Leveling Up Alone

Sss! Bang!

Han-Yeol took out his sword and chain, jumped into the air, and charged toward Emperor Qin.

[Tsk, tsk, how are you going to accomplish anything with that impatience of yours?]

Emperor Qin merely stared at Han-Yeol with his hands behind his back.

“Ahhh!”

Han-yeol was more serious now than ever.

‘He’s just as strong as Craspio, and even though I’m stronger than before, I’m still not confident that I’ll win against him. I’ll have to give it my all.’

He always took it easy with his opponents because he was confident in winning, but he never fought lightly against someone who could kill him if he made even the slightest mistake.

Whoosh!

‘Head Cutter!’

[Oh, you’re quite good with a sword, which is different from most of the idiots of this era.]

Clank!

‘Agh!’

The moment Han-Yeol’s sword was right in front of his eyes, although Emperor Qin had his hands behind his back, he thrust his sword forward, easily blocking Han-Yeol’s sword.

[But the tip of your sword is a bit simple and rough. I’ll let you taste a bit of my swordsmanship for the price of your life.]

“Shut up!”

‘Damn it. Why is he looking down on other people’s swordsmanship just like Chairman Woo!’

Although he used a sword, he was technically not a swordsman.

‘Don’t treat me like the rest of you fools who risk your lives for a sword!’

Clank, clank, clank!

Han-Yeol was incredibly mad. He swung the sword so fast that it couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.

[Oh wow, I thought you were only strong, but you also know how to swing your sword pretty fast. Not bad.]

‘Damn it, I’m not hitting him!’

Even though Han-Yeol was swinging his sword the best he could, Emperor Qin leisurely used only one hand to block his sword.

[Is this all you’ve got? Tsk, tsk, what a disappointment. I was expecting more from you since you were called quite the fighter. You have a lot of power, but this is all you can actually use. You’re just a foolish human living in this age after all. What a shame. A voluntary human is more useful than a terracotta warrior, but… I guess I’ll just have to kill you, turn you into a terracotta warrior, and make you my faithful servant.]

“Shut up, you piece of dirt!”

Chuck!

Exploding with rage, Han-Yeol shouted and thrust his left hand forward.

[Huh?]

Emperor Qin looked puzzled for a moment by Han-Yeol’s bizarre act as he suddenly thrust one hand forward in the middle of using his sword.

‘Shockwave!’

Pangggg!

A shockwave, or a powerful vibration force that contained a tremendous amount of energy, instantly shot out from Han-Yeol’s outstretched hand and engulfed Emperor Qin.

Although it looked like a simple wave, the shockwave contained a tremendous amount of pressure and it had the power to instantly compress and kill anyone protecting themselves with any amount of mana.

[Nice surprise attack.]

‘Thanks, Karvis.’

Karvis wasn’t just talking to Han-Yeol to cheer him on. Karvis’ real intention was to keep him concentrated as much as possible and prevent him from making mistakes.

Shhhh!

[Ha, did you really think you could harm me with such a weak skill?]

“Tsk, I knew it. I can’t harm him with a simple skill.”

[Yes, it seems so. What I understood from his attack is that his body is made from dirt, so he seems to be resistant to normal attacks.]

‘Eh, resistant to the attack itself?’

Han-Yeol looked dumbfounded at Karvis’ report.

‘Damn, I've seen people be resistant to certain things, but I've never seen someone resist an entire attack.’

[Well, he is a monster.]

‘Tsk, I guess.’

The study of monsters took place worldwide.

No matter how hard the world’s greatest minds tried to collaborate, all they could figure out were various methods to utilize monster carcasses. In other words, they had only figured out things on a surface level and hadn’t learned anything about the origin of the monsters.

Since it was related to mana, they even conducted research on non combat Hunters, but there wasn’t much progress. For this reason, the question of why became meaningless when it came to monsters.

Between humans and monsters, it was kill or be killed, and use them for food or civilization. That was all there was to their relationship.

The relationship between Han-Yeol and Emperor Qin was no different even though they were having a very human-like conversation.

‘Then what do I do now?’

Han-Yeol could think about it and come up with a solution, but Karvis was wiser than Han-Yeol, so the most efficient way to go about it was for Han-Yeol to fight and Karvis to think.

[He must have a weakness. All monsters in this world have one.]

‘Like golems.’

[That’s right.]

‘Well, I expected that much trouble.’

Clank, clank.

Han-Yeol rattled his chain out of habit. When he was concentrating on something, his hand would start moving faster in some way or another.

[How disappointing. You have no pride in your sword. When using a sword, you should at least fight till the end with a sword, but you’re desecrating the sacred art of swordsmanship in such a despicable way.]

“Shut up. There’s only life and death in a fight. It's because you nitpick on these kinds of things that the Qin Dynasty didn’t last more than three generations after unifying China and collapsed in thirty years.”

[How dare you!]

Emperor Qin was furious at Han-Yeol’s provocation.

In fact, he learned about the Qin Dynasty he had founded shortly after coming back to life. Even after his sudden death, he was furious to find out that the empire he had worked so hard to unify had lasted less than a hundred years, let alone a thousand.

[You just broke my promise to kill you painlessly.]

Chuck!

Emperor Qin raised his sword up high.

‘Huh?’

[I command you to punish the foolish one who dares to challenge the Son of Heaven.]

Gooo!

As Emperor Qin continued to speak, strong mana surged in all directions.

[Emperor’s Edict!]

Kwang!

Powerful lightning bolts rushed toward Han-Yeol from all directions.

‘Ugh, what is that?!’

Han-Yeol thought that Emperor Qin only used swords to fight until the end of a battle like Chairman Woo, but he was wrong. He was on another level compared to Chairman Woo.

In a world centered around skills, it wasn’t easy to fight with a sword alone. He was the shell of Emperor Qin, but at his core, he was a monster born from wicked desires. Naturally, he had a variety of abilities, but Han-Yeol had overlooked that.

[Huh?]

Whoosh!

“Huff, huff! T-That was close!”

[Haha, if it wasn’t for me, you'd be in big trouble, right?]

“Ah, yeah. Thanks Delfusia.”

[Hehe, then you’re going to spend a whole day hanging out with me like you promised, right?]

“Y-Yeah… I’ll play with you for an entire day when I’m done with all my work.”

[Yay!]

Emperor Qin’s lightning attack caught Han-Yeol off guard, and if he had been hit directly, it wouldn’t have killed him, but he would’ve been seriously injured. Delfusia hadn’t even been summoned yet, but she randomly used her short ranged movement skill to save Han-Yeol from danger.

[This kind of deal is always welcomed!]

‘Phew, that was a close call. It’s a good thing I made a deal with her that if she saves my life once, I’ll play with her for twenty-four hours.’

The deal was like an insurance policy Han-Yeol had made just in case something really terrible happened. He could tell that his enemies were getting stronger, and something beyond his ability to handle was clearly going to happen. It was a lot sooner than he expected, but making the deal was worth it.

‘I can’t let my guard down. Get your act together, Han-Yeol!’

Slap!

[Oh, not bad. I attacked and caught you off guard, but you managed to dodge it.]

Emperor Qin was definitely surprised this time. He could tell that Han-Yeol had some sort of hidden power since Han-Yeol managed to dodge his perfectly aimed attack.

[Well, I guess you should be able to do something like this since you claim to be the strongest in the world.]

Even in such a situation, Emperor Qin was still relaxed. Performing tricks was easy for him too, and as for hidden tricks, he could figure them out and get over them.

[I’ll go this time.]

‘Huh?’

Swoosh!

Before he could reply, Emperor Qin made the first move.

‘Agh!’

[Come on, let’s play with our swords!]

Clank, clank!

Although Emperor Qin had a wide range of abilities, he was most well known for his swordsmanship, along with his overwhelming physique.

[Where are you blocking? I'm attacking from below!]

‘Ugh, I know even if you don’t say it!’

He had never faced such spectacular swordsmanship before. His overwhelming power and speed was enough to keep Han-Yeol busy, but that wasn’t all.

Chuck!

‘Huh?’

[Dry up and die! Sandstorm!]

Whoosh!

‘Argh!’

A powerful sandstorm erupted from Emperor Qin’s hand. It wasn’t just a normal sandstorm, but a massive one with the potential to tear everything apart.

‘Force Shield! Damn it, Force Shield won’t do. I’ll have to get out of here first!’

Emperor Qin was a formidable opponent that even Han-Yeol found difficult.

[Where are you trying to run to? I can see what you’re planning to do just by the look in your eyes.]

‘How can he be more skilled than me who lived as Harkan in the past!’

Han-Yeol felt like screaming. In terms of mere experience in this world, Emperor Qin would naturally be more skilled. He had spent his entire life on the battlefield and turned the Qin Dynasty into a unified empire. However, Han-Yeol had also spent a long time on the battlefield as a lord of the Bastro Dimension. Nonetheless, Emperor Qin’s skill overwhelmed him.

Pat!

‘Huh?’

[Got you.]

‘Ugh, damn it!’

Emperor Qin had aimed for the exact moment when Han-Yeol was about to escape, and he successfully grabbed Han-Yeol’s arm.

[Die already. Dry Death!]

Ssshhhh!

‘Huh, he’s taking away the water in my body?’

He had seen the technique a few times on TV. One hit from this attack would drain all the water out of one’s body, so the only way to escape it was to avoid being caught in the first place, as most of the human body consisted of water. However, Han-Yeol’s arm had already been caught.

‘Ah, right. Take this. Mana Explosion!’

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