Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

Before Sung Jinwoo, the Monarch of Shadows, had dialed time back for Earth, there were precisely five hunters who were considered to be the strongest in the world. They were known as National Level Hunters, a title that meant each individual was powerful enough to match an entire nation. The title was a glorious one, given only to those with so much strength that “mere” S-rank hunters could never hope to equal it. But the way these five had received such a title was not honorable in the least.

A boss-level magic beast had once emerged from the worst disaster that humanity had ever faced, the first-ever S-grade gate. The monster’s name was Kamish. This red dragon, the most fear-inspiring creature that anyone had ever seen, was so mighty that the moment the dungeon appeared, an entire region of the western United States was devastated.

The U.S. Government offered incredible rewards to gather the best hunters from all over the world, and in the end, the beast was hunted down—but not without great difficulty. There were only five hunters who survived the ordeal. A single magic beast had killed off the rest of the world’s best hunters, but without their sacrifice, the country would clearly have been wiped off the map.

For rescuing their country from certain doom, the government promised each of the remaining hunters the treatment of a national entity rather than a single individual. This was the origin of the term “National Level Hunter.”

Interestingly, these National Level Hunters all had something in common—at least, four of them did, with the exception of the one who had been a healer during the Kamish raid. These four hunters possessed the power of levitation, the ability to apply force to objects without touching them. There had been many strong hunters before the raid, and more continued to appear afterward, but these were the only four to ever display this ability.

The Federal Bureau of Hunters, the U.S. authority in charge of managing hunters at the time, had been the only body aware of this fact. They had even considered the power to be a requirement for anyone to become a National Level Hunter.

Many years had passed since then, however, and Suho knew the real identity of their so-called levitation skill.

[Skill: Ruler’s Authority]

It was the result of Rulers entering the bodies of ordinary S-rank hunters. In other words, these hunters had become the powerful National Level Hunters because they had borrowed power from the Rulers. And as vessels suitable for Rulers, they were the most likely to have their bodies stolen by the followers of Itarim in this timeline—just like what had happened to Thomas Andre in the Glacier Dungeon.

“Thomas Andre, you are under arrest for the murder of Christopher Reed!”

While Thomas had been on the phone with Suho, countless fully armed hunters had surrounded him. The Federal Bureau of Hunters, the most powerful organization in the United States, had shown up to stop him from going on a rampage. But despite the advantage in numbers they possessed, it was not Thomas who was nervous.

“Oh, just a minute,” Thomas said. “As you can see, I’m in the middle of an important phone call.” He waved lightly to the hunters surrounding him, then casually continued the call.

The hunters from the bureau looked nervous and determined. They were about to arrest none other than Thomas Andre himself. The problem was that the person he had just murdered was also one of the U.S.’s best-known S-rank hunters, Christopher Reed.

The bureau hunters were baffled. Why would someone like Thomas Andre do something like this all of a sudden?He has nothing to gain.He could make astronomical sums of money if he were to use the power he just expended to clear a dungeon. So why? The bureau had no information on the Itarim, so they were understandably confused.

There had been fights between S-rank hunters in the past, of course, but none had ever killed another. After the hunter ranking system was created, the need for hunters to confront each other to see who was stronger had completely disappeared. The ranking system awarded points based on how dangerous the magic beasts that one had hunted were, how many dungeons one had cleared, and so on, and it was currently the only system that resulted in rankings that were acknowledged worldwide. Hunters no longer needed to fight unnecessarily and focused more on clearing dungeons.

So why would he do this? It was impossible to guess why Thomas had decided to do such a thing.

“Thomas Andre…”

The group of bureau hunters suddenly split, and someone walked forward. It was an old gentleman with his hair neatly slicked back. Surprisingly, unlike all the other hunters, he was not armed in any way.

“Mr. White…!”

“It’s dangerous to get close to him!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” the man said, lightly waving away the hunters who tried to stop his rash behavior. He strode toward Thomas without stopping.

Even Thomas was forced to pause his call for a moment. “Adam White,” he said, smiling in amusement. “What is the director of the Federal Bureau of Hunters doing here?”

“Thomas… Please submit to our investigation without resistance,” Adam responded.

Thomas grinned even wider. “And what if I refuse?” he said, showing his teeth.

Thomas’ provocative statement prompted nothing more than a quiet sigh from Adam. He looked around at the devastated surroundings. This was where Christopher Reed’s luxury mansion had once stood, but now it was completely gone.

It’s like a nuclear bomb has gone off, Adam thought. Is this what happens when two S-rank hunters decide to fight? It was not an exaggeration in the least to say that S-rank hunters were war machines on legs.

Adam smiled wryly and said politely, “If you refuse… What else? I’ll have to ask again, but more desperately this time. These hunters all have families, in one way or another, and I have a wife and children to care for as well.”

“Ha.” Thomas looked rather put out by the statement. “You’re your boring self, as usual.”

“Actually, my employees rate me rather differently.”

“How could they not? You pay them. My men laugh at every joke I make, too.”

While this silly conversation passed between the two men, the hunters surrounding Thomas could hardly breathe. They knew that if he had the slightest urge to be a little fickle, they would never live to see another day. There was a brief silence as Thomas’ eyes met Adam’s. It might have seemed like a short time, but to some, it was an eternity.

“Well, if you insist,” Thomas said, grinning and putting his hands in the air.

Christopher Reed’s body flopped to the ground, and surprisingly, it shattered like a piece of burned coal the moment it fell. Everyone who saw this went wide-eyed. Realizing they wouldn’t have to fight Thomas, they also sighed with relief.

Thomas spoke into his phone again. “You heard that, didn’t you? This is how things are over here. I don’t think I can handle the ones in other countries, at least for the time being.”

Other countries? Adam stiffened at the words.

Thomas noticed this reaction and grinned. He continued to speak into the phone. “Chris was an American, at least. But if I kill the others, there will be a political problem.”

“Oh, you’re right,” Suho said, nodding on the other side of the line.

The National Level Hunters from the previous timeline were still S-rank hunters. If someone like Thomas were to fly overseas to fight them, it would be equivalent to the U.S. declaring war on that particular country.

“Well, that’s it for now. I’ll send you the details about Christopher Reed,” Thomas said.

“Understood.Good work.”

The call ended, and Adam cut in, “May I ask who you were talking to?”

Thomas simply grinned and threw a massive arm around the other man’s shoulder. “Adam… How about you buy me a burger on the way? It’s been a while since we last met, and I worked up an appetite.”

“I’ll… buy you a combo.”

“Lovely. You’re a generous director. Buy your crew meals, too, while you’re at it. They don’t look particularly happy at the moment.”

“Understood.” Adam smiled bitterly as he agreed to everything Thomas said.

***

After Thomas willingly submitted to being arrested, his secretary visited South Korea with gifts for Suho, as promised.

“Laura, how is Thomas doing?” Suho asked.

“You don’t need to worry about our boss. He never has trouble adapting to any environment,” Laura responded without an ounce of worry.

It was too risky for the U.S. to keep Thomas incarcerated for long, anyway. If an S-rank hunter started making less money from dungeons, they would pay less taxes, and the safety of the nation was also a consideration. The U.S. Government would naturally pressure the bureau to free Thomas. He’d only killed a hunter of the same rank, not a civilian. In fact, now that there was one less S-rank hunter, Thomas was needed to make up for the missing man.

“Besides, Thomas didn’t intend to kill Christopher Reed,” Laura continued. “In fact, he only visited to give him some antidote potions, which are our main offering nowadays.”

The Echo Forest Spring Water, procured from the sanctuary of the ice elves, was so powerful that it had brought Thomas’ mind back after he had been possessed by a follower of Itarim. Suho and Thomas had planned from the start to give the potion to other hunters who had been National Level Hunters in the previous timeline, thus preventing the same incident from being repeated.

“But there was a bit of an accident in the process of giving the potions to Christopher Reed.”

“A bit of an accident?” Suho asked, looking puzzled. How had a “bit of an accident” led to the killing of an S-rank hunter?

“Well, I have information about that, too. It’s probably faster if you take a look yourself. The full story is for your eyes only.” Laura put a USB stick in Suho’s hand, then had employees bring over other objects that were meant for him. Two custom hard-sided cases were placed in front of him.

“Are these what Thomas was talking about?”

“Yes. This one contains the high-quality mana stones you asked for last time. And the other… contains the object Ms. Cha found in the Grave of the Dragons.”

Suho fell silent for a moment, looking at the cases.

“Young Monarch, I sense some kind of energy,” Beru said, having appeared beside him. The ant was wearing a serious look on his face.

Suho first opened the case from his mother. She had already contacted him, so he knew what was inside. The egg of a dragon…

The case soon revealed its contents. Just as his mother told him, an egg the size of an ostrich egg lay inside. There was a slight problem, however—the system message that popped up as soon as Suho touched it.

Ding.

[Item: “Kamish’s Egg” has been acquired.]

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