Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 142: Boss Monster Raid (5)

The next morning, Kim Cha-Il stared at the unexpected invention and muttered in disbelief, “T-This average-looking drone can be controlled by a Hunter’s mana…?”

“Yes, it can. We will be able to scout the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva before attempting to raid it,” Han-Yeol nonchalantly replied.

“Ah, I see… You will have to be careful of not only the boss monster but also the horde of monsters under its command. Sixty percent of the initial raid party members had died to the regular monsters even before reaching the boss monster, and it is highly likely that the monsters have been reinforced by now,” Kim Cha-Il explained while wiping his sweat with a handkerchief.

“I see…” Han-Yeol muttered.

He grumbled inwardly, ‘Tsk… You should’ve told us that sooner…!’

However, this revelation did not come as that big of a surprise. It was well within the calculation of the Horus raid party. Still, Han-Yeol could not help but be disgruntled by the fact that the association was not fully cooperating with them by providing vital information.

[Then, Mariam.]

[Yes!]

It was quite obvious that Mariam was going to be the best candidate to pilot the drone thanks to her telepathic abilities, which would allow her to divide her consciousness into multiple ones. This gave her the ability to scout and relay information while giving orders to the raid party.

[Approaching the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva.]

As expected, Mariam was able to scout while relaying the information to the raid party members through her telepathy ability.

‘Demon Eyes!’?

Meanwhile, Han-Yeol used his own skill to scan the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva.

Those who were aware of his ability might argue that he could have simply used Demon Eyes from the start to scout the boss monster, and that was also a possibility that they could have explored. In fact, this was also the precise reason why Han-Yeol was using his skill right now.

However, even this cheat-like skill of his had a weakness. Demon Eyes was a skill that sensed the flow of mana, which meant that it was not an ideal scouting skill in this kind of situation. Not to mention, it was impossible to transfer what he saw into video so this was another limitation as well.

That was the reason why the drone came in clutch for them. It allowed the entire raid party to have an accurate grasp of the situation around the boss monster.

Whiiiiing!

Mariam operated the drone and flew it above the mountain toward where the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva was, and the drone’s view was broadcasted live on a large monitor.

Gulp…!

The Horus raid party members nervously gulped while watching the monitor. All of them were Veteran Hunters, but this was their first time hunting a boss monster. The fact that this was a boss monster that required Master Rank Hunters to hunt also made them quite nervous.

“Kwak! Kwak!”

“Kireuk! Kireuk!”

The forest beneath the drone was teeming with monsters. The hordes of monsters were composed of weak and intermediate monsters, and there were a number of power monsters mixed among them.

“Uhh…?That’s quite an intimidating sight…” Kim Cha-Il muttered while his eyes were fixated on the monitor.

The drone passed the horde of monsters and the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva finally made its appearance.

“It’s huge,” Han-Yeol said.

“W-Wow… It’s humongous…!”

The drone was filming the boss monster from quite a distance for safety reasons, but the boss monster was so big that it looked like it was right in front of the drone.

[I-It’s too big…!]

[Can we win against that thing?]

The Egyptian Hunters were shaken after seeing the boss monster. They were brave warriors who knew no fear, but they could not help feeling this fearful. Furthermore, the fact that other raid parties had brought along their Master Rank Hunters to hunt the boss monsters while they only had Tayarana, who was an Osiris Rank Hunter, did not help.

The Egyptian Hunters knew very well just how big the gap between an Osiris Rank and a Ra Rank Hunter was.

[I will start encircling the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva,] said Mariam as she piloted the drone to go one round around the boss monster.

The thousands of arms attached to the back of the boss monster came into view, and the arms looked ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

“…”

Whiiiiing!

Silence descended on the base camp as no one dared to speak, and only the sound of the drone’s rotors could be heard.

Just as the drone was encircling the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva…

Swooosh!

“Heop!”

One of the thousand arms suddenly swung toward the drone. It was a tense moment where the whole raid could be jeopardized if the one and only drone that Yoo-Bi had created was destroyed.

However, Mariam possessed a reflex that was as high as her IQ so she was already prepared to dodge any attacks coming at the drone. She immediately controlled the drone to swerve right, and the drone barely managed to escape.

“Phew…?That was close…” Han-Yeol let out a sigh of relief, and he felt like he had aged ten years in those few seconds.

[It is good that we were able to identify one of the boss monster’s attack patterns.]

[Yeah, you’re right.]

They could say that it was indeed a close call, but it was well worth the risk as they were now able to identify how the boss monster attacked. It was going to be quite dangerous if they had blindly attacked the boss monster without even knowing how it attacked.

They decided to be satisfied with this much since there was so little they could do with a scouting drone.

[Let’s check where the hordes of monsters are located, Mariam. We should observe them and note down their coordinates, and we should mark those coordinates on the map. Then, please distribute the maps to all of the Hunters once it’s complete.]

[Yes, Han-Yeol-nim.]

This was the good part when it came to using a camera. There was no way Han-Yeol would have been able to accurately pinpoint the exact location of the hordes of monsters from this distance with his Demon Eyes.

This made Han-Yeol certain once again that Yoo-Bi’s ability was indeed a treasure.

Mariam mapped the coordinates of the hordes of monsters and shared them with the Horus raid party members.

Manager Kim Cha-Il watched the whole thing before nodding and thinking, ‘They’re quite organized. I looked down on them because they’re Egyptians, but they’re much more organized than some of the top raid parties here. Is this the true might of Egypt’s best raid party?’?

He was astounded by how prepared the Horus raid party was.

There was a stark difference in how thoroughly the Horus raid party made their preparations compared to the Swastika raid party. The monks had only scouted from afar with binoculars before they had decided to proceed, only having made sure that they were careful.

What was the result of that? Not a single one of them had made it back alive, or even dead.

Ziiing!

A hologram depicting the entire Toham Mountain appeared in front of the main screen, and all of the Horus raid party members gathered in front of it.

[We will now start the raid briefing. I will only explain once and send it to your applications, so make sure you pay attention.]

[Yes, ma’am!]

The Hunters were scared, but that did not mean that these warriors were going to back down without a fight.

[Our first mission will be to reduce the enemy’s numbers. There are too many hordes of monsters in Toham Mountain, and they will definitely hit us from our rear while we are fighting against the boss monster if we don’t dispose of them. It is our main priority to reduce the enemy’s numbers as much as possible before attempting to raid the boss monster.]

[Yes, ma’am!]

The Swastika raid party had tried to pierce through the hordes of monsters and make quick work of the boss monster, and that was their fatal mistake. They had ended up being fully surrounded by the monsters later on. The main difference between them and Mariam was that she possessed information on the monster hordes’ whereabouts and their numbers thanks to the drone, which made her draft this plan up.

[This raid might turn into a battle of attrition. Make sure that you keep watch of your stamina while hunting, and do your best not to get killed. Those who defy my orders and die in battle will never be allowed by Ra to enter eternal peace.]

[Yes, ma’am!]

[We will start our operation tomorrow morning before daybreak. Try to rest as much as you can. It will be a long day tomorrow.]

[Yes, ma’am!]

All of the Horus raid party members dispersed after Mariam concluded the briefing, and all of them returned to their stations with nervous faces.

“It will be all alright, right, oppa?” Yoo-Bi asked in a slightly worried voice.

She had asked around and found out that there were boss monsters in South Korea. She had also learned that the other six boss monsters were currently being handled by Master Rank Hunters.

However, what concerned her the most was the fact that the Horus raid party did not possess a Master Rank Hunter. She knew very well how strong a Master Rank Hunter was since she had learned and studied about them while she had been still a Porter.

“Don’t worry, everything will be alright. That’s what plans are for in the first place,” Han-Yeol replied.

He was quite nervous himself, but he tried his best not to show it.

“I would have made more equipment if I only had the time…”

Yoo-Bi had only recently gotten a handle on her abilities, and she could not help but regret the fact that she did not have the time to at least craft a gun for Han-Yeol.

“It’s alright, don’t mind it so much. I’m planning to use this as an opportunity to become stronger so I’m actually pumped! I mean, when will I ever get the chance to hunt a bunch of strong monsters gathered together? It’s not a common sight even on hunting grounds, you know?”

“Haha! You never change, oppa,” Yoo-Bi said with a laugh.

Han-Yeol was this kind of a person from the start. He smiled when the hunt was difficult, and he always complained whenever he ran out of monsters to kill.

“I’m sure you will win, oppa.”

“I sincerely think so too.”

The two exchanged banter for a while more before Yoo-Bi finally went to the women’s area of the accommodation. She said she was going to go read some books on mechanical engineering to improve her knowledge and ability. She made mention of that because she was confident that Han-Yeol was going to emerge victorious against the boss monster.

Han-Yeol sat on top of the temple’s roof as he looked at the sunset.

[You seem to be quite nervous,] said Tayarana, who appeared behind him.

[Hey, Tara.]

Tayrana possessed quite a lot of burdensome titles such as Goddess of Africa or the Egyptian Princess, but she was just a normal cute woman whenever she was with Han-Yeol. She sometimes acted slightly dense too.

It had been quite a while since they first became close, but there were not that many opportunities for them to be alone as Mariam shadowed her all the time.

[I guess you can say I’m both nervous and excited?]

[Excited?]

[I’m scared that I could die in this raid, but the boss monster is definitely an opponent I can fight to my heart’s content. I believe that it’s going to help me become a step stronger.]

[That’s amazing if you consider the fact that you had almost died against the Queen Labyrinth Spider not that long ago.]

[Ah, that was a close call too. It did feel quite refreshing after making it alive out of that.]

[Really?]

[Yeah.]

[You’re a strange man.]

[Hmm?]

[Nothing.]

[…]

That was the end of their conversation as they both quietly sat and watched the sunset.

***

The entire Bulguksa Temple was bustling just before daybreak. It was technically still a safe zone so quite a lot of ordinary people had tagged along to assist the Horus raid party.

Tsshh…!

The cooks in charge of feeding the raid party were busy at work as fresh ingredients from Egypt had been flown in to serve the Hunters a classic traditional Egyptian dish.

[It has been a while since we had Koshari.]

[Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.]

Everyone from the lowest-ranking Hunter all the way up to Tayarana were eagerly waiting for their food.

The menu today was Koshari, which was a traditional Egyptian dish. It was made of rice, lentils, and pasta mixed together and topped off with a spicy sauce. Koshari was a food well-loved by all Egyptians, and it was considered their staple food.

The Horus raid party cooks specially prepared this dish today to raise the morale of the raid party.

[Oh, how long has it been since we last had this?]

[It tastes exactly like home!]

[No, it tastes even better. Is it because they used high-quality ingredients rather than cheap ones?]

[Haha… Don’t be so mean. You’re basically saying that our food back home is cheap unless you splurge on it.]

[Hahaha…]

Most of the Egyptian Hunters agreed that there were other options open to them since they earned quite a lot of money. They basically had the luxury of choosing from Italian, French, Korean, Japanese, Continental, Mediterranean, and other cuisines. However, all of them agreed that Koshari was definitely the best for them.

[Get moving if you’re done eating!]

[Yes, ma’am!]

The Horus raid party mobilized at Mariam’s command after they finished eating.

[Our first target is the entrance to Toham Mountain. There are not that many monsters there so we will warm up with them.]

[Yeah, I agree.]

The monsters were marked with red dots on the map application sent to the Hunters.

[Haa…]

[Hoo…]

[Phew…]

Then, all of the Hunters took in a deep breath as they prepared for combat.

‘Demon Eyes!’?Han-Yeol activated Demon Eyes once again after arriving at their destination, and he could clearly see the monsters’ mana ahead of them.

The mana visible to him signaled the start of this game where they had to put their lives on the line.