Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 158

158. The Moon Caught in a Spiderweb (2)

Hyun-woo alternated training with the Upper Moon Spider and the Lower Moon Spider each day.

To put it simply, the Upper Moon Spider focused on honing his mental strength, while the Lower Moon Spider concentrated on improving his physical abilities.

The Upper Moon Spider’s initial pheromone injection on the first day was just an introduction; after that, only minuscule amounts were administered.

Even that was enough to leave Hyun-woo feeling drained. The addiction was so intense that he periodically had to die and reset.

[Mental Corruption Resistance has increased.]

The good news was that his resistance increased noticeably each time he died and came back to life.

It seemed to be because he recovered with the pheromones fully absorbed in his body.

Since the fragrance of Crystallization was said to be alluring, it meant the Upper Moon Spider’s method was working.

“Simply increasing resistance isn’t enough.”

The Upper Moon Spider not only administered pheromones but also taught him how to control his mind and meditate.

“Divide your consciousness. Separate the part of yourself that obsesses over Crystallization, and keep the parts focused on moving the body separate. A consciousness for moving the hands, a consciousness for moving the legs. Divide consciousness for each muscle, let them perform their roles independently, and prevent them from focusing on Crystallization.”

“Wait, is that even possible?”

The Upper Moon Spider silently showed him its body, composed of tens of millions of spiders.

“I can divide myself into as many as tens of thousands. Of course, the more you split, the simpler and more inferior they become, but I’m not expecting that much from you. Just have three or four personalities, simple enough to move your limbs.”

*Isn’t it different from the start when multiple beings come together to form one body? Why do these guys always make inherently impossible demands?*

But the Upper Moon Spider seemed to firmly believe that Hyun-woo could do it.

Even if he was worried about developing schizophrenia, Hyun-woo had no choice but to try.

He tried to focus his consciousness on other things as much as possible through meditation while receiving pheromone injections.

Surprisingly, it worked.

But it wasn’t entirely due to Hyun-woo’s efforts.

It was the ‘Reaction Defense’ trait added to the Battle Helper. While the Battle Helper was active, Reaction Defense began to respond not only to protect the body but also the ego.

It was the Reaction Defense trait that suppressed and stopped Hyun-woo from going crazy and rampaging after being exposed to the pheromones.

Thanks to that, he could maintain a calm mind for about 2 seconds.

The aftermath wasn’t insignificant, though.

“It’s working, kind of.”

Hyun-woo said to the Upper Moon Spider with a haggard expression. The Upper Moon Spider nodded as if it were obvious.

“I knew it would work. You need to trust yourself more.”

“You knew it would work? What did you see in me?”

“I don’t think a human who dies and comes back to life repeatedly, suffering in this world without a single member of their own kind, would be in their right mind. You are already naturally separating the suffering self and the self trying to adapt. That’s a more advanced method than dividing consciousness to multitask.”

*His ego was divided?* Hyun-woo had never thought about it that way.

It’s not like he had ever acted confused enough to be considered a split personality. Seeing Hyun-woo’s expression, the Upper Moon Spider quietly continued.

“The boundary between those two consciousnesses is firmly divided, but it would be difficult to consciously recognize it. However, the boundary may become blurred when you are stressed. But if you haven’t even been aware of it until now, rather than becoming a completely different person… you may have just naturally accepted it as part of your emotions.”

“Hmm, I’m a little worried.”

“Don’t worry. It’s a great advantage.”

The Upper Moon Spider smiled for once.

“Being able to consciously divide your consciousness at any time means you have great mental strength. Perhaps you are invincible in that aspect.”

*Doesn’t that mean all the wounds are being taken by the other consciousness? That sounds even more unsettling.*

“Now that you know the trick, from now on, you need to not only calm down but also learn how to move your body and increase the amount of time you can endure while in a divided state of consciousness.”

“How long are we going to do this?”

“Until you become resistant to my pheromones. After that, you won’t be able to do it even if you want to. And that’s when you’ll approach Crystallization.”

***

If the training with the Upper Moon Spider was static, the training with the Lower Moon Spider was quite intense.

Of course, intense in the direction of straining your head rather than your body.

“No, why can’t you walk on the ceiling!”

“Do you think I’m Spider-Man? How am I supposed to stick my body to the ceiling with spiderwebs? The only place spiderwebs come out is from Oshet’s Six-Hand Grip [a skill], and the spiderwebs aren’t that strong either?”

“It doesn’t matter where the spiderwebs come from. If you already have spiderwebs in place, you can attach and move depending on how you apply them!”

The Lower Moon Spider was teaching him how to fly before he could even walk. Unfortunately, she wasn’t very talented at teaching.

“I don’t understand at all, so why don’t you do it once.”

“Okay! Look! Look!”

The Lower Moon Spider took a few steps in the air and jumped up, sticking close to the ceiling.

Her hair was standing on end, but her skirt was undisturbed, and she looked as calm as if she were on the ground.

The Lower Moon Spider looked down at Hyun-woo with a triumphant expression.

“Look, you ignorant human!”

“So, humans aren’t that light, and spiderwebs don’t have strong adhesion…”

“Your spiderwebs don’t care about weight, you stupid human! Do I look light? You know how to handle mana, right? If you channel mana well into the spiderwebs, you can do it!”

“So how do you do that?”

“Your mana, like, um, like this, oooooh, and then you channel it like, hmmm…”

That’s not helpful at all.

It seems that even the Understanding +1 effect is useless.

Hyun-woo was so frustrated with the way the Lower Moon Spider was teaching that he called the Upper Moon Spider and asked her to teach him instead. But even she shook her head.

“My sister is better at handling spiderwebs.”

The Upper Moon Spider said she didn’t know how to sit still in the air like the Lower Moon Spider.

But the Lower Moon Spider did it like breathing, and she could go up and down freely without moving a single muscle.

She was given physical talent but deprived of intelligence, so it might be said that the balance is right.

Hyun-woo gave up his arrogant attitude. If the other person didn’t lower their standards, he had to lower his attitude.

“I know your talent is better than string games and embroidery. But I’m a stupid and incompetent human, so I can’t do it. Won’t you teach me one by one?”

“Ha, human. You’re learning a humble attitude thanks to me. Okay, I have no choice but to show you the most basic thing that even the youngest spider can do from birth.”

*I think there’s another person here who needs to learn a humble attitude.*

The Lower Moon Spider started with what she called ‘basic’.

But even that was so mysterious and bizarre that Hyun-woo couldn’t do it in a sane state.

He wondered if his mental corruption resistance would increase because of this.

The Lower Moon Spider suddenly told him 3, 4, 7, 9, and Hyun-woo had to figure out 1, 2, 5, 6, 8 on his own.

He was sure that he wouldn’t have been able to take even his first step without Understanding +1 and the Battle Helper.

When he finally managed to stick to the wall, he felt like dancing with joy. Even though he was only about 30cm above the ground and only stuck for about 10 seconds.

“You’re learning too slowly. Human. So when will you be able to do it like me?”

The Lower Moon Spider said with a sigh as she sat in the air.

The words, *’How can you compare me to those who crawl on the ceiling from birth?’* came up to his throat.

Hyun-woo was now walking for the first time in 3 days since he was born.

“To shorten the time it takes to reach the womb [the goal], you need to be able to jump and leap, if not as much as I can. Human, try harder. Try harder!”

Currently, it was impossible to move into the air like the Lower Moon Spider. He couldn’t even get a sense of it.

It was only possible if there was something solid to step on, like a wall or ceiling.

Even the Upper Moon Spider didn’t expect Hyun-woo to be able to do that by the time he entered the womb.

But Hyun-woo scoffed and replied.

“I’ve already got the feel for it, so the rest will be a piece of cake.”

“What are you talking about, stuck to the wall like a cicada.”

The Lower Moon Spider sneered at Hyun-woo.

But it didn’t take a week for her expression to crumble.

***

An unexpected achievement of this process was that Hyun-woo’s obsession with Crystallization hardly increased.

Crystallization is like an elephant.

If you tell someone not to imagine an elephant, the elephant swells up more and more in their head and grows uncontrollably.

Curse: Spiderweb was a curse that had such an effect. The more you are aware of it, the more you struggle, the greater your obsession becomes.

But Hyun-woo was so mentally and physically exhausted from training with the spiders that he hardly thought about Crystallization.

On the 42nd day since the quest began.

The Upper Moon Spider placed pheromones on Hyun-woo’s wrist. And she watched Hyun-woo’s expression closely.

Hyun-woo’s face twitched, but there was no movement. Soon after, Hyun-woo took a long, deep breath and nodded.

“You’ve become resistant.”

Hyun-woo nodded at the Upper Moon Spider’s words.

In fact, the situation wasn’t as simple as the Upper Moon Spider said.

Hyun-woo had acquired a new trait at the same time as acquiring resistance to pheromones.

[The ‘Pheromone’ trait has been added to Poison Blood.]

He had been expecting it since he was injected with a lot of pheromones, but he didn’t really expect to get it.

The Upper Moon Spider touched her fangs, which were stained with Hyun-woo’s blood, and said.

“Pheromones are now flowing through your body as well.”

“Oh, can you feel that?”

“Yes. But just for your information, these pheromones only work on men.”

“……”

“Were you expecting something?”

“No… not really… nothing.”

The Upper Moon Spider smiled softly.

“You have learned well. Honestly, I’m impressed. I had high expectations for you, but I didn’t expect you to keep up this much. If human civilization had been intact, you would have been a great intellectual or an excellent leader.”

The words, *’I’m just a lowly high school graduate,’* were swallowed back.

“The problem is the training with my sister. I know you’ve caught up quite quickly on this side, but I know that the training with the Lower Moon has been somewhat sluggish.”

“Did the Lower Moon Spider say that?”

“She said it somewhat harshly, but she said something similar.”

Hyun-woo sneered.

“Oh, really? She must have been very upset.”

***

Hyun-woo ran quickly towards the collapsed alley. At the same time, the Lower Moon Spider followed closely behind, swinging her legs menacingly.

With the sensation of his back being barely grazed, Hyun-woo leaped into the air. Stepping on the air, Hyun-woo jumped once more, leaping upwards in succession.

Each time Hyun-woo stepped on the air, the spiderwebs subtly placed in the alley flickered and shook with a purple light.

The Lower Moon Spider glared at Hyun-woo and continued to unleash attacks.

Without cutting any of the spiderwebs, the two leaped and dodged through the gaps, racing towards the end of the alley.

Just before reaching the end of the alley, the Lower Moon Spider rotated her body as if she couldn’t let him go.

In an instant, the spiderwebs in the alley were released all at once, rushing towards Hyun-woo like a net.

As the spiderwebs collapsed, Hyun-woo quickly lost his footing in the air.

Just as he was about to be captured, Hyun-woo transformed the spiderwebs into ‘Bonds of the Covenant’ [a skill].

“Hey!”

Hyun-woo ignored the Lower Moon Spider’s shout and rotated his body as the Lower Moon Spider had done.

The moment the chains were scattered again, they turned back into spiderwebs. Stepping on the newly woven spiderwebs, Hyun-woo finally landed at the end of the alley.

Hyun-woo put his hand on the end of the wall and declared victory.

“Goal.”