77: The Land of the Dead, Part Four

The Land of the Dead, Part Four

One slightly awkward, but informative and meaningful, talk later, and Neve now stood beside Erin, ready to leave the camp once more. Ahlakan waved them off, and Neve scolded herself for the thought that popped up into her head.

That being that already, she was looking forward to returning to the safe zone just to see her again. 

[Don't be so cringy. She's a friend. One that's so touch-starved, she probably would be fucking any human she'd met. Don't turn this into anything more than that. Especially since she's just going to disappear one day.] 

... She could hardly deny that the earlier thought brought a smile to her face, though. 

Moving forward, armed with her staff, a notebook, and a pen, Neve left the safe zone with Erin following behind her. 

"Where will we go first?" Erin asked. "That field we visited again? I think there are far too many enemies there to focus on learning." 

"You're right. We'll need to find another spot."

Opening the map, Neve tried to get a feel for the floor. What sort of spot might hold secrets, how long it would take to reach the boss, etc. 

[Ah... I could just go straight to the boss and try to brute force my way to Thomas's location, but without some stronger equipment, or stronger spells, I'm probably gonna end up getting myself in trouble.] 

Noticing a few dots on the map, she tried to look around but found plumes of sand blocking her view. Understanding that this was likely the world's way of telling her "if you want to know what those dots are, you'll have to go and look", she began walking west. 

Slowly, of course. With those zombies underground effectively making this a minefield, she walked at a patient, calculated pace. 

Soon, the sand cleared up and she found a few of them wandering the wastes, not underground. 

Erin moved forward but Neve stopped her. 

"Hm?" Erin asked, looking ahead. "Is this not what we were hoping for?"

"That's exactly what's throwing me off right now," Neve responded, narrowing her eyes at the small group of enemies ahead. "It's too easy. Feels like a trap." 

As Tamira had said before, each floor in the Main Dungeon would function as smaller, but still quite massive, regular dungeons. What Neve was seeing in front of her was pure bait meant to lure unsuspecting players into attacking, hoping for some free EXP, only to be killed off by unseen forces. 

"Well," Erin said, pulling Neve's attention to her. "Luckily, it doesn't really matter if I spring this trap, doesn't it?" 

"Uh," Neve stammered, "I don't want you to-"

"It's quite rich hearing this from me, given the talk we just had prior to this, but at the end of the day, I am a summon. If I die, I will come back to life the next time you summon me. Is it not the smartest thing to do, then, to have me check this out?" 

Neve looked away. Erin was right, but, as she said, treating her like this after their talk felt wrong.

Erin took Neve by the chin, though, and made her see the resolve in her eyes. 

"I've been through much worse than this already, Neve. Have you forgotten?"

Not at all. Recalling all of the bullets, spells, and arrows that Neve had seen kill Erin over and over again was too easy. 

Unable to protest this move, however, Neve nodded, pushing down against Erin's hand. 

"... Okay." 

At that, Erin backed off and smiled. 

"Very well." 

As she slithered forward, casually approaching danger, Neve took a couple of steps back. 

Reflecting on what Erin had just said, it was certainly true that she'd already been made to do plenty of terrible things. The week-long grinding session that mostly consisted of Erin stabbing herself came to mind. The worst part was that Neve was certain there would be terrible things to come in the future. 

But, as Erin had said before, maybe Neve could make things more tolerable for her by making all of this a more enjoyable overall experience by treating her like an actual person. If she could then, that would be nice. 

As Erin drew closer to the enemies up ahead, Neve looked around, making sure no such zombies were sneaking up on her. 

Up ahead, Erin continued to approach, getting closer and closer. 

Until, suddenly, something appeared from the sand behind the zombies. 

A salamander of sorts. A giant one, far larger than it had any right to be, saw Erin and ran straight at the lamia. Erin attempted to move out of the way but a pair of zombie hands sprouted up from the ground and grabbed onto her tail, keeping her in place. 

The salamander opened its mouth then, as Erin stared up at it, unable to move, and proceeded to bite down on Erin's head. 

In a scene that was heavily reminiscent of a magical girl anime Neve had once watched, the lamia's head disappeared, the salamander wiggled triumphantly before trying to devour the rest of her, and Erin disappeared. 

All while Neve watched on with her jaw planted on the dirt floor. 

Confused at the sudden lack of a body to consume, the salamander turned around, walked back to the spot on the sand it had come out from, and dug itself back into its original position, as did the zombie hands that had trapped Erin. 

[... Brutal.] 

Again, paranoia prompted Neve to look around and make sure she wasn't about to be attacked herself. She was fine, though, and in the end, opted to jot down this experience and resummon Erin next to her. 

As soon as Erin appeared, the lamia flinched, her eyes wide and her face quite frightened. 

Neve hadn't been able to catch a glimpse of her expression as this had happened with the woman's back turned to Neve, but looking at it now she wished she hadn't. She just felt guilty. 

"Okay... Now we know," Neve said, pulling Erin's eyes to her. 

The woman nodded and swallowed, visibly trying to relax. 

"Indeed. Now we know." 

---

Despite Neve's new "no unnecessary fighting" policy, they ended up having to face that salamander anyway due to the fact that beating it would provide them with a suitable stage to study the surrounding zombies. 

And so, with Neve's mana having regenerated, Erin was facing it now, having managed to avoid the trap that got her killed. 

Neve stood behind Erin, watching as she twisted and dodged around a series of lunging bites on behalf of the salamander. She slashed at its body, dragging her swords down its smooth, onyx skin, and inflicting a small amount of damage while Neve cast {Iceball} at it repeatedly, keeping it slow enough for Erin not to have to worry about getting hit. The salamander spit fire at the lamia, and at one point, pulled back and stood on two legs before trying to crush Erin under its weight.

The zombies around the salamander were left alone to fumble and flail, of course, as they would be the beings Neve would study once the larger opponent was gone. 

It took almost the entirety of the minute that Erin had to work with, but just before her timer would run out, Erin managed to kill the salamander through two simultaneous stabs at its head and disappeared a moment after. 

The salamander slumped, falling to the ground, dead.

EXP Gained: 50

EXP: 560/750

WS Tokens Gained: 100

WS Tokens: 30405

The zombies around the creature's corpse scanned their surroundings, confused as to the lack of an enemy to fight, and began walking around aimlessly. 

[Okay. Study time. But, before that...] 

After waiting for her mana to fully regenerate, allowed to by the fact that the zombies did not notice her, Neve resummoned Erin. 

The lamia glanced at the zombies and moved forward. 

"Uh, can you pull them off to the side?" Neve asked. "I want to look through that thing's body."  1

"Why?" Erin asked. 

[... Remember, be more open about this sort of thing,] Neve told herself. 

"A lot of the time, monsters will have items in their bodies that can be collected after they die. Swords, potions, all sorts of stuff. The System puts them there." 

"That... sounds odd. But, sure. I will do as you ask, then." 

Grateful, Neve watched on as Erin did as she asked, dragging the enemies with her off to the left. This left Neve alone and able to inspect the salamander's body. 

Seeing the loot made Neve's shoulders drop with disappointment. 

{Moonstone Longsword - Req: Any Warrior-type Class - Uncommon - 250 WST} 

{Potion of Minor Healing}

{(3) Leather (Smithing Material) - Common - 25 WST}

[I can just sell all of this, but... Come on.] 

A question came to Neve's mind, as the guttural moaning and groaning from the nearby zombies faded into the background. 

"Tamira."

"Yeeees?" The snake asked, appearing quickly in front of her. 

"If the enemies in the Main Dungeon are scaled to my level, shouldn't the loot be 'scaled' to me too? You'd mentioned that before." 

"Hm," Tamira considered this for a moment. "I suppose I understand what you mean but, if every item you found was useful and helpful to your class, that would be unfair for the other players remaining, would it not?" 

"Sure, but it would be less unfair than putting me up against enemies specifically designed to be as strong as I am and then having them all drop loot I can't use, right? What's even the point of fighting anything then? You want to be entertained," Neve argued, "you want to watch me fight for my life, get hurt, and barely make it through before doing it all over again. But, with the loot system being the way that it is, I think I might just avoid fighting entirely. Is that going to be entertaining for your superiors?" 

Tamira's snake-like mouth produced a very human smile then, as she considered those questions. 

"Admittedly, this is my first time having humans negotiate the terms of the Final Challenge with me. I am rather surprised at your audacity. Very well, I will consult my superiors over this matter. Give me some time." 

With that being said, she disappeared. Neve took the potions, sold the weapon, and looked over to her left where she found Erin all but dancing with the zombies, running around in circles with them. 

[Hopefully, Tamira's superiors agree with me on this. Anyway, time to get started on that guide, I guess.] 

She took one step forward, though, and stopped. 

One of Tamira's words popped back into her mind and Neve stopped to consider it. 

[... She said "humans". Plural. Is someone else talking to her like I am?] Shaking her head, she quickly pushed the thought aside. [Well, yeah. Of course. She's everyone's assistant, not just mine. But, it does mean the people that are left are kind of resourceful, I guess. Actually, how many of them are left?] 

Going into the HUD, Neve checked the current player count for the Final Challenge. 

Player Count: 7/100

She blinked. This number, of course, included herself, meaning that there were 6 players other than her remaining. 

[And, I don't even know if Thomas is one of them, really. Okay. I need to work fast. It's looking like these people might actually end up dying before I can get my hands on them. What a waste that would be.] 

pqdm.com