Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 114: The Club (2)

Han-Yeol did not do anything to Chul-Gu. In fact, he did not even know that Chul-Gu and his gang existed in the first place.

The problem was that Chul-Gu was the type of person who felt entitled to what belonged to others, and he felt that he had lost something that should have been rightfully his to the Horus raid party because of Han-Yeol.

‘Damn it…! I can’t stomach it!’?Chul-Gu grimaced in pain at the sight of the dead Labyrinth Spiders being loaded onto the fifteen-ton trucks.

Chul-Gu was accustomed to pillaging others rather than working hard. In fact, this thinking was not limited to the Hyena raid party, but there were a lot of other raid parties and guilds that had gathered here in hopes of snatching away the prize from the lone Hunter. However, all of them cowered the moment they saw the flag of the Horus raid party at the site.

‘Tsk… Why is it the Horus raid party of all things…?’

‘They can’t be touched with the recent support the Hunters’ Association has been giving them…’

It was just as the Hunters said, the association had deployed Hunters to monitor the situation just in case there was any crazy group that would try and attack the Horus raid party.

***

Fortunately, none of the Korean raid parties or guilds dared to pick a fight with the Horus raid party. Well, that was a no-brainer since there were one hundred Hunters from the Horus raid party on top of the fifty Hunters who had been sent by the Hunters’ Association to oversee the situation.

It was unsurprising that nobody was brave enough to charge into this huge group of Hunters from the Horus raid party and the Hunters’ Association. The Hunters were people who had plenty to lose, so they were always careful and only acted when they were confident of victory.

Vroom!

The Labyrinth Spider corpses were all loaded into three fifteen-ton trucks. The roar of the truck engines reverberated in the area and the Egyptian Hunters searched the perimeter just in case they had left anything behind.

Han-Yeol and his party left the hunting ground under the Horus raid party’s protection. Mariam, Han-Yeol, and Yoo-Bi were currently sitting in the same vehicle.

“Haa…?It’s a huge relief. I really thought we were going to be attacked by other Hunters,” Yoo-Bi said as she placed her hand on her chest and let out a sigh of relief.

She was quite the scaredy-cat, so she had been anxious the entire time. She had truly been worried that something bad was going to happen.

“I noticed quite a lot of Hunters from the association, so it would have been an all-out war if they tried to attack us. Well, they might have tried nevertheless if the Horus raid party was a Korean organization, but the Horus raid party is based in Egypt and headed by a big figure like Tayarana… It would have been difficult for them to even muster the courage to attack us,” Han-Yeol replied.

Yoo-Bi pouted at Han-Yeol before grumbling, “Tsk…?I can’t process those kinds of complicated things…”

These kinds of things were learned through experience rather than through books, so it was difficult for Yoo-Bi to understand them. After all, she had only been working as a Porter for a short period of time.

“Han-Yeol-nim,” Mariam called out from the front passenger seat.

“Ah, what is it, Mariam?” Han-Yeol replied, no longer struggling to speak comfortably with her.

They said that humans were extremely adaptive creatures, and that seemed to be true judging by how Han-Yeol was acting. He repeatedly forced himself to try and talk as casually as possible to Mariam until he got so used to talking to her in this way. Now, he would actually feel awkward trying to speak formally to her.

However, he was still scared of her whenever she used her stern manner of speech to criticize him.

“Please inform us in advance if you plan to stir up trouble next time. It will be difficult for us to clean up after you if we have no idea what is going on. You got lucky today as Yoo-Bi quickly contacted us, which helped shoo away those scavengers prowling around you. However, you cannot expect to be lucky all the time,” Mariam said.

‘She is angry…’?Han-Yeol thought.

[I am not angry,]?Mariam replied.

‘Hiiik!’?

Mariam read Han-Yeol’s mind even though he had told her not to, and this was her way of expressing her anger toward him. She was used to hiding her emotions and not expressing them outwardly thanks to the training she had undergone to become Tayarana’s servant, but that did not mean that she did not have her own ways of venting her anger out.

Although she would refuse to acknowledge her anger in the first place…

‘Alright, alright, I will let you know in advance before I stir up trouble next time! Hold on… That didn’t sound right…’

[Haa… I will let you off this one time.]

‘Ahaha… Thank you…’

Han-Yeol was relieved by the fact that he managed to escape from Mariam’s nagging that had gone straight to his mind through telepathy.

It was impossible for Mariam to use her mind control ability on Hunters stronger than her, but it was possible for her to relay her thoughts and get a glimpse of her target's mind. That was the reason why it was going to be agonizing for Han-Yeol once Mariam started nagging. Once that happened, there was no escaping it even if he ran away or covered his ears.

***

Han-Yeol stored all of the monster corpses and other materials they had gained from the hunt in the Horus raid party’s mansion, which acted as their base of operation in Korea. It was an inevitable decision; these were new monsters that hadn’t had their value appraised so there were a lot of Hunters aiming for them.

He was also going to have to wait for an official analysis report from the laboratory of the Hunters’ Association to be able to sell the monster corpses to a factory.

Click! Click! Click! Click!?

Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash!

There was a swarm of reporters waiting in front of the Horus raid party’s mansion gates, and they were gathered here today for the sole purpose of getting an exclusive scoop about Han-Yeol.

They said that there was a huge rift between a normal person and a Hunter, but the news regarding Hunters attracted more views and subscribers compared to even celebrity news. It was inevitable for the masses to be interested in Hunters no matter how bad the rift between them was, since Hunters were the ones in charge of protecting them and the ones who propped up the economy.

Some of the major news outlets even blatantly hired F Rank Hunters as journalists to gather inside scoop about Hunters. They must have considered the news about Han-Yeol to be quite a scoop as there were quite a few F Rank Hunters gathered here today.

“I am Yang Seung-Ho from KTN. You are the first Korean Hunter to have single-handedly discovered a new dungeon and even cleared it on the same day. How does it feel to have such an achievement?”

Reporter Yang’s voice boomed so loudly that even Han-Yeol could clearly hear what he said just now. The voice was not simply loud but it even carried a faint trace of mana in it.

“Hmm?”

“Keuk!?That bastard is here again!”

The other reporters covered their ears and were in agony.

“Hey, Reporter Yang! Stop using that skill of yours!”

“Yeah! You can just normally talk at this distance!”

‘Oh, so it’s an F Rank Hunter with the Sound Wave skill,’?Han-Yeol thought as he had his interest piqued.

He then said, “Mariam, I will stay here and conduct an interview.”

“Well, I will be busy taking care of these materials, so you may do as you please. You may ask the butlers or the servants if you need anything and they will immediately tend to your needs,” Mariam replied.

“Thank you for your hard work, and thank you for today,” Han-Yeol sincerely expressed his gratitude to Mariam.

He knew that he would have probably been in a tight spot if the Horus raid party did not immediately mobilize after Yoo-Bi had requested for reinforcements. There was even a chance that he would have had everything stolen and come back home empty-handed.

Mariam’s facial expression did not change one bit despite Han-Yeol’s sincere gratitude. She said, “Not at all. I just responded to the call of the Horus raid party’s Vice Leader. I do not think I did something significant enough to be thanked since I just did my job.”

“Ah… You are as rigid as always…”

Mariam was always quite cold and stern, but she did have a tsundere side to her as well.

“Well, if you insist on thanking me…then I will accept it… I am just accepting it because you insist.” Mariam gave a slight bow and went into the mansion.

The mansion was surrounded by a wall that had one million volts of electricity flowing through them, so none of the reporters dared to scale the walls. The reporters thought that they were going to kick the can today as well, but they were surprised by Han-Yeol remaining in front of the gates and agreeing to the interview.

“Alright, ask your questions one by one,” Han-Yeol said.

The reporters were frenzied, taking pictures as they asked their questions.

“I will repeat my question a while ago. You are the first Korean Hunter to have single-handedly discovered a new dungeon and even cleared it on the same day. How does it feel to have such an achievement?!” Reporter Yang asked in a booming voice once again before anyone else had the chance to ask a question.

Han-Yeol smiled and replied, “It feels good. It is also an honor. I believe that such a feat is difficult to do again, so I’m enjoying the feeling to the fullest right now.”

“Did you know that there was going to be a dungeon over there by any chance?”

Reporter Yang ignored the unwritten rule among journalists of ‘one question one answer’ and immediately asked another question in his booming voice.

“No, I had no idea there was a dungeon there. I found it by pure coincidence while resting. I would not have brought my broadcasting crew if I knew there was going to be a dungeon over there, since I could have kept it all to myself without announcing it to the world.”

The reporters nodded in agreement to Han-Yeol’s words. They would not have imagined that Han-Yeol was only telling a partial truth.

It would have been impossible for him to hide the secret dungeon and monopolize it. After all, mana would seep out of its doors and spread around its surroundings within twenty-four hours the moment Balrog unsealed the doors. Then, somebody passing by in the vicinity would have definitely picked it up with a mana detection device or sensed it.

In other words, it was a secret that Han-Yeol was not going to be able to keep for himself in the end.

That was the reason why Han-Yeol had added some twists to his story to give it credibility and avoid attracting suspicion from others.

Han-Yeol was held up for nearly two hours since the first question Reporter Yang had asked. The interview only lasted for two hours because he got tired in the middle and cut it short. Otherwise, the reporters seemed ready to ask questions until nightfall by the looks of how passionate they were.

This was the first time that Han-Yeol felt scared of normal people after awakening as a Hunter.

He returned home and sat on the soft comfortable sofa in his living room.

Plop!

“Ahh… What a tiring day…” Han-Yeol muttered.

His mind and body were exhausted, but he still felt proud of himself.

‘Is this how it feels to become a celebrity?’?he wondered, but he had no plans on becoming a celebrity. He then thought, ‘There’s no reason for me to change jobs to something so tiring and unprofitable.’

He probably would not have imagined even in his wildest dreams that he would say something like this at this point in his life.

However, the money he was raking in as a Hunter was more than enough to silence any critics who would have a problem with what he had said just now. He was able to earn a lot of money by hunting with the Horus raid party, and he was able to earn even more money by solo-hunting as well.

Han-Yeol relaxed on his sofa for a while. Then, he suddenly remembered that he had probably leveled up quite a bit after going through that hellish experience. He thought, ‘Status window.’

Name: Lee Han-Yeol

Level: 145

Points: 125

STR: 255

VIT: 241

AGI: 261

MAG: 300+111

LCK: 20

Invoke: 205

Skills : Dismember (C), [Sword Mastery (M) : Flash Strike (B), Head Cutter (C), Vicious Stabs (F)], [Walking (M) : Mana Pouch (E)] Mana Control (M), Mana Mastery (M), Sixth Sense (A), [Restrain (M) : Crowd Restrain (F)], [Body Strengthening (M) : Berserk (F)], Stab (M), Dagger Mastery (C), [Chain Mastery (M) : Tornado Smash (F)], Infinite Library (M), Shield Bash (M), [Fire Attribute (M) : Fire Ball (F)], Mana Explosion (A), Chain Smite (M), [Marksmanship (M) : Homing Bullet (F)], Martial Arts (M), Enchant (B), Sword Breathe (A), Restore (B), Healing Bullet (C), Enhance Healing (C), Summon Demon (D), Telepathy (A), Power Meditation (C), Psychokinesis (C), Force Shield (B), Cat Walk (B), Mana Absorption (B), Demon Eye (C), Mana Strengthening (D), Mana Bullet (D), Reflect (D), Enhance (D), Item Appraisal (F), Translation (F), Blood Drain (C).

“Wow… Is this for real….?” Han-Yeol was surprised after checking his status window.

His entire focus had solely been directed toward surviving the battle that he did not hear or see anything else aside from the monsters, and he was only able to check his status after having reached the comfort of his home.

However, after seeing the drastic change his status window had undergone, he could not stop his jaw from dropping to the ground. He recalled having heard quite a lot of notification sounds while fighting, but he did not imagine that the change was going to be this drastic.

“Lalala~”

Han-Yeol was so exhausted that he even found breathing to be tiring, but he was now leisurely humming a tune.

Lying down on the sofa, he went over the skills that he gained this time. There was Vicious Stab that allowed him to ferociously stab in all directions, Crowd Restrain that allowed him to use Restrain for a short period of time against multiple enemies, Berserk that instantly enhanced his physical abilities after getting exhausted, Tornado Smash that allowed him to lay waste to everything around him with his chain, and plenty other new skills.

He had gained quite a lot of powerful and useful skills this time.

‘I can see that my next hunt is going to go extremely smoothly,’?Han-Yeol thought with a smile.

The ends of his mouth rose up so high that it was impossible for it to go any further higher.