The Lone Healer-Chapter 125: No Time to Waste

{Neve}

The fifth floor’s safe zone was just as odd as the last one.

Situated atop a stone alcove of sorts, it overlooked a massive, sprawling city with high-reaching, elegant buildings. The kind of construction one would expect from a typical high-fantasy setting. With the only exception that, strangely, the streets were covered in a dense, green fog.

It was frustrating. From here, with her hands on a metal railing, as she looked out from above, Neve couldn’t see any enemies, though she guessed they were there.

"Does your System have any recommendations on whether I should use these knives or the claws?" Erin asked, as her eyes scanned Lia’s daggers.

Neve had picked them up off Lia’s body, along with the cloth she had been wrapped in.

Death’s Touch

{Unique}

{Twin Daggers}

{Class Req: None}

{Daggers wielded by Lia, the Kinslayer.}

{Effect: Critical strikes deal 50% bonus damage.}

{Val: 15000 WST}

Bloodstained Rags

{Unique}

{Clothing}

{Class Req: None}

{Lia’s clothes. Reduced to nothing but rags, this outfit is so worn out that it is impossible to tell what she’d been wearing originally.}

{Effect: Wearer is 15% more persuasive}

{Val: 15000 WST}

[Kinda fuckin’ weird that an outfit made up of literal rags makes you more persuasive, but whatever. Come to think of it, is that how she was able to get me to that bell tower when I first met her? Honestly, makes me kind of uncomfortable to think of the System messing with my mind.]

"No, though maybe those daggers could be better situationally. If we find an enemy that has some specific weak points or something," Neve spoke in murmurs as she kept her eyes on the streets below.

Ahlakan walked up, the grey-skinned woman’s white eyes beginning to scan the streets as well.

"It’s ominous down there... Reminds me of home, but... Even more stagnant, somehow."

Maybe it was by accident, but Ahlakan’s hand landed on top of Neve’s on the railing. Neve flinched, taking her eyes off the 5th Floor briefly.

Her skin got hotter. Ahlakan kept her eyes ahead, though she did not remove her hand from Neve’s.

As the healer’s mind was short-circuiting, Erin slithered to her other side.

"Ominous indeed," she said. "Just looking down at that place is sending chills up my spine."

Neve couldn’t say the same.

Mainly, because all she could think of right now was that she needed to get through this place as quickly as possible.

"Okay, listen," Neve said, removing herself from that spot. She walked back a few steps, pacing around and keeping her eyes on the ground. "We need to make it through this place, and the next one in one week. Assuming the next floor is harder to get through than this one, we can afford to spend 3 days here and 4 in the next." She clapped her hands and looked over at Erin. "The sooner we get started, the better."

"Of course," Erin replied. "I’m ready when you are, so just give me the word."

Ahlakan went back to looking at the streets below. Neve crossed her arms, gripping them hard as she tried her hardest to ignore the complicated feelings in her heart.

She’d said it before, after all. Her vengeance was the point of this journey. If she failed to attain it, then what’s the point?

At that moment, she received a few donations.

Most were from random people, but as she scrolled through them she found a familiar name. One she’d been hoping to hear back from.

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 19 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 20 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 1 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 20 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 21 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 19 WS Token}

{Daily Token Transfer Cap: 100/2500}

WST: 22538

The message she’d just received read: "Status".

Quickly, Neve replied "halfway", with the message costing her 76 WST to send.

WST: 22462

Just as she finished sending the message, a hand touched her wrist.

Looking to the right, Neve found Ahlakan standing there, holding onto her. Her hands felt so hot they almost burned her. The look on her face made Neve’s mind go blank.

"It has been a while since we... spent time together," Ahlakan noted. "Could you afford to take a short break, maybe?"

The healer’s thoughts wandered, speculating as to the other woman’s intentions. Maybe she just wanted to talk, but as she saw her standing so close, holding her so gently, other possibilities surfaced.

Neve turned away and closed her eyes.

Part of her wanted to say "yes". Her guilt was currently thrusting a long stake through her heart. But, Neve couldn’t allow herself to indulge that notion. At least, not yet.

"Maybe later," Neve muttered. "I... I have a lot to do."

She tried as hard as she could to keep Thomas and his group’s actions at the forefront of her mind’s eye.

She could see it so vividly if she tried. The other players getting slaughtered right in front of her, as she stood there helplessly with a knife pressed against her neck.

Slowly, the anger that bubbled up inside of her just from thinking about it overtook everything else.

Once again, she removed herself from the situation and walked toward the safe zone’s exit.

"I’ll be back as soon as I can be," Neve promised, however. "I just... I need to do this."

Ahlakan gave her a slightly sad, but understanding expression.

"Well... You have your duties, I’m sure. Best of luck out there, Neve."

The healer walked away, feeling like her heart was tearing itself in half.

Erin watched her approach with a pair of raised brows.

"Please, don’t," Neve said with a long sigh before the woman spoke.

"Oh, I wasn’t going to say much, dearest summoner of mine. I will just say this, though. I really hope this revenge of yours will taste that much sweeter than she does, since you want it so badly."

"It will," Neve promised. "It definitely will."

---

{Charlotte}

This was to be Charlotte’s first regular day of journalistic work ever since deciding to start doing dungeons.

With a minor stash of World Shop Tokens built up, Charlotte could afford to send at least a few quick responses to Neve.

Like right now, as the healer told her she was apparently halfway done with the final challenge. She didn’t say anything else, but Charlotte didn’t mind being patient when it came to these interactions.

As long as the healer didn’t get herself killed before she could tell Charlotte anything substantial, anyway.

"So... There’s a group of psycho killers out to get you, and you think *now* is a good time to throw yourself back into these open battlefields?" Her camerawoman, a tomboy by the name of Ori, asked her. "Are you, uh... are you sure you want to do that?"

"Someone’s gotta report on all of this," Charlotte argued as she and Ori walked out of her car. "And you know no one else will get as close as they need to in order to really capture the essence of these outbreaks." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"With good reason," Ori replied. "You know, since there are monsters and all."

"We’ll. Be. Fine," Charlotte waved the matter away. "Besides, I’m far more concerned about the Hidden Blade Guild than I am about the monsters this time around."

"You think they’ll just murder a player in the middle of an outbreak?"

"They could," Charlotte nodded. "So, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll begin reporting as we usually do, but if you see any players doing anything suspicious, you let me know, alright? Oh, and, obviously, if, let’s say, some random archer starts aiming at me instead of the monsters, I’d also appreciate a quick heads-up."

"I’ll do my best," Ori replied with a shrug.

"You always do, mon amour. Now, let’s get to it."

The outbreak this time around was taking place at an intersection, where the streets were about as clogged as they would have been before the Unity Trials, only instead of there being a traffic jam and some red lights, men and beasts were fighting to the death at the center.

The camera went live and Charlotte did her usual thing.

"Good evening, everyone. Chaos has sprouted in downtown Starlight City! A green dungeon, with monsters ranging from level 11 to 20, has turned into a portal for the enemy, causing all sorts of bloodthirsty creatures to swarm the streets."

Charlotte and Ori peeked out from behind a garbage bin, as steel met monstrous shells and magical spells were traded back and forth up ahead.

"It seems like the Golden Dragon guild was the first to respond, with multiple members wearing their signature black and gold here, countering the forces. We haven’t taken too many casualties yet! Our players are holding strong in the face of such nightmarish opposition!"

She didn’t actually know if that was the case or not, but it didn’t matter.

What mattered was the narrative.

Hopelessness was what the Hidden Blade Guild was weaponizing to gather their members. Hope was what Charlotte needed to create to defeat them.

If that meant giving people a false sense of what was actually happening, well...

... She wouldn’t be the first news outlet to do that, would she?

"I think..."

Just as Charlotte had been about to continue narrating to the camera, Ori gestured at something behind her. Quite desperately, actually.

Charlotte quickly turned around and found a tank-class player running straight for her.

Level 7

MP: 40/40

[Oh? This early?]

Charlotte pushed the camera away, aiming it down so that it wouldn’t capture this moment.

She didn’t want to give the Hidden Blade Guild any publicity.

The man attacked her. Ori gave an uncharacteristically girly shriek for her, but Charlotte reacted by dashing into the attack.

She pulled her bow out of her inventory as the man’s arms crashed into her left shoulder because Charlotte was far too close now for the swing he just attempted.

She nocked an arrow and fell to her knees.

Pulling it back and letting it fly, the arrow went through the man’s chin, skewering his head.

He hadn’t heard, apparently, that Charlotte was almost twice his level, thanks to all of the grinding she’d done for the sake of her communication with Neve.

[That was for Jack, you piece of shit!]

{Player Kill Bonus!}

EXP Gained: 200

EXP: 240/120

Level Up!

WST Gained: 400

WST: 1830

The man fell back with a thud.

Charlotte quickly put her bow away and grabbed him by his legs, dragging him away so that the camera wouldn’t catch him once she raised it up again.

Ori just stared at her, the whole time.

"C-Charlotte... Holy fuck, dude."

"Le spectacle continue, Ori," Charlotte replied with a smirk. "Come on. We have some more reporting to do."