S-Classes That I Raised to Devour - Chapter 46
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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 46. There Are No Bad Yatcha in This World (4)
As one who bore the title of Sword Master, Kim Bong-sik’s pride ran deep.
He wouldn’t even listen to the words of A-rank Hunters as equals, so why should he heed the words of a Support—the lowest-tier profession?
“This isn’t me charging because you told me to. I’m charging because I myself judged this to be the right timing!”
Kim Bong-sik voiced aloud what he could have merely thought, joining the Boss Raid with those words.
But soon his broad nose flared in shock. An impossible situation had unfolded before him.
Five bounds—that’s all it took to close the hundred-meter distance to SQ!
SQ attacked with two Aura Blades, but it was no match.
Kim Bong-sik’s sword had already pierced SQ’s shoulder and slashed clean through—what SQ had struck was merely an afterimage. The speed was incomparable to before.
Yet it wasn’t just speed.
―Armor damage detected.
A deep groove had been carved into SQ’s armor, which had never so much as scratched from Aura Blades. Deep enough for a finger to sink into.
The armor was thick enough that the damage hadn’t reached the interior, but compared to before, the difference was staggering.
―Mana Wave discharge.
Alerted, SQ released a mana pulse across its entire body. An area attack with no chance to evade—unavoidable damage should have been inflicted.
Tick-tick-tick!
The Mana Wave only stung the skin of Yatcha and Kim Bong-sik, dealing no meaningful harm.
“This is insane. What the hell is this buff, Chae Mu-jin!”
Kim Bong-sik had done some investigation on Chae Mu-jin. The only notable thing was that his physical attack buff was extraordinary.
But now, the buff he’d cast on him wasn’t merely boosting physical attack. Physical attack, magical attack, attack speed, movement speed, physical defense, magical defense….
A Full Buff had been applied, and the numbers were staggering.
And that wasn’t all. The duration exceeded the bounds of reason. Lasting even a single minute would be called a guaranteed kill, yet the buff remained active.
“A buff like this exists in the world!”
His body felt light as a feather, his attacks faster than thought itself. Even a casual sword swing dealt true damage to the boss monster.
This alone would be enough to go mad over, but attacks that would have been critical injuries now left only light wounds.
Light wounds so minor he sometimes forgot he’d been hit at all.
‘I could take down the boss monster by myself!’
Dopamine flooded through him, his body burning hot, his pride exploding.
Then Chae Mu-jin’s voice pierced his cochlea.
“Target the legs, you idiot!”
……!
The combo of informal speech and insult snapped Kim Bong-sik to attention. Drunk on excitement, he’d forgotten Chae Mu-jin’s instruction to target the legs.
As a result, his path of attack had overlapped with Yatcha’s.
Kim Bong-sik saw the expression on Yatcha’s face and understood.
‘He’s going to kill me too!’
Yatcha threw a punch without regard for whether his allies were in the line of fire. From a distance it had looked unremarkable, but witnessing it up close, he could have sworn it was a laser rather than a fist.
Fortunately, Chae Mu-jin’s buff allowed him to dodge, and he regained his stance.
There was no time to protest why his ally was attacking him. That could wait until SQ lay defeated.
* * *
Under the coordinated assault of the Full Buffed Yatcha and the Code Master, SQ was relentlessly driven back.
The surviving Hunters had no chance to gasp in wonder. They could only watch, dumbstruck.
Though they were all at least level fifty Hunters, they couldn’t even follow the movements of these two with their eyes.
Could they really pull this off?
Could two people actually defeat the boss monster?
The Hunters’ hope quickly transformed into certainty. From their vantage point, it certainly looked that way.
But to Chae Mu-jin’s eyes, it appeared differently.
“Curious.”
The Full Buffed Yatcha and Code Master were clearly overwhelming SQ. Yet SQ’s armor was regenerating in real-time. A battle of destruction and repair. So far, destruction had the upper hand, but no one could say how long that would last.
Rather than join the fight, Chae Mu-jin began to observe. To observe was more than merely to see—it was to perceive the essence.
‘SQ has four arms to perform more attacks. But why does it have four legs?’
Not for increased mobility, nor to execute complex movements.
Once he questioned the purpose of those legs, he noticed something odd.
While Yatcha was perched on SQ’s head, raining elbows down, SQ responded with only one of its four arms.
But against the Code Master, who targeted the joint of the leg, three arms were deployed.
‘And furthermore, that thing isn’t even moving.’
It kept its legs firmly planted against the ground, moving only its upper body and arms.
Apart from when driven backward by the assault, it wasn’t moving at all—he was certain of it.
“Lift its feet off the ground!”
Yatcha, naturally, didn’t hear the instruction. But the Code Master did.
Burrowing beneath SQ’s legs, he lifted with Phantom Blade Dance.
Since he wasn’t cutting but pushing, the raw power was limited, yet the lifting force was strong.
It was then that SQ’s four legs did something for the first time.
Boom!
Spikes erupted from the soles, embedding themselves into the ground.
SQ’s body, which had momentarily risen, came back down, about to crush the Code Master beneath it—
Crack-boom!
Yatcha’s Twin Palm struck SQ’s chest.
With a force greater than any prior attack, SQ’s body tilted backward and tumbled over.
The moment SQ’s feet left the ground, something both unseen by the other two became clear to Chae Mu-jin: the armor’s regeneration halted.
Chae Mu-jin immediately shared this discovery.
“Awakening Skill, now!”
Not explanation but command. At that terse cry, the Code Master readied his Awakening Skill without hesitation.
Kim Bong-sik brought his sword close to his waist, lowering his stance. Even that rampant Yatcha went still.
He knew it instinctively: to move now was to court death.
Shiiiing…….
Wind blew through the sealed space. The sound came from the Code Master’s blade.
SQ judged itself too late to regain composure and deployed a defense shield.
―Ether Shield activated.
The attribute-neutral Ether shield had no strengths. In exchange, it had no weaknesses.
It was an invincible barrier that defended against all things with overwhelming mass.
Even humanity’s ultimate weapon, the nuclear bomb, could not penetrate this Ether Shield.
But the Code Master laughed.
“Behold the Blade That Severs All Things.”
The blade swung. A slash thin as a hair brushed the Ether shield. The disparity in volume was so overwhelming that it seemed absurd for such a tiny cut to touch it.
Crack.
As if space itself had fractured, the Ether shield split perfectly left and right.
A slice as simple and overwhelming as halving a watermelon.
The Ether Shield that stopped nuclear attacks, the Aura Blades that never scratched, the Amanthir Armor that remained unmarred—all rendered meaningless.
Sword Master Kim Bong-sik’s Awakening Skill, the Blade That Severs All Things. It possessed the absolute property of penetrating every form of defense and defensive barrier.
In exchange, its raw damage output wasn’t particularly high—a weakness that Chae Mu-jin’s buff had compensated for.
―Critical armor damage. Ether Core eighty-seven percent lost.
Even with half its body split open, SQ remained alive.
And that, in fact, was what Chae Mu-jin had intended.
“Finish it, Yatcha!”
Chae Mu-jin cast a staggering multiplier on Yatcha’s attack power and attack speed.
“Hiyah!”
As if he’d been waiting for it, Yatcha rushed toward SQ, unleashing an endless barrage.
Unlike Kim Bong-sik, he had no particularly potent finishing blow, but it didn’t matter.
Absurd attack speed, physical attack power buff. Three S-rank Skills synchronizing created, in an instant, a force equal to an Awakening Skill itself.
―Intrusion failed. Combat data transmitting…….
SQ, now little more than a scrap heap of twisted metal, could move no more and admitted defeat of its own accord.
Kim Bong-sik’s tension released and he slumped down. Victory seemed assured.
But Chae Mu-jin grabbed the nape of his neck and hauled him up, shouting.
“Are you crazy? Until the ‘Raid Clear’ notification appears, it’s not over!”
Right on cue, SQ’s body began to glow.
―Self-Destruct Protocol activated. 3… 2… 1…….
Chae Mu-jin had been anticipating this and had already secured sufficient distance from SQ.
Thus he was able to pull Kim Bong-sik up to the second floor and take shelter, but…….
Yatcha and the Hunters near the first-floor entrance had nowhere to escape.
* * *
The blast reached up to the second floor. The dungeon itself trembled and cracked as if it would collapse.
The Hunters on the second floor prostrated themselves like passengers on a crashing plane, praying.
“God, if you save us, I swear I’ll never be a Hunter again.”
“Mom, Dad… I’m sorry.”
“Why did I ever become a Hunter!”
The trembling, which seemed it would never end, gradually subsided. But the Hunters didn’t dare raise their heads.
Crunch.
“Aaaah!”
Even debris falling from the ceiling startled them, and they flipped and trembled.
Only Chae Mu-jin and Kim Bong-sik surveyed the area and headed down to the first floor.
The first floor was ash. Wisps of gray powder drifted like burned newspaper. No trace of SQ remained.
And it was the same for people. No one crying for help, no bodies scattered in the wreckage.
He didn’t need to venture to the entrance. The Hunters who had been on the first floor were all dead.
“Yatcha, was it…. A loss of precious talent.”
Kim Bong-sik shed no tears, but he sighed deeply. The divine might Yatcha had displayed had been that magnificent and overwhelming.
For such talent to perish without ever blooming was a loss to the nation itself.
“Chae Mu-jin. Let us pay our respects.”
Though surely the one most grief-stricken was Chae Mu-jin. Even if he didn’t know the depth of their relationship, he must have known Yatcha far better than Kim Bong-sik did.
“Isn’t your memory rather poor?”
“…What?”
“It’s not over yet.”
Splash!
Before the words even finished, a hand burst from the ash and grabbed Kim Bong-sik’s ankle.
“Huh?!”
Startled, Kim Bong-sik went to swing his sword, but Chae Mu-jin seized his arm and held it back. From the ash emerged a naked man.
“Next, it’s you?”
Yatcha was alive. Utterly intact, impossibly so.
Chae Mu-jin felt anew just how absurdly broken S-rank Skills were.
One of the effects of Heavenly Dragon Eight Divisions Yatcha was ‘Resurrection.’ How the resurrection worked had been a mystery, but now it was revealed.
A body without a single wound. Even his Health and Mana had been completely restored upon resurrection.
‘And it’s not even a one-time thing—he can resurrect once a month.’
The problem was that such a monster was now in an excited state like a cat in heat.
Despite lacking the insurance of resurrection, Yatcha exuded Fighting Spirit toward Kim Bong-sik.
Kim Bong-sik was shocked at how he’d survived, but more than that, he couldn’t understand.
Though they’d just met, hadn’t they fought a boss together with their lives on the line?
So why was this madman suddenly looking for a fight?
Chae Mu-jin, reading his thoughts, spoke.
“He’s addicted to combat. From the look of him, the boss monster alone didn’t satisfy him.”
“…So he wants to fight me?”
“More than enough. Run.”
“What?”
“A dog bites because it’s a bad dog. It’s bad because a person raised it poorly. I’ll take responsibility and stop him.”
……!
Kim Bong-sik felt tears well up in his eyes. To think such an upright young man existed in this world!
At first, he’d thought him a ruffian, cursing and using crude speech without warning.
But reflecting now, everything had been for his sake, and as a result, hadn’t they even defeated the boss monster?
‘What I appreciate most is this sense of responsibility.’
People these days don’t know how to take responsibility. Rather, they actively avoid it, evading it entirely—even when their fault is crystal clear!
Kim Bong-sik calmed his excitement and assessed the situation. Should he truly flee, or should he fight and subdue this Yatcha fellow?
By pride, fighting and suppressing Yatcha would befit his station as Sword Master.
‘But honestly, I’m terrified.’
A lunatic fighting naked. That alone was overwhelming fear.
“Chae Mu-jin. If I stay here, things won’t improve, so I’ll take your word and go. But understand this: I’m not running. I’m trusting you.”
“Of course. Go now. I’ll follow shortly.”
“Pfft, that’s the classic death flag line.”
“I’ve always wanted to say that once.”
“One last question. Is Kim Yeoul alive?”
Kim Bong-sik’s true purpose had been to find Kim Yeoul. But where had she gone if she was supposed to be with Chae Mu-jin?
If she were dead, at least he needed that fact to take with him.
“She’s alive.”
Chae Mu-jin barely suppressed the urge to joke: She’s right in front of you.
“…Wait outside then.”
“Running away?”
Yatcha taunted, but Kim Bong-sik didn’t waver. Chae Mu-jin answered instead.
“I’ll be your opponent. Leave him alone.”
“Hoo. I welcome that.”
As Chae Mu-jin drew the Great Sword Efilu, showing his resolve, Yatcha straightened his stance as well.
Chae Mu-jin glanced back. Once Kim Bong-sik was out of sight, he lowered his sword.
“He’s gone.”
“What are you doing? Draw your sword.”
Of course, this wasn’t a prearranged move. Yatcha, genuinely ready to fight, activated his Crimson Gauntlet and threatened him.
“Yeoul. Come out now.”
“You cowardly bastard.”
Yatcha had made a promise: the moment Chae Mu-jin called Kim Yeoul, he would hand over control.
“Or will you break your promise?”
Chae Mu-jin genuinely thought it wouldn’t be bad either way. He could verify whether Yatcha was truthful right from the start.
Though suppressing Yatcha would be difficult for now, he’d never have to trust him completely after this.
There was no deal more profitable than this.
“Tch. This is my body anyway.”
Yatcha, speaking incomprehensibly, bent his head low—
Rustle-rustle.
Yatcha’s hair gradually grew coarse and brittle. Control of the body had shifted back to Kim Yeoul.
Chae Mu-jin offered clothes he’d prepared in advance.
“Th-thank you.”
Once Kim Yeoul had dressed, Chae Mu-jin spoke first.
“Tell Yatcha I’ll really fight him later, so he shouldn’t be too mad.”
“He says if you’re lying, he’ll kill you no matter what.”
“He won’t find killing me easy. Anyway, Yeoul. You were watching the whole time?”
“I don’t know the details, but… I do understand what happened.”
“Then no explanation needed. Follow me.”
Kim Yeoul naturally assumed they were leaving the dungeon. But Chae Mu-jin went the opposite direction.
“Wait, Manager. That’s the way to the upper floors. The exit is this way.”
“I know.”
“Yes?”
“Come on. We need to monopolize the spoils before that Sword Master figures it out.”
“Monopolize? Monopolize what?”
“What else. The Boss Raid reward.”
“…Huh?”
At those words, Kim Yeoul suddenly understood something odd.
Though she’d never fought a boss before, she’d heard the stories. Once a boss battle ended, a Settlement would distribute the rewards.
So why hadn’t the reward been distributed after defeating SQ, the boss monster?
“You’ve realized it, Yeoul.”
“Surely not… Manager, you didn’t, right?”
“Boss or not, in the end they’re just people. Confuse them enough and they won’t notice what’s strange. Especially when I explicitly warned them.”
Chae Mu-jin flashed a sinister smile.
“If the ‘Raid Clear’ notification hasn’t appeared, it’s not really over yet.”
This dungeon’s end isn’t the ninth floor. The tenth floor exists.
But the door to the tenth floor was sealed shut. No keyhole, no clues—just immovable.
Yet Chae Mu-jin knew from experience.
‘Not every dungeon ends just because you kill the boss monster.’
Some dungeons have separate clearing stages and rewards. Chae Mu-jin had realized that Yeontesilsil was exactly that type of dungeon.
‘If nothing goes wrong, sharing with the Sword Master would be fine.’
But if he proceeded with them, he couldn’t hide the truth that Yatcha and Kim Yeoul were the same person. That was a situation he desperately wanted to avoid, so he’d had no choice but to send Kim Bong-sik away.
As Chae Mu-jin climbed to the upper floors, he shouted to the survivors.
“The boss monster was defeated by the Eunpyeong-gu Sword Master, and the exit is open. Everyone, evacuate!”
Not out of ulterior motive, but seeming as if he were ascending to help people evacuate.
At the far end of the ninth floor, now empty, the door to the tenth floor stood wide open.
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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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