Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 172

172. Northern Expedition (3)

“This is the first time I’ve seen an undead since coming here.”

Ha-hyun muttered listlessly. *Well*, considering the difficulty: Hell, he had already seen a Black Tortoise undead.

The Fallen Empire.

The countless undead that attacked the Ratmen’s empire like a tidal wave. He hadn’t seen them since then.

Because he couldn’t find them around the intersection.

Especially for the current difficulty level, this was the first time.

Ha-hyun raised his hand.

“Wait……”

Before Hyun-woo could stop him, Ha-hyun flicked his finger, and the spider web spread under the ground bounced up, instantly cutting the undead werewolf into pieces.

The undead werewolf quickly fell to the ground.

“Why?”

“No, I was just trying to figure out why that kind of guy suddenly appeared. Do you know anything?”

“Well… most undead don’t appear naturally. Either a wizard who can control undead has been up to something, or it’s a place like that from the start. In this case, it’s almost 100% the former.”

Ha-hyun winked.

“But it seems like there are still a lot of guys to ask.”

Hyun-woo could already feel it. Undead werewolves were slowly rising from all directions.

Along with a terrible stench, a chilling rattling sound was heard, and a fierce murderous intent that seemed to pierce the skin.

First, the closest one rushed towards Hyun-woo on all fours.

There was no shout. But the moment Hyun-woo swung his fist, its skull shattered from the top of its head to the end of its spine, and its bones let out a death rattle instead.

The undead werewolves rushed at Hyun-woo one after another.

Hyun-woo subtly released his murderous intent, but it was the same.

Even with the murderous intent that would make an ordinary werewolf curl its tail and run away, the undead rushed in as if they had no fear.

“Seriously.”

Hyun-woo was embarrassed. He *could* leave as is, but he came to clean up, not to attack the dungeon.

If a flood occurred due to these undead werewolves, the follow-up unit would be in trouble.

*Thud, Kwajik.*

Hyun-woo smashed the head of the guy who had just rushed in, sprinkling his blood.

Thanks to the acidic properties, the bones melted, but that was it. It was a waste to scatter his blood on these many undead.

“Then what should I do with this?”

Hyun-woo asked Ha-hyun, who was standing still and spreading spider webs.

Ha-hyun spread spider webs around like a net, then pulled them in at once, crushing the undead into one ball.

The undead werewolves rattled non-stop but could no longer move.

“Maybe there’s a wizard inside here or an item that serves as a medium. Look for it.”

“How do I……”

Hyun-woo was about to ask, but he discovered a huge silhouette rising beyond the horizon.

A vibration that shook the air without a sound was felt. The air was rushing in. Ha-hyun muttered.

“It looks like *that*. I guess they made it to protect the item.”

Hyun-woo felt the wizard’s malice.

This was not a coincidence.

Someone recognized the Northern Expedition plan and laid a trap.

From the beginning, they were meant to eliminate the werewolves, and then, the moment they were careless, they would be swept away by the undead army.

Maybe Song Yeo-un or Seo Ji-hoo’s team is in danger too.

Hyun-woo jumped up without thinking. The undead werewolves burst as soon as they touched Hyun-woo’s body, which was surging with murderous intent.

Hyun-woo’s stats, corrected by the upper and lower difficulty levels, were several times more effective on the monsters.

Once again, an inaudible low-frequency sound that shook the air swept through the area.

Hyun-woo immediately faced it.

[Undead Cluster (LV 52)]

It was a three-headed werewolf made of huge skeletons clustered together.

The flesh that was still thickly *plastered* all over the place was disgusting.

The three-story building-sized guy immediately struck down with his sharp claws as soon as he saw Hyun-woo. The sharp bones and the heads of the werewolves on his hands crunched down on Hyun-woo.

The moment Hyun-woo collided with the huge arm, his body was pushed back. But Hyun-woo was still standing.

The werewolf’s skulls were biting the arm that had been taken over by the Restrainer Yael. But there wasn’t even a scratch on his arm.

Rather, broken pieces of teeth were scattered everywhere. Since there were no facial muscles, it was impossible to know if the werewolves were embarrassed.

“You should have given me your hand when I asked.”

At the same time as Hyun-woo muttered, the entire arm of the giant werewolf was *whipped* and wrapped in chains.

As the strength of the spider web increased, the strength of the chain also increased several times. Before, it was about the strength of a normal chain, but now it was so strong that even Hyun-woo’s strength could not easily break it.

“Okay, then again. Hand.”

It was not clear whether the Undead Cluster understood Hyun-woo’s words.

But instead of putting his foot on Hyun-woo’s hand, he tried to shake off the chain.

Instead, his arm was pulled out with a cracking sound.

Hyun-woo, who had grabbed the Undead Cluster’s arm whole, swung that arm again as it was.

“You rude bastard.”

*Bang!* The Undead Cluster, which was trying to take the form of a giant wolf, was crushed into a pile of crushed bones with just that one blow.

The Undead Cluster *flailed* and fluctuated as if trying to restore its appearance, but Hyun-woo pounded it a few more times as if he were pounding a *mortar*, and it soon became quiet.

When the chain was released, pieces of bone poured down with a *rustling* sound.

“Is it over?”

Ha-hyun, who was cleaning up the werewolves approaching Hyun-woo’s rear, asked.

Instead of answering, Hyun-woo went up to the Undead Cluster and began rummaging through the mountain of bones.

It wasn’t difficult to find what he wanted because he kept feeling a tingling sensation at his fingertips.

Hyun-woo pulled a black lump out of the bone.

‘Crystallization?’

No. It was easy to compare because Crystallization was still in the inventory.

This was much smaller and more crude in shape. The amount of mana felt was only slightly better than a *crystal stone*.

Without thinking any further, Hyun-woo crushed it as if he were squeezing it.

There was no need to feel bad. There were now enough crystal stones to lie down and use as a bed.

At the same time as the crystal stone was broken, the undead werewolves that were *rushing* in from all directions collapsed.

The black crystal stone poured down under Hyun-woo’s hand.

‘It’s going as expected.’

He already knew about the appearance of the undead, but he didn’t know when or how they would appear.

Someone in the north doesn’t seem to like the Northern Expedition very much.

Baek-gol had recorded the Northern Expedition in great detail.

In so much detail that he could not have known unless he had participated directly.

From its beginning, process, climax, and ending.

Hyun-woo, who knows the ending, smiled like someone who knows the ending of a movie that hasn’t been released yet.

“I’m getting more and more excited.”

***

Hyun-woo also visited Seo Ji-hoo and Song Yeo-un’s dungeons in person, but the answer he heard was unexpected.

“You said there were no undead?”

“Yes. Rather, when I saw what the branch manager brought, I thought that pervert had peeled off the skin of a monster’s face again.”

Hyun-woo hit Song Yeo-un’s head with the werewolf’s skull.

Song Yeo-un made a *whining* sound without even hurting and stepped back.

*I feel like she’s been treating me more casually since I went to Song Ji-min’s exhibition. I don’t intend to scold her, though.*

On the other hand, Seo Ji-hoo was looking at the skull Hyun-woo was holding with a serious expression.

“Do you know anything?”

“Ah, it’s nothing, but just a moment……”

Seo Ji-hoo received the werewolf skull and placed it on the floor.

After confirming that Hyun-woo and Song Yeo-un were the only ones in the clearing in the forest, Seo Ji-hoo took something out of his bag.

It was the magic book that Hyun-woo had given him before.

Seo Ji-hoo held the book in his left hand and placed his right hand on the skull and began to mutter something.

It was a language that even Hyun-woo, who can now understand alien languages, could not understand.

Surprise was only temporary, and a purple aura suddenly began to permeate the skull.

In an instant, the werewolf’s skull began to move with a rattling sound. Song Yeo-un covered her mouth and stepped back, and Seo Ji-hoo quickly took his hand off.

The werewolf’s skull continued to move even after that. Hyun-woo lifted the still-moving skull.

“Magic?”

“Yes. I couldn’t find a way to use it for a while…… I think I’ve figured out how to do it.”

“Is it magic to control the undead?”

“No. It’s magic to infuse dark attribute mana. It seems like a very basic level, but I haven’t been able to understand it beyond that yet. It was just a debuff that blurred or dulled the eyes of a normal opponent, but I don’t think there will be only that much application.”

Hyun-woo became suspicious.

The content Seo Ji-hoo mentioned was magic that Hyun-woo didn’t have when he looked at the magic book.

Hyun-woo took over Seo Ji-hoo’s magic book and looked at the contents. It was the same.

The content was still the same, only a simple movement-slowing debuff magic.

“There’s no such content?”

“I think the content may be different for each person who sees it. You can’t know what content will be there until the observer sees it. That’s why you have to keep looking at the magic book and chanting the spell.”

That was the biggest reason Hyun-woo gave up on magic.

Having to hold the magic book in one hand and chant the spell.

Kajat chanted the spell without even looking, but it was unknown whether it was a congenital limitation or because his level was high.

Even Kajat said that he had to take out the magic book and memorize difficult spells.

‘Ah…… I’m thinking about that book again because of magic.’

Hyun-woo recalled the untitled book that had been sleeping in his inventory for a long time.

It was a magic book stolen from the Ratman President in the Fallen Empire…… I forgot what his name was, but anyway, after defeating the dog-like hamster. But Hyun-woo quickly gave up.

Even Hyun-woo, who is prepared to fight by hitting the sea even if the waves crash, knows that if he sets foot in the deep sea, he will drown helplessly and lonely.

If the basic magic book was a huge wave, the untitled book was a huge deep sea whose depth could not be measured.

In the first place, even if he tries to look at it, blood and tears pour from his eyes as soon as he opens the bookshelf, so he can’t read it.

Hyun-woo cleanly gave up and *passed* his curiosity to the skull.

“It’s not enough to simply resurrect the undead, but can’t you control them?”

“I think it’s difficult. It seems like just a monster as it is.”

“I see.”

Hyun-woo crushed the werewolf’s skull in an instant. Seo Ji-hoo’s eyes widened.

“Weren’t you going to report it to the military?”

“I’m not doing it.”

Hyun-woo answered calmly.

“If you go to the military, other clans will hear about it. Pretend you don’t know yet, but tell Priest Johan. You said it reacts to dark attribute mana, so Priest Johan’s skills and magic bullets will be a big help. His value will go up quite a bit.”

“Other clans may have victims?”

Song Yeo-un asked as if she was wondering.

“Maybe.”

The Baek-gol record also stated that damage occurred due to the unexpected first appearance of the undead.

But if Hyun-woo reports the appearance of the undead early and there are light attribute magic bullets and guns, the damage will definitely be greatly reduced.

“Anyway, there will be no military casualties. It seems that the undead only occur in dungeons, but clan damage is unavoidable. Make them accept the damage, and make them ask us for help.”

“Why like that……”

Seo Ji-hoo *blocked* Song Yeo-un’s mouth, who was trying to ask again. Seo Ji-hoo nodded.

“I will do as you command.”

***

The news that China was moving was soon delivered.

South Korea, which had been paying close attention to the Chinese military *flocking* to the North Korean border, protested as soon as the Chinese military crossed the border, but China’s position was confident.

In the first place, it was the country that accepted the most North Korean refugees, and the fact that it was an ally with North Korea also became an excuse.

It was not a simple problem.

The only country in the international community that did not recognize North Korea as a country was South Korea. In addition, the South Korean government did not accept many refugees.

According to China’s logic, South Korea was the invading country.

When diplomatic issues become complicated, power becomes logic. In the end, South Korea could not prevent China’s intervention.

But there were also people who were relieved.

In fact, the Northern Expedition was a plan that could not help but worry about a lot of casualties and sacrifices of *ability users*.

Therefore, if China participated in the Northern Expedition, casualties could be reduced.

The problem was whether the Chinese military would *obediently withdraw* after the recapture of Pyongyang.

In the meantime, to make matters worse, reports of new types of monsters continued.

It was the appearance of the undead.

“The damage on Tae-sung’s side is quite severe.”

Hyun-woo nodded at Seo Ji-hoo’s report.

“Three hunters died and six were injured. I heard. Since the news of China’s intervention and the news of the undead are heard together, there is a rumor that the Chinese military is undead. Anyway, it’s a relief that only three died.”

So far, it was as stated in the Baek-gol record. But then something unusual happened.

“Yes. The Howan Mama side helped.”

“The Howan Mama Clan?”

Hyun-woo asked as if he was surprised, and soon his expression became *bitter* at Seo Ji-hoo’s words that followed.

Hyun-woo asked again as if what he heard was real.

“The undead were *wiped out* only by the power of the Howan Mama side…… and everyone returned without injury?”

A different situation was happening from the Baek-gol record.