Chapter 156

Level Up Heresy Judge – Chapter 156 (156/227)

Chapter 156: Sacred Artifact (6)

“Hmm, this is gonna be my new home…”

WooJin put down his luggage and looked around the house.

The vast square footage and luxurious interior design.

Compared to the cramped and shabby room he used to live in, his expression was filled with mixed emotions as he moved into this new place.

The massive amount of gold extracted from Nocturnum, and especially the money earned through WarTube while gaining fame, exceeded all expectations.

The 100 million won received as compensation from the developer barely made a dent in his current finances anymore.

“Alright, this is the last one! Should I put it here?”

“Ah, let me take it. Hand it over.”

HyunSeong grunted as he entered, and WooJin took the last piece of luggage.

The man who helped WooJin move.

Though he seemed like a junior they’d known for a long time, the truth was different.

His Warode nickname was Roden.

When he heard about WooJin’s move, he showed up at his doorstep offering to help.

“At first it felt weird getting used to him being here…”

Seeing someone he was used to seeing in-game dressed in real-life clothes was quite strange.

They had never even met at offline gatherings like guild meetups back in the online gaming days.

But HyunSeong, who had been active as a Ranker, seemed unfazed and now spoke casually to WooJin.

“Okay, we’re all done! Hmm… but the living room feels kind of empty?”

“It’s just that the house feels bigger all of a sudden.”

Completely different from his previous residence, there wasn’t much furniture to fill the space yet.

With no new furniture purchased yet, it was bound to feel empty.

On the bright side, this meant the move went relatively quickly.

“Well, it looks nice and clean.”

“By the way, how’s things downstairs?”

“Warode? Everything’s going smoothly. Quests are abundant, hunting speed is great. Especially lately, there’s been no corruption at all, so everyone’s going crazy over the Goddess.”

After the world event ended and the party members returned to Eltris, it was natural for them to rapidly grow with all members being Ranker-level and operating on the highest stage of Eltris.

With the prince’s faction’s movements blocked by all six major guilds, the land corruption stopped, and the faith of Eltris residents was reaching sky-high levels.

“What about your side? Didn’t you say you found a sacred artifact?”

“I left it when we went down together last time.”

Having obtained two fragments of the sacred artifact, WooJin entrusted them to the grand cathedral located in the city after returning to Eltris with his party members.

It was an item many would covet in the future, and leaving it in the still largely unknown region of Eltris was the safest option.

Of course, WooJin was currently out of Eltris tracking another fragment.

“This doesn’t seem like an ordinary item. It’s not just tied to one or two quests.”

The tremendous reward given when he returned the sacred artifact fragment to the church.

A follow-up quest to find the next fragment was automatically triggered.

While no specific details or rewards were revealed, considering it was mentioned directly by divine authority and granted significant power to the deity, it was clearly no ordinary object.

“A trace of the Unique God… yeah, the setting alone makes it extraordinary.”

“The problem is we hardly know anything beyond that.”

The appearance of the sacred artifact, revealed to the public by some users of the Faith sect.

Not only believers of specific sects like WooJin, but many other treasure-hunting users became interested.

However, despite countless users desperately searching, clues were hard to come by due to the extremely limited information available.

Ding Dong!

The doorbell rang unexpectedly.

“Did you order jajangmyeon?”

“No, I didn’t…”

He hadn’t announced his move to the neighborhood, and there was no one who should be visiting him right now.

Scratching his head, WooJin opened the door.

“Is this Mr. Kim WooJin’s residence? We’re from NG Electronics.”

“What the hell…”

WooJin’s mouth dropped open as he stepped back in shock.

Then two employees pushed their way in, carrying a huge TV inside.

No less than a brand-new top-of-the-line model worth a whopping 14 million won.

“So this is what he meant by ‘sending a gift’…”

Checking the sender, it turned out to be true.

It was a housewarming gift sent by Lisa.

“Crazy…”

HyunSeong also looked shocked as he stared at the scene.

Then he glanced at the stack of tissue rolls sitting in the corner of the living room.

Such a pitifully modest gift.

Looking offended, HyunSeong jumped up.

“Let me go buy something too. Something more expensive…”

“It’s fine…”

Wondering why he randomly asked if they had a TV, now he understood why she sent something like this.

Most Ranker-origin users were rich, but this housewarming gift was thoroughly unexpected even considering that.

The installation was quickly finished, and the employees promptly left.

“Wow…”

Caught off guard by the unexpected gift, WooJin scratched his head.

But then HyunSeong, who had been staring wide-eyed, crossed his arms and spoke up.

“I didn’t think Ms. Alisa was that intimidating.”

“What are you talking about now?”

“Come on, even if she’s Ranker-origin, does anyone give a 14 million won housewarming gift? And Trina isn’t even that big of a game.”

“It’s possible her family has money.”

“Ugh! You know Ms. Alisa’s skills too, right? A healer who fights melee and takes out users. There’s never been a healer famous for that, even among Rankers. I’ve never heard of such a skilled person in Trina.”

“That’s definitely…”

WooJin nodded in agreement.

That was a point he completely agreed with.

Considering how she immediately connected with the notoriously picky Bloody Deck Studio, he often doubted whether she was really from Trina at all.

“Experts recognize each other. I suspected from the start.”

“Well, I agree to some extent. But if that’s true, why is she pretending and traveling with us? There’s no reason for her to do so.”

“That’s…”

WooJin’s words left HyunSeong speechless.

There was nothing she could gain by deceiving them, and objectively speaking, there really was no reason for her to do so.

“Damn.”

With his ambitious deduction failing, HyunSeong flopped onto the floor.

Then he grabbed the remote and turned on the new TV.

“The picture quality is amazing. Maybe I should get one too.”

* * *

After finishing moving, WooJin sent HyunSeong home and immediately logged into Warode.

His location was the Heretical Interrogation Office in Esmaier.

The last place Eil logged out was the records archive of this interrogation office.

An archive filled with all kinds of records about the church.

Even the royal palace library of Ascalon couldn’t easily access the vast amount of materials stored here.

However, the materials Eil sought weren’t enough with just these.

Eil ventured deeper into the archive to find the records.

The restricted area wasn’t somewhere just anyone could enter, but as an Executive of the church, Eil had unrestricted access.

“Looks like the requested materials have arrived.”

Eil smiled satisfactorily at the large pile of record books stacked on the table.

What he was looking for were all records related to the sacred artifact.

The secret archives of Esmaier alone weren’t sufficient, so he requested copies of confidential materials from churches across various locations.

As a result, a massive amount of materials gathered.

Since he asked for everything that seemed even remotely related to the sacred artifact, it resulted in a vast collection of documents.

While some might find the mountain of books tedious, he eagerly reached out as if returning to his original passion.

He then immersed himself in analyzing them for quite some time.

What he needed to focus on discovering were the locations of the other sacred artifact fragments.

Recalling how Bahamut moved first to find the holy site and artifact beneath the Banan Fortress, tracking them wasn’t impossible.

“Because of the lack of information, other players can’t even guess. But thanks to the church’s confidential archives, I’m in a position far ahead.”

One fact he learned after entering the archive.

The sacred artifact wasn’t originally supposed to appear at this point in time.

Its appearance was accelerated along with the sudden awakening and movement of all deities.

“If it’s affected by the chain reaction trigger… then the sacred artifact must have some role.”

The sacred artifact symbolized the ancient supreme deity.

Unlike its current state of being split into seven parts, it truly represented the sole unique god.

If the role of the sacred artifact was merely symbolic, it wouldn’t make sense for divine authority to mention it directly or grant so much influence to the deity.

Speculation that it was an object imbued with power.

“Moreover, the sacred artifact is divided into a total of fifteen fragments. And among them, the key lies in the first four fragments.”

The two fragments he discovered already carried significant influence on their own.

However, among the fifteen fragmented pieces of the sacred artifact, there were even more important ones.

Specifically, the first to fourth sacred artifact fragments.

While he couldn’t determine their exact appearances or names, these four pieces were essential components to completing the single sacred artifact.

The remaining fragments served as additional elements to enhance its power.

“So securing these four first would be important.”

Rustle!

Eil flipped through the thick book’s pages.

The text he focused on contained information about the locations where the four fragments were scattered.

“Compared to the other fragments, the locations of these four pieces are relatively clearly stated.”

According to several legends that simultaneously referenced this fact, the core fragments of the sacred artifact were each divided among the distant lands.

The snowy plains of the north, the desert of the west, the swamps of the south, and the wastelands of the east.

Regions outside the kingdom’s territory where almost all users were currently active.

Areas without proper bases or infrastructure, inhabited by monsters with no consideration for players.

“So the options are four places? Ideally, I should look for clear clues first, but if I had to choose the best among these… probably here.”

Eil’s gaze landed on a particular spot as he examined the map.