Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 148: Evolving Mavros (2)

Disclaimer: The plot, characters, and opinions presented in this are purely fictional and do not necessarily represent the views of Wuxiaworld, our translators, or partners.?

‘Its weakness is its stomach, but…that is a tough and muscular area as well. Still, that’s my only hope… Its legs might not be armored, but it has tough scales all over it,’?Han-Yeol thought as he analyzed the monster.

The gigantic lizard possessed tough scales that protected its legs.

Grrr!

The monster seemed to have made Han-Yeol its main target after getting smacked in the stomach.

“Bring it on,” Han-Yeol said with a smirk.

[Resonating Waves!]

Whooosh! Puk! Puk! Puk! Puk!?

The Egyptian Hunters might not be as strong as Han-Yeol, but they were not weak at all. The Hunters aimed their powerful skills at the gigantic lizard’s leg.

[Damn it! Why is it so tough?!]

[Keep attacking! Don’t give it time to recover!]

[I know that!]

The gigantic lizard lived up to its title as the most powerful monster among the twelve zodiacs. The monster currently had all of its focus on Han-Yeol, but that did not mean that the other Hunters dropped their guards.

After all, the monster was extremely shrewd. It would occasionally pretend to target only a single person before it would suddenly attack another.

Puk!

[Kuheok!]

The gigantic lizard was only following Han-Yeol around before it suddenly kicked an Egyptian Hunter that got too close to it. The surprise attack was not strong enough to kill the Hunter, but it was strong enough to break one of his arms.

Most Hunters would have retreated to the backline to pop a healing potion, but that was not the case for the Horus raid party as they possessed one of the rarest ranged healing skills.

‘Healing Bullet!’?

Han-Yeol unequipped his chain and hammer before immediately taking out his brand-new Walther KA101 from his gun holster. Then, he shot three bullets at the Hunter’s broken arm.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Seuk…!

Three yellow-whitish balls of light flew toward the Hunter. His arm absorbed the balls of light before it let out a flash and revealed a completely healed arm.

[Thank you, Vice Leader-nim!]

[Oh!]

[That skill never gets old no matter how many times I see it.]

Ranged healing skills were extremely rare. There were a lot of Healers in Egypt, but most of them had to be near or beside their target for their skills to take effect.

There could be other Healers capable of ranged healing as well, and perhaps they were just hidden from the public as most guilds had the tendency to hide them. Whatever the reason may be, it was indisputable that Han-Yeol was probably the first of his kind that these Hunters were seeing.

[Get a grip! Attack again!]

[Waaaaah!]

[Blue Waves of Destruction!]

Shwaaaaa!

The Egyptian Hunter who possessed the ability to attack with waves unleashed a powerful spell at the gigantic lizard.

Striking skills were not effective against the monster, but…

[Oh! It was super effective, Mariam-nim!]

[Yes, I saw it too. Everyone, don’t lose focus. Striking skills don’t seem to work, but piercing skills seem to work very well against its armor and scales. Make sure you use piercing attacks from now on!]

[Alright, thanks Mariam.]

[Hoho! As expected of my fiancé!]

[Shut up.]

[Yes, ma’am!]

The battle of attrition against the gigantic lizard made a full one-eighty-degree turn.

[Hoho! It’s my time to shine. Mass Sharpness!]

Shwaaaaa!

Then, one of the Egyptian Hunters activated his mass buff skill. The skill sharpened the blades of all allies within a one-kilometer radius around the caster, but it was not commonly used as it consumed too much mana. The increase in sharpness did not really help with hunting either.

In short, this particular skill was not worth the mana spent, and it was going to be much more worthwhile to use his other two attacking skills instead with the same mana.

However, things were different this time as the sharpness of their blade was crucial to hunting the gigantic lizards.

“Oh?” Han-Yeol muttered in surprise after he was close enough to be buffed by the Hunter’s skill.

He could feel mana coating the edge of his sword. He found it quite interesting as this was the first time he was getting an AoE buff skill.

‘This is amazing… Should I try to get one too?’?he thought.

He had met a lot of Hunters during the four years he had worked as a Porter, but this was the first time he experienced an AoE buff skill.

Naturally, he could not help but feel greed welling up deep inside of him. He was certain that he could dramatically boost his raid party’s power if he possessed an AoE buff better than Mass Sharpness.

Area of Effect buff skills were something that anyone would want, and the Hunter that possessed Mass Sharpness had been scouted by the Horus raid party simply because of his AoE buff skill, Mass Sharpness. Back then, he had immediately accepted the offer and vowed to remain loyal to the Horus raid party simply because he was a huge fan of Tayarana.

The Egyptians slowly started to change the way they thought, and this soon led to a massive shift in social opinion.

The Hunter that had used Mass Sharpness just now, Fooka, used to be a member of an Islamic extremist group before joining the Horus raid party. There were a lot of Muslims who had caused problems because of their excessive zeal for their god, Allah.

More than ninety percent of Egyptians were Muslims while the rest were a strange type of Christians known as Coptic Christians.

[I shall offer everything I am to Tayarana-nim!]

However, quite a lot of people recently started departing from Islam, and one of the main causes of that was none other than Tayarana’s beauty. There were other reasons as well—the country’s increasing affluent, improvements in public education, and opening their doors to foreign influences.

Thanks to that, women’s rights had significantly improved, and a lot of people started to shun the despicable actions of the Islamic extremists.

In any case, the main reason that people had started leaving Islam was none other than the establishment of a new object of faith, and that was none other than the living goddess of Africa, Tayarana.

‘I should at least try my luck. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky and attain a similar skill or an even better one,’?Han-Yeol thought.

He currently knew of three ways to gain new skills. The first was to carry out certain actions that would result in a skill, the second was to combine his pre-existing skills to create a new one, and the third was to master a skill in hopes that it would create a new skill.

‘Miracles do happen sometimes, right?’?Han-Yeol thought that it was worth a shot.

Seuk! Seuk! Seuk! Seuk! Seuk! Sukeok!

“Kieeeeeeek!”

The gigantic lizard shrieked in agony after it was ganged up on by the Horus raid party. The Egyptian Hunters found renewed vigor after seeing that the Mass Sharpness buff was pretty effective against the monster’s tough armor, and they jumped into the fight eagerly.

The Hunters that did not receive the Mass Sharpness buff, as they did not possess a blade, tried their best to distract the monster so that others could attack it.

Fwaaaaa!

Han-Yeol was no longer using a hammer. Instead, he was now using a sword engulfed with Sword Breath. He used Cat Walk to nimbly close the distance with the gigantic lizard before he cut at it with all of his strength.

“Kwuuuuoooong!”

The gigantic monster screamed in agony after getting its leg mercilessly attacked by the human’s sharpened burning sword.

‘Vicious Stabs!’?Han-Yeol mercilessly stabbed the gigantic lizard’s leg.

Just as he was stabbing with all of his might, he suddenly sensed something. He did not possess any skills that heightened his senses or improved his instincts, but he trusted his gut far more than anything else in this world. And his gut was currently telling him that it was going to be extremely dangerous very soon.

[Mariam! Tell all of the Hunters to get as far as possible from these monsters! Hurry up!]

Since his sudden command had come quite strangely and suddenly, Mariam could have just refused it. However…

[…roger that. All forces retreat. I repeat. All forces retreat at least ten meters away from the lizards.]

[What?!]

[Hurry up!] Mariam’s scream resonated throughout the Hunters’ heads.

Whoosh! Whoosh!?

The Hunters found her command to be quite strange, but none of them dared to question her order. Tayarana and Mujahid were the first to retreat, followed by the rest of the Hunters.

Fhwaaaaaa!

[Heok!]

[How is this possible?!]

The gigantic lizards started spewing poison mist all over the place. The thick cloud of poison had dense mana, so anyone who did not retreat despite Mariam’s order would have definitely been poisoned.

Of course, Han-Yeol could use his Restore skill to detoxify whatever poison it was, but that was going to take a long time and he could only treat one person at a time.

In short, it was going to be difficult to fight against the gigantic lizards if the raid party got poisoned.

[That was a close call. We were saved thanks to you, Mariam, my darling!]

Mujahid still found the time to express affection to Mariam in this situation.

[Please shut your mouth. I only did what Han-Yeol-nim told me to do.]

As expected, Mariam responded in her usual cold manner, and she did not forget to give credit to Han-Yeol.

[Thank you, Han-Yeol. We would have been in a difficult spot if not for you,] Tayarana sincerely thanked Han-Yeol.

[I’m just doing my job as the Vice Leader of the Horus raid party. Anyway, this is the importance of having information beforehand. We would have been hit by such attacks and curveballs if we didn’t have enough information.]

[Yeah, you’re right.]

The Horus raid party Hunters seemingly felt a ten-year reduction to their lifespan at the close call. No, their lives would have ended this instant if they had been hit by that poison mist.

[Biju, Joaquin, summon winds to clear the poison.]

[Yes, ma’am!]

They had to continue fighting but the gigantic lizards were hiding underneath the thick poison mist. It seemed like the monsters intended to take a safer approach this time against the humans.

There was only one thing the Horus raid party could do if the monsters were refusing to come out of the poison mist, and that was to go to them instead.

Mariam commanded two Hunters possessing wind attribute abilities and asked them to blow the mist away.

[Blow it away, Typhoon!]

[Run wild, Sylphid’s Arrow!]

Shwaaaaa!

The two A Rank Hunters summoned powerful winds to blow away the poison mist.

Now, the gigantic lizards were exposed once again.

[Commence attack!]

[Chaaarge!]

Sukeok! Sukeok!

The gigantic lizards were no longer a match against the Hunters now that its weakness was exposed.

Tayarana stood out the most among the three as she spread her wings and flew at supersonic speed. She swung her sword at a gigantic lizard.

Seuk! Seuk! Seuk! Seuk!?

“Kuoooook!”

In addition, the other Hunters were attacking the gigantic lizard’s legs and its unarmored underbelly with their sharp swords.

The gigantic lizard would have put up a fight if it was a one-on-one fight, but it got one-sidedly beaten up with numerous powerful Hunters and Tayarana ganging up on it.

“Kwuoooong!”

Thud!

The gigantic lizard that was so tough and resilient that it seemed impossible to defeat finally fell to the ground.

[It’s down!]

[Yes!]

Han-Yeol could not idly sit by and do nothing after seeing the Hunters rejoice.

Crack!

He crushed a mana stone and used Enhance. Then, he avoided the gigantic lizard’s attack by sliding underneath it and positioning himself right underneath its belly.

‘Vicious Stab!’?Han-Yeol used Enhance to empower this specific skill and mercilessly stab at the monster’s belly.

Chwak! Chwak! Chwak! Chwak! Chwak! Chwak!?

The gigantic lizard suffered numerous stab wounds on its belly in a matter of seconds, but that was not the end of it.

‘Flash Strike!’

In the end, the gigantic lizard Han-Yeol was in charge of fell to the ground after the combined efforts of him and the other Hunters.

Thud!

[Alright!]

[We won!]

[Yes!]

Ding!

[The rank of ‘Vicious Stabs‘ has risen from (F) to (E).]

[The rank of ‘Flash Strike‘ has risen from (B) to (A).]

‘Yes! The skills have leveled up!’?Han-Yeol rejoiced inwardly after reading the messages.