80: The Land of the Dead, Part Seven

The Land of the Dead, Part Seven

As the wind brushed the sand both of them stood on, the man finally put his gun away properly. Upon seeing that, Neve looked around to make sure no enemies would interrupt this talk. 

"... I don't know why the fuck you're here, but you're better off going back the way you came. If the monster you're looking for is the one I'm thinking of, you've got no chance."

His words carried a strong sense of resentment. The man's eyes turned a dark shade of red as they met Neve's. The healer nodded. 

"What was your name again?" 

"Alexander." 

"Ah, okay. I'm Neve," the healer introduced herself. "That monster you mentioned earlier, what kind of monster is it?" 

"The only kind I've never killed," he replied bitterly. "My people called it a 'canvar'. Desert worm." 

He hadn't said much, and yet Neve already gleaned a couple of things from this. First, the man had clearly been roaming this desert for a long time, judging by the fact that there was just one type of monster he hadn't bested. Second...

[His people 'called' it a canvar. Past tense. And... judging by the fact that he's never beaten one, that probably means...] 

"Are your people still around?" 

"The fuck do you think?" He asked as soon as the question had left Neve's mouth. "No. No, they aren't. I'm the last one." 

[... Okay, my bad, then.] 

"U-Uh, about this canvar, what is it like?" 

[It's probably best to steer the conversation away from the Unity Trials right now. He doesn't exactly trust me right now.] 

Alexander's eyes changed back to a dim shade of yellow. Some of the tension in the man's shoulders was released and the fell a little. 

[I guess some forms of body language are universal.] 

"A massive creature. About twice the size of this salamander," he pointed at the monster's corpse. "Its size isn't the main problem. No, the real issue is how it sinks into the ground, avoiding any and all attacks, until it pops back out and devours anyone stupid enough to want to fight it." 

Neve opened her mouth as though to say something, but she refrained from doing so. Alexander wouldn't understand. 

The realization she just had was that this monster sounded very much like one that she'd fought in the Hall of the Luminous. She hadn't forgotten it. How could she? It was one of the most terrifying creatures in that damned gauntlet. 

"Um... Does this thing have a tendency of wearing its victims' faces?" Neve asked. 

"Huh? No," Alexander replied. "Is that supposed to be some sort of joke?" 

"Nope. Never mind, though. I mistook your monster for something else."

[Thank God, it shouldn't be the same monster then. Though, it does sound like the two of these creatures fight the same way.] 

"Hmph. Anyway," he continued, "that worm's fast. Much faster than it has any right to be, given its size. Its body's strong too. I fought it a couple of times and barely managed to hurt it. That's how I got these," he said, pointing at the parts of his body where his outer layer had been broken off. "I'm lucky I made it out at all, though. Could have gone a lot worse." 

"Hm. I get it," Neve replied as she considered what he said. The man's eyes lingered on her, becoming a light yellow-green now. 

"I don't know what forces brought you here, but you should probably just fuck off," he told her, with some of that distrust forming a thick coat over his words. "There's nothing for you. No one to save, if you're some sort of altruist. Nothing to gain, if you're looking for treasures. Nothing but fighting and dying." 

"Looks like you've been doing a lot of one of those," Neve said and the man scoffed. 

"... Longer than anyone else, yeah."

"Hm... But, look," Neve said, as she figured that, maybe, they could finally breach the topic. "I'm not with the 'gods' or whatever. They brought me here against my will because my people are going through the Unity Trials right now. Did yours?" 

"Didn't my reaction give you enough of an answer?" 

"In one way, I guess. I would like to know more, though." 

[Some outright confirmation, please.] 

"Fine. But, come with me. I don't want to talk about this shit in the middle of nowhere."

"Lead the way." 

The two of them walked north, then. Past a few hills where strange objects and monstrous corpses were sticking out of the sand, nearly buried, they ended up at a small cabin of sorts. It was made of stone, the first sign of construction that Neve had seen thus far in this place. 

And, right then and there, as the two of them walked in and sat down on a brown couch, she received that confirmation. 

"Five years ago, my people lived in peace," Alexander began to tell her. "Relative peace, anyway. And, suddenly some weird messages popped up, saying that we all needed to 'choose our paths'. Before anyone could understand what was going on, monsters that didn't belong to our world began to appear." 

[... Well, there's my confirmation,] Neve thought. [This place, this floor... It's one of the worlds where the Unity Trials have taken place.] 

"So, we started fighting," Alexander continued. "And fighting, and fighting, and fighting... For five years. Until there were none of us left to fight anymore. None but I."

It seemed like the brooding man was insistent on glossing over that five-year period. Neve decided she could allow it. She didn't need every single detail. She was only curious about a couple. 

"What happened to everyone else?"

"A lot of things..." He answered quickly. "The monsters were too tough. Our land became too dangerous. Our people... were too weak." 

It didn't sound like he was lying, and yet Neve couldn't quite believe that was all. Specifically because, if the Unity Trials functioned the same way for this guy's people as they had for hers, then things should have been scaled in such a way that his kind could grow in power at the same rate as the monsters. 

Not to say that life under the Unity Trials wasn't dangerous or anything. Obviously, many died every day. However, to get wiped out in just five years... something else had to have happened. 

"You don't remember anything, ehm, weird? Or, anything special?" Neve asked, before changing her question. "What do you mean people were 'too weak'?" 

The man's eyes, suddenly, turned a dark shade of blue. Up until now, his eyes had mostly been some shade of yellow. Briefly, they'd turned red as well. But now, as he looked away, unable to meet Neve's own eyes, they'd turned blue. 

"... People made choices," he said. "Choices they didn't live long enough to regret. That's all. No sense in blaming them, however. It's the Gods' fault. It's all their fault." 

Neve couldn't say much in response to that. 

She turned away as well, thinking of what else she could ask about before she would go back to the safe zone. Alexander ended this conversation himself, though, when he asked:

"Do you actually intend on fighting the canvar?" 

"Yeah," Neve answered. "I have to." 

She placed some emphasis on "have", just to make it clear that coming here wasn't exactly her choice. 

"Hmm... Then, head over to the church to the east. I might have something that could help you a little with that." 

"Um, why don't we just-"

Before she could finish asking the question, the man faded away, much like Erin and the people of Rorvan had done before. 

"... Alright then. I guess this is a questline, huh? Fine. If it helps me beat that 'canvar' or whatever, I'll see it through." 

---

{Neve's Guide to the Final Challenge: The Second Floor}

The enemies around here are fairly unintelligent. 

I've been running around looking for things that want to kill me, just to know how many different kinds of threats there are. 

So far, I've found four different enemies. Zombies, salamanders, some weird plants, and sand slugs.  2

The zombies and the salamanders are straightforward. I've already covered them.

If you've read this far in the guide, and you go out and die to them, you deserve it, in my opinion. They're easy to beat.

The plants and the slugs are a little different, though. The plants have this...

Well, look, I'm no author, I don't know how to word this all flowery and shit. 

They have four big leaves and a big thing sticking out in the middle that's shaped like a pussy. Okay? That thing releases spores that will knock you out if you breathe too many of them in. I estimated that you can breathe in those spores for about 4 seconds before you're fucked. 

Once you're unconscious, the plant will move toward you (literally, it will sort of waddle over to you. I'm not lying, you'll understand when you see it), and it'll swallow you whole, into that pussy-looking thing. Once you're in there, it takes about 30 seconds to get digested, so if you see someone get swallowed up, that's how long you have before they're dead. 

The slugs are just big leeches. They travel in groups and if they find you, they'll jump on top of you and suck your blood until you die. Just one isn't a problem, but if a few of them latch onto you, you'll need help pulling them off. Fire gets them to let go instantly. If you have any Fire-based spells at all, they're not a threat unless they take you by surprise.

Then, there's the boss but we'll give that piece of shit its own separate page. 

All in all, when it comes to enemy variety, the Second Floor is as simple as you'd expect, given that it's the second level in a 10-level mega-dungeon. 

Don't let your guard down or you'll get swallowed and digested by a massive vagina.

I'm sure some of you sick fucks think that's not a bad way to go, but judging by her muffled screams when she woke up inside of it, I think my assistant would disagree. 

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