Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 205: Asus (1)

Crack…!

“K-Kieeeek…!”

The last standing Yeti had its neck twisted all the way back before dropping dead.

Thud…!

“Huff… Huff… Huff…”

“Argh…”

“I… I’m so tired…”

The monsters on the flatlands were completely annihilated. Han-Yeol took down seventy-five percent of the monsters, Mujahid and Balrog took down fifteen percent, and the Special S raid party took down ten percent of the monsters.

Ironically, the Special S raid party was the most exhausted among them, despite killing the least number of monsters.

‘You seem to match quite well with Mujahid, Balrog-nim,’?Han-Yeol said.

Mujahid contemplated numerous ways that he could catch up to Han-Yeol's hunting speed in the Cheolwon hunting ground. He might have gotten used to his Psy Blades, which he was using for the first time in this hunt, but the Cheolwon hunting ground was a difficult place that was definitely not suitable for testing out new fighting styles.

Also, the monsters at the Cheolwon hunting ground were kind of on par with Mujahid’s level, and fighting one on one against monsters of the same level was quite difficult for most Hunters.

The strategy Mujahid decided to go with to catch up to Han-Yeol's hunting speed was none other than to cooperate with the summoned demon, Balrog.

Surprisingly, both of them matched quite well as Balrog specialized in defense while Mujahid specialized in offense, and both of them were battle maniacs, which made them compatible with each other.

Han-Yeol did not really summon Balrog unless he felt that the demon was required, so Mujahid never got the chance to fight alongside the demon. However, both these battle maniacs possessed keen battle senses that allowed them to get in sync in a short period of time, and they fought so efficiently together that they looked like a duo that fought together for years.

[Bwahahaha! Of course! That human is quite good at fighting despite being a human, and I don’t mind whatever race you are as long as you like to fight like me!]

‘Haha… As expected of Balrog-nim.’

[Hahaha! A warrior is always welcome to fight alongside me!]

Han-Yeol was glad that Balrog and Mujahid got along.

He noticed that he did not really need the demons these days, after he had explosively grown stronger in a short period of time, and he realized that the demons needed to level up if they were going to be of use to him from now on.

However, it was technically a waste of his time to summon the demons just to level them up, so he was a bit hesitant to do so. But the fact that Balrog was matching quite well with Mujahid was indeed good news to him. No, it was more than good news. It was actually excellent news that was definitely going to prove helpful to him.

“Kieeeeek!”

“I know, Mavros. You have worked the hardest till now. Let’s keep it up just a bit longer, okay?”

“Kiek!”

Han-Yeol’s best partner right now was not the demons, but rather Mavros. The black dragon was strong regardless of his level, thanks to the numerous skills he possessed, as well as the intelligence to use them in combos. However, the most important thing that cemented him as Han-Yeol’s best partner was the fact that he was trying his best to sync with Han-Yeol in battle to the best of his abilities.

There were a lot of times that Mavros failed to contain his excitement and ran wild, but he slowly started to change as if he was maturing and tried his best to sync with Han-Yeol in combat. On top of that, Mavros seemed to have learned a few things while observing Mujahid and Balrog fight together, and it looked like he was starting to try various ways to support Han-Yeol in battle.

‘I guess it’s true that there’s something to learn from everyone,’?Han-Yeol thought with a shrug.

Mujahid might have looked up to him as a hyung-nim and a teacher, but it seemed that Han-Yeol was the one who benefited from him this time after Mavros learned something new. After all, they say that people never stop learning until the day they die, and the same seemed to be true for creatures as well.

"Rest up as much as you can—while you can. We're going to climb the peak and raid the ruler of this hunting ground later on. The only thing we can do now is to pray that we're going to face a weak boss monster," Han-Yeol said.

“Ugh…”

The Special S raid party members groaned at what he said. They were already exhausted from fighting the ordinary monsters, and they did not want to imagine how tired they were going to be when they faced the boss monster later.

On the other hand, the Porters from Mujahid's team gave up on dismembering the corpses for now, and they retreated back to where the tractor trucks were parked. These Porters were extremely well-trained both physically and mentally; they were technically elite soldiers currently working as Porters in hopes of awakening.

Still, that did not mean they were going to be of any help during a boss raid, so they knew better than anyone that the best they could do to help was to get out of the way and not be a nuisance.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Hunters gathered together and rested.

[Hmm… A boss raid… How long has it been since we raided one?]

[Well, it's not like we ever got the chance to raid one since Mujahid-nim prefers to solo hunt, right?]

[Yeah, it was impossible for even Mujahid-nim to solo raid a boss monster, no matter how strong he is.]

[Hey, I think you're forgetting that Mujahid-nim successfully raided a boss monster before, it's just that we weren't the ones with him at that time…]

[Yeah, he usually raids boss monsters with the other raid party instead of us.]

These Hunters were no different from Mujahid's personal Hunters, so they usually stayed behind whenever he went to join another raid party. This was especially true whenever he went to join a boss monster raid, as most raid parties disliked having a lot of outsiders that could potentially pose a threat to the raid. Communication and cooperation were key in boss raids.

There was actually a backstory to this. There was a boss monster raid a few years ago, and an extremely rare item was dropped by the boss after it died. However, the item had an equally rare option that made it soul-bound to the person that dealt the final blow against the boss monster.

Ironically, the person that dealt the final blow was none other than the weakest Hunter among the mercenaries hired by the guild, and that proved to be a huge blow to the guild. Fortunately, the situation had a silver lining since the weak Hunter was quite compatible with the item, and the guild agreed to recruit him as a guild member.

However, this event quickly spread all over the world, and most raid parties and guilds restricted the participation of outsiders in their boss monster raids.

True enough, there were numerous instances after that where the boss monster dropped soul-bound items, and that further made the raid parties and guilds enforce their restriction on the participation of outsiders in the boss raids.

It was at that moment that the party was resting as much as they could when the ground started trembling.

Ddruu…! Ddruu…! Ddruu…!?

“Is it finally starting?”

[All forces! Prepare for battle!]

The Egyptian Hunters quickly prepared for battle at Mujahid’s command.

Gulp!

It went without saying that both the Egyptian Hunters and the Special S raid party members were feeling nervous. Han-Yeol and Mujahid were probably going to be facing the boss head-on, while the others attacked or supported from the rear, but the sheer thought of fighting against a boss monster was more than enough to instill fear in their hearts. In fact, it would probably be strange if they were not scared.

Ironically, Han-Yeol was never a normal one, as he was currently looking forward to the appearance of the boss monster. Some people might think that he was mad since he was technically not a Master Rank Hunter yet, but his status as a Master Rank was already cemented the moment he defeated the S Rank brothers. But most importantly, Han-Yeol himself was aware that he was stronger than he was before.

Of course, he was not arrogant enough to think of facing the boss monster one-on-one, as he knew that he would be in danger if he attempted to do that. However, he was not alone, as he was accompanied by Mujahid, who was a top-ranking S Rank Hunter, and by the Special S raid party, which was composed of ten S Rank Hunters. On top of that, Balrog and the Egyptian Hunters were there to support him as well.

However, the one ally that gave Han-Yeol the most confidence was none other than Mavros.

“Kieeeeeeek!”

Han-Yeol knew that the chances of them losing to the boss monster were quite slim with their current lineup, so he could not help but look forward to what kind of monster was going to emerge from the peak.

He did not mind if a powerful boss appeared, as the loot was going to be better the stronger the boss monster was, and the corpse of a powerful boss monster was definitely going to be worth a pretty penny.

‘I might as well get the best I can get if I’m going to hunt it anyway, right?’?he smirked.

The others were currently praying for a weak boss to appear, but Han-Yeol was probably the odd one who wished the boss monster would be a powerful one. He probably was not going to visit this place ever again after raiding the boss monster, so he wanted to make the most out of his current trip as much as possible, and the only way for that to happen was for a powerful boss to appear.

‘Hmm… I hope that monster will appear. What was its name again…? Demon Hunter? Or something like that…’?he thought.

There were rumors that the condition of the boss monster appearing in the Cheolwon hunting ground was quite different from other places, and it was rumored that there were twenty different kinds of boss monsters for this hunting ground, and one of them was going to appear at random.

The boss monster that was going to be the most valuable was definitely the Demon Hunter. The Demon Hunter towered three meters tall and was covered in flames, armed with twin swords that were set ablaze by black fire in both hands. The Demon Hunter's main attack skill was to summon the flames of hell, but the twin swords in its hands were definitely nothing to scoff at.

This was one of the main reasons that the place was teeming with monsters in the first place, as Hunters tended to avoid suffering the misfortune of coming up against the Demon Hunter. The Hunters' Association was forced to send raid parties to kill the boss monster and control the monster population in this hunting ground, and that was the reason there was a lot of information regarding the hunting ground's boss monsters as compared to other places.

Crack… Crack… Crack…!

The tremors ended and the peak opened up to unleash a massive amount of mana before a single monster emerged from it.

The monster, presumed to be the boss monster, slowly made its way to the flatlands.

‘Hmm? This guy’s mana is not bad at all,’?Han-Yeol thought after feeling his sense tingling.

He was now certain that he was going to lose if he faced the boss monster alone.

‘I guess I can say I’m quite lucky. This guy looks really strong,’?he thought with a smirk.

On the other hand…

“W-We’re screwed!”

“W-Why?!”

“I’m not sure but… that looks like the most powerful boss monster that could appear in the Cheolwon hunting ground…!”

“Hiiiik!”

“W-What are we going to do?”

“Is this how we’re going to die…?”

The Special S raid party started to panic and wanted to run away. However, they could not run away now after coming all the way here, and they knew better than anyone that running away was not an option.

They might have seemed hopeless since they were hunting alongside Han-Yeol at his pace, but they were still S Rank Hunters that were somewhat renowned in the Hunter industry. Besides, they probably would not have dared to hunt in the Cheolwon hunting ground with just ten members if they were not strong in the first place.

"Stop wavering and focus!" Kwon Yoon-Ho shouted as he seemed to have gotten a grip on himself.

Then, he continued, "We came all the way here, so we have no choice but to fight! Put your trust in Han-Yeol-nim and don't look back!"

"Y-Yeah…"

"That's right! Han-Yeol-nim is a Master Rank Hunter!"

"We just have to support Han-Yeol-nim!"

"Yeah!"

Kwon Yoon-Ho was able to raise the morale of his raid party members. He knew that the battle was lost even before it started if their morale was low and everyone was fearing for their lives.

‘Oh? That guy’s quite dependable,’?Han-Yeol thought.

He was impressed that Kwon Yoon-Ho was able to step up as the leader in times like this.

‘Well, I’m the one who’s going to be mostly fighting against the boss, so it’s quite funny how they’re the ones crying right now,’?Han-Yeol thought as he laughed inside.

Whoosh… Thud!

The boss monster jumped from the peak and landed on the flatlands.

‘Huh? Wait a minute…’?Han-Yeol tilted his head in confusion after seeing the monster’s appearance, and then he realized, ‘That’s not the Demon Hunter…’

The appearance of the Cheolwon hunting ground’s most powerful boss monster, the Demon Hunter, was already uploaded on the Hunters’ Association website, and it was impossible for him to forget about its appearance as it resembled one of those cool-looking boss monsters from video games.

He was certain that the boss monster standing on the flatlands was nothing like the image of the Demon Hunter that he knew of.

‘What the hell is that thing…?’?Han-Yeol wondered.

The boss monster resembled both a king and a knight for some odd reason. A diamond-shaped helmet covered the entirety of its face, but the opening in the middle where its eyes, nose, and lips should be was pitch-black for some reason. It was as if the boss monster's face was replaced by a deep abyss.

But what made the boss monster look extremely threatening yet majestic was its body suited with tough-looking armor, a majestic cape on its back, and a large, dangerous-looking greatsword on its waist. The boss monster's presence alone was more than enough to intimidate the party once again.