Chapter 54

Level Up Heresy Inquisitor – Episode 54 (54/227)

Episode 54: Amaranth (1)

[Quest Completed!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

When the supply carriages loaded with goods safely arrived at the White Forest, a quest was completed and Eil received a large amount of experience.

After the player who fought Eil in the cave retreated, this time there were no attackers on the convoy, allowing the quest to be wrapped up without any issues.

‘Honestly, I knew my experience was close to leveling up, but I didn’t expect to gain two levels at once…’

It must have been because the initial request expanded into a much larger quest involving ancient spirits.

Just as Eil was subtly surprised by the excessive rewards, Patrol Captain Alunde approached him from beside the carriage.

“The Rotum told me what happened. Thanks for helping us.”

Alunde lightly placed his hand on his chest and bowed his head slightly, giving an elf-style greeting to Eil.

Though they wouldn’t normally treat a human so well just for escorting supplies, ancient spirits were important even to high elves, so they showed appropriate respect.

As additional rewards, Eil received permission to enter and exit the White Forest and gained access to the village all at once.

Compared to what he initially expected when accepting the request, this was quite a rapid advancement in relations.

“If anything else comes up, we’ll contact you.”

With those parting words, Alunde left, causing Eil’s eyes to widen significantly.

While it might sound like a casual remark, upon further thought, it was actually quite meaningful.

It naturally implied that new quests could be assigned, and it wasn’t impossible that follow-up quests related to this event could be received.

“Eil!”

Peren approached, smiling brightly and waving.

Being one of the more experienced Rotum in outside matters, he joined the convoy again this time, working alongside Eil and even having serious discussions with the high elves.

“Hey, is the spirit stone transfer finished?”

“Of course! With Eil driving away the troublemakers, there won’t be any problems. But does Eil plan to leave again?”

“I have to. Can’t stay in the village forever.”

Upon hearing Eil’s words, Peren’s cheerful expression turned gloomy.

“If you miss us, come back sometime!”

“Of course.”

Eil patted the clinging Peren on the back a few times before sending him off to the other Rotum.

The Rotum were already prepared to depart and it was time to return to the Spirit Forest.

After briefly waving goodbye, Eil turned toward the forest center.

Though entering the village where the high elves lived would normally result in becoming a porcupine from arrows flying from all directions, such worries were unnecessary now that he’d been granted access.

‘Even if I can’t receive quests from regular villagers yet, I should at least be able to buy items…’

The White Forest was famous for having high-quality upper-tier equipment and potions, but right now Eil planned to stock up on special ingredient items only available here.

These were different from the items obtainable from the Rotum in the Spirit Forest, so he intended to purchase them separately from the materials he obtained last time.

Of course, since Eil’s proficiency in all life content skills was practically zero, he wouldn’t be able to do anything with these ingredients himself, and most would be sent to Lisa.

There were also a few items she specifically requested when she heard he’d entered the White Forest.

Since interacting with the elves, especially the high elves of the White Forest, wasn’t easy, these materials would be highly sought after by users utilizing life content.

Eil figured that after sending these materials, he wouldn’t have to worry about potions for a while. He moved while unfolding his map.

“So, where should the next hunting ground be…?”

* * *

Swoosh!

Four undead monsters charging with fierce momentum were cleanly bisected by swift sword strikes.

But even the severed corpses couldn’t remain intact.

The path cut by the sword strike, which was as fast as a flash of lightning, was swept away once again by white flames.

The area scorched by the fire smelled strongly of burning corpses.

Eil stuck his longsword into the ground and leaned against it slightly.

‘Told ya, the firepower is incredible.’

The newly learned exclusive skill, One Slash.

He had tried it several times while hunting in the Spirit Forest, and it performed satisfactorily, worthy of being a hero-level skill.

Its power and utility had already been confirmed during the previous PvP, and it seemed he wouldn’t need to worry about having an attack move with decisive power for some time.

‘If only the mana issue could be resolved…’

Eil drank a mana potion filled with blue liquid.

It tasted like a familiar sports drink… but that wasn’t the point. The fact that using that single skill nearly drained his mana was concerning.

In such urgent combat situations, there wouldn’t always be time to leisurely drink potions, as he realized when fighting the hooded man in the Spirit Forest.

‘It’s unavoidable since I haven’t invested a single point in magic power…’

In reality, when running out of mana, even users of other classes had no choice but to invest some stat points into magic power.

However, Eil hadn’t touched his magic power stats to maximize efficiency.

This was because he had the sixth stat, ‘Madness,’ which increased not only direct values like attack power and speed but also mana quantity to a certain extent.

Starting with additional stats unlike others, Eil could focus more on other stats by stacking Madness stat sufficiently instead of investing in mana, excluding the unnecessary magic power stat except for mana quantity.

For now, the best long-term choice was to stack the Madness stat as quickly as possible to increase mana quantity.

‘And to stack the Madness stat, what’s needed are boss monsters, players, or…’

“Appeared!”

Having noticed something, Eil pulled out his embedded sword and dashed.

A fleeting shadow of a monster passed by to the left.

Chasing after it, there was an undead monster much larger than most others he’d encountered so far.

“Rrrrrrgh!”

“Okay.”

Eil grinned happily and raised his sword.

He activated the skill ‘Heresy Designation,’ and a red mark appeared above the monster’s head.

Pachin!

A precious prey to boost stats, an elite monster.

Apparently, to grind stats steadily without fluctuations, elite monsters with moderate difficulty and rewards are better than boss monsters requiring significant time and effort to defeat or risky players.

Most elite monsters are rare spawns mixed among common monsters in hunting grounds.

However, the reason Eil chose this place as his next destination after leaving the White Forest was precisely because it was a hunting ground where elite monsters frequently appeared.

Koom!

The undead monster’s huge arm slammed down on the ground.

But Eil was already behind it, instantly slicing the monster in half.

Fwoosh!

A long wound opened on the monster’s back, and white flames burned its flesh.

Due to the heavy swing of the longsword and the damage from the opposing attribute of fire, the monster’s health dropped significantly.

“Ghhhhhaaaa!”

Enraged, the mindless beast wildly thrashed around, making its movements unpredictable.

Whiiish!

However, Eil dodged every erratic movement while observing carefully, taking opportunities to stab its weak points and whittle down its health.

What initially felt somewhat tricky became second nature over time, no longer posing a challenge.

Given their tendency to suddenly appear in inconvenient situations despite having high specs difficult to handle without preparation, elite monsters are often seen as obstacles disrupting peaceful hunting and dangerous elements by general users.

But to Eil, who targeted them from the start, they were nothing more than easy opponents.

Cha-aaak!

In an instant, Eil’s sword swung, severing both legs of the already battered monster.

Although it was the same One Slash skill used earlier, without combining it with Sacred Flame, the fiery aftermath effect did not occur.

Kuung!

The fallen monster rolled on the ground, and when its health dropped below a certain threshold, it fell into a motionless critical state.

Eil deliberately stopped using Sacred Flame midway through, calculating the health and damage to keep the monster alive.

Having successfully completed the hunt, Eil lowered his sword and activated the Punishment Sentence skill for the final step.

Drrrrrr!

A thick book appearing in his left hand asked about the execution method for the undead before him.

A body too large to tie to a stake for execution.

Eil sentenced the creature to a slightly different punishment than usual and readied his weapon again.

Standing next to the fallen monster, he raised his sword high with both hands.

Kwaak!

With a gush of blood, the monster’s head rolled across the floor.

[‘Punishment Sentence’ designated punishment successfully carried out. Skill effect doubles stat bonuses.]

[Goddess’s Favor +0.22% (Current 55.13%)]

[Light Church Contribution +70]

[Faith Stat +2]

[Madness Stat +2]

[Decapitation execution increases Inquisitor speed by 10% for 60 minutes.]

[Feeling faith deepen further.]

[Faith Stat +0.1]

[Madness Stat +0.1]

“Seems like I’m encountering elite mobs more often than I’ve heard, and things are going smoothly without any hitches…”

Eil muttered while wiping black blood off his cheek.

The Goddess’s Favor value had exceeded 55%, and the Madness stat surpassed 30.

His previously depleted contribution points had accumulated to nearly 800, and he even received additional stat bonuses due to actions related to Faith.

While normal people would probably jump around in joy, Eil strangely felt a bit uneasy.

He couldn’t shake off a chill somewhere deep inside.

During his gaming career, Eil hadn’t been particularly lucky.

Well, to be precise, his in-game luck regarding obtaining good items wasn’t bad.

However, due to his competitive nature, he kept getting involved in various incidents unintentionally, leading to conflicts. So, it was only natural to feel uneasy with everything going so smoothly.

‘Could it be…’

A sudden thought crossed Eil’s mind.

Reflecting on his lack of luck in other games, it seemed like a very reasonable conclusion after careful consideration.

“Is Warode my destined game…?”