Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 11

11. Blasphemer (3)

Squeak.

After rummaging through the debris of the collapsed village warehouse, I found a plank lying on the floor.

And when I moved the plank aside, a deep underground passage leading downwards appeared.

Aeil entered without hesitation, and humid air greeted him.

Throughout the very old cave, artificially made torches were placed at appropriate intervals.

It was too small overall and shallow in depth to be considered an underground dungeon.

After passing through a winding path for a while, a large stone door blocked the only path, and two zombies loitered in front of it.

As soon as they saw Aeil, they rushed at him, but they fell without even touching a hair on Aeil’s head.

Due to the nature of the Warlord, who has difficulty hunting even ordinary monsters, it was a very unfavorable fight against two monsters with a level difference of 5, but Aeil solved it easily.

“This must be the place…….”

Aeil, who had gently wiped the long sword stained with thick blood, looked at the large stone door blocking the entrance.

It had been a relatively long time since he had seen it, so he vaguely remembered what was behind this stone door.

As he carefully touched the stone door, the large stone moved sideways with a creak and opened.

The interior was like a gloomy stone chamber, reminiscent of a closed training room in a martial arts novel. But if you looked closely, you could see that it was a wizard’s study full of strangely shaped tools and books.

Before he could examine it further, a man in the middle of the stone chamber rose from his seat, emitting a black aura.

“How dare you set foot here! I will tear you apart and kill you!”

The enraged man was Necromancer Ratma, a level 15 boss monster that appeared beneath the ruins.

There was a story that he was the one who turned this village into ruins, and related quests existed. However, it was better to skip them because the distance to the NPC [Non-Player Character] who gives the quest was far, and the intermediate process took too long.

[An Heretic has been discovered!]

[You have encountered an heretic who has violated the teachings and touched the evil power of darkness. Make them pay the price for their sins!]

[A large penalty will be given if the mission fails!]

[Passive, ‘Blade of Hatred’ is activated!]

As the system notification sounded, Aeil looked at Ratma.

Above his head was the ‘Mark of the Heretic’, a gruesome symbol indicating his heretical status.

The word “heretic,” usually used in religious circles to refer to those who follow the wrong doctrines or distort teachings within the same religion, was used in a slightly different way by the Order of Light.

For ‘Ru’, the God of Light they followed and the creator of the world, the basic premise was that all beings in the world were already her followers. Those who did not directly worship God, or even animals, were branded as heretics and judged by any means if they engaged in actions that deviated from their basic doctrine of ‘justice’.

It was a very unique and absurd method, but the problem was that the goddess was pleased with it and took it for granted.

Even monsters without proper reason were mercilessly marked as heretics if they committed evil deeds, and the Necromancer who destroyed the entire village was no exception.

Once you followed the Order of Light, a quest was given on the spot when you encountered an enemy with the Mark of the Heretic, and you had to execute the designated opponent.

If you saw an heretic and avoided the fight because you thought it was dangerous, the goddess’s favor stat would drop significantly, putting you in a difficult situation that was difficult to recover from.

Of course, everything depended on the system that gave the quest or the goddess’s whims, but such cases were rare, so it was better to assume that they had to be killed unconditionally without exception.

Koo-oong!

Necromancer Ratma slammed his gray-brown staff on the floor, and a dark wave filled the stone chamber, and the battle began.

[The level difference with the monster is severe, so you are in a debuff ‘Withering’ state!]

[You are in a debuff ‘Mental Breakdown’ state due to black magic!]

[You are in a debuff ‘Fear’ state due to black magic!]

The dark wave that spread in all directions reached Aeil, and he was subjected to several debuffs due to exposure to black magic.

Of course, the debuffs he received were all based on psychological factors and fell off without much power.

[All psychological status abnormality effects are nullified due to the effect of the skill ‘Fanatical Martyr’!]

[The debuff ‘Withering’ has been removed!]

[The debuff ‘Mental Breakdown’ has been removed!]

[The debuff ‘Fear’ has been removed!]

“What… what is it?”

Ratma, who had been high-spirited, was embarrassed and stepped back when the black magic did not work at all.

The fact that the status abnormality was completely blocked was fatal to him, whose main skills were necromancy and status abnormality skills.

In a hurry, Ratma quickly slammed his staff down once more, and corpses crawled out through the floor.

They were the same monsters as the zombies covering the village above.

He would think that it would be a difficult opponent for ordinary people because more than twenty such monsters appeared, but Aeil knew that the zombies that had appeared now were not as strong as the ones in the village.

Since Ratma had a setting that zombies summoned urgently on the spot were relatively weak, the ones that appeared now had low health and attack power, so they could be dealt with relatively easily.

Chwaak!

As if to prove it, Aeil swung his long sword and knocked down the zombies blocking his way one by one.

Then Ratma quickly cast the next skill.

It seemed like he was trying to use the status abnormality ‘Frenzy’, as if he was taking a big preparatory motion as if to prepare himself.

Black magic frenzy was a powerful curse magic that caused the person who was hit by the magic to attack all objects around him without distinguishing between friend and foe.

Even professional healers in the level 15-20 range were still too early to have status abnormality removal skills, so it was nothing more than an element that forced them to give up party play when attacking Necromancer Ratma.

Moreover, its power was still the same even when playing solo, and when in a frenzy state, he could not aim at the boss monster Ratma and attacked the surrounding zombies.

‘It’s worth a try.’

But Aeil smiled instead.

[You are in a debuff ‘Frenzy’ state due to powerful black magic!]

[Status abnormality effects that do not work on those who are already mad!]

[The debuff ‘Frenzy’ has been removed!]

“What the hell are you!”

Ratma screamed when even his signature magic, Frenzy, did not work.

For Aeil, a solo player, his frenzy magic was rather a boon.

Even though it varies from case to case, a boss designed for one person is naturally balanced accordingly, and Ratma, who is notorious among the low levels in this area, was no exception.

Furthermore, since he wasted the boss’s pattern from the beginning, he had plenty of time to remove the mobs without any interference.

Peo-uk!

Aeil tripped the zombie blocking his way and immediately rushed at Ratma and swung his long sword.

But the opponent was by no means a monster to be underestimated.

Ratma immediately unfolded his defense magic to block his attack, and Aeil was pushed back, dragging his feet on the ground with a recoil that bounced off the black barrier.

After confirming that some of his health had dropped, Aeil clicked his tongue.

Ratma’s characteristic was that he was proficient in close combat even though he was a necromancer who poured out black magic and curses, and this was one of the factors that made it difficult for beginners to face him alone.

‘It would be much easier to use the crystal… but I shouldn’t use it now.’

He had a sure way to finish off his opponent.

But his health was still close to maximum, and there was no threatening situation.

Above all, in his standards, he needed to be a normal boss monster with a level difference of about 5 to grasp his objective skills.

Aeil rushed in again, this time swinging his sword, stopping, and digging in further.

Ratma, who was unfolding his shield again, was defenseless due to the short duration of the defense magic when Aeil canceled his attack in the middle.

Poo-uk!

“Keu-aack!”

Red blood burst out from inside the robe Ratma was wearing as Aeil’s sword was embedded in his chest.

While the summoned zombies rushed in from all directions to save him, Aeil landed three or four additional blows and stepped back.

While removing the mobs and preparing for the next attack, Ratma summoned a dark spear and threw it at Aeil in succession.

Pook! Pook! Poo-ook!

But Aeil rather pulled the zombies in and used them as shields, and he was able to remove the annoying summons of the guy with his attack.

“T… This!”

Ratma hurriedly prepared the next magic for his own attack that backfired.

But Aeil did not miss the gap.

A necromancer without a summon was completely defenseless if he had just started casting magic.

He jumped over the mashed zombies and swung his long sword again, and the time difference attack that he launched again penetrated the shield and hit.

Ratma, whose casting was canceled, swung his staff to avoid the urgent situation, but no matter how good a mage was at close combat, it was impossible to resist Aeil’s sword, who was superior in combat skills to a close combat class.

Before long, Ratma fell to the floor, and a cheerful system notification sounded.

[Level up!]

[You have executed an heretic!]

[Order of Light Contribution +35]

[Faith stat +1]

[Madness stat +1]

[Goddess’s Favor +0.16% (currently 50.27%)]

[A stronger goddess’s blessing dwells in your body.]

[Combat-related stats, some increase.]

As his level rose, his stats, contribution, and favor increased.

As expected, once he caught a boss with the Mark of the Heretic, the strengths of the Inquisitor began to emerge in earnest.

Although it was difficult to manage the favor stat compared to other orders, and he was an object of avoidance for other users, all Warlord jobs had their advantages as well as disadvantages.

The Inquisitor, who was greatly affected by the favor stat, showed a powerful side that was difficult for most jobs to catch up with if he faithfully fulfilled the goddess’s demands.

His dealing [damage output], tanking, and utility were all decent, and he had many range attack skills for a melee class, so he could easily handle one-to-many hunting.

There were quite a few defense penetration skills, so it was easy to catch health pigs like pure tankers, and he even had self-healing methods, although they were rare.

With such excellent skill composition and the ability to gain an advantage in specs with the raw stats that increase due to the favor skill, it was definitely an excellent all-around character that was hard to find in solo play.

Since the situation was still the situation, a clear direction had not yet been decided, but in order to satisfy his aptitude, he was planning to raise his character to a level that would not be inferior anywhere.

Even though it was a virtual reality game where he had to use his body directly, unlike online games on a monitor, he had been feeling since the first time he connected that his experience as a former ranker was of great help in his sense and understanding of the game itself.

The combat skills he had worried about before starting Warlord did not seem bad, and Aeil was somewhat confident.

‘Come to think of it, my madness stat also increased…….’

The 6th stat, Madness.

The madness stat, whose identity was unknown, also increased along with the faith stat.

It seemed like a stat that would increase every time he caught an heretic like this time, but the details were still unknown.

[This stat is disabled.]

“…What do you want me to do?”

Aeil stared blankly at the system message that popped up without fail.

As he was shaking his head, Ratma’s corpse behind Aeil suddenly stirred.

He opened his mouth wide with a hideous look and shouted, flapping his black robe.

“I am a necromancer who has transcended death……! I never die!”

Pa-ssseu.