The S-Classes That I Raised [EN]: Chapter 37

37. Beast Tamer (2)

I finished my drink, organizing my thoughts about the future.

Raising the Ride Beasts would be a joint effort with Haeyeon. Negotiating with the giant guilds was too much for me to handle alone, and frankly, a hassle. I had capable people, so why make things harder on myself?

“You’re still staying unaffiliated as a Hunter, right?”

I nodded at Yoohyun’s question.

“If I sign a Hunter contract with Haeyeon, it’ll just put me under more scrutiny. Even if the chance is slim, having the *option* is different from *not* having it.”

I was already related to the Haeyeon Guild Leader by blood. If I signed a contract, they might try to suppress me before I became too powerful. There were plenty of people who would rather destroy something than let someone else have it.

“We need to maintain the appearance of fairness. I’ll sign a contract when Haeyeon completely dominates the domestic Hunter scene.”

“It won’t take long.”

Yoohyun said confidently. He had already achieved that before the regression. With Yerim and Myungwoo added, it would happen even faster than before. Kim Sunghan could also grow into an S-Rank. …Would Seok Hayan also try to join Haeyeon? She was Seok Simyung’s niece… I felt like I was giving away more than I thought.

Eh, whatever. It’s good if Haeyeon grows quickly. Yoohyun wasn’t the type to betray me. I could trust my brother, if no one else.

“As we said before, the compensation for helping Haeyeon will be raising Peace. Let’s finalize the contract after we clear the new A-Rank dungeon. You said the raid was in three days, right?”

“Yeah. I need to send people to the auction house to sweep up monster hatchlings and eggs.”

“Low to mid-tier ones aren’t necessary. Would high-tier ones even be available?”

“If we check overseas, there might be some unwanted stock. They’re expensive but not very useful [to most people]. I should contract a tamer in advance too.”

…They weren’t planning on dumping a dozen of them on me at once, were they? I’d spend all my time feeding them.

“I can’t raise too many at once.”

I said preemptively, just in case. There was a limit to what I could do. It took time to tame them, and they only grew quickly if I personally trained them.

So, taking care of three or four at once would be ideal.

“Really? How many can you handle?”

“Three is good, five at most. The more there are, the slower they grow.”

“You’ll allocate a spot for Haeyeon, right? Even if they ride in pairs, an S-Rank team needs at least ten.”

“…Ten?”

“Yeah, S-Rank raid teams are made up of at least 20 people.”

Oh… it felt like a warning light was flashing, telling me I was about to start a grind. I just wanted to raise them moderately and live a good life. Raising ten of them would take forever.

Even if high-tier ones grew more than twice as fast as Peace, raising five at a time would still take at least three or four months.

And that was just the beginning, with ten from Haeyeon alone. Judging by the vibe, they wanted to fill one per person if possible.

“…This is already becoming a pain.”

Hugging Peace, I sank into the back of the sofa. How long had it been since I decided to become one with the sofa? My aching back reminded me of reality.

‘System creator, I’m going to be busy for a while, so don’t contact me.’

I have kids to raise. Taking childcare leave.

* * *

The place Yoohyun provided was none other than the rookie Hunter training room.

It was a large space where even a young Flame Mane Lion could run around freely, equipped with various training machines. On top of that.

“Here are ten Fang Mole Rats.”

They even provided monsters.

“They’ve been weakened to the point where they can only handle F-Ranks for rookie training and skill experiments, but don’t take out more than two at a time.”

The training room manager said, pointing at us. The manager here was an Awakened, unlike other places, probably because they handled monsters. With D-Rank stats and optimized skills, they were defense-specialized.

“In case of an emergency, press the emergency call button immediately. Refer to this booklet for instructions on how to use the training machines.”

After explaining, the manager gave me a dubious look and left. Since beast taming had to be kept secret until negotiations with the giant guilds began, we pretended that I was borrowing the training room to train, with Peace not being involved. An F-Rank using the guild’s training room thanks to their brother… I’d probably get some flak for that.

“Alright, Peace. Sit here quietly.”

First, I sat him next to the Fang Mole Rat cage to record Peace’s current state. The front of the cage was transparent, so we could clearly compare the sizes of the two monsters.

– Grrr.

Peace showed interest in the Fang Mole Rats, baring his fangs. The Fang Mole Rats shook their long-clawed forepaws in response. They were stupid, being low-tier monsters. They couldn’t even recognize their opponent.

“No, sit back down. Good boy.”

I turned on the camcorder fixed on the tripod and recorded Peace’s appearance.

“Grade 2 Unicorn subspecies Flame Mane Lion cub, hasn’t grown for two months since capture. Body length 41cm, weight 2.8kg. Currently, it’s 11:21 PM on the first day of applying the Beast Taming skill.”

After the explanation, I turned off the recording function. Then, I placed a large clock with a timer function on the table and wrote down the current time and Peace’s remaining growth time in a notebook.

“What should we start with?”

First, I needed to check the efficiency and responsiveness of each training tool. I started by loading balls into the pitching machine.

‘I don’t know if I should use the machine.’

When I threw balls to Peace myself, the growth time decreased by about 18 minutes per 10 minutes. Throwing for an hour reduced it by an additional 48 minutes, so the efficiency was pretty good. If only my shoulder could handle it.

“Peace, look here!”

– Kkiang?

Peace, who had been sitting, jumped up and came towards me. No, don’t come here. I operated the pitching machine and lightly launched a ball.

– Sniff.

Peace glanced at the ball for a moment, then ignored it. Hey. You chased after it when I threw it.

I launched another one, but this time he didn’t even look at it and immediately rolled over at my feet.

– Grrr.

“…Peace.”

Was this what it meant to train him directly? My stamina, my strength… I sighed and called the training room management office.

“I need equipment focused on stamina stats, including some strength stats. For all body parts. Do I need separate permission from the Guild Leader?”

[No. He said to provide you with everything you need.]

“Then please increase my spirit.”

The manager on the other end of the phone was slightly taken aback at my words.

[Spirit-enhancing equipment is only available in low grades, though.]

“I know.”

This guild only had stat-rich people. I had to use what I could get. A moment later, the requested equipment was delivered. After equipping everything, my stamina stat barely reached 100. That was about the level of a level 2 S-Rank. Wow~

My strength was a little short of 50, but Peace was still only C-Rank, so it should be fine. He probably had level 1 since he had no combat experience.

“Throwing balls has already been checked, so let’s try hitting the sandbag this time.”

I took Peace to the sandbag hanging on one side. Of course, it wasn’t an ordinary sandbag. It was a very sturdy training tool that automatically measured damage.

“Okay, look, Peace. I’ll hold it for you, so jump up and hit it like this. You can scratch or bite it. It’s sturdy.”

When I demonstrated, Peace followed, jumping and stabbing the sandbag with the horn on his head and reaching out with his front paws to scratch it. He was quite strong.

“Good, well done! That’s it! Hit it hard!”

– Krong, grrr!

When I occasionally shook the sandbag, he became even more excited and pounced on it. It felt good. I had a strong feeling that the training efficiency would be considerable.

After exactly 30 minutes of training, I checked Peace’s remaining growth time.

‘Oh, it’s decreased by more than an hour!’

The growth rate was about 2.3 times faster during training. At this rate, he could become an adult after applying the third skill?!

If I trained all night for three days, I could reduce 15 days to less than 7 days. But that was a bit much, so if I generously estimated 9 days, it would take exactly two months.

“Good, let’s do something else!”

– Kkiang!

Peace seemed to be having fun with the sandbag, jumping excitedly. Our Peace had good stamina.

Then, I trained him using various equipment for five consecutive hours. The most efficient was the mock battle with a whopping 3x efficiency, and the one that saved me was the laser pointer shaking with 1.7x efficiency.

“…I’m going to die.”

– Grrr?

Peace looked up at me, sprawled on the long chair, and tilted his head.

I definitely had higher stamina stats, so why wasn’t he tired? Was it because he was young and recovered quickly? Or was this the difference between a C-Rank born to be an S-Rank and an F-Rank pretending to be high-level with equipment?

The Awakened’s stats weren’t just the five that were displayed. Awakened researchers said that there were hidden stats such as recovery, endurance, durability, intelligence, luck, and various senses.

The evidence was that when they experimented with the same stats using equipment and without using skills, there was a difference in abilities. Even if the stats were the same, the one with the higher original rank was superior in every way.

So, there was a limit to equipment. Sadly.

“Still, my stamina stat should be three times higher now. Monsters are said to have strong recovery, is that true?”

– Kkiang, kkiing!

“No. I can’t play with you anymore. Let’s rest a bit.”

It would be nice to have a stamina potion, but it would take another year for it to be made. That’s because the dungeon where the ingredients came from would appear in a year. It would be nice to take over that dungeon too, but it was overseas.

‘It was in Japan.’

Why did it have to be there? If Haeyeon established itself quickly, should I try attacking Japan? Kill two birds with one stone, nice.

– Grrr, krrr!

Peace, who had been begging to play, suddenly started biting and shaking my pants. Hey, you.

“Did you have a lot pent up from being trapped inside? Peace, do you want to play with the mole rats over there?”

I should experiment with those too. I raised my body, which was as heavy as waterlogged cotton, and approached the cage. The Fang Mole Rats bared their fangs at me. Even without equipment, they were weaker than me, so don’t mess with me—

– Kyaaak!

Suddenly, Peace raised his fur and let out an angry cry.

“Pe, Peace?”

– Kyaang! Kyaaat!

– Kiiiik!

When Peace pounced, the Fang Mole Rats also screamed back, with the cage door between them. Even the mole rats in the other cages started joining in.

– Kiik, kiiii!

– Kiiiik!

Oh my, what a commotion. Even as a cub, a monster was still a monster.

“Wait a minute, calm down. I’ll take you out.”

When I pressed the button above the cage, the door opened. And then.

– Kiiiit!

The Fang Mole Rat was torn to pieces in the blink of an eye. Wow. Our Peace… was quite tough. When he pounced on me the first time, it was just cute.

– Hmph!

Peace proudly hmphed with a blood-soaked face. Then, as if to have me check, he nudged the remains of the mole rat with his front paw and pushed it to my feet.

“Yes, yes. Good job.”

I couldn’t train with monsters. It ended too quickly. But it was dangerous to use higher-grade monsters.

“Come here, let’s wipe your face.”

– Gyarururu, grrr.

He seemed to be in a very good mood. Yes, grow up quickly and raid dungeons with Yoohyun to your heart’s content.