Solo Leveling: Ragnarok – 158



Episode 158

Shadow Dungeon.

A quiet world of rest made up of black and white.

Now here the untimely flapping of the wings of bees was making a small noise.

Weeeeenn-

[…It’s really surprising.]

Queen Bee Arsha let out a small exclamation as she walked through the shadow dungeon.

[Is this the world of rest ruled by the Shadow Lord?]

Surprisingly she was now in the shadow dungeon in her ‘main body’ state.

The conversation between Suho and Arsha was cut off for a moment due to Baek Yunho’s sudden intrusion but after that Suho dared to bring Arsha’s body in front of him.

In any case Arsha was in no position to disobey Suho’s orders so in the end she had no choice but to obediently follow Suho’s words.

The result is this situation right now.

From now on Arsha’s main body will live trapped in the shadow dungeon.

A hostage so to speak.

Or confinement.

In short from now on Arsha’s main body will be unable to leave the shadow dungeon without Guardian’s permission.

However her clone still remained outside and it was possible to use that clone to monitor the situation outside.

But that’s it.

As long as the main body was trapped here it was difficult to fully demonstrate its power.

At best reconnaissance was the best.

‘…But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.’

I didn’t know it when she was being treated one-sidedly but Arsha was surprisingly quite happy with her current situation.

‘I’m sure it’s a case of abuse of power but the welfare is better than I thought.’

Arsha’s ultimate goal was of course to inherit the power of Queresha the King of Bugs and Lord of Plague.

But before that her most important goal was of course ‘survival.’

In that sense this shadow dungeon was a safer place than any other place.

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‘More than anything I like that I don’t have to act anymore.’

Arsha was not particularly dissatisfied with the current treatment based on this fact alone.

In the past when she accidentally fell to Earth while wandering through a gap in the dimension she mimicked a human and chose to naturally blend into human society.

I played a human and catered to the human’s wishes.

It was just parasitism not adaptation.

It was shameful.

I can’t believe I have to live my life acting like mere humans even though I was born as a queen bee.

But no matter how strong he was he couldn’t take on all the humans on Earth.

Therefore he had to increase his subordinates and create a force that would no longer require him to hide himself.

To reign as a true queen bee.

But not now.

There was no need to act like a human anymore than here in the shadow dungeon.

That fact appealed to her more than anything else.

Of course there was just one element of anxiety.

It’s Suho.

Since the main body is trapped here from now on Suho can kill himself whenever he wants.

-I plan to kill you at any time. But I promise I won’t kill you if you don’t go against my wishes.

[…It’s okay right?]

A very unreasonable and one-sided contract.

Arsha’s eyes suddenly trembled with anxiety as she remembered the oath Suho had made.

But what can you do?

Now that things are like this I have no choice but to do my best and not go against Suho’s wishes.

Wasn’t he in a situation where he was running away from Suho even when he was outside anyway?

[hmm. This would be good.]

Arsha who had been wandering around the shadow dungeon for a while found somewhere and suddenly stopped.

This is a corner of the shadow dungeon a little away from Ammut’s pyramid.

Arsha who was carefully looking around this area stretched out her hand with a satisfied smile.

[Fly soar my worker bees.]

Weeeeenn-

Then the bees she had brought with her flew out of her body all at once.

Arsha solemnly declared to the guys.

[I command you in the name of Queen Bee Arsha. Work hard worker bees. Let’s build our new kingdom here.]

Weeeeenn-

Arsha decided to build a comfortable palace for herself to live in from now on in the corner of the shadow dungeon which ended up like this anyway.

Anyway the main material for the honeycomb was Arsha’s magic power and the remaining materials could be sufficiently collected in this area.

So after some time.

Before she knew it the beehive with its basic structure already visible was gradually becoming complete.

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But is it because we have become so accustomed to human life?

The queen bee’s bedroom was built like a very comfortable and elegant princess’s room to be considered a beehive.

[Hehe. Good good. Make a bed here. Queen size would be nice. And over here there is a tea table and a sofa….]

The worker bees were buzzing and working hard to match Arsha’s detailed orders.

Arsha couldn’t hide her satisfaction.

Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to continue living like this… hmm? What was I thinking….’

Arsha said that she had thought something unbecoming of a queen bee for a moment and hastily erased the thought that had just occurred to her.

But deep down she knew.

The life of a queen bee was to live in a safe place and leave all the other troublesome and dangerous tasks to the worker bees.

Arsha felt grateful to Suho for providing such a comfortable space for her and conveyed her thoughts to her worker bees who were wandering around Korea.

The content of that thought was exactly the order that Suho had given him.

-My worker bees! Hurry and find Hwang Dong-su!

That’s right.

Suho was not only entrusted to the White Tiger Guild but also enlisted Arsha’s workers to search for Hwang Dong-su’s location.

Weeeeenn-

Arsha’s worker bees outside the Shadow Dungeon heard the queen’s command and began to flap their wings even more and disperse throughout the country.

* * *

While Arsha was building a beehive.

Suho finished his daily quest and walked out of Ammut’s pyramid.

[Thank you for your hard work.]

Guardian’s shadow soldiers were gathered behind Ver who approached and spoke first.

Suho’s eyes looked at them.

Excluding Ver there are a total of five shadow soldiers he has saved so far.

Shadow Lancer Quay.

Shadow Minotaur Minnow.

Shadow Minotaur Tau.

Shadow Assassin Kira.

Shadow Shaman Harmakan.

Of these the strongest was of course Harmacan an elite knight.

However from the perspective of dealing with him directly Harma Khan’s specialty was ‘magic’.

In that sense in order to use Harmakan appropriately in the future it was necessary to properly understand its abilities.

“Tell me about your abilities Harmakan.”

[Yes master.]

Harmakan’s answer continued and in summary it could be broadly classified into three categories.

1) Wraith magic

2) Curse (debuff)

3) Activate instance dungeon

[…But witchcraft to cast a spell is only possible when there are spirits of the dead around.]

“It’s an ability that has limitations depending on the situation.”

[Yes.]

Suho suddenly remembered Harmakan attacking him using the ghosts of the dead people in Yamiri Village.

At that time Harmakan used the souls of humans but in the dungeon it seemed like he could use wraith magic on the souls of the demonic beasts.

‘But the abilities of wraith magic overlap with shadow extraction.’

Strictly speaking Shadow Power could be said to be a much higher level ability than Wraith Art.

“Then from now on we can collect strong demonic beasts as shadow soldiers and use the souls of the remaining miscellaneous mobs as ingredients for wraith magic.”

[I will keep this in mind. And the curse I use is….]

“Oh let’s see that with our own eyes.”

[…?]

Suho’s sudden grin made Harmakan feel ominous and he quickly looked around.

Then before he knew it other shadow soldiers were surrounding him.

[Master?]

“Everyone attacks.”

[…!]

Wow!

As soon as the order was given the shadow soldiers began to attack Harmacan.

[Oh my!]

Embarrassed Harmakan quickly began cursing.

At that moment system messages appeared one after another in front of Suho.

[Harmacan uses ‘Skill: Damage Amplification’.]

[Harmacan uses ‘Skill: Exploitation’.]

[Harmacan uses ‘Skill: Thorn of Pain’.]

“Yes this was it.”

Suho nodded checking again the performance of the Harmakan curses he had personally encountered.

‘Damage amplification is a debuff. Exploitation absorbs vitality. Thorns of pain are reflection damage.’

Looking back they were quite interesting skills.

In terms of the game Harmakan could be seen as a necromancer specializing in debuffs.

And in the game just as the debuffer cannot exert much power without a party member the same was true for Harmakan.

In fact even now even if you apply a debuff there are no ghosts that will attack.

[Aaaah!]

As a result Harmakan was one-sidedly beaten by other soldiers without even being able to attack properly.

Although he was an elite knight in name and appearance he had an unsightly appearance.

However in the process the ‘thorn of pain’ shone through.

[All pain and damage Harmakan receives is shared with the attacking target.]

Quaaaang!

[…!]

At that moment Kira’s body which attacked Harmakan with such force exploded and was thrown backwards.

At the same time Harmakan also felt pain but Kira who had relatively weak defense fell first.

Suho chuckled at that sight.

“So this makes me a tank and not a necromancer?”

But what if it were like this?

Suho changed his fighting style.

“Harmacan! Can you apply the thorns of pain to all other soldiers as well?”

[Wow! Yes yes! Anything is possible!]

Even though Harmakan was beaten by the soldiers he steadily answered his questions.

“Then use it all on the other soldiers!”

[Harmacan uses ‘Skill: Thorn of Pain’.]

As soon as he said those words the curse energy enveloped the bodies of all the soldiers and Su-ho this time ordered the soldiers to attack each other.

Then an indiscriminate fight broke out.

[Kaaaa!]

[Haaaap!]

Chack chack chack-!

Ku-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwak!

The shadow soldiers attacked each other without hesitation perhaps because they had accumulated so much from each other.

Then at the same time as the attack their bodies exploded one after another.

But in the meantime they look like berserkers who don’t stop attacking each other…

[Guys like cockroaches.]

Queen Arsha who witnessed the fierce and fierce battle from afar clicked her tongue and ran away to build a beehive again.

Shwaaaagh!

In the meantime Guardian’s mana drained out and the damaged bodies of the soldiers began to recover quickly.

Suho’s eyes sparkled as he saw that.

“Is it good?”

Thorn of Pain which returns damage taken had very good synergy with Shadow Soldiers.

Because the shadow soldiers were able to recover no matter how much damage they took.

Of course the prerequisite for this was that it had to be supported by Guardian’s mana.

“…I guess I’ll have to invest in intelligence stats from now on.”

Suho immediately invested everything in his intelligence stat starting with the daily quest rewards he received today.