Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 129: The Black Dragon Mavros (1)

Han-Yeol was at a loss for what to do with the cute baby black dragon in his hand. He had some knowledge about dogs and cats, but he had no idea how to take care of reptiles or amphibians.

To be honest, a reptile could not be considered cute in any way, so Han-Yeol was not interested in them at all. However, the baby black dragon was an exception as its cuteness left Han-Yeol at a complete loss.

“Kyu! Kyu! Kyu!”?

Eagerly crawling into his embrace, the baby black dragon seemed to have accepted Han-Yeol as its parent.

“Let’s see… What should I name you…?” Han-Yeol muttered.

“Kyu?”?The baby black dragon tilted its head in response.

“Ah… It’s too cute…!” Han-Yeol exclaimed before calming himself down and thinking of a name for his new pet.

‘Hmm… If I name it Toothless, then I could get into trouble over copyright laws, right?’?

He could not really remember where he had heard it, but he recalled that someone had already used the name Toothless. He was not a hundred percent sure, but it was always good to stay on the safe side.

‘It’s actually funny that I’ll think about copyright and stuff when I’m naming my own dragon…’?

After some thought, Han-Yeol decided to give his pet dragon a cute name. He asked, “Hmm… What do you think of Black Bean?”

The baby black dragon suddenly stopped rubbing its face on Han-Yeol’s hand. It growled and hissed at him after hearing the name he had come up with. “Grrrrr…! Hiss…!”

“A-Alright, I’ll think of something else. Are you happy?”

“Kyu!”

The baby black dragon went back to acting cute after Han-Yeol said that he would come up with something else.

‘This dragon is smart…’?Han-Yeol realized that a dragon was still a dragon in the end, even if it was young.

He placed the baby black dragon on top of his head before returning to the living room to search online for a cool name.

“Oh? This looks good.”

“Kyu?!”

Han-Yeol picked up the baby black dragon that was playing with his hair, brought it in front of his face, and said, “Your name is going to be Mavros.”

“Kyu!”

Truth be told, Han-Yeol actually wanted to give the baby dragon a cute Korean name. Unfortunately, the baby black dragon growled whenever he tried to give it names like Hapi or Koopi. In the end, he was forced to look up the Greek word for black.

“Tsk…?I wanted something cute…”

“Kyu! Kyu!”?Mavros protested as if to say that it did not want a cute name.

“Alright, alright,” said Han-Yeol as he patted Mavros on the head.

Ding!

[You have officially entered into a contract with the Mini Black Dragon, Mavros.]

[A new stat has been created: Charisma]

[A new skill has been created: Taming]

‘Huh?’?Han-Yeol was surprised when a system message popped up right after he had named Mavros. When it appeared to be quite important, he wondered, ‘I have a rough idea what Charisma does but… What’s Taming?’

[Taming (F)]

Type: Active

Description: A skill that allows the user to tame a monster they hatched from a monster egg as their pet. The user will be able to tame stronger monsters the higher this skill’s level is. An awakened being is restricted to one pet per person, but the number of pets tamed can be increased the higher one’s Charisma stat is. Lastly, it is possible for the user to give their pet away to someone else.

‘Wow!’?Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly after reading the skill description. He barely managed to stop himself from screaming at the top of his lungs. After all, he did not want to surprise Mavros unnecessarily.

Han-Yeol immediately checked Mavros’ stats this time.

[Mavros (Mini Black Dragon)]

Level: 1

Attribute: Dark, Poison

Innate Ability: (SEALED)

STR: 10

AGI: 10

VIT: 10

Flying: 10

Flight Speed: 10

Skill: Magic (F) - SEALED

There was nothing amazing about Mavros’ stats, but Han-Yeol was unable to resist his cuteness and placed it back on his head. He said, “You are really the best, Mavros!”

“Kyu! Kyu!”

Mavros seemed to understand what Han-Yeol had said. He fluttered his wings and shook his tail before raising his head and crying out in delight.

Today was the day that Han-Yeol first met Mavros, and he made sure to spend the entire day together with his newfound companion.

***

The next day, Han-Yeol woke up with Mavros on his bed.

He leisurely sat on his bed and stretched when a sudden thought jolted him awake. ‘Oh right! The gold!’?

He just remembered that he had to pay Delchant for the magic scroll, which was not a freebie the demon merchant had donated. In fact, the magic scroll had been an expensive item that cost ten tons of gold.

‘Hmm… It’s going to be quite tedious if I hunt all of that gold by myself…’?he contemplated.

Han-Yeol was not hesitating due to a lack of strength. After all, he could barge into Gold Mine right now and unleash his skills to sweep it clean in an instant.

‘But that’s going to be too inefficient for me… I can do more if I go hunting at another hunting ground?with?that amount of time…’

Gold mines were quite famous before the Dimensional Gates’ appearance. However, the emergence of the extremely useful materials known as the mana stones had phased out whatever value gold held.

Gold was harmless to the human body, a good conductor of heat, and resistant to acid. With those characteristics, it was quite valuable. Unfortunately, its value quickly diminished when the mana stones had emerged and it was further diminished when the monsters known as golems had appeared from the Dimensional Gates.

As for mana stones, they were much more beautiful than gold and even improved someone’s health when worn on the body. Its color could be adjusted depending on the heat applied to process it. The mana stone was truly a mysterious jewel that practically killed the demand for other precious metals and stones in the market.

Gold was still used for various things such as coating, prosthetics, and other things even though it was no longer considered a precious metal. A paper tiger was still a tiger, after all.

Saak… Saak…

Han-Yeol busily scrolled through the posts on the Hunter community forum. He had decided to ask someone else to carry out the task on his behalf. ‘Let’s see… Are there any good parties I can place a?request for?’

The community forums had a section known as the request section. This was where someone would place a request for others to provide them with a specific monster’s body or an item, and the ones making the requests were usually rich people who wanted to add specific monster parts to their collections.

Han-Yeol made a post in that section of the community forum.

[Title: Looking for a party willing to farm ten tons of gold.]

[Description: I need ten tons of gold, so I’m looking for a party willing to farm it from the Gold Mine. I don’t need the mana stones. I just need the gold. I will make an initial deposit of one billion won, purchase the gold according to the current market price, and even pay three billion won for your efforts. In return, I need the ten tons of gold within three weeks. I hope only serious parties will contact me.]

[My contact details: 010-XXXX-5678]

‘This is too easy, hehe,’?thought Han-Yeol as he plopped down on the sofa with a smile.

He was initially worried about when he would be able to gather ten tons of gold. Who would have known that he could simply throw money at his problem and solve it?

“Kyu! Kyu!”

Mavros found everything around him to be interesting as he had only hatched from the monster egg not that long ago. He was currently obsessed with a random doll Han-Yeol had, throwing it down to the floor and wrestling with it.

Han-Yeol watched his cute baby black dragon play with the doll, then called out, “Hey, Mavros! Come here!”

“Kyuuu!”

Although he was busy playing with the doll, he immediately responded to Han-Yeol’s call.

Seuk… Seuk…

Han-Yeol petted the baby black dragon and thought, ‘Is it because he’s still a baby? His scales are really soft for a reptile.’

The baby black dragon’s scales did feel quite strange.

He continued petting the baby black dragon for around ten minutes when his phone suddenly rang.

Ring…! Ring…! Ring…! Ring…!?

Han-Yeol’s ringtone was still the same monotonous ringing sound. Most people in this day and age would pick a song as their ringtone, but he did not really feel like changing it. Ironically, the current trend was changing again as most people started to prefer using the default ringtone.

“Hello?”

[H-Hello!]

The voice coming from the other end of the line sounded like a young boy, but Han-Yeol was not quick to judge the caller from their voice alone. He knew very well how deceiving someone’s voice could be.

“Hi, who’s on the line?”

[Ah, I’m calling after I saw your request on the post. Are you Mavros-nim, by any chance?]

“Yes, that’s me.”

Han-Yeol had used an alias when posting the request on the website, and the alias he had used was ‘Mavros’.

[Ah! O-Our raid party would like to do your request. Would you be willing to give us a chance?]

“What’s the name of your raid party?”

This might be quite obvious, but Han-Yeol had no intention of simply accepting anyone for his request. He was paying a massive one billion won just to start things up, so he intended to do his due diligence before giving the work to someone. After all, it was going to be quite annoying if they ran off with his money.

Having a famous raid party accept his request would be his best-case scenario, but he did not mind anyone as long as they had a good reputation.

[Our party’s name is ‘Shine’ raid party. Are there any issues?]

“Shine raid party?”

[Yes!]

‘Hmm… Shine… Shine… Shine raid party…’?Han-Yeol jogged his memory, trying to remember anything he could about them.

He had encountered quite a lot of raid parties when he had been a Porter, and he faintly remembered one with the name Shine.

[Uhm… Is there a problem?]

“Ah, no. You said you are from the Shine raid party, right?”

[Yes!]

“Okay, I’ll hire you for my request.”

[Wow! Really?]

“Yeah.”

[Nice! Thank you very much! When would we be able to get the advance payment, by any chance?]

“Let’s meet in person and sign an agreement first. I will be sending my lawyer once everything is in order.”

Han-Yeol no longer felt the need to personally go and meet people for these kinds of trivial matters. He just had to hire a lawyer who would take care of everything for him. With this process, he could save a lot of time.

He was currently in the process of realizing his position and starting to act his part. He was no longer the same dirt poor Han-Yeol who had lived paycheck to paycheck trying to make ends meet.

[Okay, I will send you our details then.]

“Sure.”

Beep!

Han-Yeol hung up the call and called his lawyer.

He had invested one billion won into the law firm that he and Yoo-Bi had used to draft an agreement, the L Law Firm, and he had hired their managing partner, Han Min, to be his personal lawyer.

L Law Firm had actually been a small law firm, but they grew rapidly with his investment. Of course, in exchange, Han-Yeol had made sure that he was going to be the law firm’s top priority. He wanted them to support him in any and every matter from then on.

On a side note, L Law Firm had originally been known as the H Law Firm, which had been taken after the first initial of Han Min’s surname, but they changed their name to L Law Firm to commemorate Han-Yeol’s investment in them.

[Aigoo! Hello, Han-Yeol Hunter-nim. Do you have anything you need me to do?]

The managing partner of L Law Firm, Han Min, answered the call in an extremely courteous manner. Other people might say that he was being too over the top, but Han-Yeol really liked this part about Han Min.

“I’m planning to make a request to a raid party called Shine raid party, and I need you to…” Han-Yeol proceeded to explain his plan to Han Min.

[I see… Please don’t worry about it. I am an expert when it comes to such matters! I will make sure that everything is in order!]

“Excellent. I’ll leave it to you then.”

[Hahaha! Please rest assured!]

“Then, goodbye.”

Beep!

Han-Yeol finished everything he had to do with a few phone calls, and he resumed playing with his baby black dragon.