Chapter 158 - 158
...
Shadow Dungeon.
A quiet world of rest made up of black and white.
Now here, the untimely flapping of the wings of bees was making a small noise.
Weeeeenn-
[...] ...It's amazing.]
Queen Bee Arsha let out a small exclamation as she walked through the shadow dungeon. The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l.B(j)n.
[Is this the world of rest ruled by the Shadow Lord?]
Surprisingly, she was now in the shadow dungeon in her 'main body' state.
The conversation between Suho and Arsha was cut off for a moment due to Baek Yunho's sudden intrusion, but after that, Suho dared to bring Arsha's body in front of him.
In any case, Arsha was in no position to disobey Suho's orders, so in the end, she had no choice but to obediently follow Suho's words.
The result is this situation right now.
From now on, Arsha's main body will live trapped in the shadow dungeon.
A pawn, so to speak.
Or confinement.
In short, from now on, Arsha's main body will be unable to leave the shadow dungeon without the Guardian's permission.
However, her body remained outside, and by using that body, she was able to observe the situation outside.
But that's it.
Since her main body was trapped here, it was difficult for her to fully demonstrate her power.
At best, reconnaissance was the best.
'...But this isn't necessarily a bad thing.'
I didn't know it when she was being subjected to one-sided bullying, but Arsha was surprisingly quite pleased with her current situation.
'I'm sure it's a case of abuse of power, but the welfare is better than I thought.'
Arsha's ultimate goal was, of course, to inherit the power of Queresha, the King of Bugs and Lord of Plague.
But before that, her most important goal was, of course, 'survival.'
In that sense, this shadow dungeon was a safer place than any other place.
'What she likes most is that she doesn't have to act anymore.'
Arsha was not particularly dissatisfied with her current treatment based on this fact alone.
In the past, when she accidentally fell to Earth while wandering through a gap in her dimension, she chose to imitate herself as a human and naturally blend into human society.
She played a human and catered to humans.
It wasn't an adaptation, it was just parasitism.
It was shameful.
She, who was born as a queen bee, has to live her life acting like a mere humans.
But no matter how strong she was, she couldn't take on all the humans on Earth.
That's why she had to increase her load and build up enough strength that she no longer had to hide herself.
For her to reign as a true queen bee.
But not now.
She didn't have to act like a human any more than she did here in the shadow dungeon.
That fact appealed to her more than anything else.
Of course, there was just one element of anxiety.
It's Suho.
Since the main body is trapped here, from now on Suho can kill himself whenever he wants.
-I plan to kill you at any time. But I promise I won't kill you if you don't go against my wishes.
[...] ...It's okay, right?]
A very unreasonable and one-sided contract.
Arsha's eyes trembled with anxiety as she suddenly remembered her vow to Suho.
But what can you do?
Now that things are like this, I have no choice but to do my best not to go against Suho's wishes.
Even when she was outside, wasn't she running away from Suho?
[hmm. This would be good.]
Arsha, who had been wandering around the shadow dungeon for a while, found somewhere and suddenly stopped.
This is a corner of the shadow dungeon, a little away from Ammut's pyramid.
Arsha, who was carefully examining her surroundings around this area, smiled in satisfaction and stretched out her hand.
[Fly soar, my worker bees.]
When-
Then the bees she had brought with her flew out of her body all at once.
Addressing her guys, Arsha solemnly declared:
[I command you in the name of Queen Bee Arsha. Work hard, worker bees. Let's build our new kingdom here.]
When-
Arsha ended up like this anyway, and she decided to create a comfortable palace in the corner of the shadow dungeon where she would reside from now on.
Anyway, the main material for the honeycomb was Arsha's magic power, and the remaining materials could be sufficiently collected in this area.
So after some time.
Before she knew it, the beehive, with its basic structure already visible, was gradually becoming complete.
But is it because we have become so accustomed to human life?
It could be said that it was a beehive, but the queen bee's bedroom was built like a very comfortable and elegant princess room.
[Hehe. Good, good. Make a bed here. Queen size would be nice. And over here, there's a tea table and a sofa....]
The worker bees were buzzing and working hard to match Arsha's detailed orders.
Arsha could not hide her satisfaction.
Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
'Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to continue living like this.... hmm? What was I thinking....'
Arsha said that for a moment she had a thought that was unbecoming of a queen bee, and hastily erased the thought that had just occurred to her.
But deep down she knew.
The queen bee's life was all about living in a safe place and leaving all the other troublesome and dangerous tasks to her worker bees.
Arsha felt grateful to her guardian for providing her with such a comfortable space, and she passed on her thoughts to her worker bees wandering around Korea.
The content of her thoughts was precisely the order given to her by her guardian.
-My worker bees! Hurry and find Hwang Dong-su!
Yes.
Suho not only entrusted the role to the White Tiger Guild but also enlisted Arsha's workers to search for Hwang Dong-su's location.
Weeeeenn-
Arsha's worker bees outside the shadow dungeon heard the queen's command and began to flap their wings even more and disperse throughout the country.
* * *
So while Arsha was constructing her hive.
Suho finished his daily quest and walked out of Ammut's pyramid.
[Thank you for your hard work.]
Behind Ber, who approached first and spoke, the Shadow Soldiers of Guardians were gathered.
Suho's eyes looked at them.
Excluding Ver, the total number of shadow soldiers he has saved so far is five.
Shadow Lancer Quay.
Shadow Minotaur Minnow.
Shadow Minotaur Tau.
Shadow Assassin Kira.
Shadow Shaman Harmakan.
The strongest among them was, of course, Harmacan, an elite knight.
However, from the perspective of dealing with him directly, Harmakan's specialty was 'magic.'
In that sense, to use Harmakan appropriately in the future, it was necessary to properly understand its abilities.
"Harmacan, tell me about your abilities."
[Yes, master.]
Harmacan's answer followed, and in summary, he was able to broadly categorize them into three categories.
1) Wraith magic
2) Curse (debuff)
3) Activate instance dungeon
[...] ...However, witchcraft to cast a spell is only possible when there are spirits of the dead around.]
"It's an ability that has limitations depending on the situation."
[That's right.]
Suho suddenly remembered Harmakan attacking him using the ghosts of the dead people in Yamiri Village.
At that time, Harmakan used the souls of humans, but he seemed to be able to use the Wraith Art on the souls of the demonic beasts in the dungeon.
'However, the abilities of wraith magic overlap with shadow extraction.'
Strictly speaking, Shadow Power could be said to be a much higher level ability than Wraith Art.
"Then, from now on, we can collect strong demonic beasts as shadow soldiers, and use the souls of the remaining miscellaneous mobs as ingredients for wraith magic."
[I will keep this in mind. And the curse I use is....]
"Oh, let's see that with our own eyes."
[...] ...?]
Suho's sudden grinning smile made Harmakan feel ominous and he quickly looked around.
Then, before he knew it, other shadow soldiers were surrounding him.
[Lord, master?]
"Attack everyone."
[...] ...!]
Wow!
As soon as the order was given, the shadow soldiers began to attack Harmacan.
[Oh my!]
Harmakan was taken aback and started cursing quickly.
At that moment, system messages appeared one after another in front of Suho.
[Harmacan uses 'Skill: Damage Amplification'.]
[Harmacan uses 'Skill: Exploitation'.]
[Harmacan uses 'Skill: Thorn of Pain'.]
"Yes, this was it."
Suho nodded his head, once again confirming the performance of the Harmakan curses he had personally encountered.
'Damage amplification is a debuff. Exploitation absorbs vitality. Thorns of pain are reflection damage.'
Looking back, they were quite interesting skills.
In terms of the game, Harmakan could be seen as a necromancer specializing in debuffs.
And just as the debuff in the game cannot exert much power without party members, the same was true for Harmakan.
Even now, even if he applies a debuff, there are no ghosts that will attack him.
[Aaaah!]
As a result, Harmakan was one-sidedly beaten by other soldiers without even being able to attack properly.
Although he was an elite knight in name and appearance, he had an unsightly appearance.
However, in the process, the 'thorn of pain' shone through.
[All pain and damage Harmacan receives is shared with the attacking target.]
Quaaaang!
[...] ...!]
At that moment, Kira's body, which attacked Harmakan with great force, exploded and was thrown backward.
At the same time, Harmakan also felt pain, but Kira, who had a relatively weak defense, fell first.
Suho chuckled at that sight.
"So this makes me a tank and not a necromancer?"
But what if it were like this?
Suho changed his fighting style.
"Harmacan! Can you apply the thorns of pain to all other soldiers as well?"
[Wow! Yes, yes! Anything is possible!]
Even though Harma Khan was beaten by his soldiers, he steadily answered his questions.
"Then use it all on the other soldiers!"
[Harmacan uses 'Skill: Thorn of Pain'.]
As soon as he said those words, a curse enveloped the bodies of all the soldiers, and Su-ho this time ordered the soldiers to attack each other.
Then an indiscriminate fight broke out.
[Kaaaa!]
[Haaaap!]
Chack chack chack-!
Ku-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwak!
The shadow soldiers attacked each other without hesitation, perhaps because they had accumulated so much from each other.
Then, at the same time as the attack, their bodies exploded one after another.
But in the meantime, they look like berserkers who don't stop attacking each other... ....
[Guys like cockroaches.]
Queen Arsha, who witnessed her grueling and fierce battle from afar, clicked her tongue and ran away to build a beehive again.
Shwaaaaagh!
In the meantime, Suho's mana drained out, and the damaged bodies of the soldiers began to recover quickly.
Suho's eyes sparkled when he saw that.
"Good?"
Thorn of Pain, which returns damage taken, had very good synergy with Shadow Soldiers.
Because the shadow soldiers were able to recover no matter how much damage they took.
Of course, the prerequisite for this was that it had to be supported by the Guardian's mana.
"..."From now on, I think I'll have to invest in intelligence stats as well."
Suho immediately invested everything in his intelligence stat, starting with the daily quest rewards he received today.