Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

[Skill: Giant’s Armor Lv.1]

Active skill

Mana cost: 10

Surrounds your body with a mana armor, enlarging it.

1 mana per second is consumed during the activation.

The skill ‘Giant’s Armor’, which was acquired by defeating Kwak Dooyoung, was a skill that consumed mana in real-time when maintained.

For reference, Sooho’s current max mana was 635. In other words, the skill could be maintained for up to 635 seconds—about 10 minutes, assuming no other skills were used.

His strength, size, and defense had improved accordingly, but there was a major problem; the fact that his hands also grew along with his body made it impossible to hold weapons.

Ultimately, Sooho had to give up his primary weapons, the two swords, and fight with his bare hands.

“Smash.”

Swhak!

As Sooho clenched his fist, black energy surrounded it as it overlapped with Ruler’s Authority. Then he struck the desert centipede that was entangling his body.

Bang!

“Kraaak!”

The centipede retreated, writhing its long body in response to the tremendous impact. However, it seemed like the blow was not fatal, as it managed to escape into the sand unharmed.

The problem was that with this one shot, Sooho’s mana had been cut in half, meaning the time to maintain Giant’s Armor had also been cut in half.

‘If I fight like this, the cost of mana potions won’t make it up.’

Sooho quickly made a decision.

Time to skedaddle.

“Release Giant’s Armor.”

Shooo. The mana armor disappeared, and Sooho’s body returned to its original size.

He immediately climbed onto Arachne’s back and reached out to Esil.

“What are you doing? Don’t you want to flee?”

“…”

Although Esil had much to say, she grabbed his hand without hesitation.

***

[Krrararak!]

Arachne, carrying the two, began to sprint across the desert, vigorously swinging its eight legs.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh! Seven desert centipedes chased closely behind. Their speed was a close match.

And so, a breathless chase where they could barely dodge the sand insects, took place.

“We’re going to get caught at this rate!” 

On the back of the running Arachne, Esil turned to look at the chasing centipedes. Then, without hesitation, she threw her spear toward the closest one.

Ssshkk! The desert centipede dodged the attack by wriggling its body.

Although it allowed them to distance themselves, Esil’s spear flew far away.

“What about your weapon?”

“It’s fine! Return!” In response to Sooho’s question, Esil reached out and shouted. The spear flew through the air like a boomerang and returned to her hand, and she proudly looked at Sooho while twirling it. “This spear is my horn. It always returns to me, no matter where it is.”

“Your horn?”

“It’s a demon’s horn. Some demons use their horns as weapons. The same goes for our House Radiru.”

“That’s great.”

“What?” Esil trembled as Sooho looked at her with a glint in his eyes.

“I’ll make an opening this time, so aim well.” Sooho pulled out his two swords with a grin while standing on top of Arachne.

[Use ‘Skill: Storm Slash’.]

Fwoooosh! The two swords swung and created a sandstorm. Their goal was to block the centipedes’ sight.

It was successful as the desert centipedes were covered in a thick layer of sand dust.

“Now!”

“Got it!”

At Sooho’s shout, Esil threw her spear charged with mana at the centipedes.

Sssssh – Thump!

The spear flew through the sandstorm and caused an explosion in a centipede’s body.

“Keeeeek!” The centipede hit by the attack was startled and writhed its long body before hiding again in the sand.

“It keeps hiding when at a disadvantage!” The spear returned to Esil’s hand, who angrily clenched her fist.

At that moment.

[Little King.]

Beru, who had disappeared for a moment, appeared before Sooho.

[Please escape in that direction.]

Sooho turned his gaze in the direction pointed by Beru.

There was… 

“A pyramid?” Sooho’s eyes widened in disbelief.

He had been too preoccupied with being chased by desert centipedes to notice, but a huge pyramid existed like a picture in the distance.

Sooho muttered in disbelief, “Could this be…Earth?”

[It seems to be a field that exists on Earth, exactly.]

He’d never expected that the gate was connected to Earth.

This was a truly unexpected situation. Now that he looked closely, he could see a faint blue mist mixed in with the sandstorm.

‘Wait, what is so strange about this?’

Just as entering the gate from Earth leads to a dungeon, it was not strange to assume that it would lead back to Earth if they used the gate to move from the Shadow Dungeon.

Without hesitation, Sooho turned towards the direction of the pyramid, fighting off the desert centipedes to get closer to it.

And at that moment when they were getting closer to the pyramid…

Swoosh, swoosh…

“Huh?”

Surprisingly, the centipedes stopped chasing them.

“They’re not coming after us anymore! We made it!” Esil cheered happily. 

[Ahem.]

On the other hand, Beru stood tall with a proud expression on his face above Esil’s head.

Meanwhile, Sooho watched the movement of the centipedes carefully, tilting his head. They couldn’t get close to the pyramid and only loitered around it. “Are they afraid of the pyramid? Why?”

Turning his gaze back to the pyramid, he was surprised to see a small village forming around it.

‘Is this really Earth?’

Sooho’s eyes were filled with wonder.

At a glance, the village had a fairly modern look. Modern signs were attached to the ancient ruin buildings formed around the pyramid.

“Who are you!?”

The guards who were guarding the village’s border happened to meet Sooho and his party approaching the village.

“How did you get here?”

“Did you cross the red desert?”

“…What are they saying?”

Sooho looked bewildered.

The language barrier. Arabic came pouring out of the Egyptian guards’ mouths.

“We avoided the centipedes to get here.”

“Hmm?”

Surprisingly, Esil understood Arabic and translated.

[Demons can understand the intention of humans rather than their language and converse from that.]

Come to think of it, it was strange that Esil, a demon, spoke Korean in the first place.

‘Anyway, it’s convenient.’

Sooho and Esil came down from Arachne and talked with the guards. It was more of a question-and-answer format, mainly to pass through the gate.

“Are you Hunters?”

Yes.

“What is the purpose of your visit?”

We don’t have any specific purpose. We came here by chance while being chased by the centipedes.

“Then how long will you stay here? We have a shortage of food.”

We will take a short break and leave soon.

‘Hmm.’

As Sooho answered the questions one by one with the help of Esil’s interpretation, he could sense a certain atmosphere from the guards’ reactions.

‘It seems like they are interested in Arachne.’

Arachne, the giant spider that Sooho rode on, looked very threatening. However, surprisingly, the guards’ attitude toward Arachne was quite friendly.

“Which one of you is the summoner of this spider?”

“Is this spider a transportation summon?”

“It’s impressive to cross the red desert on a spider.”

“Can anyone else ride your spider?”

“Other Hunters usually come here by helicopter.”

Helicopter?

At the last comment, Sooho looked around with a puzzled expression. Why would people come to this dangerous land surrounded by giant centipedes with helicopters? What was the reason behind it?

Sooho looked around. All he could see was sand, except for one pyramid.

“Is it because of the pyramid?”

At Sooho’s question, the guards looked at Sooho and Esil with strange expressions.

“You really came here without knowing anything.”

“…?”

He felt like a fool.

***

The desert city of Kamura. This small village was originally a tourist city that thrived on tourists who came to see the pyramid.

But one month ago, since the entire desert in this area turned into a field-type dungeon, Kamura’s hell began.

Numerous tourists and residents in the city turned into Mistburn and began attacking people, while those who awakened as Hunters fought against them. There were numerous deaths in the process.

Those who barely survived began to escape the field by helicopter. Due to the giant centipedes roaming around the village, the only means of transportation available was the helicopter.

But something strange happened.

Hunters from the outside began to gather in this village, one by one, riding the helicopter. Their purpose was the same: the pyramid. For some reason, the Hunters thoroughly explored the pyramid as soon as they arrived in the city.

There was a reason they were doing it.

“It’s because a certain fortune-teller made a strange prophecy a month ago.”

“A prophecy?” Sooho cocked his head at Esil’s interpretation of the guards’ words.

Esil awkwardly explained the contents of the prophecy, “Soon, life born from death will awaken from its seal.”

[Hoo?]

Beru’s eyes lit up with interest in the prophecy.

“… And that power will raise the dead.”

That prophecy was very vague and abstract. But to them, it sounded very intuitive.

[Little King, I think that prophecy…]

“My story?

A life born from death?

It seems like a clear reference to Sooho, the son of Shadow Monarch Sung Jinwoo. Even the part about ‘raising the dead’ literally referred to his skill Shadow Extraction.

But it seemed that other people interpreted the prophecy in a completely different way.

Esil continued, “And the dungeon break happened inside this pyramid just when the prophecy came out.”

What timing.

In fact, words like ‘life born from death’ were expressions that could be found in any myth in any country. 

Of course, especially here in Egypt, with their pyramids and pharaohs.

The hobby of many rulers in history has always been immortality. But the pharaohs of Egypt went a step further than immortality and created the massive pyramids, enslaving countless slaves in the desire for the world after death.

“Because the timing was so precise, Hunters flocked from all over the world, saying the prophecy seemed to point here.”

Sooho finally understood the situation and nodded.

The pyramid, already a mysterious structure that had existed for a long time, became even more enigmatic to those who didn’t know the power of the Shadow Monarch when they heard the prophecy of the fortune-teller, which could be interpreted as a skill that gives eternal life like “life resurrection” appearing here.

Various skills really popped out from the Rune Stones found in the dungeon from time to time.

“But surprisingly, something important was discovered inside.”

“What is it?”

“Hmm. Wait a minute.”

Esil looked at the guard who had been hushedly talking with her.

Then the guard blushed for no reason and shrugged.

“It’s not difficult to tell you, but there’s a condition.”

“A condition?”

Just as Sooho was about to ask what the condition was, Esil had already grabbed the guard by the neck and lifted him up.

“How dare you try to make a deal with me?” Esil returned to her arrogant demon noble persona and looked down at the guard with a haughty gaze.

The guard, pale with fear, stuttered in response, “The Hunters eventually found a hieroglyphic inscription deep inside the pyramid!”

“An inscription? What kind of inscription?”

“… ‘Let there be light in the future of the challenger.'”

It was an inscription that had never before existed in Egyptian history.