Basement 2's Golden Pile (1)
What the hell is that?
Is that thing... eating gold?
My hair and the rest of my body stood on end in an instant, and I froze mid-descent.
Floating in mid-air, I refocused and looked down again.
What the...?!
A giant, shaggy hand!
And it's scooping up gold...
Wait!
Two hands?
Three? Four, five, six...
Is it multiple?
Crunch. Crunch. Slurp~
I was terrified, yet my gold felt so precious that I nearly lost my mind.
I had to go lower.
The sound of descent, which hadn't been audible before, now boomed like thunder.
But the real sound was something I couldn't identify—those creatures munching on gold coins.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch...
Slurp~ Glurp...
At least two, maybe more.
I couldn't see them clearly yet, but I had just heard it.
Two glurps at almost the same time.
Eight arms...
They were constantly stuffing things into their mouths.
That meant at least four.
But something felt off.
Why did the arms seem to sprout from one body?
Zzzzt...
I got a bit closer.
Horns first.
A poison monster?
But right next to it... another horn.
Wait...
How?
Two heads fused together?
Only after descending a bit more did I finally recognize the golden predator for what it was.
It was none other than a giant ogress!
And...
Two heads, eight arms.
Its size was roughly...
...damn, just huge.
One head alone looked over a meter across.
I stopped my descent.
I couldn't risk drawing its attention by going any lower.
Fortunately, the thing hadn't noticed me above and was still devouring gold coins with reckless abandon.
With eight arms and two mouths...
But there was one good thing: the ogress in my line of sight appeared to be just one creature.
Moreover, it was smashing gold coins, and recovery was 100% guaranteed.
I could carve up its belly or dig through its shit.
No matter how monstrous, I'd never heard of metal being digested.
I almost rushed in and ruined everything, so I decided to head back up for now and return home.
After all, only I knew about that gold and the ogress.
Calm preparation was better than anything.
***
That day I took a clean bath at the hunter wellness center, dropped off my laundry, and crashed hard at home.
The next day, Saturday.
After a good night's sleep, the impossible series of events from yesterday flashed through my mind, making me feel light-headed.
But thinking about that ogress devouring my gold made me anxious again.
Don't rush.
Today I'll just relax at home and plan carefully.
After breakfast I searched the hunter wiki for information on two-headed, eight-armed ogresses.
It said no such creatures existed.
Twin-headed ogresses came in eight varieties, but all had four or six arms.
Eight arms didn't exist.
Then was it unique?
I decided to research the closest match and base my plan on it.
===
[The monster you searched for is a twin-headed six-armed ogress.]
[Classification: Humanoid]
[Grade: D-class]
[Size: Minimum 6m, Maximum 12m]
[Overview: A powerful monster with two heads and six arms. Slow, dull, and dumb, but possesses enormous physical attack power and defense. Each arm wields different close-range weapons—flail, morning star, club, war hammer, mace, etc.]
[Habitat: 21st, 26th, 37th floors...]
[Weakness: Weak to all magic, especially sleep-type magic.]
[Abilities: Wild Beat, Earthquake, Rampage Rush, Devastation, Cannibalism...]
[Other: Always hungry. Loves alcohol like crazy. Eats non-food items too, so cutting open the belly after killing might yield unexpected rare items. If captured by an ogress, it's recommended you commit suicide. Don't hesitate or you'll be eaten alive...]
===
Damn.
I knew this would be tough, but I had to abandon close combat.
The thing was a full D-class.
There's a famous hunter saying:
- You can overcome one grade if miracles happen, but two grades is impossible.
True.
A stuffed F-class like me could catch a squeaky E-class.
But crossing two grades to a D-class was impossible.
The shovel couldn't even pierce its hide.
Then...
Maybe using the new banner [Rotten Legion] and the degree [Nobel Prize: Rot Virus] would work somehow?
I searched the wiki thoroughly for "banner" and "degree," but nowhere could I find any information on these items.
Did I really get the world's first?
Time to experiment.
According to the status window, attaching the banner to any armor piece triggered its effects instantly, and since it was removable, there was no hassle.
I immediately put on my work clothes and attached [Rotten Legion].
===
[Attached banner [Rotten Legion] to work shirt.]
[Low charisma prevents the banner's power from activating.]
[Required charisma: 10]
===
Hmm.
Next came the degree [Nobel Prize: Rot Virus].
===
[Low intelligence prevents receiving the degree [Nobel Prize: Rot Virus].]
[Required intelligence: 10]
===
Fuck...
I decided to seriously consider my stats.
Current stats:
===
[Strength: 45]
[Vitality: 44]
[Agility: 11]
[Unspent stat points: 29]
===
Pretty decent so far.
I started at 10-10 for strength and vitality, agility at 11.
Normal start, but thanks to all the shovel training, an F-class turned into a total beast.
Plus, swinging the shovel added +15 to strength.
And with 29 unspent points still waiting (28 from leveling up, 1 from sewer work), well...
But the lower ones made me feel a bit sour.
===
[Intelligence: 7 (cannot be raised with points)]
[Charisma: 9 (cannot be raised with points)]
===
I could interpret that as pretty good.
Basic stats on awakening ranged from 0 to 20 anyway.
But the problem was that intelligence and charisma couldn't be increased with points.
Still, it was manageable.
===
[Life: Unopened]
[Mana: Unopened]
[Resistance: Unopened]
===
Looking at that, I wanted to die.
Life, mana, resistance...
They were also called the "three virtues" in short.
The most important high-grade stats in hunter ranking.
If even one opened, you were E-class.
Two opened: D-class.
Three opened: C-class.
My sister Eunpa started as an unopened resistance D-class and suffered all the way to C-class.
She became a "normal hunter" with all eight basic stats open.
But I was a closed F-class with none of them open.
And cases where an F-class opened all three to reach C-class or higher were almost nonexistent.
Back to the point.
It didn't matter much right now.
I needed to raise intelligence and charisma to at least 10 first, so the basic values were fine.
That way I could use the hard-earned banner and degree.
***
I walked over to my sister watching TV in the living room and asked,
“Hey, Eunpa. How do I raise intelligence fast?”
“Intelligence is just having a good brain.”
“Ah, come on, who doesn't know that? If you have a dumb head, how do you raise it?”
“No real method. Unless you're a chaebol, you could buy potions. A billion for intelligence 1?”
“Was it 2 or 3 billion?”
Damn.
I had poured every last won into this job.
I had about 1,600 gold from shoveling, but after exchange that was only about 2 million won.
Meaning immediate cash purchases were impossible.
“Then charisma? Is the charisma potion similar price?”
“No potions for charisma. Plastic surgery is the answer.”
“I'm not joking.”
“I'm serious. Plastic surgery actually raises it. Good looks and pretty faces raise it. Athletic bodies raise it. Designer clothes raise it. Cool cars raise it. But the real hunter charisma comes from tower achievements.”
“Achievements?”
“Do something respectable so people respect you. Charisma shoots up.”
Damn.
I'd already stacked countless achievements.
World's first new tower entrance.
World's first basement 1 discovery.
One-floor solo slaughter record...
One-floor solo monopolization record...
Basement 1 solo clear...
But why is my charisma like this?!
“Some people say achievements don't work for certain people?”
“Bad achievements, right?”
“World records, even.”
“World records always raise it. Charisma is popularity-related, so a world record should send it through the roof.”
“Doing it alone and nobody knows?”
“...Of course it doesn't raise. Imagine a 100m sprinter setting a world record alone in the track and wondering why nobody likes him. You have to actively promote achievements through status window sharing or hunter-wide emails.”
Damn, it clicked.
Still, my achievements... most of them can't be publicly shared...
“Then how about this? Like Spider-Man, wearing a mask and showing off achievements to multiple people...”
“No way, that won't work either. The hunter's identity must be publicly known. But how much charisma do I need right now?”
“1... point?”
“...Yeah, that might work with a frontal approach.”
“What?”
“Fall in love. Real love for oppa will raise it.”
“Come on, you need a woman to fall in love. Introduce me to one of your pretty friends.”
I knew she'd reject it, so I said it as a joke. But Eunpa gave an unexpected response.
“Really? I have one friend with a really good personality. She’s been wanting to go on dates lately. Want me to call her?”
“The way you emphasize ‘good personality’ makes me think her face is... average?”
“Oppa! Now you're checking faces? ...And my friend was really pretty before.”
“She was pretty before... now she’s chubby?”
“No, oppa... have you heard of the Rot Virus?”
Rot Virus?
I’d just received a Nobel Prize for it...
Eunpa sighed lightly and continued.
“Anyway, there’s this terrible disease... she got it but was miraculously cured. That’s why she has scars on her face.”
I suddenly got interested.
There might be a connection between the Rot Virus degree I held and her.
“Then... should we meet?”
***
A few hours later I was sitting at a cafe with the girl opposite me.
“Hello. I’m Eunpa-ssi, Hwang Geumpa.”
“Hello. I’m Han Yejin, Eunpa’s friend.”
The moment I saw Han Yejin’s face, I was hit by a complicated, subtle emotion.
Delicate jawline,
large lake-like eyes,
flawless creamy skin.
Plus nose, lips, eyebrows—everything perfectly placed.
But that angel face was only half.
Skin that looked burned.
Eyelids drooping, eyes hidden.
Ears melted and stuck to her skin.
Gums visible because lips were gone.
That was the other half of her honest face.
Only the beautiful half would have been S-class among civilians...
Plus her slim, muscular body in fitted clothes was something anyone would find attractive...
But the horrific other half kept drawing my eyes. No matter how much I tried not to be prejudiced, I couldn't ignore it.
At that moment Han Yejin smiled brightly and said,
“Okay, let’s put on the mask now.”
She wore a white mask covering half her face.
Suddenly she looked beautiful enough to glow with a halo.
“I hid my face from my ex-boyfriend... so this time I want to show it from the start. It's disgusting, right?”
I asked in a serious tone.
“I heard it’s the Rot Virus. But how did you get infected? May I ask?”
“My dad was a hunter. One day he came home without knowing he had the disease. The whole family caught it... I was the only one miraculously cured. The rest are still isolated and suffering.”
She stopped there, choked up for a moment, then steadied her emotions.
After a while the real her smiled brightly and asked me.
“Oh, I heard you’re also a hunter, oppa.”
I laughed and said,
“Hunter? I’m barely a one-month tower scavenger. I’m just doing part-time work before I go back to school. Haha, disappointed?”
“Disappointed? My dad started as a tower scavenger too. ...So how much did you earn in a month?”
I honestly told her my current balance.
“420,000 won. I’m shoveling for real.”
“No. 420,000 won isn’t where you start. The important thing is that you had the courage to begin.”
Han Yejin said that with a sincere expression.
I naturally felt affection toward her.
“What do you do, Yejin-ssi? University student?”
“I was a climbing athlete until high school, but the disease forced me to quit. Now I’m an instructor.”
“Wow! So you’re really good at climbing? I climb too...”
“Wow, really?”
“No... not that great. Just started a month ago? That much?”
“I’ve never seen a hunter who climbs. Should I say I’ve never seen a hunter among climbers?”
“Haha. Really? Climbing and hunter life do seem unrelated.”
“I want to be a hunter too, but climbing is useless, they said. If I’d known the hunter world would come, I would’ve done kendo or fencing from childhood.”
After that conversation we sat awkwardly for a while not knowing what to say.
“Umm...”
“Me...”
Both of us started talking at once and the conversation closed again.
“You go first...”
“Oppa...”
At that moment I saw smoke rising from the top-floor balcony of a luxury apartment next to the cafe.
It looked like a fire.
Counting, it was the 20th floor.
A young housewife came out onto the balcony coughing, but she couldn’t breathe because of the thick smoke and started climbing over the railing.
On the outside of the balcony she gripped the bars with her thin arms and struggled to hold on.
“P-please save meee~~~ Please save me~~”