Leveling Up Alone

[You arrogant human!]

The ice queen continuously used the word arrogant since the beginning, and she didn’t like Han-Yeol’s bystander attitude.

[To think that only one person can stop me…!]

In short, her ego had been bruised.

‘So what are you gonna do about it?’

Han-Yeol merely rubbed his nose at the ice queen's remark.

[Come forth, my servants. Freeze all my enemies!]

Rumble!

As soon as the ice queen used her skill, the monsters Han-Yeol had encountered so far appeared from all directions, forming a final battlefield. As if they had appeared out of thin air, a large number of monsters gathered.

“Huh?”

Han-Yeol hadn’t expected the ice queen to have such a skill.

Thump!

“Khaaaa!”

The ice troll was the first to spew fire from its mouth.

Han-Yeol didn’t even bat an eye at the monsters’ sudden appearance.

“Hmm.”

‘Chain Smite.’

Clank!

He didn’t even use his powerful combination skills. With just a single Chain Smite, Han-Yeol started slaughtering the monsters without taking a single step.

Clank!

[D-Damn it!]

The ice queen didn’t see Han-Yeol mercilessly slice her subordinates into pieces. To be precise, she couldn't see it. She was going to look but did not get the chance as Tayarana broke through the ice wall and charged at her.

[Ra’s Blow!]

Whoosh!

Tayarana’s body burned even more as she fully transformed into Ra and charged at the ice queen. Her overwhelming power was something only a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter could display. In the face of such power, even the arrogant ice queen couldn’t afford to stay relaxed. With all her might, she fought back against Tayarana’s flames with an ice blast.

[How dare you, human!]

Boom!

The two attributes clashed, furiously producing steam.

***

[N-No. T-This can’t be!] shouted the ice queen.

[Yes, it can,] Tayarana replied.

Slash!

Still showing no change in her expression, Tayarana swung Ra’s sword and cut the ice queen down.

[Khaaaa!]

The ice queen and Tayarana had fought fiercely.

In the end, Tayarana’s sword cut the ice queen’s chest wide open.

Her sword was rumored to contain the power of the sun, and the Egyptian president, Phaophator, gave it to her when she awakened to Ra’s power and became a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter. Even though he had given away such a great weapon, Egypt still possessed an abundance of unique items. President Phaophator used the obelisk spear as his next best weapon. He had sold off many unique items for a lot of money, but even after rebuilding Egypt, he still had more left in his storage than he had sold.

After suffering from the burns from her slashed chest, the ice queen fell forward and evaporated.

Crack!

Han-Yeol decapitated the ice golem with his chain and clicked his tongue at the sight of the ice queen.

Once the ice queen died, the countless monsters attacking Han-Yeol also evaporated and disappeared.

‘Tsk, what the hell? They acted all tough, but they just disappeared and didn’t leave any items behind. What a bunch of worthless monsters.’

Han-Yeol didn't need money, but he regularly received rewards for successfully hunting down powerful boss monsters. He enjoyed receiving these rewards regardless of their monetary value. However, the ice queen had simply evaporated, leaving him with nothing but a mana stone and the Sky Stone.

Han-Yeol felt a bit disappointed for not being able to enjoy the fun of acquiring items.

Tayarana, still dressed in her Horus Suit, walked over to where the ice queen had evaporated and grabbed the mana stone and Sky Stone.

[This is what Han-Yeol was looking for, right?]

[That’s right.]

[It does have a lot of stored energy, but it’s nothing special.]

After taking off her face shield and examining it, Tayarana couldn’t hide her disappointment at how ordinary(?) it looked for a gem that Han-Yeol had been so eagerly searching for. The energy contained in the Sky Stone was impressive, but she had plenty of other gems like that in her storage. Technically speaking, it wasn’t her storage but the Egyptian treasury.

Whoosh! Tak!

“Oh, thanks, Tara,” said Han-Yeol.

Tayarana shrugged as if to say it wasn't a big deal.

[What’s next?]

“Next is…”

Han-Yeol paused for a moment.

[??]

Tayarana cocked her head at Han-Yeol’s pause.

“Antarctica.”

[Huh?]

“Our next stop is Antarctica.”

[You’re joking.]

“Hahaha, I knew you would say that.”

[Let’s make this quick.]

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

Why was Tayarana disappointed like a deflated balloon by the Antarctica response? The reason was simple. Antarctica was the only region that was unaffected by the Gate incident.

What did that mean?

‘Tsk, well, yeah. Antarctica is kind of boring since it doesn’t have any fields.’

Even the Arctic, which had a similar environment to Antarctica, had pretty large fields. The monsters there were quite economically valuable, so Hunters from neighboring Arctic nations tended to go on expeditions with fixed dates according to treaties. However, the opposite of the Arctic—Antarctica—didn’t have a single monster.

As a result, no scientists in Antarctica lost their lives during the Gate incident. However, since all the scientific and exploration bases lost contact with their home country, the common knowledge taught in textbooks was that they had to join forces to endure the cold and hunger. Even Han-Yeol didn’t know the truth.

In any case, Tayarana’s excitement for a new battle was crushed when she learned that the next destination was Antarctica, a dull, monsterless land.

[...]

Tayarana had been excited to fight alongside Han-Yeol for the first time in a while, but she frowned in discontent at the sound of Antarctica.

“Ahaha. Tara, I’ll go to Antarctica, so you can hang out in a field in the meantime.”

[No, I don’t want to.]

“Huh?”

Her answer was completely unexpected. Han-Yeol assumed she would do as he suggested, but Tayarana quickly rejected his offer to go have fun, even though she looked displeased.

[It’s been a long time since I’ve been with you, so I guess I’ll have to put up with the boredom.]

“T-Tara…”

Han-Yeol gazed at Tayarana with a deeply moved expression.

[It’s because normal fields are no longer fun to hunt. That’s it.]

‘She’s even more attractive!’

No wonder Han-Yeol couldn’t help but like her.

Who wouldn’t be captivated by a woman with such an attractive appearance that, even after a long time, would still make one's heart pound? She was cold in front of others but warm in front of him.

Once again, her charm captivated Han-Yeol.

“Great. Let’s head to Antarctica right away.”

[I agree. We already have three gems, so we just need to collect two more and then we can go to the Bastro Dimension.]

“That’s right.”

While Noras was talking about the Bastro Dimension, Han-Yeol failed to notice the dangerous sparkle in Tayarana’s eyes.

***

After obtaining the Sky Stone from Alaska, Han-Yeol and his group explored the icy lands of Antarctica in search of the White Stone.

The Antarctic expedition was the least challenging, but ironically, it was the most time consuming compared to how long it took to find the other stones. It was because the White Stone was tightly hidden thirty kilometers underground. In addition, the area around it was surrounded by mana, so even Han-Yeol’s Demon Eyes were ineffective. The sorcerers led by Noras only had a vague idea of the stone’s location.

Han-Yeol scoured the vast lands of Antarctica and eventually managed to obtain the White Stone thirty kilometers underground.

“Ugh, fighting and stealing the stone is a hundred times, or no, a thousand times better than going through all this trouble.”

[It sure is.]

“I agree.”

[You’re right, Han-Yeol-nim.]

Mariam and Tayarana, as well as the roe deer sorcerers, who preferred to avoid combat compared to the typical Bastro Warriors, were sick and tired of the Antarctic environment.

If Alaska had become harsher due to the monsters, Antarctica had become even more brutal in terms of nature after the Gate incident. With no monsters inhabiting the continent, penguins were the only creatures that lived there.

The exploration bases that had existed in the past were abandoned as Antarctica’s environment became more extreme, and their home countries became skeptical of having bases in this region. Antarctica was deemed uninhabitable, and some of the crews even lost their lives and froze, never to return.

For Han-Yeol and his group, Antarctica wasn’t that dangerous, but the boredom of seeing nothing but white on a vast continent took its toll.

“Well, at least we found the stone.”

Zing!

The White Stone vibrated once as if to say thank you for saving it from this boredom as well.

‘This is one precious stone.’

It was no ordinary phenomenon for a gemstone to act as if it understood languages.

[So, where to next?]

Tayarana had endured the boring Antarctic expedition because she wanted to be with Han-Yeol, but if the next expedition was going to be this boring too, she honestly just wanted to go hunting. It was a waste of time and she had experienced enough boredom in the Egyptian palace.

“Ah, right. Noras.”

[Yes, Han-Yeol-nim.]

“Did you find out where the last gem is?”

[Yes, I did.]

“Oh, where is it?”

[B-But there's a problem.]

“A problem?”

[Yes. It seems like the stone is somewhere in South America on the map, but… for some reason, the aura of the gem is spread across the entire continent.]

“Huh, what do you mean?”

[The wavelengths are more abnormal than they were in Antarctica. It’s so vast that we can’t even pinpoint a specific area. It seems like we’ll have to search the entire continent.]

“Ugh!”

Startled by Noras’ explanation, Han-Yeol felt like the food he ate yesterday was about to come back up his throat. After all the trouble he went through in Antarctica, he now had to scour all of South America for a gem.

“Haa, so what color is this stone?”

[It’s a purple stone.]

“Purple, huh…”

Han-Yeol quite liked the color purple.

[Han-Yeol, so where is the stone?]

With the interpretation skill, when three languages overlapped, third parties could only hear the language of the person Han-Yeol was talking to. So Tayarana and Mariam couldn’t understand Noras speaking in the Bastro language.

If Mariam used her abilities, she and Noras could have a conversation, but Noras was a sorcerer on par with a Master-Rank Hunter, so he could stop her if he wanted to. Regardless, Mariam didn’t read Noras’ thoughts. At the very least, she felt it was rude to read the mind of someone she considered an ally.

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