Leveling Up Alone

Chapter 457 - Wake Up, Queen (7)

Including the virtue angel and Tia evolving to the next state that didn’t exist, Han-Yeol wondered if he could understand all of this without the Infinite Library skill.

“S-So does that mean you’re a queen race now?”

“Haha, correct!”

“Well, if you’re a queen, you should have at least one bodyguard. Tia, it’s a bit lonely for you to be alone,” Han-Yeol said mindlessly.

He just thought that since she was a queen, she should have at least one bodyguard.

But his words struck a blow to Tia’s pride.

“Haha... Is that so?”

“Huh?”

Han-Yeol felt a little regret the moment he saw the creases on her forehead.

Ziiiing!

Soon, Tia’s body started to vibrate with a tremendous amount of mana.

‘T-This mana is—?’

Han-Yeol couldn’t look down on her anymore because of her mana since she had reached the Transcendent Master-Rank the moment she evolved into a queen.

In other words, Han-Yeol and Tia were now equal in terms of strength. Of course, they would have to duel each other to identify the stronger one. Han-Yeol should have the advantage because he had more skills, but it was the strength of Tia, the queen, that really mattered.

“Come forth, my loyal servant. Show the power of your greatness here. Atlak Nakha!”

As Tia raised both her hands and completed the spell, her mana gathered in the air and started to go on a rampage.

Kheee! Tzzz!

There was the sound of a monstrous roar that contained an incredible amount of energy and the creepy sound of air being torn apart. Everything about this was unsettling.

“Hahaha.”

Tia’s laughter added to the atmosphere, making it even more lively.

“H-How can this be...”

Han-Yeol could only stare in disbelief as the giant spider tore through the air, revealing only its upper half.

It wasn’t just an ordinary spider monster. In Cthulhu mythology, there was a being commonly described as having a human face and a spider body.

The creature Tia summoned wasn’t as grotesque as that being. The giant spider was made of different shades of red and had hundreds of tiny purple eyes, giving it a creepy appearance. It also had horns on the sides of its jaw in a U-shape, like the jaw of a stag beetle, making it all the more intimidating.

“T-That’s...”

“Haha, that’s right. Master. This is Atlak Nakha, the lord and god of spiders, and my faithful bodyguard, the only living and immortal being in this world. He has sworn an oath of loyalty to protect me, the newly born Arachnid queen. Haha, what a cute little thing.”

Kyaaa!

Atlak Nakha seemed to realize that she was talking about him, so he showed off his presence. However, Han-Yeol didn’t feel particularly threatened by the creature.

“Wow, a spider lord and a god of spiders. That’s quite intimidating. Can I touch it?”

“Oh, aren’t you afraid? Don’t you have arachnophobia?”

Was it possible for Han-Yeol, who had an Arachnid, the absolute race of spiders, as his pet, to be arachnophobic?

Han-Yeol was a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter, but he had a strong dislike for bugs, including cockroaches, bees, spiders, and camel crickets. So before he became a Hunter, he had no intention of farming if he were to retire at an old age. There were so many bugs in the countryside that he despised going there.

“Come on, Miss Arachnid. That was so long ago. Even since I raised you, I’ve already gotten over my h-a-t-e for spiders.”

Han-Yeol didn’t admit that he was afraid of those bugs until the end, only that he hated them. He also claimed to have raised Tia for the second time, showing off that he was superior to her, but Tia was a master at teasing Han-Yeol.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes!”

“Evie.”

Swoosh!

Tia threw something at Han-Yeol at an incredible speed. If she hadn’t evolved, the difference between their strength and speed would have prevented Han-Yeol from falling for her pranks by clearly seeing what she threw.

However, now that Tia had evolved into a queen, the strength and speed gap between the two wasn't that big. And since Han-Yeol was arguing with her, he was completely caught off guard, defenseless against her surprise attack(?).

Plop.

“Huh?”

Feeling something ticklish land on his cheek, Han-Yeol looked to see what it was.

As soon as he touched it, he felt goosebumps all over his body. It was none other than a tiny spider. Specifically, it was a tiger spider with yellow and black stripes, the kind of spider Han-Yeol hated the most.

“Ahhh!”

Han-Yeol instinctively let out a strange scream and swung his arm, quickly throwing the tiger spider far away.

Swoosh!

“Hahaha, Master, didn’t you say you had overcome your fear?”

Tia laughed heartily at Han-Yeol’s reaction, but she didn’t forget to save the poor spider from being crushed to death because of her silly little prank. A mere throw from Han-Yeol would’ve been enough to crush the spider to death.

To others, this might’ve been an insignificant spider, but to her, as part of the Arachnid species, even this little tiger spider was her precious subject. If the spider had died fighting on behalf of her order, it would’ve been a different story, but she didn’t want it to die because of a prank she pulled.

“Ugh, damn it. I can't believe Tia has become so strong that I fell for a prank like this.”

“Prepare yourself from now on, Master.”

“Ugh!”

Han-Yeol had a feeling that from today on, his days were going to be very tiring.

[...Are you guys done with your useless conversation?]

Iloa Freiel’s expression remained the same, but for some reason, Han-Yeol could tell that her mood had slightly worsened.

Nothing had changed visually, but Han-Yeol’s absolute senses, which transcended common sense, told him so.

“Ah, right. We were talking to that angel.”

“Haha, right. We forgot.”

“Ha... Can you please focus?”

Stewart was about to lose all his energy due to Han-Yeol and Tia. They seemed to forget about the world around them whenever they got into a comical argument.

Even so, Stewart watched out for Tia.

‘This is a change. Even though she exists in the human world, she’s a demon from the demon world. If she can exert this much power in the human world, she must be stronger than me in the demon world. I wonder how this change will play out in the future.’

For the time being, he wasn’t too worried. From what he could tell, she wasn’t interested in the demon world, at least not as long as Han-Yeol was alive. All she cared about was Han-Yeol.

Besides, Han-Yeol was only human after all.

A human's lifespan was two hundred years, but since he had surpassed that limit, he could live longer, although it was exceedingly difficult to live past five hundred years. After that, Tia would eventually return to her home, which was the demon world. That would mark the beginning of true chaos, and depending on her choices, it could either be a period of great disorder or the establishment of a new order.

‘Interesting.’

At first, Stewart assumed that his exile to the human world had been the result of some gossip from Lucifer’s lords, who were jealous of his nobility, but after experiencing the human world, things were a little different.

There were some bad parts, but the dynamic and exciting human world was more fun than the boring and dull demon world. This was because he was accompanying a Transcendent Master-Rank Hunter human named Han-Yeol, who was prone to getting into accidents.

[Enough!]

Bang!

“Agh!”

“Hmph!”

“Ha!”

Just as they were about to go off-topic, Iloa shot out golden mana in all directions and grabbed their attention.

Even for an angel, Han-Yeol’s group’s hectic nature was exhausting.

“Okay, so, Iloa Freiel, what is it you were trying to accomplish by luring me into this trap?”

[What I wanted was your death.]

“What?”

Han-Yeol’s expression and voice immediately turned dark. For him, respect for others was something he only showed to worthy beings. He wasn’t nice enough to respect a pervert who had lured him into a strange trap to kill him, then disguised himself as one of his own and watched from behind the scenes.

[Your power exceeds the level of common sense on Earth. According to our plans, the vibrational dragon should've destroyed Earth without crossing over to the second dimension. However, because you stopped the vibrational dragons, our plan to destroy Earth failed. Nevertheless, you’ve overcome this dungeon so far, and you will continue to do so. In our judgment, your power is too dangerous.]

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

In other words, they were going to remove him because he had broken the balance of the dimensions.

As Han-Yeol was about to step forward, Stewart stopped him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Wait a minute, Han-Yeol-nim. Iloa, what god do you serve?”

[...The God of Dimensions and Balance, the great Kubera-nim. In order to manage balance and dimensions, I will kill you so that you don’t destroy the balance of the dimensions like a virus.]

Even the emotionless angel was filled with pride as she talked about her god.

Ooong!

As soon as she finished talking, a powerful golden-colored ripple rose around Iloa.

It was a dignified divine power of immense magnificence.

The power was so strong that even Han-Yeol had never seen anything like it before—it was far stronger than Han-Yeol himself.

‘I-I have to go against this?’

This situation was ridiculous.

To deal with a power like this, one would need to bring an entire army of Bastro Warriors and Black Orcs to even stand a chance, but there were only three people here who could fight.

Of course, there were three others, but their strength was nothing compared to this power, so they didn’t really matter.

“S-Stewart, what do we do?”

Han-Yeol wanted Stewart to do something about this angel since he was a demon, and as he hoped, Stewart’s expression didn’t change in the face of this overwhelming divine power.

“Don’t worry.”

“Oh, so you do have a way. Do you have a trick up your sleeve to take her down?”

“Well, there is no trick to defeating her. This place belonged to her in the first place, and I just realized that this underground ruin seems to have been a city dedicated to Kubera, the god of dimension and balance. That is why that angel can use traps and why she can unleash all of her power by being nerfed very slightly.”

“Don’t just say that—do something about it!”