The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 596: The Party’s Over (5)

–Any more than this and Daddy’s body won’t handle it. And the mist’s power is gone now…

Gyeol glanced at Chatterbox and whispered quietly. Borrowing S–rank power put a huge strain on me. I’d already been swinging around the King of Harmless’s power like crazy, so I had to be near my limit. But still.

“F–rank is okay, right?”

–Huh?

Golden eyes blinked.

“I mean your Daddy from before regression.”

–Uh, yeah. Up to mid–rank is possible!

“Thing is, I never really got used to mid–rank Hunter abilities.”

I’d barely used C– or B–rank abilities, and almost no A–ranks. I’d maybe used my Teacher skill on Seonghan and Soyeong once. With just that much experience, even if my body could take it, I’d have a hard time handling it.

“But I’m fine. My own abilities are fine.”

I’d worked hard for five years. Even as F–rank, I’d still been a Hunter, and I’d survived to the end. It was better than this body that hadn’t even been awake for a full year. My legs might be hurt now, but my level and stats were higher. And above all, they were the stats I knew best. Because that was Han Yujin.

“…Even if you’ve suppressed my power for a short while, that’s all.”

Chatterbox twisted his mouth as he spoke.

“The essence is unchanged, so it’s impossible for you to kill me with your power.”

“We won’t know until we try.”

You sure like to hear yourself talk. I recalled the power I’d had before regression. I’d spent the last half–year avoiding that version of me, but the feeling spread sharply through my whole body. The strength in my grip increased. My arms and legs felt clearly sturdier.

Compared to the S–ranks whose power I always borrowed, it was pathetically small. But that was fine.

“Let our esteemed big shot roll around in the dirt for once!”

I kicked off the ground. Chatterbox watched me charging at him with annoyed eyes. Even with the mask off, he’d always acted like he was still wearing one, and he was finally starting to look worth a damn. He pulled out his staff, lifting it upright like he meant to casually block my rush. But right before sword and staff met—

Scrrrt—

I dug my heels in and skidded to a stop. My toes, which had been scraping across the ground, halted, and instead of swinging my sword, I detonated a bomb.

Boom!

“You think I’m crazy enough to go head–to–head with you!”

The power gap was ridiculous. Even if the Ruler’s Sword had accepted me, the one swinging it was F–rank Han Yujin, not S–rank Han Yuhyun. The strength my little brother left me had already been used up and vanished, so there was no way it could compare to when he wielded it.

Another blast thundered out. Chatterbox, in his high–rank Hunter body, got caught in the explosion but only ended up shoved back a little. I hadn’t expected it to hurt him anyway. While the smoke billowed thick and blocked his view, I activated my Stealth skill. Then I pulled a water bottle and a glass vial out of my inventory.

‘Ms. Evelyn gave me a really nice present.’

Insect eggs that hatched on contact with water. I opened the bottle, poured the eggs in, and tossed it. Crack, the bottle shattered, and tiny flying insects poured out. Dungeon creatures so weak you could barely call them monsters. I hit a few of them with my Teacher skill.

The gnats’ senses flowed into me. The ability to sense heat and animal scent. Through the smoke, I felt Chatterbox’s position. I could see his shape and movements as clearly as if I were staring right at him. I crept in close and—

Whoosh–!

“Ugh!”

Suddenly, the staff whipped toward me.

What the hell, there’s no way he can see me… oh.

“Jellyfish!”

The King of Harmless, drifting around near me, turned with a “Huh?” look on her face. I’d forgotten about her!

“Hey! Get– oof!”

With smoke coiling around him, Chatterbox lunged right up to me and jabbed the end of his staff into my chest. It didn’t hurt thanks to Grace, but my body was slammed backward hard. A wire whistled in toward me as I staggered. He still couldn’t see me, so he was probably trying to snag me first and then steal Grace.

“Go float over there and just watch!”

I yelled at Ru Ga Pheya and threw myself flat. I dropped my chest so low it almost hit the ground, bracing on my hands so I wouldn’t smack down completely. The wire ripped through the air above me. The instant I dodged, I sprang back up like I was on a spring. Backing up, I raised my gun and fired.

Bang!

The magic bullet grazed Chatterbox’s shoulder. Guessing my position from the direction the shot came from, he charged at me again with terrifying speed and power. But still—

“You know.”

I dropped Stealth. Ka–gak, the Ruler’s Sword cut a wide arc in front of me. Thunk! Staff and blade collided, and unable to bear the force, my feet scraped a long line across the ground. My arm went beyond tingling straight to numb and I lost my grip. Thud, the sword buried itself in the dirt and Chatterbox’s kick slammed into my gut. Even as I was knocked back, I pulled the trigger. He barely managed to land without falling, dodging the magic bullet, and I looked at him.

The corners of my mouth tugged up on their own.

“There’s nothing there.”

“…”

“You’re just moving that body around. There’s nothing inside.”

No Gi Os Sanus, no nameless Hunter. A laugh slipped out. Just look at him.

“You called yourself a maze magician. But all you’re doing is swinging a staff. And that Hunter’s skills? Chatterbox, you don’t have a past.”

The magician threw himself away. The original owner of the body was gone too. And now he’d even lost the newly born party host.

“Yeah. That’s nothing.”

The King of Harmless said it. Just like she said, the one standing in front of me wasn’t anyone.

“…It’s only for a moment.”

He pushed off hard and charged at me. No skills, just his bare body. I popped a smoke bomb and slid back into Stealth. The bugs’ senses pierced the haze, and I pressed in tight to the hesitating Chatterbox as another boom went off between us. Scrraape, his dress shoes carved trenches in the dirt as he was shoved back by the pressure. I sent another magic bullet his way and yanked the Ruler’s Sword free of the ground.

“And didn’t you, Han Yujin, throw away your own past?”

His sharpened eyes glared toward where I was, like he was asking what made me any different from him.

“I did.”

Regression was like that. Throwing away the self you’d built. Even if that self hadn’t actually vanished and was still stacked up inside me, the me who decided to regress had definitely abandoned five years of his life. That was something I couldn’t deny.

“I still haven’t completely accepted myself.”

Watching Chatterbox sprint toward my voice, I aimed my gun at a tree.

“I couldn’t protect them. I lost them.”

Bang! The tree’s base blew apart and the trunk crashed down. I fired in quick succession and used the falling trunk as a ramp to sprint up. Chatterbox’s staff sliced through the branches crashing down on him in a single sweep. Thud, thud! Huge trees toppled one after another, kicking up plumes of dust. He smashed the ones coming straight for him with irritable jabs of his staff. But far more trees fell intact. As the logs piled around him like a woodpile, I threw in a trap item Myungwoo had given me.

Pop!

Something sticky, like spiderwebs, spread out like a net. Chatterbox tried to dodge, but the stacked logs got in his way. He could’ve shattered the wood easily, but in the instant he hesitated to do that, the trap dropped over him. The pathetic former Transcendent who couldn’t even teleport or fly now grimaced as the webbing wrapped around him.

“So yeah, I still.”

…couldn’t help but hate myself. With Gyeol clinging to me, I swallowed the rest of the words and swung my sword at Chatterbox. Crunch, the blade dug into his arm as he twisted desperately out of the way. But I didn’t have the strength to cut the arm off completely.

“Are you really S–rank? Tough as hell!”

“Y–you…!”

Chatterbox yanked hard on his own arm. The trees tangled in the webbing surged and shook. Wow, strong too. I darted back and fired a clean shot straight into the wound.

“Kh!”

Blood flew. The wound tore open even deeper. Crrrk, over a dozen thick trees scraped across the ground as the webs stretched taut. They wouldn’t last long. While Chatterbox poured everything he had into tearing free of the trap, I closed in again and detonated a poison round right near the wound.

“That body of yours have Poison Resistance? Oh, even if it does, you can’t use it, right? Different mana pattern.”

“Han Yujin!”

“Yeah, I’m Han Yujin! Unlike a certain someone, I’m still me!”

Even if I hated myself, or liked myself, or loathed myself to the point of disgust, I’d still made the me that stood here now.

“Ghh…!”

Crack–crack, the trees heaved and the webs wrapped around Chatterbox’s body snapped one after another. His face twisted savagely as he swung his staff. Snap! Crunch! The stacked logs shattered apart, fragments flying.

“You’ll never stand alongside S–ranks, alongside your brother!”

“Ooh, hit a nerve, did I? You’re dropping your honorifics.”

Thunk! Chatterbox kicked a tree at me. I hopped aside lightly and kept heckling him.

“Your way of talking was honestly annoying as hell!”

“You’ll stay just like this! Crawling on the ground to the very end!”

“Pretty sure I’m up in a tree.”

Chatterbox snapped his head toward the tree my voice had come from. And right then—

Bang!

“Ghk!”

A magic bullet loaded with plenty of mana smacked into his back. As he reeled, I kicked his legs out hard.

“Ow!”

My foot hurt too, but Chatterbox went straight down on his face. Watching him eat dirt put me in a great mood.

“Wow, look at you crawl. Way better at it than an F–rank!”

My voice floated down from the tree again. It was the walkie–talkie I’d used with Seong Hyunjae. The King of Harmless, watching the show, clapped her hands. Gyeol lifted his forepaws and clamped them over his mouth so he wouldn’t laugh out loud.

“It’s true I’m lacking in a lot of ways. But so what.”

I probably wasn’t ever going to become S–rank. Even if F–ranks could grow now, my lifespan would probably run out first. If I did well, I might claw my way up to mid–rank.

“My arms are already full. I’m already holding onto a ton, and I’m going to keep doing that.”

I didn’t think Han Yujin fell short of S–ranks as a person. But the world, people’s eyes, reality, weren’t going to change overnight. It was true I was weak, and my weakness would keep getting in the way.

“Standing perfectly shoulder to shoulder with my brother and the people around me, back to back with them… that’s going to be hard. I know that.”

Chatterbox staggered back to his feet. Maybe the poison was kicking in; his face was pale. Covered in dirt, teeth clenched, he finally looked pretty human. Nicely, pathetically human.

“I might get ignored, or shoved to the back. Sure. But I’ve got no plans to let go. I don’t care about ranks. I just.”

Whether they were S–rank or F–rank or anything else—

“They’re the people I like. The people I want to protect. The people I want to stay with. That’s all.”

I just wanted to be with them, to keep liking them, and that was why I wanted to get stronger. It felt like I needed to be able to stand level with S–ranks to pull that off. And sure, S–rank had more advantages than F–rank. But still. Whatever happened with my abilities—

“I’m not giving up. Not to the very end.”

Even if I ended up alone again. No matter what anyone said, I’d keep trying to hold on and I’d keep holding them.

I adjusted my grip on the Ruler’s Sword with both hands. The sense of my mana imprint had faded, but I focused as hard as I could on the Black Dragon’s mana stone. Maybe because it was already active, I could feel mana radiating heat.

‘Just once. He pisses you off too, doesn’t he.’

I glanced back at Gyeol. He’d been pressed tight against my shoulder, and when he sensed my gaze, he pinned his ears down.

“Just five seconds, no, three.”

–Mrrr…

Grumbling, Gyeol still nodded. Then he whispered softly.

–Really only three seconds. You can’t use pre–regression Uncle.

With Chatterbox in his current state, three seconds was plenty. I wanted to beat him down with my own fists, but that wouldn’t even leave a bruise. I strode up to Chatterbox as he panted through the poison.

“Hey.”

I wrapped myself in Stealth and dragged out Yuhyun’s power at the same time. Chatterbox tried to dodge, but I moved faster.

Crunch!

The pitch–black blade drove into Chatterbox’s chest and flames roared up along the sword. Even the blood all evaporated; aside from the mouthful he coughed up, there wasn’t even the stink of it.

“It won’t… work…”

Maybe the blade had pierced his lungs; he wheezed blood and twisted his mouth into a painful smile.

“I… won’t… die…”

…He really wasn’t dying. Even though he was gasping like his breath would cut off any second, the bastard kept hanging on. Damn it, even weakened, was his core so strong S–rank power couldn’t kill him? Then what was I supposed to—

“Gah!”

Suddenly, a sword blade burst out of Chatterbox’s neck. The Ruler’s Sword hummed softly. In answer, the blade piercing his throat lit up. What the hell was that?

–Daddy!

Gyeol shouted at me to get back. Three seconds had long since passed. I reflexively jumped away.

“Th–this?!”

With a sword stuck through his neck, Chatterbox swayed. The glowing blade faded, and he dropped to his knees with a thud.

“Huh? Something’s off with him.”

Ru Ga Pheya tilted her head. Gyeol tapped my shoulder.

–Daddy, he feels weaker.

“…Yeah.”

The coughing Chatterbox felt, somehow—

“Kind of like me now?”

He felt like F–rank. I had no idea what had just happened, but whatever.

“Hey, can you die now?”

I slid the Ruler’s Sword back into my inventory and rolled up my sleeves.

I’d just have to check.