Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 31

“Ugh…”

Alisa, who had been face-planting on the floor, groggily got up.

Suddenly, the floor of the room collapsed all at once, and she felt herself falling deep underground. She must have landed somewhere.

‘Should I be thankful I’m not dead…?’

Thinking that, she chuckled and groped around in the pitch-black darkness.

Then, Aile also woke up and found her.

“Alisa-nim?”

“Aile-nim, you’re safe too. I’m glad.”

“Yes, but I can’t see anything…”

Alisa rummaged through her inventory.

Whoosh!

A makeshift torch coated in oil burst into flames.

The fire illuminated the surroundings, revealing a large cave hidden in the darkness.

“Where is this…”

The corpses of dead people were piled up here and there, forming small hills.

As they realized the source of the foul stench that had been assailing them, a system message appeared.

[Scenario Quest Generated!]

[Escape the dungeon safely within the time limit.]

[Remaining Time: ‘0:29:58′]

Clatter! Clatter!

The sound of bones clashing echoed from all directions.

White-boned corpses, skeletons, were filling the surrounding space.

“I suspected as much… it’s a scenario dungeon.”

Aile muttered, drawing his sword.

Scenario Dungeon.

It wasn’t just about hunting monsters; it was a type of dungeon where a separate scenario unfolded within, and you had to solve it.

The rewards were greater than in normal dungeons, but they were often tricky.

He now understood why the low-level boss, Gahar, had such nasty traits like physical resistance, and why the difficulty was so high.

Alisa quickly read the information about the surrounding monsters.

“Incomplete Skeletons…? Their levels aren’t high.”

“There are quite a few of them, but let’s clear them out and move on.”

Whoosh!

Aile activated Holy Fire, and white flames blazed on his longsword.

The white light illuminated the surroundings even more, and a fierce blaze erupted with each swing of the sword, sweeping away the monsters.

As undead, they were taking critical damage from the holy flames, and being fragile skeletons, they seemed to be taking even more damage from impact attacks.

There were so many of them that it didn’t end easily, but the two were able to quickly reduce their numbers.

Compared to facing Gahar, this was nothing.

Crack!

Alisa swung her staff, smashing the last skeleton’s head, and let out a short sigh before looking around.

The spacious room inside the gloomy cave seemed to be cleared, but a space on one side, which appeared to be the only passage, was open.

Judging from the clattering sounds, it seemed that a large number of skeleton monsters were positioned beyond it.

“It seems like they’re reacting to the light.”

Aile nodded in agreement with her words.

Their reactions during the battle, and the fact that they didn’t move until the torch was lit, suggested that these undead were night-blind.

“We don’t have time to hunt leisurely.”

The instruction to escape had been issued as an immediate quest, and if they didn’t escape within the time limit, something unmanageable might happen.

As it was a dungeon that had never been cleared before, they had to prioritize getting out safely.

The number of monsters and the experience points given were higher than in normal dungeons, but the given time was only 30 minutes.

It was time to put aside any unnecessary greed.

Fshhh!

The two extinguished the torch and Holy Fire simultaneously, blending into the darkness.

Of course, while somewhat avoiding the skeletons’ attention, it became so dark that they couldn’t see an inch ahead, but there was one way.

That was the Myopic Potion they had made in front of the entrance.

As they swallowed the potion, the inside of the dark cave began to appear clearly, to the point where it didn’t hinder their movement much.

“Alright, let’s get started.”

* * *

Crack!

The group toyed with and smashed the blind skeletons in the darkness.

Of course, the monsters reacted to the sounds around them and swarmed in, but dealing with monsters tangled and flailing in the darkness was easy.

Sometimes, an overwhelming number of them appeared, but they avoided those spots by hiding appropriately.

In that way, they searched every nook and cranny of the complex cave interior for an exit, and a faint light was visible beyond a rock.

Flash!

[Quest Completed!]

[Successfully escaped within the time limit.]

[Remaining Time: ‘0:04:11’]

As soon as they escaped the cave, a system message appeared, and a considerable amount of gold and experience points came in.

They had escaped as quickly as possible, but the remaining time was less than 5 minutes.

As expected, the mid-boss-level monster that had suddenly appeared, seeing clearly in the darkness, had given them a hard time, and they would have been in danger if they had delayed any longer.

Aile and Alisa, their faces painted black, looked at each other and chuckled, but soon realized that their own faces would be the same and suppressed their laughter.

‘So, we’ve come all the way outside the mountain range.’

As Aile raised his gaze, the steep slope of the mountain range they had struggled to climb to enter the dungeon stretched out before them.

Thump!

The entrance of the cave they had escaped from completely collapsed.

As expected, re-entry was made impossible, and if they hadn’t escaped within the time limit, they would have been buried inside and died.

‘Well, now that we’re out in the field, there shouldn’t be anything more.’

At least the clearing of this dungeon was over, and they had obtained enough rewards from it.

Now, all that was left was to return to Severa and hear her explanation about this quest.

* * *

Creak!

The door opened, and a passage leading downwards appeared.

Aile and Alisa, having arrived in Queens Blonde, visited the Bloody Hands’ hideout under the bridge, and thanks to the organization member on guard duty who recognized their faces, they were able to enter without any problems.

The approximate structure of the interior and the location of Severa’s room had already been perfectly memorized from just one visit, so they could easily find it without any guidance.

However, when they finally reached her room, Severa was nowhere to be found.

A man who had been buried in a pile of documents on the desk, not able to come to his senses, belatedly noticed their presence and jumped up.

“Oh…! I apologize. I don’t believe I’ve met either of you before. What brings you here?”

“We’re looking for the branch manager because of a request.”

“Ah, I see. I heard you would be coming. You’re Aile-nim and… Alisa-nim, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Alisa nodded in response.

As he spoke, he was rummaging through something; it was the document they had briefly filled out when they accepted the request.

“I’m late with introductions. I’m Lufen, no different from Severa-nim’s slave.”

“Ahaha…”

Alisa gave an awkward laugh at Lufen’s self-deprecating words.

Of course, Aile knew very well who the other person was.

Lufen of the Bloody Hands, Queens Blonde branch, was a named NPC [Non-Player Character] who couldn’t be ignored, even if he said things like that.

He was directly assisting Severa, a considerable figure among the branch managers, as her right-hand man, so there was no need to explain further.

However, there was also a story that, as much as she trusted him, she made him do all sorts of tasks that required a lot of work, and as if to prove it, there were dark circles stretched out under his eyes.

“Unfortunately, Severa-nim is away.”

“Where did she go?”

“She’s in the Blanche Highlands. She had some business at the underground ruins there, so she won’t be able to return right away.”

“Hmm…”

Aile made a sound of contemplation at his answer.

He wanted to hear an explanation about the quest conditions being off, and at the same time, confirm whether there were any linked quests, but it seemed it would be delayed.

The NPCs [Non-Player Characters] of War Lord, equipped with advanced artificial intelligence that couldn’t be compared to other games, naturally weren’t just stuck in one place.

They not only ate and slept, but also continued their livelihoods and moved to other cities, just like the users.

However, the problem this time was that the ruins Severa had gone to were in a place he had never heard of.

He knew that the Blanche Highlands weren’t far from here, but he had never heard of the ruins.

If it was a hunting ground where monsters appeared, not to mention, if it was an area that was useful in any way, there was no way he wouldn’t know about it, so he wondered why Severa, who was the branch manager of a large organization, had suddenly gone to such a place.

He glanced at Alisa, wondering if she knew, but she was staring at him, expecting that Aile would know this time as well.

Then, Aile cleared his throat and turned his head.

“Ahem… In that case, let’s just wait here.”

“Shall we?”

Since it wasn’t urgent to receive the rewards for the quest they had already completed, it was better to wait for Severa to return while maintaining their equipment in the city, rather than wasting their time going to a place they didn’t even know.

However, Lufen waved his hand, showing his disapproval.

“That won’t do!”

“It won’t do?”

“That’s… I’m sorry, but Severa-nim said that you two must come and find her in person before she left.”

“Why? Will it take a long time?”

“No, that’s not it. She originally gives a lot of work like this… Well, well! You’ll know when you go.”

Lufen abruptly pushed them on their backs.

“Wait… wait! You have to tell us the location properly…!”

* * *

Thud!

Pushed on their backs, they were half-chased out.

Passing under the bridge where the hideout entrance was located, they came out to the street and looked at an item that Bloody Hands had handed them.