The Lone Healer-Chapter 100: Blood in the Water, Part Fifteen

As Neve and Erin walked in through one of those nearby halls, the number of strange corpses littering the floor grew larger. Some looked like they’d been there for ages, others looked eerily fresh.

Following the dimly glowing emerald lines, the hallway narrowed, growing tighter as it led to a series of grey, metallic doors.

Erin moved toward one of them, looking back at Neve to make sure she was ready, before pulling it open.

Or, rather, she tried to pull it open.

Click, click, click.

"It’s locked."

"Hold on," Neve replied, walking up to it.

"You know, I enjoy messing with you sometimes, but this is not the sort of thing I’d lie about."

"It’s not that. It’s a System thing... maybe."

"Ah."

Neve gave it a shot herself.

Nothing. The door did not budge and no {Key Required} prompt appeared before her.

[... So, I’m guessing that means we’re just not supposed to go through here. Okay.]

"Try the others."

One by one, the two of them went through each of the doors in the hall, investigating them.

[Locked, locked, locked... What’s the point of this hall if every door is-]

Suddenly, the next door Erin went for popped open. Their eyes met as Erin stood there, her hand still on the door’s handle.

"... It opened," the lamia stated.

"Yeah."

Neve walked over to her. Peeking from behind Erin, she looked inside and found nothing but darkness. Vast darkness, with just one hint of gold far, far from the door.

[Is... Is that a chest?]

As Neve squinted, trying to get a better look at the object, Erin glared hard.

"... I have to be honest, just about every fighting instinct I have in my body is telling me that walking into this room is a bad idea," Erin muttered. "I suppose I should go check it out on my own before you come in."

"Please."

Hearing that, Erin cautiously slithered inside.

It was an eerie place. Neve couldn’t quite tell how large it was, but the distance between that chest and this door made it feel like Neve had entered a giant warehouse or something.

[I’m guessing a light switch or something would be too much to ask for, huh?]

Slowly, Erin made her way to that golden object.

Nothing happened.

She was not attacked, she did not slither on top of any traps. Instead, the lamia waited for a bit, looked around, and eventually waved at the healer, gesturing for Neve to walk in.

She cast {Candlelight} and did just that. The illuminating spell barely changed a thing. She could just about see four, or five steps in front of her, Erin, and the golden chest in the center of this massive space that she was standing next to. Nothing else.

[Creepy as hell...]

Her footsteps echoed. Her heartbeat was just as loud.

[It’s so cold, all of a sudden.]

As she drew closer to Erin’s position, she saw that, indeed, this was another golden chest.

However, as she tried to walk forward and open it, a barrier of the same color prevented her.

[Hm?]

Looking up, she found a message hovering above the object. One that let her know why exactly she and Erin hadn’t been attacked yet despite walking into a pretty obvious trap.

{Trial: Survival}

{Fight waves of enemies for 3 minutes}

{Reward Tier: Legendary}

{Do you wish to attempt this challenge?}

{Yes} {No}

[Ah...] Neve thought, looking around. [So, that’s what this huge space is for.]

She was familiar with this sort of thing from her time before the Unity Trials. A couple of important factors came to her mind the instant she saw what the trial consisted of.

First, and most importantly, all she had to do was survive. She was not actually required to kill anything, though it was inevitable that in her fight for survival she would do that. That mattered because it made running away an effective strategy and, of course, because over-leveling was a problem she’d been made painfully aware of with the events on the Second Floor and early on into the Third. She did not want to recreate this problem.

Second, the trial would last for 3 minutes. Unless her mana management was on point, it was extremely likely that she’d run out at some point.

[... Actually, the awakened form of Sayran’s Holy Blade lasts until the end of combat, though. Honestly, this might be the best kind of situation to test that thing in.]

Whether she was going to undertake this challenge or not was a given. It was a legendary chest she’d be given access to for doing nothing but survive for 3 minutes.

All of Neve’s thoughts at the moment, instead, were focused solely on how she was going to do that.

"Okay, Erin," she said, turning toward the lamia.

"Yes?"

"So, here’s the situation," Neve began to explain. "See this thing?" She pointed at the chest. "This contains something really powerful. The System that I told you about before is keeping it from us, though, unless we do something first. In order to gain access to this thing, we need to survive being attacked by waves of opponents for 3 minutes. That’s all," she stated, putting some emphasis on her words. "We don’t actually need to kill all of the enemies we’d encounter. We, or I, just need to survive, understand?"

"... And, what will happen once those 3 minutes are over?"

"Well, I assume the enemies will just disappear," Neve replied with a shrug.

"And, what happens to us if they don’t?"

"We’re probably fucked then, since the number of enemies is probably going to be, uh... unreasonable. Still, that’s how this sort of thing usually works."

[The Forces That Be have shown that they prefer to keep their "game design philosophy" simple, and to the point. If I had to guess, I’d say that we’re probably going to be swarmed by a fuck-ton of enemies, and once those 3 minutes pass, they’ll just turn to dust or whatever.]

"Lovely."

Sighing, Erin looked around.

"I would certainly like to get a better sense of our surroundings if we’re going to do something like this. I don’t suppose you can get those voices in your head to brighten things up for us?"

"The room might light up once we get started but, I don’t know."

"Hmph. Well, fine, fine," Erin said. "It is a simple enough objective. I will do my best to distract as many of our opponents as possible but, depending on the number of enemies sent, it will likely be quite difficult."

The implication was clear.

[Even if I can keep Erin on the field throughout these 3 minutes, I’m probably going to be on my own for at least a portion of this.]

Neve nodded back at her.

[Well, whatever. I’m fine with that.]

"I get it."

"Very well," Erin replied. "Shall we get started, then?"

Pushing away whatever nerves she was feeling, Neve raised her hand and tapped her index finger against the "yes" button.

The instant that she did, two things happened.

The door she and Erin had walked through closed on its own and the darkness was mildly alleviated by two rows of torches on pillars that were lit with emerald-colored flames.

Only mildly, though. Even with these new sources of light and Neve’s own {Candlelight} still activated, it was hard to see much.

Following that adjustment, a portal appeared by the same door that had just closed.

Erin quickly positioned herself between it and Neve. The healer took a couple of steps back, looking over at her sword.

[10 Priestess class spells. Okay.]

As five monsters crawled, walked, and flew out from the portal, Neve cast Field of Brilliance behind her, right in front of the chest she couldn’t access.

MP: 1025/1100

[Combat hasn’t exactly "started" yet so that one doesn’t count.]

Two of the creatures were the same fish-like warriors Neve and Erin had fought on the top floor, two were eels just like the one they’d encountered before this, and, one was a slug of some sort with two glowing blue eyes that glowed brightly, conjuring a white rune in front of its allies.

All of them were level 55, a few levels stronger than each of the opponents that Neve had fought earlier.

A timer manifested up above, so massive it nearly took up the entire ceiling. Judging by how Erin’s eyes went up as soon as that clock appeared, it seemed that, unlike with regular System-made prompts and messages, she could see this thing as well.

3:00

2:59

2:58

And, just like that, the monsters lunged at them. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The eels flew from opposite sides of the room, screeching. The fish warriors held their tridents up and went straight for Erin. The slug began radiating some red aura and, a moment later, all four of the other enemies were covered in the same crimson silhouette.

The portal remained open behind the slug.

Neve inhaled sharply and tightened her grip around her staff and her sword.

[... Legendary reward, huh? Well, if this sword is any indicator, it could end up being another game-changer. Yeah, I want that loot. I *really* want that loot. Let’s do this.]