WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 125: Irin (1)
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‘Could there be side effects?’
Or had my brother’s illness(?) simply flared up because I’d been getting too carried away? The latter would be a relief, but... would it? Side effects might be easier to deal with.
Anyway.
“Forget that. Let’s sightsee and head home. There’s still plenty to see around here.”
It was a chance to splurge using someone else’s card.
“Sure. After I deal with Seong Hyeonje.”
“...Hey, if I go missing, we won’t get to sightsee either.”
“Don’t worry. You have that item Hunter Yu Myeongu made.”
Yoohyun took off his glasses and put them on me with a smile. Ah... that was true. Though someone would have to sacrifice themselves to serve as my stand-in. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be listed as missing here and live a more relaxed, comfortable life.
I quickly shook off the temptation. I had already started too many things to just wash my hands of them. At least not until all the dungeons had been dealt with. And I needed to find a way to get it back, too.
“But your eye...”
- Is everything taken care of?
Noah flew down toward us as he spoke. At the same time, I sensed Yoohyun about to move. Hey, you little punk!
“Noah!”
I hurriedly used the teacher skill on Noah and sent him Yoohyun’s senses unilaterally.
Flap flap, with hurried wingbeats, a streak of flame shot off like an arrow and cut through the air. Startled, Noah twisted sharply and soared into the sky.
“What are you doing?!”
“I only meant to threaten him.”
“You can’t threaten him either!”
I tried to stop sharing the doubled attack skill effect first. Then a message window appeared.
[The other party has refused.]
...I was screwed. Yoohyun must have seen the message too, because the corners of his lips rose in a smile.
“Skills like this usually can’t be canceled without the other person’s consent. You could give someone a flight skill, then cancel it while they’re in midair.”
His explanatory voice was unnecessarily gentle. I knew that, but I hadn’t realized it also applied to sharing a skill rather than casting it directly.
With Noah, it had ended when I let go of his hand, and Seong Hyeonje... I’d passed out every time. Wait, then had the skill still been shared even after I lost consciousness with Babar?
...Damn, that really could have been dangerous. Still, considering he had quietly left the dungeon with me, maybe that man was better than I thought... better... no, this wasn’t right.
- Mr. Yujin, are you all right?!
- Peep!
The dragon that had made a wide circle in the air turned back toward us.
“Don’t come over!”
My brother seemed to be a little out of his mind right now. As I watched Noah worriedly, Yoohyun spoke in a sulky voice.
“Lately, I’ve felt lonely. Like you’re being taken away from me.”
“Who’s taking me away? I only have one little brother.”
“You have lots of other people you’re close to. You’re all I have.”
That was a seriously troubling thing to say.
“Hey, get along with Noah. Or Kang Soyoung is around too. Make friends, date someone. There’s no helping it when there’s such a wall between you and non-Awakened people or lower-ranked people, but there are plenty of people around your rank.”
Follow Yerim’s example.
“You only say that because you don’t understand.”
Grumbling, Yoohyun pulled a slender sword from his inventory. It was an A-Class weapon he did not usually use. He threw it toward the ground some distance away.
Thunk.
The sword lodged in the ground, followed by a greatsword, a shortsword, a dagger, and a scimitar. Various weapons embedded themselves in the earth at intervals from one another.
“...What are you trying to do?”
The teacher skill did not read minds. It only sensed movements in the body and mana in advance. If someone merely took out a fishing rod, there was no way to tell whether they meant to fish or beat someone with it.
“It’s a skill I don’t use much because it’s inefficient. Using high-grade weapons as one-use items is a burden.”
More than a burden, probably.
“Don’t use it, whatever it is. It would be a waste. And let’s settle this by talking.”
“Are you going to keep using the teacher skill? It’s annoying.”
“Do you have any intention of talking this out?”
“No. Not at all. Does it hurt a lot if someone refuses the skill?”
“Yeah, a lot.”
“Sorry, Hyung.”
Ha ha ha. Smiling as I met his red eyes, I withdrew the teacher skill I had used on Yoohyun. My brother looked satisfied.
“I’ll finish this quickly.”
Mr. Seong Hyeonje, run. I didn’t think I could stop my brother anymore. Your life was not much of a loss, but your skills would be.
Then the fire lizard slipped around the back of Yoohyun’s neck to his other shoulder. Unlike usual, its two black eyes were looking at me. That feeling that something was wrong pricked me again like a needle.
“Irin.”
At my call, the spirit blinked. Without much thought, half from habit, I used Sprout.
[The First Spirit of Fire ? Irin
Current Stat Grade C
Awakening Possible Stat Grade F
Optimized Initial Skill
Spirit Contract (L) Acquired
Contractor ? Han Yoohyun]
The status window that had looked almost like an item window when I first saw it had changed into one resembling an Awakened person’s or monster’s.
More importantly, it had an L-Class initial skill.
Spirit Contract, with Han Yoohyun listed as the contractor. There was no doubt that skill was affecting Yoohyun. An L-Class skill could not be a simple contract skill, so what kind of effect did it have?
“You little lizard, come here.”
“Hyung?”
The lizard was the problem, after all. I reached out and grabbed Irin. Surprisingly, the spirit allowed itself to be caught without resistance and tilted its head. Since it could not speak, I could not question it.
After wondering what to do, I used the teacher skill. For a moment, it felt as though the inside of my body had grown scorching hot.
It looked like a small lizard that fit in my palm, but the sensation reaching me was an endless flame. It felt as though I had been dropped into a desert where scarlet fire licked in place of grains of sand.
“You...”
This was more serious than I had expected. A little flustered, I focused on the skill, just as I had delved into the dragonkin in the lake dungeon.
And just like then.
“Huh?”
My vision went dark for a moment, then brightened. I was standing in an unfamiliar... no, familiar living room. The home we had lived in before dungeons appeared, before Yoohyun awakened.
[Hello!]
In that living room, a round lizard the size of a cat greeted me.
“...Irin?”
[Yep, that’s right. Hyung, I’m Irin!]
The Spirit of Fire answered cheerfully, opening its mouth in a broad smile.
* * *
Park Yerim raised her head. The skill applied to her had disappeared. She could not share vision like the owner of Ferocious Kindergarten Teacher, but just before the skill vanished, she had been able to tell that Han Yoohyun had attacked someone to threaten them.
“Did another monster show up?”
“Then he would not have bothered threatening it.”
Seong Hyeonje spoke as he looked beyond the wreckage of the buildings. As he said, if it had been a monster, Han Yoohyun would have incinerated it without bothering with a threat. Then who had he threatened?
Park Yerim immediately lifted herself into the air.
“Uncle!”
The desolate land, already difficult to recognize after being swept by water and thoroughly pounded by the Kraken, came into view below. So did Han Yoohyun, holding his unconscious older brother.
“What happened?!”
As Park Yerim panicked and tried to approach them, a golden dragon hurriedly flew in front of her and blocked her way.
- Wait!
- Peep peep!
“Noah? Peep?”
- I think the Guildmaster of Haeyeon Guild is acting strangely. ...He seems fine too, but considering he will not listen to Mr. Han Yujin, I think something is wrong.
- Peep!
“He will not listen to Uncle? Then something is definitely wrong!”
- And he said he was going to deal with the Sesung Guildmaster.
“That sounds normal.”
- He threatened me too, but that is not particularly different from usual, so it is difficult to tell.
“Ah, so he attacked Noah. Then something is definitely wrong! Peep is here, and he did it right in front of Uncle!”
Keeping a generous distance from Han Yoohyun, Park Yerim descended. His two red eyes looked at her. There was no bloodlust in that gaze, only a little irritation, but Park Yerim instinctively decided not to get any closer.
Instead, she asked Noah why Han Yujin had fainted.
- I do not know why. The Guildmaster of Haeyeon Guild seemed startled as well.
“That’s a relief. At least he has not completely lost it to the point of laying a hand on Uncle.”
- He was trying to refuse the teacher skill...
“Wow, he really has lost it.”
- He intends to silence us, and Mr. Yujin can no longer stop him. Be careful. We do not know when he might attack.
“Silence us? Does he think that will be easy?”
Park Yerim readjusted her grip on the Ice Tree Spear. Seong Hyeonje, who had approached at some point and overheard their conversation, raised an eyebrow slightly.
“This will be troublesome.”
“There are three of us, though. I’ll tie him down, so hit him from behind or something.”
At Park Yerim’s confident words, Seong Hyeonje answered coolly.
“The situation is not that simple, little lady. To deal with the Kraken, Han Yoohyun received a doubled effect on his attack skills. That will remain until he is separated from Han Yujin. At the same time, he has the equivalent of an item that can grant damage negation and Poison Resistance.”
“...That’s cheating.”
Park Yerim recalled the Kraken, which had burned away in an instant. Without even decent Fire Resistance, would she not be seriously injured by the slightest graze?
Still, she had not the slightest intention of backing down. Instead, she looked toward the sea with even greater determination.
“Noah, lend me some mana stats!”
Shadowless Day spread toward Han Yoohyun.
At nearly the same moment,
Whoosh!
Flames rose around Han Yoohyun like a circular wall. Park Yerim clicked her tongue at the heat, which dried even the moisture in the air.
“Shadowless Day will evaporate before it can even get near his shadow! I’m confident I can take down our guildmaster. Will you help?”
“I would be disappointed if you asked me to step back.”
Silrekia’s Wings, a black and dark red coat, draped over the tailcoat. The chain swayed its long body, and Seong Hyeonje held a golden feather between his fingers. A Golden Gryphon Feather, an item that could be obtained by hunting an S-Class Golden Gryphon.
“It is a pity about the teacher skill. Manage your timing well. For your information, pebbles do not burn easily.”
“Yes!”
Her eyes sparkled as though she understood. Without hesitation, Seong Hyeonje leaped into the area wreathed in flames. Just before the heat that even S-Class Fire Resistance could not fully negate washed over him, the feather shot from his fingertips.
The griffon feather drew in the wind. Whoooosh, the flames were violently shoved to either side as though curtains had been thrown open.
At the same time,
Crack!
Lightning struck. But it did not reach its target. Drawn to a dagger embedded in the ground, it only tore up the area around it. Dirt and rocks flew up, and then the dagger exploded. Fragments that should have scattered in every direction instead shot toward Seong Hyeonje like arrows.
Clang!
The swung chain deflected the fragments, but even knowing the direction they came from, it was impossible to block them all. Red lines appeared across the back of Seong Hyeonje’s hand and the tip of his ear. One fragment had even lodged halfway into his shoulder. An attack that sacrificed an A-Class weapon, further enhanced by doubled skill effects. Even an S-Class Hunter would usually have turned into a porcupine.
Han Yoohyun pulled out a longsword to continue his attack.
But then.
“...When did that happen?”
His feet felt heavy. He had been caught by Shadowless Day.
He knew that Park Yerim had used Pale Rain as soon as Seong Hyeonje pushed away the flames with the griffon feather. But even without touching the fire directly, the ice arrows had melted long before reaching his shadow.
“Putting one or two pebbles inside ice arrows is not difficult.”
As he stepped back and pulled out the fragments, Seong Hyeonje kindly explained. Even if the ice melted, the pebbles inside did not lose their momentum and continued forward. It was not a skill capable of targeting an opponent, merely thrown stones, but one or two had been able to reach Han Yoohyun’s shadow.
While the lightning tore up the ground and knocked stones flying, deceiving his eyes.
The higher the target’s rank, the more limited the movement restriction became, only slowing them down a little. But even that was a significant penalty when facing another S-Class.
“I was not planning to move much anyway.”
Han Yoohyun spoke while looking down at his unconscious brother. The flames that had briefly been pushed back swallowed the griffon feather and flickered scarlet.
The weapons embedded all around him gave off faint vibrations. Red-hot eyes met pale golden ones.
“Because I am ready to tear apart the most irritating bug.”
“My, the young master’s jealousy is stronger than I expected.”
“Why would I be jealous of a thief?”
There was only anger, and punishment.
Then.
Rumble.
The ground shook. This was followed by the sound of the earth collapsing.
Craaaash!
Water began surging up from all over the place. Seawater that burst through the ground writhed like several dragons. Han Yoohyun and Seong Hyeonje both unconsciously turned toward the water dragons raising their heads to the night sky.
At the same time, Park Yerim shouted.
“Han Yoohyun, cool your head!”
A massive pillar of water crashed down toward the relatively modest flames.
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