Leveling Up Alone

Boom, boom, boom!

“Kraaaa!”

The underground ice palace that Han-Yeol had quickly named was literally paradise for cold monsters. Starting with the most basic ice golems to blue trolls, banver spiders, and the undead like the ice skeletons…

On ground level, monsters that would’ve been considered bosses or semi-bosses roamed the underground like normal monsters.

Chaa! Shhhh!

“Khaaa!”ho

Mariam and Noras were strong as Master-Rank Hunters, and they could barely defend themselves as monsters with Master-Rank Hunter level strength kept appearing.

[Hmph!]

Chaaa!

The mainstays of this battle were Han-Yeol and Tayarana.

Noras urgently called, [Mariam, this way!]

[Ah, yes!]

Mariam hurried to Noras’ side.

[Fire and water, protect me!]

Fire and water merged together to form a strong shield once Noras used his defense skills.

Bam!

The ice golem slammed down on Noras’ shield with both hands. His shield blocked the devastating attack from the ice golem that was over five meters tall and made of thick ice.

[That was exhilarating.]

No matter how strong Noras’ shield was, he still felt the impact of the ice golem’s direct attack that weighed over a ton.

[Ptoo!]

His spit was mixed with a bit of blood.

[Are you okay?] Mariam asked.

[Ah, I’m fine. Are you okay, Mariam?]

[Yes, I’m completely fine.]

[That’s good. Each and every one of those monsters is too much for us to handle.]

[I agree.]

Noras and Mariam weren’t especially skilled in combat in the first place. As a hunter and a sorcerer, they mostly used assisting skills in battle. As a result, they were unable to deal with the monsters that emerged from the underground ice palace by merely using telepathy and spells.

Puk! Slice!

However, even against such powerful monsters, someone stronger was bound to exist.

‘Atomic Blade!’

Boom!

Han-Yeol liked the combination skill he had used before, so he named it Atomic Blade. It was the most powerful of all the stabbing skills, as it condensed the explosion skill and exploded in the opposite direction of the stab, causing no damage to Han-Yeol at all.

Boom!

The ice golem that Mariam and Noras could not defeat even if they both attacked at once shattered into pieces. A single skill from Han-Yeol had destroyed the ice golem’s chest and core.

Crumble!

“Are you both okay?”

[Ah, yes, we’re fine.]

[Thank you, Han-Yeol-nim.]

“Don’t worry about it.”

In response to their gratitude, Han-Yeol made an expression as if to say, ‘Don’t thank me, this was nothing.’

In search of the Sky Stone, Han-Yeol and his group traveled to Alaska, an abandoned, so-called cursed land of North America. The boss of the underground ice palace, presumably where the Sky Stone was located, suited the underground ice palace perfectly.

[How dare you set your filthy feet here!]

She looked similar to the legendary snow maiden, Yuki-Onna, and was made of snow and ice. However, the mana contained within her was too powerful to call her a snow maiden, as it was cold enough to freeze air. She couldn’t be compared to a normal snow maiden who simply possessed passersby, drained their energy, and devoured them.

Whoosh!

‘Ugh, look at that mana. No wonder she’s the boss!’

She would’ve been strong as a boss to begin with, but due to the influence of the Sky Stone, she possessed an extremely pure and strong mana.

As Transcendent Master-Rank Hunters, Han-Yeol and Tayarana were able to endure the cold. However, Mariam, an ordinary Master-Rank Hunter, and Noras, a sorcerer similar to a Master-Rank Hunter, struggled with the flesh-tearing cold.

[Ugh, it’s cold.]

[It’s incredibly cold.]

‘Even if it’s because of Sky Stone's influence, she’s still a pretty strong boss monster.’

The existence of an underground ice palace in Alaska was well-known due to the sacrifices of Russia’s most famous expeditionary Hunters. However, little was known about what exactly lay within the ice palace. Alaska itself was cold, but the underground palace was even colder than the surface, so no guilds dared to go there.

‘With a boss like this, no wonder no one wanted to come down here.’

Hunting peacefully on their mainland was enough, so there was no reason to risk their lives and come to Alaska. All the US did was hunt the less cold outer regions of the state once a year to keep the Alaskan monsters from running wild. The US government didn’t even bother with the full mobilization order that happened once every year as they had to anticipate what the Hunters wanted.

If the monsters in Alaska were to run wild, the country that would suffer the most was Canada, which was right next to Alaska. The Canadian government barely managed to convince the US government to join them in a joint operation to clean up the outskirts of Alaska once a year. That was the bare minimum they could do to stop the monsters from running wild.

‘Even if I recover the Sky Stone, it’s going to be hard for people to conquer this place on their own.’

As a result, very little was known about the inside the cave, and Han-Yeol was the first to see the inside of the underground ice palace in detail.

Smack!

[You fool! I, the queen, am talking!]

The queen smacked the ground angrily and released a burst of mana.

‘Huh, a queen?’

Han-Yeol felt like he should stop calling her the snow maiden.

‘She’s a queen? Then should I name her ice queen or snow queen?’

The naming process wasn’t a big deal or a thing to do in a rush. However, for Hunters, naming a new field or monster when they found them was a bit fun, and the honor gained when announcing them felt sweet. It became a small habit for Hunters, and Han-Yeol was no exception.

[How dare you!]

Whoosh!

The queen couldn’t take it anymore and attacked Han-Yeol first.

A fierce blizzard blew in this underground palace.

Crack!

Everything that touched the blizzard froze. Even the snow and ice that was already below the freezing point was frozen again.

‘Wow, what an amazing ability!’

Chuck!

Just as Han-Yeol was about to make a move after admiring the queen’s abilities, Tayarana lowered her face shield from her Horus Suit and stepped forward first.

[No one is allowed to touch Han-Yeol whether they are a monster or a human.]

[Then what are you going to do about it? I’m the ice queen, the ruler of this place. How dare you, a lowly human, think you can control me!]

Whoosh!

The ice queen spread her arms out and gathered mana in both hands, dropping the temperature of the blizzard dramatically. The intense blizzard grew even more powerful, threatening Han-Yeol and Tayarana.

[Han-Yeol, I’ll take care of her, so you can take care of Mariam.]

Han-Yeol nodded.

“Okay.”

‘I can take on the queen too, but… I guess it won’t be so bad seeing Tara’s skill as a Transcendent Master.’

[Thank you.]

“Don’t worry about it.”

Zing!

Han-Yeol spread his mana over a wide range, protecting Mariam and the group of roe deer sorcerers from the cold.

[Phew, I feel much better.]

[...]

Thanks to the mana shield, they were able to escape from the bone-chilling cold.

The roe deer sorcerers breathed a sigh of relief.

Mariam, on the other hand, looked quite upset.

‘Oh wow, Mariam, you’ve become a full-fledged warrior.’

Han-Yeol felt like she had become a decent warrior from her expression, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to fight before. In the past, Han-Yeol saw her as a semi-professional who was good at fighting, but it was different now.

‘I don’t know what happened, but I think you’ve properly changed.’

The word properly didn’t have to be included when mentioning that she had become a warrior. But when it came to Hunters, it was better to have a proper warrior than a soft, normal person.

‘There’s barely any difference between Hunters and warriors.’

[Han-Yeol-nim, do you have something you want to say?]

Seeing Han-Yeol staring at her, Mariam assumed that he had something to tell her as usual.

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

Han-Yeol had been looking at her because she looked pretty as a warrior, but then he quickly scratched his cheek with an embarrassed expression and looked away.

‘That was embarrassing.’

Han-Yeol was thirty, but considering his time spent as Harkan, he was actually quite old. As a result, he viewed Mariam as if she were his daughter.

‘I’m growing old now.’

Realizing it himself, Han-Yeol felt embarrassed and didn’t know what to do.

[Ah, alright…]

Mariam cocked her head at Han-Yeol’s unusual behavior.

‘Well, he’s always been a bit bland.’

Instead, she nodded as she reminded herself of Han-Yeol’s original personality.

Just like that, Mariam and Noras’ group had escaped the cold under Han-Yeol’s protection, and Tayarana, properly prepared for battle, unleashed her newfound power.

‘The power of Ra.’

Pwaaaaa!

As she chanted the skill name, intense flames erupted from her Horus Suit. Orange flames engulfed her. Despite being covered in the Horus Suit, the flames looked more like Ra than Horus.

[You arrogant human. How dare you create flames in my presence!]

Like the name itself, the ice queen hated fire. A monster of her caliber wouldn’t melt from fire, but because fire and ice were opposites of each other, she instinctively hated it.

The ice queen’s cold fury surged.

[Here I come.]

Pang!

As Tayarana charged forward with orange flames, an orange laser followed behind her like an afterimage.

[How dare you!]

Crackle!

The ice queen froze the air with a wave of her hand, not even using the blizzard skill.

A pure white wall of ice made of mana blocked Tayarana’s path.

‘Oh, it looks pretty solid.’

[...]

Watching a fight was not as enjoyable as fighting, but it was also pleasurable in its own way. More than anything else, Tayarana’s skill was beautiful.

Han-Yeol enjoyed watching someone he liked fight, but when that fight was spectacular as well, he enjoyed it even more.

However, someone found Han-Yeol’s behavior sickening.

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