< That’s Not How You Use It >
The fire that had covered the entire basin and that very force had died down a lot. The flames that were nibbling away at the few remaining grass blades were being trampled under feet. Sparks shot out as if struggling, but there wasn’t a single bit of soot on Yoohyun’s shoes.
If your attribute resistance was over B-Rank, it wasn’t just your body – the clothes and equipment you were wearing were also affected. Han Yoohyun had grown his A-Rank fire resistance to S-Rank in one year. Even if he dove into a fire pit, not even his shirt collar would burn at all.
-Bbiiii
The Gold Beak Maiya let out a thin noise that didn’t suit it. The red eyes with horizontal pupils rolled towards Yoohyun, and it raised its neck frill as it half spread its wings. It was clearly a wary attitude.
-Bbiik bbiik
It consecutively called short calls as if in warning, when,
Puhdeudeuk
It flew up into the sky.
Han Yoohyun stopped and looked up at the bird. A shadow was cast over him, before it quickly went far away. Each time it flapped its wings, fire rain fell from the sky.
Chiiik
The death throes of the flames against the ice fog above our heads like a tent were continuously heard.
“I haven’t heard that Guild Leader has a flight skill. Will it be okay?”
Yerim said softly.
“It’s okay.”
He didn’t have a flight skill but he had a substitute skill.
But why wasn’t he using it? Was he thinking of making it lower its guard? If flight monsters thought that their opponent couldn’t fly, they lowered their guards considerably, and an opportunity could occur. He was being cautious.
-Bbiiiik!
When it flew low about two more times and the opponent didn’t move a single inch, the bird leaned back and cried as if excited. It was naive like the birdbrain it was. It would be perfect to use Green Willow Leaves right now, but… he wasn’t using it.
‘Why isn’t he moving at all?’
Being cautious was good, but it was too excessive. Green Willow Leaves also had a field-of-sight confusing effect so he could end it at once with this timing. Exactly what was he waiting for?
Paak
The flamed wings stretched as wide as they could. Around the axis of the end of one wing, the slowly turning preparation action right before an attack. Soon after,
Tak!
The wings folded, and it fell like that. It truly was a beak that pierces down in the blink of an eye. Against the attack that would be hard to block even as an S-Rank if you weren’t specialized in defense, Han Yoohyun turned his body as little as possible and avoided it.
Then, a thin sword that he was suddenly holding out of nowhere cleverly burrowed into the tightly held wing.
Kwadeudeuk, the flesh tore and blood splattered and bone cracked.
-Bbiehhk!
The Gold Beak Maiya clawed at the ground with its feet and rolled its body. While the ashes and sparks flying around covered the field of view, the bird took out the reserve wings and hurriedly flew up.
-Bbiik! Kiik!
The wing that was half torn off by Yoohyun’s blade was seen fluttering. The Maiya surged up high as if it was afraid.
That was strange. Didn’t I definitely say that it had reserve wings? Why did he attack the wings instead of jumping up with Willow Leaves and directly aiming at the head? Of course, if you didn’t have a type of flight skill, it would be standard to handle the wings first even if it had reserve ones, but…
‘Could it be.’
Did he not get Green Willow Leaves yet? Then again, since it wasn’t an initial skill, it could be that he didn’t have it now. Shit, I messed up. He probably wouldn’t lose, but it would probably take the entire day.
“Wow, Yoohyun oppa moves really cleanly.”
Yerim admired. His title became ‘oppa’ again.
“But that bird bastard, would it be afraid and not come back down again? As expected, should I go help? Fly up with Guild Leader-.”
“Then you’ll burn to death.”
So what if you were S-Rank. You were at a low level without even fire resistance. And Sigh was only at the level of blocking indirect flames.
“Even if the area of Yoohyun’s fire resistance is quite wide, if you aren’t completely stuck to him in an embrace like I was a while ago, it can’t cover a whole other person. If you approached stuck like that, it would restrict your actions too much, and it’s highly possible you’d suffer instead. Still, Yoohyun might be unharmed, but Yerim, you’d probably barely survive.”
“But it seems like it won’t move from the sky. Isn’t it confining us here?”
“The boss has a strong instinct to protect its territory so it’ll eventually come down. Though it’ll take a long time.”
Thankfully, there was only one pair of reserve wings, so if we were lucky, only one more wing needed to be cut off and it would finally lose. If the directions didn’t match up or if it protected its wings well, it would probably take longer. I had to feed Peace, so would we be able to leave by dinner?
-Biik! Biik!
The extremely suffering bird just shrieked and didn’t hastily try to lower its altitude. Still, seeing how it didn’t completely run away, it seemed like it would soon come to attack again. Though the problem was when that would be.
-Biiii
Huh? It kind of seemed like that bird bastard was glancing towards us. Was it racking its brains, thinking that it wouldn’t be overcome? And it was stealthily lowering its altitude.
Yoohyun must have noticed it too, because he moved toward us and used a skill.
“Green Willow Leaves!”
What, so he did hav… Hey! Why that!
Bafflingly, Yoohyun was only using Green Willow Leaves as a restraining skill to interrupt the opponent’s field of vision and movement. So it wasn’t that he didn’t have it but that he was inexperienced in the ways of using the skill!
Then again, the skill explanation window didn’t kindly teach things like ‘step on these and jump up~’. If you only looked at the explanation window, you would think it was an assistance skill for vision disturbance.
I raised my voice and yelled.
“Hey! Step on those!”
“What?”
“The leaves! Step on them and jump!”
After being shortly taken aback, Yoohyun jumped up. Then, the tips of his toes trampled on the green-tinted leaves. If they were normal leaves, they wouldn’t have been able to handle the weight and would’ve fallen, but those green willow leaves swayed in the air as if they hadn’t been affected at all.
The first few steps were awkward, but Han Yoohyun quickly got used to moving while stepping on the leaves, as benefiting a S-Rank stat holder.
His body raced through the air. The incredibly taken aback Maiya rushed at him, but he dodged as if he was on flat land, no, even easier than that. At the same time, he manipulated the group of leaves and disturbed the bird’s sight.
-Bbiik!
The Gold Beak Maiya missed its enemy and was taken aback. In that short period, Yoohyun went up even higher than the bird. Specifically, above the flaming head.
‘So it’s done.’
As soon as I thought so, a spear blade was embedded into the top of the Maiya’s head and,
Puhuhk!
The bird’s head burst like a smashed pudding. That explosion was definitely an option for that spear; what was the spear’s name again?
Thud!
The bird, whose head was half blown away, dropped to the ground. Yoohyun stepped on the leaves that were still remaining and lightly landed on the ground. As expected, it ended quickly.
As soon as the bird died, a blue gate appeared where the original boss goat was.
“Hyung!”
Yoohyun ran to me with a very flushed face.
“That was impressive! To think that Green Willow Leaves can be used as a flight skill! I mean, it was a lot better than someone else putting a flight skill on me!”
He was pleased like a kid that had received presents for both Christmas and Children’s Day at the same time.
“I was the most regretful about not having a flight skill! To think that I had something that good and was letting it gather dust, it’s to the point that I feel stupid! But hyung realized an application method as soon as you saw it.”
No, it wasn’t something I discovered. Originally, Yoohyun, you were the one who… discovered it, was that right? I wasn’t sure. Soon, as Awakening Centers appeared and studies about Awakened People became livelier, large guilds would separately hire skill researchers.
“I got it, so calm down. It wasn’t anything much.”
“How is this not anything much? It’s as if you got a new skill. And an extremely necessary skill at that! I’m weak in long-range attacks in terms of characteristics, so flight monsters were the most complicated for me. But now, I don’t have to frustratingly get someone else’s help! And anyways, guild members with flight assistance skills have low stat ranks so it was difficult to bring them along. It’s really the best!”
Okay, alright. It was something to be pleased about. I’m happy since you’re happy. But since you kept on admiring something I cheated with, this hyung was getting embarrassed.
“Rather than that, shouldn’t we quickly go out? Everyone is probably worrying because the dungeon rank changed.”
“Right, quite a lot of time passed, so the guild and Association must have been alerted. It must have been a fuss.”
We quickly took the loot.
“If it’s okay, should I look at your skills for you?”
I said, right before we went outside. During the Last Repayment, the skill application methods were relayed to me, so I knew more about this guy’s skills than the current Yoohyun.
“Then it’d be great for me!”
Yoohyun replied, delightedly.
“I’ll set aside some time immediately, after just the new A-Rank dungeon attack.”
“Ahjussi, what about me?”
Yerim, who was listening to the conversation, cut in. What about you, punk.
“I already arranged things for you, more or less. Get to 30 levels, and then come back.”
Once three skills appeared, I should at least look at them. I didn’t know if it would help, but it would probably be better than Yerim thinking it over on her own.
When we came outside, as predicted, faces filled with uneasiness and anxiety were gathered there. It was to the point that a small cheer went up when they saw our unharmed appearances.
“It is a relief that you are unharmed, Guild Leader!”
“It seems like Hunter Bak Yerim also isn’t injured!”
Ah, of course, the concern was focused on Yoohyun and Yerim, and Myeongwoo and I were just Extra[1] 1 and 2. That was comfortable and it had to keep on being like that, but.
“Han Yoojin-ssi, are you alright.”
Kim Sunghan came toward me. No, you should inquire after your guild leader first. Why were you speaking to me first? And since it was the famous Haeyeon shield with a high sense of loyalty, everyone was looking here weirdly.
“I am alright. I’m fine.”
So take care of your guild leader instead. Please. Adding insult to injury, even that guy Yoohyun turned to look at me. Ack, the gaze was focused on me. Still, he was that dongsaeng who tried to hide me, so he probably wouldn’t say something unnecessary.
“It looks like I have to go the the Association, so go back to the guild with Sunghan.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Unlike inside the dungeon, it was a slightly stiff voice. As expected, when were were a lot of eyes around, he didn’t show it. It was a commendable attitude.
Of course Yoohyun, and even Yerim left first with the Hunter Association people. Inside the car on our way back to the guild, I opened my Status Window.
‘I got 10 levels at the last moment, right? Definitely.’
You got a little bit of experience just from being near the boss monster. Thanks to that, a level up message window popped up, but there wasn’t any news of a skill acquired window.
‘As expected, the skills are the same. But this…’
A weird point stuck out. That is, it seemed like the color changed a little.
[Perfect Caregiver(L)]
Among my titles, Dragon Slayer was the same, but only Perfect Caregiver was in a different color.
It was kind of red. It was red. It was a red color. Did it get three times faster?
‘This… kind of… seems like a landmine.’
I didn’t think I could check. I wanted to just ignore it. But the problem was that it also seemed like I couldn’t just ignore it.
Person who made the system, exactly what kind of intention was this? Can’t you open the chatting window just once more as two-way?
Even though I mumbled to myself, there wasn’t a following answer. I sighed once and opened the Perfect Caregiver title window. Thankfully, there wasn’t much change with the other skills. Except for one.
[My Brat is the Best(L)]
This one also was a different color.
Wow, this was red. The landmine became red. Looking at this I really didn’t think I could do it. It seemed like it was yelling ‘I’m a trap’. But I couldn’t just not check it for the rest of my life.
Ah whatever.
[My Brat is the Best(L) – The growth rate of the target who becomes influenced after hearing the keyword +100%(/>∀<)/Good luck![2]┕(^ㅁ^┕)
Duration time: 3 days
Already influenced target can use without keyword
Overlap use for same target is not allowed
Reuse standby time for the same target: 30 days
Keyword: I love you
※Inapplicable while the target is aware of the effect of the keyword
Influence completed targets(5)
(Han Yoohyun-S)(Bak Yerim-S)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)(Standby)
Next]
What ‘good luck’. It’s not cute, go away. Besides that, what was that ‘standby’, too. It wasn’t like this originally.
Including the two filled out, it was as much as thirty, but ‘next’ was added. In a moment, I felt like my brain was shorting out.
‘That, um… It wouldn’t be, no way.’
Was it telling me to fill the standby spaces? And seeing how Yoo Myeongwoo and Kim Sunghan weren’t there, with S-Ranks… fuck.
It must be crazy.
Even with Fear Resistance on, my heart was beating fast. If it was off, I definitely would have screamed.
‘Saying ‘found it’… was it talking about the Perfect Caregiver title, possibly the My Brat skill holder?’
And fuck, hook 30 S-Ranks? No, it was probably more than 30. Since I could flip next on the window.
‘I can’t, fuck I can’t even if I die. Even 30 is impossible, are you seriously crazy?’
As if the conscience of the bastard who made the system became extinct in the early evening. Domestic S-Ranks weren’t even ten, so was it saying to reel in through the world stage? Then at the very least, it should ease the conditions or something. I’d like to request changing of the keyword and cancelling the weird additional effect. If you don’t, I won’t, I can’t.
‘I mean, in the first place, there’s no reason for me to follow the instructions of a bastard whose face I don’t even know.’
If it was going to make me do something crazy like this, it should explain detailedly or something. Not something like the ‘good luck’ emoticon, give an explanation, explain. Even in things like novels or comics, movies, these bastards always spoke vaguely so things got messed up; and now even in reality it was like that.
Explain! If you don’t, then I also won’t do it.
‘I seriously got a dark history from just reeling in four, so am I so crazy that…’
Wait. It was definitely four. I checked the skill window again.
[Influence completed targets(5)]
…Why was it five?
[1] lit. ‘background’, which still makes sense in eng but I thought it sounded more natural to use ‘extra’
[2] lit. the eng word ‘fighting’ transliterated as konglish slang