Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 128: Being a Celebrity Is Tiring (5)

Han-Yeol called the Hunters’ Association and refused their offer to attend the event in exchange for the A Rank items.

Of course, his decision turned the association upside down, but they could not do anything about it. They had to respect the independence and freedom of Hunters, after all.

There were some people within the Hunters’ Association who questioned if they should make amendments to how much independence and freedom a Hunter was given. This was not the first time where the association’s plans had been ruined because of the Hunters’ independence and freedom.

‘I don’t feel so good about accepting the United State’s offer to grant me citizenship while taking items from the Korean Hunters’ Association,’?Han-Yeol thought.

As part of their offer of granting him citizenship, the United State’s Hunters’ Association had also agreed to rent one unique item to Han-Yeol.

A lot of things had happened within these two days, and that got Han-Yeol quite mentally exhausted. Plopping down on his sofa, he moaned, “Ah… I’m so tired…”

Thud!

Having gotten home only after thirty hours, he was extremely tired.

It went without saying that he was physically exhausted, but he felt really good. The fact that he did not have an outlet for his sexual frustration had been stressing him out, but he had gotten to release all of his stress yesterday thanks to the ten hours of hot and steamy marathon that he had.

He couldn't help but feel hot upon remembering what had happened yesterday. ‘I’m not sure if it’s because Scarlett is a Hunter, but she has great stamina.’

Scarlett’s stamina was indeed much better than most people after having awakened and using mana. However, the fact that she constantly trained as a secret agent boosted her stamina as well. Her near-limitless stamina had allowed her to receive all of Han-Yeol’s passion when he had unleashed all of his stress.

‘I have no plans to live in the United States, but I like how they handle things,’?Han-Yeol thought.

He was extremely satisfied by the fact that they had decided to send a beautiful woman like Scarlett as the agent handling him.

Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…!

‘Is that father?’?Han-Yeol wondered when he noticed the digital door lock beeping while he was busy reminiscing about yesterday's steamy event.

“Han-Yeol.”

“Yes, father?”

“Congratulations! You are finally a man!”

“H-Huh…? W-What do you mean by that?”

“Hehehe.” His father laughed with a mischievous look.

He appeared keen to question whatever excuse Han-Yeol was going to throw at him.

“You have never spent the night out except for when you’re going for a hunt. In fact, you even came home no matter how late it was when you drank with Sung-Jin. I asked Albert about you and he mentioned that you left yesterday morning and only just came home… That can only mean that you were with a woman!”

“T-That is…!”

Han-Yeol tried to make excuses, but his habit of not being able to lie to his father easily gave him away.

“Hahaha! My little boy is finally a man! As your father, I can’t help but feel really good about the news! I already told you before, just go ahead and date to your heart’s content! You don’t have to rush into marrying someone right now as long as I know you’re out there meeting people. You can take your own sweet time and only decide to settle down when you really feel that a woman is the one for you.”

His father was half-joking, but Han-Yeol could feel just how much his father cared for him from the way he spoke.

“Yes, father…”

Han-Yeol’s father always felt apologetic to him. Since he decided to get a divorce back then, Han-Yeol had to grow up in a single-parent household without a mother.

“Anyway, go ahead and get some rest.”

“Okay, father. Oh right, what happened to your shop?”

Han-Yeol heard that the city was still in a mess after the incident. Not only that, but dimensional rifts were still occurring on the outskirts of cities, and there were also Hunters fighting against monsters in abandoned towns.

The main cities were no longer affected, but the fact that the dimensional rifts had not disappeared was still a cause of fear for the general populace.

“Fortunately, everyone is working together to restore things. The Hunters’ Association is going to reimburse us for whatever damage caused anyway, so we don’t really have to worry about the financial burden. We might be able to resume business next week at the earliest.”

“That is a relief…”

“Yeah, it’s a huge relief, to be honest.”

Fortunately, Han-Yeol’s father hadn’t suffered much damage from the incident. Besides, he did not really have much to worry about even if he had, because Han-Yeol would be there for him anyway.

However, the same could not be said for the ordinary people doing business in the same building. They were definitely going to be in a very difficult position as they had lost their livelihood in the incident.

Still, most of them were able to avoid being completely ruined since they had pre-purchased the insurance sold by the Hunters’ Association for such events.

“Anyway, go get some rest. I only dropped by to wash up.”

“Yes, Father.”

His father bid him goodbye before returning to his own house to wash up and rest. Only after that did Han-Yeol head to his treasure room.

Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…!

He entered the passcode into the digital door lock he had recently installed for security purposes and went inside the room, where the monster egg was incubating.

The room had been renovated to regulate its temperature and humidity to provide the best environment for the monster egg.

Badump… Badump…?

‘Huh? Why is the monster egg emitting a heartbeat? It’s gotten a lot bigger too…’?Han-Yeol thought as he inspected the monster egg that had grown by two and a half times compared to when he had visited it two days ago.

The monster egg was seemingly showing that it was indeed alive.

‘Wow… I have a feeling something great is going to come out of it!’?Han-Yeol expectantly thought before he channeled his mana into his eyes. ‘Demon Eyes!’?

He inspected the monster egg with his skill to get a better look at it, but unfortunately, the only thing he could see was a lump of mana within the egg. Rubbing his chin as he looked at the monster egg, he muttered, “Hmm… I have a feeling that I’m only going to get a normal monster if I continue incubating it through normal methods… I hope I can get a monster that I can keep as a pet, if that’s the case…”

Han-Yeol called up the monster egg’s description once more.

[Monster Egg]: Fertilized

Type: Hatching Egg

Description: A monster egg getting ready to hatch after receiving nutritious mana. The monster hatching out of the egg will be more powerful the better its environment is before hatching. It is recommended to keep the egg in an environment with suitable temperature and humidity.

“The monster that’s going to hatch from the egg is not predetermined, judging by the part it says, ‘the monster hatching out of the egg will be more powerful the better its environment is before hatching’, so the ability and strength of the monster that’s going to hatch is going to entirely depend on the environment its egg has been incubated in, right?” Han-Yeol muttered as he started to process the information piece by piece.

He hadn’t paid much attention previously, but he now understood how it really worked after reading the description thoroughly.

“Hmm…? Does that mean it can react to my mana as well?” he wondered aloud.

He sincerely hoped that the monster that would hatch from the egg was something that he could keep as his pet. He could technically just kill the monster if it was aggressive toward him, but all he would gain from that was going to be a single mana stone and whatever usable parts it had.

However, it was going to be an entirely different story if the monster could be kept as a pet. In such a scenario, it was definitely going to give him returns in the long run.

Not only that, but there was definitely going to be a huge added value for him personally if he became the first ever Hunter to tame a monster as his pet.

Han-Yeol opened his hand and brought it around ten centimeters close to the egg. Then, he closed his eyes and gently channeled his mana into his hand before carefully pouring it into the monster egg. It was as if he was giving water to a young seedling.

Wooong… Wooong…

‘Oh, it’s working,’?he thought with his eyes closed when he felt his mana being absorbed by the egg.

He could feel the flow of his mana, since his Mana Mastery skill had reached the M Rank now.

‘Hmm… I guess I could give it a bit more, right?’?he happily thought as he infused more mana into the monster egg.

Woooooong!

‘Yes! It’s reacting!’?Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly after the monster egg gave off a stronger reaction to his mana.

Instinctively, he just knew that the best way to hatch the monster egg was to feed it mana. He thought, ‘A normal monster is probably going to come out if it hatches naturally. But if I hatch it with my mana, maybe a pet will emerge? It should work like that, right?’

This was only a hypothesis. Still, every scientific fact started off as a hypothesis that scientists had to constantly research until they proved it to be correct.

Of course, Han-Yeol was not a scientist… There was no way that he would even know what exactly a hypothesis was and how it could be proven correct, because he never paid attention in school. However, he instinctively knew how to connect the dots to prove his hypothesis.

Han-Yeol continued pouring his mana into the monster egg.

Kwachiiiik!

‘Is it hatching? Who knew this was going to hatch so quickly? Still, it’s better than having to wait so long for it!’?Han-Yeol expectantly watched the monster egg’s shell crack.

Kwachik… Kwachik… Kwachiiik!

Cracks started to form all over the monster egg.

Pachiiik!

“It’s coming!” Han-Yeol exclaimed.

A moment later, the monster fully cracked open and a creature appeared.

“Wha… W-What?!” Han-Yeol could not help but scream after seeing the creature that had appeared from the monster egg. “A d-dragon?!”

The creature had a slightly different appearance from a typical dragon that was often seen in Asian or Western media, but Han-Yeol was certain that it was a dragon.

However…

“Kyu! Kyu!”

“It’s… It’s so freakin’ cute!”

The dragon was curled up in its egg, looking up at Han-Yeol with its clear round eyes. It fluttered its arms, legs, tail, and wings after it saw him. There was not a single part of the baby dragon that did not look adorable, a stark contrast to its mighty and vicious appearance usually seen in the media.

A normal person might be disappointed from getting a baby dragon as a pet, since it was currently not able to participate in combat and was surely going to eat a lot. That was, however, not the case for Han-Yeol.

“WOW! It’s so cute!” Han-Yeol cried out.

He did not dare touch the little creature as he feared hurting it, but he put his face inches away from it and looked at it with doting loving eyes.

Just a note, Han-Yeol was weak toward anything cute except for human babies. He loved puppies, kittens, hamsters, baby foxes, etc. He loved anything and everything cute and fluffy, except for human babies, but…he had never dared to raise any pets.

Back when he had a puppy, it had gotten run over by a car after he raised it for six months and died. After that traumatic event, he had struggled with depression and had dearly missed his puppy for a whole year.

The experience had scarred him so much that he never raised a pet after that, and the most he did after that was to watch videos or look up pictures of animals on the internet.

But today, a cute and adorable creature had appeared in front of him.

“Kyu! Kyu! Kyu!”

The baby dragon seemed to be quite similar to other birds, treating the first creature it saw after hatching from its egg as its parent. In this case, Han-Yeol was the first creature the baby dragon had laid eyes on.

Acknowledging him as its parent, it rubbed its body covered in soft black scales on his face.

‘Ah… Is it okay for something to be so cute?!’?Han-Yeol was dying inside.

It was obvious that the baby dragon was not going to be able to participate in combat, but Han-Yeol did not seem to even care about that one bit. He was more than able to fight alone as he always did, so he was extremely happy over the fact that he had gotten such a cute pet from the monster egg.

The biggest thing that he was happy about was…

‘It’s a dragon, so it should live longer than me, right?’?he thought of a dragon’s lifespan as he looked at it with doting loving eyes.

Quite a lot of scientists had theorized that a Hunter’s lifespan was two times longer than a normal person, and almost everyone seemed to agree with this theory. The only disagreement there was over this theory was how much longer a Hunter lived. After all, there were some who argued that it was only one and a half times while some argued that it was five times longer.

That was the reason why most Hunters experienced heartbreak raising pets as most of them would outlive their pets. Of course, those who raised turtles would not experience this heartbreak…

However, Han-Yeol could rest assured. He was not going to experience such heartbreak as the dragon was the symbol of longevity.

He slowly reached for the baby dragon and carefully picked it up with his hands. “Hello.”

The baby dragon looked Han-Yeol in his eyes and gleefully cried out, “Kyu! Kyu!”

‘It’s too cute!’?Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly as he rubbed his cheek against the baby dragon’s face.

The baby dragon was simply too attractive for Han-Yeol, who loved anything and everything cute.

“Let’s live happily ever after for a long, long time,” he said.

“Kyu!”?The baby dragon enthusiastically cried out as if it understood what he had said just now.