36: The Hall of the Luminous, Part One

The Hall of the Luminous, Part One

[Well... I guess I should get going. Like Tamira said, this is gonna take time. The sooner I get this over with, the... Huh?]

As she sat there, she heard someone call out to her.

Looking up, she found two strange humanoids jogging over to her, running along the sand in a hurry.

Her immediate instinct was to assume that they were enemies and she nearly pulled out her staff, but upon getting a closer look, she found that these creatures weren't carrying any weapons. More importantly, as had been the case with Erin before, she couldn't see levels over their heads.

Both these elements made her hesitate.

[That might be the System's way of telling me "don't kill these people". Okay, okay, got it.]

[You can do so anyway if you'd like~] Tamira whispered to Neve, through her thoughts. [Though they might not be "players", their deaths will still award you EXP. Tempting, isn't it?]

Neve just rolled her eyes as the two of them approached.

They looked like young women, but with necks and fingers that were just a little too long, and light grey skin. Their chests were flat, but the curvature of their hips could rival that of any woman Neve had ever met. The clothes they had on resembled what Neve would expect to see medieval Greek characters in old plays wearing, covered up in white garbs with shiny accessories decorating their arms.

They were also quite thin, however, as though they hadn't eaten in weeks. Maybe this was normal for them, though.

As they reached her position, Neve saw that their eyes were black, with a single white dot at the center acting as their pupils.

"Kyure ne?" One of them asked as she reached Neve. The person kneeled in front of the healer. "Kyure ne!?"

Her voice, alarmed as it was, felt soft and silky to Neve's ears. Her eyes, though eerie at first, seemed alluring up close. 

[What did she say?]

Thankfully, a window quickly appeared that said:

{Detecting Interspecies Communication}

{Initiating Automatic Two-Way Translation}

"Koi nacome- ears not working?" The one in front of Neve asked. "Can she... it not understand?"

"Um... Hi?" Neve greeted them. Both of their heads snapped toward her.

"Oh, she talks!" One of them exclaimed, holding its hands up to its face.

"Are you alright?" The first one, who was sitting right next to her, kneeling by Neve's side with a kind and concerned look, asked.

[That must have been what it was asking before.]

"Yeah, I'm fine," Neve replied, standing up.

"Are you sure?" The person grabbed Neve's shoulders, as though she was worried that she was going to lose her balance. Her hands only carried four fingers. "How... You came out from the Blessed Lake!"

"Um, no, no. I kinda fell into it, actually," Neve explained.

"What?"

"From up there," Neve replied before pointing up at the hole in the ceiling. "It's a long story, but... Uh, I was somewhere above and I kinda fell into this place."

"That is... What?" The woman struggled to comprehend what Neve had just told her.

She couldn't blame her for that. If she found someone laying in the middle of the street back at Starlight and they told Neve that they'd fallen from the sky, she'd be just as puzzled.

"It doesn't matter Ahlie, are you hurt at all?" The other one asked. Her voice was slightly deeper, and unlike the girl who was still holding onto Neve, this one had three vertical black lines painted onto her forehead.

"No," Neve replied. "But..."

At that moment, as the two strangers waited for an answer, something important came to her mind.

[So, this city isn't empty, huh?] She thought. [I can't just walk into the place and go straight to the Hall of the Luminous. I was kinda expecting it to be a ghost town. The fact that there are people living here makes this a little bit complicated.]

She needed an excuse. Something that would compel the people of this city to allow her to take on the dungeon in peace.

The best she could come up with was:

"I was sent here to deal with that place," she stated, pointing at the temple, or, arena, as Tamira had said. "By, uh... my superiors."

The black eyes of the girl in front of Neve widened. She let go of her, and looked at the other woman, before turning back toward Neve.

"You came... to deal with the infestation?"

[Infestation?] Neve raised a brow. [Well... Actually, if these people can't see that it's a dungeon spawning enemies for players to deal with, I guess it would make sense for them to refer to a place full of monsters that never stop appearing as "an infestation".]

"Yeah!"

[I'll just roll with it, for now.]

"I came to deal with the infestation."

Both otherworldly ladies pulled back, shocked.

"Are you a korrava?"

[Uh... Is this a translation error?] Neve wondered. [Or... I guess this word doesn't have an English equivalent?]

"I'm not too sure what you mean," Neve replied. "All I know is that I came to help with that," she said, pointing at the arena again.

"If she is a korrava, then we should take her to the ministress. He will want to hear about this."

"You are right," the girl in front of Neve replied. "Um, stranger, my name is Ahlakan. This is Minerva, my mother. And you are...?"

"Neve," she answered. "Um, my name's Neve."

"Neve, could you come with us? Or, must you head straight to the infestation?"

Neve paused to give it some thought.

[I could be here for weeks. It would be nice to have a place to stay in. If I go with them, maybe I could ask for some shelter?]

"Sure."

The two of them, who had been kneeling up to this point, stood up fully. Neve's brows shot up.

[Wow. They're kinda tall.] Neve blinked. [Tamira, what are these people called?]

[They are the Nulin.]

[Nulin, got it.]

"Please, follow me," Minerva said, taking charge of the situation.

"Right behind you."

They led Neve from the soft sands to the smooth, delicate-looking streets she'd observed during her fall. Now that she was closer, she could hear chatters everywhere around her.

[Lively place, isn't it?]1

Some of the things she found were reminiscent of regular human construction. There were wooden stands, with people behind them, selling strange fruits and vegetables. Poles tipped with blue flames were lined up across the city, lighting it up as well as any lampposts could. Just as Neve reached the street, she found a wagon moving across the street, with a few Nulins riding on it. At first, she thought it wasn't being pulled forward by anything, but seeing one of the passengers with their hands up, exuding magic, let her know it was being pushed telepathically.

In addition, the buildings all had streaks of paint on them, as though some artists were tasked with using the walls as canvases and had gone crazy.

"Do not worry," Minerva spoke up and Neve glanced over at her. "As soon as we let the ministress know about your arrival, we will do something about your sickness."

"My sickness?"

"Hm? Yes, your sickness," Minerva replied. "Your skin is so pale, your eyes have gone blue, and your chest is incredibly swollen." 

She poked the side of Neve's right boob. The healer flinched.

"I am sure whatever you've contracted must be unbearable but, do not worry, a doctor will take a look at you soon enough."

"..." Neve was rendered speechless for a few seconds. "Um. No, that's all normal. I'm not a Nulin."

"What? You aren't?" Ahlakan, Minerva's daughter, asked.

"Uh, no. My people are called humans," Neve replied, holding back a giggle. "These... uhm, these are normal. Well, they're a little bigger than normal, but... Yeah."

"I... see," Ahlakan replied, sounding quite surprised. The woman gave a small shrug, however, as she continued. "Well, we assumed you were a korrava, but, if you are not, if you are 'human' as you say, are you... Are you really here to help us? Why did you come here?"

The curious looks being thrown Neve's way not only by Ahlakan and her mother but by the other Nulins around them let Neve know how confusing her presence was.

[I guess they're a little weirded out. I mean, I literally fell from the ceiling, so I can't blame them.]

"I didn't know you guys were living here," Neve replied. "I only came to deal with the infestation because I heard about it from others of my kind."

"And yet, you can speak our language."

"We... Yeah, humans speak the same language as you."

"Hm. I suppose we must share a common ancestor, then. Maybe one of the Travelers."

[That's a surprisingly scientific conclusion to arrive at so quickly,] Neve thought. [What's a Traveler, though?]

"Daughter, it matters not why this person is here, so long as she is here to assist us with the infestation, right?" Minerva asked.

Ahlakan's eyes lingered on Neve for a moment before she nodded.

"I suppose so," she replied softly. "Though, that will be up to the ministress to decide. Not us."

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