Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 91

“Hoo-ah!”

Ail, who had sunk to the floor, drank a potion and breathed a sigh of relief.

He felt much better as his depleted stamina recovered to its maximum.

Ail didn’t rush, taking his time to get up.

The undead in the room had all collapsed from the shockwave when the Spirit Stone was destroyed. After confirming that the mage of the Executioners, who had orchestrated this, was dead, he knew there were no more hostile entities in the area.

Ail trudged down the stairs to where Rhoden was sprawled out.

“Are you okay, Rhoden?”

“Ail?”

Rhoden, who had been lying down, suddenly sat up.

“Ugh, look at this. My body is half-cooked… I almost died.”

Rhoden said dramatically.

It didn’t seem like an exaggeration; his body was covered in burn marks from various spells.

“I’m glad you’re safe, though.”

“Haha, it was perfect timing.”

Rhoden took Ail’s outstretched hand and stood up.

It was a tough battle, but they cleared it without any casualties or serious injuries.

Especially for Ail, it was a situation where he gained a lot.

First, he successfully completed the quest he received from the Executor and received additional rewards. He also prevented the Executioners’ plot and saved a large number of inquisitors from the Order who would have been trapped and annihilated if not for their intervention.

And most importantly, the result.

He had obtained a new clue about the ongoing world quest.

The world quest that could be started from Severa of the Bloody Hands hadn’t been discussed much since visiting the Tomb of the Kings, a high-level dungeon, and was in a sluggish state without further progress.

Moreover, although they had found a Spirit Stone in the Hard Rock Cave where the thieves were stationed, it was difficult to infer its purpose at that time.

But the story changed after clearing this quest.

The Spirit Stone, which was also found here, was confirmed to have tremendous effects, such as reviving the dead at will and possessing enormous magical power supply capabilities.

Furthermore, given that the Executioners were the ones operating such a Spirit Stone, it seemed almost certain that they were deeply involved in the world quest.

‘Now, what should I do…?’

Ail began to worry, racking his brain about how to connect the facts he had learned here with the quest and solve it.

Unlike the online games of the past, where the routes were clearly laid out, the linked quests of Warlord, a virtual reality game that aimed for another world experience, didn’t continue on their own. [Linked quests are questlines that progress based on player actions and discoveries.]

He had to thoroughly search for clues and pioneer the way himself.

But before Ail could find a suitable answer, Rhoden shook his shoulder and snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Why… why?”

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

“No, just…”

“Well, never mind. Come on, let’s go. We need to distribute the loot from the corpses lying around here.”

As he said this, Ail looked around and saw many corpses of fanatics and beasts, as well as many monsters that had become undead.

It was best to start looting as soon as possible if they didn’t want to waste a lot of time.

Ail nodded and began to follow Rhoden.

They first approached Mute, who was the main target of this looting and the closest in terms of distance.

She had orchestrated these events and caused quite a bit of trouble, and he believed that she would drop good items as she was a member of the Executioners.

But when he got closer, there was no faint light on her corpse indicating that looting was possible.

When he actually searched the corpse, only a message appeared saying that looting was impossible.

“What’s going on… this is strange.”

“Um, maybe she didn’t drop any items?”

“It’s hard to be that unlucky.”

“That’s true, but other than that… Ugh! What, what is it!”

Rhoden jumped back as Mute’s corpse suddenly twitched.

Her limp arm moved and grabbed Ail by the collar.

Ail, who had been suddenly grabbed, kicked Mute’s staff that had fallen to the ground far away, and quickly tried to draw his weapon.

He couldn’t believe she wasn’t dead yet; it was disgusting.

But Mute fixed her gaze on him and uttered only one word.

“I’ll remember… Ail.”

Cheeeee!

With those words, Mute’s body rapidly decayed and melted.

A blackish, melted body emanated an unbearable stench.

“Is she finally dead…”

“Ugh. She’s a mess to the end, really.”

Rhoden, holding his nose, stepped back and complained.

However, this level of stench was not a problem for Ail, who had been dealing with undead in remote areas since he started the game.

He was naturally desensitized to such things.

Rather, Ail’s attention was focused on the identity of Mute, whom they had defeated.

‘To think that the opponent I’ve been fighting was an avatar.’

The Mute they faced had not engaged in the battle with her main body from the beginning.

It was a false avatar created with forbidden magic, and it was far weaker than the power of the remotely controlled main body.

‘Remember, huh… Did I reveal my name for nothing? No, if she had lied from the beginning, I might not have been able to hide anything.’

* * *

After experiencing the commotion caused by Mute, Ail and Rhoden went around the room and recovered items.

Then, for smooth distribution, they gathered and organized the spoils obtained from this battle.

First of all, the most noticeable thing was the 10 fragments obtained from the Spirit Stone.

There was no special ability listed on them, and even Ail could not guess their purpose.

However, when Ail said that it was an item related to his quest, Rhoden readily gave up all the fragments. It was a reasonable judgment since he didn’t have a world quest. [World quests are large-scale, often collaborative quests that affect the game world.]

Next were the items and money dropped by the monsters.

First, they divided the equipment according to their needs, unless their wishes overlapped, and then distributed the remaining items, taking into account the market value.

‘But isn’t there any reward?’

Ail scratched his head at the message window that still hadn’t appeared.

He had done a pretty big job related to the Order, but the Goddess had no words.

Originally, it would have been fine if there was no support from Ru, but Ail, who had become accustomed to the relationship of giving and receiving, was about to feel a little disappointed.

However, there was still no word from Ru until the distribution was over, and the two got up.

“But is this really the end of the dungeon…? Isn’t the reward too small for the trouble we went through?”

Rhoden leaned against the window and complained, grumbling.

Ail nodded silently.

To be honest, he fully agreed with his words.

The first exploration of a new dungeon was by no means a light matter.

All they got were drop items from hunting undead monsters without anything special, and he couldn’t hide his feeling of emptiness that it would end like this.

However, even though they had searched every corner while recovering items, nothing remarkable came out, and they had no choice but to trudge down the altar stairs.

“Wait, here…”

“It wasn’t here until just now…?”

Ail and Rhoden, who had come down below the altar, stopped at the same time.

A round entrance had appeared right next to the stairs they had come down.

Finding the entrance, they rushed inside without hesitation and soon saw a lavishly decorated inner room.

The small room was filled with a large box, gold coins piled high on the table, and equipment items placed on the display stand.

“Yes, this is it!”

“Haha…”

It was a so-called loot room.

It was a place that almost all players liked the most, regardless of their preferences.

It was common for this kind of space to be hidden, but this time, it seemed that the magic surrounding the entire room had caused a time delay.

Rhoden, seeing a long spear hanging, ran excitedly towards the display stand, and Ail headed in the opposite direction.

Antique items piled up on one wall.

Ail knelt down in front of them and carefully examined the items, picking them up.

He wasn’t an appraiser, so he couldn’t know their value right away, but there were almost no damaged parts, and the overall quality was promising.

In particular, the old books piled up on the bookshelf caught his eye.

Even though they were stained black and written in an unknown language, these kinds of old books always held the possibility of containing valuable secrets.

Ail, who had gotten up from his seat, turned his head and looked at Rhoden.

“How is it over there?”

“How is it? It’s obviously a jackpot.”

Rhoden answered with a satisfied face, looking around at the spear.

All the weapons and armor hanging on the display stand were well-made, as befitting the reward for the first capture of a new dungeon.

But then Rhoden, who had come to his senses, put down the spear for a moment and opened his mouth.

“I heard earlier that people from the Order came? What happened up there?”

“Come to think of it…”

Ail recalled the inquisitors who had entered this place at his words.

He was only focused on preventing the Executioners’ plot, but now a battle would be taking place as they stormed the dungeon.

The number of monsters that had increased due to the operation of the four summoning magic circles was definitely enormous.

But what he was worried about now was not that.

“Kkyaaaa!”

As expected, screams were echoing in the dungeon.

The inquisitors who had rushed in set fire to the dungeon with holy fire, and all the undead fanatics and monsters, as well as the users with the mark of heresy on their heads, were captured and executed.

Not only that.

This place was a den of notorious demon followers, and everyone in this place could not be ruled out as having the possibility of collusion.

Even users who were not marked with the stigma of heresy were all subdued and captured for follow-up investigations.

The users, who were very frightened, tried to escape from their pursuit, but there was no way they could escape against Ru’s inquisitors, whose level was far higher.

From their point of view, who had to find out the heretics and villains, it was a natural part, but it was the reason why the Order of Light was notorious among the users.

“Sinners, kneel down, bow your heads, and ask God for forgiveness! I will cut off your heads and send them to Him!”