Leveling Up Alone

Four of the monsters picked up something and ran toward the mana shells.

The sound of things colliding reverberated in the air.

The impact spread mana all over the place, and Han-Yeol could not see what the monsters were doing, as the mana interfered with Demon Eyes.

However, Han-Yeol had his experience from being a Porter and a Hunter, so he could tell that the monsters had sacrificed two of their comrades to block the ten mana shells coming from behind and two more of their comrades to block the ten mana shells coming from the front.

Then, the monsters seemed to have concluded that it was advantageous for them to fight melee instead, judging by how they started rushing toward Han-Yeol.

“They’re coming!” Han-Yeol shouted.

One of the crews shrieked out of horror after hearing that the monsters were coming.

“Get a grip! You’ll die if you lose it!” Scarlett shouted to prevent the morale from plummeting.

She was the one in charge of managing the crew. Han-Yeol originally did not want to bother with the crew, but Scarlett insisted on leading them, so he had no choice but to agree in the end.

The monsters moved from tree to tree like Japanese ninjas before they finally lunged at Han-Yeol and the others.

“Shurarmors!” Stewart cracked his whip and shouted.

Han-Yeol looked toward the front and realized something.

The Shurarmors at the front were using shields and axes like infantry soldiers, but the new Shurarmors that Stewart summoned seemed to be magicians, judging by the staffs in their hands.

Stewart pointed at the incoming monsters and commanded, “Attack.”

The Shurarmors raised their golden staffs, each with a purple jewel attached at the end. Then, they cast their spells without any incantations, and pink mana started rising from their bodies.

“What is the matter, Han-Yeol-nim?”

“…?”

Stewart tilted his head in confusion, looking perplexed as if he could not understand Han-Yeol. The latter had already composed himself, so the demon could not decipher his thoughts.

The pink mana from the Shurarmors formed more than one hundred pink mana bullets and rained down on the monsters.

The monsters fell to the ground one by one.

Han-Yeol could finally see the monsters.

He expected them to look like monkeys, but he was surprised to see that they looked like proper warriors. They wore green camos, and their faces were smeared with green cream that blended well with the vegetation. They were carrying different assassination weapons such as a claw, chain and sickle, shurikens, daggers, etc.

However, one thing about them that stood out was the fact that the whites of their eyes were pitch black.

More than one hundred shurikens suddenly flew toward him and the others.

Han-Yeol’s keen eyesight allowed him to see the surface of the shuriken, and he instantly recognized the liquid it was smeared with.

He did possess Restore, but getting grazed by that poison would be bad news, even for him. His skin and muscles would melt away the moment he was poisoned, and it would only take mere seconds before he would succumb to it.

Restore was not a skill that could save the dead, so he and the others had to exercise extrcaution.

“Those shurikens are poisoned! Don’t get hit by them!” Han-Yeol shouted.

Both of them possessed the Poison Attribute, so they were confident in their ability to handle poison.

Tia licked her lips and said, “Ah~ How long has it been since I last feasted on poison? Shall we have a taste of these ones?”

“I will consider it, master~” Tia replied with a wink, but her eyes looked quite dangerous.

She shot out a web from her lower body and catapulted herself onto the treetops.

On the other hand, Mavros prepared to fire his magic from the ground. He would have loved to fly up in the air and shoot his Poison Arrows all over the place and unleash his Poison Breath, but an unknown force prevented him from doing so.

Seeing Mavros so active cas a surprise to Han-Yeol, as the mini-dragon tended not to be so active in places he could not fly. However, he soon realized that Mavros was probably riled up after hearing that the enemy was using poison.

“Mavros! Show them what your Poison Breath can do!” Han-Yeol exclaimed.

Mavros looked a bit worked up right now, but he prioritized Han-Yeol’s command before anything else in the world. He opened his mouth and channeled his mana before unleashing a wave of destructive Poison Breath that completely melted the incoming shurikens.

The assassins might look human on the outside, but Han-Yeol instantly knew they were not humans judging by their strange shrieks and the black smoke coming out of their mouths.

However, he prioritized cutting the enemies down before trying to find out their identities.

Han-Yeol swung his sword and split one of the assassins in half, but the assassin did not die and continued to squirm on the ground. Others would have either immediately died from having their bodies sliced up in half or from the Magma Attribute damage that followed, but these assassins continued to squirm for a good few seconds before finally succumbing to death.

This was proof that these assassins possessed extraordinary vitality compared to others.

Other people might say that Han-Yeol was full of himself, but he was just stating the truth. He possessed numerous offensive, defensive, utility, and analytical skills that enabled him to deal with any dangerous situation.

One of the assassins—no, monsters landed right behind Stewart, thinking that he was probably the weakest link judging by how he was only controlling the living armor from the rear and not getting involved in the battle.

Of course, Han-Yeol was simply making an assumption, as he had never seen Stewart unleash his full power yet. Still, he based his assumptions on the numerous times the demon channeled his mana to use magic, and he could clearly tell that the demon was at least a Master-Rank Hunter even though his true powers were sealed.

He was aware that Stewart was a watcher that Lucifer had assigned to keep an eye on him, and he would have been uncomfortable if that watcher had more strength than he did. Also, he would not be able to enjoy harassing him like he did if the demon was indeed stronger than him.

A line suddenly appeared on Stewart’s forehead, and it opened to reveal an eye that was black and red in color and was the size of two adult human eyes combined together.

The eye looked around in search of its prey.

“Devour everything,” Stewart commanded.

The monsters ignored the eye and rushed toward Stewart regardless of what he was doing after they identified him as the weakling controlling the living armor at the frontlines. It was a smart move from the monsters, as killing the summoner would automatically reverse-summon the living armor, but…

“How foolish,” Stewart muttered.

Strange, eerie laughter started ringing throughout the entire area. It felt as if the laughter was tickling every inch of Han-Yeol’s body, but the tickling did not make him feel like laughing. Instead, he felt rather repulsed.

This would not be enough to shock Han-Yeol in most cases, but the problem was that there were more than one or two of them.

The number of black balls instantly multiplied to dozens, maybe even hundreds, and they devoured every single monster around Stewart.

The gruessound of crunching bones reverberated throughout the air.

“It’s futile. These can only be damaged by magic, and there is nothing you insignificant monsters can do to them,” Stewart said nonchalantly yet his voice reverberated throughout the entire area.

Stewart’s eyes might be covered with blinders, but his pale white skin, smooth jawline, crimson-red lips, and beautiful nose made him look extremely handsome.

Anyone would think that he was the son of shigh-ranking English noble, but that was only how he looked on the outside.

He was actually a cruel demon serving under Lucifer, and what he was showing right now was his true personality.

“Good, devour all of them and becmy mana,” Stewart said.

The monsters tried attacking the black balls, but none of their attacks worked. They had faced countless enemies so far, but this was the first tthat all of their attacks failed.

Then, a monster that looked like the leader of the monsters suddenly cried out and gave the command to retreat.