Chapter 36

[Blessing: Rakan’s Blessing]

The blessing of the King of Beasts, the Monarch of Fangs.

Rakan, the Monarch of Fangs, has chosen you as the king’s shaman.

A shaman can harbor the living spirit of a beast within their own body.

-Effect ‘Spirit Possession’: Allows ‘Pet: Gray’ to possess your body.

‘Shaman? Spirit Possession?’

As Suho stared at the information window in puzzlement, Rakan spoke with a satisfied grin.

[Heh heh. Yes. You are now our clan’s shaman. Since I am already dead and gone, you have become a shaman serving Gray, our sole remaining royal.]

‘You want me to serve Gray?’

Suho looked incredulous. Gray was his pet. A shaman who served his own pet as king? What kind of bizarre situation was this?

‘Is it like being a cat’s butler? When I put it that way, it sort of makes sense...’

Finding his own way to accept it, Suho nodded. In any case, a new ability was welcome.

Ultimately, Rakan’s goal was to dream of Suho more often. For that to happen, Suho needed to spend at least a little more time with Gray. The problem was that Gray was currently too young and weak to be of any use.

But what if he used the shaman’s ability, Spirit Possession?

[With that ability, you can borrow a beast’s power, if only for a short time. The more Gray grows, the stronger the power you can borrow will become.]

‘That’s a pretty roundabout way of asking me to raise Gray well, isn’t it?’

[Well, something like that.]

Suho and Rakan looked at each other and chuckled at the same time. Once again, Suho found Rakan rather remarkable.

‘For someone Dad killed, you’re taking this surprisingly well.’

[Why bring that up now? It is only natural for a weak beast to be eaten by a stronger one.]

Rakan chuckled at the memory.

[Your father was terribly strong, and I struggled in terror until I was finally devoured. That is all there was to it.]

The strong preyed on the weak.

The King of Beasts, who had reigned at the pinnacle of that food chain, had readily accepted even that king’s own death.

[Ah. Has my allotted time already run out?]

Rakan suddenly looked up at the sky and smacked those lips in disappointment. Before they knew it, the once pure-white world was gradually being stained with black shadows.

A dreadful nothingness was approaching.

As the space available to move in shrank, Rakan’s body grew smaller to match. Eventually, Rakan returned to the hulking human form Suho had first seen, approached him, and handed him something.

[Here. Take this and leave. This place is my death and my rest. Go back and live your life.]

Rakan’s Fang was placed in Suho’s hand.

‘But why is there only one?’

[I combined the two. Those fangs were pulled when I was very young, so they were rather shabby for a king’s relics. Now that I have joined them, it should be somewhat more useful.]

WHOOOOSH

Then the black shadows engulfed the world completely. Through a gap in the shadows, Rakan’s mouth curled into a grin for one final farewell.

[Until next time, shaman.]

Time, which had stood still, began to move again.

* * *

“... Ah.”

The scenery had changed again in an instant. Suho was still standing atop Arachne’s corpse. Everything that had just happened felt like a dream.

But evidence remained in his hand that his meeting with the Monarch of Fangs had been no mere dream. The two Rakan’s Fangs he had distinctly held in both hands were now one, with a slightly sturdier, sharper shape.

More importantly, its stats had changed beyond comparison.

[Item: Rakan’s Fang]

Acquisition Difficulty: ??

Type: Sword

Attack +60

A sword made from a fang of Rakan, the King of Beasts.

Rakan’s spirit dwells within it. A wielder of insufficient stature may have their body taken over.

-Effect ‘Contempt for the Weak’: Inflicts Fear on a designated target for 1 minute. (All stats –50%)

-Effect ‘Critical Wound’: Has a 20% chance to deal critical damage of at least three times the normal amount.

‘So combining the two really did give the stats a boost.’

The attack bonus had gone from +30 to +60, while Critical Wound’s activation chance had risen from 15% to 20%, and its damage multiplier from two to three.

[Young Monarch?]

Beru approached just then, inspecting Suho from every angle with a puzzled tilt of his head.

[Your aura has suddenly changed somewhat.]

-You... did you meet the king’s spirit? I sense a shaman’s power in you.

Rakan’s Fang spoke from his hand.

“That’s right.”

[Kieeeek! You met the Monarch of Fangs? H-how?]

Beru recoiled in shock at Suho’s answer. Meeting the spirit of a Monarch who had entered eternal rest was utterly impossible.

Even Sung Jinwoo, the Shadow Monarch who transcended death, could not do it.

Suho looked at Rakan’s Fang.

“You’re the Fang I originally had.”

-Correct. I devoured the relic that was here.

Was it because he had become a shaman? He had recognized it from its voice alone.

‘Time to head back.’

Suho glanced around.

Most of the hunters who had been bound and controlled by the webs seemed unharmed. Yet every one of them sat on the floor, staring at him in a daze.

‘The king.’

‘That hunter gained the king’s power.’

They had all witnessed Suho defeat Arachne—and pull the relic out of its body himself. But none of them dared approach him. The sheer weight of the situation intimidated them.

Having accomplished his goal, Suho paid them no attention either.

When he turned his head again, he saw the shadow jackals sitting upright on the floor, having finished off all the smaller spiders. Perhaps Beru had instructed them, because piles of mana crystals extracted from the dead spiders lay before their neatly gathered paws.

Praise, praise, praise, praise.

Like hunting dogs returning with prey, they gazed at him with sparkling eyes, intensely eager for something.

“R-right. Good work.”

[Pant, pant, pant, pant!]

At Suho’s reluctant praise, the shadow jackals let their tongues loll out and beamed like sunflowers.

What fickle creatures. To think they had once lunged at him, intent on ripping out his throat with those very teeth.

“Let’s head back, then.”

[Yes, sir!]

Suho left the botanical garden without hesitation.

The hunters stared blankly after him. The moment he disappeared from view, they all heaved sighs of relief.

“Whew...”

“W-we’re alive.”

There was a reason the hunters had been so tense they could barely breathe. Controlled by webs or not, they had all attacked Suho—at the very moment he had been in the greatest danger, no less.

Had he sought revenge, they were far too exhausted to resist. Yet Suho had simply defeated the giant spider Arachne and left without a care.

Someone finally spoke.

“So that man ended up getting the king’s power, right?”

“I suppose so.”

“Man, I’m so jealous. I wonder what incredible skill he got.”

“Is that what matters right now? Let’s just be grateful he spared us.”

Only now realizing they were truly safe, the hunters sighed in relief once more. Then a question occurred to them.

“But who was that hunter, anyway?”

“Good question. He had that strange mask on, so I couldn’t see his face.”

“It was really dark, too. He seemed to have a few animals with him. Maybe he’s a summoner?”

“Nonsense. What summoner fights that brutally? Didn’t you see him beat the spider to death with his bare fist? He probably just tamed a few hunting dogs.”

Every hunter gathered there possessed a Beast Transformation skill. Quite a few had an affinity for animals, so they paid little heed to the shadow jackals. It also helped considerably that the place was so dark they could only make out the jackals’ silhouettes.

“Then why was he hiding his identity?”

“Who knows? Maybe he’s a criminal?”

Of course, Suho himself had no particular intention of concealing his identity. He had only equipped the item because it was dark inside the botanical garden, and had taken it off as soon as he stepped outside.

But it left the hunters all the more curious about who he was.

Then, suddenly...

“... Huh?”

Someone looking around tilted their head.

“Where did all the spiders go?!”

The giant spider’s mangled corpse, which had lain in the darkness, had vanished without a trace. Even the bodies of all the smaller spiders were gone.

“Do their bodies all dissolve when they die?”

The hunters, who had hoped to at least take some magic beast corpses home, sighed deeply. After all their grueling efforts today, they had come away completely empty-handed.

[Heh.]

Somewhere, Beru was laughing.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside the botanical garden...

“Wh-what’s going on?!”

“The scent suddenly disappeared!”

The hunters wandering the jungle in hopes of becoming king all sniffed the air in confusion. The scent that had stirred their instincts and guided them along the path to kingship had vanished without a trace.

“Ah.”

They all realized it at once.

‘The king has been chosen!’

Someone else had beaten them to it. As that realization struck, an overwhelming sense of emptiness and jealousy surged within them.

“Hah...”

The hunters were utterly dejected. Watching them from a high vantage point, Baek Miho was approached by the Baekho Guild hunters.

“Vice President, what will you do now? Shall we head back?”

“Before we go, I’d like to see for myself who became king.”

“But how can we find that person in a place this vast...?”

“I can tell by scent. A powerful beast’s scent instinctively...”

She sniffed.

Just then, Baek Miho’s superhuman sense of smell caught something. Turning to look, she saw the man from earlier retracing his steps. Unlike before, however, he reeked of blood.

She sniffed again, puzzled.

‘... That isn’t human blood. The color is different, too.’

Baek Miho could distinguish the scent of magic beast blood from human blood. What she smelled on that man was magic beast blood.

‘Hmm?’

Then she tilted her head, noticing something odd.

‘But were there any magic beasts in this forest?’

He had fought a bleeding magic beast in a forest filled with nothing but plants and ghosts?

‘Are there a few farther in? Or could he have obtained the king’s...’

Just then, sensing someone’s gaze, Suho turned to look her way. His eyes met Baek Miho’s as she watched him from afar.

For an instant, their gazes locked across the distance.

‘... No. That’s not it.’

Staring intently into Suho’s eyes with her superhuman vision, Baek Miho put an end to her speculation. This was, after all, a place for choosing the King of Beasts.

Yet that man carried no beast’s scent. She finally looked away from him.

“Let’s... wait a little longer.”

“Yes, Vice President.”

The Baekho Guild remained stationed there for a very long time afterward. They were still waiting even after Suho had taken the bus home, showered, and ordered and eaten fried chicken.

‘... Why was that woman staring at me, anyway?’

As Suho bit into a drumstick, he suddenly recalled Baek Miho’s face from when their eyes had met.

‘I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere. Was she a famous hunter?’

Thinking she might turn up in a search, he opened his browser. His eyes immediately went wide.

“Wh-what is this?!”

The internet was ablaze with articles about Magok Field.

The problem was that Suho himself was at the center of every last one.

-(Breaking News) Crow, the Beast King!

-The Mysterious Hunter Who Gained the King’s Power: Crow!

-Why Did Crow Wear a Crow Mask?

-(Advertisement) This Year’s Hottest Item: the Crow Mask

-(Related Search) Secretly Overpowered