Chapter 37 “Spider’s lair.”

In real world, spiders are small creatures that appear in random places where you least expect it. Technically the spiders that you normally encounter are completely harmless, unless it’s some poisonous spices but a real chance for encountering those are low. That’s why there is absolutely no realistic reason for anyone to be afraid of spiders.

Still, as if often goes, some people are simply terrified while seeing those little things. Even if they can dispose of them with little difficulty rather than doing that, they will run away in panic while looking for help. The fear of spider and not only spiders but other small creatures are not that uncommon.

In both MMORPGs and RPGs, the spiders are often used as a base for monsters to fight against. All that producers need to do is, take a random spider, make it bigger, and wuala, the monster is ready to bring the terror to the players, and especially to those who are scared of spiders in the real life. There were even situations in which because of massive amount of spiders in a certain RPG, there was a fan made mod that changed the graphic of all spider to that of a bears. It looked a little silly, seeing all those bears running in places filled with web but for those afraid of spiders it was a blessing.

In MMOs however and even more in EOA, the changes like fan made mods could not be applied and the spiders would run through the lands without anything that could stop them. Still thanks to that the players could overcome their fears. Although even if they overcame the fear of spiders in game, they would still somehow be afraid of those small little creatures in real life.

There was a time that Arata was afraid of spiders or maybe afraid was not the best word for it. He simply hated them. It was not that he hated them from time he was born. When he was young when he saw the spiders he would only recall that one dungeon in ‘Light in the Citadel’, that gave his guild a lot of trouble. Apart from that nothing else. Still long after that while he was already living with his grandfather, during one of the mountain training in the winter break there was a certain ‘event’ that made him hate the spiders with passion and any time he would see them afterwards, he would want to execute the revenge.

That’s why while seeing the spiders in EOA, Arata was not afraid but rather excited to exterminate some of them. He definitely didn’t need any mods that would change their graphic to that of a bear. Actually if the spiders were swapped with bears, Arata really would be scared this time.

The expedition to the west finally started and the first enemies to fight were going to be spiders, it simply couldn’t be better for Arata, but somehow it didn’t end too well, given the current situation in which he and his teammate Hiro were currently in. There was nothing Arata could do at this moment so he decided to recall what happened and see if he didn’t made any errors along the way to avoid the current situation.

“

-you guys better don’t wipe here.

Arata said those words to Shin and then he was teleported by Shin’s spell, ‘somewhere’.

It was all in an instant, before Arata even managed to blink, he was already in a different place and that place was ‘right in the air’. He was now falling to the ground. The reason for that was because he appeared on the trunk of the tree as that was where the green rune of Shin landed.

Still Arata quickly realized his position and by pushing his leg of the tree he somehow managed to land on the ground next to the tree.

First thing that came to his sight was a mage with azure hair whose name was Hiro. He was dealing with one orange spider right now but that fight was so one sided, that Arata didn’t need to help him.

Arata looked around. Right now they were at the edge of ‘widow’s forest’ about 30 meters away from marching army of spiders. Still apart from that one orange spider that was now dead after Hiro’s attacks, all other spiders were afar and notice Arata only now.

-okay I am done, let’s start running before more of them come.

Hiro turned around to Arata and said those words. It was not that they couldn’t face those few spiders that started to come to their direction but it was just that they had more important mission to do.

-yes, as much as I would want to kill some of them, we will have to leave the rest to the others.

Arata agreed to Hiro proposition and both of them entered the forest. Their running speed easily left the small spiders behind and in the first place, even though those spiders were large, their speed wasn’t that big. It also seemed that they didn’t have ability to run so they could only move slowly on their slow legs.

Seeing quick dash of Arata and Hiro, the spiders quickly gave up and probably returned to attack the raid group.

-well, that was easy, now let’s look for those ‘sniping spiders’ as Shin called them.

Hiro said when they stopped running. Their current mission that Shin assigned to them was to eliminated the ‘sniping spiders’ that had the ability to shot from afar with their white arrows.

-good name I guess.

Arata answered while looking around. Even though it was still not that hour, the forest was already dark what made horrific atmosphere. The white webs on the conifer trees were not helping that image. The white eggs scattered here and there under those trees were not helping either.

-still, how are we going to find those guys? For a note, I don’t have any tracking ability that would be helpful here.

Hiro asked the obvious question.

-well, I also don’t have anything like that either.

-ah… so it means that Shin once again went with safety over effectiveness. He should swap me with Bran then! He would find them in a second.

“Oh…”

Just as Hiro was complaining, Arata spotted something in the air.

-we will have to do it a hard way then. Still I just saw one of those white arrows being fired out from that direction so first sniping spider located.

-heh, already? I guess there goes the twilight swordsman rank two with a double class at that.

Hiro answered sarcastically.

-what you are jealous?

Arata asked not understanding Hiro’s intentions.

-did I sound like it?

-a little but I can’t really image that actually be a truth from you. Someone who despite being a mage is actually better than me in sword fighting and jealousy does not come in pair.

-ha, better than you? Where that came from?

It seemed like Hiro had no idea what Arata was talking about and was really suspired hearing that.

-you should know that Rin already beat me few times in pure swordsmanship and I saw how you managed to cope with her also in pure swordsmanship so…-

-hahaha!…

Hiro ended up laughing at Arata’s explanation.

-and that didn’t seem fishy to you in any way?

-naturally it did, especially from someone who uses basic magic to that extend.

-oh…

Hiro was slightly surprise hearing those words from someone.

Naturally what Arata said earlier about being weaker in swordsmanship was to escape a talk about the classes which would probably go in somewhat bad direction. As for Hiro’s true swordsmanship, he was not a complete newbie but Arata judged that what he showed in his first fight against Thesar was Hiro real skill.

-Arata, are you sure you want to start a conversation like that when out teammates are in the middle of the fight?

Even though Hiro was probably interested in what Arata had to say he did kept a priorities. In a way Arata who wanted to start this conversation was in the wrong and it all came from his inexperience in EOA’s raids.

-I guess it was a bad idea.

-well, we can talk on the way as well but let’s start with those spiders already, which way was it?

-this way!

They started to run in a direction where Arata just saw the white arrow came from. Before they could even start the conversation once again, they encountered the first ‘snipping spider’.

The spider was standing on a small hill that gave him two meters of height advantage from there it was preparing the shoots.

The sniping spider looked quite different than the spiders that the Arata and Hiro encountered before. First of all, that spider had a long tail which actually made him more similar to a scorpion rather than a spider. Still everything else was spider-like. In comparison to previous spider all legs of sniping spider were thin and all of them were used to stand. It seemed like the spider was aiming with its long tail. The snipping spider was brown in color.

Arata and Hiro after seeing the spider quickly hide behind the trees. Then they looked around. Even though they didn’t encounter any spiders inside the forest yet, they assumed that there would be few of them guarding the sniping spider.

-how do we do it? Should I snipe him from here?

Hiro ended up asking.

-let’s wait till he fires another shot then I want to see its reaction to me charging at it. We will have other spiders to deal with afterwards so we should see what those guys can do.

-a safety approach?

-yes, something like that.

-haha, you and Shin would hit it off I think. He also always prefers to use a safety approach. Well… unless he turns on his evil mastermind mode.

-oh, what’s this?

Arata got a little interested hearing a name like that.

-well it’s just something that we named but ‘evil mastermind mode’ is the moment in which Shin changes his tactic from safely ones to those which involve sacrificing everyone just like chees pieces on the chessboard without a second though.

Hiro explained what Shin’s ‘evil mastermind mode’ is.

-from what I seen so far, I somehow can’t image that.

-well, Shin doesn’t go that mode unless it’s absolute necessity but given that we are in the west, you will probably see it few times.

“I guess west really has a bad opinion, so far however I didn’t see anything that scary here.”

While they talked they kept on looking at the sniping spider that was aiming its shoot. But now it happened. The spider, shoot out a white arrow with an incredible speed in the direction where probably the others were. At the current moment, Arata and Hiro couldn’t see the party. They were already too deep within the forest. It was actually incredible that this spider managed to shoot with such good precision from such distance. Still this was the reason that the sniping spiders needed to be taken care off.

Seeing the spider shoot, Arata came out from the tree and started running in spider’s direction. He passed three meters of distance before the spider even noticed him. While running Arata made sure to look around in case something was indeed guarding the sniping spider but it seemed like Arata overestimated the intelligence of those creatures and there was nothing like that.

While moving forward Arata saw as the sniping spider was stretching his tail.

“I see so he can shoot even after firing that arrow. In that case I expect that he either takes his time on aiming or some weaker version of that white arrow will come out.”

Although the spider didn’t even do anything Arata just by seeing the movements of its tail could tell that the arrows will be coming. And just as he predicted the sniping spider shoot out a white arrow.

Seeing it coming Arata continued to run faster and with little movement he dodged it as it flied pass his right side. Given Arata’s speed there was no time to shoot out another arrow.

Arata run up towards the spider and slashed horizontally with the left sword on spider’s two front legs. They were easily cut and with that Arata made a step forward and with his right hand pierced with his black sword at spider’s head, right between the eyes. After he stretched his sword fully, the spider was already dead but just to be sure, Arata pushed his sword downward and cut even more of spider head.

The spider started falling to the front as its front legs were no more so Arata moved out of its way to the left. The corpse of ‘sniping spider’ slide down of the two meter hill.

Arata once again looked around but it seemed like there really wasn’t anything guarding this sniping spider. Confirming that, Arata sheathed back his swords and walked back to where Hiro was standing.

-so did you find anything important out from it because to me it seemed that you just went slashed it down.

Hiro commented.

“Well.”

Arata didn’t know how to answer to that after what he said earlier that he want to test the spider.

-well I found out that they are all small flies that don’t require a strategy in the first place.

-we still have to take care of those glass cannons though…

The term that Hiro used ‘glass canon’ was describing enemies or players that could do a lot of damage but their defense was low.

-let’s find the other one. Earlier on, when we were with the others, I saw that the arrows were coming from five separate spots so there shouldn’t be any more sniping spiders here anymore. Also Shin sent us to the edge so this would be the farthest to the right spider. In that case we just have to go left to find the others…

There was nothing wrong with Hiro’s plan so they went on with it.

They first ran some distance but afterwards they started to walk and looked around to see more withe arrows.

-so, now that we have a little bit of time, maybe you will tell me where you heard the term basic magic?

At some point Hiro ended up asking although that question seemed a little bit strange to Arata.

-is it that unusual that I heard about it? Also just so you know, I really bad on using it.

Arata quickly explained.

-well there aren’t many people who can make use of it in a way that is actually useful. I for example need some preparations before-hand but anyway if you are asking if it’s unusual that you heard about it then yes, it is. Well, I did found few people who heard about it as usually as a mage you will encounter this topic eventually. If you are studying anything, that is. Still what interested me is that you called it a ‘basic magic’. Everyone else would usually call it ‘primitive magic’ or ‘original magic’ but you used this term.

-it was a name with which I was introduced to that concept so I am using it. Also no matter what name it has it’s the same thing, right?

Arata was really green in that subject so he ended up asking.

-well yes it’s the same but naming it basic magic. I heard only one person naming it like this and it was the person that told me the secret of how to use it.

-was that some old crazy Wizard with a huge ego?

-emm… no?

Hiro was little surprised by Arata’s question.

-well I heard it from a guy like this in the city of beginners. But actually right now we are doing a quest that we got from him. He is currently in Karma so if there will be a chance I might introduce you.

Arata offered.

-… well if there will be an occasion then sure I would like to use it but I asked you that question only because I was interested if you were in contact with the person who thought me the basic magic.

Hiro explained himself.

-well apart from him I never heard anyone naming it like that.

“No wait, there was also a time when Gerald used it, or was it Loki, I don’t remember but it was during conversation with them.”

-I see, sorry that I asked then.

-I don’t mind but while we are already talking about it, could you tell me something about basic magic?

Arata couldn’t avoid asking this question.

-if you are asking about a secret of how I am using it then I can’t tell you that. No offense but I promised to not tell anyone.

Hiro stated it out in the front right away.

-well, I see that I won’t be able to convince you, but maybe some basic at least. Like, for now I would want to know, what exactly basic magic is? The explanations that I got so far were far from good.

It was mostly because the only source of Arata’s knowledge about basic magic was that crazy old Wizard.

-I can answer something like that I guess. You know I actually ended up asking that question to the person who thought me as well and he gave me very clear answer.

-very clear answer? I am all for that.

-the answer went like this. I will use his exact words. “In short, basic magic is an ultimate power of magicians in this world. As you know the game’s pre-defined spells are often limited but with basic magic you can do anything. Yes it’s not easy to use but when you learn it you will be above any other magician of this world that does not use it. Still remember what I said, it’s only ultimate power of magicians in this world but not ultimate power of this world. There are few other powers that go way above basic magic that even I cannot understand… at least for now.” His words went exactly like this as I recorded them and reheard few times.

Hiro added at the end.

“Ultimate power of magicians but not ultimate power of this world.”

Arata decided to remember that definition as it told him not only about basic magic but about something even more important.

“Despite it’s nearly unlimited utility from where I see it, there is something above basic magic that gives betters effects in fight? I can’t really image what it is but if I really want to be that strongest player, I will have to reach it one day.”

Arata thought like that. As to why someone as lazy and not caring as him would even think about being the strongest player of EOA the reason was quite simple. It was for because of Kotori. Well Arata never heard anything like ‘go become the best player’ from her as Kotori rarely made any demands from him. Still it happened one day when Arata was thinking, what he could do to make her little more happy. His thoughts started with sending her a gift or something. Then it went into direction of visiting her but he was going to do that anyway so it wasn’t really special. While trying to come up with something he went all the way back to the first time they meet and the fact that at the beginning she kept on calling him legendary Arata. It was really embarrassing and strange to be called that but still any time Kotori said that, she was always extremely happy. Then there was also the fact that that the moment she introduced herself back on that hill she said something like ‘she likes strong players’. In truth it was more of “I tolerate people who can play and I will ignore and won’t heal anyone who is bad.”

Anyway although Arata normally wouldn’t think like that, when he though off the fact that Kotori would be happy if he actually become that strongest player he didn’t need any more motivation and even become serious about it. Still he was perfectly aware that it’s a long time process. For now, his greatest concern was to not get beaten badly by a certain girl with a long red hair.

Just as the Hiro stopped explaining what basic magic is, he and Arata saw a white arrow that flied a meter above their heads.

-well, I hope that answered your question but if you could, don’t ask me more than this. Even though I am supposed to only keep the secret, I am not exactly sure what the part of that secret is anymore and what isn’t. Still just so you know if you want to use basic magic as well, it’s not that that secret is the only way to use basic magic, so it’s not a matter of you know it you use or you don’t know it and you don’t. I can’t tell you anything else. Maybe you could ask Shin what he knows about it, although he is bad in it so maybe not him… oh right, what about that Wizard you mentioned. If he calls it basic magic then he should know a lot about it.

After Arata heard this advice he suddenly got a dark vision of the worst nightmare. In that nightmare he was studding under the Wizard. After three seconds of seeing it, Arata quickly shock his head just to escape that image.

“No never! I would rather have Anari thought me that.”

Arata thought like that for a second as Anari was actually really good at basic magic now that he thought about it. But then a nightmare of studding under Anari appeared as well. This time Arata couldn’t stand it even after one second.

“No never, I will pass on ‘wawawa teachings’ as well.”

Ignoring the fact that his pride would not allow him to do it, Arata also remembered how Anari once tried to explain her basic magic and it was completely useless explanation to anyone apart from her. She probably wouldn’t be a good teacher.

-well I don’t think I can spend my time training it right now as I am busy with the quest so I maybe will think of it some other time.

In the end Arata arrived at that, although in his current plan he had a one goal with basic magic and that to finally learn how to use his ‘shining poem enchant’ as he called it. Actually ever since Arata used it first in the city of beginners it was his goal to learn how to use it but other than that it worked only twice so far despite numberous tries so at some point Arata just gave up. Still right now that thought started to return to him. It was mostly because Arata wanted to have some edge over Rin as right now, he didn’t have even one.

After following the direction from where the white arrow came from, they once again found another sniping spider. The tactic of looking for the arrows seemed to work out great.

Similar to the previous spider this one was also standing on the higher ground. This time it wasn’t the hill though.

The brown sniping spider was standing on the trunk of collapsed three. The trunk was giving it one meter height advantage.

Just like before, Arata and Hiro stopped right before reaching it and hid behind the trees and started watching it.

-by the way, why are we stopping rather than killing it right away?

Hiro ended up asking when they did that.

-this time I stopped only because you first hid behind the tree.

Arata answered.

-that is because I thought you will want to wait again till it shots.

-I don’t think we should be doing it anymore, what if someone gets hit by this particular arrow and die because of it?

-ah, so we stopped because our teamwork sucks. Well I guess it can’t be helped given that it’s first time we play together anyway…

Hiro stopped hiding behind the tree and came out in the open. Right away he casted a spell and water started to generate on the palm on his hand, still he did not fire it out right away but the water started to spin in his hand with incredible speed. Hiro then pointed that hand in direction of the sniping spider and the spinning water ball flied out. In few seconds it reached the spider and went right through its body from the left side to the right side. The spider ended up dying without even realizing who killed it.

-ah, so hard.

Hiro commented to himself and turned around back to Arata.

-was this also was a basic magic?

Arata ended up asking as although the spell seemed simple, he somehow got the feeling that it was not.

-well yes and no.

Hiro ended up answering.

-what do you mean?

-well in the first place every magic is in a way basic magic. But anyway, why are you asking? What I have done just now is really simple and everyone knows about it, right?

“Should I say that I don’t know? Ah… whatever.”

-what does everyone know about?

-haha, don’t ask stupid questions like that.

Hiro ended up laughing at Arata’s answer thinking he is joking.

-no I really don’t know.

-don’t joke like that Arata, it’s not time for lame jokes, even though those spiders are this weak…

Hiro pointed at the spider that he just one shooted.

-we still have to deal with them.

-no I am not joking.

-how can you not joke? I mean…

Hiro was still taking it as a joke but then he saw Arata’s serious face when he answers.

-wait, wait, wait…

Hiro calmed down and started.

-you are a twilight swordsman with profession of rank two who completed all stages of trial of adventurer and even though you are not magician you know of basic magic and you are telling me that you don’t know something simple as this?

“Did I just say something stupid?”

Arata still did not know what Hiro was talking about. After all he just asked if that spell was a basic magic and that’s all.

-hmm, maybe I do but I don’t know what you mean right now.

-really? Like, really?…

The way moment Hiro said he somehow become more cheerful than usual, if you could say that he was ever cheerful.

-hahaha, well you probably just didn’t catch it. I was simply speaking of using the skill manipulation that all…

“Skill manipulation?”

Arata looked at Hiro with puzzled face.

-wait, wait, let’s stop joking already. You do know what skill manipulation is right? Or did you hear it as skill management or mana manipulation or stamina manipulation. Well the last one is really rare but you did hear and use those all the time right?

-it’s the first time I am hearing about it.

Arata was already frank so there was no need to lie although this time Hiro face palmed himself.

-em… tell me at least how long did you play EOA so far?

-it will be about three months of ingame time I guess.

Currently Arata was not sure anymore but it was about this much.

-ah, three months, then I guess, it’s fair… wait! You said in-game time? You didn’t mistake it with real time, right?

-no, in real it will be month soon.

-month? … You telling me you reached 100th level less than a month!?

-yes, something like that.

Arata answered like nothing.

-I see, I see…

Hiro started calming down.

-so you are someone who rushed with their level without care and used his real world fighting skills to push himself forward?…

“Quite good description.”

-fine, in this case I can understand why you haven’t hear about skill manipulation. Well, I will give you a short explanation on the way…

They once again started to look for flying arrows although Hiro started explaining right away.

-skill manipulation is something that you probably already used without knowing what it is. In game everyone have their skills and spells that cost this or that much mana, stamina and have this or that effect…

Hiro was not trying very hard with his explanation.

-still even though those skills were made to be used in specific way, you can always alert the somehow. The simplest explanation would be mage’s fireball. The caster can change its size, power and temperature. The more skillful ones can even change its shape or make multiple fireballs at once. Naturally increase in utility, increases the spell cost or rather the caster is deciding how much mana he want to spare and the effect will go according to that. Other simplest example would be melee’s class simplest skill ‘strike’…

“Ah, the skill that I never used.”

Arata thought to himself hearing the name of the skill that he only once considered when he first read the skills he had.

-you can put more stamina and boom, your attack power goes up by more than 15%. Anyway most of people eventually use skill manipulation unconsciously and then when they find out about it they already know what it is right away.

“I see, so there is name for that. Well I don’t have much skills but I keep on using black dash and change the length of where I go with it. The description said 5 meters after all. The same goes with leap. Then there is the whole ‘cutting spells with sword enchants’. The skill book never mentioned that I can do it but I found out on my own that I can.”

-I see, well as you guested I was using it without knowing about it. Still your spell was something different right, I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.

Arata returned to the question.

-you asked if its basic magic, it’s not quite but it would be closer to that, it’s still skill manipulation though. What I did was I took my most basic skill which is water ball and added it some power. By adding more mana, bringing out more water to it and lastly adding a spin effect. With that the damage is about four times bigger than a simple water ball.

“Four times?”

-seems like I will have to work on my skills then.

-you should. Sure having high level is good but rushing too much with it and ignoring other things is not good. Well I guess that sitting down under level 100 if you can beat trial of adventurer would also be strange. Also seeing that you are doing better than me after a month of play I have no right to tell you what is better for you.

“Rushing only up to level 100 and then focus on other things? Wasn’t this, what Gerald wanted us to do?”

For a second Arata reflected on the progress of his guild Refrain.

-still while we are on it, how hard is it do use skill manipulation in a way you did to get an effect of 4x?

Arata asked.

-how hard? Well on basic skill manipulation is easy but if you want to get 4x from a skill it’s not that simple. Also not every skill can be manipulated and you usually have to come up on your own how to make your skills better. Anyway, if you want, we will talk about it some other time. You just mentioned that someone might die from that white arrow and despite the fact that Flynn earlier on took it on shield like nothing the shoot that I just saw a second ago would probably kill me if I took it head on without any defense spell. I think those spiders can change the power of their shoots, oh it’s exactly fits what we were just talking about.

Hiro commented.

“I see so monsters can do it as well, no surprise and I probably already seen it as well without realizing.”

Arata was slowly realizing his ignorance.

-maybe the first shoot was a warning shot.

-who knows.

Two snipping spiders were down and probably three remained. Arata and Hiro continued their search. The third ‘snipping spider’ was found and killed about ten minutes after the second one and now then was the time to look for the fourth one, still before Arata and Hiro found the fourth one, for the first time in the forest they encountered different spiders than the sniping ones.

-I will take the one on the left, you take the other one!

Arata said to Hiro and started rushing at the orange spider that appeared before them.

-go it.

In similar manner Hiro started rushing at the other orange spider, despite being a mage who should shoot from afar. Still Arata did not see how Hiro fought.

The orange spiders were much different than snipping spiders but Arata already fought against those with the raid group. The biggest difference would be their resilience. The chances of one-shooting the orange spider with Arata’s attack potential were slim. Unless he used a sword slash that is.

Arata closed in on the spider and by attacking with his swords clashed with orange’s spider two front legs. The normal spiders were using their two front legs and were piercing and slashing with them as if they were using a weapon. Arata already experienced that and it was hard to break through the front of those two legs. One of the tactics, he used first time was to go to the side and attack at the other legs, but other legs were quite durable so it was hard to attack them from there. That’s why Arata thought off a different tactic.

After rushing at the spider and clashing with its front legs, Arata used the momentum of the clash and jumped up forward using the strength of the spiders. He did not use his skill [leap].

Arata ended up landing at the top of the orange spider which was spider’s weak point.

It was not because the top of the spider had weak defenses but because there was nothing that spider could do once Arata got there. From the top Arata started to slash down at the spider without interference.

‘blow, blow, blow’

The orange’s spider life was coming to an end.

“Hmm, should I speed it up and use the skill ‘strike’? Nah my decision to not waste stamina on it can’t be wrong.”

In times when Arata’s stamina was still low, he decided to not use something that didn’t have visible effect and Arata wasn’t going to change that decision. Instead when he wanted to make stronger blow, he would just put more power into that blow, just as if he did that in the real world. All the way till now, Arata did not relay on the game skills too much, he only did that when it was necessary and even now he was not going to change his mind about it.

At the start of his journey, it was because Arata didn’t have many skills and many resources to use them in the first place. His number of skills still did not increase much but as he leveled up, he got more resources and also his skills upgraded themselves by one level and now cost less mana. There was also the fact that sword slash was no longer taking all the mana and lastly, the black sword reduced the mana of twilight swordsman skills as well. Right now, Arata could use his skill much more. For example he could run around using lighting speed for about ten minutes. Despite that Arata was still not using his skills and kept on fighting without them. Best proof to that would be that right now Arata wasn’t using even sword enchant which cost practically no mana at all. But there was really simple reason why he fought like this. For Arata, fighting with his own hands and his own body was the most enjoyable way of fighting.

Arata finished his orange spider without much problem and soon after Hiro did the same and they once again went to look for remaining ‘sniping spiders’. It didn’t take them too much time to find the rest of them. But they also didn’t do it immediately. Still in the end on average each sniping spider took 9 minutes to find and one minute to kill.

[Black dash]

Arata just now killed the last sniping spider by black dashing through it and then piecing back with his swords at sniping spider tail.

-that would be the fifth one. What do we do now… look for more or return to the party?

Hiro asked after Arata sheathed back his swords.

-hmm… I think that the white arrows were coming only from five directions but let’s look for another 10 minutes just to be sure.

-I guess, we are probably too late for the party with spiders anyway.

Hiro answered although at the current time the raid group was still fighting against army of spiders which dwindled but was still large.

The search for the sniping spiders continued even if Arata and Hiro did not know if they are still out there.

After five minutes, there was still no sight of any white arrows flying still in this moment Hiro point out a certain fact.

-hey, don’t you think that the number of those eggs around somewhat increased?

It was true as earlier on there was about one egg every ten tree but now there were even few eggs next to each other under nearly every tree.

-you are right. Do you want to go back because of that?

“Seeing something like this I can feel like something that is making those eggs is near.”

Arata naturally started to think like that.

-no yet at least. For now we should probably see if there really is something here so in case we find something we can tell about it to others.

-we could also take care of it as well. I am little bored of those fights we had so far.

-well if you want to fight something then sure I will join you but if we encounter something bad and die because of it, don’t blame me for failing your quest.

“Right, I shouldn’t ask for the trouble.”

-let’s pass on fighting then but we still should look around.

They didn’t look too long before they found something. After about a minute they found many ‘really long thin sticks’. Those sticks were reaching the trees and what’s more those sticks were moving. There were about ‘a lot’ of those sticks in a distance of 30 meters.

-hmm…?

-hmm…?

Seeing those moving sticks Arata and Hiro were not sure what to do.

-well it’s your decision team’s leader.

After staying there for about 20 seconds without saying anything Hiro broke the silent.

-no matter what you say if we go that way we will have to fight against those, who knows what.

-this is probably another type of spider given that it’s a forest full of spiders right?…

If one looked carefully they could see that the sticks were moving in groups of eight.

-the forest was quite empty so far probably because all spiders rushed at our team but here we finally encounter them in greater number and just in a place where number of eggs increases. I wonder what could that mean?

Hiro said sarcastically.

-I would say it means that we should find out what is even further than that.

-hahaha, and here I thought you were careful type like Shin.

-what you are scared.

-not really, if we are to die here we wouldn’t live for too long anyway. So what do we do? We sneak by or simply attack?

-do you even have to ask.

-allow me to start then with the boom. You might as well watch what I do, maybe you will find out something interesting…

After saying that, Hiro started moving forward in the direction of long moving sticks.

“Something interesting?”

Arata was not sure what Hiro meant but still looked and after a second Hiro started.

-I have seen the ocean, the endless blue…

-everywhere I look, the endless blue…

-I have also the whirlpool, and I still see it now…

-as it is, right before my eyes…

In that moment a large amount of water started to circle around Hiro’s stretched hand. It did remind the whirlpool and its diameter was around two meters.

-just so you know, the basic magic that I used does not involve the secret that I spoke about at all. As you can see, you can still use basic magic without it, it just that casting anything during the fight is not easy, still if it’s before the fight, that’s completely different matter.

After saying, that Hiro started attacking. From the circling circle, water bolts formed in spikes started to fire out and they all flied in the direction of walking sticks, namely little above them.

‘clap, clap, clap.’

Arata ended up clapping to Hiro performance for a joke although partly he also knew that he deserved those clapping as Arata had experience in using or rather not using basic magic.

In the distance about three sets of ‘moving long sticks’ fell to the ground after the attack. As predicted it was another type of spider. This type was small and large at the same time. Small because its torso was much smaller than that of previous spider but large because of its height which rivaled those of smaller trees. After being attack all of those ‘long leg spiders’ started attacking.

-stop or I will get embarrassed…

Hiro answered to Arata’s clapping while keep on shooting.

-also just so you know, even though it might look like I am good in basic magic it only goes as far as spells that use water. Maybe it’s because my class is a water mage but anything other than water spells don’t turn out too good. Well I am still far from perfection with water spells as well so I just focus on those.

-well if you can tell me anything useful about basic magic I will gladly listen but maybe after we deal with those.

-my mouth is sealed but you can learn by looking, anyway despite being a mage I can take care of myself so don’t worry about tanking.

-okay.

It was time for Arata to join in as well as the spiders has come. There were about 11 long leg spiders although it was hard to count as they were small and were hiding behind the trees.

Because they were so large in height the first thought as how to attack them that appeared in Arata’s mind was to attack their legs.

Arata run up toward the first spider but just as he was about to reach the first leg, the spider picked it up and attacked from above making a pierce attack at the ground. It was really quick pierce but seeing it coming Arata avoided it in time. Still that pierce was powerful as it went right into the ground.

Seeing the chance Arata made a swing at the leg that just attacked him. He made simple horizontal attack but the moment he encountered the leg, the leg didn’t even bend and the sword simply bounced off it leaving only small mark on the leg.

“They are quite durable… it’s quite strange after seeing few of them falling down to the ground after one attack from Hiro.”

Arata thought that those are just other spiders that he will take easy care of… he soon found out that it was a mistake.

Following with a second strike at that leg, which didn’t do any damage either Arata jumped back from the spot where he has been as other spiders started attacking. Actually simple movement of those ‘long leg spiders’ were deadly as their legs were just like sharp and durable like steel.

Arata had unusual fight in which he had to avoid the attacks that came from above him. It was quite hard to both move and look upward at the same time. The ‘long leg spiders’ also started to surround him. To avoid that Arata started to move under their legs to places where the number of ‘long moving sticks’ was less. After making few other strikes Arata managed to slash off few legs but then he heard from the distance.

-hey, Arata how many did you kill?

-emm… zero.

It was slightly embarrassing to admit that but rather than killing anything Arata had problems with even surviving, he already had few close calls.

-oh, then it’s the same as me.

-ha!? Didn’t you kill like five right at the start?

Even thought it was a middle of the fight Arata asked.

-yea they fell but they stood up soon after and are coming at us and despite firing few other skill now, the torso of those spiders is just as durable as it’s legs…

“Ooo… so my plan to jump upward and attack the torso will also not work.”

-so Arata, can do we start running already because I am not as good as you in dodging those attacks, I might have said that I won’t need help but I didn’t expect them to be this good.

Arata quickly looked to where Hiro was and there he saw that Hiro already took few hits and actually those hits were serve enough to disable his left arm. At least it seem like it was not in usable state anymore. Strangely, though Hiro just now was using his calm and collected voice, the same way as always.

-teleport out of there now! I am also running.

Arata made a quick decision which if delayed could have grave consequences. Hiro disappeared in a flash from the position in which he were a second ago, which was right in the middle of long moving sticks. He then appeared ten meters away from where the fight was taking place.

[Lighting speed]

Arata was also not wasting his time and quickly run out from the ‘sticky area’. Without much problems, he maneuvered between the sticks and got away. Naturally after he did that the long leg spiders started chasing him but that was not the most current problem. Just as Arata escaped from the sticks he stopped as he he saw something in a distance that was coming from the distance, right behind Hiro.

=look out, behind you!

Somehow in the exact moment in which Arata wanted to warn Hiro, Hiro also warned Arata still, they were both late. Arata only managed to look what was behind him and what he saw was the white spider web net that come flying at him from nowhere. It was just like the white arrow that appeared behind Hiro which also turned out to be the spider web net. In about exact same moment both of them were caught by it.

After getting hit, even though its purpose was not the damage the spider web net still pushed Arata to the ground few meters away from where he stood and after rolling few times, Arata was covered in it.

[Sword enchant: water]

Arata was not wasting any second and right away he had to get rid of that net.

While they were still with the party, Hiro found out a good way to get rid of the spider web net and that was to use some water skill on it. Arata already tested his water enchant against it and it worked perfectly. Arata knew how to get out from the net so he get to it right away but helping someone else get out of the net and cutting the net around himself was different and it would take much more time.

When Arata started cutting the net he saw as from the tree that was before him a new type of spider jump out from. In comparison to all other spiders this one was quite small, about the size of small dog. Still this small spider flied from the tree and landed on ‘Arata’s webbed face’ and second later he started to spread some green toxin in the air.

“Is that some poison!?!”

Arata panicked seeing it but this was not the time to panic. He quickly focused all his strengths on getting out from the web and after three seconds he was free to the degree in which he could move both his hands and legs. His face still had some web on it but it could wait. After releasing himself the first thing Arata did was killing the small spider that he had on his face. It was quite easy as it died in one strike. Arata quickly stood up and started running away from ‘long leg spiders once again’ but after making five steps, his head started to get dizzy and then after few seconds he lost ability to see and then after about five additional steps, Arata dropped down to the ground and he no longer knew what was happening around him.

“

“I see so it’s like this.”

After recalling all the events, Arata arrived at the simple conclusion.

“I might have underestimated those guys and because of it we ended up like this.”

There was no much to debate on this. Because Arata and Hiro ‘hunt for sniping spiders’ went so easily they were sure than dealing with slightly different type of them shouldn’t be hard either. Still it turned out that the ‘long leg spiders’ were much better than expected. Well, it probably wasn’t on the level where Arata and Hiro couldn’t beat them but because they assumed that it was going to be an easy fight they got overwhelmed when it was not so.

“I hope that Rin will not find out about this or otherwise I will get another lecture about underestimating my opponents again. Well, to my defense it wasn’t my fault that we got caught. I could still fight if I wanted to.”

Even though ‘long leg spiders’ power was unexpected, Arata was still doing okay with his superb dodge ability, still he must have fall back because his teammates could not do so. There weren’t that many players who would be able to stay alive in those circumstances for too long and Arata was one of the few who could pull that off.

“Now then what do we do?”

Arata looked around and once again started to think of the way of how to get out from the situation in which he was currently in.

At the current moment, Arata was wrapped completely in the white spider web. The web was covering his body completely apart from the head. If his head was wrapped in web as well then Arata would probably not even wake up as he would simply choke himself to death.

Well, being wrapped in the web completely wouldn’t normally be a problem for Arata as he had a counter measure for it. Sadly though right now he could not use it. To get out from the web he would need to cut it down with his sword while using water enchant. But currently his swords were not in his hands and in general he couldn’t really move in the web cocoon.

As for his swords they somehow returned to the sheaths although Arata did not remember putting them back there. Because of that Arata assumed that it’s simple game mechanic that helps player to not lose their equipment. He was not sure on what laws it worked but it worked.

Still being wrapped in the web was not the worst thing in Arata’s current position. The worst thing was that right now, he was hanging in the air, upside down about 30 meters away from the ground. This fact beat even other bad circumstances as of now.

Other bad circumstance would be that Arata was hanging only on one single thread of spider web which could any moment break. Then there was other bad thing which was what was what Arata did see.

What Arata saw was one ‘big’ spider which was sitting on the web beneath where he was hanging. Still saying big may be little wrong. The other spiders were big, after all. Then the ‘long leg spiders’ were as high as trees. This one however should probably be called gigantic. This spider was taking about the half of the large hole in which he was. The hole itself looked to be of the size of 50 meters in diameter. That meant that the spider was about 25 meters large in width and about 15 meters large in height. Arata was currently 30 meters above the ground so half way there the huge spider could actually reach with its bent legs.

It was one gigantic spider that made any gigantic creature that Arata saw so far small. The spider had eight legs that were as thick as trunks of large tree. Those legs also seemed really thick. In general the whole body of that spider looked impenetrable. There were many dark-brown plates around the spider body and Arata expected that most of his attacks wouldn’t even leave a glance over it.

Still that spider was not currently the problem. From what Arata saw that spider didn’t move even once so far so it may be sleeping right now.

Arata currently had no means of getting out from the web in which he was trapped in and even if he somehow managed to get out then he would fall down from 30 meters down head first. Also any of his tries might actually lead to the thread breaking off and in that moment it would be a certain death.

“I did not expect to end up in the situation like this. Still, it could have been worse.”

How could anything be worse than that someone might ask? Well Arata could simply be dead right now and then he wouldn’t be able to do anything at all. It was not that he went crazy after waking up in a situation like this.

“I am guessing that the only reason I am not dead is because I am to be an offering to this… who knows what it is, I will not call it a spider.”

Arata thought like that because he knew well how spiders looked like. This creature could definitely not be called a spider.

“Well then, for now I will continue to wait till this guy wake up.”

There was nothing he could really do at this point so Arata was just waiting till his teammate wake up.

Hiro was in similar position to Arata right now and he was hanging on a single thread wrapped in the web about three meters away from Arata. Still, he was unconscious right now. Well, Arata was also unconscious for quite a while and he woke up just now. When he was unconscious he even got a message that if he logs out then he will die so things weren’t going well right now.

“Hmm… what to do?”

Actually, currently Arata was quite bored while waiting. Hanging upside down on a single web thread, as crazy as it sounded would get boring quite fast if someone did that for too long and Arata was hanging for about 30 minutes already ever since he woke up. He did not know how much time passed since he went unconscious but he didn’t feel like that much. Before he went unconscious it was slowly getting dark and right now it was a night as he has guessed so it shouldn’t be that much.

“Actually let’s check the time.”

Currently Arata’s movement was restricted but not to the point in which he couldn’t cross his fingers.

“23:00, not that bad.”

Arata managed to check the time and also the date that did not change. Still even thought it was not bad it meant he was out for few hours by now.

“Yes, let’s be positive, I didn’t die, and nothing is currently trying to kill me.”

Focusing on the good sides was good. Still Arata already listed down all positive things about his situations, and it was only the fact that he was alive.

“Hmm… is there really nothing I can do? Hmm what will happen if I activate black dash in this position? I think I will manage to get out form this cocoon with it. Yea, my old good skill that saved me so many times… right, where are my new skills that I should have get!? Was it a lie after all?”

Arata got distracted while thinking on new skills that he should get.

“Ah, right I still didn’t level up. Still if those skills will once again be some stupid passives than I am killing someone. In the first place what did that guy meant by ‘if you do the right things you will unlock the skills of your profession.’ What I am supposed to do as a twilight swordsman to unlock those skills normally?”

Arata did learn Shin’s theory on how to unlock new skills as it seemed that you didn’t just naturally get them from leveling up. It was just that the players were doing the right things without knowing what they did and simply thought of it like that. Still Arata had no idea as to what he should do to unlock his.

“I am a swordsman so shouldn’t fighting with the sword be enough? Well, maybe this isn’t the best moment to think about it. Also I will finally get some skills thanks to Hikari so let’s leave this subject for later.”

Arata calmed down from his obsession. Still as to why Arata suddenly wanted to get more skills, it was not necessary because he wanted to use them in battle. Well in normal battle at least. Arata did enjoy fighting on his own the most after all. Still there was one battle in which he needed some really good skills to win and that was a fight against Rin. Right now even if he managed to create a miracle and win against her in battle of pure swordsmanship, after last defeat Arata will not feel good until he wins against as he called it ‘flying red things’.

“So if I do it right, I will get out from this cocoon by using black dash and then when I will be getting close to the ground and use black dash again I should survive. Perfect.”

A foolproof plan has been created. Hopefully foolproof plan.

“Now then, I will have to wait till he wakes up and then we are getting out from here. For him landing shouldn’t be a problem. He can just teleport while falling down. I saw Zen doing it so he should also be able to do it as well. After that…”

Arata once again looked around to see the way they should choose after landing. Still it was so dark that he couldn’t see much. What he could recognize however was that they were in some large hole, or maybe a cave. Combination of both rather. Half of the hole in which Arata was hanging was covered and other half was open. From there the weak moonlight entered the hole and it was the only source of light.

“Well I can’t see it from here so we will worry about it later.”

Arata decided to leave the most important thing for later.

“The important fact is to not wake up this…”

Arata once again looked at the giant spider.

“’Who knows what’. Anyway, while I am already waiting I might consider something important that I have learned.”

There was no time for that till now but the hint that Arata received might turn out crucial in his progress towards basic magic.

“Hiro said that he is bad in any basic magic other than his main element that is water. He is a water mage if I remember correctly so there is no surprise in that. Probably because he was casting so many water spells he somehow understood how they work, or simply if his main element is water then using basic magic with it is simply easier. Yes, that makes sense.”

Arata had some time so he started theorizing.

“Hmm… water for a water mage is obvious but what would work the best for me? … Well what I definitely know is that according to this theory, the basic magic that I tried to use so far and succeeded only twice is my anti-element. I mean, light spells would probably be the opposite of what I should be using. Is that why it never works?… Ah! Maybe I am not really that bad at it? Even the thought of using a poem seems to be good as Hiro also used it to activate his basic magic. Although, he didn’t do the same while fighting with Rin. Well, he got taught some good method on using basic magic so let’s leave it on that. What I want right now is to use any basic magic so I can learn that I am not talentless with it.”

The main reason as to why Arata gave up on basic magic till now was because he felt that he won’t do anything good with it anyway. He managed to use his shining sword skill only twice despite trying many times. Arata simply didn’t want to even consider an unreliable move like this in fights so he simply ignored the existence of basic magic. Still now that he saw the hope of it actually working he started thinking about it.

“Hmm… well I don’t really know much about my professions but no matter how I look at them they are definitely not on the light side of the force. After all, in my first month of play I was desecrating a cross of some religion that is in this game. When I was getting my professions I even got scolded for that by the goddess.”

Arata remembered old good times.

“Well, it fits me. I was never a religious person anyway. Still if I am not on the light side of the force then it means that I am on the dark side then. In that case.”

-muahahahaha…

Arata already started training his evil laugh as he did actually think that it will help him in using basic magic.

What happened afterwards was quite surprising as Arata’s evil laugh that he made for fun actually managed to wake up Hiro.

“Oh, I should have called to him earlier. Well it’s not like I can train basic magic right now anyway and I probably won’t be able to do it till this expedition and quest are done. I will have to note it down though, next time ‘use the dark side of the force and see how it turns out’. Hmm, I need to consider making a poem for myself. The theme, something evil.”

-muahahahahaha!

-hey, what are you doing in a situation like this?

It seemed like Hiro was already woken up and heard Arata’s evil laugh training.

-I was trying to wake you up.

-I see…

Hiro was kind enough to not comment on the method.

-by the way, where are we?

Rather than commenting he focused on the matter on hand and asked quite natural question given the circumstances they were in.

-I would say that it’s a boss lair of some… ‘who knows what it is’, look at it yourself.

Luckily for them the gigantic spider below them still didn’t wake up even after Arata’s evil laughs.

-this is bad.

Seeing the creature Hiro gave probably quite natural response.

-exactly, luckily for us thought it is still sleeping so if our luck continues we might get out from here without fighting that thing.

-I am all for that but anyway do you have some plan.

-well my plan is as follows. We first get down from here and then get the hell out of here.

There was no time to be polite right now.

-simple plan, I like it. As for getting down, I think I will manage on my own but what about you. You need help?

-no, I have been through the training as to how to land from the high falls that would normally kill me…

“Although I hoped that I will not have to use that.”

-I am ready but do you need some more time to gather your thoughts? After I woke up I was still quite dizzy after that poison.

Arata asked.

-poison? I don’t remember any poison I just got hit hard by something at the back of my head and fall unconscious soon after that. It still hurts a little and I think I have a swelling but rather than worrying about that, I would rather get away from this spider as far as possible.

It seemed like Hiro had slightly different experience. At that time Arata was busy with himself so he did not see exactly what happened with him.

-okay we are getting down. On three. One, two, three…

[Black dash]

Just as planned, with the use of the skill Arata managed to get out from the cocoon and when he finished he started to fall to the ground.

“Hmm now that I think about it using black dash to get out from the web at that time would have been better.”

While falling down a thought like that appeared in Arata’s mind but right now it was not the time for it. Arata did his best to turn around so he doesn’t go down head first and then when he was about two meters above the ground he once again used his skill.

[Black dash]

Arata landed without much problem. Arata had only few skills but most of them were really useful and he already founded more than one usage for them.

“Still, this method is like, one wrong move and you are dead. If I were one second late then I could die.”

Hiro also landed without much problem either by using his teleport spell and now both of them were save on the ground. The ground was filled with web that was sticky but did not get in the way of their movement. Actually the whole room was filled with those webs and they actually brought an idea to Arata’s mind. But then Arata looked at the creature that was before him. From the ground perspective the creature looked even more scary, this feeling Arata could describe only in one way.

“Wawa.”

This was how much Arata would prefer not to fight against that creature. Still there was a hope.

-hey Hiro, I think that if we use those web bridges we will be able to get outside. See over there.

Arata whispered towards Hiro and pointed towards the web that was spread around the lair. Calling them web bridges was actually a good way to describe it. It was not coincidence that those web bridges were here thought as it seemed that other spiders were using it to move around this lair. Even now there were many spiders moving on those webs. All kind of types. ‘Normal spiders’ in color of green and yellow. The slightly bigger spiders the ‘orange ones’. There were also few ‘sniping spiders’ mixed in as well. The ‘long leg spiders’ could also be founded if Arata looked hard enough. Even the ‘small spiders’, the type that jumped at Arata and poisoned him could be found as well. There probably were few types of other spiders mixed in as well somewhere. Those spiders were using the web bridges to move around which meant that it should be possible for Arata and Hiro to also use those webs to get out.

-looks like our way out. Even if we will have to fight through some of those spiders it’s still better than being eaten by the big one. Let us better get moving.

There were many ‘web bridges’ around the lair but Arata and Hiro immediately started to run towards one specific bridge that would allow them to get out all in the one go as it was connected from the top all the way to the bottom.

There appeared few normal spiders on their way but they were easily dealt with by Arata and Hiro. In few minutes they already reached the web bridge that they wanted to get to. They started to run upward the bridge. It wasn’t surprising that the bridge could hold their weight as giant spiders that weighted who knows how much, were walking on. On this bridge there also were few spiders and the first one that stood in their way was the ‘long leg spider’.

-we better hurry so I am going to take out this guy in one shot.

As they were running on the web bridge Arata said it to Hiro. He then unsheathed his sword and prepared the attack.

[Sword enchant: wind]

[Sword slash]

An invisible arc flied out Arata’s sword and it soon reached the ‘long leg spider’ that was about five meters away from them and still did not realize that they were here. Without knowing what hit it, the spider was cut in half horizontally on the torso. Its armor was not good enough to withstand Arata’s ultimate attack.

But then something bad happened. Arata’s sword slash after flying through the spider ended up flying into the web bridge which Arata and Hiro wanted to escape with. The invisible arc however cut right through it and the bridge started collapsing.

Arata and Hiro were still only on the beginning of the bridge so they didn’t fall down that much and landed without any injures but.

-hmm… our way out is gone.

-sorry.

Arata didn’t take to account that their way will also get destroyed although given the angle of the bridge it probably couldn’t be helped.

-no use to cry over the spoil milk, we still have other bridges that we can use.

Hiro didn’t say anything bad to Arata after what just happen as right now it was really not the time for them to argue. The clock was ticking and who knew when the gigantic spider would woke up. Given that both Arata and Hiro were still alive it meant that when they first came here the spider was still asleep. That meant it should probably be waking up soon.

-we better hurry but first let’s deal with those guys.

The place in which Hiro and Arata landed was filled with spiders so currently they were surrounded by few of them. Five green ones and three yellow ones and two long leg spiders.

-once again, it doesn’t look good but we have to do it.

The battle began. Arata immediately started running towards one of the long legs spiders. His target was hiding behind two green spiders.

Arata jumped at the top of one of them and from there he grabbed the rope with a hook that he had always prepared on his left side. With the hook he aimed it at the stick-like legs of long leg spider. The hook got attached to it so Arata made jumped down from the green spider and started circling around the ‘long leg spider’ while avoiding the attacks of other spiders. The ‘long leg spider’ himself couldn’t do anything as his legs were caught by the rope. After around three circles Arata pulled the rope and the long leg spider fall to the ground. Arata dodged few strikes from the green spiders and then run up towards the torso of long leg spider. He made few hits on it but the defense of that spider was just as good as on its leg.

“In this case.”

Arata attacked at the spider mouth which was the only not armored part of the spider and his swords went in. Cutting through the armor from the outside was hard but from the inside, it was much easier and soon the long leg spider fall to Arata’s sword.

Afterwards Arata focused on three green spiders that were surrounding him. It is worth to mention that even thought there was much more spiders that Arata and Hiro had to fight right now, the spiders were so big that they couldn’t all surround them. Three was a maximum and even then they were getting in their way.

“I already have a way for those one.”

Arata already had the tactic to fight against the normal spiders and it was not involving staying on the ground. Arata moved towards first better spider and jumped at the top of it. Even though his jump was like two meters up in height, the skill leap did not activate, although Arata was making that jump with the thought of using it and actually thought that he did use it.

From the top Arata once again started to unleash numberous slashes at the spider but then something interesting happened. The surrounding spiders started to get at top of the green spider ignoring the damage that they were making to their brethren.

“As I thought they are not high intelligence creatures, in this case I can use it.”

Arata started to jump from the top of one spider to another as spiders tried to climb at top of themselves and even attacked with their front spiky legs at Arata which usually resulted in them hitting the spider on which Arata was standing on.

As the fight progressed most of the spiders started to focus on Arata somehow.

“Did that guy die?”

Arata had no time to look for Hiro right now and even though he more or less trusted in his abilities after Arata saw him using basic magic to that extend, it might have turned out that his teammate did die. But then it turned out to not be true.

-Arata! I will blow the rest of them in one go, get down from them on three!…

Arata heard Hiro’s voice while jumping from the top of one spider to the other. Some of the spiders already died so right now it was turning into spider tower on which spiders were trying to climb on.

-One! Two!…

Arata jumped down on three although he did not hear the three, instead he heard.

-spell seven. Water laser.

In that moment from Hiro’s hands a stream of water exploded and flied towards the tower of spiders in beam. The instant that water hit the tower, all spiders that were there both alive and dead were sent flying and soon enough there was not even notice of them.

There was no time to look at it though. Arata quickly run towards the last spider that was left. It was the yellow spider. Arata dodged its attack and went on its right. From there he cut off three right legs if the spider and the yellow spider fallen down. From there it was easy to attack already nearly dead spider so he died in few blows.

[You have leveled up by 1%]

[You have gained a level, current level 110]

[New skills unlocked]

The last spider was dealt with and Arata saw the messages that appeared before him.

“New skills, yes! It worked!”

It seemed that Hikari’s ritual did the thing or Arata somehow meet the requirements to unlock the new skills on his own. Still what he just did was nothing unusual and it was simply another fight.

“Okay, let’s check them immediately… or no wait… show some restrain, I will want to test those skills right away and this really isn’t the time for that.”

Given the situation and the gigantic spider that made even Arata shiver, it was really not the time to look at new skills. The only thing that was on Arata’s mind right now was to get out of this place and not die while doing so.

Arata went toward the long leg spider that he killed picked up his rope and looked around for another way to get out from this gigantic hole.

“Strange, I thought there was another direct way to get out from here.”

Earlier on Arata saw two web bridges that were all from the top to the bottom. One of them was destroyed by Arata’s sword slash not that long ago but the other one should still be here. Well it was still here a minute ago.

-this isn’t good. My last attack destroyed much more than those spiders.

Hiro said those words and everything was clear. When the spiders flied out from the force of his spell, they ended up destroying few bridges along the way. What was worse some of those bridges had spiders on them which now already managed to get up and started to look for the aggressors.

-you know what, the more we fight the farther we are from leaving this place so rather than fighting maybe we should just start running.

Arata stated his resoning.

-start running? Sounds good and we should probably start doing it right now.

After the last attack the spiders that so far were without much movement started to run around the lair. It was only the matter of time before they find them and in fact one long leg spider using its height advantage already started to look in their direction. It still didn’t start attacking as it was probably confused but it was only the matter of time.

Seeing this, Arata decided to wave his hands towards it, to show his good intentions.

“Hi.”

To that however the spider started running their direction right away.

=run!

Arata and Hiro started to run towards one of the web bridges. Sure it did not lead all the way up out of the lair but after looking around there was still way to get up.

At the entrance to this web bridge stood orange spider and they were running right into it. Still the plan to fight already brought grave consequences so there was no time for that. When they got one meter away from orange spider, the spider attacked with its front legs forward at them. To that Arata turned right and Hiro turned left and they ran around the orange spider. Seeing his enemies splitting before his eyes the spider got disorientated for a second and using that time Arata and Hiro ran around him and jumped on the web bridge that the spider was guarding.

After that it was a sprint up the web bridge. The orange spider also ended up being helpful as it blocked the way of all spiders that were chasing Arata and Hiro. There were now more of them than just the long leg one. Still they also entered the web bridge as well soon after and start the chase.

-this way!

Arata and Hiro ran up towards the wall and it was the end of this web bridge. Still two meters away there was another bridge that they could use so they jumped from one bridge to another and from there continued to run up. There were no more single bridges that would lead upward so they had to go with this method all the way up 30 meters out from the lair.

Then way out was there as when Arata looked up he could see the starry night sky.

On the second bridge stood another ‘long leg spider’. Still, it was quite good for Arata and Hiro as they could simply bypass it under its thin legs without problems.

The problem was however that the spiders were closing in on them. Even though on normal ground they weren’t that fast, when it came to web bridges they were much quicker. Some of them were even using the down side of the web bridge and walked underneath it. Then there were also few that instead of web bridges started to climb up the wall to make an ambush later on. The situation was not really good but even since Arata woke up, his situation was bad anyway. Also right now he and Hiro still had some safe distance away from the chasing spiders.

After once again running few meters up, they once again had to switch bridges. This time they had to jump down from one to another as there was no other choice. After leaping to another bridge, suddenly, rather than running away, Hiro turned around.

-I have an idea. Let’s get rid of those guys.

-but we already tried and you know what happened, you want to destroy another web bride?

-yep!…

Hiro answered. His answer was quite strange at first but then after he shoot out one of his spinning water balls at the web bridge Arata finally understood what Hiro meant.

The bridge that was destroyed was the one that they just jumped off from and there were a lot of spiders trying to use that bridge to chase after them. By cutting down that bridge many of them simply fall down to the ground and falling from this distance already meant an instant kill.

-see, we don’t have to hurry anymore.

-I don’t think so…

Unfortunately the spiders on that bridge were not the only spiders that were chasing them. Right now from both sides of the bridge the spiders started coming to catch them from two sides.

-we better hurry, we can lose them over there.

There was no time to staying idle as the enemy was not even close to giving up.

Arata and Hiro run on that bridge for about quarter of this distance and then they jumped onto the bridge that was a meter underneath them to not get flanked by two sides. After jumping down, Hiro once again shot down the bridge with his spell and once again, many spiders fallen down to their death. Still this was the lair of spiders and there were a lot of them left, including the gigantic one which luckily was still sleeping but given the commotion that Arata and Hiro were doing the chances that he will keep on sleeping through all this was small. And right now they still were only half way done.

It was already hard, but it did not mean that it couldn’t get harder. After passing to another bridge, another problem occurred. This lair also had few of sniping spider mixed in as well. They were in few places, most of them still on the ground but some of them were above waiting on the web bridges or stone pedestals and they started shooting at Arata and Hiro. The first unexpected shoot managed to catch Arata and because of that he nearly fell down.

It was the web net type of shoot. After Arata got unexpectedly hit by it he nearly fell off the bridge. Well he actually did fell of the bridge but Hiro managed to catch him before he fell down even more.

-thanks.

[Sword enchant: water]

Arata cut through what was binding him and with small help get back to the bridge.

-it may be hard but should I start shooting them down as well?

Hiro asked him. He probably had few long range spells as a mage.

-no, there is too many of them and you might cut through our way to escape. We have to focus on running for now.

They continued to run upward while taking care to not get snipped.

Despite the hopeless situation that they were at the beginning, Arata and Hiro slowly were getting to the top. After jumping between numberous web bridges and avoiding numberous spiders a chance for survival was getting bigger and bigger.

-nearly there.

Arata said to his teammate as indeed they were nearly there. Right now they only had to climb another ten meters and they would finally get out from this large hole. Also most of the spiders that gave them the chase already fallen down and there were only few of them remaining. Then the sniping spiders had a bad time aiming upward and their shots weren’t even close to hitting anymore. In the first place they had problem to shoot as Arata and Hiro were constantly moving.

-for a moment there I thought we won’t make it.

-what are you saying, how could get killed by those spiders?

Arata answered although in truth.

“Thank god, I didn’t die.”

That was a large statement in Arata’s mind especially when he did not believe in any gods to begin with.

-I would say that they had many occasions to kill us but now it should be alright if we reached this point already.

-even, if that spider wakes up we would be alright. We could deal with him.

-from here he doesn’t look that scary anymore. In the first place maybe that spider doesn’t wake up at all and is just there for decoration.

-that might be right. I mean we are here for more than an hour already and it still didn’t wake up. Anyway, you see that bridge over there. After we jump onto it, it’s a clear way to the freedom.

Currently they were closing in to the wall once again and by changing the bridge just this one more time they would finally leave the spider lair. But then just when they reached the wall and were going to make a jump to the last bridge they heard something.

-hey what was that?

Hiro asked.

-probably nothi…-

‘boom!’

It was obviously not nothing. The loud sound came from the direction of the gigantic spider that just moved one of its legs. Just a single movement of its leg created an incredible sound as if bomb exploded.

-maybe it’s just trying to turn on the other side.

Hiro said optimistically but naturally it was not the case.

‘boom, boom, boom’

It each new movement this loud sound could be heard. For the time being, Arata and Hiro stayed on the bridge and were looking at the creature beneath them. The best option right now was to continue running as fast as possible but they could not do it right away after seeing what was happening before them.

“And here I hoped it will not happen.”

-seems like it’s not decoration after all.

The gigantic brown spider was slowly making its first movement. So far it did not look hostile.

-he still didn’t take notice of us so we should… o o. What is he doing?

“What is he doing?”

The spider’s movement suddenly became unnatural. Using its gigantic legs, the spider positioned his torso upward and right now it’s head was pointed directly in the position of where Arata and Hiro was. Then in spider’s mouth something white started to be visible.

-Hiro, we better get running right this moment.

-it’s too late for that.

In that moment the gigantic spider shoot out the white thing that it had in its mouth.

“Not good.”

The missile was big and it was coming fast at Arata’s position. In this moment Arata grabbed his rope and threw it upward, to the left. Before the hook even caught on anything, Arata grabbed Hiro with his right hand and jumped off the white bridge where they were. Two seconds later the place in which they were standing as well as the wall of earth was no more. The white ‘thing’ that the spider shoot out which turned out to be gigantic white arrow went through the ground and completely destroyed four meters of it upward. The white arrow did not stop and ended up flying off somewhere to the sky.

In the meantime Arata and Hiro were hanging on Arata’s rope that he held in his left hand. Somehow the hook managed to catch on something above the wall of earth and they did not fall down.

-start climbing quickly before it shoots another shoot.

Arata pushed Hiro upward so he could catch the rope as well. Without saying anything back Hiro caught it and started climbing and Arata followed after him second after.

The gigantic black-armored spider on the other hand after shooting his ‘arrow of doom’ started slowly moving forward towards the wall where Arata and Hiro were. Still even though his moves might have looked slow, its great size was making the difference.

Luckily the distance that Arata and Hiro had to climb was no more than four meters so they managed to escape the lair of spiders before the gigantic spider reached the wall on which they have been.

After climbing up they saw that they were still in the forest, the part in which there were many eggs. There were no spiders anywhere in sight, so this sight meant only one thing.

=freedom!

Arata and Hiro shouted together after escaping from the grasp of death. Still that death was very close after them.

-you don’t think that, that spider can get out from that hole, right?

Arata asked full of hope.

-how would that be even possible, look at that size.

Second after Hiro answered the spider reached the wall and started stretching its legs somehow.

-I have the bad feeling so we better run out from its agro range.

-wait will that thing plan to jump out from that hole?

Hiro asked seeing the strange movements of the gigantic spider.

-we better not find out.

-okay, we are still on the run then…

And so Arata and Hiro once again started running away. They quickly entered a forest and after few seconds of run they couldn’t even see the large hole anymore.

-ha, ha, I think it’s over.

After running forward without looking back Hiro said that after they finally slowed down.

-ha, ha, yes it should…

Even Arata was tired after all what just happened. The whole situation was not too good for the heart and there was not a single second to relax ever since falling down from the cocoon.

-hey maybe we should take the break. It wouldn’t be good if we got caught by something now and die because we are too tired to fight.

Arata proposed the idea.

-I would prefer to get as far as possible from that ‘thing’ and also we should let the other know that we are still alive.

“Hmm, now that I think about it if I were on their side I would assume that the two people that went on the mission ended up being two people going for suicidal mission. Ah, how something so easy at the start turned into this situation?”

-okay, but while we look for them we might as well walk for some time instead of running.

-I guess its god idea…

Arata and Hiro agreed to start walking from now on although that idea did not last for more than five seconds.

‘BOOOOOOOOOOM!’

If earlier sounds of the spiders could be called loud than this time the sound that echoed in the air was as if an airplane just crushed into some building. Also after that loud bang the earth somehow moved a little.

“It’s really got out. Now what?”

-Arata technically speaking we already ran away from it and we are in a deep forest, so that creature shouldn’t find us.

There was some logic in what Hiro said but it was more of a pinnacle of positive thinking rather than define truth. That’s why rather than answering, Arata just pointed the direction and they once again started running forward.

“No, no, no. I am not even trying to fight that.”

This thought was in Arata’s mind ever since he saw that creature. He was sure of one thing though. That thing was definitely not a spider.

Arata and Hiro continued to run, and even though the sounds behind them were terrifying it was not like anything was attacking them right now.

-Arata this way!

Suddenly Hiro said that and they turned more to the left.

-isn’t it better to just run straight.

-it is but we still need to regroup with others right?

-you know where they are?

-no, but I feel like it will be this way.

-what do you mean by you feel?

-well, just trust me on that.

Arata had no idea where Hiro’s confidence was coming from but maybe he really did realize something. That or they were running blindly but before they were also running blindly to get away from that spider as far as possible so there was little change.

‘boom! Boom!’

The spider behind them was not lazing around and was probably searching for them.

“Is it just me or are those sounds are getting louder.”

But before Arata had the chance of think about it a miracle happen. Given the size of this forest Arata thought that it will take hours but some way or another in his vision range a group of people appeared. That group of people was running exactly in their direction with a small azure haired girl leading them. Naturally given that it was a forest in the west that could be only Arata’s party.

-oii! Hiro! Arata!

The first one to shout out was Yume. Few moments later the both groups reunited.

-oh, you guys are alive, how strange?

Then the other person who said that after regrouping was Bran.

-thanks for believing in us Bran.

Hiro answered to him slightly annoyed but happy to see them.

-and here I thought that the honor of dying first was already lost but it seems like everyone still have the chance to grab that.

Bran answered with another comment.

-maybe you should leave it for later Bran. Hiro, where you guys have been we were looking for you like for few hours now.

Musashi ended the pointless talk and asked.

-yes, sorry, things good complicated. Anyway there is no time for the chitchat. Shin, remember that legend about the gigantic creature that was to live in this forest. Turns out it’s not a legend.

-so those were those sounds…

Shin answered to him but it seemed like he already have an idea of what Arata and Hiro encountered.

-how would you see our chances if we were to fight that?

But his question signalized that maybe not enough.

-I am not sure but given what I saw, I would say, total annihilation in one to two minutes.

Hiro answered like that.

-I see, and you Arata, what do you think?

It seemed like Shin wanted the second opinion as well.

-I think that rather than talking we should get the hell out of this forest before you guys can confirm Hiro’s description.

It seemed like some people were eager to see what the gigantic spider look like. Although all one really needed to do right now was to climb the tree and it would be easy to spot the beast as it was bigger than the trees.

-well, I have an idea what it is and we specifically wanted to sneak through this forest at the time it was sleeping but it’s too late for that…

Shin started explaining.

“So that’s why he didn’t want to get late.

-still I have bad news, that thing can detect people in some strange way so even if we hide or try running it will catch us, also I think it’s way too late for running away.

‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’

The gigantic spider was closing in and the earth started to tremble.

-then what are we going to do!

In the end someone had to ask that question and the one who did that the first was Vivi.

-relax… I still don’t know what we should be doing but panicking is probably not it…

Shin stopped her before the panic spread out. And after that he went silent for a second. No one said anything in that time and Arata also felt somehow that he didn’t. Soon enough, Shin once again started.

-currently we have four options before us. First one would be to ignore what I just said about that creature ability to detect us and quickly ran away from this forest as we originally planned.

-I think that this thing does have that ability because the second after it woke up, it immediately shoot at us, knowing where we are.

Arata decided to share this information.

-in that case the first option is, we try to outrun that creature hoping that that it’s possible. Given its size it’s probably not.

-then shouldn’t we start running right now! And not waste the time on this talk.

This time Rin was the voice of reason.

-Shin I think she is right. We are wasting time you yourself said that we don’t have that much time.

And Vatras agreed with her.

-according to my information the spider locates us based on our movement, so my guess is that as long as we don’t move he won’t detect us that easily…

Seeing that they still weren’t under the attack proved Shin’s theory. Currently even though the spider was close the party was protected by the crowns of the trees.

-that gives the second option that is stay where we are and hope that he won’t detect us and go away somewhere. Then when the distance will get bigger we try to make run for it. Still this option is unlikable to work as that spider already knows that we are here because we already have been running.

-so what are the other options Shin.

Kei ended up asking.

-the third one is simply try fighting that, although this is the last thing we should probably even consider given our winning condition. If we start fighting that, we will end up with heavy losses that will make us unable to continue our journey. Anyway the last choice and the one that I would probably suggest is, someone will sacrifice himself and take the attention of that spider while others run away. The only thing that that person would have to do is actually just start running because as I said, the spider detects us based on our movements. This choice is probably the only one that is giving us a realistic chance to meet the winning condition in the future.

-oho, is Shin finally enters his evil mastermind mode.

Despite the grave situation and the plan that Shin just presented, Bran joked around.

-that is just the best option if we want to reach the heaven’s gate. It gives highest chances of a large number of people leaving this forest alive.

-but this plan is slightly.

Yume ended up voicing the thoughts of probably many. After all it was a group of friends that’s goal was to just travel together and have fun.

-as, always I am just laying down all of our options, it’s you guys however who will decide what we do. I am just marking my vote on this one. Even though it might sound like I want to sacrifice someone.

-coz you want.

Bran added with a smile. It seemed like there weren’t many situations in which he would be not smiling.

-… . What I wanted to say is that the person who will try to grab the attention of that spider always have a chance at running away as well.

“Hmm… I don’t want any of those guys to die and I think that maybe excluding Rin I would have the best chances on surviving. Also it’s was her quest all along.”

-I will do it. I think I have a good chance on staying alive and maybe even regrouping with you later on.

After thinking it through Arata decided to volunteer.

-I appreciate the thought but you sacrificing yourself is the opposite of what we need to do to meet our winning condition.

Shin without a thought declined on his offer though.

-wasn’t that winning condition reaching the heaven’s gate? In that case it doesn’t mean if I go or anyone else.

-not exactly. Our primary winning condition is to make you, Rin and Levi reach the heaven’s gate. Anyone else reaching it is more of bonus goal.

-hey, what do you mean by that! We never asked you to do it.

-still as I remember you guys are trying to complete quest of rank three, correct?

Shin kept his calm and even waited for confirmation even though it created a ten seconds of silence.

-yes.

-and quest of rank three have the condition that if someone dies then it’s over, meaning you have only one try on doing it. In comparison to us, we can make another try at our expedition to the west whenever we want without huge losses so I think our primary winning condition is obvious.

-yes, in our group there is no one that thinks differently.

The one that confirmed Shin’s words was Yume. After that Arata looked at everyone’s faces and everyone were simply smiling, as if accepting that. Or rather that was something that they decided long time ago without Arata even knowing.

-but it was us who barged into your party and your expedition!

Arata could still not accept their decision though.

-hmm, if you say that it’s our expedition then we have the right to set our goal the way we want, right?

Still to his argument Shin answered with logic using his words against him.

-it’s not fair.

Arata answered to him like this.

-who said that I need to be fair?

Shin answered to him and a small evil grin appeared on his face.

-there it is, Shin’s enters his evil mastermind mode.

Bran commented.

-anyway…

Shin ignored that comment and continued.

-we should probably decide fast who should go. I propose myself going as it is my plan and I won’t feel good after sending anyone else.

-and how does sending our strategist and raid leader to sacrifice himself will help us in reaching our winning condition Shin?

Vatras stopped him.

-well, it’s definitely would be better than sending off our great sage…

Shin answered to him. Vatras apart from his usual nickname Tras had also had a nickname great sage. It was rarely used but Arata did remember hearing that once already.

-I think you guys are good enough to think of plans on your own while there is no one who could replace our tanks or healers, right?

“What he says has a lot of sense but ‘him going’ doesn’t have any sense at all. His position in this group is too crucial.”

Arata would probably once again candidate but he already knew that he would simply be rejected again.

-I think that I should be the one to go, no let me do it!

But then the volunteer appeared. Even though Arata still did not recognize everyone based on voice, this voice he recognized all to well, still just to confirm if he did not hear it wrong he looked to the person with the hand held up. The one who volunteered was Yume.

-Mary, no!

Naturally Rin immediately rejected her idea and ran up towards her. To that Yume cached her in her arms in a way that didn’t allow Rin to say anything and continued.

-I don’t know how about others but I myself think that I am not good enough for this trip…

Yume continued while holding Rin who was struggling in her arms.

-also one way or another it was my idea that Arata, Rin and Levi joined our party and now we want to help them reach the heaven’s gate. I asked them to join, simply because I wanted to help them but I myself am not good enough to do that. Even though it’s not even a day since we started I am already at my limits here.

-Yume, it’s not like you are the only one who is tired, we all had a hard times in our battles. Also I think that we will have chance for rest as well so it’s not like it will endless fighting.

Shin answered to her but Yume shock her head to her.

-still, you are all doing better than me. I knew that I will die at some point sooner or later but now that there is occasion like this I really want to do this. I thought that the only thing that I can do for my best friend would be only making it possible for her to come with us but now that an occasion like this appeared, that even someone like me can really help, I will not allow anyone else to take it!

The last words Yume said very seriously as if she was even ready to knock someone’s down just so she could do it. In this moment, she let off Rin and let her talk.

-Mary, I won’t let you!?

-no.

Still to what Rin said Yume just said ‘no’ in a very stubborn sounding way as if that was not even a discussion.

-how can you even think about!?

-no.

-it’s not the time to be stubborn!?

-no.

Yume was just looking away to the left or to the right anytime Rin tried to say anything to her.

-but Mary!?

-Amy, do you know what my dream is?

-… .

Suddenly though Yume changed her attitude and said those words, which immediately silenced down Rin.

-I think that as long as I am here, that dream will not happen. For those past days, I feel like I was actually getting in the way of that dream, isn’t it funny?

-… .

-that’s why Amy, by doing this, I will both manage to do something meaningful and at the same time give a chance for that dream to happen, so now, you will promise me to work hard towards that dream so I can hear that it happened when you return.

-… .

-do you promise?

– .

Rin finally whispered back to her. It was a whisper that probably only Yume could hear. Probably even ‘mr. I hear everything’ could not hear that as at the same time the loud sound of another movement of the spider could be heard. Also in a way Arata was not sure if Rin actually said something or was it something that she and Yume transmitted between each other without use of words.

After that Rin turned away from everybody and started wearing her red hood from her cloak, so no one could see her face right now.

-okay, everyone I think, I will be going now, I will leave the rest to you.

With that Yume started walking but then.

-wait a second Yume! Let’s think about it one more time. Given our lack of mages in our group we can’t…

=SHIN!

Shin once again started with logical arguments but the second he started almost half of the party shouted at him.

-learn to read the mood will you, even Bran didn’t say anything.

Musashi added and even though it seemed that Shin still wanted to say something but he did not do so and simply looked down.

Yume walked up towards where Arata and Hiro were standing.

-Arata, once again, I will leave Rin in your care, if something happens you know what to do…

Arata already heard those words from Yume once. It was when he, Levi and Rin, first created the party. Yume told him the same words back then and at that time she also gave him his phone number. At that time Arata was not sure why would he have to call her rather than Rin doing it herself but now he somehow got the idea.

-and Hiro, if you really think you want to do it, I won’t stop you but I don’t think that you can remain the same after learning the truth, so if you don’t want to get hurt, give up on it right now.

With that said, Yume walked away but before she started running she once again turned around to see her teammates and then rather than saying anything to them she showed them a smile, the same smile for which everyone remembered her and the same smile with which everyone first meet her, as every visitor of Karma without a single expectation was once welcomed to that city in the same way.