Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 224

224. Back to Normal (5)

Whoosh!

Aeil, clutching his forehead, reached into his inventory.

The first thing he did was drink a recovery potion.

His health was dangerously low, and he was barely holding on with his mental strength, on the verge of collapsing.

As his health recovered and his blurred vision cleared, he could finally assess the situation.

‘Right, just now.’

After being caught in Kruger’s attack, he had fallen through the shattered floor.

The other Rankers, as well as his companions, hadn’t been able to avoid it either.

Looking at the party window, everyone was logged out.

Everyone had been wiped out.

“What should I do now……”

Aeil sighed in frustration at the situation he was in.

They had suffered a significant setback, and if they lost this fight, all hope was lost.

With Apollyon in control of the royal family, if they allowed the princess to be eliminated, they would have to wait for the next game cycle.

Rustle.

Just then, he felt a presence to his left.

Hoping that there might be another survivor besides himself, Aeil immediately got up and approached.

“Sir?”

The person lying there was Sir, the guild leader of the Iron Cross.

He thought she was surely dead after being caught in Kruger’s skill head-on, but it seemed she had somehow endured.

“You survived……”

She squinted and looked up at Aeil.

“Wait a moment.”

Sir looked as if she would lose consciousness at any moment.

Aeil hurriedly took out a potion before she died.

But it was no use.

She was already under an incurable curse due to the injuries she had sustained fighting Silas on the lower floor.

No matter how much healing magic or potions he poured on her, recovery was impossible.

“Damn it……”

“I’m done for anyway. More importantly, Kruger is still going down below. Take this.”

Sir said nonchalantly and reached out her arm with difficulty.

An item was handed over to Aeil.

A mysterious magic stone with a flickering crimson light.

“What is this? I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“It’s an item that resets skill cooldowns. I had a hard time getting it outside the northern border. I originally saved it to use against him someday… but now it’s right that the person with the highest chance of success should have it.”

Thud!

Her arm fell limply after handing over the item.

Aeil sat on the debris for a moment, looking down at the magic stone he had received.

Cooldown reset.

This meant he could use the legendary-grade skills he had used up fighting Ixion again.

But even in this situation, he wasn’t sure.

‘Can I really win?’

Aeil fell into deep thought, recalling the scene from just now.

What Kruger had shown was truly overwhelming strength.

The only thing that could make this possible was a legendary-grade skill.

Moreover, he could roughly guess the identity of the skill he possessed.

Even before revealing his true nature, the equipment Kruger usually wore was thoroughly invested in defensive power.

If a Knight class, which was already based on defense, wore such equipment, their durability would be high, but they wouldn’t be able to deal damage themselves.

The weakness of pure tanks, who show a weak side unless in a party play, would be further highlighted.

In this case, it was very disadvantageous for ranking.

But even so, Kruger always held the top spot in the rankings.

Many users couldn’t hide their surprise because he even broke through huge dungeons or attacked bosses in solo play, defending his ranking with an overwhelming difference.

‘If pure tanks generally supplement their damage, it’s obvious.’

There were ways for professional tanks who only invested in defense to deal damage, such as attack skills with health-proportional coefficients or reflected damage.

Of course, they had much more difficulty in setting up their skills compared to others, as much as their utility.

But among them, the most well-regarded among tank users were passive skills that added defensive power or resistance to attack power.

So, many people expected that Kruger would probably have such a skill.

But if that was a ‘legendary’ passive skill, the story was different.

‘I don’t know how many skill books he poured in to get something like that… but it’s terrible.’

The pure tanks of Warlord, who had completed a skill setting with attack means, were already notorious.

But Kruger, who was standing at the top of the rankings, had even obtained such a skill.

The superiority from the highest level and highest specs had already doubled with the legendary skill.

He was truly the worst enemy.

‘The bigger problem is that specs and skills aren’t everything.’

Even if he found a way to break through that legendary skill, that wouldn’t be the end.

Aeil could tell from the battle just now that Kruger possessed skills that were superior to his stats.

“You’re not thinking strange things, are you?”

Whoosh!

The Goddess of Light, ‘Lu,’ appeared before him, and Aeil felt a pang of guilt as if his thoughts had been discovered.

Then Lu sighed deeply and said.

“Didn’t I warn you then? If the synchronization rate exceeds 200, it could put a strain on your body. You haven’t forgotten that already, have you?”

“I remember.”

He had heard from Lu that it could be dangerous if the synchronization rate rose too high.

So, while he had been trying to raise the synchronization rate as much as possible, he had also unconsciously restrained and controlled it.

But to beat Kruger, he had to raise the synchronization rate above the maximum.

“Because there’s only one way. It would be nice if I could win without having to take risks, but that’s not enough.”

He couldn’t deny that it was a somewhat risky method.

But at least thanks to the safety device of the superior Warlord, he didn’t have to worry about his life or permanent damage.

Moreover, unlike when he first logged in, he now had a divine being watching over him.

Just as Lu had saved him when he was trapped in an unknown space, the burden of problems arising was much less as long as the top-level administrator, the divine being, was watching.

“Don’t say that so easily. In the worst case, you might suffer aftereffects for months.”

Lu frowned slightly.

Even in the vast Warlord database, there had never been a case where the synchronization rate exceeded 200 percent.

Even Kruger and Alisa, including all previous games, had only achieved a maximum synchronization rate in the 180s.

Aeil, who had been trapped in the black space once, was the only one, and even she couldn’t guarantee what would happen.

“But I have to try. If I back down here, it’s as good as the entire continent being taken over. More than anything, now that those guys who have joined hands with the devil have come this far, they might even try to eliminate the seven gods.”

Apollyon, who had already overthrown the royal family, was not someone who would keep the line [hold back].

Like East Thorn, which had gradually collapsed due to severe monopoly, this world would also suffer the same fate, and even Lu’s existence, which was in a hostile relationship, could be threatened.

But the words he had thrown out to persuade the goddess came back with an unexpected answer.

“No, it’s just a game. Don’t get too immersed.”

Lu said firmly with her arms crossed.

“What’s so great about Warlord that you’re willing to go that far? The continent is just a mass of data. The same goes for ‘humanoid’ NPCs who act like people.”

“That……?” Aeil doubted his ears for a moment.

That Warlord was just a game.

He never thought he would hear such a thing from the divine being of Warlord.

Lu, who was sitting next to Aeil on the debris, continued with a short sigh.

“Do you think I’m a more special being because I know the outside world? No, rather, because I know the reality, I also know my place well. The reality that even if I’m called a god, I’m just an auxiliary system in the game.”

Lu gave a self-deprecating smile.

Her already changed tone was that of an ordinary woman, not the dignified goddess she usually was.

Aeil’s eyes shook at the strange sense of incongruity.

“Worthless things that will disappear with the push of a server’s power button… Of course, Warlord has money and popularity in reality, so everyone is desperate. But you’ve already succeeded enough. You’ve made a name for yourself and made money. With your skills, you’ll be able to succeed in the next game as well.”

“So, you’re telling me to give up now and go to another game? Leaving everything here behind?”

“Aeil, do you know what that black space you were trapped in was?”

“Black space……?”

Aeil muttered at her sudden question.

“The past year when all the divine beings were asleep. I was trapped in that space until you appeared. There was a standby order issued to each divine being, and I spent it in a suffocating silence that I couldn’t refuse with that short command. I stared at the empty background in a half-submerged mind.”

“That place was……”

Aeil, dumbfounded, couldn’t speak for a moment.

He thought it was an accident in the space he passed through during the login process, but he never thought it was the space where the divine beings lived.

He had never even thought of that.

“I didn’t save you. You came to the space I was trapped in, and thanks to that, I was able to look down on the world from a much earlier point.”

No matter how perfect the AI was, it was not human.

They were beings subordinate to the system, and programmers could not treat them as individuals.

The one-year waiting period given in a separate space was rather decent.

But if the freedom that Altariel spoke of was related to this, and if she was collecting the fragments of the relics to escape from that black space.

“Anyway… that’s enough.”

Lu concluded quietly.

She meant that he didn’t need to feel indebted or responsible for her past actions of saving him.

But Aeil jumped up from his seat.

Rather, he had one more reason to win.

Aeil had already made up his mind, and Lu, who read his expression, grabbed him.

“It’s a stupid thing to do. You’ll regret it later.”

“No.”

The determination to stand as the best Ranker in the best game.

That was his goal that he had always wanted to achieve, and that fact remained unchanged.

“I have to try until I can’t anymore. Just like I’ve been doing so far.”

Aeil, who turned to look at her, reached out his hand and said.

Lu was startled by his changed tone.

It was absolutely impossible for a mere human and mortal believer not to use honorifics to the righteous seven divine beings.

Of course, that was just a story in the game.

She reached out and grabbed Aeil’s hand and stood up.

It was a very brief moment, but she felt like she was an ordinary person, not a goddess or a system.