Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 7: My Ability Is? (2)

The Mad Dog hunt went easier than they had expected.

Sukeok!

A Hunter slashed his sword at a Mad Dog’s neck.

Kekeng!

The Mad Dog howled loudly in pain, and its neck spurted out a fountain of blood before it staggered and died.

Ding!

[Your level has risen.]

Han-Yeol’s level went up, and he secretly rejoiced. ‘Yes! I’m finally Level 2!’

All he had done was shoot his gun a few times and keep the monsters at bay, but his contributions had nonetheless been acknowledged by the system, and his level had gone up.

The Hunters took a break from hunting, sitting in folding chairs one of the Porters had brought and waiting for the Porters to finish dismembering the Mad Dog corpses.

“Things are working out very well today, don’t you agree?”

“I know, right? Who knew hunting could be this easy sometimes?”

The Hunters chatted leisurely, but that was not always the case. Rest time on most monster hunts was very quiet, as Hunters usually did not have the energy to chat leisurely. They usually rested in silence or distracted themselves with video games to cope with the stressful situation of having their lives on the line.

The Hunters were in a very good mood today because of how smoothly the monster hunt was progressing, and they shared stories with each other to further boost their morale.

“Hey hey, do you want to go on a vacation to Europe after this hunt?”

“Shall we?”

“Count me in. I’ve just been stuck at home these days. It’s not as if money is an issue, so why don’t we travel the way the other Hunters do? We can go there and sweep the luxury brand shops too.”

“Great! That sounds like a plan!”

“Let’s go!”

While the Hunters were busy dreaming up plans for their vacation…

Whiiiiiiing!

Three people armed with tools that would normally only be seen at a construction site were hard at work as each of them dismembered a Mad Dog’s corpse. They extracted mana stones from the monsters and placed them in a special container made for them, then finished up dismembering and cleaning the area.

“Hunter-nims, the Porters are done. Shall we get moving again?” the manager asked with a clap after the dismembering job finished.

“Ah, really? Alright, let’s go, everyone. It’s time to hunt!”

“Alright!”

“Let’s go!”

The Hunters got worked up as the hunt progressed more and more easily, and they hunted so diligently that calling them a ragtag party seemed almost unbefitting.

“Fire!”

Ratatatata!

The Porters, on the other hand, were extremely busy thanks to the Hunters’ vigor.

Hunters usually hunted until they got tired and took multiple breaks in between, which was probably the only time that Porters could catch a breather. However, the Hunters this time were so excited that they only took individual breaks in between. That, in turn, made the Porters have a taste of hell, as they were not given the luxury of rest due to the endless stream of monsters being hunted.

“Heok… Heok…?We really might die at this rate,” one of the Porters said, nearly out of breath.

“Hoo… I know, right? What insanity is this? Why the hell aren’t they taking a break as a party?!” another complained.

Whiiiiiing!

The Porters ended up having to slow down their dismembering speed, as that was the only way they could catch their breath. The two other Porters were grumbling and swearing at the Hunters for their insane hunting pace, but Han-Yeol, on the other hand, focused on his task and dismembered the monsters without saying a word.

Whiiiiing!

It was at the moment that he finished dismembering a Mad Dog…

Ding!

[Your skill ‘Dismember’ has leveled up.]

‘Yes!’?Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly.

Han-Yeol had been completely immersed in training his skill while the other Porters were about to go crazy from fatigue. Yes, the pace was very quick, but Han-Yeol recovered mana whenever he walked thanks to his ‘Walking’ skill, so his stamina depleted quite a bit more slowly than the average person. Additionally, his stamina had already been quite good even before he awakened.

Ding!

[The intensive labor has increased your VIT stat by 1.]

‘Alright,’?Han-Yeol thought, greatly satisfied. There was no way he was going to give in to exhaustion when he knew all his efforts were going to be rewarded by his stats growing.

“Porters! What are you guys doing?! Get a move on!” The Hunters, ironically, reprimanded the Porters for being too slow.

“Y-Yes! We are coming!” one of the Porters responded.

***

The hunt continued.

“Fire Cross!” One of the Hunters cast a spell, and a wall of fire in the shape of a cross came crashing down on the Mad Dogs.

Kekeng!

Ding!

[Your level has risen.]

‘Alright! I’m finally Level 4,’?Han-Yeol thought with a satisfied look on his face.

The hunt was almost over, and Han-Yeol had leveled up three times to reach Level 4. He had amassed 20 bonus stat points that he had not allocated yet to any of his stats.

‘I’ll decide how to distribute these when I’m sure of my fighting style,’?Han-Yeol thought.

The fact that there were only four stats to distribute the points across made Han-Yeol all the more cautious as to how to invest those bonus stat points, because there were no stat-resetting systems in reality, unlike the ones one would find in games.

“Let’s take a break!” The Hunters finally gave the Porters a break.

“Euk!”

“I’m dying…!”

They were still young men, but the two Porters were sprawled across the dirty ground, as the intense hunting pace had exhausted them. They did not care about rolling in the dirt, as their first priority was to appease their exhausted bodies that were screaming at them for rest.

The two Porters looked at Han-Yeol, who did not seem to be tired, while lying on the ground. They asked, “Hyung, aren’t you tired?”

“I’m alright. I’ve been doing this thing for four years, so I’m used to it. You don’t usually come across guys like them, but there are Hunters like that from time to time. That’s why I try to go to the gym and work out at least four times a day. You won’t be able to survive in this industry if your body can’t keep up. That’s why I advise that you go and exercise on your days off,” Han-Yeol said, giving a word of advice to his juniors.

However, the Porters did not seem to be convinced at all.

“Ei… You’re making it too obvious that you’re a boomer.”

“I agree.”

“Tsk… I’m saying this to help you guys,” Han-Yeol grumbled. All he had wanted to do was to help his juniors out, but it seemed that they were not interested in his help.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” his juniors replied, brushing off his words.

‘Tsk… This is why I don’t like to get involved with other people,’ Han-Yeol thought as he clicked his tongue.

He sincerely wanted to help and get along with other Porters, but his instincts were telling him that these two were not worth wasting his time on. Based on his personality, he would no longer be offering them any help or advice in the future.

Han-Yeol sat on a rock some distance away from the others before thinking, ‘I need to have an accurate grasp of the monsters’ strength if I want to hunt alone from now on.’

Perhaps it was because he had been living alone for a long time, but Han-Yeol had automatically started thinking of hunting solo, and he decided that it was going to be important for him to find a way to assess the monsters before attempting to go solo.

‘Hold on… Maybe…?’?Han-Yeol thought as he suddenly had an idea.

He imbued mana into his eyes with the help of Mana Control.

Wooong…

“Euk!”?Han-Yeol groaned in pain.

His eyes felt dry as if he had kept them open in front of an electric fan for a long time after he injected mana into them. The problem was that the pain felt intense, and the mana he had imbued into his eyes clung to them and did not show any signs of dissipating.

“Keuk!”?Han-Yeol groaned while covering his mouth and toughed out the pain.

Drip…

Tears dripped down his cheeks, and the pain eventually subsided. His vision was hazy, and he blinked a few times to refocus his eyes.

‘Huh?’?

His mana was still gathered around his eyes; perhaps because of that, he could see the Hunters’ mana when he turned and looked at them as they leisurely chatted away.

At first, he could only see the Hunters’ mana as something akin to white steam coming from their bodies. He concentrated and focused his vision once more; then, he could see the mana flowing inside the Hunters’ bodies just like an X-ray. Not only that, he could tell how much mana they had overall, as well as its density.

‘Does the density indicate the mana’s strength?’?Han-Yeol wondered. It was only a speculation, but it seemed right to him, as mana was the source of every Awakened Hunter’s strength.

‘Then… Can?I also see the monsters’ mana?’?Han-Yeol wondered once again.

“Break time’s over! Let’s go and hunt again!” the manager said, beckoning the Hunters over.

“Aishhhh…”

“What the hell is this? We barely even rested!”

The two Porters grumbled, and Han-Yeol looked at them and said inwardly, ‘Stop grumbling, you punks.’

Han-Yeol had tried to get along with them at first, but their grumbling and lack of respect toward him had made him change his mind, wanting to distance himself from them.

“Manager, are there Mad Dogs in this area?” a Hunter asked the manager.

The manager replied, “Ah, yes there are.” He then took out a mana detector from his bag and ran it.

Beep… Beep…

A mana detector was a device that used mana waves to detect creatures that possessed mana. The device emitted mana waves into its surroundings and detected any mana that reacted to those waves, using the reactions to pinpoint the locations of any creatures.

“Three Mad Dogs detected, 1.2 kilometers northwest from here,” the manager informed them.

“Okay, let’s go toward them!” the Hunter enthusiastically exclaimed.

“Alright,” the manager replied politely. He turned and ordered the Porters, “Oi! We’re moving 1.2 kilometers northwest from here. Get moving!”

“Yes, yes, we heard you,” the Porters grumbled.

Han-Yeol, who was in charge of driving, drove the truck to the location the manager had given him while continuously looking around the surroundings with mana in his eyes. He thought as he scouted around, ‘Objects don’t seem to contain any mana, but things like plants and trees have a minuscule amount of mana in them.’

They soon reached the place where the Mad Dogs were located.

“The monsters are on their way here!” the manager shouted the moment he spotted the Mad Dogs on the move.

One of the Hunters exclaimed in response, “Alright, stop the truck!”

The Hunters prepared for combat, and the Porters aimed their guns and prepared to open fire once the order was given.

‘I can see it!’?Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly, as he could clearly see the mana of both the Mad Dogs and the Hunters.

Ding!

[You have learned how to imbue your mana into a part of your body to strengthen it.]

[You have imbued mana into your eyes and can now see the flow of mana.]

[A new skill has been created—Mana Eyes.]

‘Mana Eyes?’?Han-Yeol thought as he checked the skill’s details.

[Mana Eyes (F)]

Type: Active

Description: You may imbue your mana into your eyes to see the mana capacity, flow, and density of the target.

‘Isn’t this really good?’?Han-Yeol thought after reading the skill’s details. He was now able to further improve the ability, as it had turned into a skill that could be leveled up.

“Fire!” the manager ordered.

Ratatatata!

Kekeng! Kekeng!

The party started their onslaught against the Mad Dogs once again, and the one who was the most excited about the hunt starting once again was none other than Han-Yeol.

***

The party that had started at nine in the morning finally ended when it was around six in the evening. The Hunters who formed parties like this usually took fewer risks and preferred comfort over profit or growth, which was why the monster hunt started and ended similarly to office hours.

“Thank you for your hard work!”

However, the party was not aware of Han-Yeol’s interference, and they still believed that the monster hunt had gone so fast because of their own abilities. Indeed, the monster hunt this time had moved quite a bit faster than usual.

“Here, 1.4 million for each of you,” the manager said as he gave the Porters their pay for the day.

“Eh? Ptui!”?The two Porters spat on the ground, openly expressing their severe dissatisfaction at their pay.

“Hey, does it make sense that we worked multiple times harder than usual and still get paid the same?!”

“They earned so much today by overworking us. Shouldn’t they pay us more for it?”

“Don’t you agree, hyung?”

Chung Heon and Kim Han grumbled as they tried to coax Han-Yeol to their side, but Han-Yeol did not even bother responding to them.

“…”

“Don’t waste your time asking him. He’s been doing this for four years. He probably thinks it’s best to kiss those Hunters’ asses.”

“I figured.”

They had started on good terms at the start, but had slowly drifted apart as the monster hunt went on. Han-Yeol was unable to remain on good terms with them, but his business with them was already finished. He ignored the two and confirmed that his pay had been deposited before leaving the city hall. He no longer needed to get involved in the affairs of Porters, as he was no longer one of them.

‘I need to increase my level,’?Han-Yeol thought as he looked down at his hand with his new skill, Mana Eyes, active. He had looked at his hand with Mana Eyes for no special reason, but he realized that his mana density was distinctly inferior compared to the Hunters from before. He thought, ‘I still have a long way to go.’

He possessed a lot of skills, but none of them were very helpful in combat. Additionally, the only thing that stood out about his mana was the fact that he possessed excellent mana regeneration, but his mana’s strength and capacity was still very negligible.

‘I should stick to being a Porter for now and keep increasing my level the way I did today.’?Han-Yeol steeled his resolve as he drew up plans in his mind to grow stronger.

1. The term a male would use to refer to an older brother.

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