WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈

Chapter 66: Q&A (2)

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Waterdrop: Sorry. Those things are capable, despite themselves.

Tree: Water that’s been sitting so long it’s starting to spoil. Nobody ever changes the water around here~

Waterdrop: The second reason is that this is a beginner support system.

Honey: A beginner support system?

Waterdrop: Yes. Think about the people in Honey’s world. Say that one day, you gained the ability to fly. How would you realize it? How many people would suddenly think, Ah, I should try flying?

That was true. Unless they were children, an ordinary adult trying to fly through the sky with nothing but their body would end up in a psychiatric hospital.

Waterdrop: That’s why the system best suited to Honey’s world was applied: the status window. A game-like system where levels, stats, skills, and even rewards appear in a rectangular window.

Tree: But since it’s only for beginners, it’ll disappear eventually.

Waterdrop: We’ll observe how well people adapt and gradually remove it over roughly ten years. Starting with the skill windows of people who have already Awakened.

Honey: Does it have to disappear? If the status windows disappear, it’ll be hard for future Awakened to even realize they’ve Awakened.

Having a system was convenient in many ways.

Waterdrop: Don’t worry about that. People can’t yet sense their own abilities because they haven’t adapted. Even if they get a feeling, they might not know whether it’s real or simply a delusion.

Tree: Even now, S-Classes can somewhat sense other people’s abilities. Once the system disappears, those senses will grow stronger. Some sensitive people will even be able to sense the stats of non-Awakened people. That’s why Honey’s Sprout skill has such a low grade compared to how useful it currently is.

I had thought it was too good to be only S-Class. Once the ability to check the status windows of people about to Awaken became common, only the monthly optimized Awakening effect would remain. That put it right at S-Class.

Tree: Also, the beginner system is a comfortable guide, but it’s also a restriction that draws limits.

Waterdrop: Unlike reality, games only allow you to move within the system’s framework. Having clear grades and skills may feel convenient for now. But once those limits are set, it becomes hard to escape them.

Tree: An F-Class Awakened can never become S-Class. The system sets the growth limit for F-Class people. No matter how hard they try, B-Class is their limit. In the early stages of the system, there’s even a sort of safety device, so unless they’re an exceptional case, someone with F-Class skills and stats will have trouble growing at all. But in a world without a system, it isn’t impossible for an ordinary person to become the strongest in the world.

Waterdrop: People keep changing. Nothing is fixed. Not stats, and not skills.

Tree: Besides, we, the system, aren’t perfectly accurate either. Especially lately, because of Honey, our accuracy has dropped even further.

...Because of me?

Newbie: That’s right! Could you use the Sprout skill about 20 percent less often? Even just that much? I feel like I’m going to work myself to death! T◇T

Tree: Whenever you use Sprout on someone new, we have to look into them and enter their predicted grade and skills. It’s somewhat automated, and we adjust the time on our side as needed, but it’s still tiring. We don’t have unlimited time we can use each day.

Honey: ...I’m sorry.

I had no idea they were doing this in real time.

Honey: I’ll cut it down by half.

Waterdrop: Please do. If the accuracy drops too much, Honey will have trouble too.

Of course. I couldn’t waste time struggling with some completely wrong skill.

Honey: Could you make skill names more intuitive?

Waterdrop: We can do that for new skills, but it’s hard for skills that already have information stored. We can only alter a few. Besides, skills that have never appeared before are extremely rare.

Tree: In fact, there are barely any.

Barely any, huh. There weren’t that many Awakened yet, so the rarity of new skills had to mean there were other worlds.

Like the place where the former owner of the Golden Forge had lived.

Honey: Come to think of it, the Master of the Golden Forge skill had an unusually detailed description. It even came with an item.

Tree: Ah, that was because the previous skill holder put in the effort. A price was required, and they made a sacrifice. For the future of others.

Waterdrop: He was a good man. Like all excellent blacksmiths, he was a good cook too.

Tree: I miss him. Good people always leave too soon.

The price probably involved giving up one’s life. The skill’s special nature must have helped too, since it had been passed down in item form.

Tree: We can’t explain the details, but it’s an extremely rare case. It’s impossible with ordinary abilities.

Waterdrop: And it was a one-time thing, so the next skill holder will be normal.

Myeongu really lucked out.

Waterdrop: We can write more detailed skill descriptions, but like we said earlier, the Perfect Caregiver title has appeared for the first time. We have no information.

Tree: Even the regular Caregiver title is extremely rare for its grade.

Newbie: That’s right! This is my first time seeing the Caregiver title too!

The Caregiver title? That was unexpected.

Honey: Don’t you just have to be an S-Class Awakened’s custodian?

S-Classes were rare, but not that few in number. Many still had living parents. I thought there would be a few more people with the Caregiver title who simply hadn’t revealed it like I had.

Tree: It’s a little different. To explain, we need to tell you about high-grade Awakened. Do we have enough time?

Waterdrop: Yes. It’s information Honey should know.

Tree: You can only obtain the Caregiver title if an innate S-Class Awakened sees you as their Caregiver, not an ordinary S-Class Awakened.

Honey: Innate?

Tree: When you use Sprout, a predicted stat grade appears for their Awakening, right? That’s S. Not A, or A to S. There are only five among the current Awakened... and Honey has met three of them already?

The two I had checked were Yoohyun and Riette. The remaining one was probably Seong Hyeonje. Did that mean all the other S-Classes I had met had predicted stat grades of A to S?

Waterdrop: People aren’t born equal. Even before Awakened people appeared in Honey’s world, there were plenty of people who were exceptionally talented. Among those naturally gifted people, a predicted S-Class stat grade is a kind of irregularity. S-Class is the limit of the world’s major species under the system. Skills often have abilities that go beyond the body, so SS-Class skills and higher can appear, but stats cannot. It isn’t impossible to surpass the limit through effort, but it’s difficult and takes a long time. At least decades.

The maximum stat grade really was S-Class. That was why there still weren’t any SS-Class Hunters even five years later.

Waterdrop: Also, the predicted Awakening stat grade is only the grade of a novice who has just Awakened and still has room to grow. Even the Sprout skill says optimized Awakening, not maximum or limit Awakening. So the maximum Awakening stat grade of that species lies somewhere between A and S.

Tree: In other words, innate S-Classes are outside the standard. Honey’s world has a large population, so there are already five, but normally there are only two or three in a generation. These very few irregulars don’t mix well with their own kind.

Waterdrop: Even A to S-Classes tend to look down on people with lower abilities. But in extreme cases, S-Classes stop treating others as their own kind at all. At the same time, other people, especially ordinary people, instinctively find S-Classes unsettling. They feel intimidated and a little uncomfortable around them. It may be a small difference, but it’s quite significant.

Tree: It’s hard to be a proper parent when you feel intimidated by a child.

Reading the words on the screen, I thought back to when Yoohyun was young. Yoohyun had been cute. I didn’t think I had ever found him unsettling.

Tree: That’s why the Caregiver title rarely appears. Also, its holders usually have short lifespans.

Honey: What?

Waterdrop: There’s no other reason. They’re simply more likely to be murdered. People can’t touch an S-Class, so they target the family instead. Many S-Classes have the temperament of tyrants. Fortunately, Honey’s world is stable in that regard.

Tyrants? They didn’t seem all that different from other guildmasters. Aside from Yoohyun, the other two didn’t seem especially strange either.

Honey: You said I’ve met three innate S-Classes, but I didn’t think they were that different. I do have Fear Resistance, but their attitudes were all fine too.

There was no need to mention Yoohyun. Riette had been more than kind, almost excessively clingy. That was probably largely because of the Dragon Slayer title, but even Seong Hyeonje, who had no such reason, had been kind.

Tree: That’s because they’re dealing with Honey.

Waterdrop: Honey’s stats are low, so you aren’t threatening, but your special skills are high. High-grade Awakened with combat aptitude like that tend to like it. If they’re S-Class, they can sense it directly, so they like it even more. There’s one other person like Honey, too.

Myeongu? Or did they mean the Saint? The Saint had been popular among high-grade Hunters. She was something like the Hunter world’s godmother.

Tree: Just imagining it is so cute. I used to □□□□□□□□□□□□. Ah, whoops. Sorry.

Waterdrop: Newbie, thank you for blocking that so quickly.

Newbie: You’re welcome!

Were those □ for blocking excessive information? Deer and Wolf had a different atmosphere, but still.

Tree: Our stories are unnecessary information. It just reminded me of the past.

Waterdrop: There isn’t much time left, so be careful. Still, Honey, please be careful around high-grade Awakened. They may basically feel favorably toward Honey, but the difference in power is too great. Favor can become violence. They tend to be willful and selfish too, which makes them more dangerous. We want Honey to gather the S-Classes safely.

Tree: Right. Safety comes first. It’s fine if it takes a little longer. Around five years, maybe? Originally, we had around ten years to spare, but as you know, five years disappeared.

Waterdrop: We probably wouldn’t have been able to find another way in time anyway, so don’t worry about losing five years.

Honey: All right.

Five years was more than enough time. Once Peace grew soon, that would make three, and another top-grade monster cub was due to arrive. Sesung would probably get one too. Add Riette, her younger sibling, and the Breaker Guild's Guildmaster, and that already made eight. If Kim Seonghan grew safely, that made nine.

Even taking it easy, wouldn’t I gather them all within two or three years?

Honey: Do monsters count among the fifty people?

I asked just in case. If it was limited to humans, it might become difficult.

Waterdrop: As long as the Keyword can be applied, there’s no problem.

Then it would be easy. I could breathe easier. I could take it slow.

Tree: Is there anything else you’re curious about?

Hmm, what was there?

I had gotten a rough idea of why they were interested in me. They couldn’t tell me the details, but they said all I had to do was gather fifty S-Classes. I had also learned enough about the system. Skills, Awakened people... ah, dungeons.

Honey: Are the dungeon generation laws unchanged? We’re investigating them.

Newbie: They’re unchanged! Only the speed is increasing. Sometimes dungeons from five years later appear, but we’re trying to deal with those right away!

So we just needed to make up the lost time.

Honey: Is it difficult to tell me about monsters or dungeons?

Tree: They’re too closely related, so it’s dangerous. You’ll learn eventually, whether you want to or not.

Waterdrop: Right. Honey will eventually learn everything. When the time comes.

...I wouldn’t mind not knowing. Those ominous words made me uneasy.

There really wasn’t anything else, right? If I asked about those people, they would just say they couldn’t tell me. I had already been □-blocked once. I seemed to know about as much as I could.

Honey: Just one last thing. Can I tell my brother about the system? He’s very worried, and I’d like at least one person I can confide in. We entered the dungeon together, so it would be even better if you could send my brother a message window too.

If he received a message from the system, he would believe me easily.

Tree: Your brother? Wait, wait. It’s dangerous for information to spread, so we can’t say much... but saying that we’re helping you should be fine. If you send a signal, we’ll send one agreed-upon message. Something simple, like SYS?

Honey: Yes. Please do.

I hoped this would calm Yoohyun down.

Newbie: You really care about your sibling! Such close brother and sister, it’s wonderful˘▽˘

No, he’s my younger brother.

Deer: My love!! Don’t only care about your brother, call me big sister too!♡ε♡

Wolf: I’m big brother!!

Newbie: Neither of you has any shame. I’m actually old enough to be your big brother!

...What were these people talking about?

Honey: I’m male.

The chat window fell silent for a moment. Then:

Waterdrop: Yes yes yes!!!!! I won! Newbie, bring the saw! We’re cutting that damn deer’s antlers off! Oohu!!

I think your whole personality just changed.

Waterdrop: A thousand years of pent-up frustration just washed away!

If it had been pent up for a thousand years, I supposed that was enough to change someone.

Newbie: Are we really cutting them off?

Waterdrop: If you made the bet, you have to pay up! What did Wolf wager again? Why are they so quiet? Did they both run? Ah, sorry, Honey. Of course you’re male. I thought so. I’m sorry we made a bet. Those two kept insisting, and I got worked up.

Honey: It’s fine.

Tree: If you have no more questions, should we send you back soon? We’d be happy to play longer.

Honey: Yes. Not much time has passed, right?

Tree: Probably?

Probably? Surely days hadn’t passed. That would be a disaster. I was already a little worried.

Newbie: Not much has passed! I’m not certain, but thirty minutes at most?

...More time had passed than I expected.

Honey: Can’t you reduce the time somehow?

Newbie: It’s difficult while the connection is open. Shall we send you back right away?

Honey: Yes.

Still, thirty minutes should be fine. I could explain the system to Yoohyun now, too.

The lights that formed the chat window and keyboard scattered again, and the darkness around me began to fade. Then the view before me changed.

Into a barren wasteland.

There had definitely been dense forest between the beach and me, but it had all disappeared. The sea that had been hidden from view was now clearly visible.

‘Did... everything burn?’

Ash scattered on the wind, and embers flickered here and there. A grim premonition ran down my spine.

Krahng!

A beast’s roar suddenly rang out. I turned instinctively, and a magical beast larger than an average lion, with red and gold fur mixed together, leaped in front of me. I stumbled back without thinking and used Sprout.

[Class-2 Unicorn Subspecies: Flame-Horned Lion (Adolescent) Peace

Current Stat Grade: B

Potential Stat Grade: A to S

Optimized Initial Skills

Flame Breath (S), acquired after growth

Flame Sprint (A), acquired after growth

Enlargement (A), acquired after growth

Fire Resistance (A), acquired

※ Cannot grow without the help of an adult]

...Peace?

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