141: The Descent, Part Four

The Descent, Part Four

Neve's arsenal for this improvised stealth mission went as follows: 

1 crude, weak, Wooden Bow and 100 arrows. It didn't have a class requirement, surprisingly. Probably because it dealt little to no damage, so what was the point of such a thing?

1 Ring of Muffled Feet, an enchanted accessory that did exactly as its name suggested and eliminated the noise Neve's feet made.

1 Fedora of the Chivalrous Hitman, an unfashionable piece of clothing that provided a 10% Sneak enhancement.

And, last but not least, 1 Potion of Invisibility. 

The total cost for each item was 10000 WST, bringing her total down to 71877, with most of that being from the potion. 

Yes, it cost a lot to procure these items. And, given that the NPC she was about to try saving was a vendor, it seemed as though she'd be spending even more soon. But, she felt the cost was worth it given that she'd need to use all of this throughout not just this section she was in now, but the 6th Floor in its entirety. 

Neve had a reason for each item as well. 

She bought the bow for the purpose of creating noise. She'd shoot the arrows next to an orc, on some random spot on a nearby wall, and, hopefully, the orc would walk to go check it out. The Ring of Muffled Feet was obviously acquired to silence her footsteps. The fedora, as tacky as it was, gave her a decent buff. And, finally, the Potion of Invisibility. 

With it, Neve would turn invisible until either she took an action, or 1 minute passed. 

It was to be her ace up her sleeve. Once she was close enough, she would drink this thing and make it through the rest of the way without any problems... hopefully. 

That word came up a lot as she bought these things. *Hopefully*, the arrows would work as intended. *Hopefully*, eliminating the sound of her footsteps would be enough to get through this. *Hopefully*, Neve wouldn't be forced to use the potion before the final stretch. 

[It's all going to go wrong somehow,] Neve thought as she held the bow she'd bought, trying to get a feel for it. [But, it's the best plan I could come up with.  I have to trust my own instincts.] 

Her eyes lingered on the Invisibility Potion she'd bought. 

[... This thing costs 5000 tokens. It might be worth it to get some more of them but I don't want to fall too far from 100K. I do want to buy that internet service, after all. Just in case Thomas and his group make it out before I reach them.] 

At this point, she knew she was stalling. 

[Come on,] she thought, putting away her menu and trying to focus her mind on the task ahead. [Just get it over with.] 

The layout of this challenge room was interesting. The more Neve analyzed it, the more she wondered if players were actually meant to sneak past this place. 

There were two rows of small huts parallel to each other. A couple of these huts had wider gaps between them, where forges occupied a small amount of space. On top of that, there were two guardposts where orcs stood just in front of that little girl, holding crossbows in their hands, watching the little underground village in front of them. 

As she'd noted before, some orcs were walking from one place to another, robotically. 

[Patterns... There should be a few seconds where I can just walk up without having to worry about being spotted.] 

The orcs would walk away from each other, stand beside their huts, and then walk back to the middle of the room, before walking away again. 

[When they're at the center of this place, there's like a 3-second window where they're just standing there. Maybe then I could move up? Use my bow to draw them away further while they're all grouped up like that. The enchanted stuff I bought should allow me to do that. Then, once I'm close enough to the girl, I use my potion. Yeah,] she nodded to herself. [That sounds a little reasonable.] 

It was the best she could do under these stressful conditions. 

So, she waited. With her new fedora on her head, her sweaty hands wrapped firmly around a bow that felt like it might break under the pressure, and a new enchanted ring around her left ring finger, she waited. 

The orcs walked away from each other, and then toward each other. Away, and toward, away, and toward, away, and... 

[Now!] 

Neve cautiously took a few hurried steps forward. 

"Meurh?" One orc quickly began looking from one side of the room to another. Even with her enchanted gear, Neve was still no master of stealth. 

She did, however, make some progress in that department right now. 

Skill Increased!

Sneak: 16

Neve stopped. Not to take in and appreciate the skill she'd just gained, but rather in hopes of not ending up with dozens of orcs beating her to death as the one who'd been alerted sniffed the air. 

After a short pause, it went back to its previously scheduled programming and Neve breathed a sigh of relief. 

Only for that air to find its way right back into her lungs as she gasped, watching some of the orcs on her side of the room start walking back to the huts. 

[Crap, crap, crap.] 

Quickly, she nocked an arrow. 

As she'd planned out before, all she needed to do was shoot an arrow at any nearby structure. A hut, a forge, etc.

The orcs would go investigate the sound and she'd crawl past them. 

Easy. 

From the ground, Neve pulled her bow up and the arrow back. 

She aimed the arrow carefully, her eyes fixed on the right-side wall of the room. 

With such a large target, she felt pretty confident. 

And yet, things went wrong. 

She let the arrow go. The projectile flew through the air briefly before embedding itself in the back of an orc's head. 

[WHAT!?]

"EURGH!?" 

Neve planted her face against the ground, her limbs sprawled out now as she tried to become one with the floor. 

The orcs began running from one place to another, randomly, looking for the attacker. 

As Neve lay there, her eyes traced the path she was meant to take. The blindspots formed by the distance from one torch to another. 

[If I can just...] 

She felt like it was only a matter of time before one of these orcs stumbled upon her body. So, taking the risk, she got up and crawled forward slowly, toward the back of one hut that was covered in a blanket of darkness. 

She considered what might have happened if an orc heard her, but the chances that she got discovered were looking pretty high anyway, so she felt she might as well take the risk. 

"UERG!?" 

A few orcs' heads snapped up, as though something was off but they couldn't quite put their fingers on it. 

Neve kept her slow, snail-like crawl going. 

Eventually, she made it to that covered spot and stopped, just as the orcs carried on with their regular route. 

[Holy. Fuck.] 

At this point, she felt like even if the orcs didn't get her, the stroke she was dangerously close to having might. 

Calming herself down, though, she kept her eyes on the shadows ahead. 

[Keep going.]  0

And so, Neve kept crawling up, hoping she could make it the rest of the way through without as much trouble. 

Slowly, but surely, she crawled across the room, keeping herself in the darkness. Every now and then, orcs would react in small ways. Some would stop suddenly. Others would look around as though someone had called out to them. Others would take an aggressive posture for about 5 seconds before then relaxing again. 

It was all fairly intense, but Neve eventually reached the end of this shadow path. 

From here, her objective stood right in front of her. The crying, little, orc girl rubbed her eyes, just standing there as the others ignored her. 

Neve prepared herself. This was the last part...

... Of just this room. She still had the rest of the dungeon to go, and she felt like her heart was going to break out of her chest. 

[When you look at how the orcs reacted to me, it shouldn't really be that they *heard* me. It's that... I don't know, they sensed my presence or something. Taking that into account, using the Potion of Invisibility should make this last stretch trivial, right?] 

She'd have to guess that the answer was yes. She had no other alternative, and she was well past the point of no return. 

[Fuck it.] 

Neve took that potion out of her inventory and, with her eyes on the girl, drank its contents. 

She looked down at herself. To her eyes, all that happened was that her body had been wrapped in a blue silhouette. 

[Here goes nothing.] 

She then stood up casually and walked forward. 

The orcs did not react at all, this time. 

[The effect fades after 1 minute, or after I *take an action*. What the fuck does that even mean? Well, whatever. I assume that just talking to the girl shouldn't count as an *action*, right? I'm not doing anything with my body, after all.] 

Cutting past the orcs around her, Neve slowly made her way to the girl. 

The orcs never did anything in response. 

[Okay, I did it! Now...] 

Standing before her, Neve wondered how to let her know she was there without having her freak out.

There was probably no way to go about this without having any risk at all. 

[What to do? What to do?] Neve pondered the issue. [Well... This might cancel the invisibility, but my mind isn't coming up with anything else.] 

All she could think of was to kneel in front of her and cover the girl's mouth, holding her hand over her tusks, saying: 

"Hey." 

"MMMMM!" The orc girl yelled into her hand, flinching. 

"I'm here to..." 

"MEUURGH!" 

[What?] 

Neve turned around. 

A small army of orcs was staring straight at her. 

Neve looked down at herself. 

The blue outline was gone. 

[... Shit.] 

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