Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

Chapter 09

[Yes, Young Master!]
Beru, who responded to Suho’s orders, tried to ask once more.
[Are we going to stab those men behind their backs and kill them?]
“What are you talking about? They are going to work.
[…!]”

Beru jumped down and was enraged.
[What is he saying?!]
He couldn’t believe it.
What on earth is this all about?!
The Shadow Monarch’s power ability was so great and mighty only to be used for mining!
[In outer space, those millions of troops are fighting in a war. Such a futile thing to use it for mining here!]
“I get that, but right now, we only have 3 weak shadow goblins. We need to be practical. I’m pretty sure my father also worked this way before when he was weaker.”
[Haa, but still…]
“You also told me last night.”
Suho recalled the conversation he had with Beru the other day.

* * *

They were on their way home after being discharged from the hospital.
Beru spoke with a serious expression.
[Young Master, I will briefly summarize our mission.]
What the fist-size creature said was too grand.
[Firstly, protect Earth from the monsters of outer space.]
“You mean to go into the dungeon and catch the monsters, right?”
[Yes. As you hunt monsters, your level will gradually rise, Young Master. The stronger you become, the safer Earth will be. Secondly, we must somehow find Ms. Haein .]
“Right. Do you have ways on how we can locate my mother?”
[Unfortunately, there’s none. But, who knows? As we catch those extraterrestrial monsters, we might find some clues.]
In the end, this also meant entering the dungeon.
[Lastly, this is the most important one.]
Beru pointed at himself.
[I need to recover as soon as possible and return to the battlefield where His Majesty is. The balance being maintained there must be at stake as I, the core power, is missing.]
Suho was also curious.
Beru’s current small form was just a way to conserve his strength as much as possible, but his original form and power was a living nightmare itself.
With such a huge amount of power missing, he couldn’t imagine what the war was like.
“What should we do to regain your strength?”
The corners of Beru’s mouth rose.
[Of course I need to eat.]
It was an absolutely evil and dreary smile.

It’s been so long .
In the fragments of a world long forgotten now.
He remembered the queen of ants.

– I’m going to make the strongest soldier.

The queen needed the strongest soldier to rebuild the kingdom that was being destroyed by humans and lead the kingdom’s inhabitants.
It went on for 6 months.
She eventually conceived a life by gathering all her mana and nourishment.
That determination and the main goal of exterminating all humans were combined, creating a terrible monster beyond imagination.
The monster’s innate skill is ‘predation’.
It could make some of the mana and intellect of the target its own just by consuming the target.

…Beru spoke after recalling those memories.
[My natural skill is predation. Continuously devouring either human or mana gradually replenishes my strength. It’s an inefficient method that was used in the past, but it’s nothing much now.]
Both for humans and monsters.
Suho felt it again.
Beru definitely lacks humanity.
‘He’s not a human after all.’
The sight of Beru drooling as he mentioned eating humans, was the perfect devilish image itself.
Suho spoke firmly.
“But still, don’t eat any humans.”
[Huh?]
“If you do, only eat bad people.”
Beru’s eyes squinted at those words.
[As expected, like father, like son. His Majesty mentioned the same thing. A long time ago, He also ordered me to eat only the wicked if I were to consume humans.
“My father, too? What’s your standard for being wicked then?”
[Well, of course…]
Bell smiled faintly.
[The ones who harm Young Master.]

* * *

Back to the present.
“That was what you told me.”
Beru brought up Suho’s words.
[So, of course, shouldn’t you be entering the dungeon and leveling up?]
“How can an E-Class hunter enter a dungeon alone? You know very well that E-Class hunters cannot be raiders.”
Suho was being extremely realistic.
Professor Lim also explained that the only tasks E-Class hunters can take are for production work.
He was thinking of going for reassessment after his mana power level reaches D-Class range.
‘The division of hunter class was also a system that has recently been established, so there are still errors in the meter.’
“So, let’s start with what we can do now.”
Suho smiled as he said that.
Beru didn’t feel good about that smile.
[Why are you smiling like that at me?]
“Our 3rd mission.”
Suho recalled what Beru said with a knowing smile.
“You must regain your mana as soon as possible, so you need to eat. Right?”
[Y-Yes. Whether humans or monsters…]
“What about mana stone?”
Flinch.
Beru’s expression hardened.
“You said your skill is predation. Wouldn’t your mana be recharged if you eat mana stone?”
[That’s right but…the stone has very little mana, so it only fills my stomach and the efficiency is not so..]
“Is that a problem? You can just eat more than that.”
Suho smiled brightly at him.
“You can pick them up freely here.”
[Khhiikkkk.]

* * *

Suho passed through the gate with the miners.
The appearance of the dungeon he entered was completely different from the Shadow Dungeon.
The Shadow Dungeon was a vast ruined city that was so wide no one could not even guess its size. This place, on the other hand, was a winding cave.
In addition, each person had a pickaxe in their hands, so it felt like they were here literally to mine.
Suho and the miners moved slowly as they moved forward.
Inside the dungeon, the view was not very dark thanks to the luminescent mushrooms and moths everywhere.
Kwang, Kwang, Kwang, Kwang!
The sound of mining works echoing loudly.
Perhaps because everyone had experience, the sound of pickaxing was very uniform and rhythmic.
Suddenly, all of those sounds stopped at the same time.
“…Huh?”
“What’s that?”
Everyone turned in that direction.
There was Suho commanding the shadow goblins.
[Krrrk! Krrrk!]
[Kehehe!]
Three shadow goblins were pickaxing while laughing.
There was Suho nagging them from behind.
“Amazing.”
“So, that’s how the summoning skill works.”
No wonder people were surprised.
The said skill was well-known to be used in assisting in combat with the help of useful creatures.
However, the summoners just followed behind Suho, who was giving instructions like a Pokemon trainer.
“It works though?”
Kwang, Kwang, Kwang, Kwang!
[Kehehe!]
The shadow goblins that Suho was giving commands to looked a little smaller and weaker than normal goblins.
But, they had enough strength to wield the pickaxe, and most of all, they never got tired no matter how much they worked.
Whereas for Suho, he needed to drain a bit of his mana to replenish his used strength .
“Wow. Look.”
“Those newbies are amazing! Hahaha!”
Suho shouted and laughed at Suho.
“It was all nonsense to say that the summoning skill is useless! It was such an incredible skill!”
“Even now as we’re distracted, they might be able to dig up everything by themselves!”
“We can’t let that happen! Let’s show our seniority in terms of experiences!”
The miners chuckled and started pickaxing again.
It felt quite pleasant to see the short goblins working together next to each other.
[Such a nuisance…]
Seeing that warm situation, Beru at the back chewed the mana stone like a cookie.

* * *

Meanwhile, at that same time.
The raiders, made up of D-Class or higher class hunters, were raiding a place far deeper than the mining area.
“This dungeon is absolutely empty.”
“I know. Only wolf monsters have been popping up since earlier.”
“Wolf skins don’t pay.”
The collectors, who were following the raiders and skinning the monster corpses, weren’t too happy.
Of course, that’s what they said, but that didn’t mean that wolf skin was not worth any money.
Besides, sometimes there were corpses with mana stones, so they had no choice but to work hard.
“Phew. We need to earn money either way.”
Wolf skins piled up on the wagon he had brought.
Right hen.
“Huh? It seems like there’s something here.”
One of the hunters who was walking in the cave in the lead called his companions.
Unexpectedly, there was a huge ruin in front of them.
The hunters who saw that became very nervous and wary of their surroundings.
‘Could it be that there’s a Boss-Class monster here?’
Normally, there was little chance of powerful Boss-Class monsters appearing in D-Class dungeons.
However, the appearance of such a structure meant that something extraordinary could have happened.
And that particularity would never have been a pleasant situation for the hunters.
“What’s this?”
“Did something happen to have a ruin like this?”
“Shouldn’t we go out and ask for more support?”
The hunters were making small noises.
However, the leader of the raid intervened and looked around with a cautious expression.
“Shh. be quiet. For now, I haven’t detected any monster in my radar skill.”
“Really? How could there be a structure like this without any monsters?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
A small smile formed on the captain’s lips.
“Who knows? Maybe a treasure is hidden instead of a boss monster.”
“Treasure…!”
The hunters’ eyes suddenly changed.
Not only monsters’ corpses and the mana stone could be found in the dungeon.
There were also rare items.
Those items were the only way to increase the strength of hunters whose levels did not increase since their class was determined.
“Captain! There’s something here!”
Looking around, a sword was found stuck in the center of the ruins.
It was a sword emanating unusual energy.
“This is crazy.”
The hunters’ eyes were filled with greed at the same time.
“We hit the jackpot!”
“Wow, what a weapon!”
They would have to take it outside and do an assessment to find out, but it was a weapon that looked great at first glance.
“Captain! I will get it!”
Among the hunters, the strongest man took the lead, spitting on both of his hands.
“Oh? Wait, Kim Yongjun! Take precautions…!”
The captain tried to dissuade him, but his hand had already grabbed the handle of the sword.
Right then.
A humming voice came into Kim Yongjun’s head.