Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 19

Queens Blonde (2)

Queens Blonde and Dubel.

They were two cities near the center of the continent, but they weren’t as close as they appeared on the map.

The distance itself might have been close, but a thin mountain range cut between them. Unless they went through the Shimei Mountains, they had to go around through the rugged forest on the side, which would take a lot of time.

Of course, they could cross the mountains directly, but the problem was that the mountain range was teeming with monsters around level 110.

It was obviously impossible for them to safely pass through such monsters.

Fortunately, the Forbidden Ruins were located between them, so the journey wasn’t a complete waste. However, going around through the forest meant they wouldn’t reach Queens Blonde within the day, even if they walked diligently.

“We’re here,” Ail said, looking at the split wooden sign.

After exiting the Forbidden Ruins, Alisa and Ail, who had been walking along the main road, stopped when they reached a fork in the road.

Whether to risk going over the mountains or go around through the forest.

Now it was time for them to choose between the two paths, just like other players had done.

“Let’s go to the right.”

“…Yes?” Alisa looked at him in surprise when Ail spoke.

The right path led to the Shimei Mountains.

She naturally thought they would travel through the safe Kzents Forest, so she couldn’t help but be surprised by Ail’s choice.

“Going through the forest takes too much time. My plan was to arrive in Queens Blonde today and find out about the quest item.”

“But monsters will appear. I don’t have the money to hire a bodyguard…”

Their levels were only 13 and 18.

With this much difference, it wasn’t a situation that could be solved by simply paying attention or memorizing the terrain.

Even if they brought in high-ranking Warlords, they would inevitably die without even crossing the mountain range under these conditions.

Since it was impossible to pass through the mountain range where level 110 monsters appeared on their own, their only way to go through the mountains was to cross under the protection of other high-level players.

Even if they weren’t merchants or herb-gathering players, bodyguarding low-level players was quite common, so it wouldn’t be difficult to find a bodyguard at the entrance of the mountain range.

But the problem was the cost to hire them.

Players who could guard against level 110 monsters wouldn’t come cheap.

Only those who had enough financial leeway through a successful main job to freely spend money, or professional trading companies, could afford to hire them without burden.

Of course, that was impossible for them, who were just low-level players.

Ail knew that very well.

“I don’t have that kind of money either. But there is a way to cross safely even without a bodyguard,” Ail said confidently and started walking down the right path.

Curious, Alisa tilted her head for a moment and followed him.

She didn’t think that Ail, who had shown such skill, would make a foolish choice without any countermeasures.

And she was right.

Even while walking towards the mountains, Ail kept looking around, and soon he found two large rocks with unique shapes attached to the mountains.

Having found the terrain he was looking for, Ail began to move in earnest, measuring the approximate distance.

‘About 250 meters to the left along the mountain range below the Twin Rocks… or so it was said.’

Ail moved, drawing a map in his head.

When he reached the destination on the map, he plunged into the densely intertwined bushes.

Inside, where there seemed to be nothing, there was a small gap, and he found a hidden cave entrance.

“Oh my god…” Alisa, who followed into the cave, stared blankly around.

The cave, filled with blue light, stretched out endlessly.

“It’s a cave that leads to the other side of the mountain range. There are no monsters to encounter while going.”

“How on earth did you find this place…?”

After arriving in Dubel, Alisa had searched for various things about the surrounding geography, but there wasn’t a single mention of this place.

But Ail didn’t find it by chance; he came here as if he knew everything in advance.

The reason was that information about this cave could only be found on the bulletin board where only diamond-level members could view it on the information sharing site ‘Warspot’.

One year after the release of Warlord.

Ail, who couldn’t even play the game during that long period, was happy to delve into information about Warlord. He had joined not only the community but almost all information sharing sites.

Furthermore, if it was about Warlord, he looked for anything without discrimination. When he found out about this and that, and sometimes even neatly organized and posted frustrating parts, his grade naturally rose, and he even obtained access to information that no one else could.

Not only large information sharing sites such as Warspot, Red Eight, and Warben, but also foreign sites such as WGN, which are operated with a limited number of special members with restricted membership.

This Walloni Cave was originally shared as a useful place to obtain the high-grade herbal medicine Granzeb without competition with other players, but in some cases, it could be used as a passage to pass through the mountain range without any problems.

And, as expected, Ail picked out a few herbs that were occasionally visible while passing through the passage, to the extent that they did not interfere with movement.

High-grade herbal medicine was a fairly valuable item.

There was no reason to just pass by.

“If we go like this, we’ll probably arrive on the other side of the mountain range in about 20 minutes.”

“That’s fast. We might really be able to get a clue today.”

Quest item ‘Cassano’s Sealed Letter.’

As they were forming a party and accompanying each other, it was agreed that the quest obtained with this item would be shared and progressed.

You could hide and proceed alone, thinking that the rewards to be divided in advance were a waste, but the quests that require quest items were often duds, no better than repeated quests.

Only the location of the related city was revealed, and nothing else was revealed, so it was much better for two people to investigate unless they were going to waste time.

Furthermore, if they were from a Ranker background, they would be much more skilled at finding clues to track down these quests, and they didn’t know what level of difficulty and number of people would be required, so this was enough leeway.

‘Conditional quest…’ Ail briefly took out a letter with a red seal from his inventory.

To be honest, Ail was also somewhat looking forward to this quest.

Even though no clues had been found yet, the overall situation in which he obtained the item and something unknown stimulated his senses.

‘I hope a useful quest comes out…’

* * *

Ail and Alisa, who quickly passed through the mountain range through the cave, were able to reach the other side safely without encountering any monsters.

They went straight down along the river flowing over the plain, and after walking for a while, they began to see the city in the distance.

Queens Blonde, a beautiful small city in the Esmeier region.

Of course, even though it was small, it was only small in the Warlord world. As long as the name ‘city’ was attached to it, it had a large scale enough to handle the numerous floating populations around it.

Passing over to the other side through the bridge connecting the river, there was a wall surrounding the city and an entrance leading inside.

The black-armored guards standing in front of the wide-open gate, holding spears, were impressive, giving the viewer a sense of intimidation.

It was clearly different from Dubel, which only had common guard NPCs that could be seen everywhere.

As they were slowly coming to the border area of ​​power where friction between large guilds frequently occurred, they were setting up high-level elite soldiers hired by the guild, not ordinary guards needed only for internal security.

However, apart from that, the appearance of the city inside was completely different when passing through the entrance.

The large and small waterways placed throughout the city created a unique landscape of Queens Blonde, and the relatively small but beautifully and neatly arranged streets and buildings came into view at a glance.

While Alisa was taking pictures with shining eyes, Ail was also impressed by the sight.

The feeling was definitely different from the appearance of the city that he had only seen in photos or videos.

“Alisa, you said you have a quest to complete here, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then let’s split up for now and meet here again after we finish our work.”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Alisa nodded happily at Ail’s suggestion.

Even if it wasn’t her quest, Ail had to dispose of the items that were packed tightly in his inventory and buy useful equipment items.

First, he was going to split up, finish their individual tasks in the city, and then start investigating the quest item.

Ail first headed to the store to dispose of the items he had and raise funds in advance before buying weapons.

Opening the door to the nearest general store, a hairy owner with a thick beard greeted him.

The sight of him wiping his hands roughly with a dishcloth that looked like a small handkerchief because of his large size made him mistakenly think that this was not a general store but a mercenary guild, but Ail didn’t show it and opened his inventory to check the items.

‘Thanks to the Mapiggun [a type of monster], I have enough potions… I need to take out the junk items first.’

Ail poured out a wriggling black mass.

It had a disgusting appearance, but it was a relatively valuable item among junk items, called ‘Magic-infused Corpse Mass’, a high-grade item.

There were dozens of items, including those obtained after catching Tragueul [another type of monster] and those obtained by disassembling his corpse again, and there were also a lot of rotten flesh and degenerated bones obtained by disassembling ordinary monsters such as zombies.

However, the owner, who saw the items scattered on the table, frowned and glared at Ail.

“You want me to buy this garbage with money?”