Chapter 17: Chapter 15: Wanna Meet My Parents?"

“Well?” Princess Meryl said cheekily as she stared straight into Veronica’s eyes.

“What?” Veronica asked, followed by the shrugged confusion of the rest of the group.

“Are you not here to meet my dearest mother and father, the great, long-lived, power, blood-borne, rulers of Wistgardia?” Meryl had already given the impression of someone who you needed to know. She seemed like she knew how to talk to people, piquing their interest, just enough to get what she wanted out of them.

“Uh, yes,” Griffa said.

‘What she said,” Cardinal added.

“Yes, that’s true,” Veronica said.

A wide, warm smile grew on Merly’s face, “I thought so, well, let’s get going!” Within that same thought, she started to run while giggling. “Follow along!” she said.

“Okay!” Bike said, eagerly chasing along.

“This, “Merly” is certainly a character…” Griffa said.

The group followed along, the Brass Knight tagging along with them for reassurance. ‘What for me!” he said as he started to drag behind everyone else.

As they chased the princess, they took note of their surroundings. They saw people, begging for blood of any kind. Some were digging in trash piles for rabbit corpses to drink from.

“Get yer blood here, 70% off my fellows!” a sales man yelled to passerby, noticeably ones who he thought looked starved.

“Well, this is depressing,” Cardinal said. The rest couldn’t help but agree.

“Is this the devastation the Holy Church has caused?” Veronica thought to herself. She had seen the destructive nature of the battles the two nations had. She knew all the horrors that were caused due to the Undead Hunting in Gritzgaldr.

She quickly narrowed her focus on the chase again, following right behind Bike, who had been surpassed in place by Cardinal.

“Slow the hell down!” Cardinal yelled, only causing Meryl to go faster. Eventually the rest had all passed by Veronica, somehow, leaving no one there.

She slowed down, before eventually stopping when she heard a sound coming from a nearby alley.

‘Psst, I’m right here!”

“What?” Veronica verbally questioned before going inside the alley, where she was met with a-

“Boo!”

“Augh!” Veronica yelled. It was the princess.

“Sorry, did I scare ya?” she asked.

“You just startled me is all,” Veronica said.

The princess laughed, “alright, so now this is the part where you actually get to meet my parents!”

“Finally?” Veronica asked.

“No, I Lied. Sorry!” Meryl said. Within the same sentence she had activated some sort of trap door, sucking Veronica under it and making a loud thud sound after it closed.

“What the fuck?” Veronica asked herself out loud. She had landed in some sort of catacomb. She traversed it a little bit, going in a zigzag pattern between pillars and random nooks and crannies.

“Heehee,” a voice laughed. It was Meryl.

“That weird vampire princess!” Veronica said under her breath as she ran forward, the shadows and laughter taunting her with every foot she ran closer toward her destination. Eventually, Veronica had gotten lost in the catacombs. She stumbled and fell, before getting up and seeing the princess, the real princess, not a shadow or ghost.

“How are you even doing all of this?” Veronica asked

“I’m a Spirit Summoner, Silly,” she said before tapping Veronica on the nose with her finger.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Uh, okay,” Veronica said. She remembered that the Spirit Summoner Class was a delayed update that no one thought would ever come out, this world surprised her yet again.

Meryl giggled and leaned backward, “Well, as you probably know, you aren't actually gonna meet my parents right now,” she said smiling in a fake, sorry way.

“Then why am I here?” Veronica asked.

Meryl quickly became stern, her entire demeanor changed, “Truth is, I don’t quite trust you yet, nor does my brother Mally, so we are going to test you before you even think about getting near our old ma and pa.”

“I don’t have time for this!” Veronica yelled, lunging forward, grabbing nothing but the smoke left behind.

“My trial shouldn’t be too hard, now, my brothers- He’s a little different!” Meryl laughed manically as she disappeared, leaving Veronica in the darkness to traverse for herself.

“Damn it!” Veronica yelled. She had finally managed to make it to Wistgardia, just for her to be put through some side quest nonsense, “Unbelievable!” she thought angrily.

“I guess I have to do the stupid ‘trial’ then,” she said as she started to look around the pillars for any hint as to what she needed to do. After circling 4 out of the 8 pillars, she found something on the 5th. “What is this?” she said as she picked it up. It was a black clover that was missing its other piece.

“Please don’t be something convoluted,” she said to herself. Just as she did, she felt shaking. “What th-” the shaking stopped her from speaking.

“Rumble! Rumble!” the shaking intensified until it eventually unearthed something. Veronica turned in every direction until she saw it. There appeared to be some sort of flower coffin, a beautiful flower woman with a disturbing presence. Her body was entirely made of dead vine and flowers, with a human-like face.

The Mandragora were a type of Faekin that were found in the deepest parts of the Fae Forests, parts that were never in the game. It seemed like this Mandragora had been tainted by the Wither.

“Clover, clover,” the woman started to speak. “Clover, clover,” she continued.

Veronica looked at her with focus, sure enough, the letters and numbers appeared.

[Wither Mandragora: 20k/20k]

Veronica looked down at the clover that was in her hand, “Oh, this is… perfect.”

Suddenly, “Clo- Ver!” thorny vines swung toward Veronica. She jumped out of the way, but one was still able to rake some of her flesh off. Luckily she was undead, so the damage would be taken less due to Wither elemental typing.

“Seems like I just need to find a way to connect this clover too?” Veronica thought, until her eyes spotted exactly what she needed. The mandragora had a clearly missing flower from atop her head.

“Okay, easy!” she said. Veronica summoned skeletons and sent them toward the mandragora, in its lashing AOE, it dismembered them fairly quickly, but that left Veronica with enough time to find an opening to place the flower in the spot. Nothing happened.

“What?” Veronica said before she was hit directly in the face by the Mandragora.

“Clover!” it yelled, unleashing 4 instances of vines toward Veronica.

“Fwoosh!” The vine missed! “Fwoosh!” It hit! “Fwoosh!” It missed again. The final one was heading straight towards her, but Veronica blocked it with a ribcage from one of the decimated skeletons.

For whatever reason, the Mandragora stopped, before drilling into the ground and thin drilling back up, positioning itself in the center of the catacombs and its pillars.

“What is it doing?” Veronica thought to herself. When her thought was finished, the Mandragora started growing vines, quickly attaching them to the pillars until it was done.

Veronica quickly noticed an opening where she could hide and survive the very clear self-deletion of the Mandragora. “Hmm, but this is a trial…” she thought to herself. She soon realized that it probably was not a good idea to let the Mandragora bring down the catacombs, as it could destroy the stability of the area on the surface.

“Uh, alright, I’ll fight your unhinged ass!” Veronica yelled as she summoned skeletons. They quirky tore through 4 of the 8 vines and helped Veronica land a direct mana blast

[HP:16k/20k]

“Oh brother, why can’t this go faster?” Veronica said. The Mandragora destroyed the skeletons and attacked her again. Narrowly missing. But landing some hits

[-378]

“Ugh!” Veronica said. “I have to find a way to lessen damage to myself and the catacombs, while also killing this thing.” She pondered before coming to a solution, “I’m gonna set you on fire!” she said. She looked around the catacombs as she dodged, failed to dodge, and blocked attacks from the Mandragora.

“There!” she said. She saw that there was an old bag under some rubble, most likely placed there for the trial. She intentionally dodged with a roll that landed her near the bag, finding a fire stone in it. Veronica knew the oncoming burst of fire damage would probably kill her, so she had to find a way to get it to the Mandragora while staying away, but she knew exactly how.

“Clover!” the mandragora yelled while attacking and missing angrily.

“Summon Skeleton!” Veronica yelled, summoning skeletons to distract Mandragora while he gathered her focus.

“Summon Skeletal Horse!” she followed up. She placed the fire stone in the horse's mouth and sent it to the Mandragora.

“Clo-” “Boom!” The Mandragora was no more, aside from the clover.

“Oh, that was a fun watch!” Meryl said, descending from the ceiling.

“You were there the whole time?” Veronica asked in a frustrated tone.

“Yep,” Meryl said with a giggle.

“So I pass?” Veronica asked.

“Yeah, you chose the form of killing the Mandragora that lessened the chance of harm being done above the catacombs!” Meryl threw something that she had behind her to Veronica, “Have these it will help with the stuff that comes next.

“Uh okay?” Veronica said. Quickly, as soon as Veronica caught the item, Meryl took off. Veronica inspected it.

{Item: Sunbane Cuirass]

It looked like slightly enchanted silver armor. “Armor? But I’m a summoner.” She was confused, but she decided to put the armor on with some spare clothes that were also in the catacombs, entirely losing the cloak. “It didn’t give me much of a mana bonus anyways,” she said to herself.

“This thing is heavy!” Veronica said. The weight of the robe was barely an issue, but now she actively felt weighed down by her clothing. She decided she was going to have to get used to it. She went forward after she pocketed the black clover.

“Great, more to explore,” Veronica said as she trekked into barely perceivable darkness. She spent a good amount of time taking in the damp air. It tasted old, as well as she could taste it, being undead and all.

A bit further in her walk, she came to a stop in the catacombs. She turned right, going until she came to a dead end. “Maybe something is here?” she said, looking up and down the end, while trying to find some sort of sigil or hint. She found nothing. She went back to the center and looked around a bit more, still nothing.

She decided to go right. She went deep into the tunnel-like area, finding multitudes of cobwebs, spiders, and other disgusting things that showed the clear state of decay the catacombs were in. The spiders looked well fed though, meaning something was probably sustaining them. That was one of the things she learned while playing, one of the few things she remembered at least. Lacritia spiders have multiple variants, some of which grow larger the more they eat.

“Spiders… Yay,” Veronica said as she went further. Eventually, after a few minutes, an illuminating light had started to shine. It slowly decorated the bricked catacomb walls, eventually getting brighter and redder the closer Veronica got to it.

“What is this?” Veronica asked herself as she leaned in for a better look. It appeared to be some sort of Chrysalis.

“Something enticing, no?” A voice said. It was a masculine voice.

“Huh?” Veronica said as she turned quickly in confusion, looking at every corner but not seeing anyone.

“Over here,” the voice said.

“Are you ‘Mally?’” Veronica asked. The figure looked like he was related to the princess, but he wore more masculine noble attire, with pale skin that complimented his white-tipped black hair and his black eyes.

“It’s Malachite, never call me Mally,” He said, his gaze hardening.