Chapter 374: Queen spider

The next morning, Suzuki, Haru, and I entered the intermediate dungeon.

“You mentioned that rare monsters appeared and there have been casualties?”

The topic of rare monsters appearing in an intermediate dungeon leading to casualties led me to recall the outbreak of Fish Lizards in Florence.

That time, one adventurer was swallowed by a huge lizard and lost his life.

“Yup. Well, we see about 10 deaths in the intermediate dungeon and 30 deaths in the beginner’s dungeon in a year that are unrelated to rare monsters. It is a dungeon after all.”

Suzuki said it with a matter-of-fact tone that it is natural to see death in battles.

I was surprised that there would be more deaths in the beginner’s dungeon but I immediately changed my mind.

I experienced the terror of a beginner’s dungeon as well.

Except for bandits trying to kill me, I was almost killed by kobolds on the first floor. It would have been terrible if I did not draw my sword then. Such clumsy people would lose their lives even before they advance to the intermediate dungeons.

Haru and I split up from Suzuki.

Haru used her sense of smell to lead the way to the monsters.

Immediately after, we came upon a small flock of scorpions.

They were a shade of purple that clearly indicated that they were venomous.

“They said that there weren’t many venomous monsters.”

“Master, the Purple Scorpion has warning colors but it is not venomous. But they do release pungent liquids.”

Pungent liquids were in a sense more terrible than poison.

I would hate it if smelly liquids splashed onto me if I cut it with my sword.

“It would be a hassle to defeat them with a sword when they are that size. I’ll wipe them out with magic.”

I said and used ‘Fire, Stone, Water, Wind!’, all four basic elements since I didn’t know their weaknesses.

The conclusion was that I didn’t need to investigate their weaknesses. Any of the four element spells would kill them in one hit.

That said, Water Magic which has the largest area of effect was effective.

“So pungent things should be washed away huh? Mega Water!”

The large surge of water washed away the Purple Scorpions with great momentum.

Librarian level rose quickly in one go.

I’ll check the details later when we leave the dungeon.

“Oh, damn. Doesn’t that mean I washed away the scents as well?”

“The smell has become much thinner. Sniffing out the monster scents will be difficult.”

Haru said apologetically.

“That said, the monsters ahead have already been washed away with Master’s magic so let’s proceed to another path.”

“Ah, that’s true – – by the way, there wasn’t anybody further ahead in the path, right?”

Apparently, nobody had passed through that path yesterday and today.

Feeling relieved, we started searching for a separate path.

“There’s really a lot of monsters. Ah, a chest.”

It was already beyond 50 so I could no longer keep count of the monster numbers. We didn’t pick up over half of the magic stones but we had already picked up more than 40 of them.

The number of treasure chests had also increased in proportion to the monster numbers.

There were no traps or mimics, unlike the advanced dungeon. But within the chests were only slightly larger magic stones or recovery medicine.

I collected each treasure chest and placed them in my item bag.

“ – – Master. I detect the presence of people from there … it seems like they are in quite a pinch.”

Once she said that they were in danger, we didn’t hesitate.

Haru ran in front and led the way.

People I believed to be adventures were wrapped up in insect thread and hung from the ceiling.

As though they were moth cocoons hanging under a branch.

I sensed the presence of people inside the cocoons and they were probably still alive since I could appraise their jobs even in that condition.

There were no insect-type monsters around – – it looked like it left them there.

I touched the thread lightly and it was significantly sticky so it would be a hassle to cut it directly with a sword or knife.

I could use Slash but there’s the fear that it would injure the people inside.

If I held back with Break as much as possible, I could break through with just damage to their clothes and armor but the cooldown time was long so it would be time-consuming to save more than one.

Cutting it after freezing the thread would probably affect the people inside as well.

“Master, please leave this to me.”

Haru said and readied her Guardian Sword and Gale Blade before kicking off the ground.

Then, the next instant, her two daggers sliced through the threads. The thread did not have time to twirl around the daggers and only the thread was sliced cleanly through.

The sword technique needed to achieve that speed and precision was not something I could emulate.

“Eh? Isn’t that Chuuto?”

If that was Chuuto, then the others wrapped up were probably.

“Haru, those as well please.”

“Yes – -”

As expected – – perhaps I should have noticed when I saw the three people’s jobs but – – the remaining two wrapped in thread were Kikkori and Insep.

So the work Kikkori had to do and couldn’t meet Carol was because he was thinning the monsters in the dungeon?

At a glance, I couldn’t see any external injuries.

Was it an effect of poison that prevented them from regaining consciousness?

I could use the Anti-paralyze spell if they were under paralysis.

“Cure Circle!”

I tried using the wide-area status abnormality recovery magic.

That should recover their physical condition.

“Hn … where?”

The spell was effective, or perhaps purely enough time had passed, Kikkori was the first to wake up.

“You’re awake?”

“ …… You are … I see, you saved us once again. Are the other two safe?”

“Yeah, they have not regained consciousness but they don’t have any injuries and I applied the same treatment as I did to Kikkori so I believe they will be fine.”

“Ichinojo, I beg you! Take the two of them and escape!”

“Why so suddenly?”

“We were attacked by a spider monster. It was probably a Mother Spider … no, a Queen Spider!”

“Queen Spider?”

“A ferocious spider monster. It is not a monster that will normally appear in an intermediate dungeon or even an advanced dungeon.”

Haru answered my question.

In other words, it is a strong spider?

“That’s right! Wild Queen Spiders are ferocious monsters that occasionally hunt inferior dragons. This one was born in a dungeon so it isn’t that terrifying but ordinary people can’t hope to win against it. I’ll follow and flee after my stamina regains. The two of you please take Chuuto and Insep and flee. That monster has the characteristic of restraining its prey with thread before bringing its children back – -”

Just as Kikkori was in mid-sentence.

Haru noticed something and drew her sword as she looked down the path.

Countless spiders appeared.

Those are spider children? Although each of them was about 50 cm long.

“Shit, they are already here.”

Kikkori’s face was painted with despair but rather than despair, I found them to be nothing more than good experience points.

“Tornado Slash!”

Swinging the sword diagonally and forward, the tornado that appeared from the tip of the sword cut through the spiders.

The small spiders were indeed small fry.

If I could capture one, I could farm spiders in My World and gather thread … nah, this spider’s thread was venomous so that was out of the window.

Let’s kill them all.

The baby spiders turned into their dropped item, magic stones, one after another.

Then, when the last spider was defeated, a thick thread flew directly at me.

“Petite Fire.”

The thread flying at me was disintegrated into ash by the flame before it reached me.

It would be a lucky turn of events if the flame continued all the way to the source of the thread but it avoided that as expected.

The huge purple spider leaped away from the Petite Fire and landed about 10 meters in front of me. It had just leaped roughly 50 meters.

Despite its large frame, it seemed that it was light on its feet.

I see, it looked like the rumors that it was about as strong as an inferior dragon was not entirely a lie.

I drew my sword – – White Wolf Fang and leaped forward.

The Queen Spider matched by spitting thread.

“Enchant Fire! Flash!”

My sword wrapped in flames by the Enchant Magic skill from Magic Swordsman bisected the thread horizontally.

Then, I charged at the Queen Spider using my body like a cannon shell.

The spider used its four front legs to attack as I approached it.

“Sword Dance!”

Using the Dancer’s Sword Dance skill, I avoided the four legs aiming to kick me and sliced them off.

And then, the final strike.

“Helmet Split.”

With a strong strike to the head region, the Queen Spider turned into to drop items, a huge magic stone, and a bundle of thread.

【Ichinojo leveled up.】

It ended.

I’ll check on the skills acquired this time after leaving the dungeon as well.

Even so, I didn’t get to use the skill for an instant kill.

Well, a monster equal to an inferior dragon can’t beat a person who defeated a Demonic King Dragon or a Leviathan.

“Am … amazing. I knew you were strong but to think you were this strong.”

Kikkori seemed to have lost the strength to his feet as he was sitting on the ground.

“To master, this wasn’t even sufficient as a warmup exercise.”

No no, Haru-san, that’s definitely an exaggeration.

That passed the realm of a warmup exercise.

To be honest, I was flustered when the spider thread came flying at me.

I rarely used the Magic Swordsman Enchant Magic skill so I had almost forgotten about it.

Well, if I did forget, I could just use Fire to burn the thread. But if I did that, the Fire would directly hit the spider and it might be killed by the spell.

Then, it would be embarrassing to have drawn my sword and made a stance.

“Hn … where … ha!? The spider, the spider is going to come! Chuuto, wake up!”

“If I am to die by becoming a spider’s meal, my wish to be a Swordsman …”

“Don’t sleep talk!”

“Ha, I dreamt that I was attacked and killed by a spider …”

“It wasn’t a dream! Although you’re not dead yet!”

Insep and Chuuto woke up and started panicking.

“Hey, relax. That ridiculously large spider was defeated by Ichinojo-niichan. See, there’s even a magic stone.”

Kikkori pointed at the dropped magic stone. It was quite big. About as large as Kanesha’s magic stone.

“Eh? Ichinojo-san! You save us huh – – wait, you defeated that spider!? Amazing! Impressive!”

“I thank you from the heart for saving us.”

Chuuto was calmer but from what I could tell, he seemed to still be in the process of waking up and was not clear yet.

“Don’t fret it. Can you move your body?”

“I’m all right.”

Insep said and tried to stand but then fell flat on his rear.

I guess he had not recovered his strength yet?

Chuuto was half-asleep but his strength regained quicker as he lent a shoulder to Insep to stand.

Kikkori seemed to have recovered as well and supported Insep together.

“Sorry, Ichinojo. We’ll return to the surface for now.”

“Do you know the path? I can escort you to the surface.”

“It’s okay. We can defeat the shallow floor monsters as long as it is not an exceptional monster like that monstrous spider. It would be uncool if we as mercenaries keep getting protected.”

“That’s right, don’t worry. I will be able to walk after a bit.”

“Right. My sword technique could not reach that spider but I have not become rusty.”

Chuuto said a cool phrase as usual.

Well, they defeated all the enemies until here so they should be all right.

“Oh right, Ichinojo. Don’t make Carol-jouchan ask such weird questions. I asked my acquaintances and found the place but definitely don’t let her go there.”

“Ah, about that. So Kikkori was investigating for us. Don’t worry, once we know the place, I plan to go alone.”

“That’s good then.”

Kikkori seemed a little relieved and returned to the surface with Insep and Chuuto.

Haru and I resumed our dungeon monster hunt.

“But I’m surprised that such level of monster appeared in the intermediate dungeon. It was not as strong as Kanesha in the advanced dungeon but wasn’t it quite strong?”

“Something strange might be happening in the dungeon.”