184: Reach for the Stars, Part Ten

Reach for the Stars, Part Ten

The daytime brought no extra light with it. The camp was cold and dark as Neve walked out of her tent in the morning. 

Erin was sitting at the bench, reading some old books Neve had given to her. The regal neutrality of her expression was stunning, but Neve preferred the way the woman's lips curled up at the corners when she found Neve approaching. 

"Had a nice rest?" 

"Yeah," Neve replied as she sat down next to her. "Did you spend all night reading that?" 

"Reading and re-reading, yes. One of the benefits of not needing to sleep, as a summon," Erin replied before turning her eyes toward the book in her elegant hands. "The greatest victory is that which requires no battle, eh?" She smirked. "My people disagreed rather heavily. The greatest victory among my kind was one in which your opponents ceased to exist." 

"Damn." 

"Yes..." Erin nodded. "With that type of attitude, I suppose it's no surprise we made some enemies. Even internally. Oh well, that's all in the past now. So," she turned toward Neve, closing the book and setting it aside. "You said you needed to sleep on the little discovery we made yesterday. Thoughts?" 

Neve leaned back on the bench, staring up at the stars above. 

"My guess is that the invisible thing we saw was what brought the horde of monsters to us." 

"A sentry of some sort?" 

"Yeah. Or, a scout or something like that. I think we ran into it on the right-side building, both the first and second time we saw that swarm. Then, after we kept going and it couldn't follow for some reason, it went to check if we were in the left-side building." 

"Hm. So, then, if it saw us, how come we did not run into the horde on our way back here?" 

"I assume there's some sort of a delay," Neve answered. "Maybe, a minute or two before the horde actually comes to kill us." 

"How courteous." 

Neve shrugged. 

"If my guess is right, then we probably don't have to worry about that horde anymore, since we can just find that thing and kill it." 

"Eh," Erin quickly interjected, "I don't know about that. I'm not confident in my ability to detect it consistently." 

"What?" Neve asked, brows raised. "But-" 

"I only managed to catch it this time because the creator opened an automatic door on its own," Erin stated. "If we encounter it while we're, say, moving down a hall, I don't believe I would be able to do that." 

"... Huh. Okay," Neve replied. "Then, I'll try to find some way to detect it, I guess." 

Erin stood up. 

She brought out her claws, smirking down at Neve. 

The healer looked away. 

In this somewhat unfortunate position, Erin's abs ended up right next to Neve's face. 

"So, shall we do some training? Reading all that about war and fighting got me a little excited." 

"Yeah," Neve replied. "I think we know enough about the Floor to where I don't want to go back in for a while. I think now, we should just focus on getting ready." 

Neve took everything they'd learned into consideration. 

[We have that list of rooms to check, the keycards to find, and now we might know how the horde system works. I think we're ready to make an actual push toward clearing the entire Floor, now.] 

"Understood." 

Erin dashed toward Neve. 

The healer was ready for it, though, and brought out her sword as she simultaneously stepped away. 

"Eh? Finally, you're actually keeping your guard up. You're learning!" 

"... Maybe," Neve replied before running forward herself. 

---

"Come on, don't tell me you're slowing down already!" 

[Already? Erin, it's been 8 hours. You're heartless.] 

The training session went on, and on, with only a few breaks here and there. The endurance both girls possessed made the extended fighting possible, but, admittedly, Neve's body was beginning to tire. 

"Okay," Neve put her weapons away and put a hand up. "I need a moment." 

"Aw, and here we were having so much fun! Fine, fine," Erin went to grab one of the drinks Neve had placed on a table to the right. "I suppose we can take a moment. I hope we're not done for the day, though." 

"Not yet," Neve replied as she went and sat down on the bench once more. Sweat dripped from her chin, falling on her chest. "I need a breather, though." 

"Very well." 

The worst part was, she hadn't gained any skill points to show for it. 

[Well, I expected the rate would slow down at some point. I might want to use that EXP potion I got from the hidden shop. I could buy more too, but... I actually don't have many tokens now, since I bought that, uh, other thing.] 

Given that she was feeling her lack of tokens right now, Neve's hands naturally went through her inventory, to look at the item she'd wasted everything she had on. 

Tears of the Goddess

{Legendary}

{Potion}

{Effect: Once ingested, the player will be resurrected upon dying.} 

{Val: 100000 WST}

Neve breathed in slowly. 

[A resurrection... Was this a mistake?] She wondered, putting her menu away and looking up, letting her head rest. [Hm. I'm not gonna use this yet,] Neve thought [If I die now, on the 9th Floor, then whatever. Unlucky. But... It would be a shame to make it all the way to the 10th Floor, the final boss, stand at the edge of the finish line and die then. That would actually kinda suck.] 

Neve's eyes then narrowed. 

[And, there's also...] 

She stopped herself from saying anything else, though, as she was painfully aware of the fact that a certain someone could be eavesdropping on her thoughts. 

[... Maybe. Somehow.] 

Erin sitting down next to her made Neve turn her head. 

"Hm. Energy drinks, you called these? They're tasty but they are making my heart feel... Funny." 

"Yep, it can feel like that when you're not used to it." 

"I see..." She took another sip from the can she had. "Ahh... These moments do take me back." 

Suddenly, Erin rested her head on Neve's right shoulder. 

The woman flinched. Noticing that, Erin looked up at her.  2

"Too much, perhaps?" 

Neve inhaled slowly, looking away, but not moving away. 

"... I feel like shit." 

"Hm?" 

"Um... After what happened with... You know..." Neve muttered, her voice getting lower with every word. "I feel... bad when you get close to me." 

"Is that so?" Erin asked, briefly becoming just as quiet. 

After a moment of contemplation, she pulled her head away and said: 

"We got to spend quite a lot of time with her, before what happened happened..." Erin said. "You certainly got to know her better than I did, though. So, I ask," Erin hunched over a bit, so she could get a better look at Neve's eyes, "do you believe she would want you feeling this way?" 

Neve swallowed. 

"I don't know." 

"Well," Erin shrugged, "personally, I would suggest you think about it. I might be wrong, but Ahlakan struck me as the type who would want her friends to move on as quickly as possible. I know I would." 

"Eh, I dunno," Tamira suddenly spoke up in Neve's mind, "kinda sounds to me like she just wants to-" 

[I don't really care what this sounds like to you,] Neve replied. [I don't know if I agree with Erin, but I know her words mean a lot more to me than yours do. Fuck off.] 

"Heh..." Tamira, for once perhaps having felt that Neve wasn't having her bullshit this time, simply exited Neve's mind quickly. 

Neve sighed. 

"I'm gonna do something for a bit. Be right back," she told Erin before heading over to the tent. 

With her training paused for the moment, Neve went over to her desk and decided that it was time to get today's {Reconstruction} out of the way. 

Now that she knew reconstruction was based on token value, at least when it came to sacrificing items, she knew she had to sacrifice something valuable to get the most out of this. 

But, another question popped up. 

[What if I sell something that doesn't have token values?] 

As the Technique stated, attributes, skills, and spells she had already learned could all be sold now. 

So, there was one more thing left to test. 

[Okay, before I commit to this, think, Neve. Is there anything you need your Strength for?] 

That was the biggest question Neve had at the moment. 

Currently, it is sitting at 15. She'd gathered this amount in preparation for the 6th Floor, where she couldn't use any spells. But, now, this amount was genuinely useless. 

[... I don't doubt that this floor, or the next, will probably feature some {Silence} mechanics. But, I don't believe for a second it'll be anything as intense as the 6th Floor, since the entire gimmick of that was to get mages to rely on warriors. Thinking about it logically, the 9th and 10th Floors should be testing players based on everything they've learned up until now. So, yeah, I shouldn't need my Strength going forward, outside of a couple of spots here and there.] 

At the same time, though, Neve wasn't comfortable dropping it all the way down to 1, as there were basic, general things day in and day out, moving objects around, picking things up, jumping, etc. that Strength unfortunately affected. 

So, Neve decided on sacrificing 10 Strength points. 

This was the result: 

{Spell Enhanced!} 

{Fireball} 

{New: Fireball now deals an additional 16% max HP damage} 

Neve blinked. 

[Wait, what?] 

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