Magnus and the Ents marched as one. The tunnel was only wide enough for three people side by side. Considering he was the toughest out of his group he stood in the front alongside Caridus and the highest-Level sentinel in the group. One sentinel stood behind the frontline in case one of them got injured and would need to be replaced. In the middle of the group stood the three mages including Curt II who would be providing ranged support when possible. At the tail of the group the last of the sentinels guarded the mages from a flank attack by any spiders returning into the nest.

The outside light entrance slowly dimmed as they strayed further from the mouth of the cave. At a certain point the outside light completely disappeared after the group turned around a bend and got replaced by the subtle blue light subtly emanating from the tunnel walls. Magnus breathed out in relief. That was the thing he was most worried about. Stuck in a pitch black while tunnel fighting against a horde of spiders. He even thought about lighting a stick on fire from the forest outside, but decided to forgo the torch considering his inexperience in lighting fires without a lighter. Also, he imagined the Ents wouldn’t react well to him carrying a lit torch right next to their flammable bodies. Thankfully, that wouldn’t come to pass due to the mana saturating the air. He wouldn’t like to piss off the only allies he found down here.

Even with the mana illuminating the tunnel it was really dim, reducing Magnus’ vision to only a few meters ahead of him. Though how far the ents could see he had no idea. In fact, he had no idea how they even see. Their “eyes” were only roughly circular green flames, very far from Magnus’ biological eyes. Perhaps they used a more refined version of his [Mana Perception], but who knows?

They have been plunging deeper and deeper into the nest but they have yet to see any signs of the spiders’ existence in the tunnel. It was only after marching for a quarter hour until Caridus started getting twitchy seemingly to get his spear ready. A few moments later, Magnus also noticed something. [Danger Sense] quietly hummed and soon enough he heard the clacking of countless spider legs falling onto the rough stone. They were coming. Magnus adjusted the grip on his knife and stuck it out in front of him. If the armored spiders came, he would stash the knife into his jacket. There was little the small pocket knife could do against that armor when he had so little space to maneuver in. The sentinel next to him also put up its fist, getting into a fighting stance. The sound of creaking wood came from behind Magnus, meaning the mages started preparing their spells. They started firing into the darkness as quickly as they could, pushing themselves to the limit. Hopefully, the spiders were only another group sent out to patrol the forest and not one made to defend the nest against them. That way they could get them by surprise. It wouldn’t be so safe to shoot at the spiders while they were engaged with the frontline after all. Friendly fire was a real issue in such a closed space. What surprised Magnus more, however, was the fact that they knew where to aim. At least he hoped they weren’t just shooting at random. Taking a page out of the Ents’ book, Magnus activated [Mana Perception]. It was time to start relying more on this new sense than just his old ones. Surprisingly, he was awarded for that thought and a notification streamed into his mind.

[Mana Perception is now Level 7]

What awaited him after turning on the Skill was just the color blue. A Bright headache-inducing wall of blue. A burning pain sprouted in Magnus’ eyes. He turned off the Skill. As the blue color still imprinted in his eyes slowly receded it got replaced by red. Touching his face with his free hand revealed the blood now marring it. Apparently, it wasn’t a good idea to activate [Mana Perception] in place where it was already visible without it. Like standing next to the Sun opening his eyes. Not a good idea at all. Quite eager to not accidentally explode his eyes, Magnus decided to put to the Skill on the shell while he was in the cave. Never mind that he couldn’t see without it, he would rather get ambushed than blind. Though the question of the Ents’ vision still stands. Maybe their [Mana Perception] is upgraded, or maybe they have another Skill altogether. No time to think it over. The footfalls were getting close.

Out of the darkness poured out a tide of arachnid bodies. Nope, definitely not a normal patrol then. They were even scuttling along the ceiling like… spiders. Giving a few of the ones in the front a quick [Identify] tells Magnus that they all only have a low Level with most of them Level 1 and a few Levels 2 mixed in. Some of his stress was alleviated when seeing their low Level. Even better was when a truckload of them got torn to bits by one of Curt’s thorn spells. The stress swiftly returned when more rushed to fill the position left by the dead spiders. Worst of all, they were higher-leveled than their shredded siblings. It seemed the lower Levels acted as shields for the higher ones, allowing them to get into the fight more safely.

Magnus looked with horrified eyes at the coming wave of monsters. Thousands of spider legs threatened to envelop and smother him. What did he ever to do deserve this? First, he gets thrown out onto the streets, then he gets impaled on his own knife and appears in a dark cave filled with giant spiders. For all he knows this might just be his dying brain playing tricks on him. Thousands of alien eyes stared at him. Cold and unfeeling. Yet, their bloodlust was palpable in the air, like mist, covering all of his surroundings, smothering him. It weighed on him like a mountain and he didn’t know how long he could last anymore. To be frank, he was tired. How long was he here? What day was it on the surface? When would he see the Sun again? Would he even see it again? The nearly constant fighting was tearing him apart. Was this the new normal in this new age? Was the surface better or would he just have to continue fighting until he one day failed? He should stop trying…

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Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Even if the was hopeless, he would try. No, he would succeed. There wasn’t a reality where he loses against the tide. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t let them break him. As long as he drew breath he wouldn’t give up. Not until his heart gives out, not until the blood in his veins stops flowing, not until all of the heat seeps out from his body. No matter what, he would push.

A quiet hum, a chord struck. A song. Unheard by anyone but him. Drowning out all other sensations with its infinite glory. It sounded like everything. This wasn’t the System which streamed information directly into his Mind this one was different. Unfathomably beautiful unlike the System which was cold and methodical, all purpose and no beauty. Unbelievably distant, yet Magnus felt as if he could reach it. If only his hand could reach only little farther. Just an inch and he would have it.

As suddenly as it came, it went. The infinite song silenced. Hidden to him like to all the others. He felt like he was deaf all of his life and he just regained his hearing only for it to be taken away moments later. But in his heart, in his Soul, he knew he wasn’t ready. The song would return to him when it was time. For now, he had other problems to worry about. A wave to break. He hoped it would break sooner than him. But with a moral boost from the Multiverse itself, Magnus was good to go. His previous worries completely gone. Surely, they wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass in the future.

Focusing on the fight ahead of him, he looked at the spiders, now not with despair but with determination. The bloodlust previously a great mountain now only seemed like a blanket to remind him not to give up. Looking closer at the charging spiders only made Magnus realize how rabid they looked. All sense of self-preservation gone. Was it because they were so close to the nest? Or maybe it was the corruption that only continued to eat away at their Minds. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter. What really mattered was the fact that they wanted to kill him. And he wouldn’t let that happen. As the spiders finally collided with the frontline, Magnus started slashing with his knife. It was quite a shame he didn’t have any better weapons but it would have to do. He swung and swung, not activating [Devastating Blow] to conserve stamina. This fight would be more of a marathon than a sprint and that only reassured him of his decision to invest so heavily into Endurance.

Five minutes in he realized it stopped mattering how he slashed with his knife. The spiders pretty much formed a wall stopping them from pushing further. That didn’t irk Magnus much considering they could barely scratch him. Even the venom only excited his heart and gave a slight burn into his veins. If anything, it reminded him he was alive. The Ents weren’t doing much worse. Caridus looked pretty much unhurt. Magnus doubted any spider managed to even touch him yet. The other Ent looked slightly more battered but that was what the substitute behind them was for. The mages continued to cull the hard-to-reach spiders on the ceiling. The lower leveled ones were starting to steam a little but Curt II didn’t look to be stopping anytime soon.

Fifteen minutes in and the armored spiders started appearing. Magnus was forced to let go of his knife when it got stuck in one of the big spiders, so he started swinging his fists. In the end, blunt damage proved to be the better option in such close quarters, so he didn’t really complain about the loss. He imagined the fight would be going a lot differently if the guards actually had space to charge. While they were quite formidable opponents, but they couldn’t really hold a candle to Magnus and Caridus when only two fit side by side in the narrow tunnel. The mages except Curt II stopped firing a little while ago and even he was starting to flag a little. What was worse was that as soon as the mages stopped giving their ranged support one of the sentinels was overwhelmed by spiders from the ceiling and had to be replaced with the substitute. One of the sentinels guarding their flank moved behind them in case it happened again. Luckily, it didn’t seem likely that and attack from the flank would come. The spiders weren’t mentally connected like the uncorrupted Ents meaning their attack was unnoticed by any spiders not in the nest.

Twenty-seven minutes. That was how long the slog lasted. The highest-level armored spiders were quite tough. He was pretty sure that one of his ribs was cracked if not broken from one of their charges. Breathing was hard. Unfortunately, he didn’t have it the worst. Caridus had one of his arms completely mangled and it hung uselessly at his side. That would mean a lot of pain if he was human. Luckily, Ents didn’t really feel pain as far as Magnus knew. In terms of their whole group one more sentinel managed to fall along with one of the mages when an invisible spider managed to drop down from the ceiling and took down the mage in one blow. In return Magnus liquified it with [Devastating Blow]. Thankfully, there weren’t more invisible spiders as far as he knew. Truth be told, the fight although difficult was lucrative. Proven by all the notifications he received.

[You are now Level 11]

[+1 to Endurance. 2 Stat Points gained]

[Last Stand is now Level 4]

[Toughen is now Level 4]

[Devastating Blow is now Level 3]

Toughen jumped up by two Levels. No wonder, considering how much he focused on it in when fighting. Without it he was pretty sure that more of his ribs wouldn’t have survived the fight so pristine. After thinking for a bit about his Stat placement, he came to the conclusion that his other Stats were falling behind quite a lot so he ever so generously put one point into Agility and the other to Endurance. Even now he still wasn’t completely satisfied with his durability. Agility would only synergize with Endurance. Getting his less would mean he wouldn’t have to rely so much on Endurance after all.

With that done they prepared to push deeper. Even with how many Ents they lost they couldn’t stop. Resting too long and letting the Broodmother proliferate meant they would have to contend with a second wave and that would be disastrous. They reformed the frontline and marched on.