Yes Lilith, faster.

Nathan mentally willed the scuttling spider to rush towards him faster, his blood as hot as could be. The past few days had left him aching for a battle—a solo battle where he didn't have to care for a bunch of low-leveled teens. Now he could finally let loose, could finally fight without wondering if anything or anyone else got hurt.

With his sword at his side, Nathan let his thoughts run rampant, the hidden rage and urge for isolation coming to the fore of his mind at the best possible moment. In front of him was a monster scuttling towards its death. A big creepy monster, but still, Nathan wasn't going to discriminate between monsters. Technically he had with the bunny, but the infernal thing was a different case—the Lilith.

Thwack!

The first attack had nearly caught Nathan by surprise. The spider hadn't even gotten into range before it shot one of its webs straight at him. Much to his credit, Nathan managed to dodge the surprise attack, his dexterity helping him as he jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike.

Great, another variable.

He didn't know about other teens, but Nathan really, really hated variables—the hate born out of his failure when it came to advanced calculus. Now the spider had just added a twist to the little problem, no biggie though. He was here as pest control and the spider was the pest; he'd do his part, variable or no variable.

I really need to work on my monologue.

Realizing that he could not stand still and give the monster time to fire more webs at him, Nathan charged at the spider in a zigzag pattern, making sure to make his moves as random as possible. Sure, it was a little impractical, but if it kept the spider from latching onto him with its webs that were as thick as thieves—well, contact with that thing would surely be bad for him. Spider webs were like mild adhesives, but with how large the Lilith spider webs were, Nathan doubted that it was just going to cause him a little inconvenience.

Slash!

Nathan was way too pissed and battle-hungry to resist the urge to slay the monster. His blade arched upwards, descending like a crescent moon at his prime target—the spider. The creature blocked his strike with one of its eight legs, and he had to hop back to avoid being caught in the new web it had shot towards him.

Close.

He shook off the distraction as he rushed in for more. The monster was most likely beneath him in every way, and for some weird reason, his sword had failed to pierce through its armored legs—armor that he hadn't noticed earlier because it was his first time seeing a spider this large. It didn't matter though; he was already on the offensive.

His sword went for the eyes, and the spider scuttled away in the same direction it had been trying to lead him into before. The action made Nathan pause. He wouldn't follow the spider into whatever trap it had most likely set for him, and at the same time, he couldn't let it waste his time like it had been doing for the last few moments.

While the dungeon did not have a timer before he'd either be expelled or turned into mush, it had still locked him in with a monster. He didn't know if the spider needed sleep, but he did, and a battle of attrition would most certainly not be in his favor by any means.

I need to be smarter, I need to be human.

Nathan stopped letting his emotions dictate the tempo and instead let his mind go berserk. By the stars, he hated complex situations, but sometimes you need to work smart, not hard, and right now the spider was certainly working smarter than him, trying to tease him into following it wherever that was.

"Two can play that game."

Every monster he'd ever encountered had a weak point; the most common was the eyes, and the spider had a lot of those. However, Nathan doubted that the spider would let him get anywhere close to its weak point. At most, it'd use its lightning-quick legs to block any strike he'd try to land on it. The second option was its underbelly, which meant Nathan would have to get close and personal with the spider—something he would have preferred to avoid.

Nathan stared at the beady eyes of the spider as he considered his options. Sure, he'd rather not put himself in such a terrible situation, but if it meant he could be done with this farce of a battle, then why not? He wasn't going to charge yet; if he did, he had no doubts the spider would continue scuttling back, trying to lead him into whatever was back there. No, he couldn't have that. He needed to lure it away from that direction, and so he repeated his earlier move from the start of the battle: he retreated towards the entrance of the dungeon, goading the spider to attack him with every step he took.

"Come on Lilith, I know you want me," Nathan said.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

He was doing his best to bait the monster, but the creature just stared at him from afar, its beady eyes locked onto his form like he was the most important thing in its life. Even then, the spider didn't make a move—it just stood still and watched him impassively.

No doubt its brain was already trying to find Nathan's angle. The thought caused him to almost chuckle at a stupid assumption he probably wouldn't have entertained before.

Do spiders have multiple brains?

Definitely a stupid question, even by his standards, but at the same time, he couldn't help but wonder, as spiders always seemed to have things in multiples. Shaking his head to get rid of the loose thought, he continued to taunt the spider, waving his sword at it even as he backed away.

He had to resist the urge to charge when the spider began scuttling towards him. It took all of his mental fortitude to wait for the spider to get into range, his eagerness to test out his idea feeling like hot coals on his feet at the moment.

Bingo!

Nathan charged at the spider, his legs going so fast that he was afraid they might come off. He raised his sword for a horizontal slash and, as he'd predicted, the spider raised its two front legs to block the attack. Its armored legs met nothing but air as it had been an elaborate feint by Nathan.

The berserker dove into the opening the two raised legs had provided. By the time the spider had caught on to what was about to happen, its life had become forfeit. From the moment he'd stepped past the threshold, he'd already known that whatever monster was in there would die by his sword, and that was exactly what happened.

Spurt!

Monster blood rained down on Nathan as he thrust his sword through the underbelly of the spider, his blade arching as he tore through chitin like it was nothing. The blood of the monster smelled terrible, and at least Nathan could say that all monsters smelled terrible.

"Not so quiet now, are you?"

The spider chittered incessantly as Nathan's sword sought to split it in two. Of course, his sword wasn't big or long enough to do that, but Nathan had managed to land a fatal blow, and he was going to milk the blow until the spider could chitter no more. Its legs, that had been trying but failing to pierce his skin, were losing their pressure.

Time to duck out.

Without waiting for any more signs of the imminent collapse, Nathan ripped his sword from the dying spider, scrambling out from underneath it just in time too, as the spider collapsed in a heap, nearly taking his foot in a last-gasp attack, but he managed to evade it. A wave of euphoria passed through him, and Nathan let the feeling wash over him, enveloping his every being as he stared at the monster which had served as a source of level up.

I wonder what its own skill is.

Nathan mused at the thought. Sure, he'd seen a lot of last-minute skill activation by many monsters he'd fought in dungeons, but this was the first time he was slaying one before it could do any damage. Heck, Nathan hadn't even known that was possible. Such knowledge would have saved him the stress of having to be on the receiving end of a lot of lethal skills he'd faced over the last few days.

A lot of unnecessary skills he'd had to face since the apocalypse started. It seemed like information was always going to be power, and more so in this world than ever. A power struggle would begin in time, definitely not anytime soon, but a power tussle would happen, and it'd be those with information that would win.

Those with information—real information—would be the ones to lead humanity to the new age, and Nathan didn't think knowing you could kill a dungeon monster before it activated its skill was valuable information. Heck, it'd become immediately... meh to him after he'd realized it. He was still going to fight the damned monsters anyway, and any monster he could kill before it activated its skill probably wasn't worth his time.

Heck, any monster he could kill without breaking much of a sweat wasn't worth his time. The Lilith Spider had been a level above him before he'd played it, but the fight with the eight-legged monster hadn't done enough to sate his battle lust. Fighting the monster felt wack—a feeling he only realized after he'd slain it. He missed the thrill of fighting monsters way above his level. Monsters that could crush him in an instant if he wasn't careful enough.

"I'm getting reckless, too reckless."

Nathan frowned at the thought. Sure, he'd survived those fights, but most of them had been close calls, and the one with the panther had been the closest. There was a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and at the moment, Nathan didn't know which side of the line he stood on. Sure, the apocalypse was a high-risk, high-reward system, but at the same time, he didn't have to risk his life every time. Sometimes it was best to stick to fighting monsters that weren't going to be much of a threat to him, like the rapid soza or the spider that had just been slain.

Thud!

Nathan didn't know when he'd pumped his fist in the air at the sight of his newly revealed loot box—a wooden box. He also didn't know why he'd pumped his fist; perhaps some part of himself felt happy being rewarded. He shook off the childish feeling. This was life and death. He wasn't a child receiving dessert because he'd finished his lunch. Nope, he was a berserker getting his loot, and it was time to begin acting like that.

"Yeah, I definitely need to work on my monologue."

Nathan chuckled at the part of himself that ever considered that he'd actually be a serious-minded person. While he could respect someone who'd lose their entire personality, becoming a robot because of an apocalypse, he wouldn't be that person. He wouldn't become like Pirlo, too focused on improvement often at the expense of the collective, often alone brooding, thinking about the next level up. No, Nathan would live life because if he lived like Pirlo, then he'd have killed himself before the apocalypse would get a chance to.

"It's always the internal battles."

Shaking his head, he opened up the wooden box, peering into it to find out what was his prize for clearing out the dungeon. Apparently, the system had seen fit to give him a glowing nightlight rock called 'Tora' and a minor health point. Those were the only two items in the box, and while Nathan was a little bit disappointed, he consoled himself with the fact that he'd only entered the dungeon to level up—everything else was a bonus. With a sigh, he chucked the loot items into his bag of holding.

[Loot claimed, dungeon destabilizing in 3 minutes. All entities should exit the dungeon before the dungeon collapses into Ra'hal.]

"Whelp, seems like it's time to hit other dungeons."