The S-Classes That I Raised [EN]: Chapter 378

I wasn’t too worried about Yoohyun. He’s a capable younger brother who can take care of himself, no matter what happens when he’s alone. So, I watched the fight with Chowhawun from a distance and did some scavenging, dropping wires with binding functions from Noah’s back.

I guess you could call it item fishing. It’s too good to just throw away. The military must have swept up all the Chinese items because even A-Rank Hunters, let alone S-Rank, had one or two S-Rank equipment pieces. I couldn’t just ignore that.

“Noah, do you have room in your inventory?”

– Yes. I don’t need many potions, so I always have plenty of space.

True, with healing skills and high poison resistance, he wouldn’t need minor potions. Potions take up quite a bit of space.

I collected as much S-Rank and A-Rank equipment as possible. Some A-Rank items were as expensive as S-Rank ones, depending on their stats, easily costing hundreds of millions. Fishing for items worth hundreds of millions made me feel much better. Oh, look at this. This sword is S-Rank. The options aren’t great for its rank, so should I give it to Yoohyun for his Sword Devourer skill? Oh, an S-Rank defensive item. I can give it to Sunghan.

I didn’t stray too far from my brother, just in case something happened. But Chowhawun fought surprisingly normally and lost normally. It seemed like he was planning something.

‘Is it Hwangrim, not Chowhawun?’

His disappearance is suspicious. I headed towards Yoohyun for now. Sunghyunjae is fine, and Chief Song should be joining us soon, so there shouldn’t be any immediate problems, but the unease still lingered. It didn’t feel like it would end this easily.

“Be careful, Noah. If anything seems off, run first. You can use me as a shield since you owe me.”

– Still, that’s a bit…

My brother looked up at me and smiled. Was Chowhawun dead? I was preparing an excuse for my condition when.

– Ugh!

Noah let out a short groan. My head also spun, and the Teacher skill I was using on Noah was canceled. Before I could figure out what was happening, Noah’s body began to change. No, the skill was being undone.

The wings and tail quickly disappeared, and the golden scales covering his body shrank. Soft hair replaced the sharp, hard horns.

– Yoojin, sir!

Noah’s harness loosened. The item’s effects also weren’t working properly. The moment I realized that, a chill ran down my spine. Then, could it be that even Grace…

The sky spun. Noah couldn’t move properly, probably due to the shock of having the skills applied to his whole body forcibly canceled. As the loosened harness came undone, the distance between us rapidly increased. At the same time, the ground was quickly approaching – the hard earth with jagged building debris.

I’m screwed.

A brief thought flashed through my mind. Grace is L-Rank, so he might be okay. Even if not, if it’s not an instant kill, maybe I can save him. In the urgency that made it difficult to come up with a plan, I caught sight of Yoohyun.

“Hyung!”

At the same time, the tension broke. My brother’s hand reached out, and I felt the force of him desperately pulling me. I rolled roughly on the ground, but I didn’t get even a small scratch.

“Hyung! Are you okay?!”

A surprised voice rang in my ears. A beat later, my heart pounded. My vision seemed to waver slightly. Was Noah okay? More than that, what the hell was going on? My brother is S-Rank, so he should be fine, but I turned to look for Noah. I saw a blonde young man sitting up with only his upper body raised in the distance.

“Noah! Are you okay?”

“…Yes. I still can’t move well, but I’m not hurt.”

Fortunately, only the skill was canceled, and his physical abilities seemed to be the same as S-Rank. I shouted to Noah that I was okay and not to overdo it, then turned my gaze back to Yoohyun.

“Are you hurt anywhere? That bloodstain on your shoulder looks suspicious.”

Most high-grade defensive equipment had self-healing abilities. Unless it was severely damaged, it would recover over time. The Thunder Bird’s Vestments were the same, and there were no torn corners, but the remaining bloodstain didn’t seem to be his.

“It’s just a scratch.”

“It bled, and you call it a scratch? But Yoohyun, you… long hair suits you too.”

What wouldn’t suit him? My brother smiled brightly at my words.

“It’s a little cumbersome, but does it look good?”

“Yeah. You’re handsome, my brother. What’s the outfit inside the vestment? You’re completely disguised.”

There’s a lot to say, but this isn’t the time, so I cut it short. First of all, I definitely couldn’t use active skills that I had to use directly.

“But, Hyung, your leg─”

“Yoohyun, what about you? Can’t use skills?”

“Your leg.”

“Linnie is quiet too, did she get locked out?”

“Hyung, your leg. And what’s this smell? It smells like sweet smoke.”

You’re persistent.

“The guards were smoking, so I caught the smell, and I’m limping a bit, but I’m fine. After all, my leg is…”

I stopped speaking. Even though I knew this wasn’t the time, I hesitated. If the cigarette effect hadn’t been there, it would have been as painful as if my insides were twisted. It still hurt, though. It throbbed heavily, as if I’d been hit.

“You’re going to heal my leg, right?”

You are. Yoohyun carefully picked me up and stood up.

“Of course. I’ll definitely fix it. I told you not to use potions or healing skills carelessly, so I’ll check with that person first. It doesn’t really hurt, does it?”

“…Well, it’s, normally, it’ll be hard to heal…”

“Don’t worry. If it doesn’t work, I’ll buy an elixir from the Breaker Guild.”

“Hey, would they sell that easily? Even if they did, you should keep it. It’s not like my life is in immediate danger, so it’s a waste.”

“It’s not a waste.”

My brother said as if it were obvious. Now my insides didn’t hurt. Instead, they felt hot. I swallowed several times, feeling like I was going to cry.

He probably wanted to say that too. To me.

“So, then. The skills.”

I bit my tongue to try to come to my senses.

“Noah seems to have trouble moving.”

“Mana, magic power feels distorted. Hunter Noah was applying skills to his whole body, so the impact would have been greater. I’m not in good condition either.”

Yoohyun stretched out his arm holding me a little and created a flame at his fingertips. The small red flame bloomed and tried to turn dark blue, but then it fizzled and scattered.

“Fire resistance is the same, but skills that manifest externally can’t be controlled properly.”

“So, you mean there’s no effect on the magic power inside your body, but the moment it leaves your body, it becomes uncontrollable?”

“Probably.”

I don’t know what trick they used, but it was clear that the situation was serious. Not only could Grace not apply skills to me, but I couldn’t use skills on Yoohyun either. Yoohyun can’t use attack skills, so if we’re attacked now… But if that’s the case, can’t the military hunters use skills either? Do they have a way to block the distortion of magic power?

“Is Chowhawun dead?”

“No. I saved him for Hyung.”

“…Huh?”

“Do whatever you want with him.”

Yoohyun said with a smile. Oh, well.

“Great! Thanks. Then I can ask that bastard.”

He kept him alive. As expected of my brother. Yoohyun carried me and approached Chowhawun. Seeing that his right leg was gone… he must have spilled everything. About breaking my leg. Chowhawun’s face was pale, despite being S-Rank, due to the severe bleeding. Even though he was lying there unable to move his limbs, his expression was still murderous.

Yoohyun carefully put me down. Then he took something out of his inventory.

“Hyung, here.”

A pure white gun was held out to me. The weapon’s skills wouldn’t activate properly now, but I aimed the gun at Chowhawun. Then I lightly pulled the trigger.

Thwack!

The magic bullet grazed Chowhawun’s head and hit the ground. Was the power about D-Rank? Or maybe E-Rank. But it still fired. I heard a sound of teeth grinding. Ugh, look at that glare. So scary.

“It’s a shame this is mana-charged. It would be much better to load the bullets one by one.”

I stroked the smooth barrel with my finger. And once more. Thwack! This time, it hit Chowhawun’s forehead accurately. Like a light flick? No, not even that painful, but Chowhawun’s eyes became as fierce as if I were his parents’ enemy.

…Well, I don’t know if he’s the type to hate his parents’ enemy.

“Sorry. I don’t have a leg to repay you with, so what can I do? I’m sad too. I should have dismembered you myself.”

“Should I have left him?”

Stern Yoohyun apologized at my words.

“No, you did well. It’s just talk about dismembering, how could I cut off that bastard’s leg with my strength? You did great, thanks, my brother.”

“…….”

Chowhawun growled something so quietly that it couldn’t be heard. What, why.

“Chief Chowhawun, you seem to know something about this situation.”

I pulled the trigger again. This time, I poked his cheek. A sharpshooter. “Chief Cho is probably feeling great right now. I mean, when else would he get slapped by an F-Rank stat?”

Thwack, poke, thwack, tick! Ah, hit his teeth. I shot Chowhawun’s cheeks continuously. The blood returned to his pale cheeks. He looks healthier, good.

“What the hell did you do, Chief? And where did you put the goblins? Yoon Yoon. Do you not know? Well, if you were really important, you wouldn’t be lying here like this. Sigh, why did you act up when you were going to end up like this? You don’t even know anything.”

He was as angry as he could be, but Chowhawun didn’t open his mouth easily. Should I just kill him and find a way out of here? I can’t use skills, so I have to swim out. There are no helicopters or boats. Should I make a raft?

If military hunters who can use skills rush in, it will be dangerous no matter how much Yoohyun, Sunghyunjae, and Chief Song join forces. Surely this strange distortion of magic power won’t apply to the whole world, it’ll only be limited to the lake at best, so let’s get out of here first. We can take Chowhawun with us as he is.

I came to that conclusion and turned to see if Noah could move.

Swish!

A sharp sound cutting through the air was heard. At the same time, Yoohyun pulled me back and threw me as if he was throwing me. Crack! The spot where I was standing split open, and dirt and sand flew high.

“What a mess.”

A familiar voice was heard. It was Hwangrim. He appeared in a neat outfit, as if he hadn’t been involved in this mess at all, and lifted Chowhawun like luggage.

“Our young master has grown up so delicately that I knew he would end up like this at least once.”

Yoohyun sat me down and stepped forward protectively. Hwangrim looked at us with rounded eyes, specifically at me.

“Want to come with me?”

“…What nonsense are you talking about.”

“It’s a waste. I can’t let you die here.”

“I have no intention of dying, and I have even less intention of leaving my brother behind and escaping alone.”

I answered by raising my middle finger. Hwangrim still smiled and lifted Chowhawun’s arm, shaking it as if he were waving goodbye. Chowhawun became pitiful, by half of half of half, in that playful attitude. Incongruously, he had a flying skill, and Hwangrim flew up. Well then, his voice was carefree. Damn it. So the military hunters can use skills.

“Give me a hint, thinking of our past relationship! What happened!”

“The domain’s dominance.”

“What?”

“Um, a First-Class Demon.”

A First-Class Demon? I feel like I’ve heard of it somewhere. Hwangrim was moving away. Anyway, this isn’t the time to worry for long.

“Noah! Can you move?”

“Ah, yes! I can’t transform into a dragon, though.”

“Is there a door somewhere? Any floating furniture left… what’s that arm?”

“That thing from earlier. That handcuff seemed to be SS-Rank.”

“What? Let’s grab that! Sunghyunjae! Hey, partner! Are you alive?”

Can’t he hear me? Instead of Sunghyunjae, another figure appeared. One arm torn off and a hole in his chest… uh…

“I think I killed him.”

Yoohyun said. The corpse blinked and raised the weapon in his hand. After that, other hunters began to appear one by one.

“…Summer’s over, but you’re being very late to the party.”

Suddenly, I thought of Mr. Jellyfish who died. He’s dead, so it can’t be, but if he had joined hands with the Chinese military before he died. Or Chatterbox… no way. Rookie, Elder, please! I believe you would have stopped it.

“Let’s join the Sesung Guild Leader first.”

Yoohyun nodded and quickly moved towards Noah, holding me in one arm. Noah also stood up and took out a large axe that didn’t suit him.

“Destroying the undead is the best.”

“Have you caught a lot?”

“They’re common in England and France.”

I see. There are few undead dungeons in Korea.

– Grrr!

An S-Rank Hunter among the approaching corpses lunged at us. The speed is fast, damn it!