145: The Descent, Part Eight

The Descent, Part Eight

EXP: 310/500

WST: 82350

The mere existence of this room in the kerosh den brought questions to Neve's mind that she wasn't sure she would get any answers for. 

[I guess some of the people who got thrown down here got along better with the kerosh than anyone expected them to. Weird.] 

That wasn't the most puzzling thing on Neve's mind, though. No, that had to be the fact that the little girl beside her had just cast magic in a place where magic couldn't be cast. 

Sure, she'd materialized that napkin out of thin air before, but Neve had just chalked that up to her status as an NPC vendor. This, however, was straight-up magic. The type Neve herself could cast. 

[... I guess the Silence effect doesn't apply to her? Maybe, because she's an NPC?] Neve thought, sneaking a glance at her. She was walking with her hands held together, flinching at each and every one of the smallest sounds around them. [Also, she looked so scared to tell me about that... I wonder why.] 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of something recognizable up ahead. 

"Hm?" The little girl stopped and hummed, as she saw the look on Neve's face change. "W-What's wrong?" 

Neve ran forward. 

[Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. Please, let that be what I think it is...] 

Once she was close enough to it, Neve stopped. 

What had pulled her all the way here, what had filled her spirit with so much sudden hope, was what looked like an elevator. 

It looked completely out of place, too, which made it all the more conspicuous to see it here. The wooden elevator shaft looked like it had been dropped into this place by outside forces rather than being part of the original construction. 

There was also the question of:

[Why would they put an elevator in a literal death hole? This is a place meant to throw people in and forget about them. It makes no sense.]

The way Neve saw it, taking into account that the Forces That Be liked to opt into conventional game design tropes, this could be one of two things. 

The way forward, deeper into the dungeon, or a shortcut. 

Lamrosh caught up, looking at the elevator as well. 

"Lam, do you know where this leads?" 

"No." 

[I figured. But, fuck it,] Neve thought, stepping into it. [It's not like there's anywhere else I could go. Let's see where this leads.] 

She went in. Lamrosh cautiously did the same and, although she'd never been particularly religious, Neve began to mutter prayers under her breath. 

The elevator trembled. 

And, thankfully, it began to move up rather than down. 

[YEEEES!] 

Lamrosh flinched as Neve threw a fist into the air. 

"Uh... W-What's happening?" 

"It means I might not die today." 

Slowly, the elevator continued going up, higher and higher, until...

They emerged in the dark forest, where the entrance to the 6th Floor was. 

Ahlakan was up ahead, kneeling in front of a flower, touching its petals with the curiosity of a scientist. As she heard the nearby rumbling, she looked in their direction. 

"Oh? Is it done?" 

Neve could not respond to that, though, as she fell to her knees. The full weight of this and the previous day's activities suddenly fell on her back, pulling her to the dirt. 

She hadn't realized just how stressed she'd been up until now. 

---

Erin sat next to Neve on a fallen log while Ahlakan showed Lamrosh some of those flowers she'd been looking at earlier. The orc took to the nulin woman far more than she had to Neve. Maybe Ahlakan just had a kinder aura to her. 

"At least the enemy types seem simple enough," Erin told her after Neve finished letting her know everything that had happened up until now. "The fact that these opponents can use spears is... disheartening, but it seems you've been doing well regardless. Good work." 

Neve turned away, unable to handle the pressure of Erin's warm, crimson eyes on her. 

"The enemies I've been fighting have been easy so far," Neve responded silently. "And, I ran past a ton of them. I don't think the next part of the Floor will be that simple." 

"Still," Erin said, "if the types of enemies remain the same, you should still be able to abuse their weak points like you've been doing so far. The only thing I'd advise you to do is to remember to keep your distance. Even highly-skilled fighters can leave themselves open to lethal blows if they overextend." 

"I'll keep that in mind." 

"This is poisonous!?" Ahlakan asked, pulling back from a flower she'd been sniffing. 

"Y-Yeah..." Lamrosh replied with a nod. 

"Maybe we could make something out of that?" Neve asked, pulling Ahlakan's eyes to her. "May as well bring it back into the tent." 

"Agreed," Ahlakan responded. 

Erin narrowed her eyes at Lamrosh. 

"So, this girl..." She began. "You saw her crying in between a bunch of people you assumed to be dangerous and you were told by the voices to rescue her?" 

"Yeah." 

Erin arched an elegant brow her way. 

"Back home, this story would end with you being thrown into a dungeon." 

"Hey," Neve said, turning toward her, "it's not like I wanted to have someone to look after in the middle of the hardest area to clear that I've been in so far. If I didn't have to take her with me, I would have just left her back there." 

"Hm. Anyway, she can use magic? You're sure of that?" 

"Lam!" Neve called out, figuring that it would be better to show Erin rather than tell her. 

The girl flinched. The minor amount of calmness that she'd displayed being in Ahlakan's presence quickly faded away. 

"Y-Yes?" 

"Can you use that magic you used earlier? On that tree, over there." Neve pointed at a tree close to her. 

"S-Sure..." 

She hesitated a little, looking at Neve with those same worried eyes that she'd shown before. Soon, though, a sphere of flames came out from her right hand and crashed into the wood ahead. 

The tree was split in half. It slowly fell back, eventually landing on the ground with a thud. 

"I see," Erin muttered.  2

"The thing is, she did that while she was inside the Floor. Where you shouldn't be able to cast any spells," Neve told the lamia. "I'm trying to think about what that might mean." 

"Well, I have no speculation as to what it means in terms of your quest, journey... thing. But, you did notice that, right? Even you are not that dense, surely? That girl," Erin lowered her volume, "she is not exactly proud of the abilities she possesses." 

"I did," Neve nodded. 

"Did the voices say anything about that?" 

"Nope." 

"Well," Erin stood up. "I think, first things first, before you head back down there you might want to look into that." 

The lamia slithered up to the other two girls before Neve could respond. 

"Ahlakan," Erin called out to the nulin, "could you show me one of those 'films' you were talking about earlier?" 

"Oh, sure!" 

"Thank you."

The two of them walked away then, leaving only Neve and Lamrosh standing there. 

"Hey, uh, Lam. Could I talk to you for a sec?" 

Lamrosh paused briefly and then nodded. She walked over to Neve's log and sat down next to her, holding her hands together. 

[... Ugh, being tactful isn't exactly something I'm good at,] Neve thought as she went over how to start this. [Maybe I should just try to ease into it, though.] 

"Can you do anything else?" Neve asked. 

"Huh?" Lamrosh looked nervous. 

[What is with these reactions?] 

"I'm curious," Neve replied. "I..." 

An idea came to her mind. 

She brought out her staff from her inventory. To Lamrosh's eyes, it looked like the staff had just materialized out of thin air, which was coincidentally quite similar to what Lamrosh herself could do. 

[Actually, now that I think about it, I actually got to feel what it was probably like for Erin, Ahlakan, and everyone else to see me use my Inventory. Huh.] 

Then, Neve took aim at another tree and shot her own {Fireball} at it. 

Her spell, however, was far weaker. Still, it had the desired effect, as Lamrosh's eyes suddenly gained a big glint.

"W-WHAT!?" She looked back and forth between the tree Neve had just attacked and Neve herself. 

[Well, that did the trick.] 

"Uh... Where I'm from," Neve began, "magic isn't a bad thing. Or, scary, or whatever. Is magic a bad thing here?" 

That was the best way she could think to put it. 

As two purple-white moons emerged, hovering over the forest like a pair of eyes looking down at Neve and Lamrosh from the heavens, the orc girl considered her response. 

That little exhibition just now had finally gotten Lamrosh to look at the healer with a little bit of trust. Because of this, she met Neve's eyes and replied: 

"Um, dad told me that magic is evil," Lamrosh stated. "That I shouldn't use it." 

"Okay... Why?" 

"Uh, the monsters," Lamrosh added. "He said that magic brought the monsters to us." 

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