Chapter 77

“Whew.”

As Suho stopped attacking, a heavy silence fell.

When Lee Minsung’s tenacious hold on life finally broke, the surrounding Contaminated Ghouls collapsed all at once like puppets with their strings cut. The Contaminated Hornets filling the ominous sky vanished as well.

‘My God...’

Baek Miho, who had been rushing to help Suho, stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly at him.

It was an unbelievable sight. They might have fought alongside him, but a C-rank hunter had just crushed an A-rank villain through sheer strength.

‘Just as I thought, he’s...’

Baek Miho privately formed her own theories about who Suho really was.

Meanwhile, in that suffocating silence, Suho himself was busy reading the noisy flood of system messages.

DING. DING. DING.

[You have defeated the Queen’s Lancer.]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

‘Jackpot.’

Three levels in one go. All that hard work had been worth it.

Suho was now level 32.

But surprisingly, the messages did not end there.

DING.

[The Player has reached the required level.]

[You have met the completion requirements for ‘Secret Quest: Qualifications of an Army Commander.’]

[You have an unread message.]

‘Required level? Qualifications of an Army Commander?’

As he tried to check the message with a puzzled look, Suho suddenly staggered.

RUMBLE!

“...!”

The ground suddenly began to shake as if it were about to collapse.

No, this entire space was on the verge of collapsing.

[“Young Monarch! You must leave this place at once!”]

Beru urgently hurried him along.

CRACK! CRACKLE!

The sky was tearing apart as well.

[“If you delay, you could be trapped here forever!”]

By offering countless sacrifices, Lee Minsung had forcibly drawn this incomplete dungeon, the Sanctuary of Insects, to Earth.

Whether he had realized it or not, that was precisely the role of shaman that the queen bee Arsha had wanted him to fulfill.

With his death, however, the force holding it here had disappeared, and the sanctuary was trying to return to the rift between dimensions where it had originally been.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

Putting off checking the message for now, Suho turned to Baek Miho and Lim Taegyu.

At his words, Lim Taegyu, who had been staring fixedly at Lee Minsung’s corpse, squeezed his eyes shut and turned away. Then he glanced at Suho, conflicting emotions in his eyes, and spoke.

“I have a mountain of questions, but let’s talk once we’re out of here.”

“So do I.”

Baek Miho looked as though she had plenty to say too.

The three hurried to escape the Sanctuary of Insects.

Just before leaving, however, Suho suddenly stopped and glanced back.

‘After all the trouble it took to kill him, leaving him behind would be a waste.’

He reached toward Lee Minsung’s corpse, lying there all alone.

‘Ruler’s Authority.’

WHOOSH.

An invisible hand lifted one of the arms Suho had severed from Lee Minsung.

Its grotesque shape could hardly be called a human arm anymore. With a long spear in place of a hand, the lancer’s arm flew toward Suho as though drawn by a magnet.

Then, with a knowing smile, he escaped the sanctuary.

* * *

The aftermath was dealt with swiftly.

The moment Lee Minsung, the source of it all, died, every ghoul rampaging through the city stopped moving, bringing the catastrophe to an abrupt end.

The contaminated royal jelly he had used to consume their bodies had lost its power.

Lim Taegyu immediately called in a healer specializing in detoxification and received treatment, narrowly managing to recover from the poisoning.

“Haah. I really almost died this time. Do I need to hire a food taster or something? From now on, I’m only hiring a detoxification healer as my secretary.”

Utterly exhausted, he kept repeating this resolution.

Meanwhile, Baek Miho mobilized all of the Baekho Guild’s personnel and took the lead in locating the casualties and the missing.

The Reaper Guild, on the other hand, was in no position to do the same.

Though the incident had somehow been resolved, it had cost the guild far too much. Thankfully, most of its elite hunters ranked B and above were still alive and well, but losing most of its hunters ranked C and below was a devastating blow.

Of course, they could always recruit more people, but...

‘Who would want to join our guild now? I’m worried even the ones we still have might leave. Whew.’

Lim Taegyu lifted his head and stared blankly at the sky where Lee Minsung’s hive had been.

For some reason, he could picture the dead Lee Minsung up there, giving him the middle finger.

‘You bastard.’

So this was why his mother had told him to choose his friends wisely.

“... Oh, right. Secretary Oh!”

Suddenly remembering the secretary who had first betrayed him and stabbed him with a poisoned sting, Lim Taegyu hurriedly looked around.

But no matter where he looked, Secretary Oh was already nowhere to be found.

‘This leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.’

Something felt wrong.

He had hired Secretary Oh himself. The man had been personable enough and good at his job.

Just how long had he been a traitor?

No, had he even been human to begin with?

* * *

At that very moment, “Secretary Oh” stood among the crowds, watching everything with an expressionless face.

The moment he turned his back to leave the scene—

BUZZZZ.

With the sound of bees beating their wings, his face changed into that of the queen bee Arsha, unnoticed by anyone.

Yet the expression revealed on Arsha’s face looked even more desolate than Lim Taegyu’s.

“... All for nothing.”

Her shaman was dead, and the ritual was ruined. Every plan she had spent so long preparing had crumbled in a single day.

“The plan was perfect.”

Yes. Even looking back, her plan had been perfect.

Establish a hidden base in the shadows. Gradually increase her worker bees there. Pour her efforts into creating a shaman. Offer sacrifices and conduct a ritual honoring the dead Querehsha.

Her shaman had run away of his own accord partway through, but such a minor deviation had hardly been a problem. If anything, it had merely served as a catalyst, bringing her plans forward.

There had been just one reason for her defeat...

‘Letting that human get away.’

Arsha fixed her gaze on Suho in the distance.

She had known he boded ill from the moment she first saw him.

She should have killed him earlier, whatever it took. Instead, her attempt had only resulted in him stealing all her worker bees.

Revenge... was out of the question when she was now hard-pressed simply to survive.

“... So this is the power of a successor.”

Intense desire filled Arsha’s eyes as she watched Suho.

Yes. She had to admit what was undeniable. From the moment she became entangled with that human, she had never stood a chance.

That human was...

“Rakan’s successor, after all.”

He truly lived up to being the successor of the King of Beasts, the Monarch of Fangs.

Of course she could not face him with her power when she had yet to become a Monarch herself.

That only made her want it more.

“If I become a Monarch too, I’ll have power like that.”

Fortunately, no one had inherited the mantle of the Monarch of Insects here today. Having confirmed that most important fact with her own eyes...

“I shall withdraw for today, Beast King Crow.”

But someday, without fail...

Swallowing the rest of her words, Arsha dispersed on the spot.

* * *

When Suho returned home, he held two business cards in his hand.

They belonged to Baek Miho and Lim Taegyu.

He had received cards from both a president and a vice president of major guilds that every hunter in Korea was desperate to join.

[“We’re only letting you go because we’re busy today!”]

[“Make sure you call tomorrow! Promise!”]

Even while they were overwhelmed with handling the aftermath and fielding barrages of questions from the gathering reporters, the two had forced their business cards into Suho’s hand.

Apparently still not reassured, they had even gotten his phone number.

“I feel like I just got scouted on the street.”

[“You are not wrong.”]

Beru’s eyes flashed as he replied, looking as proud as could be.

[“Just as the exceptionally beautiful are asked for their number on the street, your combat prowess is exceptionally outstanding, Young Monarch! Sob. When did you grow up to be so magnificent...?”]

“You’re overdoing it.”

Leaving Beru to shed streams of moved tears, Suho casually tossed the cards onto his desk.

‘Joining a major guild would be nice.’

People made a fuss over big companies for a reason.

Even setting aside the high salaries, major guilds offered truly incredible benefits. They readily loaned out expensive, high-quality equipment based on rank and experience. They also had spacious, sturdy training facilities that would not collapse even when hunters unleashed their mana to their hearts’ content.

Other hunters could not grow by leveling up like Suho, but that made training all the more essential. They needed to learn to use the power they had been given more efficiently and strategically.

“But I already have all of that.”

That was precisely the problem.

Good weapons? Suho had the shop window. He could buy whatever equipment he wanted, as long as he had enough gold.

A spacious training facility?

Was there another hunter in the world with a private training ground as vast as his?

Suho immediately inserted the key into his shadow.

[“Are you going in right away?”]

“Yeah. There’s something I need to check.”

CLUNK.

[Would you like to enter the Shadow Dungeon?]

(Y/N)

“Let’s go in.”

[Entering the Shadow Dungeon.]

WHOOSH!

In an instant, Suho’s vision turned black and white.

Before he knew it, he was standing in Ammut’s pyramid, the Iron Body Arts training facility inside the Shadow Dungeon.

Ammut, who had been waiting there for Suho to arrive, rose to his immense height with a vicious grin.

[“You’re finally here. Let’s begin training.”]

RUMBLE!

“W-wait! Not yet!”

Suho hastily stopped Ammut, who was trying to launch straight into Iron Body Arts training the moment he saw him.

Ammut halted his transformation into Spirit form and frowned.

[“Do you have something else to do?”]

“Yeah. I do. Something important.”

With a sigh of relief, Suho checked the message that had been hovering before his eyes all this time.

[You have met the completion requirements for ‘Secret Quest: Qualifications of an Army Commander.’]

[You have an unread message.]

After taking a brief, deep breath, Suho opened the message.

[Secret Quest: Qualifications of an Army Commander]

The Player has reached the required level and proven worthy.

Become a shadow Army Commander and raise an army of your own.

“Could this be...?”

Suho’s eyes went wide.

At that moment—

WHOOSH!

The shadow beneath his feet began to seethe of its own accord, letting out a torrent of soundless cries.

They were as stirring as the marching songs of brave soldiers heading to war, yet as eerie as a solemn requiem.

DING.

[You have learned ‘Skill: Shadow Storage.’]

“Shadow Storage?”

[“Kieeeeeek?!”]

Before Suho could even finish speaking, Beru let out a startled shriek.

[“My goodness! At last, my liege has acknowledged you, Young Monarch!”]