Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 445 - Mechanical Creature (2)

“Ugh, can’t I level up my interpretation skill?”

Han-Yeol was one incredibly curious guy, so he couldn’t help but feel frustrated when he couldn’t interpret the strange dimensional characters of the script in front of him, even though it looked very interesting.

“Give up.”

“Ughh...”

‘Well, it’s not totally impossible,’ Stewart thought to himself.

There were more dimensions in this dimensional universe that even Stewart didn’t know about.

The demon world was an independent dimension with a very unusual structure that connected to all the other dimensions.

In the demon lord’s library inside Lucifer’s castle, there were books in the demon language that contained information about this dimension, but Stewart didn’t bother to tell Han-Yeol.

‘Consider it a small revenge for the fact that you hid information about Tia from me.’

On the surface, Stewart looked like an immature teenage boy with blinders who liked to cosplay. But in reality, he was a lord of the demon world who had lived in darkness, far away, for a very long time.

He had served Lucifer for so long, always walking on thin ice, that it was impossible for him to not notice that Han-Yeol was hiding something from him. Han-Yeol, who had lived fewer years compared to Stewart, could not escape Stewart's habit of observing even the smallest habits of others.

Still, Stewart didn’t say much to Han-Yeol.

‘It’s only natural for a master to be suspicious of others. So far, Han-Yeol, you’ve been too soft, so keep it up.’

Stewart wasn’t offended by Han-Yeol’s suspicions. On the contrary, he was pleased. At first, he was resistant to the idea of serving a human, but now, he was somewhat fond of Han-Yeol. He felt like the first person he had to serve besides Lucifer had finally matured a bit.

But still, he couldn't help but ever so slightly feel a little grumpy.

This was his excuse: ‘You didn’t ask, so I’m not going to tell you. I didn’t do anything wrong.’

“Ugh, what a waste!”

Han-Yeol couldn’t take his eyes off the picture-like script on the wall of the building until the last minute of his resting period after his hunt.

It was to the point where he wondered if he should tear down the walls of the building to take it with him.

*

Step step step!

Han-Yeol and his group walked in the darkness.

“Huh?”

He was leading the way with a bright, shining white dragon atop his head, but then he suddenly halted, prompting the captain, who was closely following behind, to quickly ask, “What’s wrong?”

“Didn’t you hear something weird just now?”

“Hear what?”

“Wait, stop everyone for a minute.”

“Alright. Everyone stop!”

“W-What’s going on?”

At the captain's signal to stop, everyone anxiously froze in place with their guns pointed in different directions.

While their well-deserved rest had boosted their fighting spirit, it hadn’t changed the fact that they were in a dungeon of horror. In other words, they were still a long way from escaping this horror.

“Ugh!”

The grim aura of the ruins, especially in such a dark, corpse-filled place, was too much for them to handle, even if Master-Rank Hunters were protecting them with mana.

‘Demon Eyes!’

Han-Yeol cast Demon Eyes and looked around.

However, as expected, the dungeon in the ruins had a very unusual structure. It was equipped with a mana distortion device, which made it impossible to detect with Demon Eyes after a certain distance.

‘Cancel.’

He canceled it as soon as he realized that it wasn’t working. It was better to rely on his other senses than to uselessly rely on Demon Eyes.

Step step!

‘Again?’

This time, he heard it for sure.

‘Wait, this sound is?’

It sounded both familiar and unfamiliar.

‘I’ve heard this before.’

Han-Yeol was lost in thought for a moment. He felt as if the truth behind this sound would come to him.

‘Ah!’

It finally came to him.

‘Wait, that means?’

As soon as he realized what it was, a red signal popped up in his head.

“Everyone, your heads...!”

Takk!

“Ah, help me!”

Before he could say the words ‘be careful,’ a member of the crew was suddenly grabbed and dragged up by a strange creature that quickly descended from the ceiling of the ruins. It was incredibly fast.

‘Damn it!’

Han-Yeol cursed and quickly moved to save them.

Takk!

After all, he had decided to protect them as much as he could. However, failing to protect a commoner in danger right in front of him would be a blow to his pride..

‘I can’t afford to lose a commoner, at least not in my line of sight. Although it can’t be helped if they die out of my sight!’

Although it sounded irresponsible, he meant that he was at least going to take responsibility for what was in front of him. For Han-Yeol, this was like a game. There was no specific reward for doing a good job, but protecting his pride was just as important.

Takk!

“H-Han-Yeol-him!”

The ordinary crew member thought he was dead meat after the strange monster captured him, but his face brightened up when Han-Yeol grabbed onto him, thinking that he was going to live.

“Wake up!”

“Y-Yes!”

He was scared to death, but at least for this moment, he had hope that he was going to live.

Keee!

‘Ahh!’

Stiil, he was terrified to death of the monster that had snatched him from the air.

Han-Yeol didn’t look terrified, but he found this quite ridiculous.

‘What is this thing?’

This wasn’t an undead clergyman.

The reason Han-Yeol felt that the presence seemed familiar was because this creature wasn’t bipedal. The sound this creature made was similar to the sound Tia made whenever she ambushed him while he was sleeping or bathing, or when she climbed the walls or ceilings.

In other words, this monster had many legs. The only difference was that this creature had more legs than Tia.

‘Ten legs?’

The undead clergymen were similar to humans overall, though the details of their skeletal structure were slightly different.

However, this monster was completely different, with an appearance far too grotesque to be called human.

Its basic body structure looked vaguely similar to that of an undead clergyman. However, as if it had undergone some sort of complex experiment or something, it had ten gigantic legs that were completely different and allowed them to freely climb the walls.

‘First, take this!’

Boom!

Kheeee!

Thud!

Han-Yeol first rescued the captured ordinary crew member and brought him back down.

“T-Thank you!”

“Next time, be careful of what might be above you.”

“Y-Yes, Han-Yeol-nim!”

The male crew member’s eyes shone with loyalty as he looked at Han-Yeol.

“Now, then, let’s get to work.”

Keeee.

[Enemy who invaded the sanctuary, you won’t be able to escape divine punishment.]

‘Huh, so it speaks the same language as the undead clergymen?’

This meant that there were two possibilities: either it was a monster that knew how to speak the language, or it was somehow related to the undead clergymen.

‘But I guess this has nothing to do with me. I just have to kill it, and that’ll be the end of that.’

Han-Yeol felt that this monster was more powerful than the first undead clergyman, but the problem was that it was alone.

‘I destroyed around a hundred clergymen, but that monster’s alone, so what could go wrong...’

Before Han-Yeol could finish his train of thought...

Step step step!

More ten-legged monsters started crawling out of a hole in the ruins.

‘...I guess it could go wrong. Karvis!’

[There are 123 of them.]

‘That’s more than the undead clergymen!’

[That’s right, and they're all individually stronger. In terms of humans, they’re much stronger than the average Master-Rank Hunter.]

‘What a pain.’

Scratch scratch.

Han-Yeol scratched his head.

Ever since the dungeon had awakened, the monsters that came out of this old underground ruin were all at a level that was several levels higher than the Master-Rank Hunters on Earth. As a result, it was difficult to grade them since there was no official rank between a Master-Rank and a Transcendent Master-Rank.

‘When I go to Earth, I’ll have Master Hee-Yun settle this terminology issue first.’

So far, they had stuck with the terminology they used when they were in the first dimension.

However, as time went on, the number of Master-Rank Hunters increased, as well as the number of Hunters beyond the Master-Rank. The Master-Rank, which was after the S-Rank, was not enough to distinguish the powerful Hunters.

‘Well, this wouldn't matter if there were only people from Bastro.’

The world of humans was far too complex to be compared to the Bastro warriors, whose warrior ranks only consisted of one, two, and three.

Keeee!

[Receive divine punishment, you foolish intruder!]

“Damn it, it can’t be helped. Stewart!”

“Yes, Han-Yeol-nim.”

“I don’t know who they are exactly, but let’s just take them out.”

“That’s what I was thinking too.”

“Haha, we're a good match after all.”

“What a useless thing to say.”

“You’re so cold all the time, tsk tsk.”

Originally, Han-Yeol shared his jokes with Tia, but since she was trapped in a cocoon, Stewart took her place.

Seeing this, the captain had a strange thought.

‘I want to have that kind of conversation with Han-Yeol-nim...’

He felt envious of Stewart as they appeared so close, engaging in a seemingly trivial conversation.

The captain clenched his fist hard.

‘I’m a Master-Rank Hunter now. Although I haven't utilized a hundred percent of my power yet, with a little more effort, I might be able to get close to Han-Yeo-nim!’

The fact that Stewart was a demon was a secret that only Han-Yeol, his immediate subordinates, and the Egyptian trio knew. To the rest of the crew, Stewart was just a strong Master-Rank Hunter.

‘I’ll make sure to take his place!’

The captain’s fists burned with flames of passion.

Stewart glanced at the captain while Han-Yeol wasn’t looking, then shifted his gaze back toward Han-Yeol.

‘What do they find so charming about Han-Yeol-nim that those humans willingly offer themselves to him?’

Demons simply had an instinct to serve those who were powerful. They had evolved and survived in a world with the law of the jungle.

However, the Earth that Stewart had been studying was fundamentally different from the demon world.

Like all dimensions, Earth was a place where desire and greed existed in many forms, as well as true good and evil.