WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈

Chapter 56: Midnight Cursed Poison Dragon (1)

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I had taken off my earrings before entering the dungeon, so the only equipment I had was a single knife. It was a thin machete like the one I had used to extract mana stones in that F-Class dungeon before, closer to a utility tool than a weapon.

I didn’t know whether there would be a limit of three again, but I decided to save one spare slot for now. My equipment only gave stat increases anyway, so if I had to use items, potions would be better. Yoohyun had even given me a high-grade health potion to use in an emergency, and I had brought it with me.

Skreee.

After I had gone some distance into the dim cave, I sensed something moving slowly. Long antennae twitched into view beneath the glow of the luminescent insects, followed by...

“Ugh.”

A huge, flat bug. It had a round, glossy shell. In other words, that bug.

A cockroach.

There was a reason this dungeon, nicknamed the Cockroach Nest, was avoided despite its convenient location and decent rewards for its difficulty. Its monsters were not real cockroaches, but they looked far too much like them.

I had never entered this dungeon before my regression, but seriously, I hated this. This time, I would forget about mana stones and clear it as quickly as possible before getting out.

Skrrk.

“Fuck, don’t come closer. Get lost.”

The sight of the giant bug skittering along the wall made me recoil as I used Thorn Trap. It fainted and flopped onto its back on the floor. That sight was so familiar that...

[°⌓° ┒┷○┰┖? ○=∥￦━┖? ˆ‿ˆ]

...You get lost too. Did it have nothing better to do? What was with all this nagging about nice words? Still, it was fortunate that I didn’t have to catch every cockroach myself. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come here even if it killed me.

The dungeon’s common monster, the black flatback beetle, was unintelligent and gluttonous. It was even dumber than a cockroach and eagerly gobbled up food that had been obviously poisoned. The bothersome part was its high poison resistance.

Still, it was only an E-Class common monster. They couldn’t handle even Blackie’s normal poison, so if I gave them something four times stronger, they would melt away easily enough.

I took out a chunk of monster meat meant for Peace from my inventory. I didn’t know if this would count as an item, but even if it did, it would only be my second one. I had deliberately brought the largest piece. Fresh meat, still dripping with blood.

“Cockroaches need bait poison.”

I cut off about a third of the meat and placed it in the middle of the path, then coated the surrounding area with Sticky Poison. I covered the floor and walls, even using my tentacles to coat the ceiling without leaving a gap.

Skree, skree.

Scritch, scritch, scritch.

With a sound that instinctively made my skin crawl, a swarm of black bugs began rushing in. Beyond the dark cave, I could see long antennae waving from side to side.

Aagh, I want out! I quickly backed away, and the swarm charged at the meat without hesitation.

Screek!

Squeak!

The bugs that rushed in, focused only on the food, stepped in the poison and flipped over. Whether their companions died or not, the others kept advancing, using the corpses as stepping stones.

Chomp!

A giant cockroach immediately clamped its jaws around the meat. The meat was poisoned too, of course, so it flipped over after one bite. Its six legs trembled frantically in the air, and...

Skreee.

Crunch, crack, squelch.

The chunk of meat disappeared in an instant beneath the swarming cockroaches. But the bugs didn’t stop eating. Once the meat was gone, they began tearing into their dead kin.

Poisoned corpses made more corpses, piling up layer upon layer. It was such an appetite-killing sight that I didn’t think I would want to eat for three days.

‘If I make two more traps, they’ll be wiped out in no time.’

I should finish quickly and go home to wash up...

* * *

“Ugh, I hate this so much! I’m never looking at a bug nest again!”

What glory was I expecting to gain by walking into a place like this with my own two feet? All for that stupid title!

And why were they laying eggs while dying? Why did the hatchlings immediately hatch? On top of that, they were eating each other. Ugh. The hatchlings were exactly cockroach-sized, but there were so many...

Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it.

‘Now I understand why people avoid this place.’

Having to sit in the middle of that mess and look for mana stones. Bugs were definitely the monsters I hated most. They were disgusting enough already, but their bodily fluids were filthy, they were often poisonous, parasites popped out of them, and they reproduced quickly.

Ugh, I feel sick.

‘The boss was a spider.’

It had poison, but it was weak because it was only E-Class. The guide had said to watch out for its webs. There were three or four of them, and hatchlings appeared occasionally.

Please don’t let there be hatchlings. Please don’t let there be hatchlings.

Praying inwardly, I entered the deepest part of the cave.

Bluish moss spread across the damp walls. The ground beneath my feet was slippery too. Water dripped down with faint light from gaps in the high ceiling.

Below that were a huge web, three giant spiders, and countless baby spiders.

‘Ah, fuck.’

There were really a lot. An unbelievable number of red-and-black stripes wriggled everywhere. I should have brought a lighter. I could have set the whole place on fire. Ordinary fire probably wouldn’t work, but still...

I suddenly missed my younger brother. Yoohyun, are you doing well? Of course he was. We had said we would eat dinner together tonight. Or if Yerim had been here, Yerim could have frozen them all. People with area-of-effect attack skills had it good.

Grumbling, I coated the entrance with poison. I had blocked their escape route for now, but spiders rarely left their webs anyway.

“They say a bad head makes the body suffer, but when the body is bad, both body and head suffer.”

More precisely, when you had no skills, both suffered. Since I didn’t have a single decent attack skill, I had no choice but to run around myself.

I picked up a rock from the floor, coated it in poison, and threw it hard at the web.

Snap, thud.

The thrown rock gave off poisonous fumes as it tore through the web. But it soon got stuck, dangling in the air. One side of the huge web was ruined, but the spiders immediately produced thin white threads and repaired it. They were fast.

Damn it. I really would have to go inside to some extent.

‘There won’t be enough mana to use Thorn Trap on the hatchlings too.’

Did I have to kill every baby spider to clear the dungeon? I would use Lizard on the Wall to get close, then... get close and either spread poison or stomp on them to death...

After sighing once, I used Lizard on the Wall. The giant spider crouching in the middle of the web and watching me rolled all eight eyes around in confusion at the intruder’s sudden disappearance.

Sssss.

The other two large spiders looked around as well. As I walked toward the huge, white web, I used Thorn Trap on all three in turn.

Hiss!

Hiss!

The cursed spiders struggled before becoming tangled in the webs they had made. Startled baby spiders scattered like splashing water. A few of them were crushed beneath my feet.

Pop, crunch.

Something large burst beneath my shoe. Ugh, that gave me chills. Grimacing, I extended a tentacle toward one of the large spiders. Crunch. The tentacle pierced its shell and injected poison.

It was a poisonous monster, so it probably had poison resistance, but it couldn’t hold out long and soon went still. I dealt with the other two in turn as well.

Mana stones dropped from one melted abdomen. Two of them, thanks to the Miracle title. I picked them up with my tentacles and put them in my inventory. Tentacles really were convenient.

Now then. Please let the achievement window appear. Please let the exit gate appear...

“...It isn’t appearing. Do I have to kill all the baby spiders too...?”

[٦·▾·┘☆π∈┃○★]

Just when it had seemed quiet, another system message popped up. I really couldn’t say a single thing out loud.

“If you have nothing to do, why not fill in the descriptions for your shitty skill windows? Stop following me around like a stalker.”

[Sob...]

...What was that supposed to mean?

Swallowing my curses, I caught and killed the baby spiders fleeing in every direction. I missed Yoohyun and Yerim. They could have finished this in one hit.

Fortunately, apparently I didn’t have to kill them all. Once the baby spiders became sparse, an exit gate appeared.

[Amazing achievement! With F-Class stats, F-Class or lower attack skills, and five items or fewer, you have successfully cleared an E-Class dungeon alone!]

A system message appeared before me. So the limit this time had been five items.

[S-Class title, ‘Veteran F-Class,’ acquired!]

Veteran F-Class? What an unappealing title. No matter how experienced an F-Class was, they couldn’t possibly clear an E-Class dungeon alone without much help from equipment.

Even before my regression, I had been a fairly weathered F-Class Hunter, but... no, forget it. What was the point of grumbling about something that no longer existed? I opened my status window and checked the title.

[Veteran F-Class (S)

A superhuman possessing the pinnacle of experience attainable by an F-Class Hunter.

Doubles the effects of offensive skills possessed.]

...Wow. Really, truly, seriously.

For a moment, I looked up at the sky. No, the cave ceiling.

Fuck! I didn’t have! A single! Attack skill!

Now I had two things that were too good to throw away and useless to me.

‘No, they really are good, but... Miracle and Veteran both have effects worthy of an S-Class...’

What was this?

It doubled the effects of offensive skills. Double dungeon rewards were nice, but this was incredible. Even at B-Class, it would be broken. At S-Class, people would say it destroyed the balance.

Raucitas’s Natural Enemy was an SS-Class skill that only doubled skill effects against cursed poison dragon species, but this had no target restriction. It was an S-Class title only because F-Classes alone could obtain it. Without that acquisition restriction, it might have been L-Class.

It was still useless to me, though.

I had ten skills, and all I had were support skills and resistances! Yay! If Veteran and Miracle counted as a skill each, I had twelve, hahaha.

‘It says possessed skills, so equipment skills won’t count. Maybe it’ll only be useful when Final Grace applies.’

To check, I summoned my tentacles. Their length... hmm. They were definitely well over four meters. Did that mean my skills were now A-Class or higher?

‘Unless they have S-Class poison resistance skills or items, even an S-Class won’t withstand C-Class Sticky Poison. Thorn Trap is D-Class, so maybe it won’t work as well.’

Up to A-Class, anyone without high curse resistance could be incapacitated immediately. My stats were lacking, but at this rate, I could easily beat even an A-Class combat Hunter head-on.

There were only about two days left, though.

I would only apply the Keyword to A-Class or higher Hunters and monsters whenever possible, so maybe this was like, If something happens once in a while, you can become invincible for seven days?

‘...Of course, there is a way to use it...’

If I hardened my heart, it could be a useful title.

If I tamed a monster of an appropriate rank, applied the Keyword, and killed it every seven days. Especially against cursed poison dragon species like Blackie, a C-Class monster could reach the current A-Class level or higher.

That said.

‘If I could do that, I wouldn’t have regressed in the first place.’

Cursed poison dragon species were not common, and with ordinary monsters, I would have to coax them, soothe them, feed them, talk about love for days, then stab them to death. Every time, I would have to watch some flashback record saying, Thank you for the mana stones you fed me. Was that something a person could do?

If I could pull that off without blinking, I would have prayed for my younger brother’s soul, become the strongest with the Wish Stone, and lived well.

Maybe it would be different if I had not received the memory transfer, but that was the kind of thing that ended with you in a psychiatric hospital. I should give it up cleanly.

After sighing once, I checked the dungeon-clear rewards.

‘Oh, high-grade health potions.’

There were two because of the double bonus. They were usually only seen in A-Class dungeons or higher, and occasionally appeared as first-clear rewards in B-Class dungeons. Surely an elixir wouldn’t pop out as a reward for clearing a D-Class dungeon alone.

‘If rewards this good came from anyone entering instead of just F-Class Hunters, this would be worth clearing alone.’

A C-Class with decent attack skills could clear a dungeon like this alone. But it felt as though an F-Class Hunter reward bonus had been applied. The rewards were too good to be merely for a solo clear.

The other items were also at the level of C-Class to B-Class dungeon rewards. Doubled, of course. I hadn’t picked up a single mana stone, but this was still profitable. There were even two C-Class pieces of equipment, which had become four after the bonus. The Miracle title really was good. If I could only run high-grade dungeons, I would strike it rich. It felt like such a waste.

‘But could these titles be part of some double-effect series?’

F-Class doubled rewards, and E-Class doubled attack-skill effects. Would D-Class double stats? Even if it did, it wouldn’t make much difference to my usual self. I hoped it doubled support-skill effects instead. Then raising monsters would be twice as fast, I could perform optimized Awakening twice a month, and applying Keywords would be twice as easy.

Please let the D-Class achievement title double support skills. Let me get at least one proper thing.

* * *

“When did you go out?”

When I got home, Myeongu asked in surprise. I lifted the bag in my hand.

“To the convenience store for a bit. You didn’t hear me leave?”

For a solid alibi, I dispelled Lizard on the Wall in front of my door, headed out again, and went to the first-floor convenience store with the Hunter guarding the entrance.

“I had no idea. What did you buy?”

“...Cockroach poison.”

“What? There are cockroaches in the house?!”

“No, there aren’t. It’s for my peace of mind.”

The moment I saw the cockroach poison on the shelf, I had picked it up as if possessed. It even said it worked on spiders. Insecticide was the best.

I went straight into the bathroom and showered. I had never heard of E-Class dungeon monsters spreading germs, but I still went through nearly an entire bottle of body wash. Honestly, I wanted to douse myself in disinfectant.

After washing up, I prepared dinner for Peace and Peep.

“Peep, I told you that isn’t for you.”

Peep!

I forcibly pulled Peep away from the bottle of C-Class mana stone powder that Peep kept clinging to. Peep was so tiny, so why was Peep so greedy for mana stones? When I gave Peep an F-Class mana stone, Peep squeaked in complaint but still swallowed it readily. I had picked up E-Class mana stones, so should I try giving Peep one?

“Here, Peep.”

Peep peep peep!!

Peep really liked it. When I broke up an E-Class boss monster’s mana stone into small pieces, Peep looked ready to dance. Peace lost interest after eating the proper amount, but Peep was a little unusual. Still, Peep couldn’t overeat. After I gave Peep one E-Class mana stone, Peep devoured it in an instant and hugged the bottle of C-Class mana stone powder with Peep’s wings again.

Peep peep peep peep peep.

“That isn’t yours.”

I pulled the crying Peep away again and fed Peace. Peep fearlessly tried to steal Peace’s food, only to get smacked by Peace’s front paw and roll away.

In the meantime, Yoohyun texted to ask if we wanted dinner, and Yerim, who had somehow already come over to our place, jumped in with, “Me too!”

Myeongu seemed uncomfortable about being among S-Classes, but people had to see each other often to become close.

Ah, I really wanted to stay home, look after the kids, and lounge around peacefully like this.

* * *

‘...What is this?’

A chill suddenly ran down my spine.

I had gone to bed early because I had to enter another dungeon tomorrow, but Weakling’s Premonition activated for no apparent reason as I slept. Had Yerim come to raid the kitchen again...? S-Class stats, poison skills... huh? Curse skills? What?

My eyes flew open. At the same time, I saw a message window floating before me.

[All skill effects are doubled when facing Dio Valshecis!]

What the fuck?! Doubled? Cursed poison dragon?! S-Class? Had an S-Class dungeon opened in my bedroom? It was far too quiet for that. My mind was panicking, but perhaps because of Fear Resistance, my body did not freeze.

The moment my mind cleared, Weakling’s Premonition began pouring out information. The Premonition skill, strengthened by its doubled effect, identified the opponent’s location before my eyes could.

Leaping out of bed, I immediately used Thorn Trap.

“Hi... Urgh!”

...Why did a person collapse.

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