Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 483: China, Here I Come! (2)

Only the vampire lord could have understood the meaning behind Han-Yeol’s words, but he was already dead from getting his head crushed by Tia’s hand.

“So I guess I’ll have to kill you all.”

A gust of wind blew.

Whoosh.

Han-Yeol’s eyes turned red, and six red tentacles sprouted from his back.

[Hmph!]

“It won't hurt that much, I think.”

Those were the last words and sight that the vampires heard and saw.

Han-Yeol smiled creepily.

By the time he had finished speaking, Han-Yeol had already passed by them, and his tentacles ripped out their hearts.

Tia laughed softly at Han-Yeol. “Haha, Master, are you really showing off your strength in front of those brats?”

“Of course not. I’m just showing them mercy by killing them painlessly.”

While he was talking to Tia, something surprising happened.

Shh, shh.

‘Huh?’

[Han-Yeol-nim, the tentacles are suddenly acting up on their own.]

‘Yeah, I can see it too.’

Han-Yeol had moved instantaneously and ripped out the vampires’ hearts, ending their lives as painlessly as possible. Their hearts were still attached to the tentacles of Han-Yeol’s Blood Legs, and the tentacles suddenly started moving on their own to devour the vampires’ hearts.

Chomp, chomp, slurp, crunch!

They were obviously tentacles, but it didn’t look very pleasant when a mouth-like form appeared in the areas where the hearts were.

‘What the hell is that?’

It was a very grotesque scene, but there was no way Han-Yeol would be surprised by such a sight due to the hardships he had faced as Harkan. He just kept wondering why this was happening.

‘Karvis, can you analyze this?’

[No.]

‘Ugh.’

There were a variety of secrets hidden within Han-Yeol’s power that couldn’t be analyzed.

Slurp, slurp.

Han-Yeol’s six tentacles simultaneously burped after eating hundreds of hearts as well, but that wasn’t all.

Shaa!

‘What is it this time?’

The tentacles continued to extend themselves as if they weren’t satisfied yet, pulling out the hearts of the remaining vampires and devouring them all.

Only when the tentacles had pulled out and devoured the dead vampire lord’s heart did the bizarre behavior end.

Ding!

[You have succeeded in absorbing the heart of a blood and night race: vampire.]

[If you had simply hunted them down, it would’ve been a matter of gaining experience and items, but devouring their hearts is equal to taking their power.]

[All blood-related skills have increased by two levels.]

[You have acquired the skills Blood Tornado (D), Blood Circle (D), Blood Rust (D), and Blood Whip (D).]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

‘Woah, nice.’

Han-Yeol smiled at his first level-up in a long time.

He was now at level five hundred forty-eight, but he was still far from the level of eight hundred that he had reached during his time as Harkan. Just looking at his skills and stats, they weren’t too bad, but it still wasn’t enough.

He had been able to gain skills as Harkan, but they paled in comparison to the skills he was gaining like crazy right now. Nonetheless, Han-Yeol could only think of working harder and becoming stronger.

“Master, come here.”

“Why?”

When Han-Yeol walked up to the place Tia called him, he saw a ring lying next to Count Dracula’s body.

“Oh, an item!”

“Congrats, Master.”

“Hehehe.”

One of Han-Yeol’s favorite things was hearing the system ring, and getting an item after a hunt like this was his second favorite thing. He felt like a farmer harvesting rice after a year of farming, but whenever he heard the system notification sound, he felt like a farmer selling his harvest and getting paid.

‘Karvis.’

[Yes.]

Han-Yeol immediately activated his Analytic Eyes.

Ding!

[Blood Ring]

Rank: Unique (or Cursed)

Type: Demon world summoning gem.

Description: A ring that can randomly summon a vampire from the demon world. The level of the vampire that responds depends on the strength of the summoner. However, the summoned vampire will not obey the summoner’s commands because having this ring is proof that the summoner has eliminated a vampire. The summoner is free to decide whether the summoned vampire is to submit, be contracted, or even be killed in some way.

‘Huh?’

[This is ridiculous.]

After reading the ring’s description, Han-Yeol and Karvis were left speechless.

They thought that since this item had come from the vampire lord, it would have some amazing abilities, but the description of the ring stated that it could only summon a single vampire.

‘What the hell? I didn’t do all that to summon a single vampire.’

Granted, Han-Yeol had already gotten enough level increases and upgraded his blood related skills from absorbing the hearts, but there was no end to human greed. What he thought was a great item was actually pretty much worthless, which made him feel ten times more futile.

But just then, Han-Yeol had a strange thought.

‘Wait a minute, Count Dracula wasn’t a monster, but a Hunter like me. So why did the system recognize him as a monster when he died?’

Han-Yeol cocked his head and looked confused. Looking at the system’s description, it seemed as if he had hunted a monster vampire, so much so that it added to his confusion.

[Ah, Han-Yeol-nim, I think you’re misunderstanding something.]

‘Misunderstanding something?’

[Yes. The system does not distinguish between monsters and Hunters.]

‘What do you mean?’

[It doesn’t matter whether the being you hunted was a monster or a Hunter, but the fact that it was a vampire. In other words, even if you kill a human Hunter, your experience will increase as much as the system determines.]

‘Really?’

[Yes.]

‘That’s kind of brutal.’

[That’s the system.]

Han-Yeol clicked his tongue. He didn’t really feel hurt or incredibly betrayed by this fact—he just felt that the system was inhumane. Up until now, he hadn’t noticed since he didn’t kill many Hunters himself. He wasn’t even able to kill Chairman Woo, and Dr. Santinora had taken away that chance.

“Ugh, whatever. I’m just gonna summon a vampire and leave for China early tomorrow morning!”

“Haha, Master, you're so easygoing.”

“I hate complicated things!”

This was Han-Yeol’s life motto.

Having made up his mind, Han-Yeol ordered the Gurkhas to clean up the mess.

Despite the massive battle, no authorities rushed into the area. He had established his presence in the area as he had bought up and emptied out the entire neighborhood, so it was hard for the government to know about it without a direct report.

“What should we do with the corpse?”

“Corpse?”

“Yes.”

“What corpse?” Han-Yeol asked back, genuinely curious about Sahas’ question of disposing of the bodies.

“The vampire bodies?”

The vampires killed by the Black Orcs' silver-coated weapons had been reduced to ashes and could be swept away with a broom, but the vampires that Han-Yeol and Tia killed still remained. Sahas, a bit frustrated by Han-Yeol's question, pointed to the corpses and tried to explain.

Chomp, chomp!

“Hmmm?”

“...”

But in the backyard of the mansion, where the bodies of the vampires were, the Black Orcs were frantically devouring them.

“They’re Korean Orcs, so they make soup out of the guts, grill the meat, eat them as sashimi, and boil the bones for soup. So you guys just clean up the blood.”

“Yes, sir!”

Slightly embarrassed, Sahas saluted with more energy than usual and gathered his subordinates to clean up the mansion.

Han-Yeol looked up at the sky.

‘I’m sure the US has noticed, but they can’t afford to care right now.’

According to the CIA agent Han-Yeol had recruited, the Freemasons' targeting of P had caused an uproar in the White House, and for the time being, the United States would be preoccupied with protecting its own Hunters.

‘Well, it doesn’t concern me.’

Han-Yeol had his own work to do.

Once he was out of the mansion and in a less populated area, Han-Yeol put the Blood Ring he had gotten on his finger.

“You’re going to do it right away?” Tia asked as she had followed him.

“Yeah.”

Han-Yeol saw no reason to waste time.

“Come forth, vampire. Answer my call!”

Zing!

After Han-Yeol finished his command, the ring glowed brightly, creating a red magic circle in the air.

Ssssk!

Within that magic circle, a figure slowly emerged. It was a beautiful boy with black hair and red eyes that looked like a young noble.

Shaaak!

His widespread wings were red on the inside and black on the outside. Although they appeared to be wings, they resembled a cloak shaped like wings rather than bat wings.

He had long hair that reached his waist. Normally, men looked creepy with this kind of hair, but because the boy was so handsome, it looked perfect on him. He wasn’t that tall, about a hundred seventy five centimeters, and his ears were pointed, giving him more of an androgynous appeal than a masculine one. He was dressed in a medieval European style suit, complete with golden shoulder pads.

The summoned vampire’s eyes met Han-Yeol’s.

[Are you the one who summoned me?]

“Yeah, it was me.”

Normally, Han-Yeol was quite polite to demons. However, since he knew from the description that the vampire he summoned wouldn’t be so obedient, there was no need to be polite. On the contrary, Han-Yeol burned with intent.

Slurp!

On his back, eight red tentacles, two more than the six he had before, revealed their mouths that had devoured the vampires' hearts.

Han-Yeol’s creepy expression was not normal.

“Alright, if you’re ready, let’s fight!”

Han-Yeol hadn’t yet finished warming up his burning body.

[W-What the—?]

Rather, the summoned vampire was taken aback by the unexpected situation.

[...]

Step, step, step!

Currently, Han-Yeol had summoned a hundred thousand elite Black Orcs from the Atarinia Archipelago to the Korean peninsula and was heading to China in a spectacular march.

Was he crazy? No, there was nothing better than this to gain attention.

“Hey, take a picture!”

“Wow, this is amazing.”

“Damn, this is awesome!”