Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 101

101. Approaching Threat (2)

Clang, crunch.

Unlike reality, where I could barely feel the sensation of cutting, Tam [Hyun-woo’s weapon] didn’t fare so well in Difficulty: Hell.

Because of that, Hyun-woo was barely able to chop off the Orc’s head; it felt more like he was bludgeoning it.

However, the chieftain Orc, with poison melting its tongue, couldn’t even scream.

[Eliminate 100 Orcs (5/100)]

[Level Up!]

‘As expected, monsters I’ve never seen before give a lot of experience. Did Hyun-woo kill them all?’ Just then, he spotted an Orc running through the middle of the plaza.

It was where he had laid the Poison Blood Spider Web, but it seemed to have been lucky enough not to step on it.

“Kirson, over there.”

It can’t be lucky forever. Eventually, the guy stepped on the Poison Blood Spider Web and collapsed, screaming.

Kirson was about to approach to finish him off. At that moment, Hyun-woo felt a chilling sensation.

In Difficulty: Hell, an ominous premonition is always right.

“Kirson!”

Hyun-woo immediately reverse-summoned Kirson. The moment Kirson hesitated, about to finish off the Orc, something black swooped down.

Something of enormous size crunched down on the prone Orc’s body. Severed limbs scattered like fallen leaves.

Kirson narrowly succeeded in being reverse-summoned.

“Woo-ooo-ooo-ooo!”

The creature, having missed its prey, roared violently at Hyun-woo.

[Full Moon Tribe Lycanthrope (LV 42)]

[The ‘Hell’s Strongest’ title increases stats relative to level.]

Hyun-woo bared his teeth and frowned.

“An intrusion at a time like this?”

Its appearance seemed similar to the werewolf he had seen in the Decapitation Dungeon. But this guy was huge, almost 3 meters tall, and its fur, though dirty with grime and blood, was a dazzling silver.

Frankly speaking, it was the most beautiful creature he had encountered in Hell. But the problem was that a chilling, ferocious hostility was engulfing him.

Bang!

The moment it kicked off the ground, fragments scattered in all directions. Hyun-woo immediately activated Battle Helper to evade the creature rushing towards him.

But Hyun-woo realized his judgment was wrong. It was much faster than he had thought.

“Kuh!”

In a very brief moment, Hyun-woo wondered if its claws would slash his body or its teeth would devour him. Claws as sharp as daggers could instantly shred his body, and its teeth would tear him to pieces. But at least he thought he could take it down with him.

‘If I had to choose, taking it down with me would be better.’

Hyun-woo twisted his evasive maneuver and threw himself at the Lycanthrope.

At that moment, the Lycanthrope smoothly bounced off its body and leaped over Hyun-woo.

Hyun-woo was dumbfounded by the clean evasion despite the incredible speed.

Incredible dynamic visual acuity and reaction speed. Hyun-woo immediately felt that he couldn’t face it.

The Lycanthrope, having leaped over Hyun-woo, was staring at him intently.

To be exact, it was looking at Hyun-woo’s right hand. On his right hand was a tattoo that glowed whenever Hyun-woo absorbed a Fragment of the Stars.

‘Did it think I was a member of another star’s faction?’

If so, that meant it was also highly intelligent. The Lycanthrope didn’t show the same intense hostility as before, but it still seemed wary.

It slowly began to approach. Hyun-woo considered all possible scenarios, wondering what to do.

‘Right now, it doesn’t show hostility. But the moment it does, he’s dead.’

‘There’s only one way.’

Hyun-woo carefully put Tam away.

The Lycanthrope seemed a little more relieved at the lack of hostility and came closer. Hyun-woo thought of taming a large dog and waited until it got close.

As expected, it didn’t attack Hyun-woo right away and began to sniff him. Hyun-woo let it sniff to its heart’s content.

After sniffing for a while, the Lycanthrope snorted.

‘If I bared my teeth here, it would immediately become a death sentence.’

“Dogs and humans are friends, right?”

It felt like just a while ago he was saying hamsters were related to dogs, and he also felt like he had killed the werewolves quite miserably, but anyway, Hyun-woo said that.

The Lycanthrope bared its teeth with a grin. And a wolf baring its teeth was never a good sign.

The moment its muzzle opened wide, razor-like teeth were revealed.

Hyun-woo thought that this would happen.

“You son of a bitch.”

Of course, Hyun-woo wasn’t one to entrust his life to others.

The moment its muzzle opened wide, Hyun-woo simultaneously transformed the spiderwebs he had been secretly spreading around since the Lycanthrope started sniffing into the Shackles of the Covenant [a binding skill].

Suddenly, thick iron chains wrapped around its entire body, and the Lycanthrope panicked and thrashed. Most of the chains wrapped around its mouth.

But Hyun-woo had no intention of letting it go at all.

The moment the Lycanthrope thrashed, Hyun-woo tightly gripped the iron chains with Oshet’s Six-Handed Grip [a skill enhancing grip strength].

Hyun-woo, in a state where he could never let go even if his arms fell off, wildly clung to the Lycanthrope’s body and shook.

“Kuh, keuh!”

Each time his body shook, it roughly collided with the ground and fur. Hyun-woo quickly clung to its back to avoid being hit by the Lycanthrope’s claws. The wind quickly swept past his head.

He could see the scenery in front of him changing rapidly. He had no idea how fast he was moving.

“Keng!”

The Lycanthrope began to change its body shape. It transformed from a bipedal form into a complete wolf form.

Although its size had decreased slightly, it was still larger than an average compact car. While clinging on, Hyun-woo took out the Black Hand Dagger and stabbed the creature’s back wildly.

The silver fur was instantly stained with blood. While the Lycanthrope paused for a moment to thrash, Hyun-woo shoved spiderwebs into the wounds and launched spiderwebs in all directions again.

Clatter, crunch. At that moment, the iron chains were bitten off by the Lycanthrope’s teeth.

Hyun-woo was horrified at the sight and hurriedly created new iron chains. The chains, swallowing the wounds and growing, bound the Lycanthrope’s body and fixed it to the wall.

The ruined buildings shook, raising dust. The Lycanthrope thrashed as if it didn’t care if its flesh was torn off.

For about half a day.

After a considerable amount of time, the Lycanthrope seemed exhausted and slumped down. Its body was pierced with chains in various places, bound to buildings all around. The beautiful silver fur was all bloodied.

It was exhausted because of the Poison Blood that Hyun-woo had injected, but he couldn’t even imagine how much more it would have rampaged if it hadn’t been for the Poison Blood.

“Damn it…”

Hyun-woo groaned from the Lycanthrope’s back. The reason he hadn’t finished off the Lycanthrope was purely because his condition was much worse than the Lycanthrope’s.

There wasn’t a bone in his body that wasn’t broken. He didn’t even have the strength to hang on, so he had pierced his body and the Lycanthrope’s body with chains.

“…Kirson.”

Hyun-woo didn’t even have the strength to drink a potion, so he squeezed out his last bit of strength to summon Kirson. He had even used the Last Man Standing perk [a skill that activates when near death].

Kirson was horrified when he reappeared and saw the Lycanthrope. Kirson hurriedly tried to find Hyun-woo, but couldn’t find him easily.

“Boss, is that you, Boss?”

What must he look like in Kirson’s eyes? Hyun-woo tried to nod, but his neck wouldn’t move.

Kirson took out a potion and poured it into Hyun-woo’s mouth. As the potion liquid went down, Hyun-woo felt like his lifespan had been extended just a little more.

But the wounds themselves were too severe. He felt like he needed to drink a few more strong ones.

“Boss, the potion is… what do you call it? The stomach? It’s leaking from there.”

He must have injured his stomach pretty badly.

“Boss, to be honest, I don’t even know if what’s in front of me is the Boss. I should call it Boss-shaped porridge or lump… something like that. How are you still alive?”

Kirson ‘fixed’ Hyun-woo by pouring potions on his body as well as feeding him.

In the meantime, the potion liquid seemed to have flowed down and touched the Lycanthrope’s body as well. The Lycanthrope began to stir again. But soon, it screamed and slumped down.

“Wh-what is it?”

“Arm.”

Hyun-woo, who was able to move his mouth properly thanks to drinking the potion, replied.

“I stuck my arm in its guts. What a monster. But it still moved.”

Kirson finally realized where Hyun-woo’s missing arm was. His expression became complex and subtle.

Honestly, from Kirson’s point of view, he didn’t know which one to call a monster.

***

“What are you? What are you doing?”

Thanks to Kirson, Hyun-woo was able to recover to some extent. Hyun-woo, who was able to get up, immediately began interrogating the Lycanthrope.

Even if he killed it right away, it wouldn’t be enough, but if he could communicate, it wouldn’t be bad to interrogate it beforehand.

“What’s your relationship with the Orcs? Are you in a cooperative relationship?”

If guys like the Lycanthrope were in a cooperative relationship with the Orcs, Hyun-woo’s early quest completion would be out the window. He barely managed to struggle with one, but if there were several…

At that moment, the Lycanthrope shook its body violently as if enraged. Hyun-woo didn’t hesitate to twist Tam, which he had stuck in its side.

The Lycanthrope screamed and stopped moving again. It gasped for breath and mumbled something like a groan.

“Boss, let’s take the sword out for a moment.”

“The sword? Why?”

“Werewolves can’t speak when they’re in wolf form. They have to be in human form to speak, but then their stamina drops quite a bit.”

He’s the reconnaissance captain for a reason; he knows everything.

Hyun-woo was worried but decided to trust the restraining iron chains for now. At least they would buy him time.

As soon as Hyun-woo pulled out Tam, the creature’s form grew larger for a moment, as if it had been waiting, and then began to shrink again.

It was a smaller, thinner figure than the bipedal form he had first seen.

It was much closer to human; no, it was transforming into a human itself.

What appeared next was a silver-haired boy with a height that would come up to Hyun-woo’s chest. He was pretty enough to be mistaken for a woman.

But looking at the dense yet solid muscles, he could feel that even in that state, he had the strength to kill Hyun-woo.

Thanks to the sudden decrease in size, the iron chains tore at his flesh, but some of them still remained on his body, hanging down.

He glared at Hyun-woo, his red eyes flashing.

“Krrr…”

“Take care of your eyes. Before I pop them.”

Hyun-woo raised Tam, but the Lycanthrope only narrowed its eyes.

The Lycanthrope’s courage was admirable, but that didn’t mean Hyun-woo was going to let it go. Hyun-woo took out the Black Hand Dagger and stabbed it mercilessly.

“Kuaaaak!”

“There are still three left to pop.”

Why three instead of one? The Lycanthrope was confused by the number even in the midst of his pain.

Hyun-woo waggled the Black Hand Dagger up and down and said.

“One above, two below.”

It was impossible to know how the Lycanthrope took this threat. It shed tears of blood, but eventually gave up resisting and lowered its head.

There was still a strong smell of resistance, but it was still in a somewhat cooperative state.

“…I thought you were in a cooperative relationship with those disgusting Orcs.”

“Me?”

“Also, you saved that goblin, and I smelled a lot of green skins.”

“What does a goblin have to do with an Orc to make you think that?”

“They are slaves.”

It was Kirson who answered.

“Orcs are like the grunts of the Army of Fire, and goblins are like slaves who serve those grunts. I escaped from there. It’s understandable that this guy is mistaken.”

It could have been a shameful past for Kirson, but he answered coolly. The Lycanthrope nodded confidently as if it were natural.

But to Hyun-woo, Kirson, who had helped him for a long time, was a hundred times better than this handsome silver-haired pretty boy.

“What are you nodding your head for, you bastard.”

Hyun-woo was dumbfounded and struck the Lycanthrope with Tam.