Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 113

113. The Essence of Hunting (6)

[You have extended a helping hand to someone in distress!]

[Favor of the Goddess +0.21% (Current: 77.38%)]

[Light Church Contribution +45]

[Faith Stat +1.5]

‘What is this?’

Eil reacted, startled by the sudden messages.

He had been ambushing a party mid-quest, taking down three players and leaving only one standing.

But these messages indicated that the player he was now facing was not part of the same group.

‘Wait, now that I think about it…….’

Eil finally took a good look at her face.

It was a face he recognized. After a moment of recollection, it quickly came to him.

“Aren’t you the person I met before?”

It was the woman he had first encountered in Dubel’s hunting grounds when he started as a Warlord.

He had saved her from being killed by a horned rabbit, but she had run away in fear as soon as she realized Eil was affiliated with the Church.

“No way… Oh, I—I was really sorry back then… I didn’t even properly thank you, and I didn’t know anything at the time…”

Surprised by the unexpected encounter, Lia seemed to recall the past as well, apologizing anxiously.

She had not forgotten Eil’s face, and thanks to his rare job as an Inquisitor, she was able to recognize him immediately.

At the time, she had been frightened by the infamous reputation of the Light Church and ran away, but she later realized that unless she was committing sins, she was unlikely to be attacked out of the blue.

“It’s alright. But could you tell me what your relationship is with these people?”

“Is there a problem with them…?”

“All three of them are heretics who have been committing evil deeds.”

“Re-really?”

Lia reacted with wide eyes, shocked.

Only then did she understand why Eil had suddenly attacked her party members.

“Well… I’m not very good at controlling the range of my area-of-effect magic yet. A few days ago, I accidentally hit a player near a monster, and their armor broke because their equipment durability went to zero. The repair cost was 300 gold… so I ended up joining them until I could pay off the debt.”

‘Ah, so that’s how it happened. No wonder she was keeping her mouth shut.’

Eil began to understand the situation based on Lia’s words.

“You’ve been completely scammed.”

“Pardon…?”

“Even if you combined all the equipment these guys are wearing, it wouldn’t be worth 30 gold. There’s no way they could afford 300 gold armor.”

“Bu-but I searched for it on the auction house! It was definitely listed as 300 gold…”

“Did you check if it was 100 percent identical? You couldn’t check the name or stats of the damaged equipment through the information window… The appearance would have changed quite a bit due to the damage, so they probably tricked you with similar-looking equipment. They seem to be habitual scammers who have done this more than once. The mark of a heretic isn’t given to just anyone.”

“Oh, no…”

Despair filled Lia’s face as she finally realized something was wrong.

In fact, even Eil, who had played many games, rarely saw someone get swindled so badly.

If she had any sense, she would have noticed something was wrong along the way, but he just felt sorry for her.

“I can’t believe this… I’m not sure if I should feel relieved or not.”

Lia, on the verge of tears, glared at the scammers with resentment.

All of them were in a near-death state, lying unconscious, unable to even register her gaze or muster the strength to say anything.

However, Eil still had one question.

‘Even if they were scamming her… Why did they bother dragging her around?’

Normally, they would simply kill the person and take the items, or constantly send messages demanding repayment of the debt.

There was no need to go through the trouble of adding her to the party like this time.

But judging from the system message that appeared, it didn’t seem like she was just lying to get out of a crisis.

Eil decided to put this issue aside for now and asked her the urgent question.

“Do you know what kind of quest these guys were doing? It could be an important clue for me.”

“Well… in terms of content, it was a simple transport quest. They asked me to move the items over there to this location.”

At her words, Eil shifted his gaze.

A pile of items that the party members had taken out of their inventories was stacked high.

With the exception of thorium ingots, most of them were materials mainly used for alchemy or magical experiments.

“I’ve taken on this kind of request three times so far. Each time, the location to transport to was different, and they gave a very large reward compared to the work.”

“Which NPC [Non-Player Character] did you receive the request from?”

“A dark elf named Rouse.”

‘Dark Elf…?’

The dark elves, who had settled in the Dark Forest, possessed individual combat power comparable to that of the elves of the White Forest.

He had expected them to be related to the Order of the Black Sun, but this was a rather unexpected appearance.

“But the Dark Forest is in a completely different region, so the distance would have been considerable.”

“I didn’t encounter them in the Dark Forest, but in the city. They were in the back alleys.”

‘Being in the city is a violation of the treaty….’

Eil’s eyes gleamed at her words.

The story was becoming quite interesting.

The royal treaty with various threatening races, including the high elves, was no exception for the dark elves.

They were supposed to be restricted from leaving their territory, but the fact that a dark elf was roaming the back alleys of a human city meant they had ignored the treaty.

Moreover, they were giving suspicious quests to players. He began to sense that something was amiss.

‘It seems to be related to this world quest. Perhaps Prince Oren’s external contacts aren’t limited to the Order of the Black Sun… I need to thoroughly check the inside of the cave.’

Eil turned his gaze to the passage leading into the cave.

The answer would be inside, and he was going to quickly deal with the remaining heretics and go down to investigate.

But suddenly, strange noises began to be heard.

Whoosh!

A dark aura began to rise from the passage, soon staining the ceiling and floor where they stood black.

That wasn’t all.

A black monster emerged from the passage, quickly kicking off the ground and charging towards Eil.

Slash!

Eil immediately drew his sword and slashed the monster in half in one swift motion. The bisected creature writhed on the floor, making bizarre noises.

[An emergency quest has been generated!]

[A crack has occurred in the sanctuary where an ancient being sleeps! Purify the contaminated sanctuary immediately!]

[Current Purification Rate: ‘0.00’%]

[Time Remaining: ‘239:59:58’]

[This is a large-scale quest that could have a significant impact on the world.]

‘What… 240 hours? A 10-day quest…?’

A truly insane quest.

Given the Warlord’s quests, which always involved being chased by deadlines once a time limit was set, Eil had never seen a quest of this scale before.

Moreover, the words ‘ancient being’ and ‘contamination’ in the quest description.

Eil immediately thought of the ancient spirit he had encountered in the Spirit Forest.

Although the mastermind had not been revealed, they had tried to contaminate the sanctuary where the ancient spirit slept back then, and the pattern was the same this time.

‘Could it be that….’

Kieeeeek!

The screams of evil spirits echoed from the passage.

He could see them swarming below.

“Um, can I go now?”

Lia asked, terrified by the ominous atmosphere.

But as if understanding her words, the next message arrived at the perfect timing.

[A barrier concealing the cave’s appearance has been created.]

[If a member who has already entered leaves, the barrier will disappear and the quest may be severely affected.]

“Oh, well, I guess I have no choice. Let’s deal with the ones coming up first and then talk.”

“Okay…”

Not knowing how many monsters were swarming from below.

Eil quickly formed a party and checked her stats.

Her level was 40, her job was a general mage without any specialization, and her equipment was ordinary without anything particularly outstanding.

“What’s your main attribute?”

“I don’t really have one… I’m multi-attribute.”

“Do you have any casting time reduction skills?”

“No, I’ve mostly learned offensive magic…”

“Hmm…”

Eil scratched his head, feeling slightly troubled.

If a mage of average skill didn’t have any special casting time reduction skills, it would take forever to cast a single spell.

Casting times varied greatly depending on the talent and skill of mage players, but frankly, she didn’t seem to have outstanding skills.

If she only had a useful area-of-effect spell, it would be difficult to use magic even once per battle, and he was a little worried that he would just have an extra burden to protect in the rear.

Kieeeeek!

The black evil spirits, already close, screamed fiercely.

He had to fight for now, and Eil quickly took his position in front of the narrow entrance to prevent them from escaping to the rear.

“Please use area-of-effect magic from behind!”

“Ah, yes!”

Slash!

The evil spirits charged at him, and Eil swung his longsword, knocking them down as they approached.

They were just ordinary monsters of a similar level, so it wasn’t too difficult to hold out.

However, the number of monsters swarming was so large that he could potentially have physical problems.

Whoosh!

But at that moment, a large fire spear that passed by Eil pierced through the evil spirits.

The fire spear pierced through several of them and stuck into the floor of the passage.

It didn’t end there.

Boom!

The spear that had been stuck exploded, creating a massive fire, and the flames that filled the passage swept through the monsters.

“What is this…?”

Eil froze in place for a moment at the unbelievable sight.

The skill she used was Flare Lance.

It was a rare-grade fire-type attack magic, and the grade itself wasn’t particularly high.

However, Flare Lance was a well-known area-of-effect spell that took a long time to cast instead of having powerful power.

Even with casting time reduction skills, it would take at least 30 seconds, and even ranker-level players couldn’t break the 10-second barrier.

But the time she spent casting was only 6 seconds.

Eil blankly turned his gaze, and there stood Lia, blushing as if embarrassed, fidgeting with her hands.

“So, sorry. Did it take too long? I was a little nervous.”