The outskirts of the dungeon that Esperanza and the children chose to cross was by no means a short trek. Even at their fastest pace, it would have taken them at least three, if not four days to reach the other side. That speed was not because of the children being unable to travel very far – since the forced maturity of the eight Progenies of Yore, they had enough adults to carry the smaller children along the way – but because of the frequent encounters they had with the arachnoid beasts that inhabit the area.
Due to the group having children with them, they had to stop and keep the children safe each time such an encounter happened. Esperanza and her dogs generally managed to stop the smaller groups from even reaching them, but when they ran into larger groups, the children who had matured ahead of their time had to join the fight as well.
While they remained fortunate – or maybe it was because they were just on the outskirts – to encounter mostly smaller groups of monsters, the frequency still took its toll on them regardless. Even at night, while Esperanza originally wanted to allow the children to rest more, because she could function without sleep for at least a week or so from what she learned of her new body, she ended up needing some of them to help when there were too many monsters coming at them all at once.
As a result, the matured children – the Progenies, as the others habitually called them now – slept in shifts during the night, with half of them staying on watch together with Esperanza. After seeing what happened to the eight Progenies of Yore, the rest of the older children had clamored to be given a chance as well, and Esperanza had obliged and allowed them to leech off some experience from things they could injure, from time to time.
Unfortunately though, none of the remaining six older children received classes that were anywhere near what the Progenies of Yore had. They still received pretty good classes by local standards, and the forced maturity that followed meant that now the group had plenty of people to carry the younger children who could not run along with them, but their potential in a fight was far worse.
Even Eda-Zil and Kvar-Litu, despite their poor classes, could do better than the fresh second tier children who received only more “normal” classes, though the children could at least help a bit more now.
When Esperanza left Navef, their group had only two adults, as well as a dozen older children and thirteen younger ones. By the second day of their travel through the dungeon, fourteen of the children had been forced to mature before their time as they reached their second classes, which at least made carrying the eleven younger ones far easier.
Even so, the relentless assaults from the arachnoid beasts of the dungeon left them quite exhausted nonetheless, mostly because it happened so often that most of the group barely managed to get any proper rest. Esperanza and her dogs could manage going on without rest, but the rest of the group could not do so, and thus, the need to take breaks to rest further slowed their pace down.
And all that despite how those who could fight the dungeon’s monsters had only been getting more effective as time went on.
After their first encounter with the group of seven, the children had taken some parts of the dead arachnoids. The limbs of several of the variants were pretty much ready-made weapons on their own, of better capabilities than the scavenged weapons used by the group. All they needed were some makeshift jury-rigging to render them more usable as a weapon.
Tiesya took one of the [Arachnoid Scyther]’s scythe-like limb and ground the lower part to dull a section, so she could use it as a handle after wrapping around it with a few strips of cloth for a better grip. That in turn gave her a longer, forward-curved blade that was nearly as long as one of her arms, which suited her better than the machetes she had been using so far. She did keep the [Champion]’s former machete for use in her off-hand, though, as she felt that her taking both of the scythe-blades would have been too much.
Val-Kas’j took the other scythe-blade, and affixed it to the butt end of a spear with the help of some resin, which was easy enough given that the lower end of the scythe-arm had a hollow section where he could fit the spear’s shaft into like a socket. They did a similar process with the spear-like limbs of the [Arachnoid Impaler], producing four long spears in the process, as well as a pair of mauls using the club-like mass of chitin that two of the [Arachnoid Pulverizer]’s arms ended at. Nalihimatu also made a makeshift shield using the intact back carapace of another arachnoid, which was just as strong but lighter than the one he had.
Those weapons gave the Progenies more capability of handling the monsters of the dungeon, to the point that they were quickly closing on being able to take on one of the beasts on their own – for the melee fighters at least – as long as their levels were not too far apart. As such, on the second night the children decided to split the night watch into four shifts instead of two, to afford themselves more rest.
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Fatigue was catching up to them, so Esperanza had also agreed on the arrangement, as she helped the children keep watch throughout the night along with her dogs. Fortunately, even with such an arrangement, the force they had in hand was enough to pass the second night without any losses. They were hopeful when the third night also passed relatively peacefully, and were all too glad to soon be done with the dungeon.
Because they had been delayed by so many fights along the way, the group failed to make it out of the dungeon by the fourth night. Even so, the distance they covered was still enough that they would definitely make it out of the forest by the next day for certain. It was with buoyed hopes and a nearly celebratory mood that the group went to bed on their fourth night in the dungeon.
The first two watches passed relatively peacefully, with only minor incursions by small groups that Esperanza could handle on her own. The journey through the forest – and the dungeon – so far had been quite beneficial for her levels, as she already reached level 17 in her second class by then. Many of the children were also hitting double-digit levels already, with Val-Kas’j already at level 14, almost catching up to her. Apparently the Progenies received some sort of boost to experience, as the other children did not level nearly as fast.
Perhaps the children on watch at the time – Ilavakide and Nalihimatu – had grown a bit complacent from almost reaching the exit, or perhaps Esperanza herself had grown a bit tired from the lack of sleep, but during the third watch, they were attacked by a larger group of creatures that nearly got the drop on them, somehow.
It was Dali that caught on to their presence and barked to warn everyone else, his barks instantly waking the others up as they scrambled to ready themselves. It was only then that Esperanza gained an inkling that there was a group of a dozen arachnoids – from the looks of it, led by another [Arachnoid Fledgling Queen] – that was already closing in on the group.
Twelve of them at once might have been problematic just two days ago, but with the levels the Progenies had gained, the eight of them could likely take on at least six of the beasts on their own, perhaps more. Esperanza was confident enough that she and her companions could handle the rest on their own, so it was a manageable situation all considered.
The children quickly roused themselves from their sleep. The other six matured children formed a circle together with Eda-Zil and Kvar Litu, keeping the younger children in the middle for safety, while the Progenies closed in on Esperanza, each of them prepared for the fight ahead of them. For a moment, she felt another brief pang of guilt and sorrow on their behalf. Children their age should have been free to play and enjoy life, not have to risk their lives to fight monsters like this.
Esperanza shook her head to clean her mind, and quickly made use of her new skill, [A Lending of Power], on herself, Dali, Gordy, Val-Kas’j, and Tiesya once more. The skill happened to level at that moment, which incidentally gave her an extra target to assign it to, so she quickly gave a boost to Resitia as well, as she was the third highest leveled amongst the Progenies.
As for [Deprive the Wicked], she was saving it until she could catch as many of their foes in its effects as possible. Together with the eight Progenies of Yore and her companions, Esperanza sallied out to meet the incoming beasts, a short distance away from where the children were. That way they were close enough to render assistance if needed, but not too close that there was a risk of stray attacks potentially hitting the children.
Dali and Gordy went to the flanks, and just as the first of the monsters came into view, they struck from the sides, harrying the rest of the creatures towards the middle, to further gather them up so Esperanza could catch more of them in the effect of her skill. The first few beasts already clashed with the Progenies beneath her, while the rest were closing in fast.
Once all but one of the beasts were within the area her skill could effect, Esperanza let loose with [Deprive the Wicked], landing it on all but a [Arachnoid Impaler Lvl 31] that happened to lag behind and to the side of the incoming enemies. With the debuff affecting their foes, the Progenies quickly went to work on the monsters, and Esperanza also threw herself into the fray as well.
She was lucky and landed directly on top of one of the lower level arachnoids, which she instantly snuffed out before it could react, one of her arms turning into a tentacle-like shape and simply wrenching the creature’s head off. That quick kill seemed to have drawn the attention of the arachnoids nearby and she saw how they slightly quailed from her presence.
Esperanza had chalked it off as the beast’s natural instincts to shy away from fiercer predators, so she had not taken it to mind at the time, as frantic and chaotic as the situation was. Together with the Progenies, she pushed the arachnoids back, killing another three of the lower level creatures before she noticed that something felt off.
The arachnoids were not attacking them with the vicious mindlessness they saw most of the time. They were more cooperative, and tried to work together with one another. It was a behavior Esperanza had only seen before when an [Arachnoid Fledgling Queen] had been present amongst them. That was not the most worrisome part, however.
It was how the beasts were fighting carefully, especially the higher level ones, which seemed to care a lot more about preserving themselves than usual. It was almost as if… the creatures were buying time.
That was the moment Esperanza realized what had bugged her all along. The arachnoids were not fighting like territorial creatures trying to drive out intruders from their territory like they usually did. This bunch acted like hunters in search of prey, and like all such hunters, they prioritized the sick, the weak, the old, and the young, as those were the easiest prey.
Esperanza had just sent a command for Dali to return and help guard the children when she heard a scream from that direction and had to bite back a curse.