WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 133: Drawn To (3)
──────
The four-legged wolf rose onto its hind legs. Its body, large enough to carry a person in its mouth as easily as a dog chew, shrank. Its fur hardened further, becoming like armor. Its long claws looked like several scimitars drawn at once.
A full moon would have made the perfect backdrop. Unfortunately, it was only a half moon, and the moonlight was not very bright.
Grrr.
Though it had shrunk, the Lycanthrope was still well over twice Song Taewon’s size. It glared at me. More precisely, at my heart. Right, it probably looked delicious.
“The Lycan form is specialized for fighting people. It’s damned tough, has no particular weakness, moves faster in short bursts than its wolf form, and has a smaller target area.”
Fortunately, I took out my intact phone, reported an S-Class monster appearance to the Association, and spoke. Please make it through this, phone.
‘Song Taewon caught this thing before my regression too.’
It was so quick and rarely went after ordinary people that Yoohyun and Seong Hyeonje had been told not to step in because they were more dangerous. Their firepower could burn down three thatched cottages.
“Do I only need to maintain contact?”
Song Taewon spoke without taking his eyes off the Lycan.
“Yes. But I can’t keep holding on to you. As you know, my stats are low, so I don’t know when I might lose my grip.”
Since I did not have the strength to hold on from my side, I had no choice but to be carried around. Yes.
“I’ve raised Damage Nullification to SS-Class, so you can use me as a shield.”
At my words that it could be useful if used well, Song Taewon’s gaze moved to me.
Wait, if you look away now.
Scrape.
With the sound of claws raking the ground, the Lycan lunged. Song Taewon barely moved from his spot as he thrust his free arm toward the sharp foreclaws. His arm, wrapped in black shadow, twisted slightly and slipped beneath the claws.
Riiip.
The claws tore through his skin along with his thin summer shirt. A red line appeared on his arm, and blood splattered. Despite the S-Class skill-infused claws striking properly, the wound was shallow. The shadow wrapped around him had nullified the skill, leaving only physical force behind.
Clack.
Song Taewon’s hand gripped the Lycan’s wrist. Tendons stood out along his arm as his bent fingers dug into its fur. Its SS-Class defensive skill, Dark Fur, had also been nullified.
Gack!
The startled Lycan tried to pull its arm free, but Song Taewon moved faster. Crack. The beast’s arm twisted as it was yanked forward. Then a powerful knee drove into the joint in the wrong direction, also wrapped in shadow. The sound of crushing bone rang out loudly.
In the blink of an eye, the bastard’s arm was broken and hanging limp.
Yowl!
The Lycan barely pulled its arm free and leaped backward, growling. Song Taewon lightly shook his fingertips. Blood and scraps of flesh fell from them.
“Normally, its range is extremely narrow. I cannot use it in more than two places at once, either.”
He spoke quietly. He meant the skill that nullified the other party’s skills. It would be absurdly overpowered if its range were broad.
Holding me under one arm as though he had hooked me with it, Song Taewon moved. Weight settled into his feet. It was a skill that adjusted the mass of his body and weapons.
He used it at twice its strength.
Boom!
As enormous pressure bore down, the asphalt shattered. Even the ground beneath it sank inward. It was power that would be difficult to produce while standing still, even for an S-Class Hunter with a human-sized body and weight.
Amid the black debris flying upward, Song Taewon shot toward the Lycan. The wolf reflexively bent away. Just as it seemed Song Taewon would barely brush past its body,
Crunch!
His outstretched hand caught the Lycan by the neck. His foot spun through a wide circle in midair and slammed down on the fur-covered back.
Screech!
The creature’s spine caved in and nearly burst apart. Spitting blood and a scream, the beast swelled its body.
Whoosh.
A wire that Song Taewon had taken out at some point wrapped around the neck of the creature turning to flee. Naturally, it was not an ordinary metal wire. But neither was it a weapon of a grade an S-Class Hunter would use. It was a common item that even intermediate Hunters used only as support gear.
As the wire tightened, the Lycan quickly swung its claws. Just before the claws reached it, black light ran over the wire.
Ting!
The metal wire, which should have been severed at once, was cut halfway through but held. Thrown off balance by the unexpected situation, the Lycan was dragged forward. Song Taewon sharply pulled down on the wire wrapped around his hand while raising his foot high.
Crunch!
His descending heel, like an axe blade, tore through nearly half of the wolf’s thick neck. The Lycan barely avoided instant death by twisting its body at the last moment.
It was an S-Class monster, so its body should have been tough and resilient. Yet Song Taewon was turning it into pulp without even using a weapon. Before such one-sided violence, the Lycan rolled on the ground with its tongue lolling out.
Yelp!
A blood-soaked hand struck up beneath the wolf’s bared teeth and seized its lower jaw. Its lower and upper jaws crashed together as though crushed, and Song Taewon’s thick wrist twisted in a broad circle.
Thud!
The flipped Lycan’s head was driven into the ground. Chunks of asphalt scattered like blood. Song Taewon pinned the wolf’s neck beneath his knee and gripped its remaining intact arm.
Grrk, grr...!
Even if their stats were not identical, they were both S-Class. There should have been a difference in strength matching their more than doubled difference in size, but the Lycan could not move at all. Only its two legs flailed beneath him.
That was because Song Taewon currently weighed more than the Lycan.
With its back broken, the Lycan’s kicks could not even reach him properly. Song Taewon indifferently broke its remaining arm as well. Then he took out a knife, let the black shadow of his nullification skill gather around its tip, and drove it under the Lycan’s jaw.
Crunch.
The blade pierced through from beneath its jaw to the crown of its head. It twisted as though stirring through flesh, and the movements that had been struggling beneath Song Taewon’s knee gradually stopped.
Amid the thick smell of blood, Song Taewon released the knife and rose. Since I was still being held under one arm, I rose with him.
“Then you need to deal with the gate now, right?”
I spoke while watching Song Taewon’s expression. His face still looked blunt and calm. From the outside, he did not seem particularly affected by Skill Sharing. Rather than coveting it like Seong Hyeonje, perhaps he was more likely to guard against it and push it away.
So he should be letting me go soon.
‘Why isn’t he moving at all?’
His dark, sunken gaze turned toward me. His eyes slowly lowered, stopping on my chest, on the wound visible through my torn shirt.
“What kind of wound is that?”
“It’s nothing.”
“If it were nothing, it would not still be there. You can use as many healers and potions as you wish. Above all, the Haeyeon Guildmaster would not have left it alone.”
Well... he probably would now.
“Yoohyun doesn’t know about this wound either. I tend to save potions.”
“If he does not know, it cannot have happened long ago. You lost your shirt in the lake dungeon.”
If I had been wounded before then, many people would have seen it, so Yoohyun would have heard of it by now. Was that what he meant?
“People can get hurt sometimes.”
“It is not common for a knife to cut someone’s chest rather than their hand.”
Saying that, he took out a potion. It ran over the scar, but nothing changed.
“The wolf kept targeting you, Mr. Han Yujin. The swarm of bees also seemed to pursue you rather than Hunter Noah. One of the drones even broke out and attacked.”
What did you do? his weighted voice asked.
“I have no obligation to answer.”
Song Taewon’s hand firmly gripped my arm. Please calm down and settle this through conversation.
“You were calm not only against high-grade Hunters, but in front of monsters as well. Is your abnormal inability to feel fear also a skill?”
I had not come all this way to be interrogated. It seemed I had made a mistake by acting fine even while the wolf was trying to chew me up. I should have pretended to be at least a little afraid.
When I did not answer, Song Taewon grabbed near my neck.
“My skill is called Seeping Plunder. With brief contact during battle, I can nullify only part of one of the other party’s skills for a moment. But given enough time, it can produce greater effects.”
“...Wait a second.”
Just as I thought this felt ominous, Song Taewon used his skill on me. At the same time, the effect of the contract document activated, but...
‘...That makes this useless.’
The contract’s penalty was temporary paralysis. That should have been enough time for other allied Hunters under attack to pull me away. But I was alone now, and I could not possibly pry open Song Taewon’s frozen grip with my own strength.
It had never occurred to me that someone who received Skill Sharing would attack me. If they used an attack skill on me somewhere out of the way and broke the contract, there would be no one to save me, so Skill Sharing would continue and there would be no penalty. I should exclude myself from the fellow Hunters listed on the contract document or something.
While I absorbed the lesson that drafting a contract document was not easy, Song Taewon was released from paralysis. And the skill that had briefly stopped activated again. Though it was an attack skill, perhaps because it targeted a skill rather than a Hunter, Damage Nullification did not work.
“This effect is...”
“It can lower the grade of one skill possessed by the other party.”
Flustered, I opened my status window.
[Fear Resistance (L) (SSS-Class): Nullifies intimidation of Legendary rank or below.]
The grade of Fear Resistance had fallen. Since the L-Class designation remained, it appeared to be temporary.
(SS-Class)
Soon, it fell another grade, and not long after that, it dropped to S-Class. Perhaps because it was now equal to Song Taewon’s rank, I felt a slight chill. I was still fine, though.
“How far can you lower it?”
“Normally, about three grades.”
Then, because it was currently working at double effectiveness...
(A-Class)
My heart dropped.
“Fuck, wait a minute.”
“I’ll explain, so let’s stop here.”
Song Taewon did not listen to a word I said. Then B-Class, and C-Class. The smell of blood suddenly turned nauseating. My heart beat a little faster. Damn it.
“The duration differs depending on the other party’s grade. I have not yet used it against an S-Class, but against an A-Class, it lasts about half a day. Against an F-Class, I expect it would last at least three days.”
“So now you’ll threaten me into telling you everything I’ve hidden?”
“So stop acting as an item for monsters before I break you.”
“What?”
Song Taewon continued calmly.
“I understand well enough why the Sesung Guildmaster covets you. You are extremely useful. Useful enough to be an excessive stimulus. For a moment, I even felt the impulse to try hunting monsters like this.”
That creature did not mean monsters, did it? Mr. Noah, do not come over here. Absolutely not.
“At the same time, I decided that I could not simply leave you alone, Mr. Han Yujin.”
“I’ll revise the contract document and use it properly.”
“At least be afraid. Afraid enough to refuse being dragged into dangerous places. And afraid enough that I do not feel like harming you.”
“You cannot lay a hand on a person who fears Song Taewon normally, ugh...”
The pressure bearing down on me suddenly intensified. My body began to tremble on its own. But worse than that was the Teacher skill. As the other person’s strength came through directly, my entire body went cold, and it felt as though my mind were being strangled.
When I hurriedly withdrew the skill, I could finally breathe again. I could not even use the Teacher skill without Fear Resistance.
“Mr. Song Taewon. Whether I feel fear or not, I’ll do what I need to do.”
I said it through gritted teeth. I had endured just fine for five years without Fear Resistance. If I were going to lock myself in my house because I was a little scared, I would have done it long ago.
Besides, what I feared most was not the threats of some S-Class Hunter.
“And aren’t you the one who is truly afraid, Mr. Song Taewon? Stop making excuses about other people. You’re drawn to me, so you want to get rid of me.”
He mixed excuses about other people into his words, but in the end, it was Song Taewon himself who had felt the impulse and wanted to harm me. I reached out and grabbed him by the collar. When our eyes met, I was so scared that it felt like my stomach would turn inside out.
“Just say it honestly. What do you want to do? But you have to choose. If you insist on keeping your current position, I’ll erase your influence. You’re getting in the way. If you want to live normally, then obediently live as an ordinary civil servant.”
“Do you have that ability?”
“I’ll find a way somehow. I’ll have you stuck in some backwater post and use every possible method to stop people from asking Mr. Song Taewon for help. You’re a civil servant, so you have to follow orders from above, right?”
It would not be easy, but if Song Taewon truly acted like a civil servant, it was not impossible.
“Behave yourself, and forget everything that happened today.”
“...You truly are a troublesome person.”
Muttering quietly, he brought his hand to my wrist. More precisely, to my bracelet. My heart leaped. Thick fingers closed around the bracelet. At the same time, a blue bird fluttered out.
Cheep! Chirp!
Right after its high cry of warning,
Fwoosh!
Flames suddenly erupted. Bright red fire split the space between Song Taewon and me. Unable to withstand the heat that extended beyond the range of his Plunder skill, Song Taewon released me and hurried backward.
Cheep, cheep!
Eunhye landed on my wrist. Beside it appeared Irin, the red lizard.
“Rin? How did you...?”
“You said you weren’t going out. What are you doing here, Hyung?”
“...Yoohyun?”
The voice coming from the lizard was unmistakably Yoohyun’s.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
