Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 204: Obtain A Dimensional Skill! (5)

Han-Yeol could not help but smile after thinking of Tayarana. Being able to be with her alone was already more than enough to make him happy.

Pssht!

[Ah, I wonder if a miracle will happen to me and let me become a Master Rank like noonim…]

Mujahid was obviously grumbling, but he was being serious at the same time.

He might be the carefree type, but he was quite proud as well. It was impossible for him not to feel left behind when Tayarana, whom he considered to be his rival, suddenly became a Master Rank Hunter and went back home.

The only thing Han-Yeol could tell him at this time was…

Psshhht!

“It would be possible if you desperately wished for it and did your best.”

[Thank you, hyung-nim!]

Mujahid would have flat-out ignored it if someone else had told him this, but he was extremely grateful that Han-Yeol would tell him this, as he somewhat speculated that he was the key behind Tayarana's awakening into a Master Rank Hunter.

Psshhht!

[I’ll be in your care, hyung-nim!]

“Keke! Sure!”

Han-Yeol and Mujahid continued chatting in their secured channel so nobody else aside from the two of them could listen to the conversation.

Of course, the Special S raid party did not have access to the walkie-talkies, and none of Mujahid's subordinates knew how to speak Korean, so they could not listen in on their conversation in the first place.

There was nobody else who could listen in on their conversation, but prevention was always key, so the two of them made sure to speak in a secured channel.

***

Right after they finished chatting…

Psshht!

“That’s the flatlands of Cheolwon, Mujahid,” Han-Yeol said.

[Roger that, hyung-nim.]

They had finally reached their destination.

The tractor trucks were specially modified to be able to move in snowy terrain, but this came at the cost of their mobility. A normal truck would have covered this distance in less than an hour, but it took them more than two and a half hours to reach here.

“Kweeeeek!”

“Gwuoh!”

“Kieeeeek!”

The plains were teeming with monsters.

This place was once famous as a stop for migratory birds, but many years had passed since the birds last visited this place. There were no other entrances to this place aside from the entrance heavily guarded by the soldiers. As a result, the migratory birds were forced to look for another place to stop during their migration season. Instead, the birds were replaced by vicious and aggressive monsters that would not hesitate to attack anyone who dared to come to see them.

The entire flatland was visible from the edge of a mountain not too far away from it.

“Hiiik!”?Kwon Yoon-Ho shrieked in horror after seeing the flatlands teeming with monsters.

He had experienced hunting large quantities of monsters with Han-Yeol, but both Han-Yeol and Mavros were actually controlling the number of monsters they were luring, unbeknownst to the Special S raid party. In fact, they were luring fewer monsters than when Han-Yeol and Mujahid were hunting together.

However, the monsters in front of their eyes right now were as vast as the ocean, and every single one of them was exuding a tremendous amount of bloodlust.

“H-Han-Yeol-nim… Y-You told us that we are coming to hunt the boss, right…?” Kwon Yoon-Ho asked while stuttering.

Raiding the boss of a hunting ground was never a necessity, but that did not mean it did not happen at all. Even the Special S raid party received a few requests from the association to raid a hunting ground’s boss monster to stop new monsters from spawning in overpopulated hunting grounds.

However, the ordinary monsters were usually taken care of by the association before they entered the hunting ground to raid the boss monster, so they were able to fully focus their attention on the boss monster alone.

In other words, the Special S raid party did not face much difficulty in raiding the boss monsters as they only had to concern themselves with the boss monster alone.

However, the sight in front of their eyes right now was akin to hell on earth.

“Yeah, we’re going to raid the boss monster, but it’s only obvious that we will have to go through the ordinary monsters first before raiding the boss monster, right?” Han-Yeol said.

There was nothing obvious about what was going on right now for the Special S raid party.

“Hmm… I heard that the peak of the mountain where the boss monster resides will only be accessible once we clear all of the monsters here in the plains,” Han-Yeol added.

“H-Heok!”

‘W-We’re going to die…!’?

The Special S raid party members knew from their experience so far that there was a close to zero chance of them dying in battle despite the overwhelming number of monsters in front of their eyes. What they meant by "they were going to die" was death from exhaustion after hunting the monsters nonstop, which was Han-Yeol and Mujahid’s type of fighting style.

All of the Special S raid party members closed their eyes and uttered a prayer as they steeled their resolve. They might be scared of what was to come, but they could not simply back out now that they had come all the way here.

The only thing they could pray for right now was for everything to go as smoothly as possible—and that they would get some rest in between.

“Mujahid,” Han-Yeol called out.

Tak!

Mujahid smashed his fists together after Han-Yeol called his name. It was not important to him how many monsters were there, as he loved to fight more than anything else, and he was actually itching to dive straight into the horde of monsters right now. He did not care whether it was dangerous or not, as long as he was able to swing his fists to his heart's content.

"Leave it to me, hyung-nim! I'll sweep them all away!" Mujahid exclaimed as he exuded his mana.

Wooooong!

‘His mana capacity is the same, but it feels like his mana has become denser than before,’?Han-Yeol thought as he could tell that Mujahid had grown stronger during this hunt.

He could see that the quality of Mujahid's mana had become much stronger even though its quantity stayed the same, and he knew that the increase in his mana density was more than enough to make Mujahid several times stronger than he was before.

“Mavros!”

“Kieeeeek!”

Chwak! Whoosh!

Mavros spread his wings and shot up to the sky as soon as Han-Yeol gave the command. Han-Yeol could tell that the black dragon’s mana control was getting better by the day, and he was now able to gather his mana to his heart while flying at frightening speeds into the sky.

Mavros gathered more and more mana into his heart as his poison attribute started to well up from within him. Then, he stopped climbing as soon as he reached his desired altitude and redirected his gaze toward a spot in the flatlands.

His mana slowly started to gather in his mouth and...

[Poison Breath!]

He used his innate dragon skill. It was barely something when compared to an actual Dragon Breath, but the black dragon’s breath, carrying its deadly poison mana, was more than enough to inflict agonizing pain on the monsters of the Cheolwon hunting ground.

Fwaaaaaaaah!?

“Kwueeeeeek!”

“Gwuoooooh!”

“Kieeeeeeek!

Mavros aimed his Poison Breath at a spot a bit further in the flatlands that had the densest cluster of monsters, but Han-Yeol and the others could smell the nasty stench of poison from where they were.

“Kwueeeeek!”

“Gwuoooh!”

“Kieeeeek!”

A lot of the monsters died or were gravely injured from the powerful breath attack, and this infuriated the horde of monsters.

Thud…! Thud…! Thud…! Thud…! Thud…!?

The monsters charged toward Han-Yeol and the others without even sparing a glance anywhere else.

"H-Han-Yeol-nim…?" Kwon Yoon-Ho and the other raid party members nervously muttered after seeing the horde of enraged vicious monsters making a beeline for them.

On the other hand…

[Fire!]

Ratatatatata!

Mujahid's subordinates perfectly executed their roles without caring if the monsters were coming in a horde or not, and the Porters let their guns rip once the first line of monsters was in their range.

"Hmm… Should I join in on the fun?" Han-Yeol muttered with a smirk before he took out his HSK-447P.

‘Enhance.’?He immediately took out a mana stone and used his enhancing skill this time.

“Hiiiik!”?Kwon Yoon-Ho shrieked in horror after seeing Han-Yeol crush a mana stone with his bare hand.

‘H-He destroyed a m-m-mana stone…?!’?he exclaimed inwardly.

It was normal for him to be so surprised, as mana stones were a huge chunk of income for Hunters. After all, the monster corpses were like the hourly wage, while the mana stone was where the real money was.

The mana stones were extremely precious things that all Hunters took extra caution of, but Han-Yeol crushed one with his bare hand like it was nothing.

This was something that completely flabbergasted Kwon Yoon-Ho, who thought, ‘J-Just what kind of a Hunter is he…?’

Kwon Yoon-Ho had watched a lot of Han-Yeol’s videos and meticulously studied him, but he was not aware of every single one of his skills.

Han-Yeol showed his skills in his broadcast numerous times, but it was impossible for the viewers to know the effects of his skills and what type of skills they were, since Han-Yeol never bothered to explain his skills to them.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!?

“Kieeeeeeek!”

Han-Yeol unleashed one of his trademark skills, Mana Explosion, at the horde of monsters charging toward them. The Mana Explosion he used this time was mixed with a hint of Fire Attribute, triggering explosions incomparably larger than the ones before.

The air was filled with the cries of the monsters and the stench of their blood and burning bodies, but Han-Yeol did not show any signs of stopping and kept shooting. After all, Mana Explosion was a skill that consumed a lot of mana, but it was the most efficient skill when it came to dealing with hordes of enemies.

[Mujahid, command the Egyptian Hunters to make it as difficult as possible for the monsters to come up here.]

[Yes, hyung-nim! Leave it to me!]

The Egyptian Hunters were delighted after Mujahid relayed Han-Yeol’s command.

‘It’s finally our turn!’

‘I’m going to kill them all!’

‘Yes!’

The Egyptian Hunters did not have any chances to showcase their abilities as they were not needed in the previous hunts, but now it was their time to shine. While they did not possess the ability or power to sweep away the monsters like Han-Yeol was doing, they were happy to be of assistance to Han-Yeol and Mujahid.

[Cruel Swamp!]

[Anthell!]

[Insurmountable Walls!]

All of them specialized in support skills, and they unleashed their skills at the ramp leading up to where the party was at.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!?

“Kweuk!”

“Kiek?!”

“Gwuoh?!”

It was already difficult for the monsters to climb up the steep mountain slope, but the Egyptian Hunters’ interference made it near-impossible for them to climb it.

Ratatatatata!

Boom! Boom! Boom!?

The explosion and gunfire continued while the monsters were stuck at the foot of the mountain, unable to climb the slope.

Mavros landed to rest after unleashing his powerful Poison Breath, and he was now ready to fly into the sky once again to unleash a second breath attack.

Kaboooom!

“Kieeeeek!”

“Gwuoooooh!”

This was the perfect example of a mass-scale hunt.

Ding!

[You have gained a level.]

Han-Yeol was already Level 269, which could be considered to be quite high, but he was easily able to gain a level after killing the monsters in droves.

‘Hohoho! There’s nothing as good as mass-scale hunting when it comes to leveling up!’?Han-Yeol was extremely satisfied with the hunt’s progress.

Some might mistake that Han-Yeol and Mavros were specialized in mass hunting, but they had already proven themselves long ago that they were as capable, if not even more capable, when it came to hunting a single monster.

However, it could not be denied that some of their main skills were perfect for hunting monsters en masse.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!?

The monsters started to ascend the mountain one by one despite the skills of the Egyptian Hunters blocking the slope. The skills were extremely effective when it came to blocking the slope, but the slope was simply too wide for them to cover every single opening in it.

In fact, it was impossible for just ten Hunters to hold back the mass of monsters longer than they currently were. Actually, Han-Yeol did not expect them to block the slope in the first place.

“Balrog-nim!” he shouted.

Bam!

[Bwahaha! I have been waiting for this moment!]

The flames of hell shot up from the ground and Balrog made a grand appearance. The way he appeared was quite similar to Han-Yeol’s favorite wrestler, that was called the ‘Big Red Machine’.

[Fire Explosion! Breath of Fire!]

Fwaaaaaa!

“Kieeeeek!”

The flames of hell roasted the monsters attempting to climb the slope.

[Bwahaha! Bring it on!]

Balrog was quite the dependable gatekeeper when it came to defending, but the slope was still too wide for him to cover it entirely.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!?

Mujahid stepped in and beat the monsters that managed to slip past Balrog.

Kwang! Kwang!

Then, he slammed his fist into the ground and shook the ground to incapacitate the monsters attempting to scale the slope.

On the other hand, the Special S raid party was...

“L-Let’s fight too!”

“Y-Yeah!”

Tak!

They were overcome with fear even until the moment they decided to join the fray.

“Hap!”

“Vicious Storm!”

“Unrelenting Flames!”

However, their fear slowly faded away after they joined the battle, and they skillfully started to get rid of the monsters one by one.

‘Hehe, these guys are doing quite well. What was all that drama for then?’?Han-Yeol laughed inwardly while looking at the Special S raid party.