Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 317

Arsha’s worker bees sprang into action at Suho’s command. They diligently began collecting the pink-hued cells that were once Experiment Forty-Seven and the Outer Artifacts, gathering them like the pollen of blooming flowers. Each bee carried a single cell.

As Arsha quickly assessed the sheer scale of the task, her eyes sparkled.

“We’re going to need more bees.”

There was a high-pitched buzzing as Arsha’s influence spread in all directions. Ordinary bees living in North Korea were drawn to her aura, abandoning their own queens and instinctively gathering to serve her. Soon their numbers multiplied, and the swarm took flight, chasing after the drifting pink cells.

Arsha didn’t know what Suho intended to do with all this pollen. She didn’t need to know. What mattered was that she finally had a chance to be useful to him.

Since swearing loyalty to him, she had done very little to serve him. His shadow soldiers were more than capable of scouting new areas on their own. It was also pointless for her to search North Korea to find the Elvenwoods, since once the anti-detection barrier was lifted, the trees revealed themselves across the entire world anyway.

Sure, she had completed a few errands here and there, but that wasn’t enough. She needed to win the favor of Suho, the shaman of the Monarchs, to earn recognition as a potential future Monarch herself. It had been a harrowing time, but now an opportunity had finally arrived.

“And I won’t let it slip through my fingers!”

Determined, Arsha threw everything she had into tracking down every last pink cell.

Meanwhile, Suho wasn’t just waiting idly.

“Shadow Swap,” he said.

The association’s hunters, who had been standing by, were deeply taken aback to see him vanish.

Only Woo Jinchul remained calm, as he was used to this by now. He quickly ordered the others to secure the area and tend to the wounded, then resumed investigating the traces of the Church of the Outer Gods they had been following here. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

In the next moment, Suho reappeared inside the laboratory where the Doctor—the Apostle of Evolution—had once hidden himself.

“Just as I thought...”

As he looked around, he found exactly what he guessed he would find. The pink, squirming masses that the Apostle of Evolution had left unattended and incomplete were also dissolving within their glass containers.

“Harmakan, let’s take these with us as well.”

“Yes, Master.”

Since the specimens were sealed in glass, there was no need to bring in the bees. They could just transfer the entire containers into the Shadow Dungeon.

Harmakan didn’t seem to think it was enough to simply carry out that single command, however. He moved almost everything he could find in the lab back to the Shadow Dungeon. Demonic spirits welcomed such experimentation, after all. Beru had fed on the memories of the Apostle, and Harmakan had assumed that with a bit of discussion, they would be able to find a use for most of the things in the lab.

Then they found something else.

“Master, there is another of these tablets here.”

It was a Tablet of the Itarim. Harmakan brought the slab over from a corner of the lab and handed it to Suho.

“Hmm. It does look just like the others,” Suho remarked. “They must have contacted each other through these, don’t you think?”

“That’s not all. It seems that these also provide teleportation capabilities by connecting coordinates.”

Given the way the villains had arrived from China, it was clear these slabs functioned as a gateway system, much like Suho’s Shadow Swap ability.

“We’ve got enough samples of the tablets now. Does this make analyzing easier?” Suho asked Harmakan.

The demonic spirit gave a meaningful smile and nodded. “Yes. I believe we can use these to track them.”

“Ah, you mean track the other followers?”

“Yes. This tablet can communicate with others. We can even take the fight to them.”

“Get on it immediately.”

With a flash, Harmakan wrapped the slab with his magic. A glowing web of intricate magic circles formed around it as the deconstruction and analysis process began.

Meanwhile, the demonic spirit glanced at the cell-gathering operation and asked Suho directly, “What is it that you desire, Master? What would you have me do with these cells?”

Suho grinned. “I have no idea.”

“Hmm...?”

Harmakan tilted his head, puzzled by Suho’s cryptic smile. The hunter’s eyes flashed mischievously, like he was a boy who had discovered a new toy. He even resembled a demonic spirit who found delight in research and experimentation.

There was something Harmakan didn’t realize, however. Suho had grown up alongside Beru, Igris, Bellion, and other shadow soldiers, and among them, there had been multiple demonic spirits. From the moment he was born, he had experienced many surreal things that ordinary children would never see. Because he had simply accepted all of it as natural, he developed a unique and creative way of thinking. One might even say it was the benefit of getting a jump start in his education.

“I don’t know what I’ll do with these just yet, but I figured... Why not start imagining the possibilities?” Suho asked.

He grinned, the bits of information he had gleaned so far floating about in his head.

The angels, which are the soldiers of the Rulers, are born from the fruits of the World Tree. The World Tree feeds on the dead souls in the Sea of the Afterlife. The Elvenwoods fed on dead elves or other living things, just like the World Tree. So Elvenwoods are like the World Tree, in that sense. They bear fruit like the World Tree.

And the Apostle of Evolution used the Elvenwoods to create his experiments. Though he didn’t use the fruits, but instead, the pollen...

Suho was brainstorming, the pieces of a puzzle falling into place inside his mind.

“Beru?”

“Yes, Young Monarch?”

“The ultimate goal of the Apostle of Evolution’s research was to become like my father, right?”

“Yes. It is absurd to think about, but he did entertain such a futile dream.”

“And Experiment Forty-Seven was a humanoid soldier modeled after the shadow soldiers.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you think the process is more similar to how the soldiers of the Rulers are created than how shadow soldiers are created?”

Beru’s eyes widened. He slowly went over the research records he’d internalized, his eyes glowing.

“You’re absolutely right!”

It was an odd, uncanny connection. The angels were born from the fruits of the World Tree, and the experiments had been created from the pollen of the Elvenwoods. As the World Tree and the Elvenwoods were similar, so were the mechanisms involving the creation of these beings.

Imitation led to creation, and creation led to imitation—that idea was what the Apostle of Evolution dwelled on the most as he read human-authored books. From there, he had started researching Elvenwoods, and he eventually created the soulless, immortal doll of Experiment Forty-Seven.

“Hmm... An undying doll with no soul...”

Suho rubbed his chin, piecing together everything the Apostle had discovered through his experiments.

Perhaps it’s possible...

His thoughts about how that information could be used were already taking shape.

“Beru, from now on, I want you to work with Harmakan and continue the Apostle of Evolution’s research.”

Beru tilted his head slightly, while Harmakan’s eyes gleamed with curiosity.

“If you will provide direction for the research, we will accomplish whatever it is that you desire, Master,” Harmakan responded.

The Apostle’s goal had been his own evolution, and to achieve that, he had sacrificed countless lives. But Suho’s goal was something else entirely.

“I don’t need a soul or a consciousness. I just need the shell,” he said.

Beru and Harmakan looked at each other, uncertain of how to respond.

Meanwhile, Arsha had finished her task. She flew over to Suho, her wings buzzing.

“I’ve gathered every last bit of the pollen,” she said.

“I need more. The more material we have, the better,” Suho told her.

Arsha blinked, looking confused.

“There are Elvenwoods in other countries too,” he added.

“Ah. So you need pollen from all over the world. Understood,” she said, nodding and muttering that she would need far more worker bees. If Suho wished it, she could create as many bees as needed. In fact, for a queen bee, this was a blessing, since a queen could not exist without her hive.

“Let me open up the path for your worker bees to travel through,” Harmakan said.

Using coordinates provided by Suho’s shadow soldiers stationed across the globe, he opened tiny dimensional rifts. They were the smallest gates ever created, just wide enough for a few bees to pass through at a time. They appeared right above Suho’s shadow.

“I’ll link the return path to the Shadow Dungeon. They can bring the pollen straight back.”

Per Suho’s command, Arsha’s worker bees began to spread across the world.

All around the globe, people were fighting the sudden onslaught of Elvenwoods—the “tree-type magic beasts” that had appeared without warning. No one noticed the tiny bees that started flying through every battlefield. After all, it was completely natural for bees to be around trees.

Rather than heading into Russia, Suho’s next destination was South Korea. More specifically, he was going to the company owned by his uncle, Yoo Jinho.

—Ahjinsoft

—Solo Leveling: Virtual Reality Lab

“My goodness! Suho!”

Jinho threw his hands in the air, welcoming his nephew.

“You’re not hurt? How are you feeling?”

Even though Suho had healing potions, Jinho still looked him over carefully. It was clear how deeply he cared for him.

Some people, however, were stunned to see this gentle side of Jinho. Those around him were hunters who had suffered at the meticulous hands of Yoo Jinho, the head of a company and a merciless boss. They were the very same S-rank hunters who had gathered to train in the virtual world of Solo Leveling the game, as well as the slightly lower-ranked hunters who belonged to their large guilds.

“M-my god...”

“Wait... Mr. Yoo can smile like that?”

“That’s... terrifying.”

To the onlookers, seeing Jinho dote on Suho was downright unsettling, but Suho was used to it. He ignored the reaction and got straight to the point.

“Uncle, I—”

“Yes? What do you need? Just say the word.”

Even before Suho could finish his sentence, Jinho nodded reassuringly, looking completely confident he could carry out the request.

Suho’s eyes quietly swept around the room. Solo Leveling was the ambitious project that Ahjinsoft, known for its virtual reality games, had poured its heart and soul into. It was the pinnacle of modern technology, meant to allow hunters to gain practical experience without the risks. The virtual reality game capsules were also being used as life-support devices for the patients of Eternal Slumber, whose numbers had been on the rise recently.

Suho pointed to the capsules. “Why don’t we take advantage of Eternal Slumber?”

“Huh...?” Jinho replied, completely baffled.

Eternal Slumber was the death of the soul. It was a condition where the body lived on, while the soul had drifted off to the Sea of the Afterlife. How could Suho possibly take advantage of that?

“What do you mean?” Jinho asked, his expression serious.

“I was wondering if we could use these capsules to send the souls of hunters to another dimension.”

At that moment, some of the pollen that Arsha had gathered materialized in Suho’s hand. He held up the clump and showed it to Jinho.

“My soldiers will use these cells to create vessels for the hunters’ souls. It will take time, but it’ll get done. I’m planning to make as many as possible.”

Suho’s face had grown serious too, more than ever before.

“Uncle, please make me a game that allows people to cross into another dimension and fight there for real, not just in virtual reality.”

There was total silence. The words made not only Jinho, but everyone in the lab stiffen in shock.

Suho continued, “Humanity will take the fight to our invaders. These fake cells will be the vessels for our souls.”

It was nothing short of revolutionary. His proposal completely redefined Solo Leveling, which had been meant only as a training simulation. It was the beginning of a counterattack.