Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 32

Level Up Judge – Episode 32 (32/227)

32. The Ruins (1)

‘There was a reason I didn’t know.’

While riding in a carriage to Blanche Highlands, his destination, Aile spent his spare time researching the underground ruins and quickly understood why he had never heard of them.

The Hillsveda Ruins, located beneath the highlands, were discovered six months ago by a user who enjoyed exploring and finding hidden places.

A massive ruin hidden deep underground.

Naturally, the user sensed a jackpot and searched the place thoroughly, but surprisingly, there was nothing waiting for him.

Only useless junk and empty spaces.

He couldn’t find any items, gold, or relics that needed appraisal.

There wasn’t even a small clue related to other quests or any research material to learn about the Warlord’s background story. It was truly worthless.

The user returned empty-handed, complaining in the community that he had wasted his time and found nothing. Aile found the post and learned the detailed story behind the ruins.

‘He didn’t find anything…’

A place that couldn’t be a hunting ground, quest location, gathering spot, or residential area.

Usually, these types of ruins were occasionally visited by users who enjoyed traveling to see the vivid ruins and elaborate relics.

However, Blanche’s underground ruins couldn’t even be used for that purpose.

The ruins had been destroyed by something, and all that remained were broken statues.

Since there was nothing to see, people had no interest and didn’t visit, so it was natural that Aile had no information about it.

However, the situation has changed slightly now.

In Warlord, these types of terrains were usually divided into two categories: places that were truly nothing or places that could be connected to future events or quests.

‘Now, I should probably consider it the latter.’

A high-profile named NPC [Non-Player Character] wouldn’t have come to a place like this without any business.

Whether there’s a hidden quest or the NPC has a personal story, there must be a reason.

“We’ve arrived.”

As the carriage reached its destination and came to a stop, Aile paid the fare and got out.

“What a wonderful place.”

Alisa, who followed him out, looked around and said.

The unobstructed highlands made him feel refreshed just by looking at them.

A cool breeze blew under the blue sky, brushing against his cheeks.

Now, he had to find the underground ruins in this vast green plain.

It was hard to imagine that something was hidden in this terrain, but that didn’t mean much in Warlord.

Whoosh!

Aile took out the Record Stone from his pocket.

Then, a blue light pointed the way, creating a path, and they began to walk in that direction without hesitation.

The light was slightly tilted downwards, so it seemed certain that it was located underground as he had heard.

“It won’t take long to arrive.”

“How do you know that?”

“I can gauge it by the intensity of the light. The closer we get, the stronger the light beam from the Record Stone becomes.”

Aile tilted the light-emitting stone slightly and said.

Alisa looked at him blankly with a surprised expression.

Originally, Record Stones were not items that could be easily obtained.

The Record Stone itself was very expensive, and a significant amount of magic power was required to register coordinates.

It was certainly not an item used to guide users to quest locations like this.

Therefore, she had only heard of its existence and didn’t know the details, but Aile knew everything about the Record Stone without even looking it up.

“You found the passage over the mountains last time, and you really know a lot.”

“Well… I was very interested in Warlord. But due to circumstances, I ended up starting a year late.”

Aile replied with a bitter smile.

Seeing that, a subtle light flickered in her eyes.

“Are you planning to become a Ranker, Aile?”

Alisa asked.

He seemed to be trying to shorten the time as much as possible in whatever he did, and he became more serious when engaging in quests and hunting, which gave her a different feeling from the playstyle of ordinary users.

“That’s right.”

A spot-on remark.

Aile nodded willingly.

In fact, Aile was aiming for the top spot in Warlord.

But logically speaking, even if he tried his best to catch up now that he was a year late, the Rankers wouldn’t just wait for him, so it was almost impossible.

If he told this story to someone who didn’t know about the Apostle System, they would laugh and say it was impossible, and he wouldn’t have anything to say.

However, Alisa shrugged her shoulders and said with a sincere face.

“I think you can do it, Aile.”

* * *

As they hurried in the direction indicated by the Record Stone, they were able to reach one side of the vast highlands without taking too long, as Aile had expected.

As the strong light pointed downwards, he examined the surrounding ground in detail and found artificial traces in a gap that looked like a small crack under a rock.

Along with traces of someone digging around the crack, there was a hole just big enough for one person to barely enter.

It was easy to guess that it was the trace of the user who had found the ruins at the time entering inside.

It was located behind a rock and the inside was very dark, so it was impossible to see inside the hole from the outside.

But the location was certain and the entrance was found, so there was no need to hesitate.

Aile carefully took a step inside first, and Alisa lay down on the floor, clinging tightly to one of his hands in preparation for any possible situation.

This was to quickly pull him up if the hole was too deep to fall or if there were any monsters that would attack as soon as he went inside.

Thud!

Fortunately, he heard a sound of his feet touching the ground before his body was completely down.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, it seems fine.”

Aile, who had landed on the ground, took out a torch from his inventory, lit it, and illuminated the surroundings with bright light.

The place he had landed was on top of a large rock cliff.

Right in front of where Aile was standing, a steep cliff like a crevasse was formed on both sides.

It was a deep precipice that could end the game if he took a wrong step.

Although the player’s senses were adjusted to be somewhat resistant to fear, the dizzying sensation remained unchanged.

‘How do I get down from here?’

Aile, who was looking down, pondered.

Since he wasn’t a professional explorer, he didn’t have items like exploration ropes prepared, and he couldn’t see a suitable path to descend.

Then, Alisa, who followed him down, pointed at something with her finger.

“I think we can go that way.”

A thick, long green vine located at the edge of the cliff.

It seemed sturdy enough to support a person, and the length seemed sufficient to descend.

After turning off the torch in case it burned the plants, they climbed down the vine hanging from the steep cliff.

Climbing down the lush vine in the dark, making sure not to miss a step, was not as easy as they thought.

However, they were able to descend the cliff carefully without making any major mistakes, and soon faced the floor with a faint light shining on it.

“Oof!”

Aile, who had safely stood at the bottom of the cliff, looked around.

First of all, the torch was unexpectedly unnecessary thanks to the faint blue light filling the surroundings.

He had been wondering where the light was coming from while climbing down the cliff, but when he looked closely, he saw that the light was flowing from the floor.

He knew that there were many such cases among Warlord’s old underground dungeons or structures, but this was the first time he had seen it in person.

It was a very mysterious and amazing sight.

“It seems like we’ve found the right place.”

Aile, facing the entrance of the ruins, raised his head and said.

Giant statues towering high on both sides stood with their axes upside down on the ground, and a magnificent door was located in the middle.

It looked very old, worn, and rusty, but it was such a dignified sight that he doubted whether it was really made by human hands.

It really looked like a magnificent ancient dungeon, but it was just an empty shell, making him feel sorry for the user who found it.

He probably felt a jackpot when he struggled to find the ruins and jumped inside, but if there was nothing inside, the sense of futility would have been indescribable.

Considering that he would have received only a small information fee from the relevant NPC, it was understandable that he posted a complaint on the internet.

Alisa, who was also admiring the magnificent entrance like Aile, had already taken out her camera and was capturing the surrounding scenery.

The camera she was holding was not an item that had to be purchased separately, but a feature built into all users so that they could take pictures anytime, anywhere, so Aile could do it as much as he wanted.

However, since he didn’t have a hobby of taking pictures, he first went through the half-open door and looked inside.

The inside of the entrance had a long, straight structure.

It felt more like a passage leading to the ruins than the actual ruins appearing yet.

But even though he had only entered the passage, he could clearly see why people didn’t come here.

Unlike the impressive entrance, the interior was completely messed up.

It had been neglected and broken for at least hundreds of years, so the atmosphere was bleak, let alone anything to see.

It felt like just another common underground dungeon, and the only things that existed were human-shaped statues lined up on both sides.

But even those statues were terribly broken, and it was impossible to recognize their original form, even though they hadn’t completely crumbled.

“There don’t seem to be any useful items… Why did you come to a place like this?”

Aile reached out and swept over a broken statue.

He couldn’t easily figure out why Sebera had come to this place, where there were no people or monsters, and why she had asked him to come.

Swish!