While I had made plans to have another 'date' with Tiara for another shopping trip for sweets this weekend, I was asked to follow Tika and her party down to the Dungeon again during the weekdays.
They actually managed to go pretty far on their own and have already reached floor forty.
Once again, they wanted Odeta and I along for added insurance in case things go south.
"So things have been smooth up till now?" I asked as they finished their equipment checks once again under my supervision.
Tika scratched her cheek, "Umm… I would not say 'smooth' is an accurate representation of how our Dungeon dive has been…"
Henri nodded, "There was that time we fell into a trap and… Ughh… It was quite bad."
I tilted my head, "Really? I thought the Dungeon was supposed to be quite safe since the Dungeon is a low ranked one?"
"Ah, I may have given Aster the wrong idea. I say that it was bad more because it was annoying than actually harmful."
Jules nodded, "The trap was just a floor that opened up and dropped us into a pool of water. We needed to dry ourselves off for a while but it was not that serious, just annoying."
Ah, I see… That makes more sense… Although being soaked in the Dungeon is also not a good thing either. The water would slow you down and if you don't take the time to dry yourself off, you might even fall sick.
"Alright then, I suppose we're heading straight down to the boss room now?" I asked.
Tika nodded, "Yep, we're all ready now, Aster! We shall be depending on you and Odeta to watch our backs again!"
The Amrap beside me thumped her chest with pride, "Don't worry! Leave it to me!"
I held up my hand, "Do we know what the boss of the fortieth floor is?"
Tika tapped her chin with a finger, "If I am not wrong, it should be a monster called the Rock Spider."
"Ohhh! They sound strong!" Odeta commented.
I wouldn't count on it if I were you, Odeta… Remember that this Dungeon is scaled to the kids… I don't doubt that you would probably wipe the floor with this boss easily even without help.
"I'm guessing that one of its characteristics is that it has an exoskeleton that is as hard as a rock?" I guessed.
Tika shook her head, "Umm… I'm not too sure about its biology but it does have some parts of its body that are encased in stone. Though even without it, its body is indeed quite sturdy."
I raised an eyebrow at their swords, "And you're still going to use bladed weapons for this fight? Don't you think that maybe a blunt weapon would work better here?"
"Oh! It's only some parts of the spider that are encased in stone, there are other parts that aren't and those should be the parts we are aiming to attack anyway."
Looks like she did her homework properly, that's good~
"I see… Alright then! Let's get going!"
All of us made our way to the Dungeon entrance and waited for Tika to set the destination before we climbed down the steps.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, we found ourselves in the familiar corridor that led to the boss room.
Like the one before, there was no one around except for us so we did not need to do any waiting and could challenge the boss immediately.
The boss room was also a wide open space this time so there was nothing stopping us from looking at the boss from the outside.
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Peeking into the boss room, we found a giant spider the size of a car was waiting inside.
It looked like a wolf spider except there were bits of stone stuck to various parts of its body including parts of its head. I wonder if the rock was grown out from the spider or did it take rocks to create armour for itself?
Then I remembered that it was a monster and most likely just naturally spawned with those features.
It was smaller than the caterpillar boss we fought earlier but it definitely looks more dangerous.
[Name: Rock Spider
Race: Monster
Stats:
35 Strength
25 Dexterity
15 Endurance
20 Magic]
Mmhmm… The stats do show that it was definitely stronger, but still not a threat to either myself or Odeta.
I thought that it might possess some Geomancy magic skills as well but apparently not.
Tika turned back to us, "Alright… Same plan, I will draw the monster's attention while Henri and Jules flank its sides. Aster will take care of support and Odeta will only join if things look really bad."
The rest of us gave affirmative nods, prompting her to lead the way to the boss chamber.
The moment we stepped into the hall, the Rock Spider gave a loud roar before suddenly leaping at Tika.
She was clearly not expecting something like that since she did not even have her sword up, making her wide open for the spider's attack.
"[Static Bolt]!" I shouted out unintentionally as I casted the spell.
The small bolt of electricity discharged from my hand struck against the spider, causing it to freeze in midair. The force of the bolt also altered its flight path and it crashed to the side instead of landing on top of Tika.
To her credit, Tika recovered quickly, giving out a command to charge to the two brothers before she rushed up towards the spider with her sword raised.
She gave a roar of challenge as her sword was brought down in a crushing blow against the spider's head.
Instead of slicing through the skin however, the blade struck against the spider like it was dulled and caused the spider to recoil from the impact.
Huh… She wasn't kidding when she said the spider is also sturdy… But wouldn't it be better if they had brought blunt weapons in this case?
Then again, I suppose they might not have the means to procure different weapons that would only be used once.
The spider skittered back to create distance from Tika, but Jules and Henri were already hot on its heels in chasing it from its sides.
The two of them slashed their swords towards the spider's legs, which also resulted in a resounding 'clang' as they struck its tibia. It definitely caused the spider pain though, since it did made it hiss at them and retreated even further.
Tika was already taking advantage of that by lunging towards the Rock Spider, her sword poised to pierce its head.
The Rock Spider responded by rearing up its head before striking forward, catching her sword in its mandibles.
Before Tika could pull her sword free, the spider had straightened its forelegs and struck her in the chest, sending her skidding back and tumbling onto the floor.
The spider then lowered its body, a sign that it was preparing to pounce on the defenceless Tika again.
I was prepared to try and stun it with another [Static Bolt] but it turned out it was unnecessary as Henri took over in maintaining its aggro by stepping in front of it, his sword slashing across the spider's face and forcing it to back away.
Oh, not bad. They actually have an aggro rotation in case the first one is compromised.
The spider let out another shriek and tried to bite Henri, only to flinch to the side as Jules struck its cephalothorax from the side.
Henri also took advantage of that by dealing another blow to the spider's head, sending it skidding even further back.
While they were occupied with the spider, I had already switched my spell choice to [Close Wounds] to cast on Tika.
She was already up on her feet and rushing back to the front line while Odeta made a soft grunt of disappointment beside me.
No, no, Odeta, don't be disappointed that you can't go and fight… That spider is just going to die in one hit if you jump in…
Tika let out a shout which served as both a signal to Henri that she was back in the fight and also as a distraction to the spider to regain its aggro.
She slashed her sword horizontally and clipped it across the face, stunning the monster momentarily.
The two brothers returned to their assigned positions and struck their swords against the spider's sides as well.
The Rock Spider let out another shriek before it jumped up into the air with surprising speed, not even giving the three Mahuns a chance to look up before it slammed itself down.
The shock wave was enough to throw up a dust cloud and send the three of them flying away from it.
It raised up the upper half of its body as though to celebrate its victory, only to get hit by a [Static Bolt] from me to leave it writhing on the ground, paralysed.
That gave me the time I needed to cast [Close Wounds] on all three of them to get them back in the fight again.
Henri must have been feeling especially frustrated with how the fight was going since they have yet to deal a significant blow on the spider. Thus, he rushed up to the Rock Spider and tried to impale it with his sword.
Unfortunately for him, the spider recovered at that very moment to lash out its leg at him, knocking his sword aside.
While the boy was reeling in from the blow, the spider reared up one of its other legs and brought it down.
There was a cry and the sight of Henri's abdomen being pierced through by the spider's leg was seared into my eyes.
Ah…