“Miles, you are awake!” Xavic jumped on him as he woke up.

“How long have I been out?” Miles asked. His head hurt like it was split open, and his body was still aching.

“About 2 hours,” Zall said, and looked at Miles with an apologetic look. “I am sorry.”

“It is fine. I shouldn’t have asked you to kill them.” Miles shook his head. “Any spider survived?”

“Xavic took care of them,” Zall reassured him with a nod to the entrance of the cave.

“Good.” Miles nodded as he looked at the entrance. There were a few spiders lying dead on the ground. “Why am I not poisoned?”

“Beats me. We wanted to move you back, but soon, poison in your body receded visible to the naked eye..” Zall explained. “Your BP was acceptable so we waited instead of moving you.”

Miles looked at his hands dumbfoundedly and remembered what happened just before he passed out. ‘Did energy clear my system?’

“Let’s go.”

He obtrusively raised his feet and walked inside. He cut open the head of the spiders on his way to check if there were any orbs. “Four spiders, no orb at all. Maybe you should cut them open. Seems like I am out of luck.”

“We probably won't find any at all.” Zall shook his head.

“What happened?” Miles asked in surprise.

“Acid probably melted the orbs. Not long after we left the cave, a series of explosions were heard from inside.”

“We sure are unlucky.” He shook his head and walked inside. The inside of the cave looked like a beehive now. The acid was strong enough to melt steel alloy, so the ground, walls, spiders, orbs, cores, everything touched by the acid had a hole. The previous cave filled with holes now looked even more ominous.

Miles looked at the ground and saw a puddle of green liquid on the ground. It was still corroding the ground and moving towards the bottom. It would melt for days. Miles cut open all the spider’s heads to see if there were any intact orbs, but what acid didn’t finish, the explosion did. Spiders were all in pieces, and there were hardly any intact carcasses.

Miles took a look around the cave in suspicion, but couldn’t find anything.

“What happened, Bro Miles?” Xavic asked as he saw the pondering Miles.

“You said these spiders can lure humans in, but ever since we entered, we haven’t heard any of them talking in human speech, nor have they had any humanoid spiders. So, how can they talk?” Miles asked. He was suspicious ever since he saw spiders, especially the boss. It was as normal as the others, besides its two pipes were firing strong, corrosive flames.

“Now that you mentioned, it is suspicious.” Zall stretched his chin as he looked around.

“HELP! SOMEBODY! PLEASE HELP!”

While Miles and the duo were looking around, a voice reverberated in the cave. Miles walked towards the source, and at an inconspicuous corner, he saw a technological device that couldn't be made by monsters. Not that it couldn’t be monster made, but the brand was from Earth.

“Record?” Zall asked with horror in his eyes.

“Yeah.” Miles looked at it with a squint, and approached.

“Can someone drop it while they are fighting?” Xavic asked with lots of benefit of doubt.

“Pinnacle-Tier electric element monster core. The alloy itself is almost unbreakable. Waterproof, erosion proof. Definitely top tier forging.” Miles deducted after looking at it for a while. “No turn off button, can charge itself eternally through the core.”

“You mean?” Zall asked.

“Someone left it here to lure humans. A human left it here to lure humans.” Miles stated with a cold voice.

“I can’t fucking believe it!” Zall cussed angrily. “How low!”

“What is their goal?” Xavic asked.

“Can be anything. Thinning the monsters, letting monsters kill lots of humans so they could come back to collect orbs, or just the sake of killing.” Miles said matter of factly. Lowest creatures on Earth and Protal World were still humans. It wouldn’t surprise him if the person left the device for fun.

“What is that?” Zall pointed at the blue light seeping out of a wall at the side. Miles looked at it in wonder and couldn’t identify it at all.

“Spray.” He asked, and Zall passed it to him. Miles squirted the green acid to the wall to widen the hole. In no time at all, the thing appeared in front of them.

“Wow,” Xavic exclaimed with his mouth wide open as he looked at the floating item in the dark cave.

“It is beautiful.” Zall too was surprised.

“It indeed is.” Miles looked at the mask with a spider face with a blue hue. It looked as if it was handmade for a spider head. It was as big as his forearm and looked like it was made of black metal. It had no stone on it but still shone with blue light. He was mesmerized when he noticed a hand in his vision.

“Let me get it.” Zall’s voice reached his ear.

“Don’t touch it!” Miles shouted, but it was too late.

“Ah!” Zall wanted to pull his hand back, but Miles held onto his arm.

“Don’t drop it even if you are dead,” Miles said sternly as he looked at the item. Just as he finished, a pillar of blue light pierced through the ceiling and reached the sky.

“What is this?” Zall asked in surprise.

“It is an artifact,” Miles said hurriedly and climbed into the hole and kicked the cave wall with as much as the power he could muster. Soon it was big enough for Zall to fit. “Coin, find a way.”

“Aye.” Coin detached from his arm and flew towards the darkness.

“What is going on Miles?” Xavic asked in fear.

“This is a Peak Artifact. They are insanely rare. Like a few in every circle.” Miles explained as he pulled them towards where Coin was leading. “When a new owner touches it, it sends a signal to the sky. In no time at all, hundreds of people and monsters will swarm this location.”

“We should drop it and run then,” Zall said, but Miles stopped him.

“Peak artifacts attach themselves whoever touches them first, and wouldn’t be used by anyone else before the master is dead.” Miles urged them to move faster. Coin was scanning the cave and searching for an alternate path. “Since you touched it, you are its owner and we have to run before others find you.”

“Found and exit!” Coin flew back at Miles and attached himself to his arm. Miles looked at the holographic direction floating in the air and ran. The duo followed him. Zall was holding the mask with a painful face.

“Sorry, guys!” He said with a tear falling from his face. “I am useless as I am and I took this treasure.”

“Stop the bullshit. You are the tank, and you didn’t know.” Xavic rebuked him harshly.

“I know you didn’t mean to. And you let us have all the loot in Thunderstorm Forest. It was your turn anyway.” Miles smiled as he patted the giant’s arm, while running.

“There is a ravine in front of us. Beyond that, there is a giant opening going as far as I can detect, but I don’t know if there is anything else there.” Coin reported to his ears.

Miles increased his pace and activated dark vision. The ravine Coin mentioned was longer than 5 meters. Miles could still jump, but others couldn’t. “I can throw Xavic, but Zall is too heavy.” Miles pondered.

“How deep is the ravine?” Miles asked under his breath.

“More than 100 meters. Can’t feel it at all.” Coin answered.

“Let’s run in the direction away from the F-Circle and Insect Kingdom.” Miles let the duo know about the ravine and ran parallel to the ravine. “Maybe it is narrower in some other place.”

“Sorry, you stuck because of me.” Zall said with a sigh.

“Since when you are so grouchy.”

“Yeah, bro Zall it isn’t like you.” Xavic added.

“I know, but ever since we started this journey because of me, I only hindered you.” Zall looked devastated. First, he tried to stop Miles killing Takeji and others, he even hated him for it. Then he refused to kill the spider and almost caused his two best friends to die, later, despite not doing anything at all, he took the treasure and now they are stuck because of him.

“Don’t sweat it.” Miles shook his head and kept on running. “What the hell is this ravine? It has the same size from start to end.”

“Can it be man made?” Xavic added.

“Might be a defensive precaution.” Miles nodded. As they were running, he heard buzzing sounds. It sounded like wings flapping. Miles activated his heat vision and stopped in terror.

“Fuck!”