Leveling Up Alone

Tia ignored the captain and chased after Han-Yeol.

On the other hand, the captain realized five seconds later that they were in trouble—no, he already felt nervous from the start based on how the others were acting.

The captain noticed Han-Yeol no longer paid as much attention as he initially did before he made the environment cooler. The captain thought he was just being paranoid, but what Tia said just now confirmed his fears were not unfounded.

He clenched his fists. Why was he so desperate not to die here? Was it for scliché reason like in movies where the character had a sick mother to take care of, or something more basic like having his wife and kids waiting at home?

No, his reasons were not as cliché as that. The only thing he wanted in life was to fly to his heart’s desires while he was young and then peacefully enjoy the money he earned after he retired.

Besides, survival was one of the most basic instincts of mankind, so what other reason did he need to have?

“Let’s go! Hurry up!” he ushered the rest of the crew.

“Yes… captain…” they replied unenthusiastically.

The captain thought of them as his comrades he had to take care of—until a while ago. The only thing he cared about right now was staying in Han-Yeol’s good graces and making it out of this island alive.

He no longer saw the other crews as his comrades but rather as tools for his own survival.

“Don’t give up! Let’s go!”

“Thank you… captain…”

“That’s right! Let’s get moving!”

For sreason, it seemed that the captain’s voice was louder than it was a while ago.

***

Twelve hours had passed since Han-Yeol started exploring the island.

“Stewart…”

“Yes?”

“Was this island big? I don’t recall it being this big…”

“No, it is not.”

“Then why is there no end to it?!”

Han-Yeol’s voice echoed throughout the vast, dense forest, but not even a single bird reacted to it.

The fact that not a single bird was in sight was indeed quite bizarre in itself.

“This is certainly not a normal island. Our view from above made it look like we could cover the entire island in half a day—no, three hours would have been more than enough. If we take into account the other meaningless things we did, then twelve hours would have definitely been enough to explore it…” Stewart said while rubbing his chin.

“Damn it! I can’t take this anymore! Mavros!”

Mavros already knew what Han-Yeol was going to say, so he had already transformed to his first form.

Han-Yeol hopped on Mavros’ back and said, “Tto fly!”

He was itching after spending so much ton the ground, and the thought of flying with Han-Yeol once again got his blood pumping.

Unfortunately, there was a problem.

Mavros flew at the speed of sound, and he created shockwaves behind him.

Mavros kept flying up, but trees continued to appear in front of them.

Han-Yeol thought they were trapped on this island, but it felt as if they were further trapped in one section of the island now.

He cto one conclusion, and that was…

It took them only a second to land compared to the tthey spent trying to fly out of the trees.

Stewart approached him as soon as he landed.

“Han-Yeol-nim?”

His expression was difficult to see, but it definitely seemed like Han-Yeol had noticed something about this whole bizarre debacle.

Stewart nodded and replied, “Yes, I had a feeling something like that was happening here. You disappeared the moment you flew up, which was strange since I should have been able to see you from between the branches at least.”

“Really? That happened?”

“Yes.”

Han-Yeol was now certain that this island was a messed up place after hearing what Stewart said.

“Damn it, just what on Earth is going on…?”

The others might be scared, confused, and panicking over what was happening to them, but that was not the case for Han-Yeol. He might be grumbling as if this was a big problem, but that was only because he was extremely annoyed.

Han-Yeol was the king of all lazy people, and the fact that this kind of thing happened on his way to a vacation in the United States got on his nerves.

“What should we do now, master?” Tia asked.

She sounded quite composed, as if she had cfor a picnic compared to the others who were panicking from fear.

There was no such thing as a perfect barrier in this world. This was definitely a trap judging by how the barrier kept becoming smaller and smaller, and Han-Yeol felt that this barrier was currently trying to herd them somewhere.

“I guess that is our only choice now.”

“Yeah, we just keep charging straight!”

“You could end up in a ditch if you keep going straight without looking.”

“Hey! Why are you talking so much nonsense?!”

“…!”

They suddenly sensed something move.

“Han-Yeol-nim.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

Han-Yeol’s eyes turned red.

However, the problem was that he did not sense such a massive group of monsters approaching him.

That was the only way he could explain why he failed to notice the monsters. The reason was that very few monsters could avoid being detected by Han-Yeol’s senses.

Han-Yeol signaled to Scarlett.

“Prepare for battle!” Scarlett shouted to the crew.

They instantly prepared for battle by loading their rifles, even though they still had no idea what was happening. The rustling was so faint and far away that their ears could not pick it up, but they knew something was about to happen judging by how tense Han-Yeol looked.

“Stewart.”

“I guess I will have to fight.”

“You will?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“I thought you would say something like you’re just a secretary and refuse to get involved.”

Stewart pulled out his favorite weapon, which was a whip named Red Scourge.

“Wow~ That looks cool,” Han-Yeol said after blowing a whistle.

The weapon resembled a chain, but Han-Yeol had a feeling that it was extremely different from a chain—no, he was certain that he was right, as his feelings were rarely wrong about things like this.

Stewart infused his mana into the Red Scourge, and the Shurarmors around them suddenly started to resonate with his mana.

The Shurarmors suddenly grew stronger.

A magic circle appeared in front of the Shurarmors after Stewart cracked his whip, and they passed through it one by one. Then, they grew larger once they emerged from it, and they definitely seemed much more powerful than before they entered the magic circle.

In fact, Han-Yeol could sense that their mana density and capacity had significantly grown stronger compared to before.

“Go forth, Shurarmors,” Stewart commanded.

The monsters had yet to reveal themselves, so Han-Yeol thought of preparing a little surprise for them.

The shoulder cannons on his back glowed bright blue.

He fired ten mana shells from his shoulder cannons.

[The rank of Multi Shot has increased.]

Han-Yeol waited three minutes for the monsters to make an appearance, but their refusal to do so forced him to make the first move. Of course, the skill leveling up was a welcomed bonus.

The ten mana shells flew into the dense trees but failed to hit a single monster.

The monsters swung from one tree to another like a bunch of monkeys to evade the mana shells.

However, that did not mean they could easily evade the attack of a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter. Han-Yeol swung his hand, and the mana shells suddenly made a U-turn and flew back.

He used his Demon Eyes to watch the monsters, and he could tell that the monsters thought that they had successfully evaded the attack and did not watch their backs.

The monsters belatedly realized that the mana shells were coming from behind.

Doing this was a piece of cake for Han-Yeol, but anyone facing this kind of attack for the first twas bound to be caught off guard by it. The mana shells would be less threatening if they possessed a barrier or ssort of defensive skill to block it, but those who realized after evading their enemies’ attacks were in for a world of hurt.

Han-Yeol shot ten mana shells once again.

The monsters were now stuck between the ten mana shells coming from behind and the ten mana shells coming from the front.

When Han-Yeol received the shoulder cannons from Yoo-Bi, he initially used them to cause mass destruction or keep his enemies at bay. Now, he could use them much more efficiently after learning Multi Shot during his duel against Woo Han-Jong and after Yoo-Bi increased the shoulder cannons’ rate of fire.

The shoulder cannons were very good weapons for employing tactics, as it allowed Han-Yeol to fire at multiple enemies from a distance.

However, the monsters suddenly started moving in a strange manner.

It turned out that Han-Yeol was not the only one who had a trick up his sleeve.