Leveling Up Alone

‘That’s why it’s important to be close to the spirits. I have to be close to them to get them to cooperate with the process, and I have to know the skill to activate it. How much detail they give me depends on how close I am to them.’

Han-Yeol’s situation was better since he used the Spirits of Time and Space as a secondary skill.

‘Wow, I wonder how stressful it must be for elementalists who use spirits as their main skill…’

He felt sorry for them now that he had experienced it himself.

[Hehe, then I’ll explain spatial transfer.]

‘Great!’

Han-Yeol finally got to use a skill other than spatial movement out of the three skills.

Ooong!

Spirits didn’t need to converse like humans. For them, talking was a form of entertainment.

Using language to communicate and exchange information seemed like a good thing, but in reality, it was very inefficient. Spirits could exchange the information they needed through thought and connection without having to speak. This was true for elementalists and spirits. The only difference between was that this could only be done when the spirit wanted to do it.

‘So, this is how…’

Han-Yeol’s thought connected with Delfusia’s, allowing him to understand the mechanics of the spatial transfer skill. He also realized one more thing.

‘If I didn’t study and read various papers to learn more about space and time, I wouldn’t have been able to use this skill even if I learned it from Delfusia.’

Their skills associated with time and space were the definition of complex.

[Hehe, I explained it as easily as I could.]

‘Hmm.’

Han-Yeol already felt his head hurting. Fortunately, this level of spatial theory was well within his knowledge, so he had no problem activating the spatial transfer skill.

[Okay, now try it!]

Delfusia looked up at Han-Yeol with sparkling eyes, full of high expectations.

‘O-Okay…’

Chuck!

Han-Yeol held his hands out in front of him. He then activated the skill according to the spatial theory Delfusia had taught him.

‘I make no mistakes. Once I’ve calculated the desired place and memorized its coordinates, I use the power of space to make the two places into one!’

Gwooooh!

Han-Yeol couldn’t see it, but a powerful force started to twist space around him. The energy traveled from his shoulders and arms out through his palms and concentrated about a meter in front of him.

‘Spatial transfer!’

Zing!

‘It worked!’

A circle about a meter in radius appeared where he wanted it.

Shhh!

[W-What the hell?!]

As soon as the circle formed, something popped out of it, and with a surprised voice, it slammed into one side of the hotel and went through the wall.

‘Oops.’

“Ah, I broke it again.”

Kurrrr!

It flew through the wall of the hotel at a tremendous speed, but the direction it flew was unfortunately inside the hotel, not outside. It didn’t just go through one wall—it went through the whole building, end to end, and the whole hotel shook.

[A-Agh!]

[B-Boss!]

The boss had been staying at the hotel instead of going home out of fear that something might happen, and he was just about to go home as nothing had happened for over half a month. But when what happened at the last hotel occurred at his own hotel, he suddenly felt his blood boiling even though he did not have high blood pressure. He grabbed the nape of his neck.

[Quick, call an ambulance!]

[Ah, yes!]

Han-Yeol had accidentally caused trouble at this hotel as well in a way he never expected.

‘Well, I’ll just compensate for the damage.’

He didn’t make a big deal out of it since he had plenty of money, so it wasn’t a problem for him.

‘They’ll be happier if I give it to them in cash since China will soon be nothing but an empty shell of a country, and dollar bills will be worth more than all these meaningless buildings.’

For this reason, the guilty man who had destroyed the hotel felt even more proud.

*

Slurp!

[Ha, thank you. This finally calmed me down a bit.]

“So, why did you come looking for me so suddenly?”

The Bastro Warrior who came to visit Han-Yeol was the lord of the roe deer race. He was a member of the same Bastroling deer family who had been attacked and burned to the ground by the hyena race not long ago.

He was a shaman named Noras, a very accomplished shaman and a rival of the lord of the white deer family.

[I apologize. I should’ve let you known in advance and then come to see you, but the information I have for you was so urgent that I had to fly in myself even though I knew it’d be rude.]

“Ah, I completely understand. So what is this urgent information?”

‘Tsk, these deer are unnecessarily polite even though they’re Bastrolings.’

He had a very humble and nice personality by human standards, but this was a bit annoying to Han-Yeol as he personally preferred the typical Bastroling personality.

[Don’t be surprised, but before I tell you, let me ask you one question.]

“Sure.”

[I heard that you, Harkan-nim, or rather, Han-Yeol-nim, saw the treasures and sword that could kill the Dragon of Destruction in the ant nest. Is that true?]

“Yeah, that’s right. Is your urgent information related to this?”

[Yes.]

‘No way.’

Han-Yeol was dumbfounded that the information Noras had brought was related to the treasures and sword that could slay the Dragon of Destruction.

He had acquired the information, but he didn’t really feel like making the time to gather them. After all, the Bastro Dimension was many times larger than Earth. Aside from the territories controlled by the hyenas, it was also full of unexplored and monster infested areas, so it wasn't easy to find things as it was on Earth. So while the treasures and sword were tempting, he only considered them a pie in the sky.

Gulp.

“So, explain in detail.”

[Alright. After we heard about this from the canidae warriors, we started to do a little more research on the treasures and the sword we were originally studying. Since we were busy with the hyenas chasing after us living on Earth, we hadn’t been able to research in detail.]

“Right.”

Han-Yeol already knew this, and it wasn’t particularly important so he wished he would just get to the point. But he knew that the deer and Bastrolings themselves were very talkative beings, so he didn’t rush him.

[So, even in the midst of the Bastro Dimension liberation war, instead of directly engaging in the conflict, we, the roe deer family, went to a secret shrine unknown to the hyenas. There, we asked for oracles to gain insight into the five treasures and the sword capable of slaying the Dragon of Destruction. What we were told was unbelievable.]

Slurp.

Noras stopped midway and took another sip of his tea.

The roe deer race loved talking and tea.

Han-Yeol knew this, but he couldn’t help but feel frustrated.

‘Can you hurry up?’

[So here’s what the oracle said: ‘Of the six treasures that will save the dimension, five of the jewels no longer exist in the Bastro Dimension since everyone will travel to the dimension called Earth and seek salvation there.’]

“W-What?”

Han-Yeol was honestly excited to hear the information the deer had, but he didn’t think it was something he could act on right away. However, if five of the six treasures were on Earth, then that was a different story.

“S-So, do you know the details of where those five jewels are?”

[Fortunately, one of our family’s shamans has a spell to track them, but…]

“But?”

[Earth is so different from the Bastro Dimension that it’ll take some time to find them.]

“What?”

Han-Yeol was a little disappointed as he couldn’t afford to sit around and wait when he was about to go to war with the hyenas. He would rather use that time to get stronger and attack the hyenas little by little.

[But we did manage to find out the whereabouts of the two jewels miraculously.]

“What? Really?!”

This was good news. If he knew where they were, there was no way Han-Yeol, the most powerful Hunter in the world, wouldn’t be able to find them.

‘If someone has it, I’ll buy it, and if they won’t give it up, then I’ll kill them to get it.’

The treasure wasn’t something to be fooled around with. It was the best weapon to save the Bastro Dimension and escape the threat of the coming Dragon of Destruction, so if whoever had it was too greedy to listen to Han-Yeol, they would not be able to escape his wrath.

“So where are the two?”

[According to the spells, the so-called demon king of the demon king army has the Black Stone, and Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin Shi Huang army has the Gray Stone.]

“W-What?!”

[This was relatively easy to figure out since they’re very active. We got lucky.]

“I-I see…”

‘Wow, this is ridiculous. No, if the reason they were so abnormally strong was because of the jewels, then it kind of makes sense.’

Han-Yeol now understood the source of power behind both the demon king army and the Qin Emperor's army. They had an abnormally strong force that allowed them to hold on their own against the Hunters sent by the United Nations, excluding the United States. They also stood against a coalition of Hunters from China, a G2 nation that surpassed all others in quantity but was not terrible in quality.

‘Wait a minute, I’ve seen satellite images on the news that clearly showed traces of hyenas in the demon king army. Does that mean that the hyenas know about the jewels as well?’

If that was the case, then he was in trouble.

He needed to collect all five gems to complete the sword that could slay the Dragon of Destruction, and if the hyenas took one of them, they would surely hide them in a place where they could never be found.

‘And if a powerful jewel falls into the hands of the hyena sorcerers, it would be a great disadvantage for the Light Faction in the Bastro Dimension.’

The hyena race had become so powerful that even Harkan couldn't comprehend them. There was no telling how much stronger they would become with a jewel, which was said to contain infinite power.

‘In that case, I’ll have to deal with the demon king first.’

Han-Yeol wasn’t just laying around in China.

Even while he was gaming, he also found time to sneak out to scout, ward off any threats from the hyena sorcerers, and do some research on the demon king army and Qin Emperor’s army.

‘Thankfully, there were no signs of the hyenas with the Qin Emperor.’

Then the immediate thing he had to do now was take the Black Stone away from the demon king like Noras said.

‘Let’s hurry!’

“Noras.”

[Yes, Han-Yeol-nim.]

“What are you going to do now?”

They needed to deal with that first.

[We, the roe deer race, have decided that our priority is to help you gather the treasures that will allow us to kill the Dragon of Destruction, rather than going to war with the hyenas. The shamans and sages of our family will look for the whereabouts of the sword, and I will stay here to assist you.]

“Alright.”

The shamans of the roe deer race aimed for versatility rather than combat, so having them as subordinates proved to be convenient in many ways.

It was good news for Han-Yeol to have the lord of the roe deer race help him.