Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 59

59. Corpse Cave (3)

‘That guy… he’s not ordinary.’

Tulon thought, watching Aile run ahead.

At first, he had underestimated Aile, thinking he was nothing special, but now his opinion had completely changed.

Aile had meticulously set up traps at strategic points inside the dungeon, using them to continue his escape from two users who were over 100 levels higher than him.

Even the crudest traps were enough to delay one or two users, and whenever the distance closed enough for a solid attack, a trap would trigger, buying him time.

The intervals between the traps were irregular, with many being offbeat, making them difficult to predict.

The level of skill, unbelievable for a level 20 user, was clearly beyond the norm, even to Tulon, who had experienced his fair share of hardships.

In particular, Aile had only been here for a few hours, yet he seemed to know the terrain inside and out, using it effectively in combat, as if he had been here for days.

This was impossible with ordinary skill and intelligence.

However, they weren’t the only ones suffering.

‘I expected it, but this is really killing me.’

Aile gritted his teeth and kept running.

He hadn’t been directly hit by the attacks of the two players chasing him, but he was battered enough from rolling and colliding with things.

Surviving against high-level users who were superior to him in every way was no easy task.

No matter what he tried, they kept chasing him relentlessly, and there were more than a few moments when his life was in danger.

He had only managed to survive this long thanks to his prior knowledge of the terrain and the traps he had set up.

If he hadn’t planned the route meticulously in advance, he wouldn’t have lasted 30 seconds, let alone 15 minutes.

‘I’ve used up almost all my traps now, and I can’t hold out any longer.’

Aile ducked down, feeling a chilling sensation from behind.

A powerful arrow grazed him, embedding itself in the wall and creating cracks. Even in the midst of this, Aile manipulated the interface to check the time.

[Elapsed Time ’00:29:23′]

‘Got it.’

Aile’s timer, set for 30 minutes, was about to end.

Having confirmed the time, Aile immediately turned to the right.

The pursuers, seeing him, closed the distance with the intention of catching him in an instant, but, as expected, another trap was triggered.

Kwarururu!

Falling rocks and flames rained down on their heads.

This trap, which he had invested a bit more money in, was not easily noticeable and bought him a relatively large amount of time.

Aile predicted that the Amaranth guild members would be getting used to the patterns of the crude traps, making it difficult for them to deal with this one effectively, and his prediction was accurate.

Aile dodged the Corpse Mermen blocking his path and descended to a lower level.

Unlike the complex structure with connections in all directions, the path Aile took this time was a straight passage, and even a dead end.

Until now, he had been able to escape by changing directions, but if the pursuers followed him here, he would have to face them head-on.

However, despite being fully aware of this, Aile did not hesitate at all.

Chwaak!

Aile, having quickly descended to the end of the passage, stopped in his tracks.

A large room filled with puddles of water greeted him.

The place Aile had arrived at was the boss room where the Corpse Cave’s boss monster resided.

“Guwooooo!”

A giant figure, several dozen times larger than the Mermen in the outer swamp, roared at Aile.

The boss monster, King Merman.

He held the title of the main boss in a popular hunting ground that was always crowded with people, but he was thoroughly ignored by users due to his tricky patterns, high difficulty, and poor cost-effectiveness.

Originally, the battle would only begin when a player entered the room and woke the sleeping boss, but strangely, King Merman was already awake and ready for battle, even though no one was in the room.

However, before the battle could properly begin, Tulon and Lucas, who had been following closely behind, burst into the room.

“Suddenly coming into a dead end on your own, did you give up or something?”

“I was too out of breath. I can’t keep running forever.”

Aile shrugged.

Tulon didn’t show any particular reaction, but Lucas, standing next to him, glared at Aile with displeasure and opened his mouth.

“After struggling so much, you’re finally out of tricks and surrendering?”

“How can I take on Amaranth all by myself?”

“Ha.”

Tsu-tsu-tsu!

The sound of King Merman casting a spell came from behind Aile.

However, Tulon and Lucas paid no attention to it.

No matter how powerful the boss monster’s magic was, it was obvious that it couldn’t harm them, given their overwhelmingly high levels.

“Well, any last words?”

Lucas asked, leaning casually on his bow.

He wasn’t asking because he had time to spare or wanted to talk to his target.

It was merely a kind of service.

The target’s reaction just before death could also be an element that increased satisfaction for the clients.

He hoped they would show an ugly side or beg for their lives, but unfortunately, this target showed no signs of doing so.

“Last words, huh……”

Aile glanced back and paused, seemingly contemplating what to say.

Then, he looked at the faint cracks forming on the wall, barely visible unless one was paying close attention.

“Give your client my regards, since I’m giving you guys a two-day vacation. Tell them I’ll be back to roast them soon.”

“What……?”

Kwaaaang!

As soon as Aile finished speaking, the surrounding walls exploded violently.

In an instant, the cave ceiling and walls collapsed, sending debris flying, and the startled Tulon and Lucas had to leap away to avoid being caught in the falling rocks.

But that wasn’t all.

Kwaaaang!

A tremendous amount of water poured in through the gaps in the collapsed ceiling and walls.

Caught off guard, they lost their balance for a moment, swept away by the powerful water pressure, and even dropped their weapons.

They quickly turned around to escape from the room, but a torrent of water was already pouring down the passage they had entered from.

It was impossible to go against such a strong current, and the exit was completely blocked.

“Damn it! What the hell is going on!”

“That’s… could it be…!”

Tulon’s gaze turned to the boss monster, who was chanting a spell.

King Merman, having unleashed his final magic, was already fading away and disappearing.

“Has the wipe pattern been activated……?”

King Merman’s infamous clear condition was that the raid had to be completed within 30 minutes, no matter what.

If the raid was not completed within the given time, King Merman’s final pattern, ‘King’s Wrath,’ would be activated, and those attempting the raid would be wiped out as the entire Corpse Cave filled with water.

By now, even the entrance above would have been sealed off by rocks due to King Merman’s magic, and he could imagine the other members of Amaranth guarding the entrance being unable to hide their bewilderment.

After the water filled the cave, the dungeon would return to its original state in about 5 to 10 minutes, but that was enough.

The time it took to die from lack of oxygen was a consistent 3 minutes for everyone, regardless of level or stats.

The reason why the Corpse Cave was such an unpopular hunting ground, despite being located right above a popular hunting area filled with people, was because of its bizarre structure where everyone would be drowned if someone failed to clear the boss.

“No way! The pattern should only appear after 30 minutes……!”

Lucas shouted with disbelief, having grasped the situation.

It wasn’t as if they had entered this place without knowing about the boss and this pattern in advance.

However, Aile had shown himself once after they entered the dungeon, and only Aile had been seen in the swamp.

Since he didn’t have any companions with him, they had thought that this method, which required kiting [leading] the boss for at least 30 minutes, was absolutely impossible.

“Did you have a hidden gang or something!”

“No, if I did, you wouldn’t have missed them. I just gave some money to a suspicious guy at the entrance to keep an eye out for anyone entering.”

Aile said, revealing himself from beside a large piece of rock.

Hearing those words, Lucas suddenly remembered the guy who had glanced at them at the entrance before they entered the Corpse Cave.

A nervous-looking man dressed as a warrior.

He had thought he was just an annoying guy, but he was a lackey hired by the target.

“And the moment you guys came in, I woke up the boss monster and then used that.”

Aile raised his hand and pointed behind him.

In the direction his thumb was pointing, there was a tattered scarecrow floating on the surface of the water, which had already risen to their knees.

A Hermit.

It was a bait item used to lure monsters, and it could also continuously draw aggro [aggression or attention] without a player present.

“Don’t be ridiculous! There’s no way a Hermit that lasts for over 30 minutes exists……!”

“Yeah, you can’t get it through normal means.”

It was a special Hermit that was only sold at the contribution shop of each cult, costing a whopping 400 contribution points.

“To think you’d use such a method… are you trying to kill us all here?”

“No. Only you guys have to die.”

“What……?”

Tulon frowned and asked again.

Aile didn’t add any further explanation, simply taking an item out of his pocket.

A small blue orb.

It was the ‘Aquatic Gem,’ an item dropped by Mermen with an extremely low probability.

A rare consumable item that allowed you to breathe underwater for 10 minutes when swallowed.

“When did you get something like that………!”

“It was a close call. If you guys had come an hour earlier, I would have been the one dying.”

As they were talking, a cold sensation crept up, and the water, which had already reached their chins, was pressing down on them.

“L… Leader!”

Lucas looked at Tulon with a desperate gaze.

But there was no way he could have a suitable solution in the current situation.

No matter how thoroughly prepared they were, there was no way they would have brought an item related to underwater breathing as a precaution.

“Then, see you in two days.”

Aile, with a wicked smile, waved his hand from the surface of the water.