Leveling Up Alone

Peuk! Bam!

“Guaaah!”?The Orc roared in agony.

The fight was now finally a one-on-one fight which was the type of fight that Han-Yeol was most confident of.

He pushed back the Orc with Shield Bash. The Orc tried to block Han-Yeol’s attack with its shield, but his attack was infused with mana. The Orc was eventually pushed back before it lost its balance and staggered backward.

‘Now!’?Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly.

Puk!

Han-Yeol did not miss the opportunity and stabbed the Orc’s neck.

“Grrruoh…”?The Orc let out a groan.

His sword punctured the Orc’s neck and came through the other side, and blood flowed out from the Orc’s mouth before it dropped down to the ground and died.

“Fire!”

Ratatatata!

Sung-Beom and Ah-Ri did not miss the opportunity as they opened fire and unleashed a barrage of bullets at the two Orcs that were down on the ground because of Han-Yeol’s chain.

“Kiek!”

“Gueeek!”

The Orcs squirmed on the ground as the bullets pricked them all over their bodies.

Han-Yeol pulled the chain once again, and the Orc tied to the end of the chain was helplessly flung in the air as it flew back to Han-Yeol.

It was at that moment that the Orc was flying through the air toward Han-Yeol that.

Sukeok!

Han-Yeol swung his sword and cut the Orc in half.

Pat! Pat! Pat!

The Orc’s organs and blood splattered all over the place as it littered and stained the asphalt road. Han-Yeol killed two Orcs in an instant, and he immediately kicked off the ground and charged toward the last remaining Orc.

“Ceasefire!” Sung-Beom bellowed an order when he saw Han-Yeol running toward the other Orcs.

The Orcs finally managed to get back up to their feet, but…

“Kieruk?”

“Haaaap!”

Shwaaaak!

The first thing the Orcs saw was the chain-wielding human who knew when he got there. They tried to react and raise their shields, but the human was already behind them, ready to strike. The Orcs turned around in an attempt to exact vengeance against the human that killed two of their comrades, but they suddenly felt a burning sensation on their necks that made them slowly lose consciousness and fall to the ground.

“Gruuu…”?The Orcs groaned as their vision started to spin, and the chain-wielding human looked gigantic for some reason.

Swoosh! Sukeok!

Han-Yeol swung his sword and the hook attached to the end of his chain at the same time and cleanly cut both of the Orcs’ necks off. He then looked back and wiped the blood off of his sword on his clothes. He had plenty of spare clothes to change into so his main priority was always to maintain his expensive equipment.

Ding!

[Your level has risen.]

‘Alright, status,’?Han-Yeol thought as he opened his stats window.

Name: Lee Han-Yeol

Level: 31

Points: 5

STR: 83

VIT: 78

AGI: 72

MAG: 95

LCK: 10

Skills: Dismember (D), Sword Mastery (C), Walking (C), Mana Control (D), Mana Mastery (E), Power Strike (C), Mana Shield (D), Sixth Sense (D), Restrain (C), Body Strengthening (D), Mana Eyes (E), Heal (A), Jumping (D), Stab (D), Dagger Mastery (F), Chain Mastery (B), Infinite Library (M), Shield Bash (D), Fire Attribute (E), Mana Explosion (D), Chain Smite (C), Marksmanship (E), Martial Arts (F).

Han-Yeol invested all of his bonus stat points into MAG after checking his stats, and his MAG stat was now exactly at 100.

“…”

“Sung-Beom, do you think that is possible?” Ah-Ri asked.

Sung-Beom and Ah-Ri could not believe their eyes even though they saw everything unfold in front of their very eyes. Yes, Han-Yeol went around hunting the Giant Ants with relative ease, but he still struggled against the Orcs. However, that same Hunter that barely won against the Orcs a month ago was now going around massacring the very same Orcs he struggled against.

“I don’t know as well to be honest. How is this even possible? Don’t tell me… No way, there’s no way he possesses a growth-type ability,” Sung-Beom said.

Sung-Beom seemed to be certain that Han-Yeol was not a growth-type Hunter. He also dreamt of becoming a Hunter so he also frequently investigated and studied the various types of Hunters. A Hunter, based on Sung-Beom’s logic and understanding, awakened with a set of skills and the only way for a Hunter to grow stronger was if they learned to have better control and understanding of their skills. The Hunters eventually grew stronger and their mana capacity increased as they continuously used their skills more often, but there was no other way aside from this for a Hunter to grow stronger.

However, the Hunter that they were currently following around was growing stronger right in front of their eyes.

‘It’s still within logical?reasoning, but the problem is… I don’t think his growth is going to stop any time soon,’?Sung-Beom thought as his instinct screamed the obvious.

“Sung-Beom,” Ah-Ri called out to him before she came beside him and held his arm.

Sung-Beom and Ah-Ri grew closer while working as Porters for Han-Yeol, and they soon ended up in a relationship. Ah-Ri looked at Sung-Beom for a while before he nodded and put his hand into his left breast pocket.

“Porters, please hurry up this time as well,” Han-Yeol said.

“Ah! Yes, Hunter-nim!” Sung-Beom replied.

The two jumped up in surprise like they did something wrong when Han-Yeol called out while they were intently staring at each other. They rushed to take care of two Orcs each, and they immediately proceeded to dismember them.

Then, Han-Yeol used ‘Jumping’ to climb up to the roof of a building.

‘Four Orcs weren’t that bad,’?he thought.

He recalled struggling against the Orcs previously, but his consistent growth now allowed him to fight against four Orcs simultaneously with relative ease.

Han-Yeol was about to scout his surroundings when.

Boooom!

“What the?” he muttered in response to the sudden explosion.

‘Mana Eyes,’?he infused mana into his eyes.

He hurriedly scanned over the area where he heard the sound of the explosion from.

‘It’s those guys from a while ago. Didn’t they go west?’?he thought.

He was certain that they went west a while ago, and that was the main reason why he decided to move east. He found it funny that they were suddenly right up his nose while causing a ruckus.

‘Should we move west?’?he pondered.

Suddenly.

“Kyaaaaaah!”?The sound of a woman screaming rang out from the direction he was looking at.

The wavelength of mana suddenly changed while he was thinking of something else, and he could no longer clearly see what was going on with the group.

‘What the? What’s going on over there?’?he thought.

He pondered for a moment before he decided to go check it out. He was curious about what was going on over there, and he could not just simply ignore the woman’s scream as well.

He used ‘Jumping’ to jump from one building to another, and he used his chain like a human spider to swing from one building to another if it was too far for him to jump.

He was shocked when he arrived at the place where the sound of the explosion came from.

‘What the hell is that?’?he thought in shock as he watched over the scene in front of him from the balcony on the second floor of a building.

An Orc three times larger than a normal Orc with its equipment being three times larger and thicker than the usual ones used by the Orcs was standing there with a commanding presence.

‘Mana Eyes,’?he infused mana into his eyes to gauge the mana of the gigantic Orc.

“!!”

Han-Yeol was shocked for the second time.

‘How?is this possible?!”?he exclaimed inwardly.

He was shocked because the Mutant Orc had an abundant amount of densely concentrated mana.

There was one other individual that he completely forgot about because of the Mutant Orc.

Bam!

“Kyaaaaah!”?A woman holding a large shield screamed.

The woman flew backward and crashed into a building when the Orc hit her with its large glaive.

“Euuuh…”?The woman groaned in pain while struggling to get up. Her clothes were in tatters and her body was covered in bruises and blood.

‘I can steal in these kinds of cases, right?’?Han-Yeol pondered for a moment.

It was taboo to kill steal a monster that another Hunter was hunting, but Han-Yeol was able to easily make up his mind since the current situation was closer to performing a rescue than a kill steal.

Han-Yeol extended his left hand and threw his chain at the Orc that was momentarily distracted by the woman.

Shwiiiiik!

His chain moved like a snake as it coiled itself around the neck of the gigantic Orc.

“Kireuk?”?The Mutant Orc muttered as it tilted its head in confusion.

The chain tightly bound itself around the Mutant Orc’s neck, and Han-Yeol infused more mana into his chain before he pulled it with all of his strength. It was an extra measure he took instead of simply relying on mana to bind the chain around the Mutant Orc’s neck.

The Mutant Orc’s neck was slowly getting squeezed by the chain as if it was an anaconda constricting its prey. However, the Mutant Orc did not sit around and do nothing while the chain was choking it.

The Mutant Orc pulled the chain.

Clink!

“Eh? Ah?!” Han-Yeol exclaimed in surprise at the Mutant Orc’s strength which was multiple folds stronger than a normal Orc, and he had to expend more mana just to not get pulled by the Mutant Orc.

Han-Yeol gripped the chain as tight as he could while thinking, ‘What monstrous strength…!’

However, the Mutant Orc pulled even harder, and Han-Yeol felt his body slowly get lifted off of the ground.

‘Damn it! Here goes nothing!’?he thought as he decided to let the chain drag him.

He was now up in the air, and it was not easy to maintain his balance in mid-air. He squeezed his core muscles as tight as possible as he struggled to maintain his balance.

‘I will end this in one strike,’?he steeled his resolve before flying through the air.

Han-Yeol decided that there was no way that he would be able to win against the Mutant Orc in a contest of strength, and that was why he kicked off the railing of the balcony he was standing at to propel himself toward the Mutant Orc.

“Grwuooooh!”?The Mutant Orc roared and pulled the chain harder when it noticed that the chain became lax without even knowing that what it did just now was going to seal its fate.

The Mutant Orc pulled as hard as it could and this only propelled Han-Yeol faster toward it. Han-Yeol flew like a bullet toward the Mutant Orc’s head, and he activated his skills which explosively boosted his muscles before he stabbed the Mutant Orc.

Puuuk!

“Kiiiieeeeek!”?The Mutant Orc shrieked in agony as the sound of its skin and muscles being ripped apart by the Hunter’s sword reverberated through the air.

It was inevitable for the Mutant Orc to receive fatal damage no matter how strong it was if it was hit dead center at the back of its head which was an Orcs’ fatal weak spot.

The Mutant Orc spat out blood before it fell face first toward the ground.

Bam!

Han-Yeol, who was dangling at the back of the Mutant Orc’s head, pulled his sword out and jumped up before he landed on the ground in a cool pose.

‘Ha! That was a piece of cake,’?he arrogantly thought as he shrugged his shoulders.

***

Han-Yeol approached the bloodied woman and checked her condition after taking care of the Mutant Orc.

“Kuheok! Cough! Cough!”

The woman was in critical condition.

‘Figures. The stupidly strong Orc landed a clean hit on her after all,’?he thought after checking the woman’s condition.

She seemed like a Main Tank from her looks, and perhaps it was because of her position but she managed to stay conscious all this time.

Han-Yeol used Mana Eyes to check her condition, but her body was in a mess as he expected that her mana was now flowing irregularly and she was in a condition where she was going to die if she did not receive immediate treatment.

A Hunter usually had the ability to naturally heal from most kinds of injuries, and it was rare for a Hunter to succumb to their injuries and die. They healed slower the more severe the injury was, but they still had the innate ability to fully heal themselves nonetheless.

However, the woman had most of the mana pathways in her body all tangled up or ruined, and she was definitely going to die if nothing was done as soon as possible.

Han-Yeol looked at another female Hunter that was a few distances away from them, ‘She’s dead.’ 𝚋𝚎ｄｎｏｖ𝚎𝚕．𝚌ｏｍ

He sensed a little bit of mana on the other woman, but those were the mana that was slowly going to dissipate after the Hunter died.

‘Did the others run away?’?he wondered.

He was certain that he saw five Hunters if this was the same party he saw three hours ago, but there was only one dead and one barely alive here, and he could not find any other dead Hunters nearby no matter how much he looked around. Also, there was no human blood or human remains on the dead Mutant Orc’s teeth.

‘How pitiful,’?he thought.

Of course, it was not like he did not understand why the other three ran away, but they ended up committing a grave crime due to the unexpected intervention of Han-Yeol.

It was a huge taboo among Hunters to abandon one’s own comrades, and this was an offense punishable under the laws of the Hunters’ Association.

“H…Help… me…” the shield-wielding female Hunter reached out and begged the Hunter in front of her for help as she squeezed every single bit of her remaining consciousness.

She could not afford to die here. She still had to take care of her young little sister after losing her parents to the dimensional gate outbreak. Her little sister was going to end up at an orphanage if she died here, and no one could tell what kind of cruel future awaited her little sister if she was sent to an orphanage.

“Oh right, I forgot about her,” Han-Yeol said.

He completely forgot about having to treat her while his mind wandered somewhere else.

He placed his hand on the abdomen of the female Hunter, who had most of the bones in her body broken.

‘Just don’t report me for sexual harassment… Heal!’?he thought before he used his skill.

Wooooong…!

A wave of blue energy emanated from Han-Yeol’s palm and spread all over the female Tank’s body before her body absorbed the blue energy. Han-Yeol’s ‘Heal’ only glowed a bit when he first used it, but it was now a very effective skill that had an imposing presence when used after reaching A-Rank.

It did not heal as much as the instant heals of the Healers, but it was now capable of healing a wide array of illnesses and injuries compared to when he first got it.

The female Tank had broken bones all over her body and was in a mess that anyone would have given up on her. However, she was slowly recovering while being healed by Han-Yeol, and she was close to fully recovering by now.

It was at that moment that Han-Yeol was healing the female Tank that someone called out from behind.

“Hunter-nim!”