Lucas gathered Arthur and the others later in the day to go on their regular hunt. Arthur brought with him his new sword. He had gotten himself a modified belt so that it could hang on his side.

“Arthur, we are leaving later today because there are some nocturnal beasts that need to be killed. I have already marked the location of a spider’s nest. There will be a lot of them so we will be relying on you to block many of their attacks. The bites of the smaller ones shouldn’t even phase you,” said Lucas.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Don’t forget to take care of me as well because I am getting used to this new weapon,” said Arthur as he drew the sword and swung it about.

“We will help you where we can. The main thing with these spiders will be to avoid getting overwhelmed and draw out the giant queen mother spider,” said Kendra.

“Let’s pick up the pace. I want to get to the nest area near sunset,” said Lucas.

The four of them made their way at a steady pace northwest towards their intended destination. The forest trees changes throughout their journey and became more sparsely populated until they reached a rocky clearing. Arthur heard the sounds of rushing water.

“This river is the main tributary to the greater gnome forest river. Aria do you have the tool?” asked Lucas.

“Yeah I have them here,” said Aria as she opened up her bag. She began taking out rope, stakes, a hammer, and a few other items. “I still don’t know how you expect to lower Arthur to the caves, but you are the one in charge of the hunt this time around.”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan that should work. If it doesn’t we will just have to fish Arthur out of the river.”

“That doesn’t sound very encouraging,” said Arthur.

He looked down off the cliffs that they were going to traverse down. The water was at high tide based on the lines of the rocks. The cliff face went straight downwards on either side of the river creating a ‘V’ shape following it.

“Just start pounding the stakes where they need to be. Arthur use your strength to get them in,” said Lucas.

Arthur stepped away from the cliffside and sat down by Aria. She used the hammer to set the spike in place initially and once she was done he closed his fists and pounded them all the way in. The set-up process did not take that long, and soon enough Aria was all ready to go. The ropes were all knotted up and slack was given for their descent.

“What should we do next,” asked Aria. “He can’t go down at the same time as us. The stakes or rope will break. Maybe both.”

“Start by tying the ropes to him anyways. Arthur when you start falling I need you to cast [Earthen Wall]. Can you do that?”

“Yeah I can,” said Arthur.

Aria began tying the rope around his body and looped it twice around him.

“You will activate it, so you land there,” said Lucas as he pointed to a spot along the cliff about twenty-five feet up from the water. “Aria and Kendra. As soon as he starts to fall we are going to pull him up to slow his descent long enough for the spell to come into place fully. I will be counting on you.”

“It should work. It beats trying to climb up from the river while wet. Where is the spiders' nest from here?” asked Kendra

“His spell shouldn’t disturb the currently sleeping spiders though he may wake them up early. The nest cave entrance is only 100 feet from where I plan on dropping Arthur. With a few well-placed [Earthen Wall] casts we should make our way to it quickly. Arthur will be a bit drained afterward, but he can fight with his sword for a while, while he recovers.”

“The knots are all ready to go,” said Aria. “Can you want to get into position Arthur and prepare the spell?”

“Sure.” Arthur walked back over to the edge and looked over. He began preparing the spell in his mind and reaching the cliff face below. The others grabbed a hold of the rope behind him with some slack ready.

“On three,” said Lucas to the others. “1… 2… 3…”

Arthur let himself fall after the count ended. At the same time, the others tightened their grip and leaned back on the rope. Arthur’s body dropped and continued to fall as he finished casting the spell. The others above him let the rope go tight before they were pulled towards the edge. Lucas in the front slid forward.

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“Drop,” he shouted. The three of them all dropped the rope.

On Arthur’s end, he felt the slight resistance of them holding him up before his descent resumed. His acceleration halted momentarily as he found the position to activate the spell. The cliff wall grew horizontally relative to Lucas and the others. Arthur focused his intent of the spell on stability and strength. The wall grew at a slow pace as he fell towards it closer and closer.

Looking at the wall he realized that he might not be able to fight before he landed. Arthur tried to twist his body just before he landed. With a thud and a shake, he hit the newly formed wall that still was expanding slightly. Arthur felt his body slip and gripped the sides of the wall. Cracks in the wall formed as he lay flat on the wall. Arthur quickly pushed mana into the earth and spell around him resealing the cliff face and its new edge jutting out. With a sigh of relief, he relaxed and started to stand back up.

“Nice Job. Keep the rope tied to yourself. We are going to use it to climb down. If you can place down a second wall for us to stand on to your left. I don’t know how stable the first one will be,” said Lucas.

Aria grabbed hold of the rope on their end and began tying it up so they could climb down. Arthur followed the instructions and expanded the platform and connected the two together. It took a few minutes for all of them to get to Arthur. The sounds of the river were more pronounced this low in the canyon. The water's rapids crashed below them.

Lucas had Arthur begin creating the pathway along the canyon towards their destination. As they progressed Arthur released control of the platforms behind them, and the unstable pieces no longer held together by magic fell apart and created a more uneven ground for the rapids to grow.

After placing a dozen platforms for the four of them to walk across they were met with their destination. Nestled between two rock formations was a large crack.

“Kendra if you would expand this hole a bit more for Arthur.”

“Sure.” Kendra stepped up and prepared her spell.

The others stepped back as the heat of the flames increased. With a release of energy, a wave of fire hit the canyon walls and began melting them. The rock quickly turned to magma and pieces fell off landing in the water below. Kendra followed it up with a blast of cold air from a simpler spell. The rapid heating and cooling of the rock cracked and broke it. With a punch from an energy encased fist, she broke off chunk after chunk until the space was wide enough for Arthur to get through.

Kendra panted heavily after using up much of her mana reserves. After going through the multi-step process to arrive at the cave the sunset that they had planned to arrive at turned to a late evening. Above them, one of the two moons illuminated the canyon and its reflected light bounced off the water and onto them.

“Let’s get going. Arthur takes the lead. Kendra, you can stay back while you recover. How is your mana reserves, Arthur?”

Arthur looked over his body and examined the energy within. He had recovered some while waiting around but much of it had already been used to get them here. “I would say twenty-five percent. I won’t be using any big spells so I should do fine.”

“Good. Aria be our call-out gal while we go. It is going to get dark in here and I shouldn’t be the only one casting [Detect Life Aura] in here.”

“Will do.”

The four of them proceeded together through the cave. It widened up quickly so they could stand side by side. Aria took out a torch and lit it so that they could find their way. The light flickered off the cave walls and cast their shadows on the walls. They traveled for a while longer before finding things of interest.

“I see something up ahead. There are five spiders,’ said Aria.

“I see them too. Group up. They have heard us and will be here soon.”

Arthur cast [Detect Life Aura] and saw their images before they rounded the corner. Arthur took out his sword and got in front of the others. He felt his mana reserves at about their halfway mark and called on them for an initial spell.

The giant spiders rounded the corner and jumped at them. Each was as long as Arthur was tall and had a dirt brown coloring matching some of the walls. Two of them crawled along the ceiling of the cave while the other three went along the ground.

“[Multi Plasma Bolt].” Arthurs spell activated and split off. Each shot was slightly smaller than the base spell and launched itself at the spiders. Kendra’s fireballs also launched from behind. She focused on aiming a powerful precision shot because of the enclosed space they were in.

The spiders moved around the shots, but the bolts adjusted to hit their targets easily in the enclosed space. Kendra’s firebolt hit one of the spiders dead on and it caught fire and screeched in pain. The plasma bolts were largely brushed off by the spiders. Some of them moved slower but they focused on attacking the enemies encroaching on their territory. Burn marks shown on some of their bodies as well.

Lucas and Arthur held up their swords ready for the first wave of attack from the spiders. Arthur activated the runes within the blade and swung out. [Astral Blade] activated along with [Shock Sword]. The astral energy cut into the walls of the cave as he struck down on his first two spiders. The lightning flickering off of his blade jumped from it to the nearby spiders. The two he hit head-on died quickly while the lightning jumped to the others' shook and stunned them.

Lucas also fought off his own set of spiders. The ones from the ceiling were forced off by Aria and they writhed around while Lucas and Arthur finished them off. Once they had cleaned up the five spiders Lucas sent out another wave of [Detect Life Aura].

“The other spiders aren’t coming yet. Let's clean this up and proceed. Kendra, take up the lead with Arthur this time,” said Lucas.

Arthur and the others went through the bodies of the spiders and began opening them up. The most valuable items on them were their venom sacs and webbing glands. The process didn’t take too long to finish and soon they returned to the path ahead to kill more spiders.