Chapter 174
Myung-woo completed the harness for the saddle overnight. It even turned out to be an S-class equipment with various useful options. Noah and I could only gasp in admiration.
“I didn’t expect it to be finished so quickly either.”
Myung-woo, who had been up all night, spoke with a face as radiant as the sun. We all went up to the rooftop garden to test out the equipment. There was an accident in which Blue attacked Myung-woo because he was so happy seeing him after such a long time, but Myung-woo unexpectedly easily took Blue’s beating. When I asked, he told me that his stats seemed to have risen. It was mostly in strength and stamina.
I couldn’t believe that his stats just kept going up without even leveling up. It’s not like he was an S-rank.
“I’ve been thinking about this before, but I think I’m better suited making non-lethal equipment like this rather than weapons. The accumulated experience may be different, but it was much easier and faster to make this harness or Peace’s equipment than to make Park Ye-rim’s Spear. It’s also a lot more fun.”
Myung-woo said that, while stretching the harness strings.
“If Grace wasn’t a defensive item, I don’t think I would have achieved that grade even if I used an L-Grade Mana Stone. Actually, even if it’s for monsters, it’s a bit awkward to make these weapons.”
I felt like something hit me in the back of my head when I heard him say that it felt uncomfortable to him to make weapons for killing. There were often fights between hunters, so these weapons could be aimed at people at any time. I was already used to that fact, but Myung-woo wasn’t.
…If I hadn’t returned, would I have had similar thoughts to Myung-woo?
“Then, what I asked you to do…….”
“No, don’t worry. I’m well aware that the world needs these weapons right now. It’s to protect people from the dungeons. Of course, if not for that reason, I wouldn’t have made any weapons.”
Then he showed me the back part of the harness.
“Its color is white, as I said yesterday. If it had any eye-catching color, I thought one might get targeted. As I didn’t need to make a lower part for it I only attached it with chest straps.”
The links attached to the white leather straps were golden. Metal decorations were added here and there to increase its durability. However, since there was only a chest part, honestly, that, um…… puppy…….
I felt kind of sorry for Noah. Although the other party was still gloating at the fact that this equipment was completed quickly with outstanding performance.
“There’s also a loop on the back that one can grab with one’s hands. And this.”
Myung-woo lifted a long string attached to the middle. At the end of it there was something like a metal button, which seemed like a decoration.
“This is a safety rope. If you hold this and press the button.”
Myung-woo pressed the metal button against my waist. Then, with a loud sound, a belt shot out and wrapped around my waist.
“It will automatically put a belt on you. You only need to press this button to unlock it. I focused on speed.”
It was definitely safer to put a rope around, however I gave up on that thought because I wasn’t confident that I could untie it quickly enough in the case of an emergency. So that add-on was really convenient. Myung-woo smiled pleasantly when I told him it was amazing.
“It looks short now, but it’s actually long enough for him to stand up in it in his dragon form. And look here. Do you see this different colored part? This part has some kind of suction effect. If you step on it you won’t slip.”
Its effect was activated by putting pressure on it with your feet, so you could easily get your feet off of it if you just take the pressure off. Myung-woo seemed very happy while explaining, so I thought it would probably be good for him to make this kind of equipment.
The day will come where you only have to make functional items. Even if dungeons and the awakening system itself were to disappear, Myung-woo’s dexterity would remain the same, so it would be pretty good for him to just set up a workshop. That day will come, for sure.
“I’m pretty confident in its performance, but just in case, please test out Grace.”
Myung-woo said this and handed Noah the harness. After putting on the harness Noah turned into a dragon. The white leather straps on his pale golden scales were rather fitting…. Can I even say it looked good on him?
– Yujin ssi!
Noah waved his tail as if urging me to get on. I shouldn’t say this, but he really was like a big puppy. Cute.
“Then, please excuse me.”
I climbed up on Noah’s back and put on the waist belt. There was no need for me to stand so I just put my knees on the suction parts and grabbed the hand strap.
“Let’s fly properly. Think of it as a mock battle.”
If he had to fly suddenly, Noah would just grab me and go instead of putting me on his back, as I couldn’t endure that. However, that would tie up Noah’s hands. If he were to participate in the battle as an ally, that would be disadvantageous in a direct fight.
So when I was fighting with Riet I kept wondering about what I should do about that. If I could withstand it with his harness, my worries would be solved.
I called Blue to help out to emulate more realistic movements. I’m sure this sounded to her like we were going to play with her. Then I transferred the teacher skill to Noah. He flew into the sky and Blue immediately chased after him.
– Kkyaa.
With one flap of her faintly golden white feathered wings, she instantly flew past Noah, soaring high into the sky. Although she wasn’t grown up yet, she was still a griffon, a race superior to dragons in terms of flying skills. For Noah, who wasn’t even a real dragon, it was hard to catch up to her.
With a whistling sound of wind, Blue struck down on Noah like lightning. Her golden wings moved like waves, while Noah’s body was upright. Knowing her moves in advance, I put a lot of strength into the hand holding the handle. The string attached to the belt was pulled taut. The suction parts that touched my knees were still working, so it was easier to hold on than I thought.
But then, he completely turned his body over. Noah flew around like a roller coaster, avoiding Blue rushing around him in a triangle. My knees fell off the parts and I felt my body floating into the air, however I was still able to hold on. Noah soon flapped his wings normally again which made me come to my senses again so I corrected my posture.
– Are you okay?
“Yes, let’s fly a little more.”
After hesitating for a bit, Noah continued his flight that seemed close to acrobatics. He made a sharp fall, a sharp rise, sudden turns, all while fighting with Blue in the air. Although my arm hurt a little, I got the hang of reducing my arm strength by relying on the belt strap as much as possible half-way through.
There was just one thing. However, if I bring medicine for motion sickness with me that would be solved as well. …That poison resistance would be a problem though. I asked someone to make motion sickness medicine that ignored the effects of poison resistance before, but I haven’t heard back from them yet.
“Wait…… Let’s rest for a moment.”
I felt dizzy. Noah spread out his wings and flew horizontally. Next to him, Blue followed with her wings lined up with his.
“It’s working. Unless you’re going to do those aerobatic movements too long in a row.”
I’ll have to remember to keep my stomach empty before fighting Riet. They say starving yourself would just make you feel sicker, but that was still better than vomiting.
At that time, Noah and Blue both turned their heads towards the Haeyeon Guild building. Something strange appeared in my field of view as well. Slowly creeping through the sky there was a stream of water forming shapes. They were letters.
Ajussi!
Yerim? I could only see it faintly with my eyesight, but Noah’s eyes could clearly see Yerim, who had opened a window and looked at me. Then the water stream changed into a new shape again.
This evening
Chicken!
…What did you do with your cell phone? I raised my arms and made a circle towards Yerim, who was smiling. Yes, eat whatever you want. Yerim’s mouth twitched, then stream of water gathered into one place.
♥
While I was looking at that heart made of water with joy, at that moment, a spark of fire suddenly appeared and wrapped around the heart. The water evaporated instantly while the flames also dispersed and disappeared. I saw Yoohyun standing by the window a few floors above Yerim.
My younger brother, who waved at me with a smile on his face, took out his phone. I thought he wanted to text me, but then I saw Yerim looking down on her cell phone with a frown on her face. Then she grunted and walked away from the window.
‘…What are those two doing?’
There might be an article called ‘Haeyeon Guild’s Flaming Heart’ appearing some time soon. But those two really got along pretty well.
Fire and ice are said to be opposites, but if they are moderately close enough, they would create the perfect temperature, not too hot nor too cold. So from another perspective, they might be a good match actually.
After I landed, Myung-woo, who was yawning, asked me how I felt. Of course, I gave him a perfect evaluation. The belt worked well, the handle was sturdy and the suction parts were useful.
“Do you want me to fry chicken for dinner?”
“I’d appreciate that. Oh, I’ll help you.”
If Myung-woo made it on his own, Yoohyun might not want to eat it again. If I tell him we made it together, he might eat it.
“Noah Hunter is coming too.”
“Me, too? can I?”
At Myung-woo’s words, Noah looked back at me with a smile. I didn’t think he’d be so happy just by getting asked to come along.
Myung-woo returned, saying that he should get such shut eye until evening. Blue went around the air, occasionally chirping as if to egg on Noah to play.
“Noah-ssi, I think you should get a new attack skill.”
Noah nodded as if he agreed with me.
“I also wish I had a proper attack skill. The thing I want to have the most is another skill though.”
“What skill do you want? What is it?”
“…It’s miniaturization.”
Noah said abashed.
“Fluidization like Peace would also be fine.”
At these words, I casually looked back at Peace. Peace had the skill Fluidization to turn huge. So there must also be a Miniaturization skill. But why did he want be smaller? It would be cute though. A golden dragon baby… Hm, I think that would just be too cute. Even now, his body was streamlined and soft, so when he got younger, wouldn’t he be really round and pretty?… The more I imagined it, the worse it got.
“Well, I wish I could get that skill. I’ll leave an eye out as well. I think, you, getting smaller would be advantageous to me as well.”
It would be easy to carry him around. I’d have to ask around if a skill like that existed.
I briefly explained to Noah that I had some sort of skill to see how he could grow. Kim Sung-han also was able to grow into an S-class with that skill. Then I used the my brat skill on Noah.
The system window popped up in front of my eyes and a list of Noah’s unacquired optimization skills appeared. I could only see the names of these skills, but most of them were ones that seemed to be auxiliary skills. Among them, there was only one S-class skill that caught my eyes.
[Silent Wound(S)]
…The skill name somehow reminded me of a silent scream. Since it had Wound in its name it should be an offensive skill. Though it might also be a recovery skill, if it wasS-class, anything was welcome.
Among the rest of the skills, none looked like good attack skills, and it would have been no different from a gamble if I randomly choose one of those, so I’d rather choose the only S-class skill. When I selected Silent Wound, a message window appeared again.
[Silent Wound (S) Acquisition Conditions for Target Noah
Overpower 500 advanced Awakeners.
(Progress 459/500)]
Overpowering Advanced Awakeners, this was definitely an attack skill! In addition to the My Brat skill’s effect, as Lauchitas’ natural enemy, it was still 500 people, even though the acquisition conditions should have been considerably eased. I think there were originally only 10,000 people like Myungwoo.
‘Fortunately there are only 41 left.’
At that moment, I was reminded again what a rough life Noah led. It wasn’t even against monsters, but Advanced Awakeners, who were a lot of work to deal with. Unlike Korea, where the Hunter-related systems had been established quickly, there were many places abroad that were still really unstable, but it was still bothering me.
“If you beat 41 high-level awakeners, you can acquire a new S-class skill.Judging from the conditions, I think it’s an attack skill.”
“Really?”
As Noah rejoiced at my words, he had a slightly worried face.
“Would I be able to get that skill before my sister comes out? I can’t go around fighting for no reason.”
“Don’t worry. I know a good place.”
A place where you can fight for no reason. I informed Yoohyun that I’d be out for a while and my destination. It wasn’t a dangerous place, so he just told me to be careful. After I told Yerim, I rode Noah and took off.
The place we were headed to was none other than a training center for Advanced Awakeners located in Gyeonggi-do. For safety reasons, full-scale combat training for A-Class or higher had to be conducted only at dedicated training centers outside the capital city and outside the city center. The Association and the Guild Public Training Center were located in a deserted place with no people. It was a place where A-class dungeon breaks happened, so there was not even a single privately owned house around.
Just in case we were mistaken for monsters and attacked, I contacted the Association in charge of the training center management in advance and went down to the gymnasium. Since it would break anyway, there wasn’t any flooring inside and around it, so dust rose up from the wide, flat training field.
‘There are quite a lot.’
The number of hunters on this dusty field was seven. There were more inside. If I provoked them well enough and made them fight against Noah, he’s be able to clear the conditions quickly. I could just tell them I’d give the person with superior skills a prize or something. Maybe one or two of the A-class Items I got from Hong Kong.
“What brings you here?”
A familiar face appeared from inside the building. It was Song Tae-won. Sweat faintly glistened on his forehead and he was wearing something like a uniform. Even for an S-class, this weather was just too hot to move around wildly. Although these clothes usually fit loosely around the body, it seemed to fit Song Tae-won perfectly. He was in really great shape. How enviable.
“I was thinking of doing a field trip and a friendly competition.”
Getting off Noah, another voice answered to my words.
“You’d always be welcome to train your body, but this facility would not be suitable for Han Yujin.”
It was Sung Hyun Jae. I wondered why that man was here again. I looked back and saw a bow in his hands. The arrow he lightly held between his fingers was obviously the mark he took from Evelyn yesterday. Were you here to test it? Is Evelyn here with you? I don’t need you three. I only required A-Classes. S-Classes not allowed.