Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 26

Thwack!

“Ugh!”

Aeil’s longsword pierced the side of a bandit who had been carelessly walking in.

Not content with simply stabbing, he immediately used his shoulder to slam the man against the wall, preventing any further action.

Of course, the other bandit standing next to him didn’t just stand by.

“You bastard!”

The bandit, drawing a dagger from his waist, immediately swung it at Aeil.

Aeil, who was already pinning another bandit against the wall, couldn’t move and was helplessly exposed to the attack.

But Alisa, who had been hiding on the other side, rushed at the bandit and slammed her staff down on his head with all her might.

Whack!

The bandit staggered for a moment, reeling from the impact.

Seizing the opportunity, Alisa pulled his neck back hard with her staff from behind.

The strangled bandit gasped and thrashed wildly to escape.

But she didn’t let go easily, and Aeil, having finished off the bandit he had pinned, came over and plunged his sword into the struggling bandit’s stomach.

“Kuh-heok… !”

The bandit slumped and fell.

Aeil and Alisa looked at each other after the first battle in the instance dungeon, which had ended without much difficulty.

“Even though it’s just the first opponent, it’s much easier than I expected, isn’t it?”

“I agree. It’s simpler than I thought…”

But just as they were talking without a care, the fallen bandit twitched.

Thwack!

The corpse of the bandit, who had clearly died, moved and plunged the dagger he was holding into Aeil’s ankle.

Aeil, who had been completely unguarded and unworried, naturally couldn’t avoid it.

And before he could even grasp the situation, a system message immediately popped up.

[You have been poisoned!]

– Health will gradually decrease over time.

“What the hell… !”

Aeil retreated urgently and raised his sword.

But the other bandit who had fallen behind him was already standing up as well.

The bandit swung the poisoned dagger wildly.

Clang!

Alisa’s staff, blocking Aeil’s rear, collided with the dagger.

The bandits, with their pale faces, bloodshot eyes, and dazed expressions, looked no different from the zombies they had faced in the forbidden ruins.

It was an incomprehensible situation, but the battle came first.

Swish! Whack!

Aeil, quickly turning his body to face the attacking bandit, cut off his arm.

Black blood spurted from the severed area, but the bandit didn’t even blink, as if he didn’t feel any pain.

An attitude that showed no fear of being attacked.

Aeil barely managed to shake off the persistently following bandit and delivered a final blow, separating his head.

This time, he didn’t move at all, as if he had definitely stopped breathing.

Aeil finished off the guy Alisa was holding by bisecting him, and when the situation was all sorted out, she looked down at the corpse and muttered.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before…”

Somehow, even though it was a groundbreaking quest in many ways, the monsters seemed easy at first.

But the guys who had clearly died came back to life and attacked again, and their lives became tougher than before, making the difficulty tricky to increase.

This kind of resurrection pattern would hardly exist even in Warlord [a popular game in the novel’s setting].

I never imagined I’d encounter it in such a low-level instance dungeon.

‘I guess I have to be rewarded as well as I’m working hard…’

Rustle.

The corpses of the fallen bandits turned to dust and crumbled.

White light sparkled in the pile of dust, indicating that items could be looted.

– You have acquired an item!

[Black Magic Powder (Superior)]

[36 Cron [in-game currency]]

Aeil, instinctively looting the monster’s corpse, acquired an item.

On the other hand, Alisa took the other bandit’s corpse. Instead of combining the spoils of war after the battle and dividing them, they chose to loot the corpses one by one for faster progress.

Since they had already agreed to continue dividing the loot in half as before, there was no need to worry about the details.

Usually, a healer in a party might be greedy and demand a higher distribution ratio, or at least ask for mana potion costs necessary for continuous healing, but Alisa didn’t seem to be very greedy in that regard.

“Did any special items come out?”

“No, nothing.”

Alisa nodded at Aeil’s question.

Sometimes, items that were absolutely necessary for the strategy were looted from monsters in the dungeon, so it was necessary to check once.

“Shall I heal you?”

“No, even if you heal me now, it will drop again because of the poison on the dagger.”

“Has the poison effect not disappeared yet?”

“Judging from the display on the screen, it seems to last about 30 seconds. It seems like it can be stacked too.”

“Hmm… They have troublesome weapons.”

“Definitely, we need to be careful. Let’s go slowly.”

After finishing the conversation, they went deeper into the cave.

At the same time, they did not forget to keep an eye on their surroundings to see if there were any bandits approaching them.

If several of the same guys who resurrected attacked them, even they would not be able to avoid a difficult fight.

Therefore, they moved while properly hiding behind terrain or cover, and soon they were able to face the bandits.

Aeil hid behind the crude structures they had created and looked at them.

In a poorly organized party, they would often be exposed without being able to hide properly, but as a result of matching their skills through hunting, they both knew that there was no need to worry about that.

‘Is it four this time…’

While rolling his eyes, he quickly began to estimate in his head.

Four of them.

Unlike the goblins in the cave, the bandits were monsters of a similar level to them, and in Warlord, where hunting was quite difficult, they were not to be taken lightly.

They had two options.

Whether to defeat them all and go, or to sneak past them.

Since this was already agreed upon, there was nothing to worry about.

“I’m going.”

Aeil, who had been measuring the distance, jumped out at once, seeing an opening.

The longsword, swung greatly with one hand, cut through the bandit who was at the very front.

Then the guys who were ambushed were embarrassed and hurriedly took out their weapons, and the bandit who was cut by the sword screamed.

Swish!

Almost simultaneously with the attack, Aeil pulled out the dagger that was stuck in the back of his waist.

The longsword he was holding had disappeared somewhere, and Aeil, who had quickly changed his weapon, plunged the dagger deep into the neck of the attacked bandit and delivered the finishing blow.

Equipment Swap.

It was the act of changing weapons or armor during battle in order to take advantage of the various additional options or effects attached to each item.

The possible range and circumstances varied from game to game, but it was a basic skill among gamers with some skill.

However, virtual reality games basically had a very high difficulty in equipment swapping, and in order to obtain small effects that were not very different, they often could not concentrate and interfered with the battle.

He was actually wielding a weapon and fighting, not beyond the monitor, so there was no way he could have the mind to operate the inventory or take out another weapon.

And that was the same with Warlord, and most users didn’t even touch this method.

As far as combat was concerned, the basic equipment was the main one, and even the rankers, with the exception of a few, didn’t really like the method, as there was only a very slight difference even if they swapped.

It was just a fancy play, and the prevailing opinion was that there was no substance at all considering that the battle flow and concentration were disrupted.

But Aeil did that series of processes very smoothly.

He quickly manipulated the system screen and put the longsword into the inventory, and on the one hand, he took out the dagger.

Even so, the battle flow continued without any disruption.

Aeil, who had dug inside, swung his dagger and succeeded in inflicting wounds on all four bandits once.

[The special effect ‘Curse’ is activated!]

– Slows the movement of the attacked enemy and increases the damage the opponent receives by 5%.

The effect of the rare weapon ‘Dagger of Grief’ that Aeil obtained.

When dealing with multiple enemies like this, it is much easier to apply debuffs in advance and then enter the battle.

Moreover, if the monster you are dealing with is a guy who resurrects once after dying, there is no need to say anything.

“Ugh… !”

As expected, one of the dead bandits came back to life and stood up.

But the debuff on him was still the same even after he resurrected, and it was visible that his movement was somewhat reduced.

Alisa, who was in the rear, took charge of the resurrected guy, and Aeil faced the bandits who were rushing at him right away.

Clang!

A sharp metallic sound rang out, and the dagger, which had deflected the opponent’s attack once, was stuck in the bandit’s heart.

Then Aeil turned his body without even recovering the dagger that was stuck in it.

His hand, which had manipulated the inventory in an instant, immediately had a longsword pop out! And one more bandit was knocked out by the sword strike he swung while turning his body greatly.

It took time for the bandits who had fallen earlier to resurrect and stand up again, and Aeil finished off the last remaining one in the meantime.

Now all that’s left are the 2nd phase monsters resurrected from death.

But he didn’t let them all get up in good shape.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Aeil began to chop up the corpse of the bandit he had just knocked down.

The bandit, whose consciousness was cut off by death, had no resistance and did not scream in pain.

But the damage continued to accumulate, and before he could resurrect and stand up, he lost his form and crumbled into dust.

‘…It really works?’

It was something he tried just in case, but it seemed that if he attacked the fallen body before it stood up again, the damage would be applied.

“If this is the case, it will be a little easier…”

Thud!

“Ugh!”