Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 137: Egypt’s Might (4)

Han-Yeol was intrigued by what had happened just now. He wondered, ‘I wonder how the Hunters’ Association is going to react from now on?’

The Hunters’ Association had three choices after this incident. They could give up on asking for help from the Horus raid party and create a coalition of domestic raid parties, or they could try approaching the Horus raid party with a new proposal.

Both the former and the latter had their advantages and disadvantages, but it was up to the Hunters’ Association to decide which one they were going to choose at the end of the day.

The only people left in the meeting room were Choi Tae-Ki, who was the downcast manager from the Hunters’ Association packing up his things, Han-Yeol, and Mujahid.

Mujahid approached Han-Yeol and said, [I had a lot of expectations since it was an offer from the country of the great warrior, but I must say that I am quite disappointed. Giving tax exemption as a reward is already absurd if they were to offer it to their own raid parties, but offering that to a foreign raid party is just preposterous. It seems that Tayarana noonim is quite upset about this.]

Keke!

Mujahid clasped both of his hands behind his head and chattered as if he was close friends with Han-Yeol.

Han-Yeol was not a fan of unfamiliar guys acting like they were his friends, but Mujahid was special in many ways. First off, he was a prince, so Han-Yeol did not feel that he was going to be getting the shorter end of the stick by being friends with him. Furthermore, he looked so cute and innocent that Han-Yeol thought it was going to be fun hanging out with him.

[Is Tara someone who would get upset over something like this?] Han-Yeol asked.

[Oh! As expected of the great warrior-nim! You are already calling noonim by her nickname.]

[Hmm? You don’t call her by her nickname…?]

Han-Yeol was a bit flustered after calling Tayarana by her nickname when even her brother, who was technically her half-brother, did not use it.

[Well, I’m fine with it. Besides, Tayarana noonim is not so fond of me anyway.]

‘Yeah, you talk too much, that’s why…’?Han-Yeol thought.

Han-Yeol had learned at an early age that a person had to be flexible, changing up their style of interaction depending on who they were talking to. He was composed and indifferent to composed and indifferent people while he was more chatty with talkative people.

Of course, Tayarana could be called the Queen of Indifference judging by her character.

There were naturally some exceptions to this, because some composed and indifferent people did not mind if they were talking to someone chatty.

However, Mujahid was an exception as he had a motor equipped in his mouth. He seemingly shot out infinite words at one go. He was so talkative that Tayarana had probably given up on liking him even though he was her own brother.

A good example of how talkative Mujahid was would be Mariam, who was quite indifferent but more sociable compared to Tayarana. She could not stand him at all.

Well, that was not the case for Han-Yeol as he did not really mind Mujahid’s chatty nature.

[I am certain that things will work out between you siblings. Hang in there.]

[Wow! My heart feels lighter after being comforted by the great warrior-nim! Ah! It is a huge relief that a comrade who I will be spending a long time with is already so nice to me from the start. You are making me want to offer a prayer of gratitude to Ra-nim!]

‘Huh…? What the hell is he saying right now?’?Han-Yeol was flustered as he tried to decipher the meaning behind ‘spending a long time together’.

[Ah, I forgot to formally introduce myself. My name is Mujahid Ptolemaic. I have received the command of my father, the President of Egypt, Phaophator Ptolemaic-nim, to assist Han-Yeol-nim from now on. I hope that you will graciously accept me as your disciple from now on.] Mujahid crossed his arms over his chest in an X and knelt in front of Han-Yeol.

When the Egyptian prince asked to be his disciple, Han-Yeol was flabbergasted and shocked. ‘W-What the hell is he doing?!’

Han-Yeol did not even have the luxury these days to take care of himself, so how was he supposed to take in a disciple?!

‘No, this could be a good thing…’?he thought.

Mujahid was not some random guy on the street asking to be his disciple. He was a prince of Egypt. It was true that he was a bit burdensome, but he was certainly going to be a useful ally one day.

‘They say that money and power are things that you can never have enough of,’?Han-Yeol thought before approaching Mujahid and helping him stand up.

[You cannot do this as a prince of a country. I will accept you as my disciple, so please stand up.]

[Hahaha, thank you very much! I was getting quite worried that you would reject me. How was I supposed to go back to Egypt and explain to my father then? Thank you very much!] Mujahid smiled brightly and sincerely thanked Han-Yeol.

Han-Yeol felt quite good after seeing the prince’s gratitude.

[Oh, where are my manners? I am now your disciple, so we should decide on how to address each other. I believe that I should address you as my master from now on, so please speak comfortably to me from this point onward. It will be uncomfortable for me if my master speaks to me so courteously.]

[Haha, I’m fine with that, but on one condition. I hope that you will stop calling me the great warrior from now on and just call me by my name.]

Truthfully, Han-Yeol cringed whenever Mujahid was calling him the great warrior. The prince might have addressed him in that way as a show of respect, but Han-Yeol did not have a chuuni side to him so he barely had any tolerance to such cringey titles.

[Alright, Han-Yeol-nim.] Mujahid instantly smiled and agreed.

[I look forward to working with you from now on, Mujahid.] Han-Yeol extended his hand to Mujahid, who shook it in response.

***

A ‘be on call’ order was issued to the entire Horus raid party the day after Han-Yeol had accepted Mujahid as his disciple.

Han-Yeol was stuck at home doing nothing, but it was not all that bad. He loved being at home doing nothing. In fact, he now had a proper justification for staying at home and doing nothing this time.

“Kyu! Kyu! Kyu!”

With Mavros around, Han-Yeol found staying at home even more fun now. He did not have a single second of boredom as he had to run around and satisfy the baby dragon’s curiosity.

The dragon was quite curious these days, since he was still young and everything was new and fascinating to him.

“I’m going!”

Pak! Whoooooosh!

“Kyuuuuuuu!”

Han-Yeol kicked a ball before Mavros ran after it.

There were a lot of empty lawns in the mansion, but most of them had been converted into the baby dragon’s playground in recent days.

Just as Han-Yeol was busy playing with Mavros, his sensitive ears picked up a commotion at his mansion’s front gate.

Vrooom!

Han-Yeol wolf-whistled.

Whiiiik!

“Kyuuuu!”

Mavros heard the whistle and immediately turned away from the ball to run back to Han-Yeol. The most important thing for the baby dragon was not the ball or his other toys but Han-Yeol.

Running toward Han-Yeol and jumping into his arms, Mavros then went up to Han-Yeol’s head and nested at his usual spot.

Then, Han-Yeol noticed that Mavros had grown. He felt the baby dragon’s heavier-than-usual weight the moment he nested on his head. Feeling amazed, he thought, ‘Mavros is growing really fast.’

With Mavros resting on his head, Han-Yeol went over to the front gate to see what the commotion was all about. Then, he saw a truck with the familiar mark of the pharaoh on it followed by a row of trucks with construction materials on them.

“Hmm? Mujahid?” Han-Yeol noticed the Egyptian prince standing on top of the front-most truck wearing a shirt with the character of Ra drawn on it.

“Ah! Hyung-nim!” Mujahid shouted in Korean while excitedly waving his hand.

He had seemed to have picked up the Korean language since who knew when.

“Ah… Sure… Hi… Haha…” Han-Yeol awkwardly waved back.

Tak!

Mujahid kicked off the truck and flew past the large mansion gates. This was quite an easy feat for an S Rank Hunter. Then, he landed in front of Han-Yeol and frivolously shook his hands.

“Korean really easy!”

“I-Is that so?”

Han-Yeol possessed the ability to speak Arabic fluently without having to put much effort in it, so he found Mujahid’s perseverance to be quite admirable.

“It very easy learn but very hard speak!”

“Y-You can take it slowly. There’s no rush, right?”

[Haha, I guess you are right.]

[Y-Yeah…]

Han-Yeol had met quite a lot of people in his life, but it was his first time meeting someone like Mujahid.

‘Well, he seems quite fun to be with,’ thought Han-Yeol as he shrugged his shoulders.

There was something refreshing about meeting a new type of person. Han-Yeol was also the type who got along with anyone and everyone, so he figured that he could get along nicely with Mujahid.

[But what are all of those? Do you plan to move here?]

[Yes!] Mujahid smiled and placed his right fist on his left chest. [I have decided to move next door to Han-Yeol-nim, so I figured to drop by and say hello. I apologize if I caused a ruckus while at it.]

[Don’t worry about it. Anyway, let’s get along as neighbors from now on, Mujahid.] Han-Yeol extended his hand.

[Yes, Han-Yeol-nim!] Mujahid grabbed Han-Yeol’s hand with a smile for the second time.

‘Hmm… Can I say that I have a rich friend now?’?Han-Yeol wondered.

He was friends with Tayarana as well, but his relationship with her was more of a business kind of relationship. After all, they were the Leader and Vice Leader of the Horus raid party. On the other hand, his relationship with Mujahid was a strange one where they were master and disciple. However, they maintained a close relationship like brothers as well.

***

Massive construction work commenced right after Han-Yeol and Mujahid shook hands. The state-owned construction company of Egypt sent their workers in droves to demolish whatever structure there was on the land, and they started to build everything from scratch.

Also…

[Haha! So I will be in your care until then. I will make sure to pay rent on time!]

[Well, do whatever suits you best. I have a lot of empty houses here anyway.]

Mujahid needed a place to stay while waiting for his house to finish, and he had requested to stay in Han-Yeol’s place. He found hotels to be too cramped and stuffy for him.

Han-Yeol told Mujahid that he could stay for free for as long as he wanted, but the prince insisted on paying rent for troubling his master. In the end, Han-Yeol did not refuse the offer as making money was always a good thing for him.

Then, a visitor from the Horus raid party came two days later.

[Han-Yeol!]

[Hello, Han-Yeol-nim.]

It was Tayarana and Mariam, who had both dropped by totally unannounced.

‘Oh right… I have to go find that fruit from the Volax hunting ground… What should I do? Crap…’?Han-Yeol completely forgot about the two trillion won deal he had made after being completely engrossed with his baby dragon.

[Can you check what we’ve brought?] Tayarana asked.

Thud… Thud… Thud… Thud…?

With a motion from Mariam, their attendants put down four items in front of Han-Yeol. The two items were definitely the eggs from the Queen Labyrinth Spider, but the other two were fruits that he was seeing for the first time.

‘Don’t tell me…?’?Han-Yeol used Item Appraisal just in case the fruits were what he thought they were.

[Nutritious Fruit]

Type: Item Combination Material

Description: A fruit packed with nutrients that monsters love. It may be used as monster feed, but it may also be used to hatch a monster egg thanks to the immense amount of mana it possesses.

‘W-What?! This is a jackpot!’?Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly after appraising the items.

This was a jackpot because he now realized that he had numerous ways of getting his hands on the fruit. He also no longer had to personally go to the Volax hunting ground to find these fruits.

[Is it the right thing?]

[Yeah, it definitely is. I will be able to hatch these monster eggs with these. You don’t have an incubation room at your mansion, so we can use mine instead.]

[That’s fine. We will be staying here until the monster egg hatches anyway.]

[W-What?! Do you siblings have a habit of surprising people or what?!]

Han-Yeol was caught off guard once again, but there was no stopping Tayarana once she had set her mind on something. He was simply forced to allocate a room for her and Mariam in his mansion.

Besides, there was no chance of anything happening during their stay as every room in the mansion had an attached bathroom.

[Okay, now hurry up and incubate the egg.]

[We will be in your care, Han-Yeol-nim.]

Tayarana and Mariam looked at Han-Yeol with sparkling eyes. They were full of expectations and excitement.

‘Tsk… We don’t even know what’s going to come out of it… They will definitely be so disappointed if the monster that hatches from the egg is not what they’ve been expecting…’?Han-Yeol was concerned.

Both of them found Mavros to be simply too adorable, and they seemed to be hoping that a monster similar to the baby dragon was going to hatch from the eggs. But what if the monsters that hatched from the eggs were not as great as Mavros? Or worse, what if they were just normal weak monsters that could be found in low-level hunting grounds?

‘Well, that’s out of my control anyway. I’ve already told them the risks associated with it, so…’?Han-Yeol justified.

He had already warned the ladies in advance before finalizing the deal. They had also reassured him that they fully understood the risks associated. However, he could not shake off the thought that the both of them sincerely believed that two monsters like Mavros were going to emerge from the monster eggs…

[Alright! I’ll get started right away!]

1. Respectful way of addressing an elder sister