Solo Leveling: Ragnarok - Chapter 179

Chapter 179

These days, Queen Bee Arsha has been under considerable psychological pressure. Well that was to be inevitable since the main body was already held hostage in the Shadow Dungeon, so Suho had complete control over her lifeline.

In addition, since Suho was the priest of Queresha, the Queen of Insects and Plague Monarch, she was in a position where she had to look as good as possible for him. However, the problem was that no matter how hard she tried to impress him, there was not much she could do for him. At most, it’s all about collecting information by managing the worker bees…

Then when Lim Do-Gyun, who had been considered a useless human being by her standards, suddenly began to show tremendous work ability, she couldn’t help but feel impatient.

‘I can’t believe I have to feel competitive towards a person like that!’ Are there any more embarrassing situations like this? It was a very unpleasant situation for Arsha, who had treated Lim Do-Gyun as less than a worker bee until now. But what can she do? She had to do something to avoid falling outside the eyes of Suho. At least, shouldn’t she be more helpful than Lim Do-Gyun, who is the lowest in Woojin’s Guild?

‘I can’t do this. Let’s increase the number of worker bees as much as possible.’ She never thought that her subordinates were not enough, but she decided to increase it tenfold either way.

‘After all, I can simply increase the number of worker bees to as many as I want since they don’t have the innate ability to fight!’ Arsha had never increased worker bees in this way before. Quality was more important than quantity to keep the Queen Bee safe. However, since her main body was now staying in a safe(?) hiding place called the Shadow Dungeon, she decided to compete with quantity rather than quality.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

In this way, the number of worker bees under Arsha’s control began to increase. The way Arsha increased her load was extremely simple. She just let the ordinary worker bees on earth feed on her own royal jelly. Even with just a sip of royal jelly on a human basis, she could have an entire beehive under her command. And like that…

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Arsha’s worker bees were scattered all over the country. ‘Until now, we only dealt with information about the villains, but from now on, we will gather all the information about Demon Factories, Stardust, and the Foreign Religion!’

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The worker bees busily flapped their wings and began collecting as much information as Arsha requested. But worker bees have a bad brain. It’s because she didn’t give them any special abilities and instead kept increasing their numbers. So, the task of receiving and analyzing the information they asked for had to be done by Arsha herself, the queen bee.

[Kugh. What a headache…]

The flood of information overflowing in her head made Arsha’s eyes almost fall to the back of her head. But Arsha did not give up. The Queen Bee’s pride did not allow her to step back like this. Arsha desperately tried to control and cram the information sent by over tens of thousands of worker bees into her head.

Then, an unexpected phenomenon happened.

[…!]

Arsha’s consciousness, which had been in command of so many bees, suddenly expanded widely as if exploding with a bang.

[Ahhh… !]

Arsha sat down and trembled all over.

Crack!

A transparent skin had been finally peeled off from her body.

[The Monarch of Plagues, Queen of Insects, watches the Queen Bee.]

“Hmm?” Suho, who was in the middle of a daily quest, suddenly had a puzzled look at the message he heard from Queresha. His limbs were crushed and he didn’t have the strength to raise her head, but Queresha’s message was continued to be heard.

[The Monarch of Plagues, Queen of Insects remembers the name of Queen Bee Arsha.]

‘…The name of Arsha?’

It was the first time that Queresha had mentioned Arsha’s name so directly. Queresha was the Queen of all insects. Among them, the Queen Bee Arsha was just a bug, a member of her family who did not place much value on it. Yet so suddenly Queresha remembered Arsha’s name?

‘I don’t know what’s going on, but could this increase the chances that Arsha will become a descendant of Queresha?’

[Forty one.]

“…?!” Suho snapped out of his thoughts and protested at Ammut’s stern voice that suddenly came over him. “Forty-two!”

[Wrong posture. Forty one.]

“Ugh.”

Suho gritted his teeth and resumed push-ups at Ammut’s resoluteness that never backed down. And just when he had barely finished the daily quest, Arsha appeared in front of Suho.

[Suho, I think my worker bees found something.]

Arsha conveyed the information she received from the worker bees to Suho with a slightly serious expression.

[I think there’s a strange ‘superstition’ among lower hunters these days.]

“What do you mean by superstition?”

[After the Association designated Stardust as an illegal drug, the number of hunters who wear Stardust as accessories has increased.]

“Accessories? What do you mean?” Making Stardust into jewelry? When Suho made a puzzled expression, Arsha continued her explanation.

[It hardens Stardust like a stone and makes it into a necklace to wear. Every time you enter a dungeon, you can pray to that necklace.]

“… Pray?” Suho’s senses spiked. It wasn’t illegal as long as you didn’t eat Stardust. But you dare to make it into a necklace and even pray on it? There’s no way the mana would be amplified like that, right?

“Yeah they do… I saw it on Hunternet recently.” Just in time, Lim Do-Gyun, who had passed out while training with Suho, seemed to have woken up, and he crawled up beside him and intervened in the conversation. When Suho opened his mouth and fed the potion, Lim Do-Gyun stood up with a brightened face, and continued his explanation.

“Recently, as Stardust became illegal, people who bought large amounts of Stardust in advance went into a frenzy. Suddenly, they had a lot o f malicious inventory. However, the association has no obligation to pay them back,” Besides, it was discovered that people were burned alive during the production process, so no one wanted to eat it anymore. “So, at some point, an atmosphere of praying to console the spirits of those who died during the production of Stardust began to emerge.”

“Hmm.”

“And then there were even people who made necklaces out of the Stardust they bought before it became illegal and sold them. It’s illegal to dope magic with Stardust, but this kind of thing is a stock that started with a strangely good meaning.” While listening to Lim Do-Gyun’s explanation, Suho had a serious one on his face.

‘They want to honor the souls of the dead.’

This in itself was obviously a good thing. However, the object of the prayer was the problem. ‘Blue Mist’, the most basic of Stardust materials, is the magical power of outer space that melts the boundaries of dimensions. In other words, it was the gateway for the invasion of the Itarims.

But why pray to the Blue Mist?

“This…is kind of weird.”

[I said it because I thought it might be related to the Foreign Religion in some way.]

At Arsha’s words, Suho nodded. Looking back, nothing like this was accidental. Especially when it involved the Itarim. “Arsha, the hunters who pray to the necklace…”

[My worker bees already know who they are.]

“No, rather than capturing those hunters, find out who is selling the Stardust necklaces to them.”

[Ah…!]

Arsha’s eyes widened at Suho’s words.

[All right! I’ll find out right away.]

Arsha responded quickly and sent thoughts to the worker bees across the country. and after some time…

[I found them.]

Since the bees had already found hunters wearing necklaces, it was not difficult to find the route they obtained the necklaces from. It wasn’t illegal in the first place, so they didn’t even think about living in secret. However, Arsha went one step further and investigated where the people who sold the necklace came from.

[There are many distributors, but all of them were bringing Stardust necklaces from one region.]

“A region? Where is it?”

[Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi province.]

“Yangpyeong?!”

[…?]

[Keyek?]

The moment they heard Suho’s reaction, Arsha and Beru, who were next to him, made a puzzled expression.

[Little Lord, are you alright?]

At Beru’s question, Suho put a hand on his forehead with a serious expression and sighed.

“There…That is where my grandfather and grandmother live.”

[KIEK?!]

* * *

Suho’s grandfather Sung Il-Hwan. As a child, Suho remembered his grandfather as a firefighter who always smelled of smoke. Sung Il-Hwan never quit his job as a firefighter, even when his son, Sung Jin-Woo, nagged him to retire and rest.

Eventually, until the moment of retirement, he retired while working with young juniors in active duty. Suho still vividly remembered his grandfather’s retirement ceremony.

“Sunbae nim! (1) Thank you for all your hard work!”

“Thank you so much!!”

“We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!”

…

The grandfather proudly came down from the podium after finishing his retirement age, applauded by all his colleagues and junior firefighters. Even on that day, the faint smell of ash still lingered in his grandfather’s fireman’s uniform.

After finishing his lifelong work, Suho’s grandfather went down to the countryside to live on a small farm with his grandmother. Of course they lived in a rural place, but they in fact, did not escape the Gyeonggi province. Yangpyeong, located in Gyeonggi. It is a place that is moderately far and moderately close to Seoul and at the same time has beautiful natural scenery such as wide plains and valleys. It was none other than Yoo Jin-Ho who provided a suitable house for Suho’s grandfather and grandmother to live in.

But why Yangpyeong?

‘That’s the place where my grandfather lives!’ Thinking that there might be an organization related to the Foreign Religion there, Suho became desperate.

Although there was someone who was far more restless than him right now.

Beru.

[Suho we have to go there immediately! This is a really big deal!]

It was only then that Beru remembered what he had forgotten until now.

Dammit why! Did you think of it only now!!!

[This entirely that villain’s fault! He deserves to be severely punished, but now it’s too urgent!]

“What’s the matter? Is there something I don’t know about?” Suho started to run straight to Yangpyeong where his grandfather was. Beside him, Beru answered with a serious tone of expression.

[Until now, we thought that the Apostles of Itarim would be aiming for National Level Hunters with vessels that could contain their power… But they may not be the only ones with potential!]

“What are you talking about?”

[The little lord’s grandfather was also a hunter who received power from the Rulers in his previous life!]

“…!”

At that moment, Suho sped up to Yangpyeong with all his might.

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1: Sunbae is used to refer to a coworker who is in the same field of work as you but for a far longer period of time. A senior basically.