Leveling Up Alone

The female Bastroling of the sheep race, one of the few who maintained her pride, was baffled for a different reason than the others. Initially, she thought the flying creatures were also Bastrolings and tried to stop her comrades from acting rashly. However, making a decision was difficult when their races were completely different.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

[W-Who are you.]

[He’s an intruder. We must kill him.]

Krrr!

The mentally and physically exhausted ordinary Bastrolings were in worse shape than the female sheep, making it difficult for them to make clear judgments.

In the end, they drew their weapons to fight the strange race.

‘Oh, wait!’

The female sheep was also physically and mentally exhausted, but she had a stronger body and mind from being a professional warrior, and she also had a child to protect, so her judgment was clearer than anyone else's.

Her eyes caught sight of Noras, a famous deer race Bastroling sorcerer.

When she saw him, her subordinates followed.

‘Oh, that means…’

She couldn't quite put her finger on it yet, but she felt that maybe this whole situation wasn’t so bad after all.

[Yuri?]

[Ah, Noras, so it really is you. You’re safe.]

[Ohh, Yuri. I had no idea you were here. Thank god!]

Tap, tap, tap!

Noras rushed toward Yuri and hugged her tightly.

It was like watching a separated family reunite.

However, Han-Yeol didn’t pay much attention to the touching scene. He merely smirked wickedly and focused on punishing the Bastrolings who dared to draw their weapons.

‘How dare you try to betray me?’

Since he was of a different race from them, Han-Yeol thought it was normal for them to be wary of him, but he clearly saw through them.

‘They were willing to betray me when they didn't even know who I was, solely because they were running out of food. Is it really worth keeping them alive?’

Han-Yeol thought about this seriously.

‘These are no longer the proud and just Bastrolings I knew.’

They had become beasts, indifferent to the fate of others simply because they were struggling themselves, just like humans. There was nothing left of the Bastrolings that Harkan once loved.

‘I didn’t come all this way to save these kinds of creatures.’

The men he truly cared about were still fighting and dying in the name of running an independent army. However, those merely waiting for death on the land guarded by the Tree of Beginnings had been corrupted to the point where it was embarrassing to call them Bastrolings.

Boom! Kwaaaa!

“What are you waiting for? I said, kneel before me.”

[Argh!]

[Cough!]

Thud!

As Han-Yeol intentionally released his mana, the Bastrolings who had warily pulled out their weapons in front of the stranger were forced to kneel. They coughed and spewed out a spit-like liquid from their mouths.

They felt pressure as if they were being crushed by a hundred-ton weight from above their heads.

Han-Yeol’s current strength was too much for even a second-rank warrior to withstand, so there was no way that such weak warriors could withstand such overwhelming pressure.

[W-What strength…!]

[Khaaa!]

A few of the weaker Bastrolings didn’t just fall to their knees—they actually stuck completely to the ground, screaming at the pressure on their bodies.

“Tsk, you pathetic things. How did you fall so low and not withstand that short amount of time?”

[Ughh!]

[S-Stop it!]

‘Huh?’

Just as Han-Yeol was slightly(?) punishing the insolent Bastrolings, one to two young Bastrolings crawled out of the forest. They had been hiding because their parents had told them to, but they couldn't bear to see their parents suffer any longer.

They weren't all that young. In human years, they were adolescent Bastrolings.

[I don’t know who you are, but let the adults go.]

“Haha, interesting. And you have the power to make me do that?”

As if he couldn't get any worse, Han-Yeol cocked his head and looked at the young Bastrolings with a look of utter disdain.

[U-Ugh!]

The young Bastrolings knew they were no threat to a stranger whose mana alone had subjugated the adults. However, they didn’t want to sit around and do nothing.

[G-Great One, please forgive these fools. I, as the lord of the deer race, apologize on their behalf.]

“What the heck, Noras? Things were just about to get fun. You have a bad habit of interrupting.”

[Great One!]

Thump!

“Oh, please!”

The deer Bastroling sorcerers simultaneously got on their knees and bowed, taking on a stance that Han-Yeol hated. Of course, this stance was not much different from the other Bastrolings that Han-Yeol was crushing with his mana. However, Han-Yeol didn’t like receiving this stance from his subordinates or anyone he liked because the stance only suited arrogant beings.

“Get up.”

[...]

Noras and his men didn’t budge at Han-Yeol’s order.

“Ha, okay. I get it, so get up now.”

Shhh!

[A-Agh!]

[Huff, huff!]

At last, Han-Yeol stopped applying mana pressure on the other Bastrolings.

[T-Thank you.]

[G-Great One, thank you very much.]

Only then did Noras and his men get up from the ground.

“Tsk, no wonder you guys are the deer race. You're as stubborn as ever.”

[Hehehe, but we’re not as bad as the canidae race.]

“True.”

Han-Yeol couldn’t help but agree.

Even though Han-Yeol released the mana pressure he had put on the normal Bastrolings, that didn’t mean he had completely forgiven or approved of them. He merely stopped his mana to stop Noras and his men from kneeling.

The ordinary Bastrolings, freed from the mana pressure, trembled in fear as they looked at Han-Yeol in horror.

In the first place, they didn’t want to die at the hands of the hyena sorcerers, so they took refuge near the Tree of Beginnings. The area had been shut down, but it was the safest place they could find. However, now that a powerful opponent had invaded the place they believed to be safe, they were gripped by the fear of death they had momentarily forgotten.

“Tsk.”

Han-Yeol couldn’t help but click his tongue again at the Bastrolings’ attitude.

[Haa, I apologize. I’m out of words.]

“Noras, why are you apologizing?”

[I just, well, don’t have anything to say…]

Although he wasn’t loyal to Harkan, Noras respected him as the Dimension Lord and he also acknowledged the position of a Dimension Lord. He was a canidae Bastroling, but everyone knew how much Harkan loved the Bastro Dimension when he was the Dimension Lord.

Harkan had come back to life, but seeing the Bastrolings, whom he once loved as residents of the Bastro Dimension, display such a pathetic sight was so embarrassing. Noras hadn’t done anything wrong, and even he wanted to close his eyes.

“Tsk, I had planned to rescue these guys and then take on the hyenas, but should I rethink my plan?”

As far as Han-Yeol was concerned, they were nothing more than a hindrance than help.

[W-What did you just say?]

“Huh?”

[You were going to rescue us?] asked the female sheep Bastroling.

She had been nervous until a moment ago, not knowing what to do, but as soon as Han-Yeol said the words ‘rescue’ and ‘hyena,’ her expression instantly changed into that of a serious warrior.

“Oh, you look pretty useful.”

[Answer my question. You’re going to rescue us?]

“Well, let’s just say I’m recruiting warriors to fight the hyena race.”

[I’ll do it.]

[Yuri!]

Noras looked at Yuri with sparkling eyes. He had been worried that she had become corrupted like the other Bastrolings, but he was wrong. Yuri was just as brave as Noras remembered her, a capable female Bastro Warrior.

Mumble, mumble.

Rescuing and fighting the hyena race—neither action was easy. Thus, the ordinary Bastrolings murmured among themselves.

“Come out if you have the courage to fight me. The scum who don’t have the guts to do so can rot here for the rest of their lives. I won’t stop you.”

Han-Yeol didn’t like Bastrolings with diminished pride. This opinion was a basic view he’d held since his days as Harkan. He disliked the hyena and elephant race for the same reason—they lacked pride.

[I-I will fight!]

[M-Me too!]

[I no longer want to live here like a coward.]

[That’s right. I’m sick of this place, and even if I die, I’ll die fighting with the pride of a warrior.]

[Hehehe, will you accept us too, strange race being?]

“Oh, hmmm. What should I do?”

Surprisingly, many of the Bastrolings who hadn’t expressed their hostility toward Han-Yeol expressed interest in joining. However, the majority of those eager to participate were old, retired Bastro Warriors. They had been evacuated thanks to their old age and reduced physical abilities, but they didn’t want to run away anymore.

The Bastrolings suddenly became active because they saw Noras actively following Han-Yeol’s lead. Although sorcerers played a lesser role in combat than warriors, Bastrolings respected wise sorcerers because the spells they used had a very mysterious power.

Noras was quite famous among such sorcerers. He called Han-Yeol a great being, so they all began to follow Han-Yeol’s lead.

“Can you old people stay out of this?”

[Hey, are you doubting us?]

[How disappointing.]

[Although we look like this, we’re still in our prime.]

[We’re a hundred times better than these guys who are doing nothing but lying around.]

Han-Yeol scratched his head.

“Well, I-I guess.”