126: Obstacles, Part One

Obstacles, Part One

{Neve}

Cold air and a lime-green sun welcomed Neve and her summon into the fifth floor. 

The skyscrapers around her carried windows made of stained glass. Neve almost felt like she was walking through a church. Her footsteps echoed throughout the empty, lonely streets. The green fog that had prevented them from being able to inspect the floor from the comfort of the safe zone had only cleared up enough for them to see a few meters ahead and behind them. Nothing more. 

"Oh, that bad feeling I had earlier is even stronger now," Erin remarked as she slithered next to Neve. "I feel the same way I did when we entered that crypt a while back." 

Neve did not respond. Instead, she kept her eyes glued to her mini-map, where the boss marker remained glued to the northern edge.

[Hopefully, there are no surprises this time. After what happened with Lia, I'm definitely gonna start being a lot less trusting of NPCs.] 

"Hold on," Erin said, holding a claw-bearing hand up. She wanted to keep using her draconic weapons until she felt she needed Lia's daggers. "I think something may be up ahead." 

Neve couldn't see anything, but she had learned to trust the lamia's instincts. 

With her sword by her side and her staff ready, she followed behind Erin as the summon moved to check whether their path was truly clear or not. All the while, Neve kept looking around, making sure they wouldn't get jumped. 

Her efforts were in vain, though, as the enemies they encountered here were not the type they could spot from far away. 

Instead, they only materialized as soon as they were right next to their targets. 

A person appeared suddenly, to Neve's right. 

"Uwah!?" Neve yelped, pulling back with some surprise. 

Erin heard her and instantly turned to try to keep her host safe, but was cut off by an enemy that appeared behind her. 

As Neve made eye contact with her attacker, she came to understand what would likely be the theme of this floor. 

Ghosts. 

Level 61

MP: 50/150

A spectral being manifested before her. Its features were unrecognizable, save for the fact that Neve could just barely make out the form of a sword in its right hand, though it almost looked like a spear wrapped in wind. A low moan reached Neve's ears as the figure pulled that spear back. 

If this was 10-year-old Neve seeing a ghost appear in front of her like this, she would have screamed and she would have shit herself. 

Right now, though, that information didn't frighten her at all. If anything, she felt relieved. 

And, why wouldn't she feel that way? 

After all, ghosts and undead were a priestess-class player's favorite enemy. 

Neve pulled back. The ghost swung its whistling spear in her direction, striking nothing but air. Neve cast {Holy Beckons} beneath the ghost's feet.

MP: 1050/1100

A white rune appeared. 

The ghost combusted. White, holy flames surrounded it in an instant. 

The low moan turned into feral shrieking as the ghost was disintegrated in an instant. 

Erin didn't see any of this, as she was busy taking on her own opponent and was having far less success than Neve was. 

As she saw Neve get closer, she raised a hand. 

"W-Wait," the lamia called out, sounding rather concerned. "My attacks are not landing! I think this enemy may be invulnerable to-" 

Neve cast {Holy Beckons} again. 

A white rune appeared under this ghost just as it had with the last one. It looked down, perhaps wondering what manner of spell had just been cast, and that rune was the last thing it saw before divine flames burned it too to a crisp. 

EXP Gained: 100

EXP: 230/620

WST Gained: 200

WST: 23400

[Hm. Leaving my donations open is getting me a ton of WST. I might miss a message or two from Charlotte, but... I think it's smarter to just leave them like this.] 

Erin looked down at the burnt specter and then back up at Neve. 

"Well... That was quite anti-climactic. Well done, Neve." 

Neve didn't bother waiting until Erin's timer ran out and instead just re-summoned her immediately. 

It didn't seem like there were any other ghosts around, though, if they were all just going to pop up right next to them like these two had, then they'd still have to keep their guard up despite how easy it was to take them down. 

Neve went to loot the fallen foes and found two sets of: 

Ectoplasm

{Uncommon}

{Alchemy Ingredient}

{Val: 50 WST} 

[... Why does every alchemy ingredient need to smell so fucking bad?] 

Setting that aside, she put the ingredients in her inventory and quickly walked away. 

"Come on," she told her summon. "Let's-"

"Let's keep moving, yes, yes, I know," Erin waved a hand in the air dismissively, joining her. "You're a broken record at this point." 

"I just want to keep a good pace, is all," Neve stated. "We only have a week to make it through this floor and the next." 

"Well, if all of our enemies are to be the same type as the last ones we just encountered, then this 'floor' as you call it should be fairly easy, no?" 

"Unless you just jinxed it." 

"Oh, come on. It's not like if I say 'this will be the easiest floor yet' my words will magically make that incorrect." 

"Are you trying to tempt fate right now?" 

"Whatever could you mean? Neve, my dear, I didn't take you for the superstitious type. Surely if I say 'we're only going to run into more ghosts like these and everything will be fine' it will all still turn out just as quaint, no?" 

"Ugh, I hate you." 

"Hehehe, fine, fine. I'll stop." 

---

Thankfully, Erin's ability to set up flags appeared to be lagging a few steps behind her skill with her claws, as they truly had only encountered ghosts as they moved through this haunted city.  1

And, {Holy Beckons} made short work of them all. 

That was the thing about specialized spells like that. {Holy Beckons} quite literally did not do any damage against enemies who were not undead, but against undead, it was an absolutely broken ability. 

In the past twenty minutes, Neve had gained more ectoplasm than she could ever have asked for and had gone up a level. 

Level 63

MP: 1100/1100 (+300)

EXP: 300/630

AP: 3690

IP: 30

WST: 24200

---

Endurance: 40

Speed: 39

Precision: 30

Strength: 5

Arcane: 80

This rate at which she was leveling up presented its own problem, however. 

If Neve wasn't careful, she would end up with the same problem that she did before, being too strong for her summon to do anything. 

She hated the idea of taking a break, of halting her progress yet again, but there were only two options here. 

Sell more levels, or have Erin catch up. 

At first glance, one could argue that selling her levels was clearly the right move, but there was one small issue with that. 

Back on the 3rd Floor, when Neve had done so before, Tamira had suggested that she take her level all the way down to 40. 

Why? Well, the answer was probably that it would get her level closer to Thomas's. Which, given that he had just made it to the 8th Floor, brought forth the question. What level was Thomas at now? 

There was no risk of Neve running into Thomas under-leveled right now, but what if, in the future, she sold too many levels? 

The safer bet would simply be to make Erin stronger instead. 

And, just as she was having that though, Neve received a way in which she could do that. 

"Hold on," Erin said, putting a hand up as she had before. "I suspect that this might be a trap," she said, staring at a grey plate up ahead that may as well have been carrying a sign that said: "DO NOT STEP ON THIS" along with an emoji with crossed-out eyes next to it. 

Giving Neve a look, Erin volunteered to slither over it. 

There was no real need to, but Neve did not argue the matter. Instead, she nodded and took a step back. 

Erin did so. 

A white beam fell from the sky, burning her.

Erin fell to the side, her skin charred and the smell of fried fish reached Neve's nostrils. 

Fortunately, however, she was not dead. 

Almost dead, sure.

99% dead, one could say.

Virtually dead, if you will.

If a player came across her right now in a dungeon, they'd go "yep, nothing to see here, she's dead" and they'd just leave her there.

But, she was not actually dead just yet. 

So, Neve healed Erin up. Thanks to the Angel Set, which still had a hole in the chest where the lamia had punched through it, Erin was fully healed quickly. She slithered off the trap and the grey platform lifted, opening itself up to any other potential fools. 

"... That was unpleasant," Erin stated. "We confirmed, however, that this is in fact a trap, though. Great. So, shall we..." 

She trailed off, as she found Neve staring at the platform and then back at her. 

"No," Erin said before Neve could speak a word. "Look, I am rather used to terrible things happening to me at this point, but this was a different kind of awful. I felt like I had just gotten smote by a deity! I will not-" 

Neve wordlessly took her Angel Set off, storing it in her Inventory. 

"..." Erin stopped. She watched Neve, as the woman put her underwear in the Inventory as well, along with Sayran's Holy Blade, and then pulled out one Minor Healing Potion. 

Standing naked before Erin, she handed the item over. 

"If I'm not able to heal myself, just help me drink this," she ordered.

Then, she stepped forward, walking into the trap herself. 

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