WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 34: That's Not How You Use It
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The flames that had blanketed the entire basin had weakened considerably. The fire that had stubbornly gnawed at the few remaining blades of grass was crushed beneath Yoohyun’s foot. Sparks snapped and writhed, but not even a small scorch mark appeared on his shoes.
Once an elemental resistance surpassed B-Class, it began to affect not only the body but also the clothing and equipment worn on it. Han Yoohyun’s Fire Resistance was S-Class. Ordinary flames, and even flames infused with the powerful magic of an S-Class monster, could not affect my brother in the slightest. Something merely A-Class was nothing worth mentioning.
Piiiii.
At the sight of Yoohyun approaching, Golden-Beaked Maiya let out an oddly thin cry. Its red eyes, with their horizontal pupils, rolled about as it half spread its folded wings and raised its neck feathers. It was clearly on guard.
Piik! Piik!
After letting out several short warning cries, the monster bird beat its wings and flew into the sky.
Yoohyun stopped walking and looked up at it. A massive shadow swept quickly over the burned field. Whenever its red wings flapped, rain made of fire dripped down from the sky. A few drops even reached Yoohyun, but they slid off without leaving so much as a tiny burn.
Sizzle.
The fiery rain struck the curtain of icy mist spread over our heads, letting out the dying cries of flames again and again.
“I never heard that the guildmaster had a flight skill. Will he be okay?”
Yerim spoke quietly.
“He’ll be fine.”
He might not have a flight skill, but he had something that could substitute for one.
But why wasn’t he using it? Was he trying to make his opponent lower its guard? Flying monsters often got careless if they thought their opponent couldn’t fly, leaving an opening.
He was being cautious.
Piiiiiik!
After making a couple more low passes without getting any reaction, the monster bird cried out as if excited.
Just like a birdbrain, it was simple. This would be the perfect moment to use Blue Willow Leaves, but...
He wasn’t using it.
‘Why is he just standing there?’
Being cautious was good, but this was excessive. Blue Willow Leaves also disrupted vision. At this timing, he could have ended it in one move.
What was he waiting for?
Fwoosh.
Its flaming wings spread as wide as they could. Using the tip of one wing as an axis, the fire bird slowly circled.
It was preparing for a steep dive.
Then,
Snap!
Its wings folded, and the monster bird’s body dropped straight down. Its sharp beak tore through the air as it plunged toward Yoohyun.
It moved too fast for my eyes to follow.
In the literal blink of an eye, a tremendous impact rang out.
Craaaash!
An S-Class Hunter wouldn’t be taken down by an attack like that, but my toes twitched instinctively.
The ground was gouged deeply as dirt and stones shot up amid a cloud of dust. When I blinked again, I heard a scream.
Pyaeek!
It came from the monster bird.
I caught a glimpse of Yoohyun through the dust. A slender sword had somehow appeared in his hand and was skillfully digging into the wing joint that had been tucked tightly against the bird’s body for its dive.
Golden-Beaked Maiya clawed at the ground and twisted its body, but Yoohyun didn’t budge. He simply pulled the sword hard.
Crunch.
Flesh tore and blood sprayed. The blade split through bone in one stroke, cutting off the wing.
Piik, kiik!
Seizing the moment its wing fell away, the monster bird swiftly deployed its spare wings and shot back into the sky.
It fluttered upward in a panic, flying even higher than before.
This was strange. Hadn’t I clearly told him it had spare wings? Why had he attacked its wing instead of jumping up with Blue Willow Leaves and immediately aiming for its head? Of course, if he didn’t have a flight skill, it was standard to deal with the wings first even if it had spares...
‘Could it be?’
Had he not obtained Blue Willow Leaves yet? It wasn’t an initial skill, but I had heard he acquired it fairly early on. Then again, Hunter skill information was full of fakes, so I couldn’t trust every rumor completely.
“Wow, Yoohyun Oppa moves so cleanly.”
Yerim sounded impressed. So she was calling him Oppa again. Since she was S-Class, she must have seen more clearly than I did.
“But isn’t that bird too scared to come down? Should I help? I could fly up carrying the guildmaster and...”
“Then you’d burn to death.”
Without Fire Resistance, even an S-Class Hunter would have trouble approaching it safely. Yerim’s level was still low, so she couldn’t simply endure it with her stats either.
“Yoohyun’s Fire Resistance range is fairly wide, but unless he holds someone tightly against him like he did with me earlier, he can’t cover another person. If you approached while stuck to him like that, his movements would be restricted, making it more likely for him to get hit. Yoohyun would still be fine, but you’d have trouble staying alive.”
“But it looks like that thing won’t move from the sky. Aren’t we trapped here?”
“Boss monsters have a strong instinct to defend their territory, so it’ll come down eventually. It will take a while, though.”
Fortunately, it only had one pair of spare wings. If we were lucky, Yoohyun could cut off one more wing and finish it. It might take longer if the angle was wrong or it protected its wings well.
I needed to feed Peace. Would we get out before dinner?
Piik! Piik!
After its painful hit, the monster bird only screeched and didn’t dare lower its altitude. Still, since it wasn’t fleeing entirely, it would attack again soon enough.
The question was when.
Piiiii.
Well, well. Was that bird bastard glancing our way? Was it thinking now that it knew it couldn’t beat Yoohyun? It was even gradually lowering its altitude.
Yoohyun must have noticed too, because he moved toward us and activated a skill.
“Blue Willow Leaves.”
What? He had it... Hey! Why would he use it like that?!
To my dismay, Yoohyun was only using Blue Willow Leaves as a probing skill to interfere with the opponent’s vision and movements. It wasn’t that he had failed to acquire it. He just didn’t know how to use it properly!
Well, the skill description probably hadn’t kindly said, “Step on it and jump!” The Hunter system’s explanations were fundamentally unhelpful, and often unclear as well.
I raised my voice and shouted.
“Hey! Step on it!”
“What?”
“The leaves! Step on them and jump!”
After a moment of surprise, Yoohyun leaped upward.
Then his feet lightly stepped onto blue-tinted leaves. An ordinary leaf couldn’t have borne his weight, but those Blue Willow Leaves swayed in midair as though unaffected.
His first few steps were awkward, but Yoohyun quickly adapted to moving by stepping on the leaves. His body raced through the air as if he were running across level ground.
Piik!
Maiya fluttered its wings in panic when it saw Yoohyun approaching. A scorching gust swept out, but my brother didn’t even dodge. His black hair fluttered briefly, and a flock of blue leaves surged up beside him.
Like a school of enormous fish swimming through the water, the leaves swept before the monster bird’s eyes. Golden-Beaked Maiya, having lost sight of its enemy for a moment, looked around in confusion.
In that brief opening, Yoohyun rose higher than the monster bird.
He was directly above its flaming head.
‘It’s over.’
The instant I thought that, a spear point buried itself in Maiya’s crown.
Thwack!
Its birdbrain burst like a pudding that had been slapped.
That explosion was definitely an effect from that spear. What was its name again?
Thud!
With half its head blown away, the monster bird crashed to the ground. Yoohyun stepped lightly onto the remaining blue leaves and descended.
It really was over quickly.
When the monster bird died, a blue gate appeared where the original mountain goat boss had been.
“Hyung!”
Yoohyun ran toward me with a flushed expression.
“That was amazing! Blue Willow Leaves can be used in place of a flight skill! No, it was much better than a flight skill cast by someone else!”
My brother looked as delighted as a child who had received Christmas and Children’s Day presents at once.
“The thing I regretted most was not having a flight skill! To think I had something this good and was letting it go to waste. I feel stupid. You realized how to apply it the moment you saw it.”
Well, I hadn’t figured it out. Originally, Yoohyun, you... had discovered it? I wasn’t sure. The Awakening Center would soon be established, research into the Awakened would become more active, and large guilds would hire dedicated skill researchers.
“Okay, calm down. It’s not a big deal.”
“How is this not a big deal? It’s like getting a whole new skill. The skill I needed most, too! Long-range attacks are weak for me by nature, so flying monsters were the most troublesome. But now I don’t have to frustratingly rely on someone else’s support. The guild members with flight support skills have low stat ranks, so I was always uneasy about bringing them along. This is seriously the best!”
Yeah, I got it. Of course he would be happy. So were his long-range attack abilities still weak? Later on, he would make all kinds of things out of black flames.
Anyway, I was happy that he was happy, but he kept admiring me for cheating. It was making this hyung embarrassed.
“More importantly, shouldn’t we get out quickly? Everyone must be worried because the dungeon’s rank changed.”
“Ah, enough time has passed that the guild and Association must have heard too.”
We hurriedly gathered the loot.
“Would you like me to look over your skills sometime?”
I spoke just before we left. Since I had also received methods for applying skills through Final Grace, I now knew more about Yoohyun’s skills than he did.
“I’d love that!”
Yoohyun answered brightly.
“I’ll clear the new A-Class dungeon, then make time right away.”
“What about me, Mister?”
Yerim, who had been listening to our conversation, cut in.
You little...
“I already gave you a rough explanation. Come back after you reach level 30.”
I would look over her new skills when she got them. I didn’t know whether it would help, but it would be better than Yerim worrying over them alone.
When we came outside, as expected, people with anxious, nervous faces had gathered there. Seeing us unharmed, they even let out small cheers.
“I’m glad you’re safe, Guildmaster!”
“Hunter Park Yerim doesn’t seem to be injured either!”
Ah, naturally, their attention was focused on Yoohyun and Yerim. Myeongu and I were just Background One and Background Two.
That was more comfortable, and it should have stayed that way.
“Mr. Han Yujin, are you all right?”
Kim Seonghan approached me.
No, shouldn’t you ask after your guildmaster first? Why were you speaking to me before him? He was even known as Haeyeon’s Shield for his loyalty, so everyone was looking at us strangely.
“I’m fine. Completely fine.”
So please worry about the guildmaster instead. Please.
To make matters worse, Yoohyun looked back at me too. Ah, attention was gathering. Still, he always tried to keep me hidden, so surely he wouldn’t say anything unnecessary.
“I think I should stop by the Association, so Hyung, go back to the guild first.”
“Uh, okay.”
His voice was somewhat stiff, unlike inside the dungeon. As expected, he didn’t show it when there were many eyes on us. An excellent attitude.
Yoohyun and Yerim both left first with the Hunter Association representatives. In the car returning to the guild, I opened my status window.
‘At the end, I definitely reached level 10.’
Even if you were only nearby, you received a little experience for a boss monster. Thanks to that, the level-up message had appeared, but there had been no news of a skill acquisition window.
‘The skills are still the same, as expected. But this...’
Something strange caught my eye.
The color seemed to have changed a little.
[Perfect Caregiver (L)]
Among my titles, Dragon Slayer was unchanged, but Perfect Caregiver alone had a different color.
It was somewhat red.
Red. It was red.
Did that make it three times faster?
‘This feels like... a land mine.’
I felt like I shouldn’t check it. I wanted to ignore it. But the problem was that I also felt like I couldn’t ignore it.
Whoever made the system, what exactly are you trying to do? Could you open the chat window for two-way conversation just one more time?
I muttered inwardly, but no answer came back. After letting out a sigh, I opened the Perfect Caregiver title window. Fortunately, there was no other change to the skills.
Except for one.
[My Kid Is the Best (L)]
This one had changed color too.
Wow, this was red too. It was already a land mine, and now it had turned red. I really felt like I shouldn’t look. It was practically screaming, “I am a trap.”
But I couldn’t avoid checking it forever.
Whatever. I didn’t care anymore.
[My Kid Is the Best (L): A target influenced after hearing the Keyword gains +100% growth speed. (/>∀</) Fighting! ┕(^ㅁ^┕)
Duration: 3 days
Can be used without the Keyword on targets already influenced
Cannot stack on the same target
Reuse cooldown for the same target: 30 days
Keyword: I love you
※ Cannot be applied if the target is aware of the Keyword’s effect
Targets with completed influence (5)
(Han Yoohyun-S)(Park Yerim-S)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)
Next]
What was with “Fighting”? It wasn’t cute, so get lost. More importantly, what were these Pending slots? They hadn’t been there before.
There were thirty slots, including the two already filled, and there was a Next button.
For a moment, it felt as though my brain short-circuited.
‘N-No way. Surely not.’
Was it telling me to fill the Pending slots?
And since Yu Myeongu and Kim Seonghan weren’t there, did that mean S-Class people... Fuck.
This was insane.
Even with Fear Resistance active, my heart raced. If it had been off, I would definitely have screamed.
‘Did Found You mean it had found the owner of the Perfect Caregiver title, or the My Kid skill?’
And fuck, it wanted me to hook thirty S-Classes? No, there had to be more than thirty. I could move on to the next page.
‘I can’t do it. Even thirty is impossible. This is completely insane.’
It seemed the bastard who made the system had lost their conscience before the evening even began. There weren’t even ten S-Classes in the country. Was I supposed to go fishing worldwide? Then at least ease the conditions. Change the Keyword and remove those weird additional effects. Otherwise, I wouldn’t do it. I couldn’t.
‘No, to begin with, why should I follow orders from someone whose face I’ve never even seen?’
If they wanted to make me do something this crazy, they should at least give me a detailed explanation. Not some “Fighting!” emoticon. Explain it. Explain it!
In novels, comics, and movies, bastards like this always ruined things by speaking vaguely. And now they were pulling the same thing in real life.
Explain it! If you don’t, I won’t do it either.
‘Even hooking just four people had already left me with a mountain of embarrassing memories. Like hell I would...’
Wait.
There were definitely four.
I checked the skill window once more.
[Targets with completed influence (5)]
...Why were there five?
Footnotes:
Yujin’s remark that making something red could make it three times faster references a famous Japanese mecha pop-culture meme.
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