"That should be enough..." - Garami

I dismissed the "Dead Spiders", the phantom-type tokens generated by the new [Summon Phantom: Dead Spider] I had recently obtained.

"Hey, those things will not explode or anything?" - Noire

"No, once again, they will not..." - Garami

"How weird. Despite the giant one you showed before was an attack in the form of disguise..." - Noire

I mean, these "mob-summoning" Summon Phantom skills summons tokens to command by adding them to Leadership skill-generated groups, as opposed to the "boss-summoning" skills like "Geist Spider". The latter is classified as a "Calling", summoning an aspect from a monster to use it as a magic-type attack. The former, by the way, is part of the "Token Summon" category that brings out artificial creatures through spells and skills.

On a related note, my Necromancy is classified as "Crafting Summons" which is similar to tokens but uses proper "materials" and allows for many customizations for each unit. And then there's the classical magic summon spells you see in some stories would be "Contract Summons" where you establish a contract with a tamed monster and can bring it to your location whenever you want to.

Noire, however, doesn't seem to understand the difference. If she ever takes up summoning, I'm scared she might not understand the difference between contracts and tokens.

"But are you done now?" - Noire

"Yup. Now's the time to swipe the goods." - Garami

After saying that, I returned to Springwood's hideout where Iron was waiting, acting as a scout for us in case Springwood returned earlier than we had anticipated.

"The coast is clear." - Iron

"Great. In that case, SNATCH EVERYTHING WORTH OF VALUE!!" - Garami

"Now that is something I can agree on~!" - Noire

The plan is simple: the Ogre Crabs blocking our escape route out of these tunnels. However, if we can relocate the crabs to somewhere else, I alone can defeat the whole horde without any problems~. Therefore, we're going to use my "firecrackers" to obtain their attention and have them chase me to their future tomb.

The "chasing me"-part is a little worrisome, but my speed is above that of any ordinary E-rank monster and can beat even D-rankers. Besides, Ogre Crabs aren't famous for their speed, to put it lightly.

And as a bonus, we have to run through Springwood's secret hideout. And what do you know~? A herd of giant monster crabs is without doubt going to ruin the whole place~. Even if a few items got lost during the rampage, who could ever have a ghost of a chance to figure out if said items got destroyed by the crabs or stolen by some rude people right before the mess~?

Honestly, this is a risky move on several fronts. Even if you forget about the whole thing about me turning to crab food in case I trip during my escape, there's still the chance of Springwood noticing the rampage before we can flee the scene, or if his rumored eye for detail is so much greater than what said rumors says and he will notice that not all the materials got destroyed by the crabs.

Due to the last part, we're limiting ourselves to just a few items...

"Garami, there are around 300 snake scales in these crates!" - Noire

"Leave 6, no, 5 of them behind!" - Garami

...What? I said a "few". As for the Magic Stones...I can't get any decent information out of them without specialized [Identification] enhancing support items. Let's just grab them all. They're essential for my Dungeon's bright future. And honestly, they're also the biggest reason why I'm taking this big gamble.

...Yes, I know this is no different from a robbery at this point, but considering how big the odds are for this guy turning into an enemy who could kill us 100 times over before breakfast, I'll not be bothered being called a thief at this point.

After everything of importance was commandeered, I returned to the crab nest while Iron and Noire went to hide in one of the other tunnels that were not part of the route to the "crab graveyard". There are more crabs out now, some of them showing a little interest in the firecrackers that were set all over the cave. Good. This much should attract the attention of all the other crabs probably hiding in the holes.

"*Yawn*..., what did I miss?" - Bloom

"Good morning... How were you asleep?" - Garami

"Somehow. I don't know how." - Bloom

"Oh, okay...?" - Garami

"But where are we? And do you look different from before? And what is that detonator in your hand for?" - Bloom

"Underground. Yes, I do. And this is for the fireworks." - Garami

"Fireworks?" - Bloom

And queue the fireworks~.

*Ka-Ka-Ka-Ka-KABOOM!*

Youch! Loud noise but low on firepower! As expected, those firecrackers were a mishap. The crabs took barely any damage. However, I got their attention. And that is putting it lightly. The crabs are glowing red in anger, quite literally. The [Anger] skill, something evolved from the [Rage] skill that turns you into an uncontrollable berserker, is something commonly seen in the Ogre Crab race. Everything is going according to plan~.

The crabs' ire has been dramatically stirred up now, but they have no clue who that rude, heartless sunnovabitch blasted their pretty nest with their broken bombs. FYI, that culprit is moi. Let's give them a hint pointing toward that truth.

"Zahhak!" - Garami

The darkness dragon enjoyed a few three crabs before disappearing, leaving me oh so helpless against the gigantic...endless-looking...logic-defying amount of crabs that were coming out of... Holy molly, that's a lot of crabsticks.

"M-m-m-master!? What are you doing?!" - Bloom

"Running. You should too." - Garami

"You do not have to tell me twice!" - Bloom

But you're not running, you're flying~. Crap, I need to take this more seriously. A goddamn ****ing impossible number of monster crabs are hot on my trail now. That is WAY MORE than I bargained for, but there's nothing I can do about THAT now! To be safe, I snatched Bloom and forced her into my belt pouch.

Returning to the hideout wasn't so bad. There are no sharp turns, nor any distracting sidepaths, so the crabs will be able to follow me without getting lost. As for the travel through the resting place itself, things will get more difficult. Since we needed the place trashed, I decided on a path that led from the tunnel leading from the nest to our goal in a way so that the crabs would crash into and crush as much furniture as possible. Especially the storage crates.

Now, I do have various skills that could help me parkour myself through this obstacle course, such as [Parkour] itself, [Jump], and the whole new [Balance] skill that I found useful for my character build, but even I would be slowed down if I took on each hindrance like a good and honest honor student.

Therefore, I'm gonna cheat a little.

I got to side-step the few pieces of furniture in my way right before we arrived at the half-empty giant crates. Instead of slowing down, going around, or even preparing to jump over them (the last one would be possible by using web lines, but it's too time-consuming), I just ran right through. Literally. My body slipped past the solid crates and I reappeared on the other side.

"Wha-wha-wha-!?" - Bloom

"Ask questions later. Run NOW!" - Garami

I forcefully shut-upped Bloom as we both went through crates, pieces of furniture, and whatever while trying to ignore the sound of destruction right behind us. It's honestly terrifying having to run with this kinda BGM. Oh, crap! One of the boxes that was sent flying by the crabs landed right in front of me. Heck, it passed through me! That wasn't an MP-consuming action I wanted to take! And did that crab's rampage just now ignore my [Danger Sense] skill's effect?! I might have underestimated their capabilities along with their numbers.

"Oh, I got it! You are not blindfolded anymore!" - Bloom

"Bingo! But excuse me for a moment!" - Garami

While replying to Bloom, I threw out some web lines and attached them to each side of the entrance to the passage that was part of my route to victory. Using [Thread Control], I pulled on the lines I made EXTREMELY elastic for this time around and used them to slingshot myself to the next corridor.

Thanks to the slingshot trick, I managed to score a good distance between me and the crabs, but they're bound to close the gap if I don't put my mind to it. At the moment, I beat them in pure SPD values, but my stamina, my SP, is way lower than theirs, so using my full speed without thinking about pacing is just gonna get me dead.

"Now, where were we?" I asked Bloom now that I had the chance.

"Those earrings! They are the headgear of the Nightmare Item set's 2nd form!" - Bloom

Great, she already figured it out. Now I can save some breath.

The earrings Bloom is talking about are a set of nasty-looking skull-shaped earrings created from using the captured Phantom's analyzed data and my [Spectral Avatar] skill as materials. I used the last batch of rare items I had managed to snatch from Tir na Nog's Trial Grounds along with another item that Alf had managed to win at the same trials.

In return for the latter, our chronic fisher wished for a bigger boat for the Guild, which isn't such a bad thing per se, but now my cute little vessel I obtained after defeating Glavras is losing its purpose in life. *Sniff*...

Anyway, the earrings have a different effect compared to the blindfolds, in that they can give me the "Passthrough" effect. It's the same thing as what that Phantom did during the library battle. The downside is that it is costly on the MP, and if I don't pass through the substance completely, I could end up getting stuck in whatever I was trying to pass through. *Shiver*...

The downsides don't stop there either. You can't slip through "living" materials, not even the undead. And worst of all, there's no air when you go through something, so in the worst-case scenario, even if you had infinity MP, you could still die from suffocation.

But enough about the bleak stuff regarding these gloomy earrings. They're good for something, such as ignoring obstacles (like I did before), having a shortcut to the next floor below, and unless it's an attack using "living materials" like a punch or a kick, I could use it to slip through any attacks that I can think of. I can't make my allies untouchable, not even my created undead, but Bloom seems to be an exception to that rule. In short, these accessories are pretty hot stuff. Despite being counted as "headgear" for some weird reason.

And speaking of "hot", I've reached my goal. The magma river we discovered before. The corridor has developed into a slope here, so we decided to make use of it and spilled as many bottles of detergents that we could bring with us from Springwood's lair to make the path as soapy and slippery as it could ever be.

"Wha-wha-whaaaa!! We're slippiiiiing!!" - Bloom

"Skating, not slipping!" - Garami

Since I already knew about the slippery floor, I went from running to skating on the surface the moment I stepped into the "soap zone". It gave me more speed compared to just running, but unfortunately, it comes with the disadvantage of not being able to stop. And then there's the aforementioned river of glowing, scorching hot magma.

"Get this right, get this right, get the damn timing right...NOW!" - Garami

Right before I reached the edge, I jumped with all my might while activating [Genoide Drive: Speed], drastically increasing my speed even more so I could gain more distance with my jump. I also used [Web Wings] to take advantage of the hot air coming up from the ravine, pushing me higher up to the ceiling as my wings caught the hot air...

Hey, that's too hot! My face feels like it's burning! The web wings already are starting to ignite! I knew they would be weak to this heat, but come on!

Luckily, I reached the end of the gap with nothing less than a few bruises and burn marks. Phew, that was too close.

The crabs, on the other hand, weren't so lucky. They all slipped and fell into the river. All of them...all of them...

"Hey, you don't think those guys will plug the ravine?" I asked Bloom after slapping her awake after she fainted from our less-than-perfect gliding experience.

"I dunno." - Bloom

"So helpful." - Garami

My doubts seem to be without reason. Because, when I looked into the ravine after the last of the crabs fell into it, while there were some crabs above the lava's surface level, they'd all succumbed to the heat. It smells a little good even. A volcano steamer... That could be something.

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Your level has increased. You have gone from Lv.42 to Lv.50.

You have earned a total of 2.1 Aether Points.

Due to reaching the level cap, you have earned 3.0 Aether Points.

Due to the Blessing: "Champion of Alvatria", an additional 5.1 Aether Points were earned.

Evolution is now possible.

You have obtained the title: [Crustacean Slayer].

Acquired skill: [Vitality Lv.1].

[Skill: Vitality Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Tougher Vitality Lv.8].

Your title: [Crustacean Slayer] has advanced into the title: [Crustacean Slaughterer].

Acquired skill: [Tougher Vitality Lv.1].

[Skill: Tougher Vitality Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Tougher Vitality Lv.8].

Your title: [Crustacean Slaughterer] has advanced into the title: [Crustacean Genocider].

Acquired skill: [Guillotine Scissors Lv.1].

You have obtained the title: [Schemer].

Acquired skills: [Calculation Lv.1] & [Parallel Thinking Lv.1].

[Skill: Calculation Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Thought Acceleration Lv.4].

[Skill: Parallel Thinking Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Parallel Calculation Lv.4].

"A lot appeared!!" - Bloom

"Just as planned! However, this [Schemer] thing was unexpected." - Garami

I brought out the Kigal-Note and checked the title. It seems to be awarded when you kill a certain number of creatures indirectly and without using skills or effects. This means punching, slashing, or magic-blasting them to smithereens is out of the question. Only traps, or should I say "schemes", will count for this title. It's a wonder I never obtained this title until now.

"And Master, is this true? Can you evolve already?" - Bloom

"Can't you read? And I bet the other two are in a similar situation." - Garami

How should I get that faux angel and Iron to repay me for unlocking the next step in their evolution path? Let's worry about that later and use this chance to get away ASAP. Springwood could be right around the corner for all I know! But first, I need to survive the scorching-hot glide back over the ravine again. Plus surviving the slippery hell after that too.

...Maybe I didn't think enough about this plan. My greed has blinded me this time around. Let's make this a lesson not to forget. "Don't act stupid even if your Dungeon is just one robbery away from being complete". Something like that.