorable. Its body was as large as a full-grown cat’s, but its face had the particular roundness of a baby animal. Its wide golden eyes were pretty as gems.

“Does it have a name?”

“No.”

You hadn’t even named it? Coldhearted bastard.

The horned lion hid half its body beneath a broad leaf, watching the two of us cautiously. It seemed confused by the sudden change in owners.

“Good little one.”

I crouched down to meet its eyes and called to it.

“Come here, tiny. Trot, trot.”

I’ll raise you well. The horned lion hesitantly approached me.

Then, at that exact moment, a message window appeared.

[The title ‘Perfect Caregiver’ enhances the effect of the item ‘Owner’s Token’.

A tamed target shows affection toward their Caregiver.]

What? It had an effect like that too?

Kyaang.

The horned lion opened its little mouth and made an adorable cry. Gasp, it was really cute. Then it rubbed its cheek against my fingertips before flopping onto its back.

What was this precious little thing?! It flailed its plump paws, as though it were wearing golden socks, and purred. Its thick tail swayed from side to side. Its fur was soft, too. Warm, cute, crazy cute!

“How could you think about killing something this adorable?”

I stroked the Flame-Horned Lion cub clinging to my arm. It was so tiny, yet it already knew how to keep its claws sheathed. There, there. I’ll hold you.

“It wasn’t that cute with me.”

“Even though you fed it for two months?”

“Yeah. It followed quietly because it was tamed, but it never wagged its tail or clung to me.”

The effect of Perfect Caregiver seemed stronger than I had expected. Was it because it was a cub? If I succeeded in raising Flame-Horned Lions, I could work with tamers to produce high-grade mounts.

How much money would even one or two a year bring in? People would come from all over the world.

“I look forward to working with you, little one.”

As I imagined that pleasant future, the Flame-Horned Lion in my arms seemed even more adorable.

‘If the skill application succeeds, I can say I got a monster-rearing skill after a couple of months.’

It would be natural to say I gained it while caring for monster cubs, and by then I would probably have three or four A-to-S-class people looking out for me. Or I could raise several talented monster cubs and keep them by my side.

Maybe I’d get a nickname like Beastmaster? That sounded kind of cool. Ahem.

“Can I take it outside?”

“Not outside the guild building. Taking a tamed monster with you is still illegal except when clearing dungeons. Even inside the building, don’t take it to the first through third floors, where non-Awakened people come and go.”

In five years, people would appear on broadcasts with impressive magical beasts they called pets. When had the law changed?

I left the greenhouse with the Flame-Horned Lion in my arms. Yoohyun suggested watching it for another day just in case, but I ignored him.

I had to be at least S-class, and the effect of my L-class skill was added on top of that. What could possibly go wrong? It would keep following me obediently, just as it was now.

What should I name it?

“By the way, hyung, you shouldn’t just accept and drink things like orange juice.”

“...What?”

Orange juice? What was with orange... The Hunter Shopping Mall!

I looked at my brat of a brother with a dubious expression. Fine, he knew about the Black Poison Mist Orb, but he even knew what I had drunk.

“Did you plant a spy in the Hunter Shopping Mall or something?”

“Yeah.”

The answer came far too casually.

“What? Seriously?”

“Other guilds probably have one or two people planted on the sixth floor, too. Since B-class and above Hunters are the main customers, knowing what they buy helps identify their goals and schedules.”

...The power struggle between guilds was far fiercer than I had thought. No, but did I really have to be cautious even at a public institution like the Hunter Association? Wasn’t that too much?

“So don’t let your guard down just because it’s the Hunter Association. It’s even more dangerous to eat things other people give you, and don’t ever go around alone again. It’d be better not to visit restaurants near the Association, either. Oh, vending machine drinks are fine.”

“But would anyone really do that inside the Association? The consequences would be huge if they got caught.”

Besides, if Awakened stopped trusting the Association, the guilds would suffer too.

“Of course, no incident would happen inside the Association. But it’s possible to send a target away in an ambulance or police car.”

“...And then the ambulance or police car disappears?”

“You catch on quickly.”

Yoohyun smiled. How could he smile about that?

The more this went on, the more I wondered if I should have avoided getting involved with Yoohyun and just lived on my own. Then again, as long as I didn’t give up the title Perfect Caregiver, I would become involved with other A- and S-class people anyway. Their interference was inevitable.

Thinking about it that way, maybe it was better to leave my back to a brother I could trust.

“The Hunter world is rough.”

“Below C-class, it’s relatively peaceful.”

No, it wasn’t necessarily like that. The bottom was a battlefield in its own way. The only difference was that, instead of elegantly kicking beneath the surface by sending spies, they threw punches openly. I had been knocked around plenty, too.

“If there’s anything else I need to watch out for, tell me while we’re at it.”

“Just follow the basics. Don’t take things from strangers, don’t go to dark and secluded places, and don’t follow an elderly or frail person even if they ask for help.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll be home before nine, send the taxi number when I take one, and call without fail if I’ll be late. Should I wear a child ID necklace too?”

“A location tracker would probably be better.”

...He couldn’t even take a joke. Everyone in the world, please get along. It’ll make my life easier.

I looked down at the Flame-Horned Lion purring in my arms.

“From now on, your name is Peace.”

The world really was love and peace.

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