Leveling Up Alone

“Yeah, I guess so. I have no idea what’s going to happen later, but nothing else will happen today. Ah, we still have to wrap up what we started though.”

He could not help but question why things tended to blow out of proportion whenever he was involved, and the incident that happened today was a classic example of that. Still, he had no right to complain as he was responsible for his own actions.

Also, he had to resolve most of the problematic incidents personally, so there was no point in complaining about them.

“Hmm… I wonder what the others are up to?” he muttered.

Karvis repeatedly attempted to analyze the Illusion Barrier, but she only became more confused the more she attempted it. She initially thought this skill created an illusion that separated the real world from this illusion world, but it turned out that the barrier was much more complex than that.

Also, she could not help but feel that this barrier was hiding more secrets than that for some odd reason.

Seoul was indeed a large and populous city, but it would not be that difficult as they were supposedly the ones in the city right now. In theory, he could probably spot them in a matter of a few hours when considering his flight speed with his Wings of Light.

“Let’s quickly wrap this up.”

The Illusion Barrier might mess with the flow of mana, but it could not hinder one’s sense of smell, hearing, or vision. Thus, Han-Yeol and Karvis were confident they could easily find the others while flying over the city.

“Let’s go, Wings of Light!”ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ɴo(v)elFɪre.ɴet

The newly-improved Wings of Light appeared on Han-Yeol’s shoes and happily flapped as if responding to his call.

He had yet to master controlling the wings, so he lost his balance when he stopped focusing on it.

He stabilized himself and flew around a few times to familiarize himself with the wings, and then he flew off toward the Blue House to find the others.

Why was he praying? Because he could not be bothered to search the entire city.

***

The battle taking place in front of the Blue House was not only between the three Egyptian Master-Rank Hunters and Woo Han-Jong’s Master-Rank retainers. The Hunters, who protested alongside Han-Yeol earlier and Woo Han-Jong’s other retainers, were fighting too.

They had been busy hiding earlier as a result of the extensive damage that Woo Han-Jong and Han-Yeol's fight had caused, but as things started to calm down, they began to emerge one by one.

The area around the Blue House was now a battlefield between Hunters. The destruction they caused might not be as bad as the ones caused by their leaders, but it was definitely still worse than the destruction two armies could cause while engaging in combat.

An explosion went off.

The Hunters had the numerical advantage with the protestors, but they were definitely not as strong as Woo Han-Jong’s retainers. Not only that, but the Hunters only gathered together today for the first time to join the protest, while Woo Han-Jong’s retainers had been fighting alongside each other for years now.

The retainers were elite Hunters trained personally by Woo Han-Jong for at least a decade, but their training was a bit special compared to other Hunters. Most Hunters trained together to combat against monsters, but that was not the case for these elite retainers.

Woo Han-Jong specifically trained them to fight against other Hunters rather than monsters. In other words, his retainers were elite warriors who specialized in killing other Hunters.

“Seol-Hyun!”

The Hunters tried their best to work together, but they were still losing to the retainers. The retainers were superior in terms of both teamwork and skills, and simply working together was not enough for the Hunters to win.

One of the Hunters was slashed across her chest. Fortunately, she was still alive, and her comrades managed to drag her back to where the Healers were gathered.

“Damn it!”

“How long can we hold out…?”

“I’m exhausted…”

The Hunters were getting tired one by one, and it seemed they were going to give in soon. The fact that they were able to hold out until now was a miracle in itself, as most of them were ordinary Hunters who specialized in hunting monsters and not other Hunters.

On the other hand, they were up against elite Hunters personally trained by Woo Han-Jong and trained together in organized combat. In fact, these elite Hunters always trained and fought together in squads, so they could be considered experts when it came to group battles against other Hunters.

In the end, the gap between the two factions was like heaven and earth.

The retainers seemed to have noticed the Hunters’ plummeting morale, as one of them stepped forward demanding they surrender.

“Nobody has to get hurt, die, or suffer if you surrender. Make the right choice.”

“…”

“S-Should we surrender?”

“I think so…”

The Hunters would have scoffed at this offer if the retainers had proposed it before the battle began. They believed they would easily win against the retainers due to the numerical superiority, so they probably would have suggested that their opponents surrender instead.

However, their morale slowly plummeted as the battle dragged on, and more of them started getting injured. There was no way a bunch of ordinary Hunters would be used to the sight of so many of them being attacked by other Hunters.

They were ordinary people who obtained skills after awakening one day. They did not undergo any special training to become seasoned warriors—they simply used their newfound strength to hunt monsters.

Then, one of the retainers asked, “By the way, is Lee Han-Yeol a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter?”

“That’s right!”

“We have him on our side!”

The morale of the Hunters instantly shot up when Han-Yeol was mentioned. He was the reason they gathered here today to support his ideology of creating a better country for everyone, and they believed everything would be resolved once Han-Yeol arrived.

“N-No way…!”

“That’s impossible!”

Most people believed that Lee Han-Yeol was the only Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter in the world. If that was the case, then what was this talk of someone becoming a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter way before him?

The Hunters started getting nervous as anxiety started to spread among their ranks.

“Oh right, I think our chairman is a growth-type Hunter too. Am I right?” the retainer asked his comrade.

Then, his comrade replied as if they were working with a script, “Yeah, you’re right. Our chairman is the first person to ever awaken as a Hunter, and he has cultivated ever since that day until now. I believe he will win without a doubt against someone like Lee Han-Yeol.

“Yeah, I admit Lee Han-Yeol has been quite popular these days, but a clash between two growth-type Hunters is bound to be decided by who achieved more growth for a longer period of time.”

“Then who do you think will win?”

Those last words hit the nail in the coffin.

“A-Ah…!”

“I surrender!”

“We surrender too!”

“M-Me too…”

The Hunters dropped their weapons and surrendered after losing hope. They feared the consequences they might face for siding with the protestors, but they ultimately decided it was better to be alive and face punishment than to be dead.

They exited the building one by one with their arms raised.

“I applaud you for making the right choice. Don’t worry, all of you will be spared once you surrender,” the retainer said.

The retainers planned to kill every single one of the Hunters—no, Woo Han-Jong commanded them to kill them all. He wanted to use the protestors to serve as a message to others about what would happen if they dared to protest against the government.

“Y-You traitors!”

However, some Hunters still refused to surrender. They were Se-Na and Han-Yeol’s staunchest supporters, and they numbered roughly around fifty people.

They could not forgive the others for surrendering to the enemy when it was not certain if Han-Yeol had really lost to this so-called chairman or not.

“Ah, one more thing,” the retainer added.

“…?”

“Our chairman mentioned that if anyone refuses to surrender, then those who do surrender will have the opportunity to be exempted from any punishment as long as they manage to subdue those who refuse to surrender.”

“R-Really?!”

The Hunters were surprised by what they heard. Their biggest concern even after surrendering was the punishment they were going to face afterward. They were definitely going to be brought to court and prosecuted, and the best possible outcome was for them to serve community hours without being able to hunt on the hunting grounds until they completed them.

However, they were suddenly given the opportunity to escape punishment as long as they subdued a few dozen Hunters. It was not a promise in writing, but they were willing to risk it if they could avoid punishment.