Solo Leveling : Ragnarok - Chapter 61

Up until now, Suho had been using his **shadow soldiers** in two main ways.

The first was summoning soldiers by extracting shadows from monsters he had just defeated. The second was storing corpses in the **Shadow Dungeon** to summon later when needed.

But now, there was a new method added to his repertoire.

This was thanks to the **‘Corrupted Mummies’** that swarmed the **Ammit’s Pyramid**.

These creatures were essentially moving corpses, making them easy for Suho to extract and use as shadow soldiers without having to fight them first. They were like convenient pre-packaged food, ready for consumption at any time.

**[Shadow Mummy Lv.1]**

Common Grade

That’s how Suho created the twenty shadow mummies currently fighting alongside him.

These shadow mummies were powerful enough to give even the **Scavenger Guild** and **Asura Guild** a hard time, boasting high levels of strength, agility, and zombie-like persistence.

Moreover, the **decay poison** leaking from the gaps in their bandages relentlessly tormented any nearby enemies.

This decay poison was also the reason Suho had chosen to fight far away from the other Hunters.

**[Kiheee!]**

Crack! Snap! Rip!

The shadow mummies tore into the **Woodbines**, breaking and ripping apart their thorny vines.

Paralysis poison from the thorns?

That had no effect on the undead mummies. Instead, the **decay poison** from the shadow mummies infected the Woodbines, causing the vines to rot and decay.

“Grrraaaah!”

The Woodbines fought back furiously.

The shadow mummies didn’t come out unscathed. Their bandages were shredded by the thorns, and their limbs were ripped off by the entangled vines.

But then—

Whooosh!

Fresh black bandages wrapped around the mummies, restoring their broken bodies.

These soldiers of death rose again, like relentless demons from hell.

**[Kiheeee!]**

The Hunters watching were in shock.

“…My god.”

“What am I looking at?”

“Are all of those… summons?”

Their understanding of summoners was completely shattered at that moment.

Especially **Goo Dongjae**, who had previously picked a fight with Suho, now looked pale.

“This… this is insane… What the hell just happened?”

It wasn’t just about buffing his own strength with a summoned creature.

In fact, he couldn’t even be sure if there had been any strength buff at all.

After all, the little black creature **Beru**, who had been summoned from the beginning, was still lazily floating in the air, watching the battle with a yawn.

‘Wait a minute!’

Suddenly, Goo Dongjae realized something.

His eyes turned toward the bandage still wrapped around his wrist.

“This bandage… Could it be…?”

The **Baekho Guild healer**, who had treated Goo Dongjae’s wrist earlier, reacted to his words.

“Oh!”

The bandage that had automatically wrapped itself around his wrist, and the mummies that were fighting with black bandages wrapped around them!

“That bandage… was it part of a summoning technique?”

Everything suddenly clicked into place.

At that moment, Goo Dongjae’s face turned ashen, and he frantically began to unravel the bandage from his wrist.

“Aaaah! Get it off! Get it off!”

‘I knew something was off! Was I cursed from the beginning? Am I going to turn into one of those black mummies too?!’

Goo Dongjae feared that the bandage on his wrist would somehow turn him into one of those shadow mummies, just like the ones fighting on the battlefield.

From a distance, Suho watched this unfold and tilted his head.

“…What’s his problem?”

**[Tsk tsk. Just look at him. Such a cowardly little insect.]**

Beru clicked his tongue as he fluttered back over to Suho, his expression turning serious as he scanned the surroundings.

**[Young Lord, something feels off.]**

“I’ve noticed it too.”

Suho, having left the fight to his shadow mummies, had been paying attention to his surroundings the entire time.

Eventually, he found the source of the strange feeling.

**Bzzzzzz…**

If you listened closely, you could hear the faint buzzing of a small insect.

Suho and Beru both looked up at the same time.

**A bee.**

A small, ordinary bee was flying high above them.

Of course, it was just one single bee.

But something about it felt wrong.

“There’s no way a normal bee would be flying around a dungeon like this. There aren’t even any flowers.”

**[Indeed. It’s unlikely these thorny vines are producing any nectar.]**

“Right?”

Suho and Beru exchanged knowing glances and nodded in agreement.

**A-rank villain Lee Minseong.**

And the **bee’s wings** that had been on his back.

‘Could he be hiding here somewhere?’

If so, it was an interesting coincidence.

But now that Suho looked at the surroundings with fresh eyes…

‘This whole place looks like a giant beehive.’

The central atrium structure of **Times Square** resembled a honeycomb. It was as if the entire building had become one massive beehive, and they had walked right into it.

**Bzzzzzz…**

More bees began to appear, one by one, flying through the air.

Even though there were now several bees, none of them posed any threat to the Hunters, who possessed superhuman strength.

“I guess if they were hornets, it could be dangerous, but…”

Twitch!

“…!”

Suddenly, Suho’s **senses** screamed a warning.

He turned his head and gasped.

“Well, what do you know… I spoke too soon.”

**Hornets.**

**Bzzzzzzzzzzzz!**

From all corners of **Times Square**, hundreds—no, thousands—of hornets were swarming toward them, darkening the sky.

“Now that’s a problem.”

**[These aren’t just regular hornets! Each one of them is infused with magic!]**

**[Contaminated Hornet]**

**[Contaminated Hornet]**

What exactly had contaminated them?

Suho didn’t know, but the name alone gave him a bad feeling.

He urgently shouted to the other Hunters.

“Everyone, be careful! These aren’t normal bees!”

“…!”

The Hunters quickly turned their heads, their eyes widening as they noticed the incoming swarm.

The **Baekho Guild members**, with their heightened senses, had already picked up on the danger and immediately started giving orders.

“Don’t panic! There are a lot of them, but they’re still just insects!”

“Activate defensive skills to block their approach!”

“Summoners, use your Flame Beetles to intercept them!”

“Yes, sir!”

The Hunters gritted their teeth and quickly responded.

**Fwoosh! Fwoosh!**

Flame Beetles took to the air.

“Damn! I’ve never seen anything like this before!”

They were already struggling to fend off the thorny Woodbines, and now they had to deal with hornets?

For Suho, who had already faced countless bizarre situations over the past couple of days, this was hardly surprising.

With a calm expression, he pulled out his **dual swords** from his inventory.

In the chaos, no one seemed to notice the sudden appearance of the swords in Suho’s hands. Even if they had, it wouldn’t have seemed strange for a Summoner to summon weapons as well.

Suho observed the situation calmly, then shouted to the Summoners.

“Detonate the Flame Beetles all at once in front of them!”

“What? But what if the hornets dodge the explosion…?”

As they had seen earlier, re-summoning the Flame Beetles took time, so they needed to use them wisely.

“I’ll handle it if they try to escape!”

“Understood!”

The Summoners, trusting Suho’s confident tone, moved their Flame Beetles into position.

After witnessing Suho’s impressive abilities earlier, none of the Summoners took his words lightly.

“Now!”

At Suho’s command, the Flame Beetles detonated in midair.

**Boom! Boom! Boom!**

As the hornets scattered in an attempt to avoid the explosions—

**[Skill: Storm Slash activated.]**

**Swoosh!**

A fierce whirlwind of sword slashes tore through the air, merging with the fiery blasts from the Flame Beetles, enveloping the hornets in a massive conflagration.

**[You have defeated a Contaminated Hornet.]**

**[You have defeated a Contaminated Hornet.]**

**[You have defeated a Contaminated Hornet.]**

…

A significant portion of the hornet swarm disintegrated into ashes, their remains scattering like dust.

“We did it!”

The Hunters cheered.

But the more seasoned **Baekho Guild members** were shocked for an entirely different reason.

‘A summoner can use a sword skill like that?’

The swordsmanship Suho had just displayed would have been impressive even for a pure combat Hunter.

Even with the help of a skill, how could a summoner wield such power, all while controlling twenty shadow mummies?

Goo Dongjae, in particular, looked as though his world had been turned upside down.

‘Wh-what the hell is he?!’

His wrist, now fully healed, suddenly felt like it was throbbing again.

**Bzzzzzzzz!**

However, the danger wasn’t over.

While a large number of hornets had been destroyed, more continued to swarm from all directions, harassing the Hunters.

Even worse, the hornets began hiding among the thorny vines of the Woodbines, making them even harder to deal with.

The hornets would suddenly burst out of the vines during combat, catching the Hunters off guard.

Sting.

“Argh!”

Eventually, **Goo Dongjae**, who had been fighting at the front, was stung on the back of his hand by one of the hornets.

Immediately, his arm went stiff, and the true nature of the **Contaminated Hornets** was revealed.

“Arrrgh!”

Green veins bulged and twisted grotesquely from the sting site, spreading up his arm like something alive.

It was a disturbing sight.

Goo Dongjae looked at his bloated, pulsing arm in horror, terrified that it might burst at any moment.

“Healer! Healer!”

But since he had been fighting at the front, the healer was too far behind to help him in time.

The green veins continued to spread, reaching his shoulder…

At that moment—

**Slash!**

“…!”

Goo Dongjae’s entire arm was severed cleanly at the shoulder.

Suho had appeared out of nowhere and mercilessly cut it off.

“Emergency treatment.”

“…Arghhhhh!”

**Splat!**

Damn it! How is this emergency treatment?!

Goo Dongjae collapsed on the spot, blood spurting from his shoulder like a fountain.

**[You have purchased ‘Item: Mummy’s Bandage’.]**

**[You have used ‘Item: Mummy’s Bandage’.]**

Whirl!

A white bandage flew from Suho’s hand, wrapping tightly around Goo Dongjae’s shoulder.

**Squeeze!**

The bandage contracted, staunching the blood flow almost immediately.

‘This item is amazing.’

The rest was up to the healer.

While potions could work, there was no time. Plus, a B-rank healer from the Baekho Guild should be able to regenerate even a severed arm.

‘But still…’

Suho glanced at the severed arm on the ground.

It had turned a sickly green, contaminated with whatever was in the hornet’s sting.

“Beru, explain.”

**[Yes, sir!]**

Beru, who had been watching the situation closely, immediately answered.

**[The Plague Monarch, who was the ruler of the insects, had a similar ability. This might be related to that.]**

Suho turned to Beru and asked, “You said the Insect Monarch was killed in the war, right?”

**[Yes. All the Monarchs died.]**

“What was their name?”

**[The Insect Monarch, Plague Monarch Quesha.]**

Beru’s eyes gleamed as he recalled.

**[She was… quite the insane one.]**

“Hmph. And what was this ability?”

**[She could inject poison into her enemies, turning them into hosts for her parasitic insects.]**

“A host?”

**[That’s putting it nicely. They were basically walking zombie nests, and once the parasites matured, they’d hatch into more of these insects.]**

“Lovely.”

Suho looked up, watching the hornets continue to swarm overhead.

And then he noticed something even worse.

The battlefield itself was turning into a maze.

The **Woodbines** were just part of the dense thorny vines covering **Times Square**.

Now, the remaining vines were writhing and tangling together, forming towering, intricate walls of thorns that began to separate the Hunters from each other.

“Stick together! It’s dangerous if we get separated!”

“Quick, come over here!”

The Hunters scrambled in panic, trying to avoid the rising walls of thorns.

‘This dungeon is becoming a nightmare.’

A labyrinth.

A living, breathing labyrinth was taking shape all around them.

Once they were separated, the Hunters would be left isolated and vulnerable.

At any moment, the thorny walls could transform into **Woodbines** and attack.

But the only creatures that could navigate the twisting maze without getting lost were…

‘The hornets.’

In the end, Suho’s earlier assumption was correct.

They had entered a **massive beehive**, the kingdom of the hornets.

Suho thought about the behavior of bees.

Most bees were **workers** following orders.

That meant…

“There’s probably a mastermind controlling all of this.”

**[I believe I know where they are.]**

Beru replied quickly to Suho’s muttering.

“Oh? How do you know?”

**[I can understand their language, you see.]**

“…!”

No wonder Beru’s antennae had been twitching non-stop.