Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 149: Evolving Mavros (3)

The only remaining gigantic lizard was the one Mujahid was in charge of now that Tayarana and Han-Yeol had defeated theirs.

Surprisingly, Mujahid was struggling against the gigantic lizard despite ranking third in the raid party overall and second in terms of strength alone. This was because he was a bruiser-type that did not possess any piercing skills while Han-Yeol was able to exploit the gigantic lizard’s weakness with his skills.

Puk!

“Slurp!”

[Tsk… I guess hitting it won’t work.]

Wham!

[Arghhh!]

Not only that, but it was also impossible for Mujahid to fight while protecting the other Hunters from the gigantic lizard’s AoE attack. After all, he did not possess any defensive skills. Thanks to that, the Hunters fighting alongside him were exhausted from evading the gigantic lizard’s attacks.

The situation was a stark difference between Tayarana and Han-Yeol. Tayarana had attracted the monster’s aggro and swiftly put an end to the battle while Han-Yeol had used his healing skills to sustain his allies as he fought against the monster.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Shwiiik! Shwiiik! Shwiiik!?

[Wow! I’m healed!]

Han-Yeol fired Healing Bullets at the Hunters that Mujahid failed to protect, and casualties were reduced thanks to his efforts.

Healing Bullets might only be able to heal simple injuries, but they had the advantage of being very quick to take effect.

In the end, the entire Horus raid party focused on the gigantic lizard Mujahid was handling and put an end to the battle.

Ding!

[Your level has risen.]

‘Alright!’?Han-Yeol rejoiced after seeing the level up message, and he immediately invested all five points into Charisma.

‘Hmm… These lizards are reptiles, right? I wonder if they have eggs somewhere…’?he wondered.

Birds and reptiles mostly laid eggs, and he could not help but covet those eggs.

It was almost impossible for him to not think about the monster eggs now that he had obtained the Taming skill, which was the golden ticket to earn him one trillion won.

[Thank you for your hard work.]

[Wow, we won.]

[Yahoo!]

It was now the Porters turn to do their job, since the three gigantic lizards had been defeated. They immediately got to work to dismember the monsters and collect the mana stones, but…

[Uwaaaaah!]

[W-What’s going on?!]

[It came from where the monster corpses are at!]

[Don’t tell me, was there a monster hiding?!]

The Hunters jumped in surprise and ran as fast as they could to where the scream had come from. However, what greeted them upon reaching there was something quite simple yet complicated.

“Haa… What should I do about this…?” Han-Yeol shook his head and muttered with a defeated look after seeing what Mavros was doing.

The baby black dragon was once again devouring and rummaging through the gigantic lizard’s corpse in search of its mana stone. This was exactly what had happened with the monster rabbits.

[V-Vice Leader-nim… I think this is going to be a bit expensive…] The F Rank Hunter, who was also the manager and accountant of the Horus raid party, approached Han-Yeol and carefully told him.

He was trying to be as careful as possible. This incident was not something that he should reprimand Han-Yeol for even though it was his mistake.

Technically, the F Rank Hunter should have gone to Tayarana or Mariam and reported the matter to them.

Han-Yeol let out a sigh and looked at the F Rank Hunter. He knew very well that this was no longer something he could simply brush off by telling him to take it out of his share of the profits. He made a decision and said, [Call Mariam.]

[Yes, sir!] The F Rank Hunter then ran as fast as he could in search of Mariam.

[I guess…something happened.]

Mariam was curious why Han-Yeol was suddenly looking for her, but she soon realized that there was an issue upon seeing Mavros.

The situation was a bit problematic no matter how favorable the Horus raid party was toward Han-Yeol.

[This certainly is a problem. There were a lot of monster rabbits so that did not really matter, but…]

[Haa… Yeah, that’s why I want to propose a trade this time.]

[A trade?]

[Yeah, what do you think if I reimburse the raid party with a pet for the mess Mavros caused?]

[DEAL!] Mariam did not hesitate even for a second before she immediately agreed to the trade.

[Huh…?]

Mariam was usually the level-headed type who calculated everything before making a decision, but she had immediately agreed to Han-Yeol’s proposal without even giving it a second thought.

[Tayarana-nim has taken an interest in pets these days after receiving Candalous. Also, I have received special orders from my country to prioritize obtaining as many pets as possible if the opportunity arises. Therefore, we accept your offer to compensate for whatever damages Mavros caused in exchange for a pet.]

‘Oh, I see…’?Han-Yeol was glad after hearing that not only Tayarana but even the Egyptian Government was interested in the monster pets.

The Egyptian Government’s interest could become free marketing for Han-Yeol, and this in turn could convince more people that these pets were definitely worth the astounding one trillion won price tag.

Some might think that Han-Yeol was losing out on this deal for giving up such an expensive pet as compensation, but he did not consider it as a loss at all. He was simply giving something with value without having to fork out actual cash.

[Hmm… But it is truly a shame.]

[What is?]

[Mavros tends to eat once in every six or twelve hours based on my observation. You would have had to pay up more in compensation if he ate more.]

[Haha… Is that so?]

‘As expected of these people. They don’t care about cash as long as they get their hands on the pets…’?Han-Yeol knew that the Horus raid party were not petty people.

Tayarana was basically royalty. Her family’s wealth was not added into the assessment of her personal wealth, but everyone knew that she was the most beloved daughter of the Egyptian President who was one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.

In other words, there was no way that they lacked cash. Mariam knew this for a fact, which was why she was instantly interested in the pet Han-Yeol had offered instead of asking for cash compensation.

Most people thought of her as nothing more than Tayarana’s servant, but she was probably one of the most precious assets of Egypt.

[I have changed my mind. I hope Mavros will consume more monsters from now on.]

[Hahaha…]

Han-Yeol might have amassed more than three trillion won, but he still found it difficult to understand how the real wealthy people thought.

‘Phew… I should work harder… No, I should learn from these two.’?He realized that he should learn the mindset of true wealthy individuals from both Tayarana and Mariam.

Mavros finished eating a fifth of the gigantic lizard before swallowing its mana stone whole as if he was having dessert.

“Kyu!”

The baby black dragon’s cry signaled the end of his meal, which basically made Han-Yeol lose one trillion won. However, that cry was only the beginning of his voracious appetite.

“Ha… You’re making me age faster…”

“Kyu?”?Mavros looked at Han-Yeol with his big round innocent eyes.

The Horus raid party rested while the Porters were busily working on the three, no, two and whatever remained of the monster corpses.

The raid party would have immediately moved on to the next target in normal circumstances, but the gigantic lizards were not an easy opponent despite having a weakness. Therefore, taking a break was imperative. This was so that they could maintain their gear while recovering their mana.

Han-Yeol observed the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva with Demon Eyes while the others were resting, and he noticed that the boss monster had not budged an inch from its place.

‘Does that?thing?really think he’s Buddha or something…?’?Han-Yeol found the boss monster to be quite peculiar, but he really wanted to avoid fighting against it if he was given a choice.

The boss monster looked really strong.

Han-Yeol would not have any reservations fighting against the boss monster alone if he had reached Master Rank, but he was at most an A+ Rank or S- Rank as of now.

‘Well… There’s no point crying over spilled milk…’?he decided to not think about the Thousand Armed Bodhisattva for now and focus on the gigantic lizards instead.

They were fortunate enough to only face three gigantic lizards this time around, but Han-Yeol could see some that were moving in groups of ten. It was much better than the monster rabbits that had moved around in groups of hundreds, but there was a huge difference between the two monsters’ strengths.

After all, there was bound to be a difference between a dragon and a rabbit.

Han-Yeol sat on the ground and started to think, ‘We will need a more efficient method to fight against these lizards, and we should try to locate their nest as well.’

Demon Eyes was not an omnipotent skill. The monster eggs possessed faint mana, but the skill was not able to pick up such faint traces of mana when he was kilometers away. Han-Yeol needed to be in close proximity to the egg if he were to pick up its faint mana.

‘Should I summon another demon?’?

Han-Yeol currently had four demons contracted to him. Well, it was technically five if Kajikar was included, but Kajikar had only been temporarily contracted.

Not to mention, Han-Yeol’s Invoke stat already reached 230, and this meant that he could summon and contract more demons. Still, he preferred to rely on his own strength and hunt to maximize his growth. However, he did not have a choice right now.

The Horus raid party was going to obtain another combatant if a demon on par with Balrog appeared.

‘Tsk… I’m a bit uncomfortable with summoning so many demons, but I guess I don’t have a choice.’?

In the end, Han-Yeol opened the ‘Encyclopedia of Demons’ application on his smartphone.

This record known as the ‘Encyclopedia of Demons’ had been created by a famous occult group, and it had records of most demons regardless of whether they were famous or not. The application was priced at $29.99, and it was quite pricey when compared to the price of most paperback books.

Han-Yeol did not have to scour the internet for details thanks to this application, because he could simply use the search function in the app to look for whichever demon he wanted.

‘Let’s see… I wonder which one I should pick this time…?’?he wondered as he browsed the app.

The main page had the Seventy-Two Demons of Solomon, which was definitely a pass. He was much stronger than before, but he did not dare mess with them as he still got chills whenever he remembered his encounter with Astaroth.

Also choosing to pass on the highest-ranking demons, he decided to summon a demon named ‘Fogrin’, which was a high-ranking demon that used swords. However, he ran into a problem just as he was about to summon the demon.

Ding!

[You may not summon the demon as you do not possess enough Invoke.]

‘What the hell?’?Han-Yeol was surprised by the message he was seeing for the first time.

However, his surprise lasted only for a few seconds before he started to analyze the situation.

‘This means that I can only summon demons that require less than 230 Invoke… And the reason this message has never appeared before was that I did not hit the cap. That means…a high-ranking demon is going to use quite a lot of Invoke.’

Han-Yeol was not the smartest of the bunch, but his intelligence had increased after obtaining his game-like ability.