Chapter 73 Spider Nest: Royal Guards

The party rested for another ten minutes before setting off once more. This time, they encountered a trio of spider royal guards that were at level 95, making Evan confirm that the details matched with what he remembered from the game.

'There's no doubt about it, the boss monster of this dungeon would be exactly like it was in the game.

I really didn't want to fight such a creature but I got no choice, for the sake of my new weapon!'

Evan hyped himself up as he charged towards one of the spiders that just finished with its barrage of web bullets which were blocked by Iolana's protection skill.

He kicked the ground and approached it, not intending on giving it time to tilt its body and dodge. He plunged his lightning clad gauntlet in the hole where it had shot spider webs earlier.

When he let the lightning flow, the giant spider trembled and shrieked.

**KYAAAAAAA!!!!!

"Eat another one!"

Using his left hand this time, he punched the monster's fragile opening before switching back to his right hand.

Left hand again! Right hand once more!

When he consecutively punched with his fists, it tried to use its two front legs to strike down at him.

Although they were fast, Evan could easily dodge them as he had seen the legs' initial movement. The two legs only hit empty air and dug into the ground with an explosive sound.

**CLANG!!

Immediately afterwards, he threw a right cross at one of its front legs. A sound like he had hit a metallic pillar rang out.

While Evan had to clench his teeth to endure the recoil, he had obtained the result he wanted.

*KIYAAA!"

"An opening!"

When it screamed and raised its body half way up, Evan instantly ducked and jumped under it. He then pushed it upwards with his lightning clad fists, making it fall on its back.

[Wow, amazing!]

Leaving behind Kayla's awestruck shout, he leaped up and landed on its belly. Although it struggled and tried to attack him with its legs, it was in vain.

He held its carapace on one hand and rained his other hand down like a hammer.

"Die! You damn pest!"

Evan's habit of calling opponents pests resurfaced as he struck down with his fist strengthened with magic power and infused with lightning.

The spider twitched and let out a bloodcurdling scream as it struggled every time it was hit, but as time went by, its reaction lessened.

To end it, Evan formed his palm into a knife hand and pierced its belly. With his hand inside it, he let as much lightning flow out as possible.

**PZZZZZT!

*KI—!

The giant spider let out a short scream, then became calm as it dropped its eight legs on the ground.

[Level Up]

The notification that appeared afterwards helped Evan confirm that it was dead so he dropped back down to the ground.

|Skill Acquired|

|Martial Arts;

Type: Passive Skill

This skill allows for combat utilizing physical capabilities and coordination without weapons with the exception of gauntlets or brass knuckles.

It allows for the user's body utilization to be quicker and stronger.

Increases effectiveness of attacks on opponents stronger than the user. |

'That was considered martial arts? I was just punching it!'

Evan couldn't help but chuckle as he stretched out his fist to punch the small spider that attacked him from the side.

He snapped his fingers and a spear of lightning manifested mid air before going on to impale the spider on the ground.

'My magic control is getting better, I can use simple magic attacks with gestures only now. Sadly, I still have to chant for full blown spells.'

Evan turned his gaze towards the rest of the party to see how they were faring and was met with the scene of Nodin's shockwave glazing a spider and hitting the ground.

The two remaining spiders teamed up, as one attacked with its legs and the other attacked from the back by shooting out its webs.

Iolana dashed forward and did her jib as the tank, utilizing her protection skill to shield Nodin and Merle from the web bullets.

As for the spider attacking with its legs, it suddenly found itself unable to move as Kayla used her Electroflame skill to blow up its head.

With a few seconds to concentrate her magic power, Merle chanted out a spell as yellow flames spewed out of the mouths of the twin lizards on her shoulders, setting the last spider ablaze.

'Quite a decent teamplay.'

Evan thought as he dashed towards the burning spider and punched its head with his paladin enhanced fist.

**BZZTT!!

Lightning flowed to the spider's head from his gauntlets, causing its body to twitch in pain as it let out a final screech.

'Experience points are always welcome.'

"These last three were stronger than the previous waves, and we haven't met the boss yet."

"Yeah, it seems the boss is far more powerful than expected."

Nodin replied to Iolana's words as he stabbed his spear into the ground and took out a notepad. He then jotted down the details of the fight to be used as a reference by the guild.

"They were over level 95, add that to your report."

Evan spoke to Nodin as he dug through the corpse of the spider he killed earlier for its magic stone. Upon finding the stone, he reflexively tossed it into his inventory without caring for the eyes of the others present.

'All that's left is the boss."

He ignored Nodin's questioning gaze and walked up the headless spider corpse and extracted its magic stone.

"You guys want this?"

"Ye-"

"...No, you can keep it. You killed it after all."

Merle cut off Nodin who was about to speak and downed her magic recovery potion before passing a strength enhancing potion to Iolana.

"Let's go get the boss, shall we? I don't want to spend any longer in this place."

"I agree with you."

Evan replied to her as he slammed his fists together. Iolana nodded in affirmation, picking up her shield at the same time Nodin put away the notepad and un earthed his spear.

◇　◇　◇

As they walked further forward, the forest became more and more like a vast plain.

Now one would feel compelled to ask, how could a forest become a plain?

It was simple.

You just had to put a bunch of spiders in the forest along with Merle. With that, you'll be able to see the forest become a plain with your very eyes. More precisely, the forest would become a field of ash.

Though there weren't any spiders left after the three level 95 royal guards, it did not stop Merle from turning the dark forest to ashen plains.

"Merle, are you fine on magic power?"

"Yea, light flames like these don't use up much mana. Impressive, right?"

"Yeah, it's impressive."

"Even so, I'm more impressed by your use of lightning and flames. You also seem to have some sort of restraining skill that immobilizes the enemies, makes things easier for me.

As for your magic power reserves, I feel like they're comparable to mine."

"Nahh, I have to get to your level for that to be the case. Mine are currently about two sub-ranks lower.

Evan off handedly replied to Merle as he downed a magic recovery potion, only to feel an inquisitive gaze on his body in the next moment.

"What?"

"I don't recall telling you any of my stats, why are you so sure that my magic power is two sub ranks higher than yours?"

Her question caught Evan off guard as he did not expect her to notice that detail.

'Shit! I forgot to consider how my knowledge of her abilities would affect behaviour!'

"Even earlier too, you seemed to know that the spiders had a poison ability that worked without direct contact.

You also knew they were buffed even though we never came across any spider variations that would have such and ability."

Merle's observations were spot on as Evan couldn't help but applaud her in his mind, to think that she was able to take not of all these details in the heat of the battle.

He decided to come clean and tell her about his skill when she suddenly frowned.

"It won't burn."

"Where? Oh."

Evan looked ahead and realised what she was speaking about.

In contrast to the barren surroundings, there was one area of black trees where her flames could not invade.

She tried once again using her sun-yellow flame, but it was only enough to burn a few branches of the trees. The black trees were clearly special.

Suddenly, black smoke began to rise amongst the trees. It was as if the trees were calling them in.

'That's the boss' domain. Those trees absorb magic power and send the magic to the boss, burning them is futile.'

Evan remembered the detail from the game as he spoke to Merle with a serious tone.

"We should go in. It doesn't look like we can burn them."