S-Classes That I Raised to Devour - Chapter 63

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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 63. Automatic Hunting (1)
A Hunter using guns to hunt monsters meant one of two things: either a complete fool, or someone absurdly wealthy.
Bullets made of lead, copper, or steel dealt minimal damage to monsters.
Just as oil naturally coated human skin, those who possessed mana naturally developed a mana coating across their surface.
This mana coating had high resistance to all physical force, and monster mana coatings in particular were so thick that pistol rounds wouldn’t even leave a scratch.
So it should have been useless for Chae Mujin to fire with perfect accuracy, no matter how many times—
Bang! Shriek!
Though they didn’t fall in a single shot, the Human Cows stumbled and writhed in agony.
Was he using Mana Bullets at a million won apiece? No.
Mana Bullets were simply warheads crafted from mana stones. With those, monsters could be effectively wounded.
Which meant that only a mana coating on the bullet itself was necessary. So Chae Mujin had hand-coated each round with his own mana.
But he had no intention of relying solely on bullets to eliminate the Human Cows.
He’d dash toward the staggering creatures, slice their Achilles tendons, and when they fell, drive his blade through the back of the neck or the crown of their heads with brutal force.
Crack!
The A-grade skill Sword Ghost’s Soul revealed the most vulnerable points within the thick, tough flesh of the Human Cows.
Hard bone yielded—barely—to the E-grade skill Penetration Enhancement.
Meanwhile, he’d throw Flash Grenades at any Human Cows attacking from behind, buying time, then repeat the same routine.
Suppress with gunfire, eliminate mobility, strike the vital point, finish.
“Phew.”
Chae Mujin reloaded as he surveyed the area. Seven Human Cows lay motionless around him.
Felling monsters 70 levels higher, and doing it as a Supporter, was encouraging—yet Chae Mujin felt no satisfaction whatsoever.
“None of this would have been possible without these items.”
「Equipment—Venometric Amulet」
Rarity Grade: Legendary
Quality Grade: A
An amulet imbued with the near-infinite power technology of the ancient magical empires.
• Recovers 100 mana per minute.
• Magic Defense +315
• Max Mana +27
• All Elemental Resistance +16
• All Status Ailment Resistance +15
• Cannot be nullified
• Cannot be destroyed
「Equipment—Shadow Bag」
Rarity Grade: Legendary
Quality Grade: E
A bag crafted from the horn of a Shadow Spirit King. It appears no larger than a small pouch, yet inside can fit an entire house.
• You may store and retrieve the bag within your own shadow.
• Items placed inside the bag enter a stasis state and cease to be affected by time.
The two pieces of equipment Chae Mujin had retrieved from Lize’s vault plainly demonstrated why they were Legendary-grade.
Ordinarily it would take an hour to fully recover all mana, but thanks to the Venometric Amulet, a four-minute rest brought him to full charge.
And being able to store various firearms in the Shadow Bag and retrieve them at will proved invaluable.
He didn’t need to carry ammunition and grenades dangling from his body; he could simply draw them as needed.
After finishing the engagement, Chae Mujin checked to see how Kim Yeoul and Lee Minji were faring.
“They’ve shed their novice Hunter status.”
While Chae Mujin had felled seven creatures, Kim Yeoul had downed fifty, and Lee Minji over a hundred.
It was hardly surprising. They were operating under a full Buff of 500.
Physical attack power and defense, magical attack power and defense, movement speed and attack speed—all five hundred points of raw increase meant their pure physical capability had become equivalent to a Level 200 Hunter.
But what mattered more was their combat sense.
Just as a gun wielded by a child differs from one in a soldier’s hands, Kim Yeoul and Lee Minji had grown completely accustomed to the Buff and learned how to wield it effectively.
“Tomorrow I’ll bump it up to 700 and see how they do.”
Buffs carried drawbacks. Move too fast and the body couldn’t keep up; boost attack power too high and weapons degraded quickly.
But a Buff didn’t enforce a minimum threshold. Simply because he granted a 100 point physical attack increase didn’t mean the minimum damage became 100.
With proper restraint, they could deal as little as 10 damage. Movement speed worked the same way. With conscious effort and practice, any adjustment was possible.
“Rest period’s over.”
With his mana fully restored, Chae Mujin resumed hunting. Self-buffing was impossible for him, so his hunting speed remained quite slow, yet the three of them had reached Level 100 at roughly the same pace.
When a buffed target hunted, the Supporter received 10% of the experience as well.
In other words, each time Kim Yeoul and Lee Minji killed ten monsters, Chae Mujin essentially received one free kill.
* * *
Hunt, eat, rest.
The group repeated these three activities in an endless cycle.
They broke through Level 100 in a single week. Kim Yeoul and Lee Minji were satisfied and exhausted, but Chae Mujin was not.
“Since we’re here, we might as well push to 150.”
“C-couldn’t we reach that level next time instead?”
“There is no next time. We’re taking down the boss before we leave.”
“Do we really need to do a raid? The experience rewards are generous, the monsters spawn in abundance, and we could return to hunt here again later…”
Lee Minji made a rational argument, but Chae Mujin shook his head at once.
“Dungeons are overflowing. Clearing one doesn’t prevent others from appearing. Eventually, if we abandon this Dungeon for that one, when will Dungeons ever disappear from this nation? You know that Rifts form because of Dungeons, don’t you?”
“Oh, they do? I didn’t know.”
“Beyond that, by facing a boss, we gain the chance to obtain rewards—Skills only available through Level Up. If you want to become strong, Boss Raids are not optional; they’re essential.”
“I understand… let’s keep hunting.”
“While we’re on the subject, your rest period was too long. You should be so exhausted that you can’t think straight, but you two are overthinking everything.”
“Yeoul, let’s hunt!”
Lee Minji had grown accustomed to Chae Mujin. She’d learned that resistance only invited harsher anger.
Kim Yeoul, caught in the crossfire despite her reluctance, pressed her lips together and threw herself back into the hunt alongside Lee Minji.
To any other Hunters witnessing this, it would have been shocking.
“You’ll contract Acute Mana Poisoning!”
“Doesn’t the Dungeon Psycho scare them at all?”
Acute Mana Poisoning. Dungeon Psycho.
Dungeons held a dense concentration of mana in the air—at minimum thousands of times, at maximum hundreds of millions of times higher than on Earth. Consequently, prolonged and frequent hunting in a Dungeon was strictly taboo.
The Hunter Association typically recommended hunting sessions of four to eight hours maximum.
After five days of hunting, they advised two days of mandatory rest.
Yet Chae Mujin’s group hunted far longer without cessation, and not a trace of the purple discoloration that preceded Acute Mana Poisoning appeared on their skin.
Could a Buff defend against Acute Mana Poisoning?
‘Such Buffs exist, but I don’t need to bother learning one.’
An S-grade internal technique: the Bright Mirror Technique.
Whenever opportunity arose, Chae Mujin used the inner force of the Bright Mirror Technique to purge the mana impurities accumulating in Kim Yeoul and Lee Minji’s bodies.
As a result, Chae Mujin was suffering. He operated his inner force continuously without rest immediately after each hunting session.
But this too served only his own purpose.
‘My mana sensitivity rises, and my control improves significantly.’
Weaker than others, yet dreaming bigger. Thus he had no choice but to work harder than everyone else.
Of course, Chae Mujin hid his exhaustion from Kim Yeoul and Lee Minji.
His shoulders were the very shoulders they watched and followed.
‘I am the standard these children measure themselves against. If I show weakness, they’ll internalize that as well.’
He swallowed the blood pooling in his mouth without spitting it out. Before the children, he had to remain steadfast as stone.
Only if I stand firm as Taishan could they ever dare to gaze at the heavens.
Time passed, and Lee Minji reached Level 150 first, followed by Kim Yeoul, then Chae Mujin.
The entire journey spanned one month and three days.
“Status window.”
[Status Window]
Name: Chae Mujin (Lv.150)
Class: Supporter
Strength: 159 Stamina: 159
Agility: 159 Mana: 489+27
Traits:
Savior (EX), Akashic Record (EX), Sword Ghost’s Soul (A), Shared Healing (D), Penetration Enhancement (E), Death Stalker (B), Ether Detection (Unique), Rest’s Rest (C)
Skills:
Buff (Unique), Collection (EX), Taishan Striking Technique (C), Healing Light (D), Buff Link (A), Elemental Attack Power Buff (A)
At Level 100, he’d acquired the A-grade skill Elemental Attack Power Buff.
「Skill—Elemental Attack Power Buff (A)」
• You can now apply Elemental Attack Power Buffs.
(0.1 per Mana point)
This allowed him to make Hunters like Kim Yeoul, who wielded elemental attacks, even more formidable.
‘Exclude the physical attack power buff and boost fire attribute damage instead—that’d be perfect.’
The numerical output was only 10% compared to raw attack buffs, but elemental attack power buffs were worth twice as much as pure attack power buffs.
‘Against enemies weak to elemental attacks, you deal minimum double damage, and it bypasses a portion of their defense entirely.’
An ordinary Supporter would struggle to make good use of it. Even spending 100 mana would only raise attack by 10.
But in my hands, it’s different. Spending 100 mana yields a boost of 990.
‘If I pour all my mana into a fire attribute buff, even a lava golem with over 1,000 fire resistance would jump into a puddle complaining about the heat.’
At Level 150, only C-grade options appeared, which was unfortunate, but he’d still secured something worthwhile.
「Trait—Rest’s Rest (C)」
While resting:
• Health and mana regeneration increase by 300%.
• You gain wound recovery, disease cure, and status ailment mitigation effects.
Useful for prolonged hunts like this, or in raids. Even brief rest now allowed him to return to combat faster than anyone else.
Next was Lee Minji. As if compensation for the misfortune she’d suffered at Level 50, extraordinary luck descended upon her.
[Status Window]
Name: Lee Minji (Lv.150)
Class: Warrior
Strength: 308+100 Stamina: 308+100
Agility: 159+100 Mana: 159+100
Traits:
Grand and Beautiful Weapon (A), Undefeated in Consecutive Victories (S), First Strike Guarantee (A)
Skills:
Super Strike (C), Rejection (F)
Lee Minji had acquired only two traits.
S-grade and A-grade, no less.
「Trait—Undefeated in Consecutive Victories (S)」
Gain 1 Stack each time you achieve victory in combat. Per Stack, you gain the following:
• Physical Attack Power, Defense +0.1
• Combat Start: Shield +1
• Combat End: Injury Recovery +1
• Presence +0.1
The stronger your opponent, the more Stacks you gain. Defeat erases all Stacks.
Growing stronger with each successive victory—that was Undefeated in Consecutive Victories.
Lee Minji had learned this skill at Level 100, and now maintained 578 Stacks. The +57.8 to physical attack and defense was excellent, but the 578-point shield that generated at combat start was simply broken.
Ordinary physical defense leaves impact and recoil. Shields have neither.
They nullify attacks outright. The injury recovery was bonus—Chae Mujin no longer needed to cast Healing Light on her at all.
And the trait she’d acquired at Level 150, First Strike Guarantee, transformed Lee Minji into a five-second monster.
「Trait—First Strike Guarantee (A)」
At combat start, gain the following effects for 5 seconds:
• All Damage +100%
• Strength, Stamina, Agility, Mana +100
• Movement Speed, Attack Speed +50%
Five seconds alone, yet Lee Minji’s combat power doubled. Without any restrictions whatsoever.
‘Even against Magic Girl, Minji could hold out for five seconds now.’
Once the five seconds elapsed and First Strike Guarantee faded, she’d lose immediately—but the fact that she could last even five seconds against Magic Girl was remarkable.
‘Kim Yeoul, on the other hand, is a bit disappointing.’
At Level 50, her maximum was C-grade, and even at Levels 100 and 150, she’d topped out at B-grade.
Since it was a lackluster B-grade skill, she’d cleanly passed on it.
In the end, Kim Yeoul obtained an E-grade skill and one C-grade trait.
[Status Window]
Name: Kim Yeoul (Lv.150)
Class: Mage
Strength: 159 Stamina: 159
Agility: 159 Mana: 606
Traits:
Fire Resistance (D), Blazing (C)
Skills:
Fireball (D), Flame Mine (C), Flame Phantom (E)
「Trait—Blazing (C)」
The caster’s flame magic gains the following effects:
• Max Temperature +300
(+1 per Level)
• Flame Resistance +50
• Flame Spread Speed +20%
「Skill—Flame Phantom (E)」
• Creates a phantom matching the caster’s appearance.
• The phantom cannot take any action and has 1 HP.
• Upon taking damage, it explodes, scattering flames.
Though the grades weren’t high, she’d secured solid traits and skills for a fire-attribute Mage.
“We need to test them, don’t we?”
His words hinted at a boss battle. Most Hunters would refuse or feel fear.
Even with foreknowledge, tension and trembling would be the natural response.
Yet Lee Minji anticipated it eagerly, and Kim Yeoul calmly adjusted her staff.
“We’ve already met the boss summoning condition.”
Nose Rings dropped at low probability when killing Human Cows; over thirty-three days of hunting had yielded 999 of them.
The moment Chae Mujin gathered all the Nose Rings in one place and defeated a single Human Cow—
Mooooooooo!
A thunderous bellow echoed from the far distance, and at that very moment, a notification window appeared.
[Cow King rages at the death of his subjects!]
[Cow King has descended!]
As the notification faded, the Dungeon’s entrance vanished.
Identical to the boss battle at Rentesil. The pattern was inescapable until either the boss fell or every user perished.
Beyond the ridge, Cow King’s form came into view. A frame five times the size of a Human Cow.
He wore glittering armor and wielded a greatsword instead of a scythe.
Mooooooooo!
The grotesque roar was no mere threat—a terrifying shockwave rippled outward in all directions.
Yet Chae Mujin, Kim Yeoul, and Lee Minji didn’t even blink.
Chae Mujin smoothed back his windswept bangs and glanced sideways.
“Minji.”
“Yes.”
“Attack.”
“Heyaaah!”
The moment the order fell, Lee Minji’s body shot forth like a cannon shell.
Later, Kim Yeoul would describe that moment: Lee Minji had resembled an excited Chihuahua.

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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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