Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

The Shadow Dungeon—the forlorn, black-and-white World of Slumber. Surprisingly, the buzzing of bees could be heard in this place. “How interesting…” Arsha, the Queen Bee, was marveling quietly as she moved about. “Is this the World of Shadows ruled by the Monarch of Shadows?”

It was Arsha’s real body that had entered this dungeon. Though her conversation with Suho had been briefly interrupted due to Yoonho’s rude intervention, Suho had eventually forced her to bring her real body before him. She had been in no position to refuse him, and she’d been forced to comply in the end.

The result was her current state. She would be forced to live in the Shadow Dungeon from now on, taken hostage—or put another way, imprisoned, perhaps. From now on, her body could not leave the dungeon without Suho’s permission. She still had some bees outside that she could turn into copies of herself, so she could always use those to keep track of the situation in the outside world—but that was it. Since she was stuck in this world, she could not utilize her full power. All she could do was scout.

Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing. She hadn’t expected it when it was forced on her, but she was actually liking her current situation quite a bit. He was heavy-handed with me, to be sure, but the welfare this provides is better than I expected. Arsha’s ultimate goal, naturally, was to inherit the power of Querehsha, the Monarch of Plagues. But her first priority was always survival. In that sense, she couldn’t find a safer place than this Shadow Dungeon.

Above all, I don’t have to put on an act anymore. I like that. That fact alone was enough to make Arsha content. When she had wandered the dimensional rift and fallen into Earth, she had chosen to mimic humans and meld into human society, acting like a person and seeking to please other people. But that hadn’t been adaptation, simply parasitical behavior. It left her feeling ashamed to think that she, a queen bee, must act like a menial human being.

No matter how strong Arsha was, she could not defeat all the humans on Earth. That was why it had been necessary to increase the number of underlings and become powerful enough so that she wouldn’t need to hide herself any longer. That way, she could rule as a true queen bee.

This was no longer the situation, however. In the Shadow Dungeon, she didn’t have to pretend to be a human. That pleased her more than anything else, though there was just one thing that made her nervous—Suho. Her body was trapped here, which meant he could kill her anytime he wanted.

“No. I could kill you at any time. But provided that you don’t displease me, I promise not to do so.”

“I hope this is safe…” It had been a very unfair and one-sided agreement. Arsha’s eyes trembled with fear as she considered Suho’s promise, but there was no way around it. She would just have to do her best not to displease him. Even when she was outside, roaming free, she had been forced on the run because of him.

“Hmm… This seems like a good place.” Arsha, who’d been buzzing about the Shadow Dungeon, stopped short at a certain location. It was a secluded place in the dungeon, slightly distanced from Ammut’s pyramid.

After studying the surroundings carefully, she smiled with satisfaction and reached out her hand. “Fly, my worker bees.” The bees she’d brought with her flew from her body, and she declared solemnly, “I command you in the name of Arsha, the Queen Bee. Get to work. Let us establish a new kingdom for ourselves here.”

Arsha had decided to make the best of this situation and build a cozy palace in one corner of the dungeon. The main ingredient of such a hive was her mana, and the rest could easily be gathered from the region around her.

Soon, she was watching a hive slowly start to come together. It seemed, however, that she’d grown too accustomed to human life. Her bedroom was turning out to be very cozy, almost like a luxurious princess’s chamber—not something one would expect from a beehive.

“Hehe. I like this very much. Put a bed here. Queen size, please. And the tea table and sofas over here…”

The bees were buzzing and working diligently to meet Arsha’s requirements. She couldn’t hide her satisfaction, but something occurred to her. Perhaps living like this wouldn’t be so bad… Huh?What am I thinking? She quickly put aside the thought, realizing that it was not right for a queen bee to think this way. But in her heart of hearts, she knew that a queen bee’s life was one of living in safety while the worker bees handled all the dangerous and bothersome tasks.

Feeling grateful to Suho for giving her such a nice place to live, Arsha transferred her will to the worker bees flying throughout the country. She relayed the command that Suho had given her. My worker bees!Find Hwang Dongsoo quickly!

Indeed, Suho hadn’t just left the job to the White Tiger Guild—he’d also told Arsha to use her bees to locate Dongsoo. The worker bees outside the dungeon began to fly at an even faster rate as they spread out through the country.

***

While Arsha was building herself a hive, Suho finished his daily quest and walked out of the pyramid.

“Excellent work,” Beru said, coming over. Behind him were Suho’s shadow soldiers.

Suho looked over the soldiers. There were a total of five that he’d saved, with the exception of Beru. There was the shadow lancer, Que, the shadow minotaurs, Mino and Tau, the shadow assassin, Kira, and Harmakan, the shadow sorcerer.

The strongest among them was Harmakan, who was at the elite knight grade. From fighting Harmakan himself, Suho knew that he was capable of skilled sorcery. In order to use him appropriately, Suho needed to have a good idea of what he was fully capable of. “Harmakan, tell me about your abilities,” he ordered.

“Yes, Master.” Harmakan explained his powers, which could be divided into three kinds of abilities: phantom manipulation spells, curses or debuffs, and instance dungeon activation. “My spells for controlling phantoms can only be used when the souls of the dead are nearby,” he explained.

“So your sorcery is limited by the environment.”

“Yes.”

Suho recalled the way Harmakan had used the spirits of the dead in Yami Village to attack them. He had used human souls back then, but it seemed that the spirits of magic beasts could be used to the same effect. But phantom manipulation overlaps with Shadow Extraction, Suho mused. Strictly speaking, the extraction power was far more advanced than phantom manipulation.

“Then I’ll just recruit strong magic beasts as shadow soldiers from now on, while I use souls of mundane monsters as fuel for phantom manipulation,” Suho said.

“I will keep that in mind. As for the curses I use—”

“Oh, we’ll find out through demonstration.”

Harmakan, made nervous by Suho’s grin, looked around him carefully. The other shadow soldiers had surrounded him. “M-Master?”

“All of you, attack.”

The shadow soldiers pounced instantly.

“G-good god!” Taken aback, Harmakan quickly began to pour out the curses. System messages popped up in front of Suho.

[Harmakan used the skill “Amplify Damage.”]

[Harmakan used the skill “Exploitation.”]

[Harmakan used the skill “Thorns of Pain.”]

“That’s it.” Suho nodded, seeing how the curses that he had faced himself worked once more.

Amplify Damage is a debuff.Exploitation absorbs health,and Thorns of Pain reflects damage. They were quite interesting skills, just as he’d thought. In video game terms, Harmakan was basically a necromancer specializing in debuffs. Just as such a character would not be very effective in a game without any party members, the same was true for Harmakan. Even now, there were no spirits to aid him after he used the debuffs.

“Aaaah!” Harmakan yowled. He wasn’t able to even attack properly as he was beaten up by the other soldiers. It was rather pitiful to watch—he was of elite knight grade, after all. Thorns of Pain, however, really shone in this situation.

[All the pain and damage Harmakan receives is shared with the attackers.]

Kira slammed into Harmakan, but his body was sent flying with an explosion. Harmakan felt pain as well, but Kira, who had a weaker defense, was defeated as a result.

Suho grinned. “This makes you more of a tanker than a necromancer, doesn’t it?” But what if I do this…? He changed up the way the battle proceeded. “Harmakan! Can you cast Thorns of Pain on the other soldiers as well?

“Uh… Y-yes! Of course!” Harmakan answered the question even as he was being beaten up.

“Then do it!”

[Harmakan used the skill “Thorns of Pain.”]

The curses surrounded the other soldiers’ bodies, and this time Suho had them attack each other. An indiscriminate battle commenced. They lashed out at each other without hesitation, apparently having built up quite some resentment toward each other. Their own bodies, however, suffered from the same attacks that they gave. They fought like berserkers, not stopping despite the damage they were also doing to themselves.

“Those cockroaches.” Arsha witnessed this gruesome battle from afar and flew off to continue overseeing work on the hive.

In the meantime, Suho’s mana was drained out quickly as the damaged soldiers’ bodies quickly recovered. His eyes gleamed. “Not bad.” Thorns of Pain was very synergistic with the shadow soldiers. They could recover from any damage they took, provided that Suho had the mana to support them.

“From now on, it looks like I’m going to have to invest in the intelligence stat, too.” As a start, Suho decided to invest all the rewards of the daily quest in intelligence.

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