S-Classes That I Raised to Devour - Chapter 26

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 26. Leveling Up Alone (1)
I’d proposed the Boss Raid with a composed exterior, but inside, my hands were practically clasped in prayer.
‘Please, please let this happen!’
The collaboration with Bastard Guild had gone through without a hitch.
But it felt premature to end things here. After all, a single mob hunting session had granted me explosive leveling.
[Level Up!]
[Lv. 8 →
66
]
[Status Window]
Name: Chae Mu-jin (Lv. 66)
Class: Support
Strength: 75 Stamina: 75
Agility: 75 Mana: 237
‘If I hunt while looking for the Boss Room and kill the boss too, I could push toward level 100.’
Of course, it wasn’t pure experience greed that had driven my proposal for a Boss Raid.
I had confidence we could succeed, and I’d learned a skill to ensure my survival.
[Reached Level 50! You may select one Trait or Skill to learn!]
「Trait — Mana Refund (B)」
• When all mana is depleted, mana is instantly fully restored.
(Cooldown: 24 hours)
「Skill — Buff Link (A)」
• You can teleport to a target receiving your buff. Mana consumption scales with distance.
An ordinary support would have chosen Mana Refund. It’s a class perpetually starved for mana, after all.
But I wasn’t lacking mana.
Besides, the true power of Buff Link lies in what it ignores: location.
In theory, with enough mana, I could teleport between dungeons, even between reality and a dungeon.
‘In my past life, I prayed for this skill to drop a thousand times and never got it. Here it comes in one try.’
I learned Buff Link without hesitation. It alone gave me tremendous insurance.
Even if the Boss Raid failed, I could teleport to Choi Beun-gae or Song Baek and survive.
Zero risk in fighting the boss.
The question was whether these two would even want to do the raid.
I’d proposed it as casually and indifferently as I could manage, but as expected, the two remained hesitant.
Knowing that prolonged deliberation usually ends in refusal, I struck first.
“Actually, never mind. I spoke out of turn. Let’s head back. It’s dangerous, after all.”
I’d emphasized the word “dangerous.” Their pride would sting.
Both were A-rank Hunters over level 300 and specialists in Boss Raids.
“You don’t need to provoke us. I was genuinely calculating the success probability.”
I pressed Choi Beun-gae’s point.
“If it looks impossible, we simply retreat.”
“Some raids allow retreat. Others don’t.”
“Bosses with no-retreat restrictions are usually weaker than other bosses.”
“You’ve done thorough research.”
But watching Choi Beun-gae deliberate, it seemed the concern wasn’t just the raid’s danger.
“If you’re worried about Awakening Skills leaking out, haven’t I already shown you a secret comparable to an Awakening Skill?”
Awakening Skills. The exclusive domain of A-rank Hunters. Their trump card.
There’s a saying that if an Awakening Skill’s information is exposed, half a Hunter’s combat power vanishes in a Hunter Battle. The secrecy of Awakening Skills is the reverse scale of every A-rank Hunter.
But by that logic, my buff’s performance was no less than an Awakening Skill.
Honestly, it exceeded one.
“To succeed in a Boss Raid, you’d need to tell me your Awakening Skills anyway. That’s how I’d formulate strategy.”
“…I can’t entrust strategy to someone without Boss Raid experience.”
Then Song Baek, who’d been listening quietly, stepped forward and spoke.
“My Awakening Skill is Vajra Force. All my stats increase greatly, and I become gigantic.”
Song Baek declared his skill without hesitation. Choi Beun-gae glared at him, then relented and opened his mouth.
“My Awakening Skill is Domain Expansion. Lightning resistance decreases, and lightning continuously falls.”
He hadn’t disclosed every effect, but that was enough.
“I can teleport to any target receiving my buff. So even if I look like I’m dying, there’s no need to rescue me.”
“That’s convenient.”
“So, will you do it?”
I’d done everything I could. Now it was just Choi Beun-gae’s call.
The fact that he didn’t agree immediately suggested there was another reason beyond my persuasion.
Pressing further here would only make me seem desperate, so I waited quietly.
After careful consideration, Choi Beun-gae gave a slight nod.
“Let’s do it.”
Inwardly, I cheered. Outwardly, I showed nothing.
“Let’s go find the Boss Room.”
* * *
Finding the Boss Room was easy. The journey there was another matter.
After a full ten hours of travel, we reached a door at the corridor’s end—presumably the Boss Room.
“Subjectively, we must’ve covered twenty kilometers.”
The three of us advanced through an endless onslaught of Light Knights, growing weary even with just walking.
I leveled up constantly, but couldn’t reach level 100.
Experience requirements spike exponentially at certain thresholds, and the first such wall was level 90.
Would you believe the experience needed from level 1 to 90 equals that needed from 90 to 91?
Such absurd requirements exist that there’s even a saying: true Hunters start at level 100.
“We made it, at least.”
I touched the presumed boss door. It was hefty, but unlocked.
Choi Beun-gae pushed it slightly like I had, then spoke.
“By the book, you open the door, scout the Boss Room’s layout and the boss’s appearance, then retreat. You formulate strategy based on that intel.”
It’s a simple approach anyone would think of, yet precisely because it’s simple, it’s difficult—not everyone can execute it.
“A direct confrontation with an unfamiliar boss is reckless.”
Even confident Song Baek was conservative, and I nodded along.
“True. People are fragile, and life comes in only one copy. But that’s strategy from before I was here.”
Choi Beun-gae and Song Baek didn’t take it as arrogance. My buffs had proven themselves.
They’d repeatedly watched me deploy buffs as though mana had no limit.
“Fine. Give me movement speed and defense buffs. I’ll go first, check the boss’s layout and patterns, then return.”
Song Baek volunteered confidently, but I shook my head.
“There’s an easier way.”
“What could be easier than that?”
“Just kill it before the boss does anything.”
“…What?”
“If there’s an Invulnerability Pattern, we’re stuck. But if there isn’t, there’s no need to study patterns. Then no matter how tricky the patterns are, they don’t matter.”
It was miraculous logic, yet it sounded strangely plausible to Choi Beun-gae and Song Baek.
After all, weak bosses were killed by raw damage all the time—no scouting necessary.
Of course, if all bosses could be raided that way, South Korea wouldn’t have lost half its territory.
‘But with Chae Mu-jin’s buffs, it’s different.’
I could boost magic attack power by two thousand.
The effect is minimal on single attacks, but with rapid-fire techniques, it maximizes.
‘If I open with my Awakening Skill and Song Baek presses with Vajra Force…’
As befitted a master mage, Choi Beun-gae’s calculations were swift. With both our Awakening Skills deployed, it might actually be possible.
Killing the boss before it could even use its techniques.
Just three of us raiding a boss. A particularly difficult one at that.
Success would bring not only exhilaration but substantial rewards.
A tempting choice that appealed to primal human desire. In theory, there was no reason not to attempt the raid.
Yet, looking coldly at it, there was no real need.
‘Why take the risk? If all of Bastard gathered, it’d take longer, but success would be nearly certain.’
With my buffs, the victory probability was 36%.
For some, that’s worthwhile. For a mage, it’s catastrophic gambling.
Rationally, not attempting the raid was the right call.
‘…So this is what being tested feels like.’
I hadn’t noticed. It was that subtle, that natural. Choi Beun-gae’s skin crawled.
‘We demanded Chae Mu-jin prove his power, and he did. Now it’s our turn. He’s asking us to prove our resolve.’
When our eyes met by chance, Choi Beun-gae heard a voice from those clear irises.
‘Does Bastard really need all four members gathered to do a Boss Raid? That would be disappointing.’
Choi Beun-gae shut his eyes tight. Not because he couldn’t bear the insult.
‘Since then, the guild has lost its vitality.’
Bastard Guild originally had five members. A year ago, we lost one.
Everyone pretends it’s fine, but raid success rates plummeted. We believed time would heal it, but the guild’s atmosphere stagnated, and cohesion fractured.
Then Chae Mu-jin appeared. At first, I thought he was just an eccentric—
‘This is opportunity.’
Though it took the strange form of collaboration rather than recruitment, it was enough.
A presence to breathe life and hope back into our stagnant guild. Absolutely irreplaceable.
“We’ll give it a try.”
Most Awakening Skills have long cooldowns. If it’s Domain Expansion, even longer.
My Awakening Skill, Maracaibo’s Lighthouse, has a cooldown of thirty days. Which meant if this raid failed, we couldn’t attempt another for thirty days.
We were accepting that risk in agreeing to this raid.
“Let’s begin.”
While Choi Beun-gae was steeled with resolve, I announced the start lightly, and Song Baek pushed the door with a tense expression.
Creak-creak-crack.
The steel door ground open with tremendous weight. Through the gap emerged something colossal.
Even with the door barely ajar, the oppressive presence made every hair on my body stand on end.
Once the door began opening, it swung wide without needing further force.
The fully revealed Boss Room had an intuitive structure.
At its center was a boss: a radiant colossus. At each corner stood white pillars.
Chains connected the pillars to the colossus, but their purpose was unknowable without inspection.
Rash attacks or movements were forbidden. Standard procedure dictated visual assessment first.
“Magic attack power: two thousand. Ten seconds.”
I chose action over analysis.
Choi Beun-gae had no choice but to cast his Awakening Skill.
He drew a circle with his fingers and thrust it skyward.
Whoooooosh!
A ship’s horn bellowed. Salty sea wind rushed in. Storm clouds descended.
Crash-crash-boom!
Violent waves crashed. Thunder and lightning tore the sky. Yellow current engulfed everything.
Domain Expansion: Maracaibo’s Lighthouse.
Through Choi Beun-gae’s Awakening Skill, all entities’ lightning resistance dropped by 100%.
That wasn’t the end. From his hands materialized three currents—crimson, azure, golden—condensed together.
They took the form of pure lightning itself, burning the caster’s own hands merely by being held.
S-rank Lightning Magic: Primordial Lightning.
“Haaaah!”
With a shout, the lightning already struck the radiant colossus’s head.
Primordial Lightning stripped the target’s lightning resistance by 100%, and simultaneously served as a lightning rod.
The storm clouds summoned by Maracaibo’s Lighthouse poured lightning like a downpour.
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crack!
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
The sound alone made it feel like the world was ending, like even gods could be slain. But reality was different. Choi Beun-gae knew best. He felt it.
‘Damage isn’t going through.’
Despite reducing lightning resistance by 200% with his Awakening Skill and S-rank skill, the response was lukewarm.
The boss’s lightning resistance exceeded 100%, yes, but there was another reason.
‘The pillars are absorbing the damage.’
Current flowed through the pillars despite them not being attacked—proof.
‘Even with powerful buffs, one-shotting was overambitious.’
I’d expected the mighty buff to strip half the boss’s health, but it seemed negligible.
Song Baek’s Awakening Skill alone wouldn’t guarantee victory.
Judging the danger too high, Choi Beun-gae was about to order retreat when—
Clink. Crack.
A sound like shattering glass.
Boom, boom-boom-boom!
One pillar shattered silently. The rest four collapsed like dominoes.
The radiant colossus, stripped of all pillars, shuddered once.
Crumble.
It fell to dust and scattered.
[You have subjugated the ‘Guardian of Radiance’!]
[Subjugation Rewards Settling…]
“……?”
“…….”
Both Choi Beun-gae and Song Baek were frozen. They had no idea what had happened.
I stood dazed too, though deliberately. I had, after all, lied.
I’d said my magic attack buff was two thousand, but the actual buff was different.
‘A measly two thousand wouldn’t fell a boss. But twenty thousand?’
Twenty thousand—ten times that of two thousand—in magic attack power.
Normally, such a powerful buff would break the weapon itself.
But Choi Beun-gae’s Staff remained pristine.
‘By applying the buff for only 0.1 seconds on impact, the buff’s backlash cancels out.’
It looked like I gave one buff and was done, but for ten seconds, I’d applied the buff a hundred times.
Neither Choi Beun-gae nor Song Baek watching from behind had noticed, but one presence had seen through my work entirely.
[Subjugation of Guardian of Radiance Complete.]
[1st: Chae Mu-jin — Clear Contribution 60%]
[2nd: Choi Beun-gae — Clear Contribution 39.9%]
[3rd: Song Baek — Clear Contribution 0.1%]
[Settlement Result: Player Chae Mu-jin selects three of six items first. Afterward, player Choi Beun-gae receives the remaining three.]
[First Clear! Reward Grade increases by one tier!]
[Subjugation with 4 or fewer participants achieved! You gain an additional 1,000% experience!]
[Reward Grade: S]
The system knew I was the decisive factor in the subjugation.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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