Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 146: Twelve Zodiac Legion (4)

‘Let’s see… Should I take a look at my stats?since it’s been?a long time?’?Han-Yeol called up his status window after some thought.

Name: Lee Han-Yeol

Level: 150

Points: 5

STR: 323

VIT: 300

AGI: 305

MAG: 300+219

LCK: 20

Invoke: 230

Charisma: 45

Skills : Dismember (C), [Sword Mastery (M) : Flash Strike (B), Head Cutter (C), Vicious Stabs (F)], [Walking (M) : Mana Pouch (E)] Mana Control (M), Mana Mastery (M), Sixth Sense (A), [Restrain (M) : Crowd Restrain (F)], [Body Strengthening (M) : Berserk (F)], Stab (M), Dagger Mastery (C), [Chain Mastery (M) : Tornado Smash (F)], Infinite Library (M), Shield Bash (M), [Fire Attribute (M) : Fire Ball (F)], Mana Explosion (A), Chain Smite (M), [Marksmanship (M) : Homing Bullet (F)], Martial Arts (M), Enchant (B), Sword Breathe (A), Restore (B), Healing Bullet (C), Enhance Healing (C), Summon Demon (D), Telepathy (A), Power Meditation (C), Psychokinesis (C), Force Shield (B), Cat Walk (B), Mana Absorption (B), Demon Eye (B), Mana Strengthening (C), Mana Bullet (C), Reflect (C), Enhance (B), Item Appraisal (E), Translation (F), Blood Drain (C), Taming (E), Hammer Mastery (F), Hammer Shock (F).

‘It always feels so good to check my status window,’?he thought and nodded in satisfaction.

His growth might not be as prominent as the one he had after hunting the Queen Labyrinth Spider as he hadn’t been hunting diligently. However, he was confident that only a handful of people in South Korea, no, in the entire world were capable of looking down at his stats now.

He was aware that he had an edge—the ability to cultivate numerous skills. He was quite confident that this fact alone set him apart from the others.

He could have focused on a single set of skills and reached the pinnacle with them, but he had no intentions of doing that.

‘Why should I waste my greatest advantage of being able to learn all sorts of skills?’?he shrugged his shoulders with that thought.

Han-Yeol could dare to dream about being the best in not only melee but also in ranged combat. But of course, he was still lacking compared to S Rank or Master Rank Hunters, and he knew very well that he was not a match against either Tayarana or Mujahid even if he summoned all of his demons.

In fact, he was not looking at his status window for the sole purpose of admiring his growth.

‘Hmm… I can dish out much stronger?heals?if I use Restore and Healing Bullet in tandem…’?he tried to come up with various combinations.

The Horus raid party was quite an experienced organization, so he hadn’t had the opportunity to use healing skills so far. Well, there was also the reason that they had been purposely hunting in lower-level hunting grounds to get used to the Korean monsters.

“Kyu! Kyu!”

Now that the monster rabbits were taken care of, the Egyptian Porters were about to do their job. However, Mavros suddenly showed interest in the monster corpses for the first time.

‘Hmm? What’s he doing?’?Han-Yeol wondered.

Mavros might look cute and weak, but there was one fact about him that Han-Yeol never forgot.

‘Mavros is a monster too,’?he thought.

It was a shame that his cute appearance was going to disappear one day, but every creature was bound to grow up eventually. That being said, Mavros might be cute and cuddly right now, but he was going to mature into a fully-fledged monster in the future.

‘Don’t tell me…that day is today…?’?Han-Yeol thought as he observed the baby black dragon with worry and anticipation.

[Vice Leader-nim seems to be doing something over there, so let’s go and work on that side first.]

[Roger that.]

The Horus raid party Porters were seasoned veterans as well, so they could tell at a glance where and what they should be doing, and that was the reason why the Egyptian Porters decided to give space to Han-Yeol and Mavros.

Han-Yeol continued to observe Mavros after the Porters left.

“Kyu!”

Mavros bit a monster rabbit corpse and started to violently flail it around.

After five minutes passed, Han-Yeol noticed that the baby black dragon only appeared to be playing with the dead rabbits.

‘Hmm…? Was I overreacting?’

Truth be told, Han-Yeol did not mind if the baby black dragon stayed the same forever and merely became his mascot. He could always depend on taming other monsters and increasing the number of demons he contracted with if he ever fell short of firepower.

Mavros was an extremely cute creature that made Han-Yeol feel at ease just with his appearance alone. In short, he was like an emotional support pet to him.

‘Well… I don’t mind if he stays this way,’?Han-Yeol thought before moving to pick up the baby black dragon so as to not get in the way of the Porters.

Kwachik!

Just as he walked toward the baby black dragon, he heard the sound of a bone being crushed. Surprised, he muttered to himself, “Huh?”

The baby black dragon ended up doing what Han-Yeol initially thought he was going to do a while ago. Even though he had only been interested in the fresh meat that Han-Yeol fed him up until this point, he surprised Han-Yeol by suddenly munching and devouring the dead monster rabbits.

Kwachik! Kwachik! Kwachik! Kwachik!?

Han-Yeol found the sight to be quite gruesome despite raising Mavros himself. He watched as the baby black dragon’s sharp fangs pierced through the mana-protected bones of the monster rabbits with ease.

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!?

Mavros merrily munched on the monster rabbits’ corpses.

‘This means that a monster is capable of devouring their fellow monsters once they have grown to a certain extent. There have been no reports of monsters eating each other unless those reports?have been?kept?from the public. This is definitely not something a normal monster would do,’?thought Han-Yeol, convinced that the baby black dragon was displaying strange behavior.

It was exactly as he suspected. Numerous scientists and experts had entered the hunting grounds alongside raid parties to investigate the monsters’ natural instincts, biological composition, etc., and all of the findings from these investigations had been published for others to see.

The monsters were creatures that had a positive effect on this world by pushing the humans to evolve, but the humans always kept in their minds that these same creatures could potentially cause their downfall and extinction.

What was going to happen if the barriers the aliens had erected suddenly disappeared one day? Simple, the monsters quietly waiting in the hunting grounds were going to come rushing out like a tidal wave.

Humanity was not completely defenseless against the monsters as the Hunters were present, but the monsters were definitely going to possess superior quantity to make up for their lack of quality.

Most of humanity was going to be extinct by the time the best of the Hunters subjugated the monsters. In fact, there had even been a simulation run on the doomsday scenario of the world in such an event by a think tank.

The think tank received a torrent of criticism for fear-mongering, but there were quite a lot of people that thought the report was credible.

Anyway, most of the information gathered and researched by the scientists could be downloaded for a fee from the internet, and Han-Yeol was a VVIP customer on these information websites.

‘There are no reports anywhere of a monster devouring another monster. I’m guessing this is a unique trait to the monsters I hatched like Mavros. Well, I guess it makes sense since there are differences between wild and domesticated animals as well. On top of that, I have a feeling they will be able to learn skills as well thanks to my ability,’?Han-Yeol was busy thinking.

Thud!

[W-What?!]

While Han-Yeol was distracted by his own thoughts, Mavros pulled a mana stone out of a monster rabbit’s corpse and tried to swallow it. The Egyptian Porter beside him shouted in surprise, and that made Han-Yeol look toward them.

‘Hmm?’

Gulp!

[Hiiiiik!]?The Egyptian Porter shrieked in horror at the sight of Mavros devouring not only the monster's corpse but the mana stone as well. They could only look on as the mana stone that was the size of a billiard ball disappeared down Mavros’ mouth.

Most people would wonder what the big deal was with one mana stone being ingested by the monster, but the monster rabbits were at least intermediate-tier monsters. Not only that, but they were also monsters possessing extremely high mana density.

In short, the mana stone Mavros had just consumed could fetch quite a hefty price, and this price was a huge figure for a Porter.

[Take it out from my share,] Han-Yeol said.

[Ah, I understand.]

Han-Yeol calmed the Porter down before proceeding to focus on Mavros again.

The baby black dragon merrily waltzed over to Han-Yeol after eating the expensive mana stone. “Kyu~!”

The way he added a vibrato at the end of his cry meant that he was asking for a hug.

“Heave-ho!” Han-Yeol gently lifted the baby black dragon up and said, “Look at your tummy, Mavros. It’s so big.”

He could not help but still find the baby black dragon to be extremely adorable despite it having eaten an expensive mana stone.

“Kyu! Kyu!”?Mavros protested, asking Han-Yeol to stop teasing him.

“Alright, alright,” Han-Yeol replied with a warm smile.

He felt extremely proud that Mavros had done something new all by himself.

***

After that, Mavros continued to devour monster corpses every eight to twelve hours.

‘I’m certain something about him has changed…’?Han-Yeol thought while observing the baby black dragon.

He was certainly losing out on a lot of money whenever Mavros ate not only the corpses but even the mana stones. However, he was not really bothered by it; he had already earned a lot in recent days.

In fact, he was actually trying to come up with ways that he could do more for his baby black dragon.

Of course, Tayarana and Mariam could not help but feel envious of Han-Yeol.

[I wish my Candalous grew that fast too…]

[I agree, Tayarana-nim. I wish the same could be said for my Pipi.]

Candalous was the name of Tayarana’s pet griffon while Pipi was the name of Mariam’s pet cat. They were different from Mavros in the sense that they did not mind having caretakers looking after them, so there was no need to risk bringing them all the way here to the hunting grounds.

However, both Tayarana and Mariam had a change of heart after seeing Mavros’ recent development.

[I definitely should bring Candalous along next time.]

[I think so too, Tayarana-nim.]

An executive meeting was called for after the episode with Mavros was over. Tayarana, Han-Yeol, Mujahid, Mariam, and the rest of the raid party executives were looking at the hologram map of Mount Toham.

[We have confirmed that most of the monster rabbits have been annihilated based on the scouting report from the special drone. Am I correct, Han-Yeol-nim?]

Mariam was asking Han-Yeol because he possessed the ability to sense mana within a ten-kilometer radius around him, and matching the drone’s findings to the discoveries from Han-Yeol’s skill was going to result in a hundred percent certainty.

[You’re right. All of the monster rabbits that came for us are dead.]

[I see…]

The other executives nodded.

[I suppose it is now time for us to move on to the next part of the plan. The Thousand Armed Bodhisattva is located in the valley at the peak of Mount Toham. It is a wide and vast valley so it is the perfect place for the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva to reside in. However, the boss monster has not moved an inch for the past four days since we got here.]

[Not even an inch?]

[Yes, not even a single inch.]

The Horus raid party convened their meetings again and again until late in the evening. This raid was an extremely important raid for them, and they wanted to prepare for it as much as they could. After all, they knew very well that a catastrophic incident could take place if they missed anything, so they were determined to repeatedly go over the plans.

The other raid parties that had been sent to deal with the other bosses had a Master Rank Hunter with them, but the Horus raid party was the only one with S Rank Hunters. The fact that they had two S Rank Hunters did not really matter as the difference between a Master Rank Hunter and an S Rank Hunter was like heaven and earth.

[That is indeed quite strange. That thing can cause damage on the scale of a natural disaster with any simple movement, but it is staying still. It is not acting like a boss monster at all…]

[It is as you said. A boss monster usually has a small activity area, but they are usually always on the move. This Thousand Armed Bodhisattva probably thinks it is Buddha himself and is pretending to be meditating.]

[Hahaha!]

The Horus raid party executives lightened up the mood by throwing some jokes around now and then.

[Well, it might be acting strange, but we need to remember that we still have to face the other zodiacs as well. We should make plans on how to face them first.]

[Fortunately, we received great news just now.] Mariam entered the meeting room and made the announcement.

[What good news?]

[We might be able to fight the zodiacs one by one, since they are not active unless we enter their range. It seems that we will be able to face the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva without their interference.]

[Oh! That’s excellent news! We can aim to finish the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva first before we take care of the small fries then!]