Leveling Up Alone

Han-Yeol could finally relax now.

Yes, he only managed to get the Spatial Attribute skill, but the fact that he found out the secret behind obtaining it and its related skills was no different than him getting everything he needed. It would only be a matter of time before he obtained the other spatial skills, time attribute, and time skills, so he was no longer in a rush.

With both Demon Eyes and Analytic Eyes, Han-Yeol closely inspected P opening the portal.

Ziiiing!

Huff! Huff! Huff!

P had opened countless portals in his life, but it took him a long time to open this one since his body was not in optimal condition.

Thud!

He fell to his knees and hands after exhausting all of his remaining strength just from opening a single portal. Han-Yeol’s mana was still keeping the poison at bay, but it had already gnawed away at P’s stamina and mana. Also, the large gash on his waist caused him to lose copious amounts of blood, thus making him even weaker.

‘Tsk... Tsk...’ Han-Yeol clicked his tongue before picking up both P and James.

He was about to enter the portal with one man on each shoulder when someone suddenly cried out to him.

[W-Wait!]

“Hmm?” Han-Yeol turned around after hearing the voice. Then, he raised a brow and muttered, “Oh?”

Han-Yeol thought they were unconscious, but surprisingly, seven out of the nine RC Squad members were looking at him. They supported each other to their feet while huffing and puffing from the poison and losing too much blood. Unfortunately, it seemed that the other two did not make it.

[P-Please take us with you...!]

“I won’t stop you from following us,” Han-Yeol replied with a shrug. He did not feel like helping them, but he wasn’t going to stop them from saving themselves either. He might be cold at times, but he was not so cruel to push those struggling to survive to their deaths.

[T-Thank you!]

Both Red One and Red Two thanked Han-Yeol without an ounce of hesitation, which was a stark difference from their arrogant attitude toward him just a few hours ago.

However, there was a reason they were grateful right now. There were lots of Hunters who would bully or kill those weaker than them just because they felt offended or simply because they did not like them, so the fact that Han-Yeol did not cut off their lifeline was more than enough for them to thank him.

They dragged their legs across the ground and limped toward the portal while supporting each other.

In the end, P and the RC Squad failed their mission to rescue the Venezuelan Master-Rank Hunter, Adal, and they were forced to retreat to South Korea instead of the United States.

***

The place where they emerged was none other than the guest reception room where P first met Han-Yeol. Three Egyptian maids were cleaning the room when the portal suddenly opened and the bloodied group emerged from it.

“Kyah! H-Han-Yeol-nim!”

Thud!

The Gurkha raid party members patrolling nearby rushed over to the guest reception room after sensing the sudden surge of mana and hearing the maids’ screams.

Han-Yeol’s mansion was mostly peaceful, but the Gurkha raid party patrolled around it with the same seriousness soldiers would do during wartime, and their security would be best described as air tight.

The sudden surge of mana put all of the Gurkhas on high alert, yet what greeted them was not something out of the ordinary. It was their master whom they deeply respected—Lee Han-Yeol.

The Gurkhas immediately greeted him with a salute. “Sir! Welcome back!”

Han-Yeol saluted back like he always did and said, “Ah, great job, everyone. Also, can someone bring Tia here?”

“Yes, sir! We will bring her at once!”

Tak!

The Gurkhas kicked off the floor and sprung into action the moment Han-Yeol gave the command.

It would have been impossible for them to find Tia if she was outside of the mansion. The Arachnids were masters at hunting their prey, so they instinctively knew how to erase their presence at all times.

Tia’s ability to erase her presence was something Han-Yeol used to acknowledge, but after she evolved into the Arachnid Queen, even Han-Yeol would have trouble finding her unless he focused on it completely.

Therefore, the Gurkhas stood no chance of finding her if even a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter like Han-Yeol struggled to do so.

However, she was different when she was in the mansion. She had already acknowledged the interior of the mansion as her home and did not bother to erase her presence while inside it, making it easy for the Gurkhas to locate her.

Only a few minutes passed when Tia came to the reception room after the Gurkhas informed her of Han-Yeol’s arrival.

“I heard you called for me urgently, master? What’s wrong?”

“Ah, Tia. Sorry for suddenly calling you, but something urgent came up. These guys were poisoned by something I haven’t seen before, and I thought you would know since you’re the expert when it comes to poisons.”

“Poison?” Tia tilted her head in confusion.

She could not understand why Han-Yeol was looking for her over poison when a single cast of his Restore skill could detoxify every single poison out there. The only type of poison he could not detoxify were the ones that instantly killed the victim, but the humans with him seemed well and alive.

“That is...” Han-Yeol proceeded to explain everything that happened.

“What? Your Restore doesn’t work on it?” Tia asked with a look of disbelief that did not suit her. This was Han-Yeol’s first time seeing her make such an expression.

The Arachnids were a superior race, so Tia knew just how powerful Han-Yeol’s Restore was. His skill was the absolute counter to her abilities, so she tended to distance herself from him whenever he used it. Restore was one of the things Han-Yeol would use to teach Tia a lesson whenever she acted mischievously, but it would always upset her in the end, causing him to suffer the wrath of her vengeance.

Anyway, Tia took a look at the state of P and the RC Squad members.

“Hmm...”

Huff...! Huff...! Huff...!

Tia checked the pulses of P and the RC Squad members just like how Dae Jang-Geum[1] evaluated her patients.

However, unlike the royal physician, Tia did not check their pulses. Instead, she injected her mana into their veins to analyze the characteristics of the poison in their bodies.

The first-aid treatment Han-Yeol performed helped P and James stabilize for now, but the other RC Squad members were not so fortunate as they were on the verge of dying. The only reason they were still alive was all thanks to them having undergone rigorous training that helped build their endurance, thus allowing them to endure the poison spreading in their bodies.

Of course, the real reason they were still alive was that Dr. Santinora was not interested in them, so he attacked them just enough to incapacitate them and make them slowly die on their own.

Tia looked at him and said, “This is indeed a man-made poison I’m seeing for the first time.”

“Yeah, it is man-made, and I’ve never encountered something like that either,” Han-Yeol replied.

“Hmm... And its mechanism is quite unique, so it is definitely worth studying.”

“Can you cure it?” Han-Yeol asked, looking slightly concerned.

“Easily. I just have to slurp it up,” Tia replied with a shrug.

“Oh? That sounds simple,” Han-Yeol said with a hint of surprise in his voice.

“Huh? Don’t tell me you were worried whether I could cure this?” Tia glared at him after realizing that he had been doubting her all this while.

“Hahaha...! N-No way~ I knew you could easily cure them if it were you, Tia. You’re the Poison Expert, after all.”

“Hoho~ I find it hard to believe you, but I’ll let you off this time.”

“Hahaha... T-Thanks.”

“Hoho~” Tia laughed, satisfied after seeing that she had caught him off-guard.

Actually, she was surprised when he suddenly came back without a word, but that did not mean she was mad at him or anything. She was starting to miss him after he left for the United States, so she was happy to see him again.

‘I guess I should go easy on him today. Hoho~’ Tia laughed inwardly.

She figured they would have ample time together from now on so she could slowly take her time with her teasing.

***

Tia sucked the poison out of P, James, and the rest of the RC Squad members. Thanks to her efforts, they slowly started to recover, but their recovery speed was not that fast, as the poison had done a number on them.

They were able to get up on their own after four days of rest, and they contacted the White House to report through their secure communication channel that they were still alive.

The White House was turned upside down during the past four days after they lost contact with P and the RC Squad.

While the RC Squad was not a big deal as they could just compensate their bereaved families and close the case, it was a different story altogether for P. He was one of the treasures of the United States that would shape the future of their great nation, and his disappearance was enough to throw the entire government into a state of emergency.

They finally let out a sigh of relief after receiving communication that P and the RC Squad were safe and sound in South Korea, but their relief did not last long after hearing P’s report. He reported that the whole thing was a trap meticulously planned by a secret organization trying to bring down the United States.

[A-Are you sure? The secret organization that attempted to abduct you is the Freemason?]

[Yes, sir.]

[N-No way...]

Ugh... Thud...!

The president leaned on his chair and covered his face, as he was shocked at what he heard just now. He was one of the few outsiders who knew about the Freemason’s existence, as the United States government used to have a give-and-take relationship with them.

However, they soon realized that the activities of this secret organization were criminal at times and they had a tendency to go overboard too. Thus, the president decided that their views greatly differed from the views of the United States, and he decided to cut all ties with them.

This occurred three years ago.

[And they knew me very well. I had a brief chat with Adal before Lee Han-Yeol came, and he seemed to know me very well. It felt as if he had read that thing.]

The president was shocked by those words.

[W-What?]

There were less than five people, including himself, the president, who knew about that thing. This super-classified information was protected with the highest level of security within the government. Not many things were written in that thing, but one of the pieces of information contained details about P.

Gulp!

The president swallowed a hard lump in his throat and started breaking out in cold sweat.

‘D-Don’t tell me... Did they read that too?’

If they indeed read that thing just as P suspected, then it was highly likely that they had read the piece of information that could end his political career in a single blow.

P getting exposed was not a problem. It would make things annoying for the president, but it was something he could manipulate to his advantage in the end. He was not worried about that at all, but what worried him was the fact that someone had access to that thing.

‘But who? And how did they get their hands on it?’

1. The first female royal physician in Ancient Korea. A series was made based on her, and it was one of the early Kdramas that became wildly popular. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jang-geum ☜

New n𝙤vel chapters are published on f(r)e𝒆webn(o)vel.com