Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

Arsha, the Queen Bee, had been under severe pressure recently. This was hardly surprising, since her real body was trapped in the Shadow Dungeon, and she was essentially Suho’s hostage. In addition, Suho was the shaman of Querehsha, the Monarch of Plagues, so she had no choice but to please him as well as she could.

The problem was that no matter how much Arsha tried, there really wasn’t much that she could do for Suho at all. The most she could do was to have her worker bees gather more information. But when Dogyoon—whom she considered to be a useless human being—suddenly began to showcase incredible work efficiency, she couldn’t help but feel at risk.

I can’t believe that I need to compete with a human like that! Arsha felt extremely humiliated. This was terribly upsetting since she had always believed Dogyoon to be inferior to her worker bees.

However, it couldn’t be helped. She needed to do something if she was to stay in Suho’s good graces. At the very least, she needed to prove herself more useful than Dogyoon, who was at the bottom of the ladder in the Woojin Guild.

This won’t do.I’ll increase the number of my worker bees as much as I can. She had never believed that she didn’t have enough bees, but she decided to multiply them to ten times their current number.

If it’s just worker bees with no combat abilities, I can create as many as I want! Arsha had never increased her worker bee count in this way before. As a queen bee, quality had mattered more than quantity when it came to securing her own safety. But now that her real body was in the Shadow Dungeon, a safe haven—which also happened to be a prison—she was now banking on quantity instead.

And so the number of worker bees under Arsha’s control grew. The way she increased their numbers was very simple. She fed ordinary worker bees living on Earth her royal jelly. A single mouthful of the jelly—to put it in human terms—could be used to take over an entire hive. Soon enough, corrupted bees spread across the entire country.

Before, we were only looking for information about villains. But now we’re going after information regarding the demon factories, Stardust, and the Church of the Outer Gods! Arsha commanded.

The worker bees, their wings humming busily, began to carry out her orders as faithfully as possible.

However, they were not very smart. Arsha had not given them any special abilities in order to focus solely on numbers. This meant that she needed to analyze the information they brought to her personally.

“Ugh! My head!” Arsha felt as though she was about to lose her mind as a deluge of information filled her brain. She did not give up, however. Her pride as a queen bee did not allow her to do so. She desperately crammed her head with every bit of information that her countless bees brought her, trying to control it and make it into a coherent whole.

This led to an unexpected result—Arsha’s mind, which had been controlling all those bees, suddenly seemed to explode outward, broadening its horizons.

“Ahh…” Arsha sank to the ground, her entire body quivering. Soon, translucent skin began to slide off her body.

[Querehsha is observing the queen bee.]

“Huh?” Suho, who had been busy with his daily quest, was puzzled by the sudden message from Querehsha. His arms and legs were crushed, and he didn’t have the energy to even raise his head, but the messages kept on coming.

[Querehsha recalls the name of Arsha the Queen Bee.]

Recalls her name…? Querehsha had never mentioned Arsha directly like this. Quereshsha was once the Monarch of all insects, and the queen bee was simply one of those insects, not a particularly valued individual.

What prompted this change? Suho wondered. I don’t know what’s going on, but does this mean that it’s more likely that Arsha will become Querehsha’s successor?

“Forty-one.”

Ammut’s stern voice caused Suho to stop short. “It’s forty-two!” he complained.

“Your posture is incorrect. Forty-one.”

“Ugh!”

Ammut was refusing to relent. Suho gritted his teeth and continued his push-ups.

When Suho had finished his daily quest with some effort, Arsha appeared before him.

“Suho, I think my worker bees have found something.” She had a somewhat serious look on her face as she relayed the information. “A strange sort of superstition seems to have formed among the low-ranked hunters.”

“A superstition?”

“Ever since the association designated Stardust as an illegal drug, more hunters have started to turn it into accessories that they wear.”

“What are you talking about?” It can be made into accessories?

Suho looked puzzled, and Arsha continued her grave explanation. “They harden Stardust and wear it around their necks. Apparently, they pray with the necklaces every time they enter a dungeon.”

“Pray…?”

A strange feeling came over Suho. Stardust was not illegal, technically speaking, as long as one didn’t consume it. But why were people bothering to turn it into necklaces and even pray with it? It would not do anything to boost their mana.

“Oh… I think I’ve seen something like that on Hunter Net recently.”

Dogyoon, who had passed out while training with Suho, seemed to have woken up. He crawled up beside them and joined the conversation. Suho poured a potion into his mouth, and he looked greatly refreshed.

Dogyoon stood up and continued his explanation. “After Stardust recently became illegal, those who had stockpiled large amounts of it found themselves in a pickle. They had no way to dispose of the stuff. The association had no duty to buy it off of them, either.”

Dogyoon continued to explain that in addition, after it became known that the production of Stardust involved burning people alive, nobody wanted to consume it. “And at a certain point, people began to pray for those who had died for the making of Stardust.”

“Hmm…”

“People started making necklaces from the Stardust they bought before it became illegal. While it’s illegal to ingest Stardust and use it to boost your mana, this was a great way to empty their stocks for what sounds like a wholesome purpose.”

Suho had a serious look on his face the entire time Dogyoon spoke. They’re praying for the dead? By itself, this seemed like a benign thing to do. The subject of these prayers, however, was a problem. The blue mist—the most basic ingredient of Stardust—was mana that came from the Outer Universes and melted the boundaries between dimensions. In other words, its very existence represented the invasion of the Itarim, and people were praying to this blue mist.

“This… doesn’t bode well…” Suho mumbled.

“I think this has something to do with that church you mentioned, in one way or another. This is why I’m telling you,” Arsha added.

Suho nodded. His experience told him that coincidences were rare when it came to such things—especially things that had to do with the Itarim. “Arsha, the hunters who pray with those necklaces…”

“My worker bees have already looked into them.”

“Actually, would you find out who is selling the necklaces to them?”

“Ah…!” Arsha’s eyes widened. “Understood! I’ll get on that straight away!”

She issued a command to all the worker bees across the country. A while later, she reported that they had found the sellers. Because she had already located the hunters who wore the necklaces, it wasn’t difficult to trace the ones who had sold them. The necklaces weren’t illegal, which meant the transactions didn’t need to be kept a secret.

Arsha went one step further, however, and even figured out where the sellers got the necklaces in the first place. “There are plenty of distributors, but even they are bringing the necklaces from a single region.”

“A single region? Where?” Suho asked.

“Yangpyeong District in Gyeonggi Province.”

“Yangpyeong?!”

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

Arsha and even Beru, who was next to Suho, seemed surprised by the hunter’s reaction.

“Young Monarch, is there a problem?” Beru asked.

Suho put a hand to his forehead with a groan. “Yangpyeong… That’s where my grandmother and grandfather live.”

“Kieeeek!” Beru screeched, taken aback.

***

In Suho’s childhood memories, his grandfather, Sung Ilhwan, was a firefighter who always smelled of smoke. Even though his son, Jinwoo, always told him to retire and get some rest, the old man refused to quit his job. He continued to work in the field with younger firefighters until the day he was forced to retire from old age. Suho still remembered the retirement ceremony.

“Ilhwan!Thank you for your outstanding service!”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you very much!”

His colleagues and the junior firefighters had applauded as he stepped down from the stage, having served full-time until the regular retirement age. Even during that ceremony, the faint scent of smoke lingered on Ilhwan’s uniform.

Having spent his entire life in the field in this way, Suho’s grandfather had decided that he would move to the countryside with his wife and do a little farming on the side. Though he described the place they moved as “the countryside,” he didn’t actually leave Gyeonggi Province, the area directly surrounding Seoul. While Yangpyeong was a moderate distance from the city, it was not that far away. At the same time, it had broad plains, valleys, and other beautiful natural scenery. It had been none other than Yoo Jinho who had provided Suho’s grandparents with a home there.

Why does it have to be Yangpyeong, of all places?It’s where my grandfather lives! Suho thought anxiously, worried that there might be some organization connected to the Church of the Outer Gods in the region.

But there was someone who was even more nervous—Beru. “W-we need to go there straight away! This is a disaster!”

Beru had finally remembered something he had forgotten about. Why?! Why have I remembered it so late? he cursed himself. “This is entirely my fault! I deserve a heavy punishment, but right now, there is no time to waste!”

“What’s the matter? Is there something you know that I don’t?” Suho asked as they immediately left for the city where his grandparents lived.

Beru responded gravely from beside him, “Until now, we have assumed that the followers of Itarim would go after the hunters who could be their vessels—National Level Hunters. But there might be other possibilities!”

“What does that mean?”

“In his past life, Young Monarch, your grandfather was a hunter who also received power from a Ruler!”

With that, Suho began to sprint at full speed.

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