"Is that so… can't be careless then."
Arsha bursts into laughter.
"Don't tell me you can also see right through here."
However, there was not even a hint of laughter in the eyes that glared at Suho.
Wiiiing-
The swarm of bees that formed Arsha's face kept scattering and coming together, showing how perplexed she was right now.
Suho smirked.
"I must be right."
"That's enough for the conversation."
Arsha suddenly stood up, so Suho asked teasingly.
"Suddenly? Are you busy?"
"Of course. I have to go collect the sacrifices that Lee Minseong killed, and look for a new beehive to move into."
"Where are you moving? Did you find any places?"
"Wherever that place is, Mr. Suho won't be able to find it."
"That's sad. I was thinking of going to your housewarming party."
"That would be impossible."
None of them was backing out of the verbal battle.
Looking back at Suho, Arsha said with a most gorgeous smile.
"While we were chatting, this basement was filled with my poison."
"Poison?"
"Yes. It's a colorless, odorless poison made with great care, so even a descendant of the Fang Monarch would not have noticed."
The reason why Arsha talked with Suho in that place was to buy time for her poison to penetrate completely deep into his body.
Arsha's smile towards Suho was gradually turning into a cruel one.
"If you enter the queen bee's nest with your own feet, you either leave as a worker bee or a prey. So, let's bid our farewell here…"
[Kehehe.]
"… Huh?"
But, why?
[Kehehehe.]
For some reason, the little ant, Beru, was giggling on the table holding his stomach.
A laugh that contained a much deeper mockery than before.
On the other hand, unlike Beru, Suho was not smiling at all.
Just like when he first came down there, he just got up from his chair and stood side by side with Arsha and started talking.
"Great. I'm thinking of going to Lee Minseong anyway, shall we go together?"
"H-How…?!"
Arsha, who was confident in her own poison, hurriedly moved away from Suho as if she had been burned.
She couldn't feel the slightest bit of poison from Suho.
Even at that moment, Suho was supposedly being poisoned in real time.
But…
[A harmful ingredient has been detected.]
[The detoxification begins with the effect of 'Blessing: Great Spellcaster Kandiaru's Protection.']
[Detoxification has been completed.]
[Detoxification has been completed.]
[Detoxification has been completed.]
…
Detoxification messages rained down in front of Suho's eyes.
"No way! Withstanding my poison?! Such a power…!"
Seeing Suho like that, Arsha cried out in shock.
"Did you really get hold of another Querehsha relic?"
Arsha watched him fight the lancers earlier through the bees.
At the end, like the lancers, Arsha thought that Suho could have obtained a relic.
However, it was only a possibility, and the possibility of a mere human obtaining the relic of a great monarch was extremely slim.
But, this made it clear.
It was impossible to withstand such poison unless he had inherited a relic left by the Plague Monarch.
"If you are already a descendant of the Fang Monarch, why are you still aiming for the position of successor to Querehsha!"
[…]
"…"
Arsha's confidence made Beru and Suho look sad.
It was hard to counter what she knew because they felt bad.
[The King of Beasts, Fang Monarch, grabs his stomach and stomps his feet while laughing.]
"Let's go, Beru."
Suho ignored Arsha and turned his back.
He heard everything he wanted to hear, so there was no reason to be there anymore.
"Answer me before you go!"
Hearing Arsha's words from behind, Suho suddenly looked back and his eyes lit up.
"I'll tell you the answer the next time I meet your body."
'However, you won't be able to be safe then unlike today.'
The meaning behind that would have been conveyed enough without having to say it.
Suho climbs the stairs straight to the ground floor.
Looking at his back, Arsha gritted her teeth with a look of resentment.
How dare you show your back defenselessly in front of me.
That's what it means to be confident.
'He stole all my worker bees, and the poison doesn't work? If it goes like this…'
Wasn't that human being more like a queen bee than herself?
'This can't be. I must hurry up the sacrifice.'
At that point, whether it was Lee Minseong or Sung Suho, the anxiety that the successor might be taken away by someone came over.
Arsha's body shattered.
Wiiiiing-
Citizens witnessed countless bees flying somewhere like smoke in Times Square.
* * *
[Are you leaving that stupid queen behind?]
"It's not even the body, so why bother staying there? Lee Minseong is more of the problem now."
In Suho's eyes, Arsha's beautiful appearance was just a cluster of bees.
If he caught a few of those bees, he wouldn't get much experience, and above all, Arsha didn't seem to be a trouble.
[Well, since all the lancers she worked so hard to collect are gone, she's going to hide quietly for a while. It is the fate of a queen bee to hide in a beehive for the rest of her life…]
"Release the strong spirit."
To save mana, Suho also let go of the blessing.
['Blessing' is canceled.]
Swook.
The spiritual wind that had been swirling around Suho's body calmed down, and his hair, which had been bleached silver and fluttering, returned to black again.
Until a little while ago, he had maintained his strength while dealing with the queen bee, but he needed to save mana until he found Lee Minseong.
"Hnnggg!"
['Pet: Gray's spiritual body leaves the body of the priest.]
"Go back in."
"Hnnng?"
Suho sent Gray, who had fallen out of his body, back to the Shadow Dungeon.
Thud.
Right then.
"Hunter Sung Suho! Are you alright?!"
In front of Suho, who had just come up to the first floor, he ran into Baekho Guild members who were just about to go down to the basement.
Baek Miho, who was in the lead, quickly checked Suho's condition.
Then she tilted her head.
'They said his hair was bleached, but it's now black. Did he stop casting his skill?'
Baek Miho, who wanted to see with his own eyes whether Suho had really used the Beast Transformation skill, felt regretful.
She could ask him directly if he had the Beast Transformation skill, but right now there were a lot of more important issues than that.
First of all, Suho was the only one not wearing a gas mask in that area full of poison mist.
'He gave gas masks to his colleagues and disappeared! Could it be that he even gave up his gas mask to his colleagues?'
Baek Miho couldn't just ignore Suho's spirit of sacrifice (?).
"Please give this person a gas mask as soon as possible."
"Yes, Vice President!"
At Baek Miho's instruction, a guild member took out a gas mask from his bag and tried to put it on Suho's face.
However, Suho politely declined and continued on his way.
"No, thanks. I'm a bit busy right now, so I have to get out of here right away."
"It is the same for us. Other hunters are also evacuating outside… More than that, what the hell happened here?"
Baek Miho followed Suho as he was about to leave Times Square, asking questions.
"The other hunters said that you saved them, but how…"
"Now is not the time for such small talk."
Suho interrupted Baek Miho with a serious expression.
"We need to find and stop Lee Minseong immediately."
"What? Suddenly? What…"
Right then.
"Vice President! Headquarters has contacted you!"
A Baekho Guild member who was holding a cell phone behind him urgently called Baek Miho.
"Right now, Lee Minseong is carrying out a massacre in the streets…"
"…!"
"…!"
Both Suho and Baek Miho's heads turned at the same time.
Thud!
No matter who came first, the two started running towards the exit of the labyrinth.
"W-Wait for us, Vice President!"
The startled Baekho Guild members followed them one step later.
All of a sudden, they felt strange.
"Wait, didn't you say that person was C-Class?"
"Why is he so fast?!"
Surprisingly, Suho was running at almost the same speed as Baek Miho, an A-Class hunter.
Baek Miho, who was running right next to him, was even more shocked.
'Huh? His profile clearly says he's a summoning hunter?'
He had not yet transformed into a beast, his main skill.
In addition, because this place was a winding labyrinth, it was impossible to sprint in a straight line.
However, apart from this and that, Suho's current speed was by no means that of a C-Class summoning hunter.
Coincidentally, Suho was thinking the same thing while looking at Baek Miho.
'She's fast. An A-Class hunter after all.'
He suddenly remembered Lee Minseong, whom he was going to catch now, was also an A-Class hunter.
Just as much as queen bee Arsha had regrets, Lee Minseong would have been different from the lancers made only of C-Class or lower level hunters.
'If he made up his mind and ran away, it might been a little annoying.'
Besides, doesn't Lee Minseong even have wings?
'Oh, I had a good idea.'
"Baek Miho."
"Yes?!"
Suho called her right next to him, so Baek Miho looked at him in surprise.
"How long do you think it will take to go all the way from here to Lee Minseong?"
"Running?"
"Obviously. Did you think of going by car? There will be traffic at this hour."
"Ah."
After the cataclysm, traffic jams in Seoul became severe.
This was because the gates were opened at several major subway stations and the train lines were cut off.
In an emergency like now, it was much faster to run.
Baek Miho, who understood Suho's intentions, calculated the distance for a while and answered confidently.
"I think 20 minutes will be enough if I run at full power! How about you?"
Suho could feel the competitive spirit in the provocative eyes looking at him.
Even though they were running side by side now, it was a grounded confidence that if they changed into beasts and sprinted, they would be vastly faster than they were now.
"Well, after all. You're an A-Class."
Suho raised his thumb in genuine admiration.
And with a more pure expression, he suggested to Baek Miho, "I'm afraid I'll be much slower than that, so why don't you carry me on your back?"
"… What?"
Baek Miho doubted her ears.