Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 32

32. One Step at a Time (1)

Fragment? Absorption? Hyun-woo was bewildered by the sudden situation.

But that was it. Nothing else happened. Hyun-woo cautiously pondered what had just occurred.

First, the Star Fragment. Hyun-woo had no idea what it was, but he had absorbed something called a Star Fragment from Kirson.

Come to think of it, something similar had happened before.

When he discovered the White Bones in the gymnasium.

Back then, all sorts of stars had appeared and watched Hyun-woo.

‘Is there that much value in me?’

Certainly, as soon as he absorbed the fragment, he automatically acquired a Legendary Skill. The Legendary Skill was merely a reward for absorbing the fragment. But before, he hadn’t gained anything when he absorbed fragments.

‘No. Considering the name ‘fragment’… it might be something that needs to be pieced together to be complete.’

To use a broken glass plate as an example, scattered fragments are useless on their own.

But if you gather them haphazardly, you can create something that at least resembles a functional plate. Of course, you’d need something like glue.

Here, the fragments are like those shards of glass, and the glue seems to be Hyun-woo’s own right hand.

In other words, Hyun-woo had taken the fragment from Kirson and absorbed it into his right hand.

‘They said what I absorbed was Gaul’s fragment.’

At that moment, something clicked in Hyun-woo’s mind. The stars had previously urged him to become a subordinate. But Hyun-woo had left his choice ambiguous.

“Could it be that Kirson, that bastard, was Gaul’s subordinate?”

He never imagined they would accept even monsters as subordinates.

But thinking about it, monsters also train, talk, and level up, so it wasn’t impossible. Considering they even accept relatively weak creatures like goblins, it seemed less demanding than Hyun-woo had expected. It was a bit of a blow to his pride, but since Hyun-woo was weaker than even those goblins, he decided to let it go.

‘No, the stars said they don’t decide subordinates based on power.’

They seek those who share their values, so they can fill and expand their territories with such individuals. Kirson must have been a suitable match for Gaul, sharing his values.

‘But the fact that Gaul guided my hand to absorb this means….’

That he judged Hyun-woo to be better than Kirson.

And like Monstriel, he was trying to exert influence over him.

‘There’s still so much I don’t know about this world.’

Hyun-woo sighed and stood up. At that moment, Kirson’s corpse twitched. Just as Hyun-woo was startled, Renian, who had been hiding under the corpse, waddled out.

“Is it over?”

“…Don’t hide in corpses.”

“You scared me by suddenly appearing. Hmph.”

Do people usually fear stars this much? Or was he just a bit insensitive? When you think about it, aren’t they like the final bosses of this world?

But Renian even hides when fighting mosquito swarms, so it seemed he was just afraid of fighting in general. The only time Renian becomes brave is when dealing with corpses.

Hyun-woo first examined the newly acquired skill, Subordinate.

[Subordinate (Legendary): You can make those you have killed your subordinates.]

As expected, a simple, unhelpful, and uninformative explanation.

‘It says I can make those I’ve killed my subordinates, so it feels similar to necromancy.’

However, unlike necromancy, which doesn’t care about the type of corpse, this seems to only apply to those he has subjugated.

It wasn’t a skill that suited Kirson. Maybe it would fit an assassin or a thief.

It seemed more accurate to think of it as a unique skill that arises as the fragments are completed, rather than being due to Gaul. Hyun-woo felt the need to experiment again, step by step.

“Ugh, I need to level up a bit too. There’s so much to learn.”

He had declared to Park Hwi-so that he would meet him after reaching level 20, so he had to achieve that goal without fail. Level 20 was also the limit that Hyun-woo, as a 1-star, could currently reach.

Hyun-woo checked his level. Unfortunately, he was one level short, at 19.

There was no need to hesitate. There were plenty of opponents to gain experience from anyway.

Hyun-woo looked towards the goblin village.

***

Hyun-woo reached level 20 and returned to reality.

This time, he was in some mountains. The city didn’t seem too far away. Hyun-woo took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh air he hadn’t smelled in a while.

There was no need to kill all the villagers. He had reached level 20 before that. Having reached the 1-star level limit, he wouldn’t gain any more experience even if he killed more.

Isolating and catching the goblins, who were already shaken by Kirson’s failure to return, was easy.

‘Seems like about half.’

Killing half of the 100 or so villagers to level up once. Considering he leveled up three times by killing Kirson, it was too little.

Hyun-woo could roughly grasp how experience worked. He could no longer gain experience from ‘familiar’ targets. On the other hand, the more he overcame powerful enemies, the faster his experience increased.

Among them, Hyun-woo was receiving additional experience benefits from the ‘I am Legend’ title perk, so the range seemed large.

“Ugh, but now I’m blocked by the level limit, so what do I do?”

Back when he was a gatherer, he would have been content with just having 1 star, but now that he had reached the level limit, he felt suffocated.

He could understand why the retirement rate among hunters who had reached the level limit in the 1-star class was particularly high.

No matter how good the income, it’s disheartening to think you can’t grow any further in that field. You might think it’s better to work in the private sector, where they pay moderately.

‘Seriously, to be at the level limit before even making my dungeon debut.’

In terms of time, it had barely been a month since Hyun-woo became an ability user.

Considering that it usually takes hunters who are dedicated to leveling up in dungeons about 2 years to reach level 20, it was an abnormal situation that went beyond amazement.

But Hyun-woo had no intention of being honest or hiding his skills. Rather than thinking of excuses, what mattered was that he had hit the level limit.

‘First, I need to find out information about cases where the grade increases, since it’s not entirely impossible.’

He needed to learn about the stars and grade increases. He would be busy for a while. Hyun-woo opened his phone and checked how much time had passed.

The battery of the phone in his inventory was still full, as if time had stopped. But Hyun-woo sighed when he saw the date.

“I’m overdue.”

He had confidently declared 2 weeks to Park Hwi-so, but the result was 18 days.

He was overdue by a whopping 4 days.

***

When Hyun-woo arrived at Yoo-min’s house, the lights were off. It was gradually entering autumn, and the weather was cool, but the room was cold.

The TV was on, but it was a home shopping broadcast that Yoo-min wouldn’t even be interested in.

Yoo-min was blankly staring at the TV.

“Yoo-min?”

Yoo-min’s shoulders flinched. She widened her eyes and looked back at Hyun-woo.

“Ah, Oppa [term of endearment for an older brother or male friend], you’re here?”

Yoo-min’s voice trembled. Hyun-woo wondered what had happened, seeing her condition.

“Are you hungry? I remembered you liked ramen, so I boiled curry, but it might have gone bad. If it’s spoiled, I’ll make it again.”

Yoo-min got up and tried to head to the kitchen, but she staggered. Hyun-woo quickly grabbed her. Yoo-min leaned against Hyun-woo’s chest, panting.

‘I must smell.’

He had changed into new clothes, but he was still soaked in sweat and blood. But Yoo-min didn’t seem to care at all. It was the first time he had seen the always lively Yoo-min so shaken.

“…Where did you go? I thought you were ambushed or something.”

“No, well. I said I might be away for a few days.”

Hyun-woo didn’t clearly state when he would return each time he headed to Difficulty: Hell, because he didn’t know when he would return. But this time, it had taken an unusually long time.

“But a while ago, you hid me in that car and said there seemed to be suspicious people, and Park Hwi-so, that uncle, too….”

“Park Hwi-so?”

Hyun-woo interrupted Yoo-min and asked. Yoo-min nodded.

“Two days ago, I don’t know how he found out our address, but I met him in front of the mansion. He suddenly acted friendly and greeted me, asking if you were okay. I just said you went far away. I don’t know what his intention is. I was worried something might have happened to you….”

If Park Hwi-so was lurking around here, it was likely related to the Japanese thugs he had mentioned before.

It didn’t seem like he would come just because of Hyun-woo. But it had been three days since the two weeks he had confidently promised Park Hwi-so.

If he could have accurately calculated his return time, he would have returned at the exact time, but he had unintentionally broken his promise.

‘I need to meet him and talk.’

Hyun-woo patted Yoo-min’s back, who was still trembling. He felt that Yoo-min’s feelings for him were growing stronger than he had thought. And now, Yoo-min was not just a casual acquaintance to Hyun-woo. In that sense, he could understand her agitation.

‘Should I tell her the truth?’

He might be able to tell her about Difficulty: Hell. If it weren’t for Yoo-min, if there wasn’t her waiting for him in reality, Hyun-woo’s life would have been much more miserable. Now, it was hard to imagine Yoo-min leaving.

Hyun-woo gripped Yoo-min’s shoulders tightly.

“Yoo-min, listen carefully.”

Hyun-woo began to tell Yoo-min an unbelievable story.

From when he became an ability user, to the hardships he had gone through, to how he had obtained so many crystal moss and skills and items, to how fiercely he had fought.

However, he only described Difficulty: Hell as a terrible dungeon, and he omitted the story that it seemed to be a future from now.

There was no need to add unnecessary worries.

As expected, just telling Yoo-min what he had already told her seemed to have turned her into a worrywart.

“…A hellish dungeon?”

“I’m going to be away often in the future. And it’s getting harder and harder to accurately estimate when I’ll be back. I used to think a day or two would be enough, but after what I experienced this time, I realized it could be longer.”

“That….”

“So I’m telling you now. No matter how long it takes… I’ll definitely come back.”

“…Here?”

Hyun-woo said firmly.

“To where you are.”

Yoo-min took a slow, deep breath. Her trembling gradually stopped as she seemed to mull over Hyun-woo’s words.

“You will be my lighthouse.”

Hyun-woo felt strangely relieved the moment he told Yoo-min the truth.

The very fact that there was someone in reality who knew about Hell seemed to firmly ground his sense of reality, which had felt precariously floating.

It seemed that all the deaths and overcoming had finally become a real reward and been handed to Hyun-woo.

The reward was the young lady in front of him, Yoo-min.

But at the same time, Hyun-woo wondered if he had said something that Yoo-min couldn’t handle. Because it was such an absurd thing to say. But Yoo-min was not weak.

“As much as you need.”

Yoo-min was smiling brightly. She had returned to her usual cheerful and vibrant self. Although her bloodshot eyes and dark circles were unavoidable.

“But I can’t be satisfied with just being a lighthouse. I’m willing to go rescue you wherever you’re shipwrecked.”

Hyun-woo couldn’t help but wonder how many minutes Yoo-min would last in Hell. In the end, he decided that he had to come back no matter what.

“I had a rough idea. It’s obvious. The high-grade crystal moss and wounds you bring back every time, the headhunters who are looking for you. You must be training to the death in some hidden, incredibly powerful dungeon and mining crystal moss.”

“Huh? Uh… similar.”

Rather than training to the death, it’s just dying.

“When you think about it, that’s like a trade secret. I just have to focus on disposing of the crystal moss. We each work in our own areas. If you need me later, please tell me then.”

Hyun-woo nodded. When you think about it, Hell is like a treasure trove where high-priced crystal moss, as well as rare and legendary items, pour out.

Of course, you have to pay a terrible price for it.

If Yoo-min were to obtain information, there would definitely be people who would covet that information itself. That could paradoxically put Yoo-min in danger.

“Um… should I move away a bit? I haven’t showered at all during that time.”

He had roughly shaken it off in the wind while running, but even the smallest part of what he had brought from Hell could be harmful to Yoo-min, who was an ordinary person.

Then Yoo-min smiled brightly. It was a smile that felt somehow familiar.

A smile that felt like he was about to be eaten alive.

Yoo-min grabbed Hyun-woo’s hand and led him to the bathroom.

“I haven’t showered yet today either.”