Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 64

64. Luck, Skill, and Chance (4)

“Ugh…”

“I can’t do this anymore!”

Reaching the safe zone, the party members collapsed, exhausted.

They looked half-soulless from the continuous hunting.

Accustomed to a relaxed playstyle, they were dying trying to keep up with Aile’s hunting cycle.

On the other hand, Aile, who maintained this intensity even during regular hunts, looked perfectly fine.

If anything, he had slowed down to match them this time.

‘That guy’s a monster…’

The party members looked at him with a mix of fear and respect.

But Aile, regardless of their thoughts, was preoccupied with sorting out the current situation.

Clearly, thanks to the intense hunting of high-level monsters with the party, he had leveled up to 29 and earned a decent amount of items and money.

However, Aile was facing a major problem.

‘This is a serious issue.’

Aile was deep in thought, looking at his inventory.

The problem was that not a single Seal had dropped from the monsters.

It wasn’t just that Aile hadn’t gotten one; there wasn’t even a Seal to distribute among the party members.

Even though he had heard the probability was low, it was problematic that there wasn’t even a single Seal fragment after hunting for over a day with three people.

Stories from other users over the past week hadn’t been this bad.

Moreover, Aile’s party was hunting much more efficiently and quickly than other users, so it seemed like they were just incredibly unlucky.

Naturally, not only Aile but also the party members were bound to be dissatisfied.

“After all that hard work, not a single Seal fragment. Seriously… is this even a game?”

“I expected it, but it’s not easy.”

Aile muttered quietly, his eyes darting around.

It might be a simple wish for the party members, but for Aile, it was a matter of survival.

‘There’s still some time left. But at this rate, it’s impossible.’

The penalty for a deceased user is a 48-hour connection ban.

Amaranth would soon start tracking him again.

Having been defeated by him once, they wouldn’t come with a relaxed attitude, and they would rush in with all their might to make up for their mistake.

‘Should I use that method…?’

Aile had one method in mind.

But he immediately shook his head, dismissing the thought.

It wasn’t the right time yet, and the situation wasn’t appropriate.

At that moment, Danlam, sensing Aile’s strangely subdued mood, tried to lighten the atmosphere.

“We didn’t expect it to be easy anyway. Let’s work hard and complete all three Seals!”

“That’s right. Let’s all see the princess’s face!”

Purion chimed in.

Aile looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“Don’t tell me… that’s why you’re collecting Seals?”

“That’s right. I heard she’s an unparalleled beauty that doesn’t exist in reality, so I want to see her in person.”

“Hahaha!”

Aile and Danlam laughed simultaneously.

The party members’ attitude had definitely changed from the beginning.

At first, it felt like an exploitative employer and slaves following him because they didn’t want to die, but now they wanted to hunt even though it was tough.

Like how exercising to the limit is painful but leaves you with a strange sense of pleasure and accomplishment afterward.

This focused and immersive hunting also gave them a sense of surpassing their limits under Aile’s guidance.

Moreover, in Warlord, they could directly see their experience and stats increasing, making the results much more tangible.

[‘Luminary Judge, Lu’ shows a lukewarm reaction.]

On the other hand, Lu sent a message pouring cold water on them, as if she was sulking from the previous decision.

Indeed, the number of messages the goddess sent had significantly decreased compared to before when Aile was engrossed in this party hunting.

She had even rejected the recommendation to replace them with more skilled party members, so it was a natural reaction from a sponsor’s perspective.

It seemed he would have to appease the goddess again by finishing things here and continuing the monster abuse from before.

After enjoying a brief rest to recover their stamina, the group got up to resume hunting.

However, Aile, noticing something strange, stopped and stood still.

Caw, caw!

Suddenly, a crow flew down from the sky and landed on Aile’s arm.

The party members were startled and looked at him and the crow, but Aile didn’t seem too flustered.

A note was tied to the crow’s foot, and Aile took it and unfolded the folded paper.

A concise sentence was written on the note.

“Danlam-nim, Purion-nim.”

“Yes?”

“I have to stop here. I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean all of a sudden?”

“Is something wrong…?”

The party members couldn’t hide their bewilderment when Aile, who had been leading the hunt, suddenly had to leave.

But unfortunately, he couldn’t tell them the details.

“If anyone approaches you asking about me, don’t argue and just cooperate. It could be dangerous.”

“W-Wait a minute!”

Thwack!

Aile left abruptly after saying those words.

He couldn’t let them get caught up in something related to him.

‘They’re already chasing me…’

Aile crumpled the note in one hand and threw it aside.

He had received a message that the trackers looking for him were near the Calpheon Gate.

Buying off NPCs or users to create an information network was Amaranth’s specialty, but it wasn’t something only the pursuers could do.

‘How much money are they spending?’

It hadn’t even been 48 hours since the tracker team that Aile had defeated in the Corpse Cave was wiped out.

But the fact that the pursuit was already so close meant that another team, not them, was chasing him.

In other words, Beken couldn’t stand it and had additionally commissioned Amaranth.

To move two Amaranth teams simultaneously just because of one humiliation meant he was an incredibly wealthy gold spoon [a person born into wealth], which had disrupted his plans earlier than expected.

‘I have no choice… I have to change the plan.’

Aile had prepared an escape route in advance in case something like this happened, just as he had bought off an NPC at the gate.

There was a secret passage on one side of the forest that most users wouldn’t know about.

One of the reasons Aile chose this hunting ground was its ease of escape.

‘Just you wait and see…’

Whoosh!

Aile’s figure disappeared in an instant as he ran through the forest.

* * *

[You have received all sold items!]

[You have acquired 4,503 gold, 90 silver, and 14 copper!]

“Ugh…”

Aile stood blankly for a moment, staring at the system window that appeared.

The enormous amount of gold that had entered his inventory.

It was the sales amount of the items registered in the auction house.

A total of 4,500 gold. It was truly an enormous amount.

It was the money he had obtained by defeating Amaranth’s trackers in the Corpse Cave, and it had left him with more profit than he had expected.

After confirming the amount, Aile immediately left the auction house and headed straight to the bank in the city center.

If he were to be attacked and killed in this state, he would drop a huge amount of gold, and he had to avoid that at all costs if he didn’t want to cough up the money he had just earned.

[4,500 gold has been deposited!]

Aile put in most of the gold he had obtained this time.

Since he had already earned gold from hunting in the meantime and the Amaranth guild members had dropped some of their holdings when they died, Aile still had about 40 gold on hand.

It was only for storage purposes, so there was no interest, but he didn’t have to worry about losing the money he had stored here because it was perfectly protected by the system.

‘I won’t have to worry about funds for a while.’

The corners of Aile’s lips crept up without him realizing it.

Just walking down the street felt reassuring with the 4,500 gold safely stored behind him.

‘Of course, it’s not a situation where I can relax just because I’ve made some money, but even Amaranth won’t be able to find me right away.’

The trackers who had followed him to the gate would now be having trouble tracking his location since he had come through a secret passage leading to a completely different place.

Moreover, Aile was now wearing his hood completely over his face to avoid being caught, so they couldn’t immediately figure out his location.

Doing this in reality would only make him look more like someone being chased, but in Warlord, he could blend in with the crowd without any problems.

Of course, this was only buying him time until he was discovered, so he couldn’t keep hiding like this forever.

‘The royal family route is completely blocked, so I have to change my plan. I have no choice but to accept the risks.’

The original Plan A, which was to create a connection with the royal family and stop Amaranth’s pursuit, was completely scrapped.

It wasn’t just because the trackers had followed him at the Calpheon Gate.

It was because of the news that the royal family’s Seal item drop had stopped in just one week.

Just when Aile started hunting for the Seal, the item drop rate plummeted, and now rumors were circulating that it wasn’t dropping at all. No one had appeared who had obtained the Seal during that time, so the news was confirmed to be true.

Aile, who heard the story late because the timing was so coincidental, couldn’t help but groan, wondering if he could be this unlucky.

He could only hope that the party members who had been with him didn’t know this fact yet and weren’t doing useless work.

As things stood, Aile had to come up with another plan immediately, and he already knew that running away or hiding from Amaranth, who was active throughout Warlord, was useless.

A more fundamental solution was needed.

After checking the time, Aile entered a deserted alley, pulled his hood down tightly, and started walking.

It wasn’t a narrow alley, but there were hardly any ordinary users, let alone the guards who usually patrolled the city center, so there were only two people, including him.

And then.

Wham!

He suddenly pushed a man who was passing by against the wall.

“Who the hell are you!”

Beken, who had fallen after suddenly hitting the wall, roared.

Aile then lifted the hood he had been wearing.

His face was fully revealed.

Beken’s complexion turned pale with shock, and Aile smiled as he leaned down, his arm against the wall.

“H-How did you get here…!”

“Being on the receiving end all the time isn’t my style.”