93: Blood in the Water, Part Eight

Blood in the Water, Part Eight

"Agh!" 

Neve's feet hit the ledge and, desperately, she leaned forward, hugging the wall and hoping she wouldn't bounce off. 

Spreading her arms and holding the wall like a lover she'd just reunited with, Neve managed to keep herself from falling. 

[Okay... Okay. So far, so good. Just take it one step at a time, like you did with those platforms at Roha. It'll be fine.] 

A little uncomfortably, Neve turned around.

{Candlelight} allowed her to see the next two ledges she'd have to jump on, but nothing other than that. 

[... Erin had fallen for a pretty long time before she hit the ground. This is gonna take a while, isn't it? Ah, just thinking about it is making my hands shake. Just... Just don't look down! It'll be fine, just don't look down.] 

Of course, due to the vertical nature of this death trap she found herself in, she had no choice but to look down. 

In doing so, she fixed her eyes on the next ledge, swallowed, and prepared herself. 

Again, she jumped. 

"Uwah!" 

This time, as Neve fell onto the next ledge, her face hit the wall and Neve very nearly fell back. Hugging it, however, and keeping one foot slightly behind her body, allowed the healer to keep herself from descending through these floors much, much faster than she was intending to. 

[... This sucks.] 

Shifting on that tight space, she turned herself toward the next ledge and continued this process for two more platforms. 

She was making decent progress, all things considered. But, sure enough, things got slightly more difficult as she went on. 

[Oh... the gap got wider, didn't it?] 

Wiping sweat off her forehead, Neve tried as hard as she could to remain calm. 

[It'll be fine. It'll be fine. It will be... Fine!] 

She jumped once more. The leap felt eternal, with air cradling Neve all the way to the next platform...

... Unfortunately, halfway through, Neve could tell that she would end up just short of it, though. 

Neve managed to grab onto its edge with both hands. Her body swung from side to side a little as her fingers burned with strain, trying to hold onto this platform as best as she could. 

All of her thoughts seemed to leave as Neve hung from that position, her legs dangling in the air. 

Taking steady breaths, Neve eventually tried to pull herself up. Of course, remembering what happened at Roha Vala, she made sure not to let her boobs hit the edge. 

"Oh, fuck," she whispered as she rolled onto the ledge. It was only now that she noticed just how strongly her heart was pounding against her chest. 

That experience just now reminded her of something rather important. Not that she'd forgotten, but the message was reinforced just now. 

That being that gravity was, indeed, undefeated. Truly peerless under heaven, and that wasn't going to change no matter how high Neve's level ended up being. 

[I need to keep being careful.] 

Eventually, she picked herself up and looked toward the next platform. 

[... It's about the same distance, thankfully. Hold on, let me-] 

A message interrupted her thoughts. 

Not just one, actually, but a series of messages. 

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 8 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 5 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 12 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 12 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 15 WS Token}

{Daily Token Transfer Cap: 52/2500}

WST: 76047

Briefly, Neve was taken out of her present situation as she squinted at the messages. 

[You again,] she thought. [Seriously, who the fuck is Charlotte?] 

Given that Tamira did not say anything, the snake must have either considered this completely irrelevant and unworthy of an explanation, or it was the opposite and she wanted Neve to find out on her own. 

Right now, however, Neve was kind of in the middle of something. So, she tucked this into the back of her mind and went back to work. 

Another few leaps brought her closer to the chest below. 

By now, she could just barely make out the object's silhouette below her. 

[Come on... I'm so close!] 

Knowing this, Neve prepared herself and took yet another jump. 

The gap between the previous ledge and the next looked to be about the same as the last leap, so Neve hadn't really taken much time to calculate the jump. What she failed to predict was that as soon as her feet hit that ledge, the platform began to give out. 

"Huh!?" 

Neve felt it tremble. It was clear what was about to happen, but the question going through her mind right now was:

[Is it going to be a piece of the ledge that breaks or the entire thing!?] 

The safest bet led her to turn and look toward the next one, as the platform continued to shake under her feet. 

Instinctively, she jumped toward it. 

Overshooting a little, she nearly bounced off the wall and fell off, but instead, the only thing that ended up falling was the ledge she'd just been standing on, in its entirety. 

[Holy shit,] Neve breathed heavily as she watched it land on top of the chest, breaking into smaller bits and pieces around it. 

She could also hear some of those pieces falling into water as a splashing sound also reached her ears. 

"... You're almost done," she muttered to herself. "Just a few more to go."  1

With that being said, she turned toward the next platform. Her hands were so sweaty she worried she'd slip off as she tried to grab onto the next ledge. 

With nothing else she could do, however, she calmed herself down and jumped before she could argue the matter internally. 

As soon as she reached the next ledge, this one too began to break. 

"Crap!" 

Neve turned quickly, jumping onto the next. That one also began trembling, though, so she was forced to move once more. 

Desperately, Neve jumped from one crumbling ledge onto another until she was just two ledges short of the chest. 

The next one, however, broke too quickly, before Neve could jump away from it. 

"AGH!" She fell approximately two stories before hitting the ground, right next to the chest. 

The water, which just barely reached Neve's ears, did little to cushion her fall.

Landing on her side, Neve felt around half of the bones in her body break. Once again, as she'd experienced a couple of times now, the pain was so sharp that she opened her mouth to scream and cry but nothing came out. 

With her unbroken arm, she pulled her staff out and cast {Great Healing Dart} over herself 10 times, spending 100 mana to repair her body. 

[... You'd think I'd be used to pain by now, but holy fuck, everything still hurts so much.] 

Once she was able, she pushed herself up to her feet, her clothes dripping onto the small pool of dark water as {Candlelight} illuminated the treasure Neve had fallen for. 

Neve steadied herself. The golden chest sat right in front of her, begging her to lift its lid and see what was inside. 

[This better be fucking good. Even if it's something I can't use, just give me something I can lend to Erin, at least.] 

Stalling no longer, Neve opened the chest, prompting the Inventory to appear and show off what was inside. 

For the first time, then, Neve's eyes fell on an item trapped in a golden block, unlike any other she'd seen. 

[What is...?] 

As she tapped it, these words emerged. 

Sayran's Holy Blade

{Legendary}

{Class Req: Priest/Priestess}

{Stat Req: Healing Magic: 50}

{Val: 25000}

{A blade made of divine flame.} 

{Once, there was a prodigious healer who arrived at a small town and set up a clinic, looking after any and all who came to her for help. Indiscriminately, asking for no compensation or rewards of any kind, she tended to the wounds of all who came to her. Tales of this healer spread far and wide, and the mysterious woman known as Sayran came to be beloved by many. Not all were quite as enthused about her presence in that town, however.} 

{Royal soldiers soon found her and ordered the healer to leave the town so that her powers could be put to better use elsewhere. Sayran, however, declined this offer. The soldiers threatened that they'd rather take her life than see her talents be wasted like this or, at worst, see her eventually join the royal family's enemies. So, they gave her one day to make a choice.}

{Stay and die, or leave and work for the crown.} 

{That night, Sayran prayed, begging the gods of her world for help. And, the gods answered. She was granted a sword that would turn her faith into an edge that could cut down even the most powerful of warriors, and with it, she was able to defend herself.} 

Effects:

{This weapon has two forms. Unactivated and Activated. While it is Unactivated, it is only as useful as a regular, pitiful sword. This weapon only *activates* upon casting 10 Priestess-class spells. Once this quota is reached, the weapon reveals its true form. Upon activation, it will remain activated until the end of combat.}

{Note: This sword permanently becomes stronger as Priestess-class spells are used by its wielder.}

{Note: Deals 100% more damage to Impure-type enemies}

Neve stared at those words for a while, her lips parting on their own to say:

"Holy shit."

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