137: Preparing For The Sixth Floor

Preparing For The Sixth Floor

"Ah... Well, that does not sound good at all." Erin tapped a finger against her chin as she considered Neve's dilemma. 

In the background, Ahlakan was enjoying her very first movie, which she'd asked Neve to pick out for her. Neve chose The Steward of the Necklace, one of the most popular high fantasy movies ever. 

"Yeah... I don't know what to do," Neve admitted. 

"Oh, OH!" Ahlakan yelped as she watched a swordfight play out in glorious 4K resolution. "They are not actually killing each other? This is incredible!" 

As swords clanged from the tent in the distance, Neve rubbed her temples. 

There was no other way to put it. 

This situation was dire. 

[Tamira, this level design is broken.] 

"I didn't hear you complaining about fairness on the last floor," Tamira replied in Neve's thoughts. "One floor where warriors would have to rely on their mage friends, one floor where mages would have to rely on their warrior friends. That was the whole idea!"

As much as Neve hated it, given that the last floor was almost practically catered toward her specific skillset, she understood that the likelihood of the opposite happening was high. 

"Anyway, before you ask, no. I won't be adjusting the monsters or giving you any leeway here, since we intend for this floor to give mages a hard time. That's kind of the point, you see? Yes, I'll admit, I want to see you reach Thomas, but redesigning this whole floor would be too much of a hassle. I'll buy some levels from you if you want, but that's all. Good luck!" 

With that, Tamira left Neve in this unfortunate situation. 

[No easy way out of this, huh?] Neve thought. [Fine... Fine. Fuck it. Figure something out.] 

As she put her mind to work, she quickly understood that she had only a few options. 

[... Obviously, I'll have to sell at least a few levels. If I fight a bunch of level 60 monsters with no spells I'm just fucked. No amount of luck will save me in that situation.] 

Erin slithered up ahead, from one side to another, pondering the matter as well. 

[Besides that, what else?] She wondered. 

"Oh, no, no, no no, Flodo, pick him up before he falls, NO!" Ahlakan yelled from the tent. 

"The way I see it," Erin stepped forward, "you have two choices." Neve looked up finding Erin holding up a pair of fingers. "You can either take it on as you are now or you can spend a day or two training your skills. A couple of days of sword practice won't do much for you, especially since I've already taught you everything I know, but it's better than going in there with the skillset you have right now, in my opinion." 

In truth, that was the crux of the matter. 

Time was of the essence here, but this was a problem that Neve likely couldn't solve by trying to bash her head through this metaphorical wall. 

"Of course," Erin added, "that's *if* you're not willing to wait for longer. Are you-" 

"I'm not waiting," Neve shook her head quickly, shooting that suggestion down before Erin could even finish making it. "I need to clear this floor within the next five days. I have to." 

"Then, as I said, I would suggest you train for a portion of that time. There doesn't seem to be much else that you can do." 

Neve could think of one more bandaid solution, though. 

[I could go through the Hidden Shop. See if there's anything that might help me out here. A weapon I could use, some armor to wear too, since the Angel Set is going to be useless on this floor anyway. Wait...] 

She stopped. 

[No, it won't be useless.]

Looking at the Angel Set's description, she saw: 

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

[WAIT! Right, this applies to *all* healing, not just from spells. It'll apply to potions too!] 

Sighing with some small amount of relief, she nodded to herself. 

[... I'll keep the Angel Set on. So, I just need to find a weapon.] 

"Yeah," Neve finally answered Erin as she pulled up the Hidden Shop. "You're right." 

Scouring the Hidden Shop, Neve tried to find any type of weapon that she could use. Preferably, something as valuable as Sayran's Holy Blade. A weapon that scaled with the right things but required no magic to activate. 

She found no such item. 

She did find a handful of items she could use which, perhaps, was in itself a miracle. 

[A Priestess Quarterstaff, a Blessed Shortsword, Holy Farmer's Twin Hoes? Ugh, but all of this stuff scales off physical attributes. I can use it, but I'll still deal no damage.] 

The more she looked, however, the more she understood that she should have been grateful to find anything she could use, at all. 

[Even though the Hidden Shop does have some awesome things for healers, there aren't actually many Priest or Priestess-specific items. It's only just a little bit better than the regular World Shop in that sense. Though, I guess most of the time the Angel Set would usually be all you need to get through most normal situations, huh?] 

She sighed. 

[If I was out there, in the world, with full parties and squads, and the Angel Set, I'd be the most broken thing in existence. But, because I only have one ally and I'm having to fight a lot of stuff myself too, this outfit isn't actually having the value that it could.] 

Going back to the matter at hand, however, in the end, these were the items that Neve felt could help her the most here. With there being literally thousands of items in the Hidden Shop, she didn't go through each one, but these were the ones she saw.

Blessed Shortsword

{Weapon}

{Uncommon}

{Class Req: Priestess}

{Effect: +5% damage against Impure-type enemies}

{Scaling: Blade, Precision, Strength}

{Val: 500 WST}

---

Amulet of the Determined Squire

{Accessory}

{Rare}

{Req: None}

{Effect: +5% physical damage}

{Val: 1000 WST}

---

Potion of Fervor x5

{Potion}

{Rare}0

{Effect: Landing hits on enemies increases physical damage by 2%. Stacks up to 4 times.} 

{Duration: 2 minutes} 

{Val: 200 WST}

As she looked at the items she bought, naturally, her eyes lingered on some she wished she could buy. 

[Tears of the Goddess,] she read. [Literally one free resurrection for players, and it costs 100000 WST. Since the price is literally the same as internet service and the Angel Set, I'm guessing it's a deliberate choice on behalf of the Forces That Be. "Buy something that could help you survive or reach out to the people outside of the Final Challenge." And, I already made the choice once. I wonder, did anyone else ever reach 100000 tokens in the other 9 groups? If they did, we know what they chose, since no one's ever heard from someone after they've entered this place.]

Having bought her items, there were 3 things she needed to do. 

First, she called Tamira. 

[Tamira, you said you were going to buy some levels from me, right?] 

"Indeed~" Tamira replied. "How many do you wish to sell?" 

Neve considered that question briefly. 

In truth, this wasn't just about bringing her level down. The way this worked, it was a respec. 

Which meant that Neve could take off some points from her  Arcane and place them elsewhere. 

She couldn't bring it too low, though, as Tamira herself had told Neve once: what if she changed her mind next time Neve wanted to sell levels? 

If she brought her Arcane all the way down to 0 just for this floor, Tamira could screw her easily as soon as it was cleared just by telling Neve "no". 

So, Neve responded: 

"Take me back down to 50." 

"Fine, fine, if you want to keep being boring then go ahead." 

Level 50

MP: 310/310 (+300)

EXP: 0/500

AP: 3690

IP: 40

WST: 78700

---

Attribute Points: 150

Endurance: 1

Speed: 1

Precision: 1

Strength: 1

Arcane: 1

[Okay... That's step 1. Next...] 

Neve walked over to her tent. 

Ahlakan was on her knees in front of the tv, with her eyes pretty much glued to it. 

"Ahlakan?" 

"Hm?" She turned with a dazed look. "Yes?" 

"I'm gonna drop a lot of stuff here," Neve told her. "Could you make me some potions?" 

"Uh, sure. How many? Which kind?" 

"Any that you can, as many as you can," Neve replied, before going into her Inventory and dropping piles upon piles of alchemical ingredients on a table next to her. "I'm probably gonna need them all." 

"I see. I will make whichever ones I can." 

"Thank you." 

Neve turned around and walked out. 

[Okay, last but not least...] 

With that out of the way, Neve walked out of the tent and looked up at Erin whose eyes were scanning the sword she'd bought. 

"Erin," Neve said. 

"Yes?" 

"... Let's train," Neve stated. "Like you said, it probably won't make much of a difference, but I need all the help I can get." 

[Even if I was able to get my Blade all the way to 100, this would still probably be difficult. This floor might just end up being the hardest part of my journey, so far.] Neve closed her eyes, remembering then what she saw from Kayla's memories. [But, I have to do it, don't I?] 

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