Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 9

Level Up Heretic Inquisitor – Episode 9

9. The Blasphemer

“Just a moment.”

“Yes, yes. Please, look around comfortably. I’ll just put some things in the storage.”

As Aile spoke, noticing the messages that popped up before his eyes, the landlady smiled brightly and replied.

It seemed that clearing the quest had made her treat Aile even more kindly.

As she went down to the basement, Aile carefully examined the system messages that appeared before him.

Basically, in Warlord, the number of skills one could possess increased by one every 10 levels, allowing users to acquire skill books and fill their skill slots themselves.

However, the three basic skills common to each class were activated one by one at levels 5, 10, and 15, allowing players to choose and learn them.

Given the vast number and variety of skills in Warlord’s system, these three basic skills defined the characteristics of each class and could be seen as the common ground that united users of the same class.

And for Aile, the time for his first choice had come.

“Hmm…”

[Sanctification (Basic)]

– A sacred flame that can only be used by Heretic Inquisitors, the executors of punishment who follow the will of the Goddess. Their Sanctification, which is like their identity, will not be extinguished until it burns and judges all the demons and heretics in the world.

– Imbues weapons with divine and fire attributes, greatly increasing attack power.

[Blade of Hatred (Basic)]

– The driving force that allows inquisitors to continue even amidst blood and disgusting stench is hatred for the wicked. They will stop at nothing to destroy the wicked.

– Damage from all attacks against heretics is increased by 25%.

[Fanatical Martyr (Basic)]

– The wicked spread fear in the world, but the worshipers of the Goddess eagerly await the opportunity to give their lives for their faith at any time. Furthermore, inquisitors who have forgotten the fear of death are objects of fear for all the wicked.

– Nullifies all kinds of psychological status abnormalities. Conversely, status abnormality effects such as fear and flinch inflicted on all enemies are doubled.

“I roughly knew, but these skills are something…”

Aile, having read each explanation, stared at the screen with a decaying expression.

From the basic skill descriptions, the concepts were truly unusual, reeking of a group that was utterly insane.

‘But the effects are definitely good. The problem is, which one to choose among these.’

Usually, the first choice for those who chose the Heretic Inquisitor was divided into two.

In general, most people chose ‘Sanctification,’ which was like the identity of the Heretic Inquisitor, to imbue their weapons with attributes and increase their attack power. Rarely, if the next hunting ground was a place with ‘heretics,’ some would choose ‘Blade of Hatred.’

However, Aile did not hesitate and chose a completely different skill.

[You have acquired the ‘Fanatical Martyr’ skill.]

Name: Aile

Title: One Who Chose the Difficult Path

Faction: Order of Light

Level: 5

Class: Heretic Inquisitor

Main Stats

Strength: 31(+7) Dexterity: 24(+5) Constitution: 25(+5) Magic Power: 20(+5) Faith: 1.1 Madness: 0

Passive

[Fanatical Martyr (Basic)]

Active

N/A

‘Good.’

Aile was satisfied in his own way as the first skill was created.

Fanatical Martyr, a passive that completely nullifies psychological status abnormalities such as fear or flinch, was so effective that it was hard to find a skill like it when facing PVP [Player versus Player combat], high-level monsters, or bosses.

There were many skills with status abnormality ‘resistance,’ but ‘immunity’ or ‘nullification’ was never a common skill.

However, regardless of its performance, it was as good as useless in ordinary hunting grounds without related abilities, and it was not a skill to choose first.

But Aile was convinced that the ‘Fanatical Martyr’ skill was necessary for the next hunting ground he was heading to.

[Balance – 4 Silver 94 Bronze]

‘It’s not much, but I can buy all the necessary items.’

Aile thought, checking the remaining amount.

Originally, at this point, not long after starting the game, it was almost impossible to save money by hunting alone, as one would be struggling with the cost of food and potions.

In Warlord, where hunting was not easy, potion use was essential for ordinary users, and many ended up working part-time under NPCs [Non-Player Characters] to get the money they needed.

While helping with various tasks, users who found it suitable naturally fell into lifestyle content.

Alchemy, blacksmithing, fishing, farming, trading, and so on, an enormous variety of non-combat elements boasted very broad and deep content, so there were far fewer users who purely hunted.

However, unlike those typical cases, Aile had never used a potion despite heading to the most difficult hunting ground from the start, and he even obtained food from monsters, so there was no money to spend right away.

In addition, he caught high-difficulty monsters that offered good rewards, and he even obtained potions from the corpse of a man with a considerable amount of money, so he had quite a bit of money to use.

As the landlady, who had gone to the storage, returned, Aile spent all his money to buy a few items he had planned in advance and left the store.

“Then I’ll go… Ah, it’s already this late.”

Aile checked his watch and sighed deeply with regret.

Since he had to go to work the next day, he couldn’t play any longer.

He felt like his energy was draining away just as it was about to get fun.

‘I can’t help it… It’s not like the old days when I had plenty of time to spare.’

Aile activated the menu, pressed the logout button, and was able to exit the access device after a short wait.

* * *

PVE (Player Versus Environment).

In most MMORPG [Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game] games, this term refers to all content in which players hunt monsters.

From ordinary field hunting grounds to rarely spawning elite monsters, thoroughly hidden hidden dungeons, scenario dungeons with stories, and instance dungeons where a new space is created for each player upon entry, making external intervention impossible.

Warlord contained a truly vast number of other types of PVE content.

However, among all that content, the true flower of PVE was dominated by field boss raids involving dozens to hundreds of attack parties, and few disputed it.

Powerful bosses that one could not dare to face with a few hastily formed parties were showing off their power in various fields, and if they succeeded in overcoming the difficult trials and capturing them, rewards and honors commensurate with their achievements followed.

Since most of the items that could not be obtained by ordinary methods came from them, even the best guilds competed to find capture methods.

The Red Moon Guild, famous as one of Warlord’s 12 strongest guilds, was no exception, and Harman, the guild leader who led them, scratched his head and looked down at the map placed on the table.

“What’s the current headcount?”

“As planned, all 110 raid participants have gathered. We are in the final stages of checking equipment, buffs, and doping.”

“Since we’re bringing together Raid Teams 1 and 2, which used to operate separately, tell them to be as careful as possible not to get out of sync.”

“As for synchronization, we’ve been practicing intensively for two days, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“Practice is practice. Mistakes are always bound to happen on such a stage.”

“Guild Leader, a report has come in.”

A guild member hurriedly entered the barracks and said.

Harman nodded and gestured for him to speak.

“We have discovered the Slaughter’s scouts on the northern hill of Kaia, which is very close to the raid location. The number is six in total, and their identities have been confirmed. The Ice Sea and Nydus guilds, which are gathering in other locations, are also showing suspicious movements… It seems that a large-scale disruption is coming to interfere with the raid.”

“Well, there’s no way those guys would just sit back and watch us succeed. That much is within expectations. We’ve called in our allies, so we can stop them.”

Even though the scale of the alliance coming to interfere with them seemed quite large, Harman replied nonchalantly.

This level of risk had already been recognized from the raid planning stage.

‘It’s a pity that the share to be divided is so large because of the scale of the project, but if we succeed in this raid, we can move one step further than the other 12 strongest guilds.’

The 12 Strong.

Although they are far short of the top 6 guilds, they occupy the best position below them, and the expression refers to the 12 guilds that have firmly established their own sphere of influence without entering under the top 6 guilds.

However, Harman, the guild leader of the Red Moon, was a man full of ambition who wanted to break away from that expression and move up one step further.

In some ways, it was like gambling.

There was no guarantee of success, and if they failed, the damage would be painful, as the guild’s main force, including the defense team, was gathered to attempt it, excluding the raid team.

But he, as the guild leader, needed to take such risks.

More rewards were given if risks were taken, and those who were complacent were left behind, that was the world of Warlord.

“…Finally, we have received word that Black Wolf has arrived. All the defense teams that promised cooperation have gathered.”

“Good, let’s move in as planned.”

* * *

“Wow, that’s awesome.”

Woojin, sitting at the convenience store counter, rested his chin on his hand and looked at his phone.

During his spare time at work, he would watch videos related to Warlord like this, and he couldn’t help but admire them every time he watched them.

The boss raid video attempted by the Red Moon Guild.

The Red Moon’s raid team, formed to capture the level 190 field boss monster, Explosive King Angios, consisted of only 110 people, but in the video, over thousands of high-level users gathered and engaged in fierce battles.

Clearly, the title of the video was a raid, but a situation where far more people than the capture team were fighting each other in a war.

In professional terms, it was an act of interference called ‘Kkojjang.’

As one would receive enormous rewards if they succeeded in a high-difficulty, large-scale raid, it was natural for opposing forces that antagonized the attempting guild to come and interfere with the raid, and in Warlord, where the relationships between guilds were intricately intertwined, Kkojjang was as common as eating.

Surpassing everyone’s expectations, the raid ultimately failed due to the fierce attack of the 12 strongest guild ‘Slaughter,’ which mobilized an enormous number, but the Red Moon Guild also seemed to have inflicted some damage on the opponent by counterattacking instead of giving up the raid from the middle.

“If I were playing the game, I should be directly in that kind of scene.”

Woojin sighed deeply and muttered.

He was someone who had never missed out on such large-scale events even in the PC online games he used to enjoy in the past.

As someone who crazily loved games, it was, in a way, natural that he still hadn’t given up on his dream of becoming a full-time player.

But despite that, the reason why he didn’t immediately quit his part-time job and jump into Warlord in earnest was simple.

It was because he started too late.

If a latecomer acted alone without a guild, they would become a target for PK [Player Killing] offenders, and if they caught the eye of a malicious force, they would be buried.

If he were to go full-time, he would have to set foot in hunting grounds where competition was fierce, and friction would inevitably occur, and without an affiliation to protect him, he would be trampled by a large number of connections or guilds.

Only someone who was a ‘Ranker’ that even a single guild could not easily touch could ignore all those things and play freely, but for him, who started the game a year late, the wall of Ranker was an impossible goal.

In Warlord, which had hundreds of millions of user accounts, the rankings on the official website, which selected only the top 1,000, were the Rankers.

No matter how confident he was in his skills, the current Rankers had all easily gone through the process of dominating and breaking through the most difficult hunting grounds in the early stages.

Moreover, they had accumulated experience in Warlord over the past year, in addition to other virtual reality games they had been playing before.

Perhaps in his current state, he would be lacking in skill, capital, and level.

Even the Rankers, who were already the strongest, were so daunting, there was no need to even mention the ‘High Rankers,’ who collectively referred to the top 100 among those Rankers.

However, he already knew very well that he couldn’t possibly do something like moderately raising his character and going under someone else’s guild to get a salary, given his play style, which made him feel restless.

To seriously compete with them, he had no choice but to wait for the release of the next game that would become mainstream, but there was no game that could surpass Warlord, let alone a sequel from the same developer, until Warlord went bankrupt.

They already had a game that completely dominated the market, so there was no reason for them to release a sequel and divide it in half themselves.

In other words, to become a professional gamer, he had to find a way to make a move within Warlord, but for a latecomer to catch up with those who had already gone so far ahead, he needed something ‘definite,’ not just the same amount of time or effort given to everyone.

“Haa, is there really no way…”