S-Classes That I Raised to Devour - Chapter 85

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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 85. The Burdens of a Leader (5)
The Mystic Jewel Rescue Mission had come to an end.
The result was a catastrophic failure.
The First-generation trainees braced themselves for Chae Mujin’s wrath, but what came instead was something entirely unexpected.
“You all worked hard. Pack your things. We’re heading to the ship in ten minutes.”
As he moved on without any feedback, Lee Minji stepped forward hesitantly.
“Um… is it possible you got upset because I shouted at you not to say anything yesterday……?”
Chae Mujin snorted.
“Not at all. I’m giving you all a chance to realize things for yourselves. Think carefully about what you’ve learned from this failure. So that you can succeed next time.”
“Ah……!”
“Anyone can make mistakes and fail the first time. Because you don’t know. Because it’s your first attempt. But from the second time on…….”
Chae Mujin let his words trail off, sweeping the first-generation trainees with eyes as sharp as frost.
The trainees’ shoulders flinched. A keen edge radiated from his gaze like the cutting force of a blade.
Chae Mujin hadn’t intended to frighten them. After two days of fighting Brian’s shadow clone, the aura that clung to him had been honed to a razor’s edge.
“Lee Minji, I won’t sit idle the way you want me to. Because you’re all going to become S-rank Hunters. You don’t have the luxury of failing twice. Understand?”
Chae Mujin waited for their response, but they were too overwhelmed to speak.
“I asked if you understand!”
He drove the question home again, this time channeling thick mana into his voice, and the first-generation trainees jolted awake with visible fright.
“Yes, sir!”
“Yes, we understand!”
Nodding frantically.
“Seven minutes left.”
Thump-thump-thump!
Watching the first-generation trainees scramble away to pack their things, Brian shook his head with a weary expression.
“Did you work as a drill sergeant in the military?”
“I was a squad leader in the Special Ops Unit.”
“You were in the Special Ops Unit? No wonder your marksmanship wasn’t half-bad.”
“Did you have military service, Brian?”
“Two years as a public Hunter. Just thinking about it makes me sick.”
By the time they finished talking about their military days, seven minutes had slipped away.
Once Chae Mujin confirmed that the first-generation trainees had returned with their packed bags, he took the lead without hesitation.
* * *
When Chae Mujin’s party arrived at the shore, Dralph Elder and his soldiers welcomed them.
Three days as promised. Dralph had truly prepared a ship.
The vessel, with its elongated hull and dark blue timber construction, looked sturdy and imposing at first glance.
Dralph Elder tapped the ship’s hull as he explained it to Chae Mujin.
“We modified a medium-sized speedboat we had on hand. We’ve outfitted it with lightning plating and additional engines, so it won’t fall easy prey to krakens or pirate scum.”
“Thank you. Just hearing that puts my mind at ease.”
“Four Dralphs will be aboard to handle the oars and the engines. But they won’t be providing combat support.”
“Of course. Combat is something we can handle ourselves.”
“May your journey be a pleasant one, wanderer.”
Leaving Dralph Elder’s warm farewell behind, Chae Mujin’s party departed from the island and ventured into the endless expanse of the Sea.
“Everyone, gather around.”
Chae Mujin called the party to the deck and unrolled a map.
“Our target island is here, where it’s marked as Conkuntar.”
Kim Yeoul, looking at the map, fought back nausea as she spoke.
“That looks incredibly far.”
“Not as far as it seems. Two days and we’ll arrive.”
“We’ll be sleeping on the ship for two whole days? It’ll rock so much.”
At Lee Minji’s groan, Chae Mujin pointed his finger to a small island at the midpoint of the map.
“We won’t just sail for two straight days. We’ll anchor here at Drando Island this evening, spend the night, and enter Conkuntar tomorrow.”
Having finished speaking, Chae Mujin immediately took hold of the wheel. Though it resembled a crude sailing ship from the medieval era on the surface, its controls were no different from those of a modern automobile.
The moment Chae Mujin pressed down on the center of the wheel, the massive engines mounted on the lower hull and stern erupted with a deafening roar, splitting the water.
Whoosh! Spray!
The speedboat’s velocity skyrocketed instantly. It carved through rough waves as it surged forward.
At nearly eighty kilometers per hour, the violent headwind whipped the party’s hair wildly.
“On this sea, all directions are enemies! Be ready for combat at any moment!”
His normal voice couldn’t carry over the howling wind, so Chae Mujin bellowed like a ship’s horn.
The first-generation trainees matched his intensity, bracing themselves against the ship and shouting back.
“Yes!”
“I feel… ugh… seasick…….”
“Look at the horizon! Seasickness can be overcome!”
Even amid the violent voyage, Chae Mujin soothed the first-generation trainees while keeping his vigilance sharp on all sides.
The sea appeared calm and silvery to the eye. But Chae Mujin’s gaze pierced beneath the surface like that of a hawk.
Within the white spray crashing against the bow, he caught something anomalous in the strange current and suddenly cried out.
“Everyone, hold tight! Goblins are on our tail!”
“Goblins, sir?”
“But we’re on the sea!”
The first-generation trainees scanned the sea urgently, but saw neither goblins nor even a trace of seaweed.
Just as they were about to doubt whether Chae Mujin had been seeing things from too much sea spray, the ship suddenly lurched violently forward.
The Dralphs, having received Chae Mujin’s urgent acceleration command, had opened the boosters to maximum.
Lee Minji managed to grab hold of the thick mast and held on, but Kim Yeoul’s wet hands slipped from the railing.
“Ah!”
Just as Kim Yeoul’s body drifted into empty air, her scream catching in her throat.
Snatch!
A vicious grip clamped around his wrist. It was Choi Ganggim.
He gestured for Kim Yeoul to grip his arm tightly, then used the edge of the Shield in his other hand to brace himself firmly against the deck floor.
Crash!
At that very moment, something erupted from the sea, tearing through the white spray. To everyone’s shock, it was indeed goblins, just as Chae Mujin had said.
But they hadn’t pursued the speedboat by swimming. They were riding on the backs of enormous flying fish.
Pirate goblins perched atop them simultaneously fired sharp harpoons at the ship.
An instant before the harpoons struck the hull, Chae Mujin wrenched the wheel hard.
The bow slid sharply and the harpoons ricocheted off the metal plating, scattering into the air.
But the attack didn’t end there. From all directions, dozens of flying fish erupted like carpet bombing.
Brian, lounging in a corner of the deck like he was enjoying popcorn at a movie, casually spoke up.
“Want me to help out?”
“Only if we’re about to breathe our last, sir. Then please help.”
At Chae Mujin’s cool response, Brian made a light OK sign with his fingers and settled back into spectator mode.
Whoosh!
A wave the size of a house crashed over the ship as if swallowing it whole. Seawater flooded across the deck.
There was no time to brush the salt water away. Riding the crest of the wave, a horde of vicious goblins spilled onto the deck.
They were all hideous pirate goblins wearing eyepatches on one eye.
The speedboat pitched on the waves. Even adults would have been blown away by the fierce wind; the goblins struggled equally to keep their footing.
Yet they seemed bone-deep accustomed to this brutal sea combat, moving low to the ground and slowly tightening their grip on the humans’ throats.
Bang-bang!
Chae Mujin fired his gun.
But not at the goblins. No matter how skilled one was, achieving perfect aim on a violently rocking ship was impossible.
Instead, it was enough to focus everyone’s attention.
“Hold tight!”
Chae Mujin cut the engines sharply.
Hum, bang!
The ship lurched to a sudden halt, the bow pitching as if about to bury itself.
The first-generation trainees, having heard the warning, clung desperately to the pillars and held on, but the goblins, caught off-guard, tumbled like bowling pins across the deck.
“Fight!”
Chae Mujin threw himself at the enemies sprawled across the deck.
Whoosh, crack!
Choi Ganggim’s Shield, tearing through the spray, savagely shattered the knees of the goblins trying to rise.
Chae Mujin’s Broad Sword traced a brutal arc as it fell upon their throats.
Observing the perfect slaughter, Brian let out a low whistle.
Under Choi Ganggim’s solid support, Chae Mujin was single-handedly sweeping the deck.
‘His balance is incredible. The ship’s pitching enough that I’m staggering.’
Meanwhile, Kim Yeoul and Lee Minji simply clung to the pillars, struggling even to remain standing.
‘No confidence.’
Even after figuring out how to maintain their balance, they hesitated before giving up entirely.
Though Chae Mujin and Choi Ganggim were coordinating flawlessly to control the battle, this hesitation was a fatal mistake in real combat that should never happen.
As expected, the moment the battle ended, Chae Mujin approached the two of them without even wiping the crimson blood spattered across his face.
“Why were you just watching?”
“It looked like you could handle them all by yourself, sir.”
“Don’t give me plausible excuses. Tell me the truth.”
In the frozen atmosphere, Kim Yeoul moistened her pale lips and confessed first.
“I… I wasn’t confident I could hit properly with a Fireball on a ship rocking like this.”
“And I was afraid that if I swung my Hammer, I’d accidentally smash the ship instead.”
“Then swing carefully and precisely so the ship doesn’t get smashed.”
“But what if it actually does get smashed?”
“Then we deal with it after it breaks.”
“……!”
The blunt answer left them breathless. Chae Mujin’s eyes pierced both their hearts sharply.
“This isn’t just about the ship. You hesitated because you feared your allies getting caught in the crossfire, or the surroundings getting destroyed. The real reason you made excuses is because you didn’t have the courage to face the blame and resentment that would come after. In short, you lack the courage to be disliked.”
“The courage to be disliked…….”
“Kim Yeoul, the same goes for you.”
Struck by the truth, Kim Yeoul hunched her shoulders like a condemned prisoner.
“You’re allowed to make mistakes. I brought you all here to fail countless times and break things. You know why? Because there will come a day when a single mistake won’t be tolerated, in situations so hellish that you absolutely must move forward no matter what.”
Bang!
Chae Mujin struck a thick mast nearby with his fist. A shallow, deeply indented groove now marked that spot.
“Just now, Choi Ganggim made a mistake and accidentally hit this mast with his Shield. So what? It’s damage that happened while covering for me. If this mast had actually broken, would I have grabbed Ganggim by the collar and blamed him? No. I would’ve fixed the mast first instead of wasting time nagging.”
Thud.
Chae Mujin gripped both of their shoulders with powerful hands.
Then he shook them hard enough to snap them awake and growled.
“Make mistakes! There are only two reasons you’ll face punishment under me. First: being too afraid to fail that you freeze and do nothing. Second: repeating the same stupid mistake. Beyond that, you bear no responsibility whatsoever. Of course…….”
Chae Mujin tapped his temples coolly as he continued.
“I’m not telling you to charge in blindly. Think constantly as you fight. If you can’t find the answer, trust your instincts and strike. Understand?”
The two of them swallowed hard and answered in small, timid voices.
“Yes…….”
“That’s quieter than the waves.”
“Yes, sir!”
“To your positions.”
“To our positions!”
After sending the two away, Chae Mujin tapped Choi Ganggim’s shoulder.
“You performed admirably on your own. But teamwork doesn’t end with you alone defeating all the enemies. When Kim Yeoul and Lee Minji were frozen stiff as scenery, you should have pulled them into the fight no matter what.”
“……!”
“I can imagine you’re frustrated inside, thinking: I can’t even speak, so how am I supposed to command them on a rocking ship like this?”
“…….”
“You’ll learn as you live that eloquence doesn’t automatically align hearts. Show them through action. Lead. If Kim Yeoul and Lee Minji aren’t looking at your back, then make them look. Force them to.”
Pat-pat.
That was the end of the stormy feedback on deck. The first-generation trainees, now back in their positions, had eyes filled with deep, weighty contemplation.
‘How can I strike properly without smashing the ship? I’ll grip the Hammer short and reduce the centrifugal force.’
‘It’ll drain an enormous amount of mana, but if I charge the Fireball in my hand beforehand and intercept only the ones coming close… even if accuracy drops, at least I won’t end up teamkilling.’
‘I need to develop hand signals and share them with the others. If it’s too obvious, the enemies will read it, so I need a more complex and intuitive system unique to me.’
On the debris-strewn deck, watching the crew turn their minds over intensely to find their own answers, Chae Mujin wore a satisfied smile tinged with the metallic scent of blood.
* * *
The goblin pirates clung with the persistence of leeches, but they proved no match for the first-generation trainees who had steeled their resolve.
Of course, they stumbled through countless large and small mistakes in the bloody melee, but they trampled those harrowing failures underfoot and absorbed real combat experience like sponges.
Having endured two brutal sea assaults, they finally landed on Drando Island.
The moment the first-generation trainees set foot on solid ground, relief bloomed across their faces.
After half a day of being tossed about wildly on a pitching deck, solid, unshaking earth felt almost unbearably precious.
“Why does my body feel so strange? Sir, we’re going straight to the lodging, right?”
“Lodging? There’s nothing like a Dralph village here.”
“What? Then we’re sleeping outside?”
“That’s right. I’m going to teach you all how to sleep rough tonight. Though there’s something to do first.”
“Don’t you have tents in your bag, sir?”
“I do. But I won’t always be by your side, will I?”
“Ah… right.”
Lee Minji no longer resisted, accepting quickly now.
Kim Yeoul and Choi Ganggim, equally exhausted, approached Chae Mujin with a question.
“What should we do first?”
“Prepare for battle.”
“Enemies, sir!”
The two instinctively repositioned their weapons and assumed a defensive stance.
Seeing them bristle with readiness, Chae Mujin’s mouth curved upward slightly.
“Until now, we’ve always been the ones under attack.”
The first-generation trainees wore expressions of realization.
Chae Mujin pointed toward the heart of the pitch-black forest and spoke softly but with finality.
“Tonight, we are the hunters.”

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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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