Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 202: Obtain A Dimensional Skill! (3)

Han-Yeol's eyes were filled with greed for the first time in a long time. The skill before him was incredibly powerful, making it even more alluring. However, he knew that he was not the infamous Black Hunter, so there was no way for him to obtain it.

The Black Hunter was a wanted criminal, and his identity remained a mystery. No one knew his true name, and he was so enigmatic that nobody could even recall his face; all that was known to the public was his skill. This cunning and intelligent psychopath was far more dangerous than people initially thought. Rumors said that when he awakened, he only had one skill—the ability to steal the skills of his victims. However, he was limited to being able to steal three skills at a time.

In a strange twist of fate, the Black Hunter was actually a cunning and ruthless psychopath even before he awakened. He first targeted and deceived non-combat F Rank Hunters to steal their skills. Then, he would combine those skills to prey upon higher-ranking Hunters before repeating the process to steal even better skills.

One day, the Black Hunter successfully hunted an A Rank Hunter before vanishing without a trace, making it impossible to track him down. The Hunters Association put forth every effort and resource at their disposal to apprehend him, but they failed not only to arrest him but even to locate him.

After that, nobody knew whether he was dead or alive as it was impossible to even get a glimpse of him. The Hunter who once instilled fear in the hearts of all Hunters was now forgotten by all but a few.

Ironically, the Black Hunter was not as well-known among ordinary people as he only went after Hunters. He never harmed any ordinary civilians, as doing so could end up escalating the issue from a squabble between Hunters into a Hunter harming innocent civilians. This made it easy for the Hunters’ Association to prevent the issue regarding the Black Hunter from making its way to the news, as there were no civilian casualties involved.

Anyway, Kang Yoon-Ho’s skill was just a pie in the sky for Han-Yeol since he was not the Black Hunter.

‘Hmm… I still can’t quite figure out how that skill works… It looks like a skill that can control time and space,’?Han-Yeol pondered.

He was unable to figure out how the skill worked despite seeing it numerous times while hunting together with the Special S raid party.

“Sigh…” Han-Yeol sighed in frustration.

“What’s wrong, oppa?”

“Is there something bothering you?”

“Sighing can be detrimental to your mental health~ Hihi!”

The moment Han-Yeol let out a sigh, the three girls were all over him in an instant.

“Do you want us to cheer you up with a dance if you’re feeling down?”

“Dance?” Han-Yeol tilted his head in confusion.

“Yeah, we used to be a three-member dance team before we awakened as Hunters.”

“Really?” Han-Yeol muttered before quickly scanning their figures.

The girls were not simply slender; they were quite toned, and he personally preferred these kinds of toned figures more than simply slender ones. Of course, that did not mean that he harbored any hidden desires toward them or anything.

The reason he could be indifferent toward them, in the first place, was that he was used to being around beautiful women. For example, Yoo-Bi was quite the beauty, constantly maintaining her figure through exercise, but Han-Yeol only saw her as a little sister now. On the other hand, there were the beautiful Caucasian, Scarlett, and the cold yet beautiful Mariam.

However, what really skewed Han-Yeol’s sense of beauty was the goddess without a single flaw, worshiped by her fans from all over the world, Tayarana. It was truly understandable that the three girls would not catch his eyes after he was exposed to far greater beauties.

"What motivated you to suddenly form a dance group?" Han-Yeol asked the girls.

“Actually, we started getting bored of our life as Hunters and were planning to debut in the entertainment industry. The three of us formed a group and practiced singing and dancing in preparation for our debut stage someday in the future,” Ji-Yoon excitedly explained their plans while giggling.

“That’s a great idea,” Han-Yeol responded.

However, he found it really strange that they were willing to abandon their lucrative careers as S Rank Hunters and become celebrities instead.

Then again, not all Hunters were battle freaks like Mujahid and Han-Yeol himself, and the tedious, repetitive cycle of fighting monsters while putting their lives on the line was a source of great stress for them.

This was the reason that some of the Hunters chose to change their careers to something else once they started getting bored of hunting monsters. Of course, the Hunters did not immediately get bored from the start, as there was some thrill to hunting monsters as well. But hunting the same monster in the same hunting ground for a year or two was bound to start boring most of them.

Some might argue that they could simply move to other hunting grounds, but that was not as easily done as said, as the reason that Hunters stayed in the same hunting ground was for their own safety. In the end, some Hunters would end up developing vices such as gambling, alcohol, women, and, in some extreme cases, drugs.

Of course, these vices were not detrimental to the Hunters, as their bodies would naturally cleanse themselves from all toxins after a good night’s sleep, and a single successful hunt was usually more than enough to settle whatever gambling debts they had.

This was another reason why so many Hunters felt bored and mundane with their lives, as they had no outlet to vent their stress, but pursuing a different career was an excellent way for them to break free from the monotonous lifestyle.

“Do you think so?”

"Yeah, being a Hunter can be quite demanding, so it’s important to have hobbies and other interests outside of work. This can prevent you from being burned out and keep you refreshed for another day of hunting. Also, you’re already financially secure as Hunters, so having another passion without having to worry about money will definitely make your life happier," Han-Yeol said.

"Wow! I knew you would understand us!" she exclaimed while giggling.

"Huh? How can you say that when this is our first time meeting?" he tilted his head in confusion.

"But I’ve ‘met’ you before~"

"When?”

"Hmm… When I first saw you in that video?"

"What video?"

"Hihi~" she simply giggled in response before she stood up and struck a cute pose.

Her hands were on her hips, and she stuck out her tongue to show her refusal to answer while obviously trying to look cute.

"Alright, let’s save the dance for another time. Do you have a group name?" Han-Yeol asked.

"Yes!" Ji-Yoon enthusiastically replied.

"What is it?"

"Diamond!"

"Diamond…?"

"Yes!"

"Why did you choose Diamond? I’m sure there are plenty of other pretty and meaningful names out there, right?"

Han-Yeol thought that there were other trendier names out there like ‘TT’, ‘Excuse Me’, or ‘Playing with Fire’ these days. Knowing that, he could not understand why they would choose the name of a mineral that made them sound outdated.

"Hmm… We don’t really have any special meaning behind it. The CEO backing us up proposed to his wife with a diamond ring, and it turned out that diamonds were her favorite gemstone. That’s why we decided to go with the name ‘Diamond’ for our group."

“I see… It’s admirable that you care so much about your CEO.”

“Right? Aren’t we really good girls?”

“Yes.”

“Hihi!”

Ji-Yoon was quite the easygoing and charming type, able to effortlessly bypass the walls Han-Yeol put up around him whenever he was dealing with people. He was the kind of person who was difficult to become close to, but once someone managed to break through, he would spare no effort to help them.

One technique people could use was to smile a lot around him since he was soft toward cheerful individuals, and the girls seemed to have unintentionally used that on him.

‘It’s still worth my time building relationships with other Hunters besides Yoo-Bi, even if I can’t learn that skill,’?Han-Yeol thought.

The Special S raid party was not one of the established raid parties in the country, so he saw value in building rapport with them. The established raid parties were usually hard to befriend, since they were usually stuck-up and they had a tendency to look down on ordinary people and Porters. In other words, they were not compatible with Han-Yeol.

It was then that the Egyptian Manager approached Han-Yeol and reported, [We have finished, Han-Yeol-nim.]

“Alright, let’s keep moving! We still have plenty of time to hunt!” Han-Yeol announced.

“Yes, oppa!” the girls enthusiastically replied.

And the rest of the Special S raid party followed suit, “Yes, Han-Yeol-nim!”

The Special S raid party, Han-Yeol, and Mujahid’s team continued their hunt for three days without taking a break.

***

“Huff… Huff… Huff…!”

“C-Cough…?I-I’m about to die!”

“Hiing…?It’s the first time I got a leg cramp since awakening.”

“H-Hungry…”

The Special S raid party members moaned.

Mujahid's team was still in good shape as they were accustomed to this hunting pace and mindful of their stamina. On the other hand, the Special S raid party was not familiar with hunting so rigorously; it was their first time hunting in such an intense manner, and all of them were extremely exhausted after the continuous hunt.

“Ack!?My leg is cramping!” Kwon Yoon-Ho cried out in pain.

The hunt was so intense that an awakened being suddenly got cramps in their leg…

“Tsk tsk…?You should exercise more. How can you call yourselves Hunters after getting tired from this?” Han-Yeol playfully sneered.

Tak!

Han-Yeol lightly tapped Kwon Yoon-Ho’s cramping leg.

“Aaaack!?H-Han-Yeol-nim!” Kwon Yoon-Ho cried out in agony.

Leg cramps were indeed so painful that even awakened beings were no match for them.

“Oops~ Sorry~” Han-Yeol feigned ignorance.

“Ugh…”

The others might think that Han-Yeol was simply pulling a prank on Kwon Yoon-Ho since they got closer while hunting together these past few days, but Han-Yeol was not pulling a prank at all.

Although Han-Yeol appeared fully focused on the hunt during these past few days, he was actually keeping a close eye on and observing Kwon Yoon-Ho. He used Demon Eyes whenever Kwon Yoon-Ho opened his dimensional storage ability to better understand the mechanics behind it.

The ability to control space and time was truly complex and difficult to understand, but Han-Yeol believed that he could replicate the skill and create something similar if he understood the mechanics behind it. That's why he diligently observed every single move Kwon Yoon-Ho made, with the intention of gaining insight into the skill.

‘How does he control that skill?’?Han-Yeol wondered.

Unfortunately, copying a skill was not an easy task. Han-Yeol did not have access to intricate machinery—not that they existed—to analyze Kwon Yoon-Ho’s skill, and he was not that smart in the first place. In the end, he could not analyze the movement of mana he observed whenever the dimensional storage skill was used.

Han-Yeol felt like his head was about to explode. ‘This is the last day of the hunt. I need to think of something to buy more time.’

He decided to convene a meeting.

“What’s the matter, hyung-nim?” Mujahid asked, since it was unbecoming of Han-Yeol to suddenly call a meeting mid-hunt.

“Is there something wrong, Han-Yeol-nim?”

“What’s wrong, oppa?”

The Special S raid party members asked as well.

“Hmm… I was thinking, what if we hunted the boss of this hunting ground since this is our last day hunting together?” Han-Yeol suggested.

“What?!”

“T-The boss monster?!”

The entire group was shocked after hearing his suggestion.

“I understand what you mean, but I believe it is against the rules to hunt the boss monster of a hunting ground, Han-Yeol-nim…” Kwon Yoon-Ho said.

The hunting ground stopped spawning monsters when its boss monster was slain, and it would only start spawning monsters again once the boss monster respawned. Since waiting for the monsters to spawn was detrimental to the Hunters who relied on the hunting grounds for their income, there was an unwritten rule among Hunters not to hunt the boss monster without any probable cause.

However, Han-Yeol was not someone to bother himself with unwritten rules in the first place.

“It doesn’t really matter. Cheolwon hunting ground isn’t that popular anyway, so not that many people come here. Besides, it’s not an official rule in the first place, right? Also, we won’t be coming back to this place after this hunt, so we’re doing a favor in controlling the monster population,” Han-Yeol explained with a shrug.

“B-But still…” Kwon Yoon-Ho seemed hesitant.

However, he was actually intrigued and secretly leaning toward accepting Han-Yeol’s suggestion.

“But the biggest motivation would be that the mana stone and corpse of the boss monster of this hunting ground are definitely going to be extremely valuable,” Han-Yeol added.

Gulp…!

The Special S raid party was made up of mostly positive and pure-hearted individuals, but their ultimate goal was still to make money. That was the reason the words "mana stone," "corpse," "valuable," and "boss monster" sounded simply too appealing to them.

“I mean, I’m not forcing you or anything. You can stay here and hunt the regular monsters while we go and hunt the boss monster by ourselves if you don’t feel comfortable with it,” Han-Yeol added with a shrug.

Most of the monsters around them had already been taken down. Han-Yeol and Mujahid alone were more than enough to deal with the monsters here, but the addition of ten S Rank Hunters further accelerated the hunt to the point that it turned into a massacre.

Also, the tractor was almost full, but it still had enough space to load up the boss monster’s corpse.

In short, this was definitely going to be the last hunt in this hunting ground.

“Ugh…”

“W-What should we do?”

The Special S raid party members seemed to be wavering.