Over the next week, Esperanza and the Progenies worked together with Ani and her warrior to repeat the process. They lured away the arachnoids that populated the massive web in the center of the forest, one section at a time. At first they were wary that it was too easy, that it might have been a trap, but some attempts at deeper reconnaissance finally told them the reason they were having a relatively easy time.
There was no [King] in the center of the web, only a [Queen] that seemed to be trying to groom new kings into existence. They were uncertain as to the cause of why there was no [King] to be found. Perhaps the creature had died of old age, or maybe it ran into an opponent it was unable to handle – the massive dinosaur-like creature which lived nearby came to mind – and perished.
Either way, it was good news for Esperanza and the Progenies. Without a [King] to coordinate them, the arachnoids mostly fought and acted in instinctive manner, which made them far easier to handle. Their numbers were naturally still a cause for concern, but since the group could whittle it down bit by bit, it was far more manageable.
Where the outermost web sections maybe had thirty to forty arachnoids with five or so fourth tiers guarding each, their opposition got tougher further in. Before long the group was facing ten, sometimes up to fifteen fourth tier arachnoids at the same time, still backed by their late third tier brethren.
It was a good thing that they too had grown in power.
Of course, Esperanza and the Progenies grew the fastest in power, due to their lower levels. All of them had reached the middle levels of the third tier after that week of constant carnage, even Iryl, whose class leveled slower than the Progenies, reached that level. The increased stats and new skills from those levels helped them fight better, and other than Iryl, any of them were easily capable of handling a fourth tier opponent on their own.
The stronger ones amongst them – Esperanza, Dali, Gordy, Val-Kas’j, and Tiesya – were easily capable of taking on multiple such opponents on their own by that point, and even Nalihimatu could keep up to half a dozen of them “taunted” and focused on himself, which freed up the others to handle the rest of the creatures at their leisure.
Naturally, given the rapid flow of experience, all of Ani’s warriors also gained a couple levels from their endeavors. Four of them even broke through to the fourth tier as well, though the quality of their class was not as good as what either the Progenies or Ani herself had. Probably their association with Esperanza and the Progenies weren’t close enough to qualify them for the better classes, though they did receive options that were better than what they had expected already.
Even Ani herself gained a level after all the fighting, which was something that usually took months of effort if not more, since fourth tier levels were difficult to get. Gaining a level after a week of fighting was something she never expected.
Then again most sane people would never attempt to clear a dungeon populated by over a hundred fourth-tier monsters with only twenty something people to begin with, so perhaps that level was a rather well-earned one indeed.
With the increase in level and power, the group gained more confidence in themselves, and they slowly began to chip away at the defenses of the innermost regions of the web. Esperanza was uncertain why the [Queen] within had yet to act against them, despite how it must have noticed its guards being lured away and massacred bit by bit, but chalked it up to a bit of good fortune so far.
The center region of the web itself was one mostly reserved for the [Queen] itself as well as some arachnoid types none of the groups had seen before. They were called [Arachnoid Royal Guards] and came in many varieties, practically covering just about every arachnoid type the group had seen in the dungeon so far.
Every single one of the creatures were mid fourth tier in level, and unlike the typical arachnoids, which relied entirely on their chitinous outer shell for defense, these arachnoids wore what looked like armor, but were more likely outgrowths of their natural outer shell. Just from their appearance alone, Esperanza could guess that they would be tougher than the creatures she had fought so far.
At least there were only twenty-four of them, which was a relief. It would be difficult to fight against so many enemies with such a high level if they were also supported by other lower level monsters.
When the group – now traveling openly, as they had pretty much denuded the web off its arachnoid inhabitants – approached the central point, those [Arachnoid Royal Guards] turned to watch them and gathered. Clearly their instincts were sharp enough to recognize that dangerous enemies were headed their way, and they reacted accordingly.
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For a brief moment, a tense standoff ensued, as Esperanza’s group halted a short distance outside the central-most section of the web, near a small stream which would allow Ani to use her water-based skills with more ease. The [Arachnoid Royal Guards] in turn watched them intently, but didn’t seem to have any desire to leave the central region either.
At least, until Ilavakide and a couple of Ani’s subordinates struck them from where they were standing.
Ilavakide made use of her active skills, stacking two of them at the same time to make her first shot as lethal as she could make it. By the time the twang of the bowstring could be heard, her arrow had already reached its target, one of the [Arachnoid Royal Guards] that had the appearance of a ranged-type arachnoid.
The arrow, boosted greatly in speed and accuracy by Ilavakide’s skill and infused with most of the young girl’s mana, struck and pierced through the carapace on the [Arachnoid Royal Guard]’s head, embedded itself deep into its face, before the mana reacted and exploded violently. The resultant explosion blew the creature’s head clean off, and its headless body collapsed after a couple moments.
That made the remaining [Arachnoid Royal Guards] stop watching and start to charge towards the group en masse. The pair of thrown javelins from Ani’s warriors were less effective, as they weren’t quite as boosted with skills, though one of them did pierce one of the creatures on its less-armored, bulbous back end. The injury only seemed to infuriate the creature in question, though.
Within moments, a brutal melee ensued as the group met the charging creatures head-on. The members who were skilled in melee combat directly took on the incoming monsters, most of them taking on two or more of the beasts at a time. The rest of the group stood further back, behind a segmented [Flowing Curtain] Ani conjured which gave them protection while still allowing them to strike their foes.
Esperanza naturally made use of [A Lending of Power] and [Deprive the Wicked] before the groups clashed. The levels she gained had allowed her to designate another two targets for the former, so she added Ani and Nalihimatu to the list. The additional stats were most effective on their best fighters, after all. As for the latter skill, she caught the majority of the [Arachnoid Royal Guards] in it, and personally tangled with the three that avoided its effects.
By then, she had completely done away with any pretense about being human while she fought. She instead made full use of her amorphous body, shifting her forms freely to both attack and defend, the blades of bone she created here and there to attack with coated with [Soul Armament], which made them all the more deadly against weak-souled creatures like these arachnoids.
The [Arachnoid Royal Guards] had a stronger soul than most other variants not a [King] or [Queen], but they were still on the weak side compared to other types of creatures.
Dali flickered in and out of existence as he struck two different [Arachnoid Royal Guards] repeatedly from impossible angles. Esperanza’s rise to the third tier seemed to have enabled her dogs to make more use of their innate powers that were previously beyond their reach due to their lacking levels. In Dali’s case, it made the slender greyhound-like dog a phantom that seemed to pay no heed to the idea of dimensions and reality. Magical attacks and Soul attacks still gave him some trouble, but against physical foes, Dali was pretty much untouchable.
In contrast, the nebulous form that Gordy turned into seemed to become more substantial after the increase in levels. It was like she was every part of the mist she turned into at the same time, as the creatures she was tangled with found to their horror – if they could even feel that. Every now and then, chunks of their carapace would break, as if a vicious jaw had bitten down on it, despite the only thing they were in contact with being Gordy’s misty form.
Val-Kas’j took on two of the beasts at the same time, expertly wielding his polearm and short spear at the same time as he deflected and avoided their blows while he made opportunities to strike back at the mean time. When one of her many eyes happened to glance his way, Esperanza found that she was reminded a bit on how hunters in documentaries she had watched hounded their prey, patiently waiting for them to make mistakes or tire out before they moved in to make the kill.
In contrast, Tiesya reminded her more of a bullfighter. The way the young girl danced in close vicinity of the two [Arachnoid Royal Guards] she was facing, avoiding their strikes by the barest margin while landing cuts from her pair of blades at the same time, was almost like watching a performance art. Only the open rents that leaked ichor on the monsters’ bodies served as a reminder that it was indeed a dance of death that she engaged in.
Nalihimatu had the attention of three of the [Arachnoid Royal Guards] fixated on him. While he was by no means as strong as either Val-Kas’j or Tiesya, he also had the benefit in that he could just focus on defense. His skills kept the monsters on him, unwilling to turn away before they were finished with him, which afforded others with easy opportunities to strike at them from safety.
Ilavakide and Dai’vasy made full use of that opportunity as they bombarded the creatures Nali kept occupied with arrows and magic. Since Ilavakide had spent most of her mana in the opening blow, she only used mundane arrows which were far less damaging to the creatures in a bid to regenerate some of her mana in case it would be needed later. Similarly, Dai’vasy limited herself to smaller workings of magic which would not tax her mana pool by too much.
Even though the damage they did was not much, it added up over time. One of the creatures noticeably slowed down, its form looking like a pincushion by that point, with dozens of arrows and icicles sticking out from its carapace. After a few more minutes, the creature eventually ran out of power and collapsed as it slowly expired.
By that point, Resitia was already finished with her first opponent, and jumped over from the distance. The human girl landed with a great amount of force on the back of another of the monsters by Nali, which was caught off-guard by her sudden pounce. Resitia’s spear struck the beast’s bulbous lower body with great force, empowered by a skill, and caused a fountain of ichor and gore to spray out the other side as the blow pulverized a part of the monster’s body and the spear pierced all the way through to the bottom.
Soon enough, all twenty-four [Arachnoid Royal Guards] lay dead on the ground, yet for some reason, the [Queen] of the swarm had yet to make its appearance. The party shrugged their shoulders, treated what injuries they suffered and rested for a bit to allow their mana to regenerate somewhat. Only then did they continue to head towards where the [Queen] is located, intent on finishing the dungeon that very day.