Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 452 - Wake Up, Queen (2)

This creature was too big to fit into the subspace storage, so it had to be disassembled. However, Han-Yeol thought it would be better to give Yoo-Bi a picture of the original, assembled version than to just hand her a bunch of disassembled parts.

Flash! Flash!

After taking about a hundred pictures of the mechanical creature as if he was taking Instagram photos, Han-Yeol ordered the Lava Golems to disassemble them. Of course, their low intelligence didn’t allow them to disassemble it properly, so it was only natural that Han-Yeol would micromanage them, ordering every single step.

Stewart also instructed the Shurarmors to help.

As they were disassembling the mechanical creature, the captain suddenly called out for Han-Yeol.

“Han-Yeol-nim, take a look at this!”

“What is it?”

“L-Look at that.”

Han-Yeol approached the captain with an annoyed expression, but the captain was pointing to one side with a slightly frightened look that didn’t match Han-Yeol’s expression at all.

“Huh?”

Han-Yeol turned his head and saw a shiny object where the captain was pointing at. It looked like a book.

Han-Yeol got close to it and picked up the object, but he realized that it wasn’t simply a book. It was written in a language he didn’t recognize, so he couldn’t understand it, but the book wasn’t made out of paper. It was made out of gold.

‘Is this a skill book?’

Of course, Han-Yeol couldn't be sure since he didn’t know the language. But the shiny book was in a place where there should’ve been nothing, so it was enough to convince him that it had been an item that the creature had dropped.

And there was only one kind of book item that could’ve been dropped by a monster.

‘This is a skill book. Wow!’

He couldn’t understand the language, but it was still a good idea to keep the skill book because as long as Han-Yeol had the interpreting skill, he might be able to read it someday.

‘Great, I’ll keep this with me. Hehehe.’

With a satisfied look and a smile, Han-Yeol packed away the skill book that looked very precious.

“Hmmm.”

He then looked at the captain.

“W-Why are you looking at me like that?”

“N-No, it’s nothing.”

“Huh?”

‘Hmm, I’m surprised. Why would he report this to me when it obviously looks valuable and he could have stolen it without anyone knowing?’ Han-Yeol wondered.

He didn’t think of the captain as his subordinate yet—he and the captain were only temporary companions out of mutual need.

For Han-Yeol, there had to be some kind of contract or trust between the superior and the subordinate. Han-Yeol pondered for a moment, but that didn’t last long.

‘Well, I'm sure it’s because of the current atmosphere.’

Right now, everyone admired Han-Yeol’s strength. So, he assumed that the captain was probably just swept up by the atmosphere and nodded as he concluded that as the reason.

“Stewart.”

“Yes, Han-Yeol-nim.”

“Did you find anything useful from that robot’s body?”

“There’s nothing special. The most valuable thing is the book you just picked up. We disassembled the body and the large mana stone and packed them. There’s not much else.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Tsk, this isn’t very fun compared to how strong it was.”

“That's what monsters are, aren’t they?”

“True.”

Han-Yeol nodded in agreement with Stewart.

Even though Han-Yeol had the ability to level up like playing a game, the chances of getting items from a monster were so rare that it was like winning the lottery. Of course, the chances of winning weren’t one in tens of millions like the L-lottery people usually thought of.

The L-lottery wasn’t the only lottery in the world. There were also pension lotteries, and other lotteries where one could scratch with a coin and win.

But anyone who bought a lottery ticket knew how hard it was to win, even the small prizes. At best, one would win five, ten, or even a hundred dollars if they won big.

Items one got for free were just like this.

On the rare occasion that one found an item and brought it to a hunter association or an expert item appraiser, most of them would turn out to be low-quality items not worth purchasing. As a result, most hunters didn’t expect to get any items from killing monsters, and only expected to make money from the monster’s body and mana stones.

“Let’s rest here before we get going.”

“Alright.”

Stewart obediently nodded. It was natural for the captain to listen to Han-Yeol and follow his commands, but Stewart’s behavior was quite unexpected.

‘Hmm, why isn’t Stewart complaining about taking a break?’

Han-Yeol’s group also had some ordinary people in it, so the rest intervals were relatively short.

Especially in the underground ruins where the atmosphere was saturated with a dark energy draining the ordinary people’s stamina, taking a break was a necessity.

Due to this, breaks had to be taken more often and each time, Stewart would complain indirectly. But this time, he just nodded and walked away, and that was the end of his reaction.

‘What the hell. He’s scaring me!’

Han-Yeol felt strange as Stewart gave him an unexpected reaction.

Bubble bubble!

‘Huh?’

Just then, a signal came from the Lava Golems guarding the Arachnid cocoon.

Han-Yeol moved like lightning as soon as he received the signal and quickly approached them.

“What’s going on?”

Chuck!

The fourth stage Lava Golems were slightly surprised to see Han-Yeol suddenly appear in the air, but they then pointed to the cocoon with a sense of urgency.

Oooooo!

“What’s wrong with the cocoon all of a sudden?”

The Arachnid cocoon that the Lava Golems pointed to suddenly vibrated and shook. It was still seven days away from hatching, so it didn’t seem like it was about to hatch right now.

‘What’s going on?’

Han-Yeol bit his lips.

The cocoon reacting this way meant that something had to be done, but since he didn’t know what exactly was going on, he couldn’t take proper measures against it.

‘Ugh!’

Han-Yeol felt like he was going to go crazy.

Flap flap!

“Khu!”

Just as he was about to go mad from frustration, Mavros approached with something in his mouth, flapping his wings.

“Mavros, that’s—?”

“Khu!”

Mavros was holding in his mouth the shattered parts of the mechanical creature’s mana engine.

Completely shattered by Han-Yeol's combination skill attack and devoid of mana, he hadn't bothered to salvage it during the disassembly of the body since he deemed it a worthless piece of trash.

“Why’d you bring this all of a sudden?”

“Khuu!”

Mavros didn’t seem to care about Han-Yeol’s question, and flew right past him to the Arachnid cocoon, dropping the mana engine right in front of it.

Clank!

Something incredible happened.

Ooooh!

“W-What?”

The mana engine that had been completely destroyed by Han-Yeol’s attack suddenly reacted, generating mana that he thought had disappeared, and started to respond to the cocoon.

Thump thump thump!

The Arachnid cocoon pulsed vigorously and began to absorb the mana from the mana engine, as if it was absorbing nutrients.

Psss.

After the last drop of mana had been absorbed, the mana engine turned to dust and disappeared.

“W-What the hell...”

“Khu!”

Mavros looked up at Han-Yeol with a complicated expression and said something regarding the monsters, but obviously he couldn’t understand what Mavros was saying. However, Han-Yeol was still able to get some good information through this.

Firstly, he had to explore this dungeon further and learn the language in order to get some clues on how to escape. Secondly, he could destroy a monster’s core and give that to the Arachnid cocoon as a sacrifice.

‘I have a reason to actively search this dungeon now.’

Up until now, he had been exploring this place just to get out of here, or just for fun, but now it seemed like he really needed to explore for the sake of exploring itself.

One might ask what was the difference, but for a hunter as strong as Han-Yeol, the concept of fun didn’t come easily because an absolute being was always bound to be bored.

After the break, Han-Yeol called for the captain.

“Captain!”

“Yes, Han-Yeol-nim!”

“Pick up the pace from now on.”

“Yes, sir!”

The captain’s orders were met with grunts of complaint from the regular crew members, but no one could stop Han-Yeol. He had finally become intrigued, and he was not just curious about these underground ruins.

[Kill the intruder...]

[Never let them invade the holy land...]

Brrr!

As they left through the rear gate at the back of the temple, a new passage opened up. The group exited through that passage, and then another new path opened up. From there, they continued down into the underground ruins, where a new enemy greeted them.

While the monsters before had been ordinary clergymen, there were now a large number of monsters that could be called high level priests. To put it simply, they were priests with stronger abilities and covered in more powerful artifacts.

[Light Parameter!]

Pang!

‘Agh!’

[Light Arrow!]

Swoosh! Whoosh!

A team of five classes, all wearing shimmering light armor and equipped with top-notch auxiliary skills, fiercely fought against Han-Yeol.

They weren’t a single powerful entity like the mechanical creature, but they were an organized team of five different classes, five monsters, fighting as a team in unison and synergizing with each other.

Although they weren’t transcendent masters, they were beyond the class of a regular master. They had specialized equipment, so they were very difficult to deal with. On top of that, there was another big problem.

[Lightforce Sword!]

Strike! Strike!

“Kugh!”

“Stewart!”

“Agh, damn it!”

[Futile being and foul blooded demon, return back to your world, the demon world. This is our sanctuary, and it is no place for a cursed being like you! Turn Devil!]

Panggg!

“Agh!”

The fifth ranked undead priests, who seemed to be high priests far beyond master level hunters, were overwhelming Stewart with their superior strength.

Of course, if Stewart had his original powers, he could’ve burned them all to death with just a glance.