The S-Classes That I Raised [EN]: Chapter 407

405. The Road Not Taken (3)

“Noah, are you okay?”

Park Yerim’s voice reached him. Noah was already beyond the semi-circular barrier. Below, he could see Liete craning her neck to look up at him.

“I had a feeling, and just as I thought, Noah ran into Liete.”

“That Kim is savage!”

Noah blinked, looking at the two of them: Park Yerim and the Goblin. It seemed the Goblin had moved him just now.

“I’m fine. Is Yoojin, are the others safe?”

“Yes. They decided to head to the hotel first.”

“Hotel?”

“Didn’t you see the message window?”

“It popped up, but…”

He hadn’t really paid attention. Park Yerim grumbled that the Volleyball Guy wasn’t doing his job properly.

“We need to get to the hotel before sunset, and there’s only about an hour left. Luckily, we found you quickly.”

“It was so loud, we found him fast!”

“We still need to find Chief Song. Should we head to the hotel, or do you want to come with us?”

Park Yerim looked at Noah, or rather, at Noah’s wings. Yoon Yoon also couldn’t take her eyes off the golden feathered wings.

Noah didn’t answer immediately, instead looking down again. Liete’s gaze met his directly.

“Hunter Park Yerim.”

“You can just call me comfortably, you know.”

“I’m asking as a fellow Hunter. Please help me face Liete.”

“Pardon?”

Park Yerim’s eyes widened as she looked back and forth between Noah and Liete.

“Now?”

“Yes. An hour is enough. No, thirty minutes will do.”

“But Liete’s rank must have gone up too, right? She’s probably SS-Class. Shouldn’t we bring others if we’re going to fight? Plus, I just had a big fight, and Shadowless Day is still on cooldown [ability with a waiting period before reuse].”

“No. You’re enough, Hunter Park Yerim.”

Noah continued in a firm tone.

“Because I’m here.”

He could do it now. If the opponent was Liete, and no one else. Noah knew Liete better than anyone else in the world, knew how she fought.

He was confident enough.

“I know it’s stubborn of me. I know I’m insisting on a more dangerous method. But that sister only knows the dead me.”

At Noah’s words, Park Yerim looked startled. Noah didn’t know it yet, but the people appearing here now were from before the regression [time travel], the future, and also the actual past. In other words, Noah had really died.

“Even if she’s not the real sister, I still want to show her that I’m different. That Pebble and Noah are different, and will be different.”

“…Okay.”

Park Yerim nodded. She understood Noah’s feelings well enough. Park Yerim had gone through something similar in this dungeon, so perhaps even more so.

“Yoon Yoon, can you go find Chief Song for us?”

“But the Boss Kim said to stick with you.”

“Noah’s here. And you have teleportation, so you’ll be safe even alone. If you can’t find Chief Song, make sure to get back to the hotel before sunset!”

“Okay!”

“Don’t get distracted!”

“I won’t!”

Yoon Yoon shouted, as if feeling guilty, and disappeared. Park Yerim turned to Noah and drew her weapon.

“So, what do we do now?”

In Park Yerim’s gaze, Noah felt a sense of pressure, and a warmth spreading inside his chest. A slight excitement also welled up. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

Liete carefully watched those with her brother. One seemed to be a Goblin. It was the first time she had seen one without a mask, but the only Hunter who could use teleportation was a Goblin. And the other one, she couldn’t guess at all.

‘Who is it?’

Mid-teens, late teens at most. If there was a Hunter that strong at such a young age, there was no way she wouldn’t have heard of them.

Shortly after, the Goblin disappeared, and Noah, after talking to the unfamiliar Hunter, flew into the barrier himself.

“Sister!”

“Yeah, Pebble.”

“You’re SS-Class now.”

“Really? I was still S-Class?”

Liete clenched and unclenched her fist. Then she tilted her head.

“I do feel stronger. Come to think of it, the building broke too easily. Usually, I’d have to hit it a couple more times to shatter it like that.”

“And this Hunter Park Yerim is S-Class.”

“Park Yerim? Ah!”

She remembered. Liete raised a hand and waved at Park Yerim.

“Hyuna said you were an A-Class Hunter with amazing talent, huh? Your rank and age don’t match?”

“I’m only fifteen, and I awakened as an S-Class!”

At Park Yerim’s shout, Liete looked at Noah with a fresh gaze. She had felt that he looked a bit younger than the brother she knew. But she had dismissed it since his appearance itself had changed.

“It’s the past. Okay, so you’re both going to take me on? You’re Hyuna’s brother, so I won’t kill you!”

“Thank you, Liete! But we need to clear the dungeon. Volleyball Guy!”

Park Yerim shouted loudly into the air.

“Just give us one more service! She’s Noah’s sister! Then Noah will take Volleyball Guy’s side too, right?”

“Huh? Ah, yes!”

He didn’t know what was going on, but Noah nodded.

“I think that guy is already troubled enough; we shouldn’t make him worry about Noah too! Let’s just do it cleanly one more time, okay?”

[Final Special Raid Quest!〒﹏〒]

Along with the sobbing message that it was the last one, a fair and square match quest appeared again. Liete looked at the message window with a curious expression and accepted the quest.

“I’ll count it as a win if you just last 30 minutes. How about it, Pebble?”

“I’ll knock you down before then! And I’m Noah!”

Shouting with all his might, Noah used his skill.

Nest of Descending Light (SSS). The wide-area support skill spread out broadly. Faint streams of light spread out, floating like tens of thousands of fireflies. At the same time, a message appeared before Liete’s eyes.

[Skills below SS-Class cannot be used! (Duration: 30 minutes)]

“…Huh? I can’t use skills?”

Before the regression, Liete’s maximum skill rank was SS-Class. In the end, all skills that she directly used, not passive skills that were always active, were blocked.

At the same time, a message window popped up for Park Yerim as well.

[Mana recovery speed increases! Overall defense increases! Overall speed increases! Random buffs and recovery effects occur each time you touch a light orb!]

“What is this?!”

Park Yerim shouted in surprise. It was already surprising enough that it blocked the enemy’s skills below SS-Class, but the added buffs weren’t just one or two. Even touching the constantly spreading streams of light would give her buffs and recovery.

“Noah, you’re amazing!”

“But I’m still inexperienced, so it’s only for 30 minutes.”

It was also because the two Dragon Species titles were in the process of merging. The duration was short, but the cooldown was long. Still, once activated, it could easily suppress even the difference in rank. More than anything.

‘If it’s a large-scale battle.’

It was close to a one-on-one situation now, but if large groups clashed, it was a powerful support skill that could easily trample over most differences in power. But how often would there be a need to use it like that in the current dungeon raid system?

Noah shook off the unnecessary thoughts and spread his wings wide.

“Hunter Park Yerim!”

“Yes!”

Park Yerim’s mana moved. She was quite tired from facing her future and past self, but Noah assisted her with the Mana Conductor skill. Under the mana that moved much more easily and smoothly, streams of water shot up here and there with a whoosh.

“Alright, come at me!”

Liete drew her longsword and bared her teeth. Even though her skills were blocked, her powerful physique remained. Both Noah and Park Yerim were weak in close combat. Their physical abilities were inferior to other S-Class melee fighters, so once they were caught, it would be over.

Bang!

Liete’s toes kicked off the ground. The asphalt road collapsed with a crack, and she charged towards the two at an invisible speed. At the same time, Park Yerim sharply froze the water she had drawn up. Dozens of ice spears were created in an instant and shot towards Liete. Their speed and hardness were much faster and stronger than usual.

Liete swung her sword without dodging at the ice spears flying through the air. Even though she couldn’t use attack skills, the ice spears shattered with a crack just by brushing against the blade. Breaking the ice spears flying straight at her, Liete stepped on the rising ice shards and soared into the air.

“Ugh, Liete is really!”

She was using her attack as a stepping stone. Ignoring that speed, Park Yerim quickly scattered the Mist of Lament. The unavoidable mist spread, and Park Yerim’s mana touched Liete’s body. Noah also felt it through the Mana Conductor skill.

Noah felt Liete’s movements, which were hard to follow with his eyes, with mana, designated her, and used Compulsory Blessing. Liete’s speed increased momentarily.

“Ugh!”

Her toes missed the ice spear and stepped on empty air. With the uncontrollably increased speed, she couldn’t perform delicate feats like threading a needle.

In the end, Liete’s body spun around once and landed on the ground. Amidst the asphalt fragments that soared up with a boom, cold rain poured down. Liete’s body was soaked without any chance to avoid it. Then, it began to freeze with a crackling sound.

“More troublesome than I thought.”

Liete swung her frozen arm greatly. White ice shards fell from her body with a thud. But it didn’t end there.

Crash!

Drawing water from the water facilities and even groundwater, the water was gradually rising. Park Yerim continued to draw up water, sweeping the light orbs clustered around her body to burst them. The light burst out, quickly replenishing her dwindling mana. All sorts of buffs were a bonus.

The water that had risen to Liete’s ankles in an instant froze as it was. It wasn’t ordinary ice. It was a shackle that focused mana intensively around Liete and froze the wide area as a whole, adding weight that even SS-Class stats couldn’t easily escape.

At the same time, golden wings spread above Liete’s head. Unlike their sparkling appearance, what the wings poured out was a powerful poison. The current Liete had no poison resistance. She might have poison resistance equipment, but it wasn’t up to S-Class.

On the other hand, Noah’s poison was enhanced with buffs. The poison that slowly paralyzed the body seeped in between Liete’s breaths. Liete narrowed her brows and raised her sword high,

Clang!

She struck down as it was. The ice floor was dug up and cracked. Then once more, the tip of the sword struck the ice and finally shattered it completely. Immediately after, Liete’s body leaped towards Noah.

“Ugh!”

Thud, Liete’s sword pierced Noah’s wing. Noah gritted his teeth and let out a silent scream. But even with the pain that was doubled, Liete only frowned. She put strength into the sword as if to cut off Noah’s wings as they were. But.

“Huh? What’s this?”

The sword didn’t budge. Noah’s healing skill was activated, and at the same time, he was receiving light orbs all over his body, constantly healing the wound. As it was with the sword stuck in. The healing speed was faster than the speed at which the blade was tearing through the wound, so he didn’t let go of the enemy’s weapon and bit down on it tightly.

Park Yerim, who had been watching quietly, didn’t just stand by while Liete was flustered. Park Yerim, who had approached with teleportation, received the power of the melee attack buff that had come in just in time and accurately stabbed Liete’s wrist with her spear.

Clang!

Clearly, bare skin and the tip of the spear had collided, but a sound like scraping hard armor rang out. But a faint wound was created. A drop of water flowed from the tip of Park Yerim’s spear and seeped into Liete’s wound.

Freezing the moisture in another person’s body was impossible, let alone for non-awakened or low-ranked awakened people. It was because the opponent’s mana was protecting themselves. But if water already soaked in Park Yerim’s mana was put into the wound, interference was possible even if only for a moment.

A part of Liete’s wrist froze white. Her movements became dull, and strength drained from her hand. In the end, Liete dropped the sword and fell down. Splash, the water splashed high.

“Really, quite something.”

Noah flapped his wings greatly and drew Liete’s sword. Blood splattered, but even that was soon neatly healed.

“Are you okay, really?”

Park Yerim asked worriedly. It was an agreed-upon plan, but she couldn’t help but worry when she saw it directly.

“Yes. Wings are less sensitive to pain.”

Liete’s sword was held in Noah’s hand and pointed towards Liete.

“Sister, there’s still more than ten minutes left.”

Only a little bloodstain remained, and the golden wings were clean. They were subtly sparkling, receiving the light of the setting sun behind him. His clothes were wet, but his dusty hair and face were also washed clean.

On the other hand, Liete, who had fallen into the muddy water, wiped her face roughly with the back of her hand with a chuckle.

“It’s the first time my weapon has been taken.”

“I couldn’t even have imagined it.”

Even if her sister’s sword had been lying still on the table, he wouldn’t have been able to touch it. If it had been the old Noah. Liete slowly rotated her wrist once. It had thawed slightly, but it was still dull. No, her whole body was stiff. Noah’s poison was gradually exerting its effects more strongly.

Liete laughed again. Looking at her sparkling brother made her feel strangely good.

“Noah is strong.”

“Yes.”

“You’re my brother too, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s enough. You won’t die easily.”

It was fun, Liete stretched greatly. A faint smile also formed on Noah’s lips, which had been stiff with slight tension.

“I think this time was a bit fun for me too.”

“Right? I told you so~”

“You don’t have any intention of apologizing to me, do you?”

“Nope.”

At the question asked just in case, Liete shook her head.

“I can do it if you want. But it’s just words. Can you be satisfied with that?”

Noah slowly shook his head.

“Even if it’s sincere, I don’t know. I don’t think it will be easily covered up.”

Maybe if things continued to change like this, and more time passed. Liete shrugged her shoulders greatly.

“Then Noah, shall we play for the remaining ten minutes? I think my stats are similar to yours now!”

“Yes, Sister!”

Regripping his sword, this time only alone, Noah lunged at Liete.