Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 82

82. Madness to Madness (5)

Kugugugung!

The vibration that shook the entire dungeon was significant enough for all the users inside to notice, including Aile, who was nearing the center.

Aile, moving along the narrow ledges on the wall to avoid the cultists filling the corridor, nearly lost his balance but managed to steady himself.

‘Almost fell… What’s going on?’

The dungeon couldn’t have shaken for no reason.

Someone must have triggered something, activating a new event, which wasn’t good news for Aile.

Thinking something must have happened, Aile tensed and soon heard a deafening noise.

Kwaang!

Kieeeeeek!

‘Crazy…!’

Aile hid upon seeing the monsters that appeared as the door on one side of the corridor was smashed open.

A huge horde of monsters surged out, rampaging and devastating everything around them.

These suddenly appearing, unidentified undead monsters attacked the captured residents and devoured the Twilight Council cultists.

With their overwhelming numbers, the cultists were swept away without resistance. Aile stared blankly at the scene.

Aile quickly checked the monsters’ information.

They were Skull Hounds, level 30 beast-type undead monsters with tattered skin revealing patches of white bone.

‘There was no mention of these monsters… What on earth did they do?’

It was clear this wasn’t a normal situation, and Aile began to feel a headache from this sudden variable.

But the problem didn’t end with the monsters’ appearance.

A strange black aura, like a fog, spread low across the floor and settled around.

Then, where the monsters had passed, the cultists who had clearly died began to rise, one by one.

“Ugh…”

‘What is this now…?’

The cultists, imbued with the black aura, were resurrected as undead.

The level and name visible in the information window remained the same, but the change in their appearance as their attribute changed was impossible to ignore.

Above all, their pale skin and bloodshot eyes looked familiar.

Aside from the fact that the dead had simply come back to life, he felt that the overall resurrection pattern was similar to that of the bandit group encountered in the instance dungeon ‘Conspirator’s Cave.’

‘Could it be related to the last world quest? Well… it’s not impossible.’

Aile had gotten involved in the quest through a quest item he had luckily obtained and was tied to the Bloody Hands, but if it was a world quest that boasted a vast scope, it was natural for all sorts of events to be linked in various places.

Of course, he wasn’t at the stage where he could be sure yet, but Aile’s intuition was reacting.

‘What do I do now……’

Aile was lost in thought as he looked down at the staggering cultists.

This sudden situation occurred in a new dungeon that hadn’t been properly explored yet.

If the dungeon’s mechanisms were triggered incorrectly without a plan, the users inside could be wiped out. Normally, it was safest to get out before getting caught up in unnecessary things.

But Aile couldn’t give up now.

First of all, he had an important quest from the Order’s executioner, and there was also the possibility that a world quest was involved.

Of course, he couldn’t give up on this and leave, so he had no choice but to solve the problem himself.

Aile began to move to finish the investigation of the magic circle.

‘The sudden variable… the magic circle is likely involved.’

Aile, concealing his presence so as not to attract the monsters’ attention, moved in the direction from which the black aura was seeping.

The increasingly dense aura as he moved seemed to indicate that he was getting closer to the source.

But the more he did, the more monsters poured out.

At first, he simply thought there were a lot of monsters, but as he went on, they kept pouring out endlessly. If left unattended for long enough, they seemed poised to fill this vast underground dungeon.

‘Is there no limit to the number of monsters that are summoned?’

From the screams of the users faintly heard on the other side, it seemed they had become victims.

Judging by the numbers, it was hard to see it as a normal respawn. It seemed he had to find and stop the source of the monsters directly.

‘The worst-case scenario has been triggered. I need to hurry.’

* * *

Kieeeek!

Skull Hounds constantly emerged from the black hole beneath the magic circle.

The large hall was already full of monsters.

But they only filled the first floor or scattered in all directions, not paying attention to the upper levels. Aile, hiding above the railing on the hall’s upper floor, was fortunate enough not to be detected.

‘As expected… the party that came in first touched the magic circle.’

Aile’s eyes lit up as he discovered the large magic circle.

It seemed to be a high-level summoning circle that the cultists had been preparing for a long time by offering sacrifices. There seemed to be no limit to the number of summons.

Of course, it wouldn’t summon endlessly enough to cover the world, but at the current rate, filling a dungeon didn’t seem to be a problem.

In the Warlord’s black magic, the human soul was a very cost-effective material, so it wasn’t an impossible story.

However, from Aile’s point of view, he couldn’t just stand by and watch.

He pondered how to deal with the summoning circle through those many monsters.

Uuung!

At that moment, the black bead he had put in his pocket before entering the hunting ground began to react strongly.

Although it felt ominous, Aile took out the bead and looked down at it in his palm.

The black bead, which was said to have contained the ground souls of black magicians, didn’t stop vibrating and resonated with the magic circle. It felt like they were trying to attract each other.

‘Am I supposed to use this?’

He thought it was a protective device, a minimum safety measure, but it seemed to be useful in a slightly different way in this quest.

After deciding, he immediately grabbed the black bead and jumped over the railing.

Taak!

Aile, who jumped with all his might, landed not far from the magic circle.

But because of that, the eyes of the monsters filling the hall were all directed at Aile, who had landed on the floor.

The moment they were about to rush towards him all at once, Aile’s hand, which had opened a new window, manipulated the screen.

[Apostle Perk, ‘Contribution Shop’ is open!]

[You are not restricted by region as an Apostle!]

[Search function is activated!]

[Contribution Points Held: 5,410]

[Purchase Complete!]

[Superior Duel Circle Scroll – 35Lv]

[Contribution Points, 500 points consumed.]

A white scroll appeared with light and was held in his left hand.

Aile immediately tore and activated the scroll, spreading it out downwards.

Hwaaaak!

A white circle was created on the floor, and a wall of holy fire rippled around the round edge.

The wall of fire surrounding Aile prevented the Skull Hounds from crossing over.

Duel Circle.

It was a divine magic that blocked the caster from surrounding disturbances.

However, it only blocked access and couldn’t block ranged attacks, so it had a clear limit and wasn’t a popular method. But if used at the right time, like now, it was a magic that paid for itself.

However, the Duel Circle had no effect on the enemies within the range, and he had to use his hands directly.

“Kieeeeek!”

The Skull Hounds rushed towards Aile.

Even though it was clearly less than the number in the entire hall, there were quite a few monsters in the range, which was quite a burden.

But Aile, who had them in front of him, stretched out his sword with a light heart.

Hwareureureuk!

The long sword with the holy fire cut through the Skull Hounds, and they were swept away by the flames as they were cut.

It would have been a problem if the number was burdensome in a normal case, but Aile was not one to be overwhelmed.

The superiority of compatibility from the high level and attributes compared to the opponent made the one-to-many fight much easier.

And above all, the weapon Aile had now…

The hero-grade weapon item, Nuire’s Longsword, had more firepower than imagined.

It goes without saying that the basic specs were good, and the special effect ‘Full Moon’ added to the longsword basically increased the damage of all holy attacks Aile inflicted by 15 percent, and had the effect of inflicting 35 percent additional damage to the undead.

In the Warlord’s system, which basically follows the combined arithmetic method, it meant that the weapon effect alone could inflict 1.5 times the damage to the undead.

Because of that, the monsters were melting away the moment they were hit by the holy fire, and the number of Skull Hounds inside the Duel Circle was rapidly decreasing.

The speed at which monsters were summoned from the magic circle couldn’t keep up.

But then, an unexpected ambush appeared.

Jjeoeong!

A sword suddenly flew in from the side, and Aile blocked it with his longsword.

‘User……?’

Aile’s eyes narrowed as he identified the attacker.

The users who were lying under the monsters and thought to have been wiped out rose one by one and picked up their weapons towards Aile.

‘No, undead.’

Aile immediately noticed that their party had all turned into undead.

The same change was visible as when the cultists were resurrected.

Aile, facing five users shining with red eyes, sensed that things had become a little troublesome and raised his sword.

But at that moment, the tanker standing in front showed an unexpected move.

Kwaang!

In an instant, he kicked off his feet and narrowed the distance, colliding forcefully and bouncing Aile away.

‘Is that a skill……?’

Bewilderment settled on Aile’s face as he rolled on the floor.

It was a dash-type skill that many knight classes had. If he had thought a little more about the opponent’s job, he wouldn’t have been unable to predict it.

However, that was only the case in a general PVP [Player versus Player] situation.

Even if the user’s corpse was resurrected, as long as he lost his ego and became an undead, he was bound to follow the monster’s method and was no different from a zombie with good specs.

But the current opponent directly used the skills he possessed as a user.

The situation itself that the user’s corpse was resurrected and became an undead was not common, but this time it was an unprecedented case.

‘Could it be related to the world quest?’

Hwareureureuk!

A fireball sent by the mage in the rear flew in without even having time to think for long.

Aile hurriedly dodged the wide-area magic and cut down one of the Skull Hounds running from the side.

‘If it’s treated as a user rather than a monster in the system…….’

Aile, who came up with one hypothesis in that short gap, immediately activated the skill.

Apostle-only skill, Heretic Designation.

Chiing!

A clear mark of heresy was engraved on the heads of the undead users.

It would have been impossible if they were treated as ordinary monsters.