Leveling Up Alone

Han-Yeol quickly needed to come up with a plan if he did not want to get swallowed by the sand that would suck the life out of his body.

‘Ah! Why didn’t I think of that?’

Using that now would definitely be a pain, but it was useful in these kinds of situations.

‘Delfusia!’

[Boink! Delfusia appears!]

Han-Yeol summoned the Spirit of Space and concentrated. The skill he was about to use required pinpoint precision down to the last second. Without Telepathy, a skill that increased his mental strength and concentration, executing his plan would be impossible.

Shwiiik!

Han-Yeol stopped running away and looked directly at the Red Sand.

“Haha! So you’ve finally decided to give up! DIEEE!” Dr. Santinora exclaimed with absolute glee in his voice.

The Red Sand flew even faster than it did before the moment Han-Yeol stopped running away.

‘Come!’

“Hohoho!” Dr. Santinora laughed leisurely.

‘It looks like he’s planning to use Reflect, but that’s already well within my calculations. I admit that it is quite a useful skill. However, anything within my calculations is practically useless!’

The mad scientist thoroughly investigated and prepared for this battle. Han-Yeol might be a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter, but he was so arrogant to show off his skills on the live stream that Dr. Santinora could easily study him.

However, Dr. Santinora went a step further, deploying satellites to spy on Han-Yeol when he was not live-streaming.

His thorough preparation helped the mad scientist have a very good grasp of what Han-Yeol was capable of.

‘I’ve already finished studying your patterns! All that’s left is for me to win!’ Dr. Santinora thought confidently.

Chwaaak!

The Red Sand was right in front of Han-Yeol’s face now.

‘Excellent! Now use Reflect! Hurry!’ Dr. Santinora exclaimed inwardly, flashing an insidious grin.

However, Han-Yeol knew the limitations of his Reflect skill. He studied his skills diligently, hoping to understand how to rank them up so he knew them better than anyone else. Also, Han-Yeol’s cheat-like ability allowed him to possess an unlimited number of skills, and one of the numerous skills would be the replacement for Reflect.

‘Spatial Transfer!’

Wooong!

A space the size of Han-Yeol appeared right in front of him and sucked in all of the Red Sand coming for him.

“W-What?! I didn’t receive any information that he had this kind of skill!” Dr. Santinora exclaimed. He knew Han-Yeol possessed the ability to create skills, but he was not aware of any other skills aside from Reflect that could counter his Red Sand.

However, Han-Yeol easily blocked the Red Sand.

‘That’s not all! I’m just getting started!’

Wooong!

“Heup?!”

Spatial Transfer was not a skill that only sucked in the enemy’s attack. It was a skill that transferred an object from one place to another.

Han-Yeol used this skill defensively, but it could also be used offensively, depending on how he used it.

‘Eat this!’

Spatial Transfer had two points acting as an entry and exit. It could make a far-away object suddenly appear right in front or send an object right in front far away.

Han-Yeol used Spatial Transfer to absorb the Red Sand and opened the second point right behind Dr. Santinora.

The mad scientist was more than capable of evading Han-Yeol’s cheap trick, but the problem was that he had his guard down.

Whoosh!

However, just because he had his guard down did not mean he was done for. He possessed the strongest body in the world right now, so he had quick reflexes.

‘H-Heok! Lee… Han-Yeol!’ Dr. Santinora flinched before reacting. He tried to twist his body to evade the oncoming Red Sand.

“Grrrr… Waaah!”

Unfortunately, he failed to react in time, and the price he paid for it was massive. The Red Sand swallowed him whole.

He could have recalled the Red Sand just before it completely came crashing down on him, but he did not expect Han-Yeol to possess such a skill, which eventually led to his current predicament.

“Kuheok!”

There was no way the world’s most powerful body created from a boss monster and a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter would lose so easily.

Dr. Santinora barely managed to recover from his own attack, but his problems were just starting.

“Now’s our chance! Everyone, attack!” Han-Yeol shouted.

[Okay!]

A golden opportunity presented itself thanks to Dr. Santinora dropping his guard, and there was no way veteran warriors like Han-Yeol and Tayarana would miss this golden opportunity.

‘I’ll summon all of my demons while I’m at it!’ Han-Yeol thought.

[Bwahaha! Leave it to me!]

[Get trapped in ice for eternity.]

[Huff!]

[Power overwhelming!]

Han-Yeol’s demons appeared.

Plop! Plop!

He even summoned his Lava Golems on top of that.

Then, he cast all of his buffs and charged at the mad scientist with his sword.

“Argh! Do you think you can defeat me with this?!” Dr. Santinora exclaimed. He was gravely wounded by the counterattack that caught him off guard, but he was not going to give up.

“Red Sandstorm!”

Krwaaang!

Dr. Santinora unleashed another skill called Red Sandstorm. This skill too, just like its name, conjured a red sandstorm, and it could act as both an offensive and defensive skill.

The Red Sandstorm blocked all of the attacks aimed at Dr. Santinora. The Red Sand was a very strong attribute that even powerful people could not easily penetrate.

“B-Bwahaha! I will recover my body and there’s nothing you can do about it! Once I recover then I will teach you, Lee Han-Yeol, a lesson–!”

Puuuk!

A sharp pain interrupted Dr. Santinora’s speech.

“Cough! H-How…?!”

He was certain that Han-Yeol was outside the Red Sandstorm just a while ago, but he suddenly appeared in front of him and stabbed a white sword into his chest.

“Yeah, you’re so strong that even our combined strengths can’t defeat you,” Han-Yeol said.

“Kuheok! B-But how?! Why?!” Dr. Santinora retorted, looking baffled at the whole situation.

Based on his calculations, he should have easily won against Han-Yeol without having to rely on the Red Sand. However, his calculations were way off and he even had a white sword pierce his chest, which rapidly diminished his life force.

The biggest advantage of combining his body with a monster was the massive life force and regeneration they possessed, but those advantages were nowhere to be seen right now.

“Hey, I’m just really curious. Have you ever been in a real fight before?” Han-Yeol asked.

“W-What do you mean by that?!”

“Seeing you fight is like watching a kid play war games. What I’m trying to say is, the way you fight is very awkward. Everything you do in battle is awkward, your attack patterns are too simple, and you drop your guard way too easily.”

“I-Impossible!” Dr. Santinora retorted as his body started dissolving away. Then, he looked at his hands and shouted, “T-This can’t be happening! Impossible! Cough! Cough!”

He might possess a body, but it was still a monster’s body in the end. This meant that the Light Exorcism Sword containing the purification property was extremely effective against him.

The sword contained properties that punished anything that went against the laws of nature, and it seemed that the sword treated the combined monster created by Dr. Santinora on par with the hyenas’ corruption spell.

“We got lucky. We would’ve lost without a doubt if you had just a bit more combat experience,” Han-Yeol said.

“I… I see… That’s why you went around killing all of them…! So that I wouldn’t get the chance to gather combat experience…!”

“Bingo.”

“D-Damn it… I didn’t expect I'd die this way…” Dr. Santinora muttered as his face started melting away.

He was the main scientist of the Freemason and dealt huge blows to Han-Yeol numerous times, but he met a lackluster end due to his lack of combat experience.

Ding!

[Your level has risen.]

[Your level has risen.]

[Your level has risen.]

[Your level has risen.]

[Your level has risen.]

[A miraculous victory.]

[All stats have risen by ten.]

[The rank of Light Exorcism Sword has increased.]

[Light Exorcism Sword has reached the Master Rank (M)]

[The skill has automatically leveled up.]

[A new skill has been created – Light Sealing Sword (F)]

[You may now summon numerous Light Exorcism Swords with your new skill.]

“Wow, this is quite a haul,” Han-Yeol muttered. Then he told Karvis, ‘This victory was nothing short of a miracle.’

[I agree, but please bear in mind that this miracle was only possible due to the fact that you had the abilities to make it happen.]

Han-Yeol snickered. ‘Haha! You’ve become a human now, Karvis. Look at you trying to get on my good side.’

He was not a fan of people trying to suck up to him, but he liked the fact that Karvis was the one doing it. She was the only one who had been there when he was both Han-Yeol and Harkan, so she could be considered someone closer than family.

Karvis might just be an Ego system, but having someone like her to freely share his worries with could only be extremely precious to him.

Tayarana approached him.

[Great job, Han-Yeol.]

“Thanks. You too, Tara,” Han-Yeol replied, smiling.

Then, he bent down and picked the Purple Stone on the ground.

“Oh! So this is the Purple Stone!”

[Congratulations.]

‘Thanks, Karvis.’

[Oh, Great One! You have finally found all five stones!]

[Congratulations, Great One!]

[Congratulations!]

‘Hahaha… I really can’t get used to them…’ Han-Yeol thought, laughing awkwardly. He would have somehow understood if a human was doing what the sorcerers were doing, as social hierarchy and useless bureaucracy were already ingrained in their culture.

On the contrary, the Bastrolings found those things to be pretentious and a waste of time. In fact, they would only listen to their lord’s commands and no one else and refused to bow to anyone else besides their lord.

Han-Yeol had twenty years’ of experience with the Bastrolings, which made things even more awkward for him.

‘Geez… What’s so important about those prophecies…’

He might have experienced living among them for twenty years, but he still found it hard to understand why they believed the prophecies with such fervor.

“Alright, let’s go back now,” Han-Yeol said. He planned to raze the laboratory to the ground as well and not live a single trace of it behind.

Baaam!

He used magma to melt the laboratory's basement and flames to burn everything above ground. He made sure to destroy everything thoroughly to not leave anything behind.

‘I have to be very thorough with this. I can’t let this kind of technology fall into the hands of human beings.’

Han-Yeol knew that these inhumane experiments would restart the moment they fell into the hands of any government. They would justify it as a matter of national security while hiding it from their people, and innocent civilians would start going missing en masse because of it.

They would investigate the disappearances, but that too would be only for formality’s sake, and they would look for another piece of news to divert the public’s attention.

In the end, the ones who suffered were those who went missing and their loved ones who were left behind.

‘I’m very sure that’s going to happen.’

Han-Yeol tried his best to appoint honest people to governmental positions, but he knew that was not enough.

‘My team informed me that even they are not that clean. I guess everyone has skeletons in their closet.’

He scoured the country to find the most reliable and honest specialists in each field, but that did not mean they were without fault.

‘Oh well, they should take care of themselves now,’ Han-Yeol thought with a shrug.

He was not going to meddle in the affairs of the new government as long as they did not cooperate with someone else and bother him, just like the old government did with Woo Han-Jong.

Crackle! Crackle!

Han-Yeol watched the laboratory get razed to the ground before he turned around to head to Mexico.