Chapter 11
Chapter 11
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Emergency Mission
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The White Church was the only one of its kind on the Eldorado Continent and held the utmost authority.
Thanks to that, it had garnered widespread support from many people and expanded its influence far and wide.
However, a series of recent misfortunes had cast a gloomy pall over the church's atmosphere.
And now, a secretive meeting was underway in the upper floors of the main building.
"No contact at all up to now?"
"Yes, that's correct, Archbishop."
One priest replied with a sullen expression.
A novice priest the church had been keeping tabs on had gone missing. Even the holy knight accompanying him had lost contact.
If it had been just any novice priest, the church wouldn't have paid it this much attention.
But the missing one wasn't an ordinary novice.
This had put the church's upper echelons on high alert.
For it was Yuel, a novice priest on par with a saint, who had vanished.
"I told him to stay put, and yet this mess happens anyway."
The archbishop slammed his desk in fury.
He had assured him that doing nothing would make him a full priest eventually.
No idea what heroic impulse struck him, but he'd headed to the Sail Kingdom and then gone radio silent.
The problem was that the Sail Kingdom bordered the Demon Realm.
'Please, let it be nothing serious...'
But the archbishop's hopes were cruelly shattered.
"We've confirmed that the holy relic in Novice Priest Yuel's possession has activated. We tried to pinpoint the location, but..."
The relic had activated.
Yet they couldn't locate where it had happened at all.
What that meant was clear.
Yuel was dead.
Even with the relic activating, no less.
It was a powerful artifact capable of effortlessly dispatching even 5-star monsters.
And yet he'd been taken out without a fight?
This was no simple matter.
'A space beyond the reach of holy power?'
Using the relic should have unleashed a massive surge of holy power.
He'd at least expected to track its activation site based on that, but no such luck.
The archbishop racked his brains swiftly.
Yuel was dead.
He'd likely crossed the Sail Kingdom's mountains into the Demon Realm.
No telling how he'd met his end, but going there with just one holy knight was sheer stupidity.
"Hoo..."
What was done was done.
Dwelling on it wouldn't bring the dead Yuel back.
It was a painful loss for the church, but they could turn this incident into a new opportunity.
"Archbishop, regarding that, I've already spoken to His Holiness the Pope."
The archbishop turned to the source of the voice.
Helisa, the saintess of the White Church.
To the church, this saintess—the first in over a century—was nothing short of a savior.
The archbishop gazed at her with the fond smile of a grandfather eyeing his granddaughter.
"A church priest has gone missing in the Sail Kingdom. It's a serious issue, so I've requested the dispatch of a Heretic Inquisitor."
The archbishop beamed as if watching his granddaughter's adorable antics.
"For you, Saintess, to consider even that—it's truly the church's blessing."
Geographically, the Sail Kingdom was the farthest from the White Church.
Naturally, the church's influence there was weaker than in other nations.
Influence here meant the royals and nobles.
Winning them over would turn the Sail Kingdom into the church's puppet.
The issue was the lack of a solid pretext to build that influence until now.
But things were different now.
Whether Yuel had crossed into the Demon Realm and gotten himself killed was irrelevant.
What mattered was that he'd last been headed to the Sail Kingdom—that much was true.
With a church priest missing, they could use it as an excuse to dispatch a Heretic Inquisitor.
The Sail Kingdom couldn't refuse outright.
Approving the request would just bolster the church's power there.
Refusing, on the other hand, would paint them as complicit in a priest's death.
That would only lend more legitimacy to the church's push for an inquisitor.
The archbishop chuckled slyly, then seemed to remember something and spoke up.
"By the way, priest, how goes the sealing stone situation?"
His tone turned icy.
The church's underground had been ransacked, no less.
Bad enough that it was breached, but the monster sealed in the stone had escaped too.
"We've thrown many priests at it, but we haven't even found a lead yet."
The church's underground was no sloppy setup.
Sealed tight with holy power against magic or intrusion, and constantly guarded by rotating Heretic Inquisitors.
Yet someone had infiltrated it undetected.
"We interrogated the inquisitors on duty at the time, but it was no use."
In the end, no one knew a thing.
The archbishop's head throbbed.
He had no clue how to handle this.
The Yuel incident at least gave them an excuse to scour the Sail Kingdom, but this was on another level.
As the archbishop pondered, Saintess Helisa timidly raised her hand.
"Um... Archbishop?"
"Yes, Saintess? What is it?"
"From what I know, the being that broke free was a 3-star succubus. Is it really that dangerous? Can't we just ignore something like this?"
A 3-star succubus posed no threat to ordinary folk or church priests.
It wasn't a major danger to the church, so she couldn't fathom why they were making such a fuss.
"Haha, you're right, Saintess. But the problem is that this escaped monster isn't your average succubus."
The archbishop cleared his throat and continued.
"Have you ever heard of Ishar?"
"Ishar? First time I've heard that word."
Helisa tilted her head.
"Yes, in the beginning, the Goddess created the Eldorado Continent."
It was common knowledge to anyone on the continent.
Why bring up ancient myths now?
"But are you aware there was a being that existed alongside the Goddess back then?"
"Pardon?"
Helisa was startled.
What the archbishop had just said sounded like heresy.
Yet no one in the meeting room batted an eye.
As if they all knew already.
"It was an utterly evil entity. That's why the Goddess annihilated it to protect the continent. But one problem arose. Monsters tainted by its blood began to appear. Those tainted with its blood all bear one name, as naturally as the laws of the world."
That name is Ishar.
"But it's nothing to worry about overly much. The name Ishar is little more than a shackle. Any bearing it is fated to meet their end at the church's hands."
The archbishop smiled as he said this.
"That's all you need to know for now."
With that, he swiftly changed the subject.
Helisa sank into thought after hearing him out.
So many things had been going wrong at the church lately.
'Ever since that guy left, the incidents haven't stopped.'
The "guy" she meant was Yi Kang-hyun.
She had exerted herself to send him back to Earth.
The church had opposed it at first but agreed once they realized he was useless.
'I thought we could make a second Kim Suho out of him.'
Before Yi Kang-hyun, another person had come to the church.
Kim Suho.
He was diligent and accomplished much, so the church made him a holy knight.
She'd thought Yi Kang-hyun would follow suit, but he proved utterly incompetent...
Helisa shook her head and refocused on the meeting.
She had too much on her plate to worry about someone who'd already returned to Earth.
Being a saintess was no light burden.
I shelled out for 10,000 gems in the shop.
It cost me a whopping 110,000 won, but I didn't sweat it.
The dungeon I'd thought was tough turned out to be just iron-grade.
'One 6-star monster isn't enough, huh?'
I'm playing this game to relieve stress, not gain more.
I won't stand for that.
To protect my sanity, a little spending like this was no big deal.
Besides, hadn't the Status Window appeared too?
Thanks to it, even porter work was going smoother.
Just growth ahead, so this expense was worth it.
I claimed the gems from the mailbox.
Total gems: 14,300.
Looks like a lot, but only enough for two pulls.
The first thing I did with the gems wasn't a pull, though.
Purchase the item [Name Change Ticket] and use it.
🎁 Reward: 1,000 Gems
An emergency mission had popped up out of nowhere.
"Oh, this is a new one."
I'd thought it was just an idle game, but here came an emergency mission.
I headed straight to the shop and found the item.
Price: 500 gems.
Buy and use it, get 1,000 gems as reward.
Net gain of 500 gems for me.
"Gotta do this right away."
Not much to it, but if they're handing out freebies, I'm all for it.
This item apparently let you change a monster's name.
"But who to use it on?"
I picked a random monster.
A name, huh.
Skeleton Soldier must not count as a name—just the monster type.
To use the Name Change Ticket, I needed a monster with an actual name.
"Ah, there you are."
My lieutenant.
A 6-star succubus.
Also known as 'Celia Ishar'.
"From now on, your name is 'Celia'."
I've been calling her Celia anyway, so dropping the back half wouldn't feel off.
"Perfect."
Now my gem total was 14,800.
"Time to hit the gacha?"
Prime time for pulling monsters.
Gacha always brings that thrilling rush.
Three adventurers had taken an iron-grade dungeon commission from the guild.
The dungeon wasn't far from here.
It was the first dungeon for all three since becoming adventurers.
"Finally, time to show what we're made of!"
Denver was the first to show his enthusiasm.
He'd been the neighborhood boss growing up, so confidence oozed from him.
His dream was to be an adventurer.
That's why he'd signed up the moment he came of age.
The thought of entering a dungeon for the first time had him buzzing with excitement.
Fear?
No such thing.
These guys had been together since childhood.
Denver glanced back.
Roni and Jane.
Siblings, both of them.
No fear on their faces either.
United, their first commission would be a breeze.
Denver's eyes lingered on Jane.
At some point, he'd started seeing her not just as a friend, but as a woman.
'...'
If he cleared this dungeon in style and established himself as an adventurer...
When that day came, he'd confess to Jane.
Denver turned forward again and strode ahead with vigor.