The following morning, the party set out to complete the second quest in the << Elf War >> campaign: << Vanquishing the Spiders >>. Only, they now had a seventh member with them.

Maybe because she was considered a quest-related NPC, Kizmel didn't count towards the limit of six people per party. So now, below their health bars in the HUD, there was an additional one. Her level also seemed to have been adjusted to fit with the rest, so they unfortunately didn't have an overpowered 7th floor elite NPC they could use to one-shot every mob in their path. Nevertheless, her addition was a huge boost to the party's fighting prowess.

A lot had been discussed last night, including what Kizmel's existence meant to the << Elf War >> campaign. And wasn't that an awkward talk to try and have with her around. They couldn't just say she was supposed to die originally, right? But they managed to skirt around the more tense points leaving Kizmel only confused, but not with her world-view shattered.

According to Kirito, their local MMORPG specialist, the << Elf War >> campaign was composed of many multi-instance quests. Meaning, every time a new party started the quest, a new instance would be generated. Asuna had been especially horrified to find out that there were several copies of Kizmel who would die to start the campaign. The swordsman said that it was already a miracle that they managed to save her, and he doubted any other party would even try when it was much safer to just follow the script.

"Drifterrrrr... Do we really need to go?"

Yuna hopefully clutched his sleeve, trying to stop him. She had been acting like that ever since she first saw the name of the quest. However, she hadn't accepted to stay back in the dark elf camp, and insisted on coming with them. Her fear of the eight-legged critters and her resolution to fight alongside her party were clashing, resulting in her very hesitant pace.

Drifter knew that, but the fact Yuna was still here meant she had also made her choice. He never doubted her. No frontliner would stop because of something as inane as fear. He patted her head.

"Of course we do, Yun'. Even I know spiders are a common trope in RPGs, much like the wolves we keep finding. You've gotta get used to them. Besides, it will be a great chance to try out your new song."

The night before, Kizmel had curiously asked Yuna about why she played music in the midst of a battle. After learning that the songstress could use music to heal and buff her allies, the dark elf connected it to the old shamanic rituals of her people. She then offered to teach Yuna several elven songs she knew. One of them resulted in a skill. << Del Din >>. Silent Fear.

The name was intimidating, and so was the melody. A deep, slow tune that sent shivers down the spine of whoever was listening. Enemies especially would feel intense dread when hearing the song, causing their agility stat to drop drastically, and with a chance of inflicting a 'fear' debuff, which rendered them unable to attack for the next few seconds.

"Ugh... Okay."

"You showed no fear even when facing the despicable falconer of the forest elves, Yuna. Why do you behave like so when against mere spiders?"

"They are disgusting, Kizmel! They have so many legs and eyes! And they are hairy! And they are so fast, and they hide, and... Kirito said they are almost a meter big here!"

"I'm eyeballing it, but I would say it's 'bout a meter and a half, actually."

"See? How can you not be afraid of a spider that gigan... Wait. Drifter, did you say you are 'eyeballing' it?"

"Yup. It's right over there."

"Kyaaaah!"

Later, the party would swear they never heard Yina reach such a high tune before, not even when she tried her hardest during her performances. The squeal she made was so high-pitched that it momentarily stunned her friends. Kizmel, who was more sensitive to sound, even rubbed her pointy ears.

"Sorry!"

Directing a glare at the songstress, Drifter raised his newly acquired << Caldea Fana >> to meet the incoming << Thicket Spider >>. << Rage Spike >> pierced right through its exoskeleton, and he swung his spear at the ground, with the mob still impaled in it. With a disgustingly wet noise, the spider was crushed.

Of course, just two attacks weren't enough to kill the mob, but the << Thicket Spider >> relied on its venom to hunt. After the short combo, it had almost half of its health.

Drifter would give it to Yuna, the creature was ugly. The fact that it was now leaking green blood from the holes and cracks in its exoskeleton didn't help either.

"Ahhh! Kill it! Kill it with fire!"

"Yuna, stop screaming and start singing!"

Exasperated, Sinon smacked the songstress in the back of the head. Ignoring her pout, the archer knocked an arrow on her bow, and fired, piercing one of the eyes of the << Thicket Spider >>, and luckily scoring a critical hit.

Kirito and Asuna also rushed forward, and started dishing out attacks. As for Nautilus and Kizmel, they both hung back, attentively watching the surroundings. The spider in front of them was already done for, but this type of individually weak mob rarely appeared alone.

Sure enough, another two << Thicket Spiders >> were stalking them, and only showed up now that half of the party was engaging the first one.

Nautilus used << Taunt >> to draw one of them his way, while Kizmel charged the other with her sword glowing purple, a sign of the usage of some skill Drifter had never seen before. With a single slash, the dark elf cut off two of the spider's legs, leaving it shrieking in agony.

Just then, a sad and depressing flute melody rang out, causing even the party to shudder. The spiders had even more extreme reactions to << Del Din >>. Not only did their speed noticeably drop, but the one Nautilus was fighting even stopped attacking and covered its head with two of its legs. That was the 'fear' status effect in action!

The shield-bearer was far too good of a player to waste such an opportunity. His blade flashed forward, cleaving half of a leg and one of the << Thicket Spider's >> pincers. Then, Nautilus twisted his weapon, gouging out a deep hole in the mob's face. To finish his combo, he smashed the monster's head in with the appropriately named << Shield Bash >>.

"Switch!"

The ash-haired player didn't even have to end the mob's life himself. Having already killed the first spider, Kirito came to his aid, while Drifter and Asuna went to help Kizmel - not that either of them needed it. Within twenty seconds, the remaining two << Thicket Spiders >> had been slain.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Oh, << Durable Spider Web >>! And two of them! We struck it rich, people! Those can sell for 250 cor each, or we can find a tailor to fashion some armor for us!"

"Really? We gotta get some more then. Liz's << Cyan Scale Armor Set >> is good, but it's too heavy for the lightly armored players. That could be a good replacement."

"Nautilus, that was a great combo!"

Chatter filled the clearing as the party looked at the drops. With three players with high levels of mastery in << Searching >>, they weren't worried about being ambushed.

"See, Yuna? It wasn't so bad, was it?"

Kizmel showed a candid smile, and gave the songstress a crooked thumbs-up - a gesture she had learned from Asuna earlier today. Yuna could only smile wryly, knowing the dark elf meant well and wanted to encourage her.

"You even managed to perform perfectly under those circumstances. I must admit, I am astounded. Never had I imagined music could be used in battle, and yet, the effect was noticeable. Truly unbelievable."

"Hehehe! It's all thanks to you teaching << Del Din >> to me."

"Hey, you two! We found the cave!"

Their conversation was interrupted by Asuna, who was waving her hand. She had used her rapier to cut some vines which were covering an opening into the earth.

"Coming!"

Without much hesitation, the party entered the cave. It was dark, and they had to rely on the torches Kirito and Drifter were carrying to see anything. They naturally placed Yuna and Sinon in the middle of the group while the rest surrounded them.

"How are we supposed to fight while carrying these?"

Amongst the many base skills, there existed a << One-handed Spear >>, and Drifter's mastery in it was not low, near 400 points. However, that didn't mean he could fight well using only one hand to hold his spear, only that the damage reduction from not wielding the weapon properly would be less. It also allowed him to use some skills one-handedly, such as << Linear >>, << Sting >>, and << Horizontal>>. Any of the more complex abilities, however, needed both hands.

Unfortunately, there was no one else more suited to carry the torch in this environment. Kirito could still fight while holding the flame since he used a one-handed sword, but Yuna, Nautilus, and Sinon all needed two hands to fight. Asuna relied on her speed, so she also couldn't carry it. That left only Drifter and Kizmel, and the dark elf would be more useful than him inside the cave.

It was said that one inch longer was one inch stronger, but there were always exceptions to the rule. Inside a closed environment like this cave, Drifter couldn't exert his spear skills to the maximum, so he was delegated to the role of torch-bearer.

"Incoming!"

At the front, Nautilus was the first to spot the two << Thicket Spiders >>. Here, with only the flickering light of the two torches to illuminate, the mobs looked a lot more menacing.

There was no need to taunt the monsters, as they launched themselves at the blade-user as soon as he came into range. However, before they could reach him, Asuna had already knocked one of them back with a series of stabs and jabs. Under her leadership, it didn't take more than two minutes to eliminate the mobs.

"I didn't mention it before, but you really aren't afraid of spiders, are you, Asuna?"

"Hmm? Why did you think I would, Sinon?"

"I dunno. Just seemed like the kinda thing you would dislike. You love cute and clean things, and you hated the kobolds on floor 1, and they were nowhere near as gross as those << Thicket Spiders >>."

"Eh, I don't like spiders, but they don't scare me. You've just gotta squash them. Although those are a little too big to be squashed."

"Hahahahaha!"

Everyone laughed when they saw Asuna's innocent and cute expression, with one finger tapping her lips in doubt.

Like that, the party advanced deeper into the cave, fighting off batches of << Thicket Spiders >>, sometimes as many as five at once. With their abilities, not to mention the fact they were a never-seen-before seven-people party, they made it through almost unscathed. There was only once where Asuna got a little careless, and ended up bitten and poised, but they had prepared antidotes just for that.

Their << Vanquishing the Spiders >> quest was comprised of two objectives. The first was to kill 100 << Thicket Spiders >>, which they were slowly but surely coming close to accomplishing. The second was to find a dead dark elf scout, and bring the leaf-shaped emblem he carried back to the commander.

They found the dark elf pretty easily. Or, at least, what was left of him. Apart from some broken bones and strands of silk, there was only a small badge, the quest item. Kizmel clutched it strongly, an unreadable expression on her face, before putting it away.

"Wait. What's that noise?"

"Sounds like people talking. Players."

"Players?"

Kizmel asked them curiously when she saw that her companions' faces had turned grim. Maybe a 'player' was some sort of monster?

"Players are what we call each other, the people Kayaba kidnapped."

"Isn't it good news then, finding one of your own?"

"Not all players are on good terms. Especially that one who is coming, I would recognize that obnoxious voice anytime. C'mon, enter that side tunnel over there. I would really rather not meet Kibaou right now."

Asuna put her hands on Kizmel's back and pushed the dark elf, who was still looking in the direction Kibaou and the ALS players were coming. They hid where the fencer had shown, and, soon enough, heard the other group passing by, with Kibaou cursing loudly about how dark the dungeon was. They didn't see the ALS people, but by the noise, there should've been only one party. It made sense. Any more than that wouldn't be viable in the cave.

After Kibaou and his minions were gone, the party returned to the main path, and continued to brave their way deeper into the cave. Still, Kizmel was full of incisive questions, causing Kirito to sigh continuously as he answered.

"Do you have enmity with each other? Pardon me if I'm being rude, but humans in the castle have always been mostly peaceful, so I am curious."

"Ahhh... I wouldn't use 'enmity' to describe it. We simply had some conflicts of interest before. After all, there are... Were ten thousand players, but resources are limited."

"You've fought them before? How is their strength?"

Kirito was stunned for a second before chuckling and waving Kizmel off.

"It's not to the point where we would draw swords on each other. Just... They don't like us, and we don't like them, so it's best to avoid confrontation."

"Humph! He is an idiot!"

Asuna muttered under her breath, grumbling, and Kizmel made the smart choice of acting as if she didn't hear it.

"I see... There are certainly some other brigades that don't have the best relationship with my Pagoda Knights Brigade. But in the end, we are all on the same side."

"Yeah, that's pretty much the same situation as us. To be honest, if there was no Kibaou, we might not have made it to the 3rd floor at all. Though he is a hot-headed moron, he is a good fighter."

"Why was he even here at all? Could he also be doing the campaign? Kirito?"

Thinking of the cactus-haired brute, Drifter put forth the question. Kirito pursued his lips, then shook his head.

"No. He is probably here for the guild creation quest. But if he thinks it's going to be that easy, he is being too naive."

It was not even two hours later that they heard a huge commotion from up ahead. Once again, they hid in a side tunnel, but this time they didn't even need to bother, because the ALS party was running for their lives, and had no time to pay attention to them.

"Fuck! Who the hell said that thing was easy to kill?!"

Kibaou and his party ran past them leaving behind only a string of expletives. Chasing after the players was a gigantic silvery-black spider, at least two meters tall and six meters long. No matter how you looked at it, that was the field-boss, << Nephila Regina >>.

Yuna paled considerably when the huge spider appeared, but thankfully the field-boss was too occupied hunting down Kibaou and his party to notice them. That is, until Kizmel and Asuna rushed out at the same time and struck it. The spider turned to them with venom dripping out of its fangs. The songstress almost fainted at the sight.

"Ahh! Why did you do that?!"

"Such a foul beast can't be allowed to live, or others might suffer the same fate as our scout."

"I don't like Kibaou, but I can't just watch."

Hearing their reasons, Drifter and the party smiled wryly. What else could they do but fight?

"Argh! Whatever! Let's get this over with! Agh! Disgusting!"