The S-Classes That I Raised [EN]: Chapter 40

Drip, drip. The sound of rain pattering against the windowpane was a pleasant tickle to my ears. It was a relaxing moment.

Lying stretched out on the sofa, listening to Peace purr as he snuggled against my side, eased both my body and mind.

Indeed, having nothing to do is the best.

Yoohyun and Yerim were both in dungeons. Kim Sunghan was also participating in the A-Rank new dungeon raid. I was contemplating how to use my skills for him but decided to focus on growing his stats first. It would be a waste to miss out on the extra experience from the new dungeon. Just in case, I tried using Stat Growth Concentration on him, and it worked.

Myungwoo’s task of sharpening ten thousand swords was also progressing smoothly, though there was an unfortunate incident where he sharpened a thousand swords in one day and couldn’t even get out of bed the next day. Now, we’ve compromised on around four to five hundred a day.

The goblin hasn’t appeared since that day. Even if he’s unidentified, he’s taking requests from other people, so it wouldn’t be difficult to find his contact information. But right now, I didn’t feel like going out of my way to find him.

‘When else would I laze around like this?’

I should rest while I can, since I’ll be busy soon, though this is also coming to an end soon.

It’s already been three days since Yoohyun started raiding the dungeon. If nothing goes wrong, he should be out sometime today or tomorrow.

Ah, I want to play more.

I want to play forever.

I want to become Background Character 1, who doesn’t have to do anything.

‘I worked hard even before the regression, so why do I have to work hard again?’

I went through all sorts of hardships taking care of my younger sibling, and then the world changed, and I went through even more hardships. I guess it’s a relief that I’m not suffering as much now.

“Should I get something to eat?”

I used to eat irregularly and just fill my stomach, but these days I’ve been making sure to eat three meals a day because the food is delicious.

I went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Neatly stacked containers of side dishes were visible.

That green onion kimchi was really delicious. I never knew that white rice with spicy, pungent green onion kimchi would taste so good. I used to think that vegetables were only worth eating with meat.

Of course, the meat dishes were undeniably delicious. The beef braised in soy sauce with shishito peppers [small, sweet Japanese peppers] was simply the best. The short rib stew that melted in my mouth was also amazing. The stir-fried sausage was so surprisingly good it was almost miraculous. It looked similar to what came out in school lunches, but the taste was incomparable.

‘The thought of Myungwoo leaving home already makes me feel depressed.’

How did that guy, who only knew how to boil ramen, improve his cooking skills so much? It’s definitely a scam. Maybe Myungwoo is the biggest cheat character of all.

I heated up the soft tofu stew that I suspected had drugs in it, set the table, and took a spoonful, and I felt like I was going to cry.

Even after getting an SS-Rank skill, he wouldn’t freeload off me, right? Of course. It wasn’t this bad just three days ago. If his skills improve any further, seriously, damn, what should I do? Should I stop him now? Should I tell him not to cook? I guess there’s a saying that pretty faces last three months, but good cooking lasts a lifetime.

“Sad… I wonder if I can get side dishes from him sometimes.”

I cleared the table and gave Peace his food too. Despite his increased size, his eating habits hadn’t changed much. He still only ate two magic stones, and the amount of meat he ate only increased slightly.

– Woong, woong.

After eating, Peace turned his head towards the front door and whined. He had been restless ever since he couldn’t go outside after finishing his training the next day. He seemed bored of being cooped up at home all day after playing to his heart’s content.

“Sorry, sorry. Once the negotiation is over, I’ll take you to the training room every day to play.”

– Grrr.

I tried to soothe him, but Peace stubbornly turned his body and sat down in front of the front door. The tip of his tail tapped the floor discontentedly.

“Is our Peace sulking?”

– Kkuuung.

“Are you angry because you can’t go out? I’m sorry.”

– Kkieueung.

“Let’s just be patient, okay? Uncle Yoohyun will be back soon.”

– Kkiiing, woong.

He answered dutifully but didn’t turn around. He seemed to be quite sulky.

“Then shall we play ball?”

At the mention of playing ball, his tapping tail stopped. His ears, which had been lying down, perked up, and he tilted his head towards me.

“But you can’t get excited and break the TV like last time. You have to play carefully.”

– Kkiang!

Peace answered confidently and jumped over. I don’t know if he really meant he would be careful or if he was just excited. If he breaks it, I’ll just buy another one. I still have a lot of money left from selling magic stones.

That’s how it was when Peace was busy breaking the sofa instead of the TV.

Bbiriririk.

The doorbell rang. Did Myungwoo already come? That’s too fast.

“Who is it?”

[It’s Seok Simyeong!]

The answer came from the intercom. What’s that man doing all the way here? His voice also seemed to have lost its composure.

“Peace, wait a moment.”

I made sure to close the inner door so that Peace couldn’t jump out, and then opened the front door. Seok Simyeong’s face, flushed with excitement, was visible, his usual composure nowhere to be found. What’s going on?

“Why are you all the way—”

“Han Yoojin-ssi!”

Seok Simyeong, who had entered the entrance, slammed the door shut and said. Then he hugged me tightly. Is this Myungwoo in a Seok Simyeong disguise?!

“It’s a slime!”

“Yes? Uwaak!”

Seok Simyeong lifted me up as if he were going to do the *henggarae* [a Korean tradition of tossing someone in the air to celebrate]. Damn it, wait a minute. Calm down.

“Wait, this, ack, don’t shake me! Don’t spin me around!”

Is he crazy, really!

“Oh my god! Where did such a treasure come from!”

Seok Simyeong didn’t listen to a word I said and laughed heartily. Damn it, put me down. Is he showing off his B-Rank stats! I can’t live with my F-Rank stats!

I couldn’t escape from Seok Simyeong’s rough grip and was just cursing when.

쿵!

– Kyaaang!

The closed inner door shook violently, and a fierce roar was heard.

“What was that just now—”

“Put me down right now! Peace, are you okay!”

He’s making so much noise that he startled the kid! Seok Simyeong panicked and let me go.

When I opened the inner door, Peace, with his fur standing on end, jumped out and wrapped his front paws around one of my legs. Then he bared his fangs fiercely at Seok Simyeong.

– Keureureureu.

“It’s okay, Peace! Calm down!”

I quickly hugged Peace in my arms and stroked his puffed-up mane.

– Keuheung, geureureung.

“Yes, yes. It’s okay. He’s not a bad person.”

He’s not a good person either. He’s more like a gray-colored ally.

“I’ve heard about it, but you really are close to Yoojin-ssi.”

Seok Simyeong looked at me and Peace with admiring eyes. Has he calmed down a bit now?

“So, the new A-Rank dungeon was indeed a slime dungeon?”

“Yes. Han Yoojin-ssi’s prediction was accurate.”

That crazy look started swirling in this man’s eyes again. Calm down, calm down. Relax.

“Instead of doing this here, let’s go inside first.”

I need to pour some cold water on him, no, let him drink some.

“The raid is over, I presume?”

I asked, handing Seok Simyeong a glass of ice water as he sat down on a dining chair. Our house also had an ice water dispenser in the refrigerator. I had only used an old one with one door.

“Yes, I received a call a little while ago,” Seok Simyeong said, taking a sip of water. Peace, stuck right next to me, glared at him as if he were guarding me. He occasionally wrinkled his nose and growled softly, as if he didn’t like him at all.

“They said it really was a slime dungeon.”

Of course, it was. Unless the future changes.

“Really, a slime…….”

“Have some more water.”

Don’t get excited. This time, Seok Simyeong gulped down about half the glass. And then he said,

“Shouldn’t you move to a more secure place?”

“Pardon?”

“This place is mainly managed by A-Rank hunters, so the security facilities are lacking. There are only surveillance cameras at the entrance. And if possible, a location tracker—”

“I refuse.”

Having my safety obsessed over by my younger brother alone is enough. There was no reason or patience to listen to some stranger’s nonsense.

“But—”

“But this and but that, I don’t like it.”

Is this Hanyoohyun disguised as Seok Simyeong? Again with that ‘but’. Seok Simyeong narrowed his brow at my firm words.

“It seems that Han Yoojin-ssi doesn’t know his own worth very well.”

“I have a rough idea.”

My worth. Before the regression, I would have been Rolling Stone No. 5,912.

“Raising high-level ride-type monsters and predicting dungeons are abilities that will cause quite a stir.”

“It’s not just ‘quite a stir’. Especially the latter, the country, not just the guild, may step in.”

Just like the Americans did. It’s information that could sway the world if you could get your hands on it. But.

“Dungeon prediction is still uncertain. It’s not that I’ve discovered an exact law, but rather a hypothesis that relies half on luck.”

I didn’t really calculate it, and anyway, I didn’t remember it unless it was a famous place like this slime dungeon. There’s more than one or two dungeons, how can I remember them all.

“In the end, all I really have is the Monster Breeder skill. So, if the negotiation goes well, excessive protection won’t be necessary.”

Raising ride-type monsters alone is more than enough value, but it was weak compared to the dungeon generation law. If you know the dungeon generation law, you can preempt valuable dungeons, increase the raid stability of new dungeons, and prevent undiscovered dungeon breaks.

Most of all, if you have that information in your hands, you can instantly place all the guilds under your feet and stand alone. If the proportion and number of high-level dungeons increase in the next few years, even the country could be shaken.

It was understandable that Seok Simyeong was unusually excited.

“Even if it’s still a hypothesis, isn’t there a possibility that it will become a law someday?”

“Of course, but frankly, it’s beyond my capabilities. I haven’t properly studied that kind of thing. But there’s Seok Hayan.”

“Statistics?”

It’s good that I don’t have to explain it at length. I nodded.

“If you entrust the research to Seok Hayan-ssi, I think it will soon become a law. It would be even better if we could find a few more reliable researchers.”

Let’s leave this to Seok Simyeong too. I don’t have the ability to go around looking for general scholars who aren’t Awakened.

“Are you saying that the guild should provide support?”

“That would be nice. Thanks to the slime dungeon, we won’t have to worry about running out of funds, right? Why don’t you take this opportunity to create a research facility that includes not only dungeons but also Awakeners? In addition, I have decided to take charge of providing data on dungeons.”

“Data provision?”

Seok Simyeong seemed to say something but then closed his mouth. I must seem quite suspicious. But what are you going to do about it? I’m the guild leader’s older brother, I brought an S-Rank, and now I’m also a special skill holder. You have to turn a blind eye to one or two suspicious things.

“I will consider the research facility issue positively.”

“Don’t just consider it, just go for it? Preemption is the best. You have to start quickly to get results quickly.”

Even if you start now, it will take years. Seok Simyeong nodded at my words.

“If we can get a facility from the giant guilds for the ride-type monster issue, let’s include it there.”

“Yes? What are you going to get?”

“We can’t raise monsters here, can we? It won’t be just one or two. I’m going to push down the next building and build a new one. Of course, we won’t use our money.”

The sly fox smiled slyly. There will be several monsters to take care of in the future, so it would be difficult to take care of them here, but I thought he would just build it on the outskirts. He’s really thinking big, and with other people’s money, too.

“Is that okay? What if we get backlash…….”

“Of course, Han Yoojin-ssi will be the landlord.”

“That’s okay, totally okay.”

Oh, what’s this windfall? I’m getting an unexpected side income. Seok Simyeong looked almost like a flower snake [a man who lives off women’s money] rather than a sly fox. Of course, a flower snake is still a snake.

“I’m thinking of including it as one of the negotiation conditions. It won’t be difficult to get it from other guilds because it would be better for them to be located nearby.”

Landlord, and the owner of a new building at that. Calm down, mouth corners. Let’s not be too blatant.

Then I can have Myungwoo move to the new building instead of here. I need to put in a large equipment manufacturing facility and provide a place where he can sell directly without having to pay commissions to the association.

“If we build a new building, it will take quite a while, so we will have to prepare a temporary place.”

“That’s not true. There are Awakeners and equipment that raises stats. If we add auxiliary skills and dungeon byproducts, we can shorten the construction period as much as possible.”

He was going to pour Awakeners and dungeon items into a simple construction project, which was an enormous waste of money. The construction cost will be higher than the land and building costs.

It’s not my money, so I don’t care.

All that’s done and I’m a landlord. The cost of the special equipment and materials that go into a killing location will be enormous, so the building alone is beyond my ability to measure the market price. And if I bring in Myungwoo and Seok Hayan, it’s crazy, the value is really crazy. Of course, I’m there too.

‘No, instead of just moving Myungwoo and Seok Hayan, should I just bring their affiliations over to my side?’

Originally, I was going to put them in Haeyeon when I got the skill, but if I had my own building, a place to put the smithy, there was no need to do that. The same goes for Seok Hayan.

Seok Simyeong would be pounding the ground and regretting it, but I was also worried that I was putting too much into Haeyeon, which was still a small basket. Raising Yerim and Kim Sunghan would be enough.

In the first place, Haeyeon is a hunter guild focused on dungeon raids.

If I pushed ride-type monster breeding, equipment production, and dungeon measurement all at once in a short period of time, it could be poisonous.

‘Even if it’s a precious food that’s good for the body, you should only eat as much as you can digest.’

Rather than recklessly merging, it would be better to divide the forces and cooperate with each other. If it becomes firmly established, then we can merge at that time.

‘Okay, let’s divide it.’

I looked at Seok Simyeong, who was rattling on about his future plans, with a bit of pity. I’m sorry for taking it away after giving it to you, but Haeyeon is my top priority, so please be satisfied with that. I’ll give it back to you when it grows up well.

* * *

“…What?”

In the midst of the uproar over the appearance of the slime dungeon, Haeyeon subtly informed the giant guilds and the Hunter Association about the monster breeding skill.

The reaction was, of course, explosive, and the negotiations were proceeding smoothly.

“They’re coming here? To meet me?”

I looked at my younger brother, who had brought the news, in disbelief. Don’t the guild leaders have anything better to do than to come here in person?