Getting Started
"Okay, okay," she muttered to herself, still standing there. "What am I going to do?"
Building up the motivation to do this was one thing, but making it happen was another. If she was going to go through the main dungeon's floors on her own, find Thomas and his group, and kill them, she'd need to make sure she was prepared first.
There were quite a few options available to her, but none that seemed good just yet.
Leaving the main dungeon would result in her getting "punished". Of course, there were two ways of being punished, and one of them was impossible given that if she walked out, she'd be the only person to do so.
That meant that the other was probably going to happen automatically. If she exited the main dungeon, she could expect to be sent to another random, high-level dungeon the moment she walked out.
Tamira also had argued against staying on this floor, so Neve did not want to do that. Despite everything the snake and her superiors had caused, it seemed as though she was being genuine when it came to wanting to see Neve succeed, likely because it would be entertaining to see her act against the other humans here. So, Neve decided to trust her words, at least when it came to this point.
That left her with two things to do. The first of which she could do right now.
"I should check the bodies. Maybe those low-level assholes left something good behind."
She remembered how that one girl had grimaced and turned away before stripping one of the dead players of all his items. In addition, she remembered that Thomas had told them to only take what they could use.
The reason for that was probably because if his followers spent too much time searching through them, their consciousnesses may have begun feeling guilty. He probably wanted them to continue thinking they had done nothing wrong for as long as he could and staring into the blank, dead eyes of the people they murdered was probably not going to help.
It was worth checking out.
Neve's search through the dead bodies was tentative. It felt disrespectful to prod and touch the bodies of people she hadn't even tried to save. However, she was in need of whatever help she could get.
Items were, of course, class-locked, so as far as finding things she could use was concerned, Neve only gave the assassin and tank class players cursory glances over their inventories.
Everything she found that she could not use she instantly would drag and drop over to the World Shop, where she'd sell them for a few tokens.
They didn't have much aside from their equipment. Many of the players were carrying journals and notes, all of which would go unread. The other players likely took any potions or enchanted accessories they may have been carrying.
Having made her way past most of the dead players, Neve arrived at the bodies of the ones that kicked the entire fight off. Stella, Uriel, John, and Allen.
Looking down at Stella tore Neve's heart in half, but she pushed through the surging guilt.
As she looked through Stella's body, Neve found a letter of some sort.
She wondered if it was something like the one Carson wrote, something she may have wanted to deliver if she ever left the Final Challenge's arena, but, no. The letter Stella had was one directed at herself, specifically.
It let Stella know that when she returned from the Final Challenge, she would have been given the title of Guildmaster of the Valkyries like Carson had told Neve before.
It hurt seeing that.
"… Shit."
Setting that letter aside, Neve looked through the others' pockets. She sold John, Allen, and Carson's equipment, netting herself some World Shop tokens from it. Then, she looked through Uriel's body.
[Huh…]
Uriel's staff was still on him.
Staff of the Righteous
{Rare}
{REQ: Level 30}
{Boosts mana by 300}
{Increases effectiveness of Buff-type spells}
VALUE: 500
Neve's jaw dropped.
[Even if he didn't know the specifics about Uriel's equipment, it's probably no coincidence that Thomas killed him first, along with Stella. If they had been involved, the high-levels might have stood more of a chance]
Neve placed the item in her inventory and moved along. Uriel's clothes had no special effects, so she left them on him, moving to the next body.
By the time she was done, she had a few things:
There was one singular Minor Healing Potion that no one had taken. It was understandable, of course. With so many dead bodies, those assholes were bound to miss something that could have been of use to them.
Additionally, she found one staff that was an upgrade over her own:
Expert's Staff
{Uncommon}
{REQ: Level 20}
{Increases mana by 50}
VAL: 100
And, she found a ring that increased the effectiveness of all magic by 5%. A small number, but the smallest things could always end up making a difference later, so Neve took it with her.
Her stats and equipment looked like this by the time she was done:
Neve Stephens
Priestess
Level 20
MP: 330/330 (+50)
EXP: 141/200
Activity Points: 120
WS Tokens: 2950
---
Attributes:
Endurance: 5
Speed: 10
Precision: 15
Strength: 5
Arcane: 33
---
Equipment:
Priestess Hood {Lesser}
Priestess Garbs {Lesser}
Priestess Globes {Lesser}
Priestess Leggings {Lesser}
Priestess Shoes {Lesser}
Expert's Staff {Uncommon}
Ring of Aptitude {Common}
1 Minor Healing Potion
The vast majority of those WS tokens she'd acquired came from selling John's leftover equipment.
The man's armor alone sold for so much. She couldn't imagine what other high-level equipment he must have had that was taken from his body. He was, in truth, a legend in the flesh.
A legend who had met his end at the hands of a bunch of cowards. It was not the kind of ending he deserved.
[Okay, I think this is all I'm going to find here. Now what?]
She quickly understood that now, she needed to figure out how exactly she was going to fight things.
Like she'd told Tamira, she was a healer. A priestess, specifically.
That meant there were a few limitations placed on her by the system. She could not learn specialized spells outside of the Priestess category, and she could not use non-mage equipment.
If she actually had a group she could work with, this wouldn't be a real problem. As a healer, if she was ever being attacked directly, it meant she, or her tank, had done something wrong. However, now, on her own, this was quite the dilemma.
She sighed, going over to her Spells menu.
Sacred Ground 50MP
{Reduces a small amount of damage taken within a zone}
Healing Ground 25MP
{Heals for a moderate amount within a zone}
Hard Target 75MP
{Briefly reduces damage taken from projectiles on a target}
Candlelight - 10MP
{Creates an orb that can provide a small amount of light in darkness}
[Yeah, none of this is going to help me kill anything,] she thought as she looked at each of these options. [Even if I use everything on myself, all it'll do is make me harder to kill. How would that...?]
Suddenly, she stopped.
[Wait, that's it!]
"I-I just need...!"
Neve quickly went into the World Shop and looked for the spellbooks it had available. There weren't many, of course. The World Shop only featured beginner-level spellbooks. You could only find the good ones out in the world or in dungeons. In that sense, the Unity Trials did function like a meritocracy, to an extent.
However, there was something that stood out about beginner-level spells. Something that made it worthwhile for a level 20 healer who needed to be able to fight to spend a few WS tokens on them.
The fact that all beginner-level spells were available for use in any class. Even non-mages.
And that meant they were available to any mage in general, healer or not.
[Uh, here they are! Iceball, Fireball, Waterball... what's the difference? Ahh, right, some monsters are resistant to certain types of damage. Undead are generally resistant to ice-type damage but they're weak to fire, most monsters have water-type resistance but are also weak to fire. Fire's definitely the most useful one in terms of damage, but some ghosts are weak to water. Ice has the benefit of slowing enemies, so it's useful too in that way.]
Nodding to herself, Neve purchased each spell. They appeared in her inventory for only a couple dozen tokens each.
[I'll take all of them, but I should keep situational effectiveness in mind.]
Now, she added the following spells to her list:
Fireball 10MP
{Launches a sphere of flames that deals low damage and burns targets}
Waterball 10MP
{Launches a sphere of water that deals low damage and reduces Precision by a small amount}
Iceball 10MP
{Launches a sphere of ice that deals low damage and slows targets}
[It's not much, but I don't have too many options.]
As she closed the World Shop, she turned and looked back.
The path Thomas and his followers took stretched endlessly, shrouded in darkness. Neve wasn't about to follow them just yet.
She had one more trick up her sleeve.
[Like Tamira had said, the main dungeon functions like a regular dungeon, even if it looks like this. That means that there may be chests, secret rooms, or random items that we might have missed at the first floor! I have to go back and check.]
For now, Neve had a plan. It wasn't much of one, but it was a plan nonetheless.
Maybe, just maybe, this vengeance of hers was achievable.
That remained to be seen, though.
---
{Thomas}
The low-level assassin, though he couldn't call himself that anymore, looked back the way he came. He swore that at that moment, he could feel someone watching him.
Briefly, his mind wandered to the healer he'd left behind.
[... I do hope she'll come to understand our position.]
"Thomas?" A woman asked. She was a petite mage that had been sticking close to him ever since they'd taken out the high-level players. "Are you okay?"
The man nodded.
"Yeah, just... Nothing. Let's move," he turned back around, leading the group forward. "The sooner we get out of here, the better."