Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 45

45. Accompanied by Silence (1)

The archer’s corpse, crushed under Batora, was no exception.

Eile hung back in the tree as usual.

The flames of the burning stake had already subsided, and all that remained was to collect the rewards.

Coming down from the tree, he approached the fallen Batora and looted the items.

He had single-handedly defeated a boss monster recommended for at least three people and monopolized the loot without having to share it, so various equipment, miscellaneous items, and gold poured into his inventory.

Among them, the first thing that caught his eye was a neat-looking set of light armor.

It was a two-piece set item consisting of a top and bottom.

It was a ‘Superior’ grade item, which was valuable just for its grade alone, and it slightly increased his Strength stat. The set option also included damage reduction, which was very useful for armor.

Of course, a typical armor set would be most powerful as a five-piece set including gloves, shoes, and a hat, but he was satisfied that the right pair had appeared together in just one looting.

It was naturally of higher quality than the normal grade armor Eile was originally wearing.

He replaced the equipment he was wearing with the gloves, which were also Superior grade, though not part of a set.

He didn’t have to strip naked to change his equipment, so he wasn’t embarrassed to do it outdoors.

‘Well, this isn’t bad.’

Unfortunately, no skill books or rare equipment items came from Batora.

However, considering the overall value of the items that poured out, it was by no means disappointing, and he already had a skill book to use at level 20 from the underground dungeon anyway.

And above all, the rewards he would receive didn’t end there.

A faint light emanated from Beken and his companion, who were tied to the stake and burned to a crisp.

It was a sign that item looting was possible.

Of course, there was no reason to leave them behind, and he had already taken the archer’s items from the tree long ago.

Eile approached the stake and began to collect the items meticulously.

The weapons and armor they were wearing, various potions, belongings, and some of the money they had were all transferred to Eile’s hands.

There were no surprisingly outstanding single items, but as the saying goes, PK [Player Killing] was the next most profitable content after boss raids, so it was a decent income.

Combined with the items he obtained from defeating Batora, he wouldn’t have to worry about gold for a while if he sold them at the auction house and shops.

But then, Eile’s hand, which was about to scroll down the acquisition list, stopped abruptly.

Among the spoils obtained from Beken, there was an item that piqued his curiosity.

‘This is……?’

When he picked up the pure white feather from his inventory, he could feel a soft texture.

Its identity, which at first glance was easy to mistake for a material item, was a quest item called ‘Feather of Flight’.

There was a high probability that it would connect him to a new quest, like last time.

Intrigued by the appearance of the item, which he felt like he had seen somewhere before, Eile examined the feather with interest.

But nothing immediately came to mind, and he postponed learning more about the feather until later.

For now, the priority was to clean up the situation and leave before someone witnessed this mess.

Eile immediately took out his dismantling knife and began to dismantle Batora’s corpse.

Thwack, thwack!

With skillful movements, pieces of flesh were constantly torn apart, and by-products were transferred to Eile’s inventory one by one.

After collecting all the items without any major problems, Batora’s dirty corpse fragments that remained after being dismantled came into view.

They were cut and divided into pieces, but because the guy was so big, the remaining traces were naturally large and lumpy.

Perhaps because it was made by gathering so many thought entities, it was slimy and looked as if each piece was alive.

After pondering while looking down at it for a moment, Eile picked up the traces of the monster.

Then, he took out stakes from somewhere and displayed traces of judgment here and there, impaling the corpse fragments on them.

He wondered if this would be of any use, but it seemed like the goddess he knew would like this.

‘Hmm…….’

Before leaving, Eile took one last look at the gruesome scene of the hunting ground, filled with his traces.

Leaving traces one by one in the hunting ground after killing monsters, it was undeniable that it looked strange.

But looking at the monsters’ corpses hanging all over the place, he felt a sense of satisfaction in one corner of his heart.

‘I had a fruitful hunt today… I kind of feel like that.’

With everything going well, Eile, in high spirits, hummed a tune and headed to the city of Kempel, where he had received the request.

* * *

“Hey, hey, look at this. The sequel is out!”

“Sequel? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

A group of three students walking side by side in school uniforms, the student standing on the right held out his smartphone to his friends.

The screen displayed a video of the crazy player that had become a hot topic a while ago.

It was about the terrifying Light Church follower who had burned a user in the middle of Queen’s Blonde.

Since they were at an age where they were very interested in games, they had already watched it several times in the group chat, but this video was different.

Unlike the Queen’s Blonde videos that had been taken from different angles and circulated several times, this video was filmed in a completely new location.

It meant that something new had happened related to him.

In fact, the video contained a different incident than before, and it contained an even more gruesome sight.

A dark forest with shadows cast over it, trees, and the corpses of numerous monsters decorating it.

The corpses of monsters with ropes around their necks hung limply on the branches, and there were also those with their heads cut off and impaled on harpoons, corpses with traces of severe beatings, and even those whose corpses were divided into pieces and displayed to the point where it was difficult to recognize their original form.

“Wow…….”

The students exclaimed at the forest’s visuals, which looked like something out of a horror movie.

It was already dark and gloomy in the field hunting grounds, but they had done such things, so even looking at the photos sent chills down their spines.

If they actually played Warlord and accidentally set foot in that place… they really didn’t want to imagine it.

Unlike the Queen’s Blonde incident, where he had already left, this video briefly showed the back of the person who had committed the act, leisurely leaving the scene.

The person who filmed it must have been scared, as they didn’t chase after him, but the appearance of the man who had been hiding aroused the interest of many people.

In fact, what made the video so bizarre was not just the display of the monsters’ corpses.

The traces left behind after being processed in all sorts of bizarre ways.

The charred body tied to the stake had the same symbol of the Order burned into the floor, leaving a clear trace, just like in the previous incident.

The case of the monster’s corpse that had drunk poison was even worse.

The skin tissue all over its body had necrotized, creating writing like a tattoo, and praises to the goddess and passages from the Bible were densely inscribed all over its body.

In addition, whether it was a user or a monster, no matter how it was dealt with, traces of the Light Church were left in a chilling manner.

People commented below the video that this meticulous and insane behavior was the first of its kind since Warlord appeared.

Even the people who had become indifferent after going through various concept users that had appeared so far were quite shocked by the amazing performance that had never been seen before.

Even among the cynical people, there were those who praised him, saying that he had reached the realm of art, rather than just being an attention seeker trying to attract attention.

“Wow, this is really amazing.”

“Is there a next one?”

The friends made a fuss and urged him.

But the video of the Ingol Forest was all there was.

“Seriously, it’s so cool.”

“You think that’s cool? This is a complete madman.”

“It’s just a game, so what? His back looks cool as he walks away.”

“Even so…….”

The hasty camera angle, the frightened breath of the photographer, the forest scenery full of corpses, and the back of the man standing tall in the middle of it.

Somehow, the video was amazingly well-made, and many people were enthusiastic about it.

There were still as many people applauding as there were people who felt uncomfortable, but since it was just a story in the game, no one was sincerely criticizing it.

“Even so, if you think that someone like this is right around you, it’s creepy, isn’t it? Imagine someone who does things like that in the game walking down the street with a normal face on the outside.”

“That’s true.”

Cough, cough!

A man walking right behind them suddenly coughed.

The man, who was wearing a hat pulled down low and looked like a college student, hurried to pass them.

He stared blankly at the man’s awkward behavior for a moment and said to his friend next to him.

“Doesn’t that guy’s back look like him?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden… um? What, it’s real.”

* * *

“Wow… when did they even film that?”

Eile, who had passed the students with his head bowed, muttered to himself without realizing it.

He had only stopped playing for a while to buy groceries because he was running out of food, but he never imagined that he would hear his own story on the street.

Of course, it wasn’t that he hadn’t seen the video that had become a hot topic in Queen’s Blonde last time.

It was true that unlike before, when he was only looking at Warlord-related news all day, he was now investing a lot of time in actual play, so he wasn’t focusing on that.

However, Eile, who knew the importance of information, still made sure to check new information or rumors during his travel time and even during short breaks between hunting.

And there was no way that Eile, who was aware of the topic that was openly circulating among users like the Queen’s Blonde incident, would miss it.

But even so, Eile was quite embarrassed now.

He didn’t know when they had been hiding and filming, but his back was captured on camera, and what he thought was just a brief interest and happening had become a bigger deal.

At first, he was surprised that what he had done had miraculously coincided and become a big topic, but Eile thought that the interest would soon fade away unless there was another piece of bait.

But now that new photos have been released, the situation has completely changed.

It was like throwing another log on the still-living embers, and the interest would not easily die down for a while.

It was a relief that only his back was filmed and his face wasn’t exposed.

‘I have to be careful not to be treated like a madman wherever I go…….’