Mike swung at the spider, testing if this one was any smarter than the swarmers and workers. Much to his glee, it showed it was by dodging to the side rather than trying to trade blows with the tank of a man. The spider was significantly larger than any others he had fought yet, being shoulder height with Mike. This made it all the more impressive as it ducked, dodged, and contorted its body around each of his attacks.

It was clear in the first few seconds that this spider was a lot quicker than the others. The “guard” part of its race name gave away that it was more combat focused than the others, and it truly showed as it moved around Mike's hammer, pushing it out of the way several times.

Mike was getting increasingly agitated at being unable to hit the spider, so he tried changing up his attacks a bit. He pulled out his soul ax and tried to sever one of the creature's front legs. This made the Tarantula even more defensive than it had been, causing it to retreat up a nearby wall and onto the ceiling.

Mike was forced to fire weak mana bullets at the spider as it maneuvered around him, just out of range of his hammer. He could have jumped to attack, and maybe even landed a hit, but if he was caught mid air with an opening for the spider to exploit, he would be in some serious trouble.

A few of his mana bullets managed to hit the beast, scorching tiny patches of its hair, having done no damage to its exoskeleton. This pattern continued for almost a minute, when Mike once more switched to a new strategy. He began running back down the cave, tracing his path back the way he came. The spider switched back to the ground, utilizing the extra traction to catch up to Mike as fast as possible. Just before it caught up, Mike turned a corner, quickly stopping swinging his hammer full strength directly behind him. The spider turned the corner, already attacking, having expected Mike to be close enough for a killing blow.

The Tarantulas plan of attack proved ineffective as a maul swung under it, breaking its front pair of legs. While annoying, the spider had 3 other pairs it could utilize to move and attack. Mike quickly followed up his attack with several more swings, missing each and everyone of them due to the sheer speed of his enemy. He once more pulled out his ax, trying to cleave off a leg once more.

He had slowed down the spider by taking two of its legs out of the equation, but it was still fast enough to avoid most of his blows. He made contact a few times, as he was able to swing his ax much faster than the heavy hammer he had been using. He used mana edge on the ax head, trying to squeak out every bit of damage he could from his attacks. The spider slowed bit by bit, getting nicks and cuts all over its legs.

As the outcome of the fight slowly became more and more inevitable, the spider switched its pattern up, once more showing it wasn’t quite as mindless as the others. It leapt at Mike, taking a big hit on its abdomen in exchange for sinking its fangs through the wrist guards on the human's forearm, and into the flesh underneath. Mike grunted in pain as the teeth sunk in, sucking in a breath as the pain from the wound radiated outwards.

With the spider so close, Mike wasn’t going to pass up the chance for a finishing blow. He infused his body with mana, activating Enhance Self at its full 10 percent bonus, and swung his hammer down on the head of the spider, splattering the contents of its brain across the floor. As he calmed down, he felt the pain from the wound on his arm continue to spread. He took his braces off, seeing his veins turning a faint shade of black.

“Well shit.” Mike cursed, grabbing the corpse and running back to the entrance to the lair. His run was more of an awkward but very fast waddle as he needed to constantly push the legs of the dead spider out of the way of his own legs. The poison coursing through his veins wouldn't kill him before he got to the camp, but it certainly wasn't something he was going to be able to dispel on his own.

As he moved, he focused on trying to use his mana to fight back against the hostile mana created by the toxin in his body. It was a losing fight, but it wasn't by much. By the time he got back to camp, his veins all over his arms were dark black. He practically ripped his armor off of his body, showing his need for a healer's attention. Two healers surrounded him, helping a bit, but only bringing the fight to a stalemate.

Someone was sent to get Aaron as the two healers expended more and more mana to keep Mike stable. Aaron arrived shortly after, surprising Mike with the feeling he gave off. Mike identified him, surprised by the result he received.

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Human (level 10)

Apparently he had been extremely close to evolving his profession before the cave dive. All of that helped in that moment as he used his spells to treat Mike, sending the stalemate into an overwhelming victory for Mike’s body. The energy that had entered him from Aaron was different from the mana that circulated from his own. It had felt almost as if the mana was just more effective than his own. Made sense, a healer likely had much higher intelligence than his own, especially with such a similar level. Mike finally bothered to check his notifications now that his life was no longer in mortal danger.

*Tarantula Guard (level 15) slain*

*Class level up x2! Mighty Infusionist Slayer (level 13)*

*Race level up! Human (level 12)*

Mike threw every point he got directly into agility, once more hating the feeling of fighting a significantly faster foe. It was damn annoying missing most of his attacks as the enemy wore him down. He stood up, almost tripping over the massive spider corpse he forgot was laying on the ground next to him. He looked at the corpse, smiling as he decided the perfect revenge to get on the beast that had poisoned him.

5 hours later, Mike exited the cave with brand new bracers, as a replacement for the ones the damn tarantula had punctured.

Infused Tarantula Exoskeleton Bracers (rare)

Durable to slashing attacks, these bracers hold a weak poison that can be ejected at any time by the wearer. Poison regenerates slowly over time.

*Profession level up! Arcane Artisan (level 13)*

Mike was a bit sad to see the bonus on his panther armor leave him, but in all honesty the stealth bonus had hardly been useful to him as he hadn't found many things that it actually hid him from. These new bracers were a dark brown, almost black. Mike was grateful for this as it didn't throw off the aesthetic of his armor set. He threw his free points into strength, reasoning that he was probably fast enough for now. He felt confident now in fighting the spider again if he needed to. If he was really willing to put his life on the line for the fight, Mike figured he could probably take two of them on at once. If Mike didn't care about surviving the fight afterwards, he might be able to seriously injure a third.

It was all speculation of course, and Mike knew thinking about what would happen to him after 3 doses of that poison was probably not a good train of thought to follow. The sun had set hours ago, with the camp's guards going onto high alert as they expected a monster raid to begin any moment. With the moon directly overhead, the call had gone out that the raid had begun.

Mike leapt the wall, excited for a good fight, and ready for anything. He saw several Night Stalkers fighting the guards, with mages and archers providing supporting fire. There were several rouges taking down the weaker, more prevalent monsters, thinning the crowd a bit. Mike found what he assumed to be the strongest of the enemies, leaping with his hammer held above his head, he identified the panther just before his hammer made contact.

Alpha Night Stalker (level 10)

Mike hammer came to an instant halt, just an inch above the head of the panther. He didn't want to kill something that weak, even if to most everyone else it was a formidable foe. The alpha had been frozen in place, its eyes showing the fear of god had been placed in the poor animal. Mike moved his hammer away, the Night stalker immediately bolting back into the forest.

Skill gained! Intimidation (Common)

Mike wasn't exactly sure how to feel about gaining this particular skill. The more the merrier, he reasoned to himself. Just then the spiders made it to the camp, having come from all the way over by their cave. They easily outnumbered every other monster present 2 to 1, and made up the vast majority of the raid. He saw some strong enemies among the crowd, and one in particular that caught his eye.

Tarantula guard (level 15)

It was time to test his skills against another guard, and find how much of a difference his new stats would make. As it turned out, it wasn't his stats that made the fight almost a breeze for him, but the unfavorable terrain for the creature, as well as it being the spider that received the most ranged fire out of any other monster in the raid. He finished it off with ease, not getting a level due to just how many others had contributed to the kill.

Exactly an hour after the raid started, monsters stopped trickling from the tree line, and the fighting came to a stop. Several people had been put into critical condition in that time, a few requiring Aaron directly to come and heal them. Nobody had died, but the mood of the camp shifted as they were reminded of the reality that out here, anyone could die at any time. It wasn't all bad, however, as the massive amount of raiders also made for a massive amount of loot and materials.

The few days were spent with Mike crafting, waiting for the rest of his crew to evolve their classes. They all talked during the time, with the others being a bit miffed that Aaron of all people had evolved well before the rest of them had. Aaron had also awakened his trait, saying that it had something to do with being able to move his mana within others as if they weren’t there. This had apparently greatly increased his ability to heal, as his magic wasn't inhibited by the mana within those he healed. After 3 days, each and everyone of the cave diving group had evolved their classes and professions, and were ready to push further into the cave.