The Hell on the First Basement Level Is on an Entirely Different Scale! (2)
I turned on my high-performance mana flash and scanned the surrounding hellscape, illuminating every inch of the nightmarish space.
The area was far larger than the centipede cave’s core—vast enough to make size estimation impossible.
In fact, it was even bigger than the 0th-floor lobby.
A single glance confirmed that every point of light from my flash reached was packed wall-to-wall with humanoid monsters exuding stench beyond imagination.
These creatures were rotting alive, their flesh melting away.
Their bodies had fused into a wet, indistinguishable mass where one individual ended and another began.
“Please kill me~ Kill me already~”
“It hurts~ It hurts~”
I had no idea what to do. My instincts were completely frozen.
I kept thinking I needed solid information and proper preparation before returning, but the real issue was that I had discovered something existed below the 0th floor.
Even that alone made my heart race as I climbed back up using the elevator.
The thrill of knowing there was more to conquer below was enough to keep me buzzing the entire ride.
***
The next morning I woke up and immediately logged into the Hunter Wiki to search for the monsters I had seen.
Thousands of different monsters had already been catalogued inside the tower.
Using the keywords “humanoid,” “stink,” and “rot,” I quickly narrowed it down to dozens of candidates.
Soon I found the exact match for what I had witnessed on the first basement level.
===
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[Search result: The monster you inquired about is a Rotter.]
=== [Monster Type]：Unholy [Level]：F-class [Size]：140 cm to 2 m [Description]：Slow and weak, but touching their flesh or fluid instantly infects you with the Rot Virus. It takes anywhere from hours to days to turn you. Normally impossible to kill by conventional means. [Spawn Location]：4F, 16F, 37F… [Weakness]：Holy attribute attacks [Trait]：Immortal, Rot Virus infection [Other]：Constantly begs for death while suffering. Occasionally drops loot, but usually nothing worth farming.
I had found them.
The countermeasure turned out to be shockingly simple.
Just buy holy water and flood them with it.
***
“500 ml for 5.2 million won?”
Standing in front of the shrine’s sales counter, I stared at the price tag in pure disbelief.
“That’s right. Holy water is only a few milliliters because high-ranking priests spend entire days in prayer.”
“How many Rotters can I kill with 500 ml?”
“Usually about one.”
5.2 million for one.
If I needed 500 to 600 just to secure my landing zone…
520 times 500 equals 26 billion.
Even emptying my entire fortune—3,000 kg of centipede corpses included—wouldn’t be enough for a safe landing area.
“What about holy-attribute weapons?”
“We don’t sell those directly. If you bring a good weapon, our priests will bless it during the ritual… but you’ll need to donate a hefty sum to the temple.”
“How much for the blessing?”
“Around 10 billion. High priests have to fast and pray for two days… it’s that important.”
Hah.
It sounded like a robbery, but given the priests’ insane value, I couldn’t really blame them.
Compared to the money they could make on raids, this was actually cheap.
I must have been giving off a troubled expression because the apprentice said, “Why are you so determined to kill the Rotters? They’re slow. Just run away. Plus, dead Rotters don’t leave anything worth picking up anyway.”
He was right—usually.
But I was different.
I had been blocking their way for far too long.
In the end I spent 10.4 million won on two bottles of 500 ml holy water and walked out of the temple.
***
I returned to the hell that was the first basement level.
The biggest change from last time was that wearing a gas mask gave me at least some relief from the stench.
“Please kill me~ Kill me already~”
“It hurts~ It hurts~”
According to the wiki, holy-attribute attacks were the only thing that worked.
I still wanted to test it. The wiki got things wrong sometimes.
I pulled out a mana flask from my backpack.
It was an extremely expensive inflammable substance, but still basically pocket change compared to holy water.
I sprayed it all over the Rotters directly beneath me, then lit a flare and tossed it down.
Whoosh~
Green flames instantly engulfed one Rotter and spread to the others in seconds.
The burning Rotters looked strangely relieved.
“Hot~ So hot~ I like it~ I can die now~”
Other Rotters swarmed in, desperate to catch fire themselves. They wanted to burn to death if that was what it took.
I helped by spraying mana everywhere.
Whoosh~ Whoosh~
Within seconds dozens of Rotters were blazing.
“Thank you~ Thank you~”
“I’m finally dying~ Returning to nothingness~”
But then I saw something terrifying.
The black, charred corpses kept screaming in agony.
“I’m not dying~ Burn me more~ Burn me more~”
“It hurts~ It hurts worse~ Aaaah~”
“It hurts it hurts~ Waaah~ Just turn me back to normal~ It hurts so much~”
Damn it.
The wiki was right—conventional weapons wouldn’t work.
Even spending a fortune on holy water wouldn’t create safe landing space. The pressure from the surrounding horde would fill any gap instantly.
Their nature was simple: they only wanted to die. The moment their companions were killed by holy water they would swarm madly.
This was going to be a headache.
I opened the bottle of holy water I had brought and the Rotters’ eyes lit up with a new frenzy.
“Please kill me~ Please kill me~”
“It hurts so much~ It hurts~”
“Start with me~ Start with me~”
Their bodies were already rotting and they had just burned from the mana flare. How much more agony could there be?
I wanted to give every single one a holy-water shower.
But each bottle cost 5.2 million. I wasn’t a charity. I couldn’t free all of them.
That was when one of the Rotters started making strange noises.
“Soju~ Give me soju~ Give me soju~”
Huh. Even among Rotters there was an alcoholic?
Hunting for soju this deep in hell was just cruel…
As I thought about it, I looked at the creature’s face and nearly jumped.
The instant I recognized him, I knew exactly who he was.
It was Mr. No, the Tower Scavenger who had tried to kill me days ago.
Why was he here?
I suddenly realized something I had missed until now: the “0” branded on his forehead.
And I looked around.
“Please kill me~ Kill me~”
“Please kill me~ It hurts so much~”
Every Rotter around me had the number “0” branded on its forehead.
What did that mean?
Did it mean they had died on the 0th floor?
One Rotter’s scream pierced my ears.
“~My belt~ That’s mine~ My belt~”
Sure enough, the same “0” was branded on its forehead.
My own belt was from a dead hunter in the centipede cave.
I shouted at the screaming Rotter, “What was your original trait?”
“~Self~ development~ digging~”
A chill ran down my spine.
I suddenly understood the reason for this place and the true nature of these monsters.
This was a space where the bodies of dead hunters had been summoned from the tower.
Shining my flash farther away made it crystal clear.
The place I had descended into and was clinging to was the center of a massive concert hall.
Therefore, all the dead from the 0th floor were gathered here.
But shining farther showed Rotters branded with “1,” “2,” and “3.”
Farther still—4, 5, 6, 7…
Hunters from each floor were pressed together like sandwiches, rotting away.
They didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, didn’t even die—they just endured the endless agony of their bodies melting.
Dying inside the tower was the worst kind of death.
I was already saved.
The one chosen for salvation was the hunter who had given me the Rune Stone [Self-Development Digging].
Thanks to him my gear had been excellent. Time to repay the debt.
I filled the plastic water gun I had brought with holy water, aimed precisely, and fired.
Shuuuuk~
Chiiick~
The stream hit his head and turned it to glittering gold dust that rose into the sky.
But the water stopped. His body still flailed with arms outstretched.
Damn it.
Spraying holy water only purified the head.
Tricks wouldn’t work.
To kill all of them I needed an enormous amount of holy water.
But there was still one more experiment I could run.
I pulled a large hook from the rope I had prepared and stabbed it into the back of the Rotter I had just freed. The body was soft enough for the hook to sink deep.
It felt wrong to hook a body that had once been a hunter, but the goal was to release it from pain.
I tied the rope on the hook to my own and began climbing.
Chirak~ Chirak~
Seconds later the rope tightened and the hooked Rotter began rising.
Other Rotters swarmed in and clung to the body like leeches.
“Me too~ Me too~”
“Take me with you~”
I shot a precise shot into their hands with the water gun and knocked them all off.
***
A few minutes later…
I successfully pulled the dead hunter—hooked and all—to just below the boundary tunnel between the 0th floor and the first basement level.
I climbed up toward the centipede cave first, grabbed the rope with both hands, and hauled the hooked Rotter higher.
The Rotter thrashed wildly since it couldn’t speak without a face. But the rope was long enough that I never got close.
And then…
Chiiick~
The body of the former hunter turned golden and vanished into thin air.
Bingo!
There it was.
A way to kill Rotters without holy water.
My guess had been correct.
The system wasn’t that sloppy.
It wouldn’t have set up a way for the dead to return to the 0th floor.
Doing so would cause massive chaos because the resurrected dead would be a huge problem.
A happier message appeared.
⚔ STATUS ⚔
LT__span style="color:#ff6b6b">💥 Kill Rotter completed! EXP +42,300LT__/div>
LT__span style="color:#4d9fff">💰 Gold dropped: 42,300 GoldLT__/div>
Ching~ Ding ding ding~
In an instant, 423 of the largest 100-gold coins rained down onto the floor.
I gathered them into my belt belt while thinking:
Huh? It’s giving gold?
According to the wiki, Rotters occasionally drop loot but usually leave nothing worth farming.
So was this a lucky drop?
My mind flashed with a new idea.
Was this a property item settlement?
Property items. Rich hunters spent huge sums to bind their equipment to themselves.
Expensive, but effective. It prevented companions from killing them out of greed.
When a hunter died, all other items dropped on the ground. Property items turned into blue dust and vanished with the corpse.
But what if the dust didn’t end it? What if the dust automatically settled into gold and fell with the pathetic corpse into the basement?
That theory was surprisingly convincing.
The gold left behind was 42,300. About 60 million won in our currency—quite a lot.
This newbie had been carrying a high-grade “Titanium Spade.” He must have been born with a silver spoon.
Probably he had bound a pickaxe as valuable as the spade to his property item. He was a digger, yet strangely didn’t carry any pickaxe.
Wait. Was this a jackpot?
Among the bubbling Rotters below…
Were there tons of rich Rotters carrying enormous gold?
That meant even one holy-attribute weapon would make 10 billion won easily profitable.
But what was profitable?
I might earn hundreds of billions.
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