The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 705: Wolf Hunter (2)

The churning weapons drift lazily through the air. Of the 10 minutes I can stay here, 8 are left. I’d taken down an SS–rank Hunter in just 2 minutes. Or should I say, a wolf.

“It’d be nice if the weapons stayed after this, you know.”

There were still plenty of SS–rank weapons in the Drawer, and I couldn’t take them outside, but it still felt like a waste to melt them down. Originally, this was the method I’d planned to use in London if things went south. That’s why the weapons were already laid out like this. We’d shelved it because dragging an SSS–rank monster in here would have been too much of a burden.

I stripped the gear off the dead Hunter. Looked like he’d been killing other Hunters and looting them too – all his backup weapons were S–rank as well. Unfortunately, Grace was on someone else. Now, what to do with this body.

“Mm, Hyunjae. I swear there is a manager here already, I didn’t make one on purpose.”

“A manager?”

“This place is kind of like Myungwoo’s forge. The person who shows up here is something like Ismuar. Not the real thing, and I didn’t intentionally create them either. Number 71.”

At my call, Number 71 appeared. …In the form of a teenager in a school uniform, pre–awakening. Maybe because, before coming in here, I’d been thinking about Yuhyun sleeping at our old house.

“Welcome, Master.”

“Impressive. To think you’d even use your brother like this, Han Yujin–”

“I said no! I have zero intention of making Yuhyun my servant, okay? It just takes on the form of someone I like. If I wanted a house servant, I’d make it look like Guild Leader of Sesung instead. Anyway, 71. Can you take care of this corpse?”

There were still four of them left. If I dragged a body out and someone found it, that’d be a pain. But leaving it lying around felt gross too. 71 looked down at the corpse. My brow scrunched up automatically – it looked like my high school kid brother staring at someone sliced in half. …Even if Yuhyun himself didn’t mind, I still wanted him to grow up at least kind of gently.

“An SS–rank, with a faint connection to a Transcendent. Master’s understanding and control of this space are still low, so efficiency will be poor, but it can be used as direct mana fuel.”

“I can refill mana with it? Did my control go past five percent already?”

“Roughly three percent. It is possible because he was subordinate to a Transcendent. It should replenish mana for approximately four to five entries.”

I’d been nearly out of chances to enter the Drawer, so that was a relief. More than that – three percent control, huh. That had gone up a lot. At first it had been under 0.01%. Maybe it was thanks to working as a temporary system manager.

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

Time was short, so I headed back out. The snake that had been thrown aside earlier spotted me and slithered over.

– Sss.

“Send your master my thanks. Come here. You on my head, get down to my arm too.”

At my words, the snakes slid into place around both wrists and turned into decorative coils. They were only B–rank monsters, but the venom was serious.

“Which of the three was it?”

As I pulled out the flare, Hyunjae asked.

“Mm, Yuhyun. That obvious?”

“If it were just a Hunter enemy, you wouldn’t use his corpse as materials without a flicker of hesitation. The usual you would look at least a little squeamish. So that’s how you got access to the Young Master’s abilities?”

“Yeah. My stats are F–rank, so in this game, if a teammate who’s protecting me dies… I’m set up to inherit their abilities. With a time limit.”

Final Recompense is supposed to be double, but right now it was just matching. Since that still made sense as a perk for an F–rank, he didn’t seem to doubt me.

“And you barely reacted about the youngest miss either. Take slow, deep breaths.”

“It hasn’t even been an hour since Byeol left. She said she only cried a little. She’s been stuck to me nonstop and suddenly got separated, so of course she was startled. But it sounds like Gyeol and Soyeong did a good job calming her down.”

I’d been worried she might spend all day crying for her dad and brother, but hearing she stopped quickly was a relief. Bang! I fired the flare into the sky. The second wolf would set out in ten minutes. I really wanted to remove that ten–minute wait rule – not enough time – but I wasn’t sure if I could.

“I personally offered my body to soothe her.”

“You can’t just stick anything in her mouth!”

“This time she only held it. Shook it a little, tugged on the wings little Han Gyeol attached…”

“You take good care of kids, that’s comforting to hear. I’ll finish off these wolves quickly and send you home.”

And then I was going home too. The scene from just one hour ago felt like it was months in the past. I let out a long breath, scraped at the dirt with my foot, then dragged the dagger across my arm to draw some blood. I tore my clothes a bit, smeared some dirt on my face like I’d been rolling around, then slumped against a tree.

“Stay hidden nice and quiet in my pocket.”

“…So this isn’t simply a game where you just need to win the fight.”

“It’s just tag.”

Sharp as ever. I opened the system window and removed the ten–minute wait. Maybe because I was changing it to be worse for me, it went through easily. Not long after, I felt someone coming in fast. Since I was only an F–rank, he didn’t even bother to hide his presence. Good. Time to bring in a second meal for the Drawer.

[Current Score

Han Yujin Team: 1

Seong Hyunjae Team: 1]

Three minutes after the second Hunter set out, the score updated and a flare went up. The third Hunter slightly furrowed his brow.

“That’s too fast.”

It wouldn’t have been strange if Han Yujin had ended it quickly by immediately shouting surrender, but it was still fast. Looking puzzled, the third Hunter kicked off the ground. His figure vanished into the forest in an instant. Left at the starting point, Cho Hwawoon also faintly narrowed his eyes and stared at the system window.

“Did the first one make the full twenty minutes?”

Only the Hunter in play saw the time window, and no one had been keeping track themselves. The last–in–line Hunter, who’d been silently standing by, spoke.

“It felt shorter than twenty minutes. More than that, neither of them are returning. Are they set to come back automatically as soon as the round ends?”

Cho Hwawoon’s gaze fixed on the forest where the Hunters had disappeared. Quiet. No screams, not even a faint groan. No sounds of anything breaking or shattering, no explosions. It was SS–ranks against an F–rank. It was possible they’d taken him down so cleanly there’d been no noise.

‘Han Yujin.’

And that F–rank was him. The line between Cho Hwawoon’s brows deepened.

He’d raised S–rank monsters, could identify potential awakening ranks for non–awakened people, and even buff other Hunters. His powerful poison resistance was also extremely useful. But his personal stat rank was still a powerless F. In other words, he was born to be a convenient tool for high–rank Hunters.

Cho Hwawoon had liked Han Yujin. He’d planned to tame him, keep him at his side, and use him in all sorts of ways; he’d never doubted it would turn out that way, so there’d been no reason to dislike him. Having a bit of spine wasn’t bad either. Guys like that, once you break them, become even more obedient. He bared his fangs pretty sharply and wagged his tongue without fear, but an F–rank was still an F–rank.

What tiger would be afraid of a rabbit that kicked a little when you stepped on it? Cho Hwawoon had been enjoying himself, in his own way. Once the younger brother who’d come to rescue him was caught, Han Yujin would have no choice but to bow his head. Once he started calming down, Cho would even have given him some sweet candy. Punishment and reward together made for the best training. Han Yujin should have become a perfectly trained dog that came running with one click of the tongue, rolled over, and wagged his tail.

But when the island went up in flames, Cho Hwawoon’s plan shattered.

‘Humans are not equal.’

People were born different, and with the arrival of awakened, the gap became even clearer. Those who stood above and those who were trampled below were predetermined. That was how Cho Hwawoon’s world worked. Those at the very top decided everything, and that was only natural. What was wrong with the more exceptional people leading society?

The occasional unruly outliers still eventually bowed under power. Han Yujin should have been the same.

But he slipped out of Cho Hwawoon’s hand. Not only that, he nestled himself among S–ranks and acted like he was one of them. Cho Hwawoon’s one and only failure was being recognized by people all over the world. An F–rank who should have been crawling on the ground.

So Cho Hwawoon had to capture Han Yujin and press him back underneath himself. To return to being the rightful ruler, to set the rules of the world back the way he believed they should be, he absolutely had to. The fate of the world, the beings outside it, the fanatics who worshiped them, the wagers of the Transcendents – none of that mattered.

Han Yujin’s submission. Dragging a lowborn upstart down to his original place – that was Cho Hwawoon’s sole goal.

[Han Yujin Team: 2]

The score updated. Not even five minutes had passed since the second Hunter set out. Cho Hwawoon’s expression went cold. Another Hunter, Gérard, also had a stiff look on his face.

“The unbeliever earned a point in five minutes.”

“No way he surrendered. So he killed him.”

There was no other answer. But how. Cho Hwawoon and Gérard drew their weapons. They didn’t know the method, but odds were high Han Yujin had taken down the third Hunter, maybe even all of the first two as well.

Silence settled over them. No sound of insects, nothing. Then Cho Hwawoon swung the arm holding his sword in a wide arc. The sharp burst of mana bisected a tree several meters away. As the trunk creaked and toppled, green willow leaves scattered. And on those slender leaves, Han Yujin landed.

“Knew you’d catch on.”

Black hair swayed over eyes that curved with a smile. There was no sign he’d been kicked around or rolled through the dirt; his appearance was spotless. He’d even changed out of his torn clothes, looking like he was on a casual stroll through the woods. Around him, red–molten blades orbited. An SS–rank sword forged by melting down the S–rank weapons taken from three Hunters.

“I’ve got good news and bad news, which do you want first?”

“What trick did you pull.”

“Bad news. Three wolves got cleanly gobbled up~. The one point I let you have was because he yelled surrender right before I lopped off his head. If I racked up two points in a row you’d get suspicious.”

Smiling, Han Yujin continued.

“And now the good news. My stats are S–rank. Lower than you mutts. Happy now?”

Just like he said, his pressure was weaker than the two Hunters’. Compared to an average S–rank, he was nothing special, and he definitely didn’t feel like SS–rank. But neither Cho Hwawoon nor Gérard let their guard down. Three SS–ranks were already dead by his hand.

“You crawled back out well.”

“It’d be easier to keep taking you one by one, but even if you’ve given up on being human and turned into a dog, you’re not so stupid you wouldn’t notice when they keep not coming back. Or were you totally clueless? Sorry, guess I overestimated you. What a shame.”

Instead of replying, Cho Hwawoon signaled Gérard with his eyes. Their mana entwined, and thorn spears appeared in their hands. Spears for pursuing prey. The more of the wolf clan’s strength you stacked into them, the faster and more accurate they became.

Fweee–

Two thorn spears sliced through the air. Unlike the five that had gone for Han Yuhyun, they weren’t space–shift level fast. But they still raced toward Han Yujin in a blink. His body whipped around, flipping through the air. With Combat Foresight’s help, he narrowly dodged the spearheads. Another pair of spears formed in the wolves’ hands, and as Han Yujin arced through the air, one arm stretched out. The bracelet on his wrist turned into a bow.

It looked like someone had carved a giant bow out of pure crystal – clear, beautiful. A piece of the molten sword latched onto the string as an arrow. SS–rank flame empowered by the Fragment of the First Flame, boosted to SSS–rank. Even for an SS–rank bow, the heat was intense, but Grace – harder than any other weapon – simply caught the light and shone even more brilliantly.

The spears were thrown again. At the same time, the bowstring snapped forward. Fwoosh! The blazing arrow collided with the two spears, and the thorn weapons melted like snow under a midsummer sun. In an instant, the arrow devoured them and slammed on toward the two wolves.

Boom!

Flames exploded. Cho Hwawoon and Gérard dodged away in a flash as the fire pillar roared outward. A second, a third– arrows flew again. Drawing the bow, Han Yujin slid down along the willow leaves toward where the first arrow had struck. As he approached, the arrow reverted to molten metal and flowed back to its master.

“When you’re hunting, you really can’t beat a bow.”

The fire spread quickly, swallowing the forest. With it, Melted Last Gate activated. Once again boosted by the Fragment’s buff, its rank rose and the flames surged even higher.

“Han Yujin!”

Cho Hwawoon’s shout was ragged with fury. The F–rank he had to crush underfoot was up in the sky. Wreathed in flames, a jewel–like bow in hand. His whole body was spotless – not even a scratch on that pale face – and his black eyes, glowing with firelight, looked down on those crawling on the ground. To anyone watching, hunter and prey were clearly defined. Cho Hwawoon’s teeth ground together with a harsh grit.

“The dog’s barking.”

With that offhand reply, Han Yujin’s fingertips gently drew in the metallic liquid orbiting around him. The molten sword soaked up even thicker mana and settled as an arrow in his grip. A soft smile flickered on his lips for a moment.

Final Recompense was incomplete. The memories he’d gained were few, so the stats he’d inherited should have felt awkward, like wearing someone else’s clothes. He’d handled and felt those stats many times before, but they’d continued to grow, and there were new skills too; of course there had to be some mismatch.

Yet his younger brother’s skills obeyed Han Yujin like a weapon worn in over many years. As if their original owner were still right by his side.

Thunk–

The arrow flew. Stronger than anything so far, it burned the air in front of it away and picked up even more speed. The wolves scrambled to dodge. This time, though, they couldn’t escape the brunt of the heat. Strands of hair and pieces of clothing on Cho Hwawoon and Gérard charred black.

“We have to drag him down.”

Forcing his rage down, Cho Hwawoon spoke. At this distance, they’d only be chased around. But in close combat, they’d have the advantage. Not just in stats – he could apply his skill that twisted the enemy’s skills as well.

Gérard gave a small nod and dashed off to Cho Hwawoon’s opposite side. As the two of them split, Han Yujin’s brow lifted slightly.

“How annoying.”

He didn’t know Gérard’s exact stats. Even using Promising Talent, he could only guess from the skill names, not their precise effects. Han Yujin’s gaze went back to Cho Hwawoon.

‘He’ll try to close in, and that bastard’s worse up close.’

Han Yujin recalled the details of Cho Hwawoon’s stats he’d heard from Han Yuhyun and Hwang Rim. In battle, if his opponent’s rank was equal or higher, his stats increased, and he could even funnel stats to allies. Once he grabbed you, it was hard to escape.

Arrows flew toward Cho Hwawoon. Gérard hid his presence among the leaping flames, but Han Yujin had Combat Foresight. Arrow after arrow, impossible to block, forced Cho Hwawoon to roll across the ground, dodging by a hair’s breadth. Some skimmed his arms and legs. He still managed to evade pretty well.

Han Yujin drew the bowstring again. On top of Combat Foresight, he aimed Teacher–type skill at Cho Hwawoon. A powerful backlash slammed against him, but with S–rank stats he could endure it for a short while. The arrow launched.

“…Ugh!”

One of Cho Hwawoon’s ears was torn off. Blood and flesh sizzled away in the heat. He staggered. As Han Yujin hurriedly nocked another arrow, he suddenly whipped around. A thorn spear was coming at him. It was still frighteningly fast, but not so fast he couldn’t dodge.

Except–

“Seriously.”

The spear had a wire attached. Trees and boulders were lashed together, forming a mass larger than a semi–truck hurtling toward him. Too much volume to just vaporize instantly. There was no time to revert his arrow back into a sword either. And on top of that–

“Follow God!”

Gérard was hiding behind it. The Hunter with the massive saw stepped on the wire and lunged at Han Yujin. Jumping high, Gérard’s saw came swinging down from above Han Yujin’s head, wrapped in an ominous aura.

The power to distort skills.

His top and front were blocked. Behind him, Cho Hwawoon’s sword was aimed at his back. The stat gap was clear. Without a teleport, there was no way to avoid it.

Han Yujin laughed.

“Key.”

Before the word even finished leaving his mouth, Hyunjae shoved the Drawer forward. At the same time, Han Yujin vanished. Gérard crashed uselessly to the ground and Cho Hwawoon’s sword carved through empty air. The instant both of them faltered in confusion–

“Hi.”

Han Yujin appeared again. Right in the space he’d just left, bow aimed squarely at the two wolves’ heads. Before they had a chance to react, the arrow flew.