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0.43% The Lone Healer / Chapter 1: The End of Regular Life
The Lone Healer The Lone Healer original

The Lone Healer

Author: Already_In_Use

© WebNovel

Chapter 1: The End of Regular Life

"Ugh, but you're so bad at the game! It's unbelievable."

As moonlight shone through the windows, a thin, short girl with silky sapphire hair and chapped lips hammered away at her keyboard.

Not because she was writing a book or a school assignment, but because she was executing the highest-tier combos in her favorite game.

In between that, however, she would, no, she needed to make sure to let her teammates know exactly how she felt.

{xxhealsl0txx}: how r u in the same elo as me? ? ?

{xxhealsl0txx}: your actual dogshit

{ThePenetrator}: lol

Neve Stephens proceeded to type out a full-length essay in the game's chatbox detailing every single one of the mistakes her teammate had made.

Legends of Overcraft, one of the single most popular games in the world, was known for its toxic, sweaty fanbase. And, during moments like these where she was feeling frustrated to no end, Neve was more than happy to contribute to that perspective.

It was frustrating having queued up for a ranked game only to be paired up with someone as inept as this person. She needed a moment to vent.

"Honestly, why do you even play?" She asked aloud, bitterly. "Just afk or something."

It was particularly frustrating because Neve was a healer. Unfortunately, the game was designed in such a way that she simply could not carry the team's living burdens on her own. She needed teammates who had some idea of what they were doing.

Instead, she had a bot masquerading as a human.

Unlucky.

As her carry began spamming a dance emote next to her, Neve practically growled.

"No, no, no. I'm leaving the game. Give me the penalty, I can't be asked."

Just like that, she alt-f4'ed, and stepped away, dropping onto her bed with a huff. The game had produced a headache that pounded away at her skull.

Lazily, she grabbed her laptop and laid back, placing it on her thighs.

She couldn't help but check the leaderboards. She wanted to see just how many ranked points she'd lost as a result of that last game.

"Minus 31? Seriously!? Ugh, the mmr for this game is so broken."

Despite her rage quit, Neve was still in the top 100 players in the server, and the top 10 support players overall. It was a fact she was proud of, even if it wasn't something she could really brag about to anyone.

[Aaaagh, if I didn't have to deal with school, I'd probably be rank 1 already.]

That statement reminded her of something.

[Wait, did I write my oral presentation for tomorrow?]

Setting aside her laptop for a moment, Neve went and looked through her backpack. After going through it for a few seconds, she found a couple of sheets of paper she'd scribbled on a few days ago.

Reading some of it out loud, Neve paced around her room. Her eyes were mostly kept on the notes until she caught sight of herself in the mirror atop her drawers. 

What she saw was... slightly embarrassing. Wild, barely-managed, dark blue hair, unkind eyes of the same color, pale skin that had rarely felt the caress of makeup but probably needed it badly, and the body of someone who only ate in between her online games, and even then the food mostly consisted of random, very unhealthy snacks.

[... Ugh.] 

Going back to the notes, they were, well, half-assed and terrible quality, but she felt like that gave the presentation a sense of soul.

Additionally, she just didn't care enough to want to make it any better.

[This is enough. Whatever.]

And so, with the bad taste of poor ranked gameplay fresh in her mouth, she decided to go to sleep then and there, preferring to go straight into the next day.

Not that the next day was much better.

---

"H-Hello, m-my name is N-Neve, Neve Stephens, and this, ehm, this is my presentation on the history of St-Starlight City."

Five rows of uninterested, uncaring faces watched her as she tried to push through what she felt was an unconstitutionally torturous experience.

[Seriously, what is the fucking point of this?] She asked herself as she felt the sweat coming from her hands getting the papers she held wet. [Isn't it enough to just write an essay? Why do I have to stand up here and humiliate myself like this? By the way, did someone turn the heater on? Why am I sweating so much? Fuck!]

Thankfully, several people in the crowd couldn't be any less interested in this presentation, as Neve could tell by the fact that they were laying their heads down on their chairs, asleep. She wished she was doing the same, but alas, she had this to get through.

The teacher herself looked like she cared about as much as Neve did. The middle-aged woman had her chin resting on her palm as she stared at Neve with half-closed eyes. If it wasn't for the slow blinking she'd do every 10 or 20 seconds, Neve would guess she was sleeping with her eyes open.

No, the only people who seemed to genuinely care about this presentation were the nerds. The damned nerds.

Their gazes were the ones that mocked Neve the most.

She could feel the judgmental thoughts going through their heads just from looking into their eyes, past their glasses.

In particular, there was this slightly chubby girl with a ponytail whose stare Neve could feel burning a hole through her forehead. Her eyes, narrowed and scornful, said one thing: "I could write a better report than this in my sleep".

Honestly, Neve believed that.

She went on, and on, until, finally, and thankfully, she was done, bringing this slow, public execution of her dignity to a close.

"And… yeah. That's it."

With the gravitas of a silent fart, Neve's presentation ended.

Keeping her head low in shame, Neve went back to her chair and proceeded to emulate the same pose as the other sleeping beauties, crossing her arms and resting her head on them.

There was an awkward silence for a while before the teacher finally realized the presentation was actually over.

"Ahem, um, thank you, Miss Stephens. I believe… uh, wait, who's up next?"

While she went through her notes looking for the answer to that question, Neve closed her eyes and allowed her mind to drift off. Her thoughts ended up landing on the games she played yesterday.

She could play them back almost perfectly in her mind's eye. She cared about them to that extent, so much so that others would likely judge her for it if they knew.

[Hm… My positioning was so bad in that fight. I should have been off to the right. Maybe we would have won, actually.]

After that, several monotone presentations came and went before the bell finally rang and the class was allowed to leave.

Neve assumed that she was too, but the teacher called out to her.

"Miss Stephens."

"Huh?" Neve turned toward her with a dumb look on her face. "W-What?"

The teacher stood up and walked over to her.

"Have you given your college studies any mind lately?"

"…" Neve blinked.

"Miss Stephens, we talked about this!" She stated with a sigh. "You need to figure out what it is you want to do."

"I-I know," Neve replied. "I just… I'm so busy, and…"

"It's okay," the teacher told her with a wave of her hand. "You still have time. I'm just saying, you need to think about your future."

Neve felt like a 12-year-old at that moment. But, the scolding was merited. She really did need to figure out what the hell she was going to do.

"I know," Neve bowed her head a little. "I… yeah."

"Alright, you can go."

"Thank you."

She left as quickly as she could.

The rest of the day was largely uneventful. Everywhere Neve went, she swore she could feel people looking her way, judging her. Maybe they thought her shoes, which were a few years old, looked stupid, or maybe she didn't put on enough makeup today, or…

It could be a million things. Whatever Neve's mind needed to remind her that she wasn't as good as anyone around her. That she wasn't as valuable.

Perhaps that was why all she could think about as she walked back home was turning on her laptop and playing some more League of Overcraft.

After all, that was the only thing she was good at.

And, even if it didn't matter, she tried to take some pride in that.

By the time she got home, the streets of Starlight City were packed with people with actual lives trying to get from one place to another. The skyscrapers that were a source of pride for the locals hid the sunlight, making it seem like it was almost nighttime at just 5:00 pm.

Neve went into her home and closed the door behind her.

Her house was quiet.

[Hm? Are my parents-]

"Surprise!"

"FUCK!"

Her mom and dad leaped out from behind the counter up ahead.

In their hands were balloons and, on the desk, was a cake that Neve hadn't noticed.

[What?]

On the balloons was the number 18.

"Happy birthday!"

Neve's brows shot up.

[Oh… Right. It's my birthday today.]

---

"So, still nothing, huh?" Neve's father asked as he and his daughter stood on the balcony, looking down at the lively city beneath them. Sirens and constant honking were so common in Starlight City that they may as well have replaced the sounds of crickets. Neve's stomach was full and she was pretty sure she had pieces of cake stuck in her teeth she'd need to pick out later.

"Yeah," she responded. "I just… I haven't found anything, you know? I-I mean, how am I supposed to know what I wanna do for the next whatever number of years?"

[Do I really have to make a choice like that right now?] She asked herself. Of course, the looming threat of poverty and ancestral shame made it so that the answer was "yes".

Her father disagreed, though.

"Not necessarily," he responded. "But, it would be nice if you had some idea."

"How am I supposed to know, though?" She asked. "Like, is it supposed to just happen that I'm staring at something one day and I go 'oh, I think I'll do *this* forever. Awesome'?"

"For some people, it's like that. Other people are late bloomers. Personally, I think you'll be fine."

"I hope so."

"Honestly," he chuckled. "You're a smart girl. And, I'm not just saying that cause it's my job to give you positive reinforcement or anything. I mean it. You're more clever than you give yourself credit for."

"I'll take your word for it."

"You should! Now, come on. Time for your first drink."

"What? Seriously?" Neve looked over at him.

"Yeah. You're an adult now. If you end up working at an office or something you're gonna get invited to drink from time to time and my daughter's not gonna be a fuckin' lightweight. Come on."

"Uh, okay."

That was it. That was all her birthday amounted to.

She didn't go out with friends, mainly because she didn't have any, the celebration couldn't really be called a "party", and the cake was… decent.

That was how Neve stepped into adulthood. With mediocre, vanilla cake and some cheap drinks.

---

The next day, Neve woke up early.

She wanted to get a couple of games in before heading to school.

The moment she got up, however, she found something hovering over her head.

Words.

Words of some sort were just… there, floating above.

"Huh?" She asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning. "What the hell?"

The words read out:

{The Unity Trials have begun!}

{Choose Your Path}

{Path of the Warrior}

{Path of the Assassin}

{Path of the Mage}

"… Okay. I actually went crazy. Fuck, I didn't know I was that stressed out. Unlucky."

Ignoring the words that she assumed were just a figment of her imagination, the result of a newly developed schizophrenia, Neve dragged her legs over to the door.

As she got close to it, she heard some strange sounds coming from the other side.

[Is that… growling? A dog?]

Even more confused, she opened the door and took a single step outside.

One step out of her room was all she could take before the sight ahead made her freeze.

Blood everywhere. There was a streak of crimson marking the wooden floor from the front door to the counter, the same one where Neve had just eaten her birthday cake a day ago.

When Neve found the source of all this blood, all of the wind in her body left her lungs.

She couldn't speak. She couldn't make a sound. Chills went up her spine.

In the center of the room, growling as she bit through flesh, was Neve's mother.

And the body she was currently devouring was that of Neve's father.

"… Mom?"

The word came out so quietly, through a pair of trembling lips, and yet she still heard her.

"Aergh?"

Neve's mother turned toward her, and Neve found no life in her eyes. Only a wild, bloodthirsty look that had now placed Neve in its crosshairs.

Walking slowly across the room, Neve tried not to choke up.

"M-Mom?" She asked again, hoping for some sort of response. Her mother simply stood up, her husband's meat falling from her chin to the floor as she watched her daughter. "W-What's going on?"

"Aaaarrrr…." Her mother lowered her posture.

Moving around her, off instinct alone, Neve went to the counter and grabbed a knife slowly.

Among all the thoughts of "this can't be happening" and "what is going on?" there was one that took over.

[She's going to try to kill me.]

And, that thought made Neve squeeze the hilt of her kitchen knife harder.

"... Don't," she begged.

Her warning went ignored.

Her mother charged at her.

"Ah!" Neve screamed, putting her knife between her and her mother.

Her mother walked straight into it.

"Ack!?"

The kitchen knife went straight into the woman's throat, and yet she still had the energy to swipe and claw at her daughter's face. She flailed violently, and it was all Neve could do to keep her face turned away to prevent it from being cut and scratched.

She tried her hardest not to look at the woman on the other end of that kitchen knife. She failed, though.

Then, her mother fell back, dead.

Neve collapsed. Her knees hit the ground and her pj's soaked up some of the blood from her father that had pooled up.

Those strange words remained over Neve's head, almost as though they were taunting her.

That was how Neve woke up on the day that the world changed. The day regular life ended and a new world emerged.

The day the Unity Trials began.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Already_In_Use Already_In_Use

Hello, readers!

This is the first book I've written that actually takes place on Earth. Admittedly, it does feel strange. Anyway, just to be clear on this, there will be yuri in this story. My works always contain a balance between romance and action and I wanted to continue that trend here. I hope you like it!

Chapter 2: The End of Her New Life (Hopefully)

{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.


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