Chapter 91 - 3/6

’Tree-hugger?! She’s doubling down on the racism!’

Extending her belittling of Night Elves to Day Elves as well — all elves in general!

’You don’t need to do that much!’

Peace still suspected that any ill will she directed at him was a cover-up for her being a Soul Stealer, though he had yet to truly confirm it.

’But I think she called him that for the love of the game!’

Not to hide any secret identity.

Yulis twitched, then drew a long, forceful breath to calm himself.

"Such an outdated term... There’s not many trees left to hug."

"There’s plenty inside the dungeon. Find yourself a nice Treant. Feel free to let it swallow you while you’re at it."

While Peace would have loved to put an end to this circus, even sitting up was taxing, and talking alone took everything out of him. Besides, it hardly mattered if they bickered, as long as they didn’t actually fight.

So, he let them carry on. Albeit much to his dismay.

It wasn’t as if they would die in the next few seconds.

They were in a ’safe’ zone of sorts between the floors. The only thing that ever passed through it was the Worshipper of Light itself.

Tuning out Yulis and Dita, and doing his best to bite the bullet, Peace tried to think of what came next...

Unlike the narrow, winding corridors above, the ’-1 floor’ consisted of gigantic rooms. Each room had its own properties and environment, determined by the spawning zone or zones within it, and branched off into other gigantic rooms.

Even finding the path to the bottom floor was a matter of pure luck, though at least it always appeared in a particular spawning zone, the Pathfinder zone which was attached to one called Light Temple Keepers. Which rooms they’d have to pass through to reach those zones was a matter of luck.

Well, almost all luck. The most they could do was map out which rooms led where and do their best not to go in circles.

’At least I can see...’

That would most definitely help on their journey, as the torchlight ended there. The only natural light from that point onward would be ambient light within a spawning zone.

They could, and would, take a couple of torches off the wall with them. But the main problem was the radius a torch lit was limited and they could be ambushed from every direction. It wasn’t just front and back anymore.

Groaning, Peace looked over at Dita, noticing she’d calmed down quite a bit. It appeared she’d finally accepted the reality of their situation — that the only way out was further in.

Yulis, on the other hand, had set aside his suspicion of her in favor of asking questions about her and Peace’s previous adventures of doom and gloom, perhaps intrigued by the sheer oddity of their avant-garde Diver experience.

"Did that really happen?!"

Dita replied to Yulis:

"Yup... and after that, she vanished and I passed out on the very edge of the Convergence Zone."

Yulis scratched his cheek.

"But if she was strong enough to pry you from its arms, then outrun it... why didn’t she kill it? Any idea?"

Dita shook her head.

"No clue."

From the side, Ralph finally spoke up. Peace had expected him to cry out in pain and tell them to quiet down. Instead, he said:

"You said she wore a white dress... Did she wear a feathered headdress as well?"

Dita’s eyes widened as she looked over at the ailing Ralph.

"How did you...?"

Peace, too, felt like his face might morph into a look of intense confusion if he let it. Dita hadn’t mentioned Corrupted Devotion at all, likely because she knew what it was. Admitting she’d been saved by someone wearing it wouldn’t exactly look good.

’But that would also mean she trusted me not to say anything either...’

Her reaction had all but confirmed Ralph’s suspicion, a moment of surprise overriding her usual pragmatism.

Ralph languidly shook his head.

"A good guess is all." His eyes settled and his expression flattened. "A. Good. Guess."

’Oooookay... that was strange.’

Yulis looked down at the tank of their crew.

"Nobody guesses that?! Have you met this woman before as well?"

Ralph seemed to forget his pain as he brought a hand to his bare chest, resting it there before digging his fingers into his skin. Speaking through gritted teeth, he grumbled:

"...A chance encounter."

His eyes shifted to Dita, then Ralph added:

"Meeting that thing... is a bad omen. The fact that it didn’t kill you two... I’m sorry."

Yulis tilted his head, then said:

"Wait, if meeting that woman is a bad omen... Then is it their fault we’re stuck here?! That we got ambushed?!"

’So I’m a bad luck charm now?! Just from meeting her?’

His luck was shitty before he met her, and it had only gotten worse since...

’Did she really curse me?!’

There were ways to decrease someone else’s luck in the game.

’No way she really did that to me... right?’

Ralph’s tense expression vanished as he smirked and turned his head to look at Peace.

"Let’s not point fingers, kid... and if you really want to, point them at me. You should know why I brought him into the party in the first place. We were likely part of his bad luck as well. If anything... this is our just deserts."

Yulis drew his head back.

"Our...? That was entirely your doing! We had nothing to do with it!"

Dita let out an exasperated sigh.

"Oh, shut up... only idiots and dickless wimps blame luck when things go wrong."

"Uh—"

Casting his gaze towards the ceiling, Ralph began to laugh, then hissed:

"Bahah! She’s right, kid. Besides..." Ralph forced himself up, then looked off into the darkness ahead. "I didn’t mean bad luck for them personally. I meant bad for everything and everyone. If it’s back, it’s bound to wreak havoc once again."

Yulis sat still, his mouth agape.

"I’m sorry... what?"

Ralph swiveled his head around, searching for his sword. He found it lying by his feet.

"Afraid that’s all I’ll say."

’Okay... Two things’

’Now I need to know what he knows.’

And...

’Why have half of us met the Witch of Corruption?! Cetainly that’s abnormal, no?’