No one said much as the players began moving through the second floor. As they ventured out past the safe zone, it seemed as though this floor would not function the same way the last one did, with an army of monsters meeting them right at the start.
The mood was awful, with most players keeping their heads low as they begrudgingly dragged their legs forward. Again, Neve felt for them, but it couldn't be helped.
This was just how things were.
As they walked over the sand, on their way to the red marker on the map, indicating this floor's boss, Neve kept her eyes peeled. A scream from somewhere behind her caught her attention, though.
"Uwah!?" A guy yelled out and everyone turned toward him.
A grey, sickly-looking hand had sprouted from the ground, grabbing his right leg.
"What?" Neve asked.
More screams followed. Her eyes went from one player to another, all of which were being grabbed like this.
"Monsters? Are they in the sand!?" Carson asked in turn.
Almost as if on cue, a few hands nearby burst out.
Neve was grabbed, along with everyone around her.
"Agh!"
Neve flailed wildly, nearly falling on her back. The thing's grip was too strong. Neve felt like her leg was about to come off. She tried, but she was powerless to shake it away.
Stella, however, came running toward her and cut the hand off with the blade of her spear, causing Neve to slip as the pressure pulling away at her was relieved.
The instant her back made contact with the sand, another hand sprouted. This one wrapped around her throat.
"Hegh!" Neve couldn't breathe. The hand squeezed her neck so hard that Neve wasn't worried she'd be choked to death, she worried her neck would break. Stella, however, came and cut that one off too.
"I've got you!" Stella told her as she grabbed her by her shoulders, pulling her up onto her feet.
Neve coughed twice.
[Holy shit.]
"Look out," she tried to say then, as a monster fully came out of the ground from behind Stella.
They were zombies.
Off pure reflex, Stella spun and kicked the creature in the head.
The blow was effective, but just barely.
Neve moved to cast some spells, but the look on Stella's face made her pause.
[Huh?]
Then, she spotted the creature's level. Instantly, she understood the problem.
Level 25
MP: 50/50
[Huh?]
Wondering if, maybe, it was just this creature in particular that was this strong, Neve checked the others' levels as well, trying to push the sounds of screaming players out of her mind for a moment.
No. Each and every one of the zombies was around level 24.
[Their levels are higher... Why? Why did they get stronger? Is it just because we're on the second floor?]
"Focus, Neve," Stella said. "You're a healer. Your responsibilities are too great for you to keep standing around like this!"
"R-Right!"
As she heard that, Neve began looking around to see who needed the most help. One of the zombies was holding a sword. It slashed at a girl's stomach, and the woman fell back, her guts spilling out from her body.
Along with a few other healers, Neve cast {Healing Ground} under her and the wound on her body slowly closed, cutting off the guts that had escaped her. If it had just been Neve's spell, individually, the player would have just died, but the healing effects stacked and she was saved.
Another player took that zombie on then, distracting it before it could finish her off.
Continuing to inspect the battlefield, Neve only had to cast a few more spells before the wave of zombies was dealt with.
The whole "fight" lasted just over a minute, but Neve was tired.
"Is that all?" Carson asked, looking around.
"Seems like it," Stella responded. "The boss marker hasn't moved."
"… Then this floor's different. They want to whittle us down before we get to the boss."
"Let them try!" Allen said, chuckling. "If every monster they send after us is this weak, we have nothing to fear."
"Yet," Uriel added.
"Hey."
Another voice spoke up.
The high-level players went quiet and turned toward it. Neve did the same.
Thomas stood there, his armor covered in blood, with a dark expression on his face. The level 8 player walked up to them.
"Yes?" Carson asked.
"Don't you think we should take a moment to rest?" He asked. To Neve's ears, it sounded like he was holding back a deep anger. "If their intention is to win a battle of endurance, then we need to keep our energy high."
"H-He's right!" A man shouted. "We can't just keep moving like this."
"Like I said before," Carson began responding. "You're welcome to-"
"So, you want to sentence us to death simply because we can't keep up?" Thomas asked, cutting him off.
That question brought silence upon the group. Carson put his weapon away before continuing the conversation.
"You act as though I designed this place. I didn't."
"But, you know that we are not as strong as you. You know that we won't be able to keep up if we move forward, right? Doesn't that mean our deaths are on your shoulders?"
Carson scoffed, looking away. Thomas took another step forward.
"One hour. That's all we need," he said.
Carson put his axes away, looking down for a few seconds.
"… John," Carson said, looking away. "You're our strongest. What do you think we should do?"
The man in the black and gold armor was cleaning blood off both his swords as he was posed that question. He shrugged.
"We meant to keep this a democracy, right?" John asked. "We should rest, then. If that's what the majority wants, then it's fine."
"Then we'll do that," Carson said. "Resting for a single hour is pointless, though. We'll walk back to the safe zone and set up camp for the night."
Thomas did not give a word of gratitude as he quickly spun around and walked away.
The other low-level players followed behind him. Neve watched them go, feeling uneasy.
[That was... kind of intense,] she thought as she followed behind the high-level players. [Oh, well.]
---
Later, the tents were set up once more at the safe zone. As before, the low-level players were separated from the high-level ones, to prevent the high-level ones from doing anything in the nighttime.
A lot of the players had gone to sleep already, including the high-levels. As for Neve, however, she felt she couldn't just yet.
She was sitting atop a hill that overlooked a large part of the second floor's landscape. With some of her remaining WS tokens, and some that she gained from helping with the last two fights, she purchased a single slice of pepperoni pizza and a wooden bench to sit on.
Checking her status, this is what she saw:
Neve Stephens
Level 20
MP: 330/330
EXP: 141/200
Activity Points: 120
WS Tokens: 32
[Almost leveled up,] she noted. [Would be good to get stronger before we get to the 3rd floor. Though, with how things are going…]
"This spot taken?"
A voice cut through the silent atmosphere.
Neve turned to the right. Carson was standing there with a friendly smile on his face.
"Uh, no," Neve responded, shifting to the left to give him more space. He was a pretty big guy, after all.
"Agh…" Carson sat down with a huff. Like Neve was doing, he stared ahead. "You want a drink?" He asked, suddenly. "I'll pay for it."
"Ah, no, sorry," Neve shook her head. "I don't drink."
"Really? Why's that? You thinkin' of applying to the Church's Guild or something?"
"No, no," Neve laughed a little, forcing a smile. "Just… drinking brings up bad memories."
"Ah, understood." He didn't press her on that. Though, he quickly bought a bottle of liquor from the World Shop and began drinking on his own.
The man wasn't wearing his armor, right now. He was wearing a regular T-shirt and some shorts. He looked so… normal.
Bulky and absurdly buff, but normal.
"So, Neve… What do you think?"
"About?"
"Everything," Carson said. "How we've done. How we're doing. How things are."
"Uh… Not much to say," she muttered. "Looks like things are going to get harder, though."
"Heh… Yeah, seems like it," Carson gave a bitter chuckle. "I guess I should apologize for that."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"You haven't caught on? I swore you would have, given how clever you seemed in that meeting we had before."
"Ehm, no, I haven't."
"Ah, well, uh... let me explain. So, you know how this place scales with our levels, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, see, uh," he took another sip, "what that means is that the level of the monsters here is probably going to match the average level of our group."
"Um, yeah, I understood that much," Neve nodded.
"Well, Stella had some suspicions after seeing the zombies' levels. So, she math for us once we set up camp. You know she used to be a pencil pusher, right?"
"She told me."
"Yeah, she's good at math. To try to figure it out, she took note of our players' levels and calculated what the average would be. She said that there were a few ways to do that, but that her calculations didn't make sense. Then, she told us that if you do try to calculate the most common level and call that the average, it would be something like 13 or 15. But, that there's one method, one bullshit way of doing things that makes the levels make sense. The one that worked was, uh, taking into account all of our levels, taking the highest, taking the lowest, and using whatever number was in between. I think that's what she did, anyway. I don't know, I didn't catch everything. Anyway, you understand the issue, right?"
"... Ah," Neve lowered her head. "Yeah."
"Yeah," Carson replied with a smile. "John, Allen, Stella, Uriel, and I, and all the other high-levels. If the 'average' level is calculated that way, then as the lower-level players die, our levels will push the 'average' up."
"But," Neve interrupted him, "why was the boss's level like 50 or whatever?"
"That's simpler," Carson said. "The boss's level was 51. Isn't that kind of a very specific number?"
"I guess."
"Well, Stella assumes that it's because the way the boss's level was calculated is like this: the system took the highest level player, John, and made the boss's level that plus 10. You add it up, you get 51. Take it all in, think about it for a second."
Neve did just that. She played back the latest fight in her mind and tried to analyze each of the variables she'd just been presented with.
It didn't take long before she realized why Carson was apologizing.
"I get it now."
[So, that means that, as lower-level players die, the level of the monsters is going to get higher, because the lowest level is getting brought higher to the top, that being John's. But,] she continued, [even if John was to somehow die, as long as the higher-level players exist, things are going to be harder for the rest of us. Shit.]
"Wait, but," Neve added, "shouldn't the lower-levels be getting stronger too?"
"Huh?"
"That one level 8 guy was level 8 before coming into the First Floor... and he was still level 8 after. If the monsters' levels are getting higher, it would be more manageable if the lower-levels were getting stronger too, but..."
"That's cause we're doing most of the work, which is also not good because that means they aren't getting as much EXP," Carson stated. Neve paused. "Also... You heard what happened with those four low-level players, right? They ran away and tried to leave the dungeon. I'm guessing that a lot of these people... I don't know if they've even swung their swords once in the time that they've been here. Anyway, who knew this place's game design would be that broken, huh?" Carson cackled. "Fuck, that stings. The guild representatives came here to help but it turns out that we're fucking things up for you. So, again, on behalf of all of us, I'm sorry."
Neve took that apology, but she couldn't accept it.
"It's not your fault," Neve shook her head.
"I'm pretty sure it is."
"No, it isn't."
Carson turned toward her. The look on his face begged for an explanation.
"It's on the lower-level players for coming here in the first place," Neve shrugged. "This is the most important mission humanity has. Why would someone who's level 8 or whatever decide that they wanted to come here? They must have been suicidal."
"Well, why did you decide to come here?" Carson asked.
Neve paused, swallowing and looking away.
"… Because I'm suicidal."
That statement caught Carson off-guard.
Neve looked down, half-closing her eyes. Exhaling deeply, she explained herself.
"I… After the Unity Trials started, I tried to look for something to live for. I became a healer, I tried to help people, and I did everything that I could for anyone that I could. But, nothing worked. I had lost everything I liked," she said, laughing somewhat weakly. "I lost my family. I lost my- I used to be a gamer, but I lost my passion for that even after people discovered you could buy internet service off the World Shop. I wasn't dating anyone, I had no friends. I… I had nothing to live for."
Neve leaned back the same way Carson had been doing, staring up at the night sky.
"I heard about this. The 10th expedition into an impossible dungeon, or whatever. So, I… I thought I had enough."
"… You came here to die?" Carson was in disbelief. Neve nodded. "But, you're trying so hard out in the fights. What's that about?"
"Because, even though I want to die, it would suck if other people got hurt because of me. If other people got hurt because I failed, you know?" She looked over at him. "So, I want to do the best that I can before it happens. I want it to happen naturally. I want to be fighting a boss, with you and Stella, maybe, and I want to have the boss get one last, lucky hit on me just before you guys are able to take it out. That's how I want to go out."
"Hmph," Carson shook his head. "I don't know much about your life, Neve. But you're far too young to be talking like that."
"Is there a right age to start talking like that?" Neve asked with a smile. "I don't know if I can wait that long."
"… I hope my son never starts feeling like that."
"You have a son?" Neve asked. She had known of Carson since before they met here, in the Final Challenge, but she hadn't known that.
"Yeah," he answered. "He's a couple of months old."
"Months!? You… You had him in the middle of all this?"
Carson laughed loudly.
"Why do you think I fight so hard?" He laughed even louder. "Neve, before everything kicked off, I was working construction. My wife was pregnant when the monsters appeared. I was scared, I was terrified, actually. But, it didn't take much time at all for me to start fighting. I had someone to look after, and that mattered more than anything else."
Neve couldn't believe that story. Compared to his, her story seemed so much less meaningful.
"I don't mean to say this as a brag or anything, but, that's what it's like to have something you want to fight for. Stella's got a promotion lined up at the Valkyries, you know? If she succeeds here, they want to have her be the guildmaster. John almost has enough WS tokens to buy himself a private home, away from the real world. He actually hates fighting, so he's pretty excited about the potential of early retirement. Uriel thinks that this whole thing is a test from God, and he wants to prove himself to him. Allen… I don't know what motivates him. Probably drugs and hookers, if I had to guess, I dunno."
Neve chuckled. Carson smiled back at her.
"For me, right now, what motivates me is this." He reached into his pockets and pulled out a piece of paper. "This is a journal of sorts. I had no idea how long I'd be here, so I figured I'd take this and write something in it every now and then. I want to give this to my son when I walk out of here."
"I… I see," she responded. Carson kept going, though.
"Point is, I think, if you wait long enough, eventually, something comes around that's worth fighting for. Something that's worth living for. So, I'm sorry, but I hope it doesn't happen," Carson told her. He stood up, facing the moonlight defiantly. His scarred, bulky arms rested tiredly by his sides. "I hope that if that boss fight takes a shot at you, I'll be there to tank it. And I hope that if you get out of here, you'll find what you want to fight for. And that I might convince you to go have a drink with me sometime."
"That last one's less likely than me finding something to fight for, honestly."
"Well, shit."
They laughed together, sitting there.
However, the good times did not last.
There were raised voices coming from behind the two of them, by the camps. Both players turned toward them.
"What's happening?" Neve asked.
"Uh... Looks like Stella's arguing with someone."
Quickly, the two of them got off the bench. In the distance, there were two groups gathered around the high-level players' tents.
John, Allen, and the other high-level players, and the low-level players standing opposite them, with Thomas leading them.
Stella and Uriel were speaking to the level 8 player. The Valkyrie seemed incredibly frustrated.
"... I'm sorry, but we can't do that." Neve heard Stella tell him with finality, turning around to walk back to her tent.
She didn't catch any other part of this discussion. But, she didn't need to. What happened next was all she needed to see.
"So am I."
Then, as soon as he said that, Thomas raised up his hands and threw two daggers, as quickly as the low-level player could.
One landed between Father Uriel's eyes, killing him instantly. The other went through the back of Stella's neck.
Stella fell forward and blood began pooling around her body before anyone could react.
[What...] Neve froze. The pizza she'd been eating fell to the dirt. [What just happened?]