Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 130

130. The Underworld (4)

“Looks like it’s about time…”

Aeil, who had been sitting on a rock, glanced at the time.

Above him, the large passage through which he had first entered Eltriss was wide open in the ceiling, and he was waiting for his companions in front of the entrance connecting to the surface.

‘It’s already been almost a month…’

Aeil reminisced about the past, taking a leisurely break for the first time in a while.

A significant amount of time had passed since he entered Eltriss through the quest.

It wasn’t just a few villages or dungeons, but a vast ‘region,’ so it naturally took a while.

Aeil had been running around to turn everyone into zealots… no, followers of Ru.

And now, he had succeeded in purifying most of the contaminated lands of Eltriss.

The sources of contamination disappeared, and the earth gradually returned to its original state.

And as a result…

‘The results were significant.’

Aeil glanced at his status window.

Before he knew it, his level had reached 131.

This was thanks to the huge quest rewards he received for purifying the region’s contamination using the Spirit Stone fragments.

Every time he finished purifying an area, he obtained a large amount of experience and rewards. Aeil, who monopolized the quests in the underground cities, naturally experienced rapid growth.

The same was true for the skills he had acquired in the meantime.

Thanks to being able to smoothly acquire high-level skill books as rewards, the list of five skills that Aeil could obtain was dazzlingly splendid.

Among them, first, were three passive skills:

[Nimble Footwork (Heroic)]

[Relentless Tracker (Heroic)]

[Iron Wall (Unique)]

The Heroic-grade skill ‘Nimble Footwork’ was a passive that increased the player’s overall speed.

As it had a large improvement effect befitting its Heroic grade, and it was a basic passive that was always applied like Swordsmanship Proficiency, he naturally didn’t miss it and acquired it.

The following ‘Relentless Tracker’ skill had the effect of granting a movement speed bonus when approaching an enemy.

At first glance, it seemed similar to the previous skill, but in reality, it had many differences.

Namely, it only increased ‘movement speed,’ not speeding up the overall ‘movement’ like Nimble Footwork.

Many users mistakenly confused the difference between these two effects and suffered losses.

The Relentless Tracker skill even had a prerequisite attached.

If he wasn’t approaching an enemy, the passive effect wouldn’t be activated.

But even so, there was a reason why Aeil chose this skill.

‘It’s just that the roles are different.’

Instead of having a narrow effect and conditions attached, it had a much larger increase than could be compared.

In other words, it was more specialized for specific situations.

If it had increased by the same amount, this skill couldn’t have been judged as Heroic grade.

After obtaining this skill for the first time, he thought it was better than an ordinary dash skill when entering battle.

Since it was a passive that was always applied, there was no cooldown, and it was even more noticeable because it overlapped with the effect of Nimble Footwork.

‘But the biggest thing is this skill…’

Aeil’s gaze turned to one side.

A skill called ‘Iron Wall,’ a Unique-grade passive skill with a physical resistance effect.

A powerful effect that creates a certain percentage of resistance against physical damage, reducing damage and increasing durability.

Boss monsters like Gahar of the bandit group he had faced before were famous for making the difficulty tricky if they had physical resistance characteristics, and Aeil had obtained it.

Of course, as expected, the numbers were less than what boss monsters had, but it was enough that a physical resistance effect was created because it was a number calculated separately from defense.

The active skills were just as splendid.

He acquired one Unique-grade and one Heroic-grade skill each, and both didn’t overlap with previous skills and had excellent effects.

‘Only five Unique-grade skills… Even this much is more than a decent semi-ranker level. If I finish this quest, I’ll get more skill books, so I don’t have to worry about skill books for the time being. But the problem is the next goal…’

Currently, there was only one contaminated area left in the Eltriss region.

At the same time, that place was Aeil’s last target.

But the problem was that, unlike other areas, it was a place that Aeil couldn’t clear alone.

A level 130 dungeon, the Tomb of the Cursed Dragon.

He tried it once to get an estimate, but he almost died.

Even if the difficulty of the dungeon was high, it was too much for Aeil’s position because it was basically designed to be attacked by a large party.

Even considering that the surrounding area was contaminated, it was expected that the core that could be purified was located at the very end of the dungeon.

It was practically the same as clearing the entire dungeon.

No matter how much of a solo player he was, he had no choice but to face this kind of situation unless it was a single-player game.

What he needed at times like this were companions.

Aeil summoned his party members without hesitation, and those who weren’t far away readily ran to Eltriss.

Tap!

“Aeil-nim!”

Lia, who came down from the passage, waved her hand happily.

It wasn’t just her.

Alisa and Rhoden, whom he had met before, arrived one after another.

“You’ve come.”

“It’s been a long time.”

The four users who gathered in one place greeted each other happily.

As Aeil gathered his connections and summoned them, some of the people gathered here were meeting each other for the first time.

However, except for Aeil, who was waiting in Eltriss, they gathered in front of the entrance to the underground and came down here together.

Having had quite a few conversations while passing through the deep passage, there was no awkward atmosphere to be found.

However, as soon as their eyes turned to the bottom of the high cliff, they couldn’t help but be surprised.

“This is…?”

“Huh, I never thought there would be a place like this below.”

The vast scenery visible below the cliff.

He had heard about something below, but he had only expected a large dungeon.

But this was a completely different story.

A huge area with cities lined up; it was no ordinary matter.

“This… Aeil-nim, did you discover this first?”

“Yes, it happened that way. I would like to ask everyone to keep this a secret for the time being.”

“Of course.”

At his words, Rhoden and Alisa nodded as if it were natural.

In fact, Aeil wasn’t too worried about the previous two.

However, the one he was worried about now was Lia, who was blankly looking at the scenery.

“Lia-nim, even if someone asks you to tell them, you absolutely must not tell them, okay?”

“Yes? Ah, yes! I’ll keep that in mind.”

Lia, who had come to her senses, nodded diligently.

She still lacked a lot of game understanding compared to Rhoden or Alisa.

Even if there was no malice, she might make a mistake without realizing it, and Aeil had repeatedly asked her firmly.

Of course, she wasn’t a fool, just inexperienced, so it would be okay if he asked her this much.

They first went down a small slope in the corner and formed a party.

There was still a long way to go, so it was enough to talk about the rest while walking.

“No, Aeil-nim! Your level is amazing…?”

Suddenly, Rhoden, who was following behind, said with a fuss.

He had seen the level floating in the party window.

His level written there was a whopping 131, and he had made tremendous growth compared to his previous level, so he couldn’t help but be surprised.

The others who belatedly checked the party window were also surprised.

“Wow, it’s true? You’re the highest among us.”

“To be honest, I thought I would have caught up by now, but the gap has widened even more… I didn’t even think about it.”

Rhoden shook his head, sticking out his tongue.

Rhoden’s level, which was currently 120, was also rising very quickly.

It was natural for Rhoden, who had started much later in Armenia [presumably the game world or a specific server] and caught up with other rankers, to be fast.

But even so, the gap between him and Aeil had widened even further.

Aeil, who was embarrassed, changed the subject.

“Lia-nim, you’ve gotten very high in the meantime, haven’t you?”

“That’s… thanks to Alisa-nim.”

Lia smiled awkwardly and looked at Alisa.

‘As expected, is it thanks to being together?’

Aeil finished purifying the Sanctuary and parted ways with Lia, who had been performing the party together, and then introduced her to Alisa.

If Lia was still walking around alone, she would have been ripped off by fools here and there again, and she needed to learn a little about the world.

But Aeil himself was too busy with the progress of the world quest, and he didn’t have time to tell her this and that.

That’s why he made that choice.

If it was Alisa, there was no need to worry about being scammed, and she couldn’t not know about the true value of Lia’s talent, so he introduced her to her.

Fortunately, Alisa readily accepted the request, and the two were able to play together.

Thanks to that, Lia, who was a novice, was able to achieve level 98 by following Alisa.

“What do you mean thanks to me? Rather, I was able to level up quickly thanks to Lia-nim.”

Alisa smiled brightly.

‘Wait, 127…?’

Aeil was surprised to check her level.

There was only a 4 level difference between her and himself.

She hadn’t fallen far behind compared to himself, who had achieved explosive growth while being involved in the world quest, and her growth rate was faster than Rhoden’s.

When he first met her, her level was about 2 higher than Aeil’s, but he wondered how a healer could level up so quickly.

“Oh, is that it?”

At that time, Rhoden pointed to the front.

The first city of Eltriss appeared before his eyes.

“We decided to stop by our city first, right?”

“Yes, let’s go in.”

Before starting the full-scale dungeon attack, they had to stop by the city to purchase the necessary items.

The huge city of gnomes unfolded before them.

They were impressed by the new race and the different scenery from the ground, but their admiration soon turned into astonishment.

The city was full of waves of believers.

All sides were filled with the symbols of the Order [referring to the Order of Ru], and buildings including temples were lined up.

They were able to witness the gnomes praising Ru in a frenzy.