Chapter 126 - Haunted (4)

The humanoid figure sticking out of the giant spider's head gazed at the two people. It was a hairless and pale body of a man. It perfectly portrayed the appearance of a dying person.

This creature was an Upper-Low Class Demon named Threader. It was the only Low Class Demon that somehow had a feature similar to human, albeit only half of it.

"In..tru...der..." It also could speak.

Sylvia widened her eyes, and looked at the Threader in horror. "It can speak!" Surely, she knew how to tone her voice down.

Basil gazed at the Threader calmly. "I wonder where you keep your treasure." The Threader focused its gaze at Basil, then replied, "No trea..su...re for hu..man."

Basil had a thought to try something out, and he was fully intending to do it.

'Guide, what is Low Class Demon language?'

[Ding!]

[Clearing the Host's ignorance...]

[Low Class Demon speaks with a hiss infused with varied Mana proportion. Each proportion will produce different hiss, which also means a different thing. The kinds of hiss Low Class Demon use to communicate are...]

Countless of words, or rather hisses, quickly filled Basil's brain. The process took only 5 seconds. However, in that 5 seconds, Basil had mastered the way to communicate with a Low Class Demon.

Surely, he didn't just learn it conveniently. He had to experience a minor headache, and a brief moment of confusion due to the overwhelming amount of knowledge, which was suddenly engraved in his brain.

Still, it was nothing compared to the knowledge he got. He didn't even consider that as a side effect.

Basil quirked his eyebrow slightly, before faintly smirking. He decided to apply the knowledge he had learnt. He infused his Mana to his vocal cords, and hissed in different frequencies.

Hiss!

The Threader was puzzled at first. However, the more it listened to Basil's hiss, the more it widened its humanoid eyes.

"Hu...man! Ho..w ca..n you spe..ak li...ke us?!"

At that, Basil merely replied it with another hiss. Then, a battle of hiss occured between the two.

Sylvia looked at Basil and the Threader back and forth. She didn't understand what was happening. All she could hear was hissing sound and nothing else!

Although it sounded meaningless, Basil's conversation with the Threader was rather not-so-civil.

—How can you speak our language, lowly Human?!

—How funny hearing that from a mere slave.

—Insolence!

—Where do you keep the treasure?

—Pass over my dead body first!

—Sure.

Basil's Magical Bracelet flashed briefly, before Kusanagi appeared in his hand. Lightly swinging it to the side, he infused his Mana into it. Kusanagi hummed, and wind gathered around him.

"A-are we going to fight it?" At Sylvia's question, Basil replied simply, "You are on your own."

As expected, Basil didn't want to aid her at all. Therefore, she decided to do a smart thing. That was, of course, escaping from this place!

She turned her body toward the exit. Utilizing her Qi to her best, her body was quickly covered with an ethereal film of bright orange light. She quickly used her Movement Technique, and dashed forward.

She moved so fast, she left a trail of bright orange light in the air. Sadly though, she didn't make it that far.

Shoot!

The Threader was quicker than her. Five meters away from Basil, her foot was caught by the extremely sticky web the Threader had shot earlier. In result, she tripped, and bumped her her forehead against the ground.

Thud!

"Gah! My head!"

Sylvia covered her forehead, while whining on the ground. Although she was a Knight, tripping herself while activating a Movement Technique would definitely hurt. Especially, if she bumped her forehead to something.

With that being said, it did nothing more than hurt her. It wouldn't swell or getting bruised.

Turning her body toward Basil's direction, she was caught off guard when she could only find the Threader growling at her menacingly.

"W-where is that guy?!" She was panicking. She had thought Basil would fight that abomination. She had never expected Basil would also run!

"Darn it! This accursed web is so sticky!" She was trying her best to remove the web that tied her to the ground.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Her heart sunk to the bottom of her stomach. The Threader was getting closer to her, and she could do nothing about it. Sighing in defeat, she faced the incoming Threader, while crying soundlessly.

"Ah... I haven't married yet." She continued heatedly, "I wish I can be that guy's wife just to irk him everyday!" She was referring to Basil.

Her mouth trembled, and she closed her eyes upon her imminent death. However, a fleeting thought occured to her.

Why am I so weak? Why do I think I am weak? Why do I have to accept my death? Why can't I do anything? Do I really can't do anything?!

The answer she found to all of her questions was one.

No.

She was helpless for sure. However, it didn't mean she could do nothing. If she were to die anyway, it was better to retaliate before dying.

She drew every Qi from her Core, and coursed it through her body. Due to the adrenaline rush, she didn't realize she was circulating it too fast, it was starting to damage her body.

Mightily, she pulled her foot that was caught by the web.

Crack!

Her ankle broke, but she didn't realize it. She stood from the ground, took out her sword, and pointed it at the Threader. Her body steamed, and an ethereal film of bright orange light covered her entire existence.

"I won't die without a fight!"

The Sylvia from nine months ago wouldn't be able to say this. However, after graduating from the School Knight she had enrolled due to her promise with Basil, and joining the Hauler, she had finally found her courage.

Crack!

Her broken ankle mend itself, but she didn't register it. Her eyes were burning with fighting spirit, and they were focused on the Threader.

"HAAH!" With a shout she shot herself forward. "Die, you creepy bastard!"

She was airborne, aiming to cut the humanoid figure on top of the giant spider head. The Threader was unperturbed. It merely raised its humanoid hand, and one of its pointy feet raised upward.

It was so fast, Sylvia couldn't dodge it.

Stab!

"Kuhuk! Bastard... How dare you raise your foot on me?!"

Sylvia was held midair by the Threader's foot. Her stomach was pierced, and she was constantly puking blood.

The Threader gazed at Sylvia disinterestedly. "Low...ly hu...man." Then, it threw her away by its foot.

Sylvia fell to the ground, and grunted painfully. Her viscera was ruined, and it was painful whenever her abdomen was contracting.

Still, she didn't want to give up. Circulating her Qi through her body once again, she stood defiantly against the incoming Threader. She grinned, then charged once again.

Spit!

A mouthful of corrosive liquid was spit at the approaching Sylvia. As she was running in a straight line, the liquid hit her. Luckily, she managed to dodge at the last second. Still, her right thigh was melting due to this.

"Gah! It hurts!" Tears was building up in the corner of her eyes. Her flesh was quickly melting, and she could already see some part of her thighbone. She gritted her teeth, "I will... KILL YOU!"

"That.. is.. my li...ne." The Threader was already a few steps away from Sylvia.

It was ready to shoot his web from its spinneret, trap Sylvia in it, and dissolve her before consuming her. However, a mind boggling thing happened right before it did it.

Sylvia's body suddenly glowed in dark yellow light, and all of the injuries she had sustained were healed. Even her punctured abdomen didn't have any scar.

Due to her urgency, fear, desperateness, and will to live, Sylvia experienced a breakthrough. Her Core had advanced to the next stage, and she could finally use her Aura Ability.

She stood up from the ground, and shouted, "[Anesthesia]!" Then, her Aura Ability was activated.

As its name suggested, it allowed her to not feel any pain. Not stopping there, it also dramatically increased her regeneration speed.

Although it wasn't an offensive type, it could definitely help her in battle. She was basically an immortal soldier as long as she could keep her Aura Ability activated.

"DIE!"

Sylvia dashed at the Threader. This time, she managed to dodge any attack sent at her.

The Threader was bewildered the puny human it had thrashed around suddenly had an increase of power. By the time Sylvia was close enough to it, it raised its body, so it could catch Sylvia with its feet.

Unfortunately though, she used it as a chance to slash its spider chest instead.

Screech!

The shout didn't come out of the humanoid figure, but the spider mouth. Sylvia dropped her body to the ground, jumped sideways, before propelling herself to the humanoid figure attached on the giant spider head.

She swiftly landed on the spider head, and swung her sword at the neck of the humanoid figure.

Suddenly, right before her sword touched the neck of the humanoid figure, her body lost all of the power to move. Her Qi had been completely exhausted.

In result, she fell from the spider head limply. As the Threader was still standing, she was roughly 10 meters apart from the ground. Meanings, it would hurt quite a bit.

"Ah... I thought I could kill it. Too bad." She sighed, before closing her eyes, and waiting for the impact to come. However, it never came. She felt two hands supporting her back instead.

Puzzled, she opened her eyes, and saw a pair of glowing golden orbs. "You!"

Thud!

By the time she realized the identity of the owner of those captivating eyes, they already landed on the ground.

The owner of the eyes, Basil, nodded his head. "You did a good job distracting it while I was hoarding all of th treasure."

"You left me, because of that?!" Sylvia shouted indignantly.

Basil lightly shrugged. "I can live without you, but I can't live without money." Of course, he could still live without money. He had said that just to annoy Sylvia.

"Kuuhh... Shameless!" Sylvia hit Basil's chest lightly, because she had little to no energy left. "I will... pay.. you back." In the end, she lost her consciousness. The fatigue was too much for her to bear.

Threader was actually an easy opponent. It was the reason he had given Sylvia the opportunity to fight it, while he was scourging the Threader's treasure.

True to his expectation, Sylvia had managed to undergo a breakthrough, despite having failed to slay it. As she had done her best, he decided to lend her a hand, and slay the Threader.

Spurt!

The standing gigantic spider body of the Threader was split apart, creating a rain of disgusting yet artistic black blood.

Under the rain was Basil with Sylvia in his hands. Both of them weren't touched by the blood in the slightest, due to the Qi barrier Basil used to cover themselves.

"Kuhum! Am I interrupting something?" Thompson who had just appeared looked at Basil, who was carrying Sylvia, awkwardly. Norman, who was also with him; facepalmed, and sighed in exasperation.

Pointing his thumb to the back, Thompson said, "We have just done our search in the other three rooms, and we found nothing. We can go back, in case we missed something though." He finished it with a wink.

"There is no need to do it. Inexistence can't be sought." Basil gestured his head toward his left—Thompson and Norman's front in their perspective. "There is a passage over there, and we will pass it to advance further."

"Oh, okay." Thompson nodded. Basil approached him, and gave Sylvia to him. "Your luggage." Blinking his eyes in surprise, Thompson took Sylvia in his hands wordlessly.

"What happened to her?"

"Qi exhaustion." Basil took out one of his Crystal Clear pills, and threw it at Thompson. He swiftly caught it with his hand, then looked at Basil in surprise. "It's rare to see someone giving out a Catalyst easily."

"You can give it back if you don't want it."

"No. I will keep it."

When everything was settled, they moved once again, with Basil in lead.. To their surprise, they met another shocking thing at the end of the passageway.