Chapter 74

The benefits of becoming Querehsha’s shaman were immediately apparent.

Now, not only was Suho immune to poison thanks to Kandiaru’s Blessing, but he could also freely manipulate poison and use it to attack.

And...

‘If I can manipulate it freely... then this should be possible too, right?’

Suho immediately reached toward Baek Miho and Lim Taegyu.

FLASH!

[Activating ‘Blessing: Poison Arts.’]

“...!”

Baek Miho’s and Lim Taegyu’s eyes went wide. The poisonous mist released by the exploding bees began dissolving the instant it touched the light Suho emitted.

“A detoxification skill?!”

“Hunter Sung Suho, were you a healer, not a summoner?”

Baek Miho looked bewildered even as she asked. Every ability he had displayed so far had been completely unrelated to healing.

Lim Taegyu’s eyes, however, lit up as though this was excellent news.

“You should have said so sooner! Could you possibly remove the poison affecting me, too?”

He was unable to use his mana because he was suppressing the poison Secretary Oh had injected into him earlier. The Reaper Guild’s healer had failed to neutralize it, but perhaps a healer with a special skill could manage it.

But...

DING.

[You cannot neutralize a poison you have not ingested.]

“Hmm.”

A failure.

Apparently, the poison affecting Lim Taegyu was Arsha’s Royal Jelly, not ‘Lee Minsung’s Royal Jelly.’

‘Maybe I should have drunk some of the poison Arsha offered before leaving.’

It was too late for regrets.

“I don’t think I can neutralize it right now. Let’s deal with those things first.”

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Right on cue, arrows flew at them from every direction. Contaminated Ghouls burst out of hiding all around them and began attacking Suho’s group.

“I’ll handle the ghouls!”

Baek Miho sprang forward and drove her fist into the floor.

BOOM!

The skill, ‘Taunting Tremor.’

A circular wave of mana spread from her planted fist.

As though bewitched, the Contaminated Ghouls all changed direction and lunged at Baek Miho. An immense aura surged from her entire body as she fought them head-on.

Lim Taegyu followed her lead, rushing out to fight beside her in close combat.

The problem was that every one of these ghouls had a familiar face. They were like younger brothers to him, men who had followed him since he founded the Reaper Guild.

And now he had to kill them with his own hands.

“Lee Minsung! What the hell do you want?! What could you possibly want so badly that you’d go this far?!”

Seething with anger, Lim Taegyu bellowed at Lee Minsung, who would be watching from some hiding place.

That was when it happened.

[All I want... is for everyone to return to their rightful place.]

Lee Minsung’s voice boomed from every direction at once, as though every bee filling this place was Lee Minsung.

“Lee Minsung!”

Lim Taegyu glared around him and shouted.

“Where are you?! Stop hiding like a coward and get out here!”

At that moment...

BZZZZZZ!

[I...]

The bees filling their vision swirled together and began forming a human shape.

[...was never hiding.]

THUD.

As Lee Minsung, now in human form, landed on the ground, the surroundings fell silent as though time had stopped.

“Lee Minsung!”

Lee Minsung stared at Lim Taegyu with emotionless eyes as he shouted.

“He’s mine!”

Gritting his teeth, Lim Taegyu charged at him. Still fighting the ghouls, Baek Miho cried out urgently at the sight.

“It’s too dangerous to go alone!”

Even so, Lim Taegyu did not stop. Even without his skills, he was confident he could beat someone like Lee Minsung through sheer strength.

That was the difference in their caliber—the gap between S-rank and A-rank that Lee Minsung had envied so bitterly.

But...

[Arrogant fool.]

Lee Minsung scoffed and scattered into countless bees again.

BANG!

Lim Taegyu’s punch sliced uselessly through empty air. Lee Minsung re-formed into a human behind him.

WHOOSH!

With astonishing reflexes, Lim Taegyu spun around and attacked again. Once again, Lee Minsung scattered.

“You bastard!”

WHOOSH! BANG BANG BANG!

Countless exchanges took place in mere seconds, the same situation repeating itself.

He flinched.

When he suddenly took stock of his surroundings, dozens of Lee Minsungs were standing around him.

“What the...?!”

The ‘Lee Minsungs’ lunged at the bewildered Lim Taegyu simultaneously. Long, pointed spears extended from both their hands, and their bodies began looking increasingly like the queen bee’s lancers.

SWISH!

SLASH SLASH SLASH!

As the battle continued, Lee Minsung grew more and more like the queen bee’s lancers. Flustered, Lim Taegyu narrowly evaded their endless attacks.

[Impressive.]

[You can do this much even while suppressing your mana.]

[So even a crippled S-rank is still an S-rank?]

The Lee Minsungs mocked Lim Taegyu from every direction, continuing to toy with him.

[Young Monarch.]

In the midst of the vicious melee, Beru looked at Suho.

“Yes.”

Suho, who had been observing rather than joining the fight, nodded. Then he lifted his head, stared at a particular spot, and murmured,

“They’re all illusions.”

No, to be precise, they were probably all ‘mimicry.’

A mere worker bee like Lee Minsung could not create lancers the way the queen bee Arsha could. If he could, the ghouls Baek Miho was fighting would have been lancers in the first place.

Ultimately, those ghouls had to be failed creations, the products of Lee Minsung’s unsuccessful attempts to imitate the queen bee and create lancers.

And the lancers fighting Lim Taegyu were probably nothing more than illusory forms made of clumped-together bees.

“Beru, where’s the real Lee Minsung?”

[I regret to say that the bees’ frantic movements are disrupting my senses.]

Beru had been constantly twitching his antennae for some time, trying to track Lee Minsung’s true location.

“Then we’ll have to make them stop for a moment.”

Suho lifted his head and stared at the bees filling his vision. Then he licked his lips with relish.

‘What would these taste like?’

Having just come back from devouring Querehsha’s insects nonstop, even these creatures now looked like delicacies.

At that instant...

[The buff effect of ‘Title: Natural Enemy of Insects’ activates.]

...!

The frantically flying bees recoiled in alarm, their swarm heaving violently. The tension of facing a natural enemy had awakened their survival instincts.

[Title: Natural Enemy of Insects]

A title bestowed upon a predator of insects. Increases all stats by 40% when fighting insect-type monsters.

Suho immediately crossed his twin swords. An immense surge of killing intent erupted from Rakan’s Fang in his right hand as well.

[Activating ‘Skill: Contempt for the Weak.’]

WHOOOOSH!

...!

[‘Effect: Fear’ activates.]

[All targets’ stats decrease by 50% for 1 minute.]

It was Rakan’s Fang’s debuff skill, which inflicted Fear on opponents weaker than its wielder. Combined with Natural Enemy of Insects, its effect produced tremendous synergy.

Currents of wind flowed over Suho’s twin swords.

[Activating ‘Skill: Storm Slash.’]

WHOOOOOSH!

‘It’s stronger than usual.’

A whirlwind of such tremendous force coiled around him that even he could feel the difference. Twisting his entire body, Suho swung both swords in great arcs like a windmill.

ROOOOAR!

An extraordinarily violent typhoon swallowed all the bees filling his vision at once—including every lancer surrounding and pressuring Lim Taegyu.

[You have defeated a Contaminated Hornet.]

[You have defeated a Contaminated Hornet.]

[You have defeated a Contaminated Hornet.]

[You have defeated a Contaminated Hornet.]

...

Countless bees were ground apart as though in a shredder. Innumerable messages poured in.

And with them...

[‘Skill: Storm Slash’ has leveled up.]

Suho grew stronger still.

‘My God. How can it be this powerful?!’

Having hastily escaped the storm’s reach, Lim Taegyu turned to Suho in astonishment.

‘So he wasn’t a healer either?’

Nothing about Suho now resembled either a summoner or a healer. What summoner or healer could possibly use an attack skill this powerful?!

Lim Taegyu felt as though everything he knew was shattering.

In reality, the synergy between the title’s buff and the item’s debuff had inflated the attack’s power. But with no way of knowing that, Lim Taegyu could only be stunned.

“What about Lee Minsung? What happened to him?”

Snapping back to his senses, he hurriedly looked toward where the Lee Minsungs had been. Every last one of them had been swept up and scattered by the storm.

In the storm’s wake, Beru broke the fleeting silence with a shout.

[I have found him!]

TAP!

No sooner had Beru finished speaking than Suho sprang forward, his sword cleaving the air.

SLICE!

The seemingly empty space shattered around the point of impact...

CRACK! CRACK CRACK!

CRASH!

And began crumbling away.

[... Heh. You found me after all.]

Beyond that hidden space, a pair of menacing eyes glared at them. Then ‘Lee Minsung’ slowly walked through the fractured gap in the air.

But his appearance...

[Queen’s Lancer]

‘He isn’t contaminated.’

A peculiar gleam entered Suho’s eyes.

Was it because the raw material had been an A-rank hunter after all?

Unlike the Contaminated Lancers he had encountered so far, this was the first one to appear without contamination.

A humanoid soldier bee, its entire body clad in armor-like plating. He radiated the most powerful aura of any lancer Suho had met.

“You said you weren’t hiding, but you were tucked away pretty well, weren’t you?”

[It hardly befits a king to step in personally where the servants are playing.]

At Suho’s taunt, Lee Minsung smiled as though he found him laughable.

And what he said was true.

‘... He’s strong.’

Suho’s skin prickled. From the instant he faced him, his Perception stat had been sending frantic warnings.

‘He’s the strongest magic beast I’ve encountered so far.’

But...

‘... He’s ridiculously weak compared to the dead Monarchs.’

Having already met even Querehsha, the Monarch of insects, in person, Suho was not daunted by Lee Minsung’s overwhelming presence.

Baek Miho and Lim Taegyu, however, were different.

“N-no way...”

“How did Minsung gain this kind of power...?”

The ultimate soldier bee, painstakingly created by the queen bee Arsha.

The powerful aura of a magic beast truly born for battle filled them with crushing despair. To Baek Miho in particular, whose wild instincts were more developed than anyone else’s, Lee Minsung felt like an unimaginably immense being.

But what Lim Taegyu, an S-rank hunter, felt was humiliation.

“Damn it. If I could only use my mana...”

No matter how much stronger Lee Minsung had become, he was confident he could handle him with his usual strength. But right now, it was impossible.

Then Suho casually spoke to the two of them as they stood frozen stiff.

“Let’s join forces.”

“... What?”

“Pardon?”

“Why are you looking at me like that? Were you planning to run away?”

His single remark put an abrupt end to their thoughts of retreating and bringing back their fellow hunters.

“Our party composition is a mess right now, so forget dividing into tanks and damage dealers. Let’s all jump him at once.”

Suho’s strategy was simple.

“He’s good at hiding, so first we tear off his wings so he can’t escape. Then we all beat him until he’s dead.”

[Heh heh.]

Lee Minsung laughed at Suho with genuine derision.

[How laughable. You think the few of you can face me? Me, the future Monarch of insects?]

“Ah, the Monarch of insects?”

Suho laughed at him too.

With genuine derision.

He licked his lips.

“Didn’t taste all that good.”

... A chill ran through him.

Why?

Lee Minsung suddenly felt uneasy about Suho.

[The Queen of Insects, the Monarch of Plagues, shakes her head, saying he has run into a truly vicious foe.]

“I wonder what your poison tastes like?”