With the spider queen dead, James was ready to relax and check how many levels he gained.

But, of course, there had to be some other bullshit coming his way. Life is never easy. As soon as the queen died, every single remaining spider in the colony rushed towards them.

From the tiny ones that were barely an inch in size, to the bigger ones that didn’t join the previous waves. Not all the spiders were elite fighters, the entire damn colony was rushing towards them, fighter or not. But that didn't make it any less intimidating.

James didn’t have the energy to deal with another wave of this bullshit, but luckily he didn’t have to.

While his saws did usually decay quite quickly, the spiders rushed towards them right after the queen died, so his defensive saws were still up and running.

Their power was less than that of the lava saws, but there were a lot of them, so they’d do the job. Probably.

While ducking for cover behind Helios’s shields, and without even trying to actually hit the spiders with the saws, James sent them flying and detonated them right away.

The trio had become quite used to this by now, hiding behind shields from James’s ridiculous attacks that had enough power to blow them to pieces, without discriminating between friend or foe.

And with one last giant explosion, it was finally truly over. The spiders were done for. Lunaris went over and used some simple fire magic to burn the little shits that managed to stay alive by crawling into random tiny cracks.

James could finally enjoy the fruits of his labor.

[You have reached level 103]

“All right! Now that's what I'm talking about! Guys, I’m finally over level 100!”

Hearing the news, Helios and Lunaris were just as overjoyed. Not only have they put a lot of effort and risked their lives to help James, but they were truly happy that their friend was finally making the progress he deserved.

And that really was a large number of levels. The tigers and chimeras were rather disappointing, but the incredible amount of xp the entire spider colony gave him truly made up for that.

But, more importantly, seeing James happy made them happy as well. Mood is infectious indeed.

There was the pressing matter of their teleportation scrolls not working, but none of them mentioned it right away. A few minutes of reverie and joy after an exhausting battle were a necessary treat. They could discuss the ugly parts a bit later.

“So, I don’t feel any different. You've been hinting about this awakening thing that's supposed to happen after level 100 for a while now. How do I start it? What even is it?” James asked.

Helios was about to answer, but he decided let Lunaris do it since she was the more experienced scholar among them. Which was definitely the right move, since Helios was planning to just say that awakening means more power and some new skills and shit. Seemed like a good enough explanation to him. And it would've been good enough for James, but from time to time, it was good to do things the right way.

“Your awakening combines two aspects of your being to unlock your innate powers. Those two aspects being: who you are by nature, and who you’ve become by nurture.”

Unlike the two impatient and reckless guys, Lunaris actually thinks carefully before saying something. Before continuing with the explanation, she stopped to think about what James’s awakening could be, and how to explain things to him, who is from another world and may have a hard time understanding concepts that are pretty basic for them.

Meanwhile, Helios set up a defensive formation. Even after so many battles, they still had a long way to go in the Soul Grinder. Another sneaky bastard could jump at them at any moment.

“By nurture in this case means what you did to level up, as well as what you've done in life. How you interact with others, how you spend your time, what are your values, what is truly important to you." Lunaris continued. "You focused all your efforts on training magic. You completely ignored your physical attributes, and you’ve molded yourself into a glass cannon with powerful spells and a ton of mana to use them.”

Lunaris then chuckled, still amused and impressed by James’s weird but surprisingly effective build. All over the world, the adults and teachers would tell kids about the importance of balance, of not ignoring any attributes and developing themselves evenly. James was almost unique, he didn’t listen no matter how much she and Helios warned him. He just made his own build. He just did whatever he felt like doing.

“And by nature … now this is more difficult to analyze. Ok, maybe not difficult, but certainly more mysterious and convoluted. We can’t really predict this accurately, because people are such intricate and complex creatures, and this has to do with who you are, your soul, your very essence.” Lunaris then cleared her throat and thought about it for a few seconds.

“But if I had to guess, it would be similar to your innate skill. I’ve come to know you quite well, I’ve seen how you learn and do things. And it’s not that you are the way you are because of your “Jack of all trades, master of none” skill, but you have that skill because you are the way you are. It really does suit you perfectly. The way you make your own path, think outside the box, learn things quickly and … uniquely. I bet the results of your awakening will be quite interesting.”

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Lunaris smiled and gave James a few minutes to reflect on what she said.

“Now that you know the basics, all you need to do in order to awaken is to meditate for around a day, thinking about all these aspects. The answers you come up with for these questions will also influence your awakening. I know you're eager to get started, but unfortunately we can’t do it here. An awakening is a transformative process, and it leaves you vulnerable. This is really not the venue for it, it needs to be a safe space” Lunaris said.

James was indeed a bit disappointed that he couldn't get started right away. Impatience was one of his biggest flaws, and he was really excited to get started with this awakening thing. But it looked like he wouldn't be able to get to it for a while, who knows how much longer they'd be stuck in this hellhole?

Still, he had to grow up and suck it up. He still leveled up considerably, so he still had something to be happy about.

“What do we do now?” Helios asked in a serious tone. It was time to discuss the more immediate problem.

“The monsters were obviously corrupted by Darkness, beyond a shadow of a doubt. So someone definitely sabotaged the orb, infected it with Darkness. We had already partially figured that out, but things are much worse than they seemed. They even blocked the way out. If our teleportation scrolls don't work, I'm sure the entrance is blocked too.” Helios said with a frown, barely containing his anger.

"Come on, let's not be lazy, let's actually confirm it this time."

The gang made a trek to the entrance of the prison.

"God damn it, I knew it." Helios said angrily.

“How did we enter the Soul Grinder in the first place if there's a block in place? ” Lunaris asked.

The implications were clear, it didn't take a genius to figure it out.

“So the block was put in place after we entered.” Helios almost couldn't believe his own words. It was obvious, but it was a hard fact to accept.

James understood the implications, they all realized it. It could only mean one thing, the Archmage that led them to the orb was the one that sabotaged it. The Soul Grinder wasn't held in a place where just anybody could walk to it, it was a dangerous and restricted item.

“But how is this possible? Nobody at Hedonia would do such a thing. We’re all like a family god damn it! We look out for each other! And this is an Archmage for shit’s sake, a powerful mage, a specialist in the arcane, devoted to Hedonia! None of them would ever do this.” Helios was too angry and frustrated to actually think, all he wanted to do is yell and smash something.

Unlike Helios, the more level-headed Lunaris managed to articulate a logical thought, even though she was worried as well.

“Calm down Helios, you know the answer. As hard as it is for me to say it, the Archmage must’ve been … an agent.”

The thought had been on all of their minds, but as soon as it was said out loud, their faces soured immediately.

“I don’t get it. If that was an agent, why didn’t he just kill us right then and there? Why bother locking us in here? And was that the same agent that cursed me?” James asked, still a bit confused about what these agents are.

“I don’t know if it was the same agent.” Lunaris said. She had to take a long pause to think. “I think I can guess the reason why he didn’t kill us, especially since our levels were already dampened and it would’ve been a good opportunity. I’d say that it’s probably much easier to cover it up this way. We get killed in the Soul Grinder, he comes by and wipes the magic off, and we’d just be three idiots that died in a dangerous prison.”

Helios then chimed in. “Plus, if he tried to kill us directly, we could’ve had some protective measures in place he didn’t know of. If he didn’t succeed in assassinating us in a few attacks, and we fought back for a while, someone might’ve come over and saved us, or at the very least his cover would be blown. This way, if we die here, his cover is still intact.”

James was infuriated, but now was not the time to be swayed by emotion. They needed to figure out a way to deal with the problem at hand.

“So what do we do now?” James asked.

Both Helios and Lunaris fell in deep thought, but Helios answered first. “The floors of the Soul Grinder are like layers, almost completely blocked off from each other. But between each floor of the Soul Grinder, there’s a way to get to the next floor. It’s like an arcane elevator of sorts, except it uses spatial magic to teleport you between floors.”

“I thought we definitely wouldn’t go to the other floors, they’re much more dangerous, right? So what would we do with the elevator?” James inquired, not exactly sure what the plan was.

“Well, I can’t personally do it, but I think Lunaris might have a way out of here.” Helios said, his frown turning into a brief, hopeful smile.

Lunaris knew what Helios meant. He had guessed what she was thinking. But she kept quiet for a while, thinking about whether or not she’d actually be able to pull it off.

She then straightened her back confidently, and finally answered.

“Yes, I think I know what I have to do. No, I’m sure I can do it!” Lunaris said with determination.

The guys were happy to hear it, and they even clapped. They were both smart dudes who could be dumb sometimes, but no matter how smart they were, they just didn’t have the expertise Lunaris had as a scholar. Hearing that she could actually get them out was a true weight off their shoulders.

Lunaris bowed jokingly, embarrassed and amused by the claps.

“So how does it work?” James asked.

“Since the elevator uses spatial magic, if I can only change the instructions that were left inside the spell responsible for the teleportation, then I can hijack it to get us out of here. The Soul Grinder is a prison, so the floors separating the prison are incredibly strong, almost impossible to get through. The elevator is an incredibly powerful mechanism that can get even through those barriers. The potency of its spatial magic is clearly much greater than that of our teleportation scrolls, so it can definitely get us out of here, if we can configure it properly.”

Helios was back to frowning though.

"What's wrong?" James asked.

"It's too easy. I know the agent probably expected us to get killed by the spiders or something, but it's still too easy. There must be something else waiting for us."

"That's true. But we'll deal with it. Together, we are unstoppable." James said with a smile, trying to cheer everybody up. But he truly believed his own words. Together they'd be able to deal with anything.

The three of them laid down to rest and recover for a few minutes. They were still a long way from the elevator. Before they could use it, they had to get to it first.

And there were still a whole bunch of powerful monsters on the way to the elevator that they had to get through. They weren't out of the woods yet, not even close. But perhaps things could be easier from now on. James did level up a considerable amount.