104: Blood in the Water, Part Nineteen

Blood in the Water, Part Nineteen

"Ugh..."

She wasn't that surprised, really. Neve's reaction was mostly one of annoyance. 

[Realistically, it was probably going to happen sooner or later but... FUCK! This could be painful.] 

Neve and Erin stared down at the dark, green pool. Dense and foggy, the body of water waited for them to take the next step and dive into its depths. 

Underwater segments, usually celebrated in games, were probably a death sentence when applied to real life. 

[If I get attacked by any enemies while underwater, I'm probably screwed. If I take one wrong turn and run out of air, I'm definitely screwed. Yeah... not a very good situation. But,] she reminded herself, [if Thomas and his group got through this, that means one of two things, I think. Either, this segment isn't that tough, or there's another way through this.] 

As she was contemplating the matter, Erin spoke up. She had an idea. 

"Allow me to head in first," she said. "Could be a trap, right?" 

"Yeah. Do, you uh..." Neve scratched the back of her head. "Do you want me to just wait or resummon you after some time?" 

Erin blinked. 

"Well, I don't think drowning would be too enjoyable so, please, do resummon me, if you'd be so kind." 

"Right, right. Uh, how long can you hold your breath for?" 

Hearing that, Erin took a second, leaning over the water, and then said: 

"About 10 minutes. Not particularly impressive, I know, but that should be enough to see what's down there, I hope." 

["Not particularly impressive"???]

"Uh... A-Alright, I'll just resummon you, then." 

"Very well... Wish me luck," Erin muttered before slithering away and entering the water. Neve watched her go until her head descended past the surface and she couldn't be seen anymore. 

Looking up at the timer on her HUD, she made a note of the hour and leaned against the wall, closing her eyes. 

[... If there is another way through this, where would it be? Maybe there's something up at the top that we missed? Another illusory wall around here? Hm...] 

Quickly, she went to the guide she'd been writing and jotted some of these thoughts down. 

[The Third Floor's been a little more complicated than the second, but mostly what worries me is all of the different mechanics it's introduced. Trials, illusory walls, environmental hazards. All of which could end up being way more complicated in the next-] 

A message popped up. 

{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: 82088

"Hm. You again," Neve muttered. 

Letting go of her staff and sword for a bit, Neve sat on the cold ground, looking up at this prompt with curiosity. 

After staring at it for a while, she went and checked her donation history. 

[Same pattern as before. So... The message here is in the numbers. But what do these numbers mean, then?] 

"8, 5, 12, 12, 15," Neve said under her breath. "8, 5, 12, 12, 15..." 

[Wait a second,] Neve thought, tilting her head. [I've seen this sort of shit on Tweeter. Is this... Are these letters?] 

Glancing back up at her HUD, a couple of minutes had passed. Because she had some time on her hands, she decided to entertain this notion of hers. 

[8, 5, 12, 12, 15... A, B, C... H?] She wrote down on the same notepad where she'd been writing her guide. [H, E, L, L, O. Wait, holy shit,] Neve blinked. [It is letters!] 

Neve stared at her donation history, then. All of the donations this person had been making to her. 

[... The first donation was just 1 token. I'm guessing they were trying to figure out whether they could even send me stuff, and then once they learned that they could, they started sending me this. But...] 

Although Neve had finally figured out what the numbers meant, there was one question that still remained. One she still could not find an answer to. 

[Why me? I mean, did this person try with a bunch of other players, and I'm just the next person on the list after they didn't get a response from anyone else? But, how much money would you be throwing away donating to dead players, then? I dunno...] 

However, now that she knew what the contents of these donations were, she figured she could at least respond. 

So, following the same guidelines this Charlotte person had laid out, Neve sent back: 

"Um... 23, 8, 15, 18, 21. Yeah. I'll just go with that." 

Sending each individual donation cost 85 tokens. 

WST: 82003

For Neve, that wasn't a lot at all. For a non-player on the outside, that was quite a lot of money. 

[I'm guessing "Charlotte" isn't exactly low on cash if they can afford to send me all these donations. Well, whatever,] she thought, as she finished sending the money. [Just wait and see how they respond.] 

Laying her head back against the wall, Neve let the matter slip from her mind...

And everything else slipped from her mind as well, as the cold wall may as well have been a warm bed for Neve's tired body. 

At one point, she looked over at the water and thought: 

[Hm. Erin hasn't- WAIT, SHIT, ERIN!] 

Looking at her HUD confirmed it. 

15 minutes had passed since Erin had gone in. 

Neve quickly grabbed her staff and summoned the lamia by her side. The woman glared down at her. 

"You know, dearest summoner of mine," she said, "sometimes, I get the sense that you want me to dislike you."  2

"I-I didn't mean to- I mean, I forgot, cause-" 

"It's fine," Erin waved a hand through the air. "Let's just... move on. It's fine." 

Her tone let Neve know that, no, things weren't fine, but Erin slithered over to the water before she could formulate a good apology. 

"There are two paths you could take," she let Neve know. "One is short and leads to another building just like this one. I didn't find any enemies on the way there. The other had a few eels swimming around and extended for far longer. I swam right past them all, trying to figure out the way through. That's where most of my time went. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that there was no exit," she stated as she looked back at Neve. "But, I saw another one of those chests." 

Neve's eyes widened. 

"A golden one?" 

"No," Erin quickly replied. "It was purple. Located at the bottom of the pool, between three of those eels. Getting to it from here would take maybe... 2 minutes? Maybe a minute and a half, now that I know where to go." 

It was tempting. Very tempting. Sure, it wasn't a Legendary item, but even a Rare one would probably be worth investigating. 

[2 minutes, though... Can I hold my breath for that long? Oh, and there would be some time spent swimming back here, or out the other exit. Would it work out?] 

Knowing where Neve's thoughts were going, Erin asked: 

"How long can *you* hold your breath?" 

"Um, I haven't tried in a while. Maybe like a minute and a half or something?"

"Hmm. If you get on my back, and I use my movement ability, I can take you to that chest in that amount of time. With these new claws," she said, lifting up her weapons to show them off, "I could probably put up a decent fight against anything that attacks us. You, however, I think would probably be useless in this endeavor. You'd have to trust me, is what I'm trying to convey. Trust me with your life. Are you willing to do that?" 

Neve looked away. 

"I've done it plenty of times already, haven't I?" She asked, before meeting Erin's eyes again. "Sure. I can do that." 

"Hmph," Erin turned away, hiding a smirk. "Just be glad I'm not the vengeful type. Like you are. You quite literally allowed me to drown just now, after all." 

"I-I didn't mean to do that, it's just-" 

"I'm sure something came up. It's fine," Erin waved her off again. "There is still quite a lot we do not know of each other,  but I know that, at the very least, you are not a sadist... Well, that much of a sadist, anyway." 

"Hey, wait," Neve said, taking her hand. Doing so forced the woman to turn her way again. Her smile was gone as she looked down into Neve's eyes, her red irises meeting Neve's sapphire ones. "No, seriously. I'm sorry. I won't let it happen again." 

After a long sigh, Erin smiled back at her. 

"Don't they teach you humans not to make promises you can't keep? Well, whatever. I accept your apology, my dearest summoner. Now, come on," she turned around. "Get on. And, please, hold on tight." 

"..." 

"..."

"Pfft."

"Hm? Why are you laughing?" Erin asked, looking over her shoulder. 

"Uh, nothing, it's just- 'hold on tight, spi-' it's a refer- nothing, nothing," she said, containing her giggles.

"The damage these voices in your head have done to your psyche is quite frightening, my dear. Let's just get on with it, please." 

"Right. Let's go." 

As Neve inhaled sharply, putting away her weapons so that she could hold onto the lamia, Erin moved forward and took the cold plunge. 

Her body became covered in a red aura. 

[She's using {The Lamia's Hunt}. That's not a Technique, it's a Spell. So, she should be able to cast it twice in a row.] 

Their surroundings were a blurry mess to Neve's eyes, but maybe not to Erin, as she swam in a straight line as though she could see everything clearly. 

Neve's arms remained locked around the woman's hard abdomen. She hadn't actually gotten to touch them like this up until now. 

[... Is she made of stone or something? Holy shit.] 

Things turned pitch black for a few seconds before, finally, they came out to a far less foggy portion of the underwater segment. 

What Neve saw was rather curious. It seemed that this part of the city had also been closed off from the ocean like the rest of them had been, but over time, through battle, this part had been ruined. 

There were spears stuck in the glass walls, holes with fish swimming in and out carelessly, massive structures that had fallen and embedded themselves in the ground, and other such sights that told a tale of a place that had been, probably, overrun by monsters. 

Monsters like the three eels Neve saw in the direction Erin took her. 

Using {The Lamia's Hunt} again, Erin swam right past them. They were fast, but thanks to this spell, they were not quite as fast as she was, even with Neve on her back. 

[If we actually do get into a fight here, it would-] 

With that one thought, she jinxed it. 

They arrived at the spot Erin had told her about. 

Neve saw the chest below, glowing a bright shade of purple. 

And, above it, she saw something else. 

There was a creature that, strangely enough, looked a lot like Tamira, but if she had three heads and didn't smile as often. 

A green, massive snake. As large as the pillars around it that held up the ceiling. 

Level 56

MP: 300/300

[Ah...] Neve realized. [An underwater miniboss. Nice. Great. Wonderful.] 

She leaned over and looked at Erin's face. The surprise on her expression let her know, this thing had probably not been here when she first came to inspect the area. 

But Erin looked absolutely delighted to see that it was here, now. 

She looked back at Neve and it wasn't too hard to guess what she was asking. 

[Do we fight, or do we go?] Neve asked herself.

She considered the matter for a second, trying to get a feel for how much longer she could hold her breath for, and finally nodded. 

[Just try to make it quick, please.]

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