Leveling Up Alone

The Bastro Warriors looked like beasts in humans' eyes. Although the civilization in the Bastro Dimension was quite developed, it lagged behind Earth.

However, just because the Bastro Dimension’s civilization lagged behind did not mean they were weaker than humans.

After all, this cdown to a difference in culture and priorities. For example, humans prioritized getting a good job as doctors, lawyers, or other comfortable jobs. On the other hand, the Bastrolings placed great importance on becoming warriors, hunters, and a variety of other combat-oriented professions.

Also, the Bastrolings devised different training methods ever since they were still a first dimension, which was more than enough proof of how much importance they placed on power.

Their obsession with power was completely different from how humans viewed power. Humans viewed power as a means to becmore influential or richer, and they tended to use it to dominate their fellow humans.

In contrast, the Bastrolings simply revered power, and their whole culture revolved around becoming stronger for the sake of becoming stronger.

This was why humans could never surpass them, even though Earth transitioned into a second dimension. Still, that did not mean humans would lose one-sidedly against the Bastrolings, as they could potentially win if they utilized the technologies they developed using mana on top of their numerical superiority.

But, there was no way to prove this now that the hyenas had completely decimated the Bastrolings.

“What’s your name?”

“My nis Jo Ye-Rim.”

“Hmm… Jo Ye-Rim.”

“Y-Yes!”

Han-Yeol decided to train the rest of the crew for four days as well. Jo Ye-Rim also went through Scarlett’s harsh training, and she immediately responded the moment her nwas called.

“I will ask you once again. What kind of skill did you awaken with?”

“It is a bit different from the fire skills other Hunters use. I can become… fire itself.”

“What?” Han-Yeol was shocked by what he heard.

What in the world did she mean by becoming fire itself? Han-Yeol had met numerous Hunters until now, but he never once heard someone becoming the attribute itself.

‘Hold on, don’t tell me…?’

“Jo Ye-Rim.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Giveyour hand.”

“S-Sir?!”

Jo Ye-Rim turned her head out of embarrassment and blushed the moment Han-Yeol asked to touch her. She did have feelings toward him, just like any other woman would, but how was she supposed to keep a straight face when someone like him wanted to touch her?

“Hurry up.”

“Yes…”

Jo Ye-Rim carefully placed her hand on top of Han-Yeol’s.

“My mana will flow into you.”

“Huh?”

“So don’t try to refuse it and just calmly accept it, okay?”

“E-Eh?”

“Got it? I’ll start now.”

“Eeeh?”

Woooong!

“W-Wait…! I am not ready—!” Jo Ye-Rim tried to shout, but Han-Yeol had already started injecting his mana into her.

‘Ah! Is this what he meant?’

She could feel ssort of energy passing through her hand and going all the way up to her brain, but the energy was not hostile at all, and she could have easily refused it if she wanted to.

‘He toldto accept this…’

She was a bit nervous because the energy went straight to her head. After all, it was only human instinct to want to protect the most vulnerable parts of one's body.

However, she decided to place her trust in Han-Yeol.

‘He’s trying to protect us! I must trust him!’

Thus, she decided to accept all of the energy without refusing it.

‘Oh?’ Han-Yeol was impressed after sensing that Jo Ye-Rim did not put up any resistance.

He expected her to refuse it for at least a while, as he did not give any proper explanation before forcing things on her, but she easily accepted Han-Yeol’s mana.

‘I didn’t expect this at all, but I guess it makes things easier for me.’

Thanks to that, he was easily able to access her mind and use his telepathic skills on her.

Wooong!

‘T-This is!’

[How is this possible?! She is fire itself! There’s no other way to put this into words!]

‘I have eyes too, so you don’t have to explain the obvious, Karvis.’

[Ahem, I thought you needed it.]

‘I don’t!’

[Ahem… Ahem…]

Han-Yeol soon left Jo Ye-Rim’s mind after finishing what he wanted to do.

“Ah…!” she gasped in disappointment after the mana filling her up left her mind. Then, she looked at him with lifeless, longing eyes and asked, “I-Is it over…?”

“Yeah, I’m done. You are quite amazing,” he said with a smirk.

“Eh?”

“Congratulations on becoming South Korea’s seventh Master-Rank Hunter.”

“WHAT?!”

Han-Yeol’s statement sent shockwaves throughout the entire party.

“W-What did he just say?”

“No way!”

“Did I hear him correctly?”

“She’s what?”

Jo Ye-Rim stuttered, “W-What…? I-I am a Master-Rank H-Hunter…?”

“Why? Do you think I’m lying?”

“N-No!”

She covered her face as tears started welling up in her eyes. The tears smudged her makeup, but that was the least of her concerns right now. After all, the most powerful man in the world just confirmed that she had beca Master-Rank Hunter, which stood at the pinnacle of South Korea’s society.

Of course, the other crew members were bewildered by the turn of events.

“S-She just wildly pulled the trigger, and yet she awakened?”

“How is this fair?”

“I thought Porters needed two years to awaken?!”

They initially scoffed at Han-Yeol when he said that they would greatly help him if they managed to luckily awaken as Hunters. They heard from the so-called experts that a Porter needed at least two years of experience to awaken as a Hunter, so they thought Han-Yeol was just sugarcoating the whole situation to keep their morale high.

Due to that, they did not have any passion or drive to play their roles. Quite frankly, they did not have much of a role to begin with.

Ironically, even the captain worked hard to give Han-Yeol a good impression, but he was skeptical that awakening in such a short period of twas possible.

However, one of them suddenly awakened after a single skirmish, not even as an ordinary Hunter but as a Master-Rank Hunter. A Master-Rank Hunter was like the sky above the sky for ordinary people like them. Of course, that was after excluding Han-Yeol from the comparison scale.

One interesting fact about humans was that they were extremely weak when left without any goals, but they would becstronger than any other creature when they had a clear goal in mind.

“L-Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

“We can do it too!”

The crew members picked up their mana rifles with renewed vigor.

However, Tia gazed at them from atop the trees with a strange look in her eyes. She intently focused her gaze on one particular spot, and her eyes suddenly flashed dangerously.

“Hoho~ Is this ssort of joke? Well, it is certainly funny, I give them that.”

One of the Shurarmors approached her and asked, [Did you notice?]

“Omo~ You can do these kinds of things too, Mr. Demon~?”

[Get to the point.]

“Hoho~ Alright~ Our master lacks experience so he might’ve missed it, but that’s not the case for you and me, right?”

[…]

The Shurarmor no longer responded as Stewart had already left it. He was not the type to respond to every single thing, as he found it bothersto talk to others, and holding a conversation was a privilege he only gave to Han-Yeol in the human world.

“Hoho~ Mr. Demon is quite cold~” Tia muttered with a laugh after noticing that Stewart had already left the Shurarmor.

***

The addition of a Master-Rank Hunter sent the morale of Han-Yeol’s party soaring, but that did not mean they were in a better situation compared to a while ago.

Hiss!

“Kyah!”

“Aaaack!”

Ratatata!

A snake slithered down a tree and bared its fangs at the crew. It possessed potent venom capable of disintegrating an ordinary person’s body when bitten.

The crew shot their mana rifles at the snake, but they panicked and aimed wildly, so none of the bullets actually hit it.

Thud!

However, the snake was suddenly lifted into the air.

“Omo~ What a cute little snake~ What are you doing, little one?”

The snake thought it was the predator, but it turned out to be the prey. Tia had already spotted the snake slithering toward the crew, so she shot her web and dragged the snake up.

Hiss!

The snake shot its venom from range at Tia, but she nonchalantly slurped it up as if she was slurping up yogurt.

Slurp!

“Hmm… Oh? This poison is quite sweet.”

Kwachik! Munch!

She bared her fangs and bit the snake’s head off before munching down on it all the way to its tail.

“Ughh…”

The crew members’ faces turned ghastly pale after they saw what Tia did to the snake. This was not the first tthey had seen this gruessight, but the fact that it was happening right in front of their eyes made their stomachs churn every time.

Not to mention, Tia was not that kind due to the spider blood flowing in her veins. She enjoyed watching them flinch and shudder in fear whenever she enjoyed her prey, and their fear made her meal taste even more scrumptious.

‘Good! I want to see you suffer! Humans, you look the best when you’re suffering!’

The forest had becso overgrown that it had turned into a jungle. It was crawling with venomous snakes, spiders, ants, bees, parasites, and leeches that relentlessly attacked Han-Yeol and the others.

However, one of the party members played a crucial role in stopping these annoying pests.

Fwaaaah!

“Good! Keep your stomach tight and spread your mana widely.”

“Fwaaaa!”

“Good job!”

Jo Ye-Rim was learning how to handle her skill with Han-Yeol coaching her. She was no longer moving with the rest of the crew—now, she walked alongside Han-Yeol after she awakened as a Master-Rank Hunter, and he would teach her things from tto ton how she could better control her skill.

The reason he was teaching her was quite simple: ‘It will be more convenient forthe more powerful she becomes.’

Han-Yeol found it difficult to concentrate with so many ordinary people around him. Of course, Stewart and Tia were keeping an eye on them, but they were not humans, so they did not really bother safeguarding the crew one hundred percent of the time.

However, it was different for Jo Ye-Rim. Once she got the hang of handling her skills, she was going to be the perfect person for protecting the crew, thus allowing Han-Yeol to focus on other things besides protecting others.

‘I can do whatever I want once she’s ready!’

He cheered after finally thinking he would be freed from the troublestask of babysitting the others, which was the only reason he was troubling himself with teaching her.

Then, he raised his hand and said, “Alright, we will stop here!”

It was tfor them to rest.

They found a large clearing in the jungle and decided to set up camp there. They first cleared the ground of any potential venomous critters, and they built a fire to smoke out whatever insects were lurking in the trees above them.

The crew definitely looked forward to resting, but that did not mean they let their guard down.

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