The S-Classes That I Raised [EN]: Chapter 451

449. Gift

The powder, or rather, what should be called seeds, were naturally numerous. On the other hand, Chief Song wasn’t suited to dealing with large numbers.

“I’m fine, so go to Chief Song–”

My mouth snapped shut. Wait a minute, he has Grace, so he’s impervious to most attacks, but that’s…

“A tentacle-type monster. What’s the principle?”

“Yoohyun! Yerim!”

I need you guys! I tossed Songi onto Sung Hyunjae’s head and clung to Sung Hyunjae’s shoulder.

– Baaa.

“Don’t come down, stay still! That thing, that thing, it even has electric resistance!”

For once, I was grateful for Sung Hyunjae’s height. He completely pulled my body up, as if hanging on his shoulder.

“You said you were fine.”

“I’m not fine, it’s tentacles! It’s useless, useless. Tentacle types and amorphous monsters that swallow people!”

What Grace has isn’t a shield, but an invulnerability item. That meant it couldn’t block things covering the face or entering the mouth or other openings. If I can’t breathe, I’ll obviously die. So, against that kind of monster, even a low-grade one was dangerous, let alone a mid-grade or high-grade one. If I had the earring, I could block up to mid-grade, but.

“Han Yoojin’s weakness is tentacles and slime, I see.”

“I’ve come to hate tentacles even more recently!”

In the meantime, tentacles covered in black chitin had fully grown. They stuck to the floor like sea anemones, shaking their strands.

“The appearance is close to an animal type, but it’s actually a plant, a Kentnish, between B and A grade. As a plant with roots, its mobility is low, but it occasionally jumps up. Its electric resistance is at least B grade, so it’s better not to use Sung Hyunjae’s skills.”

I took out my phone, pressed a speed dial number, and spoke. If it were just him alone, it wouldn’t matter, but this was the middle of the city. Given the nature of spreading electricity, if I poured out enough electricity here to burn the tentacle plants, the damage would be considerable. On the other hand, those things have poor mobility, so it would be better to issue an evacuation order and deal with them slowly.

[Hyung.]

“Yoohyun, did you hear? Come right away.”

[Yeah, I’m on my way. I was going to call you anyway, are you okay?]

“Of course, I’m fine.”

As expected, Haeyeon was the first to be contacted. It’s the closest S-Rank Guild to the Hunter Association. I briefly and quickly explained the situation and hung up.

“Does the scratch on my face look bad?”

“There’s blood, too.”

“…Well, that much should be okay.”

I quickly took out and put on my cardigan. I should tell Yoohyun that there was an assassination attempt, but it would be better if he didn’t know I hurt my arm. I got it treated, too. A long, slender glaive [a polearm weapon with a single-edged blade] like a spear appeared in Sung Hyunjae’s hand.

“S-Rank?”

“A-Rank.”

“Does the Seseong Guild Leader carry around A-Rank weapons?”

“It’s good for pruning.”

If it were anyone else, I would have thought it was a joke, but it was Sung Hyunjae, so I was confused. He might actually use an A-Rank weapon for cutting tree branches.

“And mowing the lawn, too.”

“Were we living together, by any chance?”

“The shampoo’s run out, so buy some when you come home.”

Swish, the glaive’s blade cut through the air in a circle. There were over thirty tentacle plants gathered here alone.

“Few compared to the amount of powder.”

“It’s a type of spore, but they don’t all grow. The first one to grow absorbs the other spores around it and grows even faster.”

“Have you ever dealt with them before?”

“TV, TV.”

It was my favorite program. More than that, the Kentnish shouldn’t have appeared this quickly. They even went to the trouble of getting spores and spreading them. Is it related to the Transcendent, the Filial Unpiety side, after all? They said it was a truce period. Isn’t this cheating!

“Let’s move for now. They’ll be wasting their efforts without knowing the characteristics.”

I tried to call the Hunter Association, but it was constantly busy. With this chaos, the phones must be overloaded.

“Hold on tight.”

Sung Hyunjae lowered his upper body slightly and said. I asked for his understanding and used Teacher Skill on him. I thought we were going to go outside as is, but strength went into the arm holding the glaive. His booted feet strongly stepped on the ground, and with a whoosh, the greatly swung glaive dug into the ground diagonally.

Krrrr- With a tremor as if an earthquake had occurred, cracks began to spread forward from the part where the glaive was embedded. Then, following the weapon, electricity flowed and crawled into the ground.

Immediately after,

Kwaaaang!

With a loud explosion, a pile of dirt soared. The tentacle plants were also helplessly thrown into the air. Golden chains flew towards them. Charrrr, with a metallic sound, they wrapped around and bound the tentacles.

Sung Hyunjae’s glaive disappeared from his hand, and instead, he held the end of the chain. As if swinging a whip, he lightly swung the chain, throwing the bound mass of tentacles towards the Association’s parking lot. With clumps of dirt attached to their roots, the tentacles disappeared over the wall.

“There’s nothing left, right?”

“I think so.”

“Chief Song TaeWon’s children’s playground shouldn’t burn down, after all.”

It’s already a mess, though. Still, it’s better to be able to repair it quickly than to have it completely burned down. Sung Hyunjae, who had cleared all the tentacles from Songi’s playground, kicked off the cracked and dug-up ground. In an instant, the surrounding scenery changed, and the Hunter Association’s wide parking lot appeared.

“Ugh.”

Seeing the parking lot full of black tentacles made me want to vomit. Cars crushed and entangled by tentacles were rolling around everywhere, and hunters were moving urgently.

– Meeeh!

Songi, unable to withstand the recoil of Sung Hyunjae’s landing, rolled down. The Seeker’s chain snatched the little lamb and lifted it up.

“Chief Song! Is being here the answer?”

Song Taewon, who was helping to set up a barricade while keeping the approaching tentacles in check, turned to us.

“Yes. It hasn’t spread outside.”

“Their regeneration is excellent, so ordinary attacks are useless! You have to keep cutting and cutting for a long time to barely kill them. The Haeyeon Guild Leader will arrive soon, so just focus on preventing them from escaping outside!”

Compared to their mid- to high-grade ranking, they weren’t very threatening monsters. They didn’t have any decent attack skills other than constricting with their tentacles. However, they were troublesome because they were tough, regenerated quickly, and had good reproductive abilities. They were weak against heat and cold, so a hunter with high-grade wide-area skills could easily handle them.

At my shout, the hunters attacking the tentacles retreated outwards. They surrounded the monsters filling the parking lot and switched to a defense-oriented stance. Sung Hyunjae also took out his glaive again and only cut off the tentacles reaching from the outside.

“You seem familiar with it. Do you really mow the lawn yourself? My house’s garden needs some management, too.”

“Are you suggesting a side job? If the conditions are right, I’ll go.”

“Isn’t there a partner discount?”

“Please give a perfect review in return.”

“Wow, for the Seseong Guild to demand a paid review. Do you want to be plastered all over the portal site’s front page? And top the search rankings?”

“I’m already a regular customer.”

Well done, really. While we were talking nonsense, a red dot was rapidly approaching from the distant sky. The hunters who saw Peace all retreated. A fire mane lion with long wings stopped in the air. From that high place, Yoohyun lightly jumped down.

The blue willow leaf wasn’t used. Thunder Bird’s vestige fluttered, and flames flared up. Centered on Yoohyun, crimson flames swirled like a tornado, turning black and dark blue. Enveloping the hot flames widely, he fell straight down,

Kwaaaang-!

into the middle of the tentacle swarm. As if a bomb had exploded, heat and flames spread out at once. All that could be seen was a thick, dark blue flame. The flames swallowed only the tentacles, rising high with precise control as if trapped in an invisible wall.

Thud, thud, thud, the tentacles twitched and burned away in an instant. Leaving black ash everywhere, the fire whooshed and diminished. Only the parking lot and the unfortunate cars had melted, and there was no other damage. Through the flames that subsided at their master’s will, my brother’s figure was revealed.

“Wait, Yoohyun!”

Yoohyun turned to me. He frowned upon discovering the scratch on my cheek. And then, the remaining ashes began to move.

“Right now, I have invulnerability of S-Rank or higher, so there’s no need to waste your energy!”

The ashes gathered in one place and formed a round mass. Yoohyun retreated and approached me.

“Are you hurt?”

“No, it’s just a scratch. A little. What happened was–”

“The clothes.”

“Oh, I thought Songi would be out in the outdoor playground, so it was a little cold.”

Yoohyun, hearing my answer, looked at Sung Hyunjae. Sung Hyunjae just smiled silently. Then, he turned his gaze towards Chief Song. No, no.

“Someone shot a gun, but it missed! It just grazed me.”

“…A gun?”

In the meantime, the ashes began to change. Rooted in the ground, only one long, black stalk stretched high. At the end of the stalk, which had grown about five meters, something like a round fruit formed.

“It’s going to burst soon, so be prepared.”

At my words, Yoohyun turned his body towards the black stalk.

“Just burn the spores cleanly.”

The Kentnish attempts to reproduce when the entire colony dies. At this time, even an S-Rank hunter’s attacks are almost ineffective. But immediately after the fruit bursts, in the spore state, they can be easily burned away. It would be troublesome if they flew away on the wind, but with Yoohyun’s ability, he could eliminate even the smallest grain of powder without missing a single one.

Slender flames swam around Yoohyun’s body, circling around and around. The fruit grew to be about two or three times the size of a person, and it swelled up. And then.

Thud-

It burst, and the spores… the spores…

“Hyung, doesn’t the flower come before the fruit?”

“Huh? Oh, that’s.”

Usually, but that one didn’t bloom? Instead of a fruit, a flower bud burst, and pink petals poured out. It was a giant pink flower with a diameter of several meters. The layers of petals were very ornate and even felt a little beautiful.

…That’s strange.

“I am a non-awakened person!”

At that moment, someone suddenly shouted. I, as well as the other hunters, turned to look at the place where the shout came from. Beyond the barricade, a middle-aged man was standing. With a frightened face, he shouted again.

“They said they would spare me if I just delivered the message, so don’t attack!”

The man raised both hands. Was he being threatened by someone?

“I heard from Han Yoojin’s breeding center director that he likes pink flowers, so I prepared it as a gift. It’s a light greeting and a gift to the director, so please be assured. It’s safe.”

No way! Whoever it is, aren’t they crazy? The flames around Yoohyun shot out like arrows. They wrapped around the giant flower and burned it away in an instant.

“I will see you again after the deadline.”

…As expected, it seemed to be someone related to Chatterbox. Is this a greeting? More than that, are those guys allowed to sneak in and cause this chaos, but we’re not? That’s unfair!

“Chief Song Taewon, I’m a fan.”

The man closed his mouth. In the midst of the pouring gazes, he added in embarrassment.

“The last thing, that’s what they told me to say.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Chief Song this time. Chief Song just had a tired face.

“…First, let’s start cleaning up.”

Chief Song said, swallowing a short sigh.

The cleanup proceeded quickly. First of all, the appearance of the monster was treated as if it didn’t happen. With the dungeon having stabilized not long ago, there was no good reason to say that a monster had appeared. Instead, it was decided to announce that there was something strange among the dungeon items.

Since it was the Association with the Hunter Market, and the last thing that appeared was a harmless giant flower, it wasn’t difficult to gloss over it appropriately. It was said to be a seed item that blooms a giant flower.

“It has been reported to the higher-ups that it was the work of a terrorist group targeting hunters.”

Chief Song, who had entered the conference room, said. In his hand, he held a bouquet of flowers. It wasn’t pink, but red and white flowers.

“The bomb that first exploded, as well as the bullet that grazed Director Han Yoojin, were not dungeon items. There are many anti-hunter groups that carry out terrorism with modern weapons overseas.”

“But they only came to Korea much later.”

Since there were only people here who knew that I had regressed, I spoke comfortably.

“They weren’t very strong either. Of course, there was quite a bit of damage, but there was no incident like today where they used monsters.”

As someone who had never left Korea, it was an unfamiliar situation. Since they mainly targeted the Hunter Association or large guilds, I never had to encounter them. To the large guilds, it was about the level of an ant stinging them. It was nothing more or less than annoying.

“What about the person who delivered the message?”

“He was an ordinary non-awakened person. He said his family was taken hostage.”

Chief Song said, saying that he couldn’t get any information about the threatener, and placed the bouquet he was holding on the desk.

“…It’s for me.”

Oh dear. Did someone like Sung Hyunjae attach themselves to him again? I glanced at Sung Hyunjae, and he shrugged. It’s highly likely that he’s a foreigner, so isn’t this just a stalker who followed the Seseong Guild Leader and got attached?