Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 529: Search for the Last Stone (2)

Tayarana grimaced in disgust and clicked her tongue.

[Disgusting.]

[That looks awful.]

Mariam had the same expression.

‘Tsk… I don’t have the habit of feeling sympathy for monsters, but whatever they did to these things is indeed horrible…’

Anyone would feel repulsed after seeing a monster and a weapon–no, a living creature and a weapon fused together.

[Those kinds of cursed beings have to be disposed of quickly.]

[I agree, Tayarana-nim.]

[Let’s go, Han-Yeol,] Tayarana said.

Whether it was a government facility or some secret organization was no longer important, as the only thing Han-Yeol and Tayarana wanted to do was run wild and destroy this place.

‘Well, I don’t think it’s a government facility, but it doesn’t matter because there’s nothing the government of Chile can do against me,’ Han-Yeol smugly thought.

All of the countries in South America, Chile included, suffered tremendously after the dimensional gates appeared, causing them to weaken. Numerous other reasons contributed to their decline, but the biggest reason was one of the three major incidents that every Hunter in the world gets educated with.

South America was hit by one of the worst disasters mankind had ever seen, causing tremendous fatalities. The governments of each country miraculously managed to restore order and reestablish themselves even after such a disastrous incident, but they were still yet to fully recover from the damages they suffered that day.

What was going to happen to these South American countries if they dared to file a complaint against Han-Yeol when even the United States was trying not to get on his bad side? Doing so could put their entire country on the brink of ruin.

‘To be honest, that doesn’t look anything like something a country would build. There’s no way Chile could afford to build something like that when they barely just recovered from that incident. Not to mention, those explosive traps are pretty expensive. Hmm… well, not that it matters whether it’s owned by their government or by some guy.’ Han-Yeol considered numerous possibilities but eventually decided to focus on looking for the Purple Stone instead.

Boom!

Tayarana was the first to make a move, enraged by the hideous-looking lizardmen, and Mariam and Han-Yeol followed closely behind her.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Perhaps it was more proper to refer to these lizardmen as biological weapons. Either way, the strange combination of lizardmen and cannons aimed at Tayarana and fired simultaneously.

[Too easy.]

Chwak!

The cannons might seem powerful, but they would require at least one million more years of development to threaten a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter. The dozens of cannon shells flew toward Tayarana, but she instantly disintegrated them with just one swing of her sword.

“Kiek?!”

The biological weapons grew flustered after watching their cannon shells disintegrate so easily.

“Kiek! Kiek!”

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

However, they did not give up and continued to fire volleys at her.

‘What the hell? They can fire continuously without reloading?’ Han-Yeol thought, slightly surprised.

The biological weapons did not even reload their cannons, yet they could continuously fire without running out of shells.

[Begon.]

Chwak! Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Kieeeek!”

They might have slightly surprised Han-Yeol with their ability to fire without reloading their cannons, but they had met the wrong opponent today. A single slash from Tayarana’s sword turned a group of biological weapons into bloody corpses.

Han-Yeol smirked. ‘Wow! You’re as feisty as ever, Tara! But I’m not gonna lose!’

The duo made quick work of the biological weapons manning the fortress walls.

“Kieeeek!”

However, more biological weapons came running out from the interior of the fortress and began shooting their cannons at them.

Whiiiiiing!

The emergency siren blared and notified the entire fortress that the enemy was invading.

‘Alright! Come at me at once so I don’t have to look for you later!’ Han-Yeol exclaimed inwardly and threw his chain forward, making it dance among his enemies.

Chwaaaak!

The fortress put up quite a decent resistance, but they were like ants trying to resist against a tiger.

“K-Kireuk!”

A gigantic spider with a large flamethrower as its torso was squirming on the ground after it had gotten caught by the destruction.

Splat!

Han-Yeol stomped on the creature’s head, causing sticky blue liquid to splash all over the place.

“Shut up,” Han-Yeol growled.

He was not the type to joke around in battle. His icy look showed he was prepared to kill all of his enemies without showing an ounce of mercy or empathy. Those eyes were that of a ruthless warrior who solely existed to dominate the battlefield.

Han-Yeol was infuriated the moment he stepped into the fortress, which turned out to be a laboratory, just as they expected. The reason for his anger was the sight that greeted him.

“Ughhh…”

“Uwooo…”

‘This is horrible…’ Han-Yeol thought.

It turned out that the fortress was not only experimenting on monsters. There were countless humans, both Hunters and civilians alike, hung up with parts of their bodies missing. They were still breathing, but there was a doubt whether they were really alive. They seemed to have lost themselves, and the only thing they could do was cry out feebly.

Han-Yeol had experienced countless wars, so he was not infuriated because he felt sorry for them or anything of that sort.

The reason he was infuriated was—

‘This just spoiled my mood.’

His mood soured after he saw what was in the laboratory.

Thud… Thud…

Han-Yeol slowly walked around the fortress. He searched around it for more than an hour, but he did not find what he was looking for. To be precise, he was looking for a conscious test subject who could explain where they were, what the laboratory was, and explain its purpose.

‘Hmm, should I look for a researcher instead? There should be some, right?’ Han-Yeol decided to change his search.

Ziiiing!

He adjusted his Demon Eyes, which were set to only look for the Purple Stone’s mana signal.

‘So they’re in the basement.’

Han-Yeol found around fifteen to sixteen people. If his Demon Eyes were always so accurate, then why was he unsure of the number of people?

‘One of them… There’s something wrong with their mana.’

The mana one of them was emitting was neither that of a Hunter nor a civilian, making it difficult to discern.

‘Well, I guess I’ll find out if I go there.’

He had to go anyway, so he decided to see it with his own eyes.

“Hmm… But I have something to do before that.”

[What are you going to do?]

“A bit of cleaning.”

[Huh?]

Tayarana was perplexed after hearing that Han-Yeol was going to clean.

‘Fire.’ Han-Yeol conjured an ember.

Fwaaaah!

Fire was not one of his skills. However, his Fire Attribute allowed him to conjure embers with just his will and mana.

The ember in his hand instantly engulfed the entire laboratory.

Boom! Boom!

‘Whoa… I guess this place was full of flammable materials.’

Han-Yeol initially planned to just burn the place down, but he did not expect the laboratory to have flammable things that would trigger explosions. The explosions unleashed deafening blasts that drowned the moaning of the test subjects, taking their lives as well in the process.

Burning to death was known to be one of the most horrible ways a person could die, but the test subjects faintly smiled despite barely being conscious just before the flames devoured them.

After undergoing so many tests, they might have lost their consciousness and reason, but they must have instinctively realized that they were finally free from their suffering. Freedom was probably one of the most important things a person could ever wish for that they would instinctively be aware of.

‘Though I don’t know your names, may all of you rest in peace.’ Han-Yeol said a short word of prayer for the test subjects.

“Let’s go, Tara.”

[Okay, Han-Yeol.]

Han-Yeol’s party met fierce resistance the moment they went down to the basement.

“Oh?”

[Who are you?! Why have you infiltrated our facility?!]

The researchers screamed at him in Spanish that was closer to the type of Spanish used in Mexico than Spain. They screamed at the top of their lungs, showing their resolve to protect the main laboratory from the invaders.

“Grrr…!”

As expected, there were numerous signs of ongoing experiments in the basement, and the living creatures created from fusing weapons and monsters were the first things that caught Han-Yeol’s attention.

“...”

However, his interest lasted only for a second.

“Tara.”

[Yes, Han-Yeol?]

“I’ll leave these guys to you. I’m more bothered by whatever thing that’s inside there.”

[Leave it to me.]

Tayarana easily agreed to Han-Yeol’s request. She had come all the way with Han-Yeol to help him, so she had already planned to agree to whatever request he made as long as they were not too troublesome.

“Then I’ll leave them to you.”

[Sure.]

Han-Yeol walked forward.

[Darn it… They don’t seem like ordinary infiltrators. Prepare for battle!]

“Kyaaaaak!”

Shwooong! Bam!

Neither side could understand the other’s language, so they had no idea what their opponent was planning. However, the researchers knew that Han-Yeol’s party was quite the formidable bunch, as they had been observing them since they first attacked the fortress, causing them to react sensitively to every single thing they did.

‘These pieces of trash are getting on my nerves…’ Han-Yeol thought before suddenly disappearing from view.

Whoosh!

[W-What’s with this wind?!]

A powerful gust of wind blew at the researchers, causing them and their monsters to close their eyes.

Bam!

[What?!]

[T-That…!]

And that was all the time Han-Yeol needed to destroy the door they were guarding and enter the room.

[S-Stop him!] the researchers shouted urgently.

They had to protect the test subjects inside no matter what.

“Kireuk!”

Their monsters instantly turned at the researchers’ commands and chased after Han-Yeol–or so they tried.

Chwak! Chwak!

“Kieeeek!”

“Kireuk! Kireuk!”

Unfortunately, a streak of golden light cut ten of them instantly before they could even turn around.

[Han-Yeol asked me to deal with you, so none of you shall chase after him.]

[W-What?!]

The Mexican researchers could not understand what Tayarana had said in Arabic, but the sheer mana and bloodlust she unleashed was more than enough to make them shudder.

[K-Kill that woman first!]

“Kyaaaak!”

The monsters redirected their focus to Tayarana at the command. They lunged at her like a hungry pack of beasts ready to devour her.

Others would probably feel intimidated by the horde of monsters rushing at them, but Tayarana was actually smiling. She was enjoying her current predicament.

***

The inner laboratory Han-Yeol entered after easily breaking through the defensive line set up by the researchers was quite vast and full of glass tubes filled with strange test subjects he had never seen before.

Some of the test subjects looked like hideous monsters, while some were dissected human body parts.

However, Han-Yeol grimaced in disgust because the humans and monsters in the glass tubes were still alive.

Blop! Blop!

They wore masks supplying them with oxygen that occasionally created bubbles, indicating that these test subjects were breathing.

Han-Yeol continued walking deeper into the inner laboratory until he reached a section covered with glass that stopped him in his tracks.

“T-This is…!”

His hands trembled uncontrollably. He was unsure if they were trembling from fear, anger, or repulse from the inhuman experiment.

“Just what in the world…”

He was at a loss for words at what he was witnessing.

[This is horrible. Forget about whether this kind of experiment is even possible, but the fact that they carried out such an experiment is already a shock to me. Whoever conducted this experiment is so brazen and cruel.]

“Haa…” Han-Yeol exhaled to compose himself. Then, he took a good look at the test subject in front of his eyes.