WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈

Chapter 96: What Was Cut Off (2)

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A fire lizard slowly crawled over the hand on the steering wheel. It was the same size as a few days ago, but its color had grown a little paler. Or perhaps it had taken on a yellowish tint. Just in case, I used Sprout.

[Spirit of Fire - E-Class]

Its rank had risen already. It was still low, but that was incredibly fast.

“Looks like that spirit has grown a bit.”

“Has it? It does eat practically anything I give it.”

“Does it eat things besides fire?”

“Fire is its main food, but it swallows mana stones and miscellaneous items too. It doesn't even look at ordinary objects, though.”

Did it only eat things that came out of dungeons? The lizard, which had been circling Yoohyun’s fingers, climbed back up his arm toward his neck. It circled his neck once, crawled behind his ear, then suddenly vanished beside his right eye.

“…Hey, your eye.”

His right eye had turned red. It sometimes took on a faint dark red tint from the effects of his skill, but this was completely different.

“It sometimes seeps into my skin like a tattoo, but it seems to prefer going into my eye.”

Yoohyun spoke as though it were nothing. Spirits really were strange.

As I stared absently at his reddened eye, the lizard appeared again, flicking its tail as if it didn't like something.

“Is it bothering you?”

“Huh? Ah, did you make it come out? Can you control it too?”

“To some extent.”

The shimmering red lizard quickly crawled down and crossed over to me. Peace, who had been sitting quietly on my lap, stretched out a front paw with sparkling eyes.

- Grrr.

Peace had been interested in it since it was still an egg, and apparently liked the Spirit of Fire quite a lot. But the lizard promptly turned around and went back to Yoohyun. Peace watched it leave regretfully.

“…Is the system creator really trustworthy?”

Yoohyun asked when we stopped at a light. I turned from the red signal to look at my brother.

“I don't know. Whether I trust the system creator or not, I can't tell you the details, but it's certain they're involved with the system. It's not as though they're making me do anything strange.”

I had been horrified when they told me to gather fifty S-Classes, but when I thought about it, it was no different from telling me to diligently use my skill. There was plenty of time, monsters counted too, and there was nothing particularly dangerous about it. There was the matter with Noah, but as long as I didn't get greedy and only raised mounts, it would be safe.

‘Other than scamming me with the Wish Stone, they don't seem to have pulled anything else.’

Regression was better in many ways, so I had no complaints about that. They said the lack of skill descriptions couldn't be helped, either. If only they would do something about Deer. Had they really cut off its horn?

“For now, I just have to live my life and do what I need to do. There's nothing else I have to do. It's only a bit burdensome, at most. I'm going today because I have things I want to ask. Is there anything you want to ask too?”

There was no guarantee they would answer. I didn't even know whether they would be ready to talk like last time. I was just going to look for them.

“…There are so many things I want to ask that it's hard to choose. The same probably goes for everyone else, not just me.”

“If we told Ms. Seok Hayan, she might come running with a stack of questionnaires that would take three months and ten days to read through.”

I could easily picture her team cheering wildly together, shouting three rounds of hooray.

“Hyung, is Curse Resistance L-Class too?”

Yoohyun suddenly asked. Had I not told him the rank back then, aside from Poison Resistance?

“Yeah. Don't tell anyone else. You'll be careful anyway.”

Poison Resistance was one thing, but it would be truly troublesome if the rank of my Curse Resistance became known. Curse skills used in inventories and contracts were already common, and they would be used in even more diverse ways later. If I had an L-Class resistance skill, not merely S-Class, then it was practically the same as there being no curse skill capable of binding me. That applied even to other people within the skill’s range.

“If I get caught, I'll say it's S-Class.”

Given the circumstances, it would be impossible to hide it forever. Still, S-Class Curse Resistance didn't have a range broad enough to cover another person, and since my stats were only F-Class, no one would pay much attention to me alone. Riette probably knew it was around that level. She might even estimate it lower. Perhaps because her ability to use the skill was still lacking, or because it had been made cheaply, Riette’s contract document was B-Class.

“As long as you're careful when signing contract documents, there shouldn't be any way for the rank to be revealed. The contract document won't give you away either, unless you do something like tear up an S-Class one.”

Hunter curse skills had weak effects for their rank unless you agreed to the conditions, so that wasn't a problem. It wasn't as though I was going to hunt monsters loaded down with offensive curse skills.

“Still, if you ever need to lift an SS-Class or higher curse, I'll help. The Saint can only cover up to S-Class too.”

If it was discovered, my peaceful retirement plan would get a little further away. Should I tell Yerim too? Unlike poison, curses would be fine as long as she avoided illegal contract documents.

“Then you could block contract documents up to SSS-Class.”

“Curses with conditions agreed to by the person involved can only be blocked by resistance or curse-breaking skills one rank higher, so probably. There aren't even any SS-Class ones yet, are there?”

“There aren't.”

His voice sounded oddly deflated. Was there one? There hadn't been one in my memories, but I couldn't be sure.

By then, we had reached the dungeon building. I stopped before the blue gate, and Yoohyun entered first. I was supposed to wait around ten minutes before following him in, but then...

“…Yoohyun?”

Yoohyun came back out of the gate. He looked slightly flustered.

“…Did we come to the wrong dungeon?”

“No, this is the right one. We wouldn't have been able to enter the building if it were a different dungeon in the first place.”

The serial number posted on the wall beside the gate also matched the dungeon we had come to visit. Beneath it was written: Desert Environment, D-Class. Yoohyun looked at it and muttered blankly.

“It was snowing.”

“…Snow?”

“It was a snow-covered forest. I didn't see any monsters either.”

…This was the first time I had heard of a dungeon’s environment changing. Could it have something to do with the system people?

“I'll go in too.”

“No. It could be dangerous.”

“The gate is open. And I have this too.”

When I took out Shalos’s Bead and explained that it had the same effect as the bracelet from last time, he agreed. What a picky brat. Yoohyun entered first, and I crossed the gate holding Peace.

“It really is a winter forest.”

A quiet forest blanketed in white snow stretched out before us. It looked like an illustration from a Christmas card. Snowflakes drifted gently down from the grayish sky. They fluttered sparsely for a moment, then soon stopped.

“It’s a little cold.”

“I don't have anything with Cold Resistance on it. It's easy to offset the cold, so…”

Yerim would complain if she heard that. As he spoke, Yoohyun took out a coat and draped it over me. Then the fire lizard came over and curled around my neck, and Peace grew larger and leaned against me as if to wrap me up. The cold soon faded, though I couldn't do anything about my shoes getting wet in the snow.

We went a little farther into the forest, but our surroundings remained silent. A dungeon without monsters. It was definitely strange. Even the greeting message window hadn't appeared.

Just as I was thinking we should leave.

Crunch!

“Yoohyun!”

A sharp ice lance flew soundlessly at Han Yoohyun and pierced his forearm. It hadn't been aimed at his arm. It had been headed directly for his head, and he had blocked it with his arm.

Flames wrapped around his arm and melted the ice in an instant. At the same time, Yoohyun forcefully kicked up the snow piled at his feet.

Whoosh!

The snow surged forward more than ten meters like a massive wave, then poured back down to the ground. But some of it remained floating in the air. No, it had piled over something transparent. Something about two meters tall, with the shape of a human head and shoulders.

“The Stealth skill is high-ranked. It definitely isn't D-Class.”

Yoohyun spoke quietly as he opened a potion bottle. I had already taken out Shalos’s Bead. Then I used Sprout.

[Toy Soldier No. 6 - S-Class

Contractor - □□□□□]

‘…A spirit?’

A status window similar to the one for Yoohyun’s Spirit of Fire appeared. More importantly, it was S-Class and No. 6? Did that mean there were No. 1 through 5 too? Maybe even more than that...

I had just concluded that we needed to escape through the gate as quickly as possible when...

[Sorryyyyy~​~]

A message window appeared. Could this be...?

“…Yoohyun, wait a moment.”

Yoohyun, who had been ready to attack the moment I used the bead, looked at me questioningly. Another message window appeared, and something came bouncing toward us from far away.

[We didn't know the kids would attack Honey’s little brother~​~]

Bounce, bounce, bounce. A volleyball with eyes, a nose, and a mouth drawn on it approached us. Yoohyun furrowed his brow slightly. I wondered why there was a volleyball here, but before that.

“Is an apology enough? They put a hole in my little brother’s arm!”

The round eyes drawn on the volleyball turned into T_T shapes. Its smiling mouth wrinkled up too.

[Honey’s little brother was partly at fault too...]

“At fault? They suddenly attacked him, and now you're trying to shift the blame?”

I grabbed the volleyball once it reached me and shook it hard. What kind of ridiculous excuse was that?

[No, it's just...]

“You're Newbie, right?”

[I’m Wilson!]

…Wilson? Who was that?

[…I’m Newbie, yes T0T]

I knew it. Anyway, it wasn't an enemy.

“Yoohyun, this is from the system…”

When I turned to tell him it was fine because this was connected to the system, Yoohyun was already several steps away. He looked flustered too. Peace was the same, looking at me pitifully while desperately scratching at the air, as though there were an invisible wall.

[It would be troublesome if he heard our conversation.]

“You should at least explain things before sending him out.”

It seemed sound couldn't pass through. I tried to take out a notepad and pen, but my inventory didn't work. Left with no choice, I crouched down and wrote that it was okay in the snow. My hand was cold. At least the lizard was still curled around my neck.

“Why did you attack him, and what is this place?”

[That is because Honey’s little brother has ties to people with whom we agreed not to mention one another. This is a dungeon for Honey. If you knock three times in front of the gate, you can enter here. We worked hard on it!]

“I don't remember knocking.”

[The first time, you have to come in normally so we can tell you about it. We were able to make it because the side that can't be mentioned interfered rather heavily recently.]

I had no idea what that meant. And Yoohyun had ties to them... Wait. A strange, suspicious thing Yoohyun had said before suddenly came to mind.

“…Are those people you can't mention perhaps some kind of religious cult? Like Confucianism?”

Confucianism was not a cult, but Newbie didn't answer my question at all. Since they couldn't speak about it, I must have been right.

[Anyway, we cleaned this place up well, so nothing dangerous will happen. We can't keep it open for long, though. About thirty minutes?]

It felt like ten minutes had already passed. I needed to ask quickly.

“Is that religious cult very dangerous? Can you still not explain why you told me to gather S-Classes? Is there no one else who can do my work instead? Could you make the dungeon in Japan that produces stamina potion ingredients appear sooner? Also, there's a baby bird monster named Peep, but its status window information doesn't show up properly. The Keyword applies, but neither taming nor My Kid applies. And…”

[Wait! Dangerous, dangerous is... At the current level, it's fine. If we explain in detail, it'll become more dangerous, so we can't. As for someone who can replace Honey... there isn't anyone yet. But might Honey be able to find someone? That would be nice!]

I could find someone? Someone with a special skill similar to mine?

[Stamina potion ingredients... Ah, here. We'll try adjusting it so they can appear in around two weeks. Peep? Uh... Um... Huh...? You said the Keyword applies?]

“Yes.”

[…I can't see it?@△@??]

They couldn't see it? I couldn't open my status window either. But Peep had definitely been listed. Its rank had displayed as a □.

[That's strange. Bring it over, and we'll check it and process its deletion for you.]

…Were they insane?

“No, thank you!”

What the hell, process its deletion? They were seriously insane. I would never bring Peep into a dungeon. So what if the kid had a few bugs? Deletion, my ass. Crazy.

“And recently, the reward for a first clear of an S-Class dungeon was different from before my regression. Can that normally happen?”

[Was it a consumable?]

“Yes.”

[If it was a consumable, that was because it had already been used. Items and other things too, even the dead, were all cut away. If there were multiple identical versions, we replaced them, but if there were none, we put in a different item.]

“…Cut away?”

[Yes. That's how regression works. Oh, Honey wouldn't know. Even with regression, Honey is the only target, so what remains stays the same. The world where five years passed remains as it is, and only Honey went back five years.]

My stomach lurched. It remained as it was. Everything remained there. It hadn't vanished?

“What remains, then...?”

[Of course, we can't just leave it alone. If we did, there would be two of the same world. So everything overlaps with the present. They're fundamentally identical, so forcing them together doesn't cause much trouble. Like how putting the information of an apple tree into an apple tree still leaves it an apple tree. However, dungeons, especially high-grade dungeons, are a little different from Honey’s world, so they are affected by the overlap. That is why their difficulty rises faster. Hmm, it should be okay to say this much!]

“…Does overlapping mean they ultimately disappeared?”

[You could say they disappeared, since it's like overwriting a file with another file of the same name. They're actually merged, but since no one can feel or notice that, it's the same as disappearing. Very sensitive people might feel a sense of incongruity, but most don't.]

Overwriting. I was the future file overwritten onto the past file, while everyone else was the opposite. That was why titles caused by events I had thought vanished still remained.

I was unchanged from the future file.

“Then people born after this point, and... those who died. The ones you said were cut away...”

[Information on lives with no present information that had not died before the regression did not disappear. It's a little complicated to explain, but the overlap does have some effect, so in the end they are generally born similarly, and at least information that can replace them appears.]

The message windows continued.

[On the other hand, things that were used up and disappeared, or lives that died, had already been excluded before the regression. For example, there are people named A and B. In year one, both A and B exist. But in year five, A remains while B has died. When year one and year five merge, year-five A exists, but B is dead and their information is gone. The existing year-five A safely merges with year-one A, but year-five B is already treated as deleted information and gets cut out of Honey’s world. You can't merge deleted information with intact year-one information, can you? In the case of the item you mentioned, there was no information in either year one or year five, so it could not appear at all.]

Deleted information. My thoughts spun. Year-one B was still B. Perhaps only five years had been erased. Even so, regret inevitably surfaced.

“…It would have been fine to just save them.”

[Huh? Ah, the explanation is difficult, right? It's hard to teach you in more detail because I would have to tell you too much 8_T_8]

“No, it's fine. I understand enough.”

I didn't want to know more details. When I said that was enough, the volleyball vanished after telling me we would return to the original dungeon in around five minutes.

“Hyung, are you okay?”

- Kyaahng.

Yoohyun and Peace came over to me. I looked up at my brother.

“Of course I'm okay. We only talked. Ah, it said we would return to the original dungeon in five minutes.”

“…You don't look okay.”

“I’m cold. That's why. Can I hug you?”

“Peace is warmer than I am.”

He said it as if I were strange, but he didn't refuse. I stretched out my arms and pulled my brother close. I could feel his definite warmth. Wouldn't that be enough?

“Don't die before I do.”

“What are you saying all of a sudden?”

“The same goes for you, Peace.”

This time, I hugged Peace around the neck. Peace really was warmer.

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