Flying in the air with breakneck speed, Nora rocketed through the windy blue sky before dropping in altitude and crashing into the greens and browns of nature. Splinters and chunks of wood exploded as Nora blasted through them. Trees fell and branches broke as Nora rolled through them like a cannonball. The spherical mana shield around her cracked and broke. Whenever each layer of mana shield was destroyed, a new one would be instantly form. However, the new one broke as easily as the first one and broke as soon as it was formed.

Nora kept spam casting “Mana Shield” and consuming souls to reduce the impact of the crash.

“Mana shield” was said to be the proof of a Magician. It was a defensive ability that all self respecting mage learnt. It used mana to form a spherical mana shield around the user that blocks all attacks. It was used to block out physical attacks and magical attacks during combat. Its strength and its ability to block damage depended on how much mana was used to form it. However, each mana shield had a maximum amount of mana that could be inputted into it. Thus Nora stacked her mana shield. “Mana shield” was a spell that all mages learnt, however, Nora had gained by through her class.

Crashing through trees and branches, Nora’s speed lessened. Soon, an explosion of rock and moss occurred as Nora crashed into a cliff side. Nora had crash land successfully. Although she only had about 5 souls left in her soul storage, Nora was relieved about the fact that she managed to escaped from the Sir, unharmed. She had arrived at the west side of the island without being caught by the Sir, that was all that mattered.

After looking around to check her bearings, Nora began to look for the cave she had passed by before, back when she was training here. Nora remembered that there was a cave that was full of dangerous and scary creatures that she had to run away from. If i can find the cave, i can lure him there and use the environment to my advantage. Although, the monsters are frighteningly scary, i have to brave my fears and sneak inside. That is the only way i can win.

Using stealth, Nora sneaked by all the hordes of creatures and found the cave. She had remembered that the entrance was near a tall rock formation that looked like an ‘A’. Thus when she found the rock formation, she easily found the entrance.

While Nora was busy with the cave, just at the outer region of the west jungle, was the Sir. He was currently fighting through the hordes of monsters. Numerous rhinoceros with rocky brown skin and three sharp horns were charging at him. They surrounded him like wolves and took turns charging at him. If Nora was here to see this, she would see that their level ranged from 10 to 20.

However, instead of the rhinos trampling over him like a bug, they were meet with by giant rock walls which impeded their charge and stopped them from reaching him. After casting a 2 circle spell called rock wall’, the Sir casted ‘spiked earth’. A yellow magic circle with 3 circles inside of it formed under the belly of all the rhinos. After a second, a large rocky spike pierced out of the ground below each of them and stabbed through their belly, instantly killing all of them.

“Dammit! When i find that bugger, i’m gonna crush him like a bug for making me spend so much effort!” He cursed and stomped his feet.

Like a one man army, the Sir marched through the jungle and crushed anything that got in his way. Hordes and hordes of monsters were trampled and crushed by boulders. Poisonous snakes sneak attacking him were met by rock bullets. Large defensive creatures were met by earth spikes. There was nothing that could stand in his way.

He easily tore through the monsters that resided the outer region of the west jungle and soon arrived at the inner region by following the trail of mana that Nora left behind.

He was the boss of the island and all those who challenged his authority were killed. The reason why he had even left the monster in the west side to live during his cleaning a few years ago was because he feared the spider queen that lived in the west. Back then he was just a bronze 3 mage who did not have the confidence to enter the spider’s den to kill them, thus he left the west side alive. However, now that he was silver one mage and had a powerful staff, his fears of the spider queen that lived in the cave was gone. He was going to crush everything on the island. Man or beast.

Following the trail, he soon arrived at the crash site. Bits of wood were all over the place and a line of trees were bend and broken. Razor sharp pieces of wood jaunted out from the fallen trees. Green leaves littered the floor haphazardly.

With the fallen logs of wood pointing the direction of the crash, he didn’t even need to follow the mana trail to find the dark practitioner. He followed the path until he reached a crater with a large sphere size hole on the cliff side.

“So this is where you landed, judging by the large crater, you must have used a lot of mana to cushion the fall. Hmm, looks like this will be easier than i thought, even though i had to us ¼ of my mana to get here, i still have enough to deal with anything you throw at me.”

Sensing the trail of mana turning left around the cliff side, the Sir followed it. Killing all the beasts that blocked his way, he bulldozed his way through the jungle. While on the way, he couldn’t help but wonder how the dark practitioner managed to avoid the monsters. Treasure! He must have had a magic artifact that allowed him to remain undetected by the monsters! So that’s what's making he mana trail! The magic artifact is leaving a mana trail while warding off the monsters. A treasure that good is definitely worth a fortune!

Following the trail, he drooled at the thought of the riches that he will earn when he find the dark practitioner. His eyes glowed with greed as he rubbed his hands maniacally.

After an hour of following the trail, he arrived at a rocky cave. In front of the cave was a large rock formation that looked like an ‘A’.

“So you’re luring me into the cave in hopes i’ll be scared away by the spiders huh? Hahaha, think again. Even if you hide behind the spider queen, i’ll find you.” He laughed as he enter the cave.

He could easily sense the mana trail that was as bright as day. As long as you are using that magic artifact, i can easily find you. Hahaha, it’s either death by spider or by me, your choice!

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With confidence beaming, he entered the cave. All he had to do was follow the trail and the money was his. Thus with no regards to the spiders, he descended down the cave. He could feel the mana trail going deep down into the cave.

However, as soon as he walked a meter from the entrance of the cave, a large wave of spiders rushed towards him. Large arachnid spiders with white fur on their bodies swarmed him. With eight black eyes and red black sharp fangs, they pounced onto him. Each spider was the size of a small dog, a quarter of a meter tall. If anyone with arachnophobia was here to see the swarm, they would have definitely fainted to death.

Casting a tier 4 spell called ‘Pebble storm’, a large yellow magic circle with 4 circles formed around him. Rocks the size of pebbles started to form around him and rotated around him. Like a cyclone of rock and gore, the swarm of spiders exploded into a mush of blood and bones. Each small pebble easily killed a spider as soon as it passed by it.

Soon, all the swarm of white spiders died and red blood painted the cave. Everywhere including above, was painted in blood and gore. Walking away from the massacre, the Sir descended down the cave.

Meanwhile, in a large chamber where the spider queen lived, there were two figures. One was invisible while the other was the fuming in fury. Nora was invisible and was hiding behind the spider queen. Using the power of death to hide her life signature from the spider queen, Nora was as still as a rock. She was fighting her fears and stopping herself from crying out.

In front of her was the spider queen, she was a beautiful woman with silver white hair. Her upper body was naked with her smooth flowing hair covering her womanly parts. However, her lower body part was something that took away the beauty. She had the lower body part of a spider. Hideously long and thin white spider legs sprouted out from the white furry spider abdomen that connected to her upper body. With exotic beauty above and hideous terror below, it sent Nora into confusion and terror.

Although Nora had heard of spider queens before, she have never seen one in front of her before. In her war against the living, Nora had killed many and caused multiple species to go extinct. However, there was one species that Nora never dared to touch. That was the spider race.

The reason why she never dared to touch them was because she had a phobia that she no one about. Not even to her 7 generals, who she treated like family. Nora was scared of spiders. She could handle flesh eating ghouls, giant dragons, ghosts and many frightening things. But the one thing she couldn’t handle was spiders. Everytime, she see a spider, she would freak out. It took all her willpower to stop herself from screaming.

Thus, seeing the beautiful upper body and the terrifying lower body, Nora finally understood the meaning of “fear boner”.

Cowering in ‘stealth’ and the aura of death sticking around her, Nora presence was akin to a corpse. Although she was scared and terrified to be even near spiders, she had no choice but to suck it up and face her fears. She had to hide behind the spider queen or else it’ll be impossible for her to win against the Sir.

Thus, using the aura of death, the only thing the level 51 spider queen could feel behind her was a corpse. Thus she paid no heed to it, she had no time to deal with something so insignificant. With an intruder invading her home and killing her children, she was too furious to care about the ‘corpse’ in her room.

She stormed out of the large chamber and ran as fast as her 8 long spiders could carry her. Her 8 legs danced with frightening speed as she scurried towards the invader.

Feeling the strong presence heading his way, the Sir halted and stop forwarding as the situation changed. The hoard of spiders that kept swarming him retreated.

He steadied his breath took out a wooden staff with a small yellow crystal at the tip. It was time for him to serious. Dealing with small fries, he didn’t felt the need to take out his staff. However, now that the spider queen was heading his way, he had no choice but to get serious and use his staff.

Suddenly, from all the multiple passage that surrounded him, a wave of white charged out. Together with their mother, the swarm charged at him like bullets. No matter the casualties, they would whatever it takes to kill the human who invaded their home and killed their brethren.

Seeing the horde charge at him, he used ‘pebble storm’ and a cyclone of rock warded them off. In reaction to his defense, all the spiders retreated. The spider queen was going to wait for his mana to run out. It was a game of attrition. Sensing her plans, he casted 3 circle spells. Magic circles with 3 circles in it shot bullets of rock at his enemies.

The spider queen dodged but the spiders around her were too slow. Like a turret, he kept shooting bullets after bullets at the spider queen while using ‘pebble storm’ warded the spiders off. The spider queen continued to dodge but her army of spiders got decimated.

Meanwhile, while the two forces were fighting, Nora bravely snuck into the scene and began collecting the souls of the dead spiders.

“Fishing in troubled seas gives the best reward, hahaha.” Nora laughed in ‘stealth’ as the two forces were too busy to pay any attention to her.

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The number of souls she collected racked up as the number of casualties increased. Nora felt euphoric hearing the dinging sounds of leveling up from consuming souls. Although she didn't get the exp points for killing the spiders, she got exp points for consuming the souls. However, even though she heard the sound of reaching level 30, she decided to focus on the task at hand first. 

Although the number of casualties under the spider queen side was extremly huge, the Sir was not in good condition either. He only had ⅓ of his mana left.

However, that was enough, soon the battle reached its finale. All the spiders were dead and only the spider queen and the Sir were the only ones remaining. Both of them were exhausted. However, the Sir had the upper hand as his staff allowed him have a powerful spell ready to cast at any time without needing mana. The staff contained a 5 circle spell which required no mana to cast. Thus, now that there was only one target left for him to kill, he waved his staff in the air and used ‘Endless Rock Spike’

Multiple long spikes made of rock shot out of the ground and tore the spider queen apart. Blood and gore flew everywhere as the spider queen was impaled by the spikes. Her burning eyes, filled with hatred, slowly turned lifeless before finally closing.

“Hahaha, you’re next! Come out now, i can sense that you are nearby. From the aura that you are giving off, i can tell that you are weak. I still have 1/5 of my mana left, you can’t win.” The Sir shouted as his staff glowed with power. Although he could not see Nora who was hidden in stealth, he could feel her presence using mana.

“Don’t celebrate too early, you haven’t won yet. Let me tell you one very important rule when fighting against a necromancer.” Nora gloated from behind one of the passageways.

“So you’re a women. So what’s that stupid rule? You’re dead either way. You are not strong enough to defeat me!”

“Oh no, i not the one who is going to defeat you. They are.”

The Sir’s face instantly went stiff and pale as soon as he realised what she meant. Slowly, all the dead spiders and the spider queen rose back to life.

With severed legs, flesh hanging like tattered rags, half dragging ripped leg, remnants of pink spongy innards smashed everywhere and empty staring eyes, the spiders slowly rose up and viciously charged at him.

Even though they were slow and weak, the powers of having superior numbers overwhelmed him. The spiders surrounded him like a horde and endlessly attacked. With the hundreds of spider souls stacked up in her soul storage, it was an easy feat for Nora to revive most of them and use them to attack the Sir.

Seeing the endless tide breaking through the Sir’s barriers and exhausting his mana, Nora mockingly grinned. A sinister smiles plastered on her face as she stared at his misfortune of not knowing the number one rule of fighting against a necromancer.

“Always fight a necromancer alone or in a small group. Fighting in a battlefield against a necromancer is a fool’s errand”