Leveling Up Alone

Disclaimer: The plot, characters, and opinions presented in this novel are purely fictional and do not necessarily represent the views of Wuxiaworld, our translators or partners.

Han-Yeol could be branded as a traitor in this day and age where countries had closed off their borders, but he did not really care about all that.

‘Being patriotic is also a mental disease…’

This was Han-Yeol’s honest opinion. He believed that a Hunter was already doing everything for their country if they did not try to evade taxes and faithfully paid it. Everything else after that was up to the individual’s personal beliefs, and nobody could say anything about that.

Mariam translated Han-Yeol's words to Tayarana.

[Of course, I will give you the unique item, and grant you the special member status that gives you complete freedom,] Tayarana said.

“Tayarana-nim said that she will give you the unique item and grant you a special member status that grants you complete freedom,” Mariam translated.

“Haha, then the conditions are not bad for me at all. When should we sign the contract?” Han-Yeol asked.

[Go through the rest of the details with Mariam instead,] Tayarana said.

“You may discuss the rest of the details regarding the contract with me,” Mariam said.

[Mariam, call me when you are done,] Tayarana said.

[I understand, Tayarana-nim,] Mariam said.

After leaving the rest of the work to Mariam, Tayarana got up from her sofa and left the living room.

Han-Yeol and Yoo-Bi also stood up from their seats. It was customary in Korean culture to stand up from one’s seat when an elderly person or a person of higher status got up from theirs.

Tayarana might only be twenty years old, but she was still a charismatic princess who carried an air of dignity around her. People would automatically acknowledge her status.

Han-Yeol knew that Tayarana was the same age as him, but he found it hard to believe. The two of them carried themselves so differently.

‘As expected… Royalty have a different air around them,’ Han-Yeol thought.

He could not use Demon Eyes because of its distinct characteristics that made his eyes glow red, but he could tell that she was at least two levels stronger than him. He had seen her fight against the terrorists, after all.

‘Well I’m certain that Tayarana isn’t a Master Rank Hunter, but she did mention that she’s an S Rank Hunter,’ Han-Yeol thought while recalling the information he knew about her.

An S Rank Hunter was already in a position where they could easily obtain whatever riches and treasures they wished to have. In fact, the S Rank could be seen as the pinnacle of the Hunters since the Master Ranked Hunters could be considered an anomaly.

Not to mention, Tayarana was considered the noblest person in Egypt, a country where the caste system was reenacted. She was revered by the Egyptians as a child from heaven. This made it all the more of a mystery that someone of her status would personally come all the way to Korea, and it was an even bigger mystery that she would recruit Han-Yeol to her raid party.

The negotiations between Han-Yeol and Mariam regarding the contract finally began after Tayarana left the room. Horus was the correct name of the private raid party that Tayarana owned and used to enter Korea, although they did lie about their identity prior to this negotiation.

“We, the Horus raid party, hold Han-Yeol-nim’s abilities in high regard. Of course, we do value your various healing and support skills highly, but the Horus raid party holds the combat sense and prowess you displayed when you hunted the Land Stalkers alone even higher. That is why we, the Horus raid party, have decided to not restrict you to a solely healing or supporting role, but to allow you to roam and do whatever you want in a hunt. We are also offering to let you have the freedom to do whatever you want during the time you do not have any scheduled hunts with us,” Mariam explained.

“Hmm…” Han-Yeol muttered.

Han-Yeol pretended to act cool on the surface, but he felt a bit surprised inwardly. He had thought that the Horus raid party only offered to recruit him because of his healing and supportive skills, which he had focused on showing off. However, they were valuing him on a much higher level than what he initially expected.

Han-Yeol, who was a little shocked by the unexpected offer, asked, “Can you tell me more?”

“This is a personal offer made by Tayarana-nim, so please consider it as a formal offer. Our Horus raid party wishes to recruit Han-Yeol Hunter-nim as the Vice Commander and Special Operator for the raid party,” Mariam said with a serious look.

‘Vice Commander

?!’ Han-Yeol could not help but feel shocked.

Then, Mariam continued, “And the dividend for the mana stones and monster corpses will be raised to 2.8 times. On top of that, I have explained earlier that we will not interfere with your personal activities aside from the regularly scheduled raid hunts. Furthermore, we will grant you the authority to select anyone from the raid party to bring along for your personal hunts. Please rest assured about their skills. They are all great Egyptian warriors, so they will not be lacking in their ability.”

“A-Are you serious? Is this really a valid offer?” Han-Yeol muttered in surprise.

He could not believe the conditions that the Horus raid party was offering him, even though he was listening to them with his own two ears. Their offer was totally unheard of in the industry.

“Heh, you are surprised as expected,” Mariam said with a smile.

Snap!

Mariam snapped her fingers before a woman wearing a traditional Egyptian attire came in and handed a yellow envelope to her. Then, she handed the yellow envelope to Han-Yeol and said, “This is our official contract, please have a look.”

“Ah, thank you,” Han-Yeol replied before he opened the yellow envelope that Mariam had handed over.

The yellow envelope contained three contracts, each of which were ten pages long. One contract was written in Korean, one in English, and the last one was in Arabic.

English was still the universal language of the world despite the drastic changes the world had gone through over the years. That was because the United States was still the most powerful country in the world, even though it had lost most of its past influence and its ideals had changed to a more conservative nationalistic ideology.

The United States used to police the world, expanding its influence by stationing its armies in numerous countries, but they were also the first to instantly change and take up a more conservative stance when the emergence of mana stones made oil obsolete and put an end to the oil era. They were the first to develop technology to refine mana stones and nurture outstanding Hunters to position themselves as the most powerful nation while China was struggling with its own internal affairs.

Currently, the United States was even more terrifying compared to their past self because Made in the U.S.A. was the industry standard for all Hunters’ equipment that utilized mana stones. In fact, the rest of the world followed the industry standard that had been set by them.

This was a testament to the superior technology of the Americans. The Americans, armed with their newfound technological superiority, progressed from policing the world to monopolizing the big markets by making sure that no trade could occur between other countries if they were not involved.

The United States started to exercise even more influence around the world than ever before now that China and Russia were faltering, thus leaving the Americans unchecked.

“Hmm…” Han-Yeol muttered while going over the contract.

Naturally, he was only looking at the contract written in Korean. He did not speak English properly, let alone Arabic, so they did not have to prepare three different contracts.

‘I guess I have no choice but to study English and Arabic from now on,’ he thought.

English was the universal language, so learning it was bound to be an advantage for him. As for Arabic, he had to study it since he was going to be spending time with Egyptians from now, and his pride wouldn’t allow him to rely on translators all the time.

“Hmm… The conditions are exactly as you said they would be. By the way, when you said that I could take any Egyptian Hunter from the raid party… Does that mean that I can run my own raid party with them…?” Han-Yeol asked.

It was a very sensitive topic, so Han-Yeol wanted to get this part right.

“It is as you said. Tayarana-nim is extremely busy so she cannot hunt that often, but that does not mean that you, Han-Yeol Hunter-nim, should be associating with other imbeciles… Especially those Korean Hunters, who are untrustworthy,” Mariam said.

‘Haha… I hate myself for not being able to refute that…’ Han-Yeol thought. It was a fact that even he did not trust Korean Hunters as well.

He could tell at a single glance that the Hunters guarding this mansion alone were more than enough to form multiple raid parties.

‘To think that she is able to treat Hunters like her personal attendants… Is Tayarana that amazing or is it just because of their culture?’

Han-Yeol could not help but wonder, since even the lowest ranking F Rank Hunters had to be paid a salary of at least a hundred million won to be hired as a personal bodyguard. Yet, the Egyptian Hunters guarding this place seemed to be at least C Rank, based on the amount of mana they were exuding.

‘Amazing, just simply amazing…!’ Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly in admiration.

Han-Yeol would not have batted an eye if they had tried to control him through force, since he was going to grow stronger anyway. However, them treating him with respect and shoving money down his pockets made him ridiculous docile.

Han-Yeol began to think that he should not be satisfied with his current wealth, which was about to hit 1 trillion won, and that he should be aiming for more. Gaining a newfound ambition, he thought to himself, ‘Instead of just becoming the best hunter in Korea… I should also try aiming at becoming the richest man in Korea as well.’

He steeled his resolve to achieve his new goal, since a man should at least try to keep their word if they said that they would do something.

He felt excited at the idea of becoming not only Korea’s best Hunter but also the richest man when…

Mariam suddenly said, “Oh, I almost forgot the last part of the deal.”

Snap!

Mariam once again snapped her fingers and gestured for the two attendants to bring in a heavy wooden box that looked quite luxurious.

Han-Yeol’s sensitive ears caught the sound of clinking whenever the box moved, and he could tell that it was the sound of metal hitting the corners of the box. He wondered, ‘What is that?’

Kwang!

The wooden box let out a loud sound when the two attendants placed it on the table, and the sound alone showed how heavy it was.

Han-Yeol immediately expected that the box was probably filled with all sorts of unusual items. He quickly asked, “What is this?”

“This is the unique item that we’ve promised to give you. Giving this item to you will be a big blow to our raid party, but this proves how highly Tayarana-nim values you, Han-Yeol-nim. Also, this unique item seems to be a perfect match for Han-Yeol-nim’s fight style. It might be a loss for us, the Horus raid party, to lose this item, but it is not a burden that Tayarana-nim would be affected by, so please accept our gift without worries,” Mariam explained in response.

Gulp…!

With a loud gulp, Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly, ‘I-It’s a unique item!’

He had heard several stories about the existence of unique items when he had been working as a Porter, but they were so rare that he had never seen one in person before. In fact, it was a well known fact that only four of the six Master Rank Hunters in Korea were in possession of such an item because of how rare and difficult it was to obtain one.

Of course, only a few select people were really aware if only four of the six Master Hunters were really in possession of unique items or if there were more than the general public was actually aware of.

“Please open it. A treasure must be opened by its rightful owner before becoming a true treasure,” Mariam said.

“Right,” Han-Yeol replied as he nervously lifted the heavy lid of the wooden box.

Creak…

The lid opened to reveal…

“Whoa?!” Han-Yeol exclaimed.

“Wow! This is amazing!” Yoo-Bi exclaimed in amazement.

Han-Yeol was so surprised that his mouth was left wide open. It was true that the unique item suited him perfectly.

Yoo-Bi had also learned about unique items, so she was well aware that they were incredibly valuable items. However, she did not feel particularly envious nor greedy. It was an item that was out of her league, so she only felt happy for Han-Yeol.

“Are you really giving this to me?” Han-Yeol asked.

“Yes, please consider it as a down payment for joining our Horus raid party. Please do not feel too burdened by accepting it. After all, only Han-Yeol Hunter-nim is allowed to use this unique item,” Mariam said.

“Well… I guess you are right,” Han-Yeol said.

Han-Yeol looked at the unique item that looked like a chain, which exuded a blue hue that seemed to be calling out to him. It felt as if it was calling for him to quickly use it.

“Incredible… Where did you find this?” Han-Yeol asked.

Mariam looked extremely proud before answering, “Heh... I wish I could tell you the story from the very beginning, but I will have to summarize it since we are short on time. That treasure was found in the pharaoh’s room of the thirteenth pyramid, but only a few people were proficient enough in using a chain. It only felt like a heavy burdensome tool when we got someone proficient with the whip to try and use it. We judged that it must be a rare treasure when we saw the subtle mana emitting from it.”

“Ah, that is a possibility,” Han-Yeol replied.

He thought, ‘As expected, Egypt is a paradise for unique items.’

Egypt was one of the few countries that had been well off before the Dimensional Gates appeared.

They failed to flourish despite being an oil-producing country mainly due to their political instability, enduring unending external and internal conflicts. In the end, the country was held back by its problems. It turned into a third-world country even though it was the country that was the cradle of the rich history of the ancient Egyptian civilization.

However, everything changed after the Dimensional Gates appeared.

“There are hunting grounds in every single pyramid in Egypt. The hunting grounds that formed from Pyramid 1 to Pyramid 112 alone are quite valuable, and these are quite lucrative hunting grounds that still hold secrets and mysteries that are yet to be unraveled. That is why it will not be long until Egypt shall regain her former glory,” Mariam proudly declared.

It was exactly as Mariam said. There were a total of 112 pyramids in Egypt, and surprisingly, a hunting ground formed in every single one of these pyramids.

Tokki's Thoughts

The plot, characters, and opinions presented in this novel are purely fictional and do not necessarily represent the views of Wuxiaworld, our translators or partners.