81: The Land of the Dead, Part Eight

The Land of the Dead, Part Eight

Neve roamed the desert alone, for a time. 

She felt she was beginning to get too reliant on Erin. Having someone to help her was nice, but there could always come a situation where Neve could not rely on her. Whether it was having a Silence spell cast on her, or just running out of mana all of a sudden, if Neve didn't keep her own instincts sharp, she could end up dead because of it. 

The dunes around her loomed mockingly in the distance. Neve wondered how far she could go before hitting a golden barrier like she had on the first floor. 

[... Nothing,] she thought, as she looked around. [No treasure, no monsters.] 

She hadn't forgotten that, because each floor counted as a dungeon, there'd likely be secret rooms and random treasure scattered throughout. 

A few of those plants she mentioned in her guide were roaming the sands, sliding from one place to another with writhing tentacles that trembled and vibrated as they moved. 

[Yeah, I'm not forgetting what these things did to Erin anytime soon. Ugh.] 

It felt odd to even think that there could be treasures anywhere around here. The land was barren, with no buildings or signs of life to be found anywhere. 

[Hm. If we assume that there are treasures in this area, I guess there would mostly be two options. Either, the treasure is somehow hiding in plain sight, or the only stuff there is to be found is all at the church Alexander told me to meet him at.] 

Checking her map, Neve found that she'd naturally ended up directly south of it. 

As her priestess robes dragged along the sand, Neve tripped. 

"PFFT!" 

She faceplanted, ending up with a mouthful of sand as her feet had gotten caught in her robes while she'd been walking up a small mound. 

"Agh, shit," Neve got up clumsily, watching her staff, which she'd dropped out of surprise, roll away from her. 

[... I guess no amount of leveling is going to stop you from having dumb fucking moments like these- ugh, there's sand on my tongue!] 

As she plucked each individual piece of sand off it, though, she noticed something. 

Her staff had come to a halt in a rather peculiar spot.

It had stopped in the middle of a part of the sand that looked darker than the rest, as though clouds in the sky were shielding that part in particular from the bleeding sun's intense rays. 

Except, as Neve looked up, she found no clouds in the sky at all that could take responsibility for this phenomenon. 

Dusting her clothes off, Neve started to walk in that direction. 

[This is either a trap of some sort or something good. I have no choice but to find out, though, because I can't just leave my staff there.]

Reluctantly, as Neve stood at the edge of that darkened sand, she looked all around her, just in case there were forces visibly collapsing on her position. Finding nothing of the sort, she sighed and took a step forward. 

The instant she entered that zone, a treasure chest became visible right in front of the staff.

[What!? Yes!] 

She closed the distance between herself and the chest in less than a second. Without even picking her staff up, she opened the chest to see what was inside. 

It was only after opening this chest that she remembered mimics were a thing. Naturally, she pulled back just in case, but this chest was no such creature.

Instead, what she found was...

[A mace.] 

Before her mind had even finished speaking the words, Neve went into the World Shop and sold the "treasure" away. 

WS Tokens: 31805

At the same time, she called out:

"Tamira." 

"Yes?" The snake quickly appeared behind her, floating up in the air.

"Did you ask your 'superiors' about the loot stuff we talked about?" Neve asked, grabbing her staff and turning toward her. 

"I did!" Tamira replied. 

"So...?"

"They decided that you were largely right," Tamira informed her, spinning a few times in the air. "However, given that your goal is to kill the other remaining players, they felt that making the loot 100% healer-centric would be unbalanced. Therefore, they came to this conclusion. Going forward, every time you find a chest or kill an enemy, there will be a 50% chance that the loot will be usable to you. This will apply only so long as you are the only player on a specific floor, by the way. So, if for whatever reason you end up with another player by your side, this new rule goes out the window."

[This means that, as long as I'm alone, anytime I pick up some loot, it'll basically be like a coin toss to determine whether it's something I can use or not.] 

"Indeed," Tamira replied to her thoughts. "Additionally, this will only apply from the next floor onwards. Not to this one."

"Why?" 

"This floor's loot has already been generated. Tampering with the stuff we, my superiors, have placed here could mess things up. It is difficult to explain in human terms, but think about it like how patching a game could result in creating new bugs and glitches. My superiors don't want to risk it." She stated. "And, well, they kinda want to see you get past this floor already. There's that as well." 

[Hm. So, I guess I really shouldn't fight anything I don't have to.] 

The snake then drew closer to Neve, shrinking a little as she floated close to her face. Neve took a step back. 

"You haven't done much with that girl," Tamira pointed out. "Did you mean to save her only so you could keep her in your tent as a decoration?" Neve glared hard at her, but the snake just laughed. "I'm not judging you! You're responsible for the girl's existence, and she's not quite as real as you are. If you wish to treat her like a trophy you gained from clearing the Hall of the Luminous, that is well within your rights." 

"I'm busy," Neve replied, turning away. "I'll spend as much time with her, and Erin, as I want to once Thomas and his group are dead." 

"Ahh," Tamira replied, and even though Neve wasn't looking at her, she could feel the smirk on her face. "I'm glad you have your priorities straight." She stated, before leaving Neve alone in that darkened sand. 

---

As Neve walked over a hill, she found the church Alexander had been talking about. An unimpressive, but strangely clean, stone building that looked like it had been dropped into this desert from the sky.

... With many, many different corpses piled up in front of it. 

Alexander stood by the mound, his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on it.

There were so many of them. Old, desiccated bodies that produced a smell so foul it reached Neve's nostrils long before she got close to them. Some of them wore light armor that appeared broken and ripped, as though something like that salamander Neve had seen before had crushed them with their teeth, but others wore battle scars that didn't look like they were made by monsters. Burns, cuts. One of them, by Neve's feet, had a point in its chest where Neve could tell that a spear had tried and succeeded to penetrate the leather. 

"Uh, so, about that thing..." Neve started, referring to what the man had said about an item that could help against the canvar, but Alexander didn't take his eyes off the mound. 

"This pile will likely be quite a lot bigger once this is all over," he commented. 

Neve turned to look at the mound, scanning it. 

"What do you mean?" 

"I made this pile myself," Alexander told her. 

"Mhm... Not that I mind how you pass the time or anything, but... why?" 

"My intention is to burn them," he responded. "I've been wandering these fields for a while and... I've gotten tired of walking over the corpses of my kin. I'd rather never see any of them again." 

"Looks like you're going to be at it for a while, then," Neve said. "I've seen way too many zom- undead around here." 

"... Maybe," Alexander said. "But, the thought of finishing this mound is the only thing that gets me to move out of bed in the morning. There's nothing else left." 

"Yeah," Neve replied a little quietly, "I get that."  1

Finally, he took his eyes off the mound and glanced over at her. 

"Come. Let me show you what I was talking about." 

He walked away from the pile and moved into the small church. Neve followed him. 

It became clear that this was the man's home. A couch, a set of ragged clothes thrown around carelessly, and a few guns could be seen on a table that looked like it was one more object away from falling to pieces, all in the middle of a lonely room with just one window letting the light in. 

They went down a set of stairs at the back and approached a chest that looked just like the one Neve had just seen prior to this. Here, Alexander opened the chest and showcased...

"An RPG!?" Neve yelled as he pulled it out. 

"A what?" Alexander asked. "No, we... Or, I, call this a bodysplitter. It is a powerful weapon, as it seems like you know," he stated. "The most powerful one in my arsenal." 

"... But, I don't get it," Neve said. "You told me you've never killed a canvar before. Wouldn't this get the job done?" 

"The problem isn't the weapon's strength. It's ammo," Alexander handed it over to Neve. It was lighter than she expected. Or, maybe she was just that strong now. "I only have 3 missiles for it. If I land all three of them, I'm sure I could kill a canvar. But, why try? It wouldn't gain me anything," he stated. "Canvar or not, my people would still be dead. My family, my friends, killing one canvar wouldn't bring them back. The other monsters would still roam freely. I have nothing to gain from it... But, you," he turned toward Neve. "If you wish to throw yourself at that thing, then go ahead. Take it." 

"Are you sure?" 

"As I said, there's nothing I might need this for in the future. It's just collecting dust. If you kill that canvar with it, though, then... I don't know, I might have a laugh or two at least before I finish my work." 

There was a dark tone to that statement, but Neve was too focused on the RPG to care.

"I... How can I pay you back for this?" Neve asked instinctively. 

By now, she'd completely forgotten that this man was just an NPC. 

Alexander watched her as she looked at the weapon and then asked:

"... Some food would be nice."

"Sure," Neve replied. "I've got this stuff called 'pizza', you'll love it."

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