Chapter 41

Level Up Heresy Judge – Episode 41 (41/227)

Episode 41: Manners Make the Man (4)

“Hold on… this isn’t the way, is it?”

A user who had entered the hunting ground was nervously wiping sweat as he wandered around.

Though he was earnestly studying a large map in his hand, the tall, dense trees and overall dark space made it incredibly difficult to get his bearings.

This terrain was perfect for beginners unfamiliar with Warode’s adventures and map reading to get lost in.

“Ugh, why is the atmosphere so creepy here.”

The man complained with obvious discomfort.

Out of curiosity, he had ventured into the Ingol Forest himself, but now he just wanted to get out as soon as possible.

The ground and trees exuded an unsettling black energy, and the area was filled with wobbly monsters that resembled human forms.

He felt that hunting here would be enough to give anyone depression, even with the system’s mental adjustment.

With so many beautiful hunting grounds in Warode, why was he voluntarily hunting in this terrible place?

No matter how spacious the hunting ground might be, he couldn’t understand why anyone would want to hang around here.

“Eek…”

While hurrying to escape the forest, the man suddenly froze.

He had spotted something hanging from a tree branch.

Monsters’ corpses were swinging back and forth, their necks tied with long ropes.

Drip drip.

The fresh blood from the monsters was dripping down, splashing onto one side of the man’s cheek.

“EEEK!”

Terrified, the man stumbled backward.

The horrifying sight had completely unfocused him.

But in his haste to retreat, he tripped over something, lost his balance, and fell flat on his back.

“Ughh…”

Grabbing his head from the shock, the man struggled to get up.

However, when he turned his gaze, he saw even worse sights.

Decapitated heads of thoughtforms lined up on a board, and right next to them, monsters pierced through with a giant skewer and displayed like trophies.

The man’s trembling arms revealed his fear.

His face pale, he艰难地 lowered his gaze to identify what he had tripped over.

Underneath him lay the corpse of a thoughtform, its eyes rolled back and dribbling some mysterious black liquid from its mouth.

“AAAAHHH!”

Screaming, the man ran away.

* * *

[‘Light Judge Lu’ is pleased with your actions.]

“Huh? What’s this…?”

Confused, Eil looked at the sudden system message.

He had been taking a short break while having a snack, when this unexpected message from the goddess appeared.

Not only did a message appear, but his contribution points had also increased slightly, clearly indicating this wasn’t meaningless.

It would have been less surprising if it had come during monster hunting, but this timing was baffling.

‘Did something good happen?’

Eil scratched his head, not understanding.

What he hadn’t realized yet was that this message wasn’t solely related to his direct actions.

The traces of executions Eil had left everywhere…

These terrifying sights had been witnessed by other users, which was why this message appeared.

Fear and awe were essential elements from the perspective of ‘Lu’, the goddess of light and justice, to maintain absolute righteousness. And Eil’s eccentric behavior was actually enhancing the goddess’s influence.

It wasn’t for nothing that his repetitive work was being rewarded with bonus stats.

After finishing the last hard piece of bread, Eil resumed hunting.

Since no clear answer came to mind, and his meal was finished anyway, he had no time to relax.

Starting from a disadvantageous position, he needed to work diligently to catch up with those ahead.

As usual, Eil continued hanging defeated monsters’ necks, practically carpeting the forest with monster corpses.

“It’s not going up easily, as expected.”

Checking his experience bar mid-hunt, Eil muttered.

Since entering Ingol Forest and earning the title of Thought Shatterer for defeating countless monsters, he still hadn’t leveled up.

He had barely entered the late phase based on the experience gained so far.

The relatively easy early leveling stages were almost over, and he had entered the difficult section where leveling up became much harder, which he had anticipated.

Even players who had been playing for over a year had barely surpassed level 200.

Considering Warode’s significant skill gap, even reaching level 100 earned ordinary players recognition as experts, so there was no expectation of leveling up several times in a day just by sitting in a hunting ground.

Especially compared to breaking high-risk dungeons, repeatedly hunting low-difficulty normal monsters had a considerable difference.

Eil was already quite fast considering he was hunting in regular areas.

In Warode, where hunting difficulty was generally high, the number of monsters one could kill within the same timeframe varied greatly depending on the player’s skills and focus.

‘Surely, hunting normal mobs alone is too slow. Though I’m combining it with stat work, so continuing like this won’t cause major losses… but catching up with rankers seems difficult, and the key will be boss monsters.’

While compensating with normal monster hunting, Eil’s real target in this area was the boss monster Thought Lump, Batora.

Ultimately, to significantly surpass others, one had to take on high risks.

However, this didn’t apply to all players, and even Eil shouldn’t blindly challenge high difficulties.

Many players overlooked this while blinded by big rewards, but avoiding death due to Warode’s death penalty was one of the crucial factors determining growth speed.

If you died even once after progressing smoothly through tough dungeons multiple times, everything would be wasted.

Considering the two-day penalty period, level reduction, and lost equipment, recovering would take considerable time.

For rapid growth, players needed to accurately assess their skills and choose appropriate difficulties carefully.

Not just combat ability, but devising proper cultivation strategies using brainpower was also considered important “skill” in Warode.

Warode showed significant efficiency differences despite equal time investment based on skill levels.

Therefore, high-efficiency upper-tier dungeons existed solely under control of dominant guilds in those regions, a common phenomenon in highly free virtual reality games.

‘Anyway, it should be respawning soon…’

Checking the time, Eil listened carefully to the surrounding sounds.

This was the fourth respawn since he entered Ingol Forest, and he hoped to resolve it within the fifth respawn.

Though originally planning to finish today, it didn’t look easy.

Despite careful route planning, luck was still necessary due to considerable competition.

Gurgle…

Anxiously listening, Eil caught a very faint sound.

This wasn’t a noise normal thoughtforms could make.

Though the sound was too faint to pinpoint the exact direction, Eil didn’t need to estimate the position from the given clues.

There was only one possible location near here where Batora could appear.

“I found it!”

Eil shouted facing the monster.

The sight of thoughts gathering from the ground.

The grotesque black lifeform was rapidly forming, developing a long body, eight legs, and a head with upper body.

Combined with the eerie forest background, the massive creature revealed a disturbing appearance, intimidating players.

However, Eil standing alone before it showed no signs of shrinking and was instead filled with joy.

There were no other players around despite the new boss monster appearing.

Since he discovered it first, the raid rights belonged solely to him.

The heresy mark was already stamped on the creature’s head without needing any skills.

Silently smiling, Eil picked up his sword without hesitation, starting the battle immediately.

* * *

“There!”

Three players hurriedly pushed through the bushes.

They had heard the faint sound of Batora and moved quickly.

Being this close when hearing the sound meant they were much nearer than other competitors, definitely a stroke of luck for them waiting patiently.

But upon approaching, they saw another player already standing before Batora.

“What? There’s someone there!”

“Ahh… If only we hadn’t gotten lost in the middle… This is so frustrating.”

They had believed this one was definitely theirs, making their anger boil proportionally to their expectations.

“This place is really disgusting… I just want to leave quickly.”

The female archer sighed deeply, groaning.

The two men beside her remained silent, but they too wanted to leave Ingol Forest quickly.

Waiting for the boss respawn was getting tiresome, and staying in this gloomy space was depressing.

They had nearly died once due to annoying elite monsters.

They wanted to abandon it all, but the time invested so far made giving up painful.

“Now we can’t return empty-handed… It’s maddening.”

“Damn it, I thought it was over but got stolen by just one person… Wait, only one person?”

The man rubbed his eyes and looked carefully ahead.

Looking closely at the figure fighting Batora, it was just a lone swordsman confronting the massive monster.

There was nothing particularly high-level or special about his equipment, and most importantly, he had no guild mark indicating affiliation.

Meaning they could attack him without consequences.

“Hey, everyone prepare for the raid.”

The man’s lips stretched into a wide grin.