The S-Classes That I Raised [EN]: Chapter 96

The fire lizard slithered onto the hand gripping the steering wheel. It was the same size as a few days ago, but its color had faded slightly, or rather, it had a yellowish tint. Just in case, I used the Seedling Skill.

[Fire Spirit – Rank E]

Its rank had risen in that short time. It was still low, but it was pretty fast.

“That spirit seems to have grown a bit?”

“Really? It’s been eating well.”

“Does it eat things other than fire?”

“It mainly eats fire, but it also swallows mana stones and miscellaneous items from dungeons. It doesn’t even look at ordinary things.”

‘It only eats things from the dungeon, huh?’ The lizard, which had been wandering around Yoohyun’s fingers, climbed up his arm again to his neck. After circling his neck once, it went behind his ear and suddenly disappeared into his right eye.

“…Hey, your eye.”

His right eye had turned red. It sometimes had a slightly dark reddish tint due to the skill’s influence, but now it was completely different.

“It sometimes seeps into my skin like a tattoo, but it prefers to go into my eye,” Yoohyun said casually. Spirits are strange things.

I inadvertently stared at his red eye, and the lizard reappeared, wagging its tail as if it didn’t like something.

“Does it bother you?”

“Huh? Oh, did you make it come out? Can you control it too?”

“To some extent.”

The red, flickering lizard quickly crawled down and came over to me. Peace, who had been sitting quietly on my lap, perked up his eyes and stretched out his front paws.

– Grrr.

He had shown interest since he was an egg, and he seemed to like the fire spirit quite a bit. But the lizard soon turned away and went back to Yoohyun. Peace watched the lizard go with regret.

“…Is the system creator really trustworthy?” Yoohyun asked when we stopped at a light. I turned my gaze from the red light to my brother.

“Well, before trusting or not, I can’t say for sure, but it’s certain that they’re involved with the system. It’s not like they’re asking me to do anything weird.”

I was horrified when they told me to fill 50 slots with only S-ranks, but when I thought about it, it was just like telling me to use my skills diligently. The period was generous, monsters were included, and there was nothing particularly dangerous. The Noah thing was there, but if I didn’t get greedy and just raised the ride-type monsters, it would be safe.

‘It doesn’t seem like they’re pulling any other tricks besides scamming me with the wish stone.’

Returning was better in many ways, so I have no complaints about that. The lack of skill descriptions was something they couldn’t help either. I just wish they would do something about that deer. I wonder if they really cut off its horns.

“For now, I just have to live my life doing what I have to do. There’s nothing else I need to do separately. At most, it’s a bit burdensome? I’m going to go see them today because I have some questions. Do you have anything you want to ask?”

I don’t know if they’ll answer, though. In fact, I don’t know if they’ll be ready to talk this time either. I’m just going to go and see.

“…I have so many things I want to ask that it’s hard to choose. I think it’s the same for other people besides me.”

“I bet if you told Seok Hayan, she’d bring a mountain of questionnaires that would take three months and ten days to read through, with her eyes gleaming.”

The sight of her team members cheering and jumping for joy flashed before my eyes.

“Hyung, is your curse resistance also L-rank?” Yoohyun suddenly asked. I hadn’t told him the rank in detail back then, except for the poison resistance.

“Yeah. Don’t tell anyone else. I know you’ll take care of it.”

Even if the poison resistance is revealed, the curse resistance rank would be really annoying. Even now, curse skills are used in many places, including the inventory and contracts, and they will be used more diversely in the future. But if it’s not just an S-rank but an L-rank resistance skill, it’s as if there’s no curse skill that can bind me. That goes for other people within the skill’s range of influence as well.

“I’ll say it’s S-rank if it gets out.”

It’s impossible to hide it completely given the circumstances, and if it’s an S-rank curse resistance, the range isn’t wide enough to cover one person, and I’m just an F-rank, so they won’t care much. Riet would probably know that much. Maybe she’s expecting even lower. Riet’s contract rank was B, probably because my skill usage ability is still low or because it was made cheaply.

“If that’s the case, you won’t get caught if you’re careful when writing contracts. It won’t be obvious unless you do something like tear up an S-rank contract.”

Hunter’s curse skills have low effects compared to their rank unless the conditions are accepted, so there’s no problem. It’s not like I’m going to hunt monsters with a bunch of offensive curse skills.

“Still, if you ever need to undo an SS-rank or higher curse, I’ll help you. The Saintess can only cover up to S-rank, right?”

It would push my peaceful retirement plan a little further away if I got caught. I wonder if I should tell Yerim too. Unlike poison, curses can be avoided if I’m careful with illegal contracts, so it should be okay.

“I can block contracts up to SSS-rank.”

“Since a curse with agreed-upon conditions can only be blocked by a resistance or undo skill one rank higher, that’s right. But there aren’t any SS-ranks yet, right?”

“No, there aren’t.”

His voice sounded listless as he answered. Are there? I don’t remember any, but you never know.

In the meantime, we arrived at the dungeon building. I stopped in front of the blue gate, and Yoohyun went in first. I was going to wait about 10 minutes before following him.

“…Yoohyun?”

Yoohyun came back out of the gate, with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“…Did we come to the wrong dungeon?”

“No, this is the right one. If it were a different dungeon, we wouldn’t have been able to enter the building in the first place.”

The serial number on the wall next to the gate was also the one for the dungeon we were supposed to go to. Below the serial number, it said D-rank desert environment. Yoohyun looked at it and muttered blankly.

“It’s… snowing.”

“…Snow?”

“It was a snow-covered forest. I didn’t see any monsters either.”

…It’s the first time I’ve heard of a dungeon environment changing. Could it be related to the system people?

“I’ll go in too.”

“No, it might be dangerous.”

“The gate’s open. And I have this too.” I took out Shalos’s bead and said it had the same effect as the bracelet from before, and he agreed. What a picky guy. Yoohyun went inside first, and I followed him through the gate, holding Peace in my arms.

“It really is a winter forest.”

A silent forest covered in white snow unfolded before my eyes. It was like a picture in a Christmas card. Snowflakes fell softly from the hazy sky. They fluttered briefly, then stopped.

“It’s a bit cold.”

“I don’t have anything with cold resistance. It’s easy to offset, though.” Yerim would grumble if she heard that. He took off his coat and put it on me. Then the fire lizard came and wrapped around my neck, and Peace even grew bigger and leaned against me as if to hug me, and the cold quickly disappeared. I couldn’t help but get my shoes wet.

I went a little further into the forest, but it was still quiet all around. A dungeon without monsters. It’s still strange. Even the greeting message window didn’t pop up.

I was wondering if I should leave when…

Crunch!

“Yoohyun!”

A sharp ice spear flew silently and pierced Han Yoohyun’s arm. It wasn’t aiming for his arm. It was aiming for his head, and he blocked it with his arm.

Flames wrapped around his arm and melted the ice in an instant. At the same time, Yoohyun kicked the snow piled up with his toes.

Whoosh—

The snow, which had covered dozens of meters forward like a giant wave, fell back to the ground. But some of it was floating in the air. No, it was covered in something transparent. Something about two meters tall, with a head and shoulder shape similar to a person.

“The stealth skill rank is high. It’s definitely not D-rank,” Yoohyun said quietly, opening a potion bottle. He had already taken out Shalos’s bead. Then I used the Seedling Skill.

[Toy Soldier No. 6 – Rank S

Contractor – □□□□□]

‘…A spirit?’

A similar status window popped up as with Yoohyun’s fire spirit. More than that, S-rank and No. 6? Does that mean there are Nos. 1-5 too? Maybe even more…….

I came to the conclusion that I should escape to the gate as quickly as possible.

[I’m sorry~~]

A message window popped up. Could this be…

“…Yoohyun, wait a minute.”

Yoohyun, who was ready to attack as soon as I used the bead, gave me a puzzled look. Then the message window popped up again, and I saw something bouncing from afar.

[I didn’t know the kids would attack Honey’s brother~~]

A volleyball with eyes, nose, and mouth drawn on it was approaching. Yoohyun frowned slightly. I was wondering what a volleyball was, but before that.

“Is ‘sorry’ enough? You put a hole in someone’s brother’s arm and then pass the buck!”

The round eyes drawn on the volleyball turned into a ㅠㅠ shape [Korean emoticon for crying]. The smiling mouth also wrinkled.

[Honey’s brother is also at fault…….]

“Fault? You suddenly attacked and now you’re blaming me?”

I grabbed the volleyball that had come right in front of me and shook it. Where did you get such a ridiculous excuse?

[No, that’s…….]

“You’re a newbie, aren’t you.”

[I’m Wilson!]

…Wilson? Who’s that? [Reference to the movie “Cast Away”, where the main character befriends a volleyball named Wilson.]

[…I’m a newbieㅠ0ㅠ]

I knew it. Anyway, it’s not an enemy.

“Yoohyun, this is the system—”

I turned my head to tell him that it was okay because it was the system side, and I saw Yoohyun, who had already taken a few steps back, with a flustered expression. Peace was the same. He was looking at me pitifully and scratching at the air, at something like a transparent wall.

[It’ll be difficult if you hear the conversation.]

“Still, you have to explain and send me out.”

It seems like the sound doesn’t work, and I was about to take out a notepad and pen, but the inventory doesn’t work. I had no choice but to squat down and write ‘It’s okay’ on the snow. My hands are cold. I’m glad the lizard is still wrapped around my neck.

“Why did you attack, and what is this place?”

[That’s because Honey’s brother has a relationship with someone we agreed not to mention. This is a dungeon for Honey. If you knock three times in front of the gate, you can come in here. I worked hard to make it!]

“I don’t remember knocking.”

[You have to come in first to let you know. The side we can’t mention has been interfering a lot lately, so I was able to make it.]

I can’t understand what you’re saying because you can’t mention it. Besides, Yoohyun has a relationship with… wait a minute. The absurd and suspicious things Yoohyun said before suddenly came to mind.

“…Is that mention something like a cult? Like Confucianism?”

Confucianism is not a cult, though. The newbie didn’t answer my question. I guess that’s right since you can’t say it.

[Anyway, this place is well cleaned, so nothing dangerous will happen. I can’t keep it open for long, though. About 30 minutes?]

I think it’s already been ten minutes. I have to ask quickly.

“Is that cult very dangerous? Can’t you explain why you told me to collect S-ranks yet? Is there anyone else who can do my job for me? Can you make a dungeon with stamina potion ingredients come out in Japan soon? And there’s a baby bird monster called Ppiyaki, but the status window information isn’t showing up properly. The keyword is applied, but the taming or My Baby skill isn’t applied either. And—”

[Wait a minute! Danger, danger is… it’s okay at the current level. It’s too dangerous to explain in detail. There’s no one who can replace Honey… not yet. But can’t Honey find someone? That would be great!]

Can I find someone? Are you talking about someone with special skills similar to mine?

[Stamina potion ingredients… ah, here. I’ll adjust it so it can come out in about two weeks. Ppiyaki? Uh… um… uh…? The keyword has been applied?]

“Yes.”

[…I don’t see it?@△@??]

You don’t see it? The status window… doesn’t open either. But there was definitely Ppiyaki. The rank was marked as □, though.

[That’s strange. If you bring it, I’ll check it and delete it.]

…Crazy?

“Never mind!”

Damn it, are you crazy about deleting it? I’ll never bring Ppiyaki to the dungeon. The kid might have some bugs, but what’s with deleting it, you crazy person?

“And recently, the first clear reward for the S-rank dungeon was different from before the regression, but is that possible?”

[Is it a consumable?]

“Yes.”

[If it’s a consumable, it’s because it was used. Items, of course, and other things, like death, have all been cut off. If there are several of the same thing, we replace them, but if there aren’t, we put in other items.]

“…Cut off?”

[Yes. That’s what regression is like. Oh, Honey doesn’t know much about it. Even if you regress, only Honey is the target, so the rest remains the same. The world where 5 years have passed remains the same, and only Honey returns to 5 years ago.]

I felt nauseous for a moment. It remains the same. All of that, it all remained the same. Not disappeared, but?

“The remaining, thing, then…….”

[Of course, we can’t just leave it alone. If we leave it alone, it’s like there are two of the same world. So everything overlaps with the present. Basically, it’s the same, so there’s no problem even if we cram it in. It’s like putting information about an apple tree into an apple tree, it’s still an apple tree. However, dungeons, especially high-level dungeons, are a bit different from Honey’s world, so they are affected by the overlap, and the difficulty increases faster. Um, I guess it’s okay to say this much!]

“…Does overlapping mean it eventually disappears?”

[To put it another way, it’s like overwriting a file with the same name, so you can say it disappeared? In fact, it’s merged, but since you don’t feel or realize it, it’s the same as disappearing. Very sensitive people may feel a sense of alienation, but most people don’t know.]

Overwrite. I overwrote the past file with the future file, and other people did the opposite. That’s why the titles from the future, from things I thought had disappeared, remained intact.

Because I’m the future file as it is.

“Then the people who were born after the current point in time, and… the dead people. That, the cut off is…….”

[Information about life that did not exist in the present but did not die before the regression has not disappeared. This is a bit complicated to explain, but the overlapping effect is not completely absent, so they are born mostly similarly and at least the information to replace them comes out.]

The message window continued.

[On the other hand, life that has been used and disappeared or died has already been excluded before the regression. For example, let’s say there are two people, A and B. In the first year, both A and B exist. But in the fifth year, A is still there, but B has died. At this time, the first year and the fifth year are merged, and A in the fifth year exists, but B has died and the information has disappeared. The existing A in the fifth year will be safely merged with A in the first year, but B in the fifth year is treated as deleted information and is cut off from Honey’s world. You can’t merge deleted information with intact information from the first year, right? In the case of the items you mentioned, there is no information from the first year or the fifth year, so they don’t appear at all.]

Deleted information. My head was spinning. B in the first year is also B. Only 5 years may have been erased. Even as I thought that, an inevitable regret rose to my head.

“…It would have been nice if I had just saved them.”

[Huh? Oh, is the explanation a bit difficult? It’s too hard to teach you in detail because I have to tell you too much8ㅅ8] [Korean emoticon for whining]

“No, it’s okay. It’s enough.”

I don’t want to know more details. When I said it was enough, the volleyball disappeared, leaving a message that I would return to the original dungeon in about five minutes.

“Hyung, are you okay?”

– Kyaheung.

Yoohyun and Peace came to my side. I looked up at my brother.

“Of course I’m okay. I just had a conversation. Oh, they said we’ll be back in the original dungeon in five minutes.”

“…You don’t look so good.”

“It’s cold. That’s why. Can I hug you?”

He says it like it’s strange, but he doesn’t refuse. I reached out and hugged my brother. I felt a definite warmth. Isn’t this enough?

“Don’t die before me.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Peace, you too.”

This time I hugged Peace’s neck. Peace is warmer after all.