Leveling Up Alone

"Ah... The place is so huge that we still have a bit further to go till we reach our destination."

"Y-Yeah.."

There was still quite a distance until their final destination, according to their navigation.

'Hmm... Are they a personal raid party of some rich person who’s not known to the public...?' Han-Yeol wondered. He had heard rumors of these kinds of raid parties, but he had never personally seen one before.

It was said that everyone had an equal chance of becoming a Hunter, and this meant that even the rich had the chance to become one. However, the super-rich that were already on a whole different scale usually created their own private raid parties with their massive wealth when they awakened as a Hunter, and they tended to be in an entirely different league compared to a normal party when it came to their members, party size, equipment, staffs, and so on.

These kinds of secretive unknown raid parties were also known as the ‘secret raid party’ to people who knew of their existence, since even those that heard of them knew nothing about them.

‘Ah… Everything is going to finally make sense if that’s the case…’ Han-Yeol thought as he finally managed to make sense of the situation. ‘I guess that must be the reason why they promised to give me a unique item.’

The rich had too much money on their hands anyway, so throwing a few bucks here and there was not going to make a dent in their pockets.

‘Well… I'm fine with anything as long as they are not related to the TK Group,’ Han-Yeol thought.

Of course, Han-Yeol had not made any promises of joining the Horus raid party and he still planned on conducting a final interview with them before signing the contract and officially entering their ranks. He had no plans on accepting the offer even if the TK Group kowtowed to him, since there was bad blood between them and the history with Sung Jin Factory too.

‘Although, it would be best if they are affiliated with the S group,’ Han-Yeol thought.

The S Group was the most appealing conglomerate for Han-Yeol among all of the companies in Korea, but of course, he was only going to find out their identity after meeting them.

Han-Yeol was lost in his own thoughts when a large mansion finally came into view in front of him. He was shocked. ‘T-They said it was only a small house!’

He found it absurd to refer to a large mansion that resembled a medieval-age castle as a modest small house even though he already knew that the rich had a totally different sense of real estate spaces.

Han-Yeol, whose assets were yet to exceed 1 trillion won, felt like he had entered a different country the moment he approached the gates. He thought in amazement, ‘So this is the class of the super-rich…’

“Wow, this house is so beautiful!” Yoo-Bi exclaimed with sparkling eyes.

Yoo-Bi fell in love with the architectural design of the humongous mansion while Han-Yeol felt slightly intimidated by the size of it.

Architecture was something that Yoo-Bi had always been interested in even before becoming a Porter, and she would have chosen to study architecture at university if her family’s situation had allowed her to. In fact, her love for architecture remained even while she had been hopelessly wandering around aimlessly or had already changed her career path to a Porter.

Han-Yeol saw Yoo-Bi’s reaction and said, “That’s true, it really is a beautiful mansion that can only be seen abroad or on the internet.”

His reaction was a bit milder compared to Yoo-Bi. He might be interested in beautiful houses, but he wasn’t interested enough to look them up during his free time.

Vroom…!

Clack…!

The mansion’s gate opened automatically as Han-Yeol’s vehicle approached it. It seemed that the people from the initial entrance had already informed them of their arrival.

‘Hmm, but that’s weird… A rich person with a mansion and land of this size should have appeared on the internet or the news at least once,’ Han-Yeol thought.

Critics might say that Korea had low freedom of press to report on wealthy and influential people, but the new outlets made sure to pounce on juicy gossip stories, such as humongous mansion for example, like a group of hungry hyenas.

Han-Yeol was up to date with any kind of rumor or news in the country, but he did not recall hearing of a person wealthy enough to possess a mansion of this scale in Gapyeong.

‘I wonder, is he some rich man working in the media industry?’ Han-Yeol wondered.

Han-Yeol thought that there was a possibility of the person being some kind of media conglomerate. However, after giving it some more thought, that did not make much sense. The person could not have possibly stopped every news article about him no matter how influential he was in the media world.

However…

‘W-W-What?!’ Han-Yeol was astounded by the scene that greeted him next. He could see the rows of bodyguards and attendants who were lined up near the entrance of the mansion.

Han-Yeol glanced at Yoo-Bi, who was still oblivious to what was going on since the mansion had already fully captivated her.

‘T-They’re all foreigners?’

Han-Yeol thought.

On top of that, most of them seemed to be of Middle Eastern descent, and the theories lingering in Han-Yeol’s mind instantly disappeared the moment he saw them.

‘Wait a minute… The two bodyguards at the entrance were Koreans, but…Even though the rest of them are wearing sunglasses, they definitely look like foreigners without a doubt. If that is the case, it seems like the owner of this place is a foreigner, and Horus is the name of the raid party!’ Han-Yeol deduced, finally thinking in the right direction.

However, Han-Yeol was running out of time.

“Oh? Oppa, everyone here are foreigners?” Yoo-Bi asked.

As Han-Yeol parked according to the instruction of one of the attendants, Yoo-Bi finally noticed the people around her after she was done admiring the mansion.

“Y-Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on either,” Han-Yeol said.

He kept analyzing the situation even though he had no idea what was going on. He thought to himself, ‘Horus is the name of an Egyptian god... Which means all these people are likely to be Egyptian, but why would an Egyptian raid party choose me?’

It was indeed strange that an Egyptian raid party was in Korea in the first place.

As mentioned earlier, the Dimensional Gates that had appeared all over the world created a whole new meaning to ‘Earth’ that aimed to unite all countries under its banner. Most countries did agree to cooperate with one another in the end.

However, this movement had gone in another direction entirely when the countries found out that they could achieve self-sufficiency through the mana stones generated from their own countries. This actually minimized trade and even contact in some extreme cases to a minimum.

Because of that, it was quite difficult to run into foreigners these days, and it was also safe to say that it was even rarer to run into Hunters mixed among them.

‘Oh, perhaps they came here for the Korea-Egypt Hunter Cooperation Forum?’ Han-Yeol thought.

Contrary to the current international trend, Korea and Egypt maintained a very good relationship with each other. It would appear that their amicable relationship had brought these people here.

‘Ah! It seems that their raid party is here, but their Healers and Supporters probably decided to stay behind,’ Han-Yeol thought as a light bulb lit up in his head.

Healers and Supporters were quite scarce all over the world, and that was the reason why they were treated with respect wherever they went. There was no reason for them to travel all the way to a foreign land where they did not speak the language and were not accustomed to the food when they were practically treated like royalty back home. That was the reason why it made perfect sense that only the other classes had come to Korea this time.

‘I see now, that has to be the case,’ Han-Yeol thought while being fully convinced of his theory.

At the end of the day, however, all of that did not matter to him. He would be happy to join them as long as he could receive the unique item he had been promised and they helped him hunt more efficiently.

Just as Han-Yeol and Yoo-Bi got out of their car, a group of people approached them.

“Welcome, my name is Mariam. We sincerely welcome you, Lee Han-Yeol Hunter-nim,” Mariam introduced herself.

“Welcome,” the other attendants greeted.

The woman in traditional Egyptian attire who introduced herself as Mariam in fluent Korean bowed, and all the attendants behind her followed suit.

“Ah, nice to meet you. You look like a foreigner, but how are you so fluent in Korean?” Han-Yeol asked.

Mariam only stood upright after Han-Yeol finished speaking.

‘She's beautiful,’ Han-Yeol thought while looking at her face.

Middle-Eastern women were not really Han-Yeol’s type, but Mariam was a woman who even he had to admit was beautiful.

“I have been studying for the past three years in hopes of coming to Korea someday ever since the Korea-Egypt cooperation agreement took place. Please forgive me if my language is lacking in any way,” Mariam said.

“Haha… You are better than most Koreans,” Han-Yeol complimented Mariam.

Mariam was so fluent in the Korean language that she did not hesitate nor stutter even when speaking in long sentences.

“Thank you for the compliment. Please, come this way. Our master has been looking forward to meeting you, Lee Han-Yeol Hunter-nim,” Mariam said.

‘She even knows how to be courteous?’[1]Han-Yeol thought while being impressed by Mariam once again as it seemed that Mariam had studied a lot.

‘Phew, well, at least, it looks like language won’t be an issue,’ Han-Yeol was relieved that an Egyptian was so fluent in Korean, since he was initially worried how a Korean was going to translate in the first place.

“Oppa,” Yoo-Bi called Han-Yeol, who was still standing in the same spot.

“Ah, alright,” Han-Yeol snapped out of his own thoughts and followed the two women.

Step… Step…

Mariam led Han-Yeol and Yoo-Bi to a large living room in the mansion.

[Tayarana-nim, I am here with Lee Han-Yeol Hunter-nim and his manager.] Mariam said in Arabic before entering the living room. She then bowed her head toward the person looking out the window.

Mariam had spoken in Arabic since Egypt was an Arab country.

‘Who’s that?’ Han-Yeol curiously thought before he stuck out his head to get a good look at the person who was looking out the window. Noticing that it was a woman, he then thought, ‘At least it’s better than working with a man.’

Han-Yeol definitely preferred to work with a woman instead of a big brawny man since he was going to enjoy his work better that way.

The woman who was looking out the window slowly turned toward them after hearing Mariam’s announcement.

‘W-W-What?! T-This can’t be!’ Han-Yeol was shocked when he saw the woman’s face.

“Y-You are?!” Han-Yeol exclaimed in surprise.

He had briefly met the woman at the scene of the terrorism and had thought that he would never get to see her again.

[Who is the goddess of Egypt, Tayarana?]

[The Noble Lady of Egypt, Tayarana!]

[Her followers alone make up one-third of Egypt’s population!]

[The spiritual pillar of the whole African continent.]

Various news agencies continued releasing information about Tayarana with all sorts of eye-catching headlines, and Han-Yeol, who was curious about her, had faithfully read everything about her. He was only curious since they had already met once, and that was why he tried to learn more about her.

The articles about Tayarana were only filled with praise. Perhaps it was written upon Egypt’s request or the journalists were just huge fans of hers, but every single article about her was positive. Of course, some online communities criticized her out of envy of the attention she was getting from the media, but those online slanders failed to influence the public’s opinion of her even for a bit.

In fact, there were some cases of the online slanderers who had been doxed after posting malicious things about her, but nobody really paid any attention to them.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Lee Han-Yeol,” Han-Yeol introduced himself.

“My name is Han Yoo-Bi,” Yoo-Bi introduced herself.

Then, Han-Yeol approached Tayarana to offer a handshake.

Step… Step…

The two female bodyguards beside Tayarana flinched the moment Han-Yeol approached and they immediately tried to unsheath the swords on their waists, but Mariam quickly stopped them.

[Do not interfere!]

A powerful telepathic wave hit the two bodyguards in the head.

‘Euk!’

‘Keuk!’

The bodyguards had instinctively unsheathed their swords even though they had been instructed not to interfere because of their loyalty toward Tayarana. They were also in a foreign land, so the tension within them was at the max.

The bodyguards straightened their posture after recovering from the mental shock.

[I apologize.]

[I am sorry, Mariam-nim.]

They acknowledged their mistakes, bowed their heads, and stepped back to their original positions.

The entire thing had transpired in just a few seconds amongst themselves, but Han-Yeol, who had telepathic skills of his own, had overheard everything the moment Mariam used telepathy on the bodyguards.

His telepathic skill had leveled up to B Rank through his communication with the demons, Kajikar in particular, so he was able to easily intercept other telepathic communications.

‘These people are weird…’ Han-Yeol thought.

Nevertheless, he ignored what happened and extended his hand toward Tayarana to request for a handshake. Tayarana stared at Han-Yeol’s extended hand before she extended hers and gently shook his hand.

‘So soft…’ Han-Yeol thought while admiring the sensation on his hand.

He was aware that Tayarana was a Hunter just like him, but her hands were so soft that it felt like he was touching a cup of pudding.

‘What’s wrong with me?!’ Han-Yeol thought in surprise as he quickly got rid of the strange thoughts in his mind. It was unacceptable for him to have such weird thoughts of her, since she was not just another ordinary person but Tayarana, a revered international goddess as well as the Princess of Egypt.

There were numerous men who would cry themselves to sleep at the thought of Han-Yeol having a one-to-one meeting with Tayarana, and they might start terrorizing him if they found out that he even shook her hand on top of his meeting.

“Please, have a seat,” Mariam said. She stepped forward and recommended Han-Yeol to have a seat after the two shook hands.

“Ah, okay,” Han-Yeol muttered in reply.

Han-Yeol and Yoo-Bi sat on a very soft and luxurious sofa at Mariam’s beckoning. Tayarana sat on the seat of honor while Mariam sat across from them.

[First of all, I apologize for hiding my identity when I approached you,] Tayarana said.

“Tayarana-nim would like to apologize for lying about her identity and participating in the public raid party selection meeting,” Mariam translated.

“Oh, that’s all right. It does not matter whether you keep your identity private or public anyway, since you have been officially selected… As long as you keep what you promised during the open selection,” Han-Yeol replied.

He did not really care whether he was working with an Egyptian raid party or a Korean raid party.

1. The original actually says ‘she even knows the four-character idioms?’ since she used that in the previous sentence, but it does not make sense in English so it has been substituted. ☜