Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 339 – Seven Jewels and One Sword (1)

"A strange smell?" Han-Yeol asked.

"Yeah, it's my first time smelling something so odd. Right, Mavros?" Tia replied before turning to Mavros and asking.

"Kyu!" Mavros cried out, vigorously nodding in response.

"Hmm… Hey, Camelot."

[Yes? Is there an issue?]

"My pets are indicating they smell something strange here. Do you have any information about this place?"

As anticipated, Camelot responded with another burst of laughter. [Bwahahaha!]

"What's so amusing?"

[Ahem… I apologize. It appears you're well-acquainted with us Bastrolings, but not so much with monsters. Sniff! Sniff! The scent suggests this territory belongs to the slimes.]

“Slime?”

[Yes.]

"Ah, that explains this strange smell," Han-Yeol said, nodding.

[Oh?]

Camelot was impressed that Han-Yeol immediately grasped the connection upon mentioning the slimes. He realized he might have underestimated his boss: 'I thought he was clueless, but it turns out he's not.'

Han-Yeol had encountered the slimes while living as Harkan. They were quite annoying creatures, but not impossible to hunt for those aware of their weaknesses. He shared all he knew about the slimes with Tia.

"Hmm… They sound quite troublesome," Tia muttered.

"I think so too. Also, the fact that they don’t really exist on Earth makes them even trickier to kill, given your lack of experience with them."

“Kyu! Kyu!”

“Hmm…”

Mavros happily flapped his wings, while Tia seemed disgruntled upon learning about the slimes.

‘She might look like a monster, but she’s quite the neat freak,’ Han-Yeol thought.

In fact, Tia had the habit of bathing twice a day, and she even insisted that Han-Yeol construct a private bath exclusively for her use at the mansion.

Seuk…

"Well, there’s nothing we can do about it," Han-Yeol said, shrugging.

"Sigh… Yeah, I suppose there’s nothing we can do," Tia replied with a sigh.

***

Slimes weren't that common back on Earth; most were found in low-level hunting grounds, and they were rather weak. However, the slimes in the Bastro Dimension were markedly different from those on Earth.

Chwak! Chwaaak!

“Keuk!”

The Earthly slimes resembled the cute, video game portrayal, whereas the Bastro Dimension's slimes looked more like ghosts or demons. Moreover, while Earth's slimes were mostly round, those in the Bastro Dimension came in varied shapes despite being liquid-based.

[Kwaaah!]

What set them further apart was their ability to produce sounds, unlike their Earth counterparts. In essence, despite sharing a name, they were entirely distinct monsters.

Chwak!

Tia swung her arm, smashing a lunging slime.

‘Tsk!’

However, she didn't seem pleased.

Plop! Plop!

The slime, struck by Tia's arm, splattered on the ground, only to squirm back together and fully regenerate, seemingly undeterred.

“So annoying…” Tia grumbled.

Chwak! Chwak! Chwak!

The slimes were quicker than their Earth counterparts.

Tak! Tak!

They moved nimbly, rolling like balls to evade Tia’s attacks, but that wasn't the end of their capabilities.

Pshwaaa!

“Argh!”

Chwak!

A purple slime sneaked behind Tia, ejecting a liquid that reeked of sewage. Instantly, Tia reacted, crafting a shield with her webs, as she despised getting dirty more than anything.

Psshhh…!

The purple liquid, blocked by the shield, fell to the ground, showcasing its potency by corroding both the ground and the spider web.

‘So it’s acid,’ Han-Yeol muttered, witnessing the effects of the purple liquid.

If it were poison, it wouldn’t have been able to dissolve Tia’s web. It seemed these slimes used corrosive acid, akin to the blood of aliens from a certain old movie.

‘Tsk… This is going to be really annoying…’ he grumbled in frustration.

Dealing with acid was indeed quite challenging.

“Camelot!”

Huff!

[Leave it to me!]

Krrwaaaang!

Camelot, slightly stronger than Han-Yeol at the moment, wildly swung his chain, letting the two attached axes go on a rampage, shredding the slime bodies one by one.

‘Oh right, I forgot to use this skill. King’s Gift!’ Han-Yeol utilized his new skill that enhanced the items of those who pledged loyalty to him.

A prompt appeared, asking him which item he wanted to enhance. He chose Camelot’s weapon.

Wooong!

[Hmm?]

Camelot noticed his chain suddenly gaining power and changing in appearance. He instinctively knew this was the doing of his new boss. Strangely enough, although he had no idea how he knew, it felt like something whispered in his ears that this was his doing.

‘Just what in the world is this human…?’

Ravaging the slimes like a natural disaster, Camelot wielded his weapon, now enhanced by King’s Gift, and his stats amplified by the Oath of Loyalty.

[Bwahahaha! Die!]

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Han-Yeol was utterly astonished by what he witnessed. ‘His fighting style is quite rough for a cow that cosplays as an assassin…’

Camelot referred to himself as an assassin who hunted down hyenas. Han-Yeol agreed, acknowledging the Ox Warrior's impressive ability to approach without detection. There was no way the low-ranking and intermediate-ranking Hyena Sorcerers could sense his presence.

Even the high-ranking Hyena Sorcerers would be unable to detect him. However, engaging them directly proved challenging due to their arsenal of tricky spells.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

‘Hmm… Their ability to regenerate is quite annoying,’ Han-Yeol grumbled inwardly as he observed the battle.

He assessed that the slimes weren't particularly strong, but their knack for regeneration and spewing corrosive acid made them incredibly troublesome.

‘So they’re just going to keep regenerating?’

Han-Yeol tightened his grip on his Magma Longsword.

‘Then try regenerating after this!’

Tak!

He pushed off the ground and joined the fray, utilizing Cat Walk to run along the walls before leaping into the midst of the clustered slimes.

“Master?”

“Kyu?”

Both Tia and Mavros expressed concern when Han-Yeol suddenly leaped into the midst of the enemies. Their worries were valid; diving into a swarm of corrosive acid-flinging slimes seemed like suicide.

However, Han-Yeol had calculated his move's risk before making the leap.

‘Frozen Field!’

C-Crack…!

Activating Frozen Field, an area-of-effect skill that didn’t require a weapon, Han-Yeol began freezing the slimes around him.

‘As expected!’

Frozen Field was effective in freezing enemies, but it typically didn't freeze them so rapidly. Normally, the skill slowed the enemy before freezing them. However, due to the slimes' gelatinous bodies, they froze immediately.

[Kieeeek!]

Identifying Han-Yeol as the biggest threat, the slimes redirected their aggression toward him, converging in an attempt to overwhelm him with their numbers.

‘No, you don’t!’

Chwak! Chwaaaak!

Han-Yeol responded by swinging his Magma Longsword, flinging magma at the frozen slimes. Upon contact, the frozen slimes began to melt rapidly.

‘I knew it!’ Han-Yeol rejoiced as his plan unfolded. What would happen to ice when exposed to something as hot as lava?

Psshhh…!

The slimes turned into vapor instantly, skipping the liquid phase. While possessing the ability to regenerate quickly, it was futile when they turned into vapor.

Another method to eliminate them involved destroying their core, but locating and destroying it proved challenging as the cores were deeply concealed within their bodies. It was more efficient to dissipate their entire form until only the core remained exposed enough to crush it.

Squirm…! Squirm…!

The slimes began to panic.

Heh!

Han-Yeol smirked as the slimes panicked and shouted, “Bring it on, you blob of liquid!”

The dungeon raid had only just begun.

***

As anticipated, no matter how many Han-Yeol fought, the slimes weren't particularly strong. While they surpassed ordinary slimes from Earth, in the end, a slime was just a slime.

[Die!]

Chwak!

The assassin who relished fighting on the frontlines, Camelot, fiercely swung his enhanced weapon, effortlessly shredding the surrounding slimes.

However, while individually weak, the slimes' true strength lay in their numbers. No matter how many Camelot dispatched, more kept coming, their endless stream seeming unrelenting.

It wouldn't have been as bad if they resembled the cute slimes seen in video games. Instead, these creatures appeared utterly grotesque, resembling mangled candle wax emitting shrill sounds as they amassed. Their vast numbers evoked the atmosphere of a horror film.

Yet, the most alarming aspect was their resilience—they refused to perish unless their cores were destroyed.

Plop…! Plop…!

Every time Camelot tore through a slime, it regenerated and resumed the attack. Despite his rampage, he managed to destroy some of the slimes' cores, but only two out of ten. Consequently, he was gradually overwhelmed by their sheer numbers.

The situation on Camelot’s side contrasted starkly with Han-Yeol’s.

Chwak! Clang! Clang!

“Hoho~ Master is the best~” Tia said with a flirtatious smile.

“Well, I guess you’re right.” Han-Yeol shrugged in response.

Others might have considered him arrogant for his response, but he rightfully deserved credit, as his approach proved highly effective against the slimes.

Initially wielding the Magma Longsword in one hand and the Ice Blade in the other for a stylish appearance, Han-Yeol discovered that this combination was remarkably effective against the slimes. Freezing them with his Ice Blade and then vaporizing them with the Magma Longsword allowed him to easily access and crush their exposed cores.

Han-Yeol's dual-wield technique rendered the slimes helpless, yet their lack of intelligence drove them to continue swarming toward him. Lacking analytical abilities, they mindlessly perceived Han-Yeol and his allies as mere food to be dissolved by their corrosive acid.

Chwak! Chwaaak!

Tia attempted to ensnare the slimes with her spider web, but it proved ineffective.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Wow, that’s quite frightening, Tia.”

“Hoho~ But I can’t keep spamming this skill, master.”

Tia unleashed her Spider Bombs, eliminating the slimes around her. However, despite their effectiveness, the skill's mana consumption was disproportionate to the number of slimes it killed.

The slimes affected by the Spider Bombs had their bodies vaporized, destroying their cores. However, those caught in the explosion regenerated.

Although the Spider Bomb skill was highly mana-intensive due to its area-of-effect nature, using it as a single-target skill proved to be an inefficient mana expenditure.

“Master.”

“Hmm?”

“I think you have to use that.”

“What?”

“That skill I created for you~”

“Ah!” Han-Yeol exclaimed and nodded in response.