{One Year Later}
Neve hated most things about the new world. But, cave-type dungeons were certainly high up on the list of the worst things it had to offer.
The space around her was so cramped and humid that she almost felt like she was walking through slime. The smell was like someone had taken a shit and forgotten to flush it for over a week. The darkness, mitigated only by a single torch, made her feel like there was always something looking over her shoulder, and the monsters were just the creepiest here.
"Heads up!" The tank called out, taking Neve out of her thoughts. The man, wearing a full set of iron plate armor, pointed ahead. "More goblins."
[Awesome,] Neve said sarcastically, wrapping her hands tightly around her staff. Inhaling sharply, she backed off one step to get a better view of the group.
Their archer quickly nocked three arrows, intending to use the skill {Flurry}, which allowed her to attack with multiple arrows at once. Their tank raised his shield and his body was covered in a white aura, as Neve guessed he was using {Stonewall}, which slightly boosted his defenses. As for Neve herself, her only preparation was to use the skill {Sacred Ground}, a move that reduced the amount of damage her allies would take while standing in its field.
[I need to keep an eye on my mana,] Neve reminded herself. [Let's see…]
She opened her status and looked through it for a moment, while the goblins screeched ahead, noticing them.
Status:
Neve Stephens
Level 20
MP: 250/330
EXP: 31/200
Activity Points: 50
WS Tokens: 40
---
Attributes:
Endurance: 5
{Governs physical toughness and rate of tiredness}
Speed: 10
{Governs physical speed}
Precision: 15
{Accuracy, timing, and fluidity of movement}
Strength: 5
{Physical strength}
Arcane: 33
{Determines the potency of spells and overall mana pool}
---
Spells:
Sacred Ground – 50MP
{Reduces damage taken within a zone by a small amount}
Healing Ground – 25MP
{Heals for a moderate amount within a zone}
Hard Target – 75MP
{Briefly reduces damage taken from projectiles on a target}
Candlelight - 10MP
{Creates an orb that can provide a small amount of light in darkness}
Traits:
Dexterous Mage
{Spells are cast 10% faster}
---
Effects:
None
---
Skills:
Alchemy: 5
Archery: 5
Blade: 5
Blunt: 5
Blacksmithing: 5
Blocking: 5
Dual Wielding: 5
Unarmed: 5
Healing Magic: 40
Combat Magic: 25
Utility Magic: 25
Lance: 5
Summoning: 10
Sneaking: 15
Speech: 10
Scouting: 5
---
Equipment:
Priestess Hood {Lesser}
Priestess Garbs {Lesser}
Priestess Globes {Lesser}
Priestess Leggings {Lesser}
Priestess Shoes {Lesser}
Wooden Staff {Lesser}
[Ahh, good. My mana fully regenerated before I cast that.]
One less thing to worry about. She appreciated that in a place where everything was trying to kill her.
The goblins engaged. They were all level 18 or lower, which meant they were certainly dangerous, but not enough for Neve to feel too worried if her teammates did their jobs correctly.
The tank pushed back against them, shoving three of them forward at once with his shield.
Understandably, that put him in a position to get hurt.
One goblin stabbed a dagger into his shoulder, cutting straight through his cheap armor. Another tried to do the same at his thigh, managing to create a minor gash.
Neve was healing the man before their attacks even connected, though.
Aiming her staff at him, with a thought, Neve conjured a healing rune beneath the man's feet. This was the skill {Healing Ground}.
"Uh, bow lady, you wanna do something!?" The tank asked.
"Step aside! I need a clear shot!" The archer responded.
"Fine!"
The tank moved away and the goblins instantly started rushing toward both Neve and the archer.
She shot the three arrows she'd prepared, taking down three goblins in rapid succession.
Because Neve had been involved in their kills through healing the tank, she received EXP for each one.
EXP Gained: 10
EXP Gained: 10
EXP Gained: 10
EXP: 61/200
"Aaaagh!" The tank roared as he charged at the remaining two goblins. They attempted to shoot him with their own flimsy arrows but, Neve was ready for it.
She cast {Hard Target} and that allowed the tank to shrug their arrows off easily.
Then, with a pair of mighty swings of his longsword and a slightly high-pitched battle cry, he cleaved their heads off.
EXP Gained: 10
EXP Gained: 10
EXP: 81/200
[Cool.]
Goblins were annoying, but easy targets overall when a group had a decent healer.
And, as one of the top 100 healers in the new world, Neve would have liked to believe she could be categorized as such.
"Good job," the archer said as the man cleaned his sword of their blood, wiping it on his greaves.
"You too," he told the archer.
He didn't say anything to Neve, though. There was no need to. Neve only did what was expected of her.
"The boss fight should be just around the corner. Hey, uh… you wanna go grab something to eat after this?"
"Ah… sorry," the archer replied, putting her hands together. "I still haven't met the AP quota for the day. I'll probably just take on another dungeon after this."
"O-Oh, well if you want…"
"Ehm, with friends, I mean," she stated.
Neve rolled her eyes.
[Dude, take a hint.]
"Uh, oh, okay. Ahem," he cleared his throat. "Let's go get that boss then, shall we?"
"Yeah!"
Neve did not say a word. Not now, not when they went in and fought the boss, which was an orc warlord, and she didn't say a word as they came out either.
All she did was look at her EXP, the drops she received, and walk away.
She came out to a basketball stadium, the place where this dungeon's portal had been located. A few reporters were standing outside. Thankfully, the other members of Neve's team kept them occupied.
Neve didn't receive anything she could use, so her equipment remained the same.
With that dungeon out of the way, Neve checked her Activity Points.
Activity Points
650/500
Quota Reached!
[Thank God,] Neve sighed. [I'm done for the day.]
With that, she began her walk back home.
The streets of Starlight City were packed with players who hadn't yet gotten the Activity Points they needed moving from one building to another, looking for dungeons to clear.
One of them happened to be Neve's old high school, which had a portal at the front with players gathered around it, waiting for more people to tackle it. Neve scoffed and kept walking.
That was how the world was now.
After the original monster outbreak, portals had appeared around the city in addition to the dangerous creatures. These portals sent people to 'dungeons', areas that consisted of dangerous corridors, ridden with terrifying monsters. Once people cleared those places, they were sent back outside with Activity Points and items they could then sell for World Shop tokens.
Everything had changed, and the world largely revolved around these two things now.
Activity Points were the main thing keeping players up at night and stressing them out. Every "player", every human being who was still alive and hadn't been turned into a monster at the beginning of all this, gained Activity Points through two different actions. Killing monsters in what was now called the Overworld, the areas outside of dungeons, and clearing dungeons.
If one didn't gain at least 500 Activity Points by the end of the day, they would receive a debuff to their stats. Miss two days in a row, or more, and that debuff would stack.
In this new world that meant many things. It meant that weak creatures like those goblins Neve had faced earlier could kill you, and it meant that situations like the one in the alley to Neve's right could happen.
In an alley, there was a group of men wearing heavy armor and carrying big swords on their backs, pushing around a group of other guys who were roughly the same level.
The reason, most likely, was because those guys had been debuffed and so, could be taken advantage of easily.
Thankfully, Neve wasn't one of them. So, she lowered her head, minded her own business, and went right on her way.
World Shop tokens were less important but still necessary. Every player now had access to a space called the World Shop which gave humans access to pretty much anything they could ask for.
Weapons, furniture, food, vehicles, machinery, anything, and everything could be purchased from the World Shop and dropped into your inventory.
WS Tokens: 450
[Uh… Whatever, I'll get a burrito for lunch.]
A few clicks of the holographic screen brought the option up and, for 50 tokens, Neve made a hot, tasty burrito appear in her hands.
There was a park nearby. Figuring that she could use a break, Neve went over to it. It took a few minutes to find a bench that wasn't broken down or split down the middle, but once she found one, she sat down and laid her head back.
Naturally, as she had nothing to do, she took out her phone and went through Tweeter.
Internet service was, by the way, something one could purchase with World Shop tokens too. How it worked, no one knew, but, hey, this internet service was faster than any Neve had experienced in the previous world so, there was that to be thankful for.
The first thing she saw was a post with over 1 million views of a player and his party attacking a dungeon. Neve herself wasn't fond of this, but sometimes players would bring cameras with them and broadcast their clears.
Yes, this meant that there had been many, *many* times when a comfy dungeon-clearing stream had turned traumatic as someone in them died suddenly. Neve had seen a few of those.
Maybe the likes on their posts were worth it, though.
One post caught her eye.
[Golden Dragons – Recruiting!] Neve arched a brow. [Hi, are you a level 10 to 15 player with no guild? Stop by the Golden Dragons headquarters and ask about our services. You won't be disappointed!]
Attached to the post was a picture of two famous Golden Dragon players, levels 23 and 28 respectively, doing a thumbs-up gesture at the camera. The fact that they looked so prestigious in their black and gold armor was likely no accident.
Neve couldn't care less, though.
Honestly, she'd hoped that a stray arrow would find her neck in that last dungeon, but, unfortunately, that hadn't happened.
Every dungeon she'd gone into, she hoped she'd somehow meet her end just so she wouldn't have to wake up and do all of this all over again the next day.
She was still here, however. So, taking a bite of that burrito, Neve began reflecting on her performance.
[… I was a bit slow with {Healing Ground}. I probably should have cast it as soon as I saw our tank pushing forward. Put it on the ground pre-emptively. Oh well. I'll try to do that next time.]
Her phone buzzed again. Lowering her eyes to see its screen, she found another notification.
This one said:
[Are you a brave person? Are you willing to…]
Neve had to unlock her screen to see the rest of that.
[Are you a brave person? Are you willing to give your life for humanity? Join the 100! The Forces That Be may think we will never accomplish the task they've set out for us, but the power is in YOUR hands to complete the Unity Trials! To bring reprieve to humanity for the next 10 years!]
[Be the difference maker. Be the hero humanity needs. The future is in your control. Join the 100 now.]
The post linked to a different site that was keeping track of how many people had applied for the 100 this time around. Neve saw the following:
99/100
Once again, they were advertising this pipe dream.
When the Unity Trials first started, a message appeared in front of everyone telling them one simple thing:
Complete the Final Challenge and all monsters will disappear for 10 years.
It was a goal that had been set for humanity as a whole. A goal they'd tried to achieve nine different times, without success.
And now, they'd be trying for the 10th time.
Neve stared hard at the "apply" button.
Birds chirped around her, and people being attacked by monsters yelled out in the distance as she looked down at that button, for the longest time.
[... Fuck it. Just kill me already.]
And, with that bitter thought, she tapped it.
Neve Stephens – Confirmed!
100/100
Not because she wanted to save humanity or because she thought she could be some sort of hero, or anything like that.
But because, hopefully, this meant she'd just die already.
She didn't have any hopes of succeeding, but that was the point.