88: Blood in the Water, Part Three

Blood in the Water, Part Three

Now, with this decision being made, Neve had another important choice to make. 

[Where should I put all my points?] 

Her Arcane was obviously the main stat she'd be investing in, but this respec presented her with a sudden opportunity to distribute her points in a slightly more focused manner. Up until now, she'd mostly just placed all of her points wherever she felt she needed them at the time.

Just went through a fight where she barely survived a nasty blow? She would invest in Endurance. Had a fight where she had to whack something an ungodly amount of times in order to kill it? She'd increase her Strength. 

Now that she'd gone through all of those experiences, now that she'd been cut, broken down, and beaten up in all sorts of different ways, and now that she'd managed to defeat enemies in many different ways, Neve had a marginally better idea of what her journey would be like. 

This fact led her mind to focus on the following Attributes:

[I'll upgrade my Arcane, Endurance, Speed, Precision, and Strength, in that order,] she thought. [My main goal, most of the time, is just going to be to try not to get myself killed. Endurance and Speed are obviously, important when it comes to not dying in one hit. As far as my Precision goes, with a high Arcane, if I miss a spell, I can afford to just cast it again and again until I land it eventually. When it comes to Strength, well, I've already seen evidence that with a high enough Arcane, even my beginner-level spells start to do some damage. If I end up in a situation where I have to use my staff like a bat again, generally speaking, that means something went terribly wrong. Overall, I think Arcane, Endurance, and Speed are my most important attributes. I can get by with low Precision and Strength just fine.] 

Having decided that, she began to invest points slowly. Carefully, she made sure to consider every individual point she assigned, eventually ending up at this status: 

Level 50

MP: 1100/1100 (+300)

EXP: 0/500

AP: 3690

IP: 20

WS Tokens: 74405

---

Endurance: 40

Speed: 20

Precision: 10

Strength: 5

Arcane: 80

It was intensely depressing to see most of her stats reduced like this but Neve reminded herself that she was doing this for the purposes of what was, at the end of the day, the most logical assessment of her situation that she could make. 

[Alright,] she thought, [the main thing that I need to keep in mind from this point on is the fact that I reduced my overall mana too. I can use {Rorvan's Spirit} to help with that, but yeah. Also, with my Precision being this low, I need to try to make my shots count when I can. One bad miss could be the difference between life and death. It sucks that I had to cut that Attribute down as much as I did, but Endurance and Speed are just more important.] 

With this attribute management out of the way, Neve proceeded to investigate the second portion of her rewards. 

The new shop. 

As soon as she entered this hidden part of the World Shop, her jaw hit the floor. 

[These items... They're USEFUL!?] 

They were also, of course, incredibly expensive. 

Tears of the Goddess

{Legendary}

{Potion}

{Effect: After ingesting, the player will be resurrected once upon dying} 

{Val: 100000 WST}

---

Plate of Thorns

{Legendary}

{Armor}

{Req: Warrior Path}

{Effect: Reflects 50% of all magical damage received} 

{Val: 25000 WST}

---

Moonlight Blade

{Legendary}

{Greatsword}

{Req: Class: Battlemage}

{Effect: Deals 100% more damage during nighttime. Damage scales with Arcane.} 

{Val: 50000 WST}

Neve couldn't pry her eyes off the shop. She was almost salivating. 

[What would other people think if they saw this stuff? I feel like I'm cheating!]

As excited as she was, she did take a second to remind herself of something important. 

[Right, as cool as a lot of this stuff is it doesn't actually matter if I, or Erin, can't use any of it,] she reminded herself. 

With that in mind, she began to look through the shop again, this time mentally filtering out anything that she or her summon could not use, and anything that was just unreasonably expensive. 

[No, no, no...] 

As expected, Priestess-class options were scarce, but, eventually, she did find a few things that made her pause. 

Mainly, this:

Angel Set

{Legendary}

{Armor - 5 pieces - Robes, Hood, Gloves, Skirt, Shoes}

{Req: Class: Priest/Priestess}

{Effect: All healing and shielding, both received and cast unto others, is strengthened by 100%}

{Note: Effect is only granted when the full set is being worn}

{Val: 100000 WST}2

"..."

Neve's hands trembled. 

Her heart began to beat just a little bit faster. 

Her mouth was dry. 

Immediately, swallowing her excitement, she called out to her assistant. 

[Tamira.]

"Yes?" The snake asked. Despite the somewhat tense ending of their previous conversation, it seemed like she was the same as ever, as Neve felt that one word was coated in amusement. 

"These items... can they be found in the world?" Neve asked. "Is the World Shop the only way to get them?" 

"Nope," Tamira quickly answered. "Every item in the World Shop is available outside the World Shop in some form or fashion. Be it as a boss drop, as a craftable item, or as loot from random chests. Every. Single. One. Of course, there are countless dungeons, areas, chests, and monster types out there that one would have to sift through in order to get these things, so the World Shop is the most convenient way to acquire them. It is not, however, the *only* way to acquire them." 

Nodding to herself slowly, Neve closed the World Shop and took a long, hard look at her current WST total. 

WST: 74405

[Around 26 thousand more,] Neve thought. [If I can get my hands on all of that armor, one way or another...] 

It was difficult to see losing as a possibility if she had that full set on her. It was as if victory had taken the form of that armor and was now staring at her from behind that holographic screen. 

"So, faced with all of these options, what exactly will you do?" Tamira asked. "You could just buy what you can now and grind for the tokens later."

She was certainly tempted to do so, but there were two reasons she wanted to hold off on that.

One, this shop was huge, filled with so many options that it would take Neve hours of scrolling to find and analyze everything she could buy. This set was just the first thing she'd come across that really caught her eye.

And, second, she hadn't forgotten the adjustment The Forces That Be had made to the dungeon. 

[If 50% of all loot is going to be Priestess-specific going forward, then what if I buy this and then, later, I just end up finding it out in the world anyway? It would be a waste.] 

"But, are you going to look through every single container? Every single chest? Defeat every enemy you find? All just so that you can, maybe, find the same items out here?" 

[... I'll have to,] Neve answered. [Now that I know that this stuff is out there, I absolutely have to. I'll try to do it as fast as I can, though, but I'm going to have to sacrifice a small amount of time to look for this.] 

"Oh? And, why is that? How can you be so sure that Thomas and his group are not knocking on the doors of the 10th Floor's boss room as we speak?" 

Neve smirked then, looking up, as though she could see Tamira hovering over her.

[Because of you,] Neve answered. [You want to see that fight. Your superiors want to, as well. But, instead of pushing me to move faster, to make progress, here you are having fun toying with me. If Thomas was anywhere near the end of the Final Challenge, you would be pushing me through these floors yourself.] 

Tamira giggled. 

"Careful," she replied. "While it is certainly true that my superiors and I want to see this confrontation happen, at the end of the day, you are just humans to us. I am not *that* invested in this story of yours. I like you, but you shouldn't overestimate that aspect of our relationship." 

---

"The enemies will be weaker? How?" Erin asked as she and Neve moved through the same room where they'd fought those two fish-like creatures. 

"The power of the enemies around us is tied to my own," Neve answered as she came to a halt. She wanted to get this out of the way before they walked into the next room. There was no need to have their conversation interrupted by a fight. "I made myself weaker so that the monsters would be weaker too."

"You... truly?" Erin asked, pulling back. 

"Yeah," Neve responded, raising a brow. "Why do you sound kinda disappointed? Did you want to stab yourself again?" 

"I- no," Erin shook her head. "It is nothing. Just a childish thought." Looking down at her own hands, Erin sighed. 

"Hey," Neve said, taking a step toward her. "You wanted me to be more honest with you, right? It's not too much for me to expect the same from you, is it? Come on, what's on your mind?" 

Erin looked away. 

"I... As a summon, I am glad that I do not have to be maimed again for the sake of our goals. As a warrior, though, hearing that you gave up on making me stronger and instead made our foes weaker does hurt my pride a little." 

"Oh. Well, come on," Neve said, nodding toward the safe zone. "Let's go back. You can stab yourself as many times as you want." 

"N-Neve!"

"Hey, I'm not one to judge. If you want to get something out of your system, it's fine by me."

"I said it was just a childish thought! It is fine, let us just progress." 

Hiding a chuckle, Neve walked forward. 

She had noticed something in Erin's words that made her body warm up all of a sudden, though. 

["Our" goals, huh?] Neve thought, sneaking a glance at Erin. [Well, whatever. But, that last little back-and-forth just now... Come to think of it, when did I get so comfortable around her?] 

Pulling her mind back to the matter at hand, Neve pushed open the doors leading into the Third Floor's second room. Here, there were four enemies. 

Two warriors along with two enemies holding spears behind them, all of which were the same fish-like creatures they'd faced before. 

Level 50

MP: 150/150

Level 51

MP: 160/160

Level 50

MP: 150/150

Level 49

MP: 150/150

[Yeah, it's a good thing I lowered my level. We had so much trouble with just two of them before, that I don't think we would have been able to take down four of these fucking things.] 

"They're about as strong as you are now, Erin," Neve told her. "Treat it like a fight against an equal." 

Narrowing her eyes at her opponents, Erin nodded. 

"Understood." 

And, with that, Neve resumed her journey through the Third Floor. 

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