Leveling Up Alone

“One, two, three…”

Han-Yeol took out a swimsuit from his dimensional storage and changed into it. He looked like an Olympic diver about to dive with his outfit.

Click, clack!

Tayarana started taking her armor off after Han-Yeol.

[T-Tayarana-nim!]

Mariam shrieked in horror and tried to stop her.

[Hmm? What’s the matter?]

[W-What do you mean why?! Why are you taking your armor off?!]

Han-Yeol had never seen Mariam express herself so openly, but she did not seem to notice it since she was too worked up.

[The magma will melt my armor the moment I go in with it.]

[W-What?! How can mere magma destroy the Horus Suit?!]

[Who knows, right? Also, this magma doesn’t look ordinary to me.]

[R-Really?]

Tayarana was right. The magma did not look ordinary even at first glance. It was special because this was not an ordinary volcano but a monster, so the magma spewed out would not be ordinary.

[B-But do you really have to go? It is too dangerous! To be honest, I even try to stop Han-Yeol-nim from going if I had the authority to do so.]

[Hmm… It doesn’t look that dangerous…]

Tayarana looked down at the river of magma. She could feel mana emitted by the magma, but it was not to the extent it would endanger her, as she had received the Blessings of Ra.

[Don’t worry. It can’t harm me.]

[Ah, alright. I understand. I already know there’s no stopping you once you make up your mind anyway.]

Mariam knew she had already done her best, so she decided to take a step back.

‘I apologize, Your Excellency… Even I can’t do anything about her this time…’

Instead, she begged for forgiveness from Phaophator for not stopping his daughter from doing something so reckless. Ironically, Phaophator probably had no idea what kind of adventure Tayarana was on. He most likely thought she was leisurely spending time at Han-Yeol’s mansion, which was one of the safest places in the world.

That was most likely the case, as she did not tell him anything before crossing over to the Bastro Dimension.

“Alright, are you ready, Tara?” Han-Yeol asked while warming up.

[Yeah, I’m ready.]

He turned around after sensing that Tayarana was approaching him, but—

“Huuuuh?!”

—blood spurted out of his nose the moment he saw her. Fortunately, his quick reflexes allowed him to cover his nose before anyone saw anything.

Whoosh!

He quickly turned around and wiped his nosebleed.

[Hmm? What’s wrong, Han-Yeol?]

“N-No, it’s nothing. Hahaha…” Han-Yeol replied, laughing awkwardly. Then, he grumbled inwardly, ‘Damn it… What can I say? I can’t tell her that a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter suddenly has anemia. This strong body can be quite useless in this kind of situation!’

Others might accuse him of experiencing first-world problems, but they would understand if they put themselves in his shoes.

‘I can’t tell her I got too stimulated after seeing her in a swimsuit, right?!’

Numerous reasons held him back, but the biggest one was that Mariam would kill him if he said it.

Surprisingly, Mariam seemed to have noticed something already and was glaring at him.

“Ahem… Shall we go, Tayarana?”

[Okay, Han-Yeol.]

Tayarana found it strange that he suddenly called her by her name, but she decided to shrug it off and walk right beside him.

Boing!

‘Argh!’

They were walking side-by-side so closely that her chest ended up bumping into his arm, causing his blood pressure to skyrocket.

Tayarana was currently wearing a bikini. However, it was far from an ordinary bikini, as it was created with a revolutionary mana thread developed by Egyptian scientists, and the underwear amazingly could receive the wearer’s mana.

Although it seemed like an amazing piece of clothing, it also had its flaws.

The first was that plenty of other clothes could replicate the same effect, so the effect it provided was redundant or a luxury. The second was that the cost of the material was so high that an ordinary Hunter could not even dream of buying it. Lastly, the material could not be mass-produced, thereby limiting the underwear’s commerciality.

Ultimately, the Egyptian scientists had no choice but to create just enough for their royal family members to wear.

Tayarana was initially not all that intrigued by this special underwear, but she thought of asking them to create more the moment she returned to Egypt.

‘Damn it… Don’t react… Don’t react… Until the day the waters of the East Sea run dry and Mount Baekdusan is worn away…’

Han-Yeol was forced to recite the national anthem in his head in an attempt to stop his body from reacting.

He had plenty of experience with women, but Tayarana’s body was simply too beautiful for him not to react.

“A-Are you ready, Tara?”

[Yes, Han-Yeol.]

“Okay, on three. One. Two.”

Whoosh!

Splash!

Han-Yeol and Tayarana jumped down and dove straight into the magma.

‘Heup!’

The magma made of mana tried to incinerate them to death.

‘I might not be blessed like Tara, but I jumped in here because of this!’

Woooong!

Mana started flowing out from Han-Yeol’s heart and spread throughout the magma enveloping him. Then, the magma burning brightly in an attempt to incinerate him suddenly quelled down as if nothing had happened. The magma was no longer a danger to him, and it felt more like he was soaking in a hot spring than in a river of magma.

‘As expected, our ancestors were right when they said to fight fire with fire,’ Han-Yeol thought after seeing the effects of Magma Attribute.

On the other hand, Tayarana seemed perfectly fine too.

However, the problem was what came afterward.

‘But what am I supposed to do now?’ Han-Yeol wondered.

The magma might be like hot spring water to him now, but that did not mean it was hot spring water. Magma was not liquid, but various solid matter boiled in extreme temperatures, thus contributing to its dense form. It was impossible to see through the magma, unlike being underwater, so Han-Yeol had zero visibility to search for the Jewel Sword of Annihilation.

‘Oh, right! Demon Eyes!’

Han-Yeol could not believe his stupidity and hurriedly used the one skill he relied on the most. The fact that he was worried about visibility in the magma when he probably had the most effective skill in this kind of environment was a joke in itself.

Woooong!

Han-Yeol noticed something in the distance.

‘Oh? Is it over there?’

Shwaaak!

He grabbed Tayarana’s hand and followed the direction Demon Eyes was leading him.

Fwaaaah!

“Pwah!”

Han-Yeol and Tayarana finally came out from the magma and found themselves at an unfamiliar cave with a lake.

“Where is this?”

[Over there, Han-Yeol.]

“Hmm? Oh!” Han-Yeol looked at where Tayarana was pointing and saw a beautiful altar made of red rocks.

At the top of the red altar was a red sword shining beautifully.

“Is that the Jewel Sword of Annihilation we have been searching for?”

[Yeah, I think so.]

Chwak! Chwak!

With their goal now in sight, they swam with all of their strength out of the magma.

“Hmm?”

[What’s going on?]

The cave suddenly started shaking like an earthquake the moment they stepped out of the magma.

Krwaaaang!

Magma suddenly rose from the ground in front of Han-Yeol and Tayarana all the way to the red altar, and the magma turned into creatures that looked similar to the Corrupted Fire Spirits.

‘Ugh, what the hell are those?’

Han-Yeol was caught off guard this time. He did not expect monsters to come out in this place in such large numbers.

‘Ah, I guess it’s normal since this volcano is a monster. I probably thought too lightly of this.’

The fact that there were no Corrupted Fire Spirits within the volcano made him lower his guard and think that they probably would not spawn in it. True enough, he had not seen a single monster since entering the volcano, so it was only obvious for him to think so.

However, the monsters appeared at the most crucial time, as if they were mocking Han-Yeol.

‘Well, I guess we avoided the worst-case scenario. It would’ve been disastrous if we fought them while diving under the magma. But the fact that Tayarana isn’t wearing her Horus Suit is… Ugh.’

Fortunately they did not have to fight these monsters in extremely unfavorable terrain, but it was still a fact that they were at a disadvantage. Tayarana was not completely unarmed, as she had brought her spear with her just in case. Her spear was also blessed by Ra unlike the Horus Suit, so the magma did not destroy it.

“Will you be alright, Tara?” Han-Yeol asked.

[Yeah, I will be fine. Fighting without my Horus Suit is a bit uncomfortable, but I’m not so weak to rely on my suit alone.]

Han-Yeol smirked after hearing Tayarana’s confident response.

“Yeah, you’re a strong woman.”

There was no reason for him to be worried about her, as Ra’s blessing itself was already an extremely powerful buff.

Thud!

‘Hmm? Are they Magma Golems?’ Han-Yeol wondered while intently observing the monsters floating around a meter off the ground.

The monsters had round bodies, small heads, and long arms. They resembled certain monsters that often appeared in video games.

Gwooong!

They did not make sounds with their mouths. Instead, the strange sound resonated from their bodies.

‘I guess it’s not important whether they are golems or not.’

Han-Yeol shrugged and pulled out his chain.

Chwaaak!

Tayarana pulled out the spear on her back too.

Shwiiik…

‘Oof! That sound was too stimulating just now!’ Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly.

The sound his chain made was nothing special, but it was different from the sound the spear made when it was pulled out. The spear sounded as if it was undoing Tayarana’s bikini while it was getting pulled out, making it sound really erotic.

‘Huff… Huff… Concentrate! Calm down, Lee Han-Yeol!’

He had to exert supernatural self-control to calm himself down. He wanted to slap himself, but he was worried Tayarana would think he was crazy if he did so.

“Haaaap!”

Chwak! Baaaaam!

Neither Han-Yeol or Tayarana were one hundred percent ready for battle after just coming up from the river of magma, but they plowed through the monsters like they always did.

Fortunately, the Magma Golems did not spawn endlessly like the Corrupted Fire Spirits.

Shwaaak!

They might be different from the Corrupted Fire Spirits, but they still had the same weakness against the ice attribute. Han-Yeol infused ice attributes into his weapons and mercilessly swung them around, causing the Magma Golems to drop dead like flies.

Bam!

‘Whoa…’

This was Han-Yeol’s first time seeing Tayarana fight without her Horus Suit. Unsurprisingly, she was still strong.

‘I heard she received various training since she was young. I see her fundamentals are really solid–unlike me…’

Tayarana possessed what Han-Yeol did not have. However, he was not jealous of her or anything.

Han-Yeol would have suffered from not having any basic training if he was an ordinary Hunter, but he possessed the ability to level up and grow stronger. He would have definitely been jealous of her if he did not possess this ability, as he tended to have quite the rotten personality at times, but he had no reason to be jealous.

‘Ah, I’d be lying if I said I’m completely unbothered by it. I mean, I do feel a bit jealous,’ Han-Yeol thought with a shrug.

He turned into a battlefreak after awakening as a Hunter, so it was impossible for him not to feel jealous at all.

The battle against the Magma Golems was not that difficult for Han-Yeol and Tayarana. Luckily, the monsters guarding the altar did not endlessly spawn like the Corrupted Fire Spirits outside.

‘Skill Combination!’

Han-Yeol focused on creating different offensive skills with the ice property, rendering the Magma Golems powerless against him. The ice he created instantaneously extinguished their flames, incapacitating them.

Tayarana, too, eliminated the Magma Golems almost at the same rate as Han-Yeol did.

“Phew! That’s the end of that.”

[Yeah, good job, Han-Yeol.]

“Haha! This isn’t even a job.”

[Yeah, I guess you’re right.]