Solo Leveling : Ragnarok - Chapter 67

“Lee Minseong, that bastard…”

No wonder he was kidnapping only the hunters from the Reaper Guild without killing them!

Im Taegyu was consumed with rage.

Recalling Lee Minseong’s usual behavior, he realized exactly what that guy was aiming for.

He had always been obsessed with raising his standing within the Reaper Guild.

Even more than his own friend and guild master!

‘I don’t know what kind of skill he bought with money, but did you want to turn our members into your subordinates by making them like this? What the hell are you doing this for!?’

Looking at the mutants, who no longer even resembled humans, Im Taegyu clenched his teeth and pulled back his bowstring.

*Swish…*

With a blue current swirling around it, a magic arrow formed on the S-rank weapon, the “Reaper’s Bow.”

One, two, three, four.

*Shoo, shoo, shoo!*

A total of five magic arrows flew in different trajectories, piercing through the scattered mutants’ bodies.

Though they had once been in the same guild, now, monstrous roars erupted from the mutants’ mouths.

To Im Taegyu, those roars somehow sounded like sorrowful cries.

“Grrrr…”

Yet, even with arrows lodged in their bodies, the mutants moved.

Their tenacity hardened Im Taegyu’s expression.

It was because these mutants had once been high-ranking hunters, making their physical abilities exceptional.

Moreover, they were still wearing the armor they had on when they were captured, so it was clear that a few arrows wouldn’t be enough to take them down.

Grinding his teeth, Im Taegyu glanced back at the guild members he had brought with him.

His comrades, who had shared laughter and conversations just days ago, were now hesitating in the face of their transformed former allies.

Im Taegyu shouted, pulling the bowstring again.

“Don’t hesitate! Those mutants are no longer human! They are not the ones we knew anymore!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

“They’ve already undergone zombification, so hitting their hearts won’t help! Aim for their legs to slow them down, and sever their limbs!”

“…!”

Though the command was brutal and unyielding, the Reaper Guild members clenched their teeth and raised their weapons.

Being able to make cold decisions even in situations like this was the very essence of Im Taegyu, the S-rank hunter who had led the Reaper Guild all this time.

And, spurred by his thunderous shout, the Reaper Guild members began their full-scale attack on the mutants.

“So this is the Reaper Guild…”

The association hunters, who were in the middle of rescuing civilians, couldn’t help but admire the guild’s prowess.

Despite the controversies and scandals surrounding them—especially involving their vice president recently—the Reaper Guild remained as formidable as ever.

One of Korea’s top-tier guilds.

Their true strength became most evident in moments of crisis like this.

“Grrr…”

However, the problem was that the mutants were also once part of the Reaper Guild.

Although they had lost their minds and become monsters, the experience engraved in their bodies hadn’t disappeared.

“The mutants are scattering! Chase them!”

The mutants scattered to evade the Reaper Guild’s attack, taking refuge inside nearby buildings.

Soon, the civilians inside those buildings became their victims.

“Kyaaah!”

“P-Please, save us!”

The unexpected counterattack from the mutants left the Reaper Guild members flustered.

“Block them!”

“Don’t let them enter the buildings!”

Eventually, the guild members split up, following the screams echoing from various parts of the building.

It was a trap.

*Weeee-oooong!*

“W-What the!?”

“There are wasps inside the building…!”

Contaminated hornets, lying in wait for the hunters to enter, swarmed them.

“Hornets?!”

“These aren’t ordinary bees! They’re insect-type monsters!”

“They’re poisonous! Don’t get stung!”

The situation grew chaotic.

The hunters had to chase the mutants into the buildings.

They also had to deal with the incoming swarm of hornets.

Even the well-trained and disciplined Reaper Guild was bound to be thrown off in such a situation.

Im Taegyu realized something.

The mutants were moving strategically, contrary to their appearance.

This meant someone was controlling them from behind the scenes.

And it was obvious who it was.

“Lee! Min! Seong!”

Im Taegyu’s shout, charged with magical energy, erupted from his mouth.

“Where are you?! Where are you hiding?!”

The S-rank hunter’s booming voice shook the air like a shockwave, shattering the glass windows of the surrounding buildings.

“Cover your ears!”

The association hunters, while rescuing civilians, urgently shouted instructions.

In the midst of the chaos, Im Taegyu raised his bow to the sky and released the bowstring.

Multi-Shot.

*Shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo!*

Countless magic arrows soared into the sky, tracing arcs like fountains before crashing down onto the ground.

Some arrows pierced through the crowns of mutants roaming the streets.

Others smashed through broken windows, lodging themselves into the mutants attacking people inside the buildings.

Not a single arrow mistakenly hit a civilian.

“My God…”

Association Team Leader Han Jaehyuk couldn’t close his mouth in disbelief at the display of skill.

“If he could do that, he should’ve used it earlier…”

Even though he said this, he understood why Im Taegyu had held back on using such a skill—it came with a significant cooldown.

But its effectiveness was undeniable.

“Grrk…!”

Pinned to the ground by the Reaper’s arrows, the mutants flailed, unable to rise.

The arrows had pierced entirely through their bodies, fixing them firmly to the ground.

The Reaper Guild members swiftly rushed over, severing the mutants’ limbs.

These were comrades they had laughed and joked with just a few days ago…

“I’m sorry, Jaeseop.”

“Grrk…!”

It was done.

At the same time, the association hunters let out a sigh of relief.

Thanks to the Reaper Guild’s efforts, the number of mutants was visibly decreasing.

‘Good. At this pace, we’ll clean up here soon enough.’

And then it happened.

Something went wrong.

“Ugh…”

A groan suddenly emerged from somewhere.

Standing there with a bewildered expression, Im Taegyu was looking down at a sword that had pierced through his abdomen.

His mind grew dizzy.

‘Poison.’

But more than the poison, what shocked Im Taegyu was the fact that he had been ambushed.

Who could possibly deceive the senses of an S-rank hunter and get this close behind him?

He quickly turned to see who had stabbed him, and his mind went blank.

“Cough… Why… why you…”

It wasn’t that someone had snuck up on him.

From the beginning, *he* had always been standing right behind him.

Just like always.

“Apologies, sir.”

“Oh… Secretary Oh…”

Secretary Oh, who had stabbed Im Taegyu, smiled awkwardly.

“It’s still too early. Vice President Lee Minseong needs to stir things up a bit more.”

—

Suho asked Arsha, “You don’t seem too concerned about it?”

Even though Lee Minseong was imitating a queen bee and building his own swarm, the real queen bee, Arsha, seemed unbothered.

“Well, I’m more rattled than I seem. Those worker bees were ones I raised with real care.”

“Then you should’ve sent your knights to capture him the moment he ran away.”

“I did plan to at first. But no matter how many ordinary knights I sent, they were no match for him.”

The material for the corrupted knights came from C-rank hunters or lower.

No matter how many of those worker bees gathered, it was impossible for them to capture someone like Lee Minseong, who had once been an A-rank hunter.

Just as Suho had defeated them all and reached this point.

Arsha crossed her legs and adjusted her posture with a slight frown.

“This is a real headache for me. My original plan was to live quietly here and succeed Lady Querehsha. So I was living very quietly.”

“You call that quiet? There are way too many knights for that.”

“This is a small amount, really. I gathered them little by little to avoid getting caught by the association. If I had tried harder, I could’ve collected a hundred times more.”

“Fair enough.”

Suho agreed with that.

The method for creating knights was simple.

Feed them royal jelly.

That was it.

If the royal jelly happened to suit their constitution, they became knights. If not, they died.

“This process takes a surprising amount of effort. First, I have to tame the local bees one by one and make them my minions. Then I have to infuse my royal jelly into their stingers.”

[That’s not a queen bee. That’s just a beekeeper, isn’t it?]

Beru’s remark was made with a completely innocent expression, but it was still a jab at Arsha.

Arsha looked slightly hurt.

“I couldn’t help it. I lost all my original worker bees when I crossed the dimensional rift, so I had to start over and gather new ones.”

“You must’ve gone through a lot. Sorry about that. I killed all your carefully gathered knights today, and Lee Minseong ran away too.”

“An apology doesn’t mean much if you say it without a hint of remorse…”

Arsha opened her mouth in disbelief at Suho’s half-hearted apology, then let out a chuckle and folded her arms smugly.

“Well, it’s fine. Even though Lee Minseong turned out to be a disloyal worker bee and ran away, his instincts will still serve me well.”

“For you?”

“Yes. Even now, he’s working tirelessly to make me the king of insects. Although he doesn’t realize it himself.”

“…”

Something about Arsha’s words gave Suho a strange sense of familiarity.

According to the briefing from the White Tiger Guild, all Lee Minseong had done in recent days was attack and kidnap hunters.

‘If he was kidnapping hunters to build his own army, why did he kill them too?’

Ah.

‘What if killing them was the goal in the first place?’

A sudden realization struck Suho’s mind.

Taking the place of a dead monarch.

Becoming the new monarch.

He had seen this process once before.

[The Beast King, the Fang Monarch, chuckles as he watches his altar.]

At that moment, Rakan sent a message, resonating with Suho’s realization.

Suho glared at Arsha, who sat calmly despite having lost everything.

“You need sacrifices, don’t you?”

Flinch.

“To perform a ritual for the deceased Querehsha, with as many offerings as possible.”

“…”

Seeing Arsha’s stiffening expression, Suho was now certain.

“So Lee Minseong is dancing with his sword outside on your behalf. Judging by how he’s only killing hunters, it seems like you need offerings imbued with magic power.”

“…Well, it’s no surprise that you figured it out. Though the method may differ, you must have done something similar to become the successor of the Fang Monarch.”

“Not a successor, more like a priest. But close enough.”

Suho shrugged and asked, “But are you sure about this? The Reaper Guild is after Lee Minseong with a vengeance. If you do nothing, they might think you’re in on it too. And to capture an A-rank like him, the guild master himself would have to…”

Suho trailed off.

There was no way that Arsha, who had spent so much time around Lee Minseong, wouldn’t know this.

That if an S-rank hunter got involved, Lee Minseong would be caught in an instant.

And yet, she was so calm.

“You’ve planted a traitor beside the guild master, haven’t you? Someone like Lee Minseong.”

Flinch.

At Suho’s words, Arsha’s once-relaxed face finally revealed a genuine expression for the first time.