The first thing Shaun noticed as he walked through the dungeon as that it was much larger than any of the dungeons he had been in before. He had been walking around for 30 minutes and yet he still had yet to find a monster. The area he was currently in was more forest like, the trees were tall but rather spread out, it offered some shade and room to move but nothing to fight as of yet.

Before he entered the area with trees, which only really covered less than a third of the area around the mountain, he had looked around in the opposite direction. In the distance he saw an area that was more flat and sandy which stretched out around to the other side of the mountain. He chose not to go that way as it didn’t offer any protection, he didn’t want to fight a D grade for the first time out in the open where he could get swarmed, he would prefer to be able to use the trees of a forest to help him slow down anything that would chase him.

After walking through the outskirt of the forest for a while he finally felt something living enter the vicinity of his echo, but not where he expected it to be. A singular monster was moving up in the trees, not on the ground. Like with all thing in his echo, everything had a unique vibration, usually the stronger something was or the higher grade, the more intense the echo. This monster was no exception.

The power coming off of the monster was beyond anything he thought it would be, and for a moment he wondered if this was the boss. Shaun had stopped moving and pressed himself against a tree, just so he could focus fully on the monster and to see if he could gain any insight into its movements or ability.

The more he focused on it the weirder things got, it seemed that this monster, whatever it was, was walking on thin air. It moved with no issues between the trees and from what he felt it didn’t seem like it had any issues doing so.

After a few minutes of not learning anything new he moved out from against the tree and made his way to where the monster was. He continued to let out his echo, hoping that no other monsters would be in the area, and he didn’t know if it was just luck or if these monsters preferred to be alone, but he managed to get as close as he could on the ground to the monster without anything going wrong.

When he looked up to where the monster was his view was mostly blocked by a white substance which looked very similar to a web of a spider, if that spider could make a web that looked larger and thicker than anything he could possibly imagine.

He still couldn’t get eyes on the monster, but at least now he had more information than what he had originally. He had fought spiders before, he never enjoyed fighting them but it was at least something he was used to. But without getting visual confirmation of what it was he wasn’t prepared to just attack.

Seeing as his view from below was blocked he decided that he would just look from above. Moving away from where he was and going on the retreat he made sure to put some distance between himself and the monster before he Shifted and moved up into the air above the treeline.

From there he moved like a soft breeze rather than the tornado strength wind he usually moved at in this form, but even at the reduced pace it only took minutes to get back to where the monster was. His awareness in this form was still good, but he needed to get eyes on the monster, he located a tree which would provide him a good vantage point that wasn’t too close and landed softly on one of the branches.

He waited a moment to make sure the monster didn’t catch him and he made sure not to touch the web at all, he guessed that the monster would feel anything touching its web. Only when he was confident that he was safe did he move around the tree and finally lay eyes on the monster.

**Arachne - Level ???**

He hadn’t seen the question marks in a while, but he knew that he wasn’t going to know real levels of monsters until he killed them here, an annoyance, but not one that deterred him from eventually fighting the Arachne.

The Arachne was grotesque, the bottom half of it was in the shape of a spider, 8 legs and abdomen included. But where its head would usually be it shifted into a human like torso, equipped with 2 arms and a head. Unlike a human head though, this monster had 8 eyes covering its face.

Shaun kept watching it to see what it was doing and he learnt more as he watched on. It had no issues moving along its web, its long legs made it graceful in its movements. Its hands also ended in talons, which it expertly used to manipulate and cut its webbing. It didn’t seem to have any other weapons save for its own body.

He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad sign. From his experience monsters that didn’t wield weapons were usually much more durable and strong, where as those that utilised made weapons were usually better skilled in their chosen field but had less surprises.

He had already decided to go all out on this monster, but he was till planning on how he planned to do that. His preference would be to fight it on the ground, but getting it down from the web was going to be a challenge in itself. Or maybe it wasn’t.

A plan started to form in his mind and the more he though about it the more he liked it. Shifting back into the air he moved straight down to the ground, and moved behind one of the trees just a little bit away from the monster, then he started his work.

Using his summons skill he started off with Spike, his Flame hound. With his skill level he was able to now summon 5 creatures, so after using fire he used ice, summoning his Artcic Tiger, Lightning for his Zapian Eagle, earth for his Golem and finally magma for his Slime.

Using 5 different elements for 5 different creatures, didn’t push the skill or his mind that much, although he didn’t know if that was due to his new mana titles or if it was because of how much he had progressed his mind skill, either way he was thankful for it.

The plan was simple, his Golem was going to act as bait, drawing the attention of the Arachne, while the rest of his summons hid and got ready for an ambush. The golem, given it durability, should hopefully be able to take a hit or two before succumbing to the monster, giving them just enough time to launch their attack.

If that failed he would send up a magma strike up into the web and see just how much the Arachne liked having its web destroyed. His own attack would be strong but simple. He had both of his blades out, and he would be utilising his sword mirror skill to add two more to the mix.

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All of this could either be overkill or not enough to kill the D grade, but until he was sure of its strength he didn’t want to give it anything but his all. Depending on how this went he would be better prepared for next time.

When he was in position, as well as all of his summons, he gave the command to his golem to start making some noise, attacking the ground, the trees and just overall causing a ruckus. During this he pushed his echo skill and focused on the Arachne, seeing what it did once it realised something was in its proximity.

He knew the moment it noticed the Golem, it stopped moving for a moment and then moved to the edge of its web and peered down. It watched for a while and then seemed to lose interest and went back to what it was doing before, for whatever reason the Golem did not bother the Arachne, which was annoying. Time for plan b then.

He powered up a magma strike and sent it up into the web, at the same time he instructed the Golem to roar and point at the web where he shot his attack. As soon as his attack hit the webbing it ate through it and started spreading out throughout the entire structure, although slowly.

That was enough to get its attention. Shaun heard the screech from the ground and he felt the monster jump from its web to a tree and start moving its way down at an incredible speed for its size. It took mere second for it to make its way form where it was to close enough to the Golem for it to launch itself from the tree it was on and land directly on top of the Golem.

That was the queue for his summons to attack. His Zapian Eagle was the first to enter the fight, flying in quickly and sending out a shot of lightning at the monster. The Arachne shift its upper body around to follow the movement of his Eagle, not even bothering to stop its attack on the Golem. The Arachne held out its hand and Shaun felt mana gathering, then out of no where the monster sent out an attack made of dark webbing right at his Eagle.

At the speed of which the monster attacked it would have hit his summons straight on if it wasn’t attacked at the last second by his Arctic Tiger who had attacked the monster from behind and managed to leap on its back with its claws out, ready to do some damage of its own.

A split second later Spike joined the fight and was attacking one of its legs. His slime was still making its way into the fight, but Shaun really only wanted the slime there to remove any webbing that was used in the fight against his summons.

Shaun didn’t enter the fight immediately, wanting to see how the Arachne fought. Using its legs it was able to not only hold off his Hound but also go on the offensive. His Tiger was also easily removed from its back with another few of its legs and held at bay. The Golem was getting trampled by its remaining legs and it was focusing on his Eagle with its ranged attacks.

This all happened in seconds, and even with five of his summon’s against one monster he knew if he didn’t enter the fight that the Arachne would win sooner rather than later. The strength of a D grade was too much for an Advanced level skill that wasn’t even halfway to its max. But it was distracted enough that Shaun would be able to take advantage of the situation.

Teleporting straight into the fight using his ring he appeared right next to the monster and immediately attacked with both his blades physical blades at the same time his two mirror blades appeared, both using his magma element.

The Arachne was caught off guard for all of a split second but it was enough for him to cut into one of its legs with both of his blades. As expected, the monster was durable and he didn’t manage to cut it off completely, but what he did notice was that the cut he had made with Death’s Kiss left a lingering effect that he could feel spreading through its leg like an infection.

The Arachne immediately lost interest in his Eagle and now turned its full attention on him. It let out a screech and with both hands sent out the same attack as it had at his Eagle. Having expected the follow up he moved himself out of the way and at the same time moved both of his mirror blades to intercept the attacks.

The moment his skill intercepted the Arachne’s he felt his mirror blades start to drain of mana but they had done their job. Pushing more mana into the skill he also went back in for another attack, this time aiming at the legs holding back his Tiger.

The Arachne was quick though and used its legs to its full advantage, keeping him back but also giving him another chance to inflict more wound with his blades. This time both had been powered up with elemental strikes, Death’s Kiss with magma, to be able to penetrate its legs further and the other with lightning. At the same time he sent his two mirror blades directly at the monsters torso, splitting its focus even further.

Like last time it used its web skill to push the mirror blades back and he was able to fully focus on dealing damage to the two legs he had in front of him. He danced around the monster, using the same attacks over and over, he was inflicting it with the swords curse wherever he went, slowly sapping it off strength.

His Golem was the first to fall, unable to take the full weight of the Arachne for long, shortly after Spike fell to a brutal skewering of one of the monster’s legs. The fight was turning in the monsters favour an out of nowhere it spun around and using a number of its legs battered both him and his tiger away.

He hadn’t been expecting the sudden change of attack and he was hit hard by one of its legs, only having time to put both blades up in front of him to shield him from the brunt of the attack, it still sent him flying though.

While he was getting himself off the ground, it managed to hit his Eagle full on with its attack and used 3 of its legs to pummel his slime, who had only now managed to get close. It damaged itself just as much as his slime though, using its legs to harm the magma slime was not the smartest move and it burned off the end of three of its legs in the process.

Taking this moment as his chance to attack again, he pushed both of his mirror blades, which were draining his mana at an incredible rate, straight at the Arachne and followed up with magma strikes from his own blades.

This caused enough of a distraction for him to teleport once again, this time onto its back. Imbuing his blades with magma he moved both of them into its back down to the hilt before he felt the Arachne take hold of him with one of its hands and throw him off of its back with a pained screech.

“You will die weak little human!” Shaun didn’t let the shock of hearing it speak get to him, instead he focused on what he could do next. Both of his blades were still in the monsters back and his mirror blades had dissipated now that he wasn’t holding his blades.

With all of his summons now gone, it was a one on one fight, and although the monster has hurt and clearly in pain, he was also unarmed. He could still feel Death’s Kiss though. It was bonded to him and he felt it in the monsters back, calling to him.

As the Arachne approached him, he focused on pulling the blade back to him, following the connection between him and it. At the same time he started to channel lightning through his body.

The Arachne’s movements had slowed and it was unstable on a majority of its legs. This was the only thing that gave him the time he needed to ready his attacks. As soon as the monster was readying its attack on him he pushed his mind to the limit to call back his sword, at the same time he released a bolt of lightning from his other hand straight at the monsters chest.

Now that it was weakened, the lightning attack blasted it a few metres back, at the same time he felt Death’s Kiss appear back in his hand. Not giving up this moment he pulled as much air as he could beneath his feet and sent him self flying at the monster, sword out, and aimed straight for its heart.

The moment they collided he felt his sword pierce through its chest and they both went flying through the air until they hit a tree. Not for a moment did he let go of his blade, instead he sent lightning strike after lightning strike through it until he got the message he had been hoping for.

**You have defeated a (Arachne– Lvl 132). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained.**

**Class: Elemental Blade Slinger has levelled up by +4 levels. [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger has reached Level 122. +12 Str, +8 Dex, +12 End, +12 Vit, +16 Soul gained**

**Race: Human has levelled up by +2 levels. Human E has reached Level 114. +16 Ap gained**