Trait Hoarder – Chapter 8

Hedgehog — Part 1

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“No!”

A scream filled with horror and despair echoed through the tunnel.

The men were watching from a distance, too far away to do anything.

No one seemed to be dead or seriously injured—at least not yet. But it was only a matter of time.

“Kikikikik. Kikikikikik.”

The Hedgehog mutant let out a grotesque laugh.

It was towering, at least a head taller than me.

Its entire body was covered in thick muscle, and instead of hair, metallic spines extended from its head, glinting ominously.

I paid close attention to its arms, especially its fists.

‘What level is this thing?’

While its trapezius, biceps, and triceps bulged as if they were about to explode, the forearms looked surprisingly weak.

Its lower arms were out of proportion with the rest of its body, making it look cartoonish—like something you’d see in a comic book, with an overdeveloped upper body and small, child-like hands.

In other words, it was a Level 1 mutant.

Because the base body of Hedgehog Head wasn’t particularly strong, it hadn’t reached Level 2.

“Phew.”

Clang!

I tossed the shovel aside and stepped forward.

“Kikikikikik!”

The Hedgehog mutant’s beady eyes darted toward me.

“R-run away!”

Roe Deer, who was pinned against the wall and coughing up blood, shouted weakly.

“R-rookie! Crush that thing!”

“We’re counting on you!”

“Just kill it already!”

The men who only knew how to run their mouths cheered me on.

“Kiaaah!”

The Hedgehog mutant charged at me.

BOOM!

The sound was terrifying.

The wide tunnel seemed to shrink under the bulk of the creature as it rushed at me.

I bit down hard on my lower lip.

I had absorbed mana contamination to the brink of my limits, but I hadn’t purified or processed it yet.

I was still at Level 0.

If I fought this thing head-on in my current state, I’d lose for sure.

But the 10,000 hours I spent playing Arcane Seoul hadn’t been for nothing.

I quickly came up with a solution.

First, I tensed my entire body.

My muscles tightened, my neck stiffened, and blood vessels bulged in my eyes.

A drop of sweat formed on my forehead as the world slowed down around me.

This was the state of hyper-focus.

With sharp, glaring eyes and a clenched fist, I focused on just one thing.

‘Remove Wound Recovery.’

That’s a trait that would be more useful after the fight.

‘Remove Vigor.’

Same reasoning—better for a long-term fight, but right now, I needed a burst of strength.

Next, I summoned new traits.

‘Activate Strength, Mana Core.’

My heart pounded hard.

Heat surged through my body, and I felt the mana rushing toward me.

Thud!

A thrilling, fiery sensation shot up to my brain.

My muscles swelled with power.

The intense surge was almost enough to knock me out, but I held on, barely managing to stay in control.

I had activated:

— Strength, to amplify my physical power.
— Endurance, to reduce all physical and magical damage.
— Mana Absorption, to consume mana at will.
— Deep Breathing, to increase mana recovery speed.
— Mana Core, to enhance my mana and manage it efficiently.

And lastly, the final lock and trigger: Contamination Resistance.

“Come at me!”

I roared as I charged forward.

The Hedgehog mutant and I collided.

Both of us relying solely on brute strength, throwing ourselves at each other with no finesse or efficient moves.

“Grrk!”

I was the one who went flying.

I smashed into the wall with a thud and let out a groan.

“D-dammit!”

“Let’s get out of here!”

“Somebody save us!”

The men instantly turned tail and ran.

Roe Deer, still collapsed across from me, looked at me with a pained expression.

“Kikikikik!”

The Hedgehog mutant burst into laughter again.

“Hmph.”

I snorted and got back to my feet.

Then I made a switch.

I replaced Endurance with the new trait I had just obtained: [Toughness].

I hadn’t charged in recklessly just to get hit.

The Toughness trait only reduced physical damage, but it reduced much more than Endurance, and, more importantly, it met the condition for acquiring a certain trait I was after.

“Let’s do this, bastard!”

I charged straight at it again.

I drove my fist into the mutant’s lower abdomen.

“Kieek?”

It was a solid hit.

The Hedgehog mutant staggered back a few steps, a look of disbelief on its face.

But only for a moment.

“Graaaah!”

It roared and threw a counterpunch at me.

The fist enlarged rapidly in front of my eyes.

There was no time to dodge.

I gritted my teeth and raised my left forearm at a right angle to block the blow.

Crack!

“Gaaah!”

My arm broke.

Stars exploded in my vision, and searing pain shot down my spine like ice-cold lightning.

I had expected it, but the pain was unbearable.

My body instinctively wanted to curl up, but I refused to let it.

If I backed down now, there was only one possible outcome.

Death!

If I didn’t want to die, I had to move forward.

If I wanted to survive in this hellish world, I had no choice but to keep fighting!

I screamed as I threw my fist again.

“Die!”

I poured every ounce of frustration into that punch.

I released the pent-up anger, the confusion, the despair I’d felt since being thrown into this world—all of it exploded at once.

Thud!

The Hedgehog mutant’s body shuddered violently.

Though I had struck its stomach, its whole upper body shook, and its head jerked back.

But that was as far as I got.

“Graaaah!”

The Hedgehog mutant swung another wide punch.

A clumsy, inefficient attack.

But I wasn’t any better.

I was just a former laborer who did grunt work and played games. What skills did I have to dodge something like that?

BOOOOM!

The blow landed with a deafening crash, and my arm broke again.

I nearly blacked out, but I gritted my teeth and held on.

I knew.

I knew that, as someone who hadn’t even reached Level 1 yet, going toe-to-toe with a Level 1 mutant like this was beyond foolish.

But I also knew something else.

Stupid, reckless, and seemingly impossible situations like this are exactly when traits get triggered!

“Aaaargh!”

I swung my fist again.

I hit it once and got hit in return.

“GRAAAAH!”

Our roars echoed through the concrete tunnel.

It was a brutal, primal fight.

A clash of raw power.

And I was losing.

My left arm hung uselessly at my side, and my right fist, unprotected by any armor, was bloodied and torn.

But I kept moving forward.

Despite the pain, despite everything, I continued my charge.

Not thinking about anything else, focusing solely on the Hedgehog mutant in front of me, I swung my fist once more!

There was only one thing I needed.

Strength!

More strength!

Stronger than before!

As I endured the excruciating pain, I swung my fist again.

And that’s when it happened.

A strange sensation shot through my right arm.

A scorching heat, as if it were being branded with a hot iron.

At the same time, an icy chill, like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over me.

For a moment, I thought I saw a flash of blue lightning before my eyes.

From my heart, from my entire body, from my mind, an unfamiliar sensation surged through me like a fountain.

CRUNCH!

My fist buried itself in the mutant’s abdomen.

This time, the impact felt completely different.

Urrgh.

The Hedgehog mutant coughed up blood.

It was a solid hit.

The Hedgehog mutant looked at me with eyes full of disbelief.

This was the power of the trait, [Mutant Muscle].

A trait that can only be acquired when both Mana Core and Strength are active.

“Die!”

“Graaaah!”

But the Hedgehog mutant wasn’t about to back down.

With renewed fury, it charged at me again.

And we resumed trading punches.

I coughed up blood.

Actually, more than just blood—I was taking some serious hits.

My face, my stomach—every part of my body was aching.

One of my legs was broken, and my eyelids were so swollen I could barely see.

“Iiiik!”

“Graaaaah!”

But I kept charging.

Again and again, I threw myself at it.

With blood rising in my throat and my heart pounding like it was about to explode, I felt it.

I felt the birth of a new trait.

[Mutant Body].

Just as my Strength had been replaced by Mutant Muscle, my Toughness was now replaced by Mutant Body.

Now, I was no longer at a disadvantage.

My broken left arm had already healed.

Though my body was slightly smaller, I was standing toe-to-toe with the Hedgehog mutant, trading blow for blow.

“Superhuman…”

I think I heard someone say.

Or maybe I didn’t.

I was too focused on the Hedgehog mutant to care.

“Graaaah!”

The mutant roared and drove its fist into my chest.

I couldn’t block it in time.

Thud.

A surge of blood rose in my throat, threatening to spill out, but I swallowed it down and drove my fist into the mutant’s lower abdomen—the same spot I’d been targeting over and over.

‘Not enough.’

In every stat, I was the inferior version of this thing.

Attack power, defense, raw strength, even the wild savagery that overwhelmed any rational thought—it was superior in all those areas.

The final lock had to be broken.

The last trigger needed to be pulled!

Hoooo.

I took a deep breath.

Would it work?

Would everything go according to plan?

I had to believe.

Believe in the 10,000 hours I’d invested.

The time I’d poured into Arcane Seoul!

‘Remove Contamination Resistance.’

For a moment, everything went silent.

It felt like the world had stopped.

Then, slowly, my entire bloodstream began to reverse.

Thump, thump, thump.

My heart pounded.

But not in rhythm—completely off-beat.

My ventricles became atria, my left side became the right, and my breathing stopped altogether.

“Grrrgh!”

An indescribable pain ripped through me.

My brain felt like it was melting from the heat, my fingers and toes itched unbearably, and my muscles felt like they were being torn apart fiber by fiber.

And then, my body began to change.

I started to grow—rapidly.

So much that I now towered over the Hedgehog mutant.

My size, my bulk, my muscles—everything had expanded.

“Kikik?”

Sensing something was wrong, the Hedgehog mutant tried to retreat.

But my mutation was one step ahead.

Before it could react, I swung my massive arm and grabbed the mutant by the throat.

I lifted it easily and slammed it to the ground.

BOOM!

The sound was unlike anything I’d ever heard before.

It was like a thunderclap.

The entire concrete structure seemed to shake, and the puddles of stagnant water scattered across the floor exploded outward.

“Kiiieeek!”

A scream filled with agony.

I slammed it down again. And again. And again.

The tide of the battle had completely turned.

The Hedgehog mutant writhed and screamed, trying desperately to stand, but I didn’t give it a single moment to recover.

I knew its weaknesses.

I knew its strengths.

I knew everything about it.

The Hedgehog mutant only had one real trait: [Spiked Hair].

A Level 1 mutant like this, with mismatched traits, abilities, and combat style, couldn’t hope to stand against me—a fully synergized set of six traits.

I was a Level 1 Superhuman now.

Not a warrior-class Superhuman, but a mutant-class—having forsaken my humanity to become a mutant myself.

I’d unlocked a new stage of power.

Crack, crack, crack.

Behind me, I heard Roe Deer’s teeth chattering uncontrollably.

“Monster…”

Yeah, that’s how it must look.

Once someone mutates, they can never return to being human.

That’s common knowledge.

But I had a secret to rely on.

Thwack!

I dealt a final blow, confirming the Hedgehog mutant’s death before stepping back.

“Ahhh!”

Roe Deer, paralyzed by fear, began crawling away, dragging himself across the floor.

He probably thought that, after killing the monster, I would come for him next.

But I wasn’t interested in him.

Instead, I focused on myself.

This was my current trait set:

[Mana Absorption], [Deep Breathing], [Mana Core], [Mutant Muscle], [Mutant Body], [Mutant].

The key traits were Contamination Resistance and Mutant.

When I removed Contamination Resistance, I pulled the trigger that activated my mutation, pushing my body over the edge into a full transformation.

I’d crossed the Rubicon.

I was no longer human. I had become a mutant.

But what if—what if I tried removing the Mutant trait?

Would I still remain a mutant?

Gulp.

I swallowed hard and restored the traits.

I replaced Mutant with Contamination Resistance.

I replaced Mutant Muscle and Mutant Body with Strength and Toughness.

And finally, I switched out Mana Absorption, Deep Breathing, and Mana Core for Wound Recovery, Endurance, and Vigor.

Crack! Crack!

I could hear strange sounds coming from all over my body.

I was shrinking.

My massive, hulking form was returning to its original, leaner shape. The skin that had morphed into something inhuman began to regain its normal color.

It was like watching time rewind.

The world no longer appeared red.

The dim light of the fluorescent bulbs, the shadowy concrete structure—it all looked the same as before.

Bingo.

My calculations were spot on.

“Huff, huff…”

Roe Deer, gasping for breath, stared at me—at the me that had reverted back to a human form.

–TL Notes–
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