Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 165

Level Up Judge – Episode 165 (165/227)

165 The Apostle of Salvation

Thud!

Eile plummeted from the high ceiling along with a stream of water.

Having barely escaped the Lake of Eternity, he shook off his soaked clothes and hair.

Fortunately, he had found the exit before the duration of the underwater breathing potion ended, and a message appeared before him.

[The potion’s duration has ended.]

“I almost died there.”

Eile gasped for breath.

The fearsome-looking marine monsters living in the Lake of Eternity seemed to pass him by without much interest.

Even so, finding the small entrance in that vast lake was no easy task.

After descending for a long time, Eile reached the bottom and had to move around to find the deepest point.

The deepest bottom he found with such difficulty.

At the end of that bottom, there was an unidentifiable crack.

Eile, sensing it was the entrance, tried to enter, but suddenly a tentacle wrapped around his leg, hindering him.

The grotesque, black tentacles were not just one or two, and he was almost helplessly caught and killed by dozens, hundreds of them.

“Ugh… damn it!”

Eile still found a small tentacle attached to his leg and frantically tore it off.

It was one of the tentacles he had mindlessly cut off, and he slammed his sword down on the wriggling thing.

‘Whew, I barely survived because they hate fire.’

It was impossible to properly demonstrate his skills underwater, but fortunately, Eile had the longsword and holy fire in his grasp.

The tentacles, not accustomed to the hot flames, were horrified.

After shaking them off with the flames on his longsword, he barely fell down here.

“Is this the right place…?”

Realizing he had arrived safely, Eile looked around.

He had fallen from the deepest bottom of the lake, but the place he was now was the top of some unknown high mountain range.

Vast stretches of jungle and wetlands.

Just like when he first set foot in Eltris, another world greeted him, and the streams of water flowing from the crack in the lake became rivers, flowing in all directions.

“Haha…”

Eile let out a hollow laugh.

He couldn’t know if this place was really related to the Holy Relic Fragment.

But the fact that he had discovered such a region again was amazing nonetheless.

Eile’s gaze, which had been examining the complex terrain, soon met with the numerous villages below.

“Well, I have more targets to proselytize.”

[‘Luminary Judge, Ru’ smiles.]

* * *

Sidna.

Another region located deep underground in the southern wetlands.

It was the first region discovered by users and also an underground world like Eltris.

Unlike Eltris, which was devoid of humans and full of different races, Sidna was mostly inhabited by humans.

They formed a strong warrior tribe and were characterized by their dark skin, but they were no different from the humans on the surface.

Eile headed to the nearest first village, and they stared at Eile, a strange outsider with white skin, with curious eyes.

But that was just curiosity.

They were wary of Eile as he approached and didn’t listen to the religion he was introducing.

“I’m not interested in such absurd stories.”

“We’re too busy trying to make a living.”

The villagers’ cold response.

It was completely different from the situation in Eltris, which had become nothing short of a giant goddess’s temple.

‘It’s not easy after all.’

The religion of a suddenly arrived stranger.

It wasn’t like they had a god they had believed in, nor was there a great crisis threatening their existence, such as the land being polluted.

They were just struggling to survive while fighting against nature.

‘I guess it’s because this area is under the swamp; this place is also a very harsh environment.’

What he had seen on the way, and the living environment of the villagers here.

It was a far more underdeveloped environment than the surface kingdom, as well as Eltris, which was the same underground region.

The Sidna region itself was a very poor environment to settle down and live in.

It was as difficult for people to live in as the swamp above, and a considerable number of monsters regenerated.

Even though they were a strong warrior tribe, they seemed to be struggling just to survive each day.

Usually, in such difficult situations, one would seek a god more, but it seemed to be due to the Sidna residents’ tendency to believe only what they could see.

‘Then I should help them with this and that here, right?’

He wanted to ask about the holy ground or Holy Relic Fragment that might be here, but in the current state, they didn’t seem like they would give him a proper answer.

The first step was to slowly approach them so they could open their hearts.

Unlike the vast southern wetlands on the surface, this place wasn’t that large of an area.

To this extent, he could provide meaningful help with his power.

Having roughly decided on a plan, Eile headed to Madnak, the tribe leader who led this village.

Thanks to encountering him when he first entered the village, he already knew who was in charge of the village.

“What? Are you still here?”

“I was wondering if I could stay here for a while.”

“I told you to leave quickly and not bother us.”

Madnak growled at Eile.

Among the tribe members, he had a particularly large build, and when he made a fierce expression, he looked no different from a beast.

“Don’t be like that. Isn’t there anything troublesome you want to solve?”

“We don’t have anything to entrust to a suspicious outsider. We’ll solve our own problems.”

Madnak showed an unmistakably exclusive tendency.

He wouldn’t even answer a single question properly, so Eile couldn’t tell if it was just here or if other villages were the same.

“I came down from the surface and have nowhere to go. I don’t know anything about this place.”

“That’s your problem.”

Madnak turned his back with a prickly reaction.

But then, a desperate shout was heard from somewhere.

“It’s an attack!”

The bell rang from the outskirts of the village.

Eile, who had seen it when he entered the village, discovered a horde of monsters attacking from the highly erected watchtower.

“What’s going on all of a sudden?”

“Shut up, get out of the way to the other side right now if you don’t want to die a dog’s death.”

Madnak, who had earnestly told him, took out a large axe and strode forward.

Other tribal warriors also took their weapons and moved busily after him.

At first glance, it was an unusual atmosphere.

“Well, I can’t do that.”

An event that happened at just the right timing.

There was no way Eile would miss it.

Eile, who had followed the direction the warriors were heading, climbed the highest tree he found along the way and looked down.

The trees were lush, making it difficult to grasp the whole situation at a glance.

But with just the right amount of discernment, he could figure out how the situation was unfolding.

‘There it is.’

The undead army, filling one side of the forest and pushing into the village.

On the other side, tribal warriors were gathered and preparing for battle.

[A raid event has been created!]

[Defend Tusha Village from Nepos’s Undead Army!]

‘Nice.’

An event quest that had appeared before him.

It was an opportunity to get information from the tribe members, and since a quest had been created, there was no reason not to intervene.

Whoosh!

Eile, who jumped down from the tree, headed straight to the battlefield.

The monsters in the undead army that had appeared now consisted of at least 200.

But the tribal warriors were all powerful warriors exceeding 200 as well.

As if they were the guys living in this extreme environment, both the monsters and the people were full of freaks.

But Eile was no longer at a level where he was lacking anywhere.

Kieeeek!

“Stop them!”

A chaotic battlefield where monsters and warriors were mixed together.

People, beasts, and grotesque monsters, all kinds of corpses that had risen from the swamp were advancing towards the village.

Crack!

A giant monster split in half.

Madnak, who was at the forefront, split a body more than three times his size in an instant, and he stirred up the battlefield by wielding truly tremendous power.

Not only that.

The village warriors skillfully dealt with the situation as if they had been attacked more than once, and they were perfectly blocking the undead army.

But then, a monster appeared that was a little different from the other corpses.

Swish!

A translucent monster whose body seemed to be made of soul matter, floating in the air.

It was the Evil Spirit Borcul, a level 220 boss monster.

The suddenly appeared guy swung his long claws and slashed the surrounding warriors wildly.

Then Madnak rushed in and plunged his axe deep into the monster’s torso.

But.

Whoosh!

Madnak’s attack cut through the air in vain.

It wasn’t that it missed, but the situation was that it had passed straight through the body.

“This…!”

“Could it be, a minion of Nepos!”

The warriors’ faces turned pale in an instant.

If it was a minion of Nepos, they all knew about it.

In the Sidna region, it was referred to as a disaster, the minion of death.

They were beings like calamities known as unstoppable existences.

However, when viewed as a game system, it was a special boss monster with no physical attacks at all, and there was no way for the Sidna tribe members, who were only made up of warriors, to resist.

“I heard the village next door was helplessly defeated too!”

“Chief! We have to run away quickly!”

“No, we can’t run away like this. We have to buy time somehow on this side.”

Unlike the panicking warriors, Madnak grimly grabbed his axe.

There was still more time needed for the village’s tribe members to take refuge, and he had to buy them even a little more time.

At the moment when he grimly resolved himself to die.

Swish!

Eile, who revealed himself, appeared, cutting through the monster.

The intense holy fire flickering on the longsword split Borcul, and the guy writhed in extreme pain.

Kieeeeeek!

“Th-This can’t be…”

“No way.”