Solo Leveling: Ragnarok - Chapter 245

Chapter 245

Suho decided to first start with Seo Jiwoo

“Hunter Seo Jiwoo, thank you for your hard work. We will stay here and go to the sea of the afterlife so please go back outside and rest.”

Thankfully, Seo Jiwoo’s role was over.

She was in a state where she couldn’t even breathe properly so the most urgent task was to get her out of the dungeon as quickly as possible.

“Harmakan, Will you show her the way out?.”

When Suho looked at Harmakan, he was using magic rather than sending Seo Jiwoo out directly.

Flash-

A magic circle created from Harmakan’s hand was compressed to the size of a fist.

[Master, there is a simpler way.]

Suho accepted the item that Harmakan had given him.

Tiring.

[You have acquired the ‘Item: Instant Teleportation Stone’.]

“Instant Teleportation Stone?”

An information window appeared in front of Suho.

[Item: Instant Teleportation Stone]

Type: Consumables

This item is made using Harmakan’s magic.

Breaking the return stone will allow you to move outside the dungeon.

“Oh, you can make something like this too?”

[This is something I learned while researching Kandiaru’s legacy.]

Harmakan was humble and talked as if it were nothing, but the corners of his mouth and shoulders were already twitching at Suho’s surprised reaction.

“Can someone other than me use this item?”

[Originally it was impossible, but this item has been modified so that anyone can use it, especially if they are near the Master’s Shadow Soldiers.]

“Near the Shadow Soldiers? Did you use the Shadow Exchange skill?”

[As expected, you are sharp. Now that I am your subordinate, I realized that most of Kandiaru’s legacy was originally intended to utilize shadow powers.]

“Right.”

Suho nods.

The more Suho got to know them, the more it seemed like the Demonic Clan was a race with many useful aspects.

Suho said as he immediately placed the return stone in Seo Jiwoo’s hand.

“Then, please go back carefully.”

“This…”

Seo Jiwoo, looked as if she was no longer surprised.

After all, since Suho had created the dungeon, she didn’t have the mental strength left to be surprised if an easy way out had suddenly appeared.

Damn.

Seo Jiwoo followed Suho’s explanation and destroyed the stone with her hand, then took the portal connected to Hapjeong Station and left the dimensional rift.

[Master, you don’t need to use the stone; you can just use the shadow exchange skill.]

“Yeah. Now that we’re on the subject, I should place some soldiers around here in advance. They can come back here whenever they want.”

It’s good that things like this are possible now that there are more shadow soldiers.

If you spread them out here and there, you can move to anywhere whenever the cooldown ends.

Suho picked out a few of the Shadow Demons and Shadow Dragons that had been extracted today and ordered them to continue guarding the gate.

[The Shadow Demon’s title is changed to ‘Shadow Gatekeeper’.]

[The title of the Shadow Dragon Tribe will be changed to ‘Shadow Gatekeeper’.]

“Okay, then let’s go in.”

Suho led the rest of the troops and stepped into the gate.

[Enter the ‘Gate: Sea of the Afterlife’.]

Paaaaat-

At that moment.

“… … !”

A dark and sticky sky spread out in Suho’s sight.

The vast ocean, where the sky was rippling and melting, stretched out endlessly across the entire world.

Tiring! Tiring! Tiring! Tiring!

Suddenly, warning messages began to appear one after another before Suho’s eyes.

[Player came into contact with the energy of the ‘Sea of the Afterlife’ while in a living body.]

[‘Debuff: Death’ is activated.]

[HP decreases in real time.]

[HP -100]

[HP -100]

[HP -100]

… … .

“Wow.”

It’s crazy.

The moment when the reality of death became apparent.

Suho’s HP was dropping by a whopping 100 points every second.

“If I stay here any longer, I will eventually die. Even Kandiaru’s blessings are useless in the face of death.”

“Of course. Even the absolute could not escape death, so the blessings created by mere creatures are useless here.”

Antares, who had already climbed onto Suho’s shoulder, was looking around with sharp eyes.

it’s… wide.

No matter where they looked, they couldn’t see anything like the World Tree.

All they saw was sticky darkness.

[My lord, be careful. Just because you don’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.]

Beru’s eyes were more tense than ever.

[The moment you fall into the sea, your health will decrease at an accelerated rate.]

Fortunately, Suho did not fall into the sea.

Because Suho had a skill he learned from the Ice Elf Sirka, the successor to the Monarch of Frost.

Splish splash.

[Use ‘Skill: Elf’s Step’.]

Suho’s carefully stretched out his feet and succeeded in walking on the black sea.

[Ohhh!]

[The Master walked on the sea!]

[Keeeek! As expected, you are a little monarch!]

Shadow soldiers raise their hands and cheer at the sight.

Suho was also relieved.

“Thank goodness. If this skill didn’t work, I was going to use the ruler’s power.”

The ruler’s power is closer to the concept of floating in the air rather than walking.

That’s why the elf’s footsteps were less burdensome in many ways.

Anyway, Suho, who had resolved the movement restrictions, looked back at the soldiers including Beru.

“Are you guys okay?”

[We are already dead souls, so it’s okay.]

“That’s fortunate.”

Shadow Soldiers had no concept of HP, so they had no way to lose health.

“Then what about Antares?”

“Beep?”

“… … You’re already out. You little punk.”

[The King of Dragons, the Monarch of Destruction, urges Ragnar to flee to the Shadow World.]

Ragnar, whose spirit had been released, was withering away on Suho’s shoulder with a dazed expression.

“Okay, you go in.”

Suho sent Ragnar back into the shadows.

And while doing this, he watched his HP drop in real-time and bought a bunch of healing potions from the shop window.

[‘Item: Intermediate Healing Potion’ has been purchased.]

[‘Item: Intermediate Healing Potion’ has been purchased.]

[‘Item: Intermediate Healing Potion’ has been purchased.]

… … .

“This potion probably costs quite a lot.”

Suho wondered if there were any places like this.

A place where you absolutely must drink potions regularly.

Even if you drink several bottles of potions at the same time, the potions don’t restore HP any faster.

In the end, the potions are limited to barely maintaining your current health.

“If a battle breaks out in this state, it’s impossible to recover with just potions.”

[Your Majesty, why don’t you leave the reconnaissance of this place to your soldiers and stay outside safely?]

It was Beru’s advice.

“Now that we’re here, let’s look around as much as possible.”

Suho had the shadow dragons capable of flight spread out in all directions to scout out the surrounding area.

And he too walked across the sea of the afterlife with the footsteps of an elf.

[If you feel it is dangerous, you should always exchange shadows with the soldiers outside the gate.]

Harmakan also did not spare advice to Suho from the side.

[No, it would be better to just exchange them with the soldiers left on Earth. Considering the cooldown of the Shadow Exchange skill, that would be more efficient.]

That was when.

Chills.

“Come.”

At that moment, Suho’s eyes sharply flashed.

Choaaaak!

In the pitch-black, sticky black sea, giant tentacles burst out from all directions, targeting Suho.

[Nightmare Bud]

[Nightmare Bud]

[Nightmare Bud]

“I guess this is a flower field.”

Suho swung his sword as if he had been waiting.

Choke choke choke choke choke choke!

“Kkieeee!”

Suddenly the battle started.

Starting with the nightmare flower buds, nameless weeds appeared and attacked Suho.

Now that a human with their luscious vitality have entered the sea of the afterlife, their goal was clear.

Kyaoop! Kyaoop!

Kyaawoop!

A multitude of plants opened their mouths wide to catch Suho and devour him.

There were even some that suddenly popped out from under Suho’s feet.

[Protect the Little Monarch!]

[Protect the Master!]

In reality, none of these guys were a problem.

What can a weed do against the mighty Shadow Soldiers?

But Suho’s real problem was in a completely different area.

“These weeds… it seems like they don’t give any experience points?”

[Master, the Sea of the Afterlife is not a place for leveling up. It is an area that cannot be replicated even in Kandiaru’s instance dungeons.]

Suho’s expression became serious.

“I didn’t know leveling up was impossible.”

This was a very, very serious problem.

Suho looked around again.

Again, the sea of the afterlife is vast.

It’s literally a vast ocean.

Suho mobilized all of his troops and searched the place diligently, but there was not even a single trace of the World Tree.

With such a wasteful method, he was about to squander the money on potions.

“Hmm. Is this the place for this? Let’s change the method.”

Suho suddenly lowered his gaze to his feet.

“Everyone, follow me.”

[Oh, my lord?!]

Beru was astonished.

with a plop-!

Suho, who was safely walking on the surface of the water, suddenly jumped into the sea of the afterlife.

[Everyone follow the little monarch!]

In response to Beru’s urgency, the soldiers dived into the sea to follow Suho.

They got rid of the weeds growing underneath as soon as they saw them.

Still, Suho was still in trouble.

Tiring!

[HP decreases in real time.]

[The deeper your sleep, the stronger the effect of ‘Debuff: Death’ becomes.]

[HP -100]

[HP -109]

[HP -123]

[HP -149]

[HP -162]

… … .

This is death.

As the sleep deepened, Suho’s HP decreased by more and more.

This was clearly an act of hastening death.

‘Somehow my father told me to level up first in order to find the World Tree.’

Fortunately, he had leveled up a lot as his father had told him, so he still had some time to spare.

Moreover, there was no problem breathing in this strange black seawater.

It was thanks to Esil that he learned the technique of putting a protective shield on his face using magic while he was wandering in the desert in the past.

So, leaving the mobs to the soldiers, he swam deeper and deeper into the afterlife sea.

‘Found them.’

Suho’s eyes sparkled.

‘Yes. They say the sea of the afterlife is where the dead wander.’

But then he wondered why he couldn’t see anything, and it turned out that everyone was gathered down here.

Yes.

Deep in the ocean after death.

It was literally ‘hell’.

A terrible lot of souls.

Countless inhabitants of the world, including humans, lay silently frozen like cold corpses.

But no matter what their outward appearances were, their eyes were empty as they were already dead.

Even the souls that had already been drained of their nutrients by the weeds were unable to feel any pain and were simply one with the black water.

[Your Majesty…]

Beru, who had been sticking close to Suho to protect him, looked at him with anxious eyes.

Only after jumping in like this, Suho finally witnessed the terrifying reality of the sea of the afterlife…

“There’s so many”

He was laughing.

Brighter than ever.

“Arise.” 1

… … !

[Shadow extraction succeeded.]

[Shadow extraction succeeded.]

[Shadow extraction succeeded.]

[Shadow extraction succeeded.]

… … .

[The King of Dragons, the Monarch of Destruction grumbles that he is still being treated unfairly.]