85: Progress

Progress

{Charlotte}

"W-What is that!?" A Paladin-class player asked, standing ahead of the party. 

A single, giant lizard of some sort, with spikes running down the length of its back and a sinister grin on its face, slowly approached them. 

Level 7

MP: 20/20

"That thing looks dangerous for just a level 7 enemy..." A Thief-class girl added, holding her dagger in front of her with trembling hands. 

"Don't sweat it," Charlotte told the others. "It just looks scary. Treat it the same as you'd treat any other monsters here." 

"Um, right, you're right," the Paladin nodded, stepping forward. 

For some reason, Charlotte couldn't quite feel the same tension as the others. It wasn't like she was some experienced huntress or anything, but the time she'd spent out in the streets, watching monster outbreaks happen right in front of her, made all of this... bearable. Routine, at the very least. 

The only difference was that, now, she was actively pulling some arrows back and launching them at her enemies, whereas before she'd only stood back and watched. Throwing herself in front of danger like this, however, was nothing new to her. 

The lizard reached the Paladin and attempted to bite down on his neck. The warrior raised his shield and managed to protect himself, while Charlotte calmly nocked another arrow and let it fly. It soared through the air, embedded itself in the lizard's body, and caught its attention. The Paladin made sure to swing his sword at it a couple of times, though, keeping its eyes fixed on him. 

The Thief then finally stopped quivering and used one of her skills, Charlotte didn't know which one, to sneak up behind the lizard and bring her knife down on it. 

The monster screeched in pain. The Paladin bashed its head with his shield, then, stunning the creature, before Charlotte promptly delivered the final blow, landing a headshot. 

EXP Gained: 5

EXP: 15/70

WS Tokens Gained: 25

WS Tokens: 1125

[Hm. Not terrible.] 

Ever since deciding to begin taking on dungeons, Charlotte had made quite a bit of progress. Not just in terms of leveling up individually, but, more importantly, in terms of gaining World Shop Tokens. 

Level 7

MP: 10/10

EXP: 15/70

Activity Points: 1000

WS Tokens: 1125

---

Attributes:

Endurance: 1

Speed: 10

Precision: 9

Strength: 5

Arcane: 1

"W-We did it!" The Thief exclaimed as she stared at the dead lizard's body. She was still in a fighting pose, as though her words hadn't quite reached her head. 

"That wasn't so bad!" The Paladin replied and the two of them shared a bit of a "we just survived mortal peril" hug. All while Charlotte made sure that the camera on her chest was catching all of this. 

Not because she planned to do anything special with the footage, but rather, because this camera on her person was effectively a shield. 

Player-killing had become even more common recently, with more people making the unfortunate realization that killing other players yielded far more EXP than hunting down monsters ever could, due to the {Player Kill Bonus}. And, in this world, being of a high level was quite important for active players. More important than Charlotte had realized. Guild offers, job offers, respect out on the streets, fear from those below you. So many things revolved around that number over people's heads now. 

And, well, what better place to kill players in than a dungeon filled with monsters where one could pass off another's death as a simple, tragic accident? It was for that reason that most murders these days happened within these death traps. Avoiding accountability for killing others had never been quite so easy. 

"By the way," the Paladin called out to Charlotte as she stared at her status. "You're a damn good shot!" 

"Heh, not at all,  mon amour.  You did a wonderful job of keeping the lizard in place. I owe you some gratitude." 

The man blushed a bit. The Thief walked up to her as well. 

"Um, hey," she said, and Charlotte looked down at her. The girl was quite short, a young, cute player with messy, black hair and freckles. "Thanks again for joining our party. Sucks that our usual DPS couldn't make it. But, you've been huge in these fights. We're so happy to have you!" 

"The pleasure is all mine." Charlotte smiled back at her, politely. 

They stood there for a bit, just staring at each other. No one moved until the Paladin gestured at the hall where the lizard had come from. 

"We should probably keep going, huh?" 

"Yep," Charlotte replied with a pop. 

Again, silence. Charlotte didn't move a muscle.

"... You're not going to-"

Charlotte cut the Paladin off before he finished that statement. 

"You would have your archer lead the way?" Charlotte asked with a raised brow. "Would that truly be optimal?" 

"I-I guess not," the Paladin said with a chuckle. The Thief failed to produce the same light-heartedness, instead giving Charlotte a stare that felt somewhat hostile, all of a sudden. 

"By all means then," Charlotte said, keeping that smile on her face. "Lead the way." 

---

{Neve}

"Well then," Erin said, as Neve took stock of everything in her Inventory. "I take it we've just about had our fill with this place? Is it time to enter the next torture chamber already?" 

Since defeating the boss, Neve had felt compelled to go looking for anything she may have missed. Again. In doing so, she didn't find much, but... in reality, she hadn't expected to. 

Mostly, she just wanted to walk around a little and get her thoughts in order. What she'd seen had affected her somewhat, strangely. Though, she could not quite say how, or why. 

"Yeah, I think I'm done here," Neve said, standing in front of the portal leading to the Third Floor. 

"Oh, wonderful. I am, in fact, quite eager to find out what sort of terrible fates await me. I can hardly contain myself." 

"You've really kicked the sarcasm up a notch, haven't you?" 

"And here I thought you were enjoying my newfound snark. Was I wrong, dearest summoner of mine?" 

"No, no... It's fine." 

"I do so appreciate having your approval."  1

Perhaps she was wrong, but Neve certainly had felt like Erin had become just a little less cold toward her. Though, she was still being put in horrible situations often, but, maybe she'd gotten used to it... as awful as that sounded. 

[Actually... Now that I think about it, have...?] 

Out of curiosity, Neve went into Erin's summon settings. From the lamia's perspective, it must have looked like she was trying to draw in the air with her right hand, but maybe she'd gotten used to it at this point since she barely gave a reaction. 

Looking through Erin's personality options, which Neve had left unaltered, of course, she found:

Happy/Sad: 54

Patient/Temperamental: 31

Romantic/Cold: 51

And many, many other settings that felt odd. 

[... Did these settings move? I feel like some of them weren't like this before.] 

"Well?" Erin said as Neve looked away from her follower menu. "Are you have second thoughts?" 

"Um, no. I was just checking something." An idea came to Neve's mind, then. "So, uh... Erin," she said, with those stats still in front of her, "you're really starting to like me, huh?" Even to her own ears, that question sounded shaky at best. 

But, it had the desired effect. 

"Hmph. You wish." 

As she gave that response, Neve looked back at the settings. 

Romantic/Cold: 50

[It changed!]

"Anyway, are you truly content to just stand here all day? If we're going to sit around, we may as well head back to the camp and do so there." 

Closing the menu, Neve gestured at the portal. 

"No, no. I'm done. Let's see what's on the other side." 

"Indeed." 

Side by side, the two of them walked through the green portal. 

As they emerged at the other side, Neve found a place that was quite a bit different from that desert. 

She and Erin ended up on a white bridge leading to a massive, domed city. Turning around, Neve saw nothing but water all around this place. 

[Are we in the middle of an ocean?] 

"Uhm... This certainly is quite the change in scenery," Erin muttered as she too scanned their surroundings. 

Remembering that there was, of course, the possibility of monsters coming in and killing them right this moment, Neve opened up her map, quickly finding that they were currently standing in a safe zone. 

[Oh, thank God.] 

"Neve," Tamira suddenly spoke up in her thoughts. "Would you like me to bring Ahlakan?" 

[Yeah, get her over here.] 

Almost instantly, Ahlakan, along with everything Neve had bought for the camp, had been teleported to her position. It was all neatly arranged as well like Tamira had secretly paused time to organize everything just before Neve noticed the arrival of each item. 

Ahlakan, who had been painting something, looked around, shocked. 

"Wh- what!?" She did a double-take. "What happened?" 

Erin snuck a glance Neve's way as she saw Ahlakan's reaction. The healer just shrugged. 

"Hey," she called out to Ahlakan. 

"Neve?" 

"Yeah, uh, don't worry, everything's okay. I brought you here." 

[Anyway... Third Floor,] she thought, turning back around and looking at the water surrounding them. [Hopefully, everything will stay as simple as it was on the Second.] 

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