[Flame Horned Lion (1)]
After exchanging phone numbers with Yu Myungwoo, the future SS-rank skill holder, I said goodbye. Getting him into Haeyeon Guild would be another challenge, but maybe I could convince Yuhyun by insisting that I sensed something extraordinary about Myungwoo.
When I returned to Haeyeon Guild, it seemed that rumors had already spread. People were eyeing me with curiosity.
“Is that the Guild Leader’s older brother?”
“I’ve never seen him before! But they don’t really look alike.”
“Excuse me, Guild Leader’s brother! Are you really F-rank?”
Wow, they sure like to talk. Judging by the crowd, most of them came out just to see me. It’s the weekend; why don’t they just go home and rest?
“Yes, I’m F-rank. Now, please move so I can pass.”
Shoo, shoo, you people. Everyone but those on duty should just go home.
At least, at this point in time, I hadn’t caused enough trouble to warrant death glares or curses.
The real backlash started about half a year later when the Awakening Center opened, and I awakened.
Right after the announcement that the Awakening Center would soon open, some people approached me. They had high hopes because I was the older brother of an S-rank awakened, and they coaxed me into joining the Awakening Center on its opening day, backed by their support.
And, well, the result was F-rank.
There were a lot of reporters there at the time, and plenty of headlines like “Is the S-rank Awakened’s Brother Also an S-rank?!” were floating around… After that… I got cursed out endlessly, criticized to no end, and the sponsors who had backed me shoved contracts in my face, leaving me in debt…
The debt was one thing, but the insults? Even now, it feels unfair. I didn’t ask them to write those articles, yet they hyped me up on their own and then blamed me. Curse them, not me, you idiots.
Remembering those past and future events, I felt tears welling up, so I quickened my pace. Damn it, this is unfair. I swear, even if I do nothing else, I’ll get revenge on those reporters. If it weren’t for that mess, my life wouldn’t have fallen apart so completely.
Especially Kim Seungjun and Park Haesin. Those two jerks I’ll never forget. They twisted my words from interviews and stirred up trouble. Just you wait.
Grinding my teeth, I got on the elevator. To get to Yuhyun’s house, I had to get off on the 10th floor, go through a security check, head to the portal room for another identity verification, and then use the designated mini-portal to enter. It was such a hassle that I was already considering moving to the employee dorms.
‘So, where exactly is my room?’
Yesterday, I was so impressed by the massive TV that I ended up watching soccer and fell asleep on a sofa that was as comfortable as a bed. The game was just too boring.
Since athletes usually have great physical abilities, many of them awakened with at least E-rank stats. Consequently, many of them retired, leaving sports like soccer, basketball, and baseball with only mediocre players. Anyone with stats above E-rank couldn’t compete because they were no longer considered ordinary humans.
But a league for awakened players ranked C and below was planned to start soon. Apparently, those ranked C and below were unhappy because they didn’t make as much money as professional athletes.
‘Just how many rooms does Yuhyun have in his house?’
This place occupied half of an entire floor, so it was ridiculously spacious. I opened one of the nearby doors. The room inside was empty.
“Since he lives alone, most of the rooms are probably empty. What a waste of space.”
Grumbling, I walked down the corridor. I hadn’t been to this part of the house before… Oh.
A glass-walled indoor garden appeared. Or rather, it looked more like a greenhouse. The trees were dense, and the plants were growing wildly—.
—Kyaang!
“What the—!”
As I walked along the glass wall, something that looked like a cat jumped out from the bushes. It was a red-furred cat with a tail like a fox’s and a single horn on its head. The cat hissed at me menacingly. This glass wall is sturdy, right?
“You’re a feisty little thing.”
Was this actually a greenhouse or more like an animal enclosure? It didn’t seem like an ordinary animal, so what could it be?
Just in case, I used the “Promising Talent” skill to check the cat.
[Grade 2 Unicorn Subspecies ? Flame Horned Lion (Juvenile)
Current Stat Rank: C
Potential Stat Rank: A~S
Optimized Initial Skills:
Flame Breath (S) Acquired after Maturity
Flaming Sprint (A) Acquired after Maturity
Gigantification (A) Acquired after Maturity
Flame Resistance (A) Acquired
※Unable to mature without the assistance of an adult.]
“…This cat is a Flame Horned Lion?”
I couldn’t hide my surprise as I looked at the growling cat.
A Grade 2 Unicorn Subspecies, the Flame Horned Lion. It’s a high-level creature, and while a unicorn subspecies isn’t quite on the level of a dragonkin, it’s still classified as a superior magical beast. With high stats, incredible speed, and destructive skills, it would be tough for even an S-rank to handle alone without proper elemental resistance.
Well, Yuhyun, with his fire immunity, would have had an easy time with it.
‘Did he catch it to try and tame it? Has a tamer with the taming skill already appeared?’
If it could be tamed, this would be the perfect mount for Yuhyun. Then again, it would also need to be grown properly. If it can’t mature without an adult’s help, it’s useless.
…Could my skill “My Kid Is The Best” work on monsters too? It doesn’t explicitly say that it only works on humans.
Let’s try it…
[Target is in an incomplete keyword affinity state.]
The same message appeared as when I tried using it on Kim Seonghan. There’s no indication that it can’t be applied. So it works on monsters too!
[When applying the skill “My Kid Is The Best (L),” the time required for the Grade 2 Unicorn Subspecies ? Flame Horned Lion to mature into an adult is 15 days.]
A follow-up message appeared. Since the skill can only be applied for 3 days each month, it would take 5 months for it to reach adulthood.
‘Yuhyun definitely didn’t have a mount even five years later.’
In higher-level dungeons, the interior is more expansive, so having a mount would be convenient. However, due to Yuhyun’s skills, he couldn’t ride any mount that didn’t have at least A-rank fire resistance. If they were attacked while moving, the mount might die just from being exposed to his attack skills.
‘So he captured a Flame Horned Lion cub, but it seems he failed to raise it.’
The taming skill can only tame monsters of a lower level than the skill itself. Since a Flame Horned Lion is around S-rank, it couldn’t be tamed unless it was a cub. However, since the cub is C-rank, even a B-rank tamer should be able to tame it.
But it won’t grow any further.
‘There’s no way he could use something this small as a mount. But if I raise it, it would be perfect.’
Mounts, even ordinary magical beasts, are so rare and valuable that they’re treated like S-rank items. It would be a waste to leave such a well-suited beast with just the right elemental resistance unused. Being a unicorn subspecies, it’s faster than ordinary magical beasts and has high attack power. It’s really top-notch.
But the keyword is the issue. Would it even understand human language?
“Hey, little guy. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
—Kraaang! Kyang!
“You don’t understand, huh.”
—Grrr.
Still, it felt too wasteful to give up. Maybe I could train it somehow. There are plenty of dogs that understand human speech on those animal shows.
‘I’m not sure if understanding the keyword is necessary or if simply hearing it and feeling something emotional is enough.’
The keyword itself could be somewhat flexible. For instance, with the previous keyword, “Cheer Up,” the skill worked with variations like “Cheer up,” “Please cheer up,” “Keep your chin up,” etc. So I thought it might be enough if the general meaning got through, but if my guess was wrong and understanding was necessary, then that would be a problem.
How am I supposed to teach a Flame Horned Lion about love?
‘Should I experiment with this guy to see?’
If I associate the word “love” with feeding time, like Pavlov’s dog, I might get a reaction. After training it to associate “love” with food and then making it go hungry for a few days, when I say “love”…
Bang!
At that moment, I heard the sound of a door being slammed open. No one else would do that in the Guild Leader’s house, so it must be Yuhyun.
Perfect timing. I should tell him I want to try raising the Flame Horned Lion cub.
“Yuhyun…?”
I was about to step into the hallway and call my brother, but his expression wasn’t right. His face was hard, his eyes and mouth set in a way that suggested anger. Did something happen?
“What’s wrong? What—”
“Give it to me.”
He strode toward me, almost growling. What? What does he want? Is he talking about the gift card? Yeah, the amount was pretty excessive… I already spent most of it, though. Can it be refunded?
“Endless Black Poison.”
“…Huh?”
“Hand it over. Now.”
It’s not the gift card? But how does he know I bought Endless Black Poison? The Hunter Shopping Mall should be discreet. Does a notification get sent when you use a gift card?
“Why—”
“Give it to me.”
His voice grew harsher, and his eyes had a dark red glow. Thanks to my fear resistance, I wasn’t scared, but why is he acting like this?
“No, but—”
“Hyung.”
Can I get a word in? He keeps cutting me off.
It looked like he was about to grab me by the collar if I didn’t comply, so I reluctantly took out one of the Endless Black Poison orbs from my inventory. I had planned to use this for solo clearing F-rank dungeons. Do I have to give him all of them?
“The others too.”
I handed over the remaining two orbs, and only then did Yuhyun’s expression soften. He tossed the Endless Black Poison into his inventory and let out a long sigh.
“Why on earth would you think of something like this?”
“…Huh?”
What are you talking about?
“Did you really trust me so little?”
It sounds like he’s spouting nonsense. Is he already suffering from heatstroke? And he has high fire resistance.
“Not sure what you mean, but if anyone should be mistrusted, it’s me. You’re someone I can rely on.”
He’s so trustworthy that I could probably get a billion won loan just by having him co-sign. Of course, you should never co-sign for anyone, even a sibling.
Yuhyun’s face twisted in a grimace at my words. I just told him I trust him, so why the face? It’d be nice to have a skill to read my brother’s mind.
“Don’t say that. You… you were ready to sacrifice your life for me.”
…Excuse me? Isn’t that the other way around? You died, and thanks to that, I lived and even regressed.
“Uh… I’m not really sure what you’re talking about, but I didn’t—”
“Even if you were taken hostage, don’t even think about using poison or anything like that. No matter what happens, I’ll save you, so don’t even think about dying.”
“Uh, what?”
Poison? Was that it!
Come to think of it, he doesn’t know I have poison resistance.
Endless Black Poison is a wide-range toxic mist. If you use it without poison resistance, it’s essentially a death wish… So he misunderstood.
I let out a sheepish laugh.
“Hey, I wasn’t thinking that. Why would I die?”
“Hyung…”
He pulled me into a tight hug. No, stop, don’t do this. It’s a misunderstanding!
“Thank you.”
“No, it’s not like that…”
“But just knowing how much you care is enough, so don’t worry about me and take care of yourself.”
…I wasn’t worried about you, though.
Since Yuhyun was being so dramatic, I just nodded vaguely. It would be awkward to explain why I had such high poison resistance. It would be too suspicious to suddenly say, “I have L-rank poison resistance! Surprise!”
“By the way, Yuhyun. I saw this red cat-like thing over there.”
I slipped out of his embrace and asked. At my words, Yuhyun looked toward the greenhouse.
“It’s a Flame Horned Lion cub.”
“A Flame Horned Lion?”
“Yeah. Never heard of it? It was first discovered in an S-rank dungeon we cleared two months ago. We caught the cub hoping to use it as a mount… But it hasn’t grown at all in these two months.”
Well, of course, it wouldn’t grow. It can’t mature without an adult.
“The tamer who helped us said there must be some special condition needed for it to grow. But we have no way of figuring it out, and as it is, it’s useless, so we’re planning to get rid of it.”
“Get rid of it? Like, auction it off?”
“No. We’ll have to kill it. We can’t risk it growing under someone else’s care. It would be especially problematic if one of the top three guilds got their hands on it.”
It was a cold statement. No matter how monstrous it is, wouldn’t two months be enough time to form some attachment? And it’s pretty cute too.
“It’s a shame. Can’t I try raising it? Even as a cub, it’s stronger than I am. It could be useful in an emergency.”
“It’d be hard for you to raise. The food cost is no joke.”
“How much?”
“One C-rank magic stone per meal.”
…Ten million won? Are you insane?
–TL Notes–
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