Leveling Up Alone

“This is great!”

[Haha, it really is.]

Han-Yeol was puzzled, but he also couldn’t hide his joy. It couldn’t get any better than this.

‘Now I won’t have to bother chasing you around!’

Whoosh! Swish!

Khehe.

Han-Yeol laughed manically, unsheathed his sword, and took out his chain.

Whoosh, whoosh!

“Alright, let the game begin.”

[What’s going on?]

One of the dark mages on the ground frowned at Han-Yeol’s behavior. Then, his fellow dark mage next to him looked at him with a puzzled expression as if he was curious as to why he was suddenly frowning.

[W-Wait a minute, I feel like I’ve seen that Hunter in the air before…]

[No way. The lord said that he was a secret weapon, the last hope for the Vietnamese. So how could an ordinary dark mage like you have seen him before?]

[R-Right?]

[Yes.]

The dark mage understood his comrade's point, but he still couldn’t shake off this uneasy feeling.

‘Hmm, I swear I’ve seen him before…’

Swoosh, swoosh!

Twenty Big Moths quickly arrived at Han-Yeol’s location.

“Kheaaa!”

Phuaaa!

At the same time, they opened their mouths and released the most powerful skill they possessed: poison gas from hell. This was an extremely widespread skill, and while the Big Moths themselves were completely unaffected by it, the skill was incredibly powerful, dissolving all living things that came into contact with it.

[Han-Yeol-nim!]

‘Haha, this is nothing.’

However, Han-Yeol was laughing leisurely.

‘Ugh, I’ve had enough of poison!’

Especially after Tia became the Arachnid Queen, he had conducted many experiments with poisons that were unheard of. One of the test subjects used in that experiment was Han-Yeol himself, an incredibly strong Hunter. Thanks to this, he gained the skill Chronic Poison Resistance (F) and leveled up to Rank D.

Pang!

Han-Yeol launched himself toward the Big Moths, not caring if the poisonous gas spread or not.

[Haha, what an idiot. He’ll soon die from the poison that’ll spread all over his body.]

[Hehehe, I know right.]

The dark mages, including the feudal lord, leisurely watched the battle from the ground that would soon come to an end.

Pang!

‘Huh?’

They temporarily lost their sense of reality at the sight that followed. The scene was so unrealistic that they couldn't tell if they were dreaming or in real life.

Kwang!

Thirty Big Moths, the giant flying monsters of the feudal lord’s army, were destroyed in an instant.

“Kheee!”

[N-No way…!]

[T-This can’t be!]

The dark mages first tried to deny reality.

Big Moths were flying monsters that were quite difficult to create. Of course, they were nothing compared to the legendary flying undead and bone dragons. However, compared to the bone dragons that needed a dragon race to be made, Big Moths didn’t, so they were called mass-produced bone dragons because they could be mass produced like the name.

It was unbelievable to see such Big Moths melt away without lasting even a second.

Chaa! Kwang!

“Ha, everyone come at me!”

Han-Yeol slaughtered his enemies to his heart's content for the first time in a while. He didn't consider this a battle. A battle implied facing an opponent of similar skill level. Killing a group of weaker individuals was not a battle, but a massacre. For the record, Han-yeol didn’t feel bad about slaughtering those weaker than him. In fact, he actually enjoyed it.

‘How do you feel, Karvis? Doesn’t it feel great?’

Kwang!

[Yes, it does,] Karvis replied.

Han-Yeol maneuvered his shoulder cannon and hit a Big Moth. He instantly wiped out the thirty Big Moths that the monster army proudly boasted about. However, Han-Yeol wasn’t satisfied at all by this.

Clank!

Han-Yeol licked his lips with his tongue as the sword at the end of Jabberwock Chain clashed with the Jabberwock Sword. His eyes were filled with greed and the desire to fight more.

‘Hehehe, I’m not done warming up. I’ll have to deal with them a little more.’

Boom!

Han-Yeol threw himself downward, plunging into a gap between the monsters.

Han-Yeol quickly moved at the speed of light through the group of monsters and started to slaughter the monsters in his sight.

“Hahaha, come at me!”

His booming laughter seemed to envelop the entire country.

[A-Ah, I remember now. H-He’s L-Lee Han-Yeol!]

[What?]

When Han-Yeol took out his weapons, the dark mage who had felt a sense of familiarity finally found the answer to his anxious feeling.

Up until now, the dark mages had been hiding in darkness for a very long time, cut off from the world, practicing day and night in order to learn the secrets of black magic. Naturally, they didn’t know much about Han-Yeol since he had appeared while they were cut off from the world. However, they did have outside information, so they knew about the existence of Lee Han-Yeol.

[Oh, so he’s the famous Lee Han-Yeol?]

[Ah y-yes, I think so. What should we do?]

[Kehe, only if I can catch him, turn him into a monster, and make him my subordinate…]

Grip!

The dark mage feudal lord clenched his fist.

[I can get rid of that arrogant demon king and turn this body into the new demon king. Concentrate all the monsters on that guy, Lee Han-Yeol, and call those guys too!]

[Ah, yes!]

When humans were blinded by greed, they lost the ability to make objective judgments.

The feudal lord didn’t know the details regarding Han-Yeol, but he had still heard quite a bit of information about how great the man was. Nonetheless, he was counting on the two newest monsters he had recently acquired to fight and defeat Han-Yeol.

“Kha!”

Whoosh!

[Lai, Lei!]

The dark mages used magic to call back the two special monsters created by using dead Master-Rank Hunters.

Chuck!

The feudal lord didn’t stop there.

[Use boosting magic on these guys too.]

[B-But, lord, then…]

Boosting magic instantly exploded a monster’s power and killed it. It was a suicide attack magic attack that was rarely used on high level monsters. However, the feudal lord had ordered to use boosting magic on this precious monster, so the subordinate dark mages who knew how precious this monster was hesitated for a moment.

Seeing his subordinates hesitate and fail to fulfill his orders right away, the feudal lord furrowed his brows.

Slap!

He slapped a subordinate dark mage’s cheek once more without hesitation.

[Are you disobeying my orders right now?]

[N-No, we wouldn’t dare!]

‘Damn it, why’d he hit me?’

The subordinate dark mage had said that in consideration about the future of the dark mage feudal lord, but he was incredibly offended when all he got in return was violence. Although he didn’t show it, his loyalty to the feudal lord was slightly diminished.

Gooo!

[Dark and damned being, welcome to hell. Blood Boosting!]

Boom!

“Kheeee!

Under the command of the feudal lord, the dark mages used the highest level of boosting magic, Death Boosting, on the special monster that had been made from the corpse of a Master-Rank Hunter. Black mana surged around the special monster, instantly tripling, quadrupling, and quintupling its power.

[W-Woah, it’s amazing.]

[I didn’t know the boosting magic used on a special monster could be this effective.]

[I-it’s incredible.]

This was the first time they’d seen such power. Even the dark mages who had used the skill before only used it to self-destruct weaker monsters.

[Hahah, this is great. We’re wasting special monsters a little, but as long as I can get that arrogant Lee Han-Yeol, using two special monsters is nothing.]

Kwang!

Seeing Han-Yeol still blending into the crowd of monsters and dealing with the weak ones, the dark mage’s lips curled up into a smile.

He was making a big mistake.

Grrr, swoosh!

[Huh?]

With a tremendous explosion, mana compressed around him.

Zinggg! Gush!

[Huhh?]

In an instant, thousands of monsters burst as if they were being squeezed by something, spraying blue blood all around.

[D-Damn it…!]

Whoosh! Thud!

Presented with all of this, Han-Yeol soared up into the sky, and quickly descended back down to proudly stand in front of the dark mages.

“Hey!”

With a charming smile on his face, he raised his hand and greeted them like an old man out for a drink.

The dark mages were a mix of Chinese and Vietnamese who couldn't understand Korean, but they could tell just from Han-Yeol’s behavior that he was mocking them.

[T-T-This…!]

Han-Yeol had wiped out thousands of high-level monsters in a matter of minutes that they had painstakingly created.

[How dare you insolent, lowly human!]

The feudal lord considered himself half demon just because he had made a contract with a demon even though he was human as well. Therefore, humans were lower beings, demons were higher beings, and he who had made a contract with a demon was an intermediate being.

Shaaa!

[Attack!]

Pak!

“Khaa!”

The two special monsters that had received Blood Boosting and had become five times stronger than normal instantly appeared from behind Han-Yeol and swung their sharp claws.

“Tsk, what the hell? I waited since you said you were going to use some special skill, but is this all you’ve got?”

Han-Yeol clicked his tongue. He had been slaughtering for a while now, so while it felt good, he wasn’t necessarily having fun. Therefore, he had been looking forward to the dark mages finally pulling out their trump card.

“Ha, I’m bored.”

However, only yawns of boredom came out of his mouth.

He had already seen such movements from Transcendent Master-Rank Chairman Woo himself. Compared to him, the movements of these monsters were like watching a video at 0.5 times speed.

Whoosh! Gush!

“Krr!”

“Krgh!”

The two special monsters that had charged at Han-Yeol’s back with great momentum were instantly impaled by the red tentacles from Han-Yeol’s back.

Squirm, squirm.

If these tentacles had been ordinary tentacles, the special monsters wouldn’t have felt any pain and would’ve jumped at Han-Yeol, ripping him into pieces. However, the tentacles that came from Blood Legs were no longer ordinary after reaching rank C.

Slurp, slurp, slurp!

“Kheeee!”

The tentacles started to act as if they had a life of their own by eating their prey or sucking their blood.

Of course, Karvis couldn't analyze this part, so they were just at the stage of observing.

However, the tentacles also added a toxicity of their own, allowing them to not only deal damage, but also apply paralyzing poison and eat their pierced opponents alive.

It was a fairly gruesome ability, but a very efficient one for the user.

Crunch, crack!

“Kheee!”

In the end, the two special monsters that the dark mages trusted so much were absorbed by the Blood Leg tentacles before they even got the chance to put up a decent fight against Han-Yeol.