The S-Classes That I Raised [EN]: Chapter 58

58. The One I Pretended to Forget (1)

A small lake spread out in the middle of a lush plain. The scent of grass and water mingled in the gentle breeze.

The lake environment was usually popular due to its abundant resources, but that was only the case for C-grade dungeons or higher. D-grade and below did make more money, but underwater combat was too tricky for low-level Hunters to handle.

Without the relevant skills, you had to prepare equipment and items separately, which could easily lead to losses. Thanks to this, it wasn’t difficult to win the bid for this D-grade dungeon.

“Nice view.”

The clear surface of the water mirrored the blue sky like a painting. Whenever the wind blew, the grass blades rustled and danced, and the ripples swayed like a song.

Even before my regression, when I was busy trying to save my own life, I sometimes found the scenery of the dungeons fascinating. Now, with more *yoyuu* [余裕, Japanese for ‘composure’ or ‘leeway’], I went a step further and wondered.

Creating something like this and resetting it every time must be something only a god could do.

‘The System people didn’t seem all-powerful, though.’

Come to think of it, it’s quiet today. Are they busy? It was annoying when they spouted nonsense, but I felt a little sad that they didn’t even say hello.

‘I’ll be able to have a proper conversation in a few days.’

Let’s clear the dungeon quickly and get out. This was already my third unauthorized outing. It wouldn’t be strange if I got caught soon. I should finish this quickly and go back.

I moved closer to the lake. With the Wall Gecko skill active, there was still no change in the lake.

‘The normal monsters were grotesque fish.’

They were eel-like monsters that could function to some extent even outside the water.

The items I’ll use today are the Magic Amplification Earrings and Mana Potions. That’s all. I had no intention of going into the water myself.

I rolled up my sleeves, knelt by the lake, put my hand into the clear, cool water, and used the skill.

Viscous Poison.

Originally a potent C-grade poison, its effect was doubled, and then doubled again with Veteran. The terrifying poison slowly spread into the water. The pristine water began to take on a faint gray hue.

“I feel a little guilty for some reason.”

It’s inside a dungeon, the opponents are monsters, and it will be reset properly after the *kouryaku* [攻略, Japanese for ‘capture’ or ‘conquest,’ referring to clearing the dungeon], but still.

It felt like I was doing something I shouldn’t. Fishing with poison is illegal. Electric shockers are also not allowed. Love nature and protect the environment.

– Croak, croak.

Soon, a sound similar to a toad’s croak was heard, and an eel about 3 meters long leaped high above the water.

Following the gasping eel, two more, then three more, jumped out in succession.

Splash!

Flap!

The eels that jumped out of the lake one after another died without even gasping a few times. Near the origin of the poison, the corpses of the instantly killed eels floated to the surface.

The effect is really good. So good that I felt like an illegal sewage pipe spewing toxic waste.

‘This should be enough.’

I took my hand out of the water and waited for a while. Large and small eels constantly jumped out and floated up. It wasn’t a big lake, but there were so many.

By the time the surface was densely covered with eel corpses.

– Krooooar!

A blue eel raised its head from a small island in the middle of the lake.

[Grade 5 Aquatic Dragon Species – Blue Eel

Current Stat Grade: C

Awakening Possible Stat Grade: C

Optimized Initial Skills:

Water Cannon (C) Acquired

Tail Wave (C) Acquired]

It’s a Dragon Species, of all things. It’s an eel, though. Grade 5 Aquatic Dragon Species with C stats is low-level among C-grade monsters. Still, as a Dragon Species, its corpse is more expensive than a Mana Stone. I released the Wall Gecko skill to lure it ashore.

– Krrrr.

The Blue Eel, having discovered me, narrowed its black eyes. It stiffened the thorns on the center of its head and moved its long-clawed fins to glide through the water.

“Come on, come here.”

The Mana Stone is for Peace, and the skin and bones are for Myungwoo. It’s too cheap a material for an SS-grade skill, but it’ll be good for practice.

– Krrrk.

The speed of the Blue Eel, which was swimming diligently, gradually slowed down.

– Krrr…….

The blue color of its scales gradually turned into a dull gray. Oh, dear. It doesn’t look good. In the end, it couldn’t reach the shore where I was.

– Kieeeek.

Glug.

…Rest in peace.

The Blue Eel sank into the water with a dying sound. The poison was strong, but I thought it would be diluted enough to be okay. I almost retrieved it with a tentacle, but I decided against it. I can’t really use something that’s been poisoned.

Soon, an escape gate appeared by the lake.

Now, I wonder what kind of title will come out this time.

…Hmm. The message window isn’t popping up.

“…Hey, System creators?”

Is it a lag? I knew it was too quiet. Did some communication problem occur?

[Great Achievement! Successfully cleared a D-grade dungeon solo with Stat F, attack skills F or below, and using five or fewer items!]

Oh, the achievement window finally… popped up.

‘It’s silent again.’

After waiting for a while, the message window reappeared.

[Please choose.

Tough (S)

Unfindable (S)

Swift (S)]

Why suddenly choices? I’ve never heard of being able to choose an achievement reward title. Could this be why it was late?

‘I appreciate the choices, but I wish I could see an explanation window too.’

Still, I could roughly guess what they were just by looking at the title names. They were probably titles related to defense, stealth, and agility or teleportation. Did they deliberately make them so simple for easy understanding?

‘All three seem like good titles for protecting myself.’

I wanted the special skill effect doubled if possible. Besides, isn’t this a bit stingy for clearing a D-grade dungeon solo? It’s S-grade again. I was expecting SS-grade, so I’m disappointed.

Anyway, I have to choose one of the three, but what should I do?

‘S-grade defense skill is good too. But it’ll be a bust if it’s just a stat increase.’

Of course, as an S-grade title, it would increase a lot, but as long as my base stats are F-grade, it wouldn’t be significant. The earring’s barrier skill would be more useful.

‘Still, since the System people deliberately gave me choices, unless they’re trying to screw me over, it’s probably a skill title.’

If it’s an S-grade defense skill, it would be perfect for short-term battles. But in the long run, I’d just become a crouching turtle. It’s not like I have any means of attack, and if it’s indoors, I’d be helpless just by locking the door.

‘Since there’s probably no one trying to kill me other than monsters, stealth or agility would be better.’

Swift, judging by the name, wouldn’t be spatial movement, but a type that increases teleportation or movement speed. Stealth is still better than that. Just look at how useful Wall Gecko is.

If it’s a stealth skill attached to an S-grade title, it would be at least A-grade. Still, should I ask just in case?

“The Unfindable title, does it come with an A-grade or higher stealth skill?”

[˙~˙;;;]

Ah, okay. You can’t tell me.

“If Swift is a spatial movement skill, please send an emoticon.”

Silence. It’s not spatial movement after all. Then I’ll go with stealth.

I chose Unfindable among the three titles.

[Unfindable (S)

An F-grade Hunter who soloed a D-grade dungeon is a master of stealth?

Hidden Picture (A)

One More as a Bonus (S)]

The title description seemed like they tried to fit it to the achievement. The other two probably have similar descriptions. Hidden Picture is probably a stealth skill, and what’s One More as a Bonus?

‘The other two would probably have this combination too.’

A defense or agility-related skill with One More as a Bonus. It would probably be like that.

[Hidden Picture (A)

Becomes difficult to recognize even when focusing and searching.]

Hidden Picture seemed to be a skill similar to Wall Gecko, where the appearance itself doesn’t disappear, but it becomes difficult to perceive. And One More as a Bonus is.

[One More as a Bonus (S)

Shares one title and skill of S-grade or below with one person in contact

Reapplication cooldown of 15 days per skill

※ Excluding this skill]

…Wow, hold on. Is this the main thing? You can share skills and titles? What S-grades or below did I have?

“You took my grumbling about being useless into consideration.”

I’m a little touched.

Let’s see, the S-grade titles I recently obtained were Miracle and Veteran. Double item effect and double attack skill effect. Damn it.

I should have just chosen the defense skill if I knew this would happen.

‘Since you have to be in contact, you can only follow up to intermediate dungeons at best.’

I can use the B-grade barrier skill with the earrings. Stealth is useless in chaotic battles. If it were an A-grade or higher defense skill, I could have followed even upper-level dungeons! What a waste!

Still, if an S-grade dungeon explodes, I think I can clean it up quickly. If the dungeon difficulty starts to increase rapidly, I’ll have no choice but to use it soon.

Other than that, there’s Hidden Picture, two useless auxiliary skills, and the Sprout skill.

‘The System people are probably aiming for this Sprout skill. It seems like they want me to raise Hunters.’

Optimization Awakening cooldown of 30 days. I might be able to use this up to three times a month. The bonus skill cooldown is 15 days.

However, the problem is that it’s limited to keyword application targets. My Baby skill is L-grade, so it can’t be shared. In the end, I either can’t use it, or it applies to someone I’ve applied the keyword to. Considering the System people deliberately included the bonus skill, the latter is more likely.

Then the remaining problem is who to share the skill with.

‘Since I have to keep Optimization Awakening a secret, I need someone trustworthy.’

It would be really troublesome if this got out.

Mount Taming had demand only among large guilds or high-level Hunters. But Optimization Awakening would definitely attract all the non-awakened people in the world asking me to use it just once.

Actually, aren’t I an un-scratched lottery ticket?

After Awakeners appeared, everyone must have thought that at least once. But there’s someone who increases the odds of winning and scratches the lottery ticket for you instead? Of course, they’d go and hand over their lottery ticket.

Since there’s even a limit to the number of times, it would become a headache-inducing pandemonium just by imagining it.

‘Excluding high-level Hunters who have to go into dungeon *kouryaku* [攻略, Japanese for ‘capture’ or ‘conquest’] for days, Myungwoo is the only one right now.’

Since there’s no one I need to optimize and awaken right away, I should wait and see a little longer.

* * *

When I returned home, a package had arrived in the meantime. It was the new cell phone I bought.

The one I was using was thrown away when I was kidnapped, so the corner was broken, and more than anything, the camera performance was poor.

“Okay, Peace. Look here. No, don’t come.”

– Grrr.

I can’t take a picture if you stick to my leg.

“Piyak, did you go into the kitchen again?”

– Piyak, piyak!

I fed it Mana Stones in the kitchen, so it keeps crawling in and chirping.

“Piyak, come here.”

– Pyak!

“There’s Mana Stone powder here.”

As soon as I put the bottle of C-grade Mana Stone powder on the table, immediately,

Taptaptap.

The sound of small footsteps running over came. The baby bird that reached under the table started flapping and jumping.

– Piyak, piyak, piyak!

Do you like eating that much? I took a picture of Piyak struggling to get on the table. Should I film a video?

– Piyak!

Piyak, who had been jumping for a while, suddenly stopped. Then it turned its head to the side. The place where its eyes reached was Peace, sitting at my feet.

– Pipipi.

I don’t know what it was thinking, but Piyak approached Peace. And then.

“Well, well.”

It started climbing diligently onto Peace’s body. Peace looked up at me as if flustered.

– Kkiung.

“Just bear with it for a moment.”

Piyak, you weren’t completely stupid, were you? Good job.

– Piyak!

Piyak, finally reaching the top of Peace’s head, flapped its small wings and shouted a victory? cry. Peace sent me a look asking me to do something about this annoying brat.

“Just a moment, just a moment.”

Cute. I have to take a picture of this.

– Pii, pii.

Piyak, settled on Peace’s head, turned towards the table. It spread its two wings with a determined look. It’s a bit far, will it be okay?

– Pii – yak!

Piyak, who jumped up with a pong!

Bounce, bounce.

It barely caught on the edge of the table, bounced a couple of times, and then rolled and stopped. Ooh, it succeeded.

– Piyak!

“Our Piyak has gotten a little smarter in the meantime.”

It feels like just yesterday that it couldn’t distinguish between TV and reality. It really was just yesterday, though. I took a picture of it clinging to the Mana Stone bottle and gave it a broken F-grade Mana Stone.

– Bbiik!!

What, it’s not eating it right away and complaining. This guy’s pickiness is getting worse.

“You’re not eating it? I’ll take it away?”

– Bbiik!!

When I reached out my hand towards the Mana Stone, Piyak hurriedly ate it up as if it would be taken away and hugged the Mana Stone bottle again.

“Peace, look at your sibling. It’s going to try to swallow the bottle whole.”

– Kkiang.

Peace tapped my leg with its front paw as if it didn’t care and wanted me to hug it. That’s your food, you rascal.

I left Piyak to have its romance with the Mana Stone bottle, picked up Peace, and sat on the sofa. I’ve already installed the SNS app.

‘It’s been a while.’

I’ve never really done it properly. I made it following the trend, but I didn’t have anything to post, so I quit quickly. I put the picture of Peace and Piyak that I took a little while ago as my profile picture. So cute. Then I uploaded the pictures of Peace as a baby that I had taken before, Piyak rolling on the table, and Piyak hugging the bottle.

Should I add tags or something?

‘Hmm, let’s just do it roughly.’

First, I’ll follow Haeyeon Guild, Seseong, Breaker, and Hanshin. I should follow MKC for now. And the Hunter Association, there’s a separate market account.

In the short time I was searching like that.

2,155 Followers

The number of followers, which was 0, increased instantly. No, why is it so fast? The guild accounts have already followed back. The comments are also constantly increasing.

– Peace!!! Sister!!!! ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

– Ah, so cute ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ What is that cotton ball ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

– Is this really Han Yoojin’s account? Did he add another monster????

– I want to put it in my mouth like mochi!!!!!!!

– Crazy… Peace as a baby… Take me ♡

Hmm, our kids are a bit cute. To avoid suspicion from the Liet account, I need to increase the following by about a hundred more. It’s a bit much to only follow Hunters, so should I look for some famous celebrities? Who’s popular these days.

While searching through my memories, I checked the incoming messages. More than half were questions asking if it was really me. Among them, one message that felt excited caught my eye.

– Hello!! I’m Park Hayul, whom you met at the broadcasting station before! I’m sorry to send you a message so suddenly, but I’m so glad! Is Piyak a new monster you brought in? It’s so cute ㅠㅜㅠㅠㅠ

Broadcasting station? Park Hayul? Who was that. As soon as I entered Park Hayul’s account, I immediately remembered.

He was the guy with the Face Optimization skill.