Chapter 33

Level Up Heretic Inquisitor – Chapter 33 (33/227)

Chapter 33: Ruins (2)

KWAANG!

At the sudden loud noise, Lisa hurriedly rushed inside.

But as she entered through the slightly open door, a bizarre statue in ruins stood right in front of her, half-destroyed.

The statue, with its head and torso half-detached, resembled a human form.

Its lone arm was raised high.

KAH-AANG!

Lisa immediately reacted, raising her staff just in time for the statue’s heavy sword to clash against it with a sharp sound.

“I was clearly told there were no monsters inside…!”

According to the information they’d gathered beforehand, this place wasn’t supposed to have any dangerous monsters, not even common neutral NPCs. Yet the statue before her was clearly an aggressive type monster.

Even amidst the chaos, Lisa quickly glanced around to check her surroundings.

She saw Ail, who had been caught off-guard by the suddenly awakened statue, drinking a potion on the floor.

GIGI-GIK!

As the statue pressed down harder with its sword, Lisa’s arm trembled from the force.

For a healer like her, it was quite difficult to handle.

‘Level 24, Broken Ancient Statue… never heard of this monster before.’

Both Ail and Lisa were around level 18 on average.

Though it was a regular monster rather than an elite or boss, level 24 was still pretty high.

Not an opponent to let their guard down against.

After confirming the monster’s level and info, Lisa slightly twisted her staff to deflect the sword, then leaped sideways to create distance.

KAANG!

The statue’s sword slashed into the floor as it missed.

Meanwhile, Ail appeared behind the statue and swung his sword imbued with white flames, dealing a deep slash to its back.

While unable to deal attribute damage to the stone-covered enemy, the skill’s raw damage definitely connected.

WHOOSH!

Ail tilted his head back slightly as he retreated from the statue’s counterattack, taking the opportunity to gauge his HP status.

From the looks of it, about two solid hits should be enough to take it down.

But the situation wasn’t going to be that simple.

“Damn…!”

The statues lying on both sides started moving one by one.

The closest one was already getting up and walking toward them, and judging from the slight movements of the others lined up behind, it seemed they were waking up in order from the front.

“We need to hurry!”

“Let’s finish off this one first!”

KWACH! KWAK!

With Ail’s shout, their momentarily lost focus returned, and the statue receiving attacks from both sides couldn’t hold out and collapsed.

Experience points sparkled and loot items glinted, but now wasn’t the time to care about such things.

The statues throughout the passage were all creaking as they came toward them.

Surrounded by numerous enemies, the party was having a tough time.

Despite their ragged appearances, these statues had surprisingly high levels and powerful stats.

“Shit, we won’t last long like this…!”

Ail gritted his teeth as he parried three spears coming at him from different directions.

Dodging while gradually retreating was becoming increasingly difficult as they were being cornered.

Elisa was barely holding on too, though she was in just as tough a spot.

Even considering abandoning the quest reward and running away wasn’t an option.

Their position wasn’t suitable for making a break for the entrance after fighting the first statue, and it was already too late anyway.

Caught between the unexpected appearance of monsters with no way out, they were in mortal danger.

However, dying here would mean suffering severe penalties – 48 hours of forced logout, level reduction, and item drops.

Even if the items could probably be recovered since they were in an uninhabited area, just the first two penalties alone were enough to make everything go dark.

Especially for Ail, who had started late and needed to catch up quickly, this would be extremely devastating.

And just as they were facing this desperate situation, a ray of salvation came his way.

“Ail-sama, catch this!”

Lisa threw something over.

A transparent glass bottle containing a swirling white liquid flew through the air, avoiding the statue’s arms in a curve.

Ail swiftly caught it mid-air.

“What is this…?”

It was the mysterious white potion Lisa had been making in front of the dungeon earlier.

Though he still didn’t know exactly what it was, seeing Lisa already drinking the same potion convinced him to act without hesitation.

While barely fending off the statues’ attacks, he quickly drank the potion, finishing the small bottle in no time.

SLURRK…

His doubts lasted only a moment before the effects kicked in.

Ail’s arm, which had narrowly avoided a club, began turning translucent.

“Could it be…?”

Though still in the early stages, Ail could already guess the potion’s effect.

Temporary invisibility.

There was no doubt about it.

Of course, the utility of an invisibility potion was obvious.

Being able to hide from sight made it useful in various situations.

However, its limitations were equally clear.

Firstly, using it to attack would cancel the effect immediately.

Secondly, it only made the body invisible, not masking sounds or presence, so it wouldn’t work against enemies with heightened senses.

Additionally, it had low cost-effectiveness and offered no resistance against detection skills.

But most of these drawbacks weren’t major issues at lower levels, except for the cost.

TAPTAPTAP!

In the blink of an eye, the statues were left confused, looking around for the two intruders who had vanished.

Low-level monsters like these wouldn’t have the senses to detect invisible enemies, nor any detection skills.

Especially since these stone statues had no sense of hearing or smell beyond their line of sight.

Thus, the duo carefully slipped through the statues’ arms, muffling their mouths to avoid accidental contact.

“How did she manage to make something like this…?”

As Ail squeezed through the statue’s arms, he thought to himself.

Though theoretically possible to craft at relatively low alchemy ranks, the rare materials required usually made it too difficult for most people to even attempt making invisibility potions.

He wanted to ask how she managed it, but wasn’t sure if the statues could hear sounds.

At the end of the first passage lay a large door.

Though firmly closed, it was broken enough to allow easy entry.

Passing through the twisted door, Ail faced the second passage.

Unlike the straight first passage, this one was blocked ahead and split into three paths.

Based on some photos attached to the original discoverer’s complaint post, it was speculated that there would be three passages before reaching the main ruin area – a straight path, a maze, and a circular hall.

The detailed map wasn’t included in the complaining post, so they’d have to explore it themselves.

“EEK!”

“Ah…!”

Ail and Lisa accidentally bumped into each other at the passage entrance and stumbled back.

The invisibility potion successfully hid them from other monsters, but also from each other.

Warlord games basically only shared experience among party members, offering no other functions, meaning they couldn’t see each other’s invisible states either.

One wrong move with a skill could easily lead to friendly fire and potential team kills.

“It seems something’s changed. Monsters shouldn’t be appearing here…”

Ail whispered first.

Just in case, he checked behind the door, but there was no sign of the statues approaching.

Considering the current situation, there were a few possibilities.

Firstly, the original discoverer might have lied – but that was absurd and quickly dismissed.

Given how many curious people had already visited the ruins, and especially since dungeon maps were usually reported to adventurer guilds for rewards, there was no reason for someone with a verified account to fabricate such information.

Secondly, Sebera from Bloody Hands might have done something.

Whether to silence them about the mission or avoid paying the reward, there was suspicion she might have awakened the monsters to trap them.

Warlord NPCs were essentially like humans, capable of all sorts of actions beyond standard interactions.

There were occasional cases where NPCs would take quests, then run off with the rewards or even kill players.

This led to a community meme of “getting owned by AlphaGo” whenever such incidents occurred.

But that didn’t seem to be the case here.

If she wanted them gone, Sebera could’ve handled it herself easily.

They were just common low-level players, with no influential connections or affiliations.

Someone in her position wouldn’t bother with such troublesome measures personally.

That left the final possibility.

Something must have triggered during their quest progression, releasing the area lock on the dormant ruins.

This mission they received from Bloody Hands likely wasn’t just a simple local quest.

It seemed to be part of a much larger scale quest chain.

“Looks like we’re not the only ones involved in this matter.”

Ail voiced his thoughts, which Lisa echoed.

Sebera’s sudden involvement here, the perfectly timed awakening of monsters upon their arrival, and the unrelated events unfolding around them all pointed to something bigger.

Her warning about not being able to quit once they started was another hint.

This wasn’t just about them – there was a good chance related events were happening elsewhere simultaneously.

Whether it involved other NPCs or even other players remained unknown.

“Probably will get some answers if we meet Sebera deeper inside. Though getting out afterward might be quite troublesome.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve got two more bottles.”

Lisa smiled faintly.

The sound of liquid sloshing indicated she was shaking additional invisibility potions.

KRKRKR!

Suddenly, faint monster noises came from down the passage.

Judging from the direction, it seemed the statues within the second passage’s maze were awakening.

Realizing their invisibility duration was almost up, Ail and Lisa exchanged quick glances and hurried deeper into the ruins.