A Basement-Dwelling Loser, the Inquisitor – Chapter 214

〔World Quest – Hunt of Great Demon Tagirion〕

〔The Great Demon Tagirion embodies absolute evil with its existence.〕

〔Remaining Time: 20 hours 36 minutes〕

Tagirion had weakened, and the players were granted tremendous buffs, yet our attacks still seemed to have no effect on Tagirion’s true form.

“It still seems like we need to destroy all the hearts. According to the chat window, the hearts are significantly weakened, so it shouldn’t take too long.”

Ga-eun shared my thoughts, and under his leadership, the players gathered around Tagirion’s true form began to form a battle line.

“Our goal is to hold out until we get word that all five hearts have been destroyed! There’s no need to overexert ourselves!”

[How dare you, mere creatures!]

As the battle restarted, Tagirion’s cry echoed while numerous red circles were inscribed on the ground.

No one dared to speak, but every player present already knew.

Such patterns typically lead to instant death or strong debuffs, so we needed to focus on dodging, plain and simple.

With a cracking sound, the ground marked by the red circles split open.

Immediately, blue flames shot up, engulfing several players who had been slow to react.

And those swept away… disappeared without leaving a trace.

“What…?”

Even the standard death indicators that should have been displayed were absent.

As everyone around me struggled to comprehend the situation, Tagirion continued its onslaught as if it were all a natural course of events.

[Purgatory!]

Crimson blades appeared from empty space.

There wasn’t a single player who didn’t know where those blades were headed.

But perhaps due to the shock from the previous event, movements slowed, and most players, including Ga-eun, were consumed by the storm of crimson blades.

…Thank goodness it wasn’t an instant kill pattern, but if this kept up, it would become a problem.

Of course, I couldn’t comprehend what kind of pattern it was, so being flustered was unavoidable, but I had to focus and not dwell on it.

So, let’s try to refocus for now.

“Huuh…”

I steadied my breath and evaded Tagirion’s ongoing attacks.

My body still felt sluggish, and my mind was hazy like fog, but I was far from unable to react to its attacks.

I surrendered my body to instinct and senses.

As I dodged the flashes pouring from its outstretched wings, I moved forward.

Voices of panic echoed from behind, but I chose to ignore them.

They would figure it out and survive, right?

Then, I swung my warhammer with all my strength toward the now-approaching Tagirion.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Once, twice, three times.

I narrowly dodged its claws by the width of a paper, continuing my assault without pausing.

Of course, its HP didn’t budge. Naturally, it was unmoved.

But that didn’t mean I shouldn’t attack, right?

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

As I continued my strikes, Tagirion’s form began to shift back slightly, causing it to focus its attacks solely on me.

Even its earlier widespread attacks disappeared, and it targeted only me.

[Kraaaaaaaaah!!!]

With a monstrous roar, Tagirion swiped its claws and swung its tail toward me.

…This feels a bit dangerous.

That thought flitted through my mind for just a moment.

Instead of dodging, I decided to brush past its attack as I adjusted my body to the right.

As long as I could survive one hit, I was fine.

Sure, my shoulder would likely be pierced by Tagirion’s claws, but I should be able to avoid its tail.

Crack!

With an unpleasant sound, just as I had anticipated, Tagirion’s claw pierced my shoulder.

“…Ugh!”

Then, Tagirion’s tail was suddenly blocked by Ga-eun, who appeared from behind.

“I’m sorry…!”

Was that her way of signaling she would focus?

I didn’t think I would mind being alone.

But since I didn’t know what kind of patterns were coming next, it might be best to retreat for now.

At least it seemed Ga-eun was getting a grip, so that was reassuring.

I concluded to step back with Ga-eun, and just as we did, Tagirion’s area attacks resumed.

“Rene, we just heard from those who disappeared earlier.”

I dodged the patterns and listened to Ga-eun.

“Apparently, those who are killed by Tagirion are summoned to the Room of Evil Dream. They need to defeat one of the randomly appearing monsters there to respawn.”

Ah, so that’s the gimmick.

It felt like a deterrent to the thought of dying and respawning easily from the get-go.

After all, it would be absurd to endlessly die and respawn, trying to thwart Tagirion’s advance without thought.

Was it a different kind of resurrection penalty?

“So, for now… I want to think about moving in a direction centered around you, Rene.”

…Huh?

What are you suddenly proposing?

The center here should obviously be Ga-eun, right?

As I surveyed my surroundings, everyone was nodding their heads for some reason.

…Why?

“Is that okay?”

Ga-eun suggested it as though it were obvious.

[Inquisition Officer: I’m sorry.]

I immediately declined.

And it wasn’t simply because I didn’t understand the intention behind that statement.

Saying they wanted to move centered around me meant they wanted to assign me the role of party leader, and I certainly didn’t feel averse to taking on the leader role.

From the fights against Tagirion to the Albion Hunt, I had enough experience.

But the issue was my current physical condition.

Simply moving wouldn’t be a problem, but taking on the role of party leader in this hazy state?

Mistakes were bound to happen.

[Inquisition Officer: I’m not in the best shape right now.]

[Inquisition Officer: I’ll just take care of myself, so you all do the same.]

Let’s just have everyone do their thing well, okay?

After pondering briefly, Ga-eun slowly nodded.

★

[Ga-eun]

[Starting New Dimension World Quest]

[New Dimension | 19,514 viewers currently streaming | 08:11:58]

〔World Quest – Hunt of Great Demon Tagirion〕

〔The Great Demon Tagirion embodies absolute evil with its existence.〕

〔Remaining Time: 18 hours 26 minutes〕

“Rene, you mentioned you weren’t feeling well, right?”

─Yeah, hence the break

─I had originally planned not to participate in the World Quest.

─So what’s up with this?

─There’s this 2A person, you know…

─Oh wow, lol

─Hey everyone, please don’t confuse Streamer Rene with 2A who typed earlier—they are two different people, okay?

─For real, she said it wasn’t her

─I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere before…

─Streamer Rene… VTuber Rene… Ugh, my head…

─Whoa, just so you know, VTuber Rene is a junior to Streamer Rene!

“…Is it true the person moving like that is feeling unwell?”

─For real, lol

─Please don’t compare a beast’s condition to that of a normal human…

Over two hours of back-and-forth with Tagirion.

Within that time, Rene’s focus and movements were undeniably overwhelming.

For anyone else, facing an opponent for over two hours without striking could lead to exhaustion, yet Rene continued with apparent ease, executing only the best moves.

Thanks to that, Tagirion had barely moved from the spot where the fight began.

And witnessing this, Ga-eun instinctively realized that if Rene hadn’t been there, they would have lost at least two hearts by now, and her instinct turned out to be correct.

After all, the PM team’s best record cleared with two hearts sacrificed.

With Rene showcasing such overwhelming prowess and with Ga-eun and the other players supporting from behind, it was a stunning team play.

As we endured for almost three hours.

[What the…!]

〔All hearts of the sealed Tagirion have been destroyed.〕

〔The Great Demon Tagirion’s stats have drastically decreased.〕

〔The Great Demon Tagirion goes berserk, becoming gigantic.〕

Finally, all hearts of Tagirion were destroyed.

★

With all hearts destroyed, Tagirion now felt only slightly stronger than usual.

Bang!

[Don’t you dare, you contemptible creatures…!]

And at last, with my strike resonating through the air, Tagirion knelt down.

Its form slowly crumbling signaled the end.

[Why is this body facing such destruction again…!!!]

With those final words, Tagirion turned to ash and disappeared.

〔The Great Demon Tagirion has been defeated by the heroes of the new era!〕

〔Their achievements will forever be celebrated as a new legend of the continent!〕

〔System: ‘World Quest – Hunt of Tagirion’ has been cleared.〕

〔System: The renown of all participants in ‘World Quest – Hunt of Tagirion’ increases.〕

A barrage of system messages obscured my vision.

“…Whoaahhhhh!!!”

[Thank you, everyone.]

Of course, an overwhelming cheer erupted, and in front of us, a hooded figure appeared.

[It was because of all of you that we could defeat the embodiment of absolute evil.]

What on earth is this figure?

[My name is Elun. As the representative of the Divine Spirits, I extend my gratitude to you, heroes of the new era. Thank you so much.]

…Huh?

Wait a second. What did you just say? Representative of the Divine Spirits?

Isn’t your name Elun…?

〔The Elun God pays respects to the heroes of the new era as the representative of the Divine Spirits.〕

〔System: The divine blessing descends across the continent.〕

〔System: The faith of the residents across the continent has drastically increased.〕

〔System: The forces of the Elun Cult and Scadi Cult are merging.〕

〔System: The forgotten cults are beginning to be revealed in the memories of the people.〕

〔System: They will gather around Elun and Scadi.〕

Hey hey hey.

Wait just a minute.

What’s going on here?

You’re saying that defeating Tagirion is going to increase the number of heretics?

Why?

What have the heretics done…?

Why?!

“Uwaaaaaah?!”

After everything I’d been through, my heart sank with disbelief—all that effort… and this damn game?!