129: Obstacles, Part Four

Obstacles, Part Four

{Neve}

"..." Erin looked around with an unsatisfied expression. 

Another pack of enemies fell to {Holy Beckons} so easily that Erin didn't even need to lift her hands. 

After grabbing the ectoplasm they dropped, and resummoning the lamia, Neve took stock of her current EXP and moved on. 

EXP Gained: 100

EXP: 100/500

WST Gained: 200

WST: 37662

[Hm... These enemies are still giving me no trouble, but it's probably best if I still avoid them. Keep my level as low as I can.] 

"Well, with these enemies being this easy to dispatch, is there really even a need to keep me around?" 

"I thought you would have appreciated having a little break after everything I've made you do." 

"Rather than appreciate this, it all feels... I don't know. I dislike being this- I struggle to even find the right words for it- useless, maybe?" 

"But you're not, though," Neve mentioned in passing, continuing to cut a path through those ghostly streets, on the way to the boss marker. 

"How so?" 

"Your instincts are still way better than mine," Neve muttered. "Even if I can beat them easily, it's nice to have you point their presence out while they're still far. And..."

[Having you here takes my mind away from what I was thinking about earlier. So, yeah.] 

She wasn't going to mention that, though. 

"Hm. I guess I am glad to be reliable, even if it is as a glorified scout." 

As the boss marker drew closer, Neve found herself hoping it would be as simple as just walking in, triggering the fight, and moving on. No mysterious NPCs, no getting stabbed by some serial killer nun. If only she could be done with this floor that quickly. 

She guessed that wouldn't be the case. And, as she arrived at the marker, it was quickly confirmed that it wouldn't be. 

A message hovering in front of the boss room read: 

{Keys Required!} 

{0/4} 

[Great.] 

Like the 3rd Floor, the boss appeared to be tied to the Floor Quest. 

[Time to start-]

She received a message, then. 

Charlotte once again sent her a series of donations. These donations spelled out a word that, admittedly, Neve had been expecting to hear at some point. 

For the price of 105 WST, she wrote:

"Internet," Neve pieced together.

WST: 37767

"They want to know why we haven't bought Internet Service in here. Okay, how do I put this?" 

She wasn't about to mention the fact that she actually could have bought Internet Service if she wanted and simply hadn't chosen to do so, but she figured she could say...

"H...U...N..." 

Letter by letter, Neve typed out the message, "HUNDRED THOUSAND WST". 

Those two words, and the three letters at the end, cost 238 tokens to send. 

WST: 37529

For Neve, that wasn't a lot. For a regular player in Starlight City, that was multiple days of work's worth of tokens. 

It served as a decent reminder that, for the sake of Charlotte's wallet, they needed to be efficient. Neve wouldn't have been surprised to find out that these interruptions in Charlotte's messages were on account of them having to go out and find more money. 

She waited a bit. 

[... No response. Probably processing what I just said. Okay, back to this bullshit then.] 

Four keys. Presumably, all of which could be found in various areas throughout the fifth floor. Which, unfortunately, meant there was a high chance of getting into fights. 

Exactly what Neve didn't want to happen. 

[Ugh, no point in bitching about it, though. Let's just...] 

An idea came to her mind. 

So suddenly that Erin may as well have seen a lightbulb pop up over Neve's head just now. 

She stared at her own message. The one she'd just sent to Charlotte. 

"One hundred..." Neve trailed off. "Realistically, isn't this floor the best chance I'm going to get to farm for that amount?" 

"What are you talking about?" Erin asked. 

Remembering that she was there, Neve told her: 

"Uh, how I explain this? So, every time I kill a monster, I'm given a certain resource. You can't see it," she quickly added. "This resource is how I buy food, how I buy canvases for Ahlakan to paint on, you know? But, if I get enough of this resource, I can purchase a means to contact people from my world. To talk to them." 

"Truly? Could you ask for help? Reinforcements?" Erin asked. 

"No. They can't come here," Neve replied. "I'd only be able to talk to them." 

"Is that right? Then..." It didn't take long at all for Erin to piece together what Neve was getting at. What she could hope to do with this method of communication. "I take it your people don't know about what the group you are chasing has done?" 

"They don't." 

"Ah... It always comes back to that," Erin muttered. "So, if you collect enough of this resource, you could inform them? Then, if they make it out of this world before you're able to take them down, justice will still find them back at your home?" 

"Exactly." 

Erin blinked. 

"... Sounds good, I suppose. But, why do you look so unhappy?"  Neve pulled back, shocked that Erin was able to read her so well. Reading those thoughts too, Erin said, "Neve, dear, you wear your heart on your sleeve. It is not terribly difficult to tell how you're feeling. So, why does the thought of this outcome bother you?" 

Neve looked away. 

[Because...]  2

Again, Erin caught on fast. 

"Because you want to deliver justice to them personally. Is that it?" 

"... I should still do it, though," Neve said in a quiet tone, walking away from the boss marker. "I'd like to get my hands on them. But, if it doesn't happen... I guess it would be nice to be able to tell everyone what they did too." 

Erin sighed behind her. 

"Yet again, I find myself face-to-face with a surprisingly bloodthirsty side of you. Oh well." 

The healer offered no response to that. 

Her instincts told her that these keys would likely be found in the four corners of the map, as it was common sense in game development for objectives to be spread out. The player would then be forced to interact with the area the devs worked so hard to make instead of just blazing through the zone the way Neve herself had wanted to do. 

At the same time, she figured she'd get started on farming. 

Her approach changed. Instead of avoiding fights, now, she welcomed every single one she could find. 

Her position hadn't changed, though. She still wanted to be done with this floor within the next two days, but now, she was going to go through the effort of collecting as many tokens as she could before that happened. 

So, as she came upon her first group, she stopped. 

With a nod toward the approaching ghosts, Neve signaled for Erin to go on ahead and distract them.

She did just that. Her weapons couldn't affect the enemies, but that didn't matter as, for the first time, Neve would be doing most, if not all of the damage.

As the ghosts clumped up together up ahead, Neve wondered how long it had taken Thomas's group to move through this area. 

Priests and Priestesses, like alchemists and blacksmiths, were few and far between in the Unity Trials. If they didn't have one, then they must have spent a considerable amount of time stuck on this floor. 

[This floor might be part of why they haven't finished the entire thing yet. But, for me, well, let's be real, this is probably going to be the single easiest floor in the entire Final Challenge. Crazy.] 

A few casts of {Holy Beckons} ensued. The runes appeared beneath the ghosts and covered them in divine flames. They were burnt to crisps, Neve received her EXP and tokens, and they quickly went to move on. 

EXP Gained: 150

EXP: 250/500

WST Gained: 300

WST: 37829

Tamira's voice popped up. 

"Neve, well done! I see you're making good use of your Priestess spell... But," she said, sounding close to her, "doesn't this go against what you wanted? What if you over-level again?" 

[... I guess I'll have to keep selling you my levels.]

"I guess you could," Tamira replied. "But... What if Thomas catches up? Heck," suddenly, she sounded even closer, "what if I change my mind?" 

[That would be pretty catastrophic, yeah.] 

Neve couldn't hold that thought back. If Neve was to go back to being level 75, or if she reached level 80, and Tamira simply refused to buy her levels again, then... 

... Neve would basically have to give up on her plans. Going through one floor alone would probably take a whole month at that point, just from how strong each of the monsters would be. And, how complicated they're becoming. 

The 2nd Floor, where Neve had been extremely high-level, hadn't been too difficult on account of the fact that the enemies were completely braindead. The third, however, well... Neve only made it past a couple of fights before Tamira had to step in. 

Needless to say, she didn't want to risk that. 

But, she couldn't deny the opportunity in front of her either. 

[If that's what you decide, then I guess I'm just fucked. But, I have to do this. I'd be stupid to let this chance go to waste.] 

"Hehehe..." Tamira snickered in her ears. "Go on, then. Farm to your heart's content." 

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