The Lone Healer-Chapter 42: The Hall of the Luminous, Part Seven

"Uh, it was this place, right?" Neve asked herself as she stood outside what she hoped was Minerva’s home.

She tapped on the front door twice. Some footsteps shuffled behind it and the door opened a while later.

Ahlakan stood before Neve, with a raised brow.

"Hey," Neve greeted her. "Just wanted to get some rest before I head over to the Infested Hall again. Can I?"

Ahlakan took a moment to consider her words before nodding.

"Sure."

The girl stepped aside and Neve walked past her.

As Neve walked to the stairs, however, Ahlakan spoke up.

"Excuse me," she said, a little quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Are you truly capable of purifying the Infested Hall?"

"Yes," Neve replied quickly. This NPC curiosity in her had gotten a little annoying already.

Even outside of the Final Challenge, with actual humans around, Neve preferred to simply be allowed to go through her work undisturbed.

"It’ll take time, but I think I can do it," she stated.

Ahlakan looked away then, considering her words.

"Truly? Then... I may finally see the outside."

That sentence caught Neve’s attention.

Curiosity got the better of her and she turned around.

"Hm?" Neve turned, taking a step toward her. "What do you mean?"

"I... I was born in this city," Ahlakan explained. " I was born after the temple became the way that it is. I am the only one in Rorvan who has never seen the outside world."

Neve’s eyes widened.

[Seriously?]

"For all our sakes, I sincerely hope you will be successful."

In Ahlakan’s eyes then, Neve saw something. The look of a person whose hope had long since been snuffed out, but that suddenly had seen her hope be rekindled.

Now that she understood that these people were, effectively, NPCs and that they would likely all disappear the moment she finished the Hall of the Luminous, it was hard for Neve to bring herself to care much about their issues, their thoughts, their feelings... but, who wouldn’t feel their heart sting at least a little after hearing something like that?

[Is this supposed to be some extra motivation on behalf of the Forces That Be? Or, is this a situation like Erin’s case? Are these people somehow going to continue on existing after all of this is done? If that’s the case, then... it would be a little shitty of me to dismiss all of their thoughts and concerns as just NPC stuff... But, if it is, and they’re just going to disappear anyway, then all this could amount to is me losing my focus. I don’t know.]

"I’ll do my best," Neve replied before hurrying over to the guest room.

Closing the door behind her, Neve exhaled slowly.

[It’s... It’s probably best if I try to keep to myself out here. No need to get too attached to anyone.]

Even as she said that, however, Ahlakan’s eyes flashed in front of her own. She’d seen the look on the girl’s face many times in the past.

In the mirror, mostly.

Shaking her head, Neve pulled out her staff and moved to summon Erin.

[Come to think of it, she’s probably going to need a forge to work on in order to actually make anything. Can I buy something like that from the World Shop? Oh, what am I asking? The shop sells fucking internet service. Hell, it sells entire houses. Why wouldn’t it sell a forge?]

As she summoned Erin before her, she opened the World Shop as well. Typing the word "forge" into its search function brought up a few different types, the cheapest of which cost 1000 tokens.

[... That’s not that expensive, actually. But, this is the cheapest one. I would guess that means that the quality ceiling on the kind of equipment it can make is low.]

Erin looked around, stoically. As she saw that they were in the same bedroom as before, she turned toward Neve and asked:

"Are we fighting anything?"

"Uh, no."

"Oh," she replied. "Then..."

[Then, why did I summon you? Is that what you’re thinking?]

"I wanted to talk to you for a bit."

"Talk?" Erin asked, giving a self-deprecating smile. "I’m surprised. Do mages often have casual conversations with their summons?"

"Probably not."

"Lucky me, then, I suppose."

[I thought she’d taken the whole "you’re a summon" thing better than this. I was mistaken.]

Sighing, Neve closed the World Shop menu and sat down at the edge of the bed.

[... I guess it’s gonna take a while for her to get over that. To be fair, yeah, it would take me a while to get over literally not being a real person too. Or, whatever you could describe her situation as.]

Erin sat down next to her, her hands resting lazily by her sides.

"So, uh... Remember how I told you I was gonna get you some gear?"

"Yes."

"I got you some swords," Neve stated before pulling them out of her inventory and placing them on the bed.

Erin flinched. Neve was reminded then that she couldn’t see anything System-related.

Meaning that in her eyes, it literally looked like Neve had just manifested a pair of blades out of thin air.

"Uh, I’ll explain how I did that in a bit," Neve muttered.

"I... see. May I?" She asked as she moved to pick one up. Neve nodded. She grabbed one and inspected it, Her slitted pupils massaged the blade, roaming up and down as her brows furrowed. "What material is this made from?"

The honest curiosity in her tone was nice to hear.

"One that can only be found here," Neve replied. "It’s called Silicium. I’m not too sure how good it is. What do you think?"

She almost doubted that Erin had heard her, given how the woman’s eyes remained fixed on the swords in her hands.

She stood up, slithering a short distance away. Swinging the blades a couple of times in front of her, she narrowed her eyes at them.

"Decent," she stated. "Light and easy to handle. I need to use these on enemies to assess their strength, but my initial impressions are positive."

[She sounds like a game critic,] Neve thought, holding back giggles.

"If I was to give you the same materials, do you think you would be able to make better weapons than this?"

Upon hearing that question, Erin turned toward Neve and raised a brow high.

"I’m... I’m guessing the reason you were able to tell that I have some experience with smithing has to do with the fact that I am a summon, right?"

"Yeah," Neve replied. "I can tell what you’re good at."

"Hmph. And, here I thought you would be more excited to know. Unless you’re not interested in women, I suppose."

Neve raised a brow so high it almost hurt when she heard that.

Erin didn’t elaborate on that, though. She paused, considering the earlier question as she looked back at the swords she held.

"Maybe..." She muttered. "It has been quite some time since I last crafted anything, however."

"It was a long time since you’d fought too, but you shook the rust off fast with that, right?"

"I did..." She went back to the bed and sat down next to Neve. "When I was trapped in that cage you found me in, I did find myself thinking about things like this. I was there for so long that I lost sense of what combat was like, what my arms could do, and the skills that I had. It was, in part, the thoughts of wielding a weapon again and creating high-quality items, that kept me from going insane."

Hearing that while knowing how the real Erin Leynall’s story ended was heart-wrenching.

"Was that all?" Neve asked.

Her intention had been to learn what else Erin cared about. The other things that made her tick.

Maybe the lamia had interpreted this question differently, however, as she gave an unexpected answer.

"No," Erin replied quietly. "I also thought about what it might be like to touch another person again."

She turned toward Neve, smiling, though that smile didn’t quite reach her half-lidded eyes.

"Perhaps what it might be like to touch a cute girl. One with big, sapphire eyes, and hair like a flowing lake." She shifted closer to Neve. "Is that the answer you were hoping for out of your *summon*?"

Swallowing, Neve turned away.

"Not really. I just want to get to know you better."

Her answer surprised Erin just as much as it surprised her.

"Why?" Erin asked, as her smile faded away as quickly as it had appeared. "I can’t imagine that would be a valuable use of your time. I do not truly exist, after all."

Neve opened her mouth to respond but could not find the words to do so.

[I wish I was better at this sort of thing,] she thought, sighing.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t. So, instead of even attempting to say something clever, that might lift Erin’s spirits, she stood up and walked to the door.

"We should go back to the temple... I want to get it over with as soon as possible."

Erin stood, holding those swords by her sides as she gave Neve a sad smirk.

"As you command," she said, and Neve couldn’t tell if she was being mocked or if Erin was making fun of herself.