Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 113: The Club (1)

Han-Yeol’s stamina and mana had somewhat recovered, but his current mental state was in a greatly weakened state. After all, his mental state was not something that he would be able to recover with a skill.

‘Hmm… Who knows? Maybe I might be able to learn a mental skill if I study psychiatry. Oh, that doesn’t sound bad at all. I should definitely give it a try when I’m not so busy,’?Han-Yeol thought of a bunch of peaceful stuff to try and manage his mental state.

If possible, he no longer wanted to fight at the current moment.

Fortunately, he was not attacked while walking through the cave, and the place where the light was coming from had no monsters in it.

‘Huh?’?

It was a small area with a very high ceiling height, and there were holes in the high ceiling that allowed light to come in. The light shone down on a mound in the small area, where there was a white sword and a black sword stabbed into the mound in the shape of an X.

‘Swords…?’?Han-Yeol muttered inwardly before he approached the mound.

Then, he found a signboard and read it.

[Please only take one.]

‘Is it telling me to take only one sword?’?

Han-Yeol could not understand why it was asking him to only take one sword, but he decided to listen to it and pick only one. He walked closer to the mound to pick a sword, but he was surprised by the discovery of another sword that was behind the first two.

‘Huh?’?

He recognized the third sword to be his own, and it was right between the two swords forming an X.

‘Is it asking me to pick one out of the three?’

Han-Yeol started to process the whole picture at a rapid pace.

‘The fact that they even bothered to include my sword here is probably a test. Whoever made this probably wanted to see if I would choose my sword, which I’m familiar with, or one of the two other swords.’

The whole thing was set up like a familiar old story.

‘That means… I should choose my sword!’?Han-Yeol pulled out his sword without a hint of hesitation.?

Puuuk!

Woooong!

The white and black swords started to let out a cry as if they had been waiting for this very moment.

When Han-Yeol pulled out his sword, which looked the least appealing among the three swords, the white and black swords pulled themselves from the mound and floated toward Han-Yeol. Then, they swayed back and forth in front of him.

Han-Yeol sheathed his sword before extending his hand toward the swords.

Tak! Tak!

As his hand wrapped around the swords, Han-Yeol thought with a smirk, ‘As expected.’

He was not surprised or taken aback by what had happened, because he had a ninety percent certainty that this was going to turn out just like the story ‘The Golden Ax and The?Silver Ax’.?However, he could not help but feel excited. His adrenaline started pumping the moment he held the swords. It felt as if he was scratching off a lottery ticket that was guaranteed to be a winner.

‘It’s now time for you to show me your true self. Item Appraisal!’?

[White Sword That Rules Space]

Type: Equipment

Magic Power Amplification: 1,200%

Description: A pure white sword that was known to be used by angels. It possesses the power to rule space, but the user must possess a skill that controls space to use this sword.

Unique Ability: (SEALED)

[Dark Sword That Rules Time]

Type: Equipment

Magic Power Amplification: 1,200%

Description: A pitch-black sword that was known to be used by demons. It possesses the power to rule time, but the user must possess a skill that controls time to use this sword.

Unique Ability: (SEALED)

“Ah…” Han-Yeol muttered in disappointment.

He felt like crying right now. It seemed that these two swords were his reward for clearing Astaroth’s test, but it turned out that he was not going to be able to use them even though he had risked his life to pass the test.

“Damn it! How in the world is this even fair?!” Han-Yeol screamed in frustration.

He would not be so angry and frustrated if the skills required to use these weapons were a bit more sensible. He would also have kept these swords in safe keeping until the day he could use them. However, the skills required to use the swords were simply impossible to gain for someone like Han-Yeol, who gained skills depending on the movement he made.

In short, it was basically set in stone that he was never going to be able to use these swords. This only made him feel all the more wronged and frustrated.

Han-Yeol was busy stomping his feet in anger when the scenery around him changed as if a page had been flipped.

“Oppa?”

“H-Huh?”

Just a while ago, Han-Yeol had been angrily stomping his feet on the mound. Then, all of a sudden, his surroundings reverted back to the boss room where he had fought against the Labyrinth Spiders with his life on the line.

Yoo-Bi was not the only one there, as even the Horus raid party members were present. They were all looking at him as if he were a madman.

‘How…?’?

Han-Yeol was in disbelief. He hadn’t spent that much time in the cave, but the Horus raid party members that were supposed to be back at the mansion on the outskirts of Seoul were suddenly with his party.

Finally realizing what was going on, Han-Yeol’s face turned bright red.

He might have screamed in Korean instead of Arabic, but that did not change the fact that he had stomped and screamed like a madman. They said that actions spoke louder than words, so there was no way that they would not have understood that he was going crazy indeed.

“Haa…”?Han-Yeol composed himself before asking, “Did you call them?”

“Yes,” Yoo-Bi replied.

“What about Mariam and Tayarana? Are they here?”

“Ah, only Mariam came. Tayarana-nim was invited to the Blue House so she’s busy.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Clack… Clack…!

The clacking of heels that did not suit the dark place they were in could be heard right after Han-Yeol was done talking to Yoo-Bi.

Han-Yeol looked toward the direction of the sound and saw Mariam walking toward him.

“You have fully used your privilege as a special member and caused a huge ruckus,” Mariam commented.

“Haha… I didn’t cause a huge ruckus… Can you at least take my achievement into consideration?” Han-Yeol replied sheepishly.

“Achievement, you say? Anyway, what are those two swords with you?”

“Ah, I got this just now. I will check it out later before selling them.”

“I see,” Mariam said with a nod and did not pry any further regarding the swords.

‘I know it’s in the contract, but people are bound to get interested once they know more. I should be careful. They might suddenly want them upon discovering the secrets behind these swords,’?Han-Yeol thought.

He might have received a unique item from the Horus raid party, but he had learned from early on that people were only to be trusted forty-nine percent at most.

It was inevitable for him to have such a thought as the two swords he had obtained gave a monstrous increase to magic power. On top of that, the ability to control space and time boosted their value even more. Needless to say, these were bound to be extremely valuable treasures later on.

‘I wonder how many Hunters there are who can control space and time…?’?Han-Yeol wondered before deciding to wrap up this hunt and then focus on other things.

‘Wait a minute… If the Horus raid party is here then… I can collect all of these bastards I killed, right?’?he thought of a brilliant idea.

They were currently underground and Yoo-Bi was the only Porter he had brought in his party, so transporting everything would have been impossible. However, it was going to be a different story if the Horus raid party was here. They could easily transport all of the monster corpses without a problem.

.

“But Han-Yeol Hunter-nim,” Mariam called.

“Hmm?” Han-Yeol muttered as his pleasant daydream was interrupted.

“This was quite unexpected.”

“What was it?”

“Han-Yeol-nim, you are a B Ranked intermediate Hunter, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. I recently updated my rank.”

“But you are displaying strength that is equal to top Hunters. I was certain you were an intermediate Hunter when I first met you, but now… I am not so sure anymore. I do not have an idea if you are still an intermediate Hunter or you are a high-ranking Hunter judging by what you did in this place.”

“Hahaha… Well, I share similar thoughts. This is all thanks to my summoned creatures.” Han-Yeol decided to be humble, giving all credit to Balrog and the Void Devils for now.

Being humble and giving credit to someone else was a common way of uplifting oneself in Korean culture, but Mariam was not Korean despite her being quite fluent in the language.

“That is quite strange… We calculated that the two Void Devils and Balrog that you summoned might possess outstanding individual capabilities, but they do not synergize well together. We judge that your ability will be the most efficient one when it comes to fighting a swarm of monsters. Hmm… I am confident that there is no way my calculations are off.”

“T-Thank you, I guess…?” Han-Yeol started breaking out in cold sweat at Mariam’s directness.

Meanwhile, the Horus raid party Porters started to work on collecting the Labyrinth Spider corpses. They moved quite quickly to wrap up the scene, but they did not dismember the monster corpses.

The Labyrinth Spiders were new monsters, so it was only normal for the Porters to not know how to dismember them. It was also standard practice for new monsters to have their parts studied to find a use for them before a dismembering method would be developed to best preserve the valuable parts.

They were not in a rush, so they could take their time. However, wrapping up a hunt as quickly as possible was always the best for everyone involved.

[Hurry up! The sun is about to set!] Mariam commanded.

[Yes, ma’am!] the Egyptian Porters responded in unison before they moved much faster than they did a while ago.

***

“Huff! Huff!”

The Horus raid party had brought five Porters with them to the ‘Labyrinth Dungeon’. They thought that they were going to be more than enough, but they soon found out that five Porters were nowhere enough to clear all of the dead Labyrinth Spiders in this place.

Mariam sent an urgent request to have ten more Porters to be sent to further increase their work speed. Then, while shaking her head, she commented, “You killed quite a lot. Who would have imagined that you would kill so many monsters that five Porters were not enough and I had to call for ten more?”

“Hahaha…” Han-Yeol let out an awkward laugh in response while scratching his head in embarrassment.

The hunt had been broadcasted live on Han-Yeol’s channel and was viewed from all over the world. Needless to say, most raid parties and even guilds had tuned in to the live stream, and the Horus raid party immediately mobilized to provide support once they had gotten an idea of where the secret dungeon was.

However, they were not the only ones who had come here. Quite a bit of hyenas had gathered as well.

“Tsk…?Why did he have to be a member of the Horus raid party? This is going to be troublesome…”

A group of people were on the roof of the library building, looking down at the Porters who were busily moving around while under the protection of the Horus raid party Hunters. They initially planned to do something, but instantly backed down after seeing the nearly one hundred Hunters in the area. They were further discouraged after learning that the group was affiliated with the Horus raid party.

“We could have acted crazy and attacked them since that woman Tayarana is not here, but I think it’s going to be difficult. They have a hundred Hunters ranking A Rank, B Rank, and C Rank over there, hyung-nim.”

“Damn it! I have eyes too!”

Grrk…!

The leader of the Hyena raid party, Chul-Gu, gritted his teeth in frustration. He had spent a lot of money to collect information after getting excited at the news that a hunting ground had been discovered by a single Hunter. He would not have felt so frustrated if another raid party or guild had come first, but he had to face the cruel reality that the lone Hunter was a member of the Horus raid party.

“I think it’s best not to mess with the Horus raid party…” Chul-Gu grumbled.

This might be South Korea, but the Horus raid party was one of the groups representing Egypt, so they were bound to be powerful. Not to mention, South Korea was trying to combat its current recession by improving relations with Africa.

It was difficult to imagine what kind of consequence the Hyena raid party were going to face if they dared to mess with the Horus raid party.

‘A paper tiger is still a tiger, after all…’?

Chul-Gu was not confident in going against the Horus raid party.

“Should we go back?” Bong-Gu, who was Chul-Gu’s right-hand man, asked.

“Shut up. We will continue watching for now. We are going to go back once we judge that the situation is hopeless.”

“Yes, hyung-nim.” Bong-Gu nodded and took a step back.

‘Lee Han-Yeol… I have my sights on you.’

1. South Korea’s presidential palace.