Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 79

79. If That’s the Case (2)

After an awkward silence, mental breakdowns, and a bit of commotion, the expedition calmed down again.

Fortunately, Johan’s properly interpreted message didn’t mean ‘This is not the boss.’

It meant it wasn’t the *final* boss.

Yoo Seong-yeon, the leader of the Obsidian team, began to assess the situation.

“Normally, you only need to find the return stone, which is the primary objective in a dungeon. And this werewolf warrior… it seems certain that it’s the secondary objective. So, does that mean we have to achieve the third objective as well?”

Johan couldn’t answer, but the consensus leaned towards that being the case.

However, the third objective of the Beheading Dungeon hadn’t been revealed yet. Therefore, hunters usually only completed up to the second objective before returning.

Having to fight again when they thought everything was resolved was demoralizing.

Everyone looked at the return stone longingly.

Just touching it would allow them to leave.

“Team Leader Seo Tae-kyung… he must have returned already, right?”

Red Butterfly checked the time on her watch. The time she had agreed upon with Seo Tae-kyung had already passed. She figured he would have returned by now.

Red Butterfly and Yoo Seong-yeon put their heads together, wondering what to do. Red Butterfly spoke first.

“The reason Priest Johan stopped us from leaving is because Plued hasn’t ended yet.”

“But everyone is exhausted. Except for Kang Hyun-moo, we’ve found all the missing people…”

“Team Leader Yoo Seong-yeon, do you think we should use the return stone?”

Yoo Seong-yeon hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.

“Not right now. Now that we’ve found the return stone, we don’t have to worry about being trapped here. Let’s explore the surroundings and find Kang Hyun-moo, or at least find out what the third objective is. We’ll try to do it ourselves, and if we can’t, we’ll return.”

Red Butterfly nodded heavily.

While Yoo Seong-yeon went to inform the other hunters of the decision, she looked around the dungeon with a complicated expression.

The ratmen’s mysterious ritual had been interrupted, but the flames were still burning.

Still, one consolation was that they had found all the hunters except for one.

Even though they were tired, having people to rely on provided unparalleled relief in the dungeon.

Wandering alone in a dark and narrow dungeon was worse for the mind than for the body.

That’s why Red Butterfly was worried about the one person who wasn’t there right now.

‘Kang Hyun-moo, where are you?’

***

“Ah, there it is.”

Hyun-moo found a secret vault behind the pushed-in wall.

He didn’t know what the structure of the Black Beak Fortress of the Fallen Empire had to do with this Beheading Dungeon, but the structure was quite similar.

The difference was that the Black Beak Fortress was built on an open mountain, while the Beheading Dungeon was underground in the dark.

In any case, thanks to the similarity in design, Hyun-moo was able to wander around the Beheading Dungeon as if it were his own home.

This included the location of the treasure vault, which he couldn’t access in the Black Beak Fortress because it was guarded by soldiers.

“This is more like a warehouse than a treasure vault, but…”

Anyway, he didn’t know what was hidden inside. But Hyun-moo smiled as he opened the secret vault.

Inside the vault was a legendary item that was hard to find at the current time.

[Helburg’s Misguided Passion (Legendary)]

[Category: Two-Handed Sword]

[Physical Attack: Medium, Magic Attack: Above Medium, Penetration: Low]

[Special Ability: Consumes mana to draw heat from the sword. Mana consumption increases with temperature. The wielder has heat immunity.]

[Note: The first witch hunter, Helburg, believed that burning witches was right. The problem was his pyromaniac-like passion for burning everything he encountered, which led to the ashes of the burned witches becoming a witch plague. Helburg’s madness, which demanded that everything related to witches be burned, eventually began to burn the empire. In the end, Helburg was turned to ashes by the imperial dragon, Morkfenon.]

It was a rather flashy-looking two-handed sword.

Hyun-moo swung it once, thinking of the person who should have originally possessed this weapon.

‘Originally, Lee Ji-tae found it and used it effectively, right?’

According to the White Bone Records [likely a record of important events or powerful items], it was a weapon used as Lee Ji-tae’s symbol.

Lee Ji-tae had the Acceleration skill and the ultimate skill, Wings of Radiance. He enjoyed using the skill combination of observing enemies from the air with Wings of Radiance and then diving down with Acceleration.

Thanks to its flashy visuals and powerful effects, many people liked it. Adding Helburg’s Misguided Passion to this skill combination made it even stronger.

‘But now it’s in my hands?’

Of course, Lee Ji-tae already had a decent weapon, so there was nothing to worry about. Hyun-moo fed Helburg’s Misguided Passion to Tam without hesitation.

Tam cracked open, just like when he ate the Bleeding Dagger, and devoured the sword. After finishing his meal, Tam’s appearance began to change. He became longer, and more ornate patterns appeared.

[Tam 貪 (Legendary/Genuine)]

[Category: Sword]

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

[Special Ability: Devours weapons offered as sacrifices and gains their abilities. Has the ability to secrete fluids; healing effects occur when fluids are sent to allies, and damage is inflicted when fluids are sent to enemies. Consumes mana to draw heat from the sword.]

[Absorbed Weapons: Bleeding Dagger, Helburg’s Misguided Passion, and 4 others]

‘As expected, his stats are increasing.’

The effect was better than when he fed him a few rare weapons.

It seemed that his specs only improved when he ate something with higher stats than his own.

It even seemed like a discriminatory sword, as lower grades than his were marked as ‘and a few others.’

‘Such a picky eater.’

Still, it was an advantage that he didn’t have to carry this and that around.

When Hyun-moo lightly injected mana into Tam, blood filled up and the pattern engraved on the sword began to shine brightly.

The heat seemed to be flowing out of that pattern.

Hyun-moo began to search other secret vaults. But after that, nothing as good as Helburg’s Misguided Passion came out.

All he found were strength-enhancing potions and ratman statues. The ratman statues came with an explanation that sleeping with them by your bedside would cause you to dream of rats.

‘That’s trash.’

He drank the strength-enhancing potion as soon as he picked it up. But he didn’t seem to have gained much strength.

“…Is it because of the difficulty difference after all?”

He felt like a fool for expecting so much because he thought he had discovered a hidden space in the dungeon.

Except for Helburg’s Misguided Passion, the rest were trash that was scattered everywhere in the hell difficulty.

Hyun-moo grumbled and headed to the last place. Before opening the door, Hyun-moo briefly recalled where this was.

It was the place where Yanok Max was casting spells at the hell difficulty point.

‘Come to think of it, did everyone come this way?’

As soon as Hyun-moo came to the Beheading Dungeon, he checked the expedition’s safety first. Although the number had decreased, they were still alive.

Johan was also safe. It was as expected, but seeing him without a single wound made him think he had worried for nothing.

‘No. There’s no way they came here.’

Some sections leading to this place required passing through secret passages several times. Seeing no traces of anyone passing through, it seemed they hadn’t come this far yet.

Hyun-moo opened the door to the top floor. At that moment, a vibration was felt throughout the dungeon. Hyun-moo realized that the dungeon was transforming once again and quickly started running.

‘If this is a time-limited secret room, there might be something useful.’

Thud, thud! While kicking off the randomly shaking walls and floors, Hyun-moo saw the dungeon’s structures moving in the deep darkness.

‘Come to think of it, my night vision seems to have improved a bit. Is this also because of the stat increase?’

It wasn’t just night vision. He was running through the dungeon that was moving recklessly, but it didn’t seem to be just because his dynamic visual acuity had improved.

He had a clear sense of how the dungeon was moving, what principles it was based on, and when it would move.

‘What, did my head get smarter in the meantime?’

Honestly, he had never thought he was stupid. There was no basis for it. Anyway, that’s what he thought.

He never had the chance to develop his talents, but he wondered if his talents were finally beginning to blossom now.

Hyun-moo kicked off the rapidly moving corridor and arrived at the end in an instant.

Thud, the moment he stepped out, an open plaza came into view.

“Huh.”

In terms of scale alone, it was similar to the rooftop where Yanok Max was casting spells. But the details inside were crude and dirty.

Hyun-moo expected there to be something in the middle. But waiting there was a small ratman.

To be exact, a hamster ratman.

“Yanok?”

“Squeak.”

The guy answered in a cute voice.

***

“There should be a path to a hidden boss room somewhere around here…”

Yoo Seong-yeon looked around, groping through random objects and walls. Red Butterfly also examined the return stone and the strange formations engraved around it.

Considering the monsters were causing a ruckus around here, it seemed like a meaningful formation, but she couldn’t figure out what it meant.

“Could it be on another path?”

“Even if that’s the case, there will be a hint related to it here. Dungeons with complex structures provide hints accordingly. Of course, dungeons with such complex structures only appear from 4-star and above… The difficulty here is already high enough to be considered 4-star.”

Red Butterfly looked at Johan. But it seemed like Johan didn’t know either.

The hunters were frustrated because they thought they would be able to leave. Red Butterfly had to find a way.

“I’ll go around and look around on my own, even if it’s just me. I’m confident in running away…”

That’s when it happened. Suddenly, the dungeon began to shake and the structure began to change. Realizing that the dungeon transformation had begun, the hunters quickly gathered together. If they didn’t scatter, they wouldn’t be harmed.

“The transformation is quite large! Hold on to each other!”

Red Butterfly realized that this transformation was as large as the one they had experienced when the hunters were first scattered.

Soon, with a thud, the walls of the dungeon began to move rapidly.

Fortunately, the room itself didn’t seem to change much. But everyone’s faces turned pale when the spot where the return stone was located suddenly sank to the floor. The path to escape in case of emergency had disappeared.

“Did someone touch something?”

Only the room they were in was intact, but it seemed like the entire dungeon was undergoing a cataclysm.

Yoo Seong-yeon’s expression hardened as he looked at the rapidly changing walls.

“The room is rising upwards.”

They didn’t know where they were heading, but they were rising very quickly.