Chapter 115

The scene immediately after the dungeon break could be summed up in one word: chaos.

Hunters and soldiers who had sensed the mana wave were arriving by the moment, but since they were all strangers, there was no hope of an organized response. In fact, at times like these, it was more accurate to call them competitors.

“Hey! That's our mob! Keep your hands off!”

“Like hell! Whoever kills it first gets it!”

In an ordinary dungeon, there would have been no disputes over ownership. The order of the raids would have been decided, and a precise contract would have stipulated everyone's share of the spoils.

But this place wasn't even a field dungeon yet. For now, it was simply considered a natural disaster. In situations like this, the kill really did belong to whoever got it first. It was literally first come, first served.

That was why the hunters had scattered in every direction, each trying to kill even one more magic beast.

And that greed caused problems.

“Why the hell won't these things die?!”

“Damn it! These vipers are all covered in armored scales!”

Armored vipers swarmed through the swampland that had formed in the middle of the city.

Individually, the magic beasts weren't particularly powerful. But there were far too many of them, and above all, they concealed a deadly weapon: venomous fangs.

The armored vipers' venom was potent enough to leave even a reasonably capable hunter unable to stand after a single bite.

“Aaagh! Fuck! I've been bit—!”

“Is there a healer here with a detoxification skill?!”

“This isn't the time to compete with each other! If we don't wipe them out fast, we'll have a field dungeon on our hands!”

“That's right! Let's work together for now!”

As casualties mounted everywhere, the hunters began to recognize the danger and join forces, one by one.

During a dungeon break, the most important thing was indeed to eliminate the magic beasts as quickly as possible. Their bodies were saturated with the blue mist they had brought through the Gate, so the farther they spread, the larger the contaminated area grew.

The result was what people called a field dungeon.

Then—

KABOOM!

The S-rank hunter Thomas Andre, the tyrant, appeared amid the chaos like a savior and blasted a magic beast to pieces.

Only then did the hunters begin to notice his arrival, their eyes widening.

“G-Goliath?!”

“What's he doing here?!”

They had heard he'd arrived in Korea yesterday, but they had never imagined running into him here of all places.

Still, his mere presence reassured them. Everyone knew that magic beasts of this caliber were nothing to Thomas Andre. Yet they couldn't entirely dispel their concern.

“Mr. Thomas Andre! Be careful! There's snake venom flowing throughout this swamp!”

Someone shouted out the information, hoping to make a good impression on him.

“Contact with the swamp damages your muscles and weakens you! I have a detoxification skill, so I'll support you!”

The speaker was a healer with a detoxification skill. Helping a world-famous hunter like Thomas Andre could bring fame or perhaps a handsome reward.

But whether he hadn't heard the warning or simply didn't care, Thomas walked straight into the swamp. The snake venom flowing through it seeped into his body and weakened his muscles, but that was no problem for him.

“Listen up! That one's my prey! Anyone who dares touch what's mine—!”

Standing in the midst of all that snake venom, Thomas Andre pointed at the largest viper, apparently the boss, and made his declaration.

FWHEEEESH!

At that very moment, a black thunderbolt shot down from the sky and pierced the boss.

SKREEEE!

The largest viper, which had occupied the center of the swamp, collapsed with a horrific shriek, impaled by a black arrow.

“What cocky bastard dares?!”

Thomas Andre threw his head up with a furious roar at the sight.

Everyone else was just as appalled. First kill might claim the prize, but they couldn't imagine what archer would dare steal prey that Thomas Andre himself had already claimed.

“Let's see the face of the bastard with no sense of fear!”

BOOM!

Thomas Andre immediately kicked off the ground in the center of the swamp and leaped high into the air. The black mana arrow had followed an arc across the sky. From a high vantage point, he would soon find its source.

In a single bound, Thomas Andre reached the rooftop of a nearby high-rise, then raced over the buildings, retracing the black arrow's trajectory.

THUD.

The moment he landed atop the tallest building in Euljiro—

“...!”

He came face-to-face with Suho, who had likewise sought out the tallest building and leaped up from the other side.

There were two other people beside him, but Thomas didn't even register them.

[Shadow Minotaur Lv.1]

Form Transformation — Arrow

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

A heavy, destructive energy was concentrated in Suho's bow as he aimed it at the swamp.

[Number of Shadows That Can Be Stored: 3/3]

Leveling up in the Demon Realm had allowed Suho to store two additional shadow soldiers. He had filled those empty slots with the two strongest minotaurs he had extracted.

“Mino, go stir things up.”

Suho released the bowstring toward the swamp.

[“MOOOOOO!”]

The arrow, its tip shaped like a bull's head, hurtled away like a cannonball fired from a siege engine.

KABOOOOM!

[You have defeated Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka.]

[You have defeated Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka.]

[You have defeated Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka.]

...

Countless messages appeared in succession. But the level-up message he had been waiting for never came.

It was only the unusual combination of swamp and venom that made this battle troublesome. The magic beasts themselves were ridiculously weak compared to the enemies Suho had fought so far. At this point, creatures like these barely even counted as experience.

Even the boss...

[You have defeated the Ruler of the Swamp, Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka.]

He had killed it with his first shot, using Quay. The fact that even that hadn't earned him a level said it all.

Still, Suho was more than satisfied.

'It only told me to resolve the dungeon break, not kill everything myself.'

With Suho having taken out the boss and some of the magic beasts, the dungeon break was rapidly being brought under control. He had fired just two arrows, yet everyone else's efforts were swiftly advancing his quest for him.

Considering the difficulty and everything else, he seemed to have gotten lucky with this quest.

DING.

[You have completed Emergency Quest: Swampland.]

The message arrived right on cue. Apparently, the minotaur arrow he'd just fired had churned up the swamp, exposing the magic beasts for the other hunters to finish off in an all-out attack.

Satisfied simply to have finished the quest so quickly, Suho nodded contentedly.

But unlike Suho, who took the situation lightly, the two S-rank hunters seemed to feel differently.

“Hold on, kid. What the hell was that arrow just now... No, more importantly, you're an archer?”

Thomas Andre, who had come storming over in a rage, looked thoroughly astonished.

“Suho, I'm asking you what that was! Didn't you say you didn't have any archery skills?”

Having witnessed this twice now, Lim Taegyu was twice as shocked as Thomas—no, more than ten times as shocked.

He hadn't sensed any of the mana concentration essential to creating a mana arrow in Suho's arrows.

The first time, he'd wondered whether he was imagining things. After seeing it twice, he was certain. Suho had a skill that generated arrows without consuming any mana at all.

“A skill like that exists? That's impossible...”

It felt as if everything he knew was crumbling around him.

But Suho merely brushed it off as if it were nothing.

“Oh, I'm a summoner, remember? I just summoned the arrows too. That's all.”

“Do you take me for an idiot? Summoning skills cost mana too!”

He was right. The problem was that he didn't know Suho's summoning wasn't a skill, but a power beyond that.

Ignoring the men studying him like some exotic animal, Suho decided to check his quest rewards instead.

[Your completion rewards have arrived.]

[Would you like to view your rewards?] (Y/N)

'It was so easy that I'm not expecting much of a reward. Confirm.'

Suho was currently level 40. The quest had been so easy that he'd killed even the boss, the Ruler of the Swamp, Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka, in a single hit, so he checked the rewards without much expectation.

'Hmm?'

But he was wrong.

[The following rewards are available.]

Reward 1. Kasaka's Venom Fang

Reward 2. Kasaka's Venom Gland

'They're giving me two?'

What a windfall.

An intrigued gleam appeared in Suho's eyes. He hadn't expected this at all.

Suho shook off the S-rank middle-aged men who kept pestering him from behind, demanding an explanation for his mana arrows, and entered the building's restroom.

“Confirm.”

He took out the first item, and a keenly honed dagger appeared.

[You have acquired Item: Kasaka's Venom Fang.]

“Aw, what? It's a dagger?”

Suho's expression soured as he took it.

“I thought that quest was too easy. Who's going to use a weapon that looks this weak...?”

[“SKREEEEEE!”]

“Jeez, you scared me.”

Beru, who had been quiet until now, suddenly sprang out and clung to Suho.

[“Young Monarch! Daggers are by no means weak! And this particular dagger, above all others...!”]

“But it only has 25 attack power?”

[“Skree?”]

Beru flinched at those words.

[Item: Kasaka's Venom Fang]

Acquisition Difficulty: C

Type: Dagger

Attack Power +25

A dagger made from Kasaka's venom fang. Traces of Kasaka's venom remain, inflicting paralysis and bleeding effects when attacking. Can be stored in your inventory or sold in the shop.

Effect, “Paralysis”: Attacks have a set chance to immobilize the target.

Effect, “Bleeding”: Attacks have a set chance to drain 1% of the target's health per second.

Suho skimmed the item information and clicked his tongue.

“Come on, am I wrong? It's way too short, and my Vulcan's Horn already has a base attack power of 40, plus a 300 percent damage increase. Why would I use this?”

[“No, but...! Sob! How vexing! If only it had appeared a little sooner!”]

Beru spoke through frustrated sobs.

[“Young Monarch! This dagger is a weapon our Monarch once treasured!”]

“My father used this?”

At Beru's words, Suho looked at Kasaka's Venom Fang in a new light.

But...

“Nah. He probably used it for a bit early on and then stopped.”

[“SKREEEEEE!”]

Its effects were good, but its attack power was far too low.

The next reward, however, was useful.

[You have acquired Item: Kasaka's Venom Gland.]

[Item: Kasaka's Venom Gland]

Acquisition Difficulty: A

Type: Elixir

A pouch containing refined Kasaka venom. Has an extremely low chance of being obtained when Kasaka is defeated. Drinking the venom hardens the skin, but its toxicity permanently damages the muscles.

Effect, “Kasaka's Armored Scales”: Physical damage reduced by 20%

Side Effect, “Damaged Muscles”: Strength –35

“It's poison.”

Suho's eyes gleamed.

Though classified as an elixir, this was actually the snake venom that had been flowing through the swamp—a vicious, deadly poison that damaged muscles if it touched the body or was swallowed.

[The Queen of Insects, the Monarch of Plagues, salivates.]

“Now this could be useful.”

Suho, too, swallowed in anticipation, then tipped Kasaka's Venom Gland into his mouth without hesitation.

GULP.

[You have consumed Poison: Kasaka's Venom.]

[You can now wield Poison: Kasaka's Venom.]