Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 201: Obtain A Dimensional Skill! (2)

The Hunters were taken aback by the sudden absurd proposal.

‘They’re a talkative bunch,’?Han-Yeol thought.

Han-Yeol's initial impression was that they were quite the rowdy bunch. The name ‘Special S’ made them sound like a cool and prestigious raid party, but they looked more like a social gathering of people in their twenties and thirties, judging from the way they acted.

The raid party consisted of seven males and three female Hunters. It was quite rare to find female Hunters these days, so it was quite surprising that thirty percent of the raid party was composed of women. This was the subject of envy from most other Hunters wherever the Special S raid party went.

The Special S raid party members were busy talking to each other while walking.

“Huh?!” the Hunter walking at the forefront exclaimed after he saw Han-Yeol.

“W-What?!” the Hunter exclaimed once again.

The other members of the raid party were confused as the Hunter kept exclaiming incomprehensible words while pointing into the distance.

“Hey, what’s the matter?”

“What’s wrong?”

They asked before looking toward where the Hunter was pointing, half wondering if he had gone mad or what, and it was then that they saw it too.

“Heok!”

“Gasp!”

“I-It’s L-Lee Han-Yeol, the Hunter?!”

“Whaaaat?!”

The group reacted in quite an exaggerated manner, but it was quite normal for someone to be starstruck whenever they met someone famous from their generation.

The Special S raid party members were still relatively young. Most of them were in their twenties, and only one of them looked like they were in their thirties. It could be said that they were youngsters who were perfectly aware of these days’ trends better than anyone else.

“C-Can I have your autograph?!”

“P-Paper!”

“Kyaaah!”

“Who would’ve known we would meet someone like him here!”

“This is amazing!”

They were incredibly starstruck and started to act like fans who had just met their favorite idol group.

‘How amusing.’?Han-Yeol looked at the Special S raiding party, who were so starstruck with him, with amusement.

Then, he politely introduced himself, “Hello. My name is Lee Han-Yeol, Hunter. It is nice to meet you.”

“Oooh!”

“Lee Han-Yeol, Hunter-nim, introduced himself to us first!” one of the Hunters excitedly shouted in glee.

Han-Yeol approached the group with a warm smile and extended his hand toward them. The young man who first noticed his gesture smiled brightly and firmly shook Han-Yeol's hand with both hands while bowing his head at a ninety-degree angle.

“H-Hello! M-My name is Kwon Yoon-Ho, and I am the leader of the Special S raid party. It is an honor to meet you, Han-Yeol, Hunter-nim!” Kwon Yoon-Ho blurted out in an exaggerated manner.

Han-Yeol was not bothered by the pair of pure twinkling eyes gazing at him. In fact, he found the Hunter’s attitude quite amusing.

“It is nice meeting you too,” Han-Yeol replied in a warm tone.

“Hahaha… Thank you very much,” Kwon Yoon-Ho said while seemingly embarrassed by what he had shown until now.

Meanwhile, Kwon Yoon-Ho looked extremely flustered while thinking, ‘Is this a dream? Am I dreaming? I can’t believe I’m meeting Lee Han-Yeol Hunter-nim in person! Aaack!’

To put things in perspective, all the members of the Special S raiding party were top-tier S-rank Hunters, yet none of them were invited to join any of the private Hunter gatherings. As a result, they had missed the meeting hosted last time as well.

They had probably downloaded the video of the event from the internet, and that was probably the first time for some of them to see Han-Yeol in action. Of course, it was obviously difficult for them not to become a fan of him after seeing what he showed at the event.

They religiously watched every single video available of Han-Yeol from that point onward, and they started to fall deeper and deeper into the Han-Yeol fandom train.

But why were they not invited to the meeting when they were S Rank Hunters? The answer was actually quite simple.

South Korea was not the ideal place for a person to awaken as a Hunter, but Koreans were an extremely tenacious group of people. The country with the highest ratio of S Rank Hunters among the OECD countries was none other than South Korea.

Japan, at one point in time, possessed one hundred twenty thousand Hunters, and fifteen of them were Master Rank Hunters, while six hundred of them were S Rank Hunters. This meant that 0.5% of Japan’s Hunter population were S Rank Hunters.

On the other hand, South Korea had five hundred S Rank Hunters, which was a whole percent of their Hunter population. South Korea possessed twice the percentage of S Rank Hunters when compared to Japan, but this was an even bigger figure when taking into account that South Korea’s population was only forty-one percent of Japan’s total population.

Japan was considered above the average 0.4% among OECD countries, but South Korea was at least 2.5 times the average. This was the reason that the United States and the rising star in the Middle East, Egypt, decided to enter into an alliance with South Korea.

South Korea possessed five hundred S Rank Hunters, and that was the reason that not a single one of the Special S raid party members was invited to the meeting as all of them were not within the top two hundred rankings.

“Hello!”

“Han-Yeol, Hunter-nim!”

The rest of the raid party members took turns shaking Han-Yeol’s hand and greeting him after Kwon Yoon-Ho first took the initiative.

“Haha… It’s nice to meet you all,” Han-Yeol greeted them back.

There was no particular reason for him to be so nice and friendly to the raid party members, but he put on a smile and pretended to be genuinely happy to meet them as he was particularly interested in the group’s leader, Kwon Yoon-Ho.

Of course, the young Hunters from the Special S raid party lacked real-life experience, so they were not able to easily see through the fake smile Han-Yeol was putting on. After all, Han-Yeol had mastered the art of putting on a smile no matter the circumstances throughout the years he had worked both as a Porter and a factory worker.

***

The two groups exchanged greetings and got to know each other first before they decided to join forces and hunt together. It was quite a surprise for a Master Rank Hunter like Han-Yeol to join the Special S raid party that was mostly composed of S Rank Hunters, and they should have probably suspected his motive at least once before agreeing to hunt together.

However, their fandom and admiration for Han-Yeol clouded their judgment, so not a single one of them thought that it was strange for him to hunt with them. After all, the only thing that mattered to them right now was the experience of being able to hunt with the famous figure, Lee Han-Yeol.

One of the raid party members walked up to Han-Yeol and excitedly explained, “It is true that we are not as strong as other S Rank raid parties, but we have been working on our teamwork for a long time. We have been able to hunt with the same members ever since we formed the raid party without any major problems thanks to the leadership of our leader, Yoon-Ho.”

“I see,” Han-Yeol muttered in response.

The raid party had quite a lively atmosphere. It was difficult to tell whether that was because they were an elite group, so they were quite relaxed about hunting, or if every single one of them simply had friendly personalities, but none of them seemed to be troublemakers.

Han-Yeol could sense that the raid party had strong camaraderie, and it felt more like a gathering of close friends rather than a raid party.

‘It reminds me of the old days,’?Han-Yeol thought with a smile.

He had initially approached them to acquire their secret to being able to hunt without any Porters, but speaking to them a few times made him feel nostalgic for his high school days.

‘Those days were quite fun,’?Han-Yeol thought nostalgically.

He recalled how he was able to overcome all of the hardships his impoverished childhood had thrown at him through the support and help of his friends.

Kwak…! Kwak…! Kwak…!?

Han-Yeol was flanked by the three female Hunters as they walked through the Cheolwon hunting ground. The women crossed their arms over their chests and glanced at him with a smile from time to time. However, Han-Yeol could immediately tell that their eyes were pure while stealing glances at him.

‘They have no intention to seduce me,’?he thought.

He could tell the moment he saw their eyes that they had no ill intentions. He had been subjected to countless temptations from the opposite sex ever since he awakened as a Hunter, and he had naturally developed the ability to tell whether someone was being genuine or was simply looking at him in hopes of seducing him.

And his experience was telling him that the three Hunters were approaching him with no ulterior motives.

‘Their names were Ji-Soon, Hae-Mi, and Ji-Yoon, right?’ he recalled their names while thinking that all three of them seemed to have their own distinct personalities.

“How old are you, Han-Yeol-nim?”

“I’m twenty-nine years old,” Han-Yeol replied.

“Wow, you look so young! I thought you were about twenty-five years old!”

“I thought that as well!”

“Haha! Thanks for the compliment. It feels good being complimented by three beauties!” Han-Yeol replied with a chuckle.

“Omo~ Omo~”

Then, one of the Hunters, who was a beautiful blonde, asked, “Wow~ Han-Yeol Hunter-nim has quite the good eye~ Is it alright if I call you oppa instead? I am turning twenty-six years old, so I hope you won’t find it too rude~”

“I am turning twenty-four this year!”

It was the Hunter with curly blonde hair with pink tips that chimed in this time.

“I am twenty-two years old, and the most adorable and youngest of the group!” The petite one among them added.

She had a small face, big eyes, and long brown hair that gave her a very cute look, befitting of being the youngest in the group.

“I will be honored if ladies like you will call me oppa,” Han-Yeol nonchalantly replied.

“Eh~? You can drop the honorifics with us and just speak casually, oppa~ It’s fate that we met this way, don’t you think so~?”

“Hmm… Should I?”

Han-Yeol used to not be comfortable with speaking casually to other people, but he had slowly changed after awakening. Now, he had no qualms talking casually to others.

“Hehe~ See? It’s so much better when we speak casually. It feels like we’ve already become closer, right?” Ji-Yoon asked with a smile.

“You’re right.” Han-Yeol nodded in agreement.

The youngest of the three, Ji-Yoon, was the bubbliest one among them, but that did not mean that the other two were not as good compared to her or anything.

The friendly atmosphere became even better among them after they started talking casually with each other.

“Nice to meet you,” Mujahid greeted the group.

“Wow! You can speak Korean?” Kwon Yoon-Ho asked in surprise.

“Wow…”

Mujahid initially could not understand why Han-Yeol was so interested in such an ordinary raid party, but he figured that there must be a good reason why, so he decided to treat the Special S raid party members with respect.

‘It’s something to do with hyung-nim anyway, so I might as well act along,’?he thought with a shrug.

It was a no-brainer for him to go along with the flow right now, but this was only possible as he completely trusted Han-Yeol’s judgment.

Han-Yeol and the Special S raid party moved together and hunted at a rapid pace.

Kabooom!

“W-Woah!”

“S-So this is the power of a Master Rank Hunter…!”

“Look! Mavros is really strong too!”

Twinkle… Twinkle…

The Special S raid party had seen Han-Yeol’s power on videos before, but seeing it in person was a completely different experience compared to seeing it on a screen. His skills, which looked like simply flashy attacks on the screen, were actually a powerful burst of mana that shook the ground, heated the air, and whipped up a powerful gust of wind that could be felt with their entire bodies.

“Damn… Seeing a Master Rank Hunter is making me realize just how lacking I was…”

“What can we do about it?”

“We have to work harder!”

“Alright, everybody! Let’s go show them what we got!”

“Roger that!”

Most people would say that the Special S raid party was not as powerful or flashy as Han-Yeol and Mujahid, but the ten Hunters moved in near-flawless unison in battle, thanks to their outstanding teamwork and skill combinations.

‘They seem quite capable,’?Han-Yeol thought while observing the group.

The Special S raid party members seemed quite reliable despite being so young, and this was quite a rare sight these days.

Ironically, Han-Yeol himself was still a young person, so for him to think that was a bit…

Whoosh…!

“Phew!?It’s finally over.”

The hunt was a breeze. Han-Yeol and Mujahid were used to hunting up to one hundred monsters simultaneously, so the hunt was more like child’s play to them. In fact, the two of them nearly got bored while hunting as the monsters failed to excite them.

However, Han-Yeol’s heart started to beat faster and faster as the moment he had been eagerly waiting for was getting nearer.

‘Now, show it to me. Show me how you can hunt without bringing any Porters with you!’?Han-Yeol pretended to be resting while eagerly anticipating and observing the Special S raid party’s every move.

“It’s all yours, leader.”

“Alright,” Kwon Yoon-Ho replied with a nod.

Then, he walked toward the monster corpses as the other Hunters stepped back. Looking at the two Snowmen lying motionlessly on the ground, he extended his right hand at them. “Open Sesame!”

Shwiiiik… Kwaaaak!

‘Hmm… Interesting…’?Han-Yeol was intrigued by the skill, and he could not help but covet it.

He enjoyed hunting as part of a group with others, but he preferred to hunt alone. This was the reason that to him, having a skill that could act as something like an inventory from video games was quite appealing.

However, these types of skills were frowned upon by society.

‘It would be bad for the Porters if Hunters with these kinds of skills appeared,’?he thought.

It was imperative for Porters to participate in monster hunts in order to awaken and become Hunters, but…

‘I want that skill!’?he could not help but covet the skill regardless.

After all, social issues should be dealt with as a society, and it was not Han-Yeol’s job as an individual to try and fix them in one go.

Han-Yeol could not help but covet Kwon Yoon-Ho’s skill, even though it was a bit different from the dimensional storage concept that he initially thought of. Still, a skill that allowed him to hunt without needing Porters or trucks was simply too fascinating and tempting for him to pass on.