Ten men, in heavy armor and with sharp weapons in hands, surrounded the spider with murderous intention in their eyes. The woman shouted few commands and in a blink of an eye the whole group moved forward leaving no place for the moster to run. It started to spin nervously and attack randomly trying to break through. The thin yet lethally dangerous leg crashed stones and made the attackers tremble in fear, but firm tone of their leader and sight of a young man fighting the abomination all on his own made them move forward. In under a minute a barrage of attacks and elemental abilities blasted the spider into oblivion leaving only a massacred corpse in it's place.

Arath seeing the scene could not help but gasp, thanks to the cooperation and shieldwall no one was was hurt and he could finally try to help his companions. Out of the three Ben was doing the best, Clara and Carl breathed very faintly and their pulse was barely detectable.

"They won't wake up so easily." The young woman approached him. "Their venom is very strong and can incapacitate even the burliest man but is only sometimes lethal, spiders like to eat their pray alive. Don't worry they shouldn't die if their bodies are strong, at least the bigger guy, the others don't look like they have much time ahead of them. ."

"So, how can I help them?" Arath asked.

"There is not much you can do, you will have to hope they can recover on their own. Theoretically speaking you could extract blood of Blood Bats. They are immune to Giant Cave Spider's venom so a good Poison Elementalist could make an antivenom out of their blood."

"Where is the catch?" He sensed bad news.

"They inhabit second and third floor. And your team is lying here, I'm not sure if you can get there alone if you struggled here." She answered.

"Fuck."

"It would be such a pity if all your friends died here, they look like good guys."

"And why do you think so? You've never talked to them, you don't even know their names." He was angry and suspicious when the woman started to act so kindly.

"Why so nervous? Calm down." She just smiled and turned around. "If u want some help with saving your friends you can join my team for the time being, you are not half bad in fighting."

The woman whistled and all mercenaries picked up the injured and followed her outside leaving Arath alone in the cave.

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'She is such a manipulative bitch I really want to punch her in the face, but I guess I don't have much choice. If I go with her the chances of their recovery will increase and I might learn a thing or two about the Tower. If I refuse I will not be able to go on higher levels and just being here will be much harder. Basically there is no choice left to me. And I bet she knew it and just played with me. She isn't a bad leader I guess.' Arath pondered and run towards her.

"So, what is your decision? Want to be a part of Leafers Mercenary Group?" She heard the young man approaching.

"Leafers what? Is this really your name? It sounds ridiculous to be honest." He couldn't help but laugh despite his really bad humour.

"You can laugh now but if you ever enter twelfth level there will be no smile on your face." A middle aged man said seriously. "Leafers live on trees and look just like regular leaves but in fact they are incredibly poisonous little creatures. Most of the time you won't even now something happened and after few hours you will be found dead."

"Don't scare him like that." The leader scolded her subordinate. "By the way, my name is Elisabeth, what is yours?"

"Arath." He answered.

"Great, Arath. So what do you think about my offer?"

"You know I don't really have a choice. What will be my job?"

"From now on we will call you Will. I always wanted to have a little brother to bully and I imagined him to be called William. So, you will carry my equipment and team's food. You will clean my boots and sharpen my weapons, you are my new squire." She smiled broadly and patted the man.

"You just couldn't be a nice person, could you?" He sighed and took her bags.

The rest of Leafers Mercenary Group seemed to be having a lot of fun mocking Arath but always remained kind and friendly. Members of this group couldn't be more different from each other, women and men, young and old, serious and easy-going, everyone was different and even though Arath didn't have much time to talk to them he really developed a liking towards this band of adventurers. They all followed Elisabeth because of her remarkable leadership skills and deep understanding of humans in general. She knew which people could be bribed and which to avoid just by looking at them, or so her followers believed.

When they finally got back to the fountain room and so many unconcious people came into the light of other's groups Light Crystals a commotion broke out and weaker-minded people decided to just leave their groups after quick goodbyes. The Council didn't care about scout's or mercenaries' well being so the only option was to put the people found in the spider's cave on sight before the entrance to the Tower and hope that their relatives find them. Arath brought Carl and Ben back to Heroes' quarters and after informing the right people about the events that took place in the dungeon he came back home with Clara on his back. He put her on her bed and went for help to Ruby's shop. As soon as the working hours ended she and Anga arrived at Arath's place to take care of the girl. Ruby disinfected the wound, washed her and feeded her some soup in order to provide neccessary nutrients. Anga decided to spend the night at Clara's side while Arath, completely worn out, just dropped on his bed and fell asleep in tattered and blood-stained clothes.