Leveling Up Alone

“Hohoho!”

Woo Han-Jong seemed to have regained his composure as he started laughing once again.

He had to use Restore if he was afflicted by poison or a powerful curse, but Healing Bullet was more than enough to heal non-fatal external wounds. Also, Restore had the downside of requiring his hands and a few seconds to cast while he could easily use Healing Bullet without using his hands thanks to his shoulder cannons.

In other words, using Healing Bullet came with fewer risks as it would not create an opening for Woo Han-Jong to exploit.

“Hohoho! You’re by far the most troublesome opponent I have come across,” Woo Han-Jong said with a laugh.

The cut he dealt was not enough to end the fight, but he did manage to cut through Han-Yeol’s muscle. However, Han-Yeol possessed healing abilities that managed to instantaneously heal his arm without much trouble.

“The fight would have been over by now if I was against ordinary Hunters. What can they do against me with one arm?”

He still had no idea what happened a while ago, but he tried his best not to show he was rattled by it.

“Hoho… But what should we do about this?”

“Hmm?”

“You see… I found one thing that most Hunters have that you don’t, young man.”

“What?!” Han-Yeol retorted, but he did not allow himself to get worked up.

Han-Yeol went on the defensive while being wary of Woo Han-Jong’s movements. He had no idea where the next attack was going to come from, and knowing that the old man could potentially deal lethal damage meant he had no choice but to be as careful as possible from now on.

Of course, Woo Han-Jong instantly noticed the change in Han-Yeol’s movement.

“Hohoho! Where did your confidence go?”

“Shut up.”

“Oh? It’s good to see you trying, but you’ll have to try harder, young man.”

Han-Yeol knew better than Karvis that he should not let it get to his head, but he could not help but feel anxious not knowing where the next attack was going to come from.

Nothing really changed aside from Woo Han-Jong regaining his composure, but that alone was more than enough to make his movements smoother and sharper.

On the other hand, Han-Yeol was not sure why, but he seemed to be having a hard time keeping track of Woo Han-Jong’s movements all of a sudden.

Karvis felt like defending for now and gathering data on Woo Han-Jong’s strange movements should be their priority right now, but Han-Yeol thought otherwise as he could tell things were slowly starting to look bad for him and he was eventually going to lose if this continued.

He decided he had to attack no matter how risky it was to alleviate some of the pressure on him.

It was only for a split second, but he suddenly was able to read Woo Han-Jong’s movement.

He immediately threw his chain the moment an opportunity presented itself and used Retrain, which was the skill that delivered him victory countless times in battle.

Unfortunately, this was all within Woo Han-Jong’s calculations.

“Hoho…”

He vanished once again.

The gap between them was not that big, so Han-Yeol did not think he could completely miss the old man’s movements. The only reason he could think of that would make him lose track of his opponent was that he was not focusing hard enough.

However, it was different this time as Woo Han-Jong vanished right in front of his eyes even though he was fully focusing on him.

Fortunately, Karvis was watching out for him, and he was able to narrowly escape what could potentially have been a fatal attack.

However, Woo Han-Jong’s target this time was not Han-Yeol.

“What?!”

“Hohoho! I finally got you.”

Han-Yeol completely forgot about it, but Woo Han-Jong did mention something about cutting off his wings. He was too engrossed in protecting his vital spots that he totally neglected his wings and left them wide open.

He was losing altitude fast and was nearing the ground.

But did it make sense for a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter to lose his balance?

Han-Yeol did not crash into the ground or bounce off the ground like a character out of a comedy cartoon. He managed to regain his balance and smoothly glided in the air until he reached solid ground.

However, there was an even bigger problem now.

[The Wings of Light have been destroyed. Please wait twenty-four hours until the wings are restored.]

He could feel the little hope he had diminished after reading the message.

It seemed as if he was fighting an uphill battle.

He was unable to figure out the secret behind his opponent’s movements and he also lost his means of fighting on equal footing against him.

Woo Han-Jong was leisurely floating in the air, but Han-Yeol was stuck on the ground. Obviously, he would be forced to run around evading the old man’s attacks coming from the sky from now on.

“Hohoho!” Woo Han-Jong laughed after confirming Han-Yeol was no longer able to summon his wings.

However, Han-Yeol did not feel anxious or pressured at all, and he felt unusually calm for some odd reason.

“Wow… Does that old geezer think he’s already won, Karvis?”

His emotions were linked to Karvis, so she regained her composure the same time he regained his, and it was evident from the change in her voice this time.

Han-Yeol clicked his tongue. Then, he shrugged it off and said, “Oh well, it’s not that big of a loss. It felt awkward trying to move around with those wings anyway.”

“Haha! You’re absolutely right.”

Surprisingly, Han-Yeol was able to start laughing again on top of regaining his composure.

“Hmm?” Woo Han-Jong muttered after seeing Han-Yeol start laughing while talking to himself. Then, he smirked and said with a laugh, “Hoho! It seems that brat has completely lost it.”

This was something that happened often with young people. They were usually fearless and thought the world was at their fingertips only to later realize they were just a slightly bigger fish swimming in a small pond, and some of the immature ones would be unable to accept reality and end up going insane later on.

“Hey, old geezer!”

“Yes, young man?”

“Why don’t we start the second half of the game?”

“Hoho! Sure, I’ll be more than happy to end this sooner.”

Woo Han-Jong was confident that victory was on his side. Han-Yeol had yet to understand the secret behind his movements, and the wings that allowed him to move freely in the air were gone.

Han-Yeol was basically blind and lame right now, so how was he going to win this battle?

On top of that, the skill gap between their swordsmanship was very wide, which did not help his case at all.

The only thing Han-Yeol had going for him was his composure, but that was not going to matter unless he could read Woo Han-Jong’s movements.

The shoulder cannons glowed bright blue before shooting out mana shells.

Yoo-Bi was aware of the shoulder cannons’ problematic rate of fire, and she repeatedly conducted tests to solve it. Unfortunately, mana had a slight delay when the user channeled it, so it was impossible to shoot hundreds of rounds per second like a machine gun.

The only way the shoulder cannons could increase their firing rate was for Han-Yeol to reduce the time he spent to charge them up with his mana.

“You’re going to make me yawn, young man.” Woo Han-Jong easily evaded the mana shells regardless of whether they were homing or not.

However, it was usually in these kinds of situations that a miracle would happen to help him.

[The rank of Homing Bullet has increased.]

But who knew it was going to level up at the precise moment he needed it the most?

Surprisingly, that was not the end of it.

[The rank of Homing Bullet has risen from (A) to (M).]

[Homing Bullet has reached Master-Rank.]

[A new skill has been created – Multi-Shot.]

Was this a coincidence or fate?

Not only did his skill level up to Master-Rank, but the skill he obtained from it was the very solution to his current dilemma, which was the slow firing rate.

Han-Yeol always felt a sense of thrill whenever he used a new skill for the first time.

His shoulder cannons shined brightly as soon as he used the new skill, and dozens of magic circles suddenly appeared in front of them.

Dozens of mana shells simultaneously shot out from the magic circles and flew toward Woo Han-Jong.

“Hm?!” Woo Han-Jong was caught off guard when the singular mana shells suddenly came by the dozens.

He normally would not have any problem evading every single one of these mana shells, even if there were thousands of them coming at him, but the problem was that each and every one of these mana shells was packed with destructive firepower and chased down their targets like homing missiles.

He started getting interested in Han-Yeol and his growth-type ability after they first met, and he would frequently watch clips of his combat videos from his broadcast. He could immediately tell that Han-Yeol was indeed a gifted Hunter, and there were numerous instances where he noticed him becoming stronger within the videos.

However, most of those instances were during the early stages of Han-Yeol’s growth, and there were no such instances in recent times as he probably had reached a plateau.

The dozens of mana shells flying after him were proof that his opponent had indeed grown stronger just now.

This was a skill he rarely used against humans, but he had no other choice than to use it right now.

A crescent sword energy too slow to be something for a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter to produce flew past the dozens of mana shells. The crescent sword energy moved so slowly that it looked more like something an S-Rank Hunter—no, a lower-ranked Hunter would produce.

1. Baldosul is Battojutsu in Japanese, which is the act of quickly drawing out the sword and cutting down whatever’s in front of you. ☜