I continued eating in silence as Velariah had her breakfast served as well. Draco made sure that the supplies he had restocked (mainly the potions) were divvied up among the elves and himself.

After food and drink, it was time to head out. I finally equipped my gauntlets and we walked down the streets. The center of Dawnleaf was already bustling with adventurers and the first trials had begun. We’d have some time before it was my turn. Velariah informed me that the guy in the red cape would let me know when it was my turn.

People already turned their heads as I walked past them and I could see the anticipation in their eyes.

Did they know?

I imagined word may have gone out already that I’d be participating. Info seemed to spread quickly in a small village such as this.

On our way to the dungeon, we took a bit of a detour, so we wouldn’t have to get close to the forest. I honestly doubted whether this place would be dangerous out here, but Valtheril had specifically instructed not to get near it.

The day was as sunny as ever. I really wouldn’t have to worry about getting a decent tan with tropical temperatures like this. It did fill me with slight anxiousness about what winter would look like. If spring or summer would be this warm, would winter be extremely cold?

How would my body hold up in the cold?

I couldn’t really cover it with blankets now, could I?

We entered the tunnels leading to the former spider nest about an hour later. The doors were already opened, but Draco assured me it would be of no concern. He said it didn’t appear as if any monsters could spawn close to the exit. Besides that, Arch seemed to be able to exert enough control to be able to keep them inside.

Unless he’d gone without mana for a long time, as we had seen before.

I descended the stairs much more confidently this time around. Partly because I’d done it before and didn’t experience issues, and partly because I knew my spider capabilities were far beyond my expectations, as demonstrated in the bedroom.

That sounded so wrong in my mind.

I walked down without turning around first, earning a praising look from Nira who was already waiting downstairs with Draco.

Draco led the way with the torch as Seralyn and Velariah joined up with us. It seemed the area had grown more… illuminated compared to last time. Some of the blue moss that was only found in the last tunnel now grew on the walls here as well.

I imagined it to be a sign of Arch’s strength returning.

I was half expecting him to welcome us, but the dungeon core, or the hellspider queen, whoever did the actual talking, remained quiet in my mind.

The first room’s monsters were also slightly different. Instead of only slimes, there were now a few smaller spiders mixed in between, about a quarter of the size of a mature hellspider.

I sighed and walked into a corner, covering my ears with my hands.

Somehow, even though my ears were covered, I could still make out the conversation my companions were having about me.

“What is she doing that for?” Seralyn asked.

“Uh, when spiders die, they appear to let out a screech that Elania can hear, it hurts her,” Velariah replied.

“That’s so sad...” Nira added with her soft voice.

“Yeah, just kill one at a time and finish them off quickly. That’s the best you can do to make it easy on her.”

I put my spear down and had my gloved hands cover my ears as best I could. On top of those, I also added my other hands which held the shield-blades. The pain still went through all the barriers I’d set up.

My only luck was that these spiders didn’t seem to have as much power in their screeches. Likely because of their size.

I could see the wall in front of me reflect some of the colors that were used by my companion’s spells. I had the feeling Seralyn was going to town on them, with all the red I saw.

There was pain and then there was silence. I looked around to see my companions had cleared the room. Several spiders lay dead. In addition to the spiders, several cores of slain slimes in puddles of brown and green could be found throughout the wide cave tunnel.

I removed my hands from my ears.

“It’s done,” Velariah assured me. “I do hope for your sake there aren’t any more spiders going deeper.

I sighed. “I really do hope so. It seems Arch had properly prepared to see me the first time we visited.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me, actually.” The elf replied.

The other three of our party members looked at me with concern.

“I’m fine. Let’s continue.”

We exited the first tunnel and walked into the large room where we completed the supposed ‘trial’ last time. I was glad to see that this room too, had some improvements, mainly in the lighting.

Along the walls were rows of torches that glowed with an intensity I didn’t know was possible for a torch. The entire place seemed to be lit properly, save for the circle in the middle. They didn’t hurt the eyes at all, despite being so bright. It was more of a pleasant light, not completely different from the one we experienced in the bathroom in the mornings.

It allowed us to see the many monsters that crawled around in this place properly. I could make out several slimes, some normal-sized boars, a couple of the fennec-eared bats hanging from the ceiling, and… HOLY SHIT WAS THAT A SCORPION MY SIZE?

The biggest scorpion that I’d never thought could be real was wandering around aimlessly between the lesser monsters.

Arch, what the hell, dude?

I was pretty sure it had noticed us at least once, but it didn’t make a move towards us. It simply skittered to the far-back corner to the right of where we entered and remained there, walking small circles as it observed the other monsters.

The Ashclaw scorpions from the Searing Peak had nothing on this guy.

Nira seemed to be frozen in fear at the sight of it.

“Yeah, so...” Velariah started. “I assume we leave that for last and start cleaning up the rest?

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“As it doesn’t seem aggressive, I think that would be the wisest course of action,” Draco confirmed.

“I’ll get those bats!” Seralyn called out.

She unstrapped her new bow from her back and I couldn’t help but observe. I was eager to know what it could do.

I observed her looking at a group of three of the bats on the ceiling. It appeared they were sleeping and were oblivious to what was going on. Seralyn had an arrow nocked and the bowstring drawn. Then her arrowhead lit up with the fire magic that seemed to be her new skill.

The arrow flew. It was much faster than before and I lost track of it almost immediately after Seralyn released. I looked at where the bats were and saw them burning, all three of them. They seemed to die shortly afterward as they fell down to the ground, I could hear their bones cracking from the impact.

“Damn...” I let out softly.

“Yup,” Seralyn said with glee. “I can’t wait to see what I can do later on.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” I added as I observed Draco splintering the core of a slime with a swing from one of his axes that went straight through the creature.

Seralyn’s shot seemed to have drawn the attention of all the bats that were in this large room. Moments later, they were all flying towards us. We spread out loosely so our weapons wouldn’t get in the way of one another as we swung all around us to deal with the bats.

I was sure that our archer did most of the work when it came to flying enemies, but I couldn’t pay attention to her. I had four of the creatures swarming my head. I slashed wildly with my blades and spear. I managed to kill several, but these were not the easiest enemies for me to deal with.

I should be ashamed of myself. I was a spider that had trouble with flying enemies.

As I was dealing with the bats. Velariah shouted a warning to me and I looked down to see one of the boars charging at me. I lowered my spear and simply let it impale itself on my spear as I continued dealing with the bats above my head.

I could feel one of their sharp claws rake across my scalp as I tried to defend myself from two sides at once. It hurt but that was about it.

With the boar dead in front of me, I moved my attention to the fennec-eared bats again. When three of them swooped in at once, I bashed them with one of the shields. It seemed to temporarily daze them as it knocked them to the ground. I didn’t give them a chance to fly up again, I impaled them with my spear in quick succession.

I looked at my companions to see Draco repeat exactly what I had just done. He smashed several of the bats out of the air and then cleaved them with his axes. Seralyn shot down several more that approached, not using her new skill. I believed she was conserving energy.

Velariah dealt with an approaching boar, almost cleaving it in two from the side, as she sidestepped a charge and let the boar’s own momentum carry it through the blade.

Nira jumped into the sky, beating her large wings, and clawed several bats out of the air as well, almost ripping them in two.

The stream of bats had stopped as abruptly as it had begun. We converged in one place again.

“Damn, Elania, are you okay?” Velariah called out.

“I’m fine, why?”

She walked up to me and ran a finger over my chest plate, only to hold it up in front of me. The finger was covered in blood and I could see a stream of it running down my chest and carapace.

I put a glove on my head, where the claws of one of the bats had struck me, and saw it red with blood.

“Well, damn.” I let out. I didn’t even feel like I’d lost that much blood, the pain was present, but it felt more like a paper cut if anything.

Nira observed us and walked up to me. I lowered myself to allow her to do her work. She planted two hands on top of my hair and I could feel the warmth flow through my body before converging on the wound on top of my head.

“No internal damage,” Nira said. “Just a lot of blood.”

That, I could have figured out myself.

She removed her hands from my head. “That’s about as much as I can do. Draco, do you have bandages?”

I saw the blood drip from my hair. It was hard to notice, given my hair was almost the same color now. I’d probably have to take another bath tonight to get it all out.

I sighed again.

Draco handed a roll of bandage to the harpy, who proceeded to wrap it around my head. Velariah and Seralyn took care of creatures that got too close, not that there were many. It would seem the monsters here weren’t nearly as aggressive.

I wondered if Arch had a hand in that.

I shook my head at the thought, causing Nira some trouble with bandaging the wound. It was funny because Arch didn’t have hands.

I think.

Nira finished up bandaging the wound. I could have done without it, but I didn’t want to upset Velariah. I was positive I looked like I had had a skiing accident, though. I could only imagine how ridiculous I looked right now.

“Thanks, Nira,” I said as she backed away and I raised myself to my full height.

“At least the flyers are out of the way now,” Draco said from next to me. “You should be fine now, Miss Elania.”

“Boars and slimes, eh?” I stated, “Should be doable.”

These really shouldn’t be the hardest enemies. The only thing that worried me was the scorpion at the other end of the room.

Holy crap, it was huge.

I ran through the room with the blades at my side, aiming for and carving through the boars as I went. I completely ignored the slimes, they were far too weak to worry about. I could just step in them and continue, which is exactly what I did. I believe I may have killed a couple by stepping on and shattering their cores, but it really wasn’t what I was aiming for.

Nira focused on the slimes in particular while Draco and Velariah cleaned up behind me. Seralyn shot at whatever moved and bit by bit we started clearing the room of enemies. It was almost too easy.

I didn’t mind. This was excellent practice for me on how to use my weapons. I was still learning but found that I got more versatile with them as time went on. A boar charged me head-on. I stopped its charge with the front two sets of my legs and my pedipalps before forcing it down to the ground. I bent over and sank my blades behind its neck, killing it almost instantly.

“Nice footwork,” Velariah commented as she walked up to me from where she had killed another slime to my right.

“Very funny,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

“Can’t wait for you to do that to me,” She winked.

I felt myself blush as I hurriedly looked around to see if the others heard that. Fortunately, they were too far away to hear the obvious flirting going on.

“Vel, I’d rather not have you do that in combat,” I replied.

“It’s fine, this dungeon is fairly simple, these enemies are not that aggressive.”

I sighed, closed my eyes, and shook my head.

This attitude would surely get her in trouble someday.

“Vel, you can’t-” I started when a scream interrupted me.

Fuck.

One of the boars had managed to surprise her and impaled her legs from behind with its short tusks. Velariah was on the ground, crying in pain and I saw her damaged armor behind her legs ooze blood.

The beast walked away and seemed ready to charge again.

I quickly moved over her body and impaled the approaching beast on a spear and two blades at the same time.

I then moved away to make way for Nira who was already on top of her legs with her hands. Draco also appeared within seconds with the remainder of the bandages.

The bleeding seemed bad and I hoped with all my heart that we could stop it in time. I started creating some sticky silk, that could help out with compressing the wound if it was necessary.

What the hell, Arch?

I lowered myself to look at Velariah’s legs. Nira’s hands were covered with blood as I saw her energy flow through the elf. My heart sank at the sight. It looked bad, there was blood everywhere and I was battling with my mind. I honestly feared I’d lose her.

“She’ll be fine, I can handle this,” Nira said while she worked.

She’d better. There was far too much blood for my liking. I knew Nira was experienced with healing magic, but I couldn’t shake off this feeling.

Emotions raced through my mind. I’d looked away for one second. I hit my head with a gloved hand out of anger.

I should have paid attention.

And she should have, too.

Draco was standing on guard for incoming enemies, Seralyn stood with him, but enemies remained absent.

I lowered myself all the way to the floor at her head. And lifted it while turning it to face me. She had tears in her eyes from the pain. Draco handed me a yellow and green potion, which I forced her to drink.

“Vel, don’t you ever dare to do that again...” I said softly, my heart pounding faster than it ever had before.

“I’m sorry, El. I was stupid.” She said before she gritted her teeth. Nira’s work seemed to hurt.

She closed her eyes which caused me to shake her head.

“No, no no, you’re staying with me,” I said, panicked. I let my emotions overtake me.

“She’ll be fine,” Nira said again. She canceled her magic and Draco finished bandaging her legs after taking off her greaves.

I didn’t believe her. I wanted Velariah awake and responsive.

“Vel!” I called out for her.

She opened her eyes again and I felt relief.

“I’m fine, El. I’m just tired.”

“Let’s head back for now,” Seralyn suggested.

“No, just give me a few minutes. I’ll be fine.” Velariah said.

“There’s no way you’re going to fight in your state,” Seralyn answered.

I knew Seralyn was right. There was only so much that healing magic could do. Losing this much blood would certainly drain a person of their strength.

I stood up and fished out a canteen from Draco’s bag. I opened it to smell alcohol. I kept it in one of my hands and fished out another canteen. This one didn’t smell. Good, I’d need both.

Seralyn and Draco dragged Velariah back through the doorway and through the tunnels. Draco reignited a torch when we reached the stairway leading out of the dungeon. They carefully laid her down on the floor once more. Nira followed behind me with her discarded pieces of armor.

I unequipped my bladed gauntlets.

“Here,” I said as I held the canteen with water in her face.

She would need to drink to recover lost blood. She should probably eat something as well. I imagined jerky would be ideal because of the salt content.

Draco had the same idea as me and handed me a piece of dried meat wrapped in leaves.

“I told you guys I’m fine.”

“Shut up and eat,” I said sternly.

She took the meat with a weak hand and I moved to her legs.

I then took the canteen with alcohol and waited until she finished eating.

“This might hurt a little,” I said before I poured the contents on the bandages, soaking them in alcohol.

Velariah winced in pain, but it wasn’t nearly as much as I expected. The wounds she suffered were large and I was sure getting alcohol in those would sting a lot more than what she was showing. Perhaps it was because of the pain suppression potion? It had to be.

“Is there any more you can do?” I asked Nira. I was still worried to no end about Velariah’s situation.

The harpy shook her head. “There’s nothing I can do further. I healed the internal damage, the bleeding seems to be stopped. She just needs time, rest, and food now.”

I think I wouldn’t stop worrying until she was back up and running. Was this how Vel felt when I lost my leg?

I hated it.

“Let’s get her home, then,” I sighed.

Not a word was spoken. A nod in agreement here and there was all I needed to know.

This day was off to a shitty start.

Had Arch betrayed us?