Cave of The Arachnid
The others had been busy grabbing these resources but Leon hadn't been idle either.
He slowly looked at the pile of pear-shaped fruits with streaks of red in front of him and smiled.
These fruits appeared to be nothing so special, they looked normal.
In fact, they were barely even edible.
Anyone who had eaten it could testify. It tasted like absolute shit!
Leon would rather eat a pile of rocks than try to consume these things.
If it wasn't because of his previous life, he would have truly considered these fruits as nothing but a waste, but it wasn't until he had completed the entire tutorial that he had discovered their purpose.
Fuel.
From the juice to the pulp and even the skin, all aspects of the fruit carried extremely flammable properties. From just a quick observation, it would be clear to see that these fruits were least as flammable as gasoline, if not even greater, making them that much more of an important asset.
Hell! If it wasn't because of the rather rare chance of finding the fruit trees, Leon would have liked to get much more
But Leon didn't get to admire his fruits for much longer as soon his smile was interrupted.
"Now that we've got the wood that you want, care to explain what this is even all about?" questioned Jessica
Annoyed, Leon got up With and his usual stoic expression returned, turned to look towards the crowd.
"The reason I gathered everything is for the cave in front of me, or more correctly, the monsters inside of it."
Some of the monsters inside of there would require this to be dealt with.
"You speak like you already know the monsters in there. How did you know this information?"
Leon turned to look at Jessica briefly before continuing to speak, completely ignoring her question.
"This brings me onto the next point," continued Leon
"The monsters inside of this cave are all venomous spiders, with toxins so potent you'll be dead in seconds."
"For this toxin there is no cure, meaning if you fail to remove the infected area, that's it, you die."
Leon could see the stride expressions on the people around him and continued.
"It's because of this very reason I won't be forcing anyone to accompany me past this point.
If you feel like backing out, now is the time to speak"
At first, there was nothing.
Just an awkward silence as the people took in all that was said just now.
But it didn't take long before a hand was raised.
"I'm sorry, but the risk you described is too much. I don't think I can continue with this."
The one who spoke was none other than Kayla.
And it wasn't just her, she seemed to start a reaction as slowly more and more people raised their hands and moved to the side, showing their choice to refrain from entering the cave.
Just as Leon was thinking that everyone here would bail on him, one person moved in the other direction of the others.
"Jessica!" Cried Kayla in alarm
"Didn't you hear what that man said? If you get bitten by those spiders, that's it, you die! There's no point risking your life for something so meaningless!"
Hearing her friend's concern, Jessica just softly smiled.
"What you say is true Kayla. But that's only if you want to remain a regular person, if you want to put your fate in another's hands. I don't know about you Kayla, but I refuse to live that way. My life is mine and mine alone to control!"
After saying that, Jessica moved to the side and joined Lucas and Lucy, who were already standing behind Leon.
Lucas didn't have much of an opinion on whether to join or not.
He just trusted his sister's innate trait <Keen Intuition>.
It said that staying with Leon was the way to get the most possible benefits so that's where they were going! Besides, Leon would end up dead before he let his sister enter such a dangerous place alone.
In the end, Leon only managed to get 5 other people to go with him.
Jeff, Martin, Jessica and the two kids.
"First, before we can use all this, we would need to clear the route to the boss."
"Boss?" asked the others in confusion.
Hearing their confusion, Leon could just scratch his head.
"There's no point in explaining too much you'll understand once we enter."
As Leon spoke, he continued walking forward.
The others could only shrug before following after him, leaving behind the other group to watch carefully.
The confusion of the group lasted until they entered the cave.
It was then they all got a strange notification.
[Ding! New Instance detected!]
Instance - Cave of The Arachnid
Instance type: Dungeon
Difficulty: Grey Stone
Number of participants: 6/40
Objective: Clear the dungeon of monsters and reach the end of the dungeon. Rewards will be granted based on contribution.
Time limit: N/A
What was this? A Dungeon?
Dungeon, as in a game dungeon?
The others were left confused and turned towards Leon, who had a smile on his face.
It was then that they realised this dungeon must be what Leon was on about and if his words could be believed, there was probably going to be a boss too!
As the group was still left shocked, another set of notifications appeared in front of them.
[Congratulations! You are the first people from Temple #195 678 to activate an instance as reward. Please retrieve +1 strength crystal.]
As the voice sounded out, a strength crystal appeared in front of them.
Leon quickly absorbed it, adding to his stats.
Leon then approached Lucy and Lucas.
"Lucy, show me your attribute panel."
Hearing Leon's cold voice, a slightly nervous expression appeared on her face, causing Lucas to turn towards Leon with a glare.
It was then Leon realised he probably did come off a bit intimidating. Maybe it would be better to speak in a kinder tone, at least to a little girl.