Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 149

149. Tyrant of the River (5)

“What brings an executioner of the Order here? Surely not to play mercenary for Blackburn…”

Duke, the Hellblood Sword, guild leader of the Blood Alliance, spoke to Aile from the center of the negotiation table.

Beside him sat Bolton, the Lion Mage, the vice-guild leader of the Blood Alliance.

Newcomers might find it strange, but it was a nickname he had held for a long time.

Aile, facing them—renowned figures even among the Lineage [a ranking system] rankers—calmly explained the situation.

From the suspicious circumstances of the recent world event to the next targets and the need to work together to stop them.

He even presented the directive received from the diocese leader to convey the truth.

Of course, their reaction was not favorable.

“I understand what you’re saying… but how can we trust this?”

Duke placed the received directive on the table.

It contained information about attacking all territories in the Far West region, but they suspected it was a forged document.

There was no special device to verify it, and a directive with this level of detail could be easily created.

Of course, this was well within the expected range.

“I have no connection to the Blackburn Guild. Why would I lie?”

“To stop a rival Order, of course.”

Duke smirked as he spoke.

“Did you think I wouldn’t be able to tell, even if I’m not affiliated with the Order?”

He was also aware of the recent competition between the Orders.

The reason for suddenly coming to this area must be to hinder the Order of Water from the perspective of a competitor.

If so, it was entirely possible that he was trying to deceive them to prevent Bahamut’s world event from succeeding.

No, it was more likely.

By deceiving and using the Blood Alliance, they could much more easily stop their actions.

“As clearly stated in the message, their target is only Blackburn’s territory. Even if they really target us, we can easily stop them in a weakened state after fighting Blackburn. We might even receive the rewards from the world event.”

‘Haa…’ Aile sighed deeply inwardly.

That was exactly what Bahamut was aiming for.

Even if they could stop the believers after nine territories had fallen, Bahamut would have already gained more influence through the success of the first world event.

And if it came to that point, it would be easy to gather additional believers from other regions and crush the Blood Alliance Guild.

Very few people knew about divinity and influence yet, and Duke, not being a member of the Order, had no way of knowing.

“But I’ve heard you’ve been trading with large guilds recently. It seemed quite reliable… Just in case, we can at least withdraw our forces for now. But anything more is an unreasonable request. I can’t just roll up my sleeves for a rival guild for such a reason.”

As if the business was over, Duke rose from his seat.

As he said, Blackburn was a rival guild that had fought several wars with the Blood Alliance.

He couldn’t move the guild based solely on the words of an outsider at such a golden opportunity to bring down those guys.

If he suddenly joined hands with Blackburn, the guild members’ backlash would be enormous.

‘I guess this isn’t enough to convince them.’

In their position, it was natural not to believe him.

Since the target area was displayed to all users, it would naturally seem like he was trying to avoid a desperate situation.

Even he wouldn’t have easily believed it because of the entangled interests.

It was impossible to persuade someone who had already made up their mind.

Before Duke left the conference room, Aile also jumped up from his seat.

[‘Aile’ has requested a duel! (Y/N)]

“What…”

A message appeared in front of Duke.

His brow furrowed at the sudden request for a one-on-one duel.

“What is he trying to do?”

“There’s no way to get an answer like this. Let’s just stick a flag in it without talking too much.”

“You want to duel me?”

“No, it’s a little different from that.”

What Aile wanted was not an ordinary duel.

A true match between players, wagering the character’s existence on the outcome of the duel.

“Let’s do a character deletion bet.”

“What, what!”

Bolton’s eyes widened in surprise at Aile’s words mentioning him.

Basically, a duel agreed upon between players through the ‘Duel Request’ system only determines the winner and loser, and does not result in death.

However, in the case of a character deletion bet, the story changed 180 degrees.

The loser of the duel would have to delete their character altogether.

Not just a death penalty through death, but self-deletion of the character, causing everything accumulated to disappear.

Thus, the weight of a character deletion bet was not something to be brought up lightly.

It was something that only happened when there was a certainty of winning or when there was deep resentment.

“Are you kidding me right now?”

Duke chuckled without showing any displeasure.

Even if Aile had been making a name for himself with his skills recently, his level was still lacking compared to the top-ranked players.

Moreover, Duke, who was called the strongest user in Lineage, was a semi-ranker player with a level of 240.

It was impossible to bridge that level gap no matter what.

Of course, the outcome was obvious.

He couldn’t have made such a proposal first unless he was crazy.

But Aile didn’t back down at all.

“I’m not kidding.”

Aile had been planning to make a serious gamble since before he came here.

Originally, a character deletion bet was just an agreement between users.

Since it wasn’t determined by the system, there was a slight problem with reliability.

If the loser ran away without deleting their character even after losing, there was no way to impose any sanctions systemically.

Of course, the one who ran away would be shamed in the surroundings for a long time, but there were many who valued their characters more, so it was a common occurrence.

But it was different now.

Duke was the master of a large guild that had been making a name for itself recently, and Aile was also a named player representing the Order of Light.

Even if they endured, they would suffer such severe image damage that it would be better to delete the character, and they couldn’t break the promise easily.

Because they were in a position to be responsible for a group, not just their own lives.

“But… why would I accept such a bet in this situation? If you’re planning to interfere, I can just suppress you right here.”

Duke subtly turned his gaze.

This was the Blood Alliance Guild’s base.

It was also a place full of guild members gathered together to fight a fierce war with a rival guild.

With a single gesture from him here, Aile’s head would fly off without resistance.

But even in that situation, Aile threw out an even bolder remark.

“You can’t even understand properly, you must not be confident in the duel? Well, it’s not surprising since you’re the leader of a guild that just slathers on items.”

A light taunt thrown out with a sneer.

Duke and Bolton’s expressions hardened in an instant upon hearing it.

The Blood Alliance guild members generally had excellent financial resources and always invested a lot of capital, and other users frowned upon them, calling them equipment-reliant.

Of course, Aile knew very well that Duke was a user with considerable skill.

It was impossible to show off skills in War Lord with mere wealth or equipment.

It only added to the power and helped in battle, but in the end, one’s own skill was just as important.

But Aile, who knew that better than anyone else, also knew that such public opinion had been constantly tormenting them since the Lineage days.

If so, he would scratch the complex they might have had.

“Why? Even with items and a level difference, you’re not confident in winning? If you want, I can even take off my accessories and fight.”

“You son of a bitch… !”

Said while looking at the guild leader, Duke.

But rather, Bolton, who was watching, flipped the table and approached.

“Bolton, what are you doing?”

“The guild leader doesn’t need to step up for such a guy. Come out! I’ll teach you the power of the Blood Alliance!”

Bolton, enraged, lost his temper and left the conference room.

He had mercilessly crushed every immature punk who dared to provoke him with nonsense.

So that those clumsy fools would never again ignore his Blood Alliance members with absurd prejudices.

And this time was no different.

“To fall for such a provocation…”

Duke clicked his tongue as he watched Bolton run out.

Then he said to Aile.

“You must have provoked that guy from the beginning, right?”

“Well…”

Aile smirked and picked up his weapon.

As he said, it was all within the expected range that Bolton, not Duke, would step up.

It was naturally easy to grasp the tendencies of important figures in large guilds, and it was very easy to predict that Bolton would step up first.

“To suddenly duel after coming to negotiate… I don’t know what your scheme is, but provoking Bolton was a foolish act.”

Clearly, he was far short of Duke, whom he had initially targeted.

If Duke had accepted the duel as it was, Aile would not have found any chance of winning.

But even so, it didn’t mean that Bolton was a weak user.

He was a powerful mage user over level 200, and at the same time, he had enough skill in duels.

It was common sense that mages, who generally needed casting time, were absolutely disadvantaged in one-on-one situations.

However, the story changes if you put together a skill tree that pays enough attention to small-scale skirmishes or duels.

Instant casting and low-cost spells to increase responsiveness and check melee classes.

Bolton was a mage who had set up his skills with a focus on such skills, and he had made sufficient preparations, and was even the owner of a sub-class that was the counter of melee classes.

He was also a high-rated arena holder, so there was no need to talk about his skills.

But Aile didn’t feel uncomfortable with such an opponent at all.

“We’ll have to wait and see.”

They were overlooking the fact that the weapons that players could use were not just specs and skills.