27: The Next Step

The Next Step

11000 Activity Points.

That had been Neve's additional reward for completing her punishment dungeon. The reward made it so that, if she wanted to, she could rest for two days before doing whatever it was she felt like doing next.

But, she had no intention of doing that.

Getting through the punishment was only the first part of her journey.

Now that she was out, it was time to begin the next step.

Amassing power.

[Tamira, can you come out here?]

"What is it you require?" She asked, popping up beside her instantly.

"You said before that dungeons outside the main one can be of any level, right?"

"Indeed," she replied, spinning in the air as she usually did. "A dungeon out here can be level 1 or level 100, as they do not scale with your level."

"Are the levels of the dungeons told to me?" Neve asked.

She expected the answer to be "no", but she wanted to ask anyway. The last thing she needed was to walk into a level 100 dungeon having just barely lived through a level 50 one.

"The level of a dungeon is shown to you upon discovering it," Tamira replied, however, surprisingly. "I'll tell you this as well," Tamira replied. "Oftentimes, dungeons do tend to hover around the same difficulty as enemies around it in the open world. However, even that is not an ironclad rule. You may very well find a level 30 dungeon with level 50 enemies around it or a level 100 dungeon with level 60 enemies around it.

"Okay... What about rewards?" Neve asked. "Can I see which dungeons give rewards that I can use?"

Tamira's answer to this question was also surprising. 

"To an extent," she stated. "When you stand outside a dungeon, you will not be able to see every single thing that you can find inside, but you will be able to see the rewards you get from beating the boss. Of course, there will be many rewards still hidden from you. Each dungeon has hidden chests and secret rooms, after all. It's ultimately up to you whether you care about these, or not. The Ruined Fortress of Roha Vala had a few, but you ignored them all. Understandably of course, because every step you took in that place could have meant death. Ultimately, it will be up to you to determine which dungeons to take a chance on and which to avoid. I will give you this bit of advice, however," she said, floating closer, "appearances can be deceiving. Just because a dungeon looks intimidating doesn't mean its enemies are high-level. And, just because a dungeon looks cozy does not mean it's going to be easy."

[Hey, some free tips. Nice.]

"Got it," Neve replied.

She had another thing she wanted to ask about. 

That spell she'd received. 

She hadn't made a big deal out of it for one simple reason. One she wanted to ask about now.

"What about that summon spell? Am I really able to use it? I'm a Healer-class mage. Isn't the spell restricted?"

Tamira giggled. 

"That one, in particular, is not," Tamira replied.

"What?" 

Neve pulled back. 

Tamira seemed amused by her reaction.

"Do you remember those two poor saps you saw on the first day? The ones who tried to escape the main dungeon during the First Floor fight and got sent to kill two other humans? Well, now that you've gone through one, you should understand the way punishments work here. The punishment system goes like this: if you survive your punishment, you will be rewarded for it."

"Uh... I could guess that much," Neve murmured.

Tamira continued.

"Your reward was that spell, their reward was skipping a floor in the Main Dungeon. It would be unfair, however, if your reward for completing a punishment battle, or a punishment dungeon, was something you could not use. Therefore, an exception is made when it comes to punishment rewards. No punishment reward is class-locked. If you receive a mace, you will be able to use that mace. If you receive a bow, you will be able to use that bow. If you are a mage and the item you receive does not scale with mage skills or attributes, then, screw it, that item will be changed to do so. Case in point, this summoning spell you received is unique, Neve," Tamira stated, getting closer. "Its power does not scale with your Summoning Magic skill, because you are not a summoner. Its power scales with your Healing Magic skill. Neat, right?"

Neve's eyes widened.

"Wait, that's insane."

"As I said," Tamira replied. "What is the point in giving you a reward for surviving a punishment dungeon that you cannot use? It would not make sense."

[That's... good to know. And, surprisingly kind of the Forces That Be. Not that it makes up for everything they've put me and humanity through, but still.] 

"So, Neve, what will you do now that you've made it out of that horrible dungeon?" Tamira asked. "You must be aching to see your good friend Thomas again. Will you go chasing after him right now?"

"Of course, not," Neve replied. "I'm asking you all of this for a reason. I want to clear more dungeons before I go back in and take him on."

"You are level 40, though. Are you not strong enough to defeat him and his group already?"

"John Dulan was level 41 when he fought Thomas's group. Look what happened."

"Ah," Tamira smiled. "I am glad to see you have some patience. You may make this whole thing entertaining for me yet! Anything else you wish to ask me?"

"No."

"Very well. Good luck."

Just like that, the snake disappeared and Neve was on her own once again.

She'd been out of the punishment dungeon for a few minutes and yet she almost couldn't believe that she was actually here.

The verdant grass, the beautiful rolling hills along the horizon, the birds singing in the distance, and the sun warming Neve's skin in a much more comforting way than the lava had done back there, it all let Neve know that this was, in fact, real.

She'd won the battle, having made it out of the Ruined Fortress, but she had yet to win the war.

No, the preparations for that began now.

[Okay... So, this spot just outside the Main Dungeon is a safe zone. I should check that summoning spell out. See how it works and stuff before I actually go anywhere.]

Up until now, in the few fights that Neve had taken, all she'd done was rely on her beginner-level spells. Depending on just how powerful this new summon spell was, she finally had an option that was actually strong.

However, without even casting the ability yet, Neve could see two apparent flaws.

First, that the summon only lasted a minute. It was nice that the timer began ticking down upon entering combat, but still. 

Second, it cost 300 mana to use. Given that she currently had a mana of 900, when taking into account Staff of the Righteous's buff, that meant that, at most, she'd probably only be able to use this ability twice in fights, depending on how many other spells she used. 

For fights against random enemies, this was probably fine. For boss fights, it meant she might end up having to fight on her own anyway.

Especially if the summon got killed early, which would be the worst-case scenario.

As for that first flaw, she wondered if it could be remedied once she got some more points into her Healing Magic attribute. As Tamira had said, the ability scaled in power with it. That second flaw could only be remedied by leveling her Arcane attribute, or, somehow, finding an even better staff.

[Okay,] she thought, inhaling sharply. [So, the description says the duration timer begins ticking down once I enter combat. Does that mean that her duration is infinite while I'm outside of combat? Uh, let's see what happens.]

Inhaling sharply, Neve pointed her staff just a few feet away from her position.

With a thought, she used the spell and a white rune appeared before her.

"Agh," she hissed, reaching up and putting a hand over her chest, feeling a sharp pain. [Holy shit. I've never used a spell that requires this much mana before. It felt like a piece of my soul was just ripped out.]

A figure began manifesting in front of her.

White embers combined to form a woman with a somewhat human torso and a snake's lower half.

It was, of course, Erin, but as the white embers faded and the Warrior Princess appeared before her, Neve immediately noticed that she seemed different.

Specifically, there were no signs of starvation.

Her arms were slightly bulkier, stronger. Her abdomen was absolutely shredded, and even her boobs had popped out a little.

Seeing her like this made it clear just how long the version of Erin that Neve had seen had spent in starvation.

She looked almost like an entirely different person.

An even more gorgeous person than she already had been. 

"Uh... Hi," Neve said.

Erin did not respond, though.

Instead, words appeared in front of her.

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