The S-Classes That I Raised – Chapter 4

[Something’s Wrong with My Brother (2)]

I’ve gone back to the past. Doesn’t that mean everything that happened before never occurred?

‘Is it that events before I came back still have an impact on me?’

Is that why my Nurturer title changed too?

Before checking the titles, I looked over the rest of my stats.

[Level 1
Health: 6
Strength: 4
Agility: 5
Willpower: 4
Magic: 2]

Hmm, these are the same. F-rank stats below the average of 5, except for Health.

The rank of an awakened’s stats is usually determined by their average stats, excluding magic, as it’s notoriously difficult to grow. While stat ranks can sometimes change as they grow, typically, it’s only possible to go up one or two ranks. A cat growing into a tiger just doesn’t happen.

[Skills

Willpower Up (E): Increases the target’s Willpower by 5% (Instant effect, cannot be stacked with similar or identical skills), Duration 30 minutes

Agility Up (E): Increases the target’s Agility by 5% (Instant effect, cannot be stacked with similar or identical skills), Duration 30 minutes]

The basic skills were also similar to before. I used to have a Strength buff instead of Willpower, but that might have changed because the awakening situation was different this time.

They’re basic buff skills, and their rank is just above bottom-tier at E. However, if nurtured well, they could grow to D-rank, which isn’t too bad.

‘Yuhyun used to get in my way, so I couldn’t raise the rank before.’

Even with F-rank stats, if my skills reached D-rank, I could’ve been an E-rank awakened. There were even some rare cases where F-rank stats combined with powerful skills could elevate someone to B-rank. Though, that was like one in fifty million.

There was only one F-rank awakened in the world who had become A-rank due to an SS-rank skill. That was Emily Spence, a saint who could heal anyone on the brink of death. Many argued she should have been S-rank, but because she wasn’t of much use in clearing S-rank dungeons, she remained A-rank. Protecting an F-rank in an S-rank dungeon is just too dangerous.

‘Looks like I’ll be barely scraping by to qualify as a hunter again this time.’

There were a lot of awakened people in the world. They were already common, but half a year from now, when the Awakening Center opens, it’ll be a world where everyone, from the old man next door to the kid next door, is awakened.

But out of the many awakened, 999 out of 1,000 had F-rank stats and skills. In other words, they were practically ordinary people.

Since F-rank skills couldn’t grow, there was no way to improve their rank either.

That’s why a hunter’s license was only issued when either the stats or skills were at least E-rank. This was why there were many awakened, but few hunters.

‘Now, let’s check the titles…’

I swallowed nervously. Not A, not S, but L—Legendary. And I had two of them.

Though despite that, there’s no change in my stats at all.

‘Could it be that Dragon Slayer is a skill-related title?’

Titles are divided into skill titles and stat titles.

Stat titles, as the name suggests, boost your stats, while skill titles come with additional skills.

If Dragon Slayer were an L-rank stat title, it would’ve boosted my stats to at least B-rank. What a shame.

‘Even if I had B-rank stats, Yuhyun wouldn’t be so overly protective. I guess I’ll just have to rely on the skills instead.’

Come on, give me a defensive skill, please.

I prayed as I opened the information window for the Dragon Slayer title.

[Dragon Slayer (L)

Proof of a warrior who hunted a Grade 1 Dragonkin (Lautitars) alone.

Title Supplementary Skills:

Poison Resistance (L)
Curse Resistance (L)
Fear Resistance (L)
Lautitars’ Nemesis (SS)]

Four supplementary skills right off the bat—definitely a legendary title. Usually, S-rank titles come with 2-3 supplementary skills, A-rank ones with 2, and lower ranks with just one initial skill. Moreover, titles B-rank and above can grow, possibly adding more supplementary skills.

‘It looks like all the skills are related to Lautitars. So if I were to slay a fire dragon, I’d get fire resistance; if it were an ice dragon, I’d get freeze resistance, that sort of thing.’

Lautitars was famous for its poison and curses.

Though I could guess what the resistance skills did, I decided to check them just in case.

[Poison Resistance (L) — Perfect immunity to all poisons below legendary rank]

[Curse Resistance (L) — Perfect immunity to all curses below legendary rank]

[Fear Resistance (L) — Nullifies all fear effects below legendary rank]

These are incredibly good—no, they’re overpowered skills.

If I were an A-rank or higher hunter fighting on the front lines, that is.

‘But how am I supposed to use this?’

There are a few dungeons that rely more on poison or curses than physical attacks, but in most cases, physical attacks are fundamental. Even if I were immune to Lautitars’ poison and curses, without agility or physical defense, I’d still be shredded by its claws.

‘On the other hand, if an S-rank hunter had this title, they’d absolutely dominate Lautitars.’

This is like putting a pearl necklace on a pig, oink oink.

I sighed deeply and checked the last skill, Lautitars’ Nemesis.

[Lautitars’ Nemesis (SS) — Doubles the effectiveness of all skills when facing Lautitars and similar dragonkin]

It’s a dud! A complete dud!

All I’ve got are immunity and buff skills, and even if they’re doubled, I’d still be nothing more than a snack for a giant lizard! The same goes for similar dragonkin. Even the weakest of them, the Grade 5 dragonkin, are way out of F-rank’s league.

‘Damn it, what a waste! If only this had gone to an S-rank! Can’t I somehow pass this to Yuhyun?’

If that brat had this alongside his already ridiculously good skills, he could beat the hell out of Lautitars!

“Oh man, oh man—”

It’s so frustrating that it makes me want to cry, and my stomach is twisting into knots. Ugh, what a waste!

I banged my head on the ground for a while before calming down and taking another look at the status window.

‘At least Perfect Nurturer should be useful.’

Yeah, I decided to live quietly anyway. I should just forget about dungeons and live by casting growth buffs.

[Perfect Nurturer (L)

Proof of a nurturer who raised one of the world’s greatest. The title is especially perfect since the nurturer’s past abilities exceeded the nurtured’s current abilities by +100%.]

…What?

Wait a minute, what’s with this title description?

The first part is the same as my old Nurturer title. Proof of a nurturer who raised one of the world’s greatest. But the Perfect Nurturer title had an additional line at the end.

‘+100% of the nurtured’s abilities… Does that mean the stats I received when Yuhyun died were doubled? Did that incident cause my title to become Perfect Nurturer?’

It’s the past, yet the events of a vanished future are affecting the present. The thought made me uneasy. Is this okay? What if there are other side effects besides the title?

‘But it really is worthy of being called a legendary title.’

The conditions to obtain it are absurdly difficult.

You have to raise a world-class powerhouse, at least S-rank, and you yourself had to be twice as strong in the past.

‘I got it because of the loophole of time regression, but to do it the regular way, someone with around SSS-rank strength would have to raise an S-rank.’

Even if the nurtured one died and you received the double buff, it wouldn’t meet the condition unless it was the past. You could potentially raise another S-rank afterward to meet the criteria, but how easy is that? As far as I know, I was the only one with the Nurturer title for raising an S-rank.

Maybe there were others who kept it hidden like I did, though.

‘So what about the skills…’

I wonder how they’ve changed. I scrolled down slightly to check the supplementary skills.

[My Kid Is The Best (L)
Final Recompense (L)
Look How Talented My Kid Is (SS)
Promising Talent (S)]

There were four skills, just like with Dragon Slayer, but their ranks were lower. Two were L-rank, one SS-rank, and one S-rank. Though this was still impressive, it didn’t quite match up to the Dragon Slayer title, even though both were L-rank titles.

‘Still, these are much more useful to me.’

Feeling somewhat satisfied, I opened the information window for My Kid Is The Best first. The skill name is pretty cheesy.

[My Kid Is The Best (L) — Increases the growth rate of a target inspired by the keyword by +100%
Duration: 3 days
Once a target is inspired, the skill can be used without the keyword
Cannot be stacked on the same target
Cooldown: 30 days for the same target
Keyword: I love you
※ If the target is aware of the keyword’s effect, it will not be applied
Inspired Target (1): Han Yuhyun (S)]

Good, all good, but—

‘What the hell? Why is the keyword this embarrassing?!’

It used to be “Cheer up!” Is it because I told Yuhyun I loved him? Did that somehow inspire him?

Damn it!

‘How am I supposed to use this?!’

It’s manageable if it’s family or, at worst, an adult woman, but what if it’s a guy? Or a kid? Trying to help a minor awaken could get me handcuffed!

And it’s not like you can just blurt out “I love you” to anyone. If the conditions are the same as the old skill, you’d need to spend some time with the person, listen to their concerns, and have some emotional exchange before saying the keyword at the right moment.

Or you could save their life in a dire situation and… confess.

Confess. Yeah, it’s practically a confession. Haha.

‘…I guess I’ll just stick to using it on Yuhyun.’

It’s a shame, but I don’t really have a choice. At least the keyword only needs to be said once when inspiring the target.

…Maybe, just maybe, if I meet someone really worth helping, I’ll swallow my pride and use it. Ugh.

Wallowing in my misery, I opened the information window for the Final Recompense skill.

[Final Recompense (L) — When a target inspired by the keyword dies, you receive their skills and abilities with double efficiency
Duration: 7 days]

This was an upgraded version of my old skill, Final Repayment. Seven days is a long time, but it’s still a one-time use, so why is it L-rank?

‘This one’s going on lockdown.’

It’s better left unused and certainly shouldn’t be revealed to anyone.

Think about it. Who would want to be around someone who can take your abilities after you die? It’d make people uneasy and paranoid, thinking I’d stab them in the back to survive in a dangerous situation.

That’s why I kept it hidden even before my regression.

Moving on, I checked the Look How Talented My Kid Is skill. The name is awful too.

[Look How Talented My Kid Is (SS) — When the target inspired by the keyword is cheered on using the keyword in front of five or more intelligent beings who understand it, the target’s abilities and skill effects are increased by the percentage of the number of intelligent beings present (Max 100%)
Duration: 30 minutes
Cooldown: 10 days
※ If the target or surrounding intelligent beings are aware of the keyword’s effect, it will not be applied]

Keyword. It’s always the keyword.

I carefully examined the skill information window, but there was no specific keyword listed. So that means—

‘This time it’s a public confession!!’

Damn it, I can’t even use this on Yuhyun!

The skill itself is amazing. Really amazing. Gather a hundred spectators, and you get a 2x boost.

But why does it have to be a love confession? Are you trying to make me die of embarrassment?

‘And with only 30 minutes of duration, I’d have to be right there.’

Now that I think about it, there’s no way I could use this skill effectively anyway. My Kid Is The Best lasts for 3 days, so I could cast it before Yuhyun enters a dungeon, but Look How Talented My Kid Is would wear off before he even got halfway through a boss fight if I used it outside the dungeon.

Plus, there are limits on how many people can enter a dungeon.

‘Ugh, this one’s useless too.’

I really wish I could give it away. It’d be perfect for some beautiful buffer or healer with at least B-rank stats. They wouldn’t feel too awkward using it either.

A skill that boosts both overall stats and skill effects by just 10% is considered A-rank. That’s because while there are plenty of stat-boosting skills, there are very few that increase skill effects. The usual party size limit for S-rank dungeons is around 30 people, so with a full party, that’s a whopping +30%. It’d be a huge help in boss fights—what a waste.

Right after Final Recompense, this is another skill I can’t fully utilize, so it’s making me sigh.

‘The ranks are great, but most of these skills are duds.’

With low expectations, I checked the last skill, Promising Talent.

[Promising Talent (S) — Allows the user to check the predicted awakening rank of a non-awakened individual. Optimizes the potential of the target inspired by the keyword for awakening.
Cooldown: 30 days for optimized awakening]

…What? Hold on.

‘This is huge.’

Just the ability to predict someone’s awakening rank is incredible. It means I could scout potential S-rank or A-rank awakeners in advance. But the real jackpot is the optimized awakening.

Around three years from now, it’ll be discovered that an awakened’s abilities are influenced by the circumstances during their awakening. For example, someone who awakens while drowning might gain water-related skills, and someone who awakens while at risk of falling might gain flight-related skills. You could even gain plant manipulation skills while working in a field or hypnosis skills while dealing with difficult customers at a call center.

My skills and title changed when I awakened in a different situation this time too.

There were even studies suggesting that the awakening rank itself could be affected by the awakening situation. It was believed that even if someone had the potential to be A-rank, if the circumstances weren’t favorable, they might awaken at B-rank or lower.

But trying to tailor the awakening situation to an individual is no easy task. Even now, and five years into the future, optimizing awakening conditions is impossible.

But the Promising Talent skill allows for optimized awakenings.

‘The highest rank and the best skills based on potential!’

It means I could pick up the best rookie once a month.

Wow, this is incredible, so much so that it could be considered legendary…

‘…But it’s another keyword skill.’

Oh, for crying out loud. Seriously? Seriously! There’s no way I’ll… I’ll…

…I’ll still have to use it. Sniff.

–TL Notes–
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