Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

Chapter 38

“Ants are disgusting.”

It had been dozens of years already.

That was a phrase he always muttered like a habit.

Why did he hate ants?

It was because he had been having nightmares periodically since some time ago.

Once a year, or once every two years.

Vivid nightmares that came back if he forgot about them.

In his dreams, he was always running in the darkness.

Chased by countless ants.

“Oh, don’t come! Don’t come!”

“Kieeak! Kieeak!”

“Aaargh!”

He ran desperately like that, over and over again.

But no matter how hard he tried, when he regained his senses, he found himself at a dead end.

The ants surrounded him.

And in the middle of them.

A giant ant, as big as a human, walked towards him with steady steps.

And…

“Kieeeeak-!”

Its mouth ripped open, swallowing his head whole…

Thump!

A middle-aged man woke up from his bed with a scream.

His wife, who was sleeping next to him, blinked her eyes in concern and looked at her husband.

“Honey, did you have the nightmare again?”

“Heuk, heuk…”

Cold sweat was dripping down his forehead.

He quickly gulped down the cold water he had put on the nightstand.

“Glug.”

Although he drank it hastily, making some noise, it helped him come back to reality.

And he turned to look at his wife, feeling guilty for waking her up.

“I’m sorry. Did I wake you up again?”

“Well… It’s been a while this time.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Now that I’m fine, go back to sleep without worrying about me.”

When he gently patted her back, his wife’s eyes closed again, peacefully.

“Whew.”

The man sat on the edge of the bed and washed his face with both hands.

“It’s been a while since I didn’t dream of it…”

He sighed and muttered to himself.

Yes, it was just a dream.

Nothing more than a dream.

“I’m still alive, fortunately.”

The potion seemed to have worked.

His heart, which had been pounding violently, gradually stabilized.

“Damn ant dream for real….”

Somehow, he felt like he would have a tough day today.

Though he would have preferred to sleep a bit more, he decided to get ready for work.

Quietly, he got up so as not to wake his wife, who was a school teacher.

Her subject was Korean history.

He knew how difficult that job was, having worked briefly as a history instructor at an academy when he was young.

“If she loses track of historical dates during class just because she couldn’t sleep well because of me, it would be a big problem.”

With such thoughts in his mind, he skillfully finished getting ready for work and put on his issued ID badge from the Hunter Association around his neck.

[Korean Hunter Association]

Min Byung-goo

(Consulting Physician)

Twinkle.

His name engraved on the badge sparkled in the morning sunlight.

***

“I’ve come for a magic power reassessment.”

As soon as the morning dawned, Suho came to the hospital designated by the Hunter Association.

“Please have a seat and wait for a moment.”

Suho listened to the nurse’s explanations and sat down on a chair, waiting patiently for his turn.

By chance, Suho had been initially assessed and received his magic power measurement at the Hunter Association, but it was usual for people to come to the hospital for an awakening examination.

For this purpose, the Hunter Association had designated hospitals where magic power measurement could be done in various locations.

Initially, there was only one in Seoul, but as awakened individuals began to appear all over the country, these hospitals gradually increased in number in various regions.

However, there was still only one hospital in the country where “magic power reassessment” could be done, due to the use of the only precision measurement device in the country.

“Mr. Seong Suho, please come in.”

After a short wait, the nurse called Suho’s name.

As he entered the reassessment room, there was a middle-aged doctor with a pleasant appearance sitting inside.

“Mr. Seong Suho?”

“Yes, hello.”

Suddenly, as Suho greeted, his eyes lingered on the doctor’s ID badge.

Min Byung-gu

(Medical Advisor)

“Medical Advisor?”

As meticulous as the re-measurement was, it seemed that the association guaranteed the expertise of the medical advisor.

“As you heard from the nurse earlier, stardust has been officially banned as an illegal substance recently. So before the re-measurement, you will undergo several tests first.”

It was commonly known as a doping test.

After a brief explanation, the testing began in earnest, and suddenly Suho asked a question.

“But sir, wasn’t there no way to determine stardust doping originally?”

“That’s true, but recently some of the ingredients of stardust have been revealed, and research has been conducted based on that. Based on that research, a clever doctor developed a doping test in no time. By the way, that doctor is right here. Haha.”

Min Byung-gu pointed at himself with his thumb, shrugging his shoulders.

He was quite a cheerful old doctor.

“Ah.”

Suho realized something.

“It’s because of me.”

The reason why a doping test could be developed recently.

It was all thanks to Suho himself for discovering the factory and reporting to the association about how demons had been making stardust.

“The butterfly effect has come full circle, and I’m the one who ends up taking the doping test.”

It was a situation that made him chuckle.

But then, the doctor who was conducting the test, Min Byung-gu, looked at Suho’s expression with curiosity.

“Hmm? Suho, you have a different atmosphere than the others.”

“Really? What kind of atmosphere?”

“You’re too calm.”

Min Byung-gu found Suho intriguing.

The usual reactions of people who came for re-measurement were either overly enthusiastic dreamers who longed for a rise in their status, or those with an excessive self-awareness who couldn’t distinguish reality.

“Both of them are similar in the end though.”

In fact, it was a natural reaction.

After all, when the hunter’s rank goes up due to a successful re-measurement, the number of digits in their salary can change overnight.

But Suho was different.

There was no sense of anticipation or nervousness in his atmosphere about the results of the re-measurement.

“Is it because he’s not a person with a lot of ambition by nature?”

After a while, the results of Suho’s doping test came out.

“You don’t have any stardust doping. Well done. Now we will proceed with the mana measurement. Please raise your hand here.”

“Whether it was a waste of time or not, the result of Suho’s mana measurement was the same as the status window.”

[Mana Quantity: 586]

Min Byung-gu exclaimed as he checked the result.

“Oh, congratulations. Maybe the first measurement was an error. With this much mana, you’ll become a C-ranked Hunter.”

As Min Byung-gu explained, he checked Suho’s reaction again.

But Suho’s reaction remained indifferent.

As if he had expected it.

“It’s amazing. Is this how young people are these days?”

Min Byung-gu chuckled and entered the test result into the computer.

“Oh, and I need to upload skill information to the Hunter data. Can you show me your skills?”

Skill information was important data.

In order for hunters to cooperate smoothly when conquering dungeons, they needed to know each other’s skills well.

Min Byung-gu took Suho to a spacious area and asked, “What skills do you have?”

“I use swordsmanship and summoning.”

“You’re a summoner. Then let’s start with the summoning skill. Can you summon a familiar for me?”

“Sure.”

Suho nodded his head eagerly.

However, in order to use the Shadow Extraction skill, he needed a corpse.

It was troublesome to bring a goblin corpse from the Shadow Dungeon, so there was only one familiar that he could easily summon.

“Ver, come out for a moment.”

Before he finished speaking.

Zzzztt-!

“Kieeek! Did you call me, my lord?”

A shadow the size of a fist sprang up from under Suho’s feet.

But what was this?

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

“Kieek?”

Suddenly, Min Byung-gu saw Ver and was so startled that he fell backwards.

Ver looked at Min Byung-gu with a puzzled expression and blinked his eyes.

“Huh? Are you…?”

“G-ghost, ghost, ghost…! G-g-gone.”

Min Byung-gu pointed a trembling finger at Ver and ended up flipping his eyes and dozing off in that spot.

“…Huh?”

Suho looked bewildered as he stared at Ver.

“What did you do to my doctor?”

“Oh, well… umm.”

Ver glanced at Min Byung-gu’s face again.

Sure enough, it was him.

Min Byung-gu.

“He… he once… ate me.”

“What? Who ate what?”

[I am this human.]

Ber scratched his head awkwardly, looking at Min Byeong-gu.

***

Before the Earth was reset.

During the time when the Shadow Lord Seong Jin-woo was actively working as a hunter.

There was an S-class healer in Korea, one of the few in the world.

S-class hunter Min Byeong-gu.

He once cooperated with other S-class hunters in a large-scale demon subjugation.

Jeju Island.

The hellish island that was occupied by countless ant demons.

In that unprecedented battle, Min Byeong-gu fought bravely against the demons, sacrificing himself for his comrades.

He was consumed by the ant king, Ber, in order to save his colleagues.

After the world was reset.

All those memories disappeared from Min Byeong-gu’s mind, but…

“…I still remember you.”

Ber’s bitter voice echoed in Min Byeong-gu’s unconscious mind.

Skill Absorption.

Ber’s ability to absorb the powers and memories of his prey.

Back then, soon after Ber hatched from his egg, he devoured Min Byeong-gu and absorbed his abilities as an S-class healer.

“Perhaps the reason you didn’t awaken this time is because of that.”

However, what Ber learned from Min Byeong-gu was not just that.

Memories. Knowledge.

The heart that hated war and loved peace.

And that was…

The first taste of ‘humanity’ that Ber acquired since he was born.

“If I were human, I would have called you father, perhaps.”

Min Byung-gu was the human who had the greatest influence on the current personality of Ver.

“It’s because of you that I started to like historical dramas.”

Ver laughed lightly, and even in his unconscious state, Min Byung-gu trembled when he heard that laughter.

“…Is that so?”

Did he read his mind?

Ver murmured bitterly.

“I have become your nightmare.”

In fact… it wouldn’t just be Min Byung-gu.

Ver had been the nightmare of all the humans he had consumed so far.

But among them, Min Byung-gu was especially unique.

Perhaps it was because he was the first human he had ever consumed.

Or perhaps it was because the humanity he had learned from him had a significant influence on his current identity.

Ver finally seemed to understand the reason.

“Look at you. Even though the world has been reset… even though you may not have the abilities of an S-rank healer like back then.”

“Your life is still noble.”

Even though he had given up being a hunter and wanted to become a history teacher, he chose the path of medicine instead of being a healer in this life.

“You are still saving someone’s life in your own place.”

Ver smiled brightly.

The reason why this fact felt willingly accepted was because he realized that his roots were still shining brilliantly.

As someone who had walked only the path of slaughter and struggle since the moment he was born, the brilliance was even more dazzling.

“Now I won’t apologize anymore. We were in the middle of a war back then, after all. However…”

Suddenly, Ver’s warm voice reached Min Byung-gu.

“In this life, I will support you.”

Paahat!

And a small seed that came from Ver seeped into Min Byung-gu’s body.

“I will reap your nightmares.”

My… father.

Meanwhile, Suho was surrounded by hospital staff.

“No, seriously, he really passed out alone?”

“Now that the police have been called, you should explain yourself at the station.”

“You’ll be a witness until the truth is revealed…”

“Well, well. It’s really a misunderstanding.”

Suho felt unjust, but the nurses’ reactions were only natural.

Dr. Min Byung-gu was a skilled physician and the only researcher of stardust in Korea.

Although stardust was a flawed item that used humans as ingredients, its effects themselves were still worth researching even now.

“If only the incorrect things could be eliminated, and only the functional ones could be preserved?

Stardust didn’t know it could be reborn as something that would change the era.

In that sense, Min Byung-gu could be considered a significant resource even at a national level.

But then, while undergoing measurement, the hunter who was doing something unknown suddenly screamed and fainted.

Usually, in such cases, it’s because the measurement results were not satisfactory and some mishap occurred…

“Mmm.”

At that moment, Min Byung-gu, who was lying on the floor, suddenly got up.

“Teacher Min!”

“Teacher has woken up!”

Nurses rushed to Min Byung-gu in surprise.

But something extraordinary had happened.

“What is this?”

Pa-aaat.

Min Byung-gu, who regained his consciousness with difficulty, looked down at his two hands covered in white light.

It was magic power.

“Awakening?!”

Everyone’s eyes widened in awe as they witnessed the scene.

And almost unconsciously, their gazes turned to the guardian standing beside them.

“No, this is also a misunderstanding.”

I really didn’t do anything, after all.”