Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

“Phew. That should do it.” Arsha looked relieved after she finished the nest.

Suho was nonplussed. “What is this? A nest, or a safe?” he asked.

“I actually feel this is not enough, considering that a dragon is about to hatch from that egg,” Arsha responded. She still seemed irked by Kamish’s Egg. “Dragons are unmatched predators from the moment they are born. A red dragon hatchling will spew fire from the moment it hatches. You might not realize it because you are human, Suho, but dragons—”

“What are you talking about? The young monarch could fly through the air since he was a child!” Beru exclaimed indignantly.

Arsha was forced to clam up upon realizing that Suho wasn’t exactly normal himself. In fact, he could be considered the most menacing being here.

Ha!How did I end up living in such a dangerous environment? Arsha chewed her lip, sighing at the thought of her harsh surroundings.

“You seem to know a bit about dragons,” Suho remarked.

“The collection of information is my specialty,” she said. As she was able to make many copies of herself, gathering information did come naturally to her. Even now, her worker bees were traveling all over the country, looking for villains.

“Do you know how to hatch a dragon egg, then?”

“‘Baptize’ them? What does that mean?”

“Simply put, they infuse the eggs with mana. Hmm… Speaking of which, this egg is too small to be a dragon egg. I’ll bet that its parents died too early, and it wasn’t able to grow properly because it didn’t get enough mana.”

Arsha’s guess was very accurate. Kamish’s Egg was the smallest of all the eggs that Haein had found in the Grave of the Dragons.

Suho’s face went slightly rigid. “You mean, it might not be able to hatch at all?”

“I can’t say for sure,” Arsha replied.

“Hmm. Baptizing with mana, huh…” Suho considered it for a moment. “It doesn’t have to be the parents of the egg that give it the mana, right?”

“I couldn’t say. I suppose any mana would help.”

“Then I should be able to do it, too.”

“I’m sorry?”

Suho grinned and put his hand on the egg that was resting inside the nest. He then gradually summoned the mana in his body, slowly pushing it into the egg.

“My god… How can a human do such a thing…?” Arsha marveled at the elaborate mana control that Suho was showcasing. This truly was incredible, considering that he was only human. Magic beasts found wielding mana to be as easy as breathing, but humans had only been using it for two years. But Suho has only been able to use it for—

Beru interrupted her thoughts. “Ahem… Our young monarch was a genius from birth. Before he learned to walk, he could use Ruler’s Authority.”

Beru had been talking like this for some time now. Arsha was used to the shadow ant fussing over Suho, so she did her best to ignore him and spoke to Suho worriedly. “I think that would be the right way to go about it. But even if you do this, the effect is bound to be minimal.”

“Why is that?” Suho asked, continuing to push mana into the egg.

“Dragons have a massive store of mana by their very nature. That’s because their eggs receive incredible amounts of mana from their parents until they hatch.” That was why mana baptisms were sometimes called “mana showers.” The mana injections continued, even if the eggs could not accept all the power being offered.

“I understand that you’re an incredibly powerful person, Suho,” she continued. “But no matter how much mana you put in there, you’ll never be able to match how much the dragons can produce— Huh?”

Arsha flinched, noticing something odd. Suho’s mana was not running dry at all. In addition, he kept drinking something as he continued the act.

[Item: “Mid-Grade Mana Potion” has been used.]

[Item: “Mid-Grade Mana Potion” has been used.]

[Item: “Mid-Grade Mana Potion” has been used.]

[…]

“I have more than enough mana,” Suho said, guzzling down potion after potion with a confident smile on his face. There were plenty of grounds for that confidence, since his eyes were on his status window, watching the numbers fluctuating in real time.

[MP: 358/6,410]

[MP: 1,410/6,410]

[MP: 431/6,410]

[MP: 2,160/6,410]

[…]

“I’m no dragon, but I can use mana all day as long as I have the gold,” Suho told her.

“G-goodness…” Arsha said, her jaw dropping. This was literally a mana shower. Suho was pouring infinite amounts of energy into Kamish’s Egg.

“Hehehe. Ahem… One other thing you should know about the young monarch…”

Beru started bragging again. Arsha began to think that someone needed to tell the shadow ant that it was a bad look for him to boast about Suho every time.

Suho nodded, watching the egg take in every bit of mana being offered. “All right. From now on, I’ll have to make some extra gold on the side.” It would cost a pretty penny for him to match a dragon’s capacity to use mana.

***

Dogyoon was once a teaching assistant at a university, but now—even as a hunter—he was doing work similar to what he’d done before. Only one thing had changed. The professor who had always given him difficult tasks had been replaced by a new boss—Suho.

“Let’s see, now…” Dogyoon produced a tablet—something he’d only ever used at university—and began to make a record of the work he was doing. “The sort of dungeons that Suho wanted…” His fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed.

—1) The dungeon must be potentially hiding a demon factory.(Somewhere where demon-type monsters can be found?)(Somewhere where there are rumors about Stardust or missing people?)

—2) There must be lots of gold to be made.(What’s this supposed to mean?Somewhere with expensive materials?)

Writing down everything that came to mind, Dogyoon continued to brainstorm.

Using his eyes and ears, he worked tirelessly to locate dungeons that fit these criteria. He started by utilizing his connections. First, he called his father, with whom he wasn’t entirely comfortable yet.

“Hello? Father, can you talk? I have something to ask you if you’re not busy.”

He even placed a call to the secretarial office of an amazing businessman.

“Oh, hello. This is Mr. Yoo’s secretary’s office, right? He asked me to call this number if I needed anything. Yes… What I need is a bit of information…”

“Oh! Ms. Baek Miho? This is Dogyoon, the vice guild master of the Woojin Guild! May I have some information about dungeons…?”

Dogyoon was very timid most of the time, but when it came to work, he was willing to do just about anything. This stemmed from his experience as a TA. In the end, he managed to find dungeons that perfectly met Suho’s requirements in less than an hour.

“Suho! I mean, Mr. Sung! I’ve got a list of the dungeons you need. They’re ranked according to priority, based on my ratings. I think you can do them in this order!”

“Eh? How is this possible?!” Beru exclaimed. “That coward has never been this useful before!”

“Hehe…” Dogyoon felt an incredible catharsis at realizing that even Beru was shocked. Carrying on with the same energy, he confidently asked Suho, “I don’t have to go into the dungeons with you this time, right?”

“What? Of course, you have to,” Suho said.

Dogyoon instantly dropped his head.

***

And so Suho’s guild began to tackle the dungeons that Dogyoon had found, clearing out the demon factories one by one.

They had plenty of money. A massive sum had just been deposited in the guild account after the resources gathered from the Busan dungeons had been sold. Suho used that money to buy the rights to the dungeons Dogyoon had located and immediately began taking them on. Having already worked in a similar way in Busan, the shadow soldiers completely emptied every single dungeon at lightning speed.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[…]

The leveling speed wasn’t bad, either. It’s a good thing I founded the guild, Suho thought. This way, it’s much easier to find dungeons to attempt.

Leveling up wasn’t the only thing he was getting out of the dungeons. The expensive materials he gained from the defeated magic beasts were sold to the shop, allowing him to make extra gold. He needed the gold for potions, but it also allowed him to buy defensive equipment to speed up his battles.

[Item: High-Ranked Knight’s Armor]

[Acquisition Difficulty: B

Type: Armor

Physical damage reduced by 7%

(Note: Movement slows down if strength is below 80.)]

[Item: High-Ranked Knight’s Helm]

[Acquisition Difficulty: B

Type: Armor

Physical damage reduced by 6%

(Note: Movement slows down if strength is below 80.)]

He bought the items he’d been eyeing but had not actually purchased because he lacked strength. The more defense he had, the fewer potions he needed, and the faster he could fight.

It feels like I’m becoming more and more of a tanker, though. Even Suho was a little nonplussed about the way he was fighting. The way he led his shadow soldiers around made him look like a necromancer, but he fought enemies at a closer range than his own summons like a tanker would. Whatever magic beasts he missed, the shadow soldiers would sweep up. “What am I? A necro-tanker?”

Suho grinned as he continued his dungeon raids. He actually found some demon factories in the process, but they were “ordinary”—if that was the right word—and provided no information about the Church of the Outer Gods. He was also able to find mana stones that had been stored as material for making Stardust, which he fed to Beru. All the while, he continued to chug potions and blow mana into Kamish’s Egg.

Then Arsha came up to him one day with a serious look on her face. “Suho… I think my worker bees have found something,” she said.

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