Two years of oppressive loneliness floods back, making me sniff as tears spill forth like two dams opening their floodgates. [Clear Mind] works quickly to settle my mental state, but that doesn't stop my body from feeling these emotions. With my minds calm, my clones don't react, which somehow makes everything worse and highlights the crux of the problem. My real body is alone, hidden near the waystone for safety. Even if they want to, no one can comfort me.

Ting! Your party has killed a Razor web Arachnoid (Grand), Level 389; extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained levels 495!

Uloru didn't get to participate in this fight, and we have to rest until she has recovered from the poison. I don't feel like celebrating, so I remain quiet as the party goes over what they could have improved in the fight. No one has much to say about me, which only proves that I am not needed.

I refresh the healing on my vision. It will degrade again, but I'd rather not miss anything. I watch as the floor boss spawns. First mana is consumed, then soul stuff is... well, it kind of comes from nowhere; I am sure I am missing some important breakthrough, and I am not seeing everything there is. Next comes the creation of the body and soul, appearing to just crawl out of space. I wonder if there's a space anomaly during the spawning of a monster?

Whatever the case, I am missing a step, and it's related to space or the soul, possibly both. The actual magic part of monster creation is relatively simple – it is the catalyst that starts the process – but understanding the process itself seems to be something else.

The floor boss is a hulking Arachnoid covered in ruby rather than carapace. Tiny ruby needles stick out of it like hairs, and its legs are pointed like spears. As soon as it fully appears, it begins to spin ruby webs that seem to be just as flexible and sticky as normal spider webs.

Ruby-Backed Arachnoid (Grand), Ruby Heart Regenerator (Grand), level 325 Ruby Bond.

It has very little mana in reserve, and its mana core doesn't seem to produce much mana, but it has a mountain's worth of vitality and, like Tana, is constantly producing more. It's certainly a tank-type monster, which means it is an endurance fight, something I am not good at. Hard hitters like Uloru and Kadona are good in fights like these, Esofy will manage with her void scythe, Irela should be able to figure something out, and Tana is good in all fights with his vitality-draining flames. The only thing I can do is use my charged spells three times before I run out of mana.

What's more is that monsters made out of a material like stone or, in this case, ruby, are resilient to the type of damage I do, which is akin to intense x-ray radiation. I could do conceptual damage, but ruby is pretty and thus resilient to beauty attacks. I can try lasers to deal heat damage, but gems are not only very difficult to melt but will also scatter the light, reducing the effectiveness of a laser even further.

My heart drops from my uselessness: all that only serves to prove that they really don't need me. However, I can't just sit around moping. I need to kill the Dream Eater Arachnoid and see if that restores my vision. I enter a role with [Acting] to help gain control of my emotions.

"Esofy, can you scout the floor boss and tell us its level?" I ask, my voice a little more monotone due to the role I am assuming.

"Level four hundred fifty-six," Esofy says after a minute.

"What's wrong, Aly?" Chyzu says, picking up on my tone.

"Nothing," I reply, my role demanding that I say it without a care.

Chyzu eyes me suspiciously but stays quiet. I send a clone ahead to test the boss as Tana keeps Uloru healed until she has made a full recovery.

When my clone reaches the Ruby-Backed Arachnoid, it doesn't sense it. Since my clone is invisible, I can rule out some sensing skills, if it has any. As usual, I then charge up my beauty spear; not all the way, I know it won't be very effective, I just need to know how much it will resist my attack. It still has organs inside, so hopefully those will get damaged.

I carefully walk up to the Arachnoid, which is still busy spinning webs around the place. When I brush aside one of the webs, it immediately crumbles into powder, which is a bit ominous. hy does it crumble? It's part of something, but I don't know what, and it's almost certainly a danger.

The Arachnoid seems too busy with its work to realize that one of its webs has broken, but the fact that it has the legs standing on its own webs and they aren't breaking reveals something to me. The Arachnoid pumps vitality into the webs, which seem to gobble it up and retain strength to support the boss.

I relay what I see to the rest of the group to check what they think.

"It's got vitality-draining webs," Tana suggests. Considering that he has similar abilities, I agree with him.

"We'll have you and Chyzu clear up the room with your clones, so we don't get caught in them," Esofy says.

"I'm more worried that the dust that the webs crumble into will retain the vitality-draining abilities. If it does, it might be that it crumbles on purpose to cover prey in hard-to-remove, vitality-draining dust." Irela says, a hand on her chin as she ponders the possibility.

"I can wash away the dust," Chyzu says.

"We have a plan, then. First, we send in Alysara and Chyzu's clones to clear up the webs, then Chyzu will wash the dust away. Throughout the battle, the dust will have to be continuously washed away." Kadona says with a thoughtful nod.

"That will lessen our damage, and, considering this is a regeneration type, possibly a tank-type too, we may not have the damage output," Esofy counters.

"The biggest problem is the ruby chitin: once we get past that, I can do full damage," I say.

"Don't forget about me! Let's crack it open, and I'll infiltrate it with my metal!" Irela asserts.

"Alright. First, we clear up the webs, then Uloru and Kadona will try to break open its chitin for Alysara and Irela to do maximum damage." Esofy lays out the plan, "In the meantime, Jowaru and I will attract its attention and hinder its movements. Tana will drain the Arachnoid’s vitality and replace any vitality stolen from us."

With the plan set, I deliver my sneak attack on the boss, which goes about as well as I thought it would. The Ruby Arachnoid whirls around at a dizzying speed, swiping the air with its spear-like legs.

"It moves very quickly," I inform the group, then I start weaving bands and enchanting them to improve the wearer's speed.

The Arachnoid then shakes, and all of the needle-like hairs on it shoot off in all directions, regrowing very quickly.

"It has a burst-type attack," I say, with a bit more life in my tone as I ease off my [Acting] role a little.

The Arachnoid settles down, content that any threat is either dead or gone.

In order to obtain more information, I drop the invisibility of my clone and attack the Arachnoid again. It responds with another burst of hair, then summons ruby spears and launches them at my clone. It must be a Bond skill, as I don't see any skill light up in the Arachnoid's magic frameworks. With that in mind, I continue testing the Arachnoid, trying to make it display more of its skills.

Its class skills must be mostly defensive, as they only light up when I hit it, but I don't do enough damage to know what they’re actually doing. It's possibly a damage reduction skill, and there’s definitely one that regrows its hairs. It seems that its attack skills are either from its Race, like the hair burst and webs, or its Bond with its spears. Other than that, it has demonstrated ruby manipulation and ruby explosion, which also works on its potential vitality-draining webs – a dangerous combo.

Once fully prepared, we fight through room after room to get to the floor boss, taking a brief rest to top off our mana and go over everything one last time.

When we’re ready, both Chyzu and I send in our clones. I use my Wolf Pack Spear and start hacking down the webs as Chyzu washes away the dust. The Arachnoid doesn't take the destruction of its home without retaliation and summons spears, launching them at our uncaring clones. It releases several bursts of ruby hairs, but its efforts are useless.

The first to arrive, once all the webs and dust have been dealt with, is Jowaru, her shield raised to take any attack. Following her are Kadona and Uloru, then Esofy and Tana, and finally Irela and Chyzu. They get into their battle formations and proceed with our plan.

I wait on standby with three clones, all charging spears for the opportune time while Irela casts a wide shield to defend against the hair burst. Although that’s not necessarily needed, with Jowaru's projectile attraction shield that we got the last time we were in the ruins.

Uloru manages to get a few good hits in, cracking the ruby chitin a few times, but the Arachnoid quickly heals. Tana sprays his flame over the boss but, while it does spread over its whole body and burns a lot of vitality, it's not overcoming how much the Arachnoid is producing!

After several minutes of back-and-forth fighting, the Arachnoid lunges forward with several spear-like legs, each one going for a different target.

"Nail!" Irela shouts, forming her metal into a long spike and hovering it above the boss. Uloru immediately catches on, deflecting the blow from the leg and leaping high into the air, her [Weight Manipulation] and [Gravity Manipulation] letting her jump much higher than normal.

The nail hits the boss, and Uloru flips in the air, then slams her hammer into the nail, cracking the chitin but not fully piercing the boss's armor.

"Again!" Irela shouts, but before Uloru can get another hit in the Ruby Arachnoid releases a burst of hairs, managing to catch Uloru with a point-blank attack. Uloru grunts in pain, pricked by hundreds of hairs; thankfully, only her extremities are hit, her armor blocking most of the attacks, but the boss causes the hairs to explode!

Uloru is blown off the Arachnoid and Tana runs over to heal her; however, the Arachnoid sweeps his legs and, with another leg, stabs at his chest! Anger wells up inside me, but the only thing I can do now is summon a familiar to heal him. Luckily, my intervention isn't needed, as he quickly heals himself and continues over to Uloru.

Her arms and legs are ripped to shreds and slowly regenerating, and all the while the others are fighting. Esofy manages to cut off a leg, but it quickly regrows. I can do nothing but watch and have my familiars provide mediocre healing. I want to be more useful! I need to get stronger!

After a few minutes, Uloru is fully healed. She gets back up and thanks Tana before jumping back into the fray. After several more minutes of fighting, Esofy gives new commands.

"Irela, get ready! I'm going to cut into the back of it! Uloru, hammer it in!"

Esofy jumps onto the Arachnoid's back and brings her scythe down, cutting into the chitin. Following almost instantly, Irela slams the nail down onto the cut and Uloru, already in the air, brings down the hammer with as much force as she can muster. The chitin cracks open, and the nail slips inside to wreak havoc on the Arachnoid’s innards. Realizing that this is my chance, I jump forward, but the wound closes up before I can land a hit. Frustrations boil up as I mis-time my attack.

The Arachnoid retaliates with another burst of its needle-like hairs, catching both Esofy and Uloru in the barrage, then it makes the hairs explode again, shredding their limbs. Tana rushes to their aid while Jowaru defends them. I send in several fairies to assist Tana in healing.

Is there nothing I can do?! I scream in my mind. I reach out with my [Mana Manipulation], grasp a hold of the Arachnoid’s vitality and try ripping it out, but even with the help of multiple minds I can’t drain it much more than Tana's flames are already draining. Still, with both me and Tana draining vitality, it is no longer generating a surplus, and Irela’s metal intrusion is whirling around like a blender inside it, making Arachnoid-gut puree. The boss's vitality rapidly burns away from Irela's devastating attack; it's only a matter of time now before it dies.

Ting! Your party has killed a Ruby-Backed Arachnoid (Grand), Level 456; extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 496!

Fifteen minutes later, the Arachnoid finally dies.

"Haha! We did it!" Uloru cheers. Kadona pats her head with a smile.

As the others celebrate the hard-fought victory, I feel anything but joy. I was completely useless; they didn't need me at all.