Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 100

100. Approaching Threat (1)

“Kirson, Khazad!”

Entering the Hell difficulty, Hyun-woo immediately summoned the two subordinates he could most easily control.

The two squeezed out of the darkness at the same time, colliding and growling at each other.

Thanks to the Ratmen, who were skilled in underground work, the expansion of the shelter was proceeding smoothly, but the Ratmen and Goblins had never been on good terms.

“Khazad, is the control of the Ratmen going well?”

“Yes, Great One.”

Unlike the Goblins, the Ratmen harbored some dissatisfaction with Hyun-woo.

Goblins absolutely obey Kirson, and they obey Hyun-woo, whom Kirson obeys.

But the Ratmen are different.

Hyun-woo hadn’t gained complete fear or obedience from them. He couldn’t bring them all in as subordinates. But, strangely, Khazad controlled those Ratmen without difficulty.

“Really? How are you doing it?”

“I have them publicly accuse one person a day who disgraces the Great One and give them the punishment of being eaten by the rat swarm. It is now becoming fully established as a system.”

“What about the Goblins?”

“We are actively listening to their accusations as well, but no complaints have been detected so far. Of course, no Ratmen have expressed dissatisfaction either, but as a warning, I am thinking of randomly selecting an accused person and executing them.”

‘Surveillance between neighbors. It’s evolving into a totalitarian society,’ Hyun-woo thought.

But Hyun-woo was hesitant about running the organization in such a terrible and miserable way.

“Khazad, you’re doing well, but doing that makes it publicly known that there are rebellious guys to me. So, it would be better to create something like a secret police to make them inform on each other and deal with it secretly. It shouldn’t look like there are complaints in the organization. We have to make them believe that we are a happy and healthy organization with no complaints.”

“Excellent advice, Great One.”

Kirson was watching from the side with a bored expression. What did a Goblin know? At best, it’s just a tribal society.

“I think that’s enough since we’re not that big yet. Anyway, let’s move on from that. There’s something I wanted to ask you guys.”

Hyun-woo first pointed to Kirson.

“Kirson, what’s the reason you rose from a Redcap Goblin to a Hobgoblin?”

[Hobgoblin Kirson (LV 32)]

Kirson’s level and race name had clearly changed suddenly. At that time, Hyun-woo thought it was thanks to killing the hungry ones, but it wasn’t clear why even the race name changed.

Kirson tilted his head as if he had heard an unexpected question.

“Boss, I didn’t know you would ask such a half-baked question.”

“Be careful what you say to the Great One, you impudent bastard! Do you think the Great One doesn’t even know such obvious things? This question is to awaken who gave you the power! Answer with a humble attitude.”

“Yeah. That’s it.”

Hyun-woo nodded at Khazad’s words. Kirson looked at Hyun-woo with a suspicious expression.

“…Based on what I’ve seen of the boss so far, I don’t think that’s the case… But if I have to say it, it’s because the power contained in the fragment of the star has increased. Subordinates get stronger together as the completeness of the fragment increases and the lord’s power gets stronger.”

Hyun-woo became even more puzzled by Kirson’s answer.

Kirson was a subordinate of Gaul, who was much stronger than himself. Then shouldn’t he have been such an existence that he couldn’t handle from the beginning?

“But not all subordinates are the same. Whether you have been given a name, whether you are often called by your lord, whether you have carried out your lord’s orders, how long you have served, and how much power you receive from the fragment, each subordinate varies greatly depending on all of these. But it is difficult for me to attract the attention of the stars with my power.”

Kirson smiled and shrugged.

“In other words, although the background has become worse than when I was under Gaul, it is better to be treated as the head of a snake than as a dragon’s scale. Of course, it would be difficult if the snake’s head was cut off, but the boss doesn’t die even if his head is cut off, does he?”

‘Anyway, the stars adopt subordinates without hesitation as long as their personalities match,’ Hyun-woo mused.

‘Difficulty: Tutorial level, or should I say easy level now. Anyway, I think I chose quite carefully at the time, but now I seem to be choosing easily.’

‘I should say it’s a change of strategy.’

Hyun-woo nodded. It seemed that Khazad’s ability had also increased in the same context.

‘If you take them as subordinates, they become stronger. And the sooner the better.’

Then this was highly likely to work for humans as well.

Then Hyun-woo was left with one concern.

‘……Who should I kill?’

***

[Quest Generated!]

[Approaching Threat quest has started.]

[Defeat 100 Orcs.]

The quest started before the 고민 [Korean: worry, concern] was over. Hyun-woo was puzzled when he heard the quest conditions.

“100 Orcs?”

Orcs are rare, but I have caught them before. In Difficulty: Tutorial, Orcs are a little more difficult than Goblins, but they are easy to catch because they rarely travel in groups.

That prejudice also worked in Difficulty: Hell. Orcs were huge guys with massive muscles reaching 2m [approximately 6 feet 7 inches], but they had no decent equipment or companions. Their level was also in the early 30s, so they weren’t that much of a concern.

“Well, it’s simple, so it’s good.”

‘I’m worried that the reward will be low because the difficulty is low, but that means that level-up opportunities are also provided. If I catch as many as 100, my level will rise quite a bit,’ Hyun-woo thought.

“Kirson, where is the place where the most Orcs live around here? I’ve only seen them wandering around one or two at a time.”

Kirson’s expression became subtle.

“The reason you’re specifically looking for Orcs… Is it because of that quest or something? Do you always pick things like that?”

“Why are you complaining again? It’s because your boss is terribly unlucky. If you were lucky, you wouldn’t have met me. Don’t lay the groundwork and just tell me quickly. Do you hate Orcs?”

“Why did such a quest appear now…”

Kirson sighed and took out a map, pointing to one side.

It was quite far from the intersection, but it was an area included in Kirson’s reconnaissance area. Kirson also drew a roughly drawn pig picture.

“It’s just Orcs, right? Why are you being so serious?”

“There are no Orc villages nearby. The Orcs you occasionally see are deserters, stragglers. So it’s natural that the boss thinks of Orcs as easy. But Orcs are not originally like that. They are warlords who move in legions. Each of them has tremendous strength, perseverance, a sense of purpose, and there is no weapon they can’t handle, from cold weapons to automatic weapons. They are heavenly soldiers.”

“Wait, automatic weapons? Do they use guns too?”

“Ah, those noisy and crude weapons of humans. I told you, Orcs don’t use any weapons. Of course, weirdos use things like that, but they also use guns. Mainly, uh, to provoke the enemy by poking them from a distance.”

‘I had some expectation that an itemized gun might have been developed, but it seems that the treatment of guns is similar here as well,’ Hyun-woo thought.

But Hyun-woo became a little serious.

‘Hyun-woo is human. Unlike monsters, guns exert proper power on humans.’

‘If they scratch with automatic rifles, they might not even be able to pick up their bones.’

“You said that the guys who shoot guns are outliers, right? Then at best, there will be one or two.”

“Well, it depends on the case.”

Kirson tapped the place he had pointed to earlier with his finger and said.

“This is the only place where you can find a lot of Orcs. They are new guys who appeared a few days ago, and they don’t seem to be deserters, but proper search parties. They are heavily armed, well supplied, and their armament is solid. They are probably on a different level from the deserters the boss was dealing with.”

***

The Orc reconnaissance team was strolling down the middle of the road.

Instead of unified uniforms, the Orcs were armed with heavy armor and heavy weapons that seemed to have been picked up from various places. They looked like seasoned mercenaries.

Hyun-woo watched the scene from afar and whispered to Kirson next to him.

“Are those them? But why did they suddenly appear?”

“Orcs don’t usually come this far. Maybe… the fall of the Fallen Empire has piqued their curiosity. Originally, they would have been checked by the Ratmen reconnaissance team before coming this far.”

Hyun-woo watched one of them. If he wasn’t mistaken, he was carrying two recoilless rifles and even carrying a box of ammunition.

Looking closely, it didn’t seem like the Orcs had made it. It’s big, but it’s a size for humans. It seemed like they had picked it up somewhere.

“What should we do? We said we’re only scouting today, so should we wait until they pass by?”

Hyun-woo looked at them for a while and shook his head.

The direction they were going was towards the intersection. Of course, they could change direction on the way, but it would be difficult if they found the shelter.

And above all, Hyun-woo was eager to level up.

“Let’s catch them and kill them.”

Kirson sighed and disappeared somewhere. He must have moved to a good position to attack.

Hyun-woo also began to move quietly.

After a while.

One Orc walking at the front tripped over something. The Orcs behind him tried to laugh at him, but they were horrified by the scream that erupted and checked his condition.

“Kwik, there’s something!”

The fallen Orc had steel greaves attached to his legs. But now it was melting away by something and causing serious injuries to his legs.

The Orcs found that the red thread that was laid low was broken. The fallen Orc’s legs were now not just small wounds, but were rotting, causing dark blisters.

[Poison Blood: Acidic properties manifested]

One of the Orcs tried to examine the wound, but the moment he touched it, his hand also began to fester.

[Poison Blood: Contagious properties manifested]

The Orc’s scream echoed loudly through the ruins. The Orcs looked around with uneasy expressions.

In Difficulty: Hell, making loud noises, especially screams, is a sound that calls higher predators.

The Orc who appeared to be the leader quickly gestured. The Orcs immediately rushed in and quickly killed those who had been their comrades.

“There may be, kwik, Ratmen remnants nearby. Let’s retreat carefully.”

The Orcs began to return anxiously the way they had come. But another Orc tripped over something. This time, the same wound occurred. His legs began to rot.

Only then did the Orcs realize that they had come too deep.

‘But traps alone can’t completely catch them,’ Hyun-woo thought.

Hyun-woo, who was watching from the darkness, took out Tom.

The reason why he applied Poison Blood to the widow queen spider’s web was to prevent them from escaping.

Since it will be red because blood is applied, they can find it if they pay attention, but it will be difficult to run away recklessly.

Hyun-woo first threw a Hell Dart at the Orc who seemed to be the leader and ran out in an instant. At the same time, Kirson also appeared.

“Goblin!”, “Human!” The same shouts erupted at the same time, but the Orc leader who would give the order had already been stabbed in the neck by Tom.

“Kwiik!”

“This guy won’t die.”

The Orc leader got excited and shook Hyun-woo off in an instant. His neck was incredibly thick.

‘I didn’t expect to cut it, but I didn’t know he wouldn’t die even though a hole was pierced. But that was enough,’ Hyun-woo thought.

The Orc leader tried to shout something at Hyun-woo, but no voice came out. He couldn’t breathe either.

Hyun-woo’s Poison Blood caused blisters and began to block his trachea. The Orc leader fell to the ground, supporting himself with his hands.

But it seemed like it would take a long time to die.

The Orcs responded quickly even without instructions. Five Orcs in their 30s. It was by no means an easy situation.

But Hyun-woo knew how to increase his numbers when he was at a disadvantage.

“Kill them all.”

[Poison Blood: Parasitic properties manifested]

The Orc leader suddenly had a seizure. He opened his eyes wide and rushed towards the Orc next to him.

The Orcs were panicked when the Orc leader suddenly attacked them, but they were already used to abandoning their comrades. But the Orc who was bitten by the Orc leader and covered in the blisters that were staying in his mouth attacked another Orc again.

Hyun-woo and Kirson lightly cooked [easily defeated] the Orcs while taking advantage of the chaos.