Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 160

160. The Owner of the North (4)

“Hmm, warm……”

Eile rubbed his hands together, a languid expression on his face.

All around him, pyres of corpses burned, providing a morbid heat source.

Warming himself amidst the carnage in the frigid North, he found it almost blissful.

The magicians of the Celestial Church, who had ambushed him with traps along his path, had all met a heretical end.

[‘The Secret Explorer’ leaves a favorable review of your battle.]

[Public Church Contribution +150]

‘Seriously……’

Lenox’s message appeared before him.

Eile looked at it, dumbfounded.

Contrary to his expectation that Lenox would be furious at the slaughter of his followers, Lenox was behaving in a completely unexpected manner.

He didn’t seem to care at all about the sight of his followers burning.

To top it off, he even gave Eile a small donation, making him seem like a deity with a strange personality, different from Rua [likely referring to another deity or character with a distinct personality].

‘What is he up to… Does he not care at all whether his followers live or die?’

Eile couldn’t fathom Lenox’s motives.

In any case, thanks to the warmth of the burning pyre, he fully recovered his body temperature and rose to continue his journey.

He turned his gaze towards the site of the recent battle.

‘They kept contacting each other during the fight… When are they planning to arrive?’

Lenox’s followers, during their battle, were busy contacting their nearby companions.

Judging from their pleas for help, reinforcements were undoubtedly on their way.

That’s why Eile dragged the defeated followers some distance away from the scene before commencing the cremation.

But even while burning all the subdued followers to restore his body temperature, no reinforcements appeared.

Eile’s desire for another encounter was thwarted.

KWAH-KWANG!

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the area he was observing, a loud boom echoing through the landscape.

This was a clear indication that someone had arrived.

Eile had managed to pilfer a few installation-type items from Lenox’s defeated followers, and he had set up an ‘Explosive Trap Magic Circle’ at the scene of the initial battle.

Judging from the force of the explosion, the magic circle had certainly been triggered.

“Nice.”

Eile pushed off the ground and sprinted towards the source of the sound.

Upon arriving, he found the Celestial Church followers who had come searching for their already-deceased comrades.

‘There are six of them… Two seem to be quite high level, and one is wearing a summoning pendant, so he must be a summoner. I need to take care of him first.’

While the bewildered followers hesitated, Eile quickly assessed the situation.

He gauged their approximate levels, classes, and equipment, even checking for any named players from the Celestial Church with a single glance.

“Are you the one who attacked us?”

“You should get your facts straight. Who set up the trap?”

Eile retorted, feigning a dumbfounded expression.

It seemed that more than half of them had suffered considerable health damage from the magic circle’s explosion, yet they were accusing him of attacking first.

“Well, now that you mention it, you’re right.”

An unexpectedly quick acknowledgment.

Eile, momentarily speechless, regained his composure and spoke.

“So, did you come to avenge your comrades?”

“No, not really. I have no regrets about them. We were short on supplies anyway. With fewer mouths to feed, we’ll be able to hold out longer.”

“Huh……?”

Eile’s hand, which had been poised for battle, went limp.

He had heard that the followers of the Celestial Church were very individualistic.

But he never imagined it would be to this extent.

“Then why did you set up a trap on the road?” “To hunt other users, of course.”

“Hunt users……?”

The amount of food a Warlord [referring to a player character in the game] could carry in their inventory was limited, and the lack of supplies in such a harsh environment was inevitable.

Because of this, they sometimes attacked other users for survival.

In such a remote area, users were an excellent source of supplies.

“So, haven’t you been looting? If you’ve come this far, you must have been attacked for supplies several times.”

“What are you talking about? I haven’t encountered any other users until now.”

“What……? You must have been very lucky.”

“Lucky?”

“We alone have clashed with users more than twenty times since entering the North. All sorts of users have flocked to the outback after hearing rumors. Most of them can’t withstand this harsh environment and drop out, but even considering that, a considerable number of guys have come to this land.”

A larger number of users than Eile had expected, or than he had heard from Sir [likely a character or NPC providing information].

But the follower’s words weren’t finished.

“In addition, the Iron Cross Guild is hunting down users who have entered the North indiscriminately. Even those who were on friendly terms have been expelled, and most are attacked and killed on sight.”

“What? That can’t be……”

Eile frowned at his words.

Even though he hadn’t encountered any other users, he had directly encountered members of the Iron Cross.

As someone who had even entered the northern city and met the guild leader, Sir, he naturally had reason to doubt their words.

“Believe it or not, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, you’re finished here. Since you’ve taken all the supplies, we can’t just let you go.”

Tsutsutsut!

The followers began casting spells all at once.

“I can’t turn a blind eye to a heretic either. More than anything, I need to hear more details.”

Eile, raising his longsword, twisted his lips.

They had already branded him as a heretic as soon as they met.

It was well known that the Celestial Church’s magicians wielded very powerful magic with the help of their favor [referring to divine favor or blessings].

It was natural, since the merit that magicians, who needed support in many ways, had gained by giving up their guilds in Warlord.

But for now, it was just Eile’s good lunch.

Whoosh!

He reached out towards the precious supply sources.

* * *

“According to the map, it should be around here…”

Eile, his brow furrowed, looked around.

After subduing the attacking magicians and immediately setting out to find the next base, he had narrowed down the candidates for the fragment of the relic to five locations.

‘I didn’t expect them to have this much useful information.’

As a religious order that followed Lenox, the god of knowledge, the Celestial Church had a lot of information about the relics.

In particular, they were far ahead in tracking the relic fragments in the north.

The remaining candidates were less than five, among the numerous coordinates from the Waystone.

However, the reason Eile knew all of this was simple.

To the six captured magicians on the verge of death, he offered to spare the one who revealed the information first, and one of them, lacking loyalty, began to spill everything.

Of course, he also took all of their cold-weather gear and food, so he probably died soon after.

Thanks to that, he was able to get a significant head start in tracking the relics.

“Found it… !”

The entrance to a huge tomb buried in the snow.

Judging by the faint footprints, someone had already gone inside, and Eile entered without delay.

An old underground tomb, one of the five candidates.

The interior, with the structure of a very old dungeon, was a mix of ferocious zombie monsters and the corpses of users.

‘Did they get each other during the battle?’

It seemed that the Celestial Church had already started investigating, and there were casualties in the process.

Feeling anxious that he might be too late, Eile hurried his steps.

Upon entering the inner room, he found more fallen monsters and followers.

‘They’re down again…? It doesn’t seem like such a difficult dungeon…’

A strange doubt began to arise in Eile.

Just getting here through the harsh environment of the north meant they weren’t easy users to deal with.

But it didn’t make sense that one or two of them were collapsing in each section.

However, the further he went inside, the more the bodies of the followers increased, and the more the question grew.

“Cough… !”

A brief scream echoed as he went deep into the end of the tomb.

Eile ran through the corridor and entered the last room of the tomb.

In the last room, an antique display case that seemed likely to hold a relic stood alone in the center.

However, the display case on top of it was already wide open, and the inside was empty.

A single corpse that had just fallen and rolled on the floor.

And a gray-haired man standing alone next to the display case.

“Neshua?”

“I was faster this time.”

Neshua smirked and raised a hand.

The fragment of the relic was in his hand.

Neshua, who had entered the tomb before Eile, had taken the fragment of the relic.

‘This is troublesome…’

Even though he met an unexpected face in the far north, he couldn’t feel happy.

He thought he was moving quite fast, but he had been beaten to the punch.

Moreover, it was one of the four key fragments needed to form the relic, which was in the north.

He had obtained two fragments before, but this was a much bigger deal than then.

“Those bastards… !”

“Give me the relic!”

At that moment, two magicians from another room appeared.

They were casting magic with the intention of burning everyone in the room.

But before Eile and Neshua could rush in with their weapons drawn, arrows flew from the side and pierced them all at once.

“What…?”

Clang!

The Iron Cross guild members rushed in, drawing their weapons all at once.

It was an appearance that neither Eile, Neshua, nor even the followers of Lenox who had fallen a little while ago had expected.

Six people, not just one or two.

Eile’s expression crumpled as he immediately grasped the situation.

“No way… there’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed I was being followed.”

“You can’t think like that in the north.”

Sir appeared from among the guild members.

As expected, the Iron Cross had been following Eile all along.

The reason they hadn’t encountered other users in the north was that they had taken care of the nearby users to speed up their progress.

The opponents had even obtained camouflage uniforms exclusively for the north and were high-level top-ranked users who had invested in stealth skills.

Even Eile found it difficult to notice in the unfamiliar extreme environment.

“… !”

Neshua was also surprised by Sir’s appearance and froze in place.

It was understandable, as the top-ranked player, ranked 2nd, had suddenly appeared at the moment he obtained the relic.

“So it was true that you were hunting users…”

“We didn’t go to the trouble of developing the backwoods while taking losses for nothing. There’s no way we can let other guys run wild now. And Neshua.”

Sir shifted his gaze to the side.

Judging by the fact that he already knew his name, it seemed like they were acquaintances.

But Sir swept back his gray hair and gave a strange smile, and Neshua’s pale face was somehow strange.

“To come all the way to the north and not even show your face… I’m disappointed, little brother.”