Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 45

45. Fully Prepared (2)

Based on Hyun-woo’s experience, surviving near-death experiences often led to acquiring new skills or traits.

He seemed to recall similar stories from documentaries about Hunters [individuals with supernatural abilities].

The tales of Hunters gaining new skills or traits after surviving life-threatening ordeals or overcoming adversity were popular. People loved those stories.

However, such occurrences weren’t as common as one might think. Specific conditions had to be met in addition to overcoming adversity.

Even for Hyun-woo, though it might seem like he easily died and easily gained, acquiring traits was never a simple process.

He obtained Venomous Blood after inhaling fine dust and dying dozens of times, Infectious Trait while dying from malaria, and Toughness Trait while being beaten to death by a scarecrow.

‘Of course, I got regular skills super easily, though.’

Regular is regular, so let’s move on. Who cares about regular stuff? Hyun-woo only counted his skills from the Rare grade upwards. He considered crafting a function, not a skill.

Hyun-woo stared intently at the Enhanced Acid Potion again.

He gazed at it for a moment before quickly shaking his head.

‘No, no. That’s not it. You crazy bastard.’

He was already exhausted from crafting a Legendary grade item today. His whole body felt like it was about to fall apart. Why push himself even further?

Besides, acid isn’t poison or anything. It’s just a chemical substance.

But thinking about it, the toxicity in fine dust is just a harmful substance too. There’s no reason for a ‘Contagious’ trait to be attached to it just because he got bitten by a mosquito. Contagion is a characteristic of bacteria or viruses.

If traits that shouldn’t mesh together are grouped together as ‘poison’ simply because they’re harmful, then there’s no reason why acid shouldn’t be included, right?

‘No, why am I trying to convince myself again?’

Hyun-woo had already experienced being hit by acid potions before, during his fight with Kirson. He never wanted to experience the pain of his entire body melting from the potion again. But he didn’t receive any messages about his poison becoming stronger back then.

‘Guess it wasn’t enough. It’s not like I got Venomous Blood or Infectious Trait in just a day or two, right?’

So, for example… what if instead of splashing it, he drank it all?

No, that’s insane. If he died, he’d lose all the bonus survival experience he’d accumulated so far.

Even if he hadn’t used the ‘Last Man Standing’ title perk today, he knew from experience that dying instantly was pointless.

He couldn’t do it. He shouldn’t do it.

***

[Achievement Unlocked!]

[You have survived the pain of your entire body melting in acid.]

[You have acquired the title ‘Soup Cooked by the Godfather’.]

[The effect is increased due to level-adjusted difficulty.]

[The ‘Acidic’ trait has been added to Venomous Blood.]

[The toxicity of Venomous Blood has become more potent.]

[Pain Tolerance has increased.]

[Acid Resistance has increased.]

[Ergunan, the Thrashing Star, is watching you.]

[You have died.]

[Total Survival Time: 07 days 03 hours 02 minutes 42 seconds.]

***

I’m sorry. It was too much.

Hyun-woo revived and reflected on the past.

Was there really a need to recall that painful process? The truth was, Hyun-woo himself didn’t even know how the process had unfolded. It had happened while he was half out of his mind.

If he didn’t want to remember it, he could just skip it.

Hyun-woo drank a bunch of health recovery potions and decided to try just one sip of the acid potion.

One sip, just one sip. The problem was that the acid potion had created a hole in his jaw, not to mention his tongue. Naturally, he couldn’t drink anything with a hole in his jaw.

Moreover, as the acid potion flowed down his throat through the hole in his jaw, Hyun-woo’s life hung by a thread.

At that moment, the health recovery potions he had drunk shone brightly. The potions that had remained in his stomach began to rapidly heal Hyun-woo’s near-death body. The problem was that the acid potion was melting his body even faster.

The pain paralyzed his brain. The acid was still burning his body, and there was a limit to recovery.

Unable to endure it any longer, Hyun-woo decided to use one method. Since it had come to this, he would just drink all the acid potion to achieve his goal and then die and revive to end the pain.

Hyun-woo shoved the acid potion into his hole-filled throat.

And the ‘Last Man Standing’ title perk was activated.

The Last Man Standing perk didn’t completely heal him, but only healed about 50% of his health at a very fast rate. Because of this, Hyun-woo couldn’t die as quickly as he wanted and slowly died in the pain of his entire body’s organs melting.

That was it. Any further memories were abstract and blurry, making it difficult to recall.

When he revived again, he felt like he had given up something as a human.

“…Well, at least a trait was added.”

Hyun-woo lightly dripped some blood from his bleeding dagger. As soon as the red blood touched the air, it turned black and bubbled. A single drop of blood left a hole the size of a finger joint in the cement floor.

“This could be a disaster if Yoomin accidentally bites her tongue.”

Hyun-woo suddenly missed Yoomin. But instead, he took out a caramel as a reward and put it in his mouth. He seemed to deserve to be awarded a caramel.

Come to think of it, he could use the bleeding dagger for healing purposes, but he wondered if that would apply even with Venomous Blood. But there wasn’t a suitable subject to experiment on.

Kirson would be a good subject to experiment on, but he probably wouldn’t like it if Hyun-woo said he was going to poison him and then stab him with the dagger.

At least Hyun-woo didn’t want to do that to someone who had saved his life.

‘Come to think of it, how are enemies and allies distinguished?’

Is it just distinguished by hostility and camaraderie?

Reality is different from games. There are no clearly defined criteria. There are plenty of cases where someone is both an enemy and an ally at the same time.

Just as Hyun-woo was about to fall into philosophical contemplation, Kirson appeared from the corner of the intersection.

“Kireuk, Boss.”

Kirson greeted Hyun-woo politely. His waist was adorned with the weapon Hyun-woo had made for him. It wasn’t the dagger he used to use, but a short scythe. The very scythe used for harvesting.

Hyun-woo recalled the performance of the item he had examined with his monocle.

[Winter Harvester’s Scythe (Legendary)]

[Category: Niche]

[Physical Attack: Low-Mid, Magic Attack: Low-Mid, Penetration: Medium]

[Special Ability: Can track living things nearby and inflicts stacks of Frostbite on all nearby enemies each time an enemy is killed.]

[Note: This scythe was used by the wraith slaves known as the Winter Duke’s Hounds. The Winter Duke was extremely reluctant to show his face, and it is said that whenever he went out, he would release the Winter Harvesters to execute those who wandered around or peeked out the windows. The visibility was poor, so the Winter Duke could not be observed, but next time, we must…….]

Since receiving the weapon, Kirson had shown great respect towards Hyun-woo.

Until now, it felt like he was reluctantly dealing with him for the sake of the villagers, but now he seemed to be truly obeying his master. He seemed to understand what it meant to obey the strong completely.

“You like that weapon that much?”

“Of course, Kireuk. Boss.”

Kirson smiled proudly and handed over the map. The map was now much denser and more detailed than before.

“I have returned from scouting the north. Kireuk.”

Among them, a noteworthy part was one of the ‘Caution Required’ areas that Renian had marked before.

Kirson didn’t know what was there, and Renian vaguely described it as just being large.

There was a drawing of a power outlet there.

“…What is this?”

“Kireuk? Uh, it’s probably an Orc.”

Ah, it seemed he was trying to depict a pig instead of a power outlet.

‘But an Orc? Why did Renian describe that as something scary?’

Of course, there wasn’t much that Renian didn’t find scary, but he emphasized it so much that Hyun-woo thought there must be something there. But an Orc. Like goblins, they were opponents that couldn’t be taken seriously.

‘No. In Hell, even goblins become Redcap Goblins and turn into complete lunatics. Orcs would be even worse, not weaker.’

“Does it seem dangerous?”

Kirson had a troubled expression.

“Honestly, Kireuk. It’s difficult to answer. There’s an Orc standing there, kit. If it’s just one, I can somehow handle it with the weapon you gave me, Boss. But…….”

“But?”

“I had a strong feeling that I shouldn’t go near it.”

That he shouldn’t go near it. It was a statement without basis or logic, but Hyun-woo valued Kirson’s opinion highly. In this insane world, his own intuition was the most important thing.

“Why did you feel that way?”

“…Kireuk. There was no crystal moss only in that area. And the surroundings were too exposed. Kireuk. Neither we nor the Orcs recklessly wander around in such places.”

Either he’s crazy, or there’s something there. Hyun-woo was curious, but not enough to risk his life to find it like that guy Admiral Ren did.

He didn’t know who Admiral Ren was, but he must have died trying to satisfy that curiosity. Hyun-woo didn’t want to end up like that.

“I see. So, we shouldn’t go there for now.”

Hyun-woo marked the map with another star. With this, the geography of this area was completely marked. Even after doing this much, he still couldn’t figure out where in Seoul this was.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but the structure seemed to have changed quite a bit. Now that Hyun-woo had made a map, he decided to slowly start preparing for the quest.

‘Thinking about it that way, it might be fortunate that I died once.’

When he died and came back to life, his wounds and stamina were restored. Hyun-woo decided to think as positively as possible and prepare for the next quest with things that didn’t consume stamina.

“Kirson.”

“Yes, Kireuk. Boss.”

“In your opinion, what would you say your value is in numbers?”

***

At dawn, the swarm of mosquitoes that always came at this time swept around the shelter.

But Hyun-woo was calmly surveying the surroundings right in the middle of that swarm of mosquitoes. He was practically naked, but the blood smeared all over his body gave off an unpleasant smell that the mosquitoes avoided.

However, some unfortunate mosquitoes flew around Hyun-woo and soon began to falter and fall due to the infectious trait inherent in Venomous Blood.

Simply standing still around Hyun-woo caused hundreds of mosquito corpses to pile up.

The buzzing sound was deafening, but Hyun-woo steadily carried out his work even in that environment.

He had plenty of spare Hell Darts [a type of weapon], and it wasn’t to create crystal stones.

It was because Hell Darts didn’t produce crystal stones even when disassembled, probably because the amount of crystal moss consumed to make them was small.

Hyun-woo was taking mosquitoes as familiars [magical companions or servants].

“Familiar.”

[Mosquito (LV 3) has joined as a familiar.]

Another mosquito came to life in his hand. Unlike Kirson, he couldn’t communicate with mosquitoes, but he could still convey his will.

Hyun-woo checked that the mosquito was moving according to his will on his hand and released it.

‘The 11th one.’

Reviving mosquitoes was for skill development.

Originally, Hyun-woo had intended to take more goblins as familiars in addition to Kirson.

If he could have just two or three more goblin scouts, he would have 20-level Hunters that he could use as subordinates right away.

But Hyun-woo’s attempt failed.

He received the message [Cannot accept any more].

‘But it’s possible to accept more mosquitoes.’

That’s why he was experimenting like this. The next time Hyun-woo heard the message [Cannot accept any more] was when he was taking in the 21st mosquito.

The swarm of mosquitoes had now left the intersection, but a total of 20 mosquitoes were still dancing around Hyun-woo. Hyun-woo seemed to know the reason.

‘Indeed, the value is determined by race or level, and there is a limit to the amount that can be taken as familiars within that value.’

For example, let’s say the limit value of familiars that Hyun-woo can take is 10. And when Kirson’s value is 6 and the goblin scouts’ value is 5, the limit that Hyun-woo can take is either two goblin scouts or just one Kirson.

But mosquitoes have a value of less than 1, about 0.2. That’s why it was possible to have as many as twenty of them.

‘The problem is how to use this.’

Hyun-woo thought as he looked at the mosquitoes hovering over his hand. Just in case, he experimented to see if he could take back a familiar that he had given up as a familiar again.

But it didn’t revive again, probably because it wasn’t judged as something Hyun-woo had killed. It meant that if he excluded Kirson from his familiars, he couldn’t take him back.

‘Is Kirson better than two goblin scouts?’

He is. Definitely better.

He doesn’t have a Black Hand or a Legendary Dagger, but he’s smarter and more reliable than other goblins. If he needs to carry out orders in unseen places, it’s better to use Kirson.

Hyun-woo decided to be satisfied with this for now. It would be nice if he could level up the Familiar skill or increase his traits, but he currently doesn’t know how at all.

One human, one goblin, twenty mosquitoes. And one cannibal fairy.

Then Renian approached Hyun-woo.

“Why the mosquitoes?”