Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 111: This Damned Astaroth (3)

‘Phew… That was close…’?Han-Yeol let out a sigh of relief.

His gamble had paid off. None of the eggs had hatched thanks to him killing the Queen Labyrinth Spider before that could happen.

However, he could not help but feel a tad bit regretful.

‘Ah… Should I have let some of them hatch…?’

He might not be able to dismember and retrieve their body parts, but they still dropped mana stones nonetheless. It would have been a nightmarish and hopeless situation if all of the eggs had hatched, but it would have been quite profitable if only a few of them had hatched.

‘Ah… Forget about it. What’s the point?of?dwelling on the past?’?Han-Yeol shrugged.

[Ha! So boring… It would have been better if all of these eggs hatched!]?Balrog said with a scoff.

He could not care less about the mana stones or the profit that could have been made. He only felt regretful over the fact that he could not fight to his heart’s content.

Whiiiing…! Ziiiiiing!

While Han-Yeol and Balrog felt slightly regretful over not being able to fight more of the monsters, those watching from the sidelines certainly felt relieved that the fight was over.

Yoo-Bi simply donned her goggles and started to dismember the Queen Labyrinth Spider’s corpse. Although her main goal was to extract the mana stone out of the boss monster, she thought of checking just in case she could find anything valuable that they could carry back.

Just as Yoo-Bi was busy dismembering the boss monster’s corpse, Han-Yeol walked over toward the hundreds of unhatched eggs. He inspected the eggs that were 1.5 times larger than an ostrich egg. ‘Let’s see… Are these not going to hatch…?’

He was thinking that it would be great if he could manually hatch the eggs one by one so that he could take his own sweet time and kill them individually.

Crack…!

He picked up one of the eggs and cracked it open to inspect it further.

‘You usually see something squirming inside these things in movies,’?he thought as he recalled a certain sci-fi movie he had watched where the alien would infiltrate a human’s body through their mouth and lay eggs in their stomach.

He could also remember a scene where a person had held up a lantern to see something growing and squirming inside the egg.

Han-Yeol activated his Demon Eyes to scan the egg just in case this was going to turn out just like the movies had shown, but he could only see a lump of mana inside it. He did not find any traces of a living organism.

‘Ah, maybe this would work instead? Item Appraisal,’?he thought as he used one of the skills that he had recently acquired.

[Monster Egg]

Type: Item Combination Material

Description: A common egg used by monsters. It will react to a monster’s mana and hatch, but it is also possible to artificially hatch it. However, it is unknown what creature will emerge from an artificially hatched egg.

‘What? A material… It wasn’t the Queen Labyrinth Spider’s egg but a common monster egg?’?

Han-Yeol was surprised by the egg’s information. He had studied quite a lot about Hunters and monsters during his Porter days, but this was his first time hearing that all monsters shared a common egg.

To be frank, not a lot of people were interested in how the monsters reproduced aside from a handful of scholars and scientists. It was just common understanding that they popped out from the Dimensional Gates.

‘I mean… How were people supposed to know if this was a spider egg or a common egg when they don’t have an appraisal skill? This isn’t a computer game, after all,’?Han-Yeol thought.

Mankind had only progressed so far regarding the use of mana to forge equipment and items even though thirty years had passed since the Dimensional Gates’ appearance. Needless to say, the truth behind the monsters was still covered in a veil.

In fact, it was probably impossible to see any thesis or documents related to how the monsters reproduced.

‘Ah, forget about it.?Let’s?just take it,’?Han-Yeol grumbled inwardly.

After deciding to inspect the egg when he returned back home, he had another thought. ‘This is now the second strange item I collected, right?’?

He suddenly recalled the strange fruit he had obtained from the Volax hunting ground, which was currently stored in the glass cabinet at his study. He could have used Item Appraisal on it, but he had completely forgotten about it, so it was just sitting in there as a display piece.

‘I should check what that fruit is when I get home,’?Han-Yeol thought, deciding to not forget about it this time.

The strange fruit was an excellent collection piece, but Han-Yeol would take utility over collection whenever he had the choice. He was the type of person who did not feel much inclination toward things that he could not use regardless of how good they were as a showpiece, and the only reason he had kept that strange fruit was in the hopes of finding some use for it later on in the future.

“O-Oppa!” Yoo-Bi urgently called out.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Han-Yeol replied.

“Come over here and take a look at this!”

‘I wonder what’s going on…’?Han-Yeol wondered as he walked over toward Yoo-Bi.

“Huh?” he muttered after seeing what the fuss was about.

“What do you think this is, oppa?” Yoo-Bi asked while pointing at a large golden plate that had been found in the Queen Labyrinth Spider’s corpse.

The golden plate looked like a puzzle board, but its center part where the puzzles should be had nothing at the moment.

“It looks like a puzzle board,” Yoo-Bi said.

“Yeah, what does it want us to put in here…?” Han-Yeol asked in response.

“Oppa… What if we were supposed to collect the puzzle pieces from the monsters that hatched from the eggs…?” Yoo-Bi carefully asked.

“N-No way…” Han-Yeol replied while in denial.

If that was indeed the case, then he had done something extremely stupid. He would not be able to bear it if that turned out to be true.

Woooong…!

Han-Yeol was about to pull his hair out when he heard the sound of mana being emitted from his backpack. His eyes widened in surprise. ‘Huh? What’s that?’?

He immediately placed his backpack on the ground and unzipped it just in case it was going to explode. However, what he found inside was a complete surprise.

“Eh? Oppa, where did you get those puzzle pieces?” Yoo-Bi asked.

“You can see these?” Han-Yeol asked in shock.

“Yes, I can see those beautiful golden puzzle pieces.”

“Huh…?”

‘I thought I was the only one?who?could see these…?’?

Han-Yeol was now extremely confused. Not even the Hunters from the Horus raid party had been able to see these things when he had looted them from the Banshees, Trappers, and Phantoms. However, it seemed that they were visible to Yoo-Bi.

“Wow, you prepared all of these in advance? How did you know you were going to need these? I can see that there are some duplicates, but I think we will be able to complete the puzzle board.”

“Oh, r-really…?”

“Yes, puzzles are one of my hobbies, since they were the only toys I had growing up. Although we didn’t have the money to buy puzzle sets… I had a few classmates at that time who were crazy about idol groups. Most of them would purchase those idol goods sets that came with puzzles. They really sucked at it, so I helped them out a few times and was surprised to discover that I was quite gifted with it. After that, they invited me to their house quite often and asked me to piece their puzzles in exchange for some snacks.”

“I… I see…”

‘So there’s something else she is good at…’?

Han-Yeol was surprised at Yoo-Bi’s unusual hobby. The only time that he had probably seen a puzzle in his life was when he would drop by the bookstore to buy some comic books and spot those displayed at the entrance by chance. In fact, even his friends were just like him; none of them had even an ounce of interest in puzzles.

“I’ll try and form it,” Yoo-Bi said.

“Ah, go ahead,” Han-Yeol replied before he turned his backpack upside down and poured all of the puzzle pieces onto the ground.

Shwaaak!

Shwik! Shwik!?

Yoo-Bi’s hands moved quite quickly as she inspected every golden puzzle piece and removed the duplicated ones.

‘But why can she suddenly see the fragments? And why is she seeing these as golden puzzle pieces instead…?’?Han-Yeol wondered.

When he had first collected them, the fragments had just been normal glittering stuff on the ground. But now, they had suddenly turned into dazzling golden puzzle pieces and were visible to a normal person like Yoo-Bi.

‘Don’t tell me… Is this the final stage?’?he wondered.

After Han-Yeol and Yoo-Bi crouched down and started to work on the puzzle, the bored Mulan film crew gathered around them. They had nothing else to do anyway.

They also decided to film the scene as there was nothing else that they could show on the live stream.

[What are they doing?]

[Did the boss monster drop an item?]

[What?! Awesome!]

[Golden puzzle pieces and a puzzle board…?]

[I wonder if they will get an item if they complete that?]

[The suspense is killing me!]

[The suspense is saving me!]

[Quit it with your corny jokes!]

[My diet is killing me!]

[Kekeke!]

The chat room was still in an uproar, especially after Han-Yeol had killed the boss monster in a single strike.

Tak! Tak! Seuk… Seuk… Tak! Tak!

‘W-Wow…! This is really unexpected…’?Han-Yeol thought in awe while watching Yoo-Bi.

Yoo-Bi looked like those geniuses who appeared on television programs judging by how quickly she solved the puzzle. In just two hours and thirty minutes, the entire puzzle was completed.

“Haa…?It’s all done,” Yoo-Bi said after wiping the sweat off of her forehead.

“You’re done already?” Han-Yeol asked.

“Yes, I got lost in the middle since it had been quite a while, but I guess I still have a knack for it. I completed it.”

“A-Amazing…”

Even though he had no skills or interest when it came to puzzle-solving, Han-Yeol knew very well that a puzzle was not something that one could finish in a single sitting. Even those who actually solved puzzles as a hobby would require a few days to finish them. Yet, this girl in front of him had managed to finish the entire thing in a matter of a few hours.

‘I think you can call her a genius, right?’?he wondered.

“Great work, Yoo-Bi.”

“Don’t mention it!” Yoo-Bi said with a bright smile.

Han-Yeol could not help but think that Yoo-Bi looked quite charming with her smile.

“Ah, this puzzle turned into an image depicting a beautiful and charming goddess.”

“Oh, you’re right.”

Now that it was completed, the picture on the puzzle could be seen. The picture was not that clear, but one could still make out the image of a beautiful woman.

‘Huh? Why does she look so familiar…?’?Han-Yeol found the woman all too familiar for some reason. He racked his brains. ‘I think I’ve seen her somewhere… Did I see her in some Greek Mythology book…?’

His memory greatly improved after he had become a Hunter, but that did not mean that he could remember every single detail in his life. Needless to say, he could not exactly recall the contents of the books he had read. He would remember a few things that had left a deep impression on him, but that was about it.

He kept thinking that the beautiful goddess was someone out of mythology, but he soon realized that he had never read such a book in his life.

‘What is it then…? Why does she feel so familiar? Is it something like a memory from my previous life…?’?he wondered.

The image looked so familiar that Han-Yeol started wondering about his previous life too. They said that the important relationship or events one had in their previous life could affect their present life as well. It might sound illogical and downright absurd, but there were quite a lot of such stories that he had to consider that as a serious possibility.

‘I mean… This is now a world with mana and Hunters, right? What’s stopping me from thinking that there is a previous life and an?afterlife?then? Anyway… This is bothering me…’?he thought as he justified his illogical theory.

Ziiing…!

Just as Han-Yeol was racking his brain, the completed puzzle started to slowly emit a bright light that got brighter and brighter.

“O-Oppa!” Yoo-Bi hurriedly shouted in surprise.

Han-Yeol was equally shocked at the sudden turn of events. He raised his arm to cover his eyes from the light as he was standing the nearest to the puzzle. The light shone so bright that he felt like he was going to get blinded by it.

The whole thing lasted for around five seconds before the light slowly disappeared, revealing a demon who floated in midair. She had a killer smile and an imposing aura.

“Y-You are…!” Han-Yeol exclaimed.

[Hoho! I see that you have finally completed what I’ve asked you to do.]

It was the charming and seductive demon that Han-Yeol had secretly been longing for, Astaroth.

“Is this the Angel’s Fragment that you wanted me to collect, Astaroth-nim?”

[Correct! I did not imagine that you would solve it so quickly. You found this hidden dungeon and solved that complicated puzzle in such a short period of time. I guess you found yourself some good companions.]