Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 154

154. Red Fleshed Fruit (3)

‘Trial?’

Hyun-woo was reminded of the nightmare Yggdrem’s trial had been.

The bottom of the cauldron. The intersection swarming with ghouls, gasters, zombies, and the ever-hungry.

The memories that had boiled up in the midst of the carnage, where they ate and were eaten. Only miserable and terrible memories remained.

Naturally, he never wanted to experience anything like that again.

But a chill of anticipation instantly ran down Hyun-woo’s spine.

Difficulty: After desperately building a shelter in hell and inflating his power, he had barely managed to secure a haven where he could live.

At least in this area, there were no truly formidable enemies, and he had survived for a considerable amount of time without dying.

Hyun-woo felt that he was slowly stagnating.

And now, the trial quest had appeared.

Finally.

Hyun-woo answered without hesitation.

“I accept.”

How could he refuse the pleasure of roaring in victory, covered in mud and wounds?

[The Wailing Star, Verda, is watching you.]

[The Shattering Star, Gaul, is watching you.]

[The Starving Star, Yggdrem, is watching you.]

[The Conquering Star, Ardan, is watching you.]

[The Roaring Star, Hirmas, is watching you.]

It felt like a long time since the stars had watched him. Amidst these countless gazes, Hyun-woo accepted the new quest.

[Quest Generated!]

[The ‘Red Fleshed Fruit’ quest has begun.]

[Defeat the Widow Queen Spider.]

[Curse: Spiderweb is applied.]

[An inescapable spiderweb is gradually tightening around you.]

Widow Queen Spider?

Hyun-woo was taken aback by the name he hadn’t heard in a long time.

The Widow Queen Spider was the monster that had helped Hyun-woo when he received the trial from Yggdrem.

It had prevented the mosquito swarm from attacking and upgraded the equipment Hyun-woo had.

Of course, it was by Monstriel’s order, but he never thought it would appear as the target of a quest.

‘What on earth is Monstriel’s intention?’

Monstriel was said to be the only star among the stars that could speak directly to Hyun-woo.

He thought that if he had something to say, he would definitely speak directly, but he hadn’t said anything yet.

Rather, he directly imposed a trial and issued a quest to eliminate his own subordinate, the Widow Queen Spider.

If there was an intention, it would be one of two things.

A test, or a gift.

‘Either way, I have to get rid of the Widow Queen Spider. Next is the ‘curse’……’

In Yggdrem’s case, the curse was relatively straightforward.

That monsters would feel a strong appetite for him.

It was a fatal curse, but at the same time, it became the foundation for victory. But this curse was a bit ambiguous in meaning.

‘An inescapable spiderweb is tightening?’

He didn’t feel anything right now. But the meaning was not clear.

He didn’t know if it was literally tightening around his body or restricting him to a specific place.

Still, it didn’t seem as difficult as ‘Curse: Delicious.’ But since it was a ‘curse,’ he couldn’t underestimate it.

‘First, let’s find out where the Widow Queen Spider is.’

***

The Widow Queen Spider was no longer in the vacant lot where it used to be.

It seemed that the reason was that the prey had decreased as Hyun-woo instructed the area to be careful. But it wasn’t difficult to find its whereabouts.

The Widow Queen Spider had simply moved to a place with more abundant prey.

Right to the building where crystallized flowers were blooming.

Hyun-woo smiled bitterly as he looked at the building covered in crystallized flowers.

He couldn’t tell from a distance, but the spiderwebs were interwoven with the white crystal moss.

Seeing the flying bugs even from a distance, they seemed to be at least as big as Hyun-woo, if not bigger.

“Kazat, how many bugs do you think are there?”

“The number of bugs cannot be determined, Great One. Most of the winged bugs stay in the sky and only come down occasionally. Crystallized flowers are like honey pots that keep those bugs on the ground.”

Crystallized flowers.

Hyun-woo wondered why Monstriel had imposed the trial as soon as he spotted the crystallized flowers.

It was about time for the quest to start anyway, but he wondered if it meant something that it started when he was trying to find the crystallized flowers.

‘If it’s Monstriel’s intention… well, it’s obvious.’

Monstriel openly seduced him.

To love and worship him.

Of course, when it came down to it, the purpose of the other stars who were interested in Hyun-woo was not much different from Monstriel’s.

But Monstriel was more active in expressing it.

Maybe it was because of the stars’ identities.

Being worshiped and loved was Monstriel’s most intense desire.

“What an attention seeker.”

Hyun-woo muttered with a twisted smile.

“Great One?”

“Um, no. Never mind. Then it would be good to go on a reconnaissance mission first.”

It would be good to call Kirson and send him on a reconnaissance mission, but he was moving with Park Hwi-so right now.

Since he couldn’t use the return stone while the quest was in progress, he was going to refrain from calling Kirson as much as possible.

Hyun-woo headed to the building with crystallized flowers with Kazat.

It was in a similar direction to where he had smashed the orc group before, but it was quite a distance away.

The closer he got to the crystallized flowers, the more insect-type monsters there were.

[Ash Mushroom Empire Worker Ant (LV 26)]

A giant ant swarm the size of calves was covering caterpillars the size of houses and disassembling them in real time. The bodily fluids flowing from the caterpillars covered the streets.

There was even an ant riding another ant and commanding them.

Surprisingly, they showed little interest in Hyun-woo. Hyun-woo also passed by without paying attention.

Starting with the ant swarm, more and more bugs began to appear.

He thought the ant swarm was quite bizarre, but that was nothing. The closer he got to the building with crystallized flowers, the stranger it became.

[Goul Empire Soldier Ant (LV 41)]

[Cantana Royal Palace Warrior Ant (LV 45)]

The affiliation meant nothing.

At least dozens, hundreds of empires and ant colonies claiming to be kingdoms were wandering around.

There weren’t that many individuals, but it was strange that so many different species were wandering around.

Hyun-woo became uneasy about approaching the ground anymore and went up to the building.

Of course, there were bugs on it, but not many.

Hyun-woo, who was looking around the building with crystallized flowers from a safe distance, muttered in disbelief.

“What is this?”

What was diverse was not only the affiliation.

The closer he got to the building with crystallized flowers, the more bugs swarmed, including ants, bees, moths, butterflies, mosquitoes, and flies.

No, it seems insincere to express it as diverse. They were strange. No, they were bizarre.

There were no bugs that looked the same, and it was a collection of creatures mixed together in all sorts of ways.

No longer did affiliation or species distinction matter. Even the names were messed up, and only the levels were displayed.

“What is this? What on earth is going on?”

“Crossbreeding… maybe?”

Crossbreeding? Hyun-woo turned to Kazat.

Kazat was looking down at the bugs below the building with a very interested expression.

“They are creatures that would never normally match, but there are definitely traces of mixed genes. They are so messed up that it is difficult to find the original.”

“No, stop saying things that anyone can say. If you have any idea why they are like that, tell me.”

“Well, I don’t know that well… but I believe the Great One will find out soon.”

He was a useless fellow.

Hyun-woo stepped on Kazat’s tail as if by mistake. Kazat let out a groan of pain, but Hyun-woo pretended not to hear and carefully examined the bugs.

The body of an ant with the stinger of a bee, the pattern of a moth, and the eyes of a butterfly.

It was like looking at a chimera made up of bugs.

Each one didn’t have a very high level, but he couldn’t figure out their behavior patterns at all.

Some were lying down as if dead and docile, while others attacked and decomposed any bugs that passed by. Some devoured the corpses voraciously.

It was chaos itself.

Hyun-woo clicked his tongue.

“There’s no point in analyzing them. Let’s go back and find out if there’s a way to clean them up all at once. And…….”

At that moment, Hyun-woo felt a shadow looming over his head.

Hyun-woo pressed down on Kazat’s head and crouched down. Sharp fangs brushed past him in a precarious position.

What flew in from the sky was a giant mantis much taller than Hyun-woo.

‘No, should I even call that a mantis?’

[Blind Gale Wind Mantis (LV 48)]

‘Is that really the name? Don’t tell me they combined a mosquito and a mantis?’

There was no visible trace of a mosquito.

“Swaaaaaaak!”

But the mantis… no, the gale wind mantis, the moment it screamed, a mosquito’s proboscis [a long, piercing mouthpart] popped out from inside its round mouth covered with hundreds of fangs.

Hyun-woo was able to avoid having a mosquito’s proboscis stuck in his brain again by a hair’s breadth.

“Whether it’s this guy or that guy, all these mosquitoes are only after my brain fluid.”

Hyun-woo smiled bitterly, thinking of Renian. Then he soon took out Tam and burned his fighting spirit.

Kazat was also preparing to fight, but Hyun-woo kicked his butt.

“You go and prepare the things I told you about. Those modified guys. I think they’ll be useful this time, so we need to speed up the production period.”

“Ah, I understand, Great One. Then I…….”

Hyun-woo reverse summoned Kazat before he could finish speaking.

Difficulty: Hell or reality, when Hyun-woo’s subordinates are reverse summoned, they return to the intersection, the point where Hyun-woo is resurrected.

“Well, then, are we the only ones left?”

But the gale wind mantis didn’t seem like it would wait politely. It shook its wings at regular intervals.

At that time, he felt shadows hovering over his head again. It seemed like it was calling for reinforcements.

It doesn’t matter. Clear violence is better than indistinguishable chaos.

As soon as the gale wind mantis rushed in, Hyun-woo activated ‘Battle Helper.’ The moment his eyes turned purple, a clear purple aura rose up.

It was a change that occurred when Battle Helper became a Unique grade.

In the countless battle patterns that Hyun-woo couldn’t even remember, a combat method that was advantageous when facing giant monsters like the gale wind mantis was automatically engraved in his body.

Hyun-woo felt himself wielding his sword before he even thought about how to move his body.

Swish, whoosh.

Hyun-woo knocked away the gale wind mantis’s claws and at the same time accurately aimed for the joint of its leg.

The aura surrounding his body adjusted the pace of his whole body and infused strength only into the necessary parts. Without much effort, one of the gale wind mantis’s front legs fell off.

Crack, as bodily fluids splattered, the gale wind mantis screamed. The mosquito’s proboscis spewed out again towards Hyun-woo.

At that moment, Hyun-woo unknowingly created flames through ‘Helburg’s Distorted Passion,’ which was absorbed into Tam. It had no choice but to scream and fall back.

The other bugs also distanced themselves from Hyun-woo’s flames. Hyun-woo recalled a simple common sense while watching the scene.

“Bugs are weak to fire.”

Fire is deadly to bugs. They burn easily, and unlike animals, burns do not heal well.

Hyun-woo raised the corners of his lips.

Then it didn’t seem like it would be too difficult. Hyun-woo took an even bigger step towards the rushing bugs and unleashed Tam.

A powerful flame began to sweep around. The bugs that caught fire went crazy and rampaged.

Then, Hyun-woo felt that there were too many bugs.

There were only about six or seven bugs until just now, but before he knew it, the bugs were densely filling his surroundings.

Countless swarms of bugs were also gathering in the sky.

Only then did Hyun-woo recall another simple common sense.

‘Oh… come to think of it, bugs also like fire, don’t they?’

***