The Lone Healer-Chapter 44: The Hall of the Luminous, Part Nine

With Wave 10 done, Neve could exit the Infested Hall once again.

Before she did so, she allocated every Attribute Point she’d gained from leveling up.

All in all, she’d leveled up 3 times.

Level 44

MP: 600/600 (+300)

EXP: 10/440

AP: 1690

WS Tokens: 7560

---

Endurance: 20

Speed: 40

Precision: 15

Strength: 5

Arcane: 60

Neve felt relieved, looking at her attributes.

[Speed being at 40 is pretty big, isn’t it? With that much, I should be able to protect myself at a higher level... The problem is, even this might not be enough to get through the next 5 waves.]

As she’d calculated previously, wave 15, which she would be taking on the next time she tackled the Hall of the Luminous, would be composed of level 45 enemies. Which meant that, finally, she would be under-leveled staring at that wave.

[It’s just a single-level gap, but I definitely need to strategize a little more, going forward. It’s pretty unlikely that I’m going to be able to summon Erin through the entirety of the next five waves. I might... Huh?]

She stopped, as she came out and found that even more citizens were gathered ahead of the temple than before.

Each and every one of them regarded her with disbelieving eyes. Neve didn’t mind that too much. What she did mind was how a man with a spear stood before her as she tried to walk out.

"You... survived?" He asked.

"Evidently," Neve replied. "It’s not done yet, but I’m making progress. I am pretty tired, though. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get some rest."

He stepped to the side and Neve muttered a low "thanks". The crowd watched her pass with some awe.

Despite the fact that Erin had done most of the work so far, Neve still felt exhausted just going over everything in her head. It was one of those moments where Neve felt like if she went to sleep right now, she might just be out for days.

Eyes trailed her all the way back to Mirnerva’s house. As Neve arrived, she knocked on the door twice and a voice said:

"Come in."

Opening the door, as she went through she found Ahlakan standing in the living room, in front of a large canvas held up by an easel.

She was painting. Neve stopped for a moment, taken in by the sight, as Ahlakan looked back at her. The woman glanced down at her stained clothes before turning her eyes back to her work.

"You got hurt."

"Uh, no," Neve replied. "This is some blood from the monsters. Comes with the whole ’fighting unending hordes of horrors’ thing."

The way Erin had disposed of them was... quite violent.

"Didn’t you say you’d come to deal with it, but now you’re saying the hordes are ’unending’? Have you changed your mind?"

"No. It was just an expression."

"Hmph."

Neve moved toward the stairs, but she did not leave the living room just yet.

"Is your mom home?" She asked.

"Do you require anything from her?"

"Nah, I’m just curious."

"... Well, no," Ahlakan replied. "She’s out gathering herbs."

"Herbs? What kind?" Neve asked.

"The useful kind."

She did not elaborate.

It was clear to Neve that, although she wasn’t being outright hostile, it also seemed as though Ahlakan wasn’t too sure what to make of her. So, she decided not to press her on that. Instead, she took a couple of steps toward her and looked at the image the woman was in the middle of creating.

It was a painting of a city, much like the one the girl lived in, but with white buildings, and a sheet of bright blue over it rather than the ceiling of rocks this place was hidden under. Neve was shocked, honestly. It was of pretty high quality.

"What are you painting?" Neve asked.

Ahlakan glanced at her wordlessly, before looking back at the image she was creating.

"I..." She paused. "Just some things my mother told me about." She gave Neve a look and, as she realized that the human wasn’t walking away, she elaborated. "She said that, outside of this place, there are cities just like Rorvan, but with no rocks around them. But, instead, hugged by massive fields of grass and dirt. Under a blue sky," she said. "I’ve never seen it. I wonder if this is what she means."

Raising a brow, Neve walked up.

All thoughts that she was an NPC and that she wasn’t "real" just faded away, if only for a moment.

"The sky should be a little brighter," she said.

"Hm?" Ahlakan turned toward her. "You..."

"I said I was from outside the city before, remember?" Neve asked, smiling a little. "The sky should be brighter. And, there are these things called ’clouds’, little white puffs of smoke going through the sky too."

Ahlakan pouted then.

"... Do you truly have to boast about the fact that, unlike me, you haven’t been stuck in this place your whole life?"

"No," Neve replied. "I’m just giving you a bit of a preview of what you’ll see once I’m done with the Infested Hall."

Ahlakan glared at her then.

Well, maybe it was a glare? Neve couldn’t quite tell. All she could tell was that the girl was looking at her quite intensely.

"Do you also have knowledge of alchemy?"

Neve pulled back.

"What?"

"Alchemy," Ahlakan replied. "Are your kind also alchemists?"

"Uh, no."

"Hm. Then, wait for my mother to return. Maybe I can show you something *you* haven’t seen before."

Neve smirked.

"Do you really have to boast about that?"

Ahalakan looked away, but just before she turned, Neve saw a hint of a smile on her lips.

"... My apologies."

---

Neve took a small nap after that.

She had a dream, surprisingly. A short one, but a dream nonetheless. One could also call it a reminder of sorts. An extremely unnecessary one that only made Neve give a long, frustrated sigh, as she woke up.

It was of herself, back in middle school, facing what was easily one of the most embarrassing moments of her life. She stood in the middle of an empty, open-air basketball court, opposite a girl she’d been having a crush on for months.

Having built up the courage to undertake the difficult task of asking her out, she stood there, with the other girl who had told her to meet up back here.

Naturally, Neve had thought they’d be alone, but... No. Not only were they not alone, but the audience that had been lying in wait to hear Neve confess had all come with cameras, immortalizing the scene through a 480p recording that haunted Neve from then, all the way up to high school.

Thankfully, the opening of the door downstairs signaled that Minerva had arrived from going out to gather those herbs, and that took Neve’s mind off that memory.

She walked out of the guest room and hurried down, wearing some pajamas she’d bought from the World Shop with 50 tokens.

Minerva was in the living room, next to some others who deposited the herbs, bid farewell, gave Neve a bit of side-eye, and promptly left.

The healer walked over.

"Uh, Ahlakan told me you guys knew a little about alchemy. Is that true?"

"Indeed we do," she replied proudly. "My daughter’s ramblings must have been keeping you busy. How goes your fight with the Infested Hall?"

"Made more progress today," Neve replied. "I’m hoping to have it be done in about two more days."

"Truly?" Minerva asked, looking at Neve with some surprise. "Hearing that salvation may be just two days away, after spending so many years trapped, sounds... Unreal."

"Don’t celebrate just yet. There’s still a chance I’ll end up getting myself killed."

"Ahlakan," Minerva turned to her daughter and nodded at the herbs, "perhaps you could make something to help prevent that from happening?"

"I could try," she answered. "Let me get my tools."

As Ahlakan walked away, Neve found herself feeling quite excited.

As Neve had noted before, there were generally three ways to increase one’s power.

One, to level up, two, to acquire better equipment, and three, to acquire better spells or techniques.

There was, however, technically a fourth way. That was, to use potions. Unfortunately, however, alchemists were exceptionally rare.

When the Forces That Be thrust the Unity Trials onto humanity, they’d done so by making monsters appear and, as Neve had experienced, even turning some people into monsters against their will.

That meant that when people made the choice of what Class they wanted, a lot of them did not exactly have time to make an educated choice. And, those who did, did not think too far ahead.

No one could have predicted, at the moment, that society would slightly bounce back. That alchemists, blacksmiths, and so on would be in very high demand just a year later.

So, almost no one picked those kinds of classes. Even healers like Neve were rare.

Ahlakan came back with some typical alchemist tools. A mortar and pestle, an alembic, etc. She placed them on the counter, next to the herbs and an empty flask.

Neve stood aside with crossed arms, waiting to see what she cooked up.

Ahlakan took some of the herbs, purple flowers of some sort that had a dim glow to them, and threw them in the mortar. As she started grinding the flowers down with the pestle, a bar appeared over her head.

Neve watched it slowly fill up and, once it was done, she took the mortar and held it over the empty flask.

Liquid poured out from it, filling up the flask.

{Minor Healing Potion}

Neve grinned.

"Well," Ahlakan wiped off some sweat and took a step back. "Are you impressed?"

"... Decently," Neve replied, pondering what this could mean for her current venture.