WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 39: That's a Rip-Off
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“Why a broadcast all of a sudden?”
It was completely out of the blue. But the sly old fox across the table apparently didn’t think so.
“We should make sure people know your face.”
“...Wouldn’t the opposite be better for my personal safety?”
“No. Less than a day after the negotiations end, information about you will spread worldwide. There’s no point in trying to hide it.”
I had expected it, but hearing it from someone else still made me worry. All sorts of crimes targeting Awakened with low stat ranks but useful special skills ran through my mind.
How much was I worth, anyway?
“So it is safer if many people can recognize you. It is much harder to approach someone everyone is watching.”
He had a point. Appearing on TV and attracting attention meant more people would be watching me.
“Even if you were kidnapped, there would be a greater chance that witnesses would contact us. They would wonder why a Haeyeon Guild member was somewhere strange with people from another guild.”
“I’m not a guild member. I’m an employee. A regular employee.”
He was trying to casually treat me as a guild member.
“Hahaha. You feel so familiar that you practically seem like a guild member. Doesn’t ‘regular employee’ sound distant?”
“You shouldn’t discriminate.”
“That is true. Guild members and regular employees are all one family. Mr. Han Yujin, you are family too.”
“...Please keep the distinction.”
Dealing with this man was exhausting after all.
“It will be easy to draw attention, since this will be the first time a cute monster appears on a broadcast. I hear Peace is quite affectionate too?”
“Peace is kind, cute, and lovable.”
Peace had gotten quite handsome too. Peace still looked young, but their neck mane had grown fuller, their tail longer, and their horn gleamed gold.
Whose kid was this? Peace was so handsome.
When I smiled with unconscious satisfaction, Seok Simyeong smiled along with me. Why was he smiling? At me, no less.
“Because of the confidentiality agreement, we can only begin preparing after the negotiations are over. Still, we will make thorough plans in advance. You may leave it to us.”
“I trust your ability to handle work, Team Leader Seok. I’ll wait without worry.”
Of course, I only trusted his ability to handle work.
At my words, the sly old fox looked as if he had remembered the golden calf safely locked away in the master bedroom safe. I really didn’t care what he was thinking.
“If you have any questions or need anything, please contact me anytime.”
“Haha, all right.”
I would probably be dealing with Seok Simyeong often for a while. It was better than the days when his tongue sliced me to ribbons, so let’s try to get along.
* * *
“Were you good while I was gone, Peace?”
Grrr.
Peace, who had been lying on my bed, sprang up and purred. Peace’s cage was getting cramped, and since I was hiding the magical beast rearing skill from Yu Myeongu as well, Peace had moved to the most spacious bedroom in the house, mine.
My bed is covered in fur. Good thing I don’t have allergies.
“You’ll be able to go around freely soon, so hang in there a little longer.”
I picked Peace up in my arms. They had grown much heavier than before, making my arms feel weighted down. Peace’s growth gradually slowed, and on the third day, they only gained another 0.5 kilograms. That was a clear difference from the 2.8 kilograms they had gained on the first day and the 3.1 kilograms on the second.
Peace’s rank was still displayed as C. Peace had become much stronger. If they had initially been comparable to a low C-Rank dungeon monster, they were now at least comparable to a high C-Rank one.
‘They said Peace would metamorphose into an adult. Maybe Peace grows to a certain point, then stops until the conditions are met and suddenly matures all at once.’
The time needed for Peace’s growth continued to decrease as Peace trained. At this rate, Peace would become an adult before long.
After playing with Peace for a little while and feeding it, I headed outside again. Now I needed to take care of Myeongu too. Why did I have so much to do?
Carrying the various blades Myeongu had bought in advance, we headed for Haeyeon Guild’s Equipment Management Team. Large guilds all had a department like this, a place where they maintained all kinds of items.
“Dungeon items can be repaired through ordinary methods if the damage is below a certain level. Of course, the materials have to be dungeon byproducts.”
I explained as we rode the elevator down.
“So they should have ordinary repair tools too. It would be good to get friendly with the people on the management team while we’re at it. If you get a related skill, there’s a good chance you’ll work here too.”
Not just work here either. Becoming a team leader would practically be guaranteed. Or they might create an entirely new department. Either way, they would need staff with related skills, so there was no harm in getting familiar with the place in advance.
“That would be really nice. Honestly, I don’t want to raid dungeons.”
“Right. You can just run low-level dungeons occasionally for leveling and take it easy.”
Would I make an SS-Rank blacksmith do something dangerous? If something went wrong in a dungeon, it would be a worldwide loss. I would just have to carry Myeongu safely through them.
We had to pass another security inspection before entering the Equipment Management Team. Beyond an ordinary office with desks, chairs, and computers, we opened a thick door and a wave of hot air rolled out.
So that was a mana furnace beyond the protective wall. It looked like a small blast furnace, but it heated refined mana stones to melt various dungeon metals. It was essential equipment for item repairs.
“Which one of you is the newbie with the Grindstone skill?”
A burly middle-aged man in protective gear approached and tossed each of us something like a blue towel. It felt cool like an ice pack when I caught it. The others nearby also wore these blue towels around their necks or tied them around their waists.
“This looks useful. Unlike an ice pack, it’s thin and the temperature is just right.”
“It takes mana stones to maintain.”
So it was expensive. This was why products developed from dungeon byproducts had trouble becoming widespread. It would be impossible until mana stones became cheaper.
“As you have heard, we need a machine for sharpening blades.”
Myeongu did not necessarily need to set down a whetstone and carefully sharpen every single blade by hand. We should at least test it.
I opened the My Kid skill window and brought up Yu Myeongu’s status window.
[Sharpen 10,000 blades (Progress: 71/10,000)]
While I had been training Peace, Yu Myeongu had diligently sharpened knives in the kitchen. According to Myeongu, the Grindstone’s sharpness buff applied when sharpening knives even without actively using the skill.
‘It probably counts as one blade once the blade has been sharpened enough for the skill to apply automatically.’
That made it easy to check. Also, blades whose skill effect had expired could be sharpened again. Since Grindstone lasted three hours, we did not actually need ten thousand blades. Myeongu had only sharpened thirteen blades over the past three days.
“This is a special grinder. It can smoothly sharpen dungeon metal too.”
The middle-aged man said this while tapping a firmly mounted machine.
Come to think of it, did everyone here have special skills related to equipment? There were too many people for that. Curious, I checked the middle-aged man’s status window first.
[Awakened: Lee Minseok
Current stat rank: C
Potential Awakening stat rank: D-C
Optimized initial skills
Fine Soldering (B) acquired
Pounding (C) acquisition failed
Stamina Up (D) acquired]
Fine Soldering. It was obviously a repair-related skill. Pounding was difficult to classify from the name alone, but he had failed to acquire it. It would be a shame if it was a C-Rank special skill, but I did not need to worry about a well-off middle-aged man.
I checked the other people as well. Besides Lee Minseok, the remaining seven were all Awakened. Four of them had stat ranks of E or above, but only common F-Rank skills. Of course, they could acquire skills other than optimized ones, and their Level 10 skills might turn out well, so there was no way to know if they truly only had F-Rank skills.
In any case, none of their stats were at an ordinary person’s level. Was that because the work required strength?
“Yujin?”
When I only looked around, Yu Myeongu tapped my arm.
“I was just looking around. Take out a knife and let’s sharpen it. How do you use this?”
“See that clamp? Secure it firmly, then press the button.”
“You don’t hold it in your hand?”
“You said your stats are F-Rank. You’ll have an accident.”
So the special grinder was not made for ordinary people. If the machine did everything, it probably would not count.
Just in case, I had Yu Myeongu secure a knife. The machine sharpened the blade with a loud noise, but even when the powerful machine had ground the knife down until it was ruined, the progress did not change. As expected, it did not work.
“Is there an ordinary machine instead of this?”
“An ordinary one? There should be one in the workshop over there. You can adjust the pressure with your foot, so it is good for delicate work.”
That would be perfect.
“Thank you.”
Yu Myeongu and I entered the workshop. Among the scattered tools, there was a much more modest-looking grinder. I hoped it worked this time.
Myeongu sat in the chair in front of the grinder. After turning it on, Myeongu took out a kitchen knife and placed a foot on the pedal.
Soon, the grinder began to turn.
Myeongu hesitantly brought the blade toward it. A harsh sound rose briefly, stopped, then repeated. The movements that had screamed beginner gradually became more practiced.
A little later,
[Sharpen 10,000 blades (Progress: 72/10,000)]
“It worked!”
Success. Hail the wonders of civilization.
“That’s great. At this rate, it’ll be over in no time.”
“Yeah! Once I get used to it, I can sharpen more than a hundred a day!”
How many minutes had that taken? It did not seem like much time had passed.
Myeongu, who had briefly gotten excited, took out another knife. Unlike usual, Myeongu’s expression as they settled into place was calm. So Myeongu could make that face too.
Soon, another blade was being sharpened. This time, it was faster. There was none of the hesitation from before.
Clang.
A sharpened knife fell off the other side of the chair, and a new one was in Myeongu’s hand. The blades had been old and faded, bought in a heap from a junkyard, but they began to gleam with light.
Could they become that good just from sharpening? Was it because of the skill?
While I was lost in thought for a moment, the fourth knife had already begun to be sharpened. Myeongu adjusted the angle little by little, their movements now completely practiced. Even to my untrained eye, every motion was efficient, neither excessive nor lacking.
It was like watching a master who had sharpened knives for ten years.
‘...That’s ridiculous.’
What was that? How long had we even been here?
‘Why did they only keep taking office jobs?’
They should have gone into skilled work. What was the point of clinging to that damned humanities degree? If Myeongu had only chosen the right career path, they would have been walking a smooth road without ever meeting me.
I watched the blades being sharpened, lamenting inwardly. Though it was merely repetitive work, I could not look away.
The movements flowed like water, precise as a machine and without the slightest disruption. Even the noise had become a gentle rhythm as the shine returned to the blades.
Whenever coolant wet the blade and droplets scattered, it combined with the gleam of the metal and looked almost artistic.
So even watching someone sharpen knives could look cool. Amazing. It really was cheating.
Clang.
The machine stopped with the sound of another knife falling. Yu Myeongu lowered their hands and looked at me.
“You’re still here?”
“Yeah, I got absorbed watching.”
Wait, were they already finished? I had bought quite a lot.
[Sharpen 10,000 blades (Progress: 115/10,000)]
...More than forty had been sharpened. How much time had passed? I had not measured it, but it had probably been less than an hour. It might have been even faster. Even with the machine cutting down the time, I had thought each knife would take four or five minutes.
It was not as if they had been sharpened roughly. The pile of blades all gleamed like brand-new products. It might have been because the skill had applied, but activating it without even using the skill was not ordinary in the first place.
“At this rate, won’t you finish in ten days?”
“I guess so. The machine is nice.”
Myeongu said it as if it were nothing. Terrifying. They had pretended to be ordinary, but they really did have the talent for an SS-Rank skill.
“Should I buy... around three hundred more knives?”
“Yeah. There’s still a long time before the skill wears off. Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. Totally fine. Don’t worry about it.”
I would invest as much as needed. Naturally.
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