Leveling Up Alone

‘There are still a lot of things that I don’t know about,’ Han-Yeol thought.

[Call me… Sigil…]

‘Are you telling me to call you through the sigil whenever I need you?’ Han-Yeol asked.

[…]

At the start, it was fun trying to understand what the Shadow Demon was saying. However, it was now a nuisance to Han-Yeol, who had to think twice just to try and understand what the demon was trying to say. He grumbled inwardly, ‘Damn it… I have to level up either ‘Telepathy’ or ‘Power Meditation’ to try and make sense of what this guy is trying to say.’

Then, the Shadow Demon was sucked into Han-Yeol’s right hand, as if it was a vacuum cleaner sucking up smoke. Noticing that, he thought to himself, ‘I can place this guy next to father and ask him to guard father, right?’

That was how Han-Yeol successfully managed to find a bodyguard for his father, but he was feeling a bit greedy now that he had successfully summoned a demon. He daydreamed. ‘Hmm… I don’t necessarily have to stop just because I managed to summon a lesser demon to guard father. It would be possible for me to summon the strongest demon to fight alongside me as well, right? I do have the skill to summon them now.’

Han-Yeol might have lived a wayward childhood because of poverty, but it did not mean that he had no greed or ambition in him. He had recently been thinking that he could become not only an S-Ranked Hunter, but even an M-Ranked, which was the Master Rank, thanks to the growth-type ability that he awakened with.

‘I should raise my Invoke stat if I want to summon a greater demon in the future, and I definitely need to level up if I want to increase my stats. It all circles back to leveling up again,’ Han-Yeol thought. He had been feeling quite down these days because of his lack of goals in life, but his motivation was now back up to 100% since he had a new goal in sight.

Han-Yeol’s father came back before dawn. He appeared to have drank quite a lot after he had fully recovered from his illness.

‘I did tell him that his health won’t decline even if he drank alcohol because of ‘Heal’, but he is drinking almost every day now,’ Han-Yeol grumbled.

Alcohol was bad for one's health because of its adverse effects on one’s stomach, as well as the toxins it accumulated in one’s liver. However, Han-Yeol’s ‘Restore’ skill was able to cure all ailments that one had in their body. It did not matter how much his father tried to drink and ruin his health, since all it took was one ‘Restore’ from Han-Yeol before his health would return to normal.

Han-Yeol used his skill as often as he could on his father, who was now as young as a twenty years old thanks to that. Also, his father was now extra motivated when it came to running his business since he was free from his illness.

Han-Yeol suddenly felt ashamed when he realized how hard his father was working while he lazed around just because he had fulfilled his goal in life. Feeling embarrassed, he thought, ‘Father is working so hard despite having a Hunter as a son, but I’ve been lazing around pitifully after fulfilling my goal…’

Han-Yeol used ‘Restore’ on his father once again, took off his father’s clothes, and wiped his father down just like he used to. Then, he got his father into sleepwear and changed his position so that his father could sleep comfortably on the bed.

This was bound to be a nuisance for a normal person, but Han-Yeol was used to this. He had done this every time he had visited his father at the hospital previously.

‘Shadow Demon,’ Han-Yeol thought as he summoned the demon.

[Did you call…?]

‘This is my father. You do remember my terms of the contract where you have to discreetly protect him, right?’ Han-Yeol asked through ‘Telepathy’.

[Of course… Human… Protect…]

‘Of course, I will be supplying you with enough monster corpses to satisfy you,’ Han-Yeol thought in response.

[…]

Swooosh…

The Shadow Demon was absorbed into Han-Yeol’s father’s shadow, which was formed by the bed lamp’s light. Han-Yeol held his sleeping father’s hand. He thought, ‘Father… The Shadow Demon will protect you from now on even though I am not around.’

Han-Yeol finally felt that he could slightly relax when it came to worrying about his father.

***

Han-Yeol had successfully summoned a demon to protect his father at all times, but he was not satisfied at just summoning the Shadow Demon, which was a lesser demon, to protect his father. He thought, ‘I have managed to solve just one small part of the problem, but the main problem still remains. The biggest threat to father’s safety right now is the random appearance of the dimensional holes.’

People only had to be careful of the monsters trapped behind the barrier system that was summoned by the dimensional gates that had appeared thirty years ago. However, there had been quite a few cases of dimensional holes appearing in urban areas over the past few months.

The rising civilian casualties from the suddenly appearing dimensional holes outside of the barrier system had been on recent news quite frequently. Thinking about that, Han-Yeol thought, ‘The dimensional holes do show up in urban areas after all.’

The internet news agency being run by the Hunters’ Association had stated that the appearance of dimensional holes was a global occurrence at this point. They also stated that the United States was currently studying the mana frequency that resonated before a dimensional hole opened, and they hoped to find a pattern and predict the dimensional holes’ appearance.

Han-Yeol scratched his head in frustration while reading the news article related to dimensional holes. ‘Ah forget it. It’s not that I’m a dimensional hole professor or something. I just want to keep father safe, that’s all. What was I thinking, trying to come up with theories about the dimensional hole.’

Han-Yeol knew very well that he was not very smart, and that was a fact that he had already accepted a long time ago. That was also one of the main reasons why he had given up on studying during his school days and had prioritized working part-time, doing sports, and playing with his friends. He had studied quite hard during his Porter days, but all he had to do during that time had been to memorize different kinds of information.

Han-Yeol knew very well that theorizing and deducing these kinds of complex stuff was not his forte at all.

[Han-Yeol-nim, I advise you to continue reading regardless. I think that you will greatly benefit from reading about different kinds of topics just as it benefited you when you read the medical textbooks.]

‘Really?’ Han-Yeol asked when Karvis’ words piqued his interest.

[Yes.]

Karvis was with Han-Yeol twenty-four seven even though it did not seem like she was doing much, and Karvis was always analyzing every situation Han-Yeol was in, since she was designed to assist her master.

The intelligent Ego system was bound to become a great source of strength to Han-Yeol if he only knew how to utilize her properly.

[I am not certain what kinds of secrets the skill ‘Infinite Library’ holds, but I suspect that the hints to its secrets lie in the books you would read because of the word ‘library’ in its skill name. What I am trying to say is, you won’t be getting the shorter end of the stick if you decide to read a book.]

‘Well, if you insist that much,’ Han-Yeol thought. Karvis had never pressed her suggestion so strongly onto him before, but the Ego system had managed to easily change his perception of reading this time.

One of Han-Yeol’s few strong suits was the fact that he was a man of action. He immediately called a company to work on one of the empty rooms’ interiors in his house to transform it into a study room. Then, he went to G-Bookstore instead of K-Bookstore this time, put every single book that piqued his interest into his cart, and had five staffers from the bookstore with one cart each follow him around not long after he started to shop for books.

‘So this is how flexing your money feels,’ Han-Yeol thought. He realized how far he had come as he reminisced about his past self who used to walk instead of taking the bus or the taxi as he wanted to save whatever he could.

“This, too,” Han-Yeol said.

Tak!

Han-Yeol started to speed up as he added more books to his carts. At a glance, he was just mindlessly throwing the books into the carts, but he was able to precisely throw the books and make them land at the exact spot he wanted them to thanks to his ‘Marksmanship’ skill.

Thanks to this, the staffers of G-Bookstore were left dumbfounded as they followed him around while taking in this rare sight. The carts would fill up whenever Han-Yeol passed a row of books, and the books were perfectly arranged according to who knows what criteria Han-Yeol was arranging them.

“Excuse me, Hunter-nim,” one of the staffers asked.

“Yes?” Han-Yeol responded.

‘I knew it! He’s a Hunter!’ the staffer exclaimed inwardly.

The staffer at the forefront right behind Han-Yeol had called him ‘Hunter-nim’ as they suspected that the customer in front of them who was going on a spending spree was a Hunter, and it was just as they suspected, the customer was indeed a Hunter.

“Do you plan to purchase all of these?” the staffer carefully asked.

“Of course, I am buying to read them, after all. Oh right, you seem to have books related to the occult here,” Han-Yeol said while surprised at what he saw.

He had been disappointed just a few days ago when he had found no occult books at K-Bookstore, so he was surprised to see that these books were readily available right in front of him at this bookstore. He thought, ‘Is this what they call customer satisfaction?’

Han-Yeol did not really need the occult books anymore, since he had already succeeded in summoning a demon. Still, he decided to put it in the cart anyway.

‘They say, the more the better,’ Han-Yeol merrily thought as he filled six carts worth of books which came up to a total of two million one hundred thousand won.

The staffers of G-Bookstore delivered the books all the way to Han-Yeol’s house, and they even helped to arrange the books in his study room. Of course, Han-Yeol did not forget to give them a sizable tip for their sincere efforts.

To be frank, there was nothing special about a Hunter entering a bookstore. A Hunter and a normal person would usually spend the same amount of money at a bookstore, and that was why the bookstore was one place where they did not really feel the privileges of a Hunter.

However, the G-Bookstore at Gangbuk was the first in the country to see a glimpse of how special a Hunter was.

‘Now, let’s see… Shall we get immersed in books once again?’ Han-Yeol thought as he opened a book.

Han-Yeol read through the books he had purchased from G-Bookstore, and there were a few books that proved to be beneficial to him and some that were not. Still, he continued to read the books just in case he would benefit from one of them, even though some of the books he had bought did not make any sense.

‘Confucius blah blah, Mencius blah blah…’ Han-Yeol thought as he read through one of the less helpful books.

***

Ding!

[‘Infinite Library’ has indirectly influenced one of your skills due to the overwhelming amount of knowledge you have read.]

[The rank of ‘Mana Mastery’ has increased from (D) to (C).]

‘Status window,’ Han-Yeol called up his status screen.

Name: Lee Han-Yeol

Level: 50

Points: 0

STR: 105

VIT: 101

AGI: 99

MAG: 150

LCK: 10

Invoke: 10

Skills: Dismember (D), Sword Mastery (A), Walking (B), Mana Control (B), Mana Mastery (C), Power Strike (B), Mana Shield (B), Sixth Sense (C), Restrain (B), Body Strengthening (C), Mana Eyes (C), Jumping (B), Stab (C), Dagger Mastery (F), Chain Mastery (B), Infinite Library (M), Shield Bash (C), Fire Attribute (D), Mana Explosion (B), Chain Smite (B), Marksmanship (C), Martial Arts (D), Enchant (E), Sword Breath (D), Restore (E), Healing Bullet (E), Enhance Healing (E), Summon Demon (E), Telepathy (E), Power Meditation (E), Psychokinesis (E).

‘Who knew that ‘Infinite Library’ was going to be this helpful?’ Han-Yeol thought.

Han-Yeol initially thought that, when he first got the skill and read that it was a helpful skill, he never imagined that the skill was going to be this valuable. In fact, he would have probably never realized the true worth of this skill if he did not read so many books.

Also, the biggest benefit he reaped from ‘Infinite Library’ was the fact that his skills from ‘Restore’ all the way down the ‘Psychokinesis’, which were all at F-Rank, level up one by one into E-Rank.

Wooong! Flip!

Han-Yeol leisurely used ‘Psychokinesis’ to flip the last page of the book while sitting relaxed on the chair.

‘The good thing is the fact that ‘Summon Demon’ became E-Rank,’ he thought.

‘Summon Demon’ was the skill that Han-Yeol was most interested in at the moment, and he had decided to invest most of his efforts into leveling up this skill. The best part about the skill was the fact that leveling it up benefited him in more than one way.

Sukeok…

Han-Yeol infused mana into his finger and lightly slit the back of his right hand, where the sigil was engraved on. He called forth his summoned demon, ‘Summon, Shadow Demon.’

Fwoooosh…!

The Shadow Demon’s sigil glowed brightly in mid-air as the Shadow Demon slowly made its appearance from its sigil.

‘Huh? You’re not the same Shadow Demon…?’ Han-Yeol thought as he tilted his head in confusion.