Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

Chapter 37

Bam!

“What the hell is this guy doing again!”

Min-sung Lee, the vice president of the Death God Guild, was furious and smashed the table with his head.

-(Hot News) Beast King Crow!

-The mysterious hunter who gained the power of the Beast King, Crow!

-Why did Crow wear a raven mask?

Internet articles were covering the incident at the Magok Field.

Tock tock.

“Mr. Vice President.”

Kim, the secretary, knocked and entered, delivering a report.

“The Hyena Guild members who entered the Magok Field were all found dead. We have just completed recovering the last body.”

Crunch!

Min-sung clenched his fists and shattered the armrest of the chair he was holding onto.

“I knew it would come to this.”

Min-sung gnashed his teeth with a terrifying expression.

“Now all the pieces fall into place.”

The Hyena Guild remnants that he had hunted down.

Those werewolves who had suddenly disappeared to go to the Magok Field just two days ago.

“I will investigate if there is a factory in Magok.”

The excuse was good enough.

He had urged them to find a new Stardust factory by any means necessary.

But Min-sung, who had never trusted them, had assigned several hunters with stealth skills to follow them closely.

Just to see what they were up to from a distance.

And as expected.

Their lies were exposed quickly.

There were not only werewolves, but also beast hunters who gathered in Magok to obtain the qualification of the ‘Beast King.’

“Seems like they went to Magok to obtain some unknown power, maybe the power of the Beast King.”

And after gaining that unknown power, were they trying to break free from Min-sung’s grasp?

Anyway, their purpose had ultimately succeeded.

They had become free in the form of ‘death.’

The secretary Kim continued with the report.

“When we examined the corpses of those who died, it appeared that they were killed by weapons of the hunters, not by monsters.”

“No. They’re not hunters.”

“Really?”

Im In-seong looked at the internet article with a confident gaze, chewing his lips.

-Why did Crow wear a crow mask?

“They must have been killed by demons. The crow mask is a symbol of the demons.”

As soon as he saw the words “crow mask,” what came to In-seong’s mind was the demons of the factory.

For some reason, demons always wore crow masks on their faces, just like “Crow”!

“That Crow guy is definitely a demon. The demons killed the hyenas and stole the king’s power.”

“Is that so?”

“I’m sure. Only those who had the beastification skill had the qualifications to become king in the first place. But how could the demons obtain that power?”

“….”

“Don’t know? Is your brain not working?”

Frustrated with Kim’s secretary’s continued absent-minded expression, In-seong clicked his tongue.

“I made a mistake by appointing such a stupid person as my secretary. Do you not remember how the hyenas became werewolves in the first place?”

“They awakened by drinking the blood of the werewolf… Ah, blood!”

Kim suddenly realized and trembled.

In-seong blinked his eyes and nodded.

“Yeah, blood. If humans can turn into beasts by drinking blood, why not demons? The demons killed the hyenas and drank their blood. And they fulfilled the qualifications of the king and seized the king’s power.”

“Wow….”

Kim, who listened to his words, looked at In-seong’s face with a greatly moved expression.

“As expected, Vice Chairman’s insight…! How can your vision be so broad? Even looking at the same information, I couldn’t have imagined such a picture.”

“Tsk. What’s so great about this? It’s just pretending to know when you pretend to know.”

In-seong’s expression relaxed a little at Kim’s sincere flattery.

“Anyway, now that we fully understand the situation, it’s important to make use of this information. Since the hyenas are all dead now, we have to personally deal with the demons and stardust trade in the future. Got it?”

“Yes, sir. In that case, we need to first find the location of the factory, but the clue to that…”

“Magok.”

In-seong pointed at the internet article with sharp and wise eyes.

“How did demons without beastification skills know about the king’s test and find Magok? There are no coincidences in this world. It logically makes sense that demons were already there from the beginning.”

“Oh, I see! So, it wouldn’t be entirely false to say that the werewolves found Magok Field in search of the factory.”

“That’s one way to look at it.”

“Understood. Then I will take responsibility and thoroughly search Magok Field like catching a rabbit.”

“Yes, and make sure to prepare plenty of meat if you want to strike a deal with the demon who has obtained the power of the Beast King.”

“Ah! Right, the werewolves also ate a lot of meat. As expected, Vice Chairman is wise!”

“Tsk.”

Kim Secretary, who was deeply impressed once again by Im Min-seong’s wisdom, bowed and left the office in a hurry.

…Of course, reality was quite different.

“Oh, speaking of which.”

Im Min-seong checked on the other task he had left to Kim Secretary.

“What about that doctor? Did you persuade him?”

“I’m sorry. I haven’t been able to persuade him yet. He’s a very stubborn guy.”

“Hey…! What the hell are you doing, getting a high salary? If it doesn’t work with money, you should drag him here by force!”

“Oh, I understand. I will do it right away, even today…”

Kim Secretary replied and quickly left the Vice Chairman’s office.

Watching his retreating figure, Im Min-seong lowered his hand, which had been holding his phone to throw it at him.

“Anyway, it’s my fault for having such a useless secretary.”

That’s why hunters were a problem.

Because they ranked based on fighting order, not intelligence.

But he, who had been an elite businessman managing things even before becoming a hunter, was different.

“I am different from other hunters. It’s been that way since birth.”

Thinking of the hunters who boasted about their meagerly higher magic power, Im Min-seong gritted his teeth.

***

[Entered the Shadow Dungeon.]

At that moment, Suho returned to the Shadow Dungeon with 10 chickens in hand.

The Shadow Dungeon was quiet as the goblins for the daily quest had not yet regenerated.

Perhaps it hadn’t been a day yet.

“Wow! What’s this delicious smell?”

“Grrooowl?”

Esil and Gray, who smelled the chicken, quickly approached Suho.

Suho handed all the chickens he brought to Esil.

“Eat up.”

“We will eat well!”

“Groooong?”

“Grey, you don’t have any share even if you stare like that.”

“……”

Grey lowered his head dejectedly.

As expected, he didn’t get anything this time either.

At that moment, a message from Rakan arrived in front of Suho.

[The Beast King, Lord Fangtooth, complains that the food he eats is too bland.]

Suho argued indignantly, “Who says it’s bland? Rakan’s Fangtooth said that Grey needs to eat the prey he hunted himself to grow stronger, like a baby bird being fed by its mother. Even if it’s divided with Esil, there’s enough goblin corpses piled up here to feed Grey for a while.”

[The Beast King, Lord Fangtooth, agrees with that statement, but says that Grey, who has never eaten chicken in his life, is pitiable for not knowing the taste.]

“Hmm.”

Upon hearing that, Suho suddenly felt like he had become a really bad person.

In the end, Suho lost to Grey.

“Esil, give Grey a piece of chicken.”

“Ah….”

Esil made a face of someone who lost a country at the words. But in the end, she timidly handed over the lightest chicken box to Grey with trembling hands.

Of course, Esil still had 9 chickens left, but still.

However, when Grey, who received the chicken box, opened it with a fierce expression, he lowered his body and revealed his fangs.

“Grrrr!”

[No, don’t hunt. It’s not a fight with the chicken.]

Berv watched Grey’s pitiful attempt with disdain.

And there was a message from someone far away who was enjoying the sight.

[The Beast King, Lord Fangtooth, nods in satisfaction, saying that his successor is truly courageous.]

“Haha. You’re really something, Fangtooth.”

Suho chuckled.

Then, leaving Esil and Grey to share the chicken amicably, he decided to check his newly leveled-up stats.

“Status window.”

Then a long status window unfolded in front of him.

[Status Window]

Name: Sung Soo-ho

Level: 25

Occupation: None

Title: Wolf Slayer

HP: 5,860/5,860

MP: 586/586

[Stats]

Strength: 53
Constitution: 34

Agility: 34
Intelligence: 34

Perception: 34(+5)

(Available Ability Points: 0)

[Skills]

Passive Skills: Resilience Lv.2, Dual Swordsmanship Lv.2

Active Skills: Dominion’s Authority Lv.1, Shadow Extraction Lv.1, Storm Slash Lv.1, Power Strike Lv.1

[Items]

Rakan’s Fang

Volkan’s Horn

Ashen Ring

“Wow….”

Soo-ho had a satisfied expression.

Incredible level up and stat increase!

There were also many new skills that had been acquired.

“It was worth all the effort.”

And he checked the newly acquired skill this time.

[Skill: Power Strike Lv.1]

Active Skill

Requires 300 mana.

Enhances attack power by infusing “Dominion’s Authority” into the body.

This was the skill he gained by delivering the final decisive blow to Tomb Spider Arachne.

“It requires 300 mana. No wonder it’s so powerful.”

With his current mana amount, he couldn’t use the skill consecutively for two times.

“Dominion’s Authority.”

Soo-ho decided to experimentally use the skill.

The sequence was as follows:

First, he floated Dominion’s Authority in the air.

Then he overlapped the invisible hand with his own hand.

Goooo…!

Then, a black energy enveloped Soo-ho’s hand.

“Oh.”

Soo-ho looked at his own hand, which seemed to be wearing a translucent and large black gauntlet, from various angles.

“So this is the principle of combining the power of Dominion’s hand and my hand.”

Suddenly, a saying came to his mind: “It’s better to hold a blank sheet of paper than a white paper.”

This skill gave him more than double, even triple or quadruple attack power when he struck with both hands overlapped, compared to when he struck with just one hand.

Suhoh glanced at his mana amount with a slight thrill.

[MP: 586]

Compared to when his mana was only 10 at level 1, it was an incredible amount of mana.

“If I level up one more time, it will definitely surpass 600. Then I can use this skill twice in a row.”

Just the thought of it sent a shiver down his spine.

Suhoh couldn’t contain his excitement and clenched his fist.

And this time, he was sure of it.

“To level up, I need to enter a real dungeon after all.”

He had already surpassed the goblins in the Shadow Dungeon a long time ago.

To get stronger, he needed to find a place with even stronger monsters, like the Maug Field this time.

And for that…

“I should raise my hunter rank.”

Currently, he was only an E-rank hunter, which meant he could only participate in dungeon raids as a miner or a gatherer at best.

Field-type dungeons like this one weren’t that common in Korea, so raising his rank would give him more opportunities to enter higher-level dungeons.

Suhoh suddenly remembered what the hunter from the association had said last time.

It seemed like there might have been an error in the initial measurement, so he suggested getting re-measured at the association.

“Should I go?”

Suhoh decided to visit the association.