Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 92

92. Upgrade (3)

[Ratman Shaman (LV 31)]

After returning to the shelter, Hyun-woo revived the last one he killed as a subordinate.

This guy’s level was also 11 lower than the one Hyun-woo had encountered. Although the levels were similar, he was in absolute obedience due to the binding effect of the oath.

The reason Hyun-woo sought him out was simple: magic.

In fact, if you understand it with a gamer’s mindset, there’s no real distinction between superpowers and magic.

Even now, some ability users casually throw fireballs while shouting ‘Fireball!’ for show, or create wind while yelling ‘Wind, arise!’

It’s somewhat of a hunter’s affectation and related to jinxes, so let’s ignore the cringe.

Hyun-woo wasn’t particularly desperate for new skills. However, thinking about the formation Kirson created to cause a flood in the Severed Head Dungeon, he suspected it was a type of magic.

Hyun-woo asked Kirson how he made that formation and why he drew it that way, but the answer was simple. It was just a form that had been known that way from the start.

“Hey, you. Can you use magic?”

When Hyun-woo asked, the shaman stared blankly before slowly opening his mouth.

“Yes. As a shaman, I have a duty to unearth forgotten knowledge.”

“Good. Then… wait a minute. How am I understanding this right now?”

Hyun-woo accepted it without a second thought, then panicked.

The shaman’s words weren’t in a human language.

Normally, non-human languages would require translation magic, but he was understanding it naturally.

“Kirson, try using Common Tongue or something.”

“Our boss is embarrassingly illiterate.”

He could easily understand what Kirson was saying too. And because Kirson was short, kicking him was easy.

‘Did I get a skill without realizing it?’

Hyun-woo panicked and began searching through his skill window and even his inventory.

It was then that Hyun-woo finally realized he had gained another title.

[Being Behind the Veil: All Comprehension +1, Stress Increase When Using Magic]

It was a title obtained for achieving an impossible feat.

Looking at the title ‘Being Behind the Veil,’ he had a hunch.

‘That monster Yanok Max was summoning… Did I get this just for seeing that monster?’

It wasn’t just the title that was strange.

‘What’s ‘All Comprehension’? And stress increases when using magic? Well, let’s put aside the magic for now since I’m just about to learn it. The problem is that my understanding of everything has increased by 1.’

The problem was not knowing exactly what this meant.

Hyun-woo looked through his skill window to see if anything had changed, and then he noticed that the name of a skill he usually didn’t pay attention to had changed.

[Understanding Other Languages (Rare)]

‘…Wasn’t this a Common rank?’

The rank of what he usually called translation skill had increased by one level. He remembered it being definitely Common rank because he had obtained it so easily.

Hyun-woo wondered if ‘+1 to Understanding’ meant that all skills with the Understanding tag would increase by one level.

Regardless of the skill’s rank.

“Hey, rat wizard, can you teach me magic then?”

“Impossible.”

The answer was firm. The shaman was in absolute obedience due to the binding of the oath, so this wasn’t a lie. But Hyun-woo didn’t understand.

“If magic is knowledge, how is knowledge that can’t be taught passed down?”

“All magic is allowed to be read only by those who have been chosen for understanding, through unearthed knowledge. As a shaman who has been granted the lowest level of understanding, I am engaged in knowledge excavation.”

Hyun-woo began to organize his thoughts.

“So, there’s an item called a magic book, and if you have a skill that allows you to understand magic, you can read it?”

“That is correct.”

He already knew that Seo Ji-hoo had a skill called ‘Magic Understanding,’ so he could understand quickly.

Hyun-woo thought of Yanok Max’s magic book, which was still sleeping in his inventory. Curiosity welled up again, but he had no intention of reading it again.

If just reading the table of contents made his eyes bleed, then reading the main text might make something other than blood come out.

“Do you have a magic book?”

The shaman took out a book from his robes. Hyun-woo knew that it was the magic book the shaman was talking about.

He tried to take it and read it, but as the shaman said, he couldn’t read it.

The letters entered his eyes but distorted his vision and caused nausea. Even after closing the book, Hyun-woo suffered from a headache for a long time.

He couldn’t even read the lowest-ranked book. Hyun-woo felt displeased.

“What magic is written here?”

“Curses and meditation, and…”

The magic he listed didn’t impress Hyun-woo much. What was so great about such crude magic that it made even reading it so difficult?

Hyun-woo felt a surge of stubbornness and began to stare intently at the magic book again.

But again, as soon as it entered his eyes, his vision began to distort. Nausea surged, but instead of looking away, Hyun-woo widened his eyes even more.

“…This damn thing, just a piece of paper, is trying to screw with me.”

Hyun-woo stared intently at the drawing, feeling his eyeballs rolling around and a splitting headache.

His sense of direction gone, Hyun-woo couldn’t stand any longer and collapsed to the ground. Even then, he didn’t take his eyes off the paper book, as if he were having a staring contest.

The goblins looked at Hyun-woo in confusion.

“B-Boss?!”

“Leave him be. He’s just having another anger management episode.”

Kirson, who had seen Hyun-woo like that several times, didn’t pay much attention.

He had seen Hyun-woo trying to fight the impossible many times. He was doing it because he thought he could handle it; he would find the right time to stop on his own.

However, unlike Kirson’s expectations, Hyun-woo couldn’t stop.

***

Hyun-woo’s vision couldn’t comprehend any letters or images. All the letters and symbols were distorted, scattered, and decomposed. The same was true for his hearing.

All the words turned into meaningless shrieks. Taste, smell, and even touch felt completely new. It was as if his brain had been wiped clean, and everything was a mess.

“Giek.”

All Hyun-woo could do was make strange moaning sounds.

In a world without concepts and where all meanings were fragmented, everything was completely different from the world he had seen before.

Creatures and colors he had never seen before flickered, and whispers he couldn’t understand chirped incessantly.

Hyun-woo felt as if countless senses were opening up in addition to his five senses, and at the same time, he felt like he couldn’t feel anything.

This place was chaos itself, where nothing was organized.

It was then.

When Hyun-woo couldn’t understand anything, something with an unusually clear image appeared.

It had a complete shape, neither fragmented nor scattered. He didn’t even know what complete meant.

He didn’t know its name or identity.

But it stared straight at Hyun-woo and tilted its head as if puzzled.

Then it came closer and licked Hyun-woo’s eyes with its long tongue.

“Ugh?!

Hyun-woo shuddered with the rough sensation. But because his body wasn’t listening to him, he couldn’t even blink.

It licked the other eye as well. His eyes became incredibly itchy, and tears streamed down.

In the blurred tears, Hyun-woo slowly felt the images and symbols in front of him falling into place.

Finally, his vision returned to normal. And he could also know the identity of ‘it’ that licked his eyes.

“Renian, were you doing something weird again?”

It was Renian.

***

[Acquired Magic Understanding (Common).]

[Magic Understanding (Common) is upgraded to Arcane Understanding (Rare) due to the effect of ‘All Comprehension +1’.]

After a long time, Hyun-woo returned to a completely normal state.

As soon as he acquired Magic Understanding, a message popped up saying he had acquired Arcane Understanding.

It seemed to be a title perk effect after all.

Hyun-woo wanted to read the magic book right away, but his eyes were so itchy that he had no choice but to close them and scratch them. Tears streamed down.

But Hyun-woo couldn’t get angry at Renian. If it hadn’t been for Renian, he didn’t know how long he would have been stuck in that insane state.

“Renian, did you know what state I was in when you helped me?”

“Help? I just licked up the broth that the butler was wastefully spilling.”

“…….”

He didn’t know if it was a joke or not. But it was clear that Renian had helped him acquire Magic Understanding.

“I unexpectedly seem to owe you my life.”

“Owe me brain fluid?”

“Does my skull look like a bottle cap to you?”

“But if you have to repay a life debt, you have to repay it with brain fluid.”

If you have to repay a life debt with your life, then he wasn’t exactly wrong. But Hyun-woo had no intention of doing that.

If the condition for repaying the favor was giving brain fluid, he would rather be an ungrateful bastard.

Fortunately, Hyun-woo was the type who didn’t feel guilty about such things.

Hyun-woo picked up the magic book. And he released the binding of the oath from the Ratman Shaman.

As soon as the binding was released, the light returned to the shaman’s eyes, and he began to tremble. This was because all the memories of being bound remained intact.

There was no difficulty in understanding the contents of the magic book. It felt like reading a children’s book. It was natural since Hyun-woo had mastered Arcane Understanding beyond Magic Understanding.

Hyun-woo used the most basic spell on the shaman. The shaman flinched for a moment, then groaned strangely and vomited black water.

The smell of tar was strong. Hyun-woo wondered, and in an instant, the ratman began to emit tar from all the pores in his body.

The shaman instantly became like a rat that had fallen into a barrel of oil. Hyun-woo was horrified and stopped the spell.

Fortunately, the spell was stopped before it became more serious. He only thought it was a spell that made movements sluggish and slow. But he didn’t know it would make him spew tar from his whole body.

“Kkii! Giek, s-save…”

“Oh, crap. The floor almost got dirty. Hey, quickly drag him outside and kill him.”

The goblins were about to drag the shaman out. At that moment, the shaman suddenly pushed the goblins away and rushed towards Hyun-woo.

The moment Kirson was about to cut down the shaman, the shaman suddenly prostrated himself on the floor.

“Oh great seeker of knowledge!”

“…What?”

“I behold the great being! I have seen you leap from an ignorant fool wandering the depths of knowledge to a soaring bird! Please help us find our lost name, our lost knowledge!”

Hyun-woo was taken aback by the shaman’s change of attitude. But he also found out what the ratmen were obsessed with.

Like with Yanok Max, the ratmen were obsessed with their lost race name and god.

That’s why they created those who were called shamans, those who wandered in search of knowledge and information.

To him, the scene of Hyun-woo, who knew nothing, mastering magic in an instant was awe itself.

“Am I that great?”

“Surely not. He’s probably just saying anything because he doesn’t want to die.”

Kirson sneered.

Hyun-woo approached the Ratman Shaman. The shaman, who was soaked in water, no, tar, trembled and couldn’t even dare to make eye contact with Hyun-woo.

Hyun-woo smiled at the sight.

“Kirson, how many ratmen are left around here?”

“I’ve identified about 60.”

“We’re a bit short-handed these days, aren’t we?”

It was time to add diversity to the organization’s members.