Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 138: Boss Monster Raid (1)

Han-Yeol breathed in and out a few times before placing the monster egg in front of him. Then, he grabbed the fruit and closed his eyes to feel every ounce of mana within his body. He focused his mana to sync with the mana in the fruit.

‘Let’s?start with Tayarana’s pet. Mana Absorption!’

Woooong!

As a ton of mana suddenly rushed toward it through Han-Yeol, the monster egg slowly started to absorb the fruit.

Shwaaaaa!

Han-Yeol successfully fertilized both of the monster eggs.

[Is it done?]

[Yeah, we just have to incubate the monster eggs properly until they hatch. Then, you just have to infuse your mana into each egg four days later.]

Gulp!

Tayarana and Mariam nervously gulped at the thought of finally obtaining their very own monster pet.

Han-Yeol, Tayarana, and Mariam lived in the same house for three days, but nothing happened between them. Those with depraved minds would probably suspect that something had happened between them, but the three days they lived together were quite peaceful and quiet.

Three days later, the three of them stepped into the incubation room.

[Both of you know how to control your mana, right?]

Tayarana grimaced in response to Han-Yeol’s absurd question. She said, [Yes, we do. Do you realize how stupid your question sounded just now?]

[Yes, your question was quite offensive,] Mariam also said with a grimace.

Controlling one’s own mana was something that even an E Rank Hunter could do, so Han-Yeol’s question was no different from him looking down on Tayarana and Mariam.

[Haha… My bad. I was just asking to make sure. Hatching these eggs can be quite simple and complicated at the same time, and the egg might end up exploding if you make a mistake in controlling your mana.]

[Ah… I see…]

[I see…]

When Han-Yeol skilfully shifted the blame to the sensitivity of the monster eggs, Tayarana and Mariam finally relaxed their facial expressions. It worked. Both of them were solely focused on the monster eggs right now, so it was quite easy to convince them with such a reason.

It would have been a difficult ordeal for him if they were their usual selves.

‘Keke! This is a completely different side of them,’?Han-Yeol thought.

After placing each of the fertilized monster eggs in front of them, he said, [Try injecting your mana slowly into the monster egg. Not too much and not too little. The egg will explode if you inject too much, but it might not hatch if you inject too little.]

[Okay, I got it!]

[Leave it to me!]

Of course, Han-Yeol’s concern was not something he had personally experienced himself. However, he knew from his experience of hatching his own monster egg that a bad outcome would likely come about if the person failed to control their mana input.

Besides, there was no reason to attempt something that could result in failure, right?

Tayarana and Mariam gently placed their hands on each of their monster eggs.

Wooooong…!

Then, they carefully injected their mana into their eggs.

Han-Yeol stood back and monitored the situation with his Demon Eyes activated. He was able to monitor the flow of mana with Demon Eyes, and he could tell that Tayarana and Mariam were doing an excellent job for now.

‘Hmm…?Both of them are quite adept at controlling their mana. It seems as if they instinctively know what to do,’?he thought.

The both of them performed so incredibly well that Han-Yeol had no reason to worry about it, and both of them seemed to instinctively know what to do just like how he had known what to do when he had hatched his own monster egg.

‘The main problem now is… What’s going to come out of the eggs?’?he wondered what was going to come out of the eggs.

He was not concerned if the monsters hatching from the eggs were as cute as what Tayarana and Mariam wanted or if they were going to be decent monsters. He was worried that the monsters hatching from the eggs would turn out to be bad monsters.

Tayarana and Mariam continued injecting their mana into the monster eggs.

Woooooong!

Soon, the monster eggs started to react to their mana. Feeling the reaction coming from the eggs, they immediately stopped injecting their mana into them.

Ddruk… C-C… Crack…!

A crack formed on the monster eggs’ surface.

[Alright, the monsters are going to hatch now.]

[W-What is it going to be?]

Tayarana prayed to the Sun God, Ra, for the first time in her life. ‘Please, Ra, I do not wish for much…?Just make this monster healthy and happy!’

Actually, having an adorable monster like Mavros was not an absolute must for both Tayarana and Mariam. All they wanted was a healthy and trusty companion that they could hunt with.

‘Ah, it would be great if it could be as cute as Mavros…’ Tayarana added.

Of course, she preferred if her new companion was going to be as cute as Mavros.

C… C-Crack…!

Just as Tayarana was still praying, the monster eggs cracked open and the creatures inside them popped out.

[They’re here!]

“Meow!”

“Kireuk!”

“Oh!” Han-Yeol exclaimed with a sigh of relief.

Forget about the species, both of the monsters that had popped out from the monster eggs were extremely cute and adorable.

The monster that hatched from Tayarana’s monster egg looked like a griffin. Its upper body was that of an eagle while its lower body was that of a lion, with its tail appearing to be rather snake-like. It was still early to say what it was, but it definitely looked similar to a griffin.

Regardless, Tayarana’s monster was definitely as rare and legendary as a dragon.

The monster that popped out of Mariam’s monster egg was a very normal monster.

“Meow!”

It was just a cat. However, judging by the sealed mana it contained in its body, it was certainly no ordinary cat.

‘Both of them are really cute, but they’re not as cute as Mavros,’?Han-Yeol thought.

Both of the monsters seemed to identify Han-Yeol as their parent as they immediately approached him and rubbed their heads against him.

It went without saying that they were going to recognize Han-Yeol as their parent even though it was Tayarana and Mariam’s mana that had hatched them. After all, it was his skill that had fertilized the monster eggs in the first place.

[Oh!]

[Wow…]

Tayarana and Mariam were stunned after seeing the baby monsters hatch from the monster eggs.

Tayarana had prayed to the sun god for her pet monster to be born healthy, but she got more than what she had prayed for. Her monster had turned out to be an absurdly adorable creature.

Han-Yeol thought that both the baby griffin and the kitten were not as cute as Mavros. However, the two women could not help but find their baby pet monsters to be much cuter than Han-Yeol’s baby dragon.

[C-Cute!]

[They are too cute!]

‘Haha… That’s a huge relief…’?Han-Yeol let out a sigh of relief after seeing Tayarana and Mariam’s faces.

***

Now that the monsters had hatched from their eggs, both Tayarana and Mariam were rushing Han-Yeol even more than before.

[Han-Yeol! Hurry up!]

[Please hurry up and pass their ownership to us, Han-Yeol-nim!]

Both of them looked at him with sparkling eyes.

[A-Alright, I’ll do it right now.]

Han-Yeol checked the baby griffin and the kitten’s status screens, and found ‘Transfer Ownership’ in the lower left corner of the screen. He clicked on it and the names of Tayarana and Mariam appeared on the people the ownership was transferable to.

‘Huh? So I can’t give it to anyone except those that infused their mana into the eggs? Hmm… Well, I didn’t plan on selling them left and right anyway, so that’s not a huge issue.’?Han-Yeol shrugged his shoulders.

Then, he transferred the ownership of the baby griffin to Tayarana and the kitten to Mariam.

Ding!

[You have transferred the ownership of the Baby Griffin to Tayarana.]

[You have transferred the ownership of the Kitten to Mariam.]

Ding!

[The rank of ‘Taming’ has risen from (F) to (E).]

[The stat ‘Charisma’ has increased by 10.]

‘Oh! Jackpot!’?Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly after discovering that his Taming skill had leveled up and that he had gained ten charisma points.

It was probably a reward he had obtained for transferring the ownership of the monsters to someone else for the first time.

“Kireuk!”

“Meow!”

The eyes of the baby monsters that were fixated only on Han-Yeol soon turned toward their new ‘parents’ after the transfer of ownership. Noticing that, Han-Yeol could not help but be amazed that something like this was possible all thanks to a skill.

‘I’m really starting to wonder what in the world this ability of mine is…’?

He had already gotten so used to his skills that it felt as natural as breathing by now, but there were times that he would still wonder about the true identity of his ability.

As expected, Karvis would pop up whenever he wondered about the mystery of his ability. She was something like an AI that was always with Han-Yeol.

[I am quite curious about that myself. I exist to advise Han-Yeol-nim on various matters, but I have no recollection of why I was born. There are moments when I ask myself who I am, but I do not have an answer for that.]

‘Really?’

[Yes, but one thing I am certain of is the fact that my limited capabilities are slowly getting better the stronger Han-Yeol-nim grows. In fact, I got a glimpse of my missing memories a while back, so I hope that Han-Yeol-nim will be able to grow stronger and help me retrieve my memories.]

‘Ah, don’t worry about that. I will continue to grow stronger without dying any time soon.’

[Thank you very much, Han-Yeol-nim.]

Han-Yeol was busy talking to his Ego system while Tayarana and Mariam were completely distracted by their new pets. As a matter of fact, they were so engrossed in their new pets that they probably would not notice even if someone had broken in and stolen a few things from the room.

[Your name will be Candalus from now on.]

“Kireuk!”

Candalus seemed to like its new cool name. It chirped and flapped its wings before rubbing its body on Tayarana.

[Your name is Pipi from now on.]

“Meow!”

Pipi seemed to like its new name as well, rubbing its head against Mariam. After all, this was one of the ways that felines usually showed their affection toward humans.

‘It’s a relief that both of them quickly got along with their new pets,’?Han-Yeol thought while watching the two get along just fine with their new companions.

The monsters might just be babies, but there was no telling what kind of attitude they might show. Still, it was quite a huge relief that they were able to get along with their new owners without any incidents.

[Anyway, it’s time to pay the rest of the contract amount now that you’ve received your pets, right?]

[Oh, you’re right. Mariam.]

[Yes, Tayarana-nim.]

Mariam called someone and hung up after three minutes.

Then…

Beep!

Han-Yeol’s smartphone rang as a message arrived. He checked the message and…

[1,000,000,000,000 Won has been deposited to your account from ‘Horus Raid Party’.]

He had previously received one trillion won as an advance payment, so he was now receiving the remaining one trillion won after having delivered his side of the bargain.

Their relationship might have been built on trust, but all three of them had agreed that they should conduct this deal as strictly business with the involvement of money. That was the reason why they had decided to split the payment.

The first half of the payment was paid as an advance payment while the other half was to be paid only after Han-Yeol provided the pet monsters to them.

And now, both parties had successfully completed the deal without a hitch.

‘Holy! My?net worth?has increased to three trillion won in the blink of an eye!’?Han-Yeol rejoiced inwardly.

His net worth could not pass one trillion won as he was spending a lot in recent days, but he had just tripled his net worth in an instant from selling two monsters as pets.

‘Hehehe… Where should I spend my money this time?’?

Han-Yeol was now one of the richest people in South Korea. He might be one of the top Hunters in the country right now, but it was still quite difficult for a Hunter to amass trillions of won in assets. It would have been a different story if it was the United States, where it was quite common to see worth billions of dollars.

South Korea was a small country that ranked twenty-ninth in population and one-hundred-ninth in land area, so it was quite rare to see a trillionaire Hunter in the country.

In this day and age of mana stones, the power of a country was determined by the number of Hunters they possessed, the quality of mana stones produced in the country, and the number of hunting grounds they could ‘farm’ mana stones from. Thus, there was bound to be a limit for a small country like South Korea when it came to producing ultra-wealthy Hunters.

‘I heard that a new private jet and yacht was released in America… Should I go and take a look at that? Oh right, I should probably start shopping for my own private island while I’m at it.’?Han-Yeol was feeling ecstatic at the thought of spending money.

One of his childhood dreams had always been to own his very own private island, build a luxurious mansion on it, and spend countless ‘hot’ nights with beautiful bikini-clad women. The last one was probably not something he could do due to various reasons, but the first two were goals that he could definitely achieve as long as he had the money to do it.

There were plenty of beautiful islands with jaw-dropping views in the South Sea and West Sea of South Korea, and the thought of owning one of them just to go on a holiday was indeed a dream that most people would have.

‘Well, I can just go and buy an island on foreign soil if things don’t work out here,’?thought Han-Yeol as he shrugged.

There were plenty of islands in Southeast Asia as well as the Pacifics, and most of the countries in these regions were quite welcoming when it came to foreigners wanting to buy some of their islands due to their financial situations.

The mana stones had triggered a new economic era for most countries, but it was not an omnipotent material that could solve every single problem. Most of the poor island nations resorted to selling their islands to wealthy foreigners and filling their coffers by earning property tax revenue from them.

The reason that some of these island nations were poor was solely due to their political corruption or economic isolation. Therefore, these island nations leveraged the majestic views they had that could be found nowhere else in the world to build an economy dependent on tourism.

These island nations saw a huge influx of tourists that came to wind down every year, and this in turn fueled the growth of their economy.

However, it was quite difficult for an island nation to develop its tourism industry and become a holiday destination. One of the basic requirements they had was to have majestic views and be crime-free, but the most important thing was definitely to be one hundred percent monster-free.

A monster was completely different from a wild animal that encountering one was going to guarantee death if the person was not a Hunter, and that was the reason that most tourists irked going to an island nation that was not designated as a complete monster-free safe zone.

This was the main reason that most poor countries offered a lot of tax incentives and various other benefits to foreign raid parties to come and settle down in their country.

Of course, these poor countries had their own Hunters, but they were few in number as these countries did not have the proper infrastructure to allow people to awaken as Hunters. On top of that, these island nations were usually quite small and they did not have enough hunting grounds for their Hunters to hunt in, so they had great difficulty in making their Hunters stay in their country.

At the end of the day, it was difficult for them to maintain their Hunter population, which made it difficult for them to produce their own mana stones, and it goes without saying that this would turn into an economic death spiral sooner or later.

The emergence of mana stones might have created a new trend of nationalism, isolationism, or ultranationalism, but there were quite a lot of different kinds of political systems as well.

‘I just have to sell a few more monsters if I run out of money,’?Han-Yeol thought with another shrug.

In the end, all he had to do was to use his skill and get paid one trillion won, and this one trillion won that he earned could be considered pure profit.

It was absolutely impossible to say that there was any other business had such an absurd profit margin as the one he was doing right now.