Leveling Up Alone

[Ahhhh!]

[R-Run away!]

The terrified Hunters no longer had the guts to fight any longer. They didn’t throw away their expensive weapons, but they started to leave their positions one by one.

[Hey, don’t run away. Hold your position!]

[Shut up! Then you die instead!]

[I only have ten percent of my mana left. How am I supposed to fight against those monsters in this state?]

It was true. Most of the Hunters were feeling the side effects of draining their mana even when they could've saved it in order to kill the monsters as quickly as possible.

Thud, thud!

[Those idiots!]

The Master-Rank Hunters clicked their tongues as they looked at the fleeing ordinary Hunters. No matter how much they tried to see them in a good way, it was impossible.

However, Urgan and his group had their own problems.

Gulp.

[D-Do you think we can beat them?]

[I-It looks like they’re the main body of the monster army…]

As the other Master-Rank Hunters made negative comments, Urgan slammed his axe into the ground to get them to return to their senses.

Kwang!

[Wake up! If they get past here, it's a straight path to Hanoi. Even if we can’t protect eight million innocent citizens, we have to protect our families, right?]

[You’re right!]

[Let’s fight with all we’ve got!]

[Ha, we doubted ourselves even before we started fighting.]

[Hehehe, we do that all the time.]

[Hahaha]

At Urgan’s joke, the Master-Rank Hunters were in a good mood again.

Whoosh!

[Alright, come at me!]

Urgan and his companions released their mana and prepared to fight the new army of monsters.

But at that moment, an unknown wave of mana suddenly appeared around them.

Oong, oong, oong!

[W-What is that?]

[T-This mana is?]

Black fog filled with an ominous aura enveloped them, spreading gloomy mana far and wide.

Then, for a moment, the world seemed to stop.

Shake!

[Huh?]

Suddenly, the entire jungle, including the area surrounding the Master-Rank Hunters, started to tremble. It wasn’t the ground that was trembling, but it was the bodies of the Hunters spread throughout the jungle.

When one of the Vietnamese Master-Rank Hunters saw this, his face turned deadly pale.

[W-Wait a minute. I heard that the real power of the monster army is to resurrect dead Hunters and turn them into monsters…]

[W-What?]

The other Master-Rank Hunters around him turned equally as pale.

If that was the case, wouldn’t it mean that all this time they had risked their lives to stop the monsters was for nothing?

[Damn it!]

Even Urgan, the definition of ignorant and someone who only knew how to fight, felt hopeless about the whole situation, but that wasn’t all.

[D-Does that mean there’s a chance that even Lei and Lai turned into monsters?]

[No way!]

That was right.

Unfortunately, the bodies of Lei and Lai, who sacrificed themselves to ensure that the rest could retreat safely from the first and second lines of defense, were never recovered.

As a country that followed Confucianism, Vietnam placed great importance on funeral rites, so recovering bodies was always prioritized.

However, it was impossible to run into the monster infestation and retrieve Lai and Lei’s bodies.

[W-Which means?]

[T-There’s a monster made from the corpse of a Master-Rank Hunter?]

Before they could finish talking, two frighteningly powerful monsters quickly charged out.

“Khaaa!”

“Kheee!”

Gulp.

Although there was no sign that they were human, the eight Vietnamese Master-Rank Hunters could instinctively sense that those two monsters had utilized the corpses of Lai and Lei.

The mana was unpleasant like that of monsters, but the mana from their core was clearly that of Lai and Lei.

[Lai and Lei, wake up!]

“Khaaa!”

Kwang!

The Master-Rank Hunters called out to Lai and Lei with longing and attachment for their comrades. But all they received in return was a powerful mana wave that erupted from the bipedal monsters’ mouths.

[Agh!]

[Quick, dodge!]

Lai and Lei were originally two of the highest ranked Hunters among the ten Master-Rank Hunters. In addition, they had gained additional strength when they became monsters, so even though there were only two of them, they were almost as powerful as the eight Master-Rank Hunters combined.

Of course, the eight Master-Rank Hunters were still stronger, but the problem was that they weren’t willing to fight and give it their all.

[Lei, Lai…]

The Vietnamese government wanted the Master-Rank Hunters to bond together as a family and fight together in times of trouble. The effects of this were great, and they had a great sense of comradeship and affection for each other. However, the side effects of that affection troubled them in this situation.

Dong, dong, dong!

The main body of the monster army had finally reached the defense line while the Master-Rank Hunters were unable to properly deal with the two monsters.

Krk!

At the rear of the monster army was a huge litter pulled by a monster, and riding inside were dark mages who actually led this monster army. They were definitely human, but their current appearance was so ugly that it was hard to recognize them as human.

[Kahaha, you foolish humans. Did you dare to think that you could stand a chance against our great demon king army?]

The dark mages leading the monster army in Vietnam were just as powerful as those in mainland China. The only thing they lacked was that the dark mage leading them was not a demon king, but an executive rank feudal lord.

In other words, the armies that had come to crush Southeast Asia were led by dark mages who had sworn allegiance to the demon king and made a contract with them to gain forbidden powers.

Chuck!

The feudal lord dark mage raised his arm high.

[This is the end. Vietnam is mine!]

[Hehehe.]

The other dark mages loyal to the feudal lord were also smiling at the thought of taking over Vietnam and enjoying all kinds of pleasures.

Rumble!

[Huh, what was that?]

Just then, lightning struck from the sky.

The feudal lord dark mage called to one of his slave dark mages.

[Hey, you.]

[Yes, Master.]

[Were we the ones who caused this lightning just now?]

The dark mage slave, still hypnotized and out of his mind, merely answered his master’s question without any change in expression.

[No, we don’t have magic that can create lightning.]

‘What is this uneasiness?’

The feudal lord dark mage felt anxious for the first time after making a contract with the demon.

Rumble! Rumble!

The lightning became even more powerful.

[Lord, maybe this is just a natural phenomenon, you know, like a typhoon or something.]

[Hmm, I suppose.]

The dark mage feudal lord caressed his chin and nodded since he couldn’t really think of anything else. With his uneasiness brushed aside, the dark mage feudal lord turned to look at his army as they had stopped marching.

[What are you all waiting for? March on!]

[Yes, sir!]

Beep!

The battle trumpet sounded again, echoing through the jungle.

Thump, thump, thump!

The monster army started to march forward at the sound of the trumpet.

Whoosh! Crush!

“Kheee!”

[Huh!]

A bunch of lightning struck down from the sky, obliterating the front of the monster army. In an instant, hundreds of monsters were burned to ashes.

[W-What the hell?]

[T-There’s no way this is a natural phenomenon, you idiot!]

Slap!

The lord slapped the dark mage slave who had told him that the lightning strike was a natural phenomenon.

[Agh, I-I apologize!]

It was humiliating, but hierarchy in the world of dark mages was more strict than any other organization, so even if the lord took the slave’s life, there was nothing he could do about it. All he could do was kneel on the ground and apologize.

The feudal lord was incredibly angry.

[Just what the hell is going on?]

At the same time, a gust of wind blew from nowhere.

Whoosh!

“Phew, I saved at least ten years of my life.”

[Haha.]

[We had so much fun.]

[Yeah. This was the first time in our lives that we used our powers with someone else and not purely on our own!]

[We’re having a blast!]

“Where did you learn to talk like that?”

[TV.]

[Computer!]

[Radio!]

[Ocean!]

[Navy!]

[H-H-Hey, using a killer alphabet is cheating!]

[Hehe, suck it!]

[Stop right there!]

Whoosh!

While the monster army was helplessly panicking from the sudden lightning attack, Han-Yeol and the Spirits of Time and Space appeared out of thin air.

Everything was good and all, but the two highly energetic spirits quickly dove into their own little world. They played the word chain game, and then they played tag, showing off their creativity.

“Ha, you guys…”

Han-Yeol could only shake his head at the sight of those two spirits.

Han-Yeol had been in Beijing just a minute ago. How could he suddenly appear in the defense line protecting Tuyen Quang in Vietnam?

It was due to his first practical use of the Spirit of Space’s ranged spatial movement skill. The power of the spirits was determined by the bond between the contractor and the spirits.

He had traveled short distances for fun before, but this was his first time traveling such a long distance on a national scale.

The bolts of lightning that struck the front of the monster army was just a result of the spatial movement skill, not an intentional attack from Han-Yeol or the Spirit of Space.

It was just a coincidence that there were a lot of lightning clouds forming in the sky above Tuyen Quang, which synergized with the powerful mana waves from the spatial movement skill. That coincidence just happened to be extremely powerful.

[Lord, look over there!]

[Huh, what is that?]

[It seems like there’s another Master-Rank Hunter in Vietnam that we didn’t know about.]

[Huh!]

The feudal lord dark mage scoffed at the mention of a new Master-Rank Hunter.

He was actually a Vietnamese Hunter who had made his way to China. He was in charge of the Vietnam expedition, so he knew more about the strength of Vietnam’s Hunters better than anyone else.

[He’ll merely be at the level of a Vietnamese Hunter at best. Just because the weak Southeast Asian Hunters sent out their secret weapon doesn’t mean the situation will change. Send out the Big Mosses and reduce them to ashes at once.]

[Yes, lord!]

Whoosh!

As soon as the feudal lord gave out the order, thirty Big Mosses flew up at the same time and rushed toward Han-Yeol.

[Han-Yeol-nim, they’re coming.]

‘Huh?’

Han-Yeol cocked his head at the behavior of the monsters, or rather, the dark mages at the back of the army controlling the monsters.

‘They’re not running away?’

[I know, right?]

He thought that if he showed up, they'd run away as fast as they could. So he had thought a lot about how to chase and hunt them down, but to his surprise, as soon as the monsters saw Han-Yeol, they rushed to attack him without a second thought.