Solo Leveling- Ragnarok-Chapter 329

“Young Monarch, the production of the avatars is progressing smoothly,” Beru reported.

While Jinho and Jinchul were dealing with the top-ranked hunters, Suho was busy visiting the Shadow Dungeon and dealing with necessary tasks.

“As Arsha’s worker bees are now Void Insects, the pace has increased considerably.”

Harmakan no longer needed to open tiny dimensional holes for the worker bees. The Void Insects could navigate the dimensional rift themselves while gathering pollen. It was a shocking change.

The void, also known as the dimensional rift, was the very embodiment of chaos and was extremely dangerous. And yet, these mere insects could now flit through that chaos freely. Under ordinary circumstances, they would not have been able to withstand the pressure of the distorted dimension and would have been crushed in a heartbeat.

“Evolution is a fascinating thing,” Harmakan muttered, bowing his head. “Those worker bees of hers are now tough enough to treat the void like a meadow breeze.”

There was a bitter edge to his voice as he continued working on avatar creation.

A melodic voice chimed in.

“My, my. I never thought I’d hear you pay me a compliment.”

A flurry of glowing lights emerged in the air like fireflies. They clustered together, and in an instant, took on the shape of Arsha. Harmakan clicked his tongue.

“Tch! Swarming vermin. They’re everywhere.”

“That’s what makes us bugs,” Arsha replied sweetly, then offered a coy shrug. “Our hive is in the dimension of death, the Sea of the Afterlife. What makes you think accessing the void would be dangerous for us? The World Tree’s roots stretch across all dimensions. We simply use them. That’s how we can come and go so freely.”

“Like cockroaches,” Harmakan muttered.

“Cockroaches?” Arsha scoffed. “We still look like bees. Beautiful ones! We sparkle like fireflies, even.”

“Laughable. You’re still as weak as before. A bit of light is hardly something to brag about.”

Arsha’s brow twitched as she crossed her arms.

By now, this sort of petty bickering between the two had become routine. They were generally trivial arguments, but Harmakan couldn’t help but be jealous of the fact that Arsha had evolved into a Void Insect. The ability to control the dimensional breach and create gates had been exclusive to the sorcerers of his kind.

Of course, someone at the Monarch level could simply tear the dimensional wall apart and travel through the hole, but the demonic spirits could use advanced spells to accomplish the same things in a much more sophisticated way. Their portals could span enormous distances and be used strategically in war. Even Antares, the great King of Dragons, had let Yogumunt, the Monarch of Transfiguration, handle everything regarding teleportation during the war with Sung Jinwoo.

Yet now, mere insects, Arsha’s Void Insects, were crossing the rift with ease. It was difficult for the former Supreme Chief of demonic spirits to hide his disdain.

“You should be grateful,” Arsha teased. “Thanks to me, you’re no longer bogged down with menial work.”

“Well... That part, at least, is welcome, since we serve the same master. It means I can now devote myself to more critical tasks. Now hand over the avatar materials and begone.”

“Right-o.”

Arsha’s form dissolved back into shimmering insects, which buzzed around Harmakan, passing him the pollen they had gathered. He accepted the materials with a grumble, surrounding them with a carefully drawn magic circle.

Compress.

Regenerate.

Stimulate.

And then...

“Duplicate,” he said.

With a sharp command, Harmakan’s skeletal hands opened, and new avatars appeared before him. They had no consciousness, no souls, not even faces. They simply possessed humanoid forms, no more than empty shells.

Thousands now stood in neat rows within the Shadow Dungeon. It was an impressive number... but far from enough. Suho’s ultimate goal was to create avatars for every human being on Earth. To do so, they would need to ramp up production to hundreds of times the current speed.

Harmakan clicked his tongue and scolded the scattered Arsha.

“This is hardly enough. Grow your hive faster. We need more bees. And bring me the pollen of the World Tree, rather than the Elvenwoods, if you can. It’s more efficient.”

The original avatars, developed by the Apostle of Evolution, had been made using Elvenwood pollen. But now, with access to the World Tree, Harmakan had discovered that its pollen yielded far greater quantities. The Apostle of Evolution had only theorized about the World Tree’s potential, never having studied it directly. But all his knowledge had passed into Beru, and Harmakan was finally bringing it to life.

Still, reality posed its challenges. Nidhogg remained a constant threat, waiting for a chance to descend. Collecting pollen higher up was risky. If one got too greedy, one misstep could provoke a rampage and destroy the entire hive.

“Don’t worry. The others are keeping Nidhogg at bay. We’re carefully making our way up the tree,” Arsha said.

“Good. Now get lost. Gathering pollen is the only useful thing you can do for your master, so get to it.”

Arsha chuckled. “Will do. Now, Master,” she said, turning to Suho. “If you’ll excuse me!”

Despite Harmakan’s snarling attitude, Arsha beamed brightly toward Suho, then vanished into the void.

Suho gave a soft laugh. Then he turned to Harmakan, who was gazing unhappily at the spot where Arsha had been.

“Send all completed avatars to the Tower of Tribulation,” Suho ordered calmly.

“Understood.”

At once, Harmakan turned back to his work. The soulless avatars were dropped through magic circles inscribed on the floor and dispatched to the grand pyramid standing at the heart of the Shadow Dungeon.

That vast pyramid—offered to Suho by Ammut after his rebirth as the Monarch of Tribulation—was no longer merely the training ground for the Iron Body Technique. Ammut now intended to use the Tower of Tribulation to subject Suho to far harsher training than ever before, true to his new title. Empowered by his new authority, the Tower of Tribulation had been enhanced to deliver trials of escalating difficulty, each one tailored by Ammut’s will. This was the power of the Monarch of Tribulation.

In the past, the pyramid had been nothing more than a complicated maze full of mummies, but now it was a fully realized tower capable of producing any trial necessary to test and strengthen Suho. When Suho understood how completely the structure had changed, an idea sparked in his mind.

This is great... but I don’t want to be the only one to use it.

Immediately, Suho ordered Harmakan to open gates across major cities around the world and to set up towering hallucinations in each one.

[Tutorial: Tower of Tribulation]

Thus, the towering pyramids now seen all across the globe were formed. The true pyramid remained hidden in the Shadow Dungeon, but its illusory image was now visible worldwide. There was a reason Suho had chosen to show these hallucinations to the public.

The pyramids which had appeared all over the world served as dimensional stations, or gates that connected to the Shadow Dungeon. Their real function was to transport the spiritual bodies of players, who were linked through game capsules, into the true Tower of Tribulation. Once there, players would abandon their physical forms and enter the avatars waiting for them inside the Tower of Tribulation—where they would receive their trials.

And as for what those trials are...

It was at this moment that Jinchul returned from his meeting with the global Hunter Association leaders. His method of travel was unique. He hadn’t come through a gate, like Suho. Instead, he was in a game capsule in the outside world. Jinchul’s spiritual body had entered an avatar Harmakan had readied for him, which then gave him access to the Shadow Dungeon. When he arrived, his avatar was already standing beside Suho, just outside the Tower of Tribulation.

“Oh! Mr. Woo. How did it go?” Suho asked.

“The meeting just ended, so I came as soon as I could. This avatar technology is truly remarkable,” Jinchul replied, examining himself in awe. “It amazes me every time.”

His avatar was somewhat special. Most avatars still lacked defined features, but Jinchul’s bore a striking resemblance to his real face, down to the smallest details. Though it wasn’t his real body, it felt entirely lifelike. He studied himself again, marveling.

“It’s incredible. I look like I did back in my prime. I actually feel younger.”

“That’s because here, complete healing and regeneration are standard. It’s not unlike becoming a shadow soldier,” Beru interjected proudly. He had been deeply involved in avatar development.

He draped an arm around Jinchul’s shoulders and leaned in.

“So? What do you think? When you die of old age, would you like to become a shadow soldier too?”

“Haha... I’ll... consider that.”

“Well, no need to rush. You’re not even married yet. You’ve got time. Still, I’d be thrilled to hear you say yes. The king would have good use for you.”

Jinchul laughed nervously, doing his best to dodge Beru’s intense gaze. He turned back to Suho, adopting a more serious tone.

“I expected this, but Thomas Andre was the first to enter the Tower of Tribulation.”

“Oh?”

Suho’s eyes gleamed with interest. Thomas already had a general understanding of the situation, having spoken with Suho before, but experiencing it himself would be another thing entirely. Suho couldn’t help but wonder how the man would respond, and how he would feel. Even for someone of Thomas Andre’s caliber, inside the tower, his avatar would begin at level one. The trials needed to grow his avatar had already been prepared.

“Then... he must have already seen it. The future.”

Every player who entered the tower would witness a vision of Earth’s future. It was a nightmare and a hallucination that described the worst possible end, when everything had been destroyed with no hope of recovery.

Jarvier, the demonic spirit whom Suho had defeated in the past, had once cast a far-ranging hallucination called “Mirage” on a beach in Busan. That sophisticated technique could be replicated easily by Harmakan, once the Supreme Chief of his race. It wasn’t exactly the same, since it was originally the spell of another demonic spirit, but he could produce similar results.

In fact, by taking advantage of the functions of Ammut’s Tower of Tribulation, the illusions would feel even more real. Because of this, every player who saw this “future” would witness the brutal death of someone they held dear. They would know it was only a vision, of course, but thanks to the curse embedded in Harmakan’s spell, they would still experience genuine rage and grief, drawn from the deepest recesses of their soul.

Though it was just an illusion, it was “content,” so to speak, to enhance immersion before the real “game” began. The true tribulations came after.

Jinchul smiled, imagining a very confused Thomas inside the tower.

“I’m quite looking forward to it. I wonder how he will deal with all those memories that Mr. Sung poured into my head...”

***

[Load saved data?]

(Y/N)

“Fine... Show me what you got,” Thomas said, grinding his teeth at the thought of Jinho’s shameless face.

He was furious—he had just been forced to witness a dying vision of Norma Selner, his one and only friend. His first instinct was to storm out of the capsule and burn Ahjinsoft to the ground. At the same time, however, it made him curious. Why were the players being shown such a grim, desolate future? And what would come next?

“Yes,” he growled.

The moment he spoke, the dying Norma offered him a faint smile.

“Well done. Now go... and protect it... Do it for him...”

“Him?” Thomas asked, brow furrowing at the emphasis.

The entire vision began to rumble, the illusion breaking apart around him. The ruins melted into shadow, and the darkness swallowed him whole. Moments later, his eyes flew open.

“Hmm?”

He was staring at a ceiling he didn’t recognize.

“Where am I?”

Thomas sat up in bed, dazed. He turned to glance at the mirror in the corner of the room.

“What the— What the hell is this?!”

Shock painted his face as he scrambled over for a better look.

“This is my avatar?”

It wasn’t hard to see why he was so stunned. He was Thomas Andre—humanity’s prime specimen of masculinity. Born in the slums, but never once defeated. He was a man of monstrous genes and a physique so overdeveloped that even drinking water seemed to make him build muscle. But who was this scrawny, miserable figure that stood in the mirror now? This skinny, lanky body couldn’t possibly be his avatar.

“It doesn’t even have a face?!”

His face was smooth and formless, like a blank mannequin. This was the tutorial? He couldn’t even customize his character? It wouldn’t have been so bad if he could just stop looking in the mirror... but the indignity lingered.

Then, the door to his room flew open.

“B-Brother!”

Someone came rushing into the room.

“Who are you?” he barked.

Already irritated beyond belief, Thomas shouted without thinking, but what stopped him cold was the response.

“Brother, what do we do now...?”

It was a little girl, someone he didn’t recognize. But her identity was not the issue at the moment. It was the way she looked at him. Tears filled her eyes, threatening to spill.

“Mother passed out... She has Eternal Slumber!”

“What...?”

Before he could react, the girl crumpled to the floor, sobbing. Her grief struck him in the chest like a hammer.

A system notification appeared before his eyes.

[Load saved data.]

“Huh?”

Suddenly, unfamiliar memories surged into his mind like a tidal wave.

Wh-what in the—

Then, it hit him. The name of the little girl crying on the floor... was Sung Jinah, his one and only little sister.