The second floor is a maze filled with cobwebs. I think there is some foreshadowing going on, but we just burn the cobwebs with fire magic for the time being. A swarm of skinny spiders the size of a playing card flows in to attack us.

"Water Jet!" Helen kills and sweeps these spiders' corpses down the tunnels with water magic.

I track the strongest pemadra in the area, it feels like an A-rank. "Navigate or dig?" I ask the party.

"Navigate. I still have dirt in places I can't reach." Marcy complains.

"Let's burn some spiders and level up!" Helen's inner pyromaniac awakens.

"Here is how we are doing it then. Helen, stay by my side and keep tossing low powered burst fireballs at the cobwebs ahead. Mind your HP." She is prone to go overboard and neglecting her health. I have sacrifice aura and bodyguard on in case something happens, but it is better if the person takes care of herself.

Mittens and Zahariel are following us and Marcy is closing the formation. Like this, we advance through the level, smelling like burnt hairs. We exterminated about 1,000 small spiders, of rank F and G, and did not level a single time. Most of them don't even have a pemadra. We made Mittens, Emory and the rats eat their fill of monsters. I am impressed at the speed monsters can digest eaten monsters. It is the same as with the pemadras I eat. The substance just disappears in a short notice.

The cobweb section ends.

Marcy scouts ahead for a few moments and returns. "I am sensing bigger monsters in front. Probably rank E or lower D, I think. There are a lot of them, but not as many as the spiders. Let's move with care."

I go ahead with spear and shield ready. Something buzz in front of us. It is a low pitch hum, like a distant motor. "Zahariel, can you shed some light ahead of us?" The seraph lights the path ahead, and several two-meter long stag beetles greet us. The black carapace and sword length pincers shine under the magical light.

They run through the walls and floor to attack us. Marcy seizes the initiative and launches a barrage of ice arrows at the beetles. At this distance it is impossible for her to miss a slow target like these beetles.

I drop the shield and set the dead zone. The secret to a spear fight is to control the reach. "Helen, hold Mittens back. I want to kill these beetles with the least amount of damage to the carapaces."

They come and I stab them before the jaws can reach me. Helen uses firebolts to pick any stragglers. More beetles come from a side tunnel and they keep piling up in front of us. With [Emperor's Might] level 10, just my base strength is enough to make the spear tip crack like a whip if I move it fast enough.

It came to a point where the beetles were having difficulty crossing the pile. Every new beetle that climbed it caused several corpses to topple down. "Helen, we need to wash the beetle corpses down the tunnel!"

It was an endurance battle. I ended with aching arms. I proceeded to dismantle and remove the core and the carapaces of the beetles. None of the monsters showed interest in the beetle meat, myself included. Too bitter. We walked for a while until we found an air vent and stopped for resting and recovery far away from the site of the carnage.

Helen (Monster Tamer) has gained 2 levels!

Marcy (Mystic Archer) has gained 2 levels!

Zahariel (Magician) has gained 2+2 levels!

Grendel (Super Villager) has gained 2+2 levels!

25 skill points added.

A few hours later we find the boss. It is an A-ranker, the Frost Widow. It is a black and blue spider with a body the size of a minivan if you don't count its legs.

"Marcy, what is the intel on this one?"

She answers in a low voice. "Frost widow is a terrifying monster. Its main attacks are ice magic, poison, and its webbing. But don't underestimate its sheer physical prowess. It can jump a lot, run faster than a horse and its front legs have vicious barbs to pin prey for its venomous mandibles."

"A hunter spider, right? Slow down fast targets with ice magic, run after the ones feeling with speed, pin them with webs, and kill with the poison. Is it right?" I ask to confirm the boss' status.

"Yes, exactly that. We are lucky it hasn't detected us yet." Marcy confirms.

"And hypothetically speaking, if someone that cares zero for either ice or poison were to barge into its lair with two fire mages in tow, what would the spider do?"

"I think the spider is doomed." Helen remarks.

"Ho ho. Are we doing it troll style?" Zahariel gets pumped.

"Troll style."

Unfortunately for the spider, her worst fear was exactly what came barging into its lair. We torched its resting place and I did some up-close and personal CQC sparring with it. While it was biting me, I fried its brains using lightning magic. The body was undamaged.

It still wasn't the ticket to the level 10 poison resistance, but I got to up lightning magic and even a level of water mastery from absorbing its ice spells. Mittens were jealous the spider got to bite me as much as it could. I stored the spider corpse whole when it stopped twitching. I got some pounds of raw silk too. Maybe something good can be done with it.

Beelzebub's Hive B2 cleared. Guild card updated.

Helen (Monster Tamer) has gained 3 levels! Mittens has gained 2 levels!

Marcy (Mystic Archer) has gained 1 levels!

Zahariel (Magician) has gained 2+3 levels!

Grendel (Super Villager) has gained 2+3 levels!

32 skill points added.

And this brings us to the third floor. No tunnels this time. It feels like we are inside a geode. Crystal formations cover the walls and ceiling. It is a wide space about the size of a football field and over two hundred feet tall with big obsidian boulders dotting its uneven floor. It is hard to walk this time. The entire floor is covered in small obsidian shards.

There is no way short of levitating to move quietly in this place. The rustling of the shards that are disturbed by our steps echoes in the crystals above. Some light comes from the far side, and we see the boss and only inhabitant of this level.

Marcy also knows this one. "It is a Phoenix Butterfly, a solid higher B-rank." Four meter long wings with a blazing pattern are so amazing that I'd make a killing selling it as a vehicle decal.

To show its warm welcome, it tosses a huge rain of fireballs in our direction. There is barely enough time to take cover behind a boulder. Marcy shoots a multishot on the move.

"Kuuuy!" The butterfly lets out a meek cry before plummeting to the ground.

"Did I kill it?" Marcy raises the death flag.

KATHOOM! A huge blast is heard moments before a strong heat wave assaults the entire floor. I got slightly burned. Obsidian shards are tossed around. They break and ricochet everywhere. The boulders were chipped, adding even more shards to the mix.

"Shit, it blows up after being killed." We wait for a few moments, but no Exp message comes. Reflected on the geode crystals above, I see a pulsating orange light. "And it is not dead. Everyone brace yourselves.

KATHOOM! Another huge explosion rocks the whole room, and the lighting source moves upwards.

"Eeek!" Helen takes a peek and quickly dives back. A big fireball runs past where she was and blows a dozen feet away from us.

I run out and throw my biggest snowball yet. The butterfly doesn't dodge and it is a clean hit. A lot of steam rise and hide the butterfly. Some warm water rains down beneath the boss. It hisses unscathed. I have only one complaint to file. Why people design fire monsters that are not vulnerable to ice?

"Here comes another fireball swarm. Take cover!" I raise my trusty shield up and block most of yet another volley of fireballs the butterfly drops on us from above like it is raining.

This exchange goes back and forth. It is not like this boss is unkillable.

In fact, we end up killing it seven times. Or none. It flutters down on us when it is at low health, and then it explodes in a huge conflagration. To add insult to injury half a minute later it explodes again as it is reborn from its egg, ready to dish out fiery judgment upon us again. One interesting trivia is that its wing patterns and shape change every time it is reborn.

"There must be a way to make it be gone forever. Anyone has an idea?" Breaking the egg from afar doesn't work.

"If only that egg disappeared before it is reborn..." Helen sighs.

"That is the best idea so far. I'll try it. Marcy, please shoot it down. Zarr, Helen spam healing on me." This is one of those 'hold my beer' crazy ideas.

"Multishot!" Marcy was able to level Multishot quite a bit already. She fires a dozen arrow clones at once, and the butterfly just drops dead again. Its defense is almost inexistent. No impenetrable carapace, no lightning-fast speed. It just leisurely flutters and merrily rains fire on its enemies. It could be ranked A if it were not a paper cannon boss.

When the phoenix butterfly dives for its death strike, we run behind an obsidian boulder and take cover. I place a dimensional anchor on our hiding spot.

"KRAKOOM!" A mini mushroom cloud bursts up when it blows up once again. The main shockwave rips shards of the black glass boulder but we are unharmed on the other side. I rush in from behind cover after the worst of the blast is gone. Heat waves attempt to push me back and the floor ahead is literally lava, but I push forward.

The final distance to the egg is covered by [Instant Movement]. I am not right in front of a glowing red and orange egg. I touch it and the skin of my hand burns but it is enough. "King's Item Box! {Short Jaunt}!" The egg is moved into storage bit just to be sure I just cast the short range movement spell I learned at level 3 of spatial magic. I would teleport back to the anchor's location in case the egg was not a valid storage target.

It seemed to be an item instead of a creature though. I now have a 'Phoenix Butterfly Egg' listed in the cargo manifest.

Beelzebub's Hive B3 cleared. Guild card updated.

Removing the boss from the dungeon allowed the mana flow to clear and the guild card recognized that as the floor is cleared.

But cheating our way into victory had a bitter aftertaste. No Exp was awarded. We wait a couple minutes, but nothing happens. I try to open the job-change interface and it works without a hitch, proof we are no longer in combat.

"No Exp? Bummer!" Marcy bites her fingernails.

"I am just glad we are out of danger. Exp can be found anywhere."

"This room will take days to cool down. This looks like a volcano already. We will have to find another path.

"Let's return to the entrance. It is already our luck that the vents up there are taking all the fumes out. I might have something up my sleeve to let us get through."

Once outside the chamber and safely back in the tunnels I use the spell I learned at level 7 of frost magic.

"Frozen Wonderland!" Starting from where my staff touched the ground, the area in front is claimed by frost and ice out to a diameter of about 140 feet in a spherical pattern. We stand at the edge of this bubble. I keep supplying it with MP while the spell saps all the heat from inside its area and the surroundings. The small obsidian shards littering the ground creak and split from the sudden temperature drop, but the big boulders are fine.

"We should stop here to rest and eat. We need to wait for the room to cool down anyway."

"How long have we been here? I am feeling terrible." Even with the status growth from the jobs, Helen's constitution is still delicate.

"Two days and a half, I think. We did two floors without sleeping after all." Zahariel answers.

I am tired too, but not as much as my human companions. "We should barricade the entrances to this hall, scout around for any dangers and make camp here. Zahariel, can you please illuminate the ceiling?"

"Sure. Everlasting Light!" a hundred feet above us a ball of light appears. It shines on the geode crystals and sends a cascade of rainbows all around. It looks as if the crystals were multicolored, to begin with.

I pick up a big obsidian boulder and shove it in the tunnel leading to B2 and another on the tunnel leading to B4. Helen, Marcy, and Mittens clear a section of the floor for the bedrolls.

"Hey, look! There are pieces of eggshell here, and some scraps of the wings." Marcy finds the boss' remains. This way we can report the subjugation.

Two floors in one long day sounds like a good progression. Now it is time to make camp in this beautiful crystal cave.