[ You’re Not Supposed to Use It Like That ]
The fire that had covered the entire basin had mostly died down. The flames, which had been gnawing hungrily at the few remaining patches of grass, were snuffed out beneath my feet. Embers crackled as they scattered, but not a single scorch mark appeared on Yuhyun’s shoes.
Once elemental resistance surpasses B-rank, it starts to affect not just your body but also the clothes and equipment you’re wearing. Han Yuhyun had managed to raise his fire resistance from A-rank to S-rank within just a year. Even if he jumped into a blazing inferno, not a single thread of his clothes would burn.
-Piiiiii
The Golden-beaked Maia let out a high-pitched screech that seemed unfitting for its size. Its red eyes, with their horizontal pupils, rolled towards Yuhyun. It half-spread its folded wings and raised its neck feathers. It was clearly on guard.
-Piiik Piiik
It let out a series of short, warning cries before,
Whoosh
It soared into the sky.
Han Yuhyun paused and looked up at the bird. A shadow passed over him briefly before quickly moving away. With every flap of its wings, droplets of fire rained down from the sky.
Sizzle
From the ice mist that had spread out like a canopy above our heads, we could hear the sizzling of the dying flames.
“I hadn’t heard that the Guild Leader had a flight skill. Will he be alright?”
Yerim said quietly.
“He’ll be fine.”
Even without a flight skill, there are other skills that can compensate.
But why isn’t he using it? Is he trying to make the opponent let down its guard? Flying monsters often get careless if they think their opponent can’t fly, creating an opening. He’s being cautious.
-Piiiiiiiik!
Even after a couple more low-altitude flights, when its opponent didn’t move, the bird shrieked in what seemed like excitement. No wonder people call them bird-brains; it’s so simple-minded. This would be the perfect moment to use Blue Willow Leaves, yet he’s still not using it.
‘Why isn’t he moving?’
Being cautious is good, but this is excessive. Blue Willow Leaves also have a visual disturbance effect, so if he used it now, he could end the fight in one go. What is he waiting for?
Whoosh
The flaming wings spread to their fullest extent. Using the tip of one wing as a pivot, it started slowly turning, preparing for an attack. Immediately after,
Snap!
The wings folded, and it dove straight down. In the blink of an eye, the beak aimed right for him. Even for an S-rank, it would be difficult to block such an attack if they weren’t focused on defense. Yet Han Yuhyun dodged it with the minimum amount of movement.
In the next moment, a thin sword had appeared in his hand, skillfully stabbing into the spot where the wing met the body.
Crunch, flesh tore, blood sprayed, and bones splintered.
-Piieeek!
The Golden-beaked Maia clawed at the ground, rolling its body. As the ash and embers flew up, obscuring our vision, the bird pulled out its hidden wings and clumsily took off.
-Piiik! Kiik!
I could see the bird’s wing, half torn by Yuhyun’s blade, flapping limply. The Maia rose higher, seemingly scared.
This is strange. Didn’t I tell him that it had hidden wings? Why didn’t he use Blue Willow Leaves to jump up and go straight for the head, instead of attacking the wing? Of course, if you don’t have flight-type skills, it’s standard to deal with the wings first, even if there are extras…
‘No way.’
He hasn’t learned Blue Willow Leaves yet? Come to think of it, it wasn’t an initial skill, so maybe he didn’t have it yet. Damn, this sucks. He won’t lose, but this will take all day.
“Wow, Yuhyun oppa moves so smoothly.”
Yerim admired. Her way of addressing him had reverted to “oppa.”
“But that damn bird, isn’t it too scared to come down? Should I help? I could carry the Guild Leader and fly—”
“If you do, you’ll get burned to death.”
What good is it being S-rank? You’re still low-level with no fire resistance. Cold Sigh can only block indirect flames.
“Yuhyun’s fire resistance range is quite wide, but unless he’s holding you tightly like he did me earlier, he won’t be able to cover someone else. If you stick that close to him, your movements will be restricted, and there’s a high chance you’ll get hit instead. Sure, Yuhyun might be safe, but Yerim, you’d have a hard time staying alive.”
“But it doesn’t look like that thing will come down from the sky. Aren’t we stuck here?”
“Boss monsters have a strong instinct to protect their territory, so it’ll come down eventually. It’ll just take a while.”
Fortunately, it only has one pair of extra wings, so if we’re lucky, Yuhyun might only need to cut off one more to finish it off. If things don’t align or the bird protects its wings well, it’ll take even longer. I need to feed Peace later; can we get out of here before dinner?
-Piiik! Piiik!
The bird, having suffered a severe injury, was squawking loudly but wasn’t lowering its altitude recklessly. Still, since it hadn’t fled completely, it would probably attack again soon. The question was when.
-Piiiiii
Huh? Why does it look like that bird is glancing at us? Is it thinking it can’t handle Yuhyun and trying to use its head? On top of that, it’s slowly lowering its altitude.
Yuhyun must have noticed it too because he started moving toward us and activated a skill.
“Blue Willow Leaves!”
Wait, so he has it… Hey! Why are you using it like that?!
To my surprise, Yuhyun was only using Blue Willow Leaves as a skill to distract the bird’s vision and movement. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the skill; he just wasn’t using it properly!
Then again, the skill description doesn’t exactly say, “Step on these to jump.” If you look at the description, it seems like a support skill meant for visual disturbance.
I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Hey! Step on those!”
“What?”
“The leaves! Step on them and jump!”
For a moment, Yuhyun looked confused but then leapt into the air. His feet landed on the blue-glowing leaves. If they were ordinary leaves, they’d have fallen under his weight, but the Blue Willow Leaves stayed firm, hovering in midair.
The first few steps were awkward, but Han Yuhyun, being an S-rank stat holder, quickly adapted to moving across the leaves.
His body ran through the air. The Maia, now panicking, lunged at him, but he dodged even more easily than he would on the ground, controlling the cluster of leaves to further obscure the bird’s vision.
-Piiik!
The Golden-beaked Maia lost sight of its target and panicked. In that brief moment, Yuhyun was higher than the bird. Precisely above its flame-covered head.
‘It’s over.’
The moment I thought that, Yuhyun’s spear pierced the Maia’s crown.
Splat!
The bird’s head exploded like a crushed pudding. I’m pretty sure that explosion was an option on the spear. What was the spear’s name again?
Thud!
The giant bird, half of its head blown away, plummeted to the ground. Yuhyun lightly landed on the ground by stepping on the remaining Blue Willow Leaves. It ended quickly after all.
Once the monster was dead, a blue gate appeared in the spot where the original goat boss had been.
“Hyung!”
Yuhyun ran toward me with a face full of excitement.
“That was amazing! Who knew you could use Blue Willow Leaves as a substitute for flight skills? No, it’s way better than having someone cast a flight skill on you!”
He was as happy as a kid receiving presents on both Christmas and Children’s Day.
“The lack of a flight skill was always a sore spot for me! To think I had such a good skill and was just letting it go to waste, I feel stupid! You figured out how to use it as soon as you saw it.”
Well, I wasn’t the one who figured it out. It was originally Yuhyun who… actually, I’m not sure. The Awakening Center will soon be established, and research on awakeners will pick up, so large guilds will start hiring skill researchers.
“Okay, I get it. Calm down. It’s no big deal.”
“What do you mean it’s no big deal? It’s like gaining a whole new skill. And not just any skill—the one I needed the most! My traits make me unlikely to gain long-range attacks, so flying monsters have always been the most troublesome. But now I don’t need to rely on others for support anymore! Plus, the guild members who had flight support skills have low stat grades, so it’s always been risky to bring them along. This is perfect!”
Yeah, I get it. I can see why you’re happy. I’m happy if you’re happy. But I feel embarrassed when you keep praising me for something I basically cheated on.
“Shouldn’t we get out of here quickly? The dungeon rank changed, so people must be worried.”
“Oh, right. It’s been quite a while, so the guild and association should know by now. It must be chaos.”
We quickly gathered our loot.
“If you want, I can take a look at your skills sometime.”
I said just before we left. The Final Recompense had shown me different ways to use the skills, so right now, I probably understood his skills better than Yuhyun did.
“Really? I’d love that!”
Yuhyun replied enthusiastically.
“I’ll make time right after I finish the new A-rank dungeon raid.”
“Mister, what about me?”
Yerim, who had been listening to the conversation, cut in. As for you, kid…
“I already gave you some pointers. Come back when you reach level 30.”
I’ll take another look once you get some new skills. It might not be of much help, but it’s better than you having to figure it out alone.
As we stepped out, just as expected, we were greeted by a crowd of anxious, worried faces. They let out small cheers when they saw we were safe.
“We’re relieved you’re alright, Guild Leader!”
“Hunter Park Yerim doesn’t appear to be injured either!”
Of course, all the attention was on Yuhyun and Yerim. Myungwoo and I were just Background Characters 1 and 2. It was comfortable that way, and it should’ve stayed that way.
“Han Yujin, are you alright?”
Kim Seonghan approached me. Hey, shouldn’t you be asking after your Guild Leader first? Why are you talking to me? People are looking at us weirdly since you’re known as the loyal shield of Haeyeon.
“I’m fine. Completely fine.”
So please, just go look after the Guild Leader. For the love of—. To make matters worse, Yuhyun even turned to look at me. Ugh, all eyes are on me now. Still, since he’s trying to keep me hidden, my little brother won’t say anything unnecessary.
“I think I need to stop by the association, so head back to the guild with Seonghan.”
“Oh, sure.”
His voice was a bit stiff compared to how he spoke in the dungeon. As expected, he doesn’t show any hint of affection when there are a lot of eyes watching. Good.
Yuhyun, Yerim, and the Hunters from the association left first. Inside the car returning to the guild, I opened my status window.
‘I leveled up to 10 at the last minute, didn’t I?’
You gain a small amount of experience just by being near a boss monster. Thanks to that, I got the level-up message, but there was no skill acquisition message.
‘Still no new skills. But this is…’
I noticed something odd. The color seemed to have changed a bit.
[Perfect Nurturer (L)]
The Dragon Slayer title remained the same, but only the Perfect Nurturer had changed color.
It was kind of red. It’s red. Like, seriously red. Does this mean it’s three times faster?
‘This is… kind of… like a trap.’
I feel like checking it might be a bad idea. I’d rather just ignore it. But I also have a feeling I shouldn’t ignore it, and that’s the problem.
To the person who made the system, what exactly is your intention? Can’t you just open the chat window for two-way communication one more time?
I muttered to myself, but no answer came. With a sigh, I opened the title window for Perfect Nurturer. Thankfully, there were no changes to the other skills. Except for one.
[My Kid Is The Best (L)]
This one’s color had changed too.
Wow, this is red too. As if it weren’t already a landmine, now it’s gone and turned red. This looks like a trap if I’ve ever seen one. But I can’t ignore it forever.
Here goes nothing.
[My Kid Is The Best (L) — Growth rate of those influenced by the keyword +100% (/ ]∀[)/ Fighting! ┕(^ㅁ^┕)
Duration: 3 days
Can be used without the keyword for those already influenced
Cannot be used on the same target multiple times
Cooldown for reusing on the same target: 30 days
Keyword: I love you
※If the target is aware of the keyword’s effect, it will not apply
Completed Targets of Influence (5)
(Han Yuhyun-S)(Park Yerim-S)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)(Pending)
Next]
What’s with the “Fighting!”? It’s not cute, go away. And what’s this “Pending”? It wasn’t like this before.
Including the two already listed, there are 30 slots, and there’s a “Next” option. For a moment, my brain felt like it short-circuited.
‘T-There’s no way, but… Could it be?’
Am I supposed to fill the pending slots? And since Myungwoo and Kim Seonghan aren’t listed, does that mean with only S-ranks…? What the hell.
This is insane.
Even with fear resistance on, my heart is racing. If it were off, I’d probably be screaming.
‘So when it said “Found it”… was it referring to a Perfect Nurturer title or the My Kid Is The Best skill holder?’
And hell, I’m supposed to catch 30 S-ranks? No, probably more than 30 since there’s a next page.
‘I can’t do it, not even if it kills me. 30 is already impossible. This is just crazy.’
Whoever made this system probably lost their conscience ages ago. There are fewer than ten S-ranks in Korea. Are you telling me to go fishing worldwide? If that’s the case, at least ease up on the requirements. Change the keyword and get rid of these weird additional effects. If you don’t, I’m not doing it. I can’t.
‘I mean, why should I follow the orders of someone I’ve never even seen?’
If you want me to do this insane thing, at least provide a detailed explanation. Forget these silly emoticons like “Fighting”; give me some actual information. Even in novels, comics, or movies, characters like these always speak ambiguously and mess things up. Now it’s happening in real life too.
Explain! If you don’t, I won’t do it.
‘I made a huge fool of myself catching just four targets, and now you expect me to…’
Wait. It’s supposed to be four targets. I checked the skill window again.
[Completed Targets of Influence (5)]
…Why does it say five?
–TL Notes–
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