The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 63

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 63
Chapter 63
Tracking down the master of the Jungle was straightforward.
Or rather, to be precise, it wasn’t the master of the Jungle that had attacked the Owl Bear.
“The master of the Jungle is bees?”
Indeed.
The true identity of the monster that had attacked the Owl Bear was none other than bees.
Not merely one or two, but an enormous swarm of them.
I’d discovered this fact after using my tracking skill and finding countless traces of bees overlapping with the Owl Bear’s trail shortly thereafter.
The reason I considered these bees to be subordinates rather than the master of the Jungle itself was simple.
‘There’s no way ordinary bees, with or without the Jungle’s master, could inflict such wounds on an Owl Bear.’
The Owl Bear I’d defeated was unmistakably a Named-tier monster or higher.
For ordinary bees unrelated to the Jungle’s master to deal such damage to such a creature?
Impossible.
In other words, the master of the Jungle had to be a ‘Queen Bee.’
And the soldier bees under that Queen Bee’s command were the ones who’d attacked the Owl Bear.
“About an hour remains?”
Within that hour, I had to locate the boss monster and defeat it.
With no knowledge of how vast the Jungle was or how far the boss monster might be, time was hardly abundant.
Given as much.
– Activating skill ‘Tracking.’
I focused on my tracking skill and began moving in search of the bees.
My immediate priority was locating the master of the Jungle, so I largely ignored monsters that appeared along the way.
Of course, to maintain first place in case I failed to find the boss monster.
– Activating skill ‘Dark Insect Flash.’
Splurt!
“Screeeech!”
Whenever a monster appeared sufficiently formidable, I hunted it down.
Having defeated the Owl Bear and obtained a rather substantial mana stone from the Jungle.
This much should be more than enough to maintain first place.
As I rapidly bounded through the trees tracking the bees’ traces.
“Found them.”
I’d located the bees that had attacked the Owl Bear.
Wasps with yellow bodies marked by black stripes, like tigers.
The problem was their size—each one was as large as my own body, and the venomous stinger beneath their abdomen appeared longer than my forearm.
Each one seemed to possess a high level, yet these were merely soldier bees under the Queen Bee’s command.
‘Should I follow them for now?’
What mattered wasn’t the wasps directly before my eyes.
My objective was the Queen Bee—the master of the Jungle and the boss monster.
– Activating skill ‘Concealment.’
So I maximized the effects of my Concealment skill and the Jungle Shadow set, hiding my body within the foliage.
In that state, I followed the wasps while maintaining as much distance as possible.
‘Are they carrying prey?’
Looking closer, half of the wasps were transporting monsters.
Some of them were even carrying fallen users.
As if that wasn’t enough for them.
Whiiiiing—!
Thwack!
“Kiiiii….”
They indiscriminately attacked monsters along their path.
“What are these things! Argh, aaaaagh!”
Without distinguishing between monsters and users, they continued attacking and moving in one direction.
As time dragged on, I began to worry that the preliminary round would end before I even found the queen wasp.
Whiiiing—.
Whiiiiing—.
The sound of wasp wings echoed from all directions.
A noise so piercing it made my ears ache.
I instinctively tensed my body to strengthen my concealment and looked around.
‘Good heavens….’
An enormous swarm of wasps came into view.
A hundred.
No, easily over a thousand wasps.
Just from what I could see right now, there must be thousands.
Among the countless wasps, those with empty hands spread out in all directions, while those carrying prey converged toward a single point.
And that single point was none other than.
“Is that the Boss Room?”
An impossibly massive hive.
While typical hives hang suspended from something, this one was different.
A hive that towered high like a mountain.
Just as the wasps were the size of my body, the hive was equally massive—like a mountain itself.
Even accounting for the dense foliage of the Jungle obscuring my vision, it was so enormous that I couldn’t believe I’d missed it until now.
The moment I laid eyes on that colossal hive, what came to mind wasn’t fear.
‘I don’t have enough time.’
Roughly thirty minutes remained.
That was woefully insufficient to find and defeat the boss monster within that massive hive.
But if I engaged in direct combat, attacking wasps recklessly while waiting for the queen, I’d be crushed to death by thousands of them.
‘Should I give up?’
One wrong move and I could be eliminated in the preliminary round.
Logically, rather than challenge that, it would be more advantageous to maintain first place by hunting other monsters moderately.
But.
‘Give up on that?’
My curiosity that had conquered every element of First
burned fiercely toward this new world called Second.
‘Not a chance.’
I had no intention of surrendering.
So I needed to remember.
A way to defeat the boss monster inside that massive hornet nest within thirty minutes.
My mind, honed by conquering countless monsters and dungeons in First, spun with intensity.
The hornets’ weaknesses.
The characteristics of the honeycomb as a battlefield.
The attack patterns of queen-bee-type monsters.
All the information I possessed synthesized, and diverse strategies emerged.
Not long after, I opened my eyes that had been closed.
“Luke, I need to change into shadow garments.”
I shed the Jungle Shadow set
and, dressed in clothing specialized solely for concealment, began slipping stealthily toward the hive.
* * *
“Only thirty minutes remain! The remaining participants are doing their utmost to gather magic stones!”
“The rankings of participants are shifting rapidly!”
As the Beginner League preliminaries progressed, the audience’s cheers grew increasingly fervent.
This made sense—the participants themselves, knowing time was running short, hunted monsters with renewed vigor.
Then.
[ 1st Place: Unmemory Spirit ]
Finally.
The first-place position had changed.
“Wooooooooow!”
“See? I told you Unmemory Spirit would definitely be first!”
“The Pacheon Guild’s rising star truly is something else.”
This was the first time the first-place position had shifted.
Yet there was one puzzling matter.
“What in the world is that user Mir doing?”
“Right? He clearly defeated even a named monster earlier and seemed to have built a significant lead. How did he lose first place?”
“Is he just goofing around somewhere?”
Mir, the participant who had originally held first place.
What could he be doing?
The two commentators, curious about this as well, switched the camera view, but
“Hmm, what’s this? We can’t see anything.”
“It appears he’s entered somewhere dark….”
“Ah! Could it be that after that powerful attack he showed us, he’s exhausted and hiding somewhere safe to recover?”
“That’s quite possible. After all, using such a powerful attack consecutively like that—he may have incurred some penalty.”
“That’s why they can’t hunt anymore, and their ranking has dropped!”
“It’s unfortunate. If it weren’t for that participant’s attacks, they could have moved around much more.”
All that was visible was pitch-black darkness.
The screen was shaking, so it seemed like they were moving.
Since they couldn’t just broadcast a dark screen, the two commentators quickly turned their attention to other championship contenders.
Whiiiiiing—.
“There they are again! A swarm of wasps!”
“They keep appearing in greater numbers.”
“A wasp swarm—be careful! You might handle a few individually, but when they attack as a group, it becomes difficult!”
“Moreover, once you’re surrounded, more swarms will keep coming, so even if you’re given magic stones, avoidance is the best strategy.”
As time passed, the number of wasp-shaped monsters continued to increase.
Where on earth were these massive wasps pouring out from?
The moment the remaining time showed ten minutes.
The two commentators checked the time and began widening the camera view.
“Well, since time is running short, we’ll now reveal the full appearance of the Wild Jungle!”
“Until now, we’ve only shown you close-ups, so you probably haven’t noticed….”
The camera pulled back from inside the jungle.
As the view expanded further, a massive honeycomb finally came into view, positioned at the center of the jungle.
“Just like last year! This year’s preliminary round also has a boss monster!”
“As you can see, the master of the jungle—the boss monster—is a queen bee.”
“Last year, they say everyone hunted down the Twin Head Ogre, the master of the Mountain….”
“This year seems impossible. Look at that massive scale. It doesn’t seem like it was designed to be defeated in the first place, does it?”
“You’re right. That’s impossible.”
The master of the jungle.
Last year’s master of the Mountain at least held some hope of being defeated.
This boss monster didn’t even seem worth attempting.
How could anyone possibly overcome that massive honeycomb and thousands of wasps?
“Wow, that’s really vicious.”
“It’s basically telling you not to defeat it. Actually, last year’s Twin Head Ogre was only huntable because Yul-ha was an irregular existence, right?”
“And the users all cooperated together too.”
“Right.”
This was impossible.
Moreover, as time went on, the wasps’ activity range expanded, forcing users to gradually retreat.
But then.
“Huh? But isn’t something odd about that place?”
“Where are you referring to?”
“There. It looks like smoke is rising from the honeycomb holes?”
“What are you saying? Smoke from a honeycomb….”
“No, look there! There really is smoke rising!”
“Oh, you’re right! I see it too!”
Anomalies began erupting from the hive being broadcast across the wide screen.
Black smoke started billowing from the holes in the hive.
And this was merely the beginning.
Black smoke rose thick and heavy from every crevice of the hive.
Whoooosh!
“Fire! There’s fire! The hive is burning!”
“What? What’s happening!”
“Was it designed to catch fire originally!”
“No, that can’t be right!”
“Then what on earth is that inferno!”
The hive began engulfed in crimson flames.
* * *
Dark Garb.
A defensive armor set worn exclusively by Dark Assassin-class professions, specialized solely in concealment.
Clad in this set, I infiltrated the interior of the hive while maximizing my concealment skill.
‘That was close—I nearly got caught.’
I couldn’t activate any light source in the pitch darkness, lest the wasps detect me.
With wasps moving in every direction, a single moment of carelessness would have left my body bristling with venomous stingers.
Even in such circumstances.
I utilized every item that enhanced concealment and finally reached the heart of the hive.
Immediately after.
Through Luke, I retrieved a torch from my warehouse.
[ Prometheus’s Torch ]
( Non-Tradeable )
Form : Staff
Grade : Mythic
Restriction : Level 1,000 or higher, Intelligence 2,000 or higher, Wisdom 2,000 or higher
Description : A torch blazing with primordial flame that the oracle Prometheus allegedly stole from the gods for humanity.
A Mythic-grade staff—Prometheus’s Torch.
Unlike now, when I’m an All Master, I frequently used this item back in First when I was restricted by the Weaponsmith class and couldn’t cast magic.
And for good reason.
– Using the unique skill ‘Primordial Flame’ of ‘Prometheus’s Torch’.
Even without the ability to cast magic, the staff contained an intrinsic skill that activated simply by equipping the weapon.
Immediately, sacred fire known as primordial flame erupted from the torch I raised.
Whoooosh!
The boss monster of this place.
The colossal wasp nest where the Jungle’s sovereign reigned.
Crackle-crackle-crackle-!!!
Began burning fiercely.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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