Clara shook. She shook as she stared at the body. It was lifeless, and all the system offered in support was a “You win”? She doesn’t care that she’s leveled up. She doesn’t care that she’s unlocked the ability she thought was impossible to reach due to needing an insane level like 1475.

  She couldn’t care. Sornid, while a bit of a dick, was dead. She never wanted him to die, let alone to try and protect her. The purple stared up at her, and there was no light behind it. There was no fair way to state the peaceful expression on Sornid’s face.

  She put on her cloak from her inventory, as it began to rain heavily. The water drips down, landing on the ground, landing on the cloak the sound hitting her canvas cloak like a drum. She knew she had to bury Sornid, and now that the dirt was becoming mud; it would be easier to dig.

  But she had to try to revive him. She has revival magic. And despite the constant casts, even with the constant warnings of [No soul to revive!] or the way her mana is depleting quickly. It’s a large portion. But she tries.

  The golden light from her hands slowly fades with every cast. The casting happens again. And again. By the third time, the light’s already only half as strong. And her tears blend in with the rain.

  She knew, deep down, this could never work. It was a worthless effort after the first casting. Her MP dropped. And Sornid’s eyes continued to stare up at the sky. The dull eyes. The eyes who last saw their killer, and their friend.

  She wonders if in the last moments, he could hear the monster’s monologue that it gave after killing him. She casts again. And nothing changed. Her light is so much less potent. Until, eventually, it fades. As a new system message appears.

  [Not enough Mana!]

  That alone broke her. She knew only two things. And one of them was that one of her four- no, five allies were dead. And nothing she did helped. She came in, so confident, so full of hubris, that she’d be able to revive one of them if something went wrong.

  It was one of the only spells she actually had true confidence in, [Revivify]. The only one with such an absurd cost of two trillion mana, would’ve made it impossible to fail. The way it was written, would’ve made it impossible to fail.

  And yet, when it mattered the most it did. She opens the spell description, just to see what went wrong.

  [Revivify]

  [Cost: 2,000,000,000,000 Mana; 500,000 Coin]

  [Upon use, revives someone who died within the past half a day, as long as their soul is willing or is still existent.]

  She reads it, over and over. And yet her blurring eyes finally looks around at the six or seven messages that appeared. She could hardly read one, but she knew that was why. She couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh.

  Of course, she was just too weak. There was no other reason Sornid failed to live. That was the second thing she knew for certain. The rest of this world was unknown, unknowable maybe, but she didn’t know it and it didn’t matter.

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  Her lack of strength caused this disaster. And her hubris to not level the damn ability only made it worse. She knew she could’ve, she got it only halfway through the year the party was stuck on floor 39. And yet it was pointless in the end.

  The one time she got something she could be proud of, it failed when it mattered most. She refused to be too proud of her accomplishments up to then. For they were mostly handed to her. She was gifted, sure. But she was also blessed by the gods.

  She was blessed by every single god that didn’t mind her being around. And she knew it. She knew she never deserved a single ounce of the praise she got for curing blindness, being deaf, or mute.

  It was her duty, after all. To work through these issues. To help those in need, and to avoid bringing harm to others. But now, she had to move on. She grabbed the same shovel Sornid buried his own parents in, and she began to dig.

  And the sound of the shovel was no more calming than the sound of warfare. The battle raged on in her heart, as the shovel hit the soil, upturning the grass and tossing it to the side. The scene reminds her of how the monster acted.

  She knew full well that if she became strong, she could never act like whatever that was. It certainly was no god, nor a devil. But she knew that her weakness is why she must bury her friend. To pin the blame on a monster would be a worthless endeavor.

  She remembered there were friends Sornid made in the Magic School for Divine Gifts, or Moilin’s Academy. One of them was a young child she saw visit Sornid even after he had become the royal mage.

  What would she say to him? ‘Sorry, Sornid died because I was too weak to save him’? That’s a pathetic excuse. She couldn’t bring herself to speak to him. She couldn’t bring herself to face Sornid’s real parents if they were still living outside the tower.

  The tower is clearly ran by the gods now. Nothing else would be capable of eradicating a soul at that level. It would make more sense too. Those skeletons gave way too much EXP, and they kept giving more after they killed one of them.

  Clearly the system made this tower for a reason, and Clara could not stand to leave it be. Clara had to destroy it before the dungeon break occurred. She finishes digging the hole of proper depth, as she lightly lowers Sornid’s lifeless body in.

  She had cast a healing spell just before, to ensure his legs were still together. And now, she began to pray as she pushed the dirt back in. Before the hole was full, she put the shovel in as well, and used her remaining magic to bury him.

  She knew that no matter the prayer, Sornid was free. And she had to move on. But she first made a tombstone and placed it up. She was shaking as she walked onwards through the pathway she knew wasn’t there anymore.

  She said it was simply the cold, but Clara knew that wasn’t the case. She knew his death had affected her, and with the happy moments, the sad moments, the group had always been there for one another.

  What would the party say upon learning of Sornid’s death? She replayed situations in her head, unknowing if they were truth or false. Eventually, the trees she walked through led towards the tower, with only 60 more floors to go.

  She continued to play scenarios in her mindscape as though they were truth. It was all her mind could do, still rushing along the high of adrenaline. She hadn’t known a death in front of her could hurt so badly.

  She imagined what it would be like to tell Bariton, for some reason she couldn’t remember his eyes. Were they blue? Purple? Red? Hell, it didn’t matter, she could just hear her voice as he said ‘Ha! About time the deadweight was gone. He didn’t even contribute much other than damage that Pallad already had covered.’

  She imagined what it would be like to tell Judine. Her eyes were… Green? Blue? Brown? Yellow? But she knew her voice all the same, ‘Finally, one less person to compete against.’

  Pallad too, his eyes were… Ah yes, his eyes were yellow. Had to be. ‘I understand why you’d blame yourself, but you need to remember that just because we lost one party member, does not mean we must stop growing stronger. We have a world to save. Forget him.’

  And that was the last voice she heard in her head as the tower’s gate closed around her.

  Also, I'd recommend reading past chapters before reading the most recent one~

  But I can see why shameless plugs are pointless.