With his boots clad in roaring flames which all somehow avoided harming him and didn’t even damage his clothes, Bete decided to test the spider’s defenses a little and sent a kick towards one of its legs, right after he had just barely dodged its attack.
It felt like he had just struck a solid metal pillar and besides a few scratches on the surface, the only thing he got for his efforts was some throbbing pain in his foot, causing him to frown slightly. The result wasn’t anything surprising, though, as the legs were the hardest part of the body for this particular spider.
‘Guess that won’t work...’
But Bete was far from out of options at this point. After another successful evasion, he avoided a couple of the Valgang Dragons’ breath attacks and quickly made his way to the spider’s back. Once he got there, he attacked its body from behind. This time, he managed to crack the chitin shell slightly and his flames left a huge burn mark. Thankfully, he was just about able to injure this monstrosity. Still, although there was some hope now, Bete’s mood didn’t improve.
Due to having to keep up his maximum speed and focus all the time, he was already starting to get a little strained. If he eased up for more than a couple of seconds, he would get drowned in breath attacks, nevermind the spider. This strain wasn’t much for now, but if he had to continue this way for half an hour or so, he would be completely spent. After all, it is ridiculously difficult to keep up one’s peak shape at all times. If he continued to fight like he currently did, leaving just a few shallow marks with each exchange, slowly whittling down his opponent, then he wouldn’t even stand a chance. Before he could kill the spider, he would run out of stamina and be done for. Although a Level 5 adventurer had ridiculous amounts of stamina, the stamina consumption of their peak states was also far higher - so in the end, it evened out.
Having analyzed all of his options, Bete knew what his only path to survival was. To deal a devastating attack at the spider’s weak spot or deliver a lethal blow some other way. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t figured out how to do so yet. He just had to do it. As soon as possible.
With a ferocious howl, he let rage consume his mind to aid in surpassing his limits. At the same time though, he stayed far more clear-headed than one would expect, keeping an eye out for a chance to strike.
-----
“I guess it’s time to stop for today.”
In a good mood, Finn placed down his wooden training spear and stretched a little. Ironically enough, after all of that exercise, his shoulders felt a little stiff. While he wasn’t tired or exhausted - not even close to it - it would be time to eat dinner soon and he had taken up enough of Isaac’s time as it was. He had already profited enough for one day, there was no need to overstay his welcome.
Thinking back to all of the subtle flaws in his technique that the young man had pointed out in the hours prior, Finn felt a little giddy. If he didn’t have an image to maintain and responsibilities to shoulder, he would have probably already run off into a horde of monsters. He would have let loose completely to test just how much he had improved… and could still improve. His current state was similar to a desert welcoming a heavy rainfall after hundreds of years - he felt truly refreshed, ravenously soaking up all of the pointers Isaac had given.
While Finn was lost in thought, sporting a more cheerful smile than usual which even kept Tione from interrupting him, Isaac sat down on a nearby tree stump. Wordlessly, Ais passed him a flask of water. She had been watching them for a while and simply enjoyed a nice afternoon off.
After nodding at her with a grateful smile on his lips, Isaac gulped down pretty much all of the water in one go. He had really felt a bit parched, as he hadn’t drunk even a single drop in the past about eight hours. Ais truly was far more attentive than most people would give her credit for - she had even noticed something so minor.
“How unfair! I don’t have any water with me…”
As so often when he and Ais were being lovey-dovey in public, inadvertently bullying all of the single people around, Tiona couldn’t help but grumble. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t taken advantage of such a prime opportunity herself! And as always, Isaac simply ignored her complaints.
Feeling a little bit weary, he slowly started to lean towards the right, intending to gently rest his head on Ais’ shoulder for a bit…
But before he could do so, a pair of strong arms pulled him in the other direction and buried him in a tight embrace.
“There, there. Rest as much as you like~”
Even though she was patting his back gently, Tiona was holding onto him with enough force to make him feel anything but comfortable. It always took her a while to figure out exactly how much strength to use to keep him from escaping and not making him unable to breathe at the same time. With a pained smile on his face, Isaac was about to tell her to let him go - ultimately waiting for Ais to save him - when the entire group was interrupted by a huge commotion.
“Captain, Vice-Captain! Come quickly! Bete’s injured!!”
One of the guards that were responsible for keeping the perimeter safe had just made his way back to the campsite and was shouting at the top of his lungs, clearly not wanting to waste even a single second. The panic written all over his face turned the relaxed atmosphere into a tense and cold one in an instant. Now that one of their own was in danger, nobody could stay as laid back as before.
“Let’s go.”
With a speed far faster than what Isaac’s eyes could catch up to, Finn disappeared from the spot he was standing at, quickly followed by a second gust of wind. Riveria had been nearby, observing the pointers - and watching over her lovely little Ais from a distance, of course. But even if she hadn’t been there, she would have heard the guard’s shout anywhere within the campsite.
This sobering news caused Tiona to not be in the mood to fool around anymore and finally, she let Isaac go. Without a word, she hastily jogged in the direction that the guard had come from. But she wasn’t the only one - everyone who didn’t have an important job to do did the same, even Isaac was no different. The only reason they weren’t running as fast as they could was that Finn and Riveria had already gone ahead. They would just be getting in the way and be reduced to spectators anyway, so there was no need to arrive a handful of seconds earlier.
Tens of seconds later, about 500 meters from the campsite, the massive group caught sight of Finn cautiously guarding a collapsed and bloodied Bete. Riveria was kneeling next to him, checking the severity of his wounds. A long trail of blood led all the way towards a staircase leading to the 51st floor and below the werewolf’s body, there was already a terrifying amount of it as well.
Riveria had a huge frown on her face. Bete’s injuries were anything but light - in fact, they could be considered to be lethal. There was a huge and thick, two meter long spear sticking out of his stomach, penetrating all of the way through. About half of his organs had probably turned to mush and he was continuously coughing up mouthfuls of tiny pieces of them and quite a bit of blood. Anyway, it would probably be more accurate to call the ‘spear’ a broken off part of a monster spider’s leg, because that was exactly what it was.
Parts of Bete’s body had been burned black, filling the air with a charred stench. His eyes were already losing focus and he clearly wasn’t fully conscious. Still, despite being in such a life-threatening situation, he had a smug grin on his face. With all of the blood he was coughing up, it was quite the disturbing sight.
“What happened?”
Although her voice was stern, Riveria couldn’t hide the worry that had gripped her heart. Admittedly, she and Bete didn’t get along too well, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t care about his well-being. While she was paying close attention to his movements, she also curiously glanced at the spider leg a few times, trying to figure out its origin. She had never heard of any monster spiders down here that could grow large enough to have such legs. It was clear to see that this two meter long section was just a small part of the whole leg… what the heck did this guy encounter?
While he was about to fall unconscious, Bete could still hear Riveria’s voice and was able to vaguely make out her silhouette. But right now, he was too far gone to make out the exact words she had spoken. A relieved but somewhat arrogant smile played across his lips.
“Is that you, old hag? I… I defeated it. I won’t be… left behind…”
Towards the end of his words, the tactless werewolf finally couldn’t hold on anymore and fainted. But even though Riveria wanted to give this brat a well-deserved slap for addressing her in such a way, this kind of behaviour would be unbecoming of her. Also, she would probably make his wounds worse, so now was not the time for such things. With a sigh, she turned to Finn, motioning for him to come closer.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“I’ll start the healing spell now. Please carefully remove the spider leg. You have to push it all the way through his body, as there are barbs at the top!”
In situations like these, actions were the most important and words would just waste time, so Finn kept quiet and nodded, simply following his Vice-Captain’s instructions. Accompanied by the glow of magic, the two dealt with Bete’s wounds as quickly and expertly as they could.
Luckily, the spider Bete had encountered didn’t seem to be a poisonous one - or maybe he had managed to avoid any attacks that could have poisoned him. In any case, it was a blessing because, while Riveria could pretty much heal all wounds short of death, she couldn’t do anything against poisons.
About twenty minutes later, Riveria wiped a few beads of sweat off her forehead. She had clearly used up most of her ‘mind’ just now and felt it a bit hard to keep standing.
“That should do it… He will feel exhausted for a couple of days, though.”
It was truly fortunate that Bete had managed to stumble his way back here from wherever he had faced his opponent. If he hadn’t or if he had been just a couple of minutes late, he surely would have died. While an adventurer’s Endurance could help them overcome far more grievous wounds than what normal people could deal with, excessive blood loss would still prove fatal. Riveria’s healing spell had managed to restore all of Bete’s wounds - besides the most horrifying one in his stomach area, there had been quite a few others. The spell had even recovered most of his lost blood.
If she had wanted to, she could have even helped him fully overcome his blood loss and she could have borne the burden of the entire recovery with her own stamina - but she chose not to. Should an emergency happen, Riveria’s strength would be needed. Out of all of the people here, she could have the biggest impact on combat and various other situations, so keeping her in a combat-ready state was of prime importance. As for Bete having to be in an exhausted, immobile state for a few days? That was unfortunate, but nothing could be done about it. If he had been a little bit more polite before, she might have even decided to bear part of the burden out of the goodness of her heart, but...
As everything important was already dealt with, Finn slowly broke up the surrounding crowd, making them return to the campsite to relax. Seeing as their comrade would be fine, there was nothing to worry about and the atmosphere had already started to improve.
But before everyone could leave the scene, Riveria stopped the last few of them in their tracks.
“I need someone to take care of Bete for a few days. He won’t be able to eat or drink by himself, or even move much at all. Hmm… Line, you do it.”
Suddenly having been called out like that, Line blushed and froze up a little. She had been one of the last twenty or so people to stick around. With a disbelieving look on her face, she pointed at herself and stuttered.
“M-Me?”
In response, Riveria rolled her eyes and showed a small smile.
“Silly girl, is there any other Line here? Now, please go and carry him off to his tent, will you?”
Hurriedly, Line nodded, the blush on her face increasing in intensity. Very carefully, she grabbed Bete and carried him away. As she was already a Level 2, it wasn’t difficult for her to carry a single body. At the same time, she was also dragging along the spider’s leg - it was Bete’s battle trophy, after all. She couldn’t just leave it lying around in the dirt.
While watching all of this go down, a slight bit of confusion crept on Isaac’s face, so he leaned a bit closer to Tione, who was standing next to him at the moment. Usually, his left would be occupied by Tiona, but right now, the Amazoness in question was hovering around his position like a satellite - for some reason, she was currently far too energetic to settle down.
“Is there something I’m unaware of?”
When Line had carried Bete away, quite a few people had given her knowing looks and encouraging smiles, so Isaac had a vague idea of what could be the case. Still, without asking about it, there was no way to know for sure. Assumptions would only get him so far.
Tione snickered a little, then she turned towards him and patiently explained.
“Right, you haven’t been here for long, I forgot about that. Basically, Line has a secret crush on Bete. And everyone knows about it, because it is that obvious. Anyway, she hasn’t confessed to him yet.”
As this answer had been exactly what he expected, Isaac nodded. Still, he couldn’t help but remark something.
“Even if she does, I doubt it will end well.”
A sigh escaped Tione’s lips and she gazed into the distance, not really focusing on anything in particular. Although she didn’t outright look sad at the moment, this might have been the closest to that emotion she had ever been in Isaac’s presence.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m sure Bete already has some guesses about her feelings for him as well. Or, well, maybe he missed all of the signs? Who knows. Anyway, it will be better to get it off her chest instead of bottling it up for too long. That is also why Riveria gave her such a suitable opportunity, I think.”
‘Now that she has already bottled up her feelings for so long, what makes you think she will confess this time?’
Although Isaac was tempted to say this, he ultimately chose to keep it to himself. There was no point in arguing about this as ultimately, it was all in Line’s hands.
-----
Slowly and weakly, Bete opened his eyes and was greeted by the inside of a tent that was only slightly illuminated by a magic stone lamp. From the lighting, he could guess that it was probably already late in the evening, possibly even night. A moment or two later, he panickedly realized that he couldn’t move his body much, if at all. Even just turning his head was a chore and far too exhausting. It wasn’t to the degree of sleep paralysis but it still felt restrictive.
“Tsk…”
While he wasn’t a stranger to such feelings, he was nonetheless annoyed. There was scarcely anyone who would be fine with being unable to do anything for prolonged periods of time, after all. Being a prisoner in one’s own exhausted body wasn’t fun.
“Oh, you’re finally awake! Are you hungry?”
From his left, he could hear a vaguely familiar, female voice. A moment later, a bespectacled beauty’s head came into view. Her ponytail almost swept past his nose, so she hastily held it back with her hands.
It took him a couple of seconds to remember her… Line, a supporter of the familia. She was kneeling on the ground next to him, holding a warm bowl of porridge in her hands. Just in case he woke up, she had kept it warm even after dinner.
“I see the old hag made you look after me…”
Bete’s voice was emotionless and he wasn’t even looking at Line. Instead, he was just monologuing to himself and trying to take in the entirety of the situation he found himself in.
“Yup. Let me just check your temperature really quickly. Excuse me…”
Without waiting for a reply, Line placed down the bowl nearby and put one of her hands on Bete’s forehead. She had only touched it for a short moment, then she hastily pulled it back.
“You’re burning up! Wait a moment, okay?”
‘It’s not like I can run away anyway…’
As Bete was too exhausted to reply quickly or even bother with talking much at all, he was left alone, staring at the ceiling of his tent motionlessly. The delicious smell of porridge wafted into his nostrils and made his stomach grumble slightly.
A part of him wanted to roar out in annoyance and lash out at Line, telling her to leave him alone and proving that he was fine. Still, he was too weak to do so right now.
This left a somewhat bitter taste in his mouth but at the same time, he remembered what he had just overcome. That monstrous spider had been the toughest opponent he had ever faced. It should be more than enough to finally let him reach Level 6. He honestly couldn’t yet believe that he had succeeded, it felt a bit unreal. A being so overwhelmingly strong had ended up dying to his attacks… although he had to exchange injury for injury and let it seriously wound him to get an opportunity.
Because he had been the first one to discover this monster species, the right to name it belonged to him. With nothing better to do, he finally came up with the name ‘Deformia’. Because the spider looked so similar to Deformis Spiders, why not use a similar name?
If Isaac had been present and knew Bete’s reasoning, he would have felt somewhat speechless. How horrible a taste did one have to have to come up with such a name? Well, most monsters in the dungeon had bland and boring names, so at this point, Isaac had grown all but numb to it…
While Bete was looking back on his fight with the spider, he suddenly felt a cold and slightly wet towel cover his forehead. Due to his high temperature, it was heating up at an uncomfortably quick pace, but it should still last for about ten minutes.
“Sorry for the wait. I’m back now. Do you want to eat something?”
As he was well aware that throwing a tantrum wouldn’t be of any use right now, Bete calmly replied to Line’s question. Thankfully, he had already gotten his rebellious thoughts out of the way while she had been gone.
“Give me some water first.”
Although his words sounded more like an order than a request and his tone was still as rude as usual, Line showed a delighted, understanding smile. She didn’t seem to be bothered by his attitude at all. Steadily, she supported Bete’s head with her hand and helped him drink from a flask of water.
Meanwhile, Bete was trying his hardest not to pop a vein from the anger he felt upon being in such a pathetic and helpless state. Secretly, he was very glad that the higher an adventurer’s Level, the less frequently they had to relieve themselves. If he had to let this girl help him with going to the bathroom, he would really rather die. Or even better, he would silence all of the witnesses.
-----
After a refreshing three hours of sleep, Isaac changed into his adventuring gear without making a sound. Then, he teleported to a spot on the fifth floor of the dungeon. A comfortable yawn escaped his mouth while he spent a couple of seconds killing all of the monsters in his imminent surroundings, then he focused on the system map and muttered to himself.
“Alright, time to find all of the entrances into that other labyrinth.”
When he had finished exploring the fourth floor last time, he had already chosen to change his modus operandi. Now, it was finally time to find out just how many floors deep that manmade structure reached. Depending on what he found out, the threat it posed might have to be reassessed.