Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 56

Kwaang!

Eil kicked the sewer lid and tumbled out onto the street.

As he released the ankle he had been gripping, blood trickled out.

“Ha… I knew things were going too smoothly.”

Eil snapped off the arrow stuck in his ankle.

Ever since he entered the city, he had been followed by unidentified players. Having noticed their presence from the start, Eil pretended to be nonchalant while looking for a chance to escape.

He managed to seize the opportunity at just the right moment, narrowly avoiding certain death.

“Damn it, how many arrows is this? This is really killing me…….”

Eil clutched his throbbing head and took out a recovery potion.

Even though he deliberately mingled with the crowd, he hadn’t expected to get hit by an arrow at the last moment.

It had barely grazed his ankle, but his remaining health was only about 1.6 percent.

If it had hit any other part of his body, he would have died instantly on the spot.

Judging by the damage, he could tell that the attacker was at least a player in the triple-digit level range.

Any other ordinary player would have collapsed on the ground, unable to move a finger, but Eil did not easily fall into a near-death state.

Unlike most status ailments that are unconditionally forced by the system, the threshold for a near-death state differed for monsters and players.

In theory, it was not impossible to completely ignore the near-death state depending on the player’s mental fortitude.

Of course, no such player had ever appeared before.

‘I should be safe for now.’

Eil let out a sigh of relief after fully recovering his health.

The place he had jumped down to was an old sewer located beneath the city.

It was an ancient sewer that had been used hundreds of years ago, and now very few people knew of its existence.

And that was the case not only among NPCs but also among players.

It was a hidden area that had a wide terrain but no monsters, and it wasn’t even marked on the city’s detailed map.

The players who had first discovered it hadn’t told anyone else except for a few, and as a result, it was completely unknown to ordinary players.

The bounty hunters who were probably being chased by the guards wouldn’t be able to find this place.

Even if they came down here and tried to find him, the complex structure would make them get lost without a player-drawn map.

‘I never thought this would come in handy.’

There were only a few people who knew about the existence of the underground waterway, but Eil was proudly one of them.

As a top-tier user of the information-sharing site, Eil had exchanged a lot of information with a member nicknamed ‘LoTuS’ based on mutual trust, and he had learned about the existence of the underground waterway through his information exchange with him.

Paat!

Eil turned on an interface that showed a map of the sewer’s interior on one side of his vision and began to find his way.

Among the many interconnected passages, there were also exits that led far away from the city.

Eil calmly moved his feet and began to sort out his thoughts.

‘To be fighting against opponents like this already…….’

Of course, their attack wouldn’t be the end, and even if he succeeded in escaping from here, it wouldn’t solve anything.

Eil had noticed the attackers in advance, but he was too far away to see their guild mark.

However, judging by their actions, it was possible to infer their identity to some extent.

First of all, judging by the equipment they were wearing and the damage inflicted on his ankle, they were not players in the mid-level range.

And despite the fact that there were three high-level players surrounding him, they had hesitated for quite a long time.

Even considering that they were in a large city, there were very few bounty guilds in War Lord with that much patience.

‘Amaranth… I guess that guy Beken requested it.’

It seemed certain that it was the Amaranth Guild, and the only person who would request something about him was that guy.

He had been burned at the stake by Eil and had a valuable quest item stolen from him, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

But for a mere level 20 player to commission the Amaranth Guild, his connections must be no joke, and he must have a lot of money.

‘This is a bit of a problem…….’

He didn’t know how many times Beken had asked them to kill him, but judging by his terrible personality back then, it must have been more than once or twice, and if he died as many times as he asked, his plans that had been going smoothly so far would be severely damaged.

If that happened, he would spend ages just catching up with the leading players, let alone becoming a ranker, and the meaning of seizing the opportunity as an apostle of Ru [a divine messenger] would be lost.

He wouldn’t be targeted if he stayed inside the White Forest guarded by the elves or the Spirit Forest with its powerful barrier, but he couldn’t hide there forever.

Moreover, if Beken, who had the quest item ‘Feather of Flight,’ had made the request, he would have told them about the White Forest, and they might be waiting around there to prevent him from escaping.

‘Amaranth is reliable when it comes to getting the job done. They probably calculated for the possibility of missing me here. I’ve met a very difficult opponent from the start.’

It wasn’t a guild of low-level players like himself, and it had a large number of members, with its activities spanning the entire War Lord.

It was impossible to accept the fight head-on.

Bounty guilds weren’t charitable organizations that sent appropriate sparring partners to help with leveling up, so they wouldn’t send players of similar levels in a fair fight.

Even though it was difficult for bounty guilds to have high-level members due to the nature of their work, Amaranth’s bounty hunters boasted a level that surpassed most mid-sized guilds, so they had to be at least level 130 or higher.

‘They say that skill is important in War Lord… but that only applies if the difference isn’t too great.’

Eil let out a small sigh at the feeling of helplessness.

With this much of a level difference, no matter how overwhelmingly skilled one side was, the difference in stats was too great to overcome, and a fight couldn’t even be established.

It was obviously an impossible task for Eil, who was only level 26.

Tting!

A system message popped up.

As a major incident had occurred for Eil, the goddess who had been watching all along had also reacted.

[‘The Judge of Light, Ru’ is watching with sparkling eyes.]

[She is looking forward to seeing how you solve this problem.]

‘…….’

Eil stared at the message window in disbelief for a moment.

She was supposed to be managing and coordinating the world events within War Lord, but it seemed like she was bored to death.

She had done it before, and every time there was something to watch, she would light up her eyes and pop popcorn.

‘This isn’t a situation where I can afford to be so relaxed…….’

It seemed that she had an excessive expectation that he would solve this problem without any issues, due to the appearances he had shown so far.

Of course, that was a desirable thing since it was a way to obtain more rewards from the deity, but Eil had no connections to ask for help and no affiliation.

He had to solve this incident entirely on his own.

Of course, strictly speaking, Eil belonged to the Order of Light, but unfortunately, the orders in War Lord were extremely flexible organizations.

Especially from the players’ point of view, they didn’t offer requests or demand any roles first, and conversely, they couldn’t expect any help from the order.

It would have been different if he had gradually contributed to the Order of Light with simple tasks in advance, but Eil had focused on raising his stats, so he had no interaction with the order except for the first time.

‘I could reveal that I’m an apostle and receive help from the order… but the risks are much greater.’

The fact that he told an NPC would soon be known to other players as well.

He had to keep the fact about the apostle a secret at all costs.

‘Then there’s only one way to move the order.’

If the goddess he was communicating with, ‘Ru,’ gave a direct hint to the order, they could be moved as much as possible.

If the will of the deity came down and gave them an order, the order would gladly do everything in their power to help him, regardless of their past contributions.

In particular, the Order of Light, which had a strong faith, would not hesitate to throw themselves into a fiery pit as a group at Ru’s word.

“But the goddess won’t help me.”

Eil said, calmly shifting his gaze.

[‘The Judge of Light, Ru’ nods her head.]

The will of the deity inevitably caused a strong intervention throughout the continent, and the influence consumed accordingly was enormous.

From Ru’s point of view, it was not worth directly intervening to kill a few assassins and save one believer.

‘The only player I can contact right now is Alisa, and it’s impossible to ask her for any help. The problem with solo play is clearly revealed here.’

This was the situation that Eil was most worried about.

Because War Lord guaranteed a strong degree of freedom, the player’s guild affiliation was even more important.

Since connections and affiliations to protect oneself were essential, most players had guilds and were active while banding together.

It was no coincidence that the Order of Light was one of the most avoided targets among other orders, despite giving a considerable amount of merit in battle.

The fact that it damaged social skills to the point where it was difficult to even join an ordinary guild was a major disadvantage that could not be felt unless experienced firsthand.

‘If it was an ordinary guild that was after my head, I could just deal with them appropriately… but the opponent is like this.’

Most of the guilds involved in the bounty hunting industry were scoundrels who would accept a counter-request if the assassination target added a little more money to the original request fee, but Amaranth, who had come to find him, was different.

They had continued their fame from the previous generation’s virtual reality game, ‘Never Quest,’ and had a lot of know-how, and they occupied a unique position among the bounty guilds due to their skill and reliability.

Unless you had connections to a large guild with influence, it was difficult to get past being targeted by Amaranth without suffering a lot.

‘The level difference is at least 100 or more, and I’m outnumbered. They’re not easy to deceive, and I have nowhere to ask for help. In this situation, what can I do to shake them off and survive…….’