Chapter 36

[Blessing: Lakan's Blessing]

Blessing of the King of Beasts, Fang Monarch.

The Fang Monarch Rakan has chosen Suho to be the King's Pontifex.

Pontifex can imbue their bodies with the living spirits of beasts.

-Effect 'Pontifex': Possession of 'Pet: Gray' in your body.

'Pontifex?'

Rakan spoke with a satisfied smile at Suho, who looked at the information window that appeared in front of him in a puzzled way.

[Right. You are now the pontifex of our clan. I'm already dead, so yoy will serve Gray, my only remaining descendant.]

'Are you asking me to serve Gray?'

Suho made a strange expression.

Gray was his pet.

A pontifex serving a pet as a king, what a strange situation.

'Is it like a cat butler? Thinking about it, it seems to make sense…'

Suho understood and nodded.

Besides, it came along with his new ability.

After all, Rakan's purpose was to dream of Suho more often.

To do that, Suho had to stay with Gray even a little longer, but the problem was that Gray was so weak and young that he was completely useless.

Suho wondered what if he would use the Pontifex' ability, 'Spirit'?

[If you use that ability, you will be able to borrow the power of the beast for a while. As Gray grows, the power you can borrow will become stronger.]

'Are you asking me to grow along with Gray?'

[Well, something like that.]

Suho and Rakan faced each other and smiled at the same time.

It was new to both of them.

'I heard my father killed you. He's much cooler than I thought.'

[What now? It is only natural for a weak beast to be eaten by a stronger one.]

Recalling that time, Rakan chuckled.

[Your father was terribly strong, and I struggled in fear and was eventually eaten. That's all.]

A weak one.

The king of beasts, who reigned at the pinnacle of the ecosystem, accepted even his own death.

[Oh. Has the time allowed for me already ended?]

Suddenly, Rakan looked up at the sky and licked his lips, feeling bummed out.

Before he knew it, the world filled with pure white was gradually being colored with black shadows.

A terrible emptiness was coming.

The space in which he could move became increasingly narrow, and Rakan's body became smaller and smaller.

Eventually, Rakan, who returned to the huge man he showed at the beginning, approached Suho and handed him something.

[Now, take this and get out of here. This is my death and rest realm. You can go back and live your life.]

There was only one Rakan Sword in Suho's hand.

'But, why only one?'

[Two combined. The fangs were pulled out when they were young, so they were too shabby to be the relics of the king. Now that they're put together, it's probably more useful.]

Swoosh.

Right then, a black shadow completely engulfed the world.

The corner of Rakan's mouth revealed through the gap in the shadow gave a final goodbye with a smirk.

[See you again, Pontifex.]

Time, which had stopped, began to move again.

* * *

"…Ah."

The landscape changed in an instant.

Suho was still standing on Arachne's body.

What had just happened felt like a dream.

However, evidence proving that meeting the Fang Monarch was not a dream remained in Suho's hands.

Apparently, the two fangs of Rakan, which were held in both hands, had become one and changed into a slightly stronger and sharper form.

And above all, the ability has changed so much that it cannot be compared to before.

[Item: Rakan's Fang]

Difficulty to obtain: ??

Type: Sword

ATK +60

A sword made from the fangs of Rakan, the king of beasts.

Rakan's heroic spirit dwells in it, so if someone of a lower rank possesses it, the body may be taken away.

-Effect 'Contempt for the Weak': Puts the designated opponent into fear for 1 minute. (All stats -50%)

-Effect 'Fatal Wound': Inflicts 3 times more fatal damage with a 20% chance.

'He said the two merged into one, so the stats increased too much.'

The damage effect that was +30 was changed to +60, and the fatal wound effect was also increased from 15% to 20%, from 2 times to 3 times.

[Young Master?]

He tilted his head as he looked around to see Beru, who had just arrived.

[Your energy suddenly changed a little.]

-You. Did you go meet the king's heroic spirit? I feel the power of a pontifex in you.

The Rakan's Sword in his hand.

"That's right."

[Keeek! You met the Fang Monarch? Oh, how?]

Beru was stunned by Suho's answer.

It was absolutely impossible to meet the heroic spirit of the monarch who fell into eternal rest.

That was impossible even for Sung Jinwoo, the Shadow Monarch.

Suho looked at Rakan's Sword and said, "You were the fang I originally had."

-Right. I took in the holy relics here.

Was it because he became a Pontifex?

The sword was able to recognize his identity just by hearing his voice.

'Should I go back now?'

Suho suddenly looked around.

Most of the hunters who were tied to the spider web and controlled seemed unharmed.

However, all of them sat down on the floor with bewildered faces, staring at Suho.

'It's the king.'

'That hunter got the power of the king.'

They all witnessed Suho defeating Arachne.

Even the appearance of him pulling out the holy relic directly from the body.

But, no one dared to approach Suho.

It was because of the pressure of the situation.

And Suho, who had achieved his goal, didn't care about them at all.

When he turned his head, there were shadow jackals sitting upright on the ground after killing all the small spiders.

But, as if Beru had ordered them, there was a heap of mana stones extracted from the bodies of dead spiders in front of their neatly gathered feet.

Compliments, compliments, compliments, compliments.

Compliments, compliments, compliments, compliments.

The jackals that brought their prey were eagerly hoping for something with their twinkling eyes.

"Ah, yeah. Good work."

[Hehehe!]

At Suho's reluctant praise, the shadow jackals stuck out their tongues and smiled like sunflowers.

They were really cunning guys.

Moments ago they were just biting necks.

"Let's go back."

[Yes.]

Suho left the botanical garden without hesitation.

The hunters, who had been watching the back of him blankly, sighed in relief the moment Suho's appearance completely disappeared from their sight.

"Whew…"

"W-We're alive."

There was a reason the hunters couldn't breathe properly and were nervous all along.

Even if they were tied to a spider web and controlled, they were all the people who attacked Suho. And that, of course, was at the moment when Suho was most in danger.

If they were going to retaliate against him, they would not be able to withstand it.

Suho only managed to defeat the giant spider and then quietly disappeared.

Someone spoke first.

"I guess that person just got the power of a king?"

"Most likely."

"Ha, I really envy him. What a great skill he must have received."

"Is that the issue now? Let's just thank him for saving us."

Realizing that they had finally survived, the hunters sighed once again.

They had a question.

"Who was that hunter though?"

"I don't know either. I couldn't see his face because he was wearing a strange mask."

"It was also very dark. It looks like he's dragging a few animals around, maybe he's a summoning hunter?"

"That's nonsense. What kind of summoning hunter in this world could fight so hard? Didn't you see how he killed a spider with his bare fists earlier? He also just tamed a few jackals."

The hunters gathered there all had Beast Transformation skill.

Among them, there were quite a few people who had a good affinity with animals, so they didn't care too much about the shadow jackals.

In addition, the shadow jackals were only seen as silhouettes because the place was too dark.

"Then why did he hide his identity?"

"I know, right. It's not like he's a criminal?"

Of course, Suho, the party involved, had no intention of hiding his identity. He only used the mask because it was dark inside the botanical garden. He took it off as soon as he left.

However, because of that, the hunters had more doubts about Suho's identity.

All of a sudden…

"… Oh?"

Someone looked around.

"Where have all the spiders gone?!"

The corpse of the giant spider, which had died miserably in the dark, had disappeared without anyone realizing it.

Even the corpses of tiny spiders.

"Are they the ones whose bodies degrade when they die?"

The hunters who thought they would take the corpse of the monster sighed deeply.

Today, it was a complete waste of hard work.

[Kehehe.]

Somewhere, Beru was laughing.

* * *

At that time, outside the botanical garden.

"W-What?!"

"The smell suddenly disappeared?"

The hunters who were wandering in the jungle to become king sniffed at the same time with puzzled expressions.

The smell that stimulated their instincts that guided them to the King's Trial disappeared.

"Ahh."

At the same time they realized

'The king has been decided!'

They lost the position to someone else.

Upon realizing that, extreme dejection and jealousy surged up in their hearts.

"Damn…"

The hunters were greatly discouraged.

Baekho Guild hunters asked Baek Miho, who was watching the scene from a high place.

"Vice President, what do you want to do now? Would you like to go back?"

"Before I go back, I want to see with my own eyes who became the king."

"But there is no way to find out who he is in this wide area…"

"You can tell that much by scent. That person would have a strong and distinct animal smell…"

Sniff.

Something was captured by Baek Miho's superhuman sense of smell.

When she turned her head to check, the man he saw earlier was walking back to where he came from.

However, unlike before, a smell of blood lingered on his body.

Sniff?

'It doesn't smell like human blood. As for the color…'

Baek Miho's sense of smell was able to distinguish between the smell of demons and human blood.

The smell that emanated from that man's body was a beast's blood.

'Huh?'

Baek Miho noticed something strange and tilted her head.

'Was there magic in this forest?'

Did he fight a bleeding demon in a forest full of plants or ghosts?

'How many were there deep into the forest?'

Suho, feeling a certain gaze just in time, turned his head and looked her way.

His eyes met Baek Miho's, looking at him from afar.

Their gazes intertwined in midair.

'…No. It's different.'

Baek Miho, who was staring into Suho's eyes with superhuman eyesight, stopped speculating.

This was the place where the 'King of the Beasts' was chosen.

But the man did not smell like a beast.

Baek Miho eventually took her eyes off Suho.

"Let's wait… a bit more."

"Yes, Vice President."

Even after that, the Baekho Guild stood guard there for quite a long time.

It continued until Suho arrived home by bus, took a shower, and ordered chicken to eat.

'…Why did she look at me like that?'

Suho was eating the chicken leg when he suddenly remembered Baek Miho's face with whom he saw earlier.

'I think I saw her somewhere. Was she a famous hunter by any chance?'

He tried to look on the Internet to see if anything would come out.

His eyes widened.

"What is this?!"

The Internet was ablaze with articles about Magok Field.

However, the problem is that the protagonist of all those issues is Suho himself.

-(Hot News) Beast King Crow!

-An unidentified hunter who gained the power of the king, Crow!

-Why did Crow wear a crow mask?

-(Ad) This year's hot item, crow mask

-(Related search term) Strong breathing

"What? Beast King Crow? Breathe?"

He was given all kinds of shameful nicknames.

"What the hell is this…"

Suho covered his face in shame.

A line of messages appeared as if it had been waiting.

[The King of Beasts, Fang Monarch, was giggling saying that it is a perfect nickname for a pontifex.]