"Oi, the girl wearing an eyepatch..." "Oi, Chunnibyou..." "Hey, Miss. Eyepatch!" That's how they used to call Akane at school. For the whole one and a half year I've known her as the silent chunnibyou shunned by most. The title didn't seem to bother her. She didn't had any friends nor did I ever saw her initiate a conversation with anyone, she basically ignored everyone at school. To those who saw this suspicious girl with a gun will surely judge her as evil or nefarious.
'But to me she is only suspicious...' I chuckled on my own.
Well, even though Akane is the granddaughter of a pretty infamous sinner group, even she can't be serving these so-called Devils. I mean the sinner group that Akane has ties with is basically an organized resistance group that doesn't like the law preventing the use of skills by ordinary people. They are not some anti-goddess cult or mass murderers or anything, they are just huge annoying troubles to the government. That's all really but anyway, I don't think Akane is a serves devils.... no, it's just that... I don't want to think that Akane might be an enemy, that she might betray me.
While traversing through the dungeon, my thoughts often strayed towards such unnecessary things.
Currently, we are walking on a narrow tunnel in this dungeon. As we walked further, the color of the stones, embedded on the wall, changed as we moved along the way. Do they change color to give an idea of the location in this never-ending dungeon, or do they change color because of the minerals of which they are consisted of, or are simply random? I don't know.
But at least it tells me that we're not circling the same area.
It has been nearly 3 hours since we started walking, and up till now, we have not encountered a single Arachne.
*Growl*
Akane's stomach growled from hunger, her face reddened a bit in... embarrassment? Well, we haven't eaten anything after breakfast and it has been nearly 8 hours since then, so, of course she is hungry, even I am!
"Akane-san, we should eat your lunch." I said, softly.
"Yes, let's find a nice corner and eat." She replied in the same tone and quickened her pace. I chuckled internally remembering how proudly she declared that she was a glutton and was now embarrassed just because of growling of her stomach.
.
.
"Is it up to your taste, Itsuki-san?" Akane asked as she bit off half of her sandwich in one go.
"Yeah..." I paused wondering how could she fit so much in her mouth. "It's great!" I replied.
She smiled wryly and continued eating her share.
We have decided to eat only one piece at a time and drink only a few gulps of water with it. Keeping in mind that being satiated was as important as conserving food. If we don't escape this place in a few days, we will die of hunger and thirst even if the monsters don't kill us. And judging by the distance we travelled today, it doesn't seem like we'll be getting out of here soon.
"Remember to drink only one gulp and swirl it in your mouth plenty before swallowing it. I've read that doing this will keep your mouth from drying and thus, less sense of thirst will affect you, Okay,"
"Oh, okay, thanks for telling me, I'll do just that, Akane-san."
'She is quite knowledgeable about survival stuff, huh?'
After our little break, we set out to wander the dungeon once again.
As we were moving along the path, we encountered another sharp turn. Reaching the corner I did what I usually did, leaning down a bit exposing as little of myself as possible and looking for threats. I hid back as soon as I saw 'that'.
An Arachne... more so, it was bigger and darker in color than any other Arachne we encountered yet.
It was hanging upside down, ahead of the turn. It was Sleeping maybe.
We stepped further back so that we don't disturb its 'nap'. I pressed my back against the cold wall and aimed my arm towards the turn, waited for it to come and get us, waited to activate my skill. The wait bore no fruit, it didn't come.
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It was nearly 15 metees away from the turn. In other words... IN MY RANGE.
It was hanging upside down from the ceiling by a white rope or web string. With that, their webbing ability, is confirmed. The Arachnes in this dungeon have four small-black eyes on their forehead, two eyes just as us humans and two small black eyes on their cheeks. All the eyes have eyelids and all the eyes of this Arachne were closed. There was no chance in hell that the Arachne woke and was waiting for us on the other side instead. They are aggressive and condescending, no way they would be wary of us. The Arachne's must be still asleep.
'I could remember and observe quite a bit in just a glance, the level-ups are not just increment in numbers, huh.'
With slow step, I once again went to the corner and leaned a bit. The Arachne really was still asleep. A sleeping target, the best find but... I won't be able to aim properly at it because it was continuously rotating on that web-string.
If it was approaching us then aiming would've been a lot easier than in this case. I don't know if a headshot kills them, but I'm aware that even ordinary creatures like cockroaches can survive for weeks even without their heads. If these Arachnes live even a minute after my skill connected, it will be fatal for us, as I can't shoot them with my skill twice. If my skill accidentally connected to a part other than that smooth stone-like organ, let's just call it 'soul core' for now, then it will surely wake up and charge at us with its full force. We can't have that, they are too fast for us to outrun them, and their strength is unknown too. I need to aim directly at the soul core to survive.
'Hm..... This will require Akane-san's help...'
I whispered in her ear to reduce the Arachne's angular velocity (rotation speed) as slowly as she could.
She sat down on the corner with her legs crossed, she raised her arms and concentrated. I was standing behind her and my right hand was aiming at the dormant-rotating Arachne to invoke my skill at the perfect moment.
I kept my focus on the Arachne and noticed that slowly but surely its angular velocity was decreasing. And after a minute or so, it finally settled.
'Time to exterminate it...'
I inhaled.
"< D I S I N T E G R A T E >"
The aim was perfect.
"That was a perfect kill," I muttered.
'Heh, It didn't even flinch when it died......'
"Akane-san, you know what you have to do, right?" I smiled towards her.
"Ehhh?? You want me to play with a dead body!!" She replied giving me a fake disgusted look.
"Please, Akane-san, I know it sounds gross when you say it that way, but I need you to it." I sighed.
"Fufu~ I was just kidding!"
Earlier Akane had to hold back in using her skill because it was me on which she was exerting her force on. This time though, she can use her skill without any restrictions.
.
.
Akane told me that there was... something wrong with her skill. She observed that up to a certain limit, she could exert the force- smoothly. But after that particular limit, it became a little rough on her. That is, she was "overexerted". She guessed that this limit was about half of the maximum force stated in her STATUS Screen. Also, the MP started to drain quite rapidly when she went past that limit. She was not sure, but she thinks that the rate of drainage of MP becomes proportional to the amount of force exerted when reached past that limit. Well, the gauge dropped down so quickly that I can understand why she can't say for sure.
We also learned quite a bit about these Arachne's. Their defences are strong, too strong. To the point of extreme. Well, Akane couldn't burst its head even though she gave her all. She tried to apply her skill in various ways to cause damage to the dead body but was barely able to break a bone or few. The soul core too was found beyond crushable with this much force at this level.
Without getting "overexerted" she can use only half of 9 kN force- 4.5kN, it isn't that much of a raw force. Well, if we think about that, simple raw force isn't anything special. I heard that for humans a fatal car crash has 1,00,000N force behind it, and even then a lucky few might still survive it. And a bullet with a small force of 2,000 N could kill effectively if aimed at critical places. All in all, it's the method with which it's applied not just raw strength. But at the moment, we can't think of any more efficient way to kill those Arachne's using her skill then what we already have.
The conclusions of our little test of Akane's skill are:
1. Raw force of 9 kN, isn't near enough to kill an Arachne.
2. Their bodies are extremely tough.
3. For the time being the only way to "kill" the monsters, which is efficient too, is my skill.
However, with her skill, she can give these monsters a decent "Pseudo Debuff" at the very least.
After it was completely disintegrated into nothingness, I gained 35 levels and Akane gained 53 levels. All the MP Akane used was back to full too, even her tiredness and headache was gone too.
The level gained this time may seem low compared to what the first one gave, but I think that the "exp" this one gave was more than any individual Arachne gave till now. The exp is shared between us, even so, the level increment is nothing to scoff at, this also means that they are beyond the level we could handle. This is the lowest floor ever ventured, what else we would expect.
When we finally heard the ting inside our head and checked our Status, we moved ahead.
I am not sure if when I am far from my 'kill', it will give me exp or not, as I have played some games in the past that don't give you your exp when you leave the area around your kill. But I can't risk experimenting with it right now as I need every bit of exp I could get. That's why we have to wait till they are completely disintegrated.
I had to tell all about video games to Akane to explain my knowledge about dungeon and the system. She was thinking that I had such powers even in my past life!