Chapter 23: Arachne, The Spider Queen

{So, I have been thinking.}

"I know, and the answer is no."

{Tch, party pooper.}

Neo collected all the spheres, and it took him over an hour, but that much time was necessary for his party members to regain their stamina.

He walked back and was surprised as he saw the girls had removed their cloaks and veils. The first beauty that should be Myra, had long, flowing black hair that cascaded down her back in gentle waves. Her piercing, icy blue eyes could cut through steel, and her angular features gave her an air of mystery and intrigue. Despite her icy demeanor and indifference towards everything around her, she had a beauty that was hard to ignore. She wore a black, form-fitting outfit that hugged her curves and accentuated her figure, adding to her alluring presence. It was clear that Myra was not someone to be underestimated, and her beauty only added to her dangerous aura.

Then came Mira, a charming woman with delicate features and soft, wavy hair that cascaded down her back. Her almond-shaped eyes were a warm and inviting brown, and her lips curved into a gentle smile. Unlike her miss, Mira wore her emotions on her sleeve and her expressions were easy to read. She wore a look of concern on her face right now.

Neo shook his head as he nodded toward them and said, "Ready to go?"

Myra's eyebrows raised a little, but came back down as she nodded and entered the next chamber. Mira, meanwhile, was surprised, as Myra's beauty did not affect Neo at all.

But now was not the time to think about such a thing. She hurriedly caught up to them as they had already entered the third chamber.

As Neo and the girls made their way into the third chamber of the Arachnid Caverns, they were hit by a musty, damp smell that clung to the air. The chamber was much larger than the previous two, with webs stretching across the ceiling and walls, making it difficult to see more than a few feet ahead.

The ground was covered in a thick layer of cobwebs, making it difficult to walk without getting stuck. Small spiders scurried about, their legs tapping against the hard ground. The larger spiders lurked in the shadows, waiting for their next prey.

In the center of the room was a large web, bigger than any they had seen before. It was tightly woven, and it shimmered in the dim light of the chamber. The party couldn't see what was caught in the web, but they could see movement and hear soft moaning.

Neo burned the webs in front of him, but upon hearing the moan, his eyebrows raised a little, and he turned toward Myra, who was doing the same. He had his answer as Myra also didn't know who was caught in the web.

They started clearing the spiders, but these were even more powerful and sturdy than the corpseweaver spiders that they fought against.

Neo also had to pay attention as they spitted webs which made the situation sticky.

After a gruesome fight that took over half an hour, they were finally able to kill every spider. Myra and Mira leveled up once, but that was to be expected because they had dealt with thousands of spiders now.

"This is weird."

Mira said slowly, which only Myra heard. She sat down looking at Neo, who was slowly burning the web around the moaning individual or whatever was inside. She turned to Mira and asked, "What is?"

"He should've leveled up by now, like his level is lower than ours, but he still hasn't leveled up. Even the Exp shared is a little weird. Like, didn't we receive 500 Exp points in the normal dungeon which was shared by us and we got 250 each?"

She paused and then continued saying, "But here the Exp has become four times, to 2000 and we are getting 1000 each. Which means…"

Myra thought about it and also found it unusual as she muttered.

"He's not getting any Exp."

Neo was oblivious to this as he slowly removed the webs and after sometime, a figure appeared before him. He held the figure and put him down slowly. The person was heaving slowly, his breath too faint, like he'd die the next second.

"T-thank you for saving me. B-but it is already too late. The p-poison has spread throughout m-my body."

He said weakly as he handed a scroll to Neo.

"I h-have already reached my en…d."

Neo took the scroll from him and was still looking at him.

"Ah, how cruel is this fate. Even the mighty got wrecked by it. Huu…uu.u…"

The person breathed his last as the light in his eyes dimmed, and he was finally gone. Neo closed his eyes and stood up.

{This place seems too damp for him. He looked like a reputable figure.}

"I don't have a storage unit this big to fit a corpse in."

{Let's try this then.}

Blaze put his hand on the person and thought of him entering the Twin Towers. The person vanished in the next moment.

'it really worked.'

He didn't know what happened to the corpse, as he couldn't enter the tower to check with the girls around. His attention then turned toward the scroll, and a notification popped up.

『 The scroll contains the trial for a Unique class.』

Blaze eyebrows rose as he was getting too many classes lately. Still, he didn't want any of these as he felt he wouldn't be able to give it the time and care it needs.

Arriving before Myra, he tossed the scroll toward her. Myra grabbed the scroll and read the notification attached to it.

Her indifferent expression cracked as she looked at him in shock, but Blaze just shrugged and said, "I have Technomancer class."

But it only increased her shock as Technomancer, although rare, was not a unique class and many Technomancer complained about how bad this class was.

"Now, just rest. I'll go grab their mana cores." Blaze said as he entered the second chamber. But his dimensional space was full now, so first he used the spell once more to increase the space in there to 10 square meters and again started the tedious task of collecting the essence spheres. As for why he called them mana cores, well according to the common populace, the essence spheres were called mana cores.

...

While Neo was collecting the cores, Myra was going through the roller coaster of emotions. She was thinking about why he would give up on such an opportunity that could make him reach the apex, standing with the titans of the Tower.

Mira was confused about what was going on and asked Myra about it. They were like close friends. She was her personal maid and even family, so Myra shared the notification and Mira almost shrieked when she saw what the scroll was.

Her emotions changed from one state to another before she jumped in jubilation as she said, "With this, Lady Myra, you can get out of your current state and even gain a higher position."

Myra nodded, still not sure what to do. Should she accept it or not? She decided to hold on to this until the end of the Dungeon and consider after conquering this dungeon.

They rested for an hour, but the atmosphere was much brighter than before because of Mira, who was now on cloud nine.

Neo arrived back just in time to see Mira giggling and Myra shaking her head with a slight smile on her face, which dazed him, as a smile on that face was much more killer than that cold and indifferent look.

Mira froze when she saw Neo looking at them, and Myra's face also gained back its trademark expression. Neo shook his head and said, "How many more chambers are there?"

To which Myra answered, "Next one is the Boss Chamber, where the spider Queen dwells."

She remembered her previous experience with the monster and said, "The boss spider has 15,000 health bar, but reaching her is difficult because of the spiders that spawn endlessly."

Neo nodded as he took in everything and said, "Let's go, then."

He didn't make a plan because this was Hell level difficulty, so the boss would also differ from the previous one and might be several times stronger, if not dozens.

They entered the room and their expression changed as Mira said, "This is not like the boss room we entered before."

The chamber was a large circular chamber, with a high ceiling adorned with spiderwebs. The walls were made of rough rock, and in the center of the room was a massive spider web. The room was dimly lit with strange glowing mushrooms growing in the corners. Two openings were visible in the walls, from which smaller spiders appeared to be emerging periodically. The air was thick with the smell of damp earth and spider silk, and the silence was only broken by the skittering sound of spiders moving across the floor.

The moment they entered the chamber, the door behind them closed, which made the girls' expression turn severe, and then something jumped down from the ceiling was the boss of this dungeon. The Spider Queen.

The spider queen was a massive creature, towering over the group at over 20 feet (6.1 m) tall. Its body was covered in thick, matted fur that was a sickly grayish-brown color, and its eight legs were long and spindly, ending in a sharp, deadly-looking pole that could even pierce the wall. The queen's eyes were a bright, glowing green, and its fangs were long and curved, dripping with venom. The monster's abdomen was swollen and bloated, and the group could see the shapes of smaller spiders wriggling and squirming inside. The sight was enough to make even the bravest of adventurers feel a chill run down their spine.

Mira shuddered as she used [Inspect] on the monster, which made their face turn pale. Neo also used the skill to get information on the queen.

『 Name: Arachne, The Spider Queen

Type: Arachnid

Level: 30

Health : 52,000/52,000

Mana: 3,200/3,200

Attack: 900~950

Defense: 820~890

Magic Defense : 720~ 770

Skills:

➠ Web Shot: Arachne fires a sticky web at her target, reducing their movement speed by 50% for 10 seconds.

➠ Poison Bite: Arachne bites her target with venomous fangs, dealing poison damage over-time.

➠ Spider Swarm: Arachne calls forth a swarm of spiders to attack her enemies.』

The girls' expressions were pale, as this giant monster before them was something they didn't expect before. The normal boss was only a 6-foot monster who they were having problems with because it respawned the spider endlessly.

It just did that, and it itself was not dangerous, but the monster before them made the one they were having trouble with look like a joke.

They gulped as they took a step back to leave but found the door behind them to be closed and teleportation out of the dungeon required them to be out of combat, which was impossible as the monster had already locked onto them.

They started losing hope as tears welled up in Mira's eyes, and she started trembling. Myra also gritted her teeth as she got ready to fight the monster to the bitter end.

"Just relax and handle the small critters it spawns. Leave the ugly one to me."

Blaze said as two blades formed in his hands. Black and golden flames started flickering over them (on the black and golden blades respectively), and Neo started using the breathing technique.

"Time for the real dungeon to commence. Don't let me down now."

Roar*